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Could the sniper have been caught earlier?
Orin Kerr has a link to an NYT article that apparently says that the sniper could have been caught earlier with more and better mega databases. He thinks "that it took the police lots of uses of databases, information sharing, and citizen-informant work to catch the sniper." I'm going to comment on the database part. I haven't read the NYT article, but anyway:
Poindexter's dream DB (a dream now shared by IBM and perhaps Dumpster Divin' Larry "call me Lawrence" Ellison) could have even caught John Muhammad before he went to DC. It would have tracked gas purchases, stolen credit cards, gun purchases, etc. After Muhammad shot the friend of his ex-wife and shot a couple people on golf courses and started travelling across the country committing other crimes, a query might have put all those things together and come up with a short list of possible suspects.
Of course, that dream DB could be put to other productive uses as well. Such as electronically ruining the lives of political enemies, checking up on all the people who've ever read, say, Desert Solitaire, and other good things. We'd be an infinitely safer society, and many crimes would be prevented in the envisioning stage. The DB could even record cases where suspects were trying to avoid the DB, such as by using cash as much as possible. And, even easier, it could record those who say bad things about it. Then, those suspects could be dealt with.
As for the sniper case, all that was needed to solve it earlier was a) better police work, b) better cooperation between humans, and c) less PC.
Cops have made statements along the line of "we were looking for an angry white man in a white van." Moose knew from the first letter that there was a good chance the perps had some Jamaican connection. He stated the perps could be any race. Which is a good thing to say publicly, but he should at the same time have informed police that they might be black.
Then, there were the five or so times that calls from the snipers were ignored.
And, most important of all, two independent witnesses to the shooting of Pascal Charlot spotted a dark Chevy Caprice. There was some question over the color, and a mini-truck was spotted at the same time. However, that was a very key piece of evidence that was more or less ignored. It's no surprise that that was the only shooting that occurred in D.C. (insert Chandra Levy case here). Perhaps the D.C. police didn't inform the rest about the Caprice spotting, or it was ignored for one reason or another. The D.C. police have said that they were looking for a Caprice.
You put all that together and you see that, in addition to talking about the white van and the white truck, they should also have talked about the Caprice. There are many fewer old Caprices driving around than white trucks.
Any one of the dozen or so cop stoppings of the Caprice could have turned into either an immediate arrest, or further investigation. That is, if the cops who had stopped the Caprice had realized that a Caprice was being looked for. No ultra databases needed there, just telling the various agencies to look out for Caprices in addition to white vans and trucks.
And, note that the witness reports of the Caprice are in an entirely different category than all those tips that were being called in. There were thousands and thousands of tips being called in. That's too much for a human to deal with. The cops already have software to record and sort leads like this. That's a good use of DB technology.
However, there were at most a few hundred data points from all the shootings. By data points I mean witness reports, shell casings, tarot cards, surveillance tapes, and all the other evidence. A human can easily handle this amount of data. One human should have seen how important the Caprice sighting was and should have made sure that it was being searched for as well.
Bear in mind that the snipers were spotted by a citizen who heard on his scanner that the cops were looking for a Caprice. If that report had been promulgated earlier, they probably would have been caught earlier.
Parenthetically, you can read my theorizing in the archives. I, Jim Henley, Freerepublic, and many others spent time trying to figure out why the white truck couldn't be found. Muhammand and Malvo were to a certain extent living under the radar; a mega DB would have to include, say, spy cams at rest areas to record entries and exits and be hooked into the YMCA.
ObImmigration: Did you know that 58% of Mexicans AGREED with this question: "the territory of the United States' Southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico."
For the full poll results, click here. At what point in time do we start putting quotation marks around "country" and "citizen"? For more on, say, Jorge Castaneda's threat to being "propagating militant activities," see the entries below or the comments here.
What if we polled American citizens with this hypothetical question:
"58% of French citizens believe the Louisiana Purchase to be invalid, and believe that the state of Louisiana rightfully belongs to France. The French government does not discourage French citizens who emigrate to Louisiana. Should we allow those 10 million French citizens currently in Louisiana to become U.S. citizens?"
I would hope the numbers would be about 95% against.
UPDATE: The Pascal Charlot witnesses might have been confused over the make/model of the car, but even if that wasn't resolved by showing them various makes and models, it would still indicate an old Chevy.
A $250 Chevy is an urban ride; I'm sure it more or less stood out like a sore thumb in suburban Washington SUVland or pickupland further south.
The guy(s) who caught the sniper at the rest area had the car's license plate number; the cops had not released that info, they'd got it from their scanners. However, even if the cops didn't have a license plate number, like I said Caprices aren't that common.
Posted to Sniper at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)
Kissinger, Poindexter, who's next? Dr. Strangelove?
Bush Names Kissinger to Head Sept. 11 Probe
You mean the same guy who (put your tinfoil on) supposedly said:
"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will pledge with world leaders to deliver them from this evil.
The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this
scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee
of their well being granted to them by their world government."
No one seems to be sure whether this is an actual quote or just an urban myth/smear, but even so...
UPDATE: Christopher Hitchens has lots and lots more to say about this.
Posted to Politics at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)
The Saudis need to come clean
Publicly or privately, the Saudis need to realize that a large part of their citizenry and a small but very rich and influential part of their rulers are extremists and need to be dealt with. To a certain extent, they appear to be realizing this; Drudge links to the article "Saudi clerics told to stop anti-U.S. sermons... ". (Both my readers found out about this two days ago. But I digress).
Shutting down the zealot preachers might work with the citizenry somewhat, but on the other hand it might just lead to secret mosques or groups being used to preach the now forbidden anti-Western messages.
The Saudis need to be very careful about not being too close to the U.S. and thereby precipitating a Khomeini-style revolution. And, they need to worry about being the victims of terrorist acts if they don't pay protection money. But, at the same time they need to fess up, as some in the administration are now suggesting. The plan outlined there sounds similar to my plan, only without the nuclear part. Excerpt:
"There may be tens of millions of dollars spent to fund terrorism, but there are hundreds of millions of dollars spent to propagate extreme, intolerant religious views that are highly critical of Western values, and that is our most bedeviling problem," a senior U.S. official said. "When money goes to the propagation of uncompromising, unforgiving, hostile views of other faiths, and they broadcast that, it is more likely than not the money is going to be used for violence."
This points out that in addition to having to throw our military and economic weight around to prevent the funding of terrorism and extreme religious views, we also need to provide an alternative. What we really need, and what we definitely aren't getting, is a PR campaign to sell the West and classic liberalism as either a good thing, or as something that must be tolerated.
Too much money and thought is spent on planning to invade this or that country or figuring out where terrorists might strike next and how to prevent it.
Too little money and thought is spent advancing the idea of Muslims tolerating non-Muslims and the West. Hollywood, instead of being a universally negative force, could perhaps pay for some of its sins by doing things like producing news inserts for its overseas movies. These would not be blatant propaganda, but instead would present an honest view of the West and attempt to sell the West or at least tolerance for it. As I pointed out previously, the Internet could help here too.
This campaign would have to be very subtle. I mean that as in "intelligently subtle," not as in "smarmy politically correct inoffensive crap subtle." Otherwise, it would be used against us: "Now you infidels are trying to poison our minds with your filthy propaganda, etc. etc."
It should also be accompanied by well-respected religious leaders who are either pro-West or at least tolerant of the West. If there aren't any such leaders, then we need to create them. They must discredit the zealots. If they're just bought and paid for Western shills, that will be discovered and this will backfire. So, they must be above reproach and they must be doing it from ideological grounds. Remember that these terrorist acts are justified by saying that such and such religious leader said that it was OK to attack American citizens. If there is no religious justification for terrorist attacks, the number of attacks will sharply decrease.
By the way, here are two articles on psyops in Iraq: one and two.
What I'm talking about is more PR than psyops. If we can sell Pepsi there, we can sell the West.
UPDATE: Tom Friedman suggests an internal ideological change as well. If you don't want to sign up for the NYT, see here.
Posted to TheSaudis at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)
Now we know who's to blame for the Miss World riots
According to Miss World President Julia Morley, "What was a mistake was a journalist making a remark he shouldn't have made"
Of course she's going to disclaim pageant responsibility, but you'd think she'd be able to place the blame where it truly lies.
Miss Wales, in her own way, has a clearer perspective: "It is a shame a small minority of people spoiled it for everyone"
Unlike Muriel Gray quoted in the article, I think the show must go on. Otherwise the fanatics will have got what they wanted.
Posted to Terrorism at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)
Mexico declares war on U.S.; no one cares
Unfortunately, Jorge Castaneda's statement about "propagating militant activities" does not appear to be getting much attention from anyone.
Very few people appear to recognize the threat.
While we're waiting for the rest to catch up, you might want to read this Phyllis Schlafly article, or the longer article MULTICULTURALISM, IMMIGRATION AND AZTLAN (complete with extensive footnotes). Excerpt (bolding mine):
Mario Barrera, a faculty member of U.C. Berkeley's Department of Ethnic Studies, admitted that multiculturalism "would help prepare the ideological climate for an eventual campaign for ethnic regional autonomy." In January 1995, El Plan de Aztlan Conference at UC Riverside resolved that "We shall overcome...by the vote if possible and violence if necessary." The rise of Mexican irredentism as a serious political movement "awaits only the demographic transformation of the Southwest." As an article entitled "The Great Invasion: Mexico Recovers Its Own" in 1982's Excelsior, Mexico's leading daily newspaper, put it:
The territory lost in the 19th century by...Mexico...seems to be restoring itself through a humble people who go on settling various zones that once were ours on the old maps. Land, under any concept of possession, ends up in the hands of those who deserve it.... [The result of this migration is to return the land] to the jurisdiction of Mexico without the firing of a single shot.
I think a major part of the problem is that no one wants to be accused of being a xenophobic racist simply because they support the sovereignty of the United States. For an example, a KNX radio reporter asked Antonio Villaraigosa to comment on his involvement with Mecha during a mayoral debate on May 31, 2001. You will note from Villaraigosa's answer that a) he does not answer the question, and b) he assumes the mantle of victimization and accuses mayorno.com of intolerance and of vilifying him. Simply because mayorno.com put up a web site concerning Villaraigosa's past activities with a separatist organization. mayorno.com is certainly hyperbolic and alarmist. However, does that mean that the undisputed, easily verifiable facts it presents aren't true and don't deserve an answer?
All Villaraigosa had to say was "that was then, this is now. I no longer support separatism." He did not say that, he evaded the question in a feel-good way. Unfortunately, everyone was feeling so good about his answer, they forgot to notice that he didn't answer the question about his own past intolerance.
This tactic is similar to that used by, for instance, Arab groups to foreclose anyone looking too closely into the threat posed by militant Islam or questions concerning the Saudi involvement in 9/11. Thankfully, the Saudi involvement is being noticed; hopefully the threat posed by another enemy/ally will not go unnoticed for long.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)
What's the deal with Nigeria?
LGF has more on the Miss World contest's move to London, Arab News' (predictable) response to the violence, and Nigeria's attempt to get the World Cup.
Is this just an isolated incident, or part of a disturbing trend?
Slate had an article that was much more upbeat, in its own way, about Nigerian scammers:
Someday [Nigerian scam letters] will abate, when young, educated Nigerians have better economic prospects... when that day comes, there will be a thriving Internet culture for Nigerians to use for more legitimate purposes.
So, is Nigeria the home of a modern, electronic society, or are they mired a couple millenia back?
LGF includes a link to this article:
Angry Christians attacked Muslims
It wasn't just Muslims attacking Christians, but that's how it started and I'd imagine that's where most of the deaths come from.
Pageant publicist Stella Din said organizers decided to move the beauty pageant because "we didn't want any more bloodshed."
Deaths resulting from a beauty contest: they don't teach you these things in Publicist School.
Miss Canada capitulated, but, surprisingly, Miss France is still soldiering away.
And, the Religion of Peace in England wants you to know:
"It is wrong that it should happen in Britain, in Nigeria or in any country," Sajjad Khan, of the Islamic Liberation Party in Britain, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio on Saturday.
"I think the whole idea of having a beauty contest anywhere would be against many forward-thinking people of whatever faith and whatever ideology."
UPDATE: This mostly balanced article has background info on the Nigerian situation.
Posted to Terrorism at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
Mexico to begin "propagating militant activities" in the U.S.
Read this article (Mexico to campaign to legalize workers), and try to tell me it's a good thing to have millions of citizens of another country on our soil.
[Mexico's foreign minister Jorge] Castaneda said Mexican officials will begin rallying unions, churches, universities and Mexican communities.
"What's important is that American society sees a possible migratory agreement in a positive light," Castaneda said. "We are already giving instructions to our consulates that they begin propagating militant activities -- if you will -- in their communities."
Whose country is this anyway? Can we let another country have this kind of influence on us?
If, instead of being next to Mexico we were next to France, Russia, or Yemen, would them sending millions of their citizens to us and attempting to change our laws be allowed?
Even easier, let's consider what would happen if Canada's economy collapses and its leaders are unable to fix it. That's not impossible; a large part of Canada's income is from timber, and could be severly impacted by, say, changing weather or tree diseases. We could have tens of thousands of unemployed Canadians streaming across our northern border. Canada's problems would become our own. All those Canadians would have a divided loyalty, if they had any to the U.S. to begin with. And, they'd form a powerful, pro-Canadian bloc in the U.S. Canada could attempt to dictate U.S. policy. Would we stand for it?
At what point does rhetoric like this become a de facto declaration of war?
By the way, Castanada was born in Texas, so this isn't just a translation problem, he knew exactly what he was saying.
Bush seems to be completely on the wrong side of this issue. Witness this article:
[Rep. Tom Tancredo's (R-Colo.)] criticisms of President Bush's immigration policy bought him a 40-minute rebuke earlier this year from Bush adviser Karl Rove, who, in the Congressman's own words, warned him "never to darken the door of the White House again."
Posted to Immigration2003 at 04:36 PM | Comments (1)
Strange Preachers in the House of Saud
According to this article: The FBI is investigating whether the Saudi Arabian government—using the bank account of the wife of a senior Saudi diplomat—sent tens of thousands of dollars to two Saudi students in the United States who provided assistance to two of the September 11 hijackers... The account is that of the wife of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former U.S. spokesman for S.A. Even if the name's not familiar, you've probably seen him on the TV. So, were they just donating money to a poor college student who duped them? Were they being blackmailed? Certainly, one would expect a special Swiss slush fund to have been used, rather than an account of someone high up. So, were they set up by someone else in their government? Or, were they intentionally sending money to terrorists, and they didn't care who found out? In other news: RIYADH, 23 November 2002 — Mosques are meant only for prayers, guidance and other pious activities: they should not be misused as a political platform, imams and khatibs have been told... The minister pointed out that the order was prompted by reports of some strange preachers making unwelcome speeches at the mosques. Malaysia did something similar a few weeks back.Posted to TheSaudis at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
First they came for the beauty queens...
The Miss World contest has been moved to London:
"Muslim opposition had already prompted organizers to postpone the finale until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan."
Chanting 'Down With Beauty,' Nigerian Muslims Kill Dozens
Will London be any better?
Posted to Terrorism at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)
More total info awareness
My referrers at the Volokh Conspiracy have an interesting piece on TIA:
Concede no powers to your friends that you would not give to your enemies. If you are a Republican, the Law can be applied in the following form: give no powers of surveillance to the Bush administration that you would not be comfortable seeing in the hands of Hillary Clinton... The point can be reduced to a prescription: find your congressman and senators on Google; email them about this; sign up for calendaring from yahoo.com, and tell it to remind you to send more email in January (and February, and March, and…). If you’re a Democrat, do it to derail the enemy. If you’re a Republican, do it to save your party (Al Gore already has concluded that this is a good issue for him; he’s right); if you quite understandably don’t much care for either party, do it on principle.
It links to this article:
He said Poindexter brought the database idea to the Pentagon and persuaded Aldridge and others to pursue it.
"John has a real passion for this project," Aldridge said.
Posted to Privacy at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)
"Waiting in line is for chumps"
Very interesting interview with Michelle Malkin here:
[Who benefits from illegal immigration:] On the left, ethnic constituencies and the Democratic Party have long benefited from loading up voter rolls as a result of amnesties that grant illegal aliens legal permanent residency and then ultimately citizenship and voting rights. On the right, it is big business that profits from cheap labor...
It is a complete and utter affront to all of those people around the world, some of them my own relatives who are in the Philippines and who have been waiting in line for years to come to the United States, to see the U.S. government send the message out that waiting in line is for chumps—and that instead you should hop on a boat, go to Mexico, and just cross the border.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)
"They were here first"
[UPDATE: The link doesn't work anymore, here's google's cache of the page.]
KCET's Life & Times did a report a while back featuring California State Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, who created a bill to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens. "For public safety." Yeah, right.
In the piece, Cedillo uttered the line "they were here first." I've always wondered exactly how to parse that sentence.
Let me restate it first: "A was here before B." So, who is "A", and who is "B?" Is Gil a member of "A?" And, the more important question, does Gil, a citizen of the United States and an elected politician, consider himself a member of "B?"
Does "A" include the Gabrielino Indians, or the original settlers of Los Angeles, or the settlers and their descendents?
Or, does it include all current residents of Mexico and Central America and just about anyone else who might end up using their new driver's license to vote for Cedillo regardless of how factually incorrect the supposition that "they were here first" may be in their particular case?
I think it's the latter.
Gil's former page is here. Earlier this month, he was elected to the CA State Senate.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)
The Trojan Horse of the 21st Century
The Indiana (University) Journal of Global Legal Studies published an interesting article called "The Trojan Horse of the 21st Century: Immigrants,Foreign Campaign Contributions, and International Politics," which is reprinted here.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
What's Jesus Driving?
Posted to WackyHumor at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)
December 13... Love checks in.
That's the tag line for Jennifur Lopez's new opus "Maid in Manhattan." It's got a picture of her with the leading man, and a smaller pic of her in a maid outfit. Gosh, I can't quite figure out the plot. I'm sure JLo is a horrendous bitch, but on this billboard, an interview I saw with her, and the ads for The Wedding Planner she manages to come off as sweet, innocent, and even more luscious than SavOn Pecans and Praline ice cream.
Anyway, who thinks up these titles and tag lines? Couldn't they have spent just another 5 minutes or so coming up with something just a wee bit better? What will the porno versions be? "Made in Manhattan?" "Maid in Brooklyn?"
If you want to read about delusional, impressionable anti-war protesters who have perhaps been infiltrated by The Enemy, you can't go wrong by checking out this article. Apparently there was an altercation between a pro-Israel blogger and a group of anti-war protesters. It's interesting to see how the altercation is presented by either side. The indymedia account sounds like something straight out of Pravda. The other side of the story can be found here.
I left pearls of wisdom at both locations.
Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 05:29 PM | Comments (0)
Yes, but what do the East Marin women think?
Instapundit links to a picture in which 50 women from west Marin county got nekkid and spelled out the word "PEACE" in solidarity with the innocents of Iraq. (Geez, check out the porker in the "E." OK, that's a nasty thing to say...) Excuse me for a moment please, there's someone on the phone.
Hello? Who is this with whom I'm speaking? The innocents of Iraq? Wow, I was just blogging about you. How can I help you? Uh huh. OK. Uh huh. Uh huh. OK, I'll tell them. And thanks for calling.
The innocents of Iraq wanted me to remind the nekkid women of west Marin about the brutality of Saddam's regime, and the partial or complete lack of Western women's rights throughout Muslim lands. The innocents had some suggestions for other words and phrases the nekkid women of Marin could spell out, namely:
PLEASE DON'T GAS US, SADDAM
CAN I TAKE OFF MY BURQA? IT'S 130 DEGREES OUT
IF WE PROTESTED LIKE THIS IN IRAQ, WE'D DISAPPEAR THE NEXT DAY
THE WEST MARIN WOMEN CAN GET NEKKID IN A FIELD AND ON THE WEB, BUT THE RELIGIOUS POLICE WON'T EVEN LET ME DRIVE
PLEASE SPEND THAT $3.5 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS YOU DEPOSITED IN LIBYA ON THE CHILDREN OF IRAQ INSTEAD OF ON YOU AND TARIQ AZIZ, SADDAM
PLEASE DON'T PUT THE ELECTRODES ON MY GENITALS AGAIN, SADDAM
OUR PEOPLE ALREADY WENT THROUGH THE 14TH CENTURY ONCE, PLEASE DON'T MAKE US GO BACK THERE TO STAY
...or some other more realistic slogans. They also suggested that maybe if they did this on a sunny day or bussed people in from Frisco, they could get enough nekkid women to make a statement that wasn't just a one-sided, embarrasingly Polyannaish whine.
"The coordinators, who came up with the idea only a day earlier." They should have thought about this some more. "Remembering that tens of thousands of civilians have already died in Iraq as a result of US bombing and sanctions, these women are not convinced by Bush Administration fear mongering that one more person should die." I asked the innocents of Iraq to pass that message on to Saddam, but they said that would be difficult, as none of them would like to be that one person.
Marshall resident Donna Sheehan, who organized the group called "Unreasonable Women" for the photo, said she’s been pondering for four years a way women can "be heard on a very deep level."
Might I suggest a blog, and perhaps logic?
Let me leave you with this one final cheap shot: "America is destroying the world in its pursuit of resources," said Melinda Leithold. "It’s thoughtless and feelingless."
Posted to ThePeaceMovement at 04:43 PM | Comments (3)
Watching the watchers, and other followups
An easy way to prevent abuses at the Information Awareness Office would be this: have 1 million employees spy on the 300 million or so people in America. Then, have 10,000 trusted employees spy on the 1 million "first tier" spyers. 100 extra trusted employees would spy on the 10,000. And, at the very tippy top of the be-eyed pyramid, convicted felon John Poindexter would spy on those 100. The buck would stop right there.
Regarding lower tuition for illegal aliens than for out-of-state U.S. citizens, I haven't had a reply to my email, nor has it been printed on their letters page or in their Pulse section.
Those who think this is a good thing should read this article:
"A shrinking state economy is putting the squeeze on the University of California's budget and threatens to bring the first fee increase for in-state students in nine years... "It looks scary," said Larry Hershman, UC vice president for budget. "I think you've got to recognize in the face of what looks like a disastrous financial situation that there are going to be some cuts."
Whatever you do, Larry, don't cut out that special discount for citizens of another country.
On a local note, former Hollywood City Councilman Mike Woo has a new job.
The English are putting up more flyers, but these are quite different from the ones I previously blogged.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)
Next time I get to be Caligula
 You worked as Tiberius' You were portrayed by Patrick Stewart. |
Shiny Objects
Posted to WackyHumor at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)
Nancy Pelosi: doable?
I, and Juan Williams, both say a resounding "AYE!"
Still at NewsMax and by the way, remember Richard Bey? Ever wondered what happened to him? Ever wondered why, just after signing a new contract for big money (which was honored) and having the highest ratings of his career his show suddenly went off the air? Maybe this is why.
Posted to WackyHumor at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)
How to stop terrorism in 2 minutes or less
Let's say a shadowy figure, like, say, a former high up spy happened to privately make the highly unofficial statement to someone high up along the lines of "Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Medina, Mecca."
Highly plausible deniability, and perhaps something very good might come from it. Like, the end of money being funneled to terrorists, the end of Wahabbi expansion, and a severe crackdown on extremists.
Mutually Assured Destruction worked for decades, and it would probably work again. However, you need a rational actor, such as the Saudis.
Posted to Terrorism at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)
Convert to The Religion Of Peace (TM) - or else
Swordpoint conversions are so, like 14th Century. But:
A statement attributed to al-Qaida threatened more attacks in New York and Washington unless America stops supporting Israel and converts to Islam
Saying "Convert this" is left as an exercise.
Posted to Terrorism at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)
Colleges reach out to illegal aliens students
[UPDATE: The insidevc.com article is moved or missing. A cached version is here.]
This article "Colleges reach out to immigrant students" inspired me to write the following letter:
Your article [] reads more like a Maldef flyer than a real newspaper article.
Nowhere in the article did you discuss any possible downsides of this new law, or present any dissenting voices. To help you out, here's a start: please tell me why illegal immigrants pay less tuition than U.S. citizens. Does that make sense to you?
Can you imagine, for instance, a U.S. citizen who was an illegal immigrant into Quebec paying less tuition than a Canadian citizen from British Columbia? That'd be pretty crazy, eh?
Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that "Alondra" is going to college. Perhaps, as part of her intellectual development she should strive to be intellectually honest and say something like "I know it's crazy that I as an illegal immigrant should pay less tuition than a U.S. citizen, but that's the law. Go figure!"
If I had Alondra's email address, I'd suggest she might want to take "Introduction to Ethics" or "Introduction to Logic". Or, perhaps some pre-law classes, or, best of all, Introduction to Civics.
How absolutely, positively heartless of me. To suggest that poor "Alondra" is taking advantage of the system! What would you have her do, work at BurgerKing?
Well, I agree it's better that Alondra should go to college than BK, but, that still ignores the manifest unfairness of this new law. What about, for instance, all those poor little Alondras and other Students of Color who are U.S. citizens, but residents of another state? Alondra is being subsidized at the expense of a state with a $21 billion deficit. Couldn't the money Alondra is taking from the rest of us be spent on providing services to actual citizens?
Oh god, here they come again. They're trotting out Alondra. "Look at poor little Alondra, she needs and education!"
Yes, but, what's she doing here in the first place? OK, I know her parents brought her here, so in that respect she's somewhat blameless. She's also of legal age and a citizen of another country. Perhaps she should, gasp!, go home? Perhaps her parents should have never brought her here?
Perhaps laws like these just incentivize more illegal immigration. Perhaps we should try to create a few laws here and there that actually disincentivize illegal immigration.
One way to look at this law is as a form of foreign aid. When we send money to, for instance, Egypt, that money is spent in Egypt on Egyptian citizens, almost all of whom are living within Egypt's borders. The only way this law is different is that the recipients of this foreign aid are living within our borders.
On a different note, this article about Cesar Chavez is pretty interesting.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 01:51 PM | Comments (2)
Can't we get, like, a little serious here?
This article says:
[The] head of Germany's international counter-terrorism unit... told a meeting of the German-Atlantic Society in Berlin last week that Abu Musab Zarqawi, an al Qaeda leader trained in the use of toxins, could be planning an attack in Europe.
"Something big is in the air," said Beth, noting that Zarqawi "has experience with poisonous chemicals and biological weapons."
Zarqawi, a Jordanian, has been sentenced to death in his own country for planning bombings. He is believed to have traveled extensively since the Sept. 11 attacks, including in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, European officials said. He is believed to have carried a poisonous substance disguised as an ointment into Turkey... He said the information was based in part on interrogation of al Qaeda suspects captured in Arab countries after visiting Europe in recent months.
Let's say there's something called the KGB or the Stasi. We find him and they or some other proxy takes care of him. Or neutralizes him in some other perhaps even less savory way, such as kidnapping his whole family or clan.
The Bulgarians or the Turks would seem to be able to help out here.
Posted to Terrorism at 11:28 PM | Comments (0)
Lonewacko Action Alert
This article is truly scary:
If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:
Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."
To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you — passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance — and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen.
This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It is what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks.
While instapundit and others agree this must be stopped, this issue doesn't seem to be getting anywhere the attention it deserves.
Some dismiss it as black helicopter talk, or say it's not feasible, or say "I have nothing to hide." Like Reply 7 at the link above: "You know what? I don't give a da%n if such surveillance catches even one terrorist before he kills a single American!".
Others thankfully provide Ben Franklin's chestnut "A people who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither."
I strongly suggest you contact your representatives and voice your displeasure.
There's some background info here.
Those far left of Safire are as worried as he is.
The headline of this article is a classic.
A visit to DARPA's IAO page is informative. Not just for you, but for them as well. But, I digress.
It contains the following line, which I have edited for your viewing pleasure:
"It is difficult to counter the threat that the bogeyman pose. Currently, the bogeyman are able to move freely throughout the world..." Just insert whatever is today's bogeyman, and you've got today's rationalization of the loss of liberties.
The line "novel methods for populating the database from existing sources, create innovative new sources" here is interesting.
But, hey, all of it is interesting, in a kind of Orwell's worst nightmare kinda way.
Posted to Privacy at 04:16 PM | Comments (1)
On a lighter note
If you want to read something kinda humorous, click here. Some people shouldn't go out to the desert. Or, at least roll their SUVs there.
OK, OK. You're only going to find that story amusing if you like making fun of Jerry Pournelle, especially the part where he futzes around with the new toys that he's been sent by obsequious merchants. Hey, to me it was funny the first time I read it, and everytime I think about the story I laugh a bit. I'm strange, eh?
Posted to WackyHumor at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)
Let's send bloggers to Iraq
This article discusses a planned psyops campaign as part of our "On To Baghdad 2003" campaign:
Sophisticated broadcasting planes operated by the 193rd Special Operations Wing of the Pennsylvania National Guard, together with ground transmitters in Kuwait and elsewhere, would be used to transmit anti-Saddam programming to the Iraqi populace, officials said.
The psychological operation also is expected to include leaflet drops — some of which started last week over the southern no-fly zone in Iraq with a warning to Iraqi soldiers not to fire on patrolling allied aircraft. And, once troops are on the ground, newspapers printed in Arabic by specialized U.S. Army units are to be distributed.
I've got a better, or at least different idea. I won't try to figure out how it could be accomplished or the downsides, although I might post about that later. What we should do right now is somehow get the Internet to the Iraqi people. They're information starved. We don't have to allow them access to the full Internet, and we could intersplice effective pro-Western propaganda into their surfing.
Posted to Iraq at 12:10 PM | Comments (1)
England, home of Orwell
The London cops are cracking down on hate crimes. Their campaign includes a set of posters just screaming at the top of their lungs for parody; my first attempt, achieved only with paint.exe, is available to the right.
Maybe this is all part of a campaign to make getting rid of their militant Islamists seem like part of a larger push against hate crimes, but I doubt it.
UPDATE: There's a longer analysis here.
Posted to MultiCultiCult at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)
My customers demand porn, porn, and more porn!
Unfortunately, there are no "ugly avril lavigne high school pics" here (I said she managed to be both scarily ugly and plain at the same time). Nor are there "debbie schlussel pics" (I linked to an article she wrote). And, this is not the "bogas bros. official site," nor are there Gina Ryder pics here.
I just mention those names in various spots in the posts below and in the archives. There's really some good stuff there, like writings about paranoia, unmanaged anger, imaginary conversations with tennis superstar Iroda Tulyaganova, and more! Plus, there's pics of my boobie below. Yes, that's a plastic clothespin and a General Magic T-shirt. I've posted some great stuff here, and I invite you to check it out!
UPDATE: Here's the best referrer ever. Don't you know Turkish porn is the strongest porn ever? Or, what about this?
Posted to Bloggage at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
Pearl Harbor? What was that?
Janice Hahn concluded that showing Tora! Tora! Tora! on Pearl Harbor Day at a San Pedro Theater "would have been insensitive to the Japanese-American community".
Reductio ad absurdum and discussing the rewriting of history is left as an exercise, as is writing a letter to Janice letting her know how you feel.
Janice's contact info is availble here. Her email address is hahn @ council.lacity.org (remove the spaces around the @ sign).
Contact info for George Nakano is here. His email is Assemblymember.Nakano @ assembly.ca.gov (remove those spacess too).
UPDATE: Here's the email I sent. Can you tell I'm being sarcastic or not?
Your "Tora! Tora! Tora!" stance doesn't go far enough!
I read in the Daily Breeze (http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/bln/nmtora10.html) that you moved to cancel a screening of "Tora! Tora! Tora!" which was originally set for this coming Pearl Harbor Day.
I completely agree with you that showing this movie would have been "insensitive to the Japanese-American community," and I applaud your actions.
However, I don't think your actions went far enough.
I believe you should launch a campaign to have all references to Pearl Harbor removed from California schoolbooks. Perhaps high school seniors might be allowed to learn that this country was once attacked, but all impressionable younger students should be kept in the dark.
And, while we're at it, we should remove all references to Nazis from those schoolbooks as well. There are many fine German-Americans, and the thought that they should be subjected to historical facts like Germany's involvement in WWII fills me with abject horror.
Perhaps a commission of learned individuals could be formed, whose job it would be to determine which facts should be allowed to be mentioned, and which we should ignore. I hereby heartily endorse both of you for that commission.
Posted to Los_Angeles at 02:51 PM | Comments (1)
My boobies
Instapundit links to yet another blog about boobies. Only, this one's got lots of pics. The goal is to raise money for a good cause, so I donated my pic as well.
Posted to WackyHumor at 09:11 PM | Comments (2)
Mexico files human rights complaint against U.S. to the United Nations
According to this article, "Lawmakers on Thursday presented a formal complaint to the United Nations against the United States for systematically violating the rights of Mexican migrants... At a meeting with the local representative of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Thierry del Prado, senators accused the United States of arbitrarily detaining migrants"
According to a Mexican Senator, "We cannot allow migration to be associated with delinquency." De-euphemizing that sentence is left as an exercise to the reader.
Those not familiar with the UN High Commision on Human Rights are invited to spend a few minutes at their site. That Commission's "Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants" is Ms. Gabriela Rodríguez Pizarro, a Costa Rican originally from Chile. Based on her statements and findings, I think the outcome of Mexico's complaint is easy to determine.
In this statement, she condemns both 9/11, and the "Xenophobic Backlash Against Migrants After 11/9 Incident."
However, this article for one brief shining moment also discusses the situation of migrants into Mexico: The conditions in which undocumented migrants are held are also a matter of concern to Rodriguez, who said that in Mexico, some migrants -- including entire families -- are held in prisons alongside criminals.
Slightly off-topic, this article on the UN World Conference Against Racism has this interesting passage:
"It's institutionalized racism," says Amy Velez, a Colombian nurse who came to the US illegally in 1980 after being kidnapped and tortured for three months by the Colombian army in her hometown of Cali. Ms. Velez says that she was wrongly accused of being tied to leftist guerrillas, and fears for her life if she returns.
But in the US, Velez couldn't get work as a nurse. She had to clean houses until she could afford to take classes to get the proper certification. "It is painful for me to live in this country," says Velez, who is in Durban this week representing the Center for Immigrant Families.
Let's recap:
-tortured in Colombia
-came to America
-was not tortured in America
-had to pass our (no doubt) more stringent nursing certification
-had to work in order to pay to get recertified
-presumably was able to get certified or at least took the test, and her race had nothing to do with it
-blames the need to get re-certified on racism, rather than, oh, I dunno, public safety concerns about under-qualified nurses
OK, makes sense to me. Especially considering all those Aryan nurses from Germany and Scandinavia who are just given a free pass. Right?
I'll let you read theCommission on Human Rights resolution 2002/62 yourself, fisking it would take too long and be too easy. That resolution probably forms the basis for Mexico's claim.
This article contains the following:
At a seminar held in Bangkok in October 2000 in preparation of the upcoming World Conference against Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, experts noted that immigration by people who are seen as being strongly different creates a tension between demand for labour and perceived erosion of the integrity of local culture. One expert said "the elimination of prejudice towards the outsider in the society is going to be a much more difficult and long-term problem to resolve than legal and institutional forms of discrimination." They all agreed on the need for educational programmes at both ends of the immigration process to result in the appreciation of diversity and the development of tolerance.
Like the Resolution makes clear, it's all the target country's fault. The target country's sovereignity rights are never mentioned in any of these screeds demanding that those xenophobic racists welcome "migrants" with open arms. However, perhaps a smart lawyer could find a loophole regarding another UN resolution, the Universal realization of the right of peoples to self-determination.
P.S. A "UN QUESTIONNAIRE FOR ALLEGATIONS OF
VIOLATIONS OF MIGRANT'S HUMAN RIGHTS" is available here. Perhaps you might want to fill it out and FAX, mail, or email it to the address provided.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)
Lott: put troops on the borders
According to this article, Soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., shook up the homeland security debate Thursday afternoon by saying his supported deploying the U.S. military to guard America's borders...
Most likely a violation of Posse Comitatus, but certainly an interesting idea. I'm sure he means both borders.
Posted to Immigration2003 at 11:43 PM | Comments (1)
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt, girlfriend!
(We'd like to take the opportunity to introduce our newest guest blogger, Oprah Winfrey. Oprah will take time out from her busy broadcasting schedule to make occasional entries here.)
CNN reports that Al Queda has claimed responsibility for the Bali bombing. Other reports have one of the perps confessing.
Someone better go back and correct the "belief that the US organised the explosions is not confined to a few harmless cranks. It is being voiced at every level of Indonesian society, from the barely literate men who sweep Jakarta's polluted streets to middle-class businessmen and educated élites. It has been aired in serious newspapers and is being repeated, in private, at the highest levels of government." as described in this article.
The positive side to beliefs like these being proved wrong is, generally speaking, it reduces or destroys the credibility of those who voice these beliefs. While that might make strident idealogues more desperate, it also might help more moderate thinkers see things more clearly.
This is Oprah, signing off. Girlfriend.
Posted to Terrorism at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
The French know what they're doing
The article "The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris" details some of the problems the French are having with unchecked immigration by a largely hostile foreign population. I'm sure that the French leaders who invited such mass immigration in the first place have a solution, right?
The same author has a shorter anecdote about a visit by someone from England's Equal Opportunities Commission.
There's no independent proof that that encounter took place or took place as described, and the author might be overstating his case regarding Paris. However, the facts, figures, and incidents mentioned in the Paris article no doubt are true. The problem now is to get people to learn from it.
Posted to Immigration_euro at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)
Winona, Irv Rubin, Gray Davis, and The Roc in a blender
Winona Ryder. now seen her a few times. cute in a waif-like way. The WaPo agrees with me, adding Her delicate beauty and waiflike persona were on display at the trial along with a wardrobe of appropriate trial clothes – dark sweaters and skirts, soft dresses and, on the climactic day of closing arguments, a cream silk suit with a pleated skirt and short jacket. I liked the see-through dress pics, although I couldn't see anything. it's the thought that counts. poor troubled child, just needs a firm, strong hand now and again to get back on the straight and narrow. How can I put this delicately? Let me close my eyes and think... Hmmm... "Miss Ryder, come into my chambers for a minute. I would like to discuss a plea bargain with you." "Wake up, Lonewacko! You aren't a porn movie judge." "Sorry." Gonna get probation, no time in Sybil Brand for her.
Upside: can now refer to her as a convicted shop-lifter. And, for the next five years she'll have to answer 'Yes' when asked on job applications if she's ever been convicted of a felony.
Downside: DAs were distracted from more important matters, like prosecuting dog license violators.
Conclusion: if, by your own admission, you set out to rob "rich white people," and that is indeed what you've done in the past, you won't get charged with a hate crime. if you shoplift $5000 from a store that doesn't want to get press charges, you'll get charged with multiple felonies and have bad rumors started about you.
Things to remember: Steve Cooley and Ann Rundle. Like, if you ever see their names on a ballot or something.
I saw Antonio Villaraigosa on TV last night, and I heard the end of a news report on the radio earlier today. So, I thought I'd provide you with this helpful link.
I never liked Irv Rubin, and I always thought he was just a small-time terrorist, whether manque or not. Yet, I wonder about his "suicide." Was it a "suicide," or a real suicide? Supposedly, he was waiting in a line of prisoners to get into court when he suddenly started cutting his throat with a razor. When the guards spotted him, he climbed up over a railing and fell 18 feet. Sounds a bit convenient, eh? I wonder, is this on videotape, or was the machine, if any, mysteriously out for service that day?
Hopefully Gray Davis' public career is just about over. I can't believe any party being stupid enough to nominate anyone who couldn't have beaten the completely feck-free Bill Simon by more than 4 points. But, then again, all they'd need to do is find several million Americans who are as delusional as 1 million Californians. Better job for Gray: DNC Director of Fund Raising and Special Offers.
I complained about a KCAL election night story, and I got a reply from reporter Joel Connable. I'm going to try that trick with newsbabes, see if I can email speed seduce them.
They might be filming a The Roc movie up at Hansen Dam, but I've been under the weather so I haven't had a chance to go check it out. But, last time I was there they were actually building various structures in preparation for his arrival.
Posted to Celebrities at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)
Who you should vote for
It's very simple: I'm voting a straight Republican ticket, and I'm probably voting No on every Proposition and Measure.
Why? While I can't stand Republicans personally at about the same level as I can't stand Democrats/liberals personally, I think the Republicans are not so much my enemy as the Dems. We Angry White Male Loners are more or less excluded from the Democratic party, and find a bit of a home with the Repugs. The other parties have no chance, and the Repugs need all the help they can get.
I'm specifically voting against Bustamante for a reason that few "mainstream" commentators mention or perhaps even know about: his past membership in Mecha. For one view of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, see this article.
Cruz says he wasn't "the most radical Mechista." I assume that means he's not as far out as this guy. There are a lot of documents here. I only looked at a few, none of which he wrote and all of which are historical. Here's another article about a (perhaps) even more extreme group.
I'm voting NO on Proposition 52, as described here. I'm voting NO on Proposition 51 as well.
As far as the judges are concerned, I don't know anything about any of them, but I'll ask my lawyer what he thinks.
I'm probably voting NO on Proposition 46: after reading the full text here, I see what looks like many opportunities for porkage and losing money down various rabbit holes.
I'm probably voting NO on Proposition 47; more bond money, plus for the cruel and calculated reason that perhaps if the schools get too overcrowded someone might finally decide to do something about illegal immigration.
NO on Proposition 50, once again because it's a new bond, and also for some of the same reasons that Prop. 51 is unattractive: the porkiness of it all.
I'm voting NO on Measure A (L.A. County only). If they can raise matching funds, they can do the work cheaper without the need for funds from the state. $98 million to earthquake-proof the Natural History Museum? How much pork is there in that figure?
The only reason I'd vote yes on Measure B (L.A. County only) is because I consider it bad luck to vote no. I might need one of the closed centers one of these days. However, I'll probably vote NO a) to encourage better budgeting, and b) to show the drain that illegal immigration has on the economy.
Posted to California at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)
Man meat and man teats
Instapundit links to a site owned by someone who wants you to donate money so she can get breast augmentation. Since you care about my every comment, here's what I wrote in her guestbook (she's probably not going to print it, but anyway):
I have large breasts. Unfortunately, they're man-breasts. Underneath the flab, there are pectoral muscles, it's just that they're covered with a layer of flab. I can independently flex my pecs too.
Maybe you could take my man-flab off my hands. Er, off my chest that is.
By the way, I'm sure you're chest is quite sexy. You shouldn't feel bad about it. Show it off! How about a picture for your homepage?
I overstated the man-flabbiness of my man-teats, but I can actually flex them independently.
Posted to WackyHumor at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)
Fuck you, you delinkers!
(First of all, I want to make this clear: I've had several drinks, a six-pack of Burgiemeister, 4 vicodins, and I've been slamming Mexican generic Viagra all afternoon. So you fucking bastards can just ignore this fucking post for all I fucking care.)
How the fuck could you people do this to me? We had a relationship. We had chatted on IM. We were on each others' Friends lists. Now, not only have you delinked me, but you've done so publicly!
My inner hatred and feelings are pretty damn personal, and I only share them with my cats.
Posted to Bloggage at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)
Ten fun facts about me
10. I blog because everyone else is blogging.
9. I hate, abhor, and detest pickles on my sandwiches, whether hamburgers or Subway. I frequently repeat "no pickles" two or three times when ordering. The thought of biting into a pickle fills me with horror. I check said sandwiches before initial fressung.
8. I think Gray Davis should retire.
7. I like broccoli. I'm not very fond of raw or undercooked broccoli, but I'll still eat it. But, cooked broccoli is fine with me. I like cauliflower as well, although less so than brocolli.
6. Cabbage is somewhat OK, but I don't like Brussel sprouts that much.
5. Picallilli I like on hot dogs. Deli pickles I like on the side.
4. I avoid celery due to an unfortunate incident with a carbonated celery beverage (yes, you read that right) when young that caused me to vomit uncontrollably.
3. I'm naked.
2. I have a penis.
1. I really want to be your friend.
Posted to WackyHumor at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)
Random bits
Debbie Schlussel is representing Michigan Citizens Against Terrorism in their IRS Complaint against the ACCESS 501(c)3 org mentioned in this article.
Phyllis Schafly has an interesting article here.
The Fox poll she mentions might be this or this.
Posted to Terrorism at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)
