We had a beautiful day today.  Any day I can wear sandals is a good day. It topped 75 today.  I left the condo around 1PM today after opening the screened balcony.  Bat Masterson was doing some highly constructive fly catching when I left.  I arrived home around 5:30.  He was still chasing flies.  Now either he is a very inadequate fly catcher or I was assaulted by a Biblical size plague of flies.  I suspect it is the former rather than the latter.  Before arriving home I went in search of my friend, Alicia, who was watching daughter Sammi play tennis.  I ended up chauffeuring 7 year old Sydney to gymnastics.  This kid is such a hoot, so loved, planned, and wanted.  I wish all kids were so fortunate in life.  Alicia has a horrible case of lupus and is always in need of prayer.

 

Let’s face it. The whole uproar about nothing concerning the POTUS to exercise his Constitutional prerogative of canning Presidential appointees has absolutely nothing to do about firing a few people who were not doing their jobs and everything to do with the fact that THE SERGE is working and troop deaths are down 60% in the past 30 days.  Rush on the non-incident.   Newsbusters

 

 

Remember when Major League Baseball  had a real commissioner? Bowie Kuhn died today.  He would annoy me at times, but he was a REAL commissioner, not the likes of what we have today. 

 

IMMIGRATION

SURPRISE:  Not all illegals come over the border from Mexico.  CounterTerror blog

 

THE BORDER PATROL UNION AND THE HATCH ACT

Have you ever  had an itch you just can’t scratch?  Or you know something isn’t just quite right but can’t quite ‘put your finger on it’?  The other day I was talking to an individual who reminded me that because of a specific employment he/she could not express any sort of opinion about the Minutemen, immigration issue or Border Patrol.  Are they crossing the line with an association with the various anti-immigration organizations through their AFL-CIO based Union – or is union hack T. J. Bonner just doing his job? I think it is a question we need to ask.  Is advocacy portrayed on the National Border Patrol Council web site a violation of the Hatch Act? 

 

Hatch Act DOs and DON'Ts 

 

Below are the primary guidelines that active Federal employees need to follow when working or volunteering on a political campaign for federal office. Remember, though, that just because the Hatch Act doesn't say "NO," that doesn't mean it's legal.

Active Federal employees may:

Be a candidate in a political election in which no candidates represent a political party

Register and vote as they choose

Assist in Voter Registration Drives

Express opinions about candidates and issues   Ah, yes, BINGO!

Attend fundraisers and contribute money to political organizations and campaigns

Volunteer on a campaign

Recruit volunteers for a political campaign

Participate in activities such as phone banking and precinct walking

Display bumper stickers, lawn signs, and other campaign paraphernalia

Raise money for their union's political action committee from other union members

Run for nonpartisan offices (that is, parties are not listed on the ballot)

Volunteer, run for, and hold an office in a local or state political party

Active Federal employees may not:

Be a candidate in a political election in which any candidate represents a political party

Raise money for a partisan political campaign

Allow their names to be used in any fundraising appeal on behalf of a partisan political campaign

Participate in a phone bank that is engaged in fundraising for a partisan campaign

Raise money for their union's political action committee from persons other than their fellow union members

 

My next question is as follows:  Are organizations such as The National Border Patrol Council legal with regard to the Hatch Act?     

This is the San Diego branch.  Is it political?  Is it engaging in political activity?  Sure looks like it to me.

 

T. J. Bonner, had of the AFL-CIO Border Patrol Union is quite active publicly with the whole anti-immigration movement.  The question is has he over-stepped, into the Hatch Act, or because he is a union hack, he can do what he wants?   

 

The reason I ask the above is quite simple.  On Sunday, when I picked up the most recent copy of the Tombstone Epitaph, (finally available online.) http://thecatscan.com/story/show/596   “Immigrants’ Kids Jailed at Border, Report says by Jeanie Bergen, who is the author of another hard-hitting piece, Deaths in the desert. http://thecatscan.com/story/show/582.

 

My train of thought:

1.  T. J. Bonner is active in the whole anti-immigration movement to the point where his activist stance is spilling over into the Border Patrol’s AFL-CIO union. 

2.  When “illegal” children are captured with their parents, the BP attempts to locate family members in the US.  If they cannot be found, the children are put in ‘family friendly’ detention centers. There they are issued prison style jump suits; are kept in cells with their mothers; and offered highly inadequate schooling.  They are kept locked up most of the day with little opportunity for play.  (The Official rules for detention)

 

3.  The BP also contacts Child Protective Services who works with their Mexican counterpart.

4.  From October, 2006 until Feb of this year some 12,466 juveniles were processed through the Nogales center alone.  The Border Patrol has kept no records on how many cases went to CPS or how many were returned to Mexico.

5.  Sometimes these children are placed in foster care.

6.  The Tucson Sector Border Patrol does not keep track of the number of families that come through their system.

 

My question:  Is T. J. Bonner using his lobby activities as union hack for the Border Patrol’s AFL-CIO affiliated union to mask the fact that the Border Patrol is behaving with little or no responsibility or accountability when it comes to children placed in their care?

 

What is life like in a juvenile detention center?

 

I must make a comment that the detention centers for juveniles today under the Bush Administration is far superior to what it was during the Clinton years when various human rights groups would cite atrocity after atrocity.

 

The SPLC recently put out a report on documented foreign workers.  I am wondering if it might shed some information on why people choose to come into the US illegally rather than go the ‘legal’ way.     Amazingly, it is possible a case could be made that people who are illegal work fewer hours and earn substantially more money than do those who are as documented labor. 

  

MORE INCESTUOUS ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORGANIZATIONS

FIRE Coalition 

Check out the dimwit (would someone please find another word for me to use besides dimwit) Mothers Against Illegal Aliens.  The links  page is a piece of work.  Scroll down to SprawlCity – against urban sprawl.  Roy Beck is one of the leaders here.  He is also affiliated with Numbers USA  – which takes us right straight back to John Tanton!  And BINGO – we go right back to eugenics and population control – a John Tanton specialty!  

 

I followed the bouncing racist ball and came up with another blog:  Powder Blue Report – I don’t even want to know about this one.  Anywhere there is an article complaining about the Feds helping Mexicans wire money back to Mexico.  Well, I’m about ready to lose it here, boys and girls.  It’s their money.  They earned it.  They have a right to spend it where they darn well please and when they darn well please.

 

Keep following. 

Now we have The United Patriots of America where they highlight an article by Daneen G. Peterson, who was profiled in the Subway Canaries. 

 How about Americans for Constructional Enforcement?

Operation Body Count?

 

 Read Stratasphere today. 

 

PRIMARIES 2008

Is Romney’s hopped up NH poll juiced?   

Obama was registered as a Muslim when he went to school in Indonesia.

When will Romney’s flipping and flopping tendencies finally catch up with him.  /

More on Rudy and the firefighters.

Hillary’s foreign policy.

 Fred Thompson on Ghandi 

Liz Mair on Romney-care

Has Delay sandbagged Gingrich? 

 

This came from my friend Tony:

Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Algore were in an plane crash. They're up in Heaven, and God's sitting on the great white throne. 

 

God addresses Algore first. "Algore , what do you believe in?" Algore replies, "Well, I believe I won that election, but that it was your Will that I did not serve. And I've come to understand that now." God thinks for a second and says, "Okay, very good. Come and sit at my Left."  

 

God then addresses Bill. "Bill, what do you believe in?" Bill replies, "I believe in forgiveness. I've sinned, but I've never Held a grudge against my fellow man, and I hope no grudges are held Against me." God thinks for a second and says, "You are forgiven, my son Come and Sit at my right." 

 

God then addresses Hillary. "Hillary, what do you believe in?" 


"I believe you're in my chair."