This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Legal

  • Hispanic activists urge Congress to turn a blind eye

    I guess the immigration issue has reached the point of absurdity. According to  Washington Examiner’s Dan Genz;

    Several Hispanic immigrant organizations called on Congress Wednesday to pass a moratorium on the enforcement of key immigration laws, saying the system is broken and families are being ripped apart by deportations. Latino Families United and other groups, speaking at a news conference on Capitol Hill, called for a ban on raids, deportations and no-match letters until new immigration reforms are approved. They asserted that the country’s many legal immigrants would make immigration reform a top priority when choosing who to support in 2008 elections.

    “The anxiety that children and families go through when they are raided and split is one of the many reasons why this is going to be a new dimension of the immigration movement,” said Pedro Aviles, director of the National Capital Immigration Coalition.

    Well, then why not pass a moratorium on the arrest of all parents since we don’t want to cause anyone’s children any anxiety? I feel sorry for those toddlers whose parents get caught selling drugs, driving recklessly or being generally foolish on those “Cops” programs. Why don’t we cut all criminals’ children a break? For pete’s sake.

    But illegal immigration critic Greg Letiecq of the Help Save Manassas group called such a proposal “laughable.”

    “To say it would be a better place if we just didn’t enforce our laws is so far beyond ludicrous, I couldn’t imagine anyone taking this tripe seriously,” Letiecq said. “It is not the character of Americans to just give up on something that is important.”

    If people are allowed to pick and choose which of our laws they want to obey, and which they can be held accountable for violating, why have laws at all?

    But Hispanic activists aren’t the only people demanding that the laws not be enforced. The unions are taking up the fight, too;

    Alleging that federal agents violated workers’ rights during raids in December, the workers’ union filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop immigration officials from conducting what the union says are illegal workplace raids.

    The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas, says agents unlawfully detained workers and violated their constitutional rights during raids at six JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plants. The lawsuit also demands that the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pay damages to the workers.

    ICE officials investigating identity theft arrested 1,297 workers at the plants, but union officials have said more than 12,000 workers were detained against their will during the operation.

    But there is good news for those of us who think that laws are written to be enforced, from the Herndon, VA police;

    The Herndon Police Department said it has netted more than a dozen suspected illegal aliens in the first two months since it began participating in a federal immigration enforcement program.

    Town police have received Immigration and Customs Enforcement training through the 287(g) program, authorizing selected officers to enforce immigration laws.
     
    According to Herndon Police Chief Toussaint Summers, for the months of June and July – reportedly the first full months of 287(g) participation – 13 out of 19 contacts made in accordance with the program resulted in detained individuals being turned over to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. Those suspected illegal aliens will eventually be processed through the federal court system for possible deportation.

    Imagine that – police who are trained and allowed to do so, can actually catch illegal immigrants. Who’d have ever thought that?

  • ACLU; US Military hides attrocities in plain sight

    Yes, the AMERICAN Civil Libeties Union is busy bashing our troops again. I emphasized the AMERICAN part of their moniker because they’ve lost sight the fact that their stated purpose is to protect AMERICAN civil liberties, yet they want to interject themselves into Iraqi civil rights. From an Associated Press article;

    New documents released Tuesday regarding crimes committed by U.S. soldiers against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan detail a troubling pattern of troops failing to understand and follow the rules that govern interrogations and deadly actions.
     
    The documents, released by the American Civil Liberties Union ahead of a lawsuit, total nearly 10,000 pages of courts-martial summaries, transcripts and military investigative reports about 22 incidents. They show repeated examples of soldiers believing they were within the law when they killed local citizens.

    Wow! 22 incidents and 10,000 pages – that’s a lot. And the government is hiding this from us? Well, no.

    In the suffocation, soldiers covered the man’s head with a sleeping bag, then wrapped his neck with an electrical cord for a “stress position” they insisted was an approved technique.

    Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer was convicted of negligent homicide in the death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush following a January 2006 court-martial that received wide media attention due to possible CIA involvement in the interrogation.

    Oh, so he was convicted in a publicized court martial. That’s hardly being secretive.

    But even after his conviction, Welshofer insisted his actions were appropriate and standard, documents show.

    “The simple fact of the matter is interrogation is supposed to be stressful or you will get no information,” Welshofer wrote in a letter to the court asking for clemency. “To put it another way, an interrogation without stress is not an interrogation — it is a conversation.”

    Oh, I see it’s the government’s fault because this fellow didn’t know that the military frowned upon strangling people. I guess he’s the first person in history to deny culpability in his actions by appearing to not know the difference between right and wrong.

    Considered against recent cases, including soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division convicted of killing detainees in Samarra, Iraq, last year and the ongoing courts-martial of Marines accused of killing 24 civilians in Haditha, these new examples shed light on the frequency soldiers and Marines may disregard the rules of war.

    Nasrina Bargzie, an attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said the documents also show that theres an abundance of information being withheld from public scrutiny.

    Oh, so how do I know about the incidents in Samarra and Haditha if this is all being witheld from public scrutiny WHILE THE INVESTIGATIONS AND TRIALS ARE ALL ONGOING, you pinheaded dorks? Oh, and by the way, most of the Marines in the Haditha incident have been cleared of wrong doing – I guess you just failed to mention that for the sake of space, huh?

    “The government has gone out of its way to hide the human cost of this war,” Bargzie said. Releasing the documents now “paints at least a part of that picture so people at least know what’s going on,” she said.

    They’ve gone out of their way? Then why are they releasing the documents to you? Seems they didn’t can’t go far enough out of their way, does it? ACLU must be having a fund drive this month and they can’t find any US citizens being abused so they’re fishing for some Iraqis to represent.

  • DC Mayor Fenty on gun rights

    I’ve seen some stupid poltical remarks before, but today’s opinion piece in the Washington Post by DC’s new mayor, Adrian Fenty, is probably the most juvenile and faulty writings of any politician – ever. Aside from mistating constitutional precedence, he also mistates the purpose of the US Constitution;

    On a related note, the courts also repeatedly recognized that the Second Amendment is meant to constrain the federal government alone. Another longstanding Supreme Court precedent, Presser v. Illinois, establishes establishes that the Second Amendment simply does not apply to state regulation of gun possession and use. The District should have authority just like that of the states, if for no other reason than to avoid the absurd result that the nation’s capital alone would lack the ability to take the steps the local government believes are needed to keep its residents safe.

    On it’s face, it sounds almost reasonable – except that I wonder how Mayor Fenty would feel if the same principle were applied to the abortion issue. Since the Constitution only applies to restraining the Federal Government, how about we let the several States decide whether they want to ban abortions or not – without interference from Federal courts.

    Or, we could just let the States decide whether or not they want to enforce the 14th Amendment, or, Hell, they can just decide whether they want to fiddle with the First Amendment, for Pete’s sake.

    The handgun ban has saved countless lives, but this fundamental part of the District’s public safety laws will be no more if the Supreme Court does not review and overturn this year’s decision by the D.C. Circuit.

    I’d give a coupla bucks to see how the Hell Fenty can make such an irresponsible statement. Prove to me that the handgun ban has saved lives. There have been 126 homocides in the District this year as of August 31st  (there were four more over the weekend). And the DC cops, according their own statistics at the above link, after thirty years of a handgun ban, still took 1519 guns off the street THIS YEAR ALONE. Your ban isn’t working and only criminals have guns – law-abiding citizens are undefended. Even long-gun ownership is so restrictive that personal protection is impossible. Why do you think the city with the most restrictive handgun laws in the country has the highest murder rate? Stevie Wonder could see the answer from space - the handgun ban isn’t  disarming criminals.

    So, Mayor Fenty, it appears that you’re on the side of criminals in this. And for all of the wrong reasons.

  • NY Times; punish those Haditha Marines even if they’re innocent

    By way of Republicanpundit of Hang Right Politics, I found this sorry, whining turd of an “opinion” piece from the New York Times today;

    Last December, when the Marine Corps charged four infantrymen with killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005, the allegation was as dark as it was devastating: after a roadside bomb had killed their buddy, a group of marines rampaged through nearby homes, massacring 24 innocent people.

    In Iraq and in the United States, the killings were viewed as cold-blooded vengeance. After a perfunctory military investigation, Haditha was brushed aside, but once the details were disclosed, the killings became an ugly symbol of a difficult, demoralizing war. After a fuller investigation, the Marines promised to punish the guilty.

    But now, the prosecutions have faltered.

    See that? The prosecutions have faltered – not that the Marines are innocent, it’s those incompetent boobs that can’t prosecute them without evidence. Because we, the editorial board of the New York Times, already declared them guilty – what more evidence do you need?  

    Now their final attempt to get a murder conviction is set to begin, with a military court hearing on Thursday for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the last marine still facing that charge. He is accused of killing 18 Iraqis, including several women and children, after the attack on his convoy.

    If the legal problems that have thwarted the prosecutors in other cases are repeated this time, there is a possibility that no marine will be convicted for what happened in Haditha.

    Nor is it yet clear whether officers higher up the chain of command than Sergeant Wuterich will be held responsible for the inadequate initial investigation.

    Translation; maybe those incompetent boobs can get it right this last time, after all we know they’re guilty because public opinion convicted them last year. Can’t the Marines succumb to public pressure and convict them like those Duke lacrosse players? Didn’t the Marines learn how a real justice system is supposed to work?

    On the other hand, some scholars said the spate of dismissals has left them wondering what to think of the young enlisted marines who, illegally or not, clearly killed unarmed people in a combat zone.

    Whether they’re guilty of an actual crime or not doesn’t matter(“illegally or not”), apparently – it’s what we should think about them for killing people in the dark in a combat zone. So even if they get off, it’s OK for us think poorly of these Marines cuz the New York Times editorial weinies said so – after all it’s their commanders’ fault and ultimately the President’s fault for being Republicans…I…er…mean warmongers. Whew, my guilt is assuaged.

    And let’s trot out some “legal experts” who can make inane, general statements that have nothing to do with this case;

    “It certainly erodes that sense that what they did was wrong,” Elizabeth L. Hillman, a legal historian who teaches military law at Rutgers University School of Law at Camden, said of the outcomes so far. “When the story broke, it seemed like we understood what happened; there didn’t seem to be much doubt. But we didn’t know.”

    Walter B. Huffman, a former Army judge advocate general, said it was not uncommon in military criminal proceedings to see charges against troops involved in a single episode to fall away under closer examination of evidence, winnowing culpability to just one or two defendants.

    See? When the story broke, we all knew what the verdict was going to be, we started jumping to conclusions – even though we didn’t know the facts. I just don’t understand how the lack of evidence of any wrong doing can affect the Marines being found guilty. What’s wrong with those Marine lawyers, anyway? Didn’t they watch “A Few Good Men?”

    Regardless of what happened to charges against the other defendants, there is still great public pressure on the Marine Corps to investigate and punish any wrongdoing in a case in which so many civilians died.

    Don’t you mean public pressure to prosecute an uninformed perception of wrongdoing?

    I’d like to see the New York Times get on the side of law and justice for a change instead of their own prejudices. If there’s no evidence, they’re innocent, you half-witted baboons. That’s what our whole system of justice is based upon – you should read the Fifth Amendment sometime.

    “We can’t say those guys didn’t commit a crime,” said Michael F. Noone Jr., a retired Air Force lawyer and law professor at Catholic University of America. “We can only say that after an investigation, there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute.”

    Michael F. Noone, Jr., retired Air Force lawyer and professor at Catholic University of America Columbus Law School in Northeast DC, because you must’ve missed a class in law school, I’ll twig you to this; insufficient evidence to prosecute means these guys didn’t commit a crime. Despite your backstabbing on your fellow servicemembers and scurrying up their fallen bodies so you can get your idiot name in the New York Times, you scum-sucking, back-biting turd lawyer/professor bitch.

    Kathy at Hang Right Politics piles on with “Something Rep. Murtha Needs to Learn”

    But, that’s what this is all about – the NYT is running a screen for Jack Murtha. They’re demanding the heads of “officers higher up” (don’t they realize that generals are part of that entity that we call “the troops” whom we want the anti-US groups to support, too) for failing to investigate this as if it were a crime scene in Las Vegas instead of a war in Iraq. Murtha can now hold up this article and tell us how the Marines botched its investigation, so he’s been right all along.  

    And the NYT is trying to influence the Marines into prosecuting this young Staff Sergeant – just like they influenced the prosecutor in North Carolina to presecute those innocent youngsters at Duke. It’s almost ironic that they should be pushing this morally and factually bankrupt opinion piece the day after Richard Jewel died.

    If you haven’t read Chickenhawk Express’  Four Part series (so far) on the media and their sorry behavior in this Haditha Marines case (I’m sure this NY Times hit piece will be part of the series, too) you’re missing a fantastic wrap up.  

    Part I     Part II      Part III      Part IV

    And while we’re talking media bias, check out Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House for “Bias? What Media Bias?”

  • $12,000 per student for what?

    I keep saying that living in DC is like living in a third world country, and I have more proof today. The Washington Examiner reports that DC schools are reporting that they need another $120 million to finish repairs to the schools for this year. The totally clueless mayor, Adrian Fenty says of the situation;

    The $120 million will finance essential and long-neglected repairs at roughly 70 schools including fixing roofs and bathrooms and clearing health- and fire-code violations. It will also be used to ensure heat and air conditioning systems are installed and working in every classroom. “Why these things haven’t been addressed in years past is unexplainable and inexcusable”, Mayor Adrian Fenty said during a news conference outside Coolidge Senior High School, home to a freshly turfed and painted football field. “So we’re going to address them, and it’s going to cost probably about that much”.

    Well, I know you can start looking at the former school adminstrators for answer into “why” – from another Examiner article;

    Last year, Examiner reporter Bill Myers investigated Brenda Belton, who recently pleaded guilty to making $649,000 in illegal payments and sweetheart contracts to enrich herself and her friends while serving as executive director of D.C.’s Office of Charter School Oversight. Instead of making sure that every available dime was going to help special education students attending the 17 charter schools she was hired to oversee, Belton was brazenly stealing from them by forging signatures, handing out illegal kickbacks like Halloween candy, and depositing public funds into phony businesses and her own private accounts. Children in special ed already face an uphill academic climb and an uncertain future. Despicable doesn’t even begin to cover such behavior. Now, Myers reports that a teacher’s aide was also being paid two salaries for the past four years, one from the special ed department and another from outside contractors. Other special ed employees apparently collected full paychecks even after leaving the system, while their asleep-at-the-switch supervisors continued signing off on phony time sheets.

    Hmm, pretty disturbing that this sort of waste of taxpayer dollars can go undetected by the people who think that children’s education is the most important thing in their lives, huh? From Jonetta Rose Barras, also of the Examiner;

    During a news conference Monday, schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee announced there were 70 teachers who did not have assignments; their skills and subject area did not match current DCPS instructional needs. These individuals are called “excess teachers.” They are some of the folks about whom I wrote last week. They are destined, because of their seniority and rights inscribed in labor union agreements, to bump other teachers who may have more to offer the DCPS at this time in its history and, thus, could have a greater impact on children. […] Rhee, the reformer, says those 70 excess teachers with no place to go will continue to be paid. She couldn’t say how much. (Didn’t Rhee just a few weeks ago lambaste workers who couldn’t describe their jobs? Now we understand how the practice of employing adults without a portfolio is perpetuated: They want the paychecks; the government wants to placate the unions.) “I’m contractually obligated to keep those folks,” the reformer tells me. “There is a possibility we might do some kind of layoff, but nothing can happen until October.”

    Well, there are enough lawyers on the payroll to find a way out of those “contractual obligations”, I’m sure – if the city was really concerned about the money they waste. The hard-earned money that taxpayers send them every payday. See, that’s the problem – everyone forgets that those millions, billions that are wasted come out of our paychecks. Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard the arguments about repairing roads and educating children and all of things that Leftists claim are essential – but that’s not what tax money is doing anymore. It’s lining pockets. That’s why bridges collapse, That’s why DC streets are lined with illiterate morons – GOVERMENT CAN’T DO WHAT THEY COLLECT OUR MONEY TO DO!!! When are the American taxpayers going to get that through our thick heads?

  • So, who’s the Census Bureau work for?

    According to this bit of performance art from the Associated Press (by way of Fox News), the Census Bureau is worried that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau might actually enforce the law;

    The Census Bureau wants immigration agents to suspend enforcement raids during the 2010 census so the government can better count illegal immigrants.

    Raids during the population count would make an already distrustful group even less likely to cooperate with government workers who are supposed to include them, the Census Bureau’s second-ranking official said in an Associated Press interview.

    Deputy Director Preston Jay Waite said immigration enforcement officials did not conduct raids for several months before and after the 2000 census. But today’s political climate is even more volatile on the issue of illegal immigration.

    Enforcement agents “have a job to do,” Waite said. “They may not be able to give us as much of a break” in 2010.

    So? The more illegal aliens they catch, the fewer you have to count, goofball. And maybe the illegal immigrants are mistrustful of the government because they’re in violation of our laws.

    I might remind you that there was a criminal in the White House in 2000 – someone who didn’t give much thought to enforcing the law as much as he thought about writing new laws he wouldn’t enforce. The only illegal aliens he was worried about were 7 year-old Cuban boys.

    Every ten years I get a threatening letter from the Census Bureau that they can prosecute me for not filling out their form (which is a lie by the way) yet they want other agencies to suspend law enforcement activities for them? Dumbasses.

    In related news, Herndon, Virginia voted to keep their Day Labor center open and to fire the previous operators who don’t understand that they work for their employers and should do what their employers tell them to do;

    The vote ended the uncertainty over whether Project Hope and Harmony, the faith-based nonprofit that runs the site, will be allowed to continue in that role permanently.

    “It will be a big disappointment for us and the workers” when Hope and Harmony leaves, said Bill Threlkeld, director of the group, which is affiliated with Reston Interfaith. The group will consider remaining until a new manager is found but will continue its practice of not checking immigration status.

    Council member William B. Tirrell Sr. said “the rule of law” took priority over workers’ needs. “The law is the law is the law,” he said. “We can’t decide by whimsy what laws you’re going to enforce.”

    How hard is it to check whether someone should be allowed to work in the US before helping them locate work? Jeez.

    And of course the “immigration advocates” are convoluted when discussing their position;

    Immigration advocates said immigrants who are legally able to work in the U.S. are only a small fraction of the undocumented immigrants in the country.

    “I think the Town Council has basically positioned themselves with some options still open,” day-labor center operator Bill Threlkeld said. “We’re not particularly happy with some of the conditions that we were fighting to have in place.”

    Um, Bill you’re not an “immigration advocate”, you’re an accessory to a felony. And, ya know the “big duh” here is that only a small fraction of illegal immigrants have permission to work – that’s kinda the point of the whole thing.

    The city of Herndon voted Wednesday night to keep the day-labor center in the city open but made it a rule to check workers’ identification before allowing them to work.

    Workers won’t necessarily need a driver’s license, but they will have to be able to prove they can legally work in the U.S.

    Immigration advocates said that defeats the purpose of a day-labor center.

    Again, kinda the whole point. Facilitating a criminal act is a criminal act. Working without permission to work is not legal. Do I need to get my crayons out to explain it to ya? From the Examiner;

    The new council has been trying all year to secure a new operator for the site who would check the immigration status of the workers there, a move that would dramatically alter the nature of the center and likely thrust many of the workers back out into the community.

    Or, they could thrust themselves back home and focus on making their hometowns prosperous and stop the brain drain from Latin America.

  • YearlyKos moderator enforces DoD policy (Updated 2x)

    I picked up this story from Little Green Footballs who got it from American Prospect that some moderator shouted down an audience member in uniform;

    [A] young man in uniform stood up to argue that the surge was working, and cutting down on Iraqi casualties. The moderator largely freaked out. When other members of the panel tried to answer his question, he demanded they “stand down.” He demanded the questioner give his name, the name of his commander, and the name of his unit. And then he closed the panel, no answer offered or allowed, and stalked off the stage….

    Well, apparently Wes Clark, this century’s “Little Mac” McClellan, explained that a member of the military can’t participate in polical meetings in uniform. Funny, that wasn’t the argument the Left used when Adam Kokesh was bothering people while in uniform on the National Mall during anti-war rallies.

    What Wesley Clark was referring to was DoD Directive 1334.01 which states;

    It is DoD policy that:

     3.1.  The wearing of the uniform by members of the Armed Forces (including retired members and members of Reserve components) is prohibited under any of the following circumstances:

      3.1.1.  At any meeting or demonstration that is a function of, or sponsored by an organization, association, movement, group, or combination of persons that the Attorney General of the United States has designated, under Executive Order 10450 as amended (reference (c)), as totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive, or as having adopted a policy of advocating or approving the commission of acts of force or violence to deny others their rights under the Constitution of the United States, or as seeking to alter the form of Government of the United States by unconstitutional means.

      3.1.2.  During or in connection with furthering political activities, private employment or commercial interests, when an inference of official sponsorship for the activity or interest may be drawn.

      3.1.3.  Except when authorized by the approval authorities in subparagraph 4.1.1., when participating in activities such as unofficial public speeches, interviews, picket lines, marches, rallies or any public demonstration, which may imply Service sanction of the cause for which the demonstration or activity is conducted.

      3.1.4.  When wearing of the uniform may tend to bring discredit upon the Armed Forces.

    Now unless Kos admits that it’s a totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive organization, the guy was within his rights to be there and in uniform. It’s just a lame excuse to keep people from hearing that current operations have improved life in Iraq, while hiding behind a DoD policy that the Left doesn’t agree with when it suits them.

    And in case this Jon Solz dude who dressed down the soldier is wondering – I don’t care what his rank is or was – I’d tear him a new aft-orifice if I ever caught him intimidating a soldier – especially like a lame little puss. “What’s your unit? Who’s your commander?” That’s stuff real leaders stop doing their first day.

    Its pretty disingeuous of Solz, representing himself as a veteran in everything he writes and says, representing an organization called VoteVets which masquerades as a  nonpartisan organization, but is clearly a tool of the Democrats, and then Solz silences a member of the military. 

    Solz didn’t seem to have a problem with the soldier sitting in the audience – until he had something to say. If there was something wrong with him being at the event, someone should have said something during the 44 minutes he sat there.

    More hypocrisy.

    Michele Malkin has more links and thoughts. mRed at Invincible Armor tracks Leftist reaction. Volunteer Opinion Journal faults global warming for their meltdown. Ace says it’s a good excuse to prosecute Beauchamps.

    Little Green Footballs now has the video.

    UPDATE: Pajamas Media‘s Andrew Marcus has an exclusive interview with the young buck sergeant (h/t Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive). 

    UPDATE II: It seems that Daily Kos is also censoring their diarists who question Solz’ treatment of the young buck sergeant at the center of the fury. One story remains, but LGF has a screenshot if it goes the way of it’s predecesor.

  • Latin immigrants to boycott illegal activity

    The “immigrants” in Prince William County, VA, in probably one of the strangest boycotts in history, are planning on ceasing illegal activity there for a week to teach the legal residents of the county a lesson, according to the Washington Examiner’s Dan Gentz;

    The Hispanic immigrant population in Prince William County is considering a major business boycott to protest a new county resolution aimed at making it easier to deport illegal immigrants and banning them from receiving some government services.

    The four-week boycott on purchases from nonimmigrant merchants would be the centerpiece of a broader, coordinated response to the resolution that may also include a one-day work stoppage.

    Details still have to be worked out and will be announced Tuesday, said Ricardo Juarez, a coordinator with Mexicanos Sin Fronteras. The boycott may be set for Aug. 27 through Sept. 23.

    Um, how does one become “Mexicans Without Borders” without a border? Mexico is a country that has borders, dumbass. So a Mexican would have to come from that political entity called Mexico that is clearly delineated with borders. Mexico is not a race.

    Reminds me of a line from a really bad movie I saw once “Yeah, I’ve been to Brazil, Honduras, Argentina – all of those Mexican countries”.

    But, to the boycott; I don’t understand that either. Ya gotta eat, so all of the boycotters will stock up the week before the boycott, and then restock after the boycott – so what’s the point? Or is there a point?

    Pamela Constable of the Washington Post reports on the disorganized organization attempts to organize;

    Latinos in Prince William County, angered and panicked by a county resolution to crack down on illegal immigrants, are swiftly banding together against what they see as an assault on their community. They vowed this week to block the resolution through a boycott, a petition drive and possibly a labor strike or lawsuit.

    At packed public meetings in three towns this week, organizers signed up volunteers, circulated petitions, set up a hotline for reports of discrimination and announced a campaign of phone calls and e-mails to county officials. They also said they would organize caravans to visit Loudoun County and other communities where Latinos feel targeted.

    So let me get this straight; these lawbreakers are going to teach the residents of Loudon and Prince William County a lesson by ceasing their illegal activity for a week? Of course, we need the debate about illegal aliens muddied by confusing legal aliens with those here illegally;

    Jose Orellana, a 24-year-old El Salvadoran who moved to Manassas Park four years ago with a permit to work, said he turned out Thursday night because of concerns about the county’s resolution.

    “It doesn’t make sense. Everybody came into this country to work and everybody pays taxes,” Orellana said.

    Um, Jose, you have a work permit – you’re here legally. You don’t have a dog in this fight. You’re defending people who didn’t bother to get the right paperwork – people we can’t keep track of. How are they paying taxes, Jose? Sales tax? Possibly. Income tax? Not likely.

    But many legal Latino residents at the three meetings said they feared the resolution would also make them targets of police harassment and official hostility. They said they believed its true aim is to make life difficult for Latinos.

    “We are all worried about these new laws,” said Marta Manzanares, 25, a legal resident from El Salvador who attended the Woodbridge meeting with her husband, a construction worker; their two small sons; and about 500 other Latinos. “Maybe our children will have to leave school and become illiterate. . . . We came out here to buy a house and have a quiet life. Maybe now we can lose that, too.”

    Come on, Marta. When has anything like that happened to legal and law abiding residents in this country? That’s just hyperbole and you know it. In fact, both the Post and Examiner stories just call the group “latins”. Loudon and Prince William County are trying to stop crime – if you’re a legal resident you have nothing to fear. When I travel in Latin America, I always carry my passport and visas and travel papers – what’s the big deal about you carrying yours?

    My wife always has her Resident Alien card in her purse and she certainly doesn’t fear being deported. Nor my step-daughter, nor her daughter. This is all bluster to confuse the discussion as a race issue when it’s a legal issue. We deport all kinds of people we catch here illegally. And Hillary Clinton panders to them, too.

    From the Post story;

    “We are like a sleeping elephant,” said Elmer Arias, president of the D.C.-based Salvadoran American Chamber of Commerce. “We who are citizens have good jobs and become comfortable. We forget that we have benefited from the community and that we have the obligation to help our people.”

    Elmer, you also have an obligation to contribute to the security of the nation that has created the environment in which you can prosper and be comfortable. I’ll have pity for you when you put the national security of the United States before petty things like language and race.