Frail and dignified at 88, the man leaned on his cane and smiled as the story of his immigration in 1936 flashed behind him on a museum wall. Like tens of thousands of others who managed to come to the United States from China during a 60-year period when the law singled them out for exclusion, the man, Tun Funn Hom, had entered as a “paper son,” with false identity papers that claimed his father was a native citizen.

For years, it was a shameful family secret. But Mr. Hom, a New York laundry worker who helped build battleships in World War II and put three children through college, outlived the stigma of an earlier era’s immigration fraud.

A narrow legalization program let him reclaim his true name in the 1950s. His life story is now on permanent display at the Museum of Chinese in America, which reopened last week at 215 Centre Street. And it illuminates an almost forgotten chapter in American history, one that historians say has new relevance in the current crackdown on illegal immigration.

“When we think about illegal immigration, we think about Mexican immigrants, whereas in fact illegal immigration cuts across all immigrant groups,” said Erika Lee, the author of “At America’s Gate: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943.”

We think about Mexican ILLEGAL immigrants in large part because we share a border with Mexico, a country who can’t provide stability and prosperity for a vast number of its citizens. Consequently, around 70% of the illegal immigrants are coming from our southern borders.

That said, there’s also this worrisome thing known as “Islamic terrorism”? It’d be nice if we could at least keep the Islamic crazies who enter this country down to at least the bare minimum of those who do so legally; is that too much, too unreasonable to ask for?

No, opposing illegal immigration has nothing to do with racism.

Long after exclusion laws were repealed by Congress in 1943, after China became a World War II ally, that vast power over noncitizens was deployed in raids against immigrants of various ethnic groups whose politics were considered suspect.

And rightly so. (The dangers of espionage and sabotage within our own borders by aliens and descendants of Axis nations was real- this includes but was not exclusive to, those of Japanese-American ancestry- read Michelle Malkin’s In Defense of Internment).

In the 1950s, Mr. Hom and his relatives, like many Chinese New Yorkers, suddenly faced the exposure of their false papers in just such an operation. The government was tipped off by an informer in Hong Kong as part of a cold war effort to stop illegal immigration.

“We were very scared,” said Mrs. Hom, who worked at the family’s laundry, first in the Bronx, then in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. “Everybody was very worried on account maybe they all be sent back to China.”

But in a government “confession program,” Mr. Hom and some of his relatives admitted their illegal entry; because Mr. Hom had served in the military, he received citizenship papers within months.

As someone who never made it to high school, he now beams over his children’s professional successes and his six multiethnic grandchildren. His son, Tom, is a dentist in Manhattan; his daughter Mary is a physician in the Syracuse area, and Dorothy, an interior designer, works with her husband, Michael Strauss, a principal with Vanguard Construction, which recently completed DBGB Kitchen and Bar, Daniel Boulud’s latest restaurant.

At a time when debates about immigration often include the claim that “my relatives came the legal way,” referring to a period when there were few restrictions on any immigrants except the Chinese, the Hom family has a different perspective.

“One’s status being legal or illegal, it’s two seconds apart at any point,” Dorothy said. “For some, the process is more difficult than others.”

It’s great that Mr. Hom served this country and became a productive member of our society, and not a dreg. However, his anecdotal should not be used as justification for opening our borders, making American citizenship devoid of meaning and value. For every Hom story, there is a counter-story of an illegal immigrant victimizing our society through rape, murder, and robbery. In my opinion, both anecdotal versions are marginal to the argument. (Those opposed to illegal immigrants in this country sometimes point to illegals who commit serious crimes, as though it means an epidemic of majority illegals committing rape, murder, and mayhem; however, it remains that legal residents and American citizens are just as capable of engaging in crime and patriotism as are illegals).

The fact remains that there should be a standard for achieving American citizenship status and it should be done through legal channels. We simply do not have the resources to take in the entire world, all at once. Such absorbtion would make it nigh impossible to achieve assimilation. That may make the multiculturalists scratch their heads and ask “so what?” But assimilation is absolutely essential to maintaining the values and traditions of our country and not have us dissolve into a land of many mini-nations.

Also, please consider the following:

the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank, has found that the immigration wave is the primary reason poverty persists in the United States. Poverty among native-born Americans has shown consistent, linear decline since the 1960s. Were the country not accepting such large numbers of immigrants, American poverty might be nearly bested by now.

Subtract for immigrants, and the gap between native-born middle and wealthy Americans is shrinking, not widening. Most complaints about rising income inequality in the United States come from the political left, which would be utterly horrified if immigration were restricted. If open borders are to continue, then we must accept slower income gains in the middle.

President Obama used the occasion of a 1/10 of 1% drop in the nation’s unemployment rate to claim both success and validation for his economic policies. He has valiantly brought America back from the brink of the economic chaos that was caused by his predecessor. But as is often the case with Obama, the devil is in the details.

In July, 247,000 jobs were lost. Inquiring minds question how the unemployment rate could experience even a slight drop when the stats show Americans are still losing their jobs. John Lott gives us the answer:

“The reason is simple — the number of people who stopped looking for work rose dramatically.  637,000 additional people no longer consider themselves looking for work. This is by far the largest drop in the number of people who consider themselves in the labor force during the last year – almost twice the 358,000 increase in the people who left the labor force during June.”

Using Lott’s calculations, our actual unemployment rate stands at 16.3%, not the trumpeted 9.4%. Obama would have us believe this is good news. Our president would also have us believe his claim that the $1.2 trillion health care reform proposal is just the ticket to jump start the economy. (Hey, didn”t he just say he already jump started the economy?) I digress…

Now I’m not an expert, but I question how adding unsustainable debt to a record deficit to supposedly fix a non-problem is going to deliver us from financial Armageddon. But Obama says he can add 12 million illegal aliens and app. 25 million uninsured Americans to government health care rolls and this will somehow result in cost savings.

Oh, and despite his own words to the contrary in 2007, Obama now assures us that the public option proposal most assuredly won’t put private insurers out of business. Whew.

Since we all know Obama doesn’t lie, Americans will, once again, just have to accept the word of our Organizer in Chief. Hey, he’s entitled to some slack. After all, he just ended the war on terror.

That’s right. A mere six months after taking office, Obama has officially ended the war on terror. From now on, Obama has decreed that we’re only at war with Al Qaeda. All our brave warriors in Afghanistan can relax now that global jihad has been vanquished.

How did Obama accomplish this amazing feat? He did it in the Democrat’s time honored way. He merely redefined the terms.

‘Jihad’, ‘war on terror’ and ‘global war’ are no longer acceptable terms. They have been banished from the polite society the liberals, oops progressives have claimed as their own exclusive province. Case closed.

When I look back at all of Obama’s accomplishments of the last six months, I feel pretty stupid for not voting for him. Had I know he had the unique ability to actually redefine reality to his own specifications, I wouldn’t have spent so much time dwelling on his criminal cohorts, his socialist buddies and his terrorist ‘acquaintances’. I would have had blind faith in him and not pointed out his utter lack of any real accomplishments, experience or character. Boy, do I feel silly.

I’ve decided that I’m finally going to jump on the Obama bandwagon – right after I check out the pig that just flew right by my window.

There is a lady in Arizona who has written a remarkable letter.

She submitted it to the host of a radio and television show.

From there, it has gone viral being shared around water coolers and through e-mail around the country.

Take the time to read the whole thing. You’ll be amazed to find that this lady, a fellow American citizen, has put the thoughts of many, if not all, of us into words.

Feel free to copy it and pass it along to your friends, relatives, and co-workers. E-mail it to everyone in your address book.

In the 1700’s there were pamphleteers. Today we have the Internet.

Read, enjoy, and pass it along.

I’m a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you’re willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I’m not a racist. This isn’t to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don’t you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don’t trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let’s just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I’m busy. I’m busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we’re so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don’t care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

Janet Contreras

Beck read Janet’s letter on tonight’s program.

Roll the tape:

On Wednesday at 9 p.m., “The Goode Family” will have its premiere on ABC and become the first animated series on the network’s prime-time lineup since 1995

~~~

“Goode” lampoons a liberal Midwestern household. In “Goode,” the characters are often mocked for being green just to fit in with their friends and neighbors. They are a perfect target for the 46-year-old Mr. Judge and his two longtime co-writers, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, who have made careers out of finding humor in the follies and pretensions of everyday people. . . .

“The Goode Family” came from an idea that Mr. Altschuler had while on vacation. Mr. Altschuler’s wife observed how difficult it was to “be good”—i.e., environmentally responsible. That became the central premise for the Goode Family. Mr. Judge, who says he was inspired by the mellow tones of National Public Radio hosts, provides the voice of the bicycle-riding college administrator Mr. Goode.

The founders of our country saw the need of a well regulated, and well armed militia who was able to defend themselves and their country against impending threats. If defending yourself against illegal aliens, who are growing illegal drugs, and threatening Americans citizens on public lands, isn’t what they had in mind, then I have know idea.

When I commented on the original site that this was “One more reason to always be armed,” a guy named Joe responded:

“Yeah, your single handgun/rifle is going to be real useful against pot farmers with five high powered rifles, equipped with rifle scopes and numerous rounds of ammunition, not to mention greater numbers and a familiarity with the area.

“Good way to get yourself shot, more like.”

Since they moderated my reply (I guess I was too extreme for them) I give the basics of it here. Yes, my “single handgun/rifle is going to be real useful against pot farmers with “five high powered rifles, equipped with rifle scopes and numerous rounds of ammunition.” In fact, that sounds a lot like what I carry in my truck, and my camper.

The fact is that criminals are lazy and unlikely to have adequate training with their weapons. I, on the other hand, took my last Elk on the run at 600 yards and can empty two 13 round magazines into the center of a target at 25 yards in under 12 seconds with my .45 ACP. I’m not bragging, because that doesn’t make me special. Many people I know can do the very same thing.

The point is, the pot growers would have never confronted the campers had they thought the campers posed even the remotest threat, which is why they choose to set up shop in places like California, where they know the public has a 99.99% chance of not being armed.

As I’ve said before, being armed is about making the choice yours. If only your attacker has a weapon, he makes all the choices. If you are armed, you make your own. That doesn’t even mean that you have to defend yourself, and it doesn’t mean you have to shoot anyone. In many situations, caution would dictate that you still comply, and never attack. But, even then, as long as you have a .45 tucked neatly into your waistband, the choice is yours.

This week really wasn’t planned to be an all-pot kind of week, it’s just working out that way. (Today’s the stoner new year, right? But if you’re stoned, isn’t every year basically 1976?) Regardless, in Los Padres National Forest, California, two pot farmers scared off some campers in a high-speed dirt road rally that ended with arrests and confiscation of $26 mill in herb. The Santa Barbara County sheriff’s report reads better than I could rewrite, so here it is in its entirety:

New Cuyama – On Friday, 04-17-09, at approximately 11:30 a.m., two adults, who had been camping in the Aliso Park area west of New Cuyama, came across an active marijuana garden. While in the area, the campers were approached by two Hispanic male adult subjects who were tending to the marijuana garden.

The subjects attempted to converse with the campers, however due to a language barrier, they were unsuccessful. The subjects requested that the campers remain in the area, until the arrival of the ‘boss’ who spoke English. The campers became fearful and packed up their gear and left the area. While the campers were driving down the dirt road, they were approached by a pick up truck traveling the opposite direction. As they passed the truck, they noticed the occupants seemed very interested in them. The truck stopped and the driver exited and waived for the campers to come back. They ignored his request and kept driving, believing he was the ‘boss’ that the two subjects had referred to earlier. The driver returned to his truck and began chasing the campers down the mountain. During the chase, the truck came dangerously close to the campers’ vehicle several times.

Once the campers reached the paved road, they were able to distance themselves from the truck and contact law enforcement. A Santa Barbara County Deputy Sheriff obtained the information from the campers and quickly disseminated it to local agencies. A short time later, a Taft Police Officer spotted a truck, matching the description provided by the campers. A traffic stop was conducted and as a result Javier Barragan (DOB 1/31/69) and Jose Lopez (DOB 5/3/71) were contacted. Both subjects were positively identified by the campers, as the persons who chased them down the mountains. The two were taken into custody and a search of the vehicle was conducted. During the search, five high powered rifles, equipped with rifle scopes and numerous rounds of ammunition were found.

United States Forest Service and Santa Barbara County Sheriff personnel responded to the marijuana garden to eradicate the plants. Once there, a large scale marijuana garden was found containing 13,300 growing marijuana plants. The estimated street value of the plants is approximately $26,600,000.

Barragan and Lopez were booked into the Santa Maria Jail for marijuana cultivation. Pending further investigation, false imprisonment and/or weapons charges may be added. Their bail is set at $50,000 each. Barragan resides in Maywood, Ca. and Lopez from Paramount, Ca.

The Sheriff’s Department and US Forest Service cautions hikers, campers and hunters that marijuana growing season is upon us. Most outside gardens are located in remote areas of the National Forest and are tended by Mexican Nationals who are usually armed. Do not attempt to make contact with them. Any suspicious activity should be reported to the Sheriff’s Department or the US Forest Service.

See if any of this sounds familiar to you.

Roll the tape:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is busy launching an online petition for readers to express their outrage at conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. This, coming on the heels of triumphant Democrats confirming a tax cheat as our new Treasury Secretary, which came on the heels of giddy Democrats spearheading a new bill through Congress that would require camera phones to make a sound when taking a picture.

Six Democrats were busy enjoying a Caribbean junket sponsored by Citigroup after Congress obligingly approved the $700 billion bailout of financial services firms in October, while others were hard at work crafting a $819 billion spending package under the guise of stimulating the economy.

What spending millions of bucks on sexually transmitted diseases and giving billions of our tax dollars to corrupt left-wing groups like ACORN has to do with stimulation has yet to be explained. Instead, we’re urged to look at ‘the larger picture’.

The ‘larger picture’ that immediately comes to my mind is Father Earth, Algore, testifying before Congress, warning of the imminent demise of the human species because of global warming, while the storm of the century rages across 1,400 miles of the U.S. I digress…

President Obama meanwhile, continues his honeymoon, bravely shrugging off the arrest of his half-brother for dope and his aunt’s illegal status.

In response to news that Iran now has the ability to manufacture a nuclear weapon this year, Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo and changed the rules governing interrogation of terrorists, in order to assure these prisoners not be made “uncomfortable.” No mention was made of the 61 Gitmo inmates that had already been released and found, once again, engaged in jihad.

Obama then followed up by asking the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to cut the Pentagon’s budget request for the fiscal year 2010 by more than 10 percent — about $55 billion.

Obama reacted to Republican Congressman and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra’s comment “There’s no way and no chance to stop the Iranian nuclear program,” by penning a Dear Achmadinejad letter to Iran, legitimizing the rogue regime by agreeing to direct talks, something Bush had refused to do.

Iran promptly responded, claiming that Obama’s offer signaled that America’s policy of “domination” has failed. “This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,” Iran gleefully retorted.

No fool, he, Obama had already pre-empted Iran by appointing Gary Samore as our new Weapons of Mass Destruction Czar, allowing him to continue focusing on his plan to do away with the military’s ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell’ policy regarding gays in the military.

Anticipating this new policy, Army Secretary Pete Geren has approved adding legal personnel to help combat sexual assault among soldiers, which he deemed “repugnant to the core values” of the Army.

Meanwhile, our dedicated public servants on the state level are just as busy. New York’s Mayor Bloomberg, facing shrinking tax revenues that have turned the $1.3 billion November budget hole into a now $4 billion chasm, took to the microphones and declared a war on – salt. I’m not making this stuff up.

In California, the state was unable to give the taxpayers their tax refunds because, oops, there’s no money left. Not to worry, California is counting on being a big winner in the stimulus jackpot as soon as our public servants in D.C. can get rid of the pesky opposition and pass the much touted ’stimulus bill’, thereby relieving them of personal responsibility for the bad decisions of oh, the last 40 years, that have left the state in default.

Undeterred by lack of funds, California continued doing the people’s business by enacting a new law that provides millions of Californians with limited English proficiency the right to an interpreter from their commercial health and dental plans.

This law comes on the heels of another California eco-mandate that requires owners of gas stations to purchase new equipment to reduce vapor emissions at the pump.

In the name of Mother Earth, dozens and potentially hundreds of gas stations, unable to afford the cash to comply with these new mandates, are choosing to shut down. Unfortunately these small businessmen don’t have the promise of ’stimulus’ money to pay the piper so, poof, they’re green toast.

With foreign money fleeing the US at record rates, with a 2009 deficit already at $1.2 trillion, (your share is $175,000) and a 16-year high unemployment rate, states respond by continuing to spend money at boom-time rates, despite shrinking revenues.

Governors across the nation are reacting by making plans to levy higher taxes next year on clothes, soft drinks, gasoline, auto licenses and other items that likely will hit low- and middle-income families.

Joe six-pack will just have to cough up more dough. Obama has called on all of us to make sacrifices, and its our patriotic duty.

Noticeable only by its total absence, is any call for the one solution that would solve the economic crisis. Cutting taxes. Not only do ordinary Joes get to keep and spend more of their own money, thus doing some actual stimulating to the weak economy, but tax cuts, as shown by history, would also fill depleted government coffers.

But, hey, our public servants are the experts. And fortunately, they’re judged on their promises instead of their results. The recent election indicated that this is what Americans want. And now we’re getting it.

Soon, the government will own pieces of banks, insurance companies, mortgage companies, car companies, possibly airlines, media etc., etc. By this time next year, (if Iran hasn’t nuked us), you will be able to walk into any of those businesses and get the same service you now get from the government run post office – which by the way – will soon be cutting back on 6 day mail deliveries due to budget problems.

We asked for it, we got it. God bless America.

The Hautepierre suburb of Strasbourg on New Year’s Eve. The government mobilized 35,000 police officers nationwide. (Jean-Marc Loos/Reuters)

More than 280 people were detained and more than 1,000 cars torched during New Year celebrations across France, mostly in its troubled suburbs, the interior ministry said Thursday.

Four police officials were slightly injured, according to the interior ministry, which said its security forces “were of the unanimous view” that New Year’s Eve was “rather calm and without major incident.”

The interior ministry had earlier said 445 vehicles were set on fire overnight, but later revised that figure to 1,147.

The number of arrests and cars torched topped last year’s tally of 259 people detained and 372 vehicles burned.

But Israel DOES know how to celebrate the New Year….kill a leader of Hamas:

Israel dropped a one-ton bomb on the home of a Hamas strongman Thursday, killing him along with two wives and four children in the first attack on the top leadership of Gaza’s rulers. As the aerial bombardment escalated, the army said it also was poised to launch a ground invasion.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s ineffectiveness became clear the day she became Speaker of the House and immediately announced that there would be no impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney.

Guided by politics, she said leading investigations into just how much the Bush administration did – and did wrong – would be divisive. What she didn’t express was her worry that too many Democrats faced elimination from the House if they took on the difficult task of proving who knew what, when.

But Congress is running out of time to finally make the Bush administration own up to its actions for eight years. If Congress isn’t careful, the president who already has issued 171 pardons could also pardon every appointee and employee he has ever had – and their dogs.

President Bush has issued half the number of pardons that Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton did in their two terms.

I know the two individuals who many of us conservatives want to see pardoned: Border Patrol Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos.

Didn’t they recently get resentenced? If a president interferes during a judicial process, I believe that would be grounds for impeachment. He could still issue a commutation of sentence or pardon within the next two months. I think where the two agents were wrong, was in covering up the shooting. If others can get pardoned for crimes outside the interest of the U.S., I don’t see why these two shouldn’t get pardoned as well for committing “crimes” in the interest of the U.S.

From what I hear, the case for commutation is being considered by the DOJ’s Pardon Attorney.

Recently:

Q I just want to ask regarding the two border agents — that was in the news again last week. Now that the President is ending his term — calls are renewed for a pardon or a commutation. Is there anything on that you –

MS. PERINO: We never comment on pardons. People who are eligible to apply for a pardon can do so through the pardon attorney at the Department of Justice. And we don’t comment on the deliberations that are underway.

The most outrageous Bush pardon of all:

AP writer, Deb Riechmann:

One hot topic of discussion related to pardons is whether Bush might decide to issue pre-emptive pardons before he leaves office to government employees who authorized or engaged in harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Some constitutional scholars and human rights groups want the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama to investigate possible war crimes.

If Bush were to pardon anyone involved, it would provide protection against criminal charges, particularly for people who were following orders or trying to protect the nation with their actions. But it would also be highly controversial.

At the same time, Obama advisers say there is little — if any — chance that his administration would bring criminal charges.

This blogger says Bush can simply pardon Cheney (and everyone else) and immediately resign. Cheney becomes president and pardons him, perfectly legal!:

Just as important is making sure he is held accountable for his destruction and can not pardon himself and his cronies! From Democrats.com…: As we celebrate our new President-elect and all the changes he will bring to our nation, we must not turn a blind eye to the final actions of George Bush. Incredibly, Washington is already buzzing with Bush’s plans to block all investigations of his crimes and even to pardon everyone involved – including Cheney and himself. Chris Matthews is even counting down the days .

Does Bush have the power to pardon everyone in his administration? Yes. Will he abuse that power to stay out of jail? Only if we let him. “you bet he will if he can find a way” We must create a groundswell of opposition to any pardons by George Bush, so he understands that he will be impeached and prosecuted for issuing corrupt pardons.

~~~
it is my guess that Obama and virtually every Democrat in Congress is secretly praying for Bush to “self-pardon” himself. Not because they wish him to escape justice, but because they don’t want the politically dangerous, nationally divisive, and ultimately thankless task of having to administer it. If Bush pardons himself, or gets Cheney to pardon him, he will let the Democrats off the hook, freeing them from the growing importuning of millions of Americans whose rage at Bush and Cheney will only grow greater as more and more insiders come forward to reveal the truth. My only question is — why is no one even discussing this? Bush can Pardon Cheney then Cheney can pardon Bush

One of the more outrageous nutters is Vincent Bugliosi, author of The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. Here’s how he perceives his own self-worth on objectivity and credibility:

With respect to the position I take about the crimes of George Bush, I want to state at the outset that my motivation is not political. Although I’ve been a longtime Democrat (primarily because, unless there is some very compelling reason to be otherwise, I am always for “the little guy”), my political orientation is not rigid. For instance, I supported John McCain’s run for the presidency in 2000. More to the point, whether I’m giving a final summation to the jury or writing one of my true crime books, credibility has always meant everything to me. Therefore, my only master and my only mistress are the facts and objectivity. I have no others. This is why I can give you, the reader, a 100 percent guarantee that if a Democratic president had done what Bush did, I would be writing the same, identical piece you are about to read.

Read the whole thing for a peek into the afflicted mind of a BDS sufferer.

The real reason why there won’t be any impeachment, is because there isn’t a leg for the movement to stand on. The big lie is that Bush lied.

Recent related post:
Incoming Attorney General Defended Clemency For Terrorists

Obama aunt from Kenya living in US illegally
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and ELLIOT SPAGAT
Nov 1,2008
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) – Barack Obama’s aunt, a Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago, The Associated Press has learned.
Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as “Aunti Zeituni” in Obama’s memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a person familiar with the matter told the AP late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss Onyango’s case.

Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcment official.
…
It was not immediately clear how Onyango might have qualified for public housing with a standing deportation order.

And Aunt Zeituni apparently donated $260 to her nephew’s campaign!

According to the Federal Election Commission: “The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) prohibits any foreign national from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly.”

Oops! I’m surprised she wasn’t registered to vote by ACORN!

What did Colin Powell have in mind, exactly, in stating his belief that the Republican Party has moved further starboard? Expansion of government and uncontrolled spending? Dramatic Increases in entitlement programs, such as social security, food stamps, and medicare drug benefit? Dramatic increase in education spendings (“I believe that education is the new civil right.”- President Bush) under the current president? Faith-based intitiatives aimed at benefiting the poor? A soft “compassionate conservative” approach by the Administration in dealing with illegal immigration and immigration reform?  More financial relief to fight AIDS in Africa as well as helping local farmers in Africa, doing more to help people living in Africa than any other previous U.S. president?

President Bush has behaved rather liberally on not just spending, but on supporting programs that have been beneficial to minority groups.

Rove recommended books to Bush to read, including Murray Myron’s The Dream and the Nightmare and Marvin Olasky’s The Tragedy of American Compassion. Both mirrored Bush’s thoughts, arguing that the feel-good, permissive values of the 1960s undermined the strength of families and helped create dependency on government, ultimately harming the disadvantaged classes. As an antidote, Bush, in discussions with Myron, Olasky, and others, fashioned the concept of “compassionate conservativism.”

It was not a catchy phrase, and conservatives didn’t like it because it implied that there was something wrong with being a conservative- like calling someone a realistic liberal. But the phrase accurately described Bush’s philosophy. His goal was to help people. He believed the best way to do that was to develop government programs and policies that allowed them to help themselves. He did not see government as an enemy, as traditional conservatives did. But he did not believe the solution to problems was necessarily to throw money around.
- Pg 58, A Matter of Character, by Ronald Kessler.

Guest host Wayne Perryman (author of Unfounded Loyalty) for the Michael Medved Show, October 9, 2008, questioned “What do Obama critics mean when they say they “don’t want more of the same”?; then ran through a list of unacknowledged positives that President Bush has done on behalf of liberal blacks, sometimes to the consternation of his conservative base.

In 2000, The NAACP launched an unprecedented $10 million voter education and registration project; Democrats and unions pumped several millions more into black communities in “get out the vote” operations. In the end, Democrats received more votes for their candidate than they received in the previous 2 elections: 90 percent of the black vote while 8-9% went to Republicans, the lowest share for Republicans since Goldwater in 1964; for Hispanics, it went 64-35, Democrats. In 2004, Bush received 11% of the black vote.

McCain is supposedly taking a different strategy than Bush in ‘04, to woo the black vote; but he has one problem: He’s white. His political opponent is….not quite that white. And the lure to see a historical glass ceiling broken is tempting even to black conservative Republicans.

In 2000, the GOP had woefully mismanaged its appeals to black and Hispanic voters. George W. Bush was the most minority-friendly candidate Republicans had nominated since Abraham Lincoln. He had showcased his concern for minority problems throughout his governorship, both by the appointments he had made and the policies he’d pursued. And he had won unusually high vote shares among black and Hispanic Texans.

But in 2000, none of that history was communicated through the media that mattered. Democratic ads on minority stations accused Bush and the Republicans of intimidating minority voters, of promoting hate crimes, and of incarcerating minority youth en masse. GOP consultants seemed frozen in place. Unwilling to expend the emotional or financial capital to counterattack in the relevant venues, Republicans neither refuted racially charged allegations nor promoted a positive conservative agenda.

By absenting ourselves from minority media, we Republicans gave the Democrats carte blanche to paint us as they chose. And they chose to paint us as bigots. In 2002, pollster Kellyanne Conway measured the consequences. Black voters did not associate the GOP with any of its traditional issues: “Republican” meant bigotry, plain and simple.

Adding irony to angst, GOP platform issues polled well with minorities. Millions of blacks supported traditional marriage and school choice. Millions of Hispanics were pro-life and anti-tax. In fact, there was hardly an issue in the Republican arsenal that did not receive higher approval from minorities than the party itself did. But this gap between minority patterns of thinking and voting mattered not a whit unless conservatives mustered the will to politicize it.

How many black babies have been aborted, on account of groups like Planned Parenthood and the pro-choice policy of the Democratic Party?  Why do black voters continue to vote against their self-interest:

A new Zogby Poll on abortion indicated that 56 percent of Americans believe abortion should never be legal, be legal only when the life of the mother is in danger or be legal in cases of rape and incest. But when African Americans were asked these same questions, 62 percent answered in kind, identifying themselves as measurably more pro-life than the population at large.

Bush has supported and signed into law the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. Conversely, John Kerry voted against the Partial Birth Abortion Ban six times; voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and voted 25 times in favor of using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. If elected president, Kerry has vowed to only nominate jurists who will uphold unabated abortion rights.

Even more significantly, African Americans continue to voice a strong desire to protect traditional marriage. A recent CBS News poll found that 55 percent favor a constitutional amendment protecting marriage. Interestingly, that same poll found that African Americans oppose same-sex marriage in considerably greater numbers, with 67 percent favoring a constitutional amendment.

Again, it is Bush who has called for amending the U.S. Constitution to preserve and protect traditional marriage. Bush is convinced that passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment is the only way to ultimately ensure that a single judge cannot override the will of the vast majority of Americans.

President Bush has had the most racially diverse cabinet in U.S. presidential history. On July 27, 2006, he signed a 25 year extension of the National Voting Rights Act of 1965.

It is the Republican Party that has a profound history of support for blacks; not the Party of Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations:

Partial list:

The Republican Party was formed in 1854 specifically to oppose the Democrats, and for more than 150 years, they have done everything they could to block the Democrat agenda. In their abuses of power, they have even used threats and military violence to thwart the Democrat Party’s attempts to make this a progressive country. As you read the following Republican atrocities that span three centuries, imagine if you will, what a far different nation the United States would be had not the Republicans been around to block the Democrats’ efforts.

March 20, 1854
Opponents of Democrats’ pro-slavery policies meet in Ripon, Wisconsin to establish the Republican Party

May 30, 1854
Democrat President Franklin Pierce signs Democrats’ Kansas-Nebraska Act, expanding slavery into U.S. territories; opponents unite to form the Republican Party

June 16, 1854
Newspaper editor Horace Greeley calls on opponents of slavery to unite in the Republican Party

July 6, 1854
First state Republican Party officially organized in Jackson, Michigan, to oppose Democrats’ pro-slavery policies

February 11, 1856
Republican Montgomery Blair argues before U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of his client, the slave Dred Scott; later served in President Lincoln’s Cabinet

February 22, 1856
First national meeting of the Republican Party, in Pittsburgh, to coordinate opposition to Democrats’ pro-slavery policies

March 27, 1856
First meeting of Republican National Committee in Washington, DC to oppose Democrats’ pro-slavery policies

May 22, 1856
For denouncing Democrats’ pro-slavery policy, Republican U.S. Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) is beaten nearly to death on floor of Senate by U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks (D-SC), takes three years to recover

March 6, 1857
Republican Supreme Court Justice John McLean issues strenuous dissent from decision by 7 Democrats in infamous Dred Scott case that African-Americans had no rights “which any white man was bound to respect”

June 26, 1857
Abraham Lincoln declares Republican position that slavery is “cruelly wrong,” while Democrats “cultivate and excite hatred” for blacks

October 13, 1858
During Lincoln-Douglas debates, U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas (D-IL) states: “I do not regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever”; Douglas became Democratic Party’s 1860 presidential nominee

October 25, 1858
U.S. Senator William Seward (R-NY) describes Democratic Party as “inextricably committed to the designs of the slaveholders”; as President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State, helped draft Emancipation Proclamation

June 4, 1860
Republican U.S. Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) delivers his classic address, The Barbarism of Slavery

April 7, 1862
President Lincoln concludes treaty with Britain for suppression of slave trade

April 16, 1862
President Lincoln signs bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia; in Congress, 99% of Republicans vote yes, 83% of Democrats vote no

July 2, 1862
U.S. Rep. Justin Morrill (R-VT) wins passage of Land Grant Act, establishing colleges open to African-Americans, including such students as George Washington Carver

July 17, 1862
Over unanimous Democrat opposition, Republican Congress passes Confiscation Act stating that slaves of the Confederacy “shall be forever free”

August 19, 1862
Republican newspaper editor Horace Greeley writes Prayer of Twenty Millions, calling on President Lincoln to declare emancipation

August 25, 1862
President Abraham Lincoln authorizes enlistment of African-American soldiers in U.S. Army

September 22, 1862
Republican President Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863

Emancipation Proclamation, implementing the Republicans’ Confiscation Act of 1862, takes effect

February 9, 1864
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton deliver over 100,000 signatures to U.S. Senate supporting Republicans’ plans for constitutional amendment to ban slavery

June 15, 1864
Republican Congress votes equal pay for African-American troops serving in U.S. Army during Civil War

June 28, 1864
Republican majority in Congress repeals Fugitive Slave Acts

October 29, 1864
African-American abolitionist Sojourner Truth says of President Lincoln: “I never was treated by anyone with more kindness and cordiality than were shown to me by that great and good man”

January 31, 1865
13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. House with unanimous Republican support, intense Democrat opposition

March 3, 1865
Republican Congress establishes Freedmen’s Bureau to provide health care, education, and technical assistance to emancipated slaves

April 8, 1865
13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. Senate with 100% Republican support, 63% Democrat opposition

June 19, 1865
On “Juneteenth,” U.S. troops land in Galveston, TX to enforce ban on slavery that had been declared more than two years before by the Emancipation Proclamation

November 22, 1865
Republicans denounce Democrat legislature of Mississippi for enacting “black codes,” which institutionalized racial discrimination

December 6, 1865
Republican Party’s 13th Amendment, banning slavery, is ratified

February 5, 1866
U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-PA) introduces legislation, successfully opposed by Democrat President Andrew Johnson, to implement “40 acres and a mule” relief by distributing land to former slaves

April 9, 1866
Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Johnson’s veto; Civil Rights Act of 1866, conferring rights of citizenship on African-Americans, becomes law

April 19, 1866
Thousands assemble in Washington, DC to celebrate Republican Party’s abolition of slavery

May 10, 1866
U.S. House passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the laws to all citizens; 100% of Democrats vote no

June 8, 1866
U.S. Senate passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the law to all citizens; 94% of Republicans [Senate] vote yes and 100% of Democrats vote no [96% of GOP House members also-ws]

July 16, 1866
Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of Freedman’s Bureau Act, which protected former slaves from “black codes” denying their rights

July 28, 1866
Republican Congress authorizes formation of the Buffalo Soldiers, two regiments of African-American cavalrymen

July 30, 1866
Democrat-controlled City of New Orleans orders police to storm racially-integrated Republican meeting; raid kills 40 and wounds more than 150

January 8, 1867
Republicans override Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of law granting voting rights to African-Americans in D.C.

July 19, 1867
Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of legislation protecting voting rights of African-Americans

March 30, 1868
Republicans begin impeachment trial of Democrat President Andrew Johnson, who declared: “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government of white men”

May 20, 1868
Republican National Convention marks debut of African-American politicians on national stage; two – Pinckney Pinchback and James Harris – attend as delegates, and several serve as presidential electors

September 3, 1868
25 African-Americans in Georgia legislature, all Republicans, expelled by Democrat majority; later reinstated by Republican Congress

September 12, 1868
Civil rights activist Tunis Campbell and all other African-Americans in Georgia Senate, every one a Republican, expelled by Democrat majority; would later be reinstated by Republican Congress

September 28, 1868
Democrats in Opelousas, Louisiana murder nearly 300 African-Americans who tried to prevent an assault against a Republican newspaper editor

October 7, 1868
Republicans denounce Democratic Party’s national campaign theme: “This is a white man’s country: Let white men rule”

October 22, 1868
While campaigning for re-election, Republican U.S. Rep. James Hinds (R-AR) is assassinated by Democrat terrorists who organized as the Ku Klux Klan

November 3, 1868
Republican Ulysses Grant defeats Democrat Horatio Seymour in presidential election; Seymour had denounced Emancipation Proclamation

December 10, 1869
Republican Gov. John Campbell of Wyoming Territory signs FIRST-in-nation law granting women right to vote and to hold public office

February 3, 1870
After passing House with 98% Republican support and 97% Democrat opposition, Republicans’ 15th Amendment is ratified, granting vote to all Americans regardless of race

May 19, 1870
African-American John Langston, law professor and future Republican Congressman from Virginia, delivers influential speech supporting President Ulysses Grant’s civil rights policies

May 31, 1870
President U.S. Grant signs Republicans’ Enforcement Act, providing stiff penalties for depriving any American’s civil rights

June 22, 1870
Republican Congress creates U.S. Department of Justice, to safeguard the civil rights of African-Americans against Democrats in the South

September 6, 1870
Women vote in Wyoming, in FIRST election after women’s suffrage signed into law by Republican Gov. John Campbell

February 28, 1871
Republican Congress passes Enforcement Act providing federal protection for African-American voters

March 22, 1871
Spartansburg Republican newspaper denounces Ku Klux Klan campaign to eradicate the Republican Party in South Carolina

April 20, 1871
Republican Congress enacts the Ku Klux Klan Act, outlawing Democratic Party-affiliated terrorist groups which oppressed African-Americans

October 10, 1871
Following warnings by Philadelphia Democrats against black voting, African-American Republican civil rights activist Octavius Catto murdered by Democratic Party operative; his military funeral was attended by thousands

October 18, 1871
After violence against Republicans in South Carolina, President Ulysses Grant deploys U.S. troops to combat Democrat terrorists who formed the Ku Klux Klan

November 18, 1872
Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting, after boasting to Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she voted for “the Republican ticket, straight”

January 17, 1874
Armed Democrats seize Texas state government, ending Republican efforts to racially integrate government

September 14, 1874
Democrat white supremacists seize Louisiana statehouse in attempt to overthrow racially-integrated administration of Republican Governor William Kellogg; 27 killed

March 1, 1875
Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteeing access to public accommodations without regard to race, signed by Republican President U.S. Grant; passed with 92% Republican support over 100% Democrat opposition

September 20, 1876
Former state Attorney General Robert Ingersoll (R-IL) tells veterans: “Every man that loved slavery better than liberty was a Democrat… I am a Republican because it is the only free party that ever existed”

January 10, 1878
U.S. Senator Aaron Sargent (R-CA) introduces Susan B. Anthony amendment for women’s suffrage; Democrat-controlled Senate defeated it 4 times before election of Republican House and Senate guaranteed its approval in 1919

July 14, 1884
Republicans criticize Democratic Party’s nomination of racist U.S. Senator Thomas Hendricks (D-IN) for vice president; he had voted against the 13th Amendment banning slavery

August 30, 1890
Republican President Benjamin Harrison signs legislation by U.S. Senator Justin Morrill (R-VT) making African-Americans eligible for land-grant colleges in the South

June 7, 1892
In a FIRST for a major U.S. political party, two women – Theresa Jenkins and Cora Carleton – attend Republican National Convention in an official capacity, as alternate delegates

February 8, 1894
Democrat Congress and Democrat President Grover Cleveland join to repeal Republicans’ Enforcement Act, which had enabled African-Americans to vote

December 11, 1895
African-American Republican and former U.S. Rep. Thomas Miller (R-SC) denounces new state constitution written to disenfranchise African-Americans

May 18, 1896
Republican Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissenting from Supreme Court’s notorious Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” decision, declares: “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens”

December 31, 1898
Republican Theodore Roosevelt becomes Governor of New York; in 1900, he outlawed racial segregation in New York public schools

May 24, 1900
Republicans vote no in referendum for constitutional convention in Virginia, designed to create a new state constitution disenfranchising African-Americans

January 15, 1901
Republican Booker T. Washington protests Alabama Democratic Party’s refusal to permit voting by African-Americans

October 16, 1901
President Theodore Roosevelt invites Booker T. Washington to dine at White House, sparking protests by Democrats across the country

May 29, 1902
Virginia Democrats implement new state constitution, condemned by Republicans as illegal, reducing African-American voter registration by 86%

February 12, 1909
On 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, African-American Republicans and women’s suffragists Ida Wells and Mary Terrell co-found the NAACP

June 18, 1912
African-American Robert Church, founder of Lincoln Leagues to register black voters in Tennessee, attends 1912 Republican National Convention as delegate; eventually serves as delegate at 8 conventions

August 1, 1916
Republican presidential candidate Charles Evans Hughes, former New York Governor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice, endorses women’s suffrage constitutional amendment; he would become Secretary of State and Chief Justice

May 21, 1919
Republican House passes constitutional amendment granting women the vote with 85% of Republicans in favor, but only 54% of Democrats; in Senate, 80% of Republicans would vote yes, but almost half of Democrats no

April 18, 1920
Minnesota’s FIRST-in-the-nation anti-lynching law, promoted by African-American Republican Nellie Francis, signed by Republican Gov. Jacob Preus

August 18, 1920
Republican-authored 19th Amendment, giving women the vote, becomes part of Constitution; 26 of the 36 states to ratify had Republican-controlled legislatures

January 26, 1922
House passes bill authored by U.S. Rep. Leonidas Dyer (R-MO) making lynching a federal crime; Senate Democrats block it with filibuster

June 2, 1924
Republican President Calvin Coolidge signs bill passed by Republican Congress granting U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans

October 3, 1924
Republicans denounce three-time Democrat presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan for defending the Ku Klux Klan at 1924 Democratic National Convention

December 8, 1924
Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis argues in favor of “separate but equal”

June 12, 1929
First Lady Lou Hoover invites wife of U.S. Rep. Oscar De Priest (R-IL), an African-American, to tea at the White House, sparking protests by Democrats across the country

August 17, 1937
Republicans organize opposition to former Ku Klux Klansman and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black, appointed to U.S. Supreme Court by FDR; his Klan background was hidden until after confirmation

June 24, 1940
Republican Party platform calls for integration of the armed forces; for the balance of his terms in office, FDR refuses to order it

October 20, 1942
60 prominent African-Americans issue Durham Manifesto, calling on southern Democrats to abolish their all-white primaries

April 3, 1944
U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Texas Democratic Party’s “whites only” primary election system

February 18, 1946
Appointed by Republican President Calvin Coolidge, federal judge Paul McCormick ends segregation of Mexican-American children in California public schools

July 11, 1952
Republican Party platform condemns “duplicity and insincerity” of Democrats in racial matters

September 30, 1953
Earl Warren, California’s three-term Republican Governor and 1948 Republican vice presidential nominee, nominated to be Chief Justice; wrote landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education

December 8, 1953
Eisenhower administration Asst. Attorney General Lee Rankin argues for plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education

May 17, 1954
Chief Justice Earl Warren, three-term Republican Governor (CA) and Republican vice presidential nominee in 1948, wins unanimous support of Supreme Court for school desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education

[GOP President Dwight Eisenhower's Justice Department argued for Topeka, Kansas's black school children. Democrat John W. Davis, who lost a presidential bid to incumbent Republican Calvin Coolidge in 1924, defended "separate but equal" classrooms.]

November 25, 1955
Eisenhower administration bans racial segregation of interstate bus travel

March 12, 1956
Ninety-seven Democrats in Congress condemn Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and pledge to continue segregation

June 5, 1956
Republican federal judge Frank Johnson rules in favor of Rosa Parks in decision striking down “blacks in the back of the bus” law

October 19, 1956
On campaign trail, Vice President Richard Nixon vows: “American boys and girls shall sit, side by side, at any school – public or private – with no regard paid to the color of their skin. Segregation, discrimination, and prejudice have no place in America”

November 6, 1956
African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President

September 9, 1957
President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republican Party’s 1957 Civil Rights Act

September 24, 1957
Sparking criticism from Democrats such as Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, President Dwight Eisenhower deploys the 82nd Airborne Division to Little Rock, AR to force Democrat Governor Orval Faubus to integrate public schools

June 23, 1958
President Dwight Eisenhower meets with Martin Luther King and other African-American leaders to discuss plans to advance civil rights

February 4, 1959
President Eisenhower informs Republican leaders of his plan to introduce 1960 Civil Rights Act, despite staunch opposition from many Democrats

May 6, 1960
President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1960, overcoming 125-hour, around-the-clock filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats

July 27, 1960
At Republican National Convention, Vice President and eventual presidential nominee Richard Nixon insists on strong civil rights plank in platform

May 2, 1963
Republicans condemn Democrat sheriff of Birmingham, AL for arresting over 2,000 African-American schoolchildren marching for their civil rights

June 1, 1963
Democrat Governor George Wallace announces defiance of court order issued by Republican federal judge Frank Johnson to integrate University of Alabama

September 29, 1963
Gov. George Wallace (D-AL) defies order by U.S. District Judge Frank Johnson, appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower, to integrate Tuskegee High School

June 9, 1964
Republicans condemn 14-hour filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act by U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), who still serves in the Senate

June 10, 1964
Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) criticizes Democrat filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act, calls on Democrats to stop opposing racial equality

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced and approved by a staggering majority of Republicans in the Senate. The Act was opposed by most southern Democrat senators, several of whom were proud segregationists—one of them being Al Gore Sr. Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson relied on Illinois Senator Everett Dirkson, the Republican leader from Illinois, to get the Act passed.

[According to Congressional Quarterly, only 61% of Democrats in the House of Representatives supported the act, while 80% of Republicans voted in favor. In the Senate, 69% of Democrats and 82% of Republicans voted in favor. Among the Democratic senators who voted against the legislation were J. William Fulbright (Bill Clinton's mentor), who was a racist- pg 82, Do-Gooders, Mona Charen]

*[Senator Barry Goldwater (R., Ariz.) opposed this bill the very year he became the GOP's presidential standard-bearer. However, Goldwater supported the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts and called for integrating Arizona's National Guard two years before Truman desegregated the military. Goldwater feared the 1964 Act would limit freedom of association in the private sector, a controversial but principled libertarian objection rooted in the First Amendment rather than racial hatred.]

Goldwater was also a founding (lifelong) member of the Arizona chapter for the NAACP.

June 20, 1964
The Chicago Defender, renowned African-American newspaper, praises Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) for leading passage of 1964 Civil Rights Act

March 7, 1965
Police under the command of Democrat Governor George Wallace attack African-Americans demonstrating for voting rights in Selma, AL

March 21, 1965
Republican federal judge Frank Johnson authorizes Martin Luther King’s protest march from Selma to Montgomery, overruling Democrat Governor George Wallace

August 4, 1965
Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) overcomes Democrat attempts to block 1965 Voting Rights Act; 94% of Senate Republicans vote for landmark civil right legislation, while 27% of Democrats oppose

August 6, 1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolishing literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent African-Americans from voting, signed into law; higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats vote in favor

July 8, 1970
In special message to Congress, President Richard Nixon calls for reversal of policy of forced termination of Native American rights and benefits

September 17, 1971
Former Ku Klux Klan member and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black (D-AL) retires from U.S. Supreme Court; appointed by FDR in 1937, he had defended Klansmen for racial murders

February 19, 1976
President Gerald Ford formally rescinds President Franklin Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII

September 15, 1981
President Ronald Reagan establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to increase African-American participation in federal education programs

June 29, 1982
President Ronald Reagan signs 25-year extension of 1965 Voting Rights Act

August 10, 1988
President Ronald Reagan signs Civil Liberties Act of 1988, compensating Japanese-Americans for deprivation of civil rights and property during World War II internment ordered by FDR

November 21, 1991
President George H. W. Bush signs Civil Rights Act of 1991 to strengthen federal civil rights legislation

August 20, 1996
Bill authored by U.S. Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY) to prohibit racial discrimination in adoptions, part of Republicans’ Contract With America, becomes law

April 26, 1999
Legislation authored by U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) awarding Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks is transmitted to President

January 25, 2001
U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee declares school choice to be “Educational Emancipation”

March 19, 2003
Republican U.S. Representatives of Hispanic and Portuguese descent form Congressional Hispanic Conference

May 23, 2003
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduces bill to establish National Museum of African American History and Culture

February 26, 2004
Hispanic Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX) condemns racist comments by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL); she had called Asst. Secretary of State Roger Noriega and several Hispanic Congressmen “a bunch of white men…you all look alike to me”

National Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed for a 25 year extension by President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006.

Shattering glass ceilings:

Until 1935, every black federal legislator was Republican. America’s first black U.S. Representative, South Carolina’s Joseph Rainey, and our first black senator, Mississippi’s Hiram Revels, both reached Capitol Hill in 1870. On December 9, 1872, Louisiana Republican Pinckney Benton Stewart “P.B.S.” Pinchback became America’s first black governor.

August 8, 1878: GOP supply-siders may hate to admit it, but America’s first black Collector of Internal Revenue was former U.S. Rep. James Rapier (R., Ala.).

October 16, 1901: GOP President Theodore Roosevelt invited to the White House as its first black dinner guest Republican educator Booker T. Washington. The pro-Democrat Richmond Times newspaper warned that consequently, “White women may receive attentions from Negro men.” As Toni Marshall wrote in the November 9, 1995, Washington Times, when Roosevelt sought reelection in 1904, Democrats produced a button that showed their presidential nominee, Alton Parker, beside a white couple while Roosevelt posed with a white bride and black groom. The button read: “The Choice Is Yours.”

GOP presidents Gerald Ford in 1975 and Ronald Reagan in 1982 promoted Daniel James and Roscoe Robinson to become, respectively, the Air Force’s and Army’s first black four-star generals.

November 2, 1983: President Reagan established Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a national holiday, the first such honor for a black American.

President Reagan named Colin Powell America’s first black national-security adviser while GOP President George W. Bush appointed him our first black secretary of state.

President G.W. Bush named Condoleezza Rice America’s first black female NSC chief, then our second (consecutive) black secretary of State. Just last month, one-time Klansman Robert Byrd and other Senate Democrats stalled Rice’s confirmation for a week. Amid unanimous GOP support, 12 Democrats and Vermont Independent James Jeffords opposed Rice — the most “No” votes for a State designee since 14 senators frowned on Henry Clay in 1825.

“The first Republican I knew was my father, and he is still the Republican I most admire,” Rice has said. “He joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father has never forgotten that day, and neither have I.”

“it is a plain fact of American political life today that Democrats are completely dependent on black votes. The day African Americans stop casting 80 to 95 percent of their votes for Democrats is the day Democrats stop winning elections.”- Mona Charen, Do-Gooders

What exactly IS this financial crisis?

Anthony Bologna, left, and his two sons, Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, were shot and killed on Sunday, June 22, 2008 in San Francisco, Calif. Edwin Ramos, 21, of El Sobrante was arrested in the slayings.

Here are the details:

San Francisco: Sanctuary City Gone Awry
Cinnamon Stillwell
San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

…The Bolognas were on their way back from a family picnic when they inadvertently blocked Ramos’ car from making a left turn in the Excelsior district. When Bologna politely backed up to let the other car past, Ramos responded by opening fire and killing all three passengers. Ramos has been charged with three counts of murder, with the added penalty of street-gang involvement.

What’s worse is that the killer Ramos is an illegal alien and member of the notorious gang MS-13 and has a long record of violent assualts as a juvenile. San Francisco’s Sanctuary City policy shielded this monster from deportation.

The grief of Danielle Bologna, mother and widow is wrenching, but needs to be heard by all who would continue to harbor illegal aliens no matter what the cost to our society:

“I want JUSTICE!”

Today’s Washington Post gives us an update in an article entitled “A Hispanic Population in Decline.” Gotta love this first part. It seems not all people fully appreciate the great multi-cultural influences that diversity brings to a neighborhood.

The family that planted corn in the front yard of their $500,000 home is gone from Carrie Oliver’s street. So are the neighbors who drilled holes into the trees to string up a hammock.

Oliver’s list goes on: The loud music. The beer bottles. The littered diapers. All gone. When she and her husband, Ron, went for walks in their Manassas area neighborhood, she would take a trash bag and he would carry a handgun. No more. “So much has changed,” she said in a gush of relief, standing with her husband on a warm summer evening recently outside a Costco store.

Corn stalks and handguns. What a neat blending of cultures.

One thing is clear though, Hispanics are leaving.

Anecdotes of the trend outstrip hard statistical evidence, yet there are clear signs that the county’s Latino population has reversed its pace of rapid growth. County officials said there are 4,000 to 7,000 vacant homes in the county. Trustee notices fill the classified section of area newspapers, chronicling the steady, staggering forfeiture of properties by homeowners with Hispanic surnames such as Mendez, Lozano, Medina and Rodriguez.

While this is causing a drop in home values, some people think that quality of life is paramount to home values. After all, no home is worth its former value after the neighborhood goes to hell in a handbasket.

That decrease — home prices in some areas have fallen by half — is well worth the improvement in quality of life, according to the most ardent supporters of the county’s get-tough approach.

“We have far less residential overcrowding, and that was driving people crazy,” said Greg Letiecq, a blogger and president of Help Save Manassas. He helped write the county’s policy and has been its most vocal champion. “We’d much rather live next door to a vacant house,” he said, speaking for his members at a recent Help Save Manassas meeting.

“With an empty house, there’s hope that the house is going to have somebody move into it that’s going to be a good neighbor, rather than an overcrowded house that is a neighbor from hell,” Letiecq said, adding that his Manassas area home has dropped $100,000 in value in the past year.

Another big factor is law enforcement’s focus on catching illegal immigrant criminals.

While some Hispanic immigrants have walked away from their homes, others have left the county in the custody of federal agents. County jail officials have turned over 757 illegal immigrant inmates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the past year through an agreement that county supervisors approved as part of the crackdown.

Police have referred more than 300 additional suspects to the immigration and customs branch since March, when the county’s patrol officers began screening for residency status.

Catching illegal immigrants has made Prince William safer, said Corey A. Stewart (R-At-Large), chairman of the board of county supervisors said. Stewart also said the county’s policies have led to “a plummeting of the crime rate.”

When Prince William County’s program levels off, and the illegals have largely relocated to Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria, or to Maryland (all controlled by Democrats), the quality of life will improve, property values will rebound, and maybe folks won’t have to watch their neighbors harvest corn from the front yard.

Also find Bill Dupray at The Patriot Room

And these terrorists are captured in Africa, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Iraq, etc. The crimes they committed in the U.S. range from drunken driving, passing bad checks, and traffic violations to immigration law violations, drug trafficking, and assault with a deadly weapon.

How do the feds know this? Fingerprinting.

The fingerprinting of detainees overseas began as ad-hoc FBI and U.S. military efforts shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It has since grown into a government-wide push to build the world’s largest database of known or suspected terrorist fingerprints. The effort is being boosted by a presidential directive signed June 5, which gave the U.S. attorney general and other cabinet officials 90 days to come up with a plan to expand the use of biometrics by, among other things, recommending categories of people to be screened beyond “known or suspected” terrorists.

Fingerprints are being beamed in via satellite from places as far-flung as the jungles of Zamboanga in the southern Philippines; Bogota, Colombia; Iraq; and Afghanistan. Other allies, such as Sweden, have contributed prints. The database can be queried by U.S. government agencies and by other countries through Interpol, the international police agency.

This data base can be used to track individuals, or groups of individuals all over the globe to link them together in a pattern of criminal behavior.

For example, a roadside bomb may explode and a patrol may fingerprint bystanders because insurgents have been known to remain at the scene to observe the results of their work. Prints also can be lifted off tiny fragments of exploded bombs, said military officials and contractors involved in the work.

Analysts are not just trying to identify the prints on the bomb. They want to find out who the bomb-carrier associates with. Who he calls. Who calls him. That could lead to the higher-level operatives who planned and financed attacks.

Already, fingerprints lifted off a bomb fragment have been linked to people trying to enter the United States, they said.

So who are these terrorists who had been in the U.S.; gotten arrested; then head out to kill and maim overseas?

Many of those with U.S. arrest records had come to the United States to study, said former Criminal Justice Information Services head Michael Kirkpatrick, who led the FBI effort to use biometrics in counter-terrorism after Sept. 11. “It suggests there was some familiarity with Western culture, the United States specifically, and for whatever reason they did not agree with that culture,” he said. “Either they became disaffected or put up with it, and then they went overseas.”

What’s odd is the civil libertarians raising a stink about all this FBI/Intepol biometric data base stuff. On one hand, many of these libertarians oppose GW’s ‘illegal war’, and say all this terrorism crap should be treated as a law enforcement problem; but when the law enforcement agencies receive (~not take) the tools necessary to track & capture these terrorist rats, the FBI gets castigated for trampling on ‘civil rights’ and ‘abuse of power’.

All I know is we must be doing something right. I blame George Bush.