The paragraphs below were copied from a recent e-mail update from FAIR – Federation for American Immigration Reform. I added Roll Call votes for our U.S. Senators.

Senators spent much of their time last week on the Senate floor debating the “compromise” guest worker amnesty legislation. The tone became heated at times, with many Senators complaining about the secret nature of the negotiations and the failure of the Senate negotiators to vet the measure in public through the committee process. Senator Sessions (R-AL), in particular, argued how the back door negotiations had led to a bill full of loopholes that favor special interests. He noted how the language of the bill had been unveiled just two days before reaching the floor.

During the week, several Senators offered important amendments to improve the bill. Unfortunately many of those amendments have not yet received a vote and among those that have, only a few passed. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) offered a critical amendment that would have deleted the entire amnesty portion of the bill. The Vitter amendment failed, 29-66.

Vitter Amdt. No. 1157
Cardin: NAY
Mikulski: NAY

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00180

Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) offered two amendments: one to delete the Y-1 and Y-2 guest worker programs and another to end them after five years. The amendments failed by votes of 31-64 and 48-49, respectively.

Dorgan Amdt. No. 1153
Cardin: NAY
Mikulski: NAY

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00174

Dorgan Amdt. No. 1181
Cardin: YEA
Mikulski: YEA

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00178

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) offered an amendment to cut the annual cap on the Y-1 guest worker program from 400,000 to 200,000 while eliminating the escalation clause that would have allowed the cap to reach 600,000. The Bingaman amendment passed, 74-24.
(more…)

from Curt at Flopping Aces

Hillary Clinton promises to combat rising inequality and rising pessimism in the United States workforce.  Translated into english this means raising our taxes, repealing the cuts that are already in place.  So lets look at a few things about our current economy.  Now, just reminder, Bush inherited a economy that was going into a recession (beginning in March of 2001, yes I know this is two months after Bush took office but unless his immediate policies effected the economy in two months we know that it was the Clinton policies that created this recession)…just food for thought when you look at the below data:

• Since August of 2003 almost 8 million jobs have been created
• This Bush economy has added jobs for 44 straight months
• Unemployment is at 4.5% which is lower then the 5.2% average during the Clinton’s 8 year run
• Real after-tax income has risen approx. 10.4% or more then $3,000 dollars since Bush came into office
• The Bush economy has averaged approx. 3% of growth for the last five years
• The deficit is down dramatically
• Tax revenues are up by 9.3 or 954.4 billion dollars which means we’ve raised more tax revenues in the last two years then in any other two year period in our history.
• Wages for most people have risen faster then inflation
• Inflation remains low
• Home Ownership is higher then ever

All this after 9/11, after Afghanistan and Iraq.

But Hillary is going to combat this rough economy?  Whatever happened to Democrats like John F. Kennedy?

Nevermind that the top 1% of earners in this country pay 36% of ALL federal income taxes paid already.  She wants to tax more and more and more.

Her words could be from Karl Marx for god sake.  One in the same….Hillary and Karl, made for each other.

But wait a second…being similar to Karl Marx is bad enough, but similar to the Nazi platform?

We ask that the government undertake the obligation above all of providing citizens with adequate opportunity for employment and earning a living. The activities of the individual must not be allowed to clash with the interests of the community, but must take place within its confines and be for the good of all. Therefore, we demand:  an end to the power of the financial interests . We demand profit sharing in big business. We demand a broad extension of care for the aged. We demand. . . the greatest possible consideration of small business in the purchases of the national, state, and municipal governments. In order to make possible to every capable and industrious [citizen] the attainment of higher education and thus the achievement of a post of leadership, the government must provide an all-around enlargement of our system of public education. . . . We demand the education at government expense of gifted children of poor parents. . . . The government must undertake the improvement of public health — by protecting mother and child, by prohibiting child labor — by the greatest possible support for all clubs concerned with the physical education of youth. We combat the . . . materialistic spirit within and without us, and are convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only proceed from within on the foundation of  "The Common Good Before the Individual Good ."

Meanwhile she tells a crowd today that the rug is being pulled out from underneath the middle class:

Senator Clinton told members of the Culinary union that corporate America was trying to pull the rug out from under the middle class.

She said, "I have nothing against rich people… but what made America great is the middle class."

Clinton credited the union movement with building the middle class. She said she thinks it should be easier to join unions and said she supports a union-supported method of organizing called "card check."

But Steven Pearstein writes in todays Washington Post about a new economic study that shows that the middle class is indeed shrinking, not because people are getting poorer…rather because they are graduating to upper class:

as economist Stephen Rose points out in a provocative new monograph, rumors of the demise of the American middle class are greatly exaggerated. In fact, living standards for most Americans are improving. Not everyone is flipping hamburgers or working at Wal-Mart. To the degree that the middle class is shrinking, it is because more people are rising out of it than falling from it.

Rose is not your standard-issue conservative market apologist — far from it. He left medical school to get his PhD in economics, then alternated between teaching and community organizing. He served on the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee and in the economics shop of the Clinton Labor Department. Along the way, he’s worked for a couple of think tanks and blue-ribbon commissions.

[...]This doesn’t mean the middle class isn’t shrinking. In fact, from 1979 to 2004, Rose calculates, the percentage of households in the "middle class" category — those with incomes of $30,000 to $90,000 — fell to 39 from 47 percent. But it would be hard to describe that as bad news when the proportion of well-off households — those with incomes of more than $90,000 — rose by nearly nine percentage points. During the same time frame, the percentage of households that were poor or near-poor remained about the same.

One of the favorite liberal story lines is that the only way middle class families have been able to maintain their standard of living is by forcing mom to work more hours. But that, too, turns out to be an exaggeration. By looking just at married couples at various points in the income ladder, Rose found that for all but the poorest households, inflation-adjusted income was higher in 2004 than in 1979 even after factoring out any increase in spousal work hours.

[...]It is also a myth that the Great American Jobs Machine is producing mostly lousy, low-paying service jobs. Rose simplifies the government data by putting all jobs in three categories: "elite" jobs, encompassing managers and professionals; "good jobs," such as those held by supervisors, skilled blue-collar workers, craft workers, police, firefighters and clerical workers; and "less skilled" jobs, such as those held by unskilled machine operators, laborers, sales clerks and waiters. Looking at it that way, it turns out that the number of lousy, low-skilled jobs has been on a long, steady decline since 1979, while the number of "elite" jobs has been growing steadily. The number of "good" jobs has declined marginally as skilled office work has replaced skilled factory work.

Wages rising, inflation staying low, unemployment low, tax revenues high, deficit lowering, after-tax income up substantially…..all bad in Hillary’s eyes.

by Kathy at Mister Politics

From Houston Chronicle:

NEW YORK — A Boeing Co. subsidiary that may have provided secret CIA flight services was sued Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of three terrorism suspects who claim they were tortured by the U.S. government.

The lawsuit charges that flight services provided by Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. enabled the clandestine transportation of the suspects to secret overseas locations, where they were tortured and subjected to other “forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

The ACLU said the company “either knew or reasonably should have known” that they were facilitating the torture of terrorism suspects by providing flight services for the CIA.

Companies “are not allowed to have their heads in the sand, and take money from the CIA to fly people, hooded and shackled, to foreign countries to be tortured,” ACLU attorney Ben Wizner said.

Boeing itself is not named in the lawsuit and would not confirm the reports of a Jeppesen-CIA link, said spokesman Tim Neale, adding that customers have a confidentiality clause.

Jeppesen Dataplan says it provides services such as flight plans, fuel and airport data to airlines, private pilots and various companies, but it doesn’t ask its customers for details of their business.

“We don’t know the purpose of the trip for which we do a flight plan,” said Mike Pound, a spokesman for the Englewood, Colo.-based Jeppesen. “We don’t need to know specific details. It’s the customer’s business, and we do the business that we are contracted for,” he said. “It’s not our practice to ever inquire about the purpose of a trip.” Jeppesen had no immediate comment on specifics of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Northern California, but announced in New York City.

The three detainees have claimed through their family and lawyers that they have been tortured and abused against universally accepted legal standards. One claimed to have been routinely tortured under interrogation about al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. Their attorneys appealed to the ACLU for assistance.

The cases involve the alleged mistreatment of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian citizen, in July 2002 and January 2004; Elkassim Britel, an Italian citizen, in May 2002; and Ahmed Agiza, an Egyptian citizen, in December 2001, ACLU officials said at a Manhattan news conference. Mohamed is currently being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Britel in Morocco and Agiza in Egypt, the ACLU said.

The ACLU says the suspects were apprehended under the U.S. government’s “extraordinary rendition program.” Extraordinary rendition is the clandestine capture and transfer of suspects to be detained and interrogated in countries where the protection of U.S. laws do not apply, according to Wizner.

“American corporations should not be profiting from a CIA rendition program that is unlawful and contrary to core American values,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “Corporations that choose to participate in such activity can and should be held legally accountable.”

Neither the CIA nor the U.S. government is named in the lawsuit. Wizner said the executive branch has evoked a state secrets defense in similar lawsuits. The Bush administration has insisted it receives guarantees from countries receiving terror suspects that prisoners will not be tortured.

The ACLU is siding with terrorists over the taxi (plane) ride? Notice this paragraph from this article; “Neither the CIA nor the U.S. government is named in the lawsuit.”, now it would seem to me and most reasonable people that the terrorist would want to sue those responsible for their supposed torture. They would have if it were true!

The fact they are not suing either the CIA or ANY government in this case is quite telling. This appears to be nothing more than a scare tactic against corporations and Jeppsen in particular to discontinue their involvement with the United States government. Proven by this statement; “American corporations should not be profiting from a CIA rendition program that is unlawful and contrary to core American values,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “Corporations that choose to participate in such activity can and should be held legally accountable.” (more…)

by Haider Ajina

The following is an article from ‘Voices of Iraq’ and independent conglomerate Iraqi news agency.

By Abdul Hamid Zibari

Arbil, May 28, (VOI)- The Peshmerga fighters will receive the security file in Iraq’s Kurdistan region from the Multi-National forces during a handover ceremony this week, an official source from Kurdistan government said on Monday.

“We have been discussing the hand over for several months, and we are prepared to receive the security file in Kurdistan region during a ceremony this week,” Jabar Yawar, Peshmerga second top official, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will authorize Kurdistan President Massoud Barazani to sign a memorandum of understanding with the commander of the Multi-National forces, he added.

“The ceremony will be attended by al-Maliki , Barazani, Iraqi lawmakers and ambassadors of a number of countries, including U.S. and British diplomats,” the spokesman also said.

Yawar pointed out to a meeting to be held between representatives of the Peshmerga command and the Iraqi government on the suggestion that Peshmerga (local Kurdish fighters) would take part in maintaining security in the cities with a Kurdish majority outside Kurdistan region like Khaneqeen, Mandli, al-Saadiyah and Mosul .

“We want to have high-level talks with coalition forces and the Iraqi government regarding the Peshmerga’s participation in preserving security in these cities in a legal way,” he noted.

Kurdistan region, a safe region in northern Iraq , is composed of three Kurdish provinces: Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhuk.

My comments:
Three more provinces are being handed over to the Iraqis to take over security responsibilities. The Kurds in northern Iraq have had an almost autonomous protected area since we liberated Kuwait in February 1991. Our protection of the Kurdish region after liberating Kuwait allowed the Kurds to flourish. They flourished economically and politically. They have had over 16 years of practice in self governance and local democracy, along with a formidable militia known as the Peshmerga. The Peshmergah fighters were the strongest Iraqi armed resistance to Saddam during his rule. They are tough, well trained, agile and well equipped. The Kurds’ unique language makes it very difficult to be infiltrated by Alqida or other terrorist groups. By the way most of Iraqi Kurds are Sunni Muslims. These Sunni Muslims and their Arab Shiite Muslim brethren have formed the majority elected new Iraqi government a year ago, with President Jelal Talabani (Kurd Sunni Muslim) and Prime Minister Nourie Almaliki (Arab Shiite Muslim) at the helm. Here we have Iraqi Shiite and Sunni working side by side to serve their country.

Kurdistan in its three provinces of Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Dehuck covers 14673.4 sq mi of Iraqi territory and a population of 3.8 million Iraqis. This represents 3.4% of Iraq ’s territory and 15.2% of the population. In the south the provinces of Maysan, Nejaf, Muthena & Dhi Qar are already under Iraqi provincial control. By the time the hand over of the Kurdish provinces is complete seven out of eighteen Iraqi provinces will be under provincial control. The provinces under full Iraqi control, after the Kurdish provinces are handed over, will be a total of 35.4% of Iraq ’s territory and 29% of the population. All this has been achieved, in a country with little experience in democracy and the rule of law in its recent history and after 30 years of tyrannical rule, and only 4 short years since the liberation, and combating terrorist trying to destabilize an elected government.

by Kathy at Mister Politics

Those who claim that most Palestinian terrorists aren’t terrorists might be right. But they sure don’t seem to have a problem attending an event where small children parade around stage with knives, assault rifles, and suicide belts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul4UecZThH4

New comments and embedding disabled – Here are excerpts from the comments left on this video:

heshamdiab16 (1 month ago)
Bism ellah Mashaa Allah

mahmoudsayed (1 month ago)
nice vedio

maleksaifi (2 weeks ago)
allah akbarr mushtakuna ilikommmm

uncledon570 (2 days ago)
Excellent!

engahmed (2 days ago)
the jewish must be wiped from the earth.

russianputin (2 days ago)
Jews must be killed and Israel must be destroy.

mwe1967 (1 day ago)
Nice!

sulkava (1 day ago)
cool

engahmed (1 day ago)
the jewish must be wiped from the earth.

Adding comments have been disabled for this video.

h/t: freerepublic.com

from O’MalleyWatch

This is dedicated to keeping track of Martin O’Malley’s broken promises to Maryland voters.

Many of us remember during the election the hundreds of promises he made in order to win the fall election. Now it is time to hold his feet the the fire. Please send this to all of your active republicans in order to keep O’Malley’s feet to the fire. We can’t let the people of Maryland forget what he did in order to win, and how he forgot everything he told the voters in order to win. The media will not help us, so we need to do this ourselves.

A sample of the Broken Promises in regards to electricity deregulation, taken from his own website.

“Create a Shock Absorber” – This part of O’Malley’s plan was to “limit energy rates to just and reasonable levels” as of this July until “competent, independent regulators” can make sure that we are only paying what we should be. There was no cap placed on the electric rates and O’Malley made no effort to work with the General Assembly to prevent the 50% hike increase that we see today. HOWEVER, O’Malley promised on his website that folks would be automatically enrolled and not subject to any sort of “opt in” provision. The PSC order yesterday states specifically “Under the plan approved, residential customers will have until June 30, 2007 to elect to defer a portion of the increase until January 1, 2008.” Martin O’Malley broke his promise to the people of Maryland on electricity rate deferrals.

“Replace PSC Members” – Martin O’Malley promised during the campaign to fire all the PSC members and replace the “industry-dominated PSC”. The ironic part is that 3 of Ehrlich’s folks quit, 1 Ehrlich guy stayed, and then there was a Glendenning appointee that was expiring. The 1 person on the entire PSC that had previously worked for BGE was Harold Williams, Glendenning’s appointee. O’Malley nominated, and the Democrats in the State Senate approved, Harold Williams to serve on the PSC. Williams served BGE for 20 years as a high level executive before Glendenning, the same that started this whole deregulation fiasco, appointed him to the PSC. O’Malley’s choice for the PSC head, Steven Larsen, has no experience with energy regulation, all his experience is in insurance and he is now the head of the utility regulatory body. Martin O’Malley broke his promise to fire all the PSC members and replace the “industry-dominated PSC”. (more…)

By Robert Farrow

“Israeli troops could have marched into Cairo if they wanted to.”

Abdel Nasser

Following the 6 Day War and again, after the stunning reversal of the War of Atonement, Israeli troops utterly and completely defeated the Egyptian Army (and with them the army of Syria, Jordan, and troops from Iraq.) Israel had doubled the size of its country, put its cities out of artillery range, and opened up Jerusalem, which had been forbidden to them. But rather then revel in their victory, Israel later gave up most of this territory for the promise of Peace with Egypt in the Treaty with Sadat.

So, in the three decades after Sadat’s Peace Treaty with Israel, what has Israel gained after giving up all that land? What does peace with Egypt look like? Sadly it is regarded best as a cold peace because relations between the two peoples have not significantly improved. Trade and tourism are primarily in one direction-from Israel to Egypt. The government press and the schools have remained hostile toward Israel and anti-Israeli cartoons are published routinely. Though present Egyptian President Mubarak has been an active participant in the peace process, more often than not, he has contributed to the hardening of Arab positions. He has also refused to visit Israel. Even worse, Egypt also allows terrorists to smuggle weapons across their borders and attack jewish targets, in effect, making Egypt a base for terrorists. This is what Peace is for Israel. This is what they gave up half of their land for.

Again the Arabs, this time the Palestinians, were offered land for peace. But the Arabs wanted the right of return, which means Israel would no longer be a Jewish State. NO country in the world would have accepted such conditions, and Israel naturally rejected it. Even after Israel offered to give up all of its territory for peace it still lives with neighboring countries that attack. Or threaten to attack it regularly. Israel still suffers from men, women, and kids that strap themselves with bombs and blow up Jewish civilians. And now Israel suffers a nuclear armed neighbor that threatens to finish what Hitler started. Increasingly, Israel has become pessimistic towards peace. Why would they, when Peace does not really mean Peace. For in Israel, Peace looks little from War.

What is peace? When Liberals talk of peace they never stop and wonder what peace would really look like? Liberal philosophy seems to assume everyone will do good in the right situation, and if they are not doing good, then it is the situation or circumstance and not the person that is at fault. Liberals, like Chamberlain before him, naively assume if Israel pulled out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and we left Iraq and Afghanistan, there would be peace. Well, it did not work in Munich, and it would not work now. Liberals simply do not understand the capability for evil in mankind, and always assumes people will work to do what is right when in the right situation. (Paradoxically liberalism likes big government (like some republicans) so thus assumes people can’t make decisions on their own without the government behind them so might not trust people as much as thought.)When the base of the philosophy is wrong why would the rest of its doctrine make any sense?

Liberals think peace is the absence of war. Wrong! Peace is not just an absence of war. Peace is allowing other countries to exist with dialogue, trade, travel and normal diplomatic relationships between the countries without hostile intent and threats. If this definition is accepted then Israel has never had peace, and is not at peace with Egypt now. The same is the case for this country as is if we leave Iraq and even Afghanistan tomorrow and drop our support for Israel we will not have peace. Even countries we consider allies are filled with people that consider our country evil. Several countries even fight us by proxy and the stupid liberals buy it and visit their countries and leaders in their capital as they are killing our soldiers. (more…)

from Curt at Flopping Aces

In 2004 the MSM met this with a yawn:

A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al-Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein’s fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan’s Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam/al-Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in Saddam’s secret police, the Mukhabarat, from 1997 to 2002, and is currently sitting in a Kurdish prison. Al-Shamari says that he worked for a man who was Saddam’s envoy to al-Qaeda.

So it should not surprise you that they meet another article about another interview with Shamari with a big yawn.  Why?  Because don’t you know Saddam was secular?

Sigh…..

Al-Shamary was emphatic that Saddam’s son ran the local al Qaeda operation. “He directed it, he ran it.” Qusay controlled Jund al Islam, he said, by supplying money, weapons,and providing diplomatic passports and by sending documents via “diplomatic pouches” to Iraq embassies world-wide. From there, the messages would be passed to local cells.

Al-Shamary told me what he saw. I insisted that I only wanted to know what he was an eyewitness to—no hearsay, office gossip or news accounts recirculated as inside information. He understood. That is how you are supposed to operate in intelligence, he told the translator.

“In 2001 I was an information officer, between the leadership of Jund al Islam (which
became Ansar al Islam) and our office. I was the liaison. Just an information officer. Abu Wail was the brigadier general in charge of funding” the group.

Abu Wail is the son-in-law of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam’s handpicked vice president and the highest-ranking Saddam-era official still at large. On very important missions, al-Shamary said, “Abu Wail would go alone.”

Abu Wail himself is still at large. Capturing him might reveal a good deal about Iraq’s pre-war relationship with al Qaeda.

In addition to Abu Wail, three other trusted Mukhabarat officers worked inside the al Qaeda camp, al-Shamary said. They were selected by Qusay, he said. And perhaps by Saddam himself.

Al-Shamary’s role was relatively minor. “I carried orders from Baghdad to Kurdistan” and back. “These were written orders, usually on a computer disc.”

[...]No matter what the contents of the disks, the fact that they moved back and forth between Saddam’s intelligence service and Krekar’s terrorist outfit speaks for itself. Intelligence analysts may debate whether it was truly an “operational relationship” (although it certainly looks like one), the fact al-Shamary regularly visited the camp to pick up and drop off computer disks indicates a relationship.

Just as Jonathan Schanzer wrote in 2004:

subsequent conversations with U.S. government officials in Washington and Baghdad, as well as several articles written well before this one, indicate that al-Shamari’s claims have been echoed by other sources throughout Iraq.

So too does the information check out in Richard Miniter’s new interview.

In this new interview Miniter discusses Abu Wail, as did Jonathan in 2004.  They both received the same answers.  This man was a conduit between Saddam and al-Qaeda.  From 2004:

I then picked up a picture of a man known as Abu Wael that I had acquired from Kurdish intelligence. In the course of my research, several sources had claimed that Abu Wael was on Saddam’s payroll and was also an al Qaeda operative, but few had any facts to back up their claim. For example, one Arabic daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, stated flatly before the Iraq war, "all information indicates [that Abu Wael] was the link between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime" but neglected to provide any such information. Agence France-Presse after the war cited a Kurdish security chief’s description of Abu Wael as a "key link to Saddam’s former Baath regime" and an "intelligence agent for the ousted president originally from Baghdad." Again, nothing was provided to substantiate this claim.

In my own analysis of this group, I could do little but weakly assert that Wael was "reportedly an al-Qaeda operative on Saddam’s payroll." The best reporting on Wael came from a March 2002 New Yorker article by Jeffrey Goldberg, who had visited a Kurdish prison in northern Iraq and interviewed Ansar prisoners. He spoke with one Iraqi intelligence officer named Qassem Hussein Muhammed, whom Kurdish intelligence captured while he was on his way to the Ansar enclave. Muhammed told Goldberg that Abu Wael was "the actual decision-maker" for Ansar al Islam and "an employee of the Mukhabarat."

"Do you know this man?" I asked al-Shamari. His eyes widened and he smiled. He told me that he knew the man in the picture, but that his graying beard was now completely white. He said that the man was Abu Wael, whose full name is Colonel Saadan Mahmoud Abdul Latif al-Aani. The prisoner told me that he had worked for Abu Wael, who was the leader of a special intelligence directorate in the Mukhabarat. That directorate provided assistance to Ansar al Islam at the behest of Saddam Hussein, whom Abu Wael had met "four or five times." Al-Shamari added that "Abu Wael’s wife is Izzat al-Douri’s cousin," making him a part of Saddam’s inner circle. Al-Douri, of course, was the deputy chairman of Saddam’s Revolutionary Command Council, a high-ranking official in Iraq’s armed forces, and Saddam’s righthand man. Originally number six on the most wanted list, he is still believed to be at large in Iraq, and is suspected of coordinating aspects of insurgency against American troops, primarily in the Sunni triangle.

Why, I asked, would Saddam task one of his intelligence agents to work with the Kurds, an ethnic group that was an avowed enemy of the Baath regime, and had clashed with Iraqi forces on several occasions? Al-Shamari said that Saddam wanted to create chaos in the pro-American Kurdish region. In other words, he used Ansar al Islam as a tool against the Kurds. As an intelligence official for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (one of the two major parties in northern Iraq) explained to me, "Most of the Kurdish fighters in Ansar al Islam didn’t know the link to Saddam." They believed they were fighting a local jihad. Only the high-level lieutenants were aware that Abu Wael was involved.

I bold that part to point out the importance of the sentence.  Saddam used groups such as AQ to facilitate a result he wanted.  That result was chaos in the Kurdish area.

Is it really that hard to believe that he would use them for other anti-American reasons?

I know, if your a lefty then all this is rightwing lies.  Nevermind all the evidence I have provided in my many posts on the matter.  Nor the many books written about this matter.  Or even Saddams own memo’s and orders.  Nevermind all this, because to actually believe that Saddam would associate with AQ would mean to admit that Bush was right.

And that’s a mortal sin for the left.

Instead the MSM and the left will continue to walk around in a fog of their own creation.

by Regina Sztajer

Amnesty: an act granting a pardon to a group of individuals. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass,) in a statement said to the effect that ” the, bar-partisan Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill, will bring millions from darkness into the daylight.” It is quite possible the bill instead will take the U.S from daylight into the darkness. (www.newsmax.com 5/23/2007, E. Ralph Hostetter.

This bill is not the right bill for America because 20 years ago the U.S granted amnesty to 12 million illegal’s and now 20 million have crossed our borders demanding their rights while waving Mexican flags. Politicians fear in the future control of the country will be tipped in favor of numerous minorities that will total 50 % of the population. Of the 20 million illegal’s in America few speak English and can add little in the advancements of our nation? Xenophobe is a new word for political correctness. According to the dictionary it means,” an individual who fears or hates strangers or foreigners or anything foreign or strange.” So the far left feels anyone disagreeing with them is hateful. Political correctness has hindered truth because it does not permit open discussion of problems facing America today.
Linda Chaves chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity spoke out in an article Latino Fear and Loathing, in www.townhall.com 5/25/2007. She insists some people do not like Latinos because they are seen as freeloaders and welfare cheats, and too lazy to learn English. They have too many children who are stupid in school and Latinos are dirty, diseased and prone to criminal behavior. She feels the debate on immigration reform is fear of the other who look different, sound different and come from poor countries. Therefore these people who fear Latinos are labeled Xenophobe’s. To here the No Amnesty crowd are angry, frightened and prejudiced loudmouths backed by political opportunists who exploit them. The Xenophobe’s will derail the comprehensive immigration reform bill. It is the status quo in America that turns a blind eye to the 12 million illegal alien’s who work hard, pay taxes and are not criminals. Of course breaking the law by crossing our borders illegally and by and large staying under cover from the authorities is fine with Chaves. They broke American immigration laws and still are breaking our laws Chaves!

Yes we have struggled with prejudice and we are the greatest country in the world but allowing law breakers to simply march across our borders and make demands on our school and welfare systems is wrong. Chaves is herself a Latino therefore she sees life through rose tinted glasses on illegal immigration. Millions of people from all over the world since this nation came into being have wanted to come for the American Dream of freedom and prosperity. There was gold running in the streets they believed but only water that was running in the streets when it rained! Our borders were sealed and to enter America you had at times to wait years to earn that privilege. Employers greedy for profit by using cheap labor have encouraged Latinos to come across the border in quest of the American dream illegally.

Do politicians really believe the Senate Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill will ensure our borders? Or is it just wishful thinking? Laws already exist which have been broken and Washington lacks the will to enforce these tough laws. For example the border patrol is hindered in their attempt to follow drug smugglers across the border. Would employers be forced to pay $5,000 for every illegal they hired or would the Feds look the other way. How would we deal with children brought to America illegally before 2007? Would they become citizens at age 18 and feel they owe those who gave their parents amnesty a vote in future. Is this some way of buying votes? The anti-illegal lobby has to make concessions but the pro-illegal lobby complains the aliens would have to return to their home country to apply for entry to America. They are depending upon the aliens honesty in meeting the requirements. Speaking of honesty how can we believe these folks who have broken the law and feel it is easier to remain an alien than take the somewhat difficult steps to citizenship while paying a $5,000 fine to boot. (more…)

by Kathy at Mister Politics

From NewsMax:

Democrat John Edwards Wednesday repudiated the notion that there is a “global war on terror,” calling it an ideological doctrine advanced by the Bush administration that has strained American military resources and emboldened terrorists.

In a defense policy speech he planned to deliver at the Council on Foreign Relations, Edwards called the war on terror a “bumper sticker” slogan Bush had used to justify everything from abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison to the invasion of Iraq.

“We need a post-Bush, post-9/11, post-Iraq military that is mission focused on protecting Americans from 21st century threats, not misused for discredited ideological purposes,”

Is this guy for real?

Edwards said in remarks prepared for delivery. “By framing this as a war, we have walked right into the trap the terrorists have set—that we are engaged in some kind of clash of civilizations and a war on Islam.“

Yes, that is right because they attacked us and continue to plot to attack us here and our troops overseas. They have carried out terrorist attacks against our allies; While many other plots have been thwarted before serious lose of life was incurred both here and abroad. All of these events are happening AFTER 9/11.

At what point do you think we should begin to defend ourselves against this threat? Are 3,000 American deaths enough or do you REALLY need more dead Americans before you will stand up and fight protect this country and what it stands for from these fanatics who want nothing more than to destroy us and our way of life? (more…)

from Curt at Flopping Aces

Gotta agree with Bookworm on this one, Christopher Hitchens is at his best when he puts his intelligence and wit to work on the leftists.  

During the early debates over the Iraq war, one was constantly being challenged to contrast the “unilateralism” of the Bush administration with the more mature and “European” approach of Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schröder and Vladimir Putin, the gleesome threesome who (along with the Chinese dictatorship) protected Saddam Hussein at the United Nations. What a difference a couple of years has made. Tony Blair may be stepping down as prime minister of the United Kingdom, but for the first time in a very long time, the heads of state in Paris and Berlin are both “Atlanticist” in their outlook. One might add that Chirac quit the Élysée Palace looking and sounding like a stroke victim who had long ceased to have anything relevant to say and that Schröder disgraced the German Social Democrats by barely waiting to leave office before signing up as a lobbyist for a Russian-based energy cartel. And is it necessary to add that Putin has revived the worst traditions of Great Russian chauvinism, crushing all domestic opposition at home while bullying Ukraine, Georgia, and most recently Estonia, and flaunting his connection to the ultra-reactionary Russian Orthodox Church. What a crew they were and are! The fourth member of the anti-Bush coalition of the willful, the cold-eyed Chinese post-Stalinists, are still engaged in a blood-for-oil scandal whereby Beijing provides the sinews of war to the genocidal regime that cleanses Darfur, while paying to buy most of Sudan’s petroleum.

The single best symbol of the change in France is the appointment of Bernard Kouchner to the post of foreign minister. Had the Socialist Party won the election, it is highly unlikely that such a distinguished socialist would ever have been allowed through the doors of the Quai d’Orsay. (Yes, comrades, history actually is dialectical and paradoxical.) In the present climate of the United States, a man like Kouchner would be regarded as a neoconservative. He was a prominent figure in the leftist rebellion of 1968, before breaking with some of his earlier illusions and opposing the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan—the true and original source of many of our woes in the Islamic world. The group he co-founded—Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières—was a pioneer in the highly necessary proclamation that left politics should always be anti-totalitarian. (His former counterpart, Joschka Fischer of Germany, also took a version of this view before Schröder’s smirking Realpolitik became too much, and too popular in Germany, for him to withstand.)

Now, I have no illusion that the French will now become our new best friend in the world but it’s a good sign that a country other then Britain has come to it’s senses.  It only took a bizillion cars being burnt and riots filling the streets but better late then never huh?

Of course the legislative elections in France are coming up next month and knowing the French, they may well install a very anti-American legislature….but C’est la vie.

from Curt at Flopping Aces

As you read, turn on your speakers and listen to: "In a Mother’s Eyes"
by Andrew Dean.

"There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for another."

From "Fallen Heroes" a photo essay by Daniel J. Wood. Location: Barrancas National Cemetery, Pensacola Florida.

Memorial Day ,the holiday ,began as a spontaneous outpouring of honoring and remembrance for six hundred thousand U.S. citizens who died fighting the Civil War (history of the holiday here).

Towns and villages in both the North and the South began decorating the grave sites of the war dead with flowers, hence the early name for the holiday: Decoration Day.

Music has also been an important part of the Memorial Day observance from it’s inception. Musicians may find this antique sheet music interesting. It’s dedicated to the "Ladies of the South who are decorating the graves of the Confederate Dead." The hymn was published in 1867:

Kneel Where Our Loves Are Sleeping
Words by G.W.R.
Music by Mrs. L. Nella Sweet

published 1867

Kneel where our loves are sleeping, Dear ones days gone by,
Here we bow in holy reverence, Our bosoms heave the heartfelt sigh.
They fell like brave men, true as steel, And pour’d their blood like rain,
We feel we owe them all we have, And can but weep and kneel again.
CHORUS
Kneel where our loves are sleeping, They lost but still were good and true,
Our fathers, brothers fell still fighting, We weep, ‘tis all that we can do.

VERSE 2:
Here we find our noble dead, Their spirits soar’d to him above,
Rest they now about his throne, For God is mercy, God is love.
Then let us pray that we may live, As pure and good as they have been,
That dying we may ask of him, To open the gate and let us in.
CHORUS
Kneel where our loves are sleeping, They lost but still were good and true,
Our fathers, brothers fell still fighting, We weep, ‘tis all that we can do."

Decoration Day became official with General Orders No. 11 issued by General John Logan, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in May 1868.

And while some Americans today view Memorial Day as another day off of work, or the chance for a three day trip to the beach, many Americans remember the sacrifice this day recalls and we honor those who have fallen so we might have the freedom and luxuries of a holiday to enjoy.

In military cemeteries across the Nation and also in lands where U.S. soldiers died far from home (list here with Memorial Day events) men, women and children will gather to remember, reflect and to honor those who gave what Abraham Lincoln called "that last full measure of devotion.

Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

President Abraham Lincoln

November 1863

Continuing the musical tradition, singers like Trace Atkins offer this video "Arlington." Lyrics below:

Arlington

I never thought that this is where I‘d settle down,
I thought I‘d die an old man back in my hometown,
They gave me this plot of land, me and some other men, for a job well done,
there’s a big white house sits on a hill just up the road,
the man inside he cried the day they brought me home,
they folded up a flag and told my mom and dad, we’re proud of your son

Chorus:
And I’m proud to be on this peaceful piece of property,
I’m on sacred ground and I‘m in the best of company,
I’m thankful for those things I’ve done,
I can rest in peice, I’m one of the chosen ones, I made it to Arlington

I remember daddy brought me here when I was eight,
we searched all day to find out where my granddad lay,
and when we finally found that cross,
he said, "son this is what it cost to keep us free" Now here I am,
a thousand stones away from him,
he recognized me on the first day I came in,
and it gave me a chill when he clicked his heels, and saluted me.

(Repeat Chorus)

and every time I hear twenty-one guns,
I know they brought another hero home to us.

We’re thankful for those thankful for the things we’ve done,
we can rest in peace, ’cause we are the chosen ones,
we made it to Arlington, yea dust to dust,
don’t cry for us, we made it to Arlington.

More video music tributes:

• "You Were a Man"
• "If I Saw You in Heaven."

David Matthews of Pack 308 places a flag on a grave at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery May 26, 2007 in Louisville, Kentucky. Boy Scouts from the Seneca District and the Lincoln Heritage Council, which represents the Louisville area, participated in the flag placing. This was the 25th year that scouts have been placing flags on the graves at the cemetery. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Memorial Day in Iraq

Today in Iraq, U.S. soldiers, both men and  women ,will observe Memorial Day with personal reflections on fellow soldiers who have died in that long conflict. One news report even showed Iraqi Sheiks and tribal leaders coming to a U.S. Marine compound to pay their respects to some of the 3444 U.S. soldiers who have given their lives to help Iraq and ensure U.S. National Security.

While each of those lives lost is tragic and we honor and mourn their loss, we can also be thankful that we live in a nation where such sacrifice is less and less called upon. Since Memorial Day started as an observance of our Civil War dead, contrast the 3444 fallen soldiers in Iraq over four years with the 3,650 U.S. and Confederate troops who died at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862.

Mark Steyn puts it in perspective and offers a message which should also be heard on this day:

The loss of proportion
Mark Steyn
May 30th 2004

More than 600,000 Americans died in the Civil War – or about 1.8 percent of the population. Today, if 1.8 percent of the population were killed in war, there would be 5.4 million graves to decorate on Decoration Day.

But that’s the difference between then and now: the loss of proportion. They had victims galore back in 1863, but they weren’t a victim culture. They had a lot of crummy decisions and bureaucratic screw-ups worth re-examining, but they weren’t a nation that prioritized retroactive pseudo-legalistic self-flagellating vaudeville over all else. They had hellish setbacks but they didn’t lose sight of the forest in order to obsess week after week on one tiny twig of one weedy little tree.

There is something not just ridiculous but unbecoming about a hyperpower 300 million strong whose elites – from the deranged former vice president down – want the outcome of a war, and the fate of a nation, to hinge on one freaky jailhouse; elites who are willing to pay any price, bear any burden, as long as it’s pain-free, squeaky-clean and over in a week. The sheer silliness dishonors the memory of all those we’re supposed to be remembering this Memorial Day.

Playing by Gore-Kennedy rules, the Union would have lost the Civil War, the rebels the Revolutionary War, and the colonists the French and Indian Wars. There would, in other words, be no America. Even in its grief, my part of New Hampshire understood that 141 years ago. We should, too.

Please join your fellow Americans in a National Moment of Remembrance at 3 P.M. on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, 2007. One minute of quiet reflection is not too much to ask to honor the sacrifices which make freedom possible. Always remember that "All gave some, some gave all" for you.

by Kathy at Mister Politics

From DesMoines Register :

A tired and disgusted Iowa soldier fired off an e-mail a few days ago, telling family and friends how things are going in Iraq. A Blackhawk helicopter pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Jim Funk has flown more than 80 combat missions since he arrived there in October.

He described his Boone-based unit’s successes after 5,000 hours of flying out of LSA Anaconda, a huge American base north of Baghdad. He talked about the tragedies he and his fellow Iowans have witnessed and his worries of becoming complacent as he goes on mission after mission.

Morale?

“We’re treading water,” the Ames man told the people closest to him. “We continue to kick butt on missions and take care of each other, even though we know the American public and government DOES NOT stand behind us.

Ohhhh, they all say they support us, but how can you support me (the soldier) if you don’t support my mission or my objectives. We watch the news over here. Every time we turn it on we see the American public and Hollywood conducting protests and rallies against our ‘illegal occupation’ of Iraq.”

His greatest frustration? The performance of the people who deliver the news to the American people.

I’ll let him say it, in his own words, in the letter, which found its way to me: (more…)

Conservatives Demonized by Unlikely Source

by Paul Mirengoff .

“The White House communications operation is in overdrive promoting its immigration reform proposal. I’m getting three or more emails per day on the subject. I feel frustrated that the White House failed, in my view, to push this hard for initiatives I favor, or when it came to defending itself on Iraq.

I’m also frustrated that the White House fails to treat seriously the concerns conservatives have about its immigration package. The tendency instead is to misrepresent or demean our concerns and, to some extent, demonize us.

We see some of this in the latest column by Michael Gerson, who until recently was a key aide to President Bush. The title of Gerson’s piece is “Letting Fear Rule”; the subtitle is “Nativism Is a Recipe for Long-Term GOP Losses.” So before Gerson even gets to his analysis, conservatives with whom he disagrees stand accused of nativism and being ruled by fear.

It doesn’t get any better once Gerson starts arguing. He begins by comparing the thinking of opponents of immigration reform to that of the Congress that passed the “Chinese Exclusion Act.” But opponents of the administration’s package aren’t taking a position on how many immigrants should be allowed lawfully to enter the country; only on how those who have entered unlawfully should be treated. Thus, Gerson is unfair to mainstream conservative opponents of the reform package when he asserts that “anti-immigrant sentiment” is driving our opposition. (more…)

by Laryn:

CNN keeps running the segment – so should not be hard to find – they cover how she’ll stay WARM. It’s one of the best I’ve every seen showing how nuts these people are and how CNN Blitzer is FAR LEFT TOOL:

BREAKING: NANCY PELOSI GOING TO GREENLAND!

Well, she’ll need her scarf. We can only surmise that the VIKINGS WERE COLORBLIND when naming this place –

Wish I knew how to capture VIDEOS – because CNN’S report on the Pelosi journey and GREENLAND is hysterical.

HEADLINE: ” The amount of uneaten food Americans discard each day could feed most of AFRICA”…that is most likely true, but does it mean we should send our garbage scows to Africa? CNN’s professor, one with a serious EU accent, so you’d know how smart he is, said:

“the amount of FRESH WATER in the ICE BREAKING OFF is EQUAL TO THE AMOUNT OF FRESH WATER NEW YORK CITY uses every day“. (more…)

from Curt at Flopping Aces

A new study released this week by the National Center for Policy Analysis, "Climate Science: Climate Change and Its Impacts", is taking the Environazi’s to task once again.  Here is an editorial from the WSJ which breaks it down a bit:

It concludes that "the science does not support claims of drastic increases in global temperatures over the 21rst century, nor does it support claims of human influence on weather events and other secondary effects of climate change."

There are substantial differences in climate models–some 30 of them looked at by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–but the Climate Science study concludes that "computer models consistently project a rise in temperatures over the past century that is more than twice as high as the measured increase." The National Center for Atmospheric Research’s prediction of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warming is more accurate. In short, the world is not warming as much as environmentalists think it is.

What warming there is turns out to be caused by solar radiation rather than human pollution. The Climate Change study concluded "half the observed 20th century warming occurred before 1940 and cannot be attributed to human causes," and changes in solar radiation can "account for 71 percent of the variation in global surface air temperature from 1880 to 1993."

As for hurricanes, 2005 saw several severe ones–Katrina and Rita both had winds of 150 knots–hitting New Orleans, the Gulf Coast and Florida. But there is little evidence linking them to global warming. A team of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists concluded that the increased Atlantic hurricane activity since 1995 "is not related to greenhouse warming" but instead to natural tropical climate cycles.

Regarding Arctic temperature changes, the Study found the coastal stations in Greenland had actually experienced a cooling trend: The "average summer air temperatures at the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet, have decreased at the rate of 4 degrees F per decade since measurements began in 1987." Add in Russian and Alaskan temperature data and "Arctic air temperatures were warmest in the 1930s and near the coolest for the period of recorded observations (since at least 1920) in the late 1980s."

As for sea ice, it is not melting excessively. Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans concluded that "global warming appears to play a minor role in changes to Arctic sea ice." The U.N.’s IPCC Third Assessment Report concluded that the rate of sea level rise has not accelerated during the last century, which is supported by U.S. coastal sea level experience. In California sea levels have risen between zero and seven millimeters a year and between 2.1 and 2.8 millimeters a year in North and South Carolina.

[...]The Climate Science study concludes that projections of global warming over the next century "have decreased significantly since early modeling efforts," and that global air temperatures should increase by 2.5 degrees and the United States by about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the next hundred years. The environmental pessimists tell us, as in Time magazine’s recent global warming issue, to "Be Worried. Be Very Worried," but the truth is that our environmental progress has been substantially improving, and we should be very pleased.

Meanwhile ANOTHER climate scientist, this time Dr. William Cotton,  has come out in opposition to this man-made global warming hysteria, saying exactly what we have been saying for some time.  We just don’t understand climate enough to predict what will happen 10 years from now, let alone 100.  And there is just no solid evidence to suggest we humans are causing global warming:

“I am not exactly speaking out against global warming. But, I don’t think the science is as solid as many lead us to believe. Don’t get me wrong, the science of how greenhouse gases directly affect climate is strong. But where it gets messy is all the feedbacks in the system that the theory relies upon and most particularly the role of clouds. Also when it comes to future scenarios (predictions?) decades or longer I point out there are many other factors affecting climate and some of these can be quite large but often are not predictable. Many of these are related to aerosols either natural (volcanoes) or manmade. Then there is also the wildcard with respect to solar variability impacting climate. I think there is something going on there that we just don’t understand. I try to keep up on papers in that area and so far am not convinced about their physical arguments especially the cosmic ray/cloud cover arguments But just because we can’t explain it doesn’t mean something important isn’t happening.

I have attached a copy of the recent talk I gave at the University of Tel-Aviv. I didn’t put it on a slide but I also point out that this position is purely from my personal scientific evaluation. My book on “Human Impacts on Weather and Climate,” 2nd Edition by Cotton and Pielke published by Cambridge is out by the way.

I also point out that I am very “green” as I ride a bicycle to and from work 12 miles a day, I have a Toyota Prius, fly a sailplane, sail boats and paddle kayaks, have an electric lawnmower and weedwacker, florescent lights throughout the house, and support reducing pollution of all sorts.

I put the figure showing the correlation between greenhouse gas emissions and population to show that the bottom line is we are overloading our planet and that as long as we keep putting more and more people on it we will be increasing the likelihood of serious impacts on water resources, air quality, and weather and climate. However, as a scientist I have to draw the line between being “objective” and being an advocate of policies.”

Now this is an honest assessment by someone who quite obviously believes humans are impacting the planet, but is not following the money to advocate the man-made global warming industry. 

Because make no mistake about it….

It is a industry…

But at least THIS 15 year old gets it.

UPDATE

Good video here from the Glenn Beck show with the producer of The Great Global Warming Swindle: (h/t Irate Nation)

By Frederick Meekins

I came across a blog entry on the Net where I am criticized for criticizing Emergent Church kingpin Brian McLaren.

Foremost among the grievances rank alleged grammar errors and lapses in logic.

As to the grammar errors, perhaps so and frankly I don’t care because in light of the number of illegals that are going to be allowed to stay here in the coming years if so-called immigration reform passes, any English flowing from my pen is by default on par with Shakespeare.

When people start paying me a million dollars for these columns, I’ll waste what few years of eyesight I have left to ferret them out.

But the most comical thing about that criticism is that the allegation has been levied by someone that uses “i” rather than “I” throughout the entire blog entry. Isn’t the capitalization of “I” about one of the first rules of grammar one learns in first or second grade if one’s school has not been given over to wasting the scholastic day brainwashing students with viewings of “Brokeback Mountain” and the like?

Or maybe such a glaring mistake is deliberate and merely a manifestation of the rampant communalism infecting the Emergent Church movement. (more…)

by Kathy at Mister Politics

If you’re a blogger, please note this corrected embed code for the petition your blog:

We Win, They Lose has partnered with other conservatives on an emergency petition to stop the amnesty bill in Congress. Stopping this bill is essential to our national security. Will you sign?

http://www.NoAmnestyPetition.com

When the deal was first announced, its passage looked inevitable. Now, the bill’s supporters are on the defensive. Just 26% of Americans are on their side. At this critical time, please sign on to keep the momentum going.

Bloggers were critical to our success last time. If you’re a blogger, will you post this embed code to your blog so all your readers can sign?

Together, we will stop this bill:

http://www.NoAmnestyPetition.com

by Haider Ajina

The following are two articles from MNF-Iraq (Multinational Force-Iraq).

Iraqi army, police discover underground cache Multinational Division – North PAO May 24, 2007

MOSUL , Iraq – Iraqi army and police, supported by Coalition Forces, discovered a weapons cache in northern Mosul , located in Nineveh Province , during a planned operation Monday afternoon.

Soldiers from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division, supported by Iraqi police officers from Northeast 1 station, and CF Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, made the cache discovery, which was concealed under an inoperable toilet.

“This is another example of Iraqi Security Forces’ adept efforts to maintain a secure, safe environment for the citizens of Mosul ,” said Lt. Col. Michael Boden, acting commander of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.

An explosive ordnance disposal team was called to the site as Iraqi police secured the cache which contained three improvised hand grenades, 12 rifles with approximately 3,000 rounds of ammunition, more than 80 rocket-propelled grenades, seven RPG launchers, three dozen mortar rounds, 10 pounds of explosives and one suicide bomber’s vest.

The EOD team secured the explosives for safe disposal and the rifles, ammunition and mortars were turned over to ISF.

“ISF have demonstrated they are capable of seeking out and destroying the weapons and materials terrorists use to inflict pain and suffering on the populace,” said Boden.

“Together, we will keep Nineveh Province safe for its citizens.”

Al-Anbar rejection of al-Qaeda creates economic, political opportunities Wednesday, 23 May 2007

U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. John Allen, deputy commander of Multi-National Division-West, and Mamoun Sami Rashid Al-Awani, the governor of Al-Anbar province, discussed the progression of security and stability in Al-Anbar province at the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad Tuesday. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Carl N. Hudson, Combined Press Information Center.BAGHDAD — The deputy commander of Multi-National Force-West and the governor of Al-Anbar province held a press conference at the Combined Press Information Center Tuesday.
(more…)

One of the most shameful spectacles of our times is the practice of cities and towns declaring themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens, and refusing to cooperate in the enforcement of federal laws. Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman offered an amendment to the pending immigration act that would prohibit cities from banning the obtaining of information on immigration status by their own law enforcement agencies. You can read about the amendment on Coleman’s web site; the text of the amendment is here; you plug it into the statute here.

Unfortunately, Norm’s amendment was defeated 49-48 on the Senate floor today, even though several Democrats voted for it. These Republicans voted against the proposal:

Graham (R-SC)
Hagel (R-NE)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Voinovich (R-OH)

Which means that we will have to continue to put up with the misplaced moral preening of liberals who think it’s a good thing to be a scofflaw.from Powerline

It’s really sad when France has become more Conservative then America as France is going to pay Immigrants to leave. Legal immigration does not bother me, but illegal immigration does. Ignoring ALL the other arguments against illegal immigration, if the first thing they do upon entering this country is break the law, why would you expect them follow the law afterword?