What Planet Am I Living On?

I'm looking at the front page of Fox News's website tonight and I hardly know what to think anymore. The headline article shows a bunch of hoodlum high school students carrying a Mexican flag in front of them, protesting against the evil United States in a march. Where is this happening? In Mexico? NO! This is in Las Vegas. They're protesting for "an end to anti-immigrant legislation." Carrying the Mexican flag. Carrying the flag of another country, a country which millions have fled because of its corrupt government and crippled economy. They protest under the protection of taxpayer-funded police officers, squad cars, and a helicopter. On safe and clean streets, skipping taxpayer-funded school classes, all of which are available to them thanks to the hard work of American citizens and legal immigrants, all of whom built this great country with blood, sweat, and tears over several hundred years. These ingrates come here and squat, then start demanding rights they're not entitled to while carrying the flag of a foreign country. And the media and educational systems (i.e. liberal establishment) back them up 100%.

Below that photo is a caption referring to Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean's comment that the GOP needs to "reign in their extreme right-wingers." This from the extreme left wing leader of the DNC. And again, he gets the airtime. All this while President Bush is meeting with Mexican president Vicente Fox in Cancun, Mexico! The president not only doesn't get people's feelings on this matter; he is WAY behind these illegal immigrant protestors, to the point of visiting their country and laughing it up with their corrupt president, no doubt patting each other on the back for their great humanitarian work in solving Mexico's poverty problem (by transporting it to the U.S.).

To the left of all this nonsense is a collection of pieces about U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who assaulted a Capitol police officer the other day when he tried to stop her from walking into the Capitol building without going through security. She was not wearing her congressional identification pin (and we're told she is notorious for doing this, despite being told to numerous times) and when she skirted the metal detectors, she was told 3 times by an officer to stop, all of which she ignored. Then when the officer caught her arm, she wheeled and punched him in the chest with her cell phone in hand.

Interesting story, right? She's probably in big trouble, right? The article mentions the arrest warrant she might be served with next week one time. The rest of the article is a collection of quotes from all kinds of nut job anti-American racists like Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte, plus her lawyers. Yeah, she "lawyered up". These quotes are truly galling. Check this out:

Her lawyer said she was "just a victim of being in Congress while black. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney [is] a victim of the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials because of how she looks and the color of her skin."

Racist Harry Belafonte:

"In America and Washington, D.C., issues of race have always been at play and have often been central to justice miscarried."

and the head of the NAACP in Georgia (where her district is):

"The mistreatment of Cynthia McKinney at the hands of Capitol Hill Police is a tragedy of major proportion and points to the vigor of outright disrespect for women and people of color,"

For her part, she's saying she did nothing wrong. She says the officers ought to recognize her and if they don't, that's basically their problem. She said so what if she doesn't wear her pin; supposedly many congress members don't. No idea if that's even true, but WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THAT MAKE? Rules exist for a reason, you big dope. In this case, those rules are FOR YOUR PROTECTION, so that someone doesn't come in and fake their way around the metal detectors, get into the Capitol, and blow the place up! How difficult is this to understand?

But all the congresswoman can do is point fingers at everyone besides herself. She says they didn't recognize her because she just had a makeover. "It is ... a shame that while I conduct the country's business, I have to stop and call the police to tell them that I've changed my hairstyle so that I'm not harassed at work." HARASSED! Unbelievable. And this is an elected member of Congress. She helps pass this country's laws!!! This is not some random woman off the street.

Here is the bottom line: In this country people are free to express themselves, and generally people are welcomed from all over the world. It is the greatest country the world has ever known, without question. This is not even debatable. People flock here from every country on the planet because we have built a model free, democratic republic. Yet for some reason, there are classes of people who feel like they haven't got as much as they deserve, and so they speak up and start blaming everyone else for their perceived problems. They play the race card at the drop of a hat (as though an elected member of the United States Congress had a leg to stand on in that department); and for some reason, the media pays attention to these offensive people. They scream RACIST at the top of their lungs without any kind of support for their claim, or any argument on their own behalf, and lawmakers listen. We have atheists out there trying to kill off Christmas and Easter, the two most meaningful Christian holidays of the year, and lawmakers listen, essentially agreeing that it's okay to persecute non-Atheists.

What is going on in this country? Where are we heading? When will this insanity stop? Or is this society about to implode?

Illegal Alien Racism

This site is amazing. The hatred, the vitriol, all in the name of "La Raza" - Spanish for "The Race". Why do Americans cower when Muslims and Illegal Aliens call them racists? Take one look at a site like this, an expose of blatant and violent racism perpetrated by illegal Mexican aliens, and then completely ignore ridiculous assertions of racism from the other side.

We Hate Gringos.

Let the Flash intro page load; it takes about a minute.

If you haven't noticed that this issue of illegal immigration is heating up rapidly, you need to crawl out from under your rock. They're marching in the streets by the tens of thousands; desecrating the American flag; raising the Mexican flag; shouting death threats; physically assaulting peaceful demonstrators who back the U.S. And no one is stopping them.

Apparently the Gloves Are Off

Students at Montebello High School today raised the Mexican flag ON TOP OF the American flag, AND turned the American flag upside-down on the flagpole, at the school. This, in protest of Congress working to pass immigration reform bills that get tougher on illegal immigration.

Does the word "ingrate" mean anything to you?

These morons get free education, paid for courtesy of the country they stole their way into, and they not only ignore that, but they SPIT ON the country providing it to them, along with all the other perks living here gets you, like a safe community, clean streets, reliable utilities, etc. All things they can't get in Mexico, yet they raise the Mexican flag and desecrate the American?

And where on Earth were the high school administrators during all this????

See Michelle Malkin's gripping post on this here. Photos are included, if you can stomach them.

My Response to a Linda Chavez Column

After reading this article on Townhall.com, I felt compelled to respond with the following:

---

Your claim that the "anti-immigrant" crowd is driving this debate is as ludicrous as the idea that the majority of Americans don't think this way. To say people are "anti-immigrant" is basically calling them racists without using that word, and that's offensive, not to mention unwarranted.

I have no problem with immigrants, nor does anyone I know. What I have a problem with are ILLEGAL immigrants, and you and the rest of the pro-illegal immigrant crowd never make that distinction, or even acknowledge that it exists. That is where your argument becomes dishonest, because you're not addressing the real issue; just a straw man.

The fact is that illegal Mexican immigrants are always poor and they bring poverty into this country, little by little, when they come here. Without money they rely more heavily on social services. They imbalance the budget system that pays for their children to go to school. They go to emergency rooms for minor ailments and leave without paying the bill, forcing the closures of countless hospitals and e.r.'s. They make up 26% of the jail and prison systems, yet L.A. county, for example, gets reimbursed for only a small portion of the costs of housing them.

When my wife immigrated to this country, her family was required to get sponsorships so they would not burden our society while they assimilated. Illegal Mexican immigrants assimilate VERY slowly and show up with no sponsorships of any kind, nor even satisfaction of the "no communicable diseases" requirement you raised in your column. These may seem like little things, but when you consider we're already at upwards of 12 million illegals already here, those little things multiply into big things.

My main point was to say that your painting of all people who are against illegal immigration as racists was wrong and offensive. There are real, serious issues at play, here, and it's intellectually dishonest to just brush them aside as though they were figments of racist imaginations.

Open Letter to all Republican Senators

I'm mass-mailing this letter to Senators tomorrow:

---

Dear Senator:

I am writing to urge you to block any legislation that is put through the Senate that includes any kind of amnesty (defined as permitting illegal aliens to work toward legal status without first leaving the country and “righting the wrong” they did) for illegal aliens. There are a number of misnomers about the current illegal immigration crisis. Here are my thoughts on just a few, for your consideration.

1) “They’re only doing jobs Americans won’t do” This is patently ridiculous and yet I continue to hear Republican senators and our own President repeating this lie. What they are doing are jobs Americans won’t do at a less-than-competitive wage. If those employers increased their wages on those jobs, American would fill them, guaranteed.

2) “We should legalize them so employers won’t exploit them” Putting aside for a moment the fact that if we’re ready to admit that employers are exploiting these workers, then we’ve also admitted that the wages they’re paying are below competitive levels; if we legalize these workers today, they will demand higher wages, and tomorrow there will be a whole new batch of illegals taking those jobs away from the newly-legalized ones.

3) “We are a nation of immigrants” This is another convenient lie. 85% of the citizens in our country were born here. We were a nation of immigrants 150 years ago, but we are definitely not today.

4) “The economy will collapse if we deport all the illegal aliens” First of all, less than 5% of all workers are illegal aliens. While this is a huge number and a travesty when you consider the number of times our laws were broken; it is a part of the workforce that could be replaced if necessary by the remaining 95%, and by others, such as teenagers, who currently are not in the workforce at all. Secondly, no one is suggesting we deport all 11 million illegal aliens. What we should start doing, simply, is enforce the laws we have on the books, fining employers who hire illegal aliens. This will dry up the market for illegals in an instant and, faced with no job prospects, these illegals will likely return to Mexico, where they can get a job legally.

5) “We need a sensible guest worker program in any bill” This is ridiculous. Before illegal immigration, we were somehow able to get the job done, as a country. Furthermore, we do not have a labor shortage in this country. Mexican immigrants come here to make more money than they can make in Mexico (a lot more); not because we are desperate for more workers. Besides, even if we did have a labor shortage, we could alleviate it by increasing the number of immigrants allowed through the legal process. This is how we have always done it; why the sudden need for a new "guest worker" program?

6) “The guest worker provision in this bill is not amnesty” It certainly is if you concede that amnesty can be defined as putting illegal aliens on a path to citizenship in this country without returning home first, as basic fairness would require. They broke the law; even if you are willing to not prosecute them for breaking that law, you cannot do so in good conscience without requiring them to “right the wrong” by returning to their home country first. And even if you disagree with that statement, but believe that requiring some years of consistent work, plus admission of guilt, plus payment of a fine, is fair recompense for the crime, I defy you to find 100,000 illegal aliens who would be willing to pay such a fine or admit such guilt on paper. And what do you do with those who won’t play by that rule? The government has already shown it is unwilling or unable to enforce the law in this area. Without the “stick” of deportation threatening them, no illegal alien will agree to these stipulations, which makes the provision totally impractical.

7) “Under the guest worker program, aliens will have to leave the country periodically” Again, given the government’s total inability to enforce existing immigration laws, where are the teeth for this provision? What will we do when illegals refuse to leave the country? Or when they start having children (who will be citizens), or bringing their families across the border with them? We have zero chance of enforcing any such rule, so to even include it in a bill is ridiculous.

8) “Any new bill will include ‘get tough’ policies, including fines, on employers” This is also a ridiculous statement. We were told this exact same thing back in 1987 when amnesty was put in place for illegals then. There are laws on the books right now that fine an employer $10,000 for every instance of an illegal alien being employed. Yet how many enforcements occurred in the entire year of 2005? Zero. Bottom line: It makes no difference at all how big you make these fines, since they won’t be enforced anyway.

Illegal aliens are well aware of this. Far from being “in the shadows,” as President Bush claims, these people are taking to the streets – literally – disrupting traffic on freeways and streets, draining valuable police coverage and costing the hard-working legal residents of this country time and money in the process. They wave Mexican flags; desecrate American flags, and make all kinds of demands for respect. They get support from Democrat politicians and are emboldened at every step.
Decades of inaction at the border have put us into this position, and Congress must take some drastic steps, now, to attempt to fix the problem. Our government services are bleeding to death already; they cannot take much more of this absorption of poverty from Mexico. We need control over our borders first and foremost. Then and only then, it is reasonable to start talking about all these other issues. All the other issues pale in importance to the issue of control at the border. Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House, and have for years. Accordingly, Republican congress people need to control this debate, focus on the real issues, here, and start putting America first for a change, instead of employers. Failure to do this will definitely cost Republicans at the polls later this year. If you all can’t get this kind of thing done, why shouldn’t we vote in the Democrats?

Open Letter to Afghani Ambassador

I'm sending the following letter to Washington today:


Ambassador Said T. Jawad
Embassy of Afghanistan
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008

March 21, 2006

Dear Mr. Ambassador:

I have been reading these past two days articles on Mr. Abdul Rahman, currently in jail in Afghanistan and on trial for his life for the simple “crime” of converting to Christianity. It is difficult for me to express just how angry the very fact of this trial makes me. This is one of the worst possible messages your country can send to the rest of the world, most importantly the country which liberated your people from the tyranny of the Taliban regime.

Conversion to Christianity cannot, under any reasonable system of law, be considered a crime in any way. That Mr. Rahman is in jail, on trial, facing the death penalty, and being condemned by everyone from his jailers to his family to the judge in the case, is extremely troubling and, if left on its course, should make people write off your young government as no better at all than what was in place before. Honestly, why in the world should one more drop of American, Christian blood be spent saving your country from itself when this is the thanks that you provide?

Such persecution is also a clear violation of your own country’s constitution and of Article 18 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

I will be writing to my State Department, my Congressman, my Senators, and our President to put pressure on you and your government to stop this ridiculous trial from moving forward, to free Mr. Rahman, and to prevent charges like these from being brought against anyone else in the future. You must realize that not only is this intolerable, it is bad for your country and smacks of totalitarianism. You have a vested interest in disposing of this bigotry completely and allowing people the freedom to practice whatever religion they believe in.

Regards,

Michael J Kellogg

Christian Soon to be Executed for Being a Christian

In Afghanistan, a country whose government we tore down a few years ago and rebuilt as a democracy, a man is on trial for his life. The charge? Being a Christian. It seems that it is against the law to convert to Christianity, or any other religion, if you're a Muslim. The recommended penalty? Death. This from the judge in the case.

Michelle Malkin picked up the story and quotes most of it here. The original article states that this is the first time a Christian has refused to "back down" and embrace Islam in the face of a threat of execution. Bush friend Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, would have to sign the papers authorizing the execution if that is what it comes to. The article states he will be under enormous pressure from Islamic groups inside Afghanistan to "make an example" of this Christian. We can and should pray that President Karzai comes under even MORE enormous pressure from the United States.

This is one example of why Islam is a false religion. God never intended anyone to convert "by the sword." Man is supposed to be free to make his own choices: Free to exercise the "free will" that God granted him. He can choose to live a righteous life under the laws of God, or he can choose to live a life full of self-fulfillment, ignoring God. In Christianity we acknowledge that people don't convert people, the Holy Spirit converts people. All we, as evangelists, do is let the Holy Spirit work through us as a tool if needed.

In short, a religion cannot be true if it relies on force to bring people into it. But what we're seeing, in addition to these insane laws in Islamic countries, is acquiescence and support in other, non-Islamic, countries -- including the U.S. -- by media outlets and governments. The whole Danish cartoon issue is a perfect example of Muslims claiming to respect other religions, while simultaneously rioting, killing people and burning down buildings, in protest against political cartoons that criticize Islam. And governments' responses to these riots have often been to condemn the newspapers that run the cartoons for not being adequately respectful. Being disrespectful of Christianity is fine; just don't "dis" Islam (suppose this attitude has anything at all to do with the fact that disrespected Christians simply complain, while disrespected Muslims kill?)

Let people decide freely, without peer pressure or brainwashing as children, what their faith ought to be and watch how quickly the tide turns away from Islam and toward Christianity.

Pray for Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan, that he be set free to practice his religion free from persecution. And pressure the White House.

Arab-American Speaks Out on Al-Jazeera

An Arab-American psychologist swung for the fences and hit a homerun on Al-Jazeera last month. On February 21, psychologist Wafa Sultan, in a televised discussion, let the world of Islam have it, saying things we only wish our politicians would have the guts to say to Muslims. And she's a woman! The transcript and video are available on MEMRI.ORG, which has been a fantastic resource over the years for people who want to read English translations of all sorts of Islamic papers and speeches, to get the first-hand accounts of what they say about us. Here are a couple of excerpts to whet your appetite:

"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings."

And:

"We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people. The Muslims turned three Buddha statues into rubble. We have not seen a single Buddhist burn down a mosque, kill a Muslim, or burn down an embassy. Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people, and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them."

I can't pass this one up:

"Can you explain to me the killing of 100,000 children, women, and men in Algeria, using the most abominable killing methods? Can you explain to me the killing of 15,000 Syrian civilians? Can you explain to me the abominable crime in the military artillery school in Aleppo? Can you explain the crime in Al-Asbaqiya neighborhood of Damascus, Syria? Can you explain the attack of the terrorists on the peaceful village of Al-Kisheh in Upper Egypt, and the massacre of 21 Coptic peasants? Can you explain to me what is going on in Indonesia, Turkey, and Egypt, even though these are Islamic countries which opposed the American intervention in Iraq, and which don't have armies in Iraq, yet were not spared by the terrorists? Can you explain these phenomena, which took place in Arab countries? Was all this revenge on America or Israel? Or were they merely to satisfy bestial wild instincts aroused in them by religious teachings, which incite to rejection of the other, to the killing of the other, and to the denial of the other. When Saddam Hussein buried 300,000 Shi'ites and Kurds alive, we did not hear a single Muslim protesting. Your silence served to acknowledge the legitimacy of these killings, didn't it?..."

Truly powerful stuff; she hit the nail right on the head. I highly recommend reading the entire transcript.

Oscar Night: Nationally Televised Proof of Hollywood's Liberal Lean

Hollywood has always denied that it is the mouthpiece of the Left (and continues to do so), but this year they've finally proved the critics right by elevating their favorite pet projects onto their biggest mainstream stage, the Oscars. For anyone to suggest other than that Hollywood = Leftism in our culture, at this point, would be utterly ridiculous.

Take a look at the most prominent category of awards on tonight's broadcast, Best Film. "Brokeback Mountain," the movie everyone expects to win and which has received 8 nominations, is about two gay cowboys, one of whom is married, who fall in love. Not only is homosexuality celebrated in this movie - including a gay sex scene - but one of the cowboys is married, so they throw in a little adultery without even blinking. "Capote" is about Truman Capote, a famously eccentric gay figure from the 60's who wrote about a horrible murder and the executions that followed. "Crash" is about how people of different races, whose lives would otherwise never come together, get entangled and explores the interactions between them (this is the least objectionable of all of them). "Good Night and Good Luck" is about Edward R Murrow and his fight against the evil conservatives. It's the brainchild of George Clooney, a famous liberal who has another anti-conservative movie out this year called "Syriana." And "Munich" is about the 1972 Olympic murders. It has been assailed as a horrible movie that practices moral equivalence between Israelis and the Arab terrorists who kill them.

"Brokeback" has gained some ground in the past few weeks at the box office, but by and large no one is going to see these movies. Yet they are supposedly the best of the year. "The Chronicles of Narnia," on the other hand, a famously Christian movie based on C.S. Lewis's popular novels, cleared $100 million in its first weekend of release last year, but is receiving virtually no recognition. In the same way, "The Passion of the Christ," a movie produced and directed by devout Catholic Mel Gibson, received almost nothing from the academy a couple of years ago, and at this point is approaching $400 million in sales.

The simple truth is that mainstream Hollywood is no friend to Christianity or Judaism, and yet they influence our culture very directly. The signs are absolutely everywhere, especially in these days, when the Left no longer controls any of the three branches of our government and Hollywood is the one place they have left with which to make these kinds of pitches.