Showing posts with label Holder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holder. Show all posts

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Abusing the Children Americans Won't Abuse

The sheer madness of the Democrats' dystopian immigration policies was tragically illustrated last week in northern Virginia.

Salvador Portillo-Saravia, a member of the MS-13 street gang, was charged with raping an 8-year-old girl at her Fairfax County home last month. But he never should have been in Fairfax in the first place... Federal officials deported Portillo-Saravia, of Sterling, to El Salvador in 2003, and he sneaked back in illegally. Now, officials are wondering why a much-touted federal program didn't catch him before the rape...

...Four weeks before the crime, Portillo-Saravia was in the Loudoun County jail for public intoxication. That's when the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program, called Secure Communities, should have identified him...

...ICE said Portillo-Saravia illegally entered the country in 2000. He was deported in October 2003 after what ICE called an encounter with the Prince William police gang unit. It is not known when he reentered the country, but reentry is a federal offense.

This nation's porous borders are a disgrace and a danger. The panderers in the Democrat Party could not care less about the safety of America's "middle class". They want Balkanization and they need the votes, illegal or not.

In California alone, the cost of educating, incarcerating and caring for illegals first surpassed $10 billion in 2004. Today the expenditure is well above that.

But those numbers don't reflect the human toll. Allowing anyone at all -- criminals and terrorists among them -- to walk into this country, without so much as a pat-down or a background check, is an affront to the notion of government.

Think about it. Protecting America's borders is the one damn thing that this federal government is supposed to do -- is constitutionally required to do -- yet it won't do it.

Just as with Iraq, Democrats are willing to play politics with the lives of Americans in the hopes of stealing more power.


Thursday, January 27, 2011

Iranian Suicide Bombing Manual Discovered on Arizona's Border With Mexico -- Which Is, Of Course, As Secure As It's Ever Been

As if a failed narco-terror state on our unprotected southern border isn't enough to alarm you, ABC-15 (Phoenix) reports on an ominous incident getting little attention from legacy media.

Officials have confirmed a book known for celebrating suicide bombers was found in the Arizona desert... An official with the Department of Homeland Security told ABC15 a copy of "In Memory of Our Martyrs" was spotted Tuesday ... [on] "a route known for smuggling illegal immigrants and drugs."

...the book is published in Iran and contains biographies of Islamic suicide bombers and other Islamic militants who died while carrying out their attacks... Authorities believe the book had been there for at least several days, or weeks.

Fret not, dear citizen. Our beloved baritone DHS secretary, Janet Napolitano, assures us that the border is "as secure as it's ever been."

Which, judging by the number of illegals flooding the U.S., isn't as reassuring a statement as she might have hoped.

Please, Mr. President -- don't secure the border until after the attack. That way the crisis won't go to waste.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Weasel Zippers. Thanks!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Texas Attorney General: President Obama's Failure to Secure Border Has Emboldened Drug Cartels and Will End Up Killing Innocent Americans

I'm amazed that this letter (PDF) from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith, and the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King, hasn't received more attention.

January 14, 2011


The Honorable Lamar Smith
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20215

The Honorable Peter King
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20215
Dear Chairman Smith and Chairman King,

Six months ago, I warned President Obama about the life-threatening danger of bullets flying across the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. At that time, El Paso's City Hall had just been struck by gunfire from the Mexican side of the border. In August of last year, more stray bullets from inside Mexico struck school buildings at the University of Texas at EI Paso. And in November of last year, the University of Texas at Brownsville-where bullets from Mexico have struck school buildings-was forced to cancel classes due to a bloody gang battle that raged for hours only steps across the border in Matamoros.

I want to draw your attention to yet another dangerous incident involving cartel-related gunfire on the border near EI Paso. Yesterday, gunmen in Mexico fired across the border at American road workers in rural West Texas. Law enforcement has indicated the shooting may have been an attempt by cartel operatives to scare the workers away from the cartels' drug smuggling operations in our country.

Fortunately, no Americans were injured or killed in these incidents. But clearly, American lives are gravely threatened by the increasingly volatile situation on the border. As yesterday's incident demonstrates, the threat is not limited to stray bullets that miss their intended targets inside Mexico. The Obama Administration's continued failure to secure our borders appears to have emboldened the drug cartels to the point that they are willing to intentionally fire across the border at innocent Americans who unwittingly interfere with their smuggling operations.

Early reports indicate that the U.S. Border Patrol may not be investigating yesterday's incident. If this is true, it is yet another shameful example of the federal government's failure to take all available action to urgently and aggressively fend otf the growing threat posed by drug-related violence along our porous border with Mexico.

Because the Obama Administration has failed to adequately respond to this serious problem, I write to urge Congress to take action. I urge the House Judiciary Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee to hold hearings to review the Administration's response to this incident and others like it. The committees should consider whether federal authorities properly responded to this week's shooting, examine how cross-border violence is threatening border communities, and determine what the federal government can do to protect border residents. As Attorney General of Texas, I am prepared to appear before your committees to brief you on the problems affecting our state. We must work together to pursue all available means to protect Americans from the violence plaguing our border with Mexico.

The time for talk has passed. The time for action is now. Each day that passes increases the likelihood that American life will be lost because of the federal government's failure to secure the border.

Sincerely,

Greg Abbott
Attorney General of Texas

Frankly, I think the A.G. is overreacting. After all, a failed narco-state, replete with heavily armed militias, isn't really all that different from several neighborhoods in California.


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

'We Must Stop This Vile and Evil Rhetoric'

Papa Todd writes, "From the 'Mecca for prejudice and bigotry' -- my hometown, Tucson Arizona":

I asked him to call Sheriff Dupnik to report this divisive filth, but reportedly the county's top law enforcement official is booked solid on MSNBC for the next few days.


Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Volunteer Artist Creates New, Napolitano-Friendly TSA Security Poster

Our beloved, baritone head of Homeland Security appears to employ a simple slogan when it comes to security: "If you see something, say something--unless it's embarrassing to me or President Training Wheels."

In that light, famed illustrator Irony Curtain created a new security poster certain to resonate with Ms. Napolitano.

This poster should pass muster with the ultimate arbiter of such matters -- the shadowy Hamas front group that seems to call the shots in certain quarters of the Democrat hierarchy.


Tuesday, December 28, 2010

So the Democrats Finally Want Fiscal Responsibility? Great. Let's End Their Disastrous "War on Poverty"

Race Hustler Wants More Spending for the "War on Poverty"--It Seems $16 Trillion Isn't Enough


The nation's foremost race hustler is in the news again, agitating for more spending in the "War on Poverty". Oh, and he wants a "radical reordering" of our economy, because the Consitution is apparently an arcane relic with no particular relevance to race hustlers.

Jesse Jackson appeared on MSNBC yesterday and let it be known that President Obama better enjoy his vacation now, because come January, Jackson expects a lot from the President. Not only does he want a renewed commitment to the war on poverty, but he also wants the President to go right to Congress and to stick up for the women and children Jackson meets in homeless shelters who apparently are working every day and still can’t afford the rent.

Jackson has seen enough and calls for “a radical reordering of our economy, bottom up, because those, the very top are drowning in wealth. It’s paper-driven not even productivity-driven.” Given Jackson’s unique and mangled pronunciation of so many words in the brief clip, it sounds like Jackson is actually the one under water and drowning... Overall it’s debatable which is crazier: the radical rearrangement of the economy or the idea that Obama wants economic advice from Jackson.

I can answer that question.

Since the inception of means-tested welfare programs in 1964, Americans have spent $15.9 trillion on the "War on Poverty".

Coincidentally, our national debt is approaching $15 trillion and is projected to top $20 trillion by the end of the decade.

After adjusting for inflation, America's welfare expenditures are 1300% higher than in 1965. And the results have been absolutely catastrophic. But the documented failures haven't stopped President Obama and the Democrats from charting a course for massive new spending programs, at a time when the country can least afford it.

A record number of Americans -- 3.7 million -- fell into poverty in 2009, according to the Census Bureau. And the percentage of poor today is virtually unchanged from what it was in 1966. America's poverty rate stays within a range of 11 to 15 percent, year in and year out, no matter how many trillions in money borrowed from our children we spend.

Worse still, unbridled welfare programs have insidious impacts on society


The out-of-wedlock birthrate is now 40 percent and the African-American out-of-wedlock birthrate is a shocking 72 percent. But when the "War on Poverty" began, the out-of-wedlock birthrate was just 7 percent.

Of 23 peer-reviewed U.S. studies since 2000, 20 found that family structure directly affects crime and/or delinquency. Research "strongly suggests both that young adults and teens raised in single-parent homes are far more likely to commit crimes, and that communities with high rates of family fragmentation (especially unwed childbearing) suffer higher crime rates as a result."

In The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead states that the "relationship [between single-parent families and crime] is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature. The nation's mayors, as well as police officers, social workers, probation officers, and court officials, consistently point to family break up as the most important source of rising rates of crime."

What legacy media and Democrats won't tell you is this shocking fact: the statistical link between the availability of welfare and out-of-wedlock births is conclusive. The more welfare society provides, the more single-parent families society creates.

There have been dozens of studies that link the availability of welfare benefits to out-of-wedlock births. One study found that a 50 percent increase in the value of AFDC and foodstamp payments led to a 43 percent increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births.

Research for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed that a 50 percent increase in the monthly value of combined AFDC and food stamp benefits led to a 117 percent increase in the crime rate among young black men.

In 1995, Dr. Patrick Fagan wrote a seminal summary of the situation: "Over the past thirty years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise in families abandoned by fathers... High-crime neighborhoods are characterized by high concentrations of families abandoned by fathers... The rate of violent teenage crime corresponds with the number of families abandoned by fathers... Neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high-crime neighborhoods... Even in high-crime inner-city neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable homes do not become delinquents. By contrast only 10 percent of children from unsafe, unstable homes in these neighborhoods avoid crime... Criminals capable of sustaining marriage gradually move away from a life of crime after they get married."

To summarize these facts (in simple words for any Democrats reading along): not only has the "War on Poverty" been a $15 trillion failure, it has actually caused more misery, more poverty, and more violent crime than if we had never spent that money in the first place.

President Obama wants ideas to help balance the budget. Here's one: end the failed "War on Poverty", once and for all.


References: Washington Examiner, 12/12/10, "Let a vigorous economy fight the War on Poverty"; Heritage Foundation, 9/16/10, "Marriage: America’s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty."

Janet Napolitano introduces new TSA security slogan: If you see something, say something--unless it embarrasses the White House

The pilot who documented several massive, gaping holes in airport security has come forward. Sacramento's News 10 has an exclusive report identifying the pilot as Chris Liu. Curiously, the first reaction of DHS head Janet Napolitano was not to address the vulnerabilities. It was, instead, to punish the pilot.

The airline pilot who lost his federally-issued gun and badge for posting video on YouTube critical of airport security has chosen to go public with his identity...

Liu's cell phone video tour of security at San Francisco International Airport led to a team of six federal agents and sheriff's deputies coming to his home on Dec. 2 to take his handgun and Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) credentials... Liu's state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon was also suspended by the Placer County sheriff.

...Liu decided to reveal his identity Monday because he wants to become actively involved in changing what he believes is a major flaw in airport security... As Liu pointed out in the video, pilots and flight crew are subjected to real-time TSA security screening while ground crew are not. "Upstairs they're going through the metal detectors and the X-ray machines, and downstairs they're swiping a card," he said...

Apparently, the oft-repeated domestic security phrase needs to be modified a bit for the Obama administration. Perhaps it should read: "If you see something, say something -- unless it embarrasses us."

This is a consistent theme for the Obama administration. In Governor Bobby Jindal's book ("Leadership and Crisis"), he described a White House concerned not with containing the damage from the BP oil spill, but instead worried about its image.

In an interview this morning on Glenn Beck’s radio show, Bobby Jindal said that at a meeting with the President during the gulf oil spill, that he and the President of Plaquemines Parish were told specifically by Obama not to go on TV and criticize him...

Jindal says that it was clear Obama was frustrated with the level of criticism he was getting and goes on to accuse Obama of caring more about perception and politics than actually cutting through the red tape and getting things done.
Try to contain your shock.

You may also remember that just a few months ago, former Clinton official Robert Shapiro stated that a successful terrorist attack may be just the ticket to restoring Obama's lost luster. Shapiro said, "he [Obama] is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can’t think of how he could do that."

This administration is so far off the reservation it will take a massive landslide election in 2012 to begin the healing process. That is, if we don't suffer a catastrophic terror attack before then, assisted in part by a White House more concerned with image than security.


Saturday, December 25, 2010

Nappie On the Spot: Protecting Americans' Christmas Celebrations by Seizing Counterfeit Reindeer, Barbies, Cinderella and Bratz Dolls

DHS head Janet Napolitano is at the top of her game.

True, she refuses to secure the border. And, yes, she does slam the media for reporting on the outrage following the murder of a Border Patrol agent. Okay, it's true that she reportedly punished a pilot for pointing out huge, gaping holes in airport security.

But all that aside, it's clear that our beloved, baritone security chief has her heart in the right place.

Customs and Border Protection officers have been busy in the run-up to the holidays making sure counterfeit toys, some potentially dangerous, aren’t put under Christmas trees.

CBP said protection officers in the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport complex seized 55,080 counterfeit children’s electric ride-on toy vehicles Dec. 22. The vehicles, imported from China, had batteries underneath the seats with counterfeit Underwriters Laboratories component certification “RU” markings, according to the agency.

...On Dec. 21, CBP said it seized an additional 13,843 counterfeit toys that violated intellectual property rights in the months leading up to the holiday season at the Otay Mesa cargo port of entry, near San Diego, CA.

Beginning with a shipment during the last week of October, and ending with a shipment stopped at the beginning of December, CBP said import specialists at the entry point identified 5,472 counterfeit Barbie dolls, 24 counterfeit Cinderella dolls, 12 counterfeit Bratz dolls, 4,692 counterfeit Barbie medical playsets, 1,600 counterfeit hand-held Tetris electronic games, 36 counterfeit Lego blocks sets, 20 Chargers Bolt masks, 10 Superman mask/cape combinations, nine Spiderman mask/cape combinations, 816 toy cell phones with counterfeit Barbie, Mickey Mouse, and Winnie the Pooh images, and 1,152 counterfeit Disney’s 101 Dalmatians toy dogs.

But that's not all: federal officials also seized illegal decorative reindeer at LAX.

Federal officials have seized two decorative Christmas reindeer at Los Angeles International Airport... The owner, who brought the reindeer from El Salvador to LAX, did not have the proper certification to bring them into the U.S., customs officials said... Officials say agricultural specialists inspected the decorations and also found that the grass and seeds showed evidence of disease...

Glad to see Ms. Napolitano has her priorities straight. I feel more secure already.


Thursday, December 23, 2010

Family of Slain Border Patrol Agent Rips Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama: "You Gotta Wake Your Man Up In The White House"

You most assuredly won't be seeing this story in The New York Times or on network news.

Jim Hoft points us to a heartbreaking KGUN Channel 9 interview with the family of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

Bag pipes and a somber procession with murdered border patrol agent Brian Terry's flag draped coffin; they're all the accoutrements for the funeral of a federal agent shot and killed while on patrol in Arizona's southern desert.

But, not so typical was what Brian's family had to say to KGUN9 the night before he was brought to his final resting place at Michigan Memorial Park. "I understand that Janet Napolitano called (Tuesday night). What did you say to her?" 9 On Your Side reporter Joel Waldman asked Brian Terry's father, Kent.

"'I said you gotta wake your man up in the White House,'" Kent responded. "And she said, ‘He's done more in the last two years than any other president.'"

But the Terrys told Waldman that they don't buy it. Kent, step mom Carolyn, mom Josie, older brother Kent Jr., sisters Kelly and Michelle are all angry that their son and brother, Brian, died the way he did. They're not shy about blaming President Obama's administration for not doing enough, taking aim directly at Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

"She spoke with us and they were empty words today when she spoke," said step mom Carolyn Terry.

"Why so empty?" Waldman asked...

"They had no meaning to them. She'll have Christmas. She'll forget about it tomorrow."

...Local media were excluded from [Napolitano's] recent visit to southern Arizona, during which she discussed the Terry shooting with some local officials... Despite its response in sending more resources to the border, the White House has come under strong attack from those who believe the current administration is just not doing enough.

Members of the Terry family have now added their voice to those critics. Many of them tell KGUN9 News they will fight to make sure that their loved one did not die in vain.

What is so maddening about these terrible incidents is that President Obama and Secretary Napolitano appear more concerned with negative publicity than with the safety of U.S. law enforcement personnel. But, given their performances in the aftermath of the BP oil spill, that shouldn't really come as a surprise.

How hard is it to build a freaking security fence?

Apparently, too difficult for politicians in Washington, which is why we need to replace any and all Democrats in 2012.


Sunday, December 19, 2010

Photo: I Feel Safer Already

Comforting.

"Yes, that's a burka, yes that's a real TSA agent, (I saw her badge when I passed her and made a U-turn to snap a pic)... They're not just stripping us of our freedoms, they're rubbing our noses in it along the way."

Image: Survival Monkey via Atlas.

Friday, December 17, 2010

A Picture That's Worth a Million Words

They can't secure the border, but they are perfectly prepared to strip-search middle-aged white men and confiscate their bottles of Listerine.

As Cato asks: "Should the TSA be able to condition air travel on you permitting someone to look at or touch your genitals?"

At least for now, the answer is "Yes".


Thursday, December 02, 2010

TSA Flashback o' the Day

Posted on 31 December 2009:

Kim Priestap points us a Radio Netherland report with a discomfiting title. "Al-Qaeda practises beating body scanners" describes test runs by terrorists that involve smuggling explosives past full-body scanners in Europe.

In 2007 Ed Morrisey summarized a series of apparent terrorist dry-runs. At that time the TSA alert (PDF) suggested that an attack on airliners was imminent. The TSA noted items that closely resembled C4 (explosives), IEDs, and remote triggers.

Furthermore, the explanations of the persons involved were "questionable" and investigations continue.

[Authorities] have intercepted several items at airports resembling improvised explosive device (IED) components. These items include wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components, and dense clay-like substances. The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern... Terrorists may repeat operational tests to desensitize, distract, or adapt plans for specific environments...

Individuals involved in these incidents were of varying gender, and initial investigations do not link them with criminal or terrorist organizations. However, most passengers’ explanations for carrying the suspicious items were questionable, and some investigations are still ongoing. Many of the incidents caused airport terminal evacuations and at times, brief closures...

Noteworthy incidents include the following:

5 July 2007, San Diego, CA – A U.S. Person’s (USPER) checked baggage contained two icepacks covered in duct tape. The icepacks had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.

4 June 2007, Milwaukee, WI – The carry-on baggage of a USPER contained several items resembling IED components, such as a wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes, and two blocks of cheese

8 November 2006, Houston, TX – A USPER’s checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown clay-like minerals, and pipes.

16 September 2006, Baltimore, MD – The checked baggage of a couple contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.

* * *

At some point, the TSA practices -- often described as "security theater" -- need to cease. They must be replaced with decisive, intelligent measures such as those used by Israeli security personnel.

Now, if only I could turn this prognostication talent into luck at the racetrack.


Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Just in time for Christmas: "Read the 4th Amendment, Perverts" scanner-ready undergarments for kids

That's the beauty of the free market system: you can never predict what it'll come up with next. In this case, protest T-shirts for kids, its messages laced in steel to make a statement legible to scanner operators in airports everywhere.

Now that I think about it, hopefully Cargo Collective has some kind of affiliate marketing program with retroactive bonus payments.

I've got some ideas for other messages, though they wouldn't necessarily be kid-friendly. Like this one:

And no, it's not a veiled allusion to sexual preference: it's an unveiled allusion to the future of TSA inspections.


Hat tip: LB

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Boobs: Your TSA Feel Good Headlines o' the Day

Your daily roundup of Napolinews.

Woman: TSA Agents Singled Me Out For My Breasts

TSA employee accused of kidnap, assault

Guy Protests TSA Grope and Grab Policies in His Speedo

Man Depantsed by TSA

Since they're running the airport security lines so flawlessly, I for one propose the following plan:

Let's have them run the entire health care system. After all, it's only one-sixth of the entire economy.

I don't see how anything could possibly go wrong.


Sunday, November 21, 2010

Foolproof Method for Avoiding the New TSA Groping Procedures

Not only can you avoid all of the new, intrusive TSA screening procedures when entering the country, you can also bypass customs. Just follow the example of the 700 illegal aliens who entered the United States using a single trail in Arizona over the course of one month earlier this year. They didn't get groped or scanned. No one gave them the slightest bit of trouble.


Talk of the DREAM Act and amnesty is reportedly driving the numbers of illegal immigrants up.

Thousands of undocumented aliens pour over the border every day, unchecked and uncontrolled. They don't have to undergo a virtual colonoscopy at a TSA checkpoint, but you do.

No groping. No full-body scanners. No customs. No criminal background checks.

No terrorist watch lists.

No screening for infectious diseases.

No checks for weapons.

No checks for narcotics or illegal drugs.

Who are these people?

No one knows.

On March 27th, 2010, Arizona rancher Rob Krentz was brutally murdered on his own property by an illegal alien.

Today, Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the world.

Of 75,000 violent and property crimes in 2009, only 18% were 'cleared' (solved).

Of 8,732 violent crimes in '09, only 2,921 arrests were made.

Of the 522 rapes that year, only 72 arrests were made.

Less than half of the murders that year were cleared.

This is not an indictment of the police. This is an indictment of a federal open borders policy that endangers citizens.

An illegal who commits a crime, like Rob Krentz' murderer, can easily disappear back into Mexico.

You can't board a plane or a cruise ship without copious documentation and a virtual strip search.

Someday soon, if it hasn't happened already, terrorists bent on destruction will enter the country through the swinging doors in the Southwest.

Millions of pounds of drugs pass through the porous border every year.

It's only a matter of time until chem-, bio- or radiological weapons make their way to our cities through similar means. In the mean time, you're the one who has to be strip-searched.

Linked by: Protein Wisdom and Doug Powers. Thanks!