Archive for March, 2006

Ollie North exposes this shame on our nation. While members of the Senate are talking about amnesty and increasing the likelihood of additional illegal aliens.

While preparing a documentary on the medical treatment our wounded warriors receive, a representative of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) told me that while health care and rehabilitation for those who have been injured has vastly improved since the Vietnam era — the “real scandal is how many veterans of this war are unemployed.” I initially thought he was referring to those who had been injured by enemy fire — but he quickly educated me: “You don’t have to be wounded in action to be ‘unemployable.’ Just to have served in this war makes it tougher to get a job.”

snip….It turns out that veterans’ unemployment is a two-fold problem. First, there are those — about 180,000 of them this year, according to the Department of Defense — who complete their service contracts and with Honorable Discharges in hand — enter the job market.

The second group of unemployed “Global War on Terror (GWOT) Vets” are among the 542,000 National Guard and reserve troops called up since Sept. 11, 2001 and fired — illegally, in many cases — by employers more concerned with service to self than serving the country.

snip……In recognition that the problem is getting worse, the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Labor have begun a program to link veterans with job openings. The website www.hirevetsfirst.gov offers employers a place to post “help wanted” notices and provides useful advice for job-hunting vets. Unfortunately, too few vets and employers know about the site, and promotion is almost non-existent.

Townhall.com :: Columns :: “Hire a Hero” by Oliver North – Mar 31, 2006

If you are able, help to promote awareness of this site both to employers and Veterans of the GWOT. Hire Vets First

If you’ve listened at all to any of the Senate discussions around illegal aliens you will constantly hear how any government costs incurred for services are paid over and above by the taxes paid by illegal aliens. Here’s some information to refute that assumption. I hope Mark Christopher doesn’t mind my stealing his write up on this.

Those who support illegal immigration claim that those who skip across the boarder illegally “contribute to our economy”. Some go as far as say that they are the backbone of this country. This is in no way true. While they do indeed pay some taxes, the cost of having them here far outweighs any taxes collected.

Here’s the break down:

Illegal immigrants pay approximately 16 Billion dollars per year in taxes.

Sounds pretty good right?

This is how much they cost us:

They cost Arizona taxpayers alone over $1 billion annually in services for schools, medical care, welfare anchor babies, loss of tax base and prisons.

Illegal aliens displaced American workers at a cost in excess of $133 billion dollars last year according to Harvard Professor George Borjas.

75 percent of drugs arrive from Mexico at a net cost of $120 billion hard currency that leaves our country for good. In addition, our tax dollars pay $80 billion for the War on Drugs each year.

$1.6 billion annually in prison costs to house, feed and clothe those filling 30 percent of our federal and state prisons “not to mention TV, movies, weight rooms and other entertainment” they enjoy while being incarcerated.

The average annual cost per child K-12 is $7,161.00 and exceeds $109 billion annually per cycle of anchor babies. That is your money given out to 300,000 moms and their kids annually and all they did was get pregnant and birth that child on U.S. soil.

Average bilingual education is $1,200.00 per illegal alien student. Get this! We educate 1.1 million illegal alien children each year. Georgia taxpayers paid a whopping $242 million for educating illegal alien kids in 2003.

The average head of household illegal alien costs you $2,700.00 in welfare money over and above any taxes he or she pays in their meager paying jobs. With 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in the USA, that figures exceeds $20 billion of your tax dollars.

$56 billion in pure cash illegal migrants sent to their home countries last year and every year? That’s after their kids enjoyed free education, free lunches and free medical care paid for by you. Mexico receives $15 billion annually from its worker drones. No wonder Vicente Fox sent us 9.2 million illegal alien Mexicans so far.

The lifetime net fiscal drain “taxes paid minus services used” for an adult immigrant is $55,200.00. $27 billion to provide forms, ballots, interpreters and brochures for languages other than English

It costs $200 million to provide for emergency health care for illegal aliens in the Border States annually. California with over three million illegals paid $79 million, BUT four of their major LA hospitals bankrupted and shut their doors in 2004. Texas with 1.5 million illegal aliens paid $74 million in hospital care.

Georgia ran a $63 million deficit for 64,000 unpaid doctor visits. The total of illegal aliens flooding into the United States this year will total three million “enough to fill 22,000 737 Boeing airliners, or 60 flights every day for a year”.

YOU DO THE MATH.

The Mark Christopher Show – NewsRadio 1510am WLAC – Nashville

The crass and blatent discrimination displayed by Temple University against Christian DeJohn is beyond belief. The amazing component about this story is that DeJohn wasn’t deployed to Iraq he was deployed to Bosnia. While serving in Bosnia DeJohn would receive emails from the History Department inviting him to anti war events, sit ins and demonstrations.

In a weekly email from the Alliance Defense Fund I was made aware of this case which is going to trial. ADF is handling DeJohns case and has filed the complaint.

Against Temple University’s retaliatory acts against a student who served as a sergeant in the Pennsylvania National Guard deployed to Bosnia shortly after 9/11.

The sergeant, a graduate student in the university’s Military and American History program, received anti-war e-mails from a professor in the department while serving overseas. When he objected, our complaint states officials refused to grant him military leave (which is guaranteed by federal and state law), dismissed him from the school, refused to advise him during his thesis completion, improperly and inaccurately reported him as defaulting on his student loans, personally and professionally denigrated him during the evaluation of his thesis, and delayed his graduation three times. In addition, the sergeant found his ability to share his political, religious, and culture views with others consistently chilled by the school’s “speech code”. A copy of the complaint can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/DejohnvTempleUniversitycomplaint.pdf.

You can find a detailed story about Sgt. DeJohn’s nightmare at At War At Home

I respect Victor Davis Hanson and have read his book “Mexifornia”. He comes from a multigenerational family of Mexican heritage. This is Hanson’s take on measures needed for a solution to US illegal immigration. He combines carrots and sticks.

But there is still a solution to the immigration problem: It involves supporting any practice that leads to the assimilation of legal Mexican immigrants into the American mainstream ? and opposing everything that does not.

1. As we’ve seen from second- and third-generation legal immigrants, when a person from Mexico comes to the U.S. with legal documentation, learns English and regards an unskilled job as the start, not the end, of a career, success most often follows.

And when immigrants, of all nationalities, finds themselves surrounded by others from all over the world, they generally accept English as our vital bond and see that a common culture, not race, is what matters.

2. ….numbers are important. The U.S. can assimilate hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, as it does with other immigrant groups, who come legally and are integrated throughout the nation in multiethnic neighborhoods. But it cannot assimilate quickly millions of abject poor who live in apartheid communities. There the joy of reaching the U.S. is replaced by the bitterness of becoming part of its collective underclass.

3. ……we should allow those illegal immigrants who have been living and working here for at least five years to start their citizenship process. But we should insist this be a one-time exemption rather than yet another periodic amnesty that encourages others to break the law and unfairly cut ahead in the immigration line.

Meanwhile, border enforcement, employer sanctions, walls and more officers to prevent illegal immigration will work, but only if we allow Mexico a generous quota of legal immigrants.

The real immigration debate is about turning legal arrivals into citizens. But we cannot do that until we work with those already here – and ensure that others in the future come legally and in measured numbers and so don’t repeat the shared mistakes of our past.

IF the stick was actually enforced then this might work. Unfortunately, the U.S. doesn’t have a track record of actual enforcement against illegal immigration from Mexico. People like Kennedy, McCain and Graham are the true elitists who really just want their maids, greens keepers, landscapers, waiters etc. to be there without interference in their elitist little lives. I don’t need a maid or a greens keeper or a waiter for my every day life. What I do need is lower taxes, I don’t want our government services supported by my taxes to provide benefits to a people who are not legally in this country nor do many of these people want to become assimilated as a citizen should. Don’t tell me that illegals pay taxes, whatever they contribute towards taxes is far overweighed by the government service dollars consumed. We have enough violent criminals of our own and don’t need to import gangs, rapists and drug runners from Mexico. See the criminal statistics from Signal 94 for information on this.

Victor Davis Hanson

Aside from a few statements in this story about wounded in action (one of which she says 17,000 which is true but according to Iraq Coalition Casualties of that 17,000 wounded 9,400 returned to duty within 72 hours) it is a gritty tale of the struggle to come back after losing their legs in a bomb attack. The story is almost told from a first person account and will tear at your heartstrings. There’s the horrendous and heroic struggle of these two Soldiers and their families.

Inside the second-floor ballroom of the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center, a banner stretched above the dance floor: “Welcome Home 1-5 Bobcats — Operation Iraqi Freedom — We Are So Proud of Our Heroes!” Balloons floated above linen-draped tables decorated with orchids and miniature American flags.

Brent is greeted by soldiers from his battalion that he hasn’t seen since he lost his legs to an improvised explosive device in Iraq in December 2004. He flew up from his home in Arizona to the ball in Tacoma, Wash., last October. Chronicle photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice

At the battalion ball, Sgt. Michael Buyas got his first chance to talk at length with the soldiers who were with him when an improvised explosive device was detonated under their Stryker. “You were propped up on your elbows talking to me,” one told him. “Until I noticed your legs, I didn’t think you were hurt at all.” Chronicle photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice

As I said, aside from some of the bias it’s a good story that illustrates the difficult road these amputees have to navigate.

War without end / The Army gave Sgts. Michael Buyas and Brent Bretz direction and self-respect. After they were wounded, they fought a second war to rebuild their broken bodies and reconnect with their families

h/t Lucianne

An A-10/OA-10 Thunderbolt II dives thousands of feet into a low level, close air support mission after completing an aerial refuel over Afghanistan March 26, 2006. The aircraft is deployed to the 355th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan from the 355th Fighter Squadron, Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. DoD photo by Master Sgt. Lance Cheung, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

Photo by: MASTER SGT. LANCE CHEUNG, HQ AFNEWS
Record ID No. (VIRIN): 060326-F-2907C-110

U.S. Air Force Capt. Andrew Quinn pilots his OA/A-10 Thunderbolt II observation/attack aircraft to a position behind a KC-135R/T Stratotanker air refueling aircraft over Afghanistan on March 26, 2006. Quinn is deployed to the 355th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. DoD photo by Master Sgt. Lance Cheung, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

This article is from March 2004. It’s interesting because the common theme on Guest Worker Programs back to the early 1900’s is they don’t work and do nothing to stop the entry of illegal aliens.

One of the points you always hear about is President Reagan issued the huge amnesty in 1986. Do you know who stuck an amendment into the bill resulting in the amnesty?

snip……Over the ensuing five years as the various versions of what would become the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) worked its way though the legislative process, no issue proved to be more difficult or controversial than efforts to add a guestworker program for agricultural workers to the bill. Numerous efforts were made. Indeed, after failing to pass Congress in both 1982 and 1984, it appeared that the legislation would die in 1986 for this very reason.22 It passed only after the adoption of an extremely controversial amendment offered by Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) that eventually would give permanent resident alien status (a green card) to any person who could prove he or she had worked in perishable agriculture for 90 days between May 1, 1985, and May 1, 1986. It was, in reality, a second amnesty added to the general amnesty provided for elsewhere in the legislation. The provision set off a firestorm of protest but it was given a debate rule that prohibited any changes in this particular provision to be made on the House floor. Representatives opposed to the compromise had only one choice: kill the whole reform package or accept this amendment as is. The idea could not withstand a vote on its own merits. Despite such criticism, the amendment enabled IRCA to be passed and signed into law by President Reagan in 1986. As a consequence, this adjustment program ? known as the Special Agricultural Workers program (SAW) ? led to 1.2 million persons applying for its adjustment of status benefits. Of these, 997,000 applications were approved. The number of applicants far exceeded anyone?s estimation of the number who would be eligible. The explanation for the large number of applicants was the widespread usage of fraudulent documents that were used to claim eligibly. Indeed, The New York Times described the SAW program as being “one of the most extensive immigration frauds ever perpetrated against the United States government.”23

Yes, it was Charles Shumer who hijacked the whole bill and created that amnesty. Can you imagine the NYT’s ever writing anything like this today? Not a chance.

There was a bipartison commission (editor: yes another investigation to be ignored) created called “Commission on Immigration Reform (CIR) which studied and studied and studied for 6 years. Know what they found? Pretty much the same thing found back in 1950’s.

1. “Guestworker programs have depressed wages.”

2. Those whose wages are most adversely affected are “unskilled American workers, including recent immigrants who may have originally entered to perform needed labor but who can be displaced by newly entering guestworkers.”

3. “Foreign guestworkers often are more exploitable than a lawful U.S. worker, particularly when an employer threatens deportation if workers complain about wages or working conditions.”

4. “The presence of large numbers of guestworkers in particular localities ? such as rural counties with agricultural interests ? presents substantial costs in housing, healthcare, social services, schooling, and basic infrastructure that are borne by the broader community and even by the federal government rather than by the employers who benefit from inexpensive labor.”

5. “Guestworker programs also fail to reduce unauthorized migration” [because] “they tend to encourage and exacerbate illegal movements that persist long after the guest programs end.” ?[and]? “guestworkers themselves often remain permanently and illegally in the country in violation of the conditions of their admission.”

Conclusion after 100 years and numerous studies on Guest Worker Programs?

The heart of the problem is that guestworker programs seek to reconcile two sharply conflicting goals: the need to protect citizen workers from the competition of foreign workers who are willing to work for wages and in conditions that few citizens would tolerate versus the wishes of some employers who rely on labor-intensive production and service techniques to secure a plentiful supply of low-cost workers. In addition, there are always unforeseen side effects that harm the wider society.

snip……Except in national emergencies, guestworker programs are bad public policy. They may meet the short-term pleas of private interest groups, but they can never meet the higher standard of being public policies that serve the national interest.

Center for Immigration Studies

Tony Blankley has an outstanding editorial today: Mexican illegals vs. American voters. The polls have consistently told our Legislators we the American public are overwhelmingly in favor of tougher enforcement on illegal aliens. Yet, our legislators ignore us.

The Senate is attempting to legislate into the teeth of the will of the American public. The Senate Judiciary Committeemen ( and probably a majority of the Senate ) are convinced that they know that the American people don’t know what is best for them.

So I’m a dummy. Since I’m going to the Milbloggers Conference I thought “Great I can go on a tour of the White House”. I knew you had to go through your Representative but didn’t know it was for groups of 10 or more nor that you should schedule at least a month in advance. I’ve got 3 weeks and 3 days and maybe 3 others who would like to go on the tour.

Anybody out there got any suggestions or help to offer in this endeavor?

I find this photo troubling. It just doesn’t seem to fit that those ‘evil war mongering baby killers’ should be putting on a puppet show for children in Congo!

U.S. Navy Yoeman 3rd Class Kieshia Beckett, front, and other crewmembers, all from submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39), perform a puppet show for children of the Jean Felix Tchicaya Primary School in Pointe Noire, Congo, March 22, 2006. Land is currently in port conducting repair training evolutions and community relations projects with host nationals. DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Kulp, U.S. Navy. (Released)

Photo by: PH2 JONATHAN KULP, PHOTOGRAPHER
Record ID No. (VIRIN): 060323-N-2420K-023

Let’s be clear here, immigration reform bill is about illegal immigration. We keep hearing about this in terms of immigration which implies legal immigration, the problem primarily is with illegal immigration and that is what the discussion is about.

Here is a summary of yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee bill approved yesterday:

**A blanket amnesty for nearly all of the 12-20 million illegal aliens in this country.
**Nearly a doubling of greencards for permanent foreign workers and dependents every year, in addition to largescale increases in H-1B visas for foreign tech workers.

There is no significant enforcement strategy to control the borders in this bill other than what is currently happening (which is essentially nothing).

Here’s the Republican Senators who voted for this bill:
Sen. Specter (R-PA)
Sen. Graham (R-SC)
Sen. Brownback (R-KS)
Sen. DeWine (R-OH)

Here are the Republican Senators who debated against some of the measures within the McCain-Kennedy Amnesty Bill (as I said yesterday Sen. Kyl was the strongest opponent to this bill):
Sen. Sessions (R-AL)
Sen. Kyl (R-AZ)
Sen. Grassley (R-IA)
Sen. Coburn (R-OK)
Sen. Cornyn (R-TX)
Sen. Hatch (R-UT)

The debate continues today on the Senate floor. I am not optomistic with the Senate considering their focus is on amnesty for illegal aliens, not the protection of our borders. This still doesn’t preclude you from contacting your Senators and Congressional Representatives. My guess is the whole Legislative body will not come to a compromise and hope to sweep this under the rug so their voting records will not reflect their failure to protect our borders and enforce even the current laws on the books to control illegal immigration.

This is why it is important for you to continue to call and fax your legislators so this issue is not swept under the rug and to encourage your legislators to pass an enforcement bill for protecting the borders. Based on the protests going on by the pro-illegal alien factions it is clear any type of enforcement scares these people which tells me that enforcement is needed.

The Capital Switchboard is a number you can call to be directed to your Legislators: (202) 224-3121 or fax your legislators here. You can receive updates from Numbers USA and FAIR (Federation For American Immigration Reform).

Update 3/28 1:30pm: Here’s more information which I received from FAIR
General Amnesty (Graham R-SC, Kennedy D-MA Amendment)
**All 12 million currently resident illegal aliens would be permitted to apply for a work visa after paying back taxes and a $1000 penalty.
**The visas would last for three years and be renewable for three more years.
**After the forth year, these 12 million newly-minted legal aliens-their family members who will ultimately be permitted to join them pushing the numbers through the roof-would be permitted to apply for a green card setting them on a path for citizenship.
Approved 12-5.
Yesterday’s Villains include Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Mike DeWine (R-OH) who joined all Democrats by voting for the most sweeping amnesty in American history.
Cowardly Lion Award goes to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) who was conveniently out of the room and did not vote.

Agricultural Worker Amnesty (Feinstein D-CA Amendment)
**All 1.5 million illegal alien agricultural worker would receive a new “blue card” that would allow them to remain in the United States as long as they work in agriculture for a small portion of two years.
**Following this period all of these 1.5 million newly-minted legal aliens-their family members who will ultimately be permitted to join them will at minimum double the numbers-would be permitted to apply for a green card, placing them on a path toward citizenship.
Approved 11-5 on a roll call vote (votes by Senators not immediately available, but mirror those of the general amnesty vote above).

Guests Who Never Have to Leave (Kennedy D-MA Amendment)
**Provides 400,000 new guest worker visas annually.
**New guest workers given renewable 3 year terms of work authorization.
**Following 6 years, the new “guests” may apply for green cards, placing them on a path toward citizenship if they can show that they are learning English and pass background checks.
Approved 11-6 by roll call vote (votes by Senators not immediately available but mirror those of the general amnesty vote above).

In-State Tuition for Illegal Aliens Anyone? (Durbin D-IL Amendment)
**Repeals current law barring in-state tuition for illegal aliens unless the same benefit is made available to out of state residents.
**This will effectively require middle and lower income Americans to directly compete with illegal aliens for limited freshman class seats at state colleges and universities.
Approved by voice vote.

Decriminalize Visa Overstayers Anyone? (Durbin D-IL Amendment)
**Makes overstay of a visa-40 percent of all illegal aliens are visa overstayers-a civil violation and removes all criminal penalties.
Approved 11-6 by roll call vote (votes by Senators not immediately available but mirror those of the general amnesty vote above).

Final Bill Approved by Committee Roll Call Vote of 12-6

Voted For Committee Approval
Arlen Specter (R-PA)
DeWine (R-OH)
Graham (R-SC)
Brownback (R-KS)
Leahy (D-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Biden (D-DE)
Kohl (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Feingold (D-WI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Durbin (D-IL)

Voted Against Committee Approval
Hatch (R-UT)
Grassley (R-IA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Sessions (R-AL)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Coburn (R-TN)

Yep, as you can see this is a really tough enforcement bill for U.S. Borders. You can rely on your Senators to protect you. Now you can sleep at night just knowing how serious they are about protecting this country.