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

Category: Montgomery Co./Maryland

  • El Pollo Rico esta cerrado; Illegal Immigrants deported

    I saw this story initially on Telemundo’s local news last night and to hear it told on the Spanish language channel, you’d have thought that Federal agents were persecuting hispanic-Americans. I didn’t hear anything about the money laundering until I searched the web. This from the Washington Post;

    Four members of a family that owns popular chicken restaurants in the Washington area were arrested by federal agents yesterday for knowingly employing illegal immigrants and laundering the money earned from that business, according to immigration officials.

    Francisco Carlos Solano, 55, and his his wife, Inos Solano, 59, of Germantown; Consuelo Solano, 69, of Arlington County; and Juan Faustino Solano, 57, of Kensington were charged with employing and harboring illegal immigrants, money laundering and structuring deposits to avoid financial reporting requirements, according to a criminal complaint unsealed yesterday. Nine employees of their El Pollo Rico restaurant in Wheaton were taken into custody and will be placed in deportation proceedings, authorities said.

    The Solanos were all legal immigrants from Peru and Columbia – but they were dealing with illegal immigrants. Now, to hear Telemundo’s news readers tell it, Federal agents were harrassing Hispanic businesses, but as it turns out, Federal agents were arresting criminals. Even if you disregard the fact that they were harboring illegals, there was still over $7 million dollars being laundered – and that could’ve been used in the drug trade or terrorist activities – or human trafficking. From the Post again;

    Federal agents say the Solanos deposited more than $6.6 million into a business account between June 2002 and September 2006 in increments of $7,000 to $9,000, which authorities say was done to avoid filing currency transaction reports that must be submitted with deposits that exceed $10,000.

    Now that’s supicious. From the local NBC4 news;

    On Friday, agents said they seized more than $3 million in cash and jewelry from residences of the defendants, and several vehicles.

    Investigators said the money was hidden but could easily be accessed at the residences in Germantown and Wheaton.

    “In one residence we found over $2 million concealed in various places, including kitchen cabinets. In the other residence we found about $1.5 million in various safes,” said James Dinkins, of Immigration Customs and Enforcement.

    Officials said their investigation began about a year ago because of suspicious banking activity such as a quick succession of high-volume deposits and withdrawals. Officials said the underlying immigration violations were revealed over the course of the investigation.

    Nine immigrant workers, employees of El Pollo Rico and residents of Guatemala, were arrested and charged with immigration violations in connection to the case. Officials said they face possible deportation.

    I’ll tell you why this story interests me; it’s about a quarter-mile from my home (I prefer to live among Latins and Asians than among the goofy yuppies and hippies in Chevy Chase and Bethesda). The smoke from the roasting chicken filled the air of the hill on which Wheaton sits and is a beacon to the passing hungry people. Apparently, I’ve been complicit since I’ve been a frequent customer of El Pollo Rico – y es la verdad que el pollo esta bien sabroso y rico. Pero…I mean…but that’s definitely criminal behavior.

    This morning I went to my local barbershop, where the haircutters are Latin and Chinese immigrants (legal, I’m sure) was empty. Usually the whole neighborhood is bustling with Latin customers, but not today. The Washington Post noticed, too;

    “There’s much hubbub right now because of what happened,” Juan Lopez, 27, of Wheaton said in Spanish. “There are many people who don’t want to return to work, because they think immigration will come back.”

    Lopez, who said he entered the country legally, said he quit his job at a nearby business because he feared immigration officers.

    Seems to me that a legal immigrant would have nothing to fear. And I wonder if Juan Lopez was his real name.

    What really pissed me off about the whole thing (besides the fact that I’ve been duped by El Pollo Rico into funding whatever illegal activity they’ve been involved in) is the Montogomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger on Telemundo last night explaining that Montgomery County cops were not involved in the raid and that the Hispanic community has nothing to fear from the Mont. Co. Police because they have no intention of enforcing the law in Montgomery County. There’s nothing on the Mont. Co. Police website of the television conference. I guess the statement was in reaction to things like this quoted from the Post story;

    [Luis] Lora also worried that the arrest would negatively impact the image of the Hispanic community. “They make the community look bad,” Lora said. “If he’s a minority, people will say every minority does the same thing.”

    And the arrests and the ensuing rumors caused a near riot at the small strip mall;

    Shortly after the raid, rumors of immigration arrests spread throughout the community, which is heavily populated by Latinos, causing several witnesses to become angry, News4’s Jackie Bensen said.

    According to Bensen, that anger appeared to boil over when a crowd in the shopping center where Pollo Rico is located witnessed a tow truck towing an SUV that belonged to a restaurant employee.

    The tow truck was taking the vehicle away because it violated the parking time limit, Bensen said. The move caused an angry exchange between witnesses and the tow truck driver.

    Friends of the SUV owner teamed up to pull the vehicle off of the tow truck, Bensen said. The owner then left the scene in the vehicle.

    That’s stupid. If the Latin community quit facilitating illegal immigration by equating it with legal immigration, and calling 4th and 5th generation Americans illegal immigrants, maybe they’d be taken a little more seriously. Legal immigrants helping illegal immigrants enter this country and setting up shop doesn’t help, either.

    I’ve always admitted that I admire the work ethic many Latin immigrants bring to this country – and in Metro DC, the truth is that illegals do the jobs that the lazy-ass Americans who populate this welfare kingdom won’t do for any price. That may sound cliche` to many of you, but you have to live here to see it for yourself.

    However, I support the federal government enforcing the law and shipping every illegal they catch back to their own countries – I also hope that those who are deported and who want to come here and work hard come back legally.

  • Army told “Hurry up and wait”

    Now all of the Democrats who whined so loudly and so long about the condition of OUTPATIENT facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are trying to block the expansion of facilities at Bethesda Naval Hospital to accomodate the Walter Reed move. According to Steve Vogel of the Washington Post;

    A review panel’s recommendation that the Pentagon accelerate the expansion of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda drew a wary reaction yesterday from local officials and neighbors concerned about traffic problems.

    * * * * *

    The report says the Pentagon should speed up the 2005 decision by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission to consolidate medical care at the Bethesda facility. It recommends that money to break ground for the expansion be released as soon as possible and that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates “accelerate or waive” an environmental study being conducted by the Navy.

    But Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who represents Montgomery County in Congress, said yesterday, “We shouldn’t be cutting any corners.

    “Some people are saying let’s slam on the brakes; others are saying we should hit the accelerator,” Van Hollen said. “I think we should proceed in a deliberate way.”

    Yes, that’s my Congressman. He’s quick to hit at the Bush Administration, but slow to act in the interests of our nation and our troops.  A few weeks ago, the troops were a “priority”, now the priority is the poor dregs who’ll be stuck in traffic on Wisconsin Avenue because they’re too damn lazy to take the bus or the subway to work.

    But he’s not the only one. Jim “Fighting Drunk” Moran;

    But some members of Congress, including Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), insist that Walter Reed be kept open. “What you’re doing is changing horses in the middle of the stream at a time when soldiers need the best medical care,” Moran said yesterday.

    According to what Democrats were saying a few weeks ago, that’s what they wanted to happen – they wanted to change horses in mid-stream.

    And from the ugliest woman to walk the floor of the Senate;

    Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) also expressed concern about closing Walter Reed, “given the current strain on patient care for our soldiers.”

    So let me get this right – Democrats want everything to change for the troops, except everything must remain the same. This is classic Democrat double talk. they’ve done the same thing on the war, on education, on welfare reform, on Social Security, on nearly every issue before them. They want everything done yesterday – but only as long as nothing changes.

    So why do the Democrats want to slow down on Walter Reed? Because the District stands to lose 6,000 jobs when the medical facility moves 10 miles away to Bethesda (keep in mind driving ten miles through the District and southern Maryland can take two hours depending on the time of day). Most of those jobs are menial kitchen and jantorial labor. There’s nothing in that area to attract businesses that could replace such an employer.

    The District wants the Army to just turn over the buildings to the city, so the city can turn the buildings, which are too dilapidated for outpatients, into low-rent apartments so the District can have some more slums to warehouse the il-educated denizens of DC. At this time the Army is resisting that plan – so Demorats are waiting for a friendlier administration that will let them become the Mid-Atlantic’s slum lords. 

    Read all of the Washington Post’s genuine frontpage concern for the troops here, before the Democrats started stonewalling the process and got this particular story moved to page 3 while the frontpage is reserved for really important stuff like Rove’s missing emails and FEMA’s wasted food.

  • “I know politics better than you do.”

    Yesterday, Maryland’s Republican Governor Robert Erlich campaigned with Baltimore Democrats who are discouraged with their own party’s candidate Martin O’Malley, an ineffective politician at the least. O’Malley has been through seven police chiefs in 7 years and has managed to double the murder rate as mayor of Baltimore. He’s fired everyone who ever made a difference in the inner-city school districts and run any effective bureaucrats out of the city making Baltimore his private fiefdom.

    Further on in the Washington Times story, the quotes from O’Malley supporters at another rally are staggering.

    Mrs. Gladden said she supports Mr. O’Malley’s bid for governor only because it would help his fellow Democrats regain power.
        “I have never voted for Martin O’Malley, never in my life, because I don’t care for him,” she said. “But you know what, I’m wearing his shirt, got his sign on the lawn, and quite frankly, I hope to God and I pray every day that O’Malley becomes our next governor.”

    That’s pretty bad. If I may paraphrase this moonbat’s quote; “Our guys an idiot and an incompetent moron for whom I’d never vote – except for purely political reasons. It doesn’t matter how much damage he does to the State, families or our children. He’s a Democrat so vote for him” But there’ s even more;

    “I know politics better than you do. Support O’Malley,” Mrs. Glenn, a candidate in District 45, told the audience packed into a storefront room.

    Another paraphrase, if I may; “All you stupid idiots just vote the way I tell you.” It keeps getting better;

    “Focus on the seat,” said Mr. Tarrant, who likely will represent District 40. “We need the right Democrat in the seat. He can make the right selections.”

    “The best guy we have is an idiot, but he can pick people who aren’t so much.”

    At least we’ve got the Democrats recorded as being Democrats. They’re not so worried about putting the right people in office as they are about putting Democrats in office – whether they think those Democrats can do those jobs or not. It makes you wonder about the other seats across the country doesn’t it?

    It seems that Democrats are just running photogenic candidates who can talk sweet and stroke the crowds. But then, that’s nothing new, is it? This inside look of what Democrats are telling their party-faithful should pretty much wake up those indecisive independents, and it should drive the Republican voters to the polls who’ve vowed to sit this one out.

  • Slavishly supporting the party

    More of my thoughts on Steny Hoyer and Ben Cardin and Hoyer’s idiot comment about Lt Governor Steele “slavishly” supporting the Republican Party issues.

    Steny Hoyer and Ben Cardin both voted 99% with Bill Clinton in the 90s. They both slavishly supported the 1993 tax increase – the same tax increase that raised taxes on the lowest income American families, the dead and Social Security recipients despite the fact that they had promised us middle class tax cuts. The George Bush tax cuts that Lt Governor Steele supports cut taxes on lower income Americans. Some had their marginal rates cut from 15% to 10% – a 33.3% reduction – while others with lower incomes had their tax burden reduced 100%. While Clinton, Cardin and Hoyer raised taxes on the poorest taxpayers, President Bush and Lt Governor Steele support lowering taxes on the poorest American families. And can I mention that unemployment is down, wages are up and tax revenues are up – the whole goal of sound income tax cut program.

    Before the 1993 tax increase, Social Security recipients paid income tax on only 55% of their benefit (since they’d already paid income tax on the money when they earned it). Clinton, Cardin and Hoyer raised that from 55% to 85% – a more than 50% increase on taxable income in one year. And those elderly people who had died in 1993 before Clinton, Cardin and Hoyer passed the increase, had their survivors burdened with the tax increase because Clinton, Cardin and Hoyer made it retroactive to the first of the year. Yeah, Clinton, Cardin and Hoyer really care a lot about the “working men and women” of Maryland.

    They both slavisly supported the 1994 Hillary Healthcare take over of 1/7th of our economy – which everyone can now agree would have devastated our economy like the same imbecility has wracked the economies of Old Europe. In fact, Ben Cardin in his campaign ads claims to be an expert on socialized medicine – if he is an expert, why does he still support socialized healthcare for Americans. An expert would look at the failure of the system in Canada and Europe and say it’s a mistake. I don’t know why he considers himself an expert – unless he’s counting all of his votes over the last 30 years for socialized medicine as some sort of expertise on the subject. And what does Hoyer know – he’s been a politician since he was 27 years old in 1966. All he knows how to do is fool people. (Can I ask at this point, what kind of woodchuck name is Steny Hoyer – it sounds like some species of endangered field mouse).

    Oh, what was the 1% of the times Cardin and Hoyer didn’t vote with Clinton? It was welfare reform that Clinton had be dragged kicking and scream into by House Republicans weeks before the 1996 election – the only campaign promise Clinton kept from the 1992 election. The only Clinton program that worked (and I’ll remind the reader that Clinton promised his Democrat base that he’d reform the reform – another promise he never kept, even though not tinkering with it was the best thing he could have done).

    And what has the Democrats done to those who don’t “slavishly” support the party? Well, Joe Lieberman is clawing his way back into a seat that had been securely his just a few years ago.

    Or James Traficant “mouldering” in jail after being thrown overboard by Democrats because of his criticism of Democrats in Congress and President Clinton. Don’t get me wrong, he probably deserves to be in jail, but look how Democrats have protected loyal Lousiana Democrat William Jefferson with 90 grand in his fridge. Zell Miller couldn’t get a job mopping floors at the DNC after supporting George W. Bush in the last election. Lovable old Ed Koch is a pariah among Democrats after supporting the war against terror and Rudy Giuliani. How many Hollywood Democrats are ostracized now because of their support of this administration?

    So tell me, who is slavishly supporting whom? And who treats their members like slaves?

    Not slavishly supporting Democrats this week are Don King, Russell Simmons and Mike Tyson.

  • Hoyer apologizes to Steele

    Steny Hoyer was forced to apologize to Michael Steele last night for the ill-considered remark that Lt. Governor Steele has made “a career of slavishly supporting the Republican Party.” In light of the Democrats pounding Senator Allen (R-VA) for his “macaca” gaffe, where is the outrage from the media over this REALLY racist remark?

    I spoke to Mr Steele’s campaign manager this morning at one of the Lt Governor’s campaign stops (who by the way, turned me on to the Hoyer apology before it showed up on Drudge). He told me that Ben Cardin is running against President Bush (as I said here) while the Washington Democrats are doing the heavy lifting for the Cardin campaign against Mr. Steele. This should really anger Maryland voters that outsiders are trying to choose our representation in the Senate.

    I lucked out and got a chance to meet Mr. Steele this morning and let him know he’s got my support. I’m sure he’ll sleep well tonight.

    I’m not really that short – he’s just that tall.

    And while we’re on the subject of “slavishly” supporting a political party, what happened to Joe Lieberman when he didn’t “slavishly” support the Democrat Party on every single issue?

    In fact, the ad that little Chuckie Schumer is running against Michael Steele makes the comment that Mr Steele “loves puppies, but he REALLY LOVES GEORGE BUSH” because Mr Steele agrees with the President on four issues; the war in Iraq, stem cell research, tax cuts and he’s anti-abortion. That’s four issues out of how many?

    And guess what, Schumer, so does a large majority of Americans – just not the ones who “slavishly” support Democrat Party issues.