Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s anti-US rhetoric must be wearing a little thin.  Worrying about US “imperialism” is pretty high on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and not that large of a concern when you’re really poor.  A little thing like poverty does tend to make you notice how your “beloved” leaders are living, which is why Chavez is ratcheting up the socialist rhetoric.

“Whoever has a fridge they do not need, put it out in the village square. Whoever has a truck, a fan or a cooker they do not need, give something away. Let’s not be selfish. I demand you do it,” Chavez said at a milk producing cooperative, in remarks released yesterday. 

There’s nothing like a fridge to set you on the path to financial independece when you’re poor.  Besides, does anyone outside of former President Jimmy Carter believe that Chavez’s new socialist party is really going to share their wealth with the masses?  But he’s got good intentions, so Jimmy will certify a few more fraudulent elections for him.

Not much one can add to this. Fits nicely right behind my prior post. Sums up today’s reality. Thanks Rhod for sending it to me.

SHEEPDOGS

Most humans truly are like sheep,wanting nothing more than peace to keep.

To graze, grow fat and raise their young,

Sweet taste of clover on the tongue.

Their lives serene upon Life’s harm,

They sense no threat, nor fear, nor harm.

On verdant meadows they forage free

With naught to fear, with naught to flee.

They pay their sheepdogs little heed,

For there is not threat; there is no need.

To the flock, sheepdogs are mysteries,

Roaming watchful around the peripheries.

These fang-toothed creatures bark, they roar

With the fetid reek of the carnivore,

Too like the wolf of legends told,

To be amongst our docile fold.

Who needs sheepdogs?  What good are they?

They have no use, not in this day.

Lock them away, out of our sight

We have no need of their fierce might.

But sudden in their midst a beast

Has come to kill, has come to feast.

The wolves attack; they give no warning

Upon that calm September morning.

They slash and kill with frenzied glee

Their passive helpless enemy

Who had no clue the wolves were there

Far roaming from the Eastern lair.

Then from the carnage, from the rout,

Comes the cry, “Turn the sheepdogs out!”

Thus is our nature but too our plight

To keep our dogs on leashes tight.

A live a life of illusive bliss

Hearing not the beast, his growl, his hiss.

Until he has us by the throat,

We pay no heed, we take no note.

Not until he strikes us at our core

Will we unleash the Dogs of War.

Only having felt the wolf pack’s wrath

Do we loose the sheepdog on its path.

And the wolves will learn what we’ve shown before;

We love our sheep, we Dogs of War.

Russ Vaughn
2nd Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment

101st Airborne Division

The Other D-Day

By Victor Davis Hanson

The Washington Times | June 11, 2007 Sixty-three years ago this week, we landed on the Normandy beaches. As on each anniversary of June 6, 1944, much has been written to commemorate the bravery and competence of the victorious Anglo-American forces.

All true. But as we ponder this achievement of the Greatest Generation that helped lead to the surrender of Nazi Germany less than a year later, we should remember that the entire campaign was, as Wellington said of Waterloo, a near-run thing. [snip]

The most brilliant armored commander in U.S. history, George S. Patton, had been sacked from theater command for slapping an ill soldier the prior year in Sicily. Gens. Omar N. Bradley and Bernard L. Montgomery lacked his genius and audacity — and tens of thousands of Allied soldiers were to pay for Patton’s absence at Normandy.

We finally broke out of the mess, after using heavy bombers to blast holes in the German lines. But again, these operations were fraught with foul-ups.

On two successive occasions we bombed our own troops, altogether killing or wounding more than 1,000 Americans, including the highest-ranking officer to die in the European Theater, Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair. The nature of his death was hidden from the press — as were many mistakes and casualties both leading up to and after Normandy.

When the disaster in the bocage near the Normandy beaches ended more than two months after D-Day, the victorious Americans, British and Canadians had been bled white. Altogether, the winners of the Normandy campaign suffered a quarter-million dead, wounded or missing, including almost 30,000 American fatalities — losing nearly 10 times the number of combat dead in four years of fighting in Iraq. [snip]

What can we learn, then, on this anniversary of the Normandy campaign? [snip]

Of course, World War II was an all-out fight for our very existence in a way many believe the war against terror that began on September 11, 2001, is not. [snip]

The American lesson of D-Day and its aftermath was how to overcome occasional abject stupidity while never giving up in the face of an utterly savage enemy. We need to remember that now more than ever.

No matter what you think of our involvement in the Middle East, one must remember, only the eternally vigilant survive to see a so-called peace.

From the fool Chamberlain’s “Peace in our time” to the mindless chant “Give peace a chance,” others who disagree with your ideas and existence disrupted all periods of peace. Peace did not solve Nazism, communism, slavery and/or religious intolerance. Winning is the only road to peace; cutting and running, withdrawing, groveling or making nice leads to enslavement and loss of freedom.

To all who wears or wore the uniform, no matter where or when; Thank you.

I know it’s fashionable for cities and towns to take on national and state issues these days, but enough is enough already. Your responsibility is to keep the garbage collected, the fire and police departments running, manage our schools, and try not to waste our tax dollars. It’s not a city’s responsibility to insert itself in the Iraq War, to sue firearms manufacturers, or to take on global warming, but that isn’t stopping Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper from pushing his “climate action plan”.

Now most cities and towns, and I imagine Denver as well, struggle to manage the little bit of the world they are actually are responsible for let alone tackling global warming. I don’t know about your city, but my city hall and council are the last people I want telling me how much electricity to use or how many miles to drive. If you live in Denver, I’d seriously consider moving to a sane suburb.

How Congress gives special relief to convicted murderers, smugglers, and other alien law-breakers

 June 11, 2007 01:00 PM

Are you aware that deportable aliens can circumvent immigration laws with the help of your member of Congress? Are you aware that more than 50 bills have been introduced in Congress this year that would grant special, private relief to individual immigrants fighting deportation? It’s instant amnesty through special legislation. [snip]

How does this happen and how can you find out if your member of Congress has sponsored such a bill?

First, go to the Library of Congress website’s bill text search page. Type in “for the relief of” in the text search box [snip]

Now, hit the search button. You’ll get a long list of bills [snip]

These individual bills are ripe for corruption. Indeed, the Abscam scandal in the 1970s involved payoffs for the sponsorship of exactly these kind of private immigration laws, according to the Congressional Research Service. Here’s a list of private relief bills passed in the House between 1999-2005. The Hill has more background here. [snip]

One example I noted in 2003: Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., introduced H.R. 393, which would exempt from deportation a Mexican national caught trying to smuggle her illegal alien boyfriend (a gang member convicted of felony firearms possession and deported to Mexico after serving his sentence) back into the U.S.

Federal immigration law expressly forbids Pastor’s special relief recipient, Alejandra Arias Garcia, from being released from detention. But the immigration officials in Phoenix ignored the law at Rep. Pastor’s behest and set her free — to the cheers of the illegal alien lobby.

Now, let’s go back to the list of relief bills for the current 110th Congress. Number 60 on the list is this private relief bill sponsored by Democrat Rep. Jim McDermott: 110^th Congress, 1^st session H.R. 2181 for the relief of Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed 

Who is Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed? He’s a Bangladeshi military officer convicted of murdering the Bangladeshi prime minister and two dozen members of his family–including a 10-year-old boy and pregnant women–in 1975. The coup leaders declared Bangladesh an “Islamic Republic.” Some two decades later, democracy was restored in the country and the assassins were tried. Ahmed escaped to the U.S. in 1996 and has lived here illegally for 11 years. [snip]

In a stark illustration of the “It ain’t over ’til the alien wins” deportation abyss that I’ve reported on for the last several years, Ahmed has been able to stay in this country through endless appeals. The feds began deportation proceedings against him nine years ago. He applied for asylum and lost in 2002. He then went to the left-wing 9th Circuit Court of Appeals–and even they rejected his bid (ruling here.)

Writing in the Bangladesh Daily Star, blogger Mashuqur Rahman noted:

The private bill introduced by congressman McDermott, known as H.R. 2181, aims to help Mohuiddin in a number of ways.

First, it aims to stay the deportation order against him indefinitely.

Second, it aims to release him from custody and bars the DHS from deporting him to Bangladesh, or to any country that has an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.

Third, it aims to grant a green card to Mohuiddin, which would allow him to get preferential treatment before all other green card applicants from Bangladesh. It also aims to grant him the card by reducing the number of green cards available to other Bangladeshis by one.

Finally, it states that Mohuiddin will be allowed to seek asylum in any foreign country of his choosing. [snip]

Thanks to McDermott and the private relief bill process, Ahmed’s deportation–which was scheduled for last weekend–was stymied. [snip]

These are the people who are asking you to trust them with the shamnesty proposal’s promise that they will get tough with criminal aliens and deport law-breakers who violate the fantasy rules and regulations of Bush-Kennedy’s massive new guest worker programs.
Fat. Chance.

McDermott is the infamous Baghdad Jim who thought this country disgraced itself by being in the Middle East.

What your congressional delegation says in DC is very different from the statements made at home. The latter are for public consumption; the former are for divvying up the taxpayers money.

When those of Mediterranean descent came through Ellis Island legally, the term WOP was shorthand for Without Papers on immigration forms. A new term is needed for the invaders who steal others identities, that group Harry Reid calls undocumented Americans. WOOP’s (without official papers) fits since they all have “papers.” They can enter this on the BOA credit apps and on arrest records. Think of how easy voter registration is for these individuals. Additionally, this designation keeps one off jury duty, a boon by any other name.

Bank of America Offering Credit Cards to Undocumented Immigrants (aka Illegal Aliens)

Bank of America has begun quietly offering credit cards to customers in the Los Angeles are who don’t have a Social Security number, The Wall Street Journal reports. Such persons are usually undocumented immigrants.

The newspaper said that Bank of America, the country’s second-largest bank, is offering credit cards to consumers who have had an account at the bank for three months or more, even if they do not have a credit history or Social Security number. [snip]

To review applicants, Bank of America is using a procedure called “judgmental lending,” pioneered by MBNA Corp., the credit card giant acquired by the Charlotte-based Bank of America last year. Instead of using credit reports, bank employees make subjective judgments based on their personal observation of the customer.

Then from Texas, we get this story.

Non-citizens likely voted in Bexar County

SAN ANTONIO – Dozens of non-U.S. citizens may have voted in Bexar County elections, a county elections official reported, prompting an investigation by federal and local authorities.

The names of 330 non-citizens on the voter rolls were reported by Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen.

Those named had received jury duty summonses but told the court they weren’t eligible to serve because they were not U.S. citizens. [snip]

The 330 names have since been removed from voter rolls, Mr. Callanen said. [snip]

A bill to require voters to show photo identification or two other forms of ID before casting ballots died in the state Senate without a vote.

Democrats said the identification requirements would suppress poor and minority voters and vowed to filibuster the bill – and threaten other bills – if it came up.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and other Republicans argued the measure is needed to combat voter fraud. It had already passed the House.

Given the Bush, Kennedy and Reid troika’s avowed desire to resurrect this bill, this battle for our country is not over.

Even though I don’t agree with Democratic policies, I’m getting a new appreciation for their frustration with President Bush: 

“I believe we can get it done,” Bush said of the immigration bill that has run into deep trouble on Capitol Hill. “I’ll see you at the bill signing.”

The president is confusing obstinacy with leadership.  While a president should not continually be seeking public approval by triangulating every issue, neither can they completely ignore the American people. 

Exuding false confidence and repeating the same talking points isn’t going to retrieve the credibility the president frittered away with inaction on this vital national security issue.  We need to keep up the pressure to make sure the president never gets the opportunity to sign that bill.