simply outrageous

i don’t understand this strategy by the US government in dealing with illegal immigration.

from the daily bulletin:

While Minuteman civilian patrols are keeping an eye out for illegal border crossers, the U.S. Border Patrol is keeping an eye out for Minutemen — and telling the Mexican government where they are. According to three documents on the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site, the U.S. Border Patrol is to notify the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups when they participate in apprehending illegal immigrants — and if and when violence is used against border crossers. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman confirmed the notification process, describing it as a standard procedure meant to reassure the Mexican government that migrants’ rights are being observed.

so the US government doesn’t want to seriously deal with the illegal immigration issue. not only that, but they are actively helping the mexican government find those who are willing to do something about the problem. michelle malkin has more here(where the DHS labels the report “inaccurate”) and here.

if this is happening on ANY level, it’s wrong. i am finding it hard to accept that those who break our laws to get into this country should have any rights. of course they shouldn’t be abused, but they should be arrested and deported when they are caught. there’s nothing inhumane about enforcing our laws.

there are many areas where i agree with bush 43, but he’s making it harder and harder for me to defend him. i agree with him on social issues, iraq, and on the selection of conservative judges to the supreme court. i can’t defend this. we elected this guy for the most part because of concerns about national security and the GWOT. i think it’s fair to say that his report card is incomplete at this point.

president bush should care just as much as securing the borders of this country in addition to his concern about the security and future of iraq. right now i just don’t see that commitment to this country’s security.

related:

U.S. Border Patrol: Reporting To Mexico? –california conservative

illegals and the rest of us

i’m opposed to illegal immigration. how’s that for analysis? maybe i should elaborate just a bit on that. i don’t think that anyone who is here illegally, whether they are mexican or any other nationality, should be allowed to stay in the country. i’m not sure that there is a simple way to address that problem. it’s clear that we need to make the attempt to enforce current laws as they exist today. however, we have seen that the current system is broken and needs to be fixed. that should be something that both sides should agree on. the disagreement is about what we do to fix the problem.

i find it annoying that people who sneak into our country, break our laws, and continue to flaunt those laws by staying in the country, have the audacity to complain about having no rights. citizens have rights. non-citizens do not. employers in this country are breaking our laws to give those people jobs, and for this concession, they get people walking out to join a protest. yeah…that makes sense to me. if the mexican people should protest about anything, it’s their ineffectual socialist government that keeps them in poverty. if we really want to help mexican citizens, we should start introducing a different economic model for them, not a brand-new guest worker program.

there are laws in place ALREADY that address many of the current problems we are having with illegal immigration, as california conservative points out. we need to start enforcing the laws we already have. making it easier for someone who sneaks into the country to become a citizen seems kind of backward to me. we shouldn’t reward people who break our laws by giving them a shortcut to citizenship, especially because there are people here already who are trying to go through a legal citizenship process.

what message does that send to those who actually want to be citizens of this country? let’s be clear on this. many of these illegals don’t really want to be US citizens. so giving them the option doesn’t really make sense. our priorities are screwed up when talking about this issue. border security should be the top priority as well as enforcing current immigration laws. even if we will never see terrorists cross the border through mexico, it is still important that we know who is coming into our country. then maybe we can entertain all these other suggestions.

related:

we don’t need no stinkin’ reform –california conservative
the intellectual dishonesty of the open borders crowd — right wing nut house

tags: illegal immigration

dear red sox fans

GET OVER IT. you know what i’m talking about. forget about the fact that you all had a legendary world series drought with no rain in sight before johnny damon came along. forget about the fact that your ownership spent its off-season looking for the GM it already had. ignore the possibility that the blame belongs to john henry and company for damon leaving. now, do i think damon’s worth what the yankees are paying him? yes and no. yes, because the red sox don’t have him. no, because the yankees overpay pretty much everybody they employ (especially those bullpen guys coming before rivera).

you got your world series. be happy with it…and wish that losing damon was the worst problem your team will face this year. i love you guys. but please get some perspective. doug mirabelli shouldn’t get more cheers than johnny damon. i get the evil empire thing. i hate the yankees myself, but it wouldn’t kill ya to thank a guy who helped your organization win the WS for the first time in many many years. i’m just sayin’.

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the meaning of citizenship

We Americans are citizens, not “subjects” like our British cousins. We used to see citizenship as meaning the ability to vote, to speak-up, and to hold a claim on rights bought and paid for with the blood of patriots selflessly spilled on our behalf. With this legacy came certain obligations. Not simply paying taxes, but actively contributing to the national defense, taking the time to learn about political issues and voting, and, as dramatically embodied in the classic New England Town Meetings, taking part in civic life to produce a better community and country.

The American Thinker— thomas lifson

we are beginning to recognize that it is no longer enough just to vote. we have to keep a closer eye on those d.c. politicians, because even the good ones go astray sometimes. it’s now up to us to keep them accountable. that’s our responsibility as citizens of this great country. it’s easy to get cynical and to believe that we can’t make a difference. it’s so tempting to just give up on the whole deal, and say to heck with all of them, but we can’t. this country belongs to us, and we should have a say in its future.

let it snow, etc.

enough with the bad puns. congratulations to tony snow on the new job. i hope that he won’t be sorry he took it, and that he will be able to help the president get back on track. i will admit that does seem to be a lost cause right now, but things could change between now and november. you just never know.

read this related fiction. it’s from the comic geniuses at imao. i love it. you will too.

more later when the heavy flu meds wear off.

could be a snow job

to those self-righteous preening political hacks at media matters: shut up. nobody cares what you think of tony snow, and this includes the president of the united states. i’ve seen what you consider shocking information about the future WH press secretary, and i’m still trying to find the incriminating stuff. tony snow has never hidden the fact that he worked for bush 41 or that he occasionally shows up on FNC. so what’s the big deal here?

tony snow is a man of integrity. he is an all-around nice guy, and he keeps the debate civil, even with those who have different views. how many other conservative talk show hosts can claim to have that kind of debate style? not too many, unfortunately. he is also more than qualified to be white house press secretary, and dubya would be a fool not to consider him for this position. it would also give conservatives actual representation in the vicinity of the white house, which they don’t seem to have right now.

i support the idea of tony snow becoming white house press secretary. he could handle the press, even david gregory. there’s no doubt in my mind that he would do an excellent job. i do think that the job he has now would be a hard job to give up. it’s possible that he is doing the administration more good with his radio show than he could possibly do as an official member of the team. i would miss hearing him on the radio every day, but when the white house comes calling, it would be silly not to consider the job offer. so whatever he decides, i wish him the best of luck either way.

there are a few other suggestions for white house press secretary here and here. good stuff. read and enjoy.

tags:

juiced

i don’t know whether barry bonds took steroids. the evidence seems to be mounting against him right now. the fact that he’s being investigated for possible perjury charges by the feds sure doesn’t help his attempts to deny it to the average baseball fan. i am not a barry bonds fan. actually, until a few years ago, i wasn’t even paying much attention to the guy. i have nothing personal against barry bonds, unlike many in the media.  i can see how the competitive nature of the baseball business might contribute to a desire to gain an unfair advantage over other players, such as the one steroids would provide.

all that makes sense. i just think that baseball records should be attained honestly. in my opinion, a player who takes steroids is cheating the game. for this reason, if barry bonds took steroids, or if any other player took them, we can’t see their eye-popping numbers in the same way. a player like that deserves to be yelled at by the fans, although it would be nice if they left the four-letter expletives for the privacy of their own homes.

baseball will investigate steroid use, and bud lite may or may not find anything. the feds may actually provide some clue into the extra-curricular activities of barry bonds. i’m not that optimistic that the fans will ever know the extent of steroid use in baseball. while i believe that barry bonds is far from innocent here…he’s already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. if we are all wrong in our suspicions, then we owe bonds an apology. but what if we are not?

baseball fans still need to show a little restraint here. some fans are taking their opposition to bonds to an extreme level. fans are now throwing syringes and related items on to the field. bonds apparently is getting racially-tinged hate mail as well. fans throwing anything on the field should be thrown out of the park for such idiocy, and there is no excuse for hate mail of the kind bonds claims that he’s getting. fan behavior in all sports, including baseball, has rapidly deteriorated.

sometimes the fans just need to check themselves. we watch baseball because we love it. if a baseball fan is so obsessed with barry bonds that he/she needs to write such hate mail or throw stuff onto the baseball field, that person needs to step back and re-evaluate their priorities. this kind of behavior ruins the game for the rest of us. it’s wrong and we shouldn’t make excuses for it.

please stand by…

technical problems with my computer have kept me from posting and responding to comments as quickly as i would have liked to this week. bear with me. as soon as the main computer’s back up, you will see more new posts. 🙂

In other important news…ALIAS returns to our TVs tonight at 8pm. Set your DVRs. I’m going to promote ALIAS here since ABC doesn’t seem to be interested in doing so.  

Christians vs. south park

the last thing i ever thought that i would do on this blog is defend comedy central’s south park. i don’t even watch the show. i’ve only seen commercials and short previews for it. i have seen enough to know that the majority of south park episodes would offend just about everybody at some point. the creators of south park are equal opportunity offenders and everybody gets skewered. it’s a fair point that Christians are more likely to get abused on this show than Muslims, as recent events have demonstrated.

i just don’t see how it’s possible for outside groups to tell comedy central what kind of junk they can put on the air. comedy central is a cable channel, after all, and isn’t subject to the same restrictions put on regular broadcast channels. most of those who are terribly offended by this show probably don’t watch it on a regular basis. that’s the way we should handle shows like this. if you don’t like the content of south park, don’t watch it. boycott comedy central’s advertisers if you want to. write letters of protest and share your opinion with the network, as many have already done. if comedy central doesn’t lose any viewers, it won’t really matter to them what Christians think of shows like south park.

it’s admirable that people of faith are brave enough to stand up and say that pictures of Jesus Christ should be just as respectful as those of Mohammed. it’s less likely that Christians will riot and burn things here in the united states than it is that Muslims will do so. BUT…i’m not convinced that either would happen here in america. we have better things to do with our time than organize protests around something trey parker and matt stone decided to make their characters say on south park.

maybe the Christian community would have more impact on the culture if they were more interested in changing lives than on changing what’s on TV. that’s not to say that their criticisms of shows like south park are unfair, or that they should shut up and deal with a corrupt culture that celebrates this kind of entertainment. absolutely not. i’m just saying that we should be just as concerned about people as we are about TV shows.

related:

CNN.com – ‘South Park’ aims at censors, hits Bush, Jesus
Michelle Malkin: CARTOON DHIMMITUDE
Sister Toldjah– Southpark and Mohammed – art imitating life

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we were right to get rid of saddam (part 2)

(continued from part 1)

i have a question for my democratic friends who agree with me that we had to get rid of saddam. let’s say that the united states decided not to invade iraq, but that we still wanted to kick saddam out of power. how do you propose that we accomplish this goal? do we continue pushing the UN to keep an eye on saddam? do we make more threats? do we encourage the UN to pass more scary resolutions? WWJKD? (what would john kerry do? the world will thankfully never know.)

i have heard the argument that saddam was no more evil than dictators of other countries who treat their people worse than dogs, and that the united states doesn’t interfere militarily in all of those countries. i disagree with the first part, and acknowledge the second part. there are a few reasons why the united states doesn’t interfere militarily in every case of human rights violations or oppressive governments. for one thing, even though we have the best and most capable military in the world, there’s not enough of ’em to deal with all people struggling against their governments. saddam hussein’s iraq supported terrorism, which made it a top priority of previous and current presidential administrations. this made saddam a threat to the security of the middle east and also to the security of the united states. any links to al-qaeda are still to be conclusively proved in the minds of many. however, there are other groups associated with saddam that were involved in terrorist activity, as i’ve mentioned before.

for those who opposed the war in iraq from the beginning, and for those who oppose it now, that ship has sailed, ladies and gentlemen. what’s done is done. saddam is out of power. that’s a good thing. iraq is slowly progressing toward becoming a country friendly to democracy. the process is not as quick as we would all like to see, but there is no other alternative to seeing iraq through its current struggles.

ok…i’m ready now…bring on the violent disagreement. 🙂

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