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Yet another black mark on the dark record of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) chieftess a/k/a “The ICE Princess.”
The ICE Princess had hundreds of thousands of dollars–of our tax money–to hold a for no useful immigration enforcement purpose. And she has about $150,000 of our tax money to , when ICE already has a full complement of attorneys for that purpose. Yet, ICE does not have the money for ICE officials to attend an Oklahoma State Senate hearing on illegal immigration and how the State of Oklahoma can help stop it.
Here are the complete details from AP, posted by Tulsa’s ABC Channel 8/KTUL:

Feds A No Show At Immigration Hearing

ICE’s , , , and
(ICEfeld by Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for PhotoShop David Lunde)

Wednesday October 04, 2006 5:13pm
Oklahoma City (AP) – State Senator Daisy Lawler says she is disappointed federal officials didn’t come to Oklahoma City today to participate in an immigration hearing.
Lawler heads a Senate task force examining immigration issues.
She says she wanted to hear from federal immigration officials about what Oklahoma could do to help stem illegal immigration.
A federal immigration official from Dallas declined to attend the meeting, saying funds were not available for this purpose.

We’ll bet this article didn’t make today’s “ICE Clips.”
There is much chatter regarding whether The ICE Princess will remain in her position after year’s end. Her recess appointment is up then, and she does not yet have scheduled U.S. Senate hearings for her renewed nomination by President Bush. She is due to give birth, and her husband, John Wood, currently Michael Chertoff’s Chief of Staff, is rumored to get a Bush nomination as U.S. Attorney in the Midwest or New York.
We hope she leaves soon, and a true fiscal manager and law enforcement mind gets a chance to re-steer this wayward ship called ICE. America’s security depends on it.
Thanks to reader Lui for the tip.

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Remember President Bush’s January announcement of his foreign language instruction initiative–the National Strategic Language Initiative?
He announced it at the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education. It sounded like a great concept that would help our country fight terrorism.
The idea was to spend our tax money wisely, by funding instruction in Arabic, Farsi, and other languages in our public schools. Skilled speakers and readers of these languages are badly needed as future federal law enforcement agents, analysts, etc. to help us fight the war on terror. Ideally, non-Arabic, non-Muslim Americans would learn these languages and grow up to be reliable translators that our government badly needs.

Good Idea Gone Bad:
President Bush Announces National Strategic Language Initiative
Currently, there is a backlog in translation of documents in these languages at the FBI. Worse, Islamists who hate America, but love Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas, are utilized as translators by the FBI, CIA, DHS, and other agencies. Often, their translations cannot be relied upon, because they are trying to cover up their terrorist buddies’ real plans.
Problem is, the money is NOT going to regular Americans we can rely on to grow up and support this country in its efforts in the war on terror. Nope. Instead, YOUR TAX MONEY IS GOING TO FUND ARABIC LESSONS IN DEARBORNISTAN!
A tiny story in today’s Detroit Free Press announced that of two federal grants going to the State of Michigan under the National Strategic Language Initiative, only one is to teach Arabic (the other teaches Chinese). And it is going to America’s only Islamofascist dominated public school district–the Dearborn Public Schools.
Aside from bringing to mind the phrase about “shipping coal to Newcastle,” this is an outrage.
Aside from the fact that Arabic is already offered in the Dearborn School district, I’ve noted and again, the City of Dearborn is dominated by Islamists. Thousands of its residents are extremist Muslims who openly support Hezbollah, HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, etc. This summer, saw repeated rallies of at least 10 percent of the city in support of these groups.

Hezbollah High: Fordson Principal Imad Fadlallah is Hezbollah Spiritual Leader/Terrorist Mohammed Fadlallah’s Cousin
I’ve also where this money will be spent. At Dearborn’s Fordson High a/k/a “,” principal Imad Fadlallah is a cousin of Hezbollah spiritual leader Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
Fadlallah took at least a week off of school at the beginning of this school year to go to Lebanon–reportedly to attend Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s celebrations of Hezbollah’s “victory” over Israel. In 2005, he allowed students at Fordson–the nation’s only Muslim-dominated public high school–to get time off from school and get extra credit for campaigning at the polls against Christian candidates running for Dearborn offices, in favor of Muslim ones.
And then there’s this choice quote from him in an AP story:

Nowadays, I have a very, very hard time defending American democracy. . . I can’t defend anymore.

Is this the kind of school district where our tax dollars should go to teach Arabic?
Only if we want to help our enemy within defeat us.
Gail McGinn, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Plans and Senior Language Authority, announced the grant, saying:

It’s important to encourage students to study this, for their future, for their job opportunities and for their individual growth.

Wrong. This money is for America’s future, for its future national security. That’s why it’s part of the Defense Department, which isn’t in the individual growth biz. And that’s why it’s not a good move to include the students in this particular school district in this important, now-squandered program.
Dearborn is getting a three-year $885,975 grant from the Department of Education, PLUS an annual $1 million grant from the Department of Defense. Absurd. Almost $6 million of your taxes wasted–and worse, used to educate kids who aren’t the most pro-American in languages we need patriots to learn.
This money would be better spent in an average non-Arab, non-Muslim community in Middle America, not populated by those who hate us. So why isn’t it going there?
National Strategic Language Initiative? Nothing strategic about this move.
Unless it’s our enemies’ strategies we’re pursuing.

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More bad news from the “24” gang.
Star and Executive Producer Kiefer Sutherland told USA Today that the show will take a strong political stand, this season. As if we needed more shows taking political stands. Here’s the quote:

He [Sutherland] says one major story line will “take a strong political point of view. It’s a major point in a way the show’s never taken before.”

Just what could this “strong political point of view” be? Well, most of what we know, so far, all hints at the political point of view being that most American Muslims are against terrorists just like we are (they aren’t) and that all terrorists are not Muslim (most of them are).

Kiefer Sutherland: PC “24” to Take “Strong Political Stand”
. . . in Support of America’s Islamists?
This week, FOX sent out a press release announcing that a trailer of season 6 will be available at www.24trailer.com, beginning on October 24 at 3:00 p.m. In the release, FOX noted that the season picks up “after a series of horrific terrorist attacks.”
We that the main villain will be played by Eddie Izzard, a White man, not a Muslim.
We that actor Kal Penn will play a man involved with the leader of a neighborhood mosque, and that FOX said his character “may be” the key to a terrorist plot.
Sounds to us like this “strong political point of view” will be a very politically correct one. We were already treated to , during season 4, to America’s Muslims, claiming their entire community “stands firmly” against terrorism (when they don’t):

Hi. My name is Kiefer Sutherland. And I play counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer on Fox’s “24.” I would like to take a moment to talk to you about something that I think is very important. Now while terrorism is obviously one of the most critical challenges facing our nation and the world, it is important to recognize that the American Muslim community stands firmly beside their fellow Americans in denouncing and resisting all forms of terrorism. So in watching “24,” please, bear that in mind.

Look for that to be the message of this season. We hope we’re wrong but all indications are that way.
Remember, Jack Bauer, may be your typical, brave, patriotic, hard-working federal agent fighting terrorists–and they tend to be conservative and not PC. They know the enemy is radical Islam. But Kiefer Sutherland–who plays him and has tremendous creative control of the show as an Executive Producer–.

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My family is primarily an Army family. My father served several years in the U.S. Army and then the U.S. Army National Guard. And my Great-Uncle Maurice was a career Army man who served during WWII and rose to become one of the highest-ranking doctors in the Army. He was stationed in Pearl Harbor.
But my cousin, a U.S. Air Force Academy grad, is a career Air Force man, who served in Iraq and is still stationed overseas. So, I’m glad to see that all those Airmen who gave their lives for our freedom are finally getting a monument. It’s also good news for the many readers of this site who are active or retired Air Force personnel, who want the efforts of their branch of the military to be recognized and remembered.

U.S. Air Force Memorial: They Gave Their Lives So We Could Be Free
The Army, Navy, and Marines have one. And on October 14th, the U.S. Air Force Memorial will be officially unveiled on a promontory high above the Pentagon. Three curved stainless steel spires will arc up 270 fee in the air to honor the USAF, which will soon celebrate its 60th year in existence. (Ross Perot, Jr., an Air Force vet chairs the memorial’s foundation board and helped get it done.) The memorial will also feature a sculpture of a four-man Honor Guard and a glass contemplation wall picturing a “Missing Man” formation.
Check out the Air Force Memorial’s website.

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Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on two important companion cases that could change the wave of alien deportations for the better . . . or for the worse, Lopez v. Gonzales and Toledo-Flores v. United States. The transcript of the oral arguments is here.
Although both Jose Antonio Lopez and Reymundo Toledo-Flores, both Mexican nationals were legal immigrants, they were convicted in drug crimes–Lopez of aiding and abetting possession of cocaine and Toledo-Flores of possessing cocaine.
At issue is whether anti-drug and immigration laws can be used to deport aliens based on drug-possession offenses. Is a drug-possession offense that is a felony under state law (but a misdemeanor under federal law) rise to the level of “illicit trafficking,” making it an “aggravated felony” and requiring mandatory deportation for a legal immigrant who is not a U.S. citizen?
Thanks, Bader Ginsburg: More of This . . .

Leads to More of This.

If so, that means that aliens convicted for such drug offenses can be routinely deported and cannot appeal to an immigration judge (which ends up in years of appeals thereafter).
The federal government, represented in court by Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Edward Kneedler, argued that Congress wrote the deportation laws with the words “any felony” to mean that any felony triggers the automatic deportation. Unfortunately, right now, appellate courts in several circuits have come out with conflicting opinions. Some misguided, activist judges apparently believe that Congress doesn’t mean what it says in the laws it passes.
It’s imperative that Justices vote that any felony, whether under State or Federal law, should result in automatic deportation. Otherwise, we will have an even more endless backlog of illegal aliens here for years until they exhaust endless appeals. Ask any Detention and Removal Operations official at ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement), and they’ll tell you:
This will simply make their jobs tougher. And we will be stuck with more criminals in our midst. Additionally, we simply do not have the bed space for these people while they await years-long appeals. And most of them are mandatory imprisonment cases.
As , Detroit Free Press reporter Dawson that the State of Michigan alone pays tens of thousands of dollars to imprison aliens we should be deporting. Watch for those dollar figures to go up–in every state–should the Supes vote the wrong way.
And aside from that, do you want coke (or other hard drug) users and dealers becoming citizens because they got off on a technicality of state law versus federal law. A felony is a felony. A druggie is an undesirable resident or citizen.
Already Suprematrix Ruth Bader Ginsburg has hinted her ill-advised vote, with her comments in yesterday’s oral arguments:

“It seems to me unseemly in the immigration context.”

Ditto for Supe David Souter (thanks, Pops Bush!) who expressed doubt over the government’s position.
But this is not about what is “seemly” or “unseemly.” This isn’t about the Emily Post Institute of etiquette. It’s about addressing a national security crisis or exacerbating it.
Justices Roberts, Alito, and Scalia look like good votes in the right direction. Hopefully two more will get some good sense.
Or look for more illegal alien criminals within our borders . . . and on the streets.

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Recently, President Bush signed a very important piece of legislation into law–the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act.
It exposes the pork–and all other spending (more pork) by Congress. We get to see where the money is going, and it’s all available online. Several blogs (mostly conservative ones) were credited by the Bush Administration for putting Congress’ feet to the fire and getting the bill passed.
I was interviewed by Federal Computer Week regarding this and how the Bush Administration–and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)–can galvanize the power of the blogs for other legislation. Here is my quote:

“Pork spans both sides of the aisle, and both liberals and conservatives will benefit from seeing where the money is going,” said Debbie Schlussel, writer for the conservative . No one wants less transparency.
Officials need “red-meat conservative issues” to get the conservative blogs to champion them, she said. “When they are touting good, old-fashioned conservative red-meat issues – like exposing government pork – they will succeed with bloggers’ help.”

My point is that we aren’t going to help Bush–or anyone else–on behalf of “Guest Worker” ShAmnesty legislation or the Bush Admin’s never-ceasing special treatment and outreach to Islamic extremists.
Even conservative blogs, especially this one, are not blind cheerleaders for George W. Anything but. We’ve, proudly, been very critical of the sillier–and scarier–efforts by the Bush White House.

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On this site, I’ve been , now in his waning days. And given the racism and extremism of the Nation of Islam, I never thought there’d be a Farrakhan I liked.
But now there is: Sultan Farakhan (different spelling of surname), a courageous American (who, based on his name, is likely a Black Muslim).
Farakhan, an immigrant benefits application adjudicator for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), spoke out against the rubber stamping of terrorists’ and other criminals’ applications for green cards, work visas, American citizenship, etc. An estimated 75% of the 3 million applicant for those immigration documents over the last four years were NOT checked against the terrorism watch list.
Farakhan said he and other employees were made aware of this on August 11th, a day after the British plot to blow up U.S.-bound planes was announced. He was outraged and chose to go public to fix the problem.
Farakhan knew that by doing so he was risking his job. But he did so to bring attention to this outrage. Sadly, on Friday, he was, in fact, fired from his job at the National Benefits Center in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, one of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s largest application-processing centers. His crime: speaking out about this huge risk to our national security.
Sultan told Sara A. Carter of the San Bernardino County Sun and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:

“They are upset with the fact that I spoke out. I don’t understand why they want to keep the truth hidden, because this is about the national security of our country.
Going after me is a waste of time. They need to fix the system. I truly believe terrorists have slipped through … and they are here and waiting.”

Farrakhan was also fired for speaking out against bonuses of $500 that were given to CIS employees to rubber stamp applications for visas, green cards, citizenship, etc. to “get rid of the backlog”:

Farakhan — who according to USCIS evaluations had a nearly flawless performance record during his four years as a “term,” or temporary, employee — was one of hundreds of agency employees who received a $500 bonus Sept. 19 for helping reduce the agency’s application backlog. . . .
Farakhan spoke candidly to the Daily Bulletin in late August about a series of immigrant application processing and security failures at the National Benefits Center. Farakhan told the newspaper that numerous breaches at the center during the past four years — including countless applications that triggered terrorist and criminal “hits” in the computer system but were approved anyway — had rendered the system vulnerable to exploitation by foreign terrorists and criminals.
Farakhan, who requested whistle-blower protection from Congress last month, said many employees were not aware that a simple keystroke would have allowed them to fully check the background of applicants against the terrorist database, and that the push to quickly eliminate millions of backlogged immigration applications before an October deadline set by President Bush weakened national security checks inside USCIS.

Farakhan is not the only one complaining. My friend, Mike Maxwell (I interviewed him on the air when I recently ), a patriotic, dedicated American resigned from his job–one of the top positions in USCIS, over this and other national security problems:

Mike Maxwell, who resigned Feb. 17 from his post as USCIS’ director of security and internal affairs, sought whistle-blower protection so he could speak candidly to Congress about security problems inside the agency.
Prior to Maxwell’s resignation, he had attempted to speak to congressional committees on numerous occasions, but said he was always accompanied by seven to 10 handlers — Department of Homeland Security officials who would determine what he could and couldn’t say to Congress.
Congressional representatives on two occasions last year asked the handlers to leave the room so Maxwell could speak freely. After those two incidents, Maxwell was forbidden to speak to Congress alone again, he said.
“There is not only a culture of corruption but a culture of fear they instill in employees,” Maxwell said. “If you want to blow the whistle, you’re going to be retaliated against.”

CIS agents tell me that one of the problems is that their agency will not give them access to the TECS NN16 database, which lists terrorists and similar malefactors. They tell me that even though the FBI will allow them to use the database, CIS brass won’t allow them to use it, claiming it is for “exclusive use by law enforcement.” Well, hello?, what about those checking, adjudicating, and approving people for temporary and permanent entry into the U.S.?
CIS rank and file tell me that they’re told only the “most egregious” cases can be turned down. One CIS employee says that means “like more than 7 DUIs and two murder convictions.” And even then, the referral process is so complex and dysfunctional, the cases just get “lost.”
Bottom line:
Terrorists, hardened criminals, and deportable aliens? Let them in. Hard-working employees who care about America’s national security–like Sultan Farakhan and Michael Maxwell–out the door.
Wake up, America. Your government is working against you, more than 5 years after 9/11.

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I saw the much-hyped (actually, overhyped) “Borat” movie, last night. (Full title: “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan“)
You need not be a prude to note that the movie is not funny and goes beyond all acceptable bounds of good taste (and even the bounds of bad taste). I’m prohibited by Twentieth Century-Fox from reviewing it, until it comes out in early November. But one question:
Since when do they speak Hebrew in Kazakhstan?

Definition of Over-Rated: Borat/Sacha Baron Cohen
Kazakh and Russian are the official languages of Kazakhstan. I speak and understand both Russian and Hebrew, and Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) is clearly speaking Hebrew (when he’s not speaking English) during the entire film. If you’re going to make fun of two entire countries (the movie mostly makes fun of us, Americans, FYI) and play an anti-Semitic Kazakh, at least get it right.
There’s not much right about “Borat.” I now know why the Kazakhs hate Cohen. I second that emotion.
Stay tuned for my review, when the movie is released, next month.

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Time to start a Gitmo chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance.
Despite all the baseless complaints that Islamic terrorist prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are maltreated and not given good or enough food, their weight gain says otherwise.
The magnificent halal meals are so good and so calorie-laden–and the appetites of the Islamic terrorist prisoners so hearty–that the Islamofascist inmates have gained a lot of weight.
From a just-published AP story:

Many detainees at Guantanamo Bay are becoming fat.

Gitmo Halal Meals Are More Like Buffets Fit For a Sultan

Meals totaling a whopping 4,200 calories per day are brought to their cells–U.S. government dietary guidelines recommend 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day for weight maintenance–and some inmates are eating everything on the menu.
One detainee has almost doubled in weight, to 410 pounds (186 kilograms), Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, spokesman for the detention facilities, said Monday. . . .
Detainees are simply served a wide variety of food and expected to choose what appeals to them.
“The detainees are advised that they are offered more food than necessary to provide choice and variety, and that consuming all the food they are offered will result in weight gain,” he said.
Most of the prisoners were picked up in Afghanistan and other conflict zones and were slightly underweight when they arrived at the military prison in southeast Cuba. Since then, they’ve gained an average of 20 pounds (9 kilograms), and most are now “normal to mildly overweight or mildly obese,” he said.
The meals include meats prepared according to Islamic guidelines, fresh bread and yogurt. . . . Traditional desserts and honey are served during the Ramadan observances.
The calorie intake at Guantanamo is well above the norm for federal inmates in the United States–they receive about 2,900 calories a day, said U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman Michael Truman. . . .
Citing prison rules, Guantanamo officials wouldn’t disclose the identity of their heaviest detainee, but Durand said he now weighs 410 pounds (186 kilograms), and arrived in 2002 weighing 215 pounds (98 kilograms).

Hmmm . . . . Sounds like Rush Limbaugh needs to make sure he has XXXL sizes available for his Club Gitmo t-shirts.
Predictably, liberal “human rights” activists from SHAmnesty International are complaining that these prisoners are getting fat because they are stuck in small cells all day. On the contrary, these is hardly Islamic terrorist foie gras in development. Prisoners who behave are given up to 12 hours of exercise time per day, again well more and far better than prisoners in the U.S. domestic prison system. And they have a full gym of treadmills, stationary bikes, and other exercise equipment.
Sounds like Club Med, with better food.
Thanks to reader Jeff H. for the tip.

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Since the Mark Foley scandal broke, I’ve been getting a torrent of e-mails from readers who cite as a contrast in the way Democrats and Republicans treat their child molesters.
No, my dear readers, I did not forget Congressman Reyolds. I in early 2001.
Reynolds was a liberal Democrat Congressman who actually did what Mark Foley–as far as we know–only talked about. The difference is that Mel Reynolds’ “affair” with an underaged girl got him a Presidential pardon and a job with Jesse Jackson.

Congressman Mel Reynolds: Clinton Pardoned Dems’ Mark Foley
From my :

While he represented inner-city Chicago, Reynolds was a good friend of the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan. They were such close friends that Reynolds had no problem spouting some of Farrakhan’s various anti-Semitic incantations against Jews while in office.
But all of this vicious hate couldn’t help Reynolds when he helped himself to regular illegal sexual relations with a 16-year-old “campaign worker,” Beverly T. Heard. A tape of an explicit June 6, 1994, phone conversation between Heard and Reynolds was exhibit number TR-1 in People v. Melvin Reynolds, a trial that ended in Reynolds’ conviction. Reynolds was sentenced to several years in federal prison for this and fraud and corruption convictions; his wife and three children went on welfare in Boston.
A sampling of Reynolds’ phone conversation rivals the lurid detail of Clinton’s lewd behavior in the Starr Report. Various underwear choices and sex acts are graphically described by Reynolds to his youthful female target. This includes a planned threesome with a 15-year-old Catholic schoolgirl named Theresa. Awestruck with the prospect, Reynolds rhetorically asks, “Did I win the Lotto?” It’s enough to make Reynolds’ pardoner, Monica’s boyfriend, blush.
And not only was Reynolds pardoned by Clinton, but he was hired by Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH to decrease the number of young blacks going to prison. Given its new employee — teen “romance” king Reynolds — it’s ironic that Jackson founded PUSH to persuade minority students to avoid, among other things, teen-age pregnancy. Until Clinton’s pardon, Reynolds, like any other convicted child molester, was required to register as a sex offender in each place he lived.

No-one’s saying Mark Foley should not have resigned. He’s a disgrace, and it’s good he’s gone. But let’s have some fair play here. What’s good for the Goose is good for the . . . Democrats.