The head of a Mexican forgery ring was convinced he could make phony documents that illegal aliens could use to indicate fraudulently that they were eligible for a new amnesty, says a government affidavit recounting wiretapped phone calls the man made.
Julio Leija-Sanchez, who ran a $3 million-a-year forgery operation before he was arrested in April, was expecting Congress to pass a legalization program, which he called "amnesty," and said he could forge documents to fool the U.S. government into believing illegal aliens were in the country in time to qualify for amnesty, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent said in the affidavit.
In recounting a wiretapped telephone conversation, ICE agent Jason E. Medica said he heard Mr. Leija-Sanchez tell an associate the forgery ring could "fix his papers" to meet the requirements of a legalization program such as the bill the Senate is debating today.
"When Leija-Sanchez said 'if there's an amnesty, he can fix his papers,' Leija-Sanchez was referring to the possibility of pending legislation which would allow a certain class of illegal aliens to remain in the United States, as long as they can prove a term of residency in the United States with no convictions," agent Medica wrote.
"When Leija-Sanchez said 'he can fix his papers,' he was referring to the fact that the organization could fraudulently create or alter documents to falsely prove the requisite residency period," the agent wrote.
Mr. Leija-Sanchez also used his forgery ring to help smuggle illegal aliens into the country on the understanding they would work for his criminal enterprise. He was arrested on charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit murder.
The Senate immigration bill was resurrected yesterday and is headed for a final vote later this week. It includes a path to citizenship for the 12 million to 20 million estimated illegal aliens as long as they can show they arrived in the country by the beginning of this year.
Its backers say it cracks down on fraud by requiring new legal workers to have a tamper-proof ID, but opponents say it would invite a new wave of illegal aliens with fraudulent documents trying to prove they are eligible for legal status. They point to the 1986 amnesty, in which about a quarter of approved applications were later deemed fraudulent.
"It's clear that the most capable fraud document cartel in Mexico has been gearing up for comprehensive immigration reform at the same time we have been here on Capitol Hill only they're ahead of the game," said Michael Maxwell, senior policy analyst for homeland security for Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican. "They're already making money and will continue to do so if this bill passes."
In the affidavit, agent Medica said that although the forgery ring was mostly Mexican, its customers were "American, Polish, Indian, Algerian, Arab, Mexican, Nigerian, Canadian, Haitian, Pakistani and Asian." The agent said the organization never refused to sell documents to anyone who had money.
The 113-page affidavit describes a document-fraud investigation by ICE that began in October 2003 in Chicago and targeted a Mexico-based gang that produced false documents in cities nationwide, including Denver, Los Angeles and Chicago.
ICE officials said the gang generated millions of dollars in illicit profits each year by recruiting illegal aliens to sell false documents on street corners in the city. They said as many as 20 illegal aliens sold false documents at any one time in just one location.
Mr. Leija-Sanchez, 31, was identified in court papers as the leader of the organization's Chicago operation. He was among 22 persons arrested in April as part of what federal authorities said was a bustling counterfeit identification document business.
He also was accused of paying $3,000 and conspiring with others to kill two fledgling competitors for stealing computers used to make the phony documents.
The conversations involving potential documents to obtain amnesty were among numerous calls that ICE agents intercepted using court-authorized wiretaps since February, during the final months of the investigation code-named Operation Paper Tiger.
Based on undercover purchases and information from cooperating sources, ICE officials said the organization sold 50 to 100 sets of fraudulent identification documents daily, charging about $200 to $300 per set. A set consisted of a Social Security card and either an immigration green card or a state driver's license.
Under the Senate bill, documents illegal aliens can use to prove they have been in the country long enough include bank records, records from a day-labor center and sworn affidavits from known relatives.
Mr. Leija-Sanchez said he could produce any document for which he had a model to copy. At one point, a customer asked for a driver's license from Seattle, but the forger said he didn't have a model. He offered an Ohio license instead.
He said he could make birth certificates, green cards, work visas and driver's licenses from 20 states.
#1
I work (in the office) for a hevay highway contractor near D.C., and I can tell you - all the Hispanics we employ have papers that say they're legit. Stop the forgers and you won't have a problem with hiring illegals.
Well, maybe in California.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/28/2007 12:48 Comments ||
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* Dozens killed
* Cyclone Yemyin enters Iran
* UN official blames bad weather on global warming
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
My heart pumps piss. I'd love to see the human rights wankers gin up an international index of civilian defense spending per capita with a cross index of GDP per capita as well. I'll bet the farm that OPEC and Muslim majority countries would be amongst the very worst in terms of absorbing huge revenues without significant expenditure towards ensuring their populations' safety.
Iran takes in some $52 BILLION per year. THAT'S ONE BILLION DOLLARS EACH AND EVERY WEEK. Some 80% of that is from oil. I'd be surprised if they spent more than $10.00 per capita annually on disaster relief. Mind you, Iran had no problem sucking up MILLIONS of dollars for relief aid after the Bam earthquake. It is obligatory for us to crack Iran between our thumbnails in retribution for their spending so much on nuclear arms and so little upon sustainable economic growth.
We are the very worst sort of morons for funneling countless gazillions of dollars worth of aid to these abusive regimes so that they can harf down more caviar and Champagne while Jimmy Carter builds free housing tracts for their poor.
As African economic expert James Shikwati says, "For God's Sake, Please Stop The Aid!". America's provision of relief assistance to even our worst enemies is something that must end. It is incumbent upon us to make examples out of those who would condemn the United States at every turn but gleefully scarf down our precious taxpayer money and then spit in America's eye as thanks.
The time has come to rip the mask off of these conniving, corrupt and venal bastards. Oh yeah, and those guys overseas, too.
#4
The plurality of tropical meteorologists think this storm achieved hurricane wind force just before landfall. The Pak Meteorology organization named it Yemyin and about 24 hours later the Indian Met organization, who have official naming rights, have begun using that name (I'm not clear on whether they have agreed to use the next name in the sequence for the next storm that reachs hurricane strength).
We probably don't know the full extent of fatalities and damage at this time because much of the area is very rural and communications are a major problem.
#8
Just wait Zenster; as I have no faith in our idiots in office, I'm skeptically waiting to see how fast some of them stampede over each other to offer an increased aid package to our great allies in wakipakiland. You know, just to show how magnanimous the U.S. really is. Like we did after the Tsunami - and you remember how much respect that gained us w/the muslims.
As much as our politicos thought sending $$$ to these tsunami hit muzzy countries would change our image wrt the Iraq war it did neither as those of us at Rantburg obviously knew.
#2
Meanwhile, Mizan fell ill due to the intense interrogation and was admitted to the prison cell of Khulna Medical College and Hospital yesterday morning.
Oooh. That can't be good. Was he ill after he fell or before?
A construction contractor of the Roads and Highways (R&H) Department filed two extortion cases against detained BNP leader and former communications minister Nazmul Huda, his wife Sigma Huda and Alena Khan late Tuesday night. According to a case filed with Tejgaon Police Station, Huda called Wahidur Rahman Azad, the complainant, to BSEHR (Bangladesh Society for Enforcement of Human Rights) office in February 2003 and demanded Tk 10 lakh in cash.
Huda also gave an alternative to Azad, asking him to construct a conference room for the organisation. Azad said he agreed to build the conference room due to continuous pressure from Huda and it cost him Tk 5.5 lakh. On completion of the work in three months, Azad demanded the money he spent for the work from Huda, Sigma and Alena. They threatened to create problem in getting his payments from the R&H department if he demanded the money, alleged the plaintiff.
Huda is a member of the national committee of the BSEHR, Sigma is its secretary general and Alena Khan is its executive director.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced ten Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leaders and activists to three years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) and fined them Tk 10,000 each for obstructing buying and dropping of tender schedules for jobs worth around Tk 450 crore. The case was filed against them with Motijheel Police Station for preventing participants from bidding in a tender at the Construction Maintenance Management Unit (CMMU) of the health ministry on July 30 last year.
The convicts are Imtiazur Rahman Prokash, Sahabur Rahman, Humayun Kabir, Mofizur Rahman alias Akash, F Kabir Khan Shilpi, Sajjad Hossain Robin, Shariful Islam Sabuj, Sajedul Islam Rumon, Abu Bakar Siddiq Sathi and Asaduzzaman alias Asad. Sahabur Rahman, Mofizur Rahman and Sajjad Hossain were tried in absentia.
Metropolitan Magistrate Mir Ali Reza of Speedy Trial Court-6 handed down the sentence in presence of eight accused at a packed courtroom. The court acquitted accused AKM Azad alias Swadhin as the charges brought against him were not proved. The court fined the convicts Tk 10,000 each and if they fail to pay the amount they will have to serve three-month more RI.
Following the verdict, the court ordered sending the seven convict, who were on bail, to jail after cancelling their bails. The punishment of the fugitives will be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender, the court added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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The Court of Additional District Magistrate (ADM) in Natore yesterday framed charges against 94 persons including former BNP deputy minister Ruhul Kuddus Talukhdar Dulu for arson and looting at three villages under Naldanga upazila in 2004. ADM Rawnak Mahmud also fixed Monday to start trial of the case. The accused include Dulu's two brothers-- Nabi Talukhdar and Rafik Talukhdar, cousins-- Atikur Rahman, Nurunnabi Talukhdar, Abidur Rahman and Mojibor Rahman, nephews-- Rentu, Belal, Helal and Bulbul, nephew-in-law Rahim Newaz, and Natore municipal ward commissioners Sadrul Huda Dambel and Nasim Khan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Jeez, if you can't trust Bangladeshi hack politicians, who can you trust...
Finance minister Gordon Brown took over yesterday as British prime minister from Tony Blair, vowing after a decade in Blair's shadow to lead an era of "change". While Blair, his reputation as a reformer tainted by the Iraq war, was expected to become a Middle East peace envoy, Brown highlighted his determination to stamp his own authority after being asked by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government.
Brown pledged in his first public comments to lead a "new government with new priorities." He said he wanted to "build trust" in the government and reject "old politics" as he showed his determination to make a break with the Blair years. "Now let the work of change begin," he declared outside his Downing Street office.
The handover came shortly after Blair was given a standing ovation in the House of Commons at his last appearance before heading off to tender his resignation to the monarch. "That is that. The end," Blair said, choking back emotion, as he concluded his last question-and-answer session and listened to many tributes to his 10 years in office marked by a booming economy as well as the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
Even as he bowed out Blair fuelled speculation that he will become an envoy for the Middle East Quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and United Nations -- saying a two-state solution is the only way to end the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. "I believe it is possible to do that but it will require a huge intensity of focus and work," added Blair, who had Brown, a political ally turned rival, sat at his side.
Blair told lawmakers he was "sorry" for the danger faced by soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, two of the most controversial decisions of his premiership. But he was defiant, refusing to accept critics' views that British troops are fighting in vain. "I don't and I never will. I believe they're fighting for the security of this country and wider world against people who would destroy our way of life," he said.
Most of the session was taken up with plaudits from lawmakers from his own Labour party and Conservatives and Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley, whose recent election climaxed one of Blair's biggest achievements. Paisley wished Blair well in any Middle East role, drawing a parallel with the reconciliation between Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. "I hope that what happened in Northern Ireland will be repeated," he said, calling it a "colossal task" for Blair.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Now the dismissed officers can work for the druggies on a full time basis. This is a much fairer solution because before the drug cartels didn't have to foot the bill for health care and vacation time for these police officers. I'm against corporate welfare even for drug cartels that's why I'm a conservative.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/28/2007 0:51 Comments ||
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#2
A few years ago I read an interesting article about a bagel dealer who had a brilliant idea.
He typically brought his bagels around to companies, so their employees wouldn't have to leave the office for a snack, and he would leave the bagels unattended, for the employees to pay for on the honor system.
Of course, he expected there to be some dishonesty. But he noted that it was worse at some businesses. And that was when he discovered that those businesses had a general problem with dishonesty.
So he set up a camera to see who was stealing bagels. He then compared notes with management and discovered a great correlation: the people who stole bagels were already suspected of dishonesty.
Bingo. So selling bagels became secondary to providing "honesty tests" to companies. And companies both paid handsomely for his bagel tests, and noted a marked decrease in theft after they had dismissed the bagel-stealing employees.
At least 18 people have been killed in clashes between police and gangsters in a slum in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, authorities have said. Guns and grenades were used in the fighting, with armoured vehicles and helicopters backing police units.
The violence reportedly began when more than 1,000 policemen advanced on the slum stronghold of a drug-dealing gang. All 18 people killed were suspected gang members, a security official told the Associated Press news agency.
Rio de Janeiro officials are trying to make the city safer before it hosts the Pan-American games on 13 July. Some 5,500 athletes and around 800,000 tourists are expected to visit the city for the games. "We must retake control of the slums and instil public order," state public safety secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame said. "The goal is to put an end to the traffickers' arsenals."
The focus of the police operation was northern Rio de Janeiro's Alemao, or German, slum complex, home to some 100,000 people. Gang members set up barricades and created oil slicks to slow down the police assault. Several schools in the area were closed during the operation, affecting thousands of pupils.
Long article, but you know the plot: dubious claims, sneaky politicans, and the sinister hand of Vlad Putin.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
We can't allow them to drill there! What about the polar bears? Doesn't anyone care about the baby seals (the ones that don't get eaten by the polar bears, of course).
Beside, burning oil is bad for global warming. We should be sequestering carbon in places where I own property, or buying carbon credits from one of my green companies.
Save the Planet™
Posted by: Al Gore ||
06/28/2007 7:36 Comments ||
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#2
The shelf was 200 metres deep and oil and gas would be easy to extract, especially with ice melting because of global warming, he said.
Ah, The Guardian.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/28/2007 7:39 Comments ||
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#3
Hey, Vlad, where's my fucking Super Bowl ring?
Posted by: Robert Kraft ||
06/28/2007 9:26 Comments ||
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"There might be legal precedent! Of course, Landsnatching...land, land, Land. See Snatch."
#8
Old Vlad's going to have a he$$ of a surprise when the next Ice Age hits, say around 2040 or so, and 3/4 of the Arctic and half of Russia start having year-round snow-cover. Of course, it'll take 2500 years for the glaciers to form, but none of the land uncovered by water being retained in the glaciers will be along usable Russian coastline. Drill to your heart's content, Vlad - our directional drilling can steal your oil from central Oklahoma.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/28/2007 21:29 Comments ||
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#9
Mr. BURNS vs SPRINGFIELD ELEMENTARY, while the Chinese are also being busy down south in SHELBYVILLE. * FREEREPUBLIC > CHAVEZ wants RUSSIA to rebel against US world domination/order, by mil force iff need be.
Disgraced ex-Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has decided to run in the election for Japan's upper house of parliament in July, the country's NTV network reported Thursday on its Web site.
"I have accepted the request by the People's New Party to be a proportional representation candidate," Fujimori was quoted as saying in an interview with NTV.
"I want to make use of my 10-year experience as president to work for Japan and the world," NTV quoted him as saying.
Japan's Kyodo News agency had a similar report, saying Fujimori was "likely" to run in the election. Kyodo did not specify where it got the information, but said Fujimori could make an announcement later Thursday.
The reports could not be immediately confirmed in Japan. No one answered the phones at the People's New Party offices at the upper house shortly after the reports appeared early Thursday.
Fujimori, 68, is under house arrest in Chile. Peru wants to try Fujimori on charges including bribery, misuse of government funds and sanctioning death squad killings during his decade-long rule, which ended in 2000.
It was not immediately clear whether Fujimori would be eligible to register as a candidate. Kyodo reported that no regulations under Japan's Public Offices Election Law prohibit a candidate under house arrest overseas from running in an election in Japan.
NTV said Fujimori listed his top policy objectives as Asian diplomacy, the effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program and the campaign to resolve the communist regime's abductions of Japanese citizens.
#2
Under Japan's constitution, could he end up as prime minister? If so, he could be one of a very few people in history (maybe even the first?)* to be head of state of two different countries.
*Pu Yi was the last Emperor of China, then lost that job, then later was (figure)head of state of Manchuria (Manchuko). Manchuria was part of China when he was Emperor, so would that count?
Posted by: Mike ||
06/28/2007 16:20 Comments ||
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Chinas three million-strong Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is poised to adopt a next-generation digital radio system designed by a British group listed on Londons junior AIM market.
Software Radio Technology (SRT) recently signed licensing agreements for its radio hand-set designs with three state-owned manufacturers linked to the Chinese military and police forces: TCB, Hisense and HYT.
The deal is limited to home security use, SRT said, but gives the group access to the PLAs massive budget. Chinese military expenditure is officially put at $45 billion (£22.5 billion) a year, but some estimates suggest twice that.
The first sets based on SRTs technology template have been placed in the hands of the Chinese Air Force, the group said. Mass manufacture for the military will begin in China in the coming weeks.
So they are both making the technology available and training the Chinese in their manufacture.
SRT will receive a $30 licence fee per set and an initial fixed fee of more than $1.2 million from each manufacturer.
China is rolling out a network of radio base stations capable of supporting the five million members of its military and police forces. Demand for SRT-enabled handsets could reach one million a year, the group has estimated.
The devices work on the Tetra standard adopted by emergency services and armies in 85 countries, including Britain. To guard against Chinas rampant piracy, SRTs fees will be secured against a key proprietary component that it will manufacture in Europe and supply to the Chinese. It claims that the part is too complex to copy efficiently and that without it the handsets are nothing but junk.
Analysts said that the deal could be the tipping point for SRT. The group was spun out of Securicor in 2002, when a buyout team paid £535,000 for it. The company is now valued at about £37 million.
SRT has dismissed concerns that supplying the PLA, albeit indirectly, could raise problems in its dealings with the United States, where the export of military technology to China is a sensitive political issue. The group is also pinning hopes on its marine radio system being made mandatory by the US Coast Guard, potentially opening up a second multimillion-dollar market.
Simon Tucker, the managing director, said: This is not a system that is going to be used to attack Taiwan. China is a country of 1.3 billion people, with growing social unrest internally and it is investing billions to counter that. He added that SRTs dealings with China have been approved by the British Government and that the US military uses a different radio standard. Different countries Tetra systems are also designed to be incompatible.
This year SRTs value fell sharply when trials revealed teething troubles with its Tetra technology. It says that those problems have been solved and that its system is ready for active service.
#2
To guard against Chinas rampant piracy, SRTs fees will be secured against a key proprietary component that it will manufacture in Europe and supply to the Chinese. It claims that the part is too complex to copy efficiently and that without it the handsets are nothing but junk.
"It's all right, the Chinese guys said they'd respect us in the morning."
#3
China is a country of 1.3 billion people, with growing social unrest internally and it is investing billions to counter that.
You could just quit ripping them off, stealing their land for public projects, brutally repressing, torturing and killing them. That would be free actually. You wouldn't need $10million worth of radios to do that.
Posted by: Large Snoluting1728 ||
06/28/2007 9:11 Comments ||
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#4
How much rope you need? Say you're planning to hang somebody?
260 women and girls in three years - treated by one hospital. And those are only the ones able to check in.
More than 250 girls and women have sought help from Oslo's largest hospital in recent years, because of physical problems resulting from female circumcision, also known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
The mutilation, which many of the female patients were subjected to as young girls in Muslim African countries and Northern Iraq, has left the women with severe urinary dysfunction, infections and problems after their vaginal openings were sewn shut.
Sarah Kahsay, a midwife at Ullevål University Hospital in Oslo, told newspaper Aftenposten that she and her colleagues have tried to help around 260 girls and women during the past three years.
Kahsay, of the National Competence Center for Minorities' Health at Ullevål, said that 90 percent of the girls and women are ethnic Somalians. Female genital mutilation has also been found, she said, among female patients from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Gambia and Senegal.
The mutilation also seems to have spread to the Kurdish community, with Kahsay mentioning that Norwegian Church Aid has claimed it's a problem for females from Northern Iraq. "Reports we've had from our health stations (in the Oslo area) involve Kurdish girls as young as 11 and 12, who've been circumcised," Kahsay said.
That's disappointing since the Kurds are more enlightened in a lot of other ways. Wonder if they'd stop doing this if we pointed out that modern peoples don't do it.
The girls and women have almost always said the circumcision, which is illegal in Norway, occurred before they emigrated. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported over the weekend, however, that an alarming number of young girls born or living in Norway have been taken back to Somalia during school holiday periods and subjected to circumcision.
The agonized screams of one young girl being forcibly held down while her genitals were being cut shook Norwegian viewers and has led to a political outcry on the issue. There have been calls for increased enforcement of the law prohibiting female circumciscion, a fatwa against the practice, and regular medical checks of young girls believed to be at risk.
#3
They could also make a law that mandates females found to have been circumcised to be de facto evidence of child abuse and neglect, resulting in them being placed in state care.
See how long their precious tradition continues when girls are raised by non-Somali foster parents.
#8
The girls' future husbands are missing out on opportunity for lots more enjoyable sex too, but I guess pleasure isn't a significant factor for them - just procreation and subjugation. Why, I almost feel sorry for them.
Dan Comly, a technical writer and Democratic activist, was at home in Portsmouth, N.H., on April 4 when he took a call for the most detailed political poll he had ever participated in.
"Wow, this is really cool (that) someone's taking the time to ask about these issues," he recalls thinking. "Then they started specifically comparing candidates," he says, asking whether his views would be altered by Barack Obama's relative lack of national experience, or by John Edwards' background as a wealthy trial lawyer.
So after Comly got off the phone, he did what any 21st-century Democratic activist would do: He went to his favorite liberal blog, My Left Wing, and wrote about the questions, which "began to make me queasy. Someone was trying to bash John Edwards and Barack Obama, and pitch Hillary."
Comly's April post was one of four recent blogged reports about what appear to be surveys by Hillary Rodham Clinton's pollster, Mark Penn. "It was the politics of personal destruction, and I thought only knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, Jew-loving homophobic anti-choice neoKKKon breeder Christofascist Rethuglican BushCo Rovebot scum who steal elections--may they all rot in Hell if there is one!--said such nasty things about their opponents. Imagine my disillusionment! How could she do this?"
"Maybe they've just let this 'Sopranos' thing go to their heads -- whack, whack, whack," joked Paul Maslin, Bill Richardson's pollster, referring to a recent Clinton video spoofing the HBO television series about mobsters. "Sssshhh! Paul, Paul! For the love of God, don't give her any more ideas!"
He hastened to add, however, that despite bloggers' impressions, testing negative messages is a standard political practice aimed at getting information, not persuading voters. "The questions are legitimate," Maslin said, and the research will help the front-runner Clinton campaign "sit at the top of the hill and crush Obama like a bugknock the $400 hair off Edwards' pointed headcrush her enemies, drive them before her, and hear the lamentations of their women shoot at whatever comes at them."
Posted by: Mike ||
06/28/2007 13:10 ||
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#1
They had her on the radio screeching through one of her speeches yesterday and my firat thought was, "My God, do I want to have to listen to that for four years?"
When you hear or are told you're a racist, bigoted, hateful nationalistic moron for favoring border security, the rule of law, and US sovereignty... just smile at the accuser.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
06/28/2007 12:37 Comments ||
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#6
I'm a little confused. Lesee ...is Teddy Kennedy on the list? No? That means we won!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/28/2007 12:45 Comments ||
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#7
Bobby, I was also confused as to what the vote meant. So I looked for Reid's name. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!
Posted by: ed ||
06/28/2007 12:48 Comments ||
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Like any bad remake from Hollyweird, be sure that it will be back in some form or another, sooner or later.
Use the Quislings Donks & Co. own arguments back at them to justify annexing Mexico - no paperwork, no fence, instant citizenship. What's there they don't want already? Commonwealth status like Puerto Rico with mandatory plebiscites every ten years for independence, continued commonwealth status, or integration. Make the rectal orifices pols in Mexico City sweat about the security of their northern border. Turn about is fair play. Take particular notice that the Euro blooded Mexicans are not the ones being dumped across the border, just the mestizos and indios as the 'white' Mexicans keep their hands on power. You'd think the Donks would be sensitive to that - Huh!
#11
This is really an historic moment. The American people just defeated the leader of the Democrats, the Republicans and the President all at the same time. I'm no historian but I do know this must be a very rare event.
I just love the way the left reports this:
"Liberals felt it did not go far enough in protecting illegal immigrants, while conservatives rejected the bill because they felt it would grant amnesty to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country."
As if liberals had anything to do with the defeat of this bill. This was conservative America uniting. Period. The media jackasses are too smug to even admit their side got their asses handed to them.
1. Secure the borders. How secure? Well, how many terrorists do you want to let in each year?
2. Set up a guest worker program primarily for seasonal labor. Not a guest family program. And cut the bull about non-seasonal jobs that "Americans won't do." Just let the markets fix that with appropriate wages.
3. Stick to our quota system. What is the quota for Mexico? Clearly the individuals in the guest worker program could get in line for citizenship, but not jump the line.
I'd like to point out that there are 15 Dems in the Nay column, including Byrd. I wonder how much they're going to pay for going against Kennedy, Reid & Co.
#14
Don't try to sell me any crap about the 15 Dems that voted Nay. They all did it (except for Byrd) because of angry calls from CONSERVATIVES. These are the close (vulnerable) seats. A mobilized conservative base could sink any of these guys in the next election.
#15
Liberals felt it did not go far enough in protecting illegal immigrants
That's true. I also don't think we go far enough in protecting bank robbers. Or car thieves. Or arsonists. Or hit men.
Get to work on that, liberals...
Don't get your undies in a bunch. I am and always have been a staunch Republican and I was right in there with you putting pressure on my Senators to kill this thing. My two R Senators decided between them that they would split their votes effectively cancelling each other. Ratbastards. Anyway, Reid has said this bill is going to come back and you can bet that alot of pressure will be brought to bear on those 15 Dems I mentioned. We must stay vigilant, this is not going away.
#18
How many of them Dems are "newbies" -- the so-called Blue Dog Dems that just got elected? Who came from previous "conservative" states -- like Webb from Virginia? (The WaPo won that election for him)
#19
I wrote both my Senators from MI (Stabenow-D & Levin-D). Stabenow's office responded same day that she WOULD NOT SUPPORT THE BILL. I was surprised and happy by this. Looks like the local union's were giving her hell about illegals undercutting jobs, etc. I also must give her a modicum of respect because no matter what my view on an issue her office always replies w/in a couple days to emails. As for Levin, he's a p.o.s. - his office never responds to my letters (which are always courteous and sent via www.congress.org). It's no surprise he vote yea. I can't wait to that clown is out of office. Hopefully this next go around will be the yr.
#20
Webb of Virginia is a Freshman.
So is Tester of Montana.
McCaskill is in her first term, but I want to say she came in during '04 rather than '06. I could be off there, though.
#22
"Legal immigration is one of the top concerns of the American people, and Congress' failure to act on it is a disappointment," Bush said after an appearance in Newport, R.I.
No, Jorge. ILLEGAL immigration is one of the top concerns of the American people.
They really think we're friggin idiots out here, don't they?
#23
I never bothered to contact Feinstein or Boxer, both of them D-CA. I would have if I thought it would make any difference but I knew what they would do and that nothing would change them. I vote against them every time they come up for reelection but they are so well entrenched that it's just a token protest vote. The RNC has written California off as a lost cause. I doubt seriously that the RNC allocates any funds to help Republicans run against either Feinstein or Boxer. Last Novemember I never even heard who was running against Feinstein until I read the official state voter's pamphlet and found there was a guy named Dick Mountjoy who wanted to secure the border and was against amnesty. He was like a stealth candidate because nobody even knew he was running or who he was. I doubt that he ever got a dime from the RNC or any of the usual fat cats. The only hope is for Arnold to term out as governator and run for senate. I think he could beat the crap out of Boxer and I would love to see it.
It's pretty damned foolish to write off the state with the most Electoral College votes but Bush refused to campaign against illegal immigration which was the one issue that might have helped him carry the state. I don't think he even campaigned here in 2000 or 2004. By 2004 I was so fed up with him that I only voted to keep Teresa Heinz-Kerry out of the White House and off of my TV because she is so damned ugly. To hell with Iraq. Illegal immigrants and the porous border are a much bigger threat to my security. Republicans better wise up about this problem or else we'll all end up with Hillary in 2008. They could win California if they would just put up a candidate who declares himself against amnesty. They are guaranteed NOT to win with Giuliani, McCain or Romney. The outrage against this bill should demonstrate to Republicans that they can win the White House in 2008 in a landslide if they would listen to the people instead of the fat cats who exploit slave labor from Mexico. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses and now even the fat cats might be thinking that way. One can only hope.
#24
It's been a long time since conservatives acted like conservatives. Bush may have forgotten his base (you know, us bigoted, xeonphobic, knee-jerk reactionary, fear-mongering, racist fools who have the audacity to believe that the US is a sovereign nation with a God-given right to control it's borders and uphold the rule of law) but thank heavens there are still a few who haven't. Well done, Repubs. Thank you Jeff Sessions. Thank you to my Sen. John Cornyn as well.
#25
They really think we're friggin idiots out here, don't they?
tu3031, not since the Nixon administration has America had leadership so contemptuous of its own electorate. This country desperately needs a coherent third party to absorb so much voter discontent and start choking off incumbent support.
The outrage against this bill should demonstrate to Republicans that they can win the White House in 2008 in a landslide if they would listen to the people instead of the fat cats who exploit slave labor from Mexico.
This is why we need to enact spending limits or restrictive federal financing of political campaigns, EU6305. Our politicians are bought and sold by their campaign contributors. This shit has gotta end. Individual American citizens are being sold down the river by special interests. Just look at government inaction over China if you have any doubts.
#26
I don't think it is a left vs. right issue, rather an eliteist vs. patriot issue.
Some donks and some trunks are elite. They are above us and of the master class.
We need to make sure in the next 6 years that NONE of the 45 who supported the bill get reelected.
By the way, is there anyone from Massachucetts out there ? ......Hello ?
#28
The President has dissapointed me beyond words w/this immigration/amnesty shenannigans. Time to follow the money trail. He's not the Gov of TX anymore, so why the hell does he care about this so much vice actually putting a wall/fence up which the majority of Americans really do want?
#29
I suspect that Texas may have had a more benign experience with Mexican immigration than the more aggressively "moral relativist" parts of the country, like California and its assorted mini-mes in the intermountain region, that have been so staunchly hostile towards teaching lower-income students stuff like reading and the like (in ANY language).
#30
I don't think it is a left vs. right issue, rather an eliteist vs. patriot issue.
Bingo!
See where Congress voted themselves another raise. Next thing you know they will try to shut off the internet. They are trying to resurrect the "Fairness Doctrine" to control talk radio.
#31
so why the hell does he care about this so much
Republicans are bought and sold by big business. If you have any doubts, just read what Common Cause has to say regarding Bush's campaign fund raising:
Common Cause is watching.
Not only are we watching what the President is raising for the 2004 election, but we also have watched to see how his big fundraisers - the Pioneers - prospered from their investment in the 2000 campaign. Have the last few years been kind to the Bush fundraisers?
The answer is a resounding "Yes."
Just Watch and see how successful Pioneers have been influencing Bush Administration policies. The profiles included here demonstrate how money in politics works at the highest level of government. In each case, the Pioneer has helped Bush win election and Bush Administration policies have benefited the Pioneer - inmanycases, attheexpenseofthepublicinterest.
[emphasis added]
#33
DG, I wouldn't shake the hand of one of those bastards on the list you just posted. RINOs all, and lying scum to boot. Particularly the idiots from Maine and Utah.
Posted by: Mac ||
06/28/2007 19:02 Comments ||
Top||
These assholes have made it quite clear that they are FAKE "conservatives". They need to pay (while in office and at the next election) for their treachery.
HAT TIP TO Newsbusters.org. Newsbusters notes that this ruling has been ignored by the media, unlike the great play we received when DeLay was indicted.
You were expecting something different?
The states highest criminal court today affirmed the 2005 dismissal of a felony indictment against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two associates. In the 5-4 decision, the court affirmed Judge Pat Priests decision to throw out an indictment accusing DeLay and his associates, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, of conspiring to violate state election laws. The Sugar Land Republican, who retired from Congress in 2006 because of the indictments arising from the 2002 elections, still faces a charge of conspiring to launder corporate money into campaign donations.
In 2005, just months after the indictments, Priest ruled that the states conspiracy statute did not apply to the election code until Sept. 1, 2003, long after the 2002 elections in which DeLays political committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, spent about $600,000 of corporate money on consultants, professional fundraisers and pollsters as part of an effort to elect a GOP majority to the Legislature. That Republican-dominated Legislature then approved DeLays plan to redraw the states congressional map to favor Republicans.
#1
As I predicted long before he gave up his seat in congress. This is all just made up laws or laws twisted to fit into an indictment. Also this was the easiest of the charges to get dropped so I am not surprised. I will predict that he will be acquitted or possibly dismissed during trial.
For the first time since taking control of Congress, gun-control Democrats are taking on the National Rifle Association. The NRA seems to be nipping the effort in the bud. At issue is whether Congress should loosen restrictions on local law enforcement agencies' ability to gain access to gun-purchasing data to trace the movement of illegal guns around the nation. The restrictions on such "trace data" began almost four years ago when Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., succeeded in limiting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or ATF, from publicly revealing information from its gun trace database.
On Thursday, the battle shifts to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Sens. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., are among those trying to repeal or weaken the gun data restrictions when the panel acts on the ATF's budget. Pro-gun rights stalwarts including Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., are pushing back hard and seem poised for victory.
The NRA says the data-sharing restrictions protect gun owners' privacy, but mayors around the country such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg contend they hamper law enforcement authorities' ability to trace illegal guns and arrest weapons traffickers. The mayors say gun trace data helps local police departments figure out where illegal guns are coming from, who buys them and how they get trafficked into their communities. Most guns used in crimes are sold by a small number of rogue gun dealers.
"The fight is between the nation's mayors and law enforcement leaders on one side, and the gun lobby on the other," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "The individuals who benefit most from the Tiahrt restrictions are corrupt gun dealers and illegal gun traffickers."
Bloomberg, who recently left the GOP amid speculation he may run for president, has sued numerous out-of-state gun dealers in an attempt to reduce the flow of illegal guns into New York. The NRA-backed restrictions block cities from getting ATF data for such lawsuits. The NRA says it would limit the release of the information to criminal investigators, and keep the information away from antigun activists, headline-hungry politicians and opportunistic trial lawyers.
Gun control advocates have had little success on Capitol Hill since a Democratic-controlled Congress muscled through an assault weapons ban in 1994. Many Democrats credited the ban for losses in rural seats as the party took a drubbing at the polls that year. "A major contributing factor to the Democratic loss of the House in 1994 was the broad gun control measure that was passed in that year," said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., an NRA ally. "I think that's widely acknowledged and the same mistakes are not going to be made again."
This year, Democrats owe their narrow majorities in the House and Senate to freshmen from rural and Republican-leaning areas. Such pro-gun members include Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., and numerous moderate "Blue Dog" Democrats elected to the House last year.
The difficult route to overturn the gun trace data restrictions contrasts sharply with the smooth path through the House of legislation aimed at correcting flaws in the national gun background check system that allowed a Virginia Tech student who killed 32 others to buy guns despite his diagnosed mental health problems. That legislation would require states to automate their lists of convicted criminals and the mentally ill, who are prohibited under a 1968 law from buying firearms, and report those lists to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System
The difference is that the NRA endorsed the background check improvements, boosting its chances of becoming the first major national gun control law in more than a decade.
The House has yet to debate companion legislation. But West Virginia Democratic Rep. Alan Mollohan, chairman of the appropriations panel funding the ATF budget, has announced plans to stick with the current restrictions on ATF gun trace information.
#1
The NRA needs to hammer the issue publically every chance it gets. The ATF, FBI and local law enforcement have total access to this data. What keeps getting squished is politicians getting the data. Bloomberg RUINED a number of active investigations by using this data in his lawsuits against gunshops. The problem is keeping idiot politico's out of it. They have no need or reason for being allowed access to the data and there's lots of reasons against it.
So anytime they claim law enforcement can't get it, it's a FLAT OUT LIE.
#2
Google "no duty to protect" and you will get all the classic literature on US case law on police protection. SCOTUS has repeatedly ruled: cops have no duty to protect individuals unless it arises in the act of a crime against person, to which a cop has a present ability to respond. Even there, "officer safety" overrides your need for armed or other protection.
Ergo: you have a common law right to protect yourself, and a constitutional right to bear arms in that regard. Frankly, I don't know anyone living in a rural area who does not own a gun. And if they didn't, I would buy one for them.
#3
The police, by their presence, do offer a passive form of protection against crime. Not an active one.
The primary job of the police is to deal with crime after the fact - investigation, arrest, prosecution. This isn't a hit on them - I believe that for the most part they work hard at these things - but it isn't active protection.
I agree with McZoid, but I'll go further. Not only do you have the right to protect yourself and your family, you have a responsibility to do so, rural or not.
The true test in this struggle will be whether or not the freshman "conservative, pro-gun" democrats in Congress really are what they said they were during their campaigns. I'm skeptical, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/28/2007 6:00 Comments ||
Top||
#4
If, like me, you've stopped sending money to the GOP, consider sending it to the NRA instead...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/28/2007 7:57 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Any government that disarms its citizens assumes strict liability to protect them from crime. How about that, John Edwards?
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
06/28/2007 8:49 Comments ||
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#6
If you're a gun owner or a 2d rights advocate (imho) - you should join the NRA &/or one of the many great grass roots RKBA organizations out there. If not, you might as well put yourself in the minus column on the issue.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/28/2007 17:59 Comments ||
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#8
Reminds me of the old joke about the bar that's so tough they check everybody at the door for a gun or knife, if you don't have one, they'll loan you one.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/28/2007 18:08 Comments ||
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#9
NRA Life Member here, BH6.
Posted by: Mac ||
06/28/2007 19:09 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Jason Walters
You've got another long time NRA member right here. I'm also a member of the Second Amendment Foundation, Citizens Committee For The Right To Keep And Bear Arms, and for many years the California Pistol and Rifle Organization.
It costs very little to belong to an RTKBA organization, and they routinely and successfully fight out of their weight class across the country. Please donate to them if you can.
Its not every day a presidential hopeful sends Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff a head of lettuce, but thats what Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, is doing Wednesday to show his disagreement with Chertoffs recent comments on how failure of passing immigration reform might affect the agricultural industry.
Tancredo says he disagrees with recent comments Chertoff made that suggested if the immigration bill fails, the agricultural industry will suffer. To prove his point he is sending Chertoff a head of lettuce, a fruit basket, and a card saying, much, much more where this comes from.
The administration has taken hyperbole to a whole new level this time, Tancredo said in a statement. They are now trying to convince the public that without amnesty, the American people are going to starve?
The agriculture industry and the free market has managed to keep producing through floods, droughts, and $3.00 per gallon gas, Tancredo added, I doubt very seriously that a nominal increase in labor costs is going to be the end of lettuce as we know it.
In a July 14 speech before the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Chertoff said, Without reform that brings workers in legitimately, that makes it efficient for businesses, including agricultural businesses, to hire those workers efficiently, and without some kind of a mechanism to promote agriculture and to deal with the current illegal work force, were going to put people like you and those you represent in a terrible bind theyre either going to have to break the law, which is a bad thing to do, or theyre going to have to shut down their farms, which is a bad thing to do, or whats going to wind up happening is those farms are going to Mexico and Canada.
#2
What crap! UC Davis released a study showing that if farm wages went up 40%, the increase in the cost of produce that normally goes for $1 would be two to three cents.
We don't need a slave underclass in this country that badly, Mr Chertoff.
I thought Chertoff was Homeland Sec Chief? Somebody school me on why he's giving speeches on agricultural economics etc? (which from reading his speech he obviously has no clue what he's talking about) Shouldn't he be worried about poison food supplies and such, not how much the price of lima beans are?
Six female Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) members of the NWFP Assembly have submitted a draft bill aiming to protect veiled or fully covered women against discrimination on the basis of dress. The bill was submitted with the NWFP Assembly Secretariat and the JI MPAs hoped to put it up for debate in the current session, MPA Shagufta Naz told Daily Times on Wednesday. We submitted the bill following complaints from women that they were discriminated against for their choice of dress, she said, adding that she had decided to draft the bill to protect women who faced such discrimination in schools, colleges and the public sector. However, a womens rights activist disputed Shaguftas claim by saying the bill was tabled because of Madeeha Gohars banned Burqavaganza play. The play was banned in April following criticism from Islamic parties, supposedly because it ridiculed women who wear the burqa and the burqa itself.
There has not been a single complaint from any girl or woman claiming they were being discriminated against on the basis of their dress, Rakhshanda Naz, resident director of woman advocacy organisation Aurat Foundation, told Daily Times. The draft bill proposed that discrimination against female workers or students on the basis of their dress should be a punishable offence. A month-long imprisonment or Rs 15,000 fine or both were proposed as penalty for people found guilty of discriminating against veiled women.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
Ironically, the trickle down effect of US spending in Pakistan on GWOT has brought relative prosperity to the NWFP. Thus, the party - MMA - that held a minute's silence to protest the execution of a jihadi who murdered 2 CIA employees on US soil, appears poised to be re-elected.
#1
Asteroids are believed to be the building blocks of planets - primordial relics left over from the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago.
Yup, and strange as it sounds, its well worth the money to analyse these tumbling rocks to understand their constitution. A solid comprehension of this solar system's original makeup could contribute to massive advances in our understanding of the Big Bang causality. Knowledge of that has already enhanced everything from automotive engine efficiency to thermal barrier technology. There is no ignoring how asteroids will become the most plentiful source of heavy metals and other rare earth elements once their local extraction has become too damaging to our globe.
#2
Aye, Zenster. It may seem pie-in-the-sky to some, but gaining information about these things could lead to future commerce and opportunity.
The tired old argument that we have to fix every single problem here on Earth before we spend an iota of energy in space falls flat on its face. We'll always have problems here. The money spent to look for resources in our nearby astronomical vicinity is an investment; the potential yield is too great to ignore simply in the name of our species' imperfections.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/28/2007 6:07 Comments ||
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#3
Aye, Zenster. It may seem pie-in-the-sky to some, but gaining information about these things could lead to future commerce and opportunity.
The tired old argument that we have to fix every single problem here on Earth before we spend an iota of energy in space falls flat on its face. We'll always have problems here. The money spent to look for resources in our nearby astronomical vicinity is an investment; the potential yield is too great to ignore simply in the name of our species' imperfections.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/28/2007 6:07 Comments ||
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#4
Sorry for the double post.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/28/2007 6:07 Comments ||
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#5
Sorry for the double post.
Fear not, no mo uro, my spare personalities always appreciate the extra support.
#6
"It's raining soup out there and we don't have a bowl"
Larry Niven
Worse, our politicians are too stupid or evil to pay for one. Fortunately there is another way to get there. I think private enterprise space programs will be unstoppable within ten years.
#10
Plus, once we start mining asteroids, we can arrange for a small one to wonder off track and "accidentally" hit Mecca! They worship a space rock, imagine how delighted they would be to get more!
#11
Right there with you Darth. Just be sure to have an IMAX crew orbiting overhead for the show. I want to be able to watch the whole thing in slo-mo.
#13
They worship a space rock, imagine how delighted they would be to get more!
Goodness knows that Islam needs some sort of explanation for its meteoric rise in popularity. Betcha' can't eat worship just one! Any way we can arrange for its arrival to coincide with the Haj? Going for the twofer here.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced ten Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leaders and activists to three years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) and fined them Tk 10,000 each for obstructing buying and dropping of tender schedules for jobs worth around Tk 450 crore. The case was filed against them with Motijheel Police Station for preventing participants from bidding in a tender at the Construction Maintenance Management Unit (CMMU) of the health ministry on July 30 last year.
The Court of Additional District Magistrate (ADM) in Natore yesterday framed charges against 94 persons including former BNP deputy minister Ruhul Kuddus Talukhdar Dulu for arson and looting at three villages under Naldanga upazila in 2004. ADM Rawnak Mahmud also fixed Monday to start trial of the case. The accused include Dulu's two brothers-- Nabi Talukhdar and Rafik Talukhdar, cousins-- Atikur Rahman, Nurunnabi Talukhdar, Abidur Rahman and Mojibor Rahman, nephews-- Rentu, Belal, Helal and Bulbul, nephew-in-law Rahim Newaz, and Natore municipal ward commissioners Sadrul Huda Dambel and Nasim Khan.
At least 18 people have been killed in clashes between police and gangsters in a slum in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, authorities have said. Guns and grenades were used in the fighting, with armoured vehicles and helicopters backing police units. 
NAYs ---53 
Six female Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) members of the NWFP Assembly have submitted a draft bill aiming to protect veiled or fully covered women against discrimination on the basis of dress. The bill was submitted with the NWFP Assembly Secretariat and the JI MPAs hoped to put it up for debate in the current session, MPA Shagufta Naz told Daily Times on Wednesday. We submitted the bill following complaints from women that they were discriminated against for their choice of dress, she said, adding that she had decided to draft the bill to protect women who faced such discrimination in schools, colleges and the public sector. However, a womens rights activist disputed Shaguftas claim by saying the bill was tabled because of Madeeha Gohars banned Burqavaganza play. The play was banned in April following criticism from Islamic parties, supposedly because it ridiculed women who wear the burqa and the burqa itself. 
