Archive for July 2008

If Americans needed another horrifically bloody testament to the absolute chaos the federal government has allowed our immigration system to collapse into, the “sanctuary city” of San Francisco has delivered it again in spades. The outrage over San Francisco’s policy of hiding illegal-immigrant drug dealers by sending them to a safe-house in Southern California (where many of them simply walked away) had just settled to a low boil when the story of Edwin Ramos came to light earlier last week.

Mr. Ramos was arrested on three counts of murder in June following the shooting deaths of Anthony Bologna and his two sons, Michael and Matthew. The three died in a hail of gunfire as they returned home from a family picnic.

As details of the story have emerged this week, it’s hard to imagine a more damning indictment of President Bush, the commander-in-chief who has absolutely refused to secure the nation’s borders and assert federal jurisdiction over immigration enforcement in our cities and towns during a time of war.
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New interpretive material at the Park City Museum will include a sign depicting Native Americans in Park City, even though very few ever established residence here.

Johanna Fassbender, director of education at the museum, said that research indicated that American museum goers have simply come to expect Native American history in their museums. Even though the history of Park City can’t necessarily facilitate that desire, the museum still sees their curiousity as an opportunity to instruct.

Diversity in history and the teaching of social studies, has become a major issue in the last few years and currently in California some five bills from the state legislature are targeting social studies curriculum. These bills all seek to introduce multi-ethnic approaches to history.

The Utah State Board of Eduation will launch its own changes to their social studies core curriculum as it hits the Internet for the fall semester. But, said Tom Sutton, social studies specialist, the content of the core curriculum has changed little. It will just be more accessible to teachers and students via the Web.
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A roaring success. That is the only way to describe yesterday’s political revolution when the BNP became the first party in Britain to use the Internet to broadcast a speech by the party leader live, and then to take questions from viewers live online - and answer them.

Despite a few minor technical glitches - which will be ironed out as the already professional BNP web operation becomes even more experienced - yesterday’s live broadcast from Cornwall by Nick Griffin drew a total of 941 unique viewers.

As of Monday morning, there had been 658 replay requests, meaning that in total over 1,500 people effectively attended the meeting, making it in real terms the single largest indoor political event ever held by the BNP.

The shocked silence from the old gang parties at the BNP’s ability to grasp and use technology in way which they, with their huge budgets have been incapable, shows that the BNP is indeed on the cutting edge of politics in this country.
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Back in the days when the Indochina wars were on everyone’s mind, a droll newspaperman, Martin F. Nolan, observed that “when the American people have to know when a country’s rainy season is, we are already in too deep.”

I remembered that recently when I read about Saddam Hussein’s tattoo.

Saddam had three dots tattooed on his wrist to identify himself as a member of the Albu Nasir tribe. It was once all important to be an Albu Nasirman as the tribe dominated the government of Iraq in Saddam’s era. His inner circle was made up of fellow tribesmen and family, for in Iraq tribe and family are often the only entities you can trust.

To understand the ebb and flow of today’s wars, Americans have to know about the poisonous mix of familial, tribal, ethnic, linguistic, racial and religious factions at play in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

President George W. Bush keeps referring to Japan and Germany when he speaks of the kind of post-war settlement he hopes to get out of Iraq. But Germany and Japan after World War II were as homogenous as countries get, while Iraq and Afghanistan are crazy quilts of disparate and competing identities.
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The largest party of the European radical left, Rifondazione Comunista of Italy, held its national congress last weekend and made a decisive shift to the left.

This was a defeat for the long time national secretary of Rifondazione, Fausto Bertinotti, and the man tipped to succeed him, the regional governor of Puglia Nichi Vendola.

At its previous congress three years ago, Rifondazione voted to join a coalition government of the centre left led by Romano Prodi. Prodi was elected with the narrowest of majorities in 2006.

But this year’s congress was held in the wake of April’s decisive electoral win for a right wing coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi. The radical left lost 2.5 million votes and, for the first time since the fall of fascism in 1945, there will be no communists in the Italian parliament.
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The senior thesis that Michelle Obama (or as she then was, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson) submitted to Princeton University in 1985 for completion of her bachelor’s degree in Sociology, has been made available to the public on Politico.com (part one, part two, part three and part four) and other websites. There are two things that are of public interest about this thesis: a) the fact that public access to it was restricted for some six-eight weeks during the Presidential campaign; and b) its contents.

The following are the facts about Michelle Obama’s, and the Barack Obama campaign’s, efforts to prevent public access to her thesis, as best as I have been able to reconstruct them from reliable media organs and web sites. Jonah Goldberg’s blog on National Review Online for February 19th of this year reported “that a reader in the know informs me that Michelle Obama’s thesis, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” is unavailable until November 5, 2008 at the Princeton library. I wonder why?”A more detailed report was published by Politico.com a few days later, which stated that the thesis “has been ‘temporarily withdrawn’ until after this year’s presidential election in November” (Numerous other web reporters have confirmed that November 5th, one day after the Presidential election, had been listed on the Mudd Library web site as the date on which public access to the thesis would be restored.).
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MBAMBANAKIRA, Solomon Islands — Dressed in blue shorts and mirrored sunglasses, Constable Tony Bourne says he’s the only Caucasian resident in 80,000 square miles of jungle.

Though technically a foreigner, the Australian officer chases local rapists and thieves. And, unlike the local cops who assist him, he can carry a gun.

Mr. Bourne is one of hundreds of Australian police enforcing law and order not only in the Solomon Islands, but many of the independent island-nations dotting the South Pacific. “They need us,” he says, patrolling Mbambanakira aboard an all-terrain vehicle.

Mr. Bourne literally embodies Australia’s controversial new role: the regional sheriff, policing impoverished and often strife-ridden island-states that range from midget atolls like Nauru to California-sized Papua New Guinea.
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PHOENIX – Since he finally took notice the recall effort against him was dead serious, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon addressed his “friends” in a letter posted on friendsforphil gordon.com, a political committee trying to save his job.

He wrote, “The people of Phoenix want a mayor and city council that will focus on addressing the challenges of education, jobs and public safety.”

Citizens who have been protesting the Macehualli Work Center, an unpermitted hiring hall for illegal aliens near Cave Creek and Bell roads, for the past seven months or more, say they couldn’t agree with the mayor more and say that’s why they working to recall Gordon.
“This fight is too important to watch from the sidelines,” wrote Gordon.

However, that’s exactly what Gordon and the city council have done.

On Monday, as protesters and recall signature gatherers resumed their peaceful protest in front of the day labor center, a potential employer of illegal aliens jumped out of his vehicle and shoved a gun in a woman protester’s face, as he tried to grab her camera.
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The number of asylum seekers looking for refuge in Norway has significantly increased this year. More than 15,000 refugees are expected to apply to live and work in the country in 2008. This figure is up from 6,500 applicants in 2007, making Norway one of Europe’s fastest-growing asylum destinations.

This dramatic rise is asylum seekers is putting strains on Norway, reports the nation’s immigration directorate (UDI). Iraqi nationals are highest in the statistics, hoping to escape the extreme dangers of their homeland.

“There is a perception among asylum seekers and ‘smugglers’ that Norway is a more attractive destination than many other European countries,” states UDI deputy director general Frode Forfang. “We are coping, but it’s a growing challenge.”

In the first six months of 2008, 1,114 Iraqis have sought asylum in Norway, up from 435 in 2007. They are the largest ethnic group, followed by refugees from Eritrea, Russia, Serbia, Somalia, Palestine and Afghanistan.

Forfang believes most asylum seekers pay human smugglers to help with the logistics and paperwork of applying in Norway. The UDI states that about 60 per cent of applications which have been correctly filed are rejected. However Norway usually grants asylum to anyone facing real danger in their own homeland.
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A French charity has accused Greece of creating a “humanitarian crisis” for hundreds of illegal migrants detained on the Mediterranean island of Lesbos.

Medecins Sans Frontieres says about 800 migrants are living in overcrowded rooms in the detention centre without proper sanitation or medical care.

Greece has not commented but has previously said it is doing all it can to cope with a huge refugee influx.

It says nearly 10,000 would-be migrants were found on its shores last year.

The total was three times higher than the previous year, the government said.
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