Archive for October 2008

If Barack Obama is not a socialist, he does the best imitation of one I’ve ever seen.

Under his tax plan, the top 5 percent of wage-earners have their income tax rates raised from 35 percent to 40 percent, while the bottom 40 percent of all wage-earners, who pay no income tax, are sent federal checks.

If this is not the socialist redistribution of wealth, what is it?

A steeply graduated income tax has always been the preferred weapon of the left for bringing about socialist equality. Indeed, in the “Communist Manifesto” of 1848, Karl Marx was himself among the first to call for “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.”

The Obama tax plan is pure Robin Hood class warfare: Use the tax power of the state to rob the successful and reward the faithful. Only in Sherwood Forest it was assumed the Sheriff of Nottingham and his crowd had garnered their wealth by other than honest labor.

“Spread the wealth,” Barack admonished Joe the Plumber.

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” said old Karl in 1875. When Barbara West of WFTV in Orlando, Fla., put the Marx quote to Biden, however, Joe recoiled in spluttering disbelief.

West: “You may recognize this famous quote: ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.’ That’s from Karl Marx. How is Sen. Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?”
[Read more]

All fair-minded Americans understand that race should not be a factor in choosing our next president.

So why should race continue to play a role in deciding who gets into college or receives a government contract or is hired or promoted in a government job? It makes no sense to argue that we’re supposed to be colorblind in the polling booth but color-conscious in so many other areas.

On Election Day, voters in Colorado and Nebraska will have the opportunity to end this racial double standard by approving amendments to their state constitutions that will outlaw racial preferences in state education, contracting and employment. Polls suggest that these ballot initiatives will pass easily. It’s about time.

For 40 years, we’ve maintained a kind of cognitive dissonance in our public policies when it comes to race.
[Read more]

A former Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy is among several Rio Grande Valley residents and four Brownsville residents named in a series of federal money laundering and drug trafficking indictments unsealed in Atlanta this week.

Emmanuel Sanchez, 48, of Mission, smuggled cash between the Valley and Atlanta for a multi-state criminal organization working with Mexico’s Gulf Cartel, prosecutors said in a statement issued Wednesday.

A federal grand jury in Georgia has indicted 40 other men and women from cities such as Brownsville, Palmview and Mercedes as well as Atlanta and its suburbs for their alleged involvement with the group.

The charges stem from a two-year investigation dubbed “Operation Pay Cut,” aimed at disrupting the flow of money fueling the organization’s illicit activities.

“Drug trafficking is all about the money,” U.S. Internal Revenue Service agent Reginael D. McDaniel said in a statement. “Seizing the dirty cash and the assets of these illegal organizations hits criminals where it hurts and deprives them of their profits.”
[Read more]

Redwood High School student Cyrus Massoumi said he plans to continue publishing his online conservative newspaper, even after receiving a five-day suspension from the school district.

“If I’m suspended again, or even expelled as a result, it’s worth it to me if the end result is that I’m educating people that this district will not accept a moderate or conservative voice,” Massoumi said.

Although school officials declined to comment on his case, Massoumi, 17, a senior, said he was suspended from school Wednesday for distributing flyers directing students to his online newspaper, which he previously stored on a school computer server.
[Read more]

The campaign for Montana’s top K-12 educator position has taken on racial overtones, sparking debate from observers about race-based comments made on a talk show and a Web site.

The statewide election for superintendent of public instruction pits Elaine Sollie Herman, a Republican, against Denise Juneau, a Democrat and enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes.

Herman has been criticized for a recent Internet message posted under her name on the Web site MeetUp.com, which encourages people to abandon their computer keyboards and meet face-to-face on interests ranging from knitting and independent films to political views.
Here is the post:

“I am in MT running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. I am asking for HELP from young concervative (sic) Bloggers. My web site is: electelainesollieherman.com. ‘I live in the ‘Peoples Republic of Helena.’ My opposition is a young Indian.”

Herman said the Web page is not hers.
[Read more]

IOWA CITY, Iowa, Oct. 29 (UPI) — Agriprocessors Inc., a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa, faces nearly $10 million in civil penalties for violating state wage laws, officials said Wednesday.

The violations allegedly occurred at the Postville, Iowa, plant between Jan. 1, 2006, and June 30 of this year, The Des Moines (Iowa) Register reported.

“Once again, Agriprocessors has demonstrated a complete disregard for Iowa law,” Iowa Labor Commissioner Dave Neil said in a prepared statement. “This continued course of violations is a black mark on Iowa’s business community.”

Scott Frotman, spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers, said the slaughter of cattle has been discontinued at the plant since Monday.
[Read more]

European Commissioners opine that “Immigration Is Moral Necessity” and “Islam Is Welcome.” A French President predicts that “Arabic Is the Language of the Future.” A Moroccan becomes Mayor of Rotterdam. Europeans who wish to assert their ethnic identity and interests versus those of aliens are roughed up.

In the United States — a country that has ruined itself through its own naïveté about human nature, about the world and about itself, the presidential election is being contested between a right-liberal candidate of the Stupid Party and a left-liberal candidate of the Evil Party. The latter’s position’s is that America’s wealth should be redistributed to the Afro-American “community” so that the country can have its salvation. He may have rephrased this idea in more unctuous words as his political shrewdness was increasing over the years, but essentially this is still the intention.

Yet, Mr. Obama is likely to win, partly due to electoral fraud of his supporters and fawning adulation by mainstream media that disseminate news and opinions filtered to put him in the White House.
[Read more]

TIJUANA, MEXICO — More than a week has passed since San Diego pastor Manuel Jesus Tec was kidnapped Oct. 21 in Tijuana, and his family still has not talked with or heard from him.

Originally, the kidnappers demanded a $1-million ransom for Tec’s release, but in two calls Monday night, Oct. 27, the kidnappers lowered that figure to $500,000 and subsequently to $200,000.

“Last night, we also heard a recording of his voice saying he was OK, and he asked us to do all that the kidnappers told us to do because his life was at risk,” Tec’s 30-year-old son Johnny said Oct. 28.
[Read more]

The war that has claimed more victims than any other since world war two is reigniting at potentially horrific cost. Several million Congolese died before international efforts to broker peace began to bear fruit in 2003. The United Nations’ largest peacekeeping force has since prevented a legacy of localised conflicts regaining nationwide momentum, although atrocities have continued on a monstrous scale. This time, however, the pattern of fighting, and of bellicose statements emanating from neighbouring capitals, bears alarming similarities to events that led in the past to a devastating regional war.

Ethnic Tutsi rebels allied to neighbouring Rwanda are poised to capture the eastern city of Goma, where UN forces have their principal base. More than a million displaced villagers risk being cut off from aid. Congolese government troops are on the run and Kinshasa is appealing to Angola to intervene on its behalf. History is repeating itself. Britain and America - as Rwanda’s principal western allies - risk playing a proxy role in a possible bloodbath and collapse of the UN mission if they fail to use their leverage.
[Read more]

WASHINGTON–Under a new policy, Manassas, Virginia police officers ;plan to begin checking the citizenship status of everyone who is arrested for local and state offenses.

The new departmental policy, effective Dec. 1, expands on existing policies that allow the city’s police department to check an individual’s immigration status at an officer’s discretion, or when there is probable cause before an arrest is made.

The Manassas police department announced the policy Tuesday, a day after Chief of Police John Skinner, presented it to the Manassas City Council as a way to coordinate Manassas’ efforts with those of neighboring Prince William County. The two jurisdictions share a jail and work closely on anti-illegal immigration efforts.

“We didn’t really have an illegal immigration policy and we tried to mirror Prince William County,” said Sgt. Tim Neumann of the Manassas Police Department. “Whenever we would arrest criminals in the past, [the status check] would be done for the more serious crimes. Now, like in Prince William, this allows us to do it for the minor offenses too.”
[Read more]