Inside Riverside

First they marched, now they say they are going to vote

2006-07-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

Illegal alien supporters are trying to sign up 1 million 'new immigrant voters' for the next election.

The National Council of La Raza is even running 'public service' ads.

A member of the Illinois Coalition for Immigration Rights told the Lou Dobbs show:

"We're trying to engage all members of the immigrant community no matter what their status"

No matter what their status? In other words, it doesn't matter if they are here illegally, they want them.

Eliseo Medina of the Service Employees Union said:

"We are going to have a very tight system of checking to make sure everybody that registers is a U.S. citizen"

Exactly what is this 'very tight system' he talks about?

"We are making sure that verbally everybody affirms that"

Oh, so the only thing the illegal aliens that broke the law coming here have to do to register to vote is say is "yes, I am a citizen".

That doesn't sound like a "very tight system" to me.

If they really wanted to insure those they are registering to vote are legally allowed to do so, they would support the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2004 (HR 4530).

It would require any individual who desires to register or re-register to vote in an election for federal office to provide the appropriate state election official with proof that the individual is a citizen of the United States to prevent fraud in federal elections. Official proof will include a U.S. birth certificate, naturalization card or U.S. passport.

So what is the position of the illegal alien activists on HR 4530? They are actively trying to defeat it.

Schwarzenegger tells La Opinion vote for Prop 187 was "wrong"

2006-07-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

Well Arnie just did a massive flip-flop on illegal immigration.

Last year on the John and Ken Show he stated he thought the Minutemen had done "a terrific job". He also supported Prop 187.

Well that all appears to have changed.

During a stop in San Diego where he thought he would be addressing friendly Republicans the crowd hammered him on illegal immigration. That did not seem to phase Arnold at all.

Afterward, as his campaign bus proceeded to the next stop in Temecula, Schwarzenegger mused to reporters:

"This really was first time I had seen the intensity of prejudice"

Ouch! So Americans who want the border secured are suddenly prejudiced Arnie?

On Monday, when talking about the Minutemen, he told the Spanish-language paper La Opinion:

"That was probably a mistake, some of the things that I said, that they're doing a great job and all of those things"

Of course Phil Angelides was quick to respond:

"For nearly 12 years, Arnold Schwarzenegger stood squarely behind Proposition 187 on this divisive measure that pitted Californian against Californian,"

"Californian against Californian"? More like Californian's against those who are not supposed to be here draining our tax dollars, crowding our freeways, choking our classrooms, closing our emergency rooms, the list goes on.

Arnie may be thinking that there is no way Republicans will vote for Angelides so he may as well court the Latinos that support illegal immigration.

He may be right, but he risks the chance that some in his base will be so pissed off that they will not vote at all, and that would help Angelides.

Some of us appreciate all the troops do

2006-07-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

While some are whining about the evacuation efforts there are those of us who are grateful and thank the troops for the fantastic job they are doing.

These guys and gals do us proud!

U.S. Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, embarked aboard USS Nashville (LPD 13), assist American citizens from the beach in Beirut, Lebanon, onto a waiting landing craft utility July 21, 2006, for transport to USS Nashville.

A U.S. Marine of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit assists an American citizen with his cranial helmet before he helicopters out from the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.

U.S. Navy Sailors aboard the amphibious transport dock USS Nashville (LPD 13) assist arriving American citizens from one of the ship's landing craft utility vessels.

U.S. Marines assist American citizens in Beirut, Lebanon, to a waiting U.S. Navy landing craft utility vessel for transfer to the amphibious transport dock USS Nashville (LPD 13).

U.S. Marines from the Marine Expeditionary Unit Service Support Group 24 carry a woman aboard a landing craft utility with other American citizens in Beirut, Lebanon.

A U.S. Navy landing craft air cushion sits on the shore in Lebanon waiting to transport American citizens.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Christie Barton, from the 435th Medical Group, checks the eyes of a child that departed Lebanon upon his arrival to Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

U.S. Navy Storekeeper rd Class Omar Pescador assists a family arriving from Beirut, Lebanon, up the ramp from the well deck of USS Trenton (LPD 14) July 23, 2006.

U.S. Marines assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit help carry a stroller aboard USS Trenton (LPD 14) while assisting U.S. citizens arriving from Beirut, Lebanon.

Photos from DefenseLINK

What the hell is wrong with American evacuess?

2006-07-21T14:53:00.001-07:00

Well as you know by now Lebanon is getting bombed and Americans there want out.

So the U.S. government is doing everything possible to accommodate them, sending military vessels and chartering cruize ships to help evacuate them. The government is even going to pick up the entire bill. Yep, free plane trips back to the states for all.

But that's not good enough for some Americans.

"We were on the ship for 5 hours" and "it was uncomfortable" and "it was like a refugee camp".

Well what the hell do you expect when you go to a country that has had multiple warnings from the state department saying 'Don't go there'.

5 hours? You are bitching about 5 hours?

Imagine the thousands of Americans over a hundred years ago travelling across the vast plains on horseback and in covered wagons? It took a hell of a lot longer than 5 hours. If they had the same attitude of these bratty evacuees everyone would still be living on the east coast.

Suck it up and stop your bellyaching!

2 boys shot by deported illegal alien gang member

2006-07-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Two little boys were shot on Saturday night.

The bullet struck a 3-year-old in the wrist and lodged in the stomach of his 6-year-old brother. Both boys remain at White Memorial Adventist Hospital, James in critical condition and Jeremy in stable condition.

From the LA Times:

Police on Sunday identified the alleged shooter as Mauricio Alejandro Jimenez, a native of Mexico and longtime member of the Boyle Heights-based Tiny Boys gang.

Jimenez, 26, has been arrested at least seven times in the past several years for a variety of weapons and gang-related charges — and was deported to Mexico just four months ago after serving more than a year in state prison.

Now Jimenez, who goes by the nickname "Spyder," is the subject of a full-scale manhunt. On Sunday, LAPD officials and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appealed to local citizens to help track him down.

Here we go again. Jimenez is another illegal alien who should not be in this country, period! After multiple arrests and some prison time he was finally deported only to come right back again, illegally!

5 years after 9/11 and criminals can still walk right across the border.

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, aka Mayor Reconquista, held a press conference. Shockingly a reported actually asked the Mayor if this shooting showed the need for more enforcement at the border.

Mayor Villareconquista replied that it's a federal problem. He said this just months after standing in the streets of LA with thousands of illegal aliens and their supporters proclaiming the following:

"Today we say to America: We've come here to work: We clean your toilets. We clean your hotels. We build your houses. We take care of your children. We want you to help us take care of our children as well."

Well Mayor it appears illegal aliens do far more than clean our toilets they also shoot our children.

Anyone can vote in Georgia

2006-07-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

The State of Georgia wants to make sure those who vote are legally allowed to do so. They want voters to prove they are who they say they are by showing identification.

Sounds logical, unless you are federal judge Melvin K. Westmoreland.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

For now, Georgia voters will not be required to show a photo ID when they cast a ballot beginning Monday in the July primaries.

A Fulton County judge stopped enforcement of the state's photo voter ID law on Friday, declaring it an illegal impediment to the right to vote.

Former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes had sought the action in a state court, arguing Thursday before Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland that requiring voters to show government-issued photo ID violated the state Constitution.

The argument is that some groups, such as african-americans, are less likely to have ID and thus it's not fair to not let them vote.

Never mind that the ID is free and in Georgia they have a mobile service that will actually come to you to give you ID!

Nope, that's still not good enough for some.

Sounds bizarre but it's true. Hell you need to show ID to buy a beer but not to vote, at least not in Georgia.

Maryland an example for California

2006-07-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like the idiots running the DMV are stumped and can't figure out why driver's licence applications have recently doubled.

From the Washington Times:

Since March, the average weekly number of driver's license applications by immigrants and illegal aliens has nearly doubled in Maryland, where legal residency is not required of applicants, according to the state Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA).

The number of out-of-country license applications, or those for noncitizens, has surged from an average of 946 a week to 1,800 a week since March, MVA spokesman Buel Young said.

MVA officials initially attributed the increase to multiple appointment bookings by foreign-born applicants, Mr. Young said. But the average number of out-of-country applications remained high even after the MVA last month stopped taking appointments and began processing twice as many applications through a walk-in process, he said.

"I don't really have an answer" for the increase, Mr. Young said.

Virginia does not issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens, and the state's Department of Motor Vehicles does not track the number of out-of-country applications it processes.

Local immigrants say illegal aliens are contributing to Maryland's surge in license applications by flocking to the state when their visas expire or by using the Maryland addresses of relatives.

"I heard that it's easier [to get licenses] here because in other states you need documents, but here it's not required," said 16-year-old Marcela, a Salvadoran immigrant who lives in Silver Spring and did not want to give her last name.

Antonio Lopez, a Guatemalan immigrant living in Hyattsville, said it is common for illegals to come to Maryland to apply for a license because a green card or Social Security card isn't required.

So Maryland passes out driver's licenses to anyone who bothers to show up, the surrounding states have toughened up requirements since 9/11, and the screwheads at the Maryland DMV can't figure out what is going on?

One-Bill Gil Cedillo is still trying to get driver's license for illegal aliens here in California. If he succeeds expect to see illegal aliens from every western state lining up around the block of your local DMV.

9-year-old Lake Elsinore girl raped by illegal alien

2006-07-13T16:39:00.000-07:00

According to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, Bayron Coronado Toledo, a 35-year-old from Mexico aka illegal alien, forcefully abducted and raped a 9-year-old girl in Lake Elsinore.

From CBS 2 News:

A Mexican national was arrested on suspicion of raping a 9-year-old girl in the Lake Elsinore residence where he had been living.

A man who identified himself as Bayron Coronado Toledo, 35, allegedly committed the crime about 7:30 a.m. in the 100 block of Townsend Street.

Toledo allegedly abducted the girl from the residence's bathroom, forced her into his room and raped her, however family members interrupted the assault.

A 'Mexican National'? What is that, the new politically correct term for illegal alien?

Reports are Toledo had been living with the girls parents for the past 5 months. But he has been in this country illegally for far longer than that.

Riverside and Ventura County court records show multiple driving infractions dating back over 3 years.

So why didn't law enforcement pick him up since he is in the country illegally? Because he has a valid California Driver's License!

Toledo obtained an ID card in 1996 and a year later a valid California Driver's License. With the driver's license he appears to be here legally and law enforcement had no reason to think otherwise. When the courts ran DMV checks he came back clean because he has a valid drivers license.

So we end up with someone who should not be in this country to begin with raping a 9-year-old girl.

And to think there are those like Senator Gil Cedillo and LA Mayor Antonio Villareconquista that want to pass out driver's license's to anyone who can sneak across the border.

Great, just great.

Biased Reporting about the Minutemen rally in Hollywood

2006-07-08T23:49:00.000-07:00

The Press-Enterprise Headline:

LA officer hurt, several arrested during anti-immigration rally

ABC 7 Headline:

Officer Hurt, Several Arrested During Anti-Immigration Rally

CBS 2 / KCAL 9 Headline:

LA officer hurt, several arrested during anti-immigration rally

Officer.com Headline:

Violent Immigration Rally Injures L.A. Officer

Over and over again the headlines screamed 'people against all forms of immigration gathered, hurt a cop and got arrested'.

Turns out they all used the inaccurate Associated Press headline and ran with it.

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

An officer was injured and several people were arrested during an anti-illegal immigration march involving the Minuteman Project and other groups Saturday evening in Hollywood, police said.

One female officer suffered a minor injury, apparently to her ankle, after clashing with protesters, said Officer Sandra Escalante, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department...

So the office was hurt after 'clashing' with protesters at a Minuteman march. Sure makes it sound like the Minutemen did it.

The fact of the matter is, THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED!

The Minutemen, lead by Jim Gilchrist, and their supporters including homeless activist Ted Hayes, pulled a permit to march in Hollywood.

They waved American flags and sung the national anthem. Well that certainly is sinister.

Unlike the pro illegal immigration rallies months ago this one was held on a weekend. Business traffic was not affected and kids were not yanked out of school.

While the Minutemen and their supporters walked down American streets with American flags thugs from the open-borders pro-slavery movement gathered to challenge them.

Police were on hand and in typical fashion the thugs wanted to cause trouble so some of them were introduced to a face full of American asphalt while a few others were arrested.

An officer did hurt her ankle but all of the turmoil was a result of the anti-Minutemen anarchists.

Later CBS 2 / KCAL 9 ran another headline:

Officer Injured At Hollywood Minuteman Rally

Accurate but still mis-leading.

Of course the open-borders wackos fell back to their usual rhetoric screaming "racism" to anyone who would listen. One look at those marching in the rally will tell you this is not the case.

It's nice to see American flags at a rally on American streets - click to enlarge

Good idea

More toilet brushes for LA Mayor Antonio Reconquista - click to enlarge

The open-borders pro-slavery movement wants you to believe these people are racist - click to enlarge

And now for your viewing pleasure the open-borders pro-slavery wackos who were out in full force.

Notice the American flag being dragged - click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Click to watch the KCBS /KCAL video

More photos at Free Republic

Immigration hearing held in San Diego

2006-07-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the first of several immigration hearings was held in San Diego. The Republicans put these shows together but Democratic leaders were also in attendence.

The question is, why are these so called public immigration hearings even taking place? Members of congress know full well that the vast majority of Americans are against amnesty and are for tougher enforcement at the border.

The witnesses invited to speak, border patrol agents, Sheriff's deputies and other experts from Texas to California, were often interrupted by the bickering political hacks, Republicans and Democrats alike, seeking to score points with the crowd.

Darryl Griffen, chief Border Patrol agent for the San Diego sector, kept getting interrupted by the political hacks

5-star idiot Sheriff Lee Baca chimed in but frankly made little sense so I will not repeat it here.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad, called for stepped up law enforcement away from the border where undocumented workers congregate to look for jobs.

“The United States has not been serious enough about our national sovereignty, defending our neighborhoods,” “The problem is coming across the border and not being regulated under a mandate by our federal Constitution.” - Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad

Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Chino-based Friends of the Border Patrol, asserted that the Department of Homeland Security is "broken," and that cooperation between federal and local law enforcement agencies is all but nonexistent.

"We cannot fight terrorism on the border when the Border Patrol itself is terrorized from within the Department of Homeland Security, coerced into silence and afraid to tell the truth," - Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Chino-based Friends of the Border Patrol

And when they label them 'public immigration hearings' one would think that the public would be envolved in a capacity more than just onlookers. Not so. The public was not allowed to speak or even express their opinions inside the hearings with simple boo's or clapping.

When you are not allowed to speak you resort to sign language to get your point across

Outside the hearing the open-borders pro-slavery crowd erected a bunch of crosses to symbolise the deaths of those who cross the border illegally, try to walk for miles without water in 115 degree heat and die in the desert. Apparently they did not erect any crosses for another group of idiots, those who jump off the Golden Gate bridge.

And the illegal alien immigration saga continues.

Think you are buying 'Made in America? Think Again

2006-07-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

What defines an automobile as 'Made in America'?

Well thanks to a decade old law, the American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA) defines that to be able to use the 'Made in America' label a vehicle must be assembled here (or in Canada) and at least 75% of it's parts must be made here (or in Canada).

Yep, Canada counts as many U.S. manufacturers had plants operating up there long before this law took effect.

In today's topsy-turvy world you can no longer look at the manufacturer, such as Ford or Toyota, to determine where a vehicle is actually made.

The Ford Mustang - Not made in America

The Toyota Camry - Made in America

Some brands you would swear are made right here in the good old U.S.A. technically are not.

The Dodge Ram truck? Nope. The Lincoln Navigator? Nope. How about the Jeep Wagoneer? Not any more.

Click here to read the complete story.

Happy Independence Day

2006-07-04T04:20:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

-- He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

-- He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

-- He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

-- He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

-- He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

-- He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

-- He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

-- He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

-- He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

-- He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

-- He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

-- He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

-- He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

-- For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

-- For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

-- For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

-- For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

-- For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

-- For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

-- For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

-- For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

-- For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

-- He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

-- He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

-- He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

-- He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

-- He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/independenceday/declaration.html

Mexico letting Mexicans who live outside of the country vote for the first time

2006-07-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

For the first time in history Mexico will let Mexican's living outside the country vote in the upcoming elections.

Hey, when 10% of your population has fled your county, that's millions of potential voters, most of whom are right here in the USA. So Mexico has decided to let them vote.

An illegal alien woman from Mexico was interviewed on cable news. Even though she has been here for 7 years they still needed a Spanish translator to speak with her.

She was very excited to be able to vote for "her president" and "her country". Keep in mind she is speaking about elections in Mexico, not in the USA.

She has been here illegally for 7 years, does not speak a word of English and considers Mexico her country, not America.

Of course she has not assimilated, she has no need to, nor do millions just like her. She did not come here to be an American as millions of legal immigrants did for decades in the past, she came here to get what she can from the system.

Her true loyalties lie not with our country, but with her's, Mexico.

Mississippi Mayor Claims He Can't Find Americans To Rebuild His Town

2006-06-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

It's been 10 months since Hurricane Katrina wiped out 35% of the homes and public and commercial buildings in the small city of D'Iberville, Mississippi.

Mayor Rusty Quave is frustrated that his town is not yet rebuilt, claiming no American contractors will do the job. So he has a plan: Bring in the Chinese.

Yep, Rusty want to bring in 3,000 Chinese laborers to do a job he says Americans won't do.

But Rusty has a problem with his 'Americans won't do it claim'. Lou Dobbs covered this story on the 28th. The next day at least 20 American contractors contacted the Mayor saying they could do the job.

Rusty may be related to Cyndi Smallwood, a small business woman who runs Diversified Landscape right here in Riverside.

Cyndi made a similar claim in May only to be deluged by Americans wanting the positions she said Americans did not want.

The moral of this story is clear. Americans will do the jobs some claim Americans won't do, they just need to know about them first.

Catholic church puts illegal aliens ahead of children

2006-06-29T18:21:00.000-07:00

Does Cardinal Roger Mahoney know no shame?

This pedophile-priest protecting screwhead is a master at the sex offender shuffle, transferring hundreds of priests in his archdiocese to other Parishes in an attempt to hide their crimes against children.

After the scandal revealed hundreds of sex abuse victims Mahoney went into damage control mode.

From the Archdiocese of Los Angeles:

Sexual misconduct by clergy, church personnel, church leaders and volunteers is contrary to Christian morals, doctrine and canon law. It is never acceptable.

Now Mahoney has changed his mind.

From the Associated Press:

The Roman Catholic dioceses of Los Angeles and Orange County have backed away from a promise to conduct fingerprint background checks on anyone working with children, saying they don't want to lose volunteers who are illegal immigrants.

The dioceses had pledged to do the fingerprint background checks as a way to prevent pedophiles from working with children. But church leaders said the background checks could prevent illegal immigrants from volunteering, since they lack government-issued photo IDs, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

Instead, volunteer candidates without photo IDs in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are allowed to give a sworn affidavit stating that they have not been convicted of any crime, officials said.

Nothing, absolutely nothing is going to get you into hell faster than molesting a child or helping those who do.

Enjoy your stay Mahoney.

Americans being killed by those who should not be here

2006-06-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

Angel Maturino Resendiz, dubbed 'The Railroad Killer', road the rails across the nation on a killing spree that claimed as many as 14 lives. The true number of victims will never be known.

Angel Maturino Resendiz was an illegal alien from Mexico who crossed the border at will, making it difficult for authorities to stop this serial killer. After 2 years of killing and slipping through an FBI dragnet he was caught by a determined Texas Ranger.

He claimed he was half-man, half-angel and that he could not be killed. Well the good folks of Texas proved him wrong and executed him today. Adios muchacho!

The Mexican government issued a statement condemning the execution. They spend more time minding our business than their own crap-hole country.

Well here's a statement for Mexico:

On June 6th of this year, just a few weeks ago, Donna and Sean Wilson of Mt. Juliet, TN were killed in a head-on collision by a drunk driver.

It sound like just another tragic accident story that sadly happens every day in America.

But this story is different. You see the drunk driver of the vehicle that killed the Wilsons is Gustavo Reyes Garcia, an illegal alien.

Garcia, an illegal alien, was drunk and fleeing from police when he killed the Wilsons. But it's not the first time Garcia, an illegal alien, was in trouble with the law.

From NewsChannel5.com:

There were 21 pages of arrest warrants for 27-year-old Gustavo Garcia over the last five years. The warrants include several DUIs, violation of the state’s implied consent law and driving with a revoked license.

21 pages of arrest warrants?

Reports are Garcia, an illegal alien, has been arrested and convicted on over 20 different charges including multiple DUIs, multiple charges of driving with a revoked license, multiple charges of leaving the scene of an injury accident, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and theft.

Garcia, an illegal alien, was seen by multiple judges over the years. Unlike the Railroad Killer, Garcia did not have to run back and forth across the border because non of the judges had the guts to try to have him deported.

Now two Americans are dead.

Why the hell was this illegal alien allowed to stay in the country? A better question may be why was he allowed to come here in the first place?

Celebs to Join Cindy Sheehan in Hunger Strike

2006-06-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

Screwhead Cindy Sheehan, ever desperate to grab headlines, has decided to starve herself.

Her most recent attempt to get before the cameras failed. She travelled all the way to Canada to support U.S. deserters only to be bumped from the front pages when Paris Hilton dropped into town.

Now she has vowed to stage an 'open-ended' hunger strike starting July 4th. She claims some celeb friends like Danny Glover and Willie Nelson will join her.

Let's see if they last longer than their pal Saddam Hussein did. That tough guy quit his hunger strike after missing just one meal.

I bet Willie caves in first, there's no way he can resist the munchies.

In a show of support for Cindy, I vow to eat for enough for two people as long as she is on her hunger strike. When you feel that knot in the pit of your stomach Cindy I hope you can take some comfort in the fact that I am pigging out just for you.

Now I need to to to the grocery store.

NAFTA 'Superhighway' being planned

2006-06-22T04:55:00.000-07:00

Well this should be interesting if the MSM ever decides to cover it.

From Human Events Online:

Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.

Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman’s Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation’s most modern highway straight into the heart of America. The Mexican trucks will cross border in FAST lanes, checked only electronically by the new “SENTRI” system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, their new Smart Port complex, a facility being built for Mexico at a cost of $3 million to the U.S. taxpayers in Kansas City.

This master plan will allow cargo ships from the far east to unload in Mexico instead of California, bypassing the over paid Longshoremen.

Then Mexican trucks, with dirt wage earning Mexican drivers, will make a beeline for the U.S. without even having to stop for an inspection when they cross the border.

The first customs stop won't be until they reach Kansas City. That's assuming they don't take a bribe, make a detour and park an al-queda nuke filled tractor-trailer in your town.

On the bright side there will be a lot less truck traffic on the 91, 60 and 10 freeways.

The NASCO folks appear to be doing some damage control.

The first image below was captured before the story broke. The second image shows some curious 'additions'. You can click it to enlarge.

What validates Day Labor Centers?

2006-06-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

So called Sanctuary Cities set up day labor centers for those looking for work, many of whom are illegal aliens.

The City of New York is the latest to consider creating tax payer subsidized day labor centers. Their reasoning is quite insightful.

From the Queens Gazette:

Guillermo Linares, the mayor's commissioner of immigrant affairs is the panel chairman. The panel's goal is to look into both the job centers and subsidizing them.

Linares, whose panel just completed its first hearing on the question, stated, "As the demand for day laborers continues in New York City, we must address the issues that arise, including day laborers' need for safe and healthy work conditions.

"To address these issues, other jurisdictions have created daylabor job centers with public and private support. For the past 10 years, cities throughout our nation have found these centers to be viable long-term solutions."

Ah, so that's why cities support day labor centers, because there is a 'demand' for them.

Well following that logic cities should create centers for crack dealers, there is a 'demand' for that illegal activity too.

Clear Channel censors Minutemen billboards

2006-06-20T04:23:00.000-07:00

The Minutemen have started a nation wide billboard campain targeting 'illegal immigration-pandering politicians'.

Two of the planned billboards target Senators McCain and Kennedy. The plan was to have each local billboard mention the Senator by name. However Clear Channel, who owns the billboards, refused to allow the Minutemen to call out McCain and Kennedy, saying it amounted to 'personal attacks'.

That's odd considering the considerable money Clear Channel collects running negative campaign ads on their radio stations. They don't seem to have a problem with that, do they?

Pedro Castorena-Ibarra captured

2006-06-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

Pedro Castorena-Ibarra, an ICE Most Wanted Fugitive and ring leader of a massive document fraud operation in the U.S., has been captured in Mexico.

"The arrest of Pedro Castorena is a landmark achievement that deals a serious blow to one of the largest fraudulent-document organizations in the United States," said Julie Myers, the Department of Homeland Security's Assistant Secretary for ICE.

Mexican authorities arrested Castorena, who's also known as Castorena-Ibarra, on Saturday night in Guadalajara without incident, ICE officials said. ICE agents based at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City assisted in the arrest.

Castorena was wanted for years but managed to get captured just days after being featured on the Lou Dobbs show.

It's called Self Deportation Stupid

2006-06-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

You often hear those in the pro-amnesty crowd like President Bush say "we can't deport 12 million illegal aliens". Well Bush probably used the phrase "honest hard working people".

No one who is against amnesty has advocated mass deportations because it's practically impossible and really not necessary. What is possible is using methods to encourage those in this country to leave voluntarily. That's called self deportation.

The State of Georgia recently passed one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country.

From Townhall:

Senate Bill 529, known as the "Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act" is a much-needed response to the ever-increasing number of illegal immigrants in Georgia who benefit from the state's taxpayer-supported programs while avoiding paying into the system.

Nobody seems to be able to make an accurate estimate; the number is often listed as "between 250,000 and 800,000"—a margin of error which is so large that it provides an excellent illustration of the problem itself.

A population can only support so many non-productive beneficiaries of goods and services, and the swelling underclass of illegal immigrants is straining Georgia’s state infrastructure to a point at which further inaction would be extremely detrimental to the state’s economy and society.

Well Georgia's problems certainly sound familiar. What does the "Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act" actually do?

-- It prohibits adult illegal immigrants from receiving many taxpayer-funded benefits

-- It financially penalizes private employers who hire illegals

-- It requires employers with public contracts to verify that their workers are in the country legally

-- It requires law enforcement to check the immigration status of those arrestd

Well that certainly sounds reasonable. They even define those prevented from getting public benefits as 'adults' so kids are not affected.

It does not become law until next year but it is already having an effect on Georgia's illegal alien population.

From AJC.com:

Home buying among Latinos in metro Atlanta has slowed significantly in recent months amid jitters over immigration reform, say real estate agents and lenders who cater to the Spanish-speaking community.

..."There's no question that there's a panic in the Hispanic community," said Raymond Amengual, a lender with AHM Mortgage, which specializes in a Hispanic market that has its share of illegal immigrants.

...Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), the original sponsor of the legislation designed to combat illegal immigration in Georgia, said he had little sympathy for lenders and real estate agents who build their business on what he calls questionable transactions. The new law "has begun to reach its intended purpose if these people are not choosing Georgia as their permanent residence," he said.

Illegal immigrants buy homes with Social Security numbers that don't belong to them or with legal Individual Tax Identification Numbers — commonly called Tax IDs. These numbers, issued by the Internal Revenue Service, allow people in the country illegally to pay their taxes.

...Metro Atlanta real estate agents who cater to Tax ID buyers are seeing similar drops.

Graciela Vizcarra, a ReMax agent who shows houses in Cobb County, said she's gone from four closings a month to one or two. Felipe Bernal, an agent whose area includes Cobb, Gwinnett and Rockdale counties, said his usual eight or nine closings a month has dropped to two or three. And Victor Saldaña, a real estate broker in Norcross, has had three closings in the past two months, one-third of his usual total.

"People are holding back to see what's going to happen," said Saldaña, a Mexico native whose clients are primarily Spanish-speaking.

Grab yourself two tissues, one for the poor illegal aliens who are suddenly feeling un-welcome in Georgia and one for the poor real estate agents won't be lining their pockets with money from people who are not supposed to be here.

Recently ICE conducted operation 'Return to Sender' and arrested over 2,000 illegal aliens. About 400 of those were in the San Diego area and it has brought fear to the illegal alien community there.

From the Associated Press:

Fewer parents are walking their children to school in this border city's Linda Vista neighborhood. The crowd of day laborers huddled in a parking lot outside McDonald's has dropped by half.

...Juana Osorio, an illegal immigrant from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, said her neighbors have largely stayed indoors since agents visited her apartment complex June 2.

"People rarely leave their houses now to go shopping," Osorio, 37, said as she clutched a bottle of laundry detergent in a barren courtyard. "They walk in fear."

Her husband, Juan Rivera, 29, has stopped taking their two children to the park on weekends. "We want to go out but we can't," said Rivera, a construction worker.

...Day laborer Fredy Calleja said his uncle was arrested about two weeks ago while watering plants outside his home. An agent asked him about someone suspected of selling drugs in the area. When the uncle said he didn't know the drug dealer, the agent asked if he was in the country illegally and arrested him when he said he was.

Calleja said his uncle was deported but then sneaked across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. He was back in San Diego a little more than a week later.

Since the blitz began, Serafina Morales has been looking for unmarked white or black vehicles whenever she leaves the house.

"We're all scared to go to school," she said. "Many of us are letting our children walk alone."

Ah, they are afraid to go outside. Don't feel bad for them, that's how you are supposed to feel when you break the law and come to this country illegaly.

Look at the results of one, just one visit by immigration officials. Imagine if that happened again, and again, and again. There would come a point where many of the illegal aliens would give up and self deport themselves.

Doing the right thing for the troops

2006-06-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Cher made a trip to Capitol Hill to lobby for better helmets for the troops.

Cher has donated more than $130,000 to the group Operation Helmet, which pays about $100 to modify the inside of soldiers' helmets to make them better able to absorb shock from a bomb blast.

Nice to see a celeb doing something positive for the troops, you don't see that much in the mainstream media these days. Way to go Cher!

Rupert Murdock, who owns Fox News, found out the troops would not be able to watch the World Cup on the Armed Forces Network. Rupert came through big time:

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose media company owns Fox News, negotiated a deal with the World Cup TV rights holders to piggyback AFN onto a deal he has with one of his many properties, according to Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Greg Hicks.

“FIFA World Cup 2006 Germany has allowed AFN limited distribution permission to allow coverage of remaining Team USA matches, the semifinals and the championship,” Hicks said.

Good job Rupert!

Document fraud business would get big boost from Senate bill

2006-06-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

The Castorena-Ibarra Family has been identified as running the largest document fraud organization in the United States. They have hundreds of cells, operate in every major city and take in millions of dollars each year.

The head of the family, Pedro Castorena-Ibarra, is on Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Top Ten List of wanted fugitives. He is wanted for money laundering, producing fake identification documents and social security fraud. One of his last known locations was, surprise, right here in So Cal.

Manuel Leija-Sanchez has been called the #2 man in the organization and the Chicago Kingpin. One neighborhood in Chicago brings in over $2.5 million per year selling fake documents.

Last year Leija-Sanchez was busted for his part in the fake document ring but plea bargained his charges down to possessing a fake library card and is serving just 1 year in prison. Wow, that's a big deterrent and is sure to make the criminals making millions of dollars selling fake ID's to think twice about what they are doing.

His step-daughter, who has counted bags of money for the family since she was a child, asked her grandfather if terrorist could use these fake documents. He told her this is the family business, it doesn't matter if you are a terrorist, all that matters is if you have the money. She is now helping federal officials and is in hiding fearing her step-father will retaliate against her.

Let's recap. Document fraud is rampant in the United States generating millions of dollars each year with no sign of it stopping.

Now what do the geniuses in the Senate propose? Cracking down on document fraud? Nope. They want to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens who have documents showing they have been in the country a certain number of years.

Where do you supposed the illegal aliens will get these documents? On the street of course.

The result will be millions of illegal aliens defrauding the system, getting amnesty and the Castorena-Ibarra Family laughing all the way to the bank.

Crazy socialists evicted from South Central Farm

2006-06-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

It sounds wonderful, 14 acres of farmland in South Central LA. Hundreds of poor Americans living off the land in the middle of a concrete jungle.

There's only one problem, the land does not belong to them!

Back in the 80's the City of LA took the land by Eminent Domain to put a trash incinerator on it. The community did not like that idea so the city never developed the land and it just sat there.

After the '92 riots the city, in a feel good moment, decided to let the community use the land. They did not 'give' the community the property, they just allowed them to use it. So people started pitching tents and growing crops.

One of the original owners who the city took the land from, David Horowitz, found out the city never used the land for the reason they took it from him for. He wanted it back, sued and won the right to purchase it back from the city. He actually paid the city more for it than the city paid when they took it!

Now it's 2003 and Horowitz has his land back but there are hundreds of people living on it. Notices went out that they would have to leave. They asked if they could stay there for 60 days to harvest their crops and gather their belongings. Horowitz, who owns the land, did not have to but he agreed to let them stay for the 60 days they asked for.

So what happened during those 60 days? Did the squatters harvest their crops, gather their belongings and leave like they said they would? Nope, instead they got lawyers and sued Horowitz so they could stay on his land for free!

Over the next few years lawyers for the squatters kept filing motions in court. The purpose was to keep the land tied up in the court system so the owner could not use his own property. The case went through the local court system to the appellate court and even to the California Supreme Court. The courts ruled in favor of the owner of the land every time.

Keep in mind that for all the years the attorneys kept the case in the court system the squatters lived on the land without giving the owner a penny while he had to pay property taxes, insurance and a morgage.

Finally eviction notices went out and the nuttyness really began in recent months.

Darryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Danny Glover, Joan Baez and Willie Nelson and a bunch of socialist all rushed to the cause. Hannah and others even parked their butts in a walnut tree in protest.

These screwheads had no problem placing demands the owner of the land, but not once did they offer up their own property to help their so called noble cause. Why not? I bet their dirt is just as good for growing crops as the dirt in South Central.

The Sheriff's Deparment finally moved in and removed all who remained on the property, mostly protesters who had never set foot on the land until recently, costing the tax payers tens-of-thousands of dollars.

Where were the poor squatting farmers during the eviction? Apparently they left the farm months ago, afraid of being deported. Yep it seems that the poor Americans living off the land weren't even Americans at all.

Willie Nelson called in to the Larry King show last night and said he lent his support because this is what Americans do, they fight for what they believe it.

Really Willie? I doubt most Americans believe in trespassing and I bet you would not hesitate to call 911 if you found someone trespassing on your property.

Oh, by the way, doesn't it seem odd that the 'poor' farmers have their own web site and 800 number?

Too bad the owner, Horowitz, can't give everyone of those screwheads a good swift kick in the crotch for all they put him through.

Man uses fake Mexican ID to enter Department of Homeland Security

2006-06-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

Bruce De Cell, a member of 911 Families for a Secure America, had a meeting with officials at the Department of Homeland Security a week ago.

When he got to the 'security' office he was asked for ID. So he whipped out his fake Mexican Matricular Consular Card. His fake card had all bogus information on it, listing his place of birth as Tijuana Mexico and his address as 123 fraud blvd. The card cost him a whopping $20 on the streets of Los Angeles.

So what happened when the security guard at DHS examined the fake card? They gave him a security badge and escorted him to the meeting room where 7 officials from DHS were waiting.

When it was Bruce's turn to speak the first thing he said was “I used my Mexican Matricular Consular Card as my photo I.D. to enter your facility." Of course all the officials were shocked and promised to look into it.

The problems with the Mexican Matricular Consular Card are nothing new.

The Center for Immigration Studies pointed out the following in Jan. of 2003:

The matricula consular is useful in the United States only for illegal aliens, since legal immigrants, by definition, have U.S. government-issued documents.

Congressman Gary Miller (R - Brea) lists the Myth and Facts behind the Mexican ID Cards:

MYTH: Matricula Consular cards are official identification issued by the Mexican government to its citizens and are a proper and reliable form of identification for Mexican workers in the United States.

FACT: The Justice Department and FBI have concluded that the Matricula Consular is not a reliable form of identification due to the non-existence of any means of verifying the true identity of the cardholder.

The documents used to obtain the Matricula Consular card have been found to be easily counterfeited.

Even worse, Matricula Consular cards have been issued upon as little as the word of the person requesting one that they are indeed who they claim to be.

The Mexican government has no centralized database to coordinate the issuance of Matricula Consular ID cards. As a result, one person can procure several cards, even under different names.

Betcha feel better now don't ya, knowing what a crack team of officials we have looking out for Americans.

Banning getting a $1 million swimming pool

2006-06-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

Oh you gotta love that pork, the kind elected officials cram into bills so they can get money to spend at home. It helps to get re-elected when you can tell your voters 'hey, look what I got you'.

In the 2005 Transportation Appropriations bill, the conference report accompanying the legislation included $250,000.00 for construction and renovation of the city pool in Banning.

In 2006 the report included another $250,000 for the Banning pool.

That's 1/2 million so far folks.

Congress is now set to consider the 2007 TTHUD Appropriations Bill (Transportation, Treasury, and Housing & Urban Development). The conference report contains $500,000.00 for the city pool in Banning.

That's how you get a $1 million pool.

Banning is in embattled Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis' district.

Much thanks to Redstate.org.

California paying out billions for child care fraud

2006-06-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

Here's another of the myriad of reasons why California sucks in over $100 billion in taxes each year.

Back in the 1990's there was a big push to get people off of welfare and back to work. Makes sense. However single parents presented a dilemma. What would they do with their kids while they were working? The State's solution was to subsidize their child care.

The Department of Education became responsible for distributing between $500 to $1,000 for every child each month through county welfare deparments. The amount is not insignificant, $2 to #3 billion each year.

There's one huge problem though. No one is verifying that those getting the money actually qualify for it.

When someone 'claims' to have 3 kids they are suddenly getting $36,000 a year from the State. That's not a bad living for sitting on the sofa, watching Oprah and stuffing your face with Bon Bons.

From the DailyBreeze:

In a recent random check, the state Department of Education, which disburses most of the $2 billion to $3 billion in child-care subsidies through county welfare departments, could verify only 36 percent of jobs and providers claimed by recipients. Other officials put the fraud rate at 40 percent to 50 percent. Yet the department designates no funds specifically to investigation of fraud at the state or the county level.

As one LA Deputy DA put it "Child care pays big money."

The hardest working woman in America

2006-06-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

We have all heard of people working two, sometimes three jobs to make ends meet.

Well they have nothing on Audra Schmierer. This amazing woman works over 200 jobs....simultaneosly.

That's not possible you say? Sure it is, read on.

Audra stopped working 6 years ago to be a stay-at-home mom. When her child started going to school Audra decided to start working again and applied at a temp agency. They called her a few hours later and said they did not understand why she was applying because....she already works there.

Audra started investigating and discovered over 200 illegal aliens across the country are using her social security number.

Then she got a bill from the IRS for back taxes in the amount of almost $16,000 for a job in Texas. She lives in California and has never worked in Texas. She tracked down that illegal alien and he told her he bought her social security number and a phony greed card at a flea market.

This past January she got another bill from the IRS for $1 million in back taxes. That's what happens when over 200 people are working for 6 years using your ID.

She was even detained by customs when returning from a trip abroad with her husband. Her social security account now shows a zero balance even though she worked for 14 years before her marriage.

Now she is being refused employment because her social security number was given to law enforcement by an illegal alien who committed a felony. She even has a warrant for her arrest in Texas, again because an illegal alien used her ID.

Now she spends several hours each day trying to clear her name. The IRS sends her to Social Security, Social Security sends her to the IRS. She has no one to turn to.

Audra has contacted 35 different employers and they refuse to take action against the illegal aliens they hired who are using her ID. To make matters worse, the Social Security Administration refuses to give her a new social security number.

Her case was brought to the attention of the Senate and they could care less about Americans, they still approved social security benefits for illegal aliens in their amnesty bill.

Lou Dobbs covered the story. Denny's, Wendy's and Jack in the Box were just a few of the employers who had people working for them using Audra's ID.

The IRS says the employers violated no law because they are only required to use good faith when verifying someone's identity. But even when the IRS informs an employer that a false ID is being used they often ignore it because the fine is just $50.

While our elected officials do nothing talk about amnesty Americans like Audra Schmierer continue to suffer the severe consequences of ID theft by illegal aliens.

Top Ten Things Zarqawi Likely Said Before He Died

2006-06-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

The latest reports are that Zarqawi was pulled out of the rubble alive by Iraqi police and placed on a stretcher before he died.

Here is a Top Ten list of things Zarqawi might have said in those final moments.

10. What the hell was that?

9. You don't look like a virgin

8. It only hurts here, and here, and here, and here, and here...

7. I want my Murtha

6. My legs, my legs!

5. Tell my spiritual adviser he's fired

4. They got rubble all over my American New Balance tennis shoes

3. Damn, I'm going to miss the Randi Rhodes show on Air America

2. Dirka Dirka

1. Why couldn't Kerry have won?

Another Zarqawi bites the dust video from Hot Air Films

Zarqawi is Dead

2006-06-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the #1 terrorist in Iraq and considered by some to be the #3 terrorist in the world, was killed by U.S. forces yesterday. Zarqawi is responsible for hundreds of deaths.

American Nick Burg any many others were beheaded by Zarqawi

An American F-16 delivering Zarqawi a 500 pound present

The aftermath

He looks dead enough

Iraqis celebrate

Click to watch the Abu Musab al Zarqawi Blown to Hell Remix Video.

That's karma baby!

Courtesy of Michelle

Congressman turns tables on open-borders employer

2006-06-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

On May 18th the LA Times ran a story about a local business owner, Cyndi Smallwood, who claimed she could not find Americans to do a job for $34 an hour.

We covered it here and Michelle Malkin covered it there.

It didn't take long for most to poke enough holes in the story to drive a dozen illegal alien filled vans through.

A little reported aspect of the story was that Smallwood met with her Congressman, Gary Miller (R) - Brea, in January and it did not go well. Smallwood is part of the open-borders crowd and Congressman Miller has a solid B+ report card from Americans for Better Immigration.

From the LA Times article:

...Will she be making another contribution to the Republicans anytime soon?

"Not hardly."

That's due in large measure to her anger at her congressman, Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-Diamond Bar), who does not favor a guest worker program.

In January, Smallwood had a contentious meeting with Miller at his district office in Brea. She said Miller twice challenged her assertion that she couldn't find workers for $34 an hour, saying his son would work for that wage and offering to send him over.

Smallwood said she took the deal, but that his son never showed up.

That's not what happened according to Congressman Miller. John and Ken spoke with him on their show today.

Miller said he met with Smallwood and another man who managed an office maintenance company.

According to Miller the office maintenance man claimed he could not find a foreman for $75 an hour and Smallwood claimed she could not find anyone for $34.

Miller said he did not believe their claims. He mentioned his son would like to make that kind of money but says, unlike the LA Times article, that no job offer was ever made to his son.

Smallwood, according to Miller, "stormed out of his office" before the meeting was over. He called her 3 times but she never returned his calls.

Congressman Miller has decided to 'help' Cyndi Smallwood. He is running print ads like this in the Daily Press and the Press-Enterprise:

click to enlarge

Miller told John and Ken that the trade association Cyndi Smallwood belongs to has called and asked him to pull the ads. It seems Smallwood is getting too many phone calls from Americans wanting the jobs.

June 6th Election Results

2006-06-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

1:00 am update

Locally, Supervisors Wilson and Tavaglione both ran unopposed.

Supervisor Ashley defeated challenger Sandra Baxter-Dutcher 65% to 35%.

Sheriff / Coroner Bob Doyle won re-election with 72% of the vote.

School bond measures for Banning, Beaumont, Hemet, Nuview and Murrieta all passed.

The bond measure for San Jacinto Community College failed.

Riverside finally came in with 100% of precincts reporting at 12:57 am.

Riverside had a 21% voter turnout.

State Ballot Measures
76.0% ( 17563 of 23124 ) precincts reporting as of Jun 7, 2006 at 1:24 am

Propositions Yes No
81 N Reading/Library Bond 47.0 53.0
82 N Preschool Education 39.8 60.2

Bad news for Rob 'Meathead' Reiner, his latest socialist measure, prop 82, is failing everywhere. Even 55% of Los Angeles voted against it. The only strong support it saw was in the Bay area which has very few children compared to the rest of the state.

State Assembly District 65
97.5% ( 269 of 276 ) precincts reporting as of Jun 7, 2006 at 1:24 am

Jim Ayres                    6,012   22.9 
Ken D. Smith                 1,249    4.7 
Paul J. Cook                 6,817   26.1 
Robin Lowe                   6,047   23.1 
Brenda Salas                 6,061   23.2

Riverside voters picked Lowe first, but San Bernardino voters were solidly behind Cook and pushed him over the top.

In the Democratic primary for Governor, Phil Angelides has 47.7% vs Steve Westly with 43.7%.

76% of precincts have reported as of 1:00 am.

The winner will face Arnold in November.

Down in San Diego, the race between Francine "you don't need papers to vote" Busby (D) and ten Republicans is to close to call. Only 57 of 500 precincts have reported at this time.

11:00 pm update

Propositions Yes No
81 N Reading/Library Bond 45.7 54.3
82 N Preschool Education 41.0 59.0

30.3% ( 7010 of 23124 ) precincts reporting as of Jun 6, 2006 at 10:52 pm

State Assembly District 65
39.1% ( 108 of 276 ) precincts reporting as of Jun 6, 2006 at 10:52 pm

Jim Ayres                   3,043   20.9 
Ken D. Smith                  683    4.7 
Paul J. Cook                3,994   27.5 
Robin Lowe                  3,185   21.9 
Brenda Salas                3,622   25.0

This is a big swing, Cook was in 4th, now he is in 1st. Lowe was in 1st, now she is in 3rd.

Cooks appears to get most of his support from San Bernardino County which first reported in at 10:50 pm.

10:30 pm update

Propositions - 23% reporting Yes No
81 N Reading/Library Bond 45.1 54.9
82 N Preschool Education 40.9 59.1

State Assembly District 65
39.1% ( 108 of 276 ) precincts reporting as of Jun 6, 2006 at 10:32 pm

Jim Ayres                           2,564   23.4 
Ken D. Smith                          474    4.3 
Paul J. Cook                        2,339   21.3 
Robin Lowe                          2,855   26.1 
Brenda Salas                        2,727   24.9

Riverside reported at 10:24 pm, 2nd time, 52.1%

Meathead's 'Pre School for All' is losing big time, only 4 counties in the state, all up north, are voting for it .

10:00 pm update

Propositions - 13% reporting Yes No
81 N Reading/Library Bond 44.6 55.4
82 N Preschool Education 40.5 59.5

Riverside is reporting very slowly, no updates since 8:49 pm

9:30 pm update

Propositions - 9% reporting Yes No
81 N Reading/Library Bond 44.1 55.9
82 N Preschool Education 40.3 59.7

Riverside is reporting very slowly, no new updates

9:00 pm update

Propositions Yes No
81 N Reading/Library Bond 44.0 56.0
82 N Preschool Education 40.4 59.6

Riverside is voting 67% against 'Pre School for All'.

State Assembly District 65
30% reporting

Jim Ayres                    2,232   23.3 
Ken D. Smith                   412    4.2 
Paul J. Cook                 1,987   20.7 
Robin Lowe                   2,615   27.3 
Brenda Salas                 2,345   24.5

Riverside finally reported in, it was one of the last counties to do so, turn out is 8.8% so far.

8:30 pm update

Prop 82, Meathead's 'Pre School for All' is losing: yes - 42%, no - 58%

Prop 81, the Library Bond measure, is losing: yes- 46%, no - 54%

Only 3% reporting so far

American student files suit against Riverside High School

2006-06-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

Everyone remembers the pro illegal immigration rallies a few months ago. Thousands flooded the streets, even kids that should have been in school. Some schools even closed to allow the students to join the protests.

At Jurupa Valley High School the on campus MEChA group was allowed to hold pro illegal immigration rallies on campus.

American student Joshua Denhalter, 18, decided to have a counter protest. But instead of having it on campus like the MEChA group is allowed to do, Denhalter decided to have it off campus, across the street from the school on a public sidewalk.

Jurupa Valley High School officials went nuts. Before Denhalter could even have his pro American rally, school officials suspended him for 3 days and threatened to have him arrested if he came within 2,000 feet of the school!

Now the American student is taking the school to court:

Riverside, CA (PRWEB) June 5, 2006 -- The public interest firm of Lively, Ackerman & Cowles (www.LivelyAckerman.com) filed suit on behalf of Jurupa Valley High School student Joshua Denhalter late last week. The First Amendment suit alleges that the public high school has intentionally interfered with his right to speak out on the issue of illegal immigration. Case Number RIC450811 was filed in Riverside County Superior Court.

Mr. Denhalter alleges that on March 27, 2006, dozens of high school students, mostly of Mexican-American descent, illegally walked out of school in protest of legislation that was being proposed by the U.S. Congress (HR4437) concerning illegal immigration. He was not one of these students and chose to act lawfully.

Instead of illegally walking out of school and being truant, Denhalter chose to organize a legitimate and lawful counter-protest/assembly during the lunch hour on or about March 30, 2006. The peaceable assembly was to take place across from the school on a public sidewalk (i.e., a traditional public forum).

The peaceable assembly would not have disrupted school activities because Jurupa Valley High School has an “open lunch” period. This means that students are free to come and go during this time. As such, any student could have “walked out” during the lunch to attend the assembly and there would be no disruption or violation of truancy laws.

On the morning of March 30, 2006, Denhalter began handing out flyers for his event. That same morning, around 7:30 AM, he was approached by school officials and told that he could not hand out flyers advertising his First Amendment protected activities. He refused to give up his right to pass out handbills/flyers. As a result of his refusal to give up his constitutional rights, Denhalter was suspended for “handing out flyers (before school) advocating the disruption of school activities”. However, the school did not punish the dozens of students who walked out in violation of the law several days before.

Furthermore, between March 27 and March 30, 2006, the school allowed MECHA to sponsor an on-campus rally in opposition to HR4437. Denhalter asked for permission to sponsor a similar counter-rally on campus but was flatly denied by the school district's board.

Finally, just the week before filing of this complaint, on May 25, 2006, the school prohibited Denhalter from wearing a “Save Our State” t-shirt by telling him that he needed to turn the shirt inside out and not ever wear it again. The content of the political speech set forth on the shirt was the sole basis for this censorship and prior restraint of Denhalter’s rights. He seeks a restraining order allowing him to express himself freely as to political matters until the end of the school year (i.e., June 21, 2006).

According to lead attorney Richard D. Ackerman, “This is one of the worst governmental censorship cases I have seen in over a decade of practice. It is simply unbelievable that a school district would take sides with those who promote illegal activity over a student wishing to express his protected views in a traditionally and legally acceptable manner. These officials must be severely punished for their actions.” The law firm is handling this matter on a pro bono basis. The firm says that temporary restraining orders will be sought against the school within the next ten days.

Donations are being taken for Denhalter's legal costs through the donation link at www.profamilylawcenter.com. Those interested in helping this young man can designate the money to be used for the "Josh Denhalter First Amendment Fund." Tax deductible donations will only be used to assist in his and related First Amendment cases. Mr. Denhalter is going to boot camp five days after graduating from Jurupa Valley High School and cannot afford the costs of this litigation.

The Daily Bulletin has more on the story and photos too.

Tip for Stupid Criminals: Don't Throw Trash at Cops from your Stolen Car

2006-06-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

A Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy was driving, on duty, in Hemet yesterday when trash started bouncing off his car.

The trash was coming out the window of the car in front of him, so Deputy pulls the car over.

The driver and passenger reside in Corona but the car resides in Hemet. Yep, it's stolen.

A search of the stolen car found 61 grams of meth.

Daniel Martinez, 22, and Rose Magana, 22, were both booked into the Southwest Detention Center on charges of stolen vehicle, possession of methamphetamine and possession of stolen property. Bail has been set at $50,000 each.

Voting in Riverside may have ties to Venezuela

2006-06-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that Venezuela, home of anti-America Hugo Chavez who is on a campaign to turn all of Latin America against the U.S..

Riverside County uses Sequoia Voting Systems built voting machines.

The issue of who controls Sequoia Voting Systems is causing concerns.

-- Sequoia is based in Oakland.

-- Sequoia's parent company is Smartmatic based in Boca Raton, Florida.

-- Smartmatic is controlled by Smartmatic International Holdings based in Amsterdam.

-- Smartmatic International Holdings is owned by Smartmatic International Group of Curacao based in the Dutch Antilles, a string of islands off the Venezuelan coast

-- Bizta Corp. supplies the software for the machines and lists it's U.S. address as a residential property in Boca Raton, Florida. It also shares office space with Smartmatic in Caracas, Venezuela. Bizta Corp. is partially owned by the Venezuelan government.

Some will say this is just a multi-national company. They may be right. Others will say this smells of the same type of shell game Saddam used in his oil for food scheme when he laundered money through multiple countries.

From the Miami-Herald:

Smartmatic has a brief but controversial history. The company was started in Caracas during the late 1990s by engineers Antonio Mugica and Alfredo Anzola. They worked out of downtown Caracas providing small-scale technology services to Latin American banks.

Despite having no election experience, the tiny company rocketed from obscurity in 2004 after it was awarded a $100 million contract by the Chávez-dominated National Electoral Council to replace Venezuela's electronic voting machines for the recall vote.

From the L.A. Times:

An Oakland company that provides electronic voting machines in California and 19 other states is drawing scrutiny over its acquisition last year by a group of Venezuelan investors with past business ties to the government of President Hugo Chavez.

Voters in 20 California counties Tuesday will use voting machines provided by Sequoia Voting Systems, the country's oldest maker of election equipment. Sequoia's ownership has barely caused a ripple in California, but it has prompted elected officials in Chicago and New York to raise questions about possible foreign influence in U.S. elections.

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) last month wrote U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow asking whether the Bush administration had weighed the national security implications of "a company with possible ties to the Venezuelan government" selling touch-screen voting machines for U.S. elections.

The concerns echo the resistance that greeted Chinese efforts last year to buy El Segundo-based oil company Unocal Corp. and the more recent failed attempt by a company in Dubai to acquire U.S. port operations.

"Just as the Dubai ports deal was a priority security issue, any potential foreign influence on our elections system is vital to our national security and deserves at least a look," said Maloney, who is concerned that voting machines supplied by Sequoia could be especially vulnerable to fraud because of the company's foreign ownership.

...In the last several years, Sequoia has signed contracts to provide electronic voting equipment to more than a third of California's 58 counties — including Riverside and San Bernardino but not Los Angeles — and 245 other local governments across the country.

...Concerns about Smartmatic's offshore ownership are fueling broader worries that computerized voting systems are vulnerable to hackers and political manipulation.

"Anything that further erodes the public's confidence in the integrity of our system of counting votes is troublesome," said Rich Hasen, a specialist in voting law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

The situation isn't helped by the current strained relations between the United States and Chavez, who refers to President Bush as "Mr. Dangerous" and is a key figure in the growing leftist challenge to U.S. influence in Latin America.

...The company's Venezuelan owners made "extra efforts to make it appear that Smartmatic is purely a [U.S.] company," said Lowell Finley, co-director of Voter Action, an electronic voting watchdog group in Berkeley.

...Stories about Smartmatic's connections to the Venezuelan government emerged just a few months after Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software Inc. failed to win a contract to refurbish 6,000 voting machines it had sold to a pre-Chavez government in Caracas.

John Groh, Election Systems international president, said he was bedeviled throughout the lengthy negotiations by questions from Chavez administration officials about rumors that his company had links to the CIA.

...Riverside was the first county in the nation to switch to all-touch-screen voting when it deployed Sequoia terminals for the November 2000 presidential election, Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore said.

"Since then," she added, "we've had 36 successful elections."

From the Chicago Sun-Times on May 8th:

The City Council's most powerful alderman on Friday accused the Venezuelan-owned company at the center of the ballot-counting debacle March 21 of being part of an "international conspiracy to subvert the electoral process" in the United States.

Smartmatic International Group, parent company of Sequoia Voting Systems, is more than 90 percent owned by the Mugicas, a family of Venezuelan nationals. Family patriarch Antonio Mugica is Smartmatic's CEO.

On Friday, Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) questioned Sequoia President Jack Blaine, Perry Mason-style, about the company's Venezuelan ownership.

The cross-examination not only traced the ownership of Sequoia through as Burke put it, "four countries, two hemispheres and three shell corporations." It evoked what Burke called the "mind-boggling" disclosure that 15 Venezuelan nationals had traveled to Chicago on March 21 to provide "technical support" and oversee the tabulation of votes.

"Because of the disastrous results of the election March 21, we've stumbled across what could be the international conspiracy to subvert the electoral process in the United States of America," Burke said.

"I'm saying that the potential for tampering with the American electoral process -- where presidential elections can be determined by just one state -- exists here. . . . Don't you think that [Venezuelan President] Hugo Chavez would love to be able to control elections in the United States of America? This is just the beginning."

VoteTrustUSA wants an investigation:

Citing national security concerns, the non-profit public integrity group VoteTrustUSA.org voiced support for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s call to investigate the ownership of Sequoia Voting Systems. A leading producer of computerized voting systems used in the U.S., Sequoia was purchased by the Venezuelan-owned Smartmatic International last year.

In 2004, Smartmatic partnered with Bizta, a company owned partially by the Venezuelan Government of Hugo Chavez.

In the March Chicago primary, over a dozen Venezuelan nationals were present in the tabulation room, to ‘support’ the computation of the results according to testimony of Jack Blaine, Smartmatic President and CEO at a recent Chicago City Council hearing.

Real Clear Politics says:

Consider the lack of confidence Venezuelans have in their voting system.

Anti-Chávez groups have such little faith in Smartmatic's machines that they refuse to run candidates in elections anymore as reports surface of fraud and irregularities from Chávez's 2004 victory in a recall referendum.

Yet somehow Smartmatic International and its Venezuelan owners were able to purchase Sequoia last year without the deal receiving any scrutiny from federal regulators -- including the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS), which is tasked with determining whether foreign takeovers pose security risks.

At a time when vote counting is becoming more and more secret, when elections officials refuse to allow voting machines to be open for public scrutiny, do we really need even the hint that a hostile foreign government may have some control over election results?

I think not.

Does the illegal alien swing vote really exist?

2006-06-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

Do politicians, regardless of party, court those who have no right to vote in this country?

Francine Busby (D) is a candidate for the 50th Congressional District near San Diego. This is a special election to replace that screwhead Randy 'Duke' Cunningham who got busted for taking bribes.

Francine got caught on tape telling a non english speaking crowd something that is curious to say the least.

The first part is muffled but you can clearly hear her say:

Yeah, absolutely. You can all help. (some spanish translation.) Yeah, you don’t need papers for voting and you don’t need to be a registered voter to help.

Unbelievable!

Click here to listen for yourself.

SignOnSanDiego has a story of Busby running some strange ads.

Update: Busby is on the defense, wants to clarify her statements.

If an election can turn on a sentence, this could be the one: “You don't need papers for voting.”

On Thursday night, Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate for the 50th Congressional District, was speaking before a largely Latino crowd in Escondido when she uttered those words. She said yesterday she simply misspoke.

...Busby, a Cardiff school board member, is in a tight race with Republican Brian Bilbray, a congressman-turned-lobbyist, who has based his campaign on a tough anti-illegal-immigration stance.
...Bilbray said at worst, Busby was encouraging someone to vote illegally. At best, she was encouraging someone who is illegally in the country to work on her campaign.
“She's soliciting illegal aliens to campaign for her and it's on tape – this isn't exactly what you call the pinnacle of ethical campaign strategy,” Bilbray said. “I don't know how she shows her face.”

Staging the news?

2006-06-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

The Press-Enterprise ran a story yesterday about street signs going up on previously un-marked dirt roads in the Mead Valley area.

On Wednesday, county workers installed a sign at Day Street and Kuder Avenue. It was the 37th intersection sign to be placed on roads that the county does not maintain, said Riverside County Transportation Director George Johnson.

They even included a picture of a guy from the transportation department 'polishing' the newly installed sign.

Do they really polish signs?

A sharp eye reader pointed out the problem with the story. This sign was actually installed months ago.

Same sign, same day

Amazing how the dirt looks like it's been un-disturbed for months

So what's going on?

On the surface it's just a story about a sign, no big deal. But when you dig just below the surface it seems as though this is a political event staged for the media.

The story says the sign was installed yesterday when in fact these 'new' signs in Mead Valley have been there for months.

The story goes on about how the County has to jump through hoops and get grants to cover the $7,000 cost because the roads are not maintained by the County which prevents the County for paying for the signs directly.

The problem with that is the dirt road they installed the sign on, Day St., is maintained by the county.

And what about that picture of someone from transportation polishing the sign? If it's really a newly installed sign, why does it need to be polished? Come on, when have you ever seen signs being polished, new or not?

Instead of making this guy pose for a photo op, how about having him fill one of the gazillion pot holes in the area?

Supervisor Bob Buster, who's district includes Mead Valley, told the paper:

"We are definitely going to keep going. This is really a public-safety issue,"

So they are putting in the signs because it's a safety issue. O.K., that's fine, but wasn't it a safety issue last year, or the year before that, or the decades before that? Why now?

If it's really an issue of the fire department of sheriff's department being able to respond to a location in an emergency, why depend on technology from the stone age when you can get a nifty GPS navigator unit for $500 at Circuit City? The deserts in Iraq don't have street signs yet the military can get where they are going.

It looks like someone fooled the Press-Enterprise and reporter Kimberly Trone. Odds are there is nothing sinister on their part, they are just reporting what they were told.

'Welcome to Sanctuary City' billboard goes up

2006-06-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

Michelle Malkin has it.

It goes well with the signs we have here in Southern California.

American's moving out of California neighborhoods

2006-06-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

The OC Register has an interesting article on how long time residents are being forced out of neighborhoods.

This illustrates the statistics that show the vast majority of those coming into California, roughly 250,000 annually, are foreign born while the majoriy of those leaving California are native born.

ORANGE – The Hills left East Vine Avenue two weeks ago. The Wigginses plan to leave in a month or so. And just last week, the Hansons put up a for-sale sign.

In a few months, most of Carol Fulton's longtime neighbors will be gone. And in a flash, summer barbecues, Fourth of July parades and baseball games at the East Vine cul-de-sac will become distant memories.

Fulton sits on her front porch, pensive and surveying the neighborhood. It has changed drastically, she says.

The familiar smells and sounds of backyard barbecues are replaced by mariachi music and the honking horn of a shaved-ice cart. Fulton sees unfamiliar cars and people streaming onto the street.

Overcrowding caused by boarding homes - more than two leases on the same property - is an issue that city officials and residents have grappled with for years.

"This used to be a fun neighborhood," says Fulton, 56. "Kids stayed outside until 10 or 11 p.m. I figured we'd live here until we died. We never in 100,000 years thought it would change."

..."We were always outside. In the summertime, I was a free spirit," she says. "Not anymore. We don't go outside anymore."

Fulton has to decide if she, like her friends, is going to go.

Fulton moved to Orange in 1986 with her husband and two daughters from a previous marriage.

She loved the clean neighborhood. There were other families with children. And everyone called each other by their first names. The house they rented had no air conditioning. Fulton cooled off under the tree in her yard.

A year later, they moved across East Vine into a three-bedroom house they bought for $175,000. The Fultons, whose family grew to five kids, envisioned growing old with their neighbors.

Orange had deep roots, a city with generations of families where grandparents and parents settled and their children held onto the threads of their childhood.

The neighborhood transformation was subtle at first.

Some families moved away and a more transient community began to develop. Unfamiliar faces filtered in and out of several houses.

By the late '80s and early '90s, longtime residents complained about a parking crunch caused by dozens of people crammed into the neighborhood's first boarding house - the big house they called "the Fortress."

...In the late '90s, Fulton caught people peering into her rooms, urinating in her yard and making catcalls at her.

It was common knowledge that there were multiple families and dozens of men, mainly day laborers, living in the homes, she says.

Drywall was delivered to the homes and quickly disappeared. People built additional rooms without permits. Blinds were closed and no children played outside.

...The street, by day, looked like any other in Orange. But Fulton and some neighbors said that in the evening, droves of cars came into the neighborhood.

...One by one, Fulton's friends talked of moving. East Vine Avenue had become intolerable, and they didn't want to wait for things to improve.

"We've been here for years, and now everyone is bailing," Fulton says.

..."These are houses but this street is becoming an apartment complex. They are not touching each other but they might as well be," Fulton says.

Language and cultural barriers also make it difficult for some neighbors to connect.

When Fulton's son accidentally hit a baseball into someone's window, she promptly went over to apologize. Her neighbors nodded and smiled and did not understand English, she says.

But race is not the issue, Fulton says. She would be incensed at any neighbor who disrespected her privacy and property.

"What burns me is that we're middle-class working people who didn't have extra money to buy anything. We all worked hard to get here," she says.

During her free time, Fulton helps a neighbor pack for her move out of the county.

"Get out when you can," says her friend. "I'm moving to an American neighborhood."

...She says she is too tired to fight anymore. But she cannot let go of her memories. Fulton, unlike most of the old neighbors, says she's staying for now.

Let's see, mariachi music (sound familiar?), illegal room additions, dozens living in the same home, yep, we have all that right here in Riverside too.

Attorney claims racism over Border Patrol arrests

2006-05-31T16:23:00.000-07:00

Starting on May 19th and ending on May 24th, ICE and the Border Patrol ran 'Operation Desert Denial' along Interstate 40 near Barstow, CA. This is a known high-traffic route for smugglers.

The 5 day operation caught 617 illegal aliens. This is a follow-up operation to last years highly successful 'Operation Rampart' which netted 1,500 illegal aliens and a quarter of a million dollars worth of drugs.

These operations are a good thing, right?

Nope, not if you are attorney Luis Carrillo.

Carrillo paraded a group of children, apparently anchor babies, of the illegal aliens caught in the operation in front of media cameras at the Federal Building in L.A. today shouting:

The practice and procedure of the Border Patrol, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is always to engage in racial profiling when it comes to the Latino community.

Well looky there, he just played the race card.

One of the children Carrillo was using is 14-year-old Wendy Ortiz. Carrillo exclaimed:

She is a victim of this harrassment, this gestapo operation of the Border Patrol.

He continued:

The only people they were stopping were Latinos, in other words the Gueros, the Gringos had free passage.

Little Wendy blew a hole in his racism claims when she told the media:

They were stopping every single car.

Oops.

Most are familiar with the derogatory term 'Gringo' although it's use here is questionable, unless Carrillo's intend was to say that American's are foreigners in America.

From the American Heritage Dictionary:

SYLLABICATION: grin·go
PRONUNCIATION: grngg
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. grin·gos
Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.

However I have to admit I had to call a spanish speaking friend to ask what "Guero" means. It's not nice, it's the Spanish equvalent of "whitey" and is pronounced "where-o".

Well isn't that special. The attorney calling the Border Patrol racist just called everyone who is not Latino "whitey".

Some of the press on hand, including KFI's Steve Gregory, asked Carrillo for proof the Border Patrol and ICE were using racial profiling. Carrillo could provide none, instead shouting back:

The Border Patrol and ICE what they do is give people with white skin and blue eyes like you a free pass.

There he goes again.

Any proof in say, the past 10 years? Carrillo claimed there is none because Washington is covering it up.

Carrillo went on about how the Border Patrol and ICE violated these peoples 4th Amendment rights and how he wants an independant investigation.

Luis Carrillo has a history of crying foul regarding law enforcement. Last July 19-month-old Susie Lopez Pena was accidentally killed when her coke-head illegal alien father Jose Raul Pena used her as a human shield after shooting up a neighborhood in Los Angeles. He wanted an independant investigation then too. He should have asked why a once deported illegal alien from El Salvador was back here to cause the death of his innocent toddler daughter.

It's a geographical fact of life that the millions of illegal aliens flooding over the border with Mexico are not from China or Sweden, they are indeed from Mexico, Central and South America. Perhaps it would be best if Mr. Carrillo took a look at a map before he shouted racism.

Union Pacific still jerking Riverside commuters around

2006-05-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

We all get stopped at railroad crossings. The lights start flashing, the gates come down and we grip our steering wheels just a bit tighter hoping the mega-ton behemoth flying by does not de-rail and take us out with it.

It happens all the time and is usually over in just a couple of minutes.

But not in Riverside.

Anyone who travels on Magnolia between Central and Jurupa knows what I am talking about. There the lights start flashing, the gates come down and instead of passing by the train grinds to a halt, sometimes for hours.

What's the story behind the delays? Send the kids out of the room because you may feel like smacking someone.

I assumed, quite incorrectly, that the train was loading or unloading at a local business. I could not have been more wrong.

The train often stops because the screwheaded schedulers at Union Pacific can't figure out how to avoid having 2 trains in the area at the same time so one has to stop. Brilliant.

It turns out that the more egregious reason thousands gets stuck behind this mess is because the train engineer's shift is over.

Yep, it's quitting time folks. And if you are an engineer for Union Pacific it means it's time to stop the train, kick up your heels and laugh at all the working stiffs sitting there trying to get home to their families while you wait for your union replacement to arrive.

Either these union dolts don't have the brain power to realise the impact they are having or they flat out don't care. Pick one, I don't care which.

City of Riverside Councilman and candidate for the 66th Assembly District Steve Adams is furious and rightfully so. People get just a bit frustrated after waiting for hours and start climbing over the train to get to the other side. Adams is threatening Union Pacific with legal action if anyone is injured as a result of Union Pacific's actions.

The city is supposed to meet with UP reps in about a month. Any changes will take longer than that. Until then, Riverside commuters will do what they have had to do for years, wait.

KCAL Video

A Sign of the Times

2006-05-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

As you drive across this still great nation you can't help but notice all the signs. As the song goes, sign, sign, everywhere a sign.

In particular, depending on the area you are travelling in, you will see signs warning you to be on the look out for local critters crossing the road. Ask any Coloradoan about a late night encounter with a deer at high speed and they will tell you it's something to avoid.

You may be familiar with some of these road signs.

A buffalo crossing sign in Alaska

A deer crossing sign like you will find in Colorado or Idaho

A moose crossing sign in Maine

You may not be familiar with this sign from Southern California.

Illegal alien crossing sign in California

Now those of you are are not from the area may think this is a joke, that it's something someone whipped up on their computer.

Let me assure you, these signs are real in Southern California.

If the Senate and the open-borders lobby has their way, you may see signs like this pop up in your state too.

Update: Michelle Malkin has another sad sign of the times, check it out.

"I say what everybody's thinking but is afraid to say"

2006-05-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

Everyone who loves cheesesteaks knows that Geno's in Philly is the best, period. It seems that a sign in the window of Geno's drew the attention of the Philly Inquirer. The sign simply says, without excuses, that this is America and when ordering "Speak English".

Joey Vento is the owner of Geno's and the grandson of Italian immigrants. He put the sign up 6 months ago when the illegal immigration debate heated up.

The article has a clear open-borders slant but Joey makes no apologies and does not back down.

How do you say cheesesteak with in Spanish?

Joseph Vento, the owner of Geno's Steaks, doesn't know. And he doesn't care.

Just read the laminated signs, festooned with American eagles, at his South Philadelphia cheesesteak emporium: This is America. When Ordering, Speak English.

Vento's political statement - from a man whose Italian-born grandparents spoke only broken English - captures the anger and discontent felt by many Americans about illegal immigrants.

With a battle looming between the House and Senate on legalizing some immigration violators, the public backlash is framed by two complaints:

One, my grandparents came legally. How come these guys can't? And, two, my grandparents had to learn English. How come these guys don't?

"Go back to the 19th century, and play by those rules," said Vento, 66, whose grandfather became a U.S. citizen in 1921.

Joseph Vento's grandfather and namesake, a street-corner jeweler from Sicily, had trouble with English.

"They tried," Vento said of his grandparents. "They had a hard time. Look at the price they paid. They were limited."

The Ventos rarely left their South Philadelphia neighborhood. Now, in a way, the neighborhood has left the couple's descendants. Geno's sits at Ninth and Passyunk, the hub of Little Italy turned home to thousands of Mexicans.

Some try to order a cheesesteak. And it bugs Vento if they can't ask for American cheese, provolone or the classic - Cheez Whiz - without pointing.

"If you can't tell me what you want, I can't serve you," he said. "It's up to you. If you can't read, if you can't say the word cheese, how can I communicate with you - and why should I have to bend?

"I got a business to run."

Vento, who lives in Shamong, put up the signs when the immigration debate seized national headlines six months ago.

With Geno's Steaks tattooed on his arm, Vento is used to publicizing things, especially what's on his mind. Speak English signs also poster his Hummer. He has driven through South Philadelphia blaring through the SUV's P.A. system denunciations of neighborhood business owners who hire illegal immigrants.

"I say what everybody's thinking but is afraid to say," Vento said.

Vento is lashing out at that self-assertion by immigrants: "I don't want somebody coming here to change my culture to their culture," he said.

"They want us to adapt to these people. What do you mean, 'Press 1 for Spanish'? English, period. Case closed. End of discussion. You better make it the official language."

Nod to Michelle

Catfight erupts in beauty salon over English

2006-05-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Woman has the guts to say what many won't:

Fake nails and women's shoes were flying as a bloody claw fight erupted at a Dorchester salon after one primping patron allegedly screamed at a woman bantering in Spanish, "Speak English! This is America!"

Just minutes after the melee broke out at Kathy's Nail Design at 261 Bowdoin St., it escalated to the point of a 911 call.

A cop who arrived to break the fracas up got angry red scratches on his neck and arm for his trouble. They were left by a woman who'd just spent $40 for French manicure nail tips, said the shop's owner, David Win.

"Ten years in this country, I never seen anything like this. The lady says 'Speak English, I don't want to hear Spanish!' and big fight happens," Win told the Herald last night. "There was blood in here and everything. There were a lot of customers in here. It (was) crazy."

Nod to Michelle

Just a little reminder

2006-05-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

There are some real crazies in the world that would like nothing better than to blow you up.

What could prompt such hatred? Why cartoons of course.

My personal favorite.

The Senate does not want to secure the borders and wants to give amnesty to millions of people who are here illegally.

Go figure.

Are illegal aliens the same as 'speeders'?

2006-05-26T17:44:00.002-07:00

From the Examiner:

The White House on Friday said a Senate bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants is analogous to a traffic law that allows a speeder to pay a fine and continue driving.

"If you had a traffic ticket and you paid it, you're not forever a speeder, are you?" White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in response to questions from The Examiner.

That's a curious analogy to say the least.

'Speeders', unlike illegal aliens, are revenue generators. Does anyone really think towns would set up speed traps if it cost them money? The tiny little village of New Rome, Ohio makes up to $400,000 a year on traffic tickets alone!

Since Vicente Fox took office 6 years ago the illegal alien invasion has cost the State of California roughly $60 billion.

Are they going to pay that back? Of course not.

Are you ready for the 'Amero'?

2006-05-26T15:51:00.001-07:00

It's like 'dinero' and is sure to drive gas station attendants and 7-Eleven cashiers absolutely nuts.

From Human Events Online:

The idea to form the North American Union as a super-NAFTA knitting together Canada, the United States and Mexico into a super-regional political and economic entity was a key agreement resulting from the March 2005 meeting held at Baylor University in Waco, Tex., between President Bush, President Fox and Prime Minister Martin.

The North American Union is envisioned to create a super-regional political authority that could override the sovereignty of the United States on immigration policy and trade issues. In his June 2005 testimony to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robert Pastor, the Director of the Center for North American Studies at American University, stated clearly the view that the North American Union would need a super-regional governance board to make sure the United States does not dominate the proposed North American Union once it is formed.

Pastor's 2001 book "Toward a North American Community" called for the creation of a North American Union that would perfect the defects Pastor believes limit the progress of the European Union. Much of Pastor?s thinking appears aimed at limiting the power and sovereignty of the United States as we enter this new super-regional entity. Pastor has also called for the creation of a new currency which he has coined the "Amero," a currency that is proposed to replace the U.S. dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Mexican peso.

House may stand firm for border security

2006-05-26T15:29:00.002-07:00

John Keely from the Center for Immigration Studies was on the John and Ken Show today.

Keely said that moderate to liberal Republicans are hearing nothing but outrage from their constituents since the open borders minority marched in the streets.

Keely is hopeful the House will insist on border security first.

His optimism is based on Bush's Nixon-level approval ratings, the fact that 80% of Americans want the border secured and that House members are up for re-election this November.

He is also hearing House members claim that, unlike the Senate, no bill is better than a bad bill.

California Legislators being forced to meet with President Fox

2006-05-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

The California Assembly Rules Committee is requiring all members to be present when President Fox addresses the Joint Session of the Legislature at 4:30 p.m. today.

Missing the session without permission could subject officials to reprimand by majority leaders.

Assemblywoman Sharon Runner (R-Lancaster) plans on missing the meeting.

"This is one of those issues I feel that passionate about," said Runner . "I do not want to give credibility to the liberal majority's acceptance of illegal immigration and Mexico's official policies urging its citizens to break the law and come to the United States illegally."

Assemblyman Russ Bogh (R-Beaumont) has signed a letter to Vicente Fox urging him to respect our sovereign laws and right to protect our borders.

Update:

From the O.C. Register:

SACRAMENTO - Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R - Irvine) said he is refusing to attend Mexican President Vicente Fox's speech before the California Legislature today in protest against Fox's criticism of U.S. immigration overhaul.

"I don't appreciate, as an elected official and as an American, a foreign national telling us what to do with our laws,"

Also planning not to attend are Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R - Temecula) and Senator Tom McClintock (R - Thousand Oaks)

Senate Sells Out America, Passes Amnesty for Millions of Illegal Aliens

2006-05-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

It's up to you to remember in November!

Reuters:

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed an immigration overhaul that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens as backers braced for a bruising battle with the House of Representatives.

A majority of the 100-member Senate voted for the bill that couples border security and enforcement with a guest worker program and a plan that would put most of the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants on a path to U.S. citizenship.

Someone get John McCain a television:

"Why not say to those undocumented workers who are working the jobs that the rest of us refuse, come out from the shadows," said Arizona Republican John McCain, a key architect of the bill.

Michelle Malkin is not very happy:

How perfectly symbolic that they'd pass this bill on a day when Vicente Fox is in the United States. He's set to address the California legislature at 4:30 PST and then head off to a state dinner being given in his honor by Schwarzenegger. At least one state assemblyman won't be attending either function. Meanwhile, Expose the Left has audio of Rush Limbaugh raking Tony Snow over the coals this afternoon on immigration.

Republicans and Democrats teaming up to cover their collective butts

2006-05-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

Congress must think they are above the law and that their poo doesn't stink. Well it does, the stench goes from coast to coast and explains why their approval ratings are in the proverbial toilet.

Bush Orders FBI Office Raid Documents Sealed:

President Bush stepped into the Justice Department's constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a lawmaker's office be sealed for 45 days.
The president directed that no one involved in the investigation have access to the documents taken last weekend from the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., and that they remain in the custody of the Justice Department's solicitor general.

The GOP leader wants the Supreme Court to review the FBI raid:

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Tuesday the Supreme Court will probably have to sort out the issues raised by the unprecedented FBI raid on the Rayburn Building office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.

"I've got to believe at the end of the day this is going to end up across the street at the Supreme Court," Boehner said. "I don't see anything short of it."

Boehner told reporters Tuesday that he supports the position of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., regarding the constitutional questions stirred up by the raid, CongressDaily reported.

"I, clearly, had serious concerns about what happened and whether people at the Justice Department have looked at the Constitution lately," Boehner said, adding that he was "throttling himself back" at the advice of his staff to temper his comments on the issue.

The Washington Post on the corruption probe:

Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), the target of a 14-month public corruption probe, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from a Northern Virginia investor who was wearing an FBI wire, according to a search warrant affidavit released yesterday.

A few days later, on Aug. 3, 2005, FBI agents raided Jefferson's home in Northeast Washington and found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers, the document said.

Michelle Malkin Vents

Top 10 Reasons to Oppose the Senate Amnesty Bill

2006-05-25T11:08:00.001-07:00

From Senator Jim DeMint:

1. Rewards Illegal Behavior with Clear Path to Citizenship and Voting Rights ? Amnesty

As noted by former Attorney General Ed Meese in the New York Times on May 24, 2006: "Like the amnesty bill of 1986, the current Senate proposal would place those who have resided illegally in the United States on a path to citizenship, provided they meet a similar set of conditions and pay a fine and back taxes. The illegal immigrant does not go to the back of the line but gets immediate legalized status, while law-abiding applicants wait in their home countries for years to even get here. And that's the line that counts. In the end, slight differences in process do not change the overriding fact that the 1986 law and today's bill are both amnesties."

2. Creates Temporary Worker Program That is Neither Temporary Nor Work-Based

The bill's guest worker program would allow millions of illegal immigrants to qualify for permanent green cards within four years. Additionally, the Senate approved Senator Kennedy's amendment that each year would allow up to 200,000 immigrants who cross the border illegally and work just 6 days a year (including self employment) to qualify for a permanent green card.

3. Unprecedented Wave of Immigrants - 66 Million Over 20 Years

This bill is estimated to skyrocket the number of immigrants, from its current level of 19 million over the next 20 years, to an unprecedented number. Heritage Foundation: "...[O]ur estimate of the number of legal immigrants who would enter the country or would gain legal status under S. 2611 ... [would be] 66 million over the next 20 years."

4. Insufficient Border Security

The Senate rejected an amendment by Senator Isakson that would have prohibited the implementation of any guest worker program that grants legal status to those who have entered the country illegally until the Secretary of Homeland Security has certified to the President and to the Congress that the border security provisions in the immigration legislation are fully funded and operational.

While the Senate adopted Senator Sessions' amendment to increase "real fencing" by 370 miles and add 500 miles of vehicle barriers, the House passed a bill requiring at least 700 miles of "real fencing", a more likely needed amount to secure the 2,000 mile long border.

5. Terrorist Loophole Disarms Law Enforcement

Heritage Foundation reported May 24, 2006: "The Senate's immigration reform proposal ... would restrict local police to arresting aliens for criminal violations of immigration law only, not civil violations. The results would be disastrous. All of the hijackers on (9-11) who committed immigration violations committed civil violations. Under the bill, police officers would have no power to arrest such terrorists."

6. Social Security Benefits, Tax Credits for Illegal Work

The Senate rejected Senator Ensign's amendment that would have prevented Social Security benefits from being awarded to immigrants for time that they worked illegally in the United States. If the immigration compromise bill before the Senate were enacted into law, an estimated 12 million illegal workers would be able to use their past illegal work to qualify for Social Security benefits.

Provisions in S. 2611 would require newly legalized immigrants to file tax returns for work they performed while in the U.S. illegally. And while some would be required to pay back taxes, many others could qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which has a maximum payout of $4,400 per year.

7. Costs Over $50 Billion A Year to Federal Government; States Foot The Bill for Immigrant Health Care

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation described the bill as a "fiscal catastrophe," and has said the measure would prove to be the largest expansion of government welfare in 35 years. According to Rector, the bill would increase long-term federal spending by at least $50 billion a year.

The Senate bill does not reimburse state and local governments for health care and education costs related to the millions of undocumented immigrants. While the underlying bill creates a state impact assistance account for future temporary workers, it is an unfunded account.

8. Hurts Small Business

The Senate approved an amendment by Senator Obama extending Davis-Bacon "prevailing wage" provisions for guest workers, but not American citizens, in all occupations covered by Davis-Bacon (currently limited to federally paid work). Small businesses would be forced to pay inflated wages to guest workers above the pay American citizens receive for performing the same work.

9. Gives Some Immigrant Workers Greater Job Protection Than American Workers

As reported by Robert Novak of Chicago Sun Times on May 24, 2006: "The bill supposedly would protect American workers by ensuring that new immigrants would not take away jobs. However, the bill's definition of 'United States worker' includes temporary foreign guest workers, so the protection is meaningless... Foreign guest farm workers, admitted under the bill, cannot be ?terminated from employment by any employer ... except for just cause.' In contrast, American ag workers can be fired for any reason."

10. Weak Assimilation/English Requirements

The Senate approved Senator Inhofe's amendment to make English the national language and require those seeking citizenship to demonstrate English proficiency and understanding of U.S. History. However, a far weaker amendment by Sen. Salazar gutted the Inhofe amendment, leaving it in doubt, and also giving immigrants the right to demand the federal government communicate with them in any language they choose.

California's 'Dirty Car' bill won't hurt California lawmakers

2006-05-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

California's mostly socialist state assembly has another brilliant idea; buy the kind of car we want you to drive or else.

Else what you ask? How about a $2,500 penalty. Yep, now you got it, you buy a new car the socialist don't like and you're gonna pay for it.

Assembly Bill 2791, introduced by Assemblyman Ira Ruskin (D), would require car dealers to charge new car buyers up to an additional $2,500 if the vehicle they purchase is considered by the State of California to not qualify as a 'low emissions' vehicle.

Then, like the good socialist that they are, they are going to give the money they took from you to someone else. In this case, someone who bought what they determine to be a 'low emissions' vehicle.

But wait, it gets better. AB 2791 has some, shall we say, interesting 'exemptions':

The following motor vehicles shall be exempt from any surcharges:
(1) Motor vehicles purchased by small businesses for work-related purposes.
(2) Motor vehicles purchased by the state for use in official state business.
(3) Emergency vehicles purchased by a local agency.
(4) Paratransit and other motor vehicles designed or modified specifically for the purpose of transporting disabled persons.
(5) Motor vehicles purchased by low-income residents of the state, to be defined by the state board in regulations adopted pursuant to this article.

So if you buy an SUV you have to pay a $2,500 penalty. But if the State of California buys the exact same vehicle, they don't have to pay the penalty. They seem to think their green house gases don't stink.

Of course this will have little impact on the very lawmakers who want to bend you to their will. You see they get $400 each month to pay for their vehicle and this is in addition to their $138 daily living expense which is in addition to their $110,880 annual salary, the highest in the nation.

And don't you find it just a bit ironic that after decades of trying to force Californian's to carpool the legislature now wants to penalise you for buying the very type of vehicle that actually allows you to carpool in the first place?

Don't feel sorry for Mexico's problems

2006-05-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

George Grayson, a professor at The College of William and Mary, was on with Lou Dobbs tonight to talk about his article "Mexico's Shame" on the eve of Fox's visit to the U.S..

Here are some of the observations Grayson has made about Mexico:

Mexico, the world's 14th-largest economy, boasts wealth that would have made 19th century maharajahs green with envy. Abounding in that cornucopia-shaped nation is oil, natural gas, gold, silver, copper, beaches, mountains, ports, fishing resources, ancient treasures, incomparable art, world-class museums, and a large population of the world's most hard-working people.

If Taiwan or Singapore could lease Mexico for 20 years, gringos would be whining about the "colossus of the South" and hustling to take advantage of the ancient Aztec nation's surging growth.

Mexico is not some vast wasteland with nothing to offer it's citizens. The only thing keeping Mexico from being a gem in the modern world is Mexico itself.

Taxes: When revenues from state oil and electricity companies are excluded, Mexico's federal government collects taxes equal to only 10 to 12 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) - slightly higher than Haiti, a socio-economic basket case, and far below Brazil's 36 percent. Not only is the collection rate absurd, but the tax system is riddled with loopholes and exemptions, giving rise to widespread evasion.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center the total remittance flow from the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean could come close to $30 billion this year. About $10 billion of that goes to Mexico. Instead of creating a functional tax system Mexico depends on its citizens living in the United States. That's one more reason why President Fox wants open borders, because the money only flows one way, his way.

Education: Low taxes explain why Mexico devoted only 5.3 percent of GDP to education in 2002, the last year in which the World Bank did a comparative analysis. The country fell behind Guatemala (9.01 percent), Cuba (9 percent), Barbados (7.61 percent), Honduras (7.22 percent), Bolivia (6.31 percent) and the Dominican Republic (5.82 percent). Mexico's middle class has abandoned public schools because they are controlled by the potent SNTE union. Its boss plays a key role in the assignment of teachers, promotions, access to housing and other perks, and the appointment of school inspectors. Concepts of merit evaluations and accountability are anathema to the SNTE's deeply entrenched leadership.

Health Care: Anemic federal outlays mean that Mexico earmarked only 6.10 percent of its GDP for health care in 2002 ? a percentage below such countries as El Salvador (8 percent), Nicaragua (7.9 percent), Haiti (7.6 percent) and Cuba (7.5 percent). The problem is not only the low expenditure on the well-being of Mexican citizens, but the crazy-quilt of publicly subsidized providers, many of which will face bankruptcy in a few years.

What are the two main reasons pregnant Mexican women run across the border? Healthcare and education.

Professor Grayson concludes by saying:

Pro-immigrant organizations will meet in June to consider more mass protests. If they really want to focus on the cause of illegal immigration, they should expose the hypocrisy of Mexico's political elite, which expects its northern neighbor to shoulder burdens that Mexico's powerful shirk.

As the good Professor told Lou Dobbs, we need to stop patronizing Mexico and stop buying into their victimization arguments.

Pre-school for all? Just say No to Meatheads Prop 82

2006-05-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

Rob Reiner, the film director and actor who played Meathead on All in the Family, has never seen a tax or cheeseburger he didn't like.

Reiner is quite the socialist and must consider himself as some sort of modern day Robin Hood, you know, take from the 'haves' and give to the 'have nots', although it's doubtful he could squeeze his considerable girth into Robin's tights.

His latest make-himself-feel-good scheme, Proposition 82, would raise millions in taxes so he can give out 'free' pre-school for all.

Yep, California already spends over $50 billion each year to educate about 6 million K-12 students yet it lags behind most of the nation on almost every objective measurement of student achievement, funding, teacher qualifications and school facilities.

The end result? 10% of California high school seniors can't pass an 8th grade test. Now Reiner wants to throw 4 year olds into this mess. Any decent society would consider that child abuse.

Reiner found himself in just a bit of hot water recently over Prop 82 and had to resign from his First 5 commision. It seems he took $23 million from First 5, which took the money from tax payers in the first place, to advertise for Proposition 82, which wants to take more tax money from California residents. At the rate Reiner is going he may become the worlds first perpetual motion tax machine.

The truth is, every parent who wants to send their child to pre-school already can. Those who chose to do so pay for it. Those who cannot afford it have the federally funded Head Start program to pay for it for them.

An analysis by former legislative analyst Bill Hamm shows Prop. 82 would erode general fund revenues by more than $4 Billion in the first five years:

Based on well-established economic modeling, we estimate that Proposition 82 would reduce General Fund revenues by billions of dollars during its first several years, with the amount of the revenue loss increasing over time.

The Press-Enterprise weighs in:

California has enough fiscal strife without creating a new, multibillion-dollar-a-year universal preschool entitlement. We recommend voting no on Prop. 82 on the June 6 ballot.

From the Desert Dispatch:

Reality seems to be settling in about Proposition 82, the June ballot measure sponsored by actor/director Rob Reiner. It would raise taxes on high-income Californians $2.4 billion a year to pay for universal preschool programs.

As this initiative's defects become better known, we hope it continues to drop in the polls and is defeated on June 6.

So who is for Proposition 82? The teachers union, of course. Anything that will swell their ranks and add to their tax payer funded war chest is alright by them.

Face it, if Reiner had his way babies would be ripped from their mother's wombs and indoctrinated into the defuct public school system at age zero. After all, Reiner and the government know how to raise your children better than you do, right?

The U.S. could learn a thing or two from Mexico

2006-05-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

Dr. J. Michael Waller, a professor at the Institute of World Politics, has written a paper on how the Mexican constitution treats foreign residents, workers and even naturalized citizens.

Dr. Waller says, and rightfully so, that every country has the right - and duty - to restrict the quality and quantity of foreign immigrants entering or living within its borders.

He suggests, somewhat in jest, that if American policymakers are looking for legal models on which to base new laws restricting immigration and expelling foreign lawbreakers, they have a handy guide: the Mexican constitution.[1]

In brief, the Mexican Constitution states that:

* Immigrants and foreign visitors are banned from public political discourse.
* Immigrants and foreigners are denied certain basic property rights.
* Immigrants are denied equal employment rights.
* Immigrants and naturalized citizens will never be treated as real Mexican citizens.
* Immigrants and naturalized citizens are not to be trusted in public service.
* Immigrants and naturalized citizens may never become members of the clergy.
* Private citizens may make citizens arrests of lawbreakers (i.e., illegal immigrants) and hand them to the authorities.
* Immigrants may be expelled from Mexico for any reason and without due process.

The Mexican constitution: Unfriendly to immigrants

Mexico's constitution expressly forbids non-citizens to participate in the country's political life. Non-citizens are forbidden to participate in demonstrations or express opinions in public about domestic politics. Article 9 states, "only citizens of the Republic may do so to take part in the political affairs of the country." Article 33 is unambiguous: "Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country."

So 'non-citizens' aka illegal aliens in Mexico are not allowed to march in the streets and demand amensty?

The Mexican constitution denies fundamental property rights to foreigners. If foreigners wish to have certain property rights, they must renounce the protection of their own governments or risk confiscation. Foreigners are forbidden to own land in Mexico within 100 kilometers of land borders or within 50 kilometers of the coast. Article 27 states,

"Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and Mexican companies have the right to acquire ownership of lands, waters, and their appurtenances, or to obtain concessions for the exploitation of mines or of waters. The State may grant the same right to foreigners, provided they agree before the Ministry of Foreign Relations to consider themselves as nationals in respect to such property, and bind themselves not to invoke the protection of their governments in matters relating thereunto; under penalty, in case of noncompliance with this agreement, of forfeiture of the property acquired to the Nation. Under no circumstances may foreigners acquire direct ownership of lands or waters within a zone of one hundred kilometers along the frontiers and of fifty kilometers along the shores of the country." (Emphasis added)

Yep it's true, just ask the hundreds of Americans living in Mexico who were evicted and had their property seized.

The Mexican constitution denies equal employment rights to immigrants, even legal ones, in the public sector. Article 32: "Mexicans shall have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable. In time of peace no foreigner can serve in the Army nor in the police or public security forces."

Mexican citizens go to the head of the Mexican job line, what a concept.

The Mexican constitution guarantees that immigrants will never be treated as real Mexican citizens, even if they are legally naturalized. Article 32 bans foreigners, immigrants, and even naturalized citizens of Mexico from serving as military officers, Mexican-flagged ship and airline crew, and chiefs of seaports and airports:

"In order to belong to the National Navy or the Air Force, and to discharge any office or commission, it is required to be a Mexican by birth. This same status is indispensable for captains, pilots, masters, engineers, mechanics, and in general, for all personnel of the crew of any vessel or airship protected by the Mexican merchant flag or insignia. It is also necessary to be Mexican by birth to discharge the position of captain of the port and all services of practique and airport commandant, as well as all functions of customs agent in the Republic."

An immigrant who becomes a naturalized Mexican citizen can be stripped of his Mexican citizenship if he lives again in the country of his origin for more than five years, under Article 37. Mexican-born citizens risk no such loss.

Foreign-born, naturalized Mexican citizens may not become federal lawmakers (Article 55), cabinet secretaries (Article 91) or supreme court justices (Article 95). The president of Mexico, like the president of the United States, constitutionally must be a citizen by birth, but Article 82 of the Mexican constitution mandates that the president's parents also be Mexican-born citizens, thus according secondary status to Mexican-born citizens born of immigrants.

If Arnold had immigrated to Mexico he would still be pumping iron in Tijuana.

The Mexican constitution forbids immigrants and naturalized citizens to become members of the clergy. Article 130 says, "To practice the ministry of any denomination in the United Mexican States it is necessary to be a Mexican by birth."

This may be an excellent idea as it prevents Cardinal Mahony from transferring child molesting priests to Mexico.

The Mexican constitution provides the right of private individuals to make citizen's arrests. Article 16 states, "in cases of flagrante delicto, any person may arrest the offender and his accomplices, turning them over without delay to the nearest authorities." Therefore, the Mexican constitution appears to grant Mexican citizens the right to arrest illegal aliens and hand them over to police for prosecution.

Wow, and Mexico has the stones to complaign about the Minutemen, go figure.

The Mexican constitution states that foreigners may be expelled for any reason and without due process. According to Article 33, "the Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action."

While the U.S. has a hard time 'expelling' illegal alien criminals Mexico has no such problem. Criminal or not, if you are in Mexico illegaly it's "adios muchacho" for you.

El Presidente Fox will be in the U.S. next week pushing for us to take care of more his country's poor. Dr. Waller has some suggestions.

1. Mexico should amend its constitution to guarantee immigrants to Mexico the same rights it demands the United States give to immigrants from Mexico; or

2. The United States should impose the same restrictions on Mexican immigrants that Mexico imposes on American immigrants.

Dr. Waller continues:

These options are only notional, of course. They are intended only to help push the immigration debate in a more sensible direction. They simply illustrate the hypocrisy of the Mexican government's current immigration demands on the United States - as well as the emptiness of most Democrat and Republican proposals for immigration reform.

Mexico, like the United States, certainly has every right to control who enters its borders, and to expel foreigners who break its laws. The Mexican constitution is designed to give the strongest protections possible to the country's national security. Mexico's internal immigration policy is Mexico's business.

However, since Mexican political leaders from the ruling party and the opposition have been demanding that the United States ignore, alter or abolish its own immigration laws, they have opened their own internal affairs to American scrutiny. The time has come to examine Mexico's own glass house.

The next time you hear Mexico trying to dictate American immigration policy, keep close in mind how Mexico treats its own immigrants.

Voting in Riverside County still troubled

2006-05-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

Afters years of lawsuits and scathing reports, one would think that the County of Riverside would strive to have fair, honest and open elections. Nope.

The North County Times reports:

Riverside County elections officials say they will not post tallies of the votes cast at individual precincts until several weeks after the June 6 primary elections, a departure from state regulations that has become common in recent years but which nonetheless provokes dismay among election watchdogs.

It continues:

This week, Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore said she will ask the Secretary of State's office for a waiver exempting the county from the requirement in the primary, although she also said the county may comply with the requirement in the November general election.

The requirement in question is Section 19384 of the state elections code. It requires each precinct to post its own results. This makes it easier to spot any 'irregularities' when all of the individual precincts are added to the County total.

According to the North County Times Dunsmore claims that she does not want to post the results of the voting at the polling places because of 'privacy concerns'. Yep, her theory is if only one person votes at a polling place, and the results of all the votes cast there (in this case, one) are posted, people could know how that one person voted. Oh the horror.

Dunsmore also told the NC Times she fears that requiring each polling place to use calculators to add up the votes would result in mass chaos and disgruntled poll workers. Makes you wonder how they ever managed 200 years ago when all they had were the fingers on their hands and a feather dipped in ink.

Of course this has election watchdogs just a little bit upset, but that does not appear to phase Dunsmore. She seems to have little use for them, telling the North County Times that 45 polling places are private homes and convincing the home owner to let 'strangers' hang out would be a tough sell.

Well aren't most people coming to vote strangers, or does Dunsmore and her private-home-polling-places plan on only letting family and friends vote?

From the Valley News in October of 2005:

For the upcoming election, 2,260 machines will be used at 457 polling places. Dunmore said there have been no problems with the machines and each one undergoes testing to ensure votes will be recorded accurately.

Well they do say your memory is the first thing to go. Dunsmore apprently forgot about the March 2004 election debacle.

City Beat has it covered:

Elections can be brutal things, but shortly after the polls closed on the night of March 2, supporters of Linda Soubirous, an underdog candidate for the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, had reason to feel happy with her performance. She had gone up against three-time incumbent Bob Buster, in a county where incumbents rarely face serious competition. And she had given him a real run for his money, thanks largely to the support of law enforcement groups sympathetic to her nationally recognized campaigns on behalf of the families of police officers killed in the line of duty.

As the first official results came in, it looked as if the Soubirous campaign had forced Buster into a runoff, which was as much as she had hoped for. With 46 of the county's 157 precincts counted, Buster was running at about 47 per cent - three points below the 50 percent plus one he needed to win outright - with Soubirous at 37 percent and a third candidate, Kevin Pape, at 15. But then some very strange things started to happen.

The expectation was that the rest of the results would come in very quickly. Speed, after all, was one of the big attractions of Riverside's pioneering touchscreen computer voting system - with its instant precinct-by-precinct vote tallies and ostensibly easy-to-operate system for centralized results tabulation. But the anticipated rapid-fire updates simply failed to materialize. After the initial results posting at 8:13 p.m., there followed a long period of silence.

At around 8:50, Soubirous's campaign manager, Brian Floyd, received a call from an election observer in Temecula informing him that the vote count had been stopped - apparently by Registrar Mischelle Townsend herself. The reason was not made clear. So Floyd and another Soubirous campaigner named Art Cassel jumped into a car and drove to Townsend's office to investigate. Sure enough, the counting area appeared to be near-deserted. But then they noticed two men huddled at one of the vote tabulation computers.

One, according to their account, was typing away on the computer keyboard, while the other was standing just next to him.

The two men turned out to be employees of Sequoia Voting Systems, the private company which manufactures Riverside County's AVC Edge touchscreen machinery. Their presence was unusual, to say the least, and even the possibility that they might be making changes to the vote tabulation software in the middle of an election was alarming to Cassel and Floyd. Sequoia insists the two men's activities were entirely benign - merely generating lists of data to send to the Secretary of State's office in Sacramento that had nothing to do with the tabulation software. Soubirous's campaign staff has made no direct accusations, although it has strongly criticized the registrar's office for allowing at least an appearance of impropriety at a time when the sanctity of the electoral process should have been paramount. Cassel and Floyd said the man at the keyboard, a Sequoia vice president called Mike Frontera, was wearing a county employees' ID badge - something that has not been adequately explained by anyone. "What they were doing there we'll never know," Cassel said.

When Floyd confronted Registrar Townsend directly, she denied that the vote count had been halted. But at 9:10, according to Cassel's account, something seemed to have changed because county employees piled back into the counting area, and results from the outstanding precincts began to be posted shortly afterward. As the night went on, Buster's lead over Soubirous steadily lengthened until he finished up a slender 92 votes over the 50 percent threshold he needed to avoid a runoff.

Over the next few days, as the totals from absentee and mail-in ballots were added, the margin shrunk down to a tantalizing 45 votes. And that part of the count remains highly contentious, too. On March 4, Floyd and Cassel saw the second Sequoia employee, Eddie Campbell, return to the registrar's office and watched him pop into his pocket what looked like a PCMCIA card similar to those used to store votes on individual touchscreen machines. The Sequoia AVC Edge machines do not make a paper record of individual votes, and any record of total votes for a potential recount - vital in a race < separated only by 45 votes - would only be stored on that kind of card.

Floyd shouted out: "Where are you going with that?" But he received no answer.

Accompanied by different county employees, Campbell walked all the way to the vote tabulation terminals where, according to Cassel, he sat down at the same computer he and Frontera had used on election night. Cassel says he saw the head of the registrar's information technology department, Brian Foss, log Campbell on to the computer - presumably with his own password - and then leave the room. Campbell, now on his own, called up a screen that Cassel said he recognized as the WinEds tabulation software used on the Sequoia system.

What happened next is less than clear. According to Cassel, Campbell began moving from terminal to terminal - as though he was having difficulty being accepted by whatever system he was trying to enter. Floyd, meanwhile, was anxious for an explanation and tried to track down Mischelle Townsend. It took him all day to find her, and when he did she at first said that Eddie Campbell was not authorized to be in the system and then, in the presence of Brian Foss, changed her tune and said he was.

Naw, no problems there.

VerifiedVoting.org has the aftermath:

The case arises from a very close March 2004 race for the Riverside County Board of Supervisors in which the declared winner avoided a runoff by a mere 45 votes. California election law permits any voter to request and review "all relevant election materials" pertaining to a recount. Second-place candidate Linda Soubirous requested the materials that the Registrar and machine vendor Sequoia Voting Systems tout as the fundamental security features of the electronic voting system -- namely the audit logs, the redundant memory stored in the machines, the results of "logic and accuracy" tests, and the chain-of-custody records for the system components. Despite the clear mandate of California law, Registrar Townsend refused to grant Ms. Soubirous access to any of this material, arguing that it was not "relevant" to a recount.

"I was shocked when Riverside County election officials told me that access to the internal memories of the voting machines was not 'relevant' to a recount," said plaintiff Linda Soubirous, who ran in the nonpartisan election. "Of course the internal information is relevant -- without it, there's no way to determine whether the votes were recorded and counted properly inside the machine." Ms. Soubirous has not sought to challenge the election results in this action, but only to gain access to the election data from March and for future recounts.

Mischelle Townsend suddenly quit her job mid-term, claiming to have caught a case of the dreaded "I need to spend more time with my family" disease. No worries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assures me this only afflicts public officials in the mist of a scandal and that the rest of us are completely immune.

Curiously, Townsend is now listed as a Senior Associate for ForeFront Election Solutions, LLC.

And the saga continues...

A $34 an hour job American's won't do? Not quite.

2006-05-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

The LA Times has an article today titled, no kidding, "A Job Americans Won't Do, Even at $34 an Hour".

What kind of job that pays $34 an hour won't American's do?

Could it be scrubbing containment vessels of spent nuclear reactors? Nope.

How about volunteering for open brain surgery at the local community college? Not quite.

Man-eating lion tamer? Wrong again.

The job is, gasp, landscaping.

The LA Times interviewed Cyndi Smallwood, a small business woman who runs Diversified Landscape right here in Riverside.

According to the Times:

Cyndi Smallwood is looking for a few strong men for her landscaping company. Guys with no fear of a hot sun, who can shovel dirt all day long. She'll pay as much as $34 an hour.

She can't find them.

If anyone bothers to read past the headline and first paragraph they will learn that Cyndi already has 12 employees. She says all of her employees are legally allowed to work here.

So what is the problem?

The real problem appears to be Cyndi's preferred method of advertising her $34 an hour job American's won't do; word of mouth. I'm sure she is reaching a vast audience doing that.

Now you may be wondering why anyone would pay $34 an hour for landscaping. Well it's not up to Cyndi. You see she does contract work for the State of California and they set the pay rates.

This afternoon Cyndi was on the John and Ken Show. She told them that since the article appeared in the LA Times this morning she has received over 30 resumes. Yep, 30 resumes in just a few short hours for a job American's won't do. Cyndi may want to re-think her not-so-hi-tech word of mouth advertising campaign.

John and Ken took some calls from the audience. Cyndi, who seems like a nice lady, appeared to get flustered that everyone who called in wanted the job.

At one point she asked a caller why he had never stopped on the side of the road and asked how much the guys shoveling dirt were making.

Well who in their right mind would do that? I always assumed the guys in the bright orange vests on the side of the highway were prisoners on some sort of work release program. Walking up to them and asking "Hey, how much ya making diggin that there hole fella" would get you a fist in your face for your trouble. Seriously, who knew these guys were making $34 an hour? It makes you wonder how much the 5 Cal-Trans guys standing around watching the one Cal-Trans guy dig a hole are making. It also partially explains why California has a $100 billion plus budget.

If you are looking for work send Cyndi your resume. Her fax number is 951-734-6565

Update: Michelle Malkin is all over this story and points out:

But it turns out there's a tiny bit more to the story that the LA Times isn't telling you. Reader Christopher L. wrote this morning to point out that a simple Google search shows that Cyndi Smallwood is president of the Orange County chapter of the California Landscape Contractors Association, and is a member of the association's "Immigration Task Force." The activist group opposes the "Punitive Immigration Reform Bill Proposed by Rep. Sensenbrenner."

3-year-old illegal alien boy dies in desert

2006-05-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

This is really sad.

azstarnet.com has some details on this story.

An autopsy Tuesday revealed the boy died from exposure to the elements, otherwise known as hyperthermia, said Dr. Eric Peters, deputy chief medical examiner for Pima County.

Temperatures have reached the high-90s the past seven days.

Consulate officials say the woman told them her ill-fated journey to join her husband in the United States began in Sasabe, Mexico with a group led by a paid-guide, or coyote.

She and her son set off with the group on Thursday, May 11. They kept up with the group until Saturday when the coyote left them behind, Cardoso said.

So the coyotes, most likely Mexicans, left a 3-year-old Mexican boy to die in the desert.

The ACLU should leave the Minutemen alone go and after Mexico. Sue them for the boy, sue them for being so corrupt and inept that half of it's citizens want to come to the United States.

Bogh's parole home bill passes assembly

2006-05-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

As reported on Inside Riverside, Assemblyman Russ Bogh's bill (AB 2184) to give cities and counties some control over 'parolee homes' made it out of the assembly today.

Assemblyman Bogh said:

This bill will allow our cities to regulate those homes that the state has refused to take charge of. For too long the state has ignored the problems associated with parolee homes in our communities. The cities are willing and able to do the job that the state has refused to do and we ought to let them do it.

This is a huge problem and finally someone is trying to fix it. The state requires halfway homes / parolees home to be licensed by the state if they have more than 6 so called 'residents'. Cities and counties have no control over them

Halfway / parolee homes that have 6 or fewer 'residents' do not have to be licensed. Yep, anyone, even criminals, can decide to bring paroled high risk sex offenders into their home and there is no oversight by the state. The only thing the state does is pay them to do it!

Current law also prohibits counties and cities from any type of regulation of these halway / parolee homes.

The result has been a surge of these homes opening in communities throughout the state.

Assemblyman Bogh's bill will give some control to local authorities to deal with this issue. This is great news.

Now it has to get passed the Senate, keep your fingers crossed.

Report Exposes the Nutty Professor

2006-05-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

Ward Churchill, the screwhead 'ethics' professor at the University of Colorado who says that the innocent Americans killed in the 9/11 terrorists attacks had it coming, may finally get what's coming to him.

Churchill has a history of stealing others works and claiming it as his own.

In April of this year on the Hannity and Colmes cable show Churchill could not handle the tough questions and suddenly developed 'audio problems'.

The Investigative Committee of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct at the University of Colorado at Boulder just concluded an investigation into Churchill's misdeeds.

Michelle Malkin is all over it and has the report available.

ColoradoDaily.com writes:

A scathing 124-page report on the work of CU Professor Ward Churchill released Tuesday says the ethnic studies department professor should either be suspended or dismissed based on evidence that Churchill plagiarized, misrepresented or fabricated information in his scholarly work.

If there was ever an example of why tenure is bad, look no further than Ward Churchill.

If the University of Colorado has any guts they will kick this crud to the curb and let him try to earn a living making moccasins.

Changes coming....

2006-05-16T01:29:00.000-07:00

The news site is now Riverside Report

This blog will be, well, a blog called Inside Riverside and it will allow comments, woo-hoo :)

Alleged International Drug Smuggling Ring Leader Has Ties To Riverside Sex Offender Group Homes

2006-05-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

Ronald Joseph Samuel, 33, aka Ron Samuel, was named in a 5 count indictment yesterday.

An indictment is a formal charge made by a grand jury, a body of 16 to 23 citizens.

Samuel is the CEO, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, and Publisher of "UNleashed Magazine" and is one of eleven suspects facing charges in connection with a West Coast-based Ecstasy smuggling scheme uncovered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Samuel, who has been ordered held without bond, was arrested by ICE agents last week in Van Nuys. Samuel is suspected of overseeing the ring that used aspiring female models to smuggle hundreds of thousands of Ecstasy tablets from Europe into the United States in 2000 and 2001.

The charges include:

21 USC 963, 960(a), 960(b)(1)(G), 952: Conspiracy to Import MDMA
21 USC 846: Conspiracy to Distribute MDMA
21 USC 848(a): Continuing Criminal Enterprise
18 USC 1956: Conspiracy to Launder Monetary Instruments
21 USC 853: Criminal Forfeiture

MDMA is known as Ecstasy on the street.

Samuel is suspected of overseeing the ring that used aspiring female models to smuggle hundreds of thousands of Ecstasy tablets from Europe into the United States in 2000 and 2001.

According to the indictment, the female couriers made several trips every week to Brussels and Amsterdam where they were given gift-wrapped packages containing as many as 65,000 Ecstasy tablets to bring back to the United States. The ring's leaders reportedly told some of the couriers the parcels contained smuggled diamonds.

"Before our agents uncovered this scheme, these suspects were smuggling significant quantities of Ecstasy into the Los Angeles area," said Kevin Kozak, acting special agent in charge for the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles. "These pills sell on the street for as much as $60 a piece. That translates into huge profits that are often funneled back into further criminal activity. That is why ICE is determined to attack and dismantle these kinds of criminal enterprises."

The investigation began in 2001, when one of the ring?s couriers was intercepted at JFK airport in New York after arriving on a flight from Amsterdam. The ensuing investigation revealed that the ring was importing and distributing Ecstasy both in the Los Angeles area and in New York. ICE agents say the investigation is ongoing.

According to Samuel's bio on Unleashedmag.com, he moved back to the United States from Europe in 2001, the same year the first drug courier was arrested at JFK airport.

After his return to America Ron Samuel married to former Playboy model and actress on the soap Passions, Daphnee Duplaix Samuel, aka Daphnee Duplaix.

What has not been reported in the main stream media is Ron Samuel's connection with a series of group homes for sex offender and drug offender parolees in the Riverside area.

Last year a High Risk Sex Offender, David Allyn Dokich, was placed into a group home in the community of Mead Valley near Perris, CA.

The group home, called Last Chance Enlightenment, is one of a series of halfway houses operated by Harriet Cooks, aka Harriet Samuel Cooks.

Halfway House Operator Harriet Cooks

The placement of such a dangerous parolee prompted daily protests by concerned citizens.

On August 3rd, 2005, the John and Ken Show radio show on KFI 640 AM read parts of an article written in Unleashed Magazine about the protesters. Harriet Cooks is quoted as saying "They blocked my driveway, hit my car with a stick, and they're out her with their kids calling me nigger, bitch, whore!"

The following day one of the protesters contacted the show and informed them that the article was false and that the editor of Unleashed Magazine, Ron Samuel, is the son of Harriet Cooks. To their credit John and Ken set the record straight on the air. The fact that Cooks was the mother of the editor of the magazine was not disclosed in the article.

According to protesters Ron Samuel was spotted at the halfway house for parolees on numerous occasions.

The photos below show just such a visit on September 22, 2005. Ron Samuel only stayed at the halfway house for a few minutes.

A new BMW 750iL enters the sex offender halfway house on September 22, 2005

Ron Samuel, editor of Unleashed Magazine, is seen here in the passenger seat

Protesters have said they questioned the amount of vehicle traffic to the halfway house on Old Elsinore Rd, some of which has been tied to known drug users.

Ron Samuel is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Los Angeles.

The cover of Unleashed Magazine last year

van over pics

2006-05-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

Van with 11 seniors rolls over in Wildomar

2006-05-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

A van carrying 11 elderly passengers rolled over on the south bound I-15 near Bundy Canyon Rd. just after 8 am this morning.

All suffered minor to moderate injuries. One had to be helped from the vehicle by firefighters. They were transported by ground ambulance to local hospitals.

Iraqis think American comedy is serious police drama

2006-05-08T02:13:00.000-07:00

According the the New York Post, Comedy Central execs were shocked when they got a request from Iraqi troops for merchandise from the award winning show "Reno 911!".

Apparently the cop spoof is shown on an Arab station with Arab subtitles and the Iraqis believe it is a serious police drama.

It is not yet known if the Iraqi troops have seen Gomer Pyle or The Munsters.

Man Hits Bouncer With Car At Bar Near Hemet

2006-05-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday at about 11 pm, four Hispanic males attempted to enter Little Louie's Bar at the corner of New Chicago and Highway 74.

An argument ensued when one of the males could not produce any identification. The argument turned into a physical altercation between the bouncers and the four Hispanic males.

The suspects got into their vehicle at which point the bouncers attempted to stop them and surrounded their car. The driver of the vehicle, later identified as Marcelina Robles, 18 years of San Jacinto, accelerated his vehicle, striking one of the bouncers. The suspects then fled the location towards the Ramona Expressway.

Within a few minutes, CHP Officers spotted the suspect vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed on the Ramona Expressway. They conducted a traffic stop on the suspect vehicle near Soboba Street.

Two of the passengers ran from the car into a nearby residential tract. With the assistance of the sheriff's helicopter and nearby residents, deputies were able to locate one of the suspects hiding underneath a car. Taken into custody for the assault with a deadly weapon was; Marcelina Robles, 18 years, and Jesus Vargas 21 years, both of San Jacinto.

The suspect who ran from the vehicle, Carlos Suares, 24 years, had a felony warrant for a parole violation. All three suspects were booked at the Southwest Detention Center.

The fourth suspect was not found and is still outstanding. He was described as a Hispanic male, 20 years, medium build wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants.

The bouncer hit by the car suffered moderate injuries and was transported to the hospital.

Fugitive Sex Offender Found

2006-05-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

Sharp eyed Riverside County Sheriff's Deputies at the Hemet station noticed someone in the lobby acting suspiciously.

Robin David Hylton, age 44 and a resident of Washington, had driven a friend to the Hemet Station to fulfill a sex offender registration requirement. Hylton fled before he could be questioned.

Deputies began a routine check on Hylton and found he was wanted in the State of Washington for multiple counts of child rape. Hylton had a $100,000 felony warrant for his arrest.

Deputies began an exhaustive search of the Idyllwild wilderness area. After several hours, Hylton was found hiding in a remote logging campsite on the mountain side. He was taken into custody without incident.

Hylton was transported and booked at the Southwest Detention Center for the felony child rape warrant and will be awaiting extradition to the State of Washington.

The Real Price Gougers

2006-05-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

Do you want to reduce the price of gasoline by almost 60 cents a gallon immediately?

Get the real price gougers.

They take nearly 60 cents of every $3.00 gallon of gas. They should pay the windfall profits tax. They should be investigated. What are they doing with this money? How is it being spent? How are they ripping off the gasoline consumer?

They manipulate the market in oil. They withhold large amounts of the oil supply from the public, artificially reducing the supply so that the price of gasoline continually goes up. They prohibit the refining of oil, and, in fact, add useless, polluting chemicals to gasoline (claiming that it makes the air cleaner), which also artificially increases the price of gasoline. In fact, they profit from their activities at the expense of consumers everywhere. They gouge consumers, take home exorbitant salaries from their price gouging practices, and do absolutely nothing for the gas consuming public. They take the food from the table of the hardworking people of this state and country to satisfy their appetite for the big bucks they make from big oil.

How have these gougers avoided investigation so long? They blame others for the high price of gasoline. They use their public relations mechanisms to manipulate the press into shifting the blame from themselves to powerless scapegoats, and keep the flow of big bucks headed into their pockets from the pockets of working families.

Who are these gougers? They are the politicians and bureaucrats in the state and federal governments. Federal taxes take 18.4 cents of every gallon of gas. State gas tax is 18 cents a gallon. The state sales tax adds 22 cents to every $3.00 gallon of gas. Of course, the amount of sales tax goes up as the price of gas increases. Add these together, and the consumer pays 58.4 cents to the government for every $3.00 gallon of gas. These taxes don't include the income taxes paid by oil companies, which last year was over $108 billion to the federal government alone.

And what does the consumer get for this price gouging? Nothing. Government tells us they collect the tax to build roads and freeways, yet the freeways are overcrowded and the roads are crumbling. All the consumer gets is bigger government, and useless studies. Lots of government bureaucrats make six figure incomes from the gas tax to do absolutely nothing. Billions of dollars a year flow to these useless government executives and politicians, and they use these billions to line their own pockets and increase their power.

In addition, these same politicians purposefully place some oil of limits, artificially limiting the supply, increasing the price of gasoline, and shifting more of our national wealth to the terrorist nations in the Middle East. The United States has over 200 years of known oil reserves that no one can touch because the government won't let them. Add to this the fact that the government won't let anyone expand the refining capacity in this country, and mandates the inclusion of artificial chemicals to gasoline that can pollute our water, and the result is constantly-rising gas prices at the pump.

On average, only 30 cents of every gallon of gas flows to the oil companies, yet politicians, and their allies in the press, accuse oil executives of gouging consumers. One politician in Sacramento wanted to assess a windfall profits tax on these oil companies this week, claiming that oil companies were ripping off consumers. This same politician did not once mention that government makes double the amount that oil companies make off the same gallon of gas on sales and gas taxes alone. The press dutifully reported his scapegoat tactics, never once investigating him for his consumer rip off.

Don't be fooled by the rhetoric. The real price gouger in the oil industry is government.

John Wayne Leseberg image

2006-05-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

CHP image

2006-05-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

Riverside County Sheriff's deputy arrested, again

2006-05-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

Riverside County Sheriff's deputy John Wayne Leseberg, 42, has been arrested again.

Leseberg was first arrested on April 26 and charged with:

289(A)(1) - Sexual penatration with a foreign object against the victim's will

289(G) - Sexual penetration when the act is accomplished against the victim's will by threatening to use the authority of a public official to incarcerate, arrest, or deport the victim

243.4 - Sexual battery against a restrained person

149 - Assault under color of authority

Leseberg was released on $50,000 bail and placed on paid leave.

On Tuesday, May 2, 2006, a female informed the Riverside County Sheriff's Department that she had read the information in a previous press release issued by the Riverside County District's Attorney's Office about the arrest of John Wayne Leseberg. She reported to investigators that she was also a victim.

On Wednesday, May 03, 2006, at about 11:30 am, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department Southwest Station received a call from the same female. The female reported that Leseberg had arrived at her home.

Deputies responded to the location and arrested Leseberg again.

According to jail records Leseberg was booked into the Southwest Detention Center on suspicion of intimidating a witness, committing a felony while on bail, assault with intent to commit rape and elder abuse.

Investigators involved in this case asked the Court for a bail increase to $2,000,000.00. and the increase was granted.

Thomas Rivera Middle School Teacher Arrested For Sexual Relationship With Student

2006-05-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

Thomas Rivera Middle School math teacher Raymond Ricardo Fields, 27, was arrested today on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student over the past six months.

The childs parents apparently knew their daughter had a friendship with the teacher. However it appears they did not know the teacher would make arraingments to pick the 13-year-old up near her home in Mead Valley and take her to his home in Murrieta.

The parents learned something this week that prompted them to file a report with the police on May 2nd.

RSO spokesman Earl Quinata said Fields admitted to having a 'relationship' with the 13-year-old student. The so called 'relationship' started in October of 2005.

Students say the teacher was popular and very well liked.

gringo de mexico

2006-05-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

Meth Found in Vehicles at Pechanga Casino, again

2006-05-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

Riverside County Sheriff's Deputies conducted an investigation at the Pechanga Casino and Resort about illicit drugs possibly being used and sold on the property.

The investigation revealed the involvement of four suspects driving in two separate vehicles in possession of a relatively large quantity of methamphetamine (slightly less than 5 ounces) and drug paraphernalia used in the smoking of illicit drugs.

In addition, scales used to weigh the drugs for sales were found in the course of the vehicle searches.

The following suspects were arrested and ultimately booked at the Southwest Justice Center;

Jesus Morales (age 31) of Oceanside

Esteban Velasco (age 26) of Oceanside

Female Devon Hartman (age 27) of Bonsall

An additional subject named Alfonso Hernandez (age 31) also of Oceanside fled the scene on foot leaving his vehicle and identification behind and a warrant will be sought for his arrest by the court system. The two vehicles were towed and stored.

Head on collision on Ramona Expressway

2006-05-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

A Mercedes and Ford Taurus slammed head on this afternoon on the Ramona Expressway near Nuevo.

The driver of the Taurus suffered moderate injuries while the driver of the Mercedes suffered criticals injuries.

American flag being dragged through the streets of Santa Ana

2006-05-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

KFI reporter Jay Lawrence broke the news that illegal aliens were dragging the American flag through the streets of Santa Ana during the "Boycott America" protest.

A group of about 2 dozen Americans could be heard shouting "No Amnesty" at the protesters.

Wanted: Dane Michael Brueggeman

2006-05-01T00:46:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, April 25, 2006, about 3:26 PM, a Motor Cycle Officer from the Temecula Police Department stopped a 2004 Gray Infiniti on Calle Medusa and Riverton Lane regarding a traffic violation.

While talking to the driver, the driver put the car in gear and started to drive away at which time the Motor Officer's arm was struck by the car. The driver's actions caused a moderate injury to the officer's arm. The car continued driving away and drove out of sight of the officer.

Other officers responded to the area to search for the suspect's car, along with the Riverside County's Air Support Team. The suspect's vehicle was located a short distance away, and later one of the suspects was located hiding in the backyard of a residence. The other suspect was not located and was described as a white male adult, dressed in a dark baseball cap, a black t-shirt, and gray pants.

The injured officer was transported to a local hospital, treated for injuries and later released.

The suspect has been identified as Dane Michael Brueggeman, date of birth: 05/20/85, a white male adult, 5'11", 165 lbs, black hair, and blue eyes.

To date Brueggeman has no known home address and he has family living in the Menifee area.

Anyone with information regarding Dane Michael Brueggeman is encouraged to contact Investigator Yeo at the Temecula Police Department, (951) 696-3000. You can also call 911, or (951) 696-HELP.

Man rides quad into mine shaft near Good Hope

2006-04-29T23:33:00.000-07:00

A 26 year old man rode his quad into a 4' x 4' air shaft opening of an abandoned mine near Good Hope and fell over 40 feet.

18 firefighters were able to free the man after 7 hours. He was transported by Mercy Air to Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley, where he was treated for a broken right arm.

Minutemen volunteers start building fence in California

2006-04-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of Minutemen volunteers, including an 82 year old woman who came from Thousand Oaks, began building a six-foot barbed wire fence Saturday along a quarter-mile stretch of rugged terrain about 50 miles east of San Diego.

Tim Donnelly, California Director of the Minutemen Project, said "This is sending a message to Congress so they'll see on May 1, there are jobs that even illegal immigrants don't want to do, but Americans are more than willing to do them,"

Illegal immigrants and their supporters are expected to 'Boycott America' on Monday.

Volunteers ate apple pie and hot dogs as they worked on the fence, which was connected to an existing 12-foot high fence previously built by the federal government.

Child Fingerprinting Drive Coming to La Quinta

2006-04-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

Assemblyman Russ Bogh and Senator Jim Battin will be at the Desert Sampler with a mobile fingerprinting system available for all parents who wish to have their children fingerprinted.

The Desert Sampler is the largest local school fundraising event in the Coachella Valley, having raised over $1.5 million dollars in the last 13 years. Thirty of the desert's best restaurants are represented.

Tickets are $10 with all proceeds going directly to Coachella Valley participating schools.

WHEN: Tuesday May 2, 2006, 5PM - 7:30PM

WHERE: Old Town La Quinta, Calle Tampica at Desert Club Drive

Mexican lawmakers coming to meet with LA Mayor Antonio "We Clean Your Toilets" Reconquista-Villaraigosa

2006-04-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

In a move that should suprise absolutely no one, Mexican lawmakers said they will send a delegation to LA on Monday, 'Boygott America Day' to meet with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

In the past President Vicente Fox has said Mexico does not want to violate U.S. sovereignty while at the same time he has lobbied relentlessly for an open border to the United States and his military assists criminal illegal aliens and smugglers get across the border.

Now Fox is seizing the opportuniy to further his goal of exporting his country's poor to the United States and Mayor Villaraigosa, with ambitions to be Governor of California and the glint of millions of new potential voters in his eye, appears all to eager to comply.

Mexico, with the assistance of politicians like Mayor Villaraigosa, is well on its way to reconquering California and the American Southwest, one illegal alien at a time.

LA Teachers Union Supports Boycotting America

2006-04-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

United Teachers Los Angeles has posted an 'Advisory' for their members.

It begins by saying "UTLA has no official position regarding a May 1 boycott.".

But later in the advisory it says "UTLA has endorsed a gathering on May 1..".

The 'Advisory' directs member on how "avoid potential discipline" when they skip work to support the 'Boycott of America'.

UTLA also seems a bit confused on what to call Monday's activities, referring to it as a 'Boycott', a 'March', a 'Rally' and 'Immigrant rights mobilizations'.

Click here to read the advisory.

California Legislature Supports Illegal Aliens and 'Boycott America Day'

2006-04-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

May 1st has been declared by illegal alien supporters and the open borders crowd as 'Boycott America Day'. Well isn't that special. They want to boycott the very country that has allowed them for decades to escape the poverty and corruption of Mexico.

In a show of support the socialist dominated California Senate, in a 24-13 vote along party lines, endorsed the boycott of schools, jobs and stores by illegal aliens and their supporters. Democratic Senators such as Gloria Romero continually show support for child predators and sex offenders and now they have officially added their support for illegal aliens who violate federal law.

Not to be out done, the uber-liberal Democratic leaders who control the California Assembly have also decided to show their support for boycotting America, cancelling legislative sessions that day in support of illegal aliens. It should be noted that they declared Monday a "check-in" day so as not to forfeit their $459 tax-free per diem for the weekend and Monday. That's right, you get to pay them to take the day off to support the undermining of America.

Republican Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy reportedly said former members of the legislature were willing to fill in Monday and work for half price. However it may not be allowed as the Secretary of State considers them 'undocumented legislators'.

Is it any wonder why the legislature has a dismal 28% approval rating.

Air Show at March Field is this weekend

2006-04-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

The popular air show at March Field returns again this year.

'Thunder Over The Empire' is 2 days only, Saturday April 29th and Sunday April 30th.

Fan favorites this year include the USAF Thunderbirds, Robosaurus eating things, the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales and a race between a jet truck and a WWII era fighter plane.

Saturday only is a fly over by the newest air superiority fighter the F-22 Raptor. Don't miss this rare opportunity to see $180 million fly in tight formation.

Admission is Free!

Gates open at 8 AM and close at 6 PM.

No coolers, pets, bicycles, glass containers, no alcoholic beverages, skateboards or roller blades. There will be metal detectors and bag searches for your safety.

If you have never been to an air show before plan on bringing some folding chairs or blankets to sit on, sunscreen, sunglasses and someone to rub your neck as you will be looking up a lot.

On the web:

General Information

Schedule

Performers

More Than 1,100 Sex Offender Arrests By U.S. Marshals' in 7 Days

2006-04-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and United States Marshals Service (USMS) Director John F. Clark announced that a seven-day nationwide fugitive roundup led by the USMS and hundreds of partners from state, local and other federal agencies led to the arrests of 9,037 individuals.

Among those arrested during Operation FALCON II were 1,102 violent sexual offenders, the largest number ever captured in a single law enforcement effort. Operation FALCON II was conducted from April 17-23, 2006.

FALCON II (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally) was conducted in 27 states mostly west of the Mississippi River, and the territories of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. High-priority targets for arrest were fugitives wanted for committing sexual offenses and crimes of violence against women, children and the elderly, as well as unregistered convicted sex offenders. Other priority targets were fugitive gang members and violent offenders wanted for homicide, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, carjacking, weapons offenses and major narcotics distribution.

"The Justice Department is pursuing our Nation's worst fugitives," said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. "Operation FALCON again was successful at apprehending violent offenders, sexual predators, drug dealers, and gang members who had for too long escaped the grip of justice. With these criminals off the streets, fewer Americans will live with the threat of violent crime in their communities."

The case of William Wisham is one example of what can go wrong when a community is not aware that a convicted sexual predator is in its midst. Wisham had failed to register as a sex offender when he moved to a motel in Victorville, Calif. On April 21, investigators assigned to Operation FALCON encountered Wisham at the motel during the unrelated arrest of two individuals wanted for child endangerment. The investigators learned Wisham had violated his requirement to register as a sex offender. Furthermore, he possessed letters to children, notes explaining why he enjoys sex with children, child pornography, candy and methamphetamine. Authorities are working to find and evaluate children listed in Wisham's diary-style notes. Initial investigations indicated Wisham, using candy as a lure, violated at least one minor child.

"During each day of FALCON II we put more than 2,100 law enforcement officers on the street to arrest individuals like Wisham," said USMS Director Clark. "The only way to achieve huge arrest statistics like these is with the full and enthusiastic cooperation of agencies at every level of government. I'm deeply grateful for their efforts."

For this seven-day nationwide operation, the Marshals coordinated officers from 120 state agencies, 330 county agencies, 312 police departments, six foreign law enforcement agencies, and 24 other federal agencies.

In one of the first arrests during FALCON II, investigators apprehended Herbert Damwijk in Oahu, Hawaii. Damwijk was wanted for two counts of child rape and child molestation against eight-year-old girls. Authorities in his home state of Washington contacted FALCON II investigators in Seattle for help in finding and capturing Damwijk. Their investigators developed leads that traced the fugitive into Oregon, and later to Hawaii. On April 17, FALCON II investigators in Hawaii arrested Damwijk at his father's residence in Oahu, Hawaii. He currently awaits extradition back to Washington state.

"Thankfully, none of the officers involved in apprehending these dangerous fugitives were seriously injured," said Robert J. Finan II, the Marshals' Assistant Director for Investigations. Finan praised two federal participants that focused expertise and resources on FALCON II. "We appreciate the strong efforts relating to drug and weapons seizures and gang violence that came from our partners in the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives." Assistant Director Finan further recognized the efforts of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which worked closely with USMS to identify high-priority cases in which convicted sex offenders had failed to register as required by law.

Other federal agents who participated came from the Offices of Inspector General of the Social Security Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Agriculture. Thanks to the efforts of USMS personnel overseas, fugitives who had fled the jurisdiction of the U.S. were targeted by Deputy Marshals and Special Agents of the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service. Seven arrests were made abroad, and three foreign fugitives arrested in the U.S. will be returned to Mexico.

Garcia Renewable Energy Bill Heads To Floor

2006-04-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia's (R-Cathedral City) bill, AB 1966, passed unanimously from the Assembly Committee on Local Government today. The bill expands the California Investment Incentive Program (CIIP) to make renewable energy facilities eligible to take advantage of the program's incentives.

Investment in renewable energy production brings numerous benefits, including more reliable and affordable electricity, cleaner air and more jobs. In fact, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, for every megawatt of renewable energy, four to seven times more jobs are created compared to conventional fossil fuel power plants.

In Imperial County, geothermal energy and other renewables have provided the state with clean energy and are vital to the area's economic well being-providing good wages and injecting dollars into the local economy. Calenergy is currently working to develop a $720 million investment in Salton Sea Unit 6, a new geothermal plant near the Salton Sea.

"We need to address renewable energy use in the State of California-it's good for our health, our economy, and our environment," - Assemblywoman Garcia

AB 1966 would allow counties and local jurisdictions to provide partial property tax relief for qualified manufacturing facilities, encouraging renewable energy development in Imperial County and throughout the state.

"We need to address renewable energy use in the State of California-it's good for our health, our economy, and our environment," commented Garcia. "By simply allowing counties and renewable energy producers to take advantage of incentives, we're taking a big step towards less reliance on more polluting energy."

The bill next heads to the Assembly Floor for a vote and is supported by the County of Imperial, Calipatria School District, Imperial Irrigation District, California State Association of Counties, Environment California, Clean Power Campaign, and the American Federation of State, County, Municipal Employees, among numerous other local and statewide groups.

Dateline NBC's 'To Catch A Predator' airs again tonight

2006-04-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

The January airing of 'To Catch A Predator' covered an Internet sting operation here in Riverside that resulted in 50 men being charged with attempted child molestation. It was the highest rated show in years for the series.

Tonights 2 hour episode deals with recent sting operations in Ohio and Florida.

Dateline NBC can be seen on channel 4 at 9 pm.

Haynes Bill Would Require Repeat DUI Drivers Display Special License Plate

2006-04-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

Today, Assemblyman Ray Haynes (R-Murrieta) announced his plans to continue fighting for his DUI prevention measure. The measure would require repeat drunk driving offenders to mount a red "DUI" license plate on their vehicles.

After being killed in Assembly Public Safety Committee in early April, the proposal will now live in the State Senate through AB 406. Haynes said victims of crime and ordinary Californians overwhelmingly back the idea of deterring irresponsible drivers.

"For the past six years and counting, DUI injuries and deaths have been climbing," said Assemblyman Haynes, who amended AB 406 to bring attention to those driving on probation, and suspended or restricted licenses. "With over 1,400 deaths and 35,000 injuries every single year, the State must act to stem the tide of tens of thousands of preventable tragedies on our roads."

"With over 1,400 deaths and 35,000 injuries every single year, the State must act to stem the tide of tens of thousands of preventable tragedies on our roads." - Assemblyman Haynes

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) supports Mr. Haynes' intent for the measure to serve as a mobile public awareness campaign.

"MADD knows all too well, the lifelong effect of an individual's decision to drink and then get behind the wheel of a car. We applaud this bold effort to prevent repeat DUI offenders and support AB 406," said Paula Birdsong, Executive Director of MADD California.

AB 406 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Transportation Committee in the coming weeks. This measure recently enacted and now being implemented in Ohio, was first introduced by Mr. Haynes in 1997 when he was a State Senator.

Benoit Bill Protecting Drivers from Arbitrary Auto Insurance Rate Hikes Passes First Committee

2006-04-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

Assembly Bill 2840, authored by Assemblyman John J. Benoit (R-Palm Desert), and fellows legislators Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg), Nicole Parra (D-Hanford), Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) and Lois Wolk (D-Davis), today passed through its first hurdle, the Assembly Insurance Committee, on a 7 to 2 bipartisan vote.

Assemblyman Benoit said, "My legislation requires a statewide study before any changes can be made to the way auto rates are calculated. This commonsense precaution will safeguard consumers from potential unfair and arbitrary rate increases and will ensure that auto rates continue to be based on the actual cost to insure each driver."

AB 2840 is supported by the Regional Council of Rural Counties, California Farm Bureau Federation, local elected officials, local chambers of commerce, taxpayer groups and the three insurance trade associations. The bill is in response to regulations proposed by Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi in December 2005 that would force drivers in certain regions of the state to subsidize arbitrary rate decreases for drivers in big cities.

"This commonsense precaution will safeguard consumers from potential unfair and arbitrary rate increases and will ensure that auto rates continue to be based on the actual cost to insure each driver." - Assemblyman Benoit

Under Commissioner Garamendi's proposal, certain drivers would receive arbitrary discounts based solely on where they live and insurance companies would be forced to charge rates that are no longer substantially related to the risk of loss (as required by current law). The Insurance Commissioner has repeatedly failed to articulate how it is possible to provide artificial rate decreases for some drivers without shifting cost to other drivers.

A study commissioned by the Department of Insurance demonstrated that implementing the current regulations could result in rate increases as high as 30% for some drivers, mostly in the rural and suburban areas. These rate increases will not come about because drivers in these areas are at greater risk but rather to subsidize arbitrary rate decreases for drivers in large, metropolitan areas.

Other AB 2840 backers were supportive of the bill's progress today:

"The Regional Council of Rural Counties applauds the passage of AB 2840 through the Assembly Insurance Committee because it will prevent unfair auto insurance rates for all California drivers. The bill will guarantee that automobile insurance rates remain based on the actual costs to insure each driver and prevent drivers in rural areas, many of whom are low income, from paying higher rates so that drivers in heavily congested, major cities can experience rate decreases." said Brent Harrington, President and CEO, Regional Council of Rural Counties. "We continue to oppose Commissioner Garamendi's proposal and believe its ill effects demonstrate the need for AB 2840 and the protections it will provide to drivers throughout California."

"We strongly support AB 2840 and are pleased legislators see the need for this bill. Drivers in rural areas experience fewer accidents and therefore fewer claims, it only makes sense that their risk of getting into an accident should be the determining factor in how much they pay for auto insurance." said California Farm Bureau Federation President Doug Mosebar. CFBF General Counsel Nancy McDonough agrees. "Under Insurance Commissioner Garamendi's plan, this is not the case and drivers in rural areas will end up subsidizing a rate decrease for drivers in large, metropolitan areas. AB 2840 is simple - it will ensure that auto rates remain fair, non-discriminatory and related to the risk of loss," she said.

"AB 2840 is so important because my constituents, and the majority of California drivers for that matter, need proof that their auto insurance rates will not increase under Commissioner Garamendi's plan. A study by his own department found that rates will increase for drivers in my county by 36 percent and drivers in 51 other counties will experience rate increases as well," stated Imperial County Supervisor Gary Wyatt. "Auto insurance rates now are based on actual costs and risks associated with providing insurance to each and every driver and that's how it should be. AB 2840 will prevent any sort of unfair rate increases now and in years to come."

Committee members voting in favor of the measure were: Assemblymembers Benoit, Russ Bogh (R-Beaumont), Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View), Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia), Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara), and Juan Vargas (D-San Diego).

AB 2840 will next be considered by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Garcia Bill Protecting Women From HIV Dies In Committee

2006-04-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

AB 2203, authored by Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) quietly died in the Assembly Committee on Health yesterday. The bill is coauthored by Assemblywomen Nicole Parra and Cindy Monta�ez. This bill allowed women to receive valuable information on HIV/AIDS risk factors and testing options at their annual gynecological or family planning appointment.

In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that heterosexual women accounted for a staggering 26% of all new cases, with African American and Hispanic women accounting for 83% of these diagnoses. Heterosexual sex has been the primary method of HIV infection for women, with a growing number becoming infected by male partners who had sex with males or sex with needle-sharers.

"I am extremely disappointed at the committee's lack of a voice for the health of our mothers, sisters and daughters," - Assemblywoman Garcia

Women in some communities, where social and cultural norms may discourage them from speaking out about their sexuality, are already at a disadvantage. In some cultures, the promiscuous behavior of male partners is ignored, and in others, seeking assistance brings fear of being stigmatized. Today, few women have the tools that would allow them to recognize the early symptoms of HIV/AIDS.

Assemblywoman Garcia stated, "There is no structure in place for them to get help. More women are at risk than was previously thought and work needs to be done now to reverse this deadly course. We have to protect women by eliminating barriers to early diagnosis of HIV infection and increasing access to quality medical care, treatment and ongoing prevention services."

Of the 14 members of the Health Committee, 8 abstained by "not voting." Members votes left the bill well short of passage.

"I am extremely disappointed at the committee's lack of a voice for the health of our mothers, sisters and daughters," commented Garcia after the vote.

"Despite the silence of this committee on the topic, HIV/AIDS awareness will still be one of my highest priorities."

test long one just a test 2 lines now then box grass mountain cloud car railroad

2006-04-26T00:17:00.000-07:00

111111

111
222
333
444
5555555555555

7777777777777

999999999999

1010101

1111111111111

2222222222

3333333333

Battin Bill to End Intimidation Practices Passes Senate Public Safety Committee

2006-04-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

Battin addresses threats made by Riverside County Supervisors

SACRAMENTO - Today, Senator Jim Battin's (R- La Quinta) bill SB 1308 to end the practice of bullying and harassing local elected officials passed the Senate Public Safety Committee with a 5-0 vote. Battin's bill was created in response to how some members of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors have blatantly tried to coerce and pressure desert cities to vote the way they demand or suffer future retribution. The bill was prompted by a series of public statements made by Supervisor Roy Wilson and others who threatened to withhold transportation funding or take other punitive measures if cities did not approve the Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP).

"I was shocked when I heard about the poor treatment that several local officials had received from our own Riverside County Supervisors in regards to the MSHCP. It is completely inappropriate and the state needs to provide all elected officials the same protections. If someone had threatened a state legislator in this manner they could be charged with a felony, it is that serious," said Battin. "It is an obvious abuse of position and power and the penalties for doing such would be determined by this bill."

"I was shocked when I heard about the poor treatment that several local officials had received from our own Riverside County Supervisors.." - Senator Battin

California Penal Code Sections 85 and 86 are the state's legislative bribery and extortion laws. State law specifically prohibits any type of "quid pro quo" on legislation - it is illegal for one legislator to vote a certain way on a bill in exchange for the promise of a vote from another legislator. This activity constitutes a felony, punishable by 2 to 4 years in prison. Similarly, it is specifically against the law to threaten a California State Legislator with retaliation in an attempt to "influence a member in giving or withholding his vote" on an issue.

However, local elected officials are not included in these laws. SB 1308 would expand the state's bribery and extortion laws to include county supervisors, city council members, and all other elected local officials so they are simply held to the same standards as state legislators.

"It is important to ensure that citizens can trust and rely in the credibility of their government," commented Battin. "We cannot tolerate any elected official using the color and power of their office to threaten another official or elected body. It is wrong, and I plan to put a stop to it."

Recap of Threatening Public Comments Made by Riverside County Supervisors:

Threatening of Riverside County cities if they did not approve the MSHCP: In a February 5th Desert Sun article, Supervisor Wilson threatened that he "would not be there" to support local property annexations if the Cities of Indio or Desert Hot Springs did not approve the plan. Supervisor Wilson went on to brag: "If that is being heavy handed, I stand guilty as charged."

On February 9th, on KNEWS radio's Marshall and Stone Show, Wilson confirmed the threat saying he told officials from Indio: "But I can guarantee you that if you guys kill our ability to build roads and freeways [Wilson's 'spin' and not accurate] in this valley... throughout this valley, I will reconsider my position and I will probably engage my fellow supervisors to fight any future annexation."

In a February 17th Desert Sun article, Indio Mayor Gene Gilbert details the desperate situation Indio is in, saying "It is development suicide if we adopt it. If we don't, we are going to get blackballed in some way." Many other city officials have contacted Senator Battin outraged by the threats and asking for help.

"Several city leaders are telling me they've been told they have to vote for this flawed plan, or the county is going to make them pay dearly on everything else. This is a shameful situation and I aim to get it fixed," concluded Battin.

SB 1308 now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

###

State Bribery and Extortion Statutes

The relevant state statutes are Penal Code Sections 85 and 86 and PC 518.

PC 85: Prohibits the bribing of a Legislator, or attempts by "menace, deceit, suppression of truth, or any corrupt means, to influence a member in giving or withholding his vote..." is a felony punishable by 2, 3, or 4 years.

PC 86: Deals with vote swapping by the legislature, a form of bribery. Punishment is 2, 3 or 4 years, or a fine of between $2,000 and $10,000.

SB 1308 will amend Penal Code Sections 85 and 86 to add city, county and local elected officials to the state bribery laws.

Bill giving more local control over halfway homes passes first hearing

2006-04-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

Assembly Bill 2184, authored by Assemblyman Russ Bogh (R-Beaumont), passed its first hearing today in the Assembly Human Services Committee.

AB 2184 will provide local control to cities who wish to regulate parolee homes.

"This bill will allow our cities to regulate those homes that the state has refused to take charge of," stated Bogh. "For too long the state has ignored the problems associated with parolee homes in our communities. The cities are willing and able to do the job that the state has refused to do and we ought to let them do it."

AB 2184, sponsored by the City of Riverside, will make clear the rights of cities to pass local ordinances regulating the health and safety of residential homes and facilities not regulated by the state.

Recent high profile cases have highlighted the need for oversight of residential facilities. David Allyn Dokich, a high risk sex offender twice convicted of forcible rape of a minor, was paroled to an unlicensed facility in 2005. Such facilities often slip through the cracks and escape scrutiny while violated health and building codes and placing communities at risk.

"For too long the state has ignored the problems associated with parolee homes in our communities." - Assemblyman Bogh

"What Mr. Bogh has done today is a huge victory for cities who are eager to regulate parolee homes," said Steve Adams, Riverside Councilmember who testified in support of the bill in Sacramento. "Parolee homes, if left unregulated can create substantial problems to the quality of live for our neighborhoods. The City of Riverside has been very aggressive in addressing this issue and Mr. Bogh's efforts in Sacramento go a long way towards making clear our rights to do so."

Assemblyman Bogh represents the 65th Assembly District, which includes portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Bogh bill giving more local control over halfway homes to be heard in committee

2006-04-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

Existing law specifies that no conditional use permit, zoning variance, or other zoning clearance is required of a residential facility, as defined, which serves 6 or fewer persons if such a permit, variance, or zoning clearance is not required of a family dwelling of the same type in the same zone.

The result is a flood of unlicensed halfway homes opening in residential communities by anyone will to sacrifice the peace and safety of a neighborhood to make an easy buck.

Assembly bill 2184, introduced by Assemblyman Russ Bogh, would, instead, specify that a city, county, or other local public entity may require a conditional use permit, zoning variance, or other zoning clearance of a residential facility that serves 6 or fewer persons that is not required of a family dwelling of the same type in the same zone.

AB 2184 will be heard in the Human Services Committee on April 25th.

Registered sex offender arrested for looking at porn at local community center

2006-04-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Deputies from the Perris Sheriff's Station Violent Offender Registration Team (VORT) responded to the Oasis Community Center in Menifee regarding a convicted sex offender in violation of his probation.

Perris Station VORT Corporals Scull and Medeiros have been conducting an investigation reference convicted sex offender Michael Robert Clark (56 years) of Menifee watching and printing pornography. Clark has been using a computer in the community library to view the pornography.

When the VORT Corporals arrived, they found Clark logged onto "Incestquest.com" and he was in possession of several pornographic photographs, which were recovered. Clark was later booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside for Violation of Probation. The photographs recovered appeared to be of persons over the age of 18.

Clark was convicted in 2002, in Los Angeles County of attempted child molestation and using e-mail to seduce a minor. He was arrested at a pizza parlor where he arranged to meet the child. Although the photographs Clark printed from the website appear to be of persons over 18 years of age, his probation terms strictly prohibit him from this type of behavior.

The Perris Station Violent Offender Registration Team was formed in May of 2005 for the purpose of ensuring compliance with convicted sex offenders and maintaining public safety.

VORT was instrumental in the tracking and arrest of High Risk Sex Offender David Allyn Dokich in January.

Minuteman Leader sends message to Bush, secure the border now with troops or Minutemen will build a fence

2006-04-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

(PHOENIX, AZ) April 20, 2006 - Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, today announced plans by the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps ("MCDC") to work with local Arizona land owners to build border security fencing on private land along the border with Mexico.

At present, six private land owners have partnered with the Minutemen for the commencement of construction of border fencing on their land. Surveillance cameras on the fencing will be monitored via computer by registered Minutemen across the country. Two construction companies to date have offered to inaugurate groundbreaking, coordinate volunteer construction crews and donate the use of the necessary heavy construction equipment.

Simcox says those involved in the planning hope to keep costs near $150 per foot.

The groundbreaking will begin in Arizona on Memorial Day weekend, unless in the interim President Bush deploys troops to immediately secure the out-of-control southern border.

The fencing will be built with privately donated funds, engineering and labor and will be used as an example to educate the public about the feasibility and efficacy of fencing to secure America's borders from illegal incursion by aliens and international criminal cartels. A non-profit organization dedicated specifically to this purpose will facilitate and administer donations for construction of the fence. Monetary and in-kind contributions for this effort will go directly into building materials for this private, volunteer fencing project.

Simcox issued the following statement on the MCDC border fence project:

"President Bush once said he would not wait on events to act to protect our country. He has been president for over five years, and still he has not acted to secure our territorial frontier, even as his administration admits the United States government does not have operational control of our borders.

"The existing border crisis is a dereliction of duty by those entrusted with American security and sovereignty, leaving America vulnerable to terrorist infiltration and an unprecedented crime wave caused by drug smugglers, rapists, thieves, human traffickers and murderers who currently cross our border at will." - Chris Simcox

"On Memorial Day weekend, the American people will exercise their God-given rights to protect their lives and property by initiating construction of border fencing along the border on private land unless President Bush immediately deploys troops along the breadth of the Southwestern border line with Mexico, thereby retaking the region from the international criminal cartels who presently are in operational control of the border. The existing border crisis is a dereliction of duty by those entrusted with American security and sovereignty, leaving America vulnerable to terrorist infiltration and an unprecedented crime wave caused by drug smugglers, rapists, thieves, human traffickers and murderers who currently cross our border at will.

"President Bush and Congress have taxed the wages of the American people to pay for the protection of our country, and expended those dollars to subsidize millions of low-wage illegal workers with housing, education, medical care, and welfare benefits. Yet even the most basic level of national territorial integrity requires that our elected representatives secure the border. Should they continue to refuse to do their Constitutional duty, the Minutemen will again step into the breach and commence building the required border barriers on private land and with private donations.

"Should President Bush and Congress fail to fulfill their oaths of office, and meet their Constitutional obligation to protect these United States from invasion, we, the sovereign people of the United States, having suffered a long train of abuses at the hand of a willfully insolent government, do hereby declare that these States ought, should and will be protected by American Minutemen."

Democrats Cave in to Union Pressure, Block $3 Million for Classrooms

2006-04-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

Assembly Republicans today strongly criticized the partisan actions by Democrats on the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee, who rejected a common-sense measure that would allow schools to direct an additional $300 million into the classroom during Wednesday's hearing.

"Giving school districts the freedom to enter into public-private partnerships for services like mowing the lawn, fixing leaky pipes, and providing school lunches will allow schools to save millions and invest in the classroom," said Assemblyman John J. Benoit, R-Palm Desert, the measure's author.

"Unfortunately, Assembly Democrats today ignored the voices of parents, teachers, and students across California, putting the costly demands of union bosses ahead of a quality education for our children."

"Democrats made it clear that they care more about doing the bidding of union bosses than they do about our school children," - Assemblyman Benoit

Assembly Bill 2024 (Benoit) would have repealed legislation enacted in 2002 that stripped schools of their ability to utilize the most efficient ways to provide non-instructional services, such as maintenance, transportation and food service. By allowing private firms to competitively bid to perform these services, the Coalition for Local Control of School Spending estimates that schools and community colleges could save up to $300 million, funds which would be immediately redirected to the classroom.

"Democrats made it clear that they care more about doing the bidding of union bosses than they do about our school children," Benoit said. "This legislation presented a clear choice between waste and efficiency, and the Democrats chose to continue flushing taxpayers' money down the drain."

The measure was killed during Wednesday's hearing of the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee, with every Democrat on the committee refusing to support this common-sense measure.

Vote:

Ayes: Assemblyman Tim Leslie (R-Roseville), Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton)

Nayes: Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont), Dave Jones (D-Sacramento), Gene Mullin (D-San Mateo), Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Montclair)

Senate Public Safety Committee Kills Kidnapping and Sex Crime Bill

2006-04-19T22:52:00.000-07:00

The Senate Public Safety Committee yesterday voted down a bill, SB 1455, that would have increased the imprisonment by five years for anyone impersonating an officer when committing a kidnapping and sex crime. Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta) authored the measure.

In light of rapists pulling over female drivers on roadways, falsely portraying themselves as peace officers, Hollingsworth authored the measure to increase the penalty for using the ruse to lure victims.

"The Public Safety Committee once again today proved how out of touch they are with the safety priorities of average Californians," Hollingsworth said. "This increasingly common ruse of impersonating a peace officer in order to perpetrate a vicious sexual assault must be combated with serious repercussions. Using the guise of impersonating a peace officer to gain a person?s trust, then committing these types of horrific crimes ought to merit at least five more years to a sentence. I fail to see any reason why the committee members could not vote for this bill, and it shows how egregiously out of touch they are with real people."

"The Public Safety Committee once again today proved how out of touch they are with the safety priorities of average Californians," - Senator Hollingsworth

SB 1455 would have added a sentence enhancement to anyone convicted of committing kidnap, rape, and several other assaults, of five years, if they used impersonating a peace officer in the commission of the crime. There has been a rash of such incidents up and down the state; including an assault recently in Sacramento on a woman who pulled over for who she thought was a police officer.

Vote:

Ayes: Senators Charles Poochigian (R-Fresno) and Bob Margett (R-Arcadia).

Noes: Senators Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) and Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles).

Absent: Senators Don Perata (D-East Bay) and Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles).

Dennis Hollingsworth is the Senate Republican Caucus Whip representing the 36th Senate District, which includes Southwest Riverside County.