I copied the latest newsletter from Family Leader – one of the ten thousand newsletters I get on Child and Family issues – because I think this plea for activism is really worth the time. I laid down some pretty frank words in my email to Sen. Arlen Specter. As I see it, the religious conservatives in this country have given our votes to the GOP for a reason and since fiscal conservatism is a failure, we at least ought to be holding them to account on the culture and values issues. I’ve got a big case of ”What have you done for me lately” and I reminded the honorable Senator that the morally traditional Republican base has shown allegiance but that this allegiance isn’t blind. These guys need to be aware that our votes are not to be taken for granted. This country is long overdue for some tightening of the loophole filled laws with respect to child pornography, child abuse, parental neglect, not to mention the elephantine issues like elective abortion and same-sex marriage. While I believe that all of these issues are fundamentally states’ issues, there is no denying that the political pendulum continues to swing toward Federalism. Perhaps, with South Dakota’s new abortion ban, that will change but regardless we have to hold our Washingtonian employees to account. Please contact Arlen Specter.
FYI: Since I copied this page directly, the links are ineffective.
Heard an interesting bit of news today while shampooing my floors. Fox news was on in the background and Brian Kilmeade was arguing with a latino about the immigration issue. I missed the guest’s name but here’s the essences of what he said:
He was inviting Latinos to boycott all businesses on a certain day – didn’t catch that either. Both Dayside hosts lost their cool and started accusing Sr. Whoever of trying to hurt the US economy.
So, here’s the question: if it’s going to do so much damage to the economy for them to avoid shopping and public transportation for ONE DAY, then how much greater would the damage be if they were rounded up and shipped home to Mexico, Honduras, and Panama. HELLO?!?
Personally, I think this is a great way of reminding the hard liners that these people profoundly impact our economy. If we could round up every single illegal and deport them immediately – can you even imagine how many apartments and mobile homes would sit empty. How much less would be paid in water and heating bills. How many fewer boxes of cereal, gallons of milk, packages of chorizo. That’s a lot of taxable spending. When I lived in Georgia, I volunteered among the Latino community and many of these folks were illegal immigrants. There was a whole barrio (probably 750-1000 people) made up of several trailer parks and small houses that were entirely occupied by these migrant workers. The men travelled up and down the coast picking whatever was in season or working in factories that had seasonal needs. They paid rent, shopped, ordered pizza. I took many of them back and forth to the doctor where I watched them pay in cash for services. I ran into them at Wal-Mart Christmas shopping and I celebrated baby showers and birthdays with them where many nice presents were exchanged. It wasn’t just that. I frequently turned down offers to be taken out to lunch and I often refused gifts offered as a show of gratitude for the times when I carted pregnant wives here or there or dropped folks off at their church services or the market.
The military tried this same practice once – I can’t remember where but the story goes that back before direct deposit when soldiers where getting paid directly, the commanding general of an Army post was frustrated with the complaints of the local community. “Those soldiers just cause problems! All they do is drink and keep the prostitutes in business.” The Post comander ordered that all the troops be paid in silver dollars so that the town outside the gate could see the real impact. He spoke to the complaining civilian community. “Every time you see a silver dollar in your cash register – you remember a soldier put it there.” It only took one pay period before the compaints stopped. Water bills were paid in silver dollars, groceries, electric bills, phone bills, everything. It became clear to all very quickly that in spite of the difficulties of hosting the soldiers – there was a real and positive economic impact.
Many who are taking a hard line approach to the immigration issue have had negative experiences and are all too familiar with the negative press about crime and gangs among the inner city illegals. But if you reject the bad news coming out of Iraq as filled with bias, how can you accept the news about the Bronx or Chicago’s south side without question. I’m not suggesting that there aren’t problems – clearly there are. But there’s a lot of good going on, too.
If illegal immigrants boycott our stores to give us an idea of the real impact they have on the American economy, we shouldn’t consider this a vindictive act but an eye-opening experiment.
American kids in Pheonix took matters into their own hands and ripped down a Mexican flag that had been raised, higher than the US flag, at their high school. The flag was then burned. Sounds like a nationalistic backlash could be brewing across the country. With Mexican immigrants fighting for inclusion but also demonstrating a refusal to assimilate, the rhetoric against excusing these law breakers for illegal entry is becoming increasingly fierce. The continuing push from the political left to abandon nationalism in favor of subjection to the UN and other international bodies combined with the assault on traditional values and the refusal of immigrants, legal and illegal, to Americanize may very well backfire on all accounts.
Decreasing federal government and returning more power to the people locally might do wonders to diffuse the growing unrest and sense of powerlessness that many Americans feel at seeing their values and patriotic allegiance undermined by activistsinWashington, adcampaigns, and slantedmediareporting. But one thing is for certain, if nothing is done we could be in for a lot more that burnt banners.
The following is a partial list of recently charged criminals who should be seeking legal counsel from the LaFave defense team. After all, if you can molest one of your students and get away with it, you certainly ought to be able to hide your husband’s body in the trunk of your car for a few days. What’s a little death and decay among manic-depressives?
David Jordan (44) New York who killed a local preacher and civil rights activist for allegedly inviting him (somewhat forcefully) to break sodomy laws.
And if that isn’t enough depressing news, read this before taking your zoloft.
Hey, Rummy, while we’re trying to get more good news out about Iraq can we try to get a little out about America, too?
Al Jazeera publishing company out of Dubai, UAE (yeah – the ports deal place) has a very interesting online magazine.
From their “About Us” page:
About Aljazeera.com Aljazeera Publishing owns and operates Aljazeera.com, bringing you the world today. Aljazeera Publishing is an independent media organisation established in 1992 in London. Aljazeera.com has a particular focus on events and issues in the Middle East covering major developments presenting facts as they happen.
Important note: Aljazeera Publishing and Aljazeera.com are not associated with the controversial Arabic Satellite Channel known as Jazeera Space Channel TV (also known as Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel) station whose website is Aljazeera.net.
Aljazeera Publishing disassociates itself from the views, opinions and broadcasts of Jazeera Space Channel TV station.
Interestingly, this e-zine capitalizes on the notoriety of the other Al-Jazeera to publish this: “Conspiracy Theories”. That, I suppose is their way of “covering major developments presenting facts as they happen”. Okay, if you say so. At least they labelled the page correctly.
Joy Jones begins her insightful article with anectdotal evidence of the decline of marriage among the African-American community.
I grew up in a time when two-parent families were still the norm, in both black and white America. Then, as an adult, I saw divorce become more commonplace, then almost a rite of passage. Today it would appear that many — particularly in the black community — have dispensed with marriage altogether.
But as a black woman, I have witnessed the outrage of girlfriends when the ex failed to show up for his weekend with the kids, and I’ve seen the disappointment of children who missed having a dad around. Having enjoyed a close relationship with my own father, I made a conscious decision that I wanted a husband, not a live-in boyfriend and not a “baby’s daddy,” when it came my time to mate and marry.
My time never came.
For years, I wondered why not. And then some 12-year-olds enlightened me.
“Marriage is for white people.”
That’s what one of my students told me some years back when I taught a career exploration class for sixth-graders at an elementary school in Southeast Washington. I was pleasantly surprised when the boys in the class stated that being a good father was a very important goal to them, more meaningful than making money or having a fancy title.
“That’s wonderful!” I told my class. “I think I’ll invite some couples in to talk about being married and rearing children.”
“Oh, no,” objected one student. “We’re not interested in the part about marriage. Only about how to be good fathers.”
And that’s when the other boy chimed in, speaking as if the words left a nasty taste in his mouth: “Marriage is for white people.”
Jones predicts the trend away from marriage will continue to spread into white America.
Couple this news with Pew research results indicating that fewer Americans are opposing same-sex marriage that were doing so just two years ago and you have to wonder if the marriage insitution is going the way of the dinosaur.
Alabama high school Spanish teacher Brett Drummond faces a felony charge and a couple of misdemeanor charges after buying porn for two male students. The news came to light after one of the boys told his parents. Gotta wonder what the defense is gonna be – Was this homework? Were any of the articles in Spanish?
What makes this the most absurd news blurb of the day is that Mr. D confessed to some of the accusations and yet is still “on paid administrative leave pending the results of the investigation.”
What The Freak? He’s still getting paid????? Just my honest opinion but this guy should be on unpaid leave and if exonerated paid retroactively. I’d hate to ruin the life of an innocent man but if this guy has admitted some guilt here, he shouldn’t be a tax payer burden. Innocent until proven guilty isn’t the same as employed until proven guilty.
Well, the folks who brought us doctored Mohammed cartoons are at work in Iraq. Hoping to drum up some support, they are now rearranging battle sites to create fake atrocities. Could this be the work of some Danish Imam?
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. commanders in Iraq on Monday accused powerful Shi’ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage accusations that U.S.-led troops massacred unarmed worshippers in a mosque.
“After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was. There’s been huge misinformation,” Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said.
He rejected the accusations of a massacre that prompted the Shi’ite-led government to demand U.S. forces cede control of security but declined to spell out which group he believed moved the bodies.
Government-run television has shown footage of bodies lying without weapons in what Shi’ite ministers say is a mosque compound run by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The security minister accused Iraqi and U.S. troops of killing 37 unarmed men.
Giving the first U.S. military briefing on Sunday’s events in Baghdad, Chiarelli said the raid by about 50 Iraqi special forces troops backed by some 25 U.S. “advisers” had been the fruit of long intelligence work. But he said he did not know the religious affiliation of 16 “insurgents” who were killed.
An Iraqi was freed who had been taken hostage that day and threatened with death if he did not pay a $20,000 ransom, he said. Three fighters were wounded and 18 other people detained.
Chiarelli insisted the compound was not a mosque but an office complex. Neighbors and aides to Sadr call it a mosque and say it was once offices for Saddam Hussein’s Baath party.
“There was gunfire from every room,” he said.
Major General J.D. Thurman, whose division controls Baghdad, said: “If it was a mosque, why are they using it as a place to hold hostages?” He added that weapons, including 34 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were also found.
ADVISERS
Chiarelli stood by the U.S. account, disputed by Sadr aides and other Shi’ite leaders but which is broadly in line with police reports and some local witnesses who spoke of a fierce gun battle around the site.
He said an Iraqi special forces unit with about 25 U.S. advisers, trainers, medical and bomb disposal crew in support arrived to raid the site at nightfall and were immediately fired on from a number of buildings around the compound.
The troops “cleared the compound,” he said, killing or capturing those inside. “It was Iraqi forces who did the fighting,” he stressed. Thurman said U.S. helicopters were in the air at the time but only in support of another mission.
All the dead were killed by Iraqi fire, Chiarelli said.
Chiarelli identified the hostage as a dental technician and said: “He was shown a picture of his daughter and told if he didn’t pay $20,000 he was going to be dead the next day.”
Asked about the apparent surprise, not to say disapproval, of the operation in the ruling Shi’ite Alliance bloc, Chiarelli said: “It was coordinated through military channels. Not every operation we run is coordinated with every politician in Iraq.”
Though he declined to be drawn on the possible involvement of Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia, whose political leaders have led condemnation of the raid, Chiarelli said: “I think the backlash has been caused by the folks who set the scene up.”
Both generals praised the unidentified Iraqi unit involved for its record of discipline and minimizing the use of force. Chiarelli said: “They don’t go in guns blazing.”
With all of the uproar about America’s “porous borders” and the fear of terrorists entering the country as illegal aliens, the country is slowly becoming polarized on yet another issue.
Unlike most conservatives, I find myself comfortably in the middle when it comes to immigration. I’ve listened to Bill O’Reilly’s rants and I’ve heard screeching voices on the airwaves hyperventilate repeatedly, “but… but… they broke the law!” Sorry, guys, I’m just not buying it. Here’s why:
Everyday millions of Americans break the law. They speed on back roads and through neighborhoods. They jaywalk. They eat a grape off the produce stand without paying for it. And yet, no one is out looking for past offenders. These lawbreakers get away scot free. We don’t punish a lot of prior bad acts.
The same principle applies to any punitive measure we could legislate with respect to immigrants. Yes they broke the law to enter this country. Okay, they got away with it. Let them apply for citizenship. Demand proof of employment, charge a fine, and make them register. Any undesirables – criminals and such – would be weeded out in that process. Economically it makes sense that the more people we have putting into the national coffers, the better we all are. This is increasingly true as baby boomers age and caring for them becomes more of a burden than subsequent generations can bear.
Last night, Bill o’Reilly continued his personal battle for putting troops on the border. He also declared that citizenship should be earned. I’m left wondering how Bill’s ancestors earned entrance into the United States other than stepping off the boat onto Ellis Island in the right century. There is room and enough to spare for people who contribute. This nation was once welcome to all who would seek freedom and a better life – how can we turn our back on the very principal that led to the founding of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth.
Yes, yes, I understand the “post 9-11″ mentality. Registering people who pass through open doors is a whole lot easier than trying to seal up an infinite number of cracks. In fact, with people legitimately entering the country, registering, and seeking citizenship, the number of those trying to sneak in would decrease monumentally raising the odds exponentially that the border patrol could actually catch the folks we don’t want here.
