Houston, Texas - Sanctuary City

(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has expanded its investigation of government sponsored incentive programs for illegal aliens by filing a “Texas Public Information Act Request” with the Houston Police Department (HPD), and another with the City of Houston. The HPD request relates to General Order 500-5, a so-called “sanctuary policy” for illegal aliens, while the City of Houston request relates to the city’s taxpayer-funded day laborer site for illegal aliens.

HPD General Order 500-5, issued in 1992 by then-Police Chief Sam Nuchia, reportedly prevents Houston police officers from asking about an individual’s citizenship status or detaining illegal aliens. Meanwhile, Houston’s day laborer site, which is supported with federal funds from the Community Development Block Grant Program, reportedly provides assistance to illegal aliens seeking jobs.

“Publicly-funded incentive programs for illegal aliens not only make the illegal immigration problem worse, but they are also flagrantly illegal,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is a violation of federal law to hire an illegal alien. It is a violation of federal law to encourage an illegal alien to cross the border. It is certainly a violation of federal law for government officials to use federal funds to support illegal activity. Judicial Watch will thoroughly investigate Houston’s illegal alien policies and may take further legal action.”

These latest investigations expand upon Judicial Watch’s campaign to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.

On May 1, 2006 Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department over “Special Order 40,” a policy that prohibits police officers from inquiring about an individual’s immigration status, and reportedly restricts police officers from cooperating with federal immigration officials. Judicial Watch is asking the court to prohibit the LAPD from expending taxpayer funds to enforce and maintain Special Order 40, which violates both federal immigration laws and California law and puts American citizens at risk.

Judicial Watch also filed a lawsuit against the Town of Herndon and Fairfax County, Virginia to shut down a taxpayer funded day laborer site for illegal aliens.

From Beirut Notes - Hezbollah Is Bringing the Temple Down On Our Heads

While Israeli bombs are killing Lebanese children and innocents by the hundreds, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, decided to "fight for the Nation of Islam, whether the Lebanese want it or not".Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Israel are turning Lebanon into killing fields. My beautiful country is being burned by crazy ideologies. My Lebanon of joy is being eaten by human monsters. My kind Lebanon is being butchered in the name of religion.Our enemy Israel is killing us but at least its civilians are dying and it is paying the price of its military adventure, so is Hezbollah. But the cowards of Syria and Iran are sitting and watching civilians die and smiling cunningly.The cowards of Syria and Iran are selling their oil at unprecedented prices and are reaping the political and economic benefits while we are loosing our children and billions of dollars.Those cowards are buying and selling our lives for their regimes' interests. The blood of Lebanese children is being traded like options, futures and shares and the Iranian and Syrian regimes are filling both their strategic and financial pockets.And Hezbollah is not a resistance force anymore. Hezbollah, today, is going on a worthless suicide mission and taking the whole of Lebanon with it.God help all the Lebanese, Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Druzes, who have been cheated into death for the sake of Assad's and Khamanei's regimes.

May God watch over both you and Israel.

Read the bloggers from both Israel and Lebanon (as well as Iraq) for real news, not propaganda.

Guess I need to just go suck a rock

Because I don't fit into this "mold."

WASHINGTON (AP) - Bloggers are a predominantly young group of Internet users who are novice storytellers, enjoy describing their own experiences and have a growing audience in the online world.
A glimpse of this group was put together by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The survey found that almost one in 10 Internet users are bloggers and the audience for this group of online diarists is growing. Almost four in 10 of the approximately 147 million adult Internet users in this country say they read blogs.
The people they are reading on the online blogs are a young, ethnically diverse group. They are mostly newcomers to writing - often writing about their own experiences. More than half of bloggers are under age 30. They were most likely to list their life and events as the most popular topic, followed by politics and entertainment.
The poll findings are based on a sample of 4,573 Internet users with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points and a sample from a separate survey of 233 bloggers with a margin of error of plus or minus 7 percentage points.

Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran

Is this the start of World War III?

How You Doing?

Me neither.

Dying cat comforted by a deer

Margie Scott was devastated when her 9-year-old cat Sammy was diagnosed with kidney failure, but she never could have predicted what would give her comfort during her pet’s last days.
Because Sammy was declawed, he was strictly an indoor cat. But he always wanted to go outside. So, in his dying days, Scott decided to let Sammy spend some time outside each day. Sammy enjoyed his time outside the apartment, which is surrounded by woods and wetlands.
A family of deer regularly visits the complex, and one day, Sammy was sitting outside in the grass when two young deer happened by.
Scott watched in astonishment at what occurred next. “One walked up to Sammy and they touched noses,” she said. “The deer jumped back and made a sort of a snorting noise, like he was sneezing. It seemed like he was taken by surprise,” she said.

What she saw next was even more surprising. ”The deer started licking him all around the head and neck, and Sammy just sat there allowing the deer to do this,” said Scott.
For several minutes, the young deer licked the small cat. Scott grabbed her camera and got a picture of the tender scene.
“It was amazing,” she said. “I truly believe the deer was able to sense that there was something wrong with Sammy and that was why he started licking him, like he was trying to nurture him.”
Two days later, Sammy died.

Thanks to HogBrush.

NYT

Still around

Been moving into a new home...will post later.

Howard Dean needs help for his Bush-Hating Addiction

DEAN: If Karl Rove would have been indicted, it would have been for perjury. That does not excuse his real sin, which was leaking the name of an intelligence operative during a time of war. He doesn't belong in the White House, and if the President valued America more than he valued his connection to Karl Rove, Karl Rove would have been fired a long time ago. So, I think this is probably good news for the White House, but it's not very good news for America.

NBC: But what does it mean for Democrats in the context of the mid-term elections?

DEAN: I don't think it means anything. I think that, you know, Karl Rove is clearly the political mastermind behind the Republicans, but I think he would have continued to exercise that role even if he had been indicted. So, I don't think this means much.

Yeah Dean, you're just upset that Fitzgerald didn't drink the Kool-Aid. You continue with your rhetoric and you'll just continue to alienate democrats.

Bin Laden is your hero, the Republicans are evil.

This dude will say and do anything for the exposure...

This Day in History

Zarqawi achieves room temperature.

MOVE ALONG

Nothing to see here
Nothing to talk about
Maybe something soon

Disturbing Quote

"We have the right to kill 4 million Americans - 2 million of them children - and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands..." -Suleiman Abu Gheith, al Qaeda spokesman

ILLEGALS

I drove past Home Depot today and saw about twenty younger men that looked like they might be of mexican descent...ah hell, they were illegals...standing around, waiting for someone to drive up, load them up, and go off to some job...just like we have been hearing about in the news.

Sure enough, a guy in a pickup with ladders attached drove up, said a few words to one of them that seemed to be a translator, and off he went with five of them loaded in the back.

I just now heard the President say it was ILLEGAL for an EMPLOYER to hire someone who is HERE ILLEGALLY.

Funny thing...

Is it Just Me?

Or is there a similarity?

Excellent Washington Post Article on the Senator's Hypocrisy conerning Gas Prices

I will post this in its entirety because it's so good.

Going a Short Way to Make a Point

By Dana MilbankThursday, April 27, 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.
Gas prices have gone above $3 a gallon again, and that means it's time for another round of congressional finger-pointing.

"Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!" charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. "They are too cozy with the oil industry."

She then hopped in a waiting Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) -- even though her Senate office was only a block away.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) used a Hyundai Elantra to take the one-block journey to and from the gas-station news conference. He posed in front of the fuel prices and gave them a thumbs-down. "Get tough on big oil!" he demanded of the Bush administration.

By comparison, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) was a model of conservation. She told a staffer idling in a Jetta to leave without her, then ducked into a sushi restaurant for lunch before making the journey back to work.

At about the same time, House Republicans were meeting in the Capitol for their weekly caucus (Topic A: gas).

The House driveway was jammed with cars, many idling, including eight Chevrolet Suburbans (14 mpg).

America may be addicted to oil, as President Bush puts it. But America is in the denial phase of this addiction -- as evidenced by the behavior of its lawmakers. They have proposed all kinds of solutions to high gas prices: taxes on oil companies, domestic oil drilling and releasing petroleum reserves. But they ignore the obvious: that Americans drive too much in too-big cars.

Senators were debating a war spending bill yesterday, but the subject invariably turned to gas prices.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) engaged his deputy, Dick Durbin (Ill.), in a riveting colloquy.

"Is the senator aware that the L.A. Times headline reads today, 'Bush's Proposals Viewed as a Drop in the Bucket'?"

"I'm aware of that," Durbin replied.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) responded with an economics lesson. "Oil is worth what people pay for it," he argued.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) sounded the alarms. "We are one accident or one terrorist attack away from oil at $100 a barrel!"

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) made a plea for conservation. "We have to move quickly to increase our fuel efficiency," she urged.

But not too quickly. After lunchtime votes, senators emerged from the Capitol for the drive across the street to their offices.

Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) hopped in a GMC Yukon (14 mpg).
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) climbed aboard a Nissan Pathfinder (15).
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) stepped into an eight-cylinder Ford Explorer (14).
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) disappeared into a Lincoln Town Car (17).
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) met up with an idling Chrysler minivan (18).

Next came Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), greeted by a Ford Explorer XLT.
On the Senate floor Tuesday, Menendez had complained that Bush "remains opposed to higher fuel-efficiency standards."

Also waiting:
three Suburbans,
a Nissan Armada V8,
two Cadillacs and a Lexus.

The greenest senator was Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who was picked up by his hybrid Toyota Prius (60 mpg), at quadruple the fuel efficiency of his Indiana counterpart Evan Bayh (D), who was met by a Dodge Durango V8 (14).

As a political matter, Democrats clearly sense that they have the advantage on the high gas prices, judging from the number of speeches and news conferences.

"The cost of Republican corruption when it comes to energy is hitting home very clearly for America's middle class," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) exulted yesterday morning.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced an amendment to repeal oil-company tax breaks and distribute $500 tax rebates to consumers. It was quickly ruled out of order.

But Republicans were clearly feeling defensive. "We passed an energy bill last year, last July," House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.) pleaded at a morning news conference. "It changes CAFE [corporate average fuel economy] standards. It changes some of the things that we can do -- I'm sorry, changes not the CAFE standards, but changes some of the supply issues, boutique fuels, all these things."

Only Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), who can speak freely because he is retiring, was willing to note the disconnect between rhetoric and action. "People say, understandably, 'Solve our energy problems right now, but don't make us do anything differently,' " he said on the Senate floor.

If the politics of gasoline favor Democrats at the moment, the insincerity is universal. A surreptitious look at the cars in the senators-only spots inside and outside the Senate office buildings found an Escort and a Sentra (super-rich Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl's spot had a Chevy Lumina), but far more Jaguars, Cadillacs and Lexuses and a fleet of SUVs made by Ford, Honda, BMW and Lexus.

A sampling of senators' and staff cars parked along Delaware Avenue NE found that those displaying Democratic campaign bumper stickers had a somewhat higher average fuel economy (23 mpg) than those displaying GOP stickers (18 mpg).

A fuel-efficiency rating could not be found for the 1970s-era Volkswagen "Thing" owned by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

Maybe, lawmakers are starting to learn. When GOP senators had a lunch Tuesday a couple of blocks from the Capitol, many took cars. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) emerged from the lunch looking for his ride when he spied The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray. Reconsidering, he set out on foot. "I need the exercise," he reasoned.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Mexico is Harsh on its "Undocumented Workers"

I suspected as much but this article shows it.

That crook, Vicente Fox should look at his own backyard instead.

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press Writer

TULTITLAN, Mexico (AP) -- Considered felons by the government, these migrants fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations and fleabag hotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers simply take their money.
While migrants in the United States have held huge demonstrations in recent weeks, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico suffer mostly in silence.

The 9/11 Cellphone Tapes

We are seeing and hearing a lot of information about the last minutes of some people in 9/11. The whole thing is bringing up the bad feelings and sense of anger I felt on that day.

The cellphone recordings of people in the towers and in the planes are sometimes overwhelming. I can feel everything these people are going through, especially this one of Kevin Cosgrove.


He was stuck on the 105th floor. You can hear him talking for a long time with the 9/11 operator. He repeats, "I'm not ready to die" several times.

In the last two seconds, he yells, "Oh, My God!" as the tower falls.

Click the title to hear the tape.

"We do the jobs Americans won't do"

Is plain bullshit.

I gain a lot of insight while riding the MetroRail through downtown Houston everyday, (I also wish I had a gun permit but that's a different story).

This morning, I eavesdropped on a unique situation. Two white guys got on the train, and I noticed right away they were homeless. Nothing unique there except that 90 percent of the homeless appear to be black, very few hispanic and I don't remember when I have last saw an oriental or middle-eastern homeless person.

Anyway, one of these guys was reading a newspaper and talking constantly about finding temporary work to "pay off his traffic fines" so he could go back to driving a truck. I admired that he was at least actively trying to do something to get out of his situation.

Along the way, he mentioned that he had tried several times to get a job doing construction work. Houston is bustling with construction work and I thought that would be a great way to get a few bucks. He said everytime he applied, they would'nt hire him because he DIDN'T SPEAK SPANISH!

Imagine that...you have to know spanish to dig a ditch these days. He said he didn't want to talk to anyone, he just wanted to make a few bucks to get back on his feet.

This situation helped me to realize that this is a blaring example of the fact that these jobs are not being done by illegals because WE won't do them, they're being done by illegals because the greedy construction owners and foremen would lose money if they hired americans. Then they would have to pay higher wages and taxes. The construction owners and foreman are the ones that are undermining our system, not the illegals. The illegals will work for anyone...as long as the authorities don't know about it.

That is also a good message to what the illegals really want with our country. They don't want to be citizens. That would mean they would have to pay taxes and obey the laws.

They would have to be accountable for their actions.

This bill will not make any difference in the amount of illegals that trespass into our country. They will still come.

As long as there is a means to make money to send back to the Motherland, they will keep coming.

Ask any mexican-american, the ones who came here, or their parents or grandparents came here legally, if they want the illegals to get amnesty. You will find virtually all of them don't want it.

Gotta go back to work now. Millions on welfare depend on me.

Thinking....Again

I was thinking about the universe, and the fact that all those stars we see are really suns, and galaxies, and nebulas so far away that the light we see from them is at least four light years away. All these things are rotating around a mysterious center of a mysterious galaxy called the Milky Way. We are just one little, tiny dot in that galaxy.

I was thinking about the Milky Way being only one medium-sized galaxy, spinning among billions of other galaxies...everything traveling at the speed of light through the universe.

All the amazing suns and worlds spread over such a vast space.

Then I thought about a flower on a new flowering bush we bought yesterday. It brilliantly colored with purples and blues, and each flower was different. I realized that this place we call Earth contains billions of amazing things.

I picked up a handfull of sand and examined it....really examined each little pebble. Each one was different, different colors, different streaks, different sizes.

Then I just looked at the sky and the plants and trees around me.

We are surrounded by all these intricate, colorful, and constantly changing things and we don't realize it. We don't appreciate what we have. Is there another world like this one in the whole universe?

I don't normally consider all these things on a daily basis.

I plan to.

Beginning today.

Immigration: This picture angers me to no end

This picture angers me more than anything I have seen in years. I am so disgusted with these ungrateful students.