Saying "we can only take being slapped around so much," Hispanic leaders have mounted an effort to stop conservative Republican Connie Morris of St. Francis from joining the Kansas Board of Education.
Morris, who beat board Chairman Sonny Rundell in the August primary and faces no Democrat in November, maintains that children of undocumented immigrants should be barred from public schools. That view is contrary to federal law, and it infuriates Hispanic groups, which have started a petition drive against her.
Morris released a statement late Tuesday, defending her position and saying she had no intention of stepping aside.
"Senior citizens often work part-time just to pay bills -- yet the illegal alien is provided a free education, welfare, food stamps, medical care," Morris wrote. "We cannot afford to continue to be held hostage to this kind of loose and unpatriotic expenditure of the American dollar."
...
"In the past 20 years, tremendous and horrible crimes have been committed against the American citizen and taxpayer -- including the flow of thousands of illegal immigrants," she wrote. "Perhaps, with time, a much-needed change can take place in this arena.
"The worst crime committed in this case is that of the illegal parent whose own choices have jeopardized their precious children. It is not the Kansas taxpayers' burden to bear this responsibility."
Uh Oh! Morris apparently missed the big media push to roll out the red carpet for our "new neighbors".
Yep, here come the whiners:
That amounts to an attack on children and their future, said Bob Hernandez, vice president of the Wichita Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which organized the drive.
"If you deny someone knowledge, then you deny them any kind of power, and I think that is a despicable thing to do to a kid," Hernandez said.
Quite a command of both logic and reality you have there, Bob! But Bob has help from the candidate Morris defeated.
In response to the criticism of Morris, Rundell announced Tuesday that he would be a write-in candidate for the 5th District seat, which represents all or part of 41 counties in western Kansas. He said he had received a large number of requests that he do so.
"I realize this is going to be an uphill battle, but the Hispanic children are very dear to my heart," said Rundell of Syracuse, a moderate Republican. "To deny education to children based on their heritage or the language they speak is illegal and immoral."
...
Also in the fray is Winston Brooks, superintendent of public schools in Wichita. He wrote a letter, published last weekend in The Wichita Eagle, to express his "personal and professional outrage" at Morris' view, which he called "racist and elitist."
Sonny! Winston! Listen up! They're illegal aliens! Race and heritage are irrelevant. But of course, you knew that, didn't you?
I'll spare you more disingenuous whines from "professional educators" and "education advocates" and cut to the (literal) money quote:
The Hispanic population in the Kansas City, Kan., district is about 25 percent, Daniels said. He doesn't know how many are undocumented immigrants -- it is not a question that is asked.
The Hispanic population in Kansas has grown significantly in the past decade, particularly around Dodge City and Garden City, both in the district Morris seeks to represent.
I wouldn't be surprised if the US taxpayers pay more for the education of Mexican nationals than do the citizens of Mexico. Of course, it would be hard to prove, because in the US "it is not a question that is asked" - at least by big media, professional education bureacrats, and the usual Kumbaya crowd. Does anyone really think the solution to 3rd World problems is to invite them all to live in the USA?
A Canadian teenager accused of killing an American medic while fighting with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan is being held there by the United States, Canadian officials say.
The Canadian government has requested that Washington allow its consular officials to interview the 15-year-old, Omar Khadr, but the Bush administration refused permission this week.
Mr. Khadr was born in Canada, and accounts of his immigrant family's activities in radical Muslim politics have embarrassed the government as it works to tighten security in its immigration policy.
Mr. Khadr's 20-year-old brother, Abdul Rahman, who was born in Bahrain, was seized by Northern Alliance forces, the United States' allies, while fighting with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in November. Their father, Ahmed Said Khadr, an Egyptian-born Canadian citizen considered by Canadian intelligence officials to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden, is believed to be hiding in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Canadian officials said Omar Khadr was badly wounded and captured on July 27 in the Afghan village of Ab Khail, near the Pakistan border, after a four-hour gun battle in which Sgt. First Class Christopher J. Speer died; American officials believe that he was killed by a grenade thrown by Mr. Khadr.
...
"The battle was over, and this kid popped up and threw a grenade..."
After interrogation, a firing squad. What's the problem? The Canadian "government" of course.
Mr. Khadr is still being held in Afghanistan, according to Canadian officials, who say they have been kept abreast of his condition by the Red Cross and informally by the United States.
The officials said they sent Washington a diplomatic note on Aug. 30 asking permission for a consular meeting with the youth, but that in its reply on Monday, the United States would not even acknowledge that it was holding him.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry said the government "is concerned that a Canadian juvenile has been detained, and believes that this individual's age be taken into account in determining treatment."
Old enough to kill, old enough to die.
Mr. Khadr's father, who arrived in Canada in 1977, worked for Islamic charitable causes that funneled money to Afghan forces fighting the Soviet Union in the 1980's, intelligence officials said. In 1992 in Afghanistan, the father sustained shrapnel wounds that he claimed were suffered while doing relief work. He returned to Canada for medical treatment.
The father, now 54, was arrested in 1995 in Pakistan on suspicion of involvement in the bombing of the Egyptian Embassy, an attack attributed to Al Jihad, an Egyptian chapter of Al Qaeda, that killed 17 people. Forty thousand dollars in cash was found in his house.
A month later Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, while on a state visit, asked Pakistan's prime minister at the time, Benazir Bhutto, to see that Mr. Khadr receive just treatment as a Canadian citizen. Mr. Khadr was released shortly afterward and returned to Toronto.
Surprise, it's our old pal Cretin! But not everyone in the Great White North has lost their senses.
The American capture of Omar Khadr and press reports of his family's activities have led opposition leaders to question whether Canada's immigration policies, which have promoted the settlement of foreigners in the country to spur population growth, are sufficiently secure.
Stephen Harper, leader of the center-right Canadian Alliance party in Parliament, said the reports had underscored his concerns about "Canada being a platform for activities that are dangerous to the Western alliance."
More than 20 Canadians have been either arrested or sought by international law enforcement for involvement in Al Qaeda in the last several years. They had lived in Montreal and around Toronto and Vancouver, cities with large immigrant populations. Many operated internationally as well.
Mohamed Mansour Jabarah, 20, from a town southwest of Toronto, was recently arrested in Oman and accused of involvement in a foiled plot to bomb the American and Israeli Embassies in Singapore. Canadian officials handed him over to United States authorities. Amine Mezbar, an Algerian-born resident of Montreal, was arrested in June on charges that he played a part in a plot to bomb the American Embassy in Paris.
Canada has responded to the Sept. 11 attacks by reinforcing security at border points, investigating applicants for political refugee status and stiffening security in the processing of passports. New antiterrorism legislation has given law enforcement agencies greater latitude to use wiretaps, seize suspects and confiscate assets in terrorism investigations.
Well, it's a start, but Canada's wide open "asylum" door let's anybody in indefinitely if they simply throw away any identification. As for Cretin, it's clear he's lost whatever clues he had.
MEXICO CITY - Mexico City police are trading in their bulletproof vests and drab brown uniforms for a slightly more colorful crime-fighting outfit: broad-brimmed sombreros and mariachi suits.
Starting Nov. 1, 70 police officers will fight crime in Mexico City's historic center dressed in authentic "charro" outfits, the capital's public safety director, Marcelo Ebrard, said Thursday.
The proposal was put forth by officials in the hotel and tourism industry who believe the costumes are an effective way to draw visitors while still fighting rising crime rates in downtown Mexico City.
If the program is successful, officials plan to increase the number of charro police to 80 officers two months after the program begins, then 120 officers at the beginning of next year.
Charros are Mexico's original cowboys, and their outfits usually include spurs, guns and pointy, broad-brimmed hats known as sombreros.
Sniff II In August, a Denver Post story made me shed a crocodile tear over "Jesus Apodaca, a bright, shy, and humble honors high school graduate in Aurora, CO (who) can't afford to go to the University of Colorado because illegal aliens like him have to pay out of state tuition rates and his family can't afford it." The Post's bathos completely ignored any rational observation of the fact that the family had been living illegally in the US and off the US taxpayers for years. My closer was "Every dollar of subsidy or scholarship this kid gets is a dollar not going to an American citizen. And where is the INS? Cleanup on aisle 7!"
Friday, September 13, 2002 - U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo is pressing federal authorities to deport the family of an 18-year-old honor student and undocumented immigrant who couldn't afford to attend a Colorado university because of his immigration status.
Jesus Apodaca, who graduated with honors from Aurora High School this spring, was the subject of an Aug. 11 Denver Post story examining the fact that he couldn't afford to attend a state university because federal law prevents state institutions from offering financial aid or in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.
...
Based on Apodaca's admission that his family has been in the country illegally for five years, Tancredo said he contacted the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Denver and asked that Apodaca and any other undocumented family members be deported. Apodaca's father, mother and four siblings are illegal, family members have said; two other siblings are legal U.S. residents.
"The message this sends is that you can be so brazen as to not have the slightest concern about going on the front page of The Denver Post and telling everybody that you are here illegally," said Tancredo, a Republican from Littleton. "It's turning the law on its head. It's making a mockery of justice."
...
Deportation, Tancredo said, is necessary.
"It is a very bad idea to reward people for breaking your law," said Tancredo, who heads the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus and is a leading advocate for tighter immigration laws. "Instead of the penalties that should be imposed for doing this, we are debating what benefits they (immigrants) should receive."
I'm glad somebody noticed.
OK, time for the whines.
It is unprecedented for a federal lawmaker to seek deportation of an individual or family, numerous immigration advocates said.
"I'm just astounded. I must say we've never heard anything like this," said Frank Sherry, director of the National Immigration Forum.
...
Immigration advocates said Apodaca had a right to speak out about the tuition issue without facing deportation.
"You have an elected member of Congress going out of his way to get an A student, accepted to CU, picked up and deported," Sherry said. "Tancredo is using his power to be a bully."
Condemnation also came from the Mexican government, which had initially asked local colleges and universities to help Apodaca.
"This is an arrogant use of power," said Mario Hernandez, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Denver. "This family is looking to improve the lives of their children. I don't think Mr. Tancredo realizes what he is doing to this family, which is already vulnerable."
I've always wondered about the job description for "immigration advocate". Is it more like thief or pimp? As for the Mexican government, you've got to admire a bunch of bureaucrats who think foisting off their citizens on a neighboring country is a cool solution to the the national problems.
Now it's hanky time:
Apodaca's mother was angry and fearful when she heard of Tancredo's deportation request.
"I wish I had (Tancredo) here, face to face. I'd ask him, 'Do I seem like a bad person? Does my son seem like a bad person?"' said Maria Madrid. "All I've ever wanted is that my son fulfills his dream" of going to college.
Thanks for sharing, ma'am. But it seems that your dreams involve being where you don't belong and obtaining money you don't deserve. Please return to Mexico and apply for legal immigration along with others who have similar aspirations.
So will Maria send us a post card from Mexico to tell us how it all works out?
The director of the Denver office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Mike Comfort, confirmed that his office has heard from Tancredo. But, citing an ongoing investigation, he wouldn't comment on the nature of the conversation or how the agency will respond.
Comfort said the agency normally focuses on immigrants who have committed crimes such as theft or assault or, since Sept. 11, pose a national security threat.
"When you look at the resources available in this district, you have to assign tasks based on priority. National security is now our top priority, and after that, tracking down" those who have committed other crimes, he said.
...
Congress is considering legislation to ease the way for students such as Apodaca. Already, four states, including California and Texas, have extended in-state tuition to any graduate of a state high school.
Immigrants make up 8.6 percent of Colorado's population. At least 50,000 students in the state's public schools don't speak English well, though there is no estimate of how many are here illegally.
A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision gave children the right to a public education through high school, regardless of immigration status.
Somehow, I knew that would be the answer. They're already rather free with the taxpayers' money and want to go for broke.
Bobby Mugabe Alert! The world's favorite corrupt dictatorial thug has been at it again. First he shared the benefits of his wit and wisdom at the UN:
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe astonished world leaders and diplomats last night by delivering a public tirade against Britain and Tony Blair at the United Nations.
Mr Mugabe's 15-minute speech in front of heads of state at the UN General Assembly degenerated into an embarrassing rant against Zimbabwe's former "oppressors and colonials" and the Prime Minister.
Mr Mugabe also boasted to the UN of the end of his "fast-track land redistribution programme" which has driven white farmers, their families and staff off their property, often pursued by thugs armed with machetes.
Maize stocks have dwindled to unprecedented levels and could run out early next week unless the government gets fresh supplies, the latest United Nations humanitarian report has said.
Over the past two weeks shops have not received any supplies of mealie-meal while bread shortages have become a common feature of people's daily lives.
"The maize in the country is expected to run out during the second half of September unless the planned imports are quickly moved into the country," the UN report said.
Government is understood to have suspended grain imports until the end of the year arguing that food aid would cater for the country's needs for the next four months.
But that's OK, everyone on the homefront is getting into the electoral spirit
Organised gangs loyal to Robert Mugabe have kidnapped and beaten hundreds of opposition candidates to stop them from registering for this month's local elections.
Saving the best for last, Bobby also graced a soiree of his local NYC fan club:
At least City Councilman Charles Barron only said he wants to slap a white person.
Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, doesn't share Barron's delight in white-bashing banter. He prefers action.
Under Mugabe's orders, land belonging to white farmers in the African nation has been seized and redistributed to Mugabe's unskilled black supporters - promising starvation to citizens of all races.
Last March, amid copious reports of the torture of Mugabe's opponents - and the systematic rape of their daughters - the United States refused to recognize his re-election.
So where does an international pariah go if he needs a hug?
Why, into the arms of Councilman Barron and other members of the City Council's Black and Latino Caucus, of course!
Yesterday, the caucus threw a reception, inside your City Hall, in Mugabe's honor. Apparently, some councilmen believe that this unapologetic racist, who's drawn power by blaming whites for his own failings, can teach New York valuable lessons in good government.
The caucus has planned a "fact-finding" trip to Zimbabwe, paid for by the impoverished nation.
You might say Barron, an ex-Black Panther with a knack for a quick quip, is Mugabe's ideological brother.
You might say something else too.
During a speech at last month's rally in Washington for slavery reparations, Barron went over the top, even for him:
"I want to go up to the closest white person and say, 'You can't understand this, it's a black thing,' and then slap him just for my mental health."
He dismissed his words as "black hyperbole." Imagine the uproar if a white man said he'd like to slap Barron.
Sounds like Chuckie is a real party animal. He should get along fine with Bobby.
Aides to Yasser Arafat pleaded for Palestinian unity yesterday - and hinted that his re-election campaign may be delayed until Israel pulls back troops in the West Bank.
Arafat's inner circle turned to anti-Israel rhetoric in the wake of a mutiny by former supporters of the Palestinian president.
"All efforts now should focus on uniting ourselves and maintaining national unity in order to get rid of the [Israeli] occupation," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a top Arafat aide.
Another Arafat adviser, Taye Abdel Rahim, said elections announced by Arafat Wednesday to be held Jan. 20 could not be held until Israeli forces withdraw to where they were two years ago, when the Palestinian uprising began.
WASHINGTON - The House is preparing to take a stand against a congressman having sex with an intern - unless she happens to be assigned to another member.
Burned by the embarrassing Gary Condit scandal, Congress may soon pass a resolution prohibiting members from having sex with interns they supervise.
But The Post has learned that Congress has carved out an exemption - interns in other congressmen's offices are not covered, nor are interns supervised by someone other than the member.
Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) said he sought to restrict intern-dating after deciding that intern programs were in jeopardy in the wake of highly publicized sex scandals.
"The problem started with Monica Lewinsky, but it was reinvigorated by the Chandra Levy situation," Baird told The Post.
Of course, since Levy was a Bureau of Prisons intern, the proposed law would not have affected Condit.
I'm glad Rep. Baird is finding things to do to keep him occupied. Idle hands do the devil's work, Brian!
Iraq has stepped up its attempts to move weapons and financial aid to the Palestinian Authority areas, in an effort to resume terror attacks against Israel. Baghdad's plan is to refocus international attention on the Israeli-Arab conflict and hope for a second front in case of a U.S. attack against Baghdad.
Saddam has been playing that card for quite a while now.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:57 PM -
The four Republican members of the now equally divided U.S. Civil Rights Commission are boycotting Friday's monthly meeting because they say the panel's controversial chairwoman is trying to hijack the meetings by holding them out of town.
"It's very clear that she's thwarting the Democratic process here," complained Republican member Russell Redenbaugh, whose seat was vacant for six months before Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., finally re-appointed him in July. His return to the committee brought the once Democrat-dominated panel to a 4-4 split.
He and the three other Republican commissioners say they will not be attending the planned meeting in Delaware Friday, contending that they never got a chance to vote on the measure, and that Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry, a Democrat, is trying to make meetings more difficult to attend because she resents the loss of her control.
And, said Republican Commissioner Abigail Thernstrom, Berry and her staff "don't want the Washington-based media around or the House Oversight Committee around," referring to the spate of bad publicity surrounding the commission this year due to Berry's reluctance to accept the appointment of Republican Peter Kirsanow until a judge forced her hand in a ruling last spring and an April congressional oversight hearing about whether the panel's leadership systematically squashes dissent, mismanages its budget and pushes the majority Democratic agenda.
Last month, the commission held a field hearing in Detroit, for what the staff called a forum on discrimination with the strong Arab-American community there. This month, it will be meeting with state advisory committee officials from West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware in Wilmington, Del., on regional racial issues. At the same time, they will be listening to concerns from a panel of community members.
...
"This is something that commissioners agreed to in May," said Lee, who works for McKinney and Associates, the private firm that handles public relations for the commission. "The commissioners are free to raise whatever issue that want at the meeting; when they're not there they won't be able to raise their issues."
(The hiring of the Lee's firm was also a source of consternation this year from Congress, which Staff Director Les Jin defended by saying the $180,000 fee was money well spent even though the commission has its own internal public affairs department.)
...
Redenbaugh and Thernstrom complained that the meetings "in the field" were sparsely attended, and that the members were only notified a month in advance where and when they would be held. They were just told that the October meeting is to be held in Jackson, Miss., they said.
"They aren't the meetings that allow us to do the work our statute compels us to do," said Redenbaugh. "Sure, it's more fun go around and talk to people, do a Bill Clinton, feeling everyone's pain. You don't have to prepare or study, just show up. I don't think we should spend our time doing that."
Coming soon to a theater near you. Wingnut Berry and her little pals.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:51 PM -
Janet Reno refused to concede the Democratic gubernatorial race Thursday even though unofficial returns showed her losing to Tampa attorney Bill McBride by about 8,000 votes out of more than 1.3 million cast.
Reno's campaign attorney Alan Greer said the former U.S. attorney general has not decided whether she will seek a recount or go to court to overturn the result, but was keeping her options open.
...
Bush and many voters blamed the problems Miami-Dade's and Broward's elections chiefs, whose counties bought touchscreen voting machines to replace punchcard equipment. All counties were required to get rid of punchcard ballots.
...
"It's a black eye for Miami-Dade County and Broward County," said Gov. Bush, the president's brother. "More resources, more training, more equipment, more state dollars, two years to do this, and it appears there were flaws in the implementation. Sixty-five counties got it right. Hillsborough County got it right, Pinellas County got it right, Duval County got it right. Miami and Broward need to work on this to get it right in November."
If they got it right, they couldn't steal elections.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:41 PM -
U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan have been ordered to shave and wear regular uniforms to look more like U.S. soldiers rather than locals, according to an official at the U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida.
The order to shave facial hair and to "re-adapt uniform and grooming standards" came after a special operations commander, Maj. Gen. Geoff Lambert, saw numerous photographs of troops operating on the ground in Afghanistan with full beards and partial uniforms, the official said.
Lambert, a career special operations soldier based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, conferred with the joint commander on the ground in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Dan McNeil, and senior special operations forces leadership, the official said.
An agreement between the two commanders within the last week was made that special operations forces would return to the standard uniform.
Perhaps General Lambert should stick to counting the toilet paper.
No Time for the Mawkish From Jennifer Harper in the Washington Times:
Nobody was ready for "healing" on December 7, 1942, and "closure" was the last thing anybody wanted.
America, on the first anniversary of that other date that lives in infamy - often the benchmark by which September 11 is judged - wanted blood and vengeance, without apology.
No flowers, no teddy bears, and no exploration of the national angst. No presidential admonitions to think of Shinto as a religion of peace, no appeals to understand the frustrations that drove the misunderstood Nazis to rape Poland and bomb London.
The front pages of the nation's newspapers were stuffed with news of war: a battle raging in Tunisia, the launch of the USS New Jersey at Philadelphia, and, on the front page of the old Evening Star, a single photographic reminder of the destroyed harbor at Honolulu. On an inside page, Pvt. Joe Lockhard, who had first spotted the incoming Japanese planes at a radar station above Honolulu, was the subject of a small item headlined: "Hero of Navy prefers to forget Pearl Harbor."
"We have to give our time to what's happening now," he said, "and wait for history to catch up with it, when the war is won."
That was the extent of the observance, aside from an account of an air-raid wardens' parade down Georgia Avenue, and the advertised pleas from clothiers and jewelry stores to "Remember Pearl Harbor" and to buy War Bonds, scrimp on gasoline ("Is this trip really necessary?") and save kitchen grease.
The Washington Post had no stories about the anniversary on its front page, though it recounted - like other papers around the country - neighborhood memorial services, blood drives, ladies' auxiliary luncheons and the hasty weddings of men in uniform and sweet-faced brides.
Grit and gravitas were the order of the day.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:42 PM -
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:01 AM -
On September 11, 2001, as his followers carried out a series of attacks on the United States, Osama bin Laden knew the attacks were coming, how many there were supposed to be, and when they were supposed to happen.
And, in between each attack -- according to accounts gleaned from men who were with him -- bin Laden indicated to his followers in chilling fashion that another one was about to take place.
The new information, intelligence sources said, came from two men who were with bin Laden that day who were later interrogated by a coalition intelligence agency. The agency provided the information to CNN.
According to the accounts provided by these men, the al Qaeda leader spent much of September 11 in prayer and meditation, pausing only to praise Allah after news of each new horror carried out by his followers came over the radio.
When combined with remarks about September 11 that bin Laden made in a previously released videotape made in November 2001, the new information provides a new glimpse into the mood and attitude of the terrorist leader on that day.
For a blow by blow account of the goat boy's antics see the article, but the following gives the idea.
When the second tower was (is) hit, according to the intelligence sources, Bin Laden again prays and weeps, shouting "Allah Akhbar." Then he lifts three fingers and it becomes clear to the people in the room that he is signaling that a third attack is still to come, the sources said.
It does: American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.
Bin Laden recounted what happened next on the November tape. "The difference between the first and second plane hitting the towers was 20 minutes. And the difference between the first plane and the plane that hit the Pentagon was one hour."
Again bin Laden prays, weeps and shouts "Allah Akhbar." This time he lifts four fingers.
How did you like the USA's single digit, pissant? Payback's a bitch.
Mighty Iraqi Air Force Alert ABC reveals all in In Hot Pursuit:
For the second time in the last five days, the United States has seen Iraqi fighter jets cross into the southern no-fly zone in hot pursuit of U.S. unmanned Predator surveillance planes, ABCNEWS has learned.
Today's activity, sources said, involved two Russian-made MiGs flying 50 miles south of the no-fly zone boundary. The Iraqis wait until U.S. and British "manned" aircraft have cleared the area, then they take the risk and go after the drones, sources said.
In today's incident, video shot from cameras mounted on the Predator captured the MiGs firing cannons at the plane. In this case, the Predator was untouched and there was no immediate U.S. response.
In a similar incident last weekend, coalition forces returned to the zone quickly and took out an Iraqi command bunker.
Ignore that whistling sound, boys. It's just some AIM 54's with your names on them.
SACRAMENTO - They commiserate about Gov. Gray Davis and his zealous fundraising the way veterans share war stories.
Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Kirsch tells of being pressed for more money when he called Davis to push a bill to combat global warming.
California Teachers Association President Wayne Johnson remembers being squeezed for $1 million during a meeting on education in the governor's office.
Energy company executives recall being told that they would need to raise $100,000 to get an audience with Davis -- and then having to make up the difference when they failed to hit the target.
Each case was an instance when it became clear how important money is to Davis -- and how far the Democratic governor would go to get it.
Politicians often pressure supporters for contributions, and Davis officials say they have done nothing wrong. But the governor has taken it to a new level by sending a clear signal that donations are essential to getting in the door, many of his backers say. In the process, he has alienated a growing number of Democrats who are beginning to question whether he has sacrificed core values in an almost-compulsive pursuit of cash.
``It's hard to tell if the guy's a Democrat or a Republican because he's anything you want him to be if you're writing the biggest check,'' said one disgruntled Democratic supporter.
In more than three dozen interviews with the Mercury News, many Democrats, donors and former Davis fundraisers said they were shocked when discussions with the governor and his staff were clouded by questions about how much money they had given to Davis.
Robert M. Stern, executive director of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, said Davis has created the impression that ``he has put government up for sale.''
No excrement, Sherlock. Copious dirty details are in the article.
Of course, the one stop Grayout shopping solution is www.e-gray.com.
An honorary UNICEF ambassador, Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham, said Friday he was proud of his friendship with Hizbullah and described US President George W. Bush as a "modern-day Hitler".
Speaking to reporters during a visit to the South at the invitation of Hizbullah and the Martyrs Welfare Foundation, Lahham defended Hizbullah and said that he hopes "Bush, the modern-day Hitler, puts me on his black list."
Hey Duraid, I've got one for ya!
An airplane was about to crash; there were 5 passengers on board but only 4 parachutes.
The first passenger said, " I'm Kobe Bryant , the best NBA basketball player, the Lakers need me, I can't afford to die." So he took the first pack and left the plane.
The second passenger, Hillary Clinton, said, "I am the wife of the former president of the United States, I am also the most ambitious woman in the world and I am a New York Senator and a potential future president." She just took the second parachute and jumped out of the plane.
The third passenger, Bachar Al-Assad, said: "I'm President of Syria, I have a great responsibility being the leader of a superpower. And above all I'm the cleverest leader in Syrian history, so Syria's people won't let me die." So he put on the pack next to him and jumped out of the plane.
The fourth passenger, the Pope, says to the fifth passenger, a 10 year old school boy, "I am old and frail and I don't have many years left, as a Catholic I will sacrifice my life and let you have the last parachute. The boy said, "it's OK, there's a parachute left for you. Syria's cleverest leader has taken my schoolbag."
Try telling that one down at the palace!
I wonder if UNICEF still tries to brainwash kids into collecting pennies at Halloween?
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:42 PM -
Kumbaya Alert! Tim Blair has his World Hug Day party hat on. The fruit loops even want samples of your verse for their poetry page and Tim's been helping out:
If I could meet Osama I'd ask if it was brave To kill so many people And why he lives inside a cave
If I could meet Osama I'd say, "Please be nice instead." Then I'd whip out my revolver And shoot the motherfucker dead
-- by Timmy T. Timson, age 5
I'd participate too, but I'm poetry challenged:
I see London, I see France All that's left of Osama is his soiled underpants
A man who suffers from epilepsy has been ordered to pay compensation to a student who was upset by his contorted face during a seizure.
In a case described by an epilepsy charity as "like something you would see on the Ally McBeal show", Edwin Young has been told to pay £3,500 to Yvonne Rennie for the mild post-traumatic stress that she suffered.
Mrs Rennie sued after Mr Young suffered an epileptic fit while driving four years ago and crashed into her car at traffic lights in Perth.
In a written judgment, Sheriff Michael Fletcher, at Perth sheriff court, accepted that she was upset by the look on Mr Young's face.
He said: "The defender suffered an epileptic fit and lost control of his vehicle. As a result of the fit, his face was contorted and this led the pursuer to believe that he was having a heart attack and was dying.
"Passers-by removed the defender from his car and placed him on the pavement to render him assistance. The sight of the defender lying on the pavement upset the pursuer."
The sheriff awarded a total of £6,000 compensation, including £1,500 for Mrs Rennie's slight injuries and £1,000 for the fear of driving that she had developed.
I wonder much she gets if you barf on her?
On this basis, I think the Islamists have run up quite a tab for 9/11.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:27 AM -
"When the Europeans demand some sort of veto over American actions, or want us to subordinate our national interest to a UN mandate, they forget that we do not think their track record is too good," a senior U.S. diplomat said recently in private. "The Europeans told us they could win the Balkans wars all on their own. Wrong. They told us that the Russians would never accept National Missile Defense. Wrong. They said the Russians would never swallow NATO enlargement. Wrong. They told us 20 years ago that détente was the way to deal with what we foolishly called the Evil Empire. Wrong again. They complain about our Farm Bill when they are the world's biggest subsidizers of their agriculture. The Europeans are not just wrong; they are also hypocrites. They are wrong on Kyoto, wrong on Arafat, wrong on Iraq -- so why should we take seriously a single word they say?"
If the Europeans are in for a rude awakening as America takes its own decisions over the War on Terrorism and dealing with President Bush's "axis of evil," then the Arab world is in for an even deeper shock. The United States has spent 30 years trying to play by what we might call European rules, seeking to play the role of honest broker between Arabs and Israelis, while paying them both handsomely for the privilege. (Israel and Egypt are the first and second recipients of U.S. aid). America has watched while the Saudi "allies" use their petro-dollars to buy off internal dissent against their indefensibly sexist and undemocratic feudal regime by exporting their intolerant and puritan Wahabist creed throughout the Islamic world.
Whether Europeans and Arabs like it nor not, Iraq will be getting not just a change of regime, but a change of system. There is a post 9-11 mood in Washington to ask why, with the kind of American resolve and wisdom that turned the World War II enemies of Japan and West Germany into peaceful and prosperous democracies, an Iraq liberated from Saddam Hussein, or a Palestinian state liberated from the corrupt incompetence of the Arafat gang, or an Afghanistan liberated from the Taliban, might not enjoy a similar transformation. The Saudi monarchy might hate such an emergence of democratic and representative government in its wretchedly ill-ruled region, but Washington understandably cares less and less for the concerns of a dubious ally whose nationals formed the bulk of the Sept. 11 terrorists.
Note that this is not the case of an enraged and vengeful America telling the world "no more Mr. Nice Guy." It is America saying "Enough" to the European "internationalism" of compromise and appeasement, and holding true to its core principles -- that democracy is in itself a good thing for all states and all peoples. The most valuable export America can send out to the world is its values and its freedoms and its readiness to devote blood and treasure to the mission. That would be the real memorial to the victims of 9-11.
Read the full article for a great deal of insight.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:40 PM -
Good Riddance I noted previously that the world class whiner, Mary Robinson, was leaving her post as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her insufferable arrogance was only matched by her complete cluelessness. But before she actually vacates the premises on Wednesday, she let loose yet another malodorous emission:
GENEVA - In a bleak assessment of the state of human rights a year after the Sept. 11 attacks - and in a last stand before she leaves her United Nations post on Wednesday, U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson accused governments of hiding behind the war on terrorism to trample on civil liberties and crush troublesome opponents.
"Suddenly the 'T-word' is used all the time," Robinson said, referring to terrorism. "And that's the problem."
No Mary, you and your wingnut pals are the problem.
Tracing developments over the past 12 months, Robinson said that the Bush administration had set the tone for the rest of the world by disregarding international conventions in its treatment of prisoners held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - not to mention its efforts to torpedo the International Criminal Court.
"The world needs leadership in human rights and the United States could give great leadership. It's not giving it at the moment, unfortunately," she declared.
...
Despite the current gloom and her regret that she wasn't more effective in stopping gross violations, Robinson said she took heart from progress in promoting acceptance of human rights as a fundamental part of development.
But she said the United States, in particular, needed to show more recognition of economic and social rights.
"Extreme poverty," was her blunt reply when asked what she considered to be the worst human rights violation.
Zzzzzz. Those dogs won't hunt outside the select circle of your pals, Mary. There's more Robinsonian blather in the article, but a better perspective is provided by Michael Rubin in Mary Robinson, War Criminal? whose punchline is
The European Union and the United Nations are sick with self-righteousness, moral equivalence, and appeasement, but Mary Robinson is just one symptom. Worthy international causes have been hijacked for narrow political agendas.
Accountability has become a dirty word. And looking the other way, especially regarding terrorism, has become a form of art. But then again, why reform if bashing Israel and sponsoring forums to promote anti-Semitism can reinforce your credentials in the eyes of your peers?
Sending hack socialist politicians off to international organizations has no magic effect. They are still hack socialist politicians.
posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:20 PM -
MOHAMMED Atta consulted Saddam Hussein prior to leading the suicide attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, according to Richard Perle, an adviser to the US defence secretary.
"Mohammed Atta met Saddam Hussein in Baghdad prior to September 11. We have proof of that, and we are sure he wasn't just there for a holiday," Perle told Italy's business daily "Il Sole 24 Ore".
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites) met Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites) on two occasions and gave money to the al Qaeda leader in 1996, a woman who claims to be a long-time mistress of the Iraqi leader told ABC News.
Parisoula Lampsos, who claims to have been Saddam's mistress on and off for 30 years, told ABC she personally observed bin Laden in one of Saddam's palaces in the late 1980s. She said Saddam's oldest son, Uday, told her Saddam also met with bin Laden in the 1996 and game him money.
ABC News interviewed Lampsos, now 54 and hiding out in Lebanon, for its "Primetime Thursday" news program to air later this week. The network released excerpts of the interview on Sunday.
Saddam Hussein is aggressively seeking nuclear and biological weapons and "the United States may well become the target" of an attack, Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday as the Bush administration pressed its case for toppling the Iraqi leader.
Cheney and top administration officials took to the Sunday talk shows as part of President Bush's effort to convince the public, Congress and other countries that action against Saddam is urgently needed. The officials cited the Sept. 11 attacks in making the case that the world cannot wait to find out whether the Iraqi president has weapons of mass destruction.
"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told CNN's "Late Edition."
"How long are we going to wait to deal with what is clearly a gathering threat against the United States, against our allies and against his own region?"
Added Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on CBS's "Face the Nation": "Imagine, a Sept. 11 with weapons of mass destruction. It's not 3,000; it's tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children."
Saddam's 15 minutes of fame have been unduly prolonged by the handwringers at the UN and in Europe. It's time to put down the rabid dog.
British peace protesters plan to go to Baghdad to act as voluntary "human shields" during a war against Iraq.
The activists, who have received President Saddam Hussein's blessing for the mission, want to try to deter attacks by "showing solidarity" with the Iraqi people and witnessing "their suffering".
...
The "Iraq peace team", from the group Voices in the Wilderness, intends to go to Iraq as early as this month alongside volunteers from the United States.
More "volunteers" are being signed up through the good auspices of Dr. Weevil.
Voices in the Wilderness, founded in Britain in 1998, grew out of the peace protests during the Gulf war, when British activists camped in the desert on the Iraqi border.
The group's website admits that members are involved in breaking "criminal" international sanctions against Baghdad. It says they "risk persecution and imprisonment" in doing so.
The "peace team" idea has been welcomed by the Iraqi regime. Kathy Kelly, the US co-ordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, secured agreement for the mission from Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, in Baghdad in May.
She said: "We will tell everybody that goes over that they should be prepared to say that they have had a good life and this could be the last year of their life."
From your lips to God's ears.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, troops seized about 1,200 expatriate Britons. On Saddam's orders they were placed at key installations as "human shields". Their presence, Saddam reasoned, would deter allied air strikes.
The tactic prompted worldwide revulsion, especially when Saddam was filmed trying to create favourable propaganda by urging a five-year-old boy, Stuart Lockwood, from Worcester, to sit on his knee. The terrified boy refused.
Diplomatic efforts eventually led to the hostages' release, but many have suffered continuing psychological trauma. Two killed themselves.
Bernard Jenkin, the shadow defence secretary, criticised the planned peace mission. He said: "These people are what the communist Soviet Union used to refer to as useful idiots. They will simply be serving the propaganda interests of an evil dictator."
Don't tell Saddam about the radio tracking beacons sewn into their shorts!
"It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out."
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