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This morning I stumbled onto a web site that I had never seen before and it has me scratching my head in wonder.  Its called Republicans for Obama and I am still wondering exactly what a Republican for Obama consists of.  Naturally, the web site purports to be the home of crotchety old Republicans, sick of the corruption in their party and discovering new found hope in the likes of Barack Obama, but between you and me, I doubt it.  No body can be struck that deaf, dumb and blind all at once.  More likely it is the home of an entire gaggle of very disingenuous dweebish liberals who would like you to think that they are dissatisfied Republicans.  Admittedly there may a couple of former frustrated neocons hanging out there and maybe a small collection of confused wannabe socialist conservatives, but die-hard Republicans – NO! Never! Isn’t going to happen!

Certainly the Republican Party has let a lot of people down.  The GOP’s push for amnesty was a major strategic error and earned them a ton of much warranted criticism.  Their less than conservative spending has turned a lot of staunch Republicans into conservative libertarians, that is a certainty, but the entire idea that someone who has been critical of the Party’s spending practices of late would be so frustrated as to support a Democrat; well that simply isn’t too likely to happen unless the individual was a moron to begin with.

George W. Bush has managed to inspire a lot of very vocal and public condemnation.  Of that there is no doubt.  The Iraq war has not been a popular effort and the general consensus seems to be that we should get out of there and let the genocide begin.  I can’t say I agree with that but I know there are a lot of people who do.  Even still, there is a presidential election coming up and change is right around the corner.  George Bush will be gone and somebody else will take his spot.  Even the Mexican government can’t surpass the Democrats when it comes to outright corruption and graft, and if you didn’t like the Republican spending spree, just think about what the Democrats are capable of with their silly social programs and massive entitlements.  What self-respecting individual, who actually works for a living, would voluntarily support a Democrat for that office? 

I suppose the answer to that question would depend entirely on how many Republicans there are in this country that are so fed up with their Party that they have become suicidal, because as far as I am concerned, even a jerk-off Republican like Giuliani or McCain would be better for this country than any of the Democrats running.  Furthermore, if you are that frustrated, please do us all a favor and finish yourself off before Election Day comes and you embarrass yourself and your family by voting for a liberal like Barack (douche bag) Obama.

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On October 23, 2007, Bill Richardson, New Mexico’s governor and Democratic Presidential candidate released an ad promoting his foreign policy experience and claiming that he is the only candidate with hands-on experience at resolving international disputes.  The ad credits Richardson with gaining the release of two men held by Saddam Hussein in July 1995, and Richardson’s campaign director, Dave Contarino has further credited Bill Richardson with helping to shut down North Korea’s plutonium-producing nuclear reactor in Yongbyon and obtaining a cease-fire in Darfur.  Furthermore, Richardson’s website purportedly claims that the New Mexico governor is viewed as the “go-to guy for tough hostage negotiations” by “Presidents, Secretaries of State, and Prime Ministers.”    

On October 28th Richardson reiterated these claims as he and other Democratic candidates spoke before the Arab American Institute’s National Leadership Conference in Dearborn, Michigan, a community that is home to approximately 300,000 people of Middle Eastern descent and the largest enclave of adherents to Hezbollah present in the United States.

According to a New York Times article published on July 23, 1995, The Clinton administration viewed Saddam Hussein’s release of the two Americans, David Daliberti and William Barloon, held prisoner in Iraq for four months, as more of an attempt by the Iraqi dictator to convince the world to lift the economic sanctions placed on that country than anything resembling a resounding diplomatic achievement by Bill Richardson, who by the way, was not even mentioned in the article.

Bill Richardson did travel to Iraq while serving as a US Congressman.  He accompanied Dr. Peter Bourne on the 1995 trip to Baghdad to meet with Saddam Hussein and secure the release of the two American aerospace workers.  Mr. Barloon and the wife of the late David Daliberti have, quite understandably, expressed their gratitude to Richardson for the part he played in the release, but how large a part then Congressman Richardson actually played is, unfortunately, not very clear, and from the sound of the 1995 New York Times article one could easily surmise that Bill Richardson simply carried the Clinton administration’s message to Baghdad and delivered, for all purposes, a deal that couldn’t be refused.  The essential difference between acting as a messenger boy and operating as a shrewd negotiator of American foreign policy abroad is substantial. 
 
According to another New York Times article dated July 11, 2007, the New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson went to Darfur not at the request of “Presidents, Secretaries of State, and Prime Ministers,” but at the request of the Save Darfur Coalition.  The Save Darfur Coalition was started in 2004 exclusively as an initiative of the American Jewish community, since then, the Coalition has grown into an alliance of more than 180 faith-based, advocacy and human rights organizations.  Bill Richardson met separately with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan and leaders of some of the rebel factions in Darfur and managed to broker a 60-day cease fire.  The cease fire Richardson claims he negotiated was never implemented and to date more than 450,000 people have died in the conflict.  The July 11, 2007 New York Times article about Richardson’s failed cease fire casually mentioned that Richardson would be announcing his candidacy for U.S. President in 2008, and coincidentally enough, Bill Richardson’s official entry into the race for U.S. President, which took place ten days after he left Darfur, coincided with the Sudanese government’s renewal of aerial bombardments in North Darfur and their unrelenting continuation of the genocide.

Bill Richardson has visited North Korea at least six times and most of these trips have been memorialized in various news archives on the net such as the Associated Press article that was carried on CBS News back in December 2006, which focused on Richardson’s need to bolster his diplomatic image to help his future presidential campaign, there is the article that appeared in USA Today in April of this year about how Richardson was headed to North Korea to recover the remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War.  Richardson was quoted as saying he had no intention of negotiating nuclear issues with the North Koreans during that trip.  There’s another from CNN dated October 14, 2005, stating that Richardson was visiting North Korea as a private citizen and not as an official envoy of the United States.  However, my personal favorite is the Newsmax article from April 10, 2007, that tells about the New Mexico governor’s trip to North Korea to deliver the message that the U.S. expected North Korea to uphold the 60-day deadline to shut down its nuclear weapons program, but Richardson ended up on a tour of the USS Pueblo seized by the North Koreans in international waters on January 23, 1968.  The highlight of Governor Richardson’s tour memorialized for all eternity by NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell who filmed Richardson as he sat watching a North Korean propaganda film denouncing the United States as an imperialistic nation.  The video showing that momentous tour is available on You Tube.

I am not saying that Richardson is full of chorizo, I am merely pointing out that his claim of diplomatic superiority over the other Democratic candidates appears to be based on his personal interpretation of his own accomplishments which seem to have little bearing on reality, and whether Bill Richardson actually has any real experience in the diplomatic arena, or he is simply a bloviating diplomatic gadfly ala the Jesse Jackson school of American diplomacy I will leave up to the individual to determine.  Personally, I believe his claims about being the “go to guy” about as much as I believe than somebody actually tried to recruit him in the Major League Baseball amateur draft of 1966.  Bill Richardson is a professional politician, he’s been in politics for a long time and it’s probably not fair to expect the guy to be truthful.  I mean what the hell! He’s a Democrat, what do you want?   At least he’s not claiming he invented the internet!

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About the time you believe you have the entire Democratic Party pegged as a colossal write-off somebody steps in and throws you a real curveball and you’re caught standing there with your mouth open, a dazed look across your face, and a generally confused question pinging back and forth in your benumbed head.  Where did that come from?

Heath Shuler, North Carolina’s Democratic representative to the U.S. House of Representatives, is one of those somebodys.  A 35 year old kid, a Blue Dog Democrat representing North Carolina’s 11th congressional district and a former National Football League (NFL) quarterback and real-estate investor who appeared on the Washington political scene when he knocked eight-term incumbent Republican Charles H. Taylor out of his chair and took the oath of office as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives on January 4, 2007.  An upstart, a newbie, and a fish to everyone he encounters, Heath Shuler is now carrying a completely different sort of ball, and to say it is one that I didn’t expect to see a Democrat carrying is the understatement of the year.
  
Congressman Shuler is preparing to launch an immigration related bill in congress, and the preliminary assessment seems to indicate that it is entirely rational.  It contains no path to citizenship for the estimated 20 million illegal aliens in our country, there are no provisions in it that would provide any sort of preferential treatment to the invading hordes, and it doesn’t require us to “think of the children.”  Effectively, what Congressman Shuler is planning to propose is a very strong enforcement measure, which if implemented, would restore and strengthen the rule of law and substantially benefit the majority of American citizens.

The Secure America with Verification and Enforcement Act (SAVE Act) is a proposal that would eventually require every employer in the United States to verify that their employees are not illegal aliens through the inexpensive, quick, and accurate internet based E-Verify system.        

The provisions of the SAVE Act would be phased in over a four year period beginning with government agencies, government contractors, and businesses with more than 250 employees in the first year and finishing with small business having less than 20 employees in the fourth year.  The phase-in period would allow the government sufficient time to expand the current E-Verify system.  It would also allow the federal government the opportunity to identify and resolve any quirks that cropped up in the program before smaller companies with limited personnel were required to go through the procedure.    

Congressman Shuler’s proposal would give all American employers a valuable tool that they could rely on, a tool that accurately verifies the immigration status of current and potential future employees.  A four year phase-in period for mandatory compliance by all American businesses assures every employer that their competitors will not be allowed the unfair competitive advantage of being free to continue using illegal alien workers, and ultimately, the illegal aliens in this country will find it nearly impossible to secure legitimate employment of any sort and be forced to return home on their own because there will not be enough cash-paying, off-the-books jobs in the illegal aliens underground economy to support them.

Since the proposal has not been made at this point in time and the text of it’s provisions have not yet been publicly released, there is no way of knowing exactly what this proposal will consist of, however, sufficient rumors exist to indicate that, as well as a system to detect when the same identity is being used to hold down more jobs than credibly acceptable, the proposal would include provisions to increase the number of Customs and Border Patrol agents, enhance the Border Patrol’s recruitment practices with bonuses, student loan repayments, and other financial incentives, expand specialized enforcement programs, create pilot programs to increase aerial surveillance, satellite, and equipment sharing between the Department of Homeland Security and the Dept. of Defense thereby reducing costs and saving taxpayer dollars, increases the investigative capacity of ICE, increases the capacity of existing detention facilities, streamlines the judicial immigration processes, and implements a targeted media campaign to inform illegal aliens of new laws and penalties, while informing employers of penalties for hiring illegal immigrants.             

Admittedly, a lot can happen to a proposal such as this on its way to the U.S. Congress.  Questionable elements can be added and penalties can be reduced to the point of nonexistence.  It can be safely assumed that Congressman Shuler’s proposal will not obtain the overwhelming support of the American business community and their well-paid legion of lobbyists will bring as much pressure as they possibly can to bear on scuttling the effort as quickly and decisively as they possibly can.  Congressman Shuler is a very junior representative in the House and he will also be facing some incredibly stiff opposition from within his own party.  The Democrats have not exactly been the epitome of discretion as far as pandering to the illegal aliens has been concerned and the simple fact that the Party views the illegal aliens as future supporters of the Democratic Party is not the best kept secret in American politics.  When it comes right down to the bottom line, I will be amazed if Heath Shuler’s proposed Secure America with Verification and Enforcement Act even makes it through the door of the U.S. Congress, let alone the bill survives long enough to be debated or voted on.        

Regardless of the eventual outcome, Congressman Shuler’s proposed SAVE Act is proof positive that even the Democrats are capable of occasionally coming up with an idea that would actually benefit the American people without forcing them into bankruptcy, and in the event that Shuler ends up wearing a thick coat of hot tar before he is escorted out of Washington astride a rail, he might want to consider switching sides in his next run for office, that is, unless his dead corpse is left hanging by the neck in the capital dome.
 

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Now that the DREAM Act has officially been sent back to marinate in the toilet for a while longer a few of it’s finer points are coming loose and floating to the surface where we can see them more clearly.  It appears now that the eligibility requirements would not have been all that difficult to meet in light of the simple fact that the overworked and understaffed Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services is currently carrying a backlog of more than 6 million pending applications for immigration benefits and the Bureau’s administrators have become so desperate to get the work done that they are offering prizes to the employees who get the most applications processed.  Demanding quantity over quality is like issuing a license to cut every conceivable corner imaginable and if the ridiculous DREAM Act had passed it would have added another 2 million applications to their backlog and increased the desperation of an already desperate federal bureaucracy. 

The DREAM Act would have provided illegal alien students the preferential ability to attend college while paying lower in-state tuition rates, a preferential ability that is denied to American citizens.  The DREAM Act would have rewarded illegal aliens with a preferentially expedited path to American citizenship that legal aliens currently in this country do not have access to, and illegal aliens who are also known gang members would have been considered eligible for legal status providing they were willing to give an un-sworn statement renouncing their gang affiliation.   

Like the comprehensive amnesty bill the U.S. Senate failed to shove down the throats of the American people last June, the Dream Act is now gone, but it is not dead and the Democratic politicians who slapped it together are committed to bringing it back at some point in the future.  In the meantime, the Senate Democrats are dusting off any number of previously failed proposals, assessing the questionable merits of each and trying to determine which of them they can pitch to the American public without breaking into fits of laughter.  Inasmuch as few American voters were swayed by the “Its for the kids” argument used with the DREAM Act, the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act probably wouldn’t fly either, and at this point in time, all bets are leaning toward the AgJOBS Act.  

In the long run I suppose it doesn’t really matter when you’re pimping to the illegal aliens, frantic for votes and willing to do anything it takes to get them, as far as the Democrats are concerned, the AgJOBS Act is better than a jab in the eye with a sharp stick.  A lot of the groundwork has already been laid, money has changed hands, the agriculture lobbyists have been glad-handing political hacks on both sides of the aisle and the legions of left-leaning journalists have been hard at it with real and imagined stories of frustrated American farmers moving to Mexico and heart-wrenching exposes on the plight of migrant farm workers and everything loaded with subtle and not-so-subtle threats that if something isn’t done soon the price for a head of lettuce will soon be higher than the price of gas.  Hogwash or not, they know that every story brings in a few more gullible souls, after all, it’s for the good of the party and what’s good for the party is good for America.  Nobody cares about truth.

The AgJOBS Act, like other recent amnesty proposals is not a direct amnesty giveaway.  The pro-illegal alien crowd might be a tad thick-headed but they aren’t that dumb, and they know that the direct approach would fail miserably.  AgJOBS is another delayed amnesty.  The illegal aliens would first have to apply for “temporary resident status.”  They would then be required to wait for a period while things cooled off somewhat.  In the meantime, there would be a few extremely low hurdles they would have to clear, and about the time the outrage settled down to the level of a minor migraine, they could apply for permanent resident status.

It can be safely assumed that the minute the illegal aliens are given permanent resident status in this country will be the same exact minute that anyone will ever see them working on a farm of any sort because they will immediately leave those low-paying jobs behind and head for greener pastures elsewhere in the country.  The vacuum created by their sudden departure will immediately suck a few million more illegal aliens over the border into this country to fill the needs of America’s big agricultural corporations and life will continue as it did before, at least until the next amnesty bill comes bobbing up to the surface and we start the entire process all over.    

In the passing years since Ted Kennedy conned the American people into believing that the 1986 amnesty bill would be a one-time-only deal, completely eliminating the need for anything like it in the future, the United States Congress has passed six amnesty bills and the number of illegal aliens has risen to at least four times what we had in 1986.

Literally thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens filed fraudulent applications for permanent residency following the 1986 amnesty bill and the overwhelming majority of them were allowed to become citizens despite never having worked a day in agriculture.  One of these individuals was New York City cab driver by the name of Mahmud Abouhalima is now serving the remainder of his 240 year prison sentence for the part he played in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.  The same overworked and understaffed federal bureaucracy that mailed him his change in status letter will now be cutting corners and shoving papers aside in the rush to get even more fraudulent applications off their desks than they did back then.

Up to this point in time, the American people have failed miserably at getting their point across to the politicians in Washington that any sort of amnesty, direct, indirect, official or de facto, is not being viewed as a benefit.  The American people, up to this point in time, have failed miserably at letting their congressional representatives know exactly who put them into office and who they need to please if they want to stay there.  The elitist, arrogant politicians in Washington are still under the impression that the only real opponents to their amnesty plans are talk radio hosts, neo-Nazi, gun-toting extremists and a small group of very vocal racists, and it is going to take more than a few failed pieces of legislation to convince them otherwise.  As I stated some months ago, they will bring up one amnesty bill after another until we either give up or start eliminating politicians from office.  The American people are going to have to beat them over the head with a ballot box if they really want to convince them that this is not what we want.

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Note: The following article was written in response to an editorial in the Orange County Register which you can find by following this link.

Since June 2004, American soldiers in Iraq have been on the receiving end of Iranian weaponry purposely supplied to Shiite militias in Iraq for use against the coalition forces while the American government has quietly resisted addressing the source of this growing problem.

Sophisticated roadside bombs equipped with armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators, manufactured in Iranian munitions factories and smuggled into Iraq by members of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard with the full blessing of the Iranian government have killed more than 170 American forces and wounded another 620.  An Iranian supplied 240 mm rocket fired at the main U.S. headquarters base in Iraq killed one person and wounding 11 in September.  Iranian made 107mm rockets were fired at an American forward operating base near the Besmaya Range Complex adjacent to a Coalition Force base on July 11, 2007.  An unmanned aerial vehicle later located 46 rocket launchers in the northern section of Besmaya Range Complex aimed at FOB Hammer, and American EOD Soldiers were able to determine that the rockets originated from Iran after analyzing and neutralizing the unexploded ordnance.                

For more than two years the Coalition forces in Iraq have been finding brand-new weapons, bearing recent manufacturing dates indicating they were fresh from the Iranian weapons factories where they were manufactured and directly shipped to Shia militias.  These discoveries include Iranian-supplied weaponry such as the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system, RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and 107mm rockets.  Manufacturing date stamps, serial numbers and indications of sophisticated precision machining processes used in the manufacture of these items conclusively indicate their Iranian origin.  One shipment of explosively formed penetrators was intercepted by Coalition forces in 2005 as it was being brought across the border from Iran into Iraq.

In January, Coalition forces apprehended five members of Iran’s elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the northern Iraq city of Erbil where they were working with extremist groups to plan attacks on American and Iraqi forces.  In September another member of the Iranian Quds force was apprehended by U.S. troops in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.    

There is a substantial and growing body of evidence indicating that the Iranian government and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have been supplying weapons, ammunition and training to the insurgents operating in Iraq.  While many of those weapons were undeniably manufactured in Iranian weapons factories and others have been identified as being manufactured in Russia and then sold to Iran, the linkage to Iran is irrefutably conclusive and it can no longer be denied that Iranian military forces have taken an active part in the Iraqi insurgent’s attacks on American military personnel.

It may be politically convenient for editorialists to condemn labeling the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as sponsors of terrorism as the childish response of a presidential administration reluctant to commit themselves to the tough work of negotiating deterrents to Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, but with American soldiers being targeted by Iranian supplied weapons, which Iran completely denies, the futility of negotiating efforts is very apparent.

The Coalition forces are slowly beginning to make progress in Iraq.  The civilian death rate is down, the number of suicide bombings has dropped off and the presence of al Queda terrorists in the country has been steadily declining.  We cannot allow the fragile gains we have fought so hard to achieve be ruined by Iran’s attempts to undermine what has been accomplished.  American soldiers are being killed by Iranian weapons in the hands of insurgents trained and encouraged by Iranian soldiers at the direction of the hostile Iranian government which has denied any involvement and defiantly dared the United States to do anything about it.  Ignoring the situation is unacceptable, negotiating with Iran’s leadership is unlikely, and sanctions, effective or not, appear to be the most appropriate next step available before military force becomes necessary.

The world is a hostile place and burying our head in the sand is not going to appease those who would destroy us.  Defending our nation and our military forces overseas is the most prudent thing our country can do and if there are some elements of our society who would call those efforts childish because it suits their political agenda to do so, then so be it, thanks to the American military and the current administration, this is still a free country, the liberal media and the Democrats are still free to root for the enemy if that is what they want to do.

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Have you noticed in your daily newspaper the reports about the al Qaeda terrorists that are disappearing from Iraq?  While al Qaeda’s presence is as strong as ever in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the al Qaeda terrorists sacrificed the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people with their savage brutality and alienated the Muslim people they hoped to win over to their cause.  In Iraq the suicide bombers targeting random civilian gatherings have become less and less frequent and for the first time in years a day has passed without one civilian death in or around Baghdad and the security situation in the country is improving as thousands of Iraqis are stepping up to work with coalition soldiers to restore the country.  The Iraqis, who want security and stability in their communities, are the ones who are now providing intelligence and information on al-Qaeda and other violent groups in their neighborhoods and more of the tribal chiefs and former insurgents are joining the American forces in their fight against al Qaeda.  Progress is being made in Iraq and it is becoming more and more obvious with every passing day.  You would think that this news would get a lot of coverage, and the front pages of this country’s newspapers would be covering the progress in exacting detail.  Then again, maybe success is not as newsworthy as the media’s hyper critical commentary condemning the war effort as a hopeless cause, a quagmire and a failure.    

Hopefully the American people will someday understand that the true failure of the war in Iraq had nothing to do with the American military.  The true failure was the American news media and the Democratic Party’s failure to ensure that American soldiers were entirely defeated in Iraq.  A military defeat that both of these groups fervently hoped would enable them to throw this nation’s conservatives into the deepest pit of shame that ever existed.  Sometimes things simply don’t work out as intended, but I am sure they did their best. 

As the American people get closer to the 2008 presidential election, the war in Iraq seems to be fading as a hot issue in the minds of American voters.  The problems with Iran and the uncontrolled influx of illegal aliens seem to be edging the Iraq war off to the side.  Despite the best efforts of the Democratic candidates, a national health care plan just isn’t catching on the way they expected and it might just be that the American people got wind of the hefty price tag attached and decided that it wasn’t worth going broke over.  Then again, it’s entirely possible that the American people have finally realized that the Democratic Party is so far out of touch with the real world that most middle class American workers live in that they simply can’t relate to their own constituents any longer.  Nobody really seems to know and the only way any of us will be able to tell is to wait until the 2008 elections are over and the dust has settled so we can see who got elected and who got defeated.  I almost wish the whole thing could be dropped in the Democrat’s lap because then we would have a chance to see what true failure really looked like.  Then again, we probably can’t afford that lesson.

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Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff finally exercised his authority to make the border fence exempt from the law because further delays in the construction effort, such as those brought into play by a plethora of environmental groups, would present a risk to national security.  At this point the construction of the border fence through the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area can be restarted but nobody has said when the work will begin.

Veronica Valdes, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said that the Department of Homeland Security will compromise its commitment to responsible environmental stewardship and that the border fence “will not only secure our borders and lessen that security risk, but it will also be a significant improvement to the environment in that area, and it will increase the public’s ability to enjoy it as a resource.”  She further stated that “The illegal roads divert the normal flow of water, and the illegal entrants also leave behind a lot of trash and a concentration of human waste in the area,” furthermore, she explained that there is a very high amount of illegal traffic in the area and that is causes “severe and profound” impacts on the environment.

Tricia Gerrodette, a community and environmental activist who lives in Sierra Vista, said the environmental impact of illegal immigration traffic through the area is nothing compared to the damage that will be done by the fence construction.  “It is unfortunate, I think, that the government has the power and is choosing to exercise the power to restart fence construction without doing an appropriate and adequate environmental review.”  “Lots of creatures migrate across the border. Some of them fly, and they will be less impacted by it than others. Some of them use the ground, and it will definitely be harmful to them.”  

Tricia Gerrodette may be a fine human being and an excelent example to the communitty she serves with her activism, but like many other environmental activists she has failed to put human life into her environmentally rosy picture, and she has failed to assess the environmental impact of this nation going under as a result of uncontrolled illegal immigration.  Illegal aliens are impacting the American enironment in more ways than simply lunching on every endangered desert tortoise they come across in their travels.  They are killing innocent American citizens every year by the thousands.  They are packing their illegal alien children into America’s public school system not because of their thirst for knowledge, but because it’s cheaper than daycare centers, and the kids they pack into these schools emulate their parents disdain for American law by selling drugs and joining street gangs.  Granted, no hairy toed lizards or microscopic bushy tailed sand fleas are going to become extinct as a result of the little rat-bastards selling drugs to American elementary school kids, but the influx of more than 20 million illegal aliens into the United States is undeniably having an environmental impact on the American people.

Tricia Gerrodette and those like her are concerned with the plight of the world’s endangered species and that is a fine thing.  Someone has to do it, but the rest of us, the people who are concerned with the plight of the American middle class worker who is slowly being taxed out of existence because of social programs and educational opportunities being offered to illegal aliens exclusively, are being routinely ignored by the liberal media and the congressional representatives we put into office while Gerrodette’s concerns over the border fence get top billing in every American newspaper and foot dragging from the congressional politicians more concerned with the message the fence sends to Mexico than the fact that it is an effective way to keep illegal aliens out of this country.  

The concerns of the environmentalists are not unwarranted; they simply need to be put into perspective.

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On Tuesday, October 16th, 24 year old Angel Jesus Hernandez decided to celebrate his successful illegal entry into the United States with a bit of alcohol. Unfortunately, Angel was driving his car at the time – on the sidewalk along the 6100 block of Windswept in southwest Houston.  He hit a baby walking with her parents on that sidewalk and didn’t bother to stop afterwards.  She died after spending two agonizing days in critical condition at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital. Gissela Silvestre was one month shy of her second birthday.  Angel Jesus Hernandez managed to hit quite a few cars as he attempted to get away, but he was arrested not to far from where he hit the baby girl, and the breathalyzer test given to him three hours later indicated that he had a blood alcohol level of approximately twice the legal limit.

Gissela Silvestre is but one of the many thousands of American citizens needlessly slaughtered this year by the illegal aliens flooding into this country at the encouragement of American business leaders willing to offer them jobs and the Democratic National Party advocating numerous amnesty provisions that would give them legal status in this country despite the overwhelming opposition of American voters.  The companies that hire these illegal aliens are looking for an unfair competitive advantage over those who refuse to hire the invaders.  The Democratic Party is looking for any way possible to ensure a presidential victory for a liberal candidate in 2008 and if American citizens must die in the process then they have died to make the Democratic Party stronger.  What is good for the Democratic Party is good for the nation.

Isn’t it about time that the American people started demanding some accountability?  The federal government sits back with their thumb in their butt while these people flood over the border into our country relatively unopposed.  The United States Congress, sworn to protect the American people from all invaders, comes up with one plan after another to reward these criminal aliens with American citizenship, free educations and government assistance.  American business associations like the Chamber of Commerce lobby for illegal alien amnesty while individual businesses recruit illegal workers in Mexican border towns and the population of illegal aliens in this country continues to grow unabated, unchecked and unopposed, and nobody is held accountable for the destruction they cause, the lives that are lost or the tax payer’s money that is spent so that human garbage like Angel Jesus Hernandez can come into this country without authorization, get rip-roaring drunk and crush a baby girl on an American sidewalk with the uninsured car he is illegally driving.

We have heard all about how these illegal aliens come here looking to better their lives.  We have heard that they are decent, law-abiding folks.  Their children, who have been educated in American schools at out expense, are a valuable resource for this county’s future.  We have heard that America’s economy requires more dry-wall installers, fruit pickers and car washers and we all know that these often repeated statements are nothing more than lies and phony justifications.  

The Congressional Democrats pump the “unjust” war in Iraq for all it is worth and they gloat over every new attack claiming additional American lives as if it were proof positive of our misguided war effort, and yet, they do less than nothing about the continuing slaughter of innocent American citizens at the hands of the illegal aliens they hold in such high regard.  The illegal aliens in this country are killing three times as many American citizens every year in this country as all of the American soldiers lost in Iraq since the beginning of that war, but for some reason, innocent Americans being killed by illegal aliens has no presence on the Democrat’s priority list.   

Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Bayh, Biden, Boyer, Brady, Dodd and all of the other Democratic candidates for U.S. President in 2008 have publicly stated their support for the illegal aliens over and over.  They have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment by voting in favor of the proposed legislative efforts that would give these illegal aliens legal status as a reward for violating the laws of our country.  If elected, every one of these candidates will dedicate a renewed push to see that amnesty legislation will pass, that more illegal aliens will be able to come into this country and that more innocent American citizens will continue to die as a result while no one is held accountable for the misery they have inflicted on the American people.

The 2008 Presidential election may determine more than who sits in the oval office for the four years that follow.  The 2008 Presidential election may ultimately determine the fate of the United States as a free nation.  Unfortunately, Gissela Silvestre won’t be here to see how it turns out.

With Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) leading the way with the U.S. Senate’s latest balls-to-the-wall lunge for immigration overhaul in a less than comprehensive, piecemeal fashion failed once again.  This dynamic duo’s attempted to drag the festering carcass of a long-dead amnesty back to the floor under the provisions of Senate Rule XIV which would allow it to be brought back without having been debated in committee and the attempt to obtain cloture on the DREAM Act amnesty (S. 2205) went down in a 52-44 vote where 60 YES votes would have been required to prevent a filibuster.

Harry Reid has argued that “children should not be penalized for the actions of their parents. Many of the children come here when they’re very, very young; many don’t even remember their home countries or speak the language of their home countries, What good does it do anybody to prevent these young people from having a future?”

Obviously Harry and Dick do not share the same viewpoint as the the majority of the American people who are entirely fed up with illegal aliens and the Democratic Party’s insistence that we knuckle under and pay for their board and keep as well as their education. 

The opponents of the Dream Act know that all life doesn’t stop at the American border, and these “Children” still can have a future outside the United States, furthermore there is nothing to stop them from applying for U.S. Citizenship in the legally accepted manner at some point in the future.  If these kids were even half as intelligent as the liberals portray them then sending them home would provide more benefit to their country of origin than we could hope to obtain if we kept them here.  Sending them home would be an uplifting experience that the entire world could benefit from.  Rather than working in an American car wash or flipping burgers on a grill here in America these kids could really make a difference by going back to their own countries where they could work to create a more just system of government, one where equal rights were afforded to everyone.  Certainly the American people shouldn’t expect to hog all of that excellent talent for the U.S. and will, with due reflection, conclude that deporting these illegal aliens is the best possible way for America to share the dream of a better life with the world. 

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In Light of all of the hysterical comments coming in from the liberal bleeding hearts over my criticism of the DREAM Act I have reviewed my original opinion and found it to be somewhat lacking in detail and clarity.  After a closer review of the available information I am revising my original opinion as follows.

Where I originally stated that I considered the deportation of kids a bit hard to get behind, I was obviously feeling soft that day.  It really isn’t that hard to envision applying the correct punishment to a criminal, even if that criminal happens to be young.  The fact that some of these kids may have been brought here as very young children should be given due consideration, but I would limit that consideration to not holding them criminally liable for their unauthorized entry, and I would still deport them. 

Where I stated that any illegal alien that serves time in the U.S. Military and receives an honorable discharge should be granted citizenship, I should have clarified that more by saying that any alien willing to volunteer for at least four years of service in the U.S. Military and receives an honorable discharge or is released early because of injuries received in combat should be granted citizenship.  Two years of service is insufficient.  By the time they complete their initial training there would be very little time left for them to actually serve the nation they aspire to become citizens of, and for this reason I feel that the minimum requirement should be for four years of active military service.  In addition, I do not feel that the recruiting standards for aliens volunteering for service should be lowered to accommodate these aliens.  If they can’t meet the current standards established for everyone else they should be deported.

My idea of a DREAM Act would be a bill that cut off all federal funds to any educational institution that knowingly provided an illegal alien with an education at the expense of the American taxpayers.

Additional comments of a critical nature are included below.
NUMBERS
A recently released study by the Center for Immigration Studies indicates that the DREAM Act could potentially result in a general amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.  This study was completed using 2007 Census Bureau which has been shown to be understated with respect to illegal aliens.  The total number of potential amnesty beneficiaries could be significantly higher than what is stated in this report. 

800,000 illegal immigrants under age 17 have been here long enough to qualify for legalization under the DREAM Act

1.7 million illegal aliens estimated to be under age 18

1.3 million claiming to have arrived in the U.S. prior to age 16

4.4 million illegal aliens between the age 18 and 29

900,000 parents of illegal aliens (estimated) under age 18 who qualify

500,000 siblings of qualifying illegal aliens who are themselves illegal but do not meet the Act’s requirements

2.1 million total potential amnesty beneficiaries – This does not include 1.4 million siblings and parents of qualifying illegal aliens who may end up receiving a de facto amnesty.
COSTS
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of costs to the federal government associated with the implementation of the DREAM Act (completed in 2004)

$90 million – increase direct spending over the ten years following implementation for the student loan, Food Stamp, and Medicaid programs which the illegal aliens who qualified for this program would be eligible to receive because of their change in status.

$1 million – additional cost to schools for registering illegal aliens who qualified for this program in Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS)

Please Note:
Inasmuch as this estimate was compiled in 2004 and we have had nearly 8,000 illegal aliens flooding into the United States every week between 2004 and 2007, it can be safely assumed that the CBO cost estimates are understated.  Furthermore, the CBO estimate given above is based solely on the estimated number of illegal aliens who would be considered eligible for the program in 2004 and does not include any estimated costs associated with the additional non-eligible illegal aliens such as siblings and parents of qualifying individuals who are not addressed in the bill but would ultimately end up with a de facto amnesty because of their relationship to eligible participants.   

Prior legalization programs have been plagued by fraud and there is little doubt that this would be different in any way. One-fourth (700,000) of those legalized in the 1986 amnesty did so fraudulently.  Given the difficulty in determining whether an applicant meets the DREAM Act’s amnesty requirements and the overworked nature of the immigration bureaucracy, the incidence of fraud will be substantial.  The costs to the federal government associated with fraudulent claims varies significantly from one case to the next and are impossible to estimate with any accuracy, however, considering the expense of investigations that must be undertaken as well as the time spent by the various agencies and wages of the individual federal employees looking into each case, the cost estimate would be substantially increased. 

ADDITIONAL CRITISISM
Essentially, the DREAM Act would allow unknown millions of illegal aliens to qualify for actual if they are capable of coming up with or fabricating the minimal amount of proof required to show that they have been in this country for five years and came here before they reached the age of sixteen.  Essentially, there would be no possible way for the immigration authorities to accurately verify the credibility of their claims, and as a result of our already overtaxed immigration agencies, fraud would be pervasive.  In addition to the millions who would be deemed “eligible” for this program, there would be millions more who would receive a de facto amnesty by virtue of their relationship to those found eligible.  This would include the parents and siblings of those who qualified.

There is nothing in the Act that would regulate the quality of the illegal aliens for whom these benefits are being established.  By having arrived in the U.S. before reaching the age of sixteen and having lived here for five years is not a measure of academic achievement.  An individual who came here in 2000 at the age of ten and spent the last seven years selling drugs (without actually getting caught) in the public school system and hanging out on street corners with his or her gang associates would be just as eligible as someone who actually attended school and carried a 4 point grade average. Furthermore, the drug selling gang banger could avoid having to serve two years in the U.S. military by enrolling in a community college for two years and selling drugs there.      

Section 3(a) of the DREAM act repeals Section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1623).  This would allow the individual states the discretion to provide illegal aliens with state-level educational benefits such as discounted in-state tuition rates at all state colleges and universities.  Extending this preferential treatment to illegal aliens when American citizens are routinely denied the same benefit is entirely unacceptable.

The rewards derived from the DREAM Act are minimal at best while the expense is great and the problems associated with it are numerous.  If the idea is to take advantage of the illegal aliens currently in the U.S. who have a demonstrated ability for academic achievement then the bill should be rewritten to provide for those few individuals.  As it stands, the DREAM Act would provide preferential consideration for a lot more garbage than it would for individuals of true merit and the expense for doing this would rest squarely on the shoulders of the American tax payers who simply can’t afford the additional burden.  Furthermore, the DREAM Act is nothing more than an amnesty bill, and as such, it can only act to encourage additional illegal aliens to come into this country without authorization in the future.  Entering this country without the proper immigration authorization is a crime and criminal behavior should never be rewarded.  All illegal aliens in the United States should be deported regardless of their age or circumstances and we do not need any more exceptions to the law than we already have.

Attending a community college for two years at the tax payer’s expense can not be considered as a service to this nation.  Similarly, the ability to scrape together sufficient brain cells to pass a GED test is not anyone’s idea of academic achievement.  The DREAM Act does nothing to ensure that this country would benefit from the financial burden of supplying these illegal aliens with an education.  The idea that the U.S. would somehow benefit by giving amnesty to millions of illegal alien kids who have predominantly shown their appreciation of this country by selling drugs to their classmates, joining street gangs and getting pregnant before their 14th birthday is completely ludicrous.  The number of illegal aliens who can actually be considered as academic achievers and who might someday be capable of adding real benefit to this nation is a small (possibly single digit) percentage of the overall number.  When you consider the fact that the law enforcement officials in Los Angeles county estimate that more than 65% of the street gang members are illegal aliens then you begin to get an idea of the sort of individuals that would become legal residents under the provisions of this bill.  How anyone could call this a benefit is beyond me.    

Proponents of the Dream Act seem to cling to the idea that the children purportedly targeted by that legislation were brought here by their parents and did not come here of their own volition; as a result those who would qualify should not be held accountable for being here illegally, however, I would also point out that the American tax payer who is forced to bear the burden of their existence in this country, and will be forced to carry the additional burden of this legislation did not force these illegal aliens to come here nor did we force their illegal alien parents to bring them into this country and put them in this situation.  As such, we are not responsible for the actions of their parents and should not be held accountable by having to carry the financial burden of their education. Regardless of who brought these individuals into this country or the age at which they arrived, their continued existence here is in violation of our immigration laws and they should be deported to their country of origin, however, because they came here not of their own volition, I would not hold this unauthorized entry against them in the case of future visa applications. 

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