Archive » 2006 » March

From reader Traci Brown:
Thanks for your extensive coverage of the administration’s amnesty plan for illegals. Whenever I hear our president claim that illegal aliens are needed to do the “jobs Americans won’t do,” I can only think of three words:
West Virginia miners.
Bush’s comments are a slap in the face to those [...]

Baghdad Jim McDermott finally gets his due:
A federal appeals court ruled today that Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., violated federal law by turning over an illegally taped telephone call to reporters nearly a decade ago.
In a 2-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that McDermott violated the rights of House [...]

The editorial board of Investor’s Business Daily braves the p.c. bullies and confronts CAIR. Must-read:
What better time for CAIR and other Muslim leaders to step up, cut through the politically correct fog and provide factual answers to the questions that give so many non-Muslims pause?
Generally speaking, those questions focus on whether the Quran does indeed [...]

I kid you not:
HUNDREDS of Muslims are descending on a Liverpool house to witness what many are calling a miracle. Two fish are causing huge excitement among the faithful, who say they are each inscribed with holy names.
Worshippers are convinced two Oscar fish bear the names of Allah and Mohammed in their scales. Long queues [...]

Quote of the morning comes from the incomparable Thomas Sowell (via RealClearPolitics):
How often have we heard that illegal immigrants “take jobs that Americans will not do”? What is missing in this argument is what is crucial in any economic argument: price.
Americans will not take many jobs at their current pay levels — and those [...]

So, White House chief of staff Andy Card is out and longtime Bush adviser/budget director Josh Bolten takes his place.
I think John Hinderaker’s reaction is just right:
Yawn.
Joe Sixpack has a different view.
Joe Gandelman has mega-round-up and analysis.
H-Bomb at ABP opines on why Card is really leaving:
My sources tell me that White House Chief of [...]

AP reporting this morning:
An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity quickly vanished Tuesday after he was released from prison, apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding his death.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said he would ask his government to grant Abdul Rahman [...]

Aided and abetted by coddling L.A. public school officials
An inside tipster at the Los Angeles Unified School District leaked me the following letter sent to parents (in both English and Spanish) regarding the illegal alien student walkouts today:

(Click here for full-size PDF.)
Of particular interest to L.A. taxpayers are these assurances from the school district:

And [...]

…with the illegal alien amnesty bill that the Senate Judiciary Committee passed this evening:
“All Americans wanted fairness and they got it this evening,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who played a pivotal role in drafting the legislation.
I guess if you think “fairness” and “Edward M. Kennedy” can co-exist in the same sentence without snorting, [...]

Insipid open-borders platitude of the day (via WaPo):
“Nobody benefits when the illegal immigrants live in the shadows of society,” [President] Bush said after the ceremony at the Daughters of the American Revolution Building.
Living in the shadows??? Message to White House:
Open.
Your.
Eyes.
20,000 out of the shadows in Phoenix.
50,000 out of the shadows in Denver. (hat tip: [...]

AP report just in:
An Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has appealed for asylum in another country, the United Nations said Monday. U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said the world body was working with the Afghan government to meet the request by Abdul Rahman, 41.
“Mr. Rahman has asked for [...]

On the WaPo/Red America/Domenech debacle goes to…Bill Ardolino.

…to kill Abdul Rahman (via Yahoo!/Reuters):

Afghans rally during a demonstration in the northern city of Mazar-i-Shariff, Afghanistan March 27, 2006. In the first protest over the case of Afghan man, Abdur Rahman who converted from Islam to Christianity, several hundred people led by clerics demonstrated in Mazar-i-Shariff, demanding Rahman be tried under Islamic law. REUTERS/Tahir [...]

…to protest the Cuban dictatorship’s restrictions on free speech and Internet access.
Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez has been on a hunger strike for 57 days.
Babalu Blog is leading a blogburst on his behalf. Spread the word.

***scroll for updates…Bush warns against stoking anti-immigrant feelings. Wants a “civil debate.” Video here…Ok. Tell that to the divisive militants below…***
As Mickey Kaus points out, the reporters at the Los Angeles Times (and all other major media, for that matter) have downplayed the radical ethnic separatism that characterized the pro-illegal immigration rallies over the weekend. [...]

In Indiana.
Freedom Folks has the scoop on open-borders zealots who attacked pro-immigration enforcement activists this weekend outside a bank that offers home loans to illegal immigrants.

Rick Biesada, head of The Chicago Minuteman Project, under attack by open-borders thugs.
Source: NWTimes.com

Biesada taken to an ambulance by police. Source: Freedom Folks
See also FF’s update [...]

***update: Spurlock sputters***
Tom Elia talks back to the left-wing documentarian, who turned an appearance at a public high school into his own profanity-laced HBO comedy special (hat tip: zombie):
In posters for the popular 2004 documentary ”Super Size Me,” filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is pictured with his mouth stuffed full of McDonald’s french fries.
On Friday afternoon [...]

***scroll for updates…Video: Condi Rice thinks Afghanistan has “come a long way” because when the Taliban ruled, they “wantonly” executed people for playing music (as opposed to now, you know, where executions of people for abandoning Islam are contemplated in a much more civilized, non-wanton manner.)…Kofi Annan dodges…***

Abdul Rahman: Still not safe
Just in…But this story [...]

Via Samizdata by way of Kesher Talk, here’s the best t-shirt spotted at the London rally against the Cartoon Jihadists:

You can get the shirt here. ***Update: Readers note that the company that sells the shirt mostly sells crude products you may not agree with (I certainly don’t, just to be clear).****
Thanks to readers David and [...]

Illegal aliens and their advocates marching in L.A. today
As pro-illegal immigration forces organize mass protests in favor of “Mexico! Mexico!” and against stricter border security, President Bush is pushing his guest-worker/amnesty plan hard this weekend. His radio address today was filled with open borders-friendly platitudes (audio and transcript of the address, you’ll notice, are available [...]

- Remember the Lazy Sunday and Lazy Monday videos that went viral? There’s a new spinoff: Lazy Muncie. Performers Chris and Kirby stand up for Middle America. Booyah! Don’t miss the great cameo by Indiana-based Garfield creator Jim Davis. (Hat tip: Lucianne.com)

- Bryan Preston at Junkyard Blog has a quick outtake from our encounter with [...]

Mark Steyn:
The fragile Afghan state is protected by American, British, Canadian, Australian, Italian and other troops, hundreds of whom have died. You cannot ask Americans or Britons to expend blood and treasure to build a society in which a man can be executed for his choice of religion. You cannot tell a Canadian soldier serving [...]

The Washington Post reports in its Saturday edition on a plea in the Dems’ Chuckaquiddick scandal:
Democrat Pleads Guilty in Steele Case
A Democratic researcher pleaded guilty yesterday to misrepresenting herself on a Web site as Michael S. Steele, Maryland’s lieutenant governor and a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, and fraudulently obtaining his credit report last [...]

Abdul Rahman: Marked for death
In Afghanistan at Friday Prayers, Muslim clerics prayed for murder (via NYTimes):
Afghan clerics used Friday Prayers at mosques across the capital to call for death for an Afghan man who converted to Christianity, despite widespread protest in the West.
As the international pressure on Afghanistan grew, the clerics demanded the execution of [...]

***scroll for updates…statement from NRO…Domenech speaks to Human Events Online…Ben’s statement up at Red State (there is no explanation of the apparent cribbing in the NRO piece)***
I just got home from Pittsburgh and am late heading out the door for the Abdul Rahman event in D.C., but I can’t let this blog sit silent about [...]

WAKE-UP CALL (via AP/WaPo):
Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to “pull him into pieces.”
…“Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be [...]

Well, look at this addenda posted at 9pm EST tonight by the radical left-wing Christian Peacemakers Team:
Addenda
23 March 2006, 9 p.m. ET
We have been so overwhelmed and overjoyed to have Jim, Harmeet and Norman freed, that we have not adequately thanked the people involved with freeing them, nor remembered those still in captivity. So we [...]

An anonymous tipster sends some intriguing information about the “whiny kids grow up to be conservatives” study conducted by left-wing UC Berkeley prof Jack Block.
Wondering where the nursery school kids who were the subjects of the study came from? Check this out:
I know exactly which “nursery school” was used as the basis of this study. [...]

Following in Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s footsteps, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai seeking a “favorable resolution” of the Abdul Rahman case. Not sure why President Bush wasn’t on the line. But at least someone called.
Fox News has the story.
More details from the NYT:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [...]

I’m in Steeler country for a speaking engagement tonight about immigration at Duquesne University Law School. The event is sponsored by the Federalist Society and YAF. Starts at 6pm at 203 Law School. Come say hi if you’re in the area.