Illegals On The Gulf Coast

There’s a reason that illegal immigration is such a big issue in this country.  Basically its because they are all over the country, and especially so along the Gulf coast, thanks in no small part to hurricanes Ivan, Katrina, and Dennis.  The tip of the iceberg is in two local papers in the Pensacola area today.

You have the Mexican restaurateur arrested for drug distribution and harboring Mexican illegal aliens in the Pensacola News Journal.  And in a neighboring county, the Northwest Florida Daily News  reports of an illegal alien smuggling operation getting busted.  Those involved were charged with alien smuggling and visa fraud for forging temporary H2-B visas.

Over time, be prepared for the rest of the iceberg to be revealed.

aSide Order

Jihadi Pussy

Warning, it is graphic.

Opening of the 1/2 Hour News Hour show. Already a classic.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WCNc7JZ24k[/youtube]

 

This defies nature, but see for yourself.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JiJzqXxgxo[/youtube]

 

Today’s Special

News of Venezuela’s referendum which would crown the hemisphere’s idiot, Hugo Chavez, as dictator for life, and usurp the democracy movement is sounding all too familiar. Too close to call. Opponents are acting confident that they won by an 8 percent margin. The government has not released the results yet. Will be interesting to see what Chavez does if he loses.

UPDATE: 1-hour later: Chavez loses referendum 51% to 49%. OK, now stand back and watch how well Chavez takes this news.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin did what Chavez hoped to do. His political party won by a landslide. Of course, it helps when you only allow the opposition (pro-Western) party on the tightly controlled state airwaves and characterize them as provocateurs in the pay of foreign overlords. Scaring voters of a ‘western plot’ also helps.

A small victory for democracy in Hong Kong. But we’ll take it.

Things aren’t going well in Iowa for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Aside from polling second to Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa, she was booed by a group of 3000 fellow democrats in Des Moines when she spoke in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. Iowans correctly read that as nothing more than lipstick on a pig named ‘ amnesty.’ I read that as Iowa democrats are not liberal like she is. It highlights her arrogance, not leadership, to even go there after seeing how badly and how broadly the country rejected Bush’s comprehensive plan.

And qualifying for the Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day, the media comes to her aide in the aftermath of the hostage ‘crisis’ in one of her campaign offices like this.

When the hostages had been released and their alleged captor arrested, a regal-looking Hillary Rodham Clinton strolled out of her Washington home, the picture of calm in the face of crisis.

and this explains why.

It was a vintage example of a candidate taking a negative and turning it into a positive. And coming just six weeks before the presidential voting begins, the timing could hardly have been more beneficial to someone hoping to stave off a loss in the Iowa caucuses and secure a win in the New Hampshire primary.

 

LA Times On The ‘Corrupt News Network’

I don’t remember when I’ve quoted anything from the LA Times that I agreed with. That’s how often it happens. Their take on last week’s CNN/youTube debate however is both unique and right on. In defense of CNN’s use of democrat operatives and members of the Clinton campaign, CNN put out this statement the next day . . .

“The whole point of these ground-breaking CNN/YouTube debates is to focus on substantive questions of concern to real people and to throw open the process to a wider range of Americans all around the country. CNN cared about what you asked, not who you were.”

CNN did not do either. The first and most obvious bit of journalistic malpractice is the selection of Democrat campaign operatives like Keith Kerr to hold the microphone in a Republican debate. The next thing, and maybe less obvious is they didn’t focus on the most important issues on the minds of Americans. They focused instead on what was important to CNN. Tim Rutten of the LAT begins . . .

THE United States is at war in the Middle East and Central Asia, the economy is writhing like a snake with a broken back, oil prices are relentlessly climbing toward $100 a barrel and an increasing number of Americans just can’t afford to be sick with anything that won’t be treated with aspirin and bed rest.

So, when CNN brought the Republican presidential candidates together this week for what is loosely termed a “debate,” what did the country get but a discussion of immigration, Biblical inerrancy and the propriety of flying the Confederate flag?

In fact, this most recent debacle masquerading as a presidential debate raises serious questions about whether CNN is ethically or professionally suitable to play the political role the Democratic and Republican parties recently have conceded it.

After citing examples of CNN’s “intellectual venality” in the questions it picked, Rutten continues. . .

[I]t pales beside the wickedness of using some crackpot’s query about the candidates’ stand on Biblical inerrancy to do something that’s anathema in our system — to probe people’s individual religious consciences. American journalists quite legitimately ask candidates about policy issues — say, abortion — that might be influenced by their religious or philosophical convictions. We do not and should not ask them about those convictions themselves. It’s nobody’s business whether a candidate believes in the virgin birth, whether God gave an oral Torah to Moses at Sinai, whether the Buddha escaped the round of birth and rebirth or whether an angel appeared to Joseph Smith.

It certainly makes a case for the uselessness of this kind of debate format, and the irrelevance of CNN, the most trusted name in news, when it comes to politics. It also makes the case for journalists to go back to asking, and taking responsibility for, their own questions. I couldn’t agree more with Rutten’s conclusion.

In any event, CNN has failed in its responsibilities to the political process and it’s time for the leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties to take the network out of our electoral affairs.

related links:

LA Times, CNN: Corrupt News Network| The Lunch Counter: Joe Scarborough and Me | Not Just A Plant, But A Whole Nursery

‘The Black KKK Claimed Another Victim’

Jason Whitlock, award-winning sportswriter for the Kansas City Star, takes a critical look at the murder of Sean Taylor. This was written two days before the perpetrators were arrested.

True to form, Whitlock spoke of truths few press representatives and even fewer black leaders dare to today (emphasis added, h/t Larwyn, reader is cautioned that some of the language is a tad raw at times)

What’s amazing about this column, and others by Whitlock, is that if Martin Luther King, Jr., was alive today, he’d completely agree with these sentiments.

h/t Noel Sheppard @ NewsBusters
Jason Whitlock: Taylor’s death a grim reminder for us all

Continue reading ‘The Black KKK Claimed Another Victim’

Will Muslim Americans Please Stand Up?

Like anything else in society, making generalizations about race and religion hide some truths that, when it comes to life and death, matter. So to say [American Muslims are NOT our enemy!] that an entire class of people are not our enemy is wishful thinking, and wreaks of naivete. Of course, it depends on what your definition of ‘enemy’ is. I think it is fair to say that most American Muslims are fine, peaceful, and productive citizens. It is also fair to say that some terrorist cells are already here in America.

The Pew Research Center did a survey of American Muslims. It shows that 1 in 4 American Muslims aged 18-29 actually support suicide bombings.

* More than one in four Muslims (or 26%), aged 18-29, said “Suicide Bombing is Justified.” 2% percent of them say it can often be justified, 13% say sometimes, and 11% say rarely. Add to that, the 5% don’t know/refused to answer this easy, instinctive question, and it’s even worse–for a total of 31%–almost a third of young American Muslims, who support homicide bombings. This younger group of Muslims is the most radical, the study found, and it’s the largest group of Muslims in America. It is also the future of “America’s” Islam.

A quadruple amputee can count on his toes and fingers the number of times local mosques in Pensacola have denounced radical Islam. Them not speaking up and getting out in front of this Islamofascist movement to denounce it doesn’t make them bad. But it doesn’t make make me feel safe to know that such a large group of people are getting a pass either.

American Muslims face a special challenge in this post 9/11 world. And their silence breeds bias which only they can assuade. It’s not the majority of Muslim Americans (69%) I’m concerned about. It’s the other 31%.

related links:
American Muslims Support Suicide Bombings | Muslim Silence Breeds Bias

Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.