Showing posts with label Immigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Immigration. Show all posts

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Juxtaposed Headlines o' the Day: We are the Second-Class Citizens

The national treasure known as Mark Levin points us to this pair of headlines that will really make your day.

Only 15% of Southern Border Is Sealed 'Air-Tight'

16 February 2011, US News & World Report

...the Border Patrol only has "operational control" of 44 percent of the southern border, and of that only 15 percent is air tight, according to new General Accountability Office report...

Healthcare Reform Law Requires New IRS Army Of 1,054

16 February 2011, US News & World Report

...The Internal Revenue Service says it will need an battalion of 1,054 new auditors and staffers and new facilities at a cost to taxpayers of more than $359 million in fiscal 2012 just to watch over the initial implementation of President Obama's healthcare reforms. Among the new corps will be 81 workers assigned to make sure tanning salons pay a new 10 percent excise tax. Their cost: $11.5 million...

In other words, an illegal alien can cross the border, receive free schooling, health care, welfare and social services.

On the other hand, citizens who don't want any part of socialized medicine -- who rallied, voted, tossed out Democrats in record numbers across the country -- are going to be hunted down and prosecuted by hordes of new health care enforcers. These new enforcers, by the way, would be hired in an unlawful way since Obamacare was just declared unconstitutional -- null and void -- a ruling which the Obama administration is utterly ignoring.

It is we, the American taxpayers, who are the second-class citizens in the eyes of Obama and the Democrat Party. These bums must be tossed from office at every level of government, in every election from this point forward, if we are to save this country.


Saturday, February 12, 2011

Arizona versus Obama: State representatives draft legislation that would nullify unconstitutional federal dictates

You've got to give the state of Arizona credit: its top legislators and administrators possess more guts than President Obama's entire team of bureaucrats combined. When sued, Arizona sues back. When knocked down, they stand up and throw haymakers.

A new proposal at the Arizona Legislature will take the state's fight with the feds to a whole new level: It would let the state actually nullify federal laws that legislators believe are invalid.

The measure crafted by Sen. Lori Klein, R-Anthem, would set up a committee of 12 lawmakers to review federal laws and regulations to determine which are "outside the scope of the powers delegated by the people to the federal in the United States Constitution."

... "We have in Washington a particularly overreaching administration as well as regulations that are coming out of agencies that are not even mandated from Congress," Klein said. "The states have a right to stand up to these kinds of onerous regulations."

...her measure says the only court ruling that Arizona will accept is that of the U.S. Supreme Court...

... "We have in Washington a particularly overreaching administration as well as regulations that are coming out of agencies that are not even mandated from Congress," Klein said. "The states have a right to stand up to these kinds of onerous regulations."

...She specifically singled out "Obama-care," last year's national health care law, and its requirement for individuals to obtain insurance or face a fine. If nothing else, she said, that flies directly in the face of a measure Arizona voters approved just last year providing state constitutional protections against such requirements.

Arizona, to its credit, has been particularly aggressive in combating the bizarre and often contradictory dictates emanating from Washington. Among their challenges to federal authority:

• SB 1308 and HB 2562 setting up interstate compacts to honor each other's birth certificates segregating children who are considered U.S. citizens from those who are not;

• SB 1309 and HB 2561 defining Arizona citizenship, part of the move to deny U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants;

• SB 1328 saying Arizonans do not have to comply with a federal law or rule if they allow a federal employee or member of Congress not to comply;

• SB 1391 creating an interstate firearms freedoms act guaranteeing the right of citizens to bear arms free of federal regulation;

• SB 1393 declaring the state has exclusive right to regulate carbon dioxide emissions;

• SB 1394 protecting the right to emit carbon dioxide from human-caused activity;

• SB 1545 allowing the production of nuclear fuel in Arizona free from federal regulation;

• SCR 1016 requiring approval from the legislatures of half the states to increase the federal debt;

• HB 2077 requiring any federal agency coming into a county to conduct official business to first register with the sheriff;

• HB 2471 barring the appropriation of any state funds to comply with a federal mandate unless the federal government provides a report to show the mandate is constitutional;

• HB 2472 allowing the state to acquire federal property by eminent domain unless the federal government first got legislative permission to obtain the land in the first place;

• HB 2537 permitting the House speaker and Senate president to sue over or defend last year's SB 1070 imposing new state laws on illegal immigration;

• HB 2544 requiring presidential candidates to provide certain proof of citizenship before they can appear on the ballot in Arizona;

• HCR 2015 calling for a constitutional convention to adopt an amendment to require consent of three-fourths of the states to increase federal debt;

• HCR 2022 proposing a constitutional convention to require a balanced federal budget.

While I don't support some of these bills (a constitutional convention, for instance), it's good to see an organized rebellion against unconstitutional and extra-constitutional behavior that has become standard fare for the Obama administration and an insatiable, power-hungry Democrat Party.


Hat tip: D&S.

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.


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Orange County Register: 'Jerry Brown is Doomed'

California Governor Jerry Brown -- both a product and an enabler of the state's powerful public sector union caucus -- is caught between a rock and a hard place. The Orange County Register's Shawn Steel explains:

Jerry Brown is doomed. That's one way to read his new state budget, which seeks to eliminate the $25 billion deficit with equal parts spending cuts (primarily to social services) and tax increases. The new governor wants voters to re-impose the 2009 tax hikes on themselves for another five years – the same taxes they overwhelmingly refused to extend for two years. Mindful of that outcome, Brown has embraced blackmail: Renew the tax hikes or school spending will be slashed.

Brown's budget is a doomed half-measure that confirms he is a conventional liberal. The spending cuts are significant but insufficient, and in the unlikely event voters renew the tax hikes, the damage to our anemic economy virtually guarantees the promised revenue won't materialize.

A recent study of how governments cope with deep deficits and debt found those that successfully restored fiscal order employed budget solutions consisting, on average, of 85 percent spending cuts (including 22 percent cut from government wages and salaries). The typical failed solutions [Ed.: i.e., the typical Democrat solutions] relied on equal parts tax hikes and spending cuts – Jerry Brown's formula.

Most revealing is what the new budget plan doesn't do: tackle the pension time bomb and the bloated state payroll. Given the magnitude of our chronic deficits, the state payroll should be rolled back at least to 2000 levels, yet Brown's budget [does little].

Why target welfare recipients instead of state employees? Because welfare recipients don't have a union. Public employee unions spent $40 million on Brown's behalf, and they expect a return on their investment. On his first day in office, Brown replaced seven pro-charter-school reformers on the state Board of Education with status quo educrats – including the lobbyist for the state teachers union. [Ed.: But remember: it's all about the children with Democrats. They care. Deeply]

The hard truth is: Restoring California's fiscal health requires dramatically downsizing the number of state employees and their unsustainable pensions and benefits. That would require Jerry Brown turning on the public employee unions that elected him – an act of [unprecedented] political audacity...

...We're just entering what the rest of country went through in 2009-10: an era of complete liberal Democratic dominance. There were no Republican fingerprints on President Barack Obama's Great Leap Leftward, and American voters responded by handing the GOP historically huge gains... Granted, Brown took office amidst a mess – but one in large measure the handiwork of the government unions that put him in office...

...His budget plan doesn't go far enough to stop California's slouch to insolvency. The further cuts will send union members into the streets, earning Brown their hostility but with not offsetting credit with voters. Jerry Brown will never be re-elected if he allows California to become even a shadow of Greece. He is doomed unless he breaks the power of the government unions.

I predict that Brown doesn't have the spine to buck the unions.

No Democrat does. The unions, along with trial lawyers, illegal immigrants and the dead are their most important constituencies.

Just imagine how many union members would vote Democrat after getting hosed by Brown?

No, my prediction is simple: civil unrest and chaos in California. I would hate to see it, but can't envision another way out.

And isn't that how all socialist systems end -- in utter collapse? You know, the line about at some point, you run out of other people's money?

As an aside: when we build a border fence after booting 44 out of office, can we also build one around California?


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

Let Me Welcome Everybody to the Wild, Wild West--a State That's Untouchable Like Elliot Ness

"Now let me welcome everybody to the wild, wild west... A state that's untouchable like Elliot Ness...
The track hits ya eardrum like a slug to ya chest... Pack a vest for your Jimmy in the city of sex...
We in that sunshine state with a bomb ass hemp beat... the state where ya never find a dance floor empty"
-- California Love


California's budget deficit is $25 billion and the preliminary budget for the coming year doesn't even come close to addressing the gap.

The preliminary budget looks to cut $12.5 billion in spending and seeks to maintain current revenues with a likely ballot measure that will hit in June...

...over 41 percent of state revenues come from the personal income tax. Now logically you can figure out on your own that with less people working and many working in lower paying jobs that this line item will shrink (and it has)...

...[The] projections [at right] have always been much too optimistic and that is why California has always faced reoccurring budget shortfalls. Each year serves as a baseline and rarely allows for any variance in terms of facing a contraction. Now if the state is hauling in money then problems can be plastered over and the tech and real estate bubbles provided this cover for many years. That cover is no longer available.

So you have to wonder where this money is going to come from. You can cut but is there any appetite for additional taxes? We will find out in June when it is put to a vote...

...I’m amazed how little coverage has been given to the California employment market. California is in the midst of the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression but rarely do you see anyone talking about this. This isn’t some kind of monthly aberration but the unemployment rate has shot off the charts since 2007.

Right now, Illinois is in the midst of raising the personal income tax 66% -- from 3% to 5%. Consider a working couple that makes $100,000 a year combined. The state hike represents $167 a month taken right out of their pockets.

But the top income tax rate in California is already nearly three times that of Illinois; and still lawmakers can't come close to making ends meet.

The Democrat welfare state is failing in both states with public sector workers retiring at age 55, picking up generous pensions with lifetime salaries and full health care coverage. And these proposed hikes don't come close to addressing the pension liabilities that will crush states like Michael Moore sitting on a souffle.

In the midst of this madness, state bureaucrats are still foaming at the mouth advocating suicidal policies that will further decimate the civil society.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has come out swinging over the shooting spree that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six people, linking it to Arizona’s “discrimination against undocumented persons” and a “climate in which demonization of others goes unchallenged and hateful speech is tolerated.”

In a campus-wide e-mail message, Birgeneau said: “It is not a coincidence that this calamity has occurred in a state which has legislated discrimination against undocumented persons.”

He added that “this same mean-spirited xenophobia played a major role in the defeat of the Dream Act by our legislators in Washington, leaving many exceptionally talented and deserving young people, including our undocumented students, painfully in limbo.”

In other words, despite billions of dollars spent each year by citizens to support the state's three million or more illegal immigrants -- who tax the medical, welfare and prison systems to the breaking point -- Dr. Schmuck believes that more open borders are the answer.

And rather than act as voices of reason, legacy media outlets like The Los Angeles Times are doing their level best to market the illusion that still more tax increases are a necessary evil. Mike Shedlock disagrees.

I just took the interactive LA Times California Budget Balancer exercise...I vehemently protest.

This was a blatant effort to force people into accepting a need to raise taxes. To balance the budget I made every possible program cut offered. It was not enough. To balance the budget I had to raise sin taxes and gas taxes.

Shedlock asks the very same fundamental questions that all overtaxed Californians must be wondering:

• Where was a proposal to privatize the prison system using non-union labor?
• Where was the proposal to eliminate prevailing wage laws?
• Where was the proposal to eliminate defined benefit plans for all government workers?
• Where was the proposal to virtually privatize every conceivable government job to the private sector?
• What about programs that could be eliminated entirely?

Where indeed? The problem is that Governor Jerry Brown is still 'Moonbeam', the failed Governor of days past, who can't or won't wage a serious war with the unions. Chris Christie he ain't.

His predictable failure sets the stage for very serious pain in the future.

Unless Brown finds a unicorn to defecate nuggets of solid gold, California is certain to experience massive upheaval, up to and including civil unrest. I hate to say it, but I believe it to be true.

Because the liberal-dominated politicians and bureaucrats take the status quo for granted -- even though the status quo is about to collapse.


Sunday, January 09, 2011

Connecticut Media Invents New Term for Illegal Alien

You've got give WTNH some points for creativity.

Illegal cit. arrested for sex assault


CLINTON, Conn. (WTNH) - An arrest was made after a four month investigation involving a 19-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by illegal citizens.

Police say two men who are both from Ecuador have been arrested for the crime.

William Matute 36, and Carlos Celi 29, originally from have had federal detainers placed on them pending their deportation back to Ecuador.

The investigation alleges that Celi assisted Matute in the crime, but did not have sexual contact with the victim.

Both Celi and Matute will be arraigned in Middletown Superior Court on Jan. 10.

'Illegal citizen'? It would appear legacy media will do anything to confer rights on non-citizens while they race to blame actual citizens -- especially conservatives -- for random acts of madness.


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.


Saturday, December 11, 2010

What the...? Up to 84MM Mexicans To Be Designated 'Trusted Travelers', Allowing Them to Bypass Airport Security Checks

Worried that foreign travelers -- especially those entering the U.S. from Mexico -- will be insulted by intrusive security pat-downs in airports? Well, rest easy: Janet Napolitano is on the job.

As violent drug cartels take over Mexico and expand their criminal enterprises north, the United States has signed a “trusted traveler” agreement that allows pre-screened Mexican airline passengers to bypass lengthy airport security checkpoints... Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claims it’s a way to enhance information sharing and mutual security in the face of “ever-evolving, multinational threats.”

About 84 million Mexicans are expected to qualify for the trusted traveler program [who] will get the perk through the U.S. government’s Global Entry Program... Applying is easy. Candidates fill out an online application, provide valid identification and answer a few questions from a Customs and Border Protection officer.

While Napolitano was in Mexico finalizing the trusted traveler agreement this week, she also took the opportunity to sign a “letter of intent” to develop a plan for protecting immigrants from criminal attacks as they cross the border—illegally—into the U.S. Mexican officials have long complained that American law enforcement officers stand by as illegal immigrants are robbed, killed or violently beaten. Napolitano has committed to reducing the risk to life and security of migrants, according to the Mexican minister.

You couldn't even make this s*** up.

Perhaps Napolitano will refer to this program as "Skipping the Airport Screenings Americans Won't Skip."


Tuesday, December 07, 2010

DHS wants you to report suspicious activity at Wal-Mart, except for anything remotely related to illegal immigration

If you were going to create a sit-com about national security, could you do any better than starting with the walking character actress known as Janet NapoliReno?

“Big Brother” is very busy these days — and so is Big Sister. From the Department of Homeland Security website:

Washington, D.C. – Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced the expansion of the Department’s national “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign to hundreds of Walmart stores across the country-launching a new partnership between DHS and Walmart to help the American public play an active role in ensuring the safety and security of our nation.

"Homeland security starts with hometown security, and each of us plays a critical role in keeping our country and communities safe," said Secretary Napolitano. "I applaud Walmart for joining the ‘If You See Something, Say Something' campaign. This partnership will help millions of shoppers across the nation identify and report indicators of terrorism, crime and other threats to law enforcement authorities."

Now when you’re in line at Walmart in the coming months, as if the screaming babies, unattended kids, guy who hasn’t showered since the Nixon administration and a variety of disgruntled shoppers weren’t enough, you’ll also be subjected to... friendly announcement[s] from the Department of Homeland Security.

Let's reset: 80-year old nuns are getting full-body pat-downs at the airport... your shopping cart will be monitored for non-recyclable sacks, but when it comes to millions of illegals streaming over the border each year, Napolitano and Obama are curiously silent.

The Democrat Party must be politically nuked from orbit in 2012. It's the only way to be sure.


Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Great News: After Number of Federal Workers Earning $150K a Year Rose 1,300%, White House Panel Proposes 3-Year Wage Freeze... For Military

The growth in salaries for federal workers during the Great Dempression is something that must be seen to be believed.

The number of federal bureaucrats earning over $150K annually grew 1,300% -- that's more than an order of magnitude -- while those making $180K or more rocketed by 2,100%.

But those Americans who serve and those in harm's way are in for quite a different salary treatment.

A presidential commission on reducing the deficit has recommended freezing basic military pay and housing allowances for three years starting in 2011, according to a draft report of the commission’s recommendations posted online Wednesday.

“A three-year freeze at 2011 levels for these compensation categories would save the federal government $7.6 billion in compensation and tax expenditures, as well as another $1.6 billion in less retirement accrual, or $9.2 billion total discretionary savings in 2015,” it said.

Consider: the White House had no problem whatsoever in jamming through about $100 billion in payouts to the UAW auto companies.

And $860 billion in "Stimulus", tens of billions more in "Cash-for-Clunkers", "Weatherization" programs, "Green Jobs" and every other sort of boondoggle imaginable.

But when it comes to $9.2 billion -- total -- from 2011 to 2015 to pay for wage and housing increases for our men and women who serve, well that's just too damn much.

The Democrats can't afford it, you see. They've got other, higher priorities. Like amnesty and chain migration to bring in millions of new voters, the impact of which could reach the trillions of dollars.

But that's the modern Democrat Party in action. Trillions for illegals; nothing for the U.S. military.


Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Harry Reid focuses on jobs by luring cheap labor (and new Democrat voters) from Mexico with promises of amnesty

Runner-up headline: Hack 'Journalist' Jon Ralston nowhere to be found as unionized workers discover Harry Reid screwed them again

Yesterday's Las-Vegas Review Journal shredded Harry Reid for behavior unbecoming -- no, not a Senator -- a human being.

Anyone who thought Harry Reid would respond to his bruising re-election campaign and huge Democratic losses nationally by moving to the center, away from President Obama's agenda and toward a new focus on economic growth, is about to be proved wrong.

The Senate majority leader from Nevada intends to use the lame-duck session that begins Monday to push for passage of the Dream Act, a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

...Did Sen. Reid make passage of the Dream Act the centerpiece of his re-election campaign? Of course not. He might have lost if he did. No, Sen. Reid told anyone who would listen that it was his job to create jobs, that he was fighting to put Nevadans back to work. The Dream Act does neither of these things. Rather, it only injects more competition into the labor pool, preventing unskilled Americans from gaining entry-level work and leaving them dependent on government aid to survive.

Harry Reid got reelected the way most Democrats do. He lied. He lied continually, consistently and with utter abandon.

He portrayed himself as a "moderate" concerned with jobs.

Nevada suffers from 14.4% unemployment and underemployment approaching 22%.

If this egregious law passes (in a lame-duck session, no less!), it will serve as a Stimulus plan for illegal immigration. We will have so many people streaming over the borders illegally, hoping for some sort of pathway to citizenship, that the entire concept of being an American will cease to matter.

Hey, members of Culinary Union Local 226, this should really help you out! I'm sure jobs will be much easier to come by when underemployment gets driven to 30% or more.

And forget about English as our common language. Forget about teaching American history, the Constitution, civics and integration into the civil society.

Harry Reid is a flat-out menace to this country. He and this egregious lame-duck Congress must be stopped. If that means pulling their pensions, de-funding their staffs, relocating their offices into basements, so be it.

They must be stopped and we expect Republicans to issue the edict. Now.


Update: Stop the illegal alien student bailout: DREAM Act target list; Plus: Sen. Sessions’ critical alert

Hat tip: The Mark Levin Show.

Monday, November 01, 2010

Last Call for Liberty

"You would think they’d be saying thank you" -- Barack Obama, 4/15/2010

When they spent a trillion dollars of your money to repay union bosses for their support, they were laughing at you.

When they put 25,000 small businesses at risk by banning non-unionized shops from bidding on government construction projects, they were laughing at you.

When they nationalized the auto companies and flouted bankruptcy law to pay off the UAW bosses, they were laughing at you.

When they shoved the wickedly unpopular ObamaCare bill down your throats using bribes, cajolery and strong-arm tactics -- without even bothering to read their own disastrous bill, they were laughing at you.

When they passed a financial reform bill, spearheaded by the same men who had helped create the crisis in the first place and had shielded corrupt, Democrat-controlled institutions like Fannie Mae from oversight, they were laughing at you.

When they publicly demonized the nation's biggest banks while privately taking millions in contributions from them, they were laughing at you.

When they opened up the borders to murder, rape and mayhem -- disregarding the safety of citizens across the country -- to increase the odds of their reelection, they were laughing at you.

When they tried to tell you that "We Are All Socialists Now", they were laughing at you.

When they paid illegal aliens to openly canvas for Democrat votes, they were laughing at you.

When they called you racists, though you supported Allen West and 37 other wonderful black conservatives running for national office, they were laughing at you.

When they relentlessly tried to corrupt the voting process with amnesty for illegals, permitting felons to vote, and ACORN's skulduggery, they were laughing at you.

When they used your tax dollars to tar you as "tea-baggers", when your philosophy is that of America's founders, they were laughing at you.

When they tweeted birthday wishes to this era's Hitler while he builds nuclear weapons and plots America's destruction, they were laughing at you.

When they hand-delivered ballots to prisoners in jail but couldn't find a way to get military ballots to our armed forces in time for this election, they were laughing at you.

I will walk on f***ing broken glass to get to the polls tomorrow.

Are you fired up to save this country? Are you?? Well then I want to see you at the polls at zero-six-thirty-sharp. Hooah!


Saturday, October 23, 2010

Coinkadink: Feds Abandon Construction of Border Fence; 13 Kids Shot Dead At Border Town Birthday Party

Just hours after news broke that the Obama administration has dropped any pretense at protecting the border comes word that 13 youths were shot dead at a birthday party just a few miles south of El Paso, Texas.

Gunmen stormed a party in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and opened fire, killing at least 13 people and wounding 14 others, authorities said Saturday... The Friday night shooting carried grim echoes of an attack on a Juarez teen party in January that left 15 people dead and raised a national outcry.

In the latest case, authorities said a group of men armed with assault rifles burst into the party, which was being held in two adjacent homes in a neighborhood called Horizontes del Sur... Investigators found signs of more than 70 shots having been fired.

The victims who had been identified were between 16 and 25. A 9-year-old boy was among the wounded... one of the party-goers managed to flee, but was chased down and shot dead between a pair of parked cars.

Officials did not immediately offer a possible motive for the attack, the second time in a week that gunmen have fired upon a house party in Juarez. On Oct. 17, seven people were killed when attackers stormed a home near the city's airport.

Better still, the border which "is as secure as it's ever been" will now be left wide open thanks to the pro-illegal immigration lackey known as Janet NapoliReno.

The Obama administration is preparing to scrap plans to extend the high-tech "virtual" border fence along vast stretches of the 1,969-mile U.S.-Mexico border...

...Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former governor of Arizona keenly familiar with the technical problems afflicting the project, first signaled plans to scrub the "invisible fence" with a series of internal decisions in recent weeks that shifted the year-to-year contract with the prime contractor to a month-to-month contract due to expire on Nov. 21.

Gee, this may sound crazy, but perhaps an administration truly concerned with protecting Americans would build something known as a "real fence".

The failed narco-terror state next door is quickly descending into full-blown civil war. And NapoliReno, her boss, and the rest of the Democrat leadership doesn't care how many American are destined to die.

After all, building a fence would prevent illegals from voting -- and electioneering -- for Democrats in this crucial election.


Related:
So It Begins: DHS implements 'Backdoor Amnesty' and other startling immigration stories our beloved legacy media forgot to report
Car Bombs -- With Texas License Plates -- Detonating in Mexico; White House Reaction? More Open Borders!
• Reuters: Gunmen kill 13 at birthday party in Mexico (Image credit)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Good News, Californians: Jerry Brown Thinks You've Got Enough Extra Money to Fund Free College Tuition for Illegal Aliens!

California's debt has tripled in the last seven years alone and the state now must pay $5.5 billion annually in interest payments.

The operating budget is running roughly $20 billion a year in the red.

And its pension system has more than a half a trillion in unfunded obligations, which even the left-leaning Los Angeles Times calls a "fiscal time bomb."

Now given that backdrop, consider gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown's promise to pay for free college education... for illegal aliens.

Those of you considering voting for Brown in the California gubernatorial election need to consider this.

"We have enough wealth to continue to have a great university and get every kid into this school that can qualify. Now when I say every young man and young woman, I mean everyone – whether they are documented or not. If they went to school, they ought to be here."

Brown is a fool. California has enough problems already. Hopefully this stupidity will cost him the election.

Anyone who votes for Brown's wealth redistribution insanity deserves their fate.


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Supporting the Leftist Politicians Americans Won't Support: 'Boxer Campaigners Hire Day Laborers to Protest Fiorina'

Q: "Can I ask you a question?"
A: "I don't speak English".
Q: "Did you make this sign?"
A: "There's a lady that pay..."


An amateur videographer appears to have captured proof that illegal immigrants day laborers were paid to protest against Republican Senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina.

...one of the men clearly says he did not make the sign -- another appears to say a "lady" was paying them to hold it... "These people don't even know what they're protesting and they're being asked to hold signs," Broes said. "It's a manufactured protest."

The Boxer campaign insists it had nothing to do with the scene. The campaign said it does not pay or offer to pay anybody to hold signs and nobody interviewed in the amateur video was with the Boxer campaign...

...Broes said the lady appeared to be with the Boxer campaign, considering she showed up when an official-looking truck arrived with the campaign signs.

But the Boxer campaign aide said nobody on staff recognized the woman or the people she was with. "They were not ours," the aide said.

The Fiorina campaign could not confirm the claims but said the scenario points to potential problems in Boxer's base... "If these allegations are true it is disappointing. If Barbara Boxer had to pay people to protest on her behalf it is a clear sign that the enthusiasm gap is wider than we thought and a sure sign that the people of California have had enough of her 28 years of out of touch failed policies," the Fiorina campaign said in a statement.

Broes, a former Microsoft executive who worked with Fiorina when she was heading up Hewlett-Packard, said he wasn't planning to shoot video of the Boxer activity when he first showed up at the debate site -- ironically, that debate focused in part on immigration and outsourcing. Broes said he was just carrying a camera to shoot generic footage and decided to videotape when he saw the men from the U-Haul site.

He said the men disappeared, along with the signs, shortly after he started shooting video and asking questions.

"Apparently they thought they were going to get paid," he said. "They're not volunteering their time out there standing in the hot sun."

Watch the video. Then visit Carly Fiorina's website and help end the disgusting political career of Barbara Boxer.