The Surge

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU:

Gallup says that 61 % of Americans oppose a surge in this war, but its set to happen before the end of the month.

A first wave of additional U.S. troops will go into Iraq before the end of the month under President Bush’s new war plan, a senior defense official said Tuesday. Congressional Democrats kept up their criticism of plans to add soldiers in the unpopular conflict.

Up to 20,000 troops will be put on alert and be prepared to deploy under the president’s plan, but the increase in forces on the ground will be gradual, said the official, who requested anonymity because the plans have not yet been announced.

Details were emerging a day before Bush was to address the nation on his broad initiative to shore up the fragile country after nearly four years of bloodshed. Bush is expected to link the troop increase to moves by the Iraqi government to ease the country’s murderous sectarian tensions, and to increased U.S. economic aid.

Moving first into Iraq would be the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, which is in Kuwait and poised to move quickly into the country, the defense official said.

Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he expects Bush to announce that up to 20,000 additional troops will be sent to Iraq but not to say how long the extra forces will be there.

Levin, who spoke to reporters a day after meeting with White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley, said he believes Bush will signal that the overall U.S. commitment in Iraq is not open-ended.

Bush is expected to link the troop increase to promised moves by the Iraqi government such as curbing Shiite militias that have terrorized the Sunni minority, enacting a plan to distribute oil revenue to the country’s sects and easing government restrictions on members of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party.

The added U.S. troops are also expected to be linked to a requirement that the Baghdad government commit more money toward reconstruction and send more of its own troops into the fight, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Tuesday. Cornyn, a Bush loyalist who recently met with the president to discuss Iraq, said he believes these conditions were suggested by the Iraqi government.

Ted Kennedy is blowing a gasket and promising to introduce a bill that would block funding for anything above the current level. However, Joe Biden thinks all this talk about stopping the surge is constituionally questionable. There is going to be fighting on the hill and it aint gonna be pretty. I know the public is divided on what to do in Iraq now, but I must say that flexing our muscle like this has got to be better than the Democrat plan of turning tail and waving the white flag all the way home.

Whether you think this is the right strategy or not, its gonna happen so you might as well get behind our troops and start cheering for victory.

John McCain at Powerline:

Increasing U.S. troop levels in Iraq will expose more brave Americans to danger, and increase the number of American casualties. Extending combat tours and accelerating the deployment of additional brigades is a terrible sacrifice to impose on the best patriots among us, and they will understandably be disappointed. Then they will shoulder their weapons, and do everything duty requires to win this war.

We have made many mistakes since 2003, and these will not be easily reversed. But from everything I witnessed on my most recent visit, I believe that success is still possible. Even greater than the costs incurred thus far and in the future are the catastrophic consequences that would ensue from our failure in Iraq. By surging troops and bringing security to Baghdad and other areas, we will give the Iraqis the best possible chance to succeed. Our national security, and that of our friends and allies, compels us to make our best effort to prevail, and to do it now.

Dan Riehl:

The reality is this … Bush has the authority to tell these feckless liberals and democrats to get lost. Send the troops, let’s see them cut the funding off then. The weak, ineffectual b@$+ard$ won’t get elected to anything in 2008.

And if they won’t defend this country and come to terms with the genuine global threat we face today, including in Iraq, then it’s getting close to time to start a war with them. Taken as a whole, they are more dangerous then your average car load of jihadists. They won’t even fight for America, the cowards would rather just give it away.

Kim Priestap:

The last time I checked, we don’t make strategic and tactical decision for a war based upon popular opinion. The President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, along with his generals and other advisers are the ones who determine whether or not more troops are needed in Iraq. His decision is not a popular one, but if he chose to not sent more troops because to do so was politically unpopular, he would be heavily ridiculed, and rightly so.

ACLU Defends Illegal Immigrants – Police on Trial

Cross posted from Liberally Conservative

The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the state police, alleging racial profiling and violation of the constitutional rights of 14 Guatemalan nationals during a July traffic stop that led to their detention by immigration officials.

“The citizenship status of the plaintiffs is really irrelevant to this lawsuit. These were individuals who were in a van that was stopped for a minor traffic violation. The question is whether police have a right to detain individuals for no other reason than the way they look …”

“The law generally prohibits racial profiling on the highways. It prohibits stopping or searching vehicles based on the person’s race or ethnicity, all of which we think were present in this case. It also specifically bars police officers from detaining individuals in cars longer than necessary to address the initial traffic violation. From our perspective, that restriction was clearly violated in this case.

The lawsuit names the State of Rhode Island, the state police, state police Supt. Steven M. Pare and Trooper Thomas Chabot individually; and a “Jane Doe” state trooper whose identity the ACLU was unable to establish.

According to the lawsuit, Chabot pulled over a van operated by Carlos A. Tamup because Tamup had failed to use his turn signal when changing lanes. The lawsuit alleges that Chabot first confirmed that Tamup’s license and registration were valid and that he had no criminal record.

“Chabot nonetheless proceeded to open the doors of the vehicle, and by utilizing Tamup as a translator, requested all the passengers to also provide identification,” according to an ACLU synopsis of the case. When some failed to do so, Chabot then asked them to produce documents “demonstrating their U.S. citizenship.”

When none of the 14 were able to do so, Chabot advised them that they would all be escorted to the federal Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Providence. There was a traffic violation and upon further inspection of the vehicle probable cause was being established. Not being able to speak English and provide identification would be a clue something is amiss.

Formisano, the ACLU lawyer, is seeking a declaratory judgment that the defendants violated the constitutional rights of the driver and his passengers, and demands punitive and compensatory damages on behalf of the 11 plaintiffs.The lawsuit argues that the actions by the state police “violated the state’s Racial Profiling Prevention Act, as well as the driver’s and passengers’ constitutional rights to be free from discrimination and from unreasonable searches and seizures.”Illegal aliens have constitutional rights while breaking the law? The ACLU further claims state police shouldn’t be attempting to enforce Federal laws. What doesn’t the ACLU understand about “illegal” and “probable cause.”

Brown said, “To their credit, many police departments across the country have rejected the opportunity to enforce those laws for a number of reasons. I think first they recognize they don’t have the expertise with these laws … also, that doing so undermines trust in the communities that they serve. People in immigrant communities are going to think twice before they contact police if they’ve been victims of a crime, if they think they’ll be the ones who end up on trial.”

Illegal immigrants and individuals who harbor them don’t trust police, possibly because they know laws are being broken.

Source: The Providence Journal

This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let us know at what level you would like to participate.

Chavez to Nationalize ‘Strategic’ Sectors

From The Washington Times:

Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez announced plans yesterday to nationalize Venezuela’s electrical and telecommunications companies, pledging to create a socialist state in a bold move with echoes of Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution.

“We’re moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela, and that requires a deep reform of our national constitution,” Mr. Chavez said in a televised address after swearing in his new Cabinet. “We are in an existential moment of Venezuelan life. We’re heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it.”

Mr. Chavez, who will be sworn in tomorrow to a third term that runs through 2013, also said he wanted a constitutional amendment to eliminate the autonomy of the Central Bank and would soon ask the National Assembly, solidly controlled by his allies, to give him greater powers to legislate by presidential decree.

The nationalization appeared likely to affect Electricidad de Caracas, owned by Arlington-based AES Corp., and C.A. Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, known as CANTV, the country’s largest publicly traded company.

“All of that which was privatized, let it be nationalized,” Mr. Chavez said, referring to “all of those sectors in an area so important and strategic for all of us as is electricity.”

“The nation should recover its ownership of strategic sectors,” he said.

Before Mr. Chavez was re-elected by a wide margin last month, he promised to take a more radical turn toward socialism.

Mr. Chavez said lucrative oil projects in the Orinoco River basin involving foreign oil companies should be under national ownership. He didn’t spell out whether that meant a complete nationalization, but said any vestiges of private control over the energy sector should be undone.

What can I say I have stated over and over again Chavez is a Socialist/Communist who has been centralizing his power.

Saddam Video Shows Saddam Dead

**Warning Graphic Material**

It is difficult for people to find this video so I am posting it for you. This shows Saddam Dead in a body bag with a hole in his neck where his cervical spine punched out. This is for all the conspiracy folks who do not believe he is dead based on the execution video.

We Are America!

Cross Posted from Liberally Conservative

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America, country of hope and promise, a country of diversity. I’m not fond of the word “diversity” when it’s shoved down your throat at the work place or for political reasons. Qualifications should not be judged based on ethic diversity or gender, but one’s ability to do the job. However, this country is made up of people with ethic backgrounds from around the globe. Opportunities exist especially if you have the backbone to learn the language and become educated.

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So now folks from south of the border are waving signs telling citizens of the United States they are America. In what fashion? How many marching the streets in sponsored gatherings with signs printed in English are actually legal citizens? What makes them think they are the heart and soul of America?

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Hillary Clinton triangulated to tell us they are the faces of construction and landscaping. Is that right? I think not. My brother wasn’t Latin but he was an ironworker for over 40 years. His friends were not Latin; they were ironworkers for many years too. The ironworker’s motto, “We Build America.” They didn’t wear this motto on their sleeve; they didn’t ask for favors, they climbed the heights to build skyscrapers, hospitals, and schools.

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Let’s get to the reality of these marches. When a speaker was using English, he/she had an interpreter for the audience. Many of the speakers used Spanish to address the crowds; they didn’t need an interpreter because the audience was non-English speaking. It seems to me those “We Are America” signs were neatly printed by an English-speaking printer. Did the people carrying those signs understand them? Doubtful.

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And what happened to all the flags of Mexico, Guatemala, Columbia and other South American countries we saw over the weekend, the ones flying over the American flag? The Stars and Stripes were suddenly all over because sponsors of these marches ensured it would be that way, to hide the real feelings of illegal immigrants and their legal families.

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I don’t want to generalize or insult Hispanic groups but time and again I hear anti-American rhetoric spoken in defense of immigration and ignoring the question of legality. The illegal aliens feel protesting in America is their legal right as well as free medical care, housing, education and jobs. We hear how much tax they pay. If they remain illegal it’s doubtful they take time to fill out tax forms each year. Many get paid on a cash basis by employers who don’t wish to follow labor laws. Where are you now Upton Sinclair? This is not good economics, it’s breaking the law and rationalizing.

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Politicians rushed to these rallies to show their support, many like Hillary Clinton changed their views on immigration in speeches. No one discussed the issue of law enforcement, securing borders and protecting jobs of legal citizens. The whole idea of “jobs no one else wants” is bogus.

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I knew people who worked white-collar jobs by day and ran paper routes before their regular job. I knew people who did white-collar jobs and did janitorial jobs after their 8-5 job. Why? To pay for the big cars and houses they had to have but couldn’t afford. The point? If you want something bad enough you will do the jobs no one else wants.

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The press loves the marches, giving a voice to lawbreakers and having a news story. No one discusses the formality of immigration law. Do we really need new laws or enforcement of current laws? The problem of immigration is out of control and it all comes down to abiding the laws on the books and securing the borders.

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We Are America, land of laws and English speaking citizens. Politicians are more interested in votes, very few have spoken out on the legal issues. In an election year they fear they may lose their elected seat and have to find a job somebody else may not want!

This was a production of The
Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII).

If you would like to
participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition…. brianbonner90-at-gmail-dot-com……and let
me know at what level you would like to participate.

U.S. Strike in Somalia Targets Al-Qaeda Figure

Woo Hoo!

From WaPo:

A U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship attacked suspected al-Qaeda members in southern Somalia on Sunday, and U.S. sources said the operation may have hit a senior terrorist figure.

The strike took place near the Kenyan border, according to a senior officer at the Pentagon. Other sources said it was launched at night from the U.S. military facility in neighboring Djibouti. It was based on joint military-CIA intelligence and on information provided by Ethiopian and Kenyan military forces operating in the border area.

It was the first acknowledged U.S. military action inside Somalia since 1994, when President Bill Clinton withdrew U.S. troops after a failed operation in Mogadishu that led to the deaths of 18 Army Rangers and Delta Force special operations soldiers.

One target of the strike, sources said, was Abu Talha al-Sudani, a Sudanese who is married to a Somali woman and has lived in Somalia since 1993 — the year of the attack against U.S. troops that was chronicled in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down.” In a 2001 U.S. court case against Osama bin Laden, Sudani was described by a leading witness as an explosives expert who was close to the al-Qaeda leader.

More recently, Sudani was identified by U.S. intelligence as a close associate of Gouled Hassan Dourad, head of a Mogadishu-based network that operated in support of al-Qaeda in Somalia. Dourad is one of 14 “high-value” prisoners transferred last September from CIA “black sites” to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence then disclosed that Dourad “worked for the East African al-Qaeda cell led by . . . al-Sudani” and carried out at least one mission for him, related to a plan to bomb the U.S. military base in Djibouti.

Others have identified Sudani as the financier for Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, believed responsible for the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. All are among the senior al-Qaeda operatives the Bush administration has charged were sheltered by Somalian Islamic fundamentalists controlling Mogadishu, the country’s capital. They are believed to have fled late last month when Ethiopian troops drove the fundamentalists out of the capital and toward the Kenyan border.

[In an interview early Tuesday, Abdirizak Hassan, chief of staff for Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, confirmed the strike. Hassan said he heard from American officials that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed had been killed, although U.S. officials said he had not been in their immediate sights. “Among the targets was Fazul,” he said, “and we understand that Fazul is no more.”

Hassan also said Somali officials authorized the strike. “We gave permission for actions that are more than airstrikes,” Hassan said. “Whatever it means to rout these people out, we have given them permission.”]

The Bush administration has been leading an international diplomatic effort to stabilize Somalia, including organizing an African peacekeeping force. It has called on leaders of Somalia’s new transitional government to negotiate a power-sharing arrangement with moderate members of the Islamic leadership who are not seen as terrorist facilitators and who are supported by a significant segment of Somali clans.

I love watching C-130 gunships do their stuff! I used to work on them in the Air Force and they are truly incredible planes, also called Hercy Birds. The gunships can cover every inch of a football field with bullets in just one pass. I would not want to be on the receiving end of that attack!

scientist is using the Internet to offer his customers the a voice from the grave

I just couldn’t pass this one up…

From The Houston Chronicle:

Being dead is no longer an excuse for not staying in touch.

A Houston man has started an online service that allows a person to send e-mail posthumously.

The service, called Deathswitch, ensures that critical personal information will survive, even when a person dies unexpectedly, company founder David Eagleman said.

After Deathswitch subscribers pass on, the company sends e-mail to intended recipients — anything from computer passwords or a love note to “the last word in an argument,” he said.

The service is $19.95 per year — only while the subscriber is alive, of course.

Deathswitch.com is an automated system that prompts subscribers for their password on a regular schedule to make sure they’re still alive. Subscribers typically ask to be prompted every two weeks.

When a subscriber doesn’t respond, the system goes into “worry mode,” sending more frequent prompts. A subscriber has the option of providing Deathswitch with a secondary e-mail address and leaving a friend’s e-mail address for backup.

If a subscriber fails to respond for a predetermined period of time, Deathswitch assumes that he or she has died and begins sending out e-mail messages, which can contain documents, images and videos.

If a subscriber will be without e-mail access for a long time, he or she can activate the “vacation mode” for any length of time, Eagleman said.

At least one other online service offers posthumous e-mail: thelastemail.com, based in Pamplona, Spain. That service requires a death certificate before the e-mail is released.

While thelastemail.com is more of a hybrid system, Deathswitch is more “pure Internet,” in that everything is done online.

An advantage of Deathswitch over, say, keeping stored information on a CD in a vault, is that subscribers can easily update information, Eagleman said.

All information on Deathswitch is encrypted for security.

Eagleman sees his service as a way of “bridging mortality.”

While some might find the idea creepy, he doesn’t.

“It would be so interesting to receive e-mail from someone who passed away,” he said, adding. “I don’t think there’s any honor in being silent in death.”

Call me creepy, but I think it is a good idea!

So…..who exactly raided the border?

Cross posted from Stiknstein…has no mercy

It seems there may be a little more to all this than is being talked about.
From GUARD THE BORDERS BLOGBURST
via…American Daughter

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Mexican Gunmen Involved in Arizona Border Incident Actually Uniformed Mexican Force

The incursion into U.S. territory last week by “Mexican gunmen” was not a chance confrontation between the Arizona National Guard and untrained illegal immigrants, but a deliberate “perimeter probe” by an infantry-trained, uniformed Mexican force, officials say.

Euphoric Reality has learned in exclusive interviews with high-ranking sources within both the Arizona National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol that the incident the mainstream media calls a “standoff” was in reality a military-style operation, carried out by a unit of Mexican troops dressed in military uniforms, flak jackets, and armed with AK-47s in an apparent operation to probe the border defenses and test the limits of the National Guard troops. Using easily recognizable infantry movement tactics (such as arm and hand signals and flanking maneuvers), the Mexican unit deliberately moved in a military formation across the border from Mexico, where they were picked up by National Guard surveillance.

Guard Troops Armed with “HOMELAND SECURITY BINOCULARS”

What answers would Chertoff have for the American people if this was reported by anyone but bloggers?

The Guardsmen, through an Arizona Border Patrol official, confirmed that the incident appeared to be an intelligence-gathering exercise designed to ascertain what the National Guard’s response would be to certain tactics. It is not an isolated incident, and many such probes have been reported by the Guardsmen assigned to the area.

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE

Also reporting:
A Lady’s Ruminations

This was a production of The
Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII).

If you would like to
participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition…. brianbonner90-at-gmail-dot-com……and let
me know at what level you would like to participate.