It’s a new day and a new blog site!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have coughed up some of Mr. Ol Broad’s bucks, and bought myself a domain and space on a server. Now, we all know I could set it up all by my lonesome, so Bushwack from American and Proud has pretty much become my blogfather, and fixer of things I screw up. Not much as been posted over there, just a test or two, but I will be posting on that site from now on. Just click right here and you’ll be transported to the wonderful mental world of the Ol’ Broad!

Also, I must thank Texas Fred for guilting me into to taking the plunge. And Steveegg for teaching me a thing or two. Now, if I could just remember what it was.

So, correct your blogrolls accordingly, and lets get started!

The New Hostages

When Iran abducted 15 British citizens from Iraqi waters in March, the world knew about it. The regime used the hostages for their own underhanded propaganda purposes, but they were at least released. Last week, President Bush called for the release of Americans that almost no one knows are being held hostage in Iran.

When the British sailors and marines were kidnapped, some analysts said that they were second-choice hostages — that the Iranian management really wanted Americans. Intelligence reports indicate that at least one attempt was made in Iraq to grab a small group of American soldiers, though they fought back and escaped.

Tehran’s solution was to look for Americans unable to fight back. They arrested four Iranian-Americans visiting Iran to see family or arrange humanitarian assistance for that country. They pose no threat to Iran, but have all been accused or charged with espionage, as were British hostages. This is a serious charge made specifically to remind the world that they could be executed.

A fifth American, in Iran on business, has disappeared entirely. Most think he is also being held by the government. He may be in the greatest danger because his name sounds, at least, Jewish. In a country that officially holds Jews responsible for all the world’s ills, this is a serious problem.

Kidnapping and hostage-taking have been the hallmark of this regime since it came into power. Unfortunately, it has never paid a serious price for the tactic — even the holding of embassy personnel during the Carter administration. Having gotten away with it for so long, I suppose it’s not surprising that they continue this activity. Journalists and human rights activists in Iran are also reminded that they can be punished if they say anything that might be read as support for democratic reform.

In reaction to the President’s statement, Iran has condemned America for interfering with its “internal affairs.” This has been a favorite line of tyrants for as long as I can remember.

There’s a silver lining here though. Everyday in every way, Americans are learning exactly what we’re dealing with here. Its valuable information for those who may be tempted to think that, in order to end hostilities, all we have to do is sit down across the table from these guys.

Supply-side economics’ creator assails property tax

Georgia should eliminate property taxes to make the state more attractive to businesses looking for a new home, says the nationally known economist who is behind a radical proposal to overhaul the state’s tax code.

What a brilliant idea! Can the property tax. But if it’s totally canned, they’ll no doubt raise it somewhere else. However, cutting it to a great degree would definitely attract businesses to a state. Ya hear that Gov. Dopey? Cut taxes, bring business. What a novel idea!

Paris Hilton Ordered to Return to Court

Hours after Paris Hilton was sent home under house arrest Thursday, the judge who put her in jail for violating her reckless-driving probation ordered her into court to determine whether she should be put back behind bars.

Honestly! Does anyone other than the media give a happy crap about this bimbo?

TCU professor charged with making terroristic threat

A Texas Christian University psychology professor has been arrested on accusations of using e-mail to harass and torment employees at the school.

An arrest warrant accusing Dr. Charles F. Bond, 53, of harassment was issued Friday in Tarrant County. Dr. Bond was taken into custody Saturday by Fort Worth police and later charged with making a terroristic threat, according to the Tarrant County Web site. He remained in jail Thursday and was being held without bond.

Perhaps this guy played with too many rats in a Skinner’s box?

Cigarette tax hike prospects snuffed

Efforts to raise South Carolina’s lowest-in-the nation cigarette tax have failed as lawmakers will adjourn today without resolving the issue.

With record state revenues and disagreement on whether to spend the money on health care or tax cuts, lawmakers said there was no reason to raise the tax in the session’s final hours.

Since Tennessee just raised their tax, I’m wondering long it takes to drive to South Carolina.

Former McCain Donor and Personal Lawyer Switches to Thompson

I have it from two sources that the Washington Post is set to report that Fred Thompson has snagged at least one high-profile John McCain donor: John M. Dowd, once Mr. McCain’s personal lawyer, including during the Keating Five scandal and when his wife was under legal investigation for an addiction to pain killers.

Interesting.

Israel urged to woo Syria away from Iran’s influence

A peace agreement with Syria could pull Damascus out of Iran’s orbit, a senior Western diplomat based in Israel said Thursday. The secular Sunni nation, ruled by minority Alawites, has nothing in common with Iran, a Shi’ite theocracy, he added.

Somehow, I just don’t see this happening.

Democrats propose 3-cents-a-pack more
House to vote on new cigarette-tax boost to aid veterans

The legislature has already sent a 42-cent increase in the state’s tax on each pack of cigarettes to the governor to be signed into law. Now some lawmakers want more.

House Democrats on Wednesday advanced a proposal to hike the cigarette tax by an additional 3 cents per pack to pay for veterans homes and scholarships. The Finance Committee measure heads for a full House vote today.

Now, I am a HUGE supporter of our veterans, but what is it with Dhimmis and taxes? It’s not THEIR money they are spending! It’s OURS!

Immigration Bill Dies in Senate

No story on Fox News’ site yet.

Found something through Drudge:

Immigration Bill Fails Crucial Test Vote

WASHINGTON (AP) – A broad immigration bill to legalize millions of people in the U.S. unlawfully failed a crucial test vote Thursday, a stunning setback that could spell its defeat for the year.

The vote was 45-50 against limiting debate on the bill, 15 short of the 60 that the bill’s supporters needed to prevail. Most Republicans voted to block Democrats’ efforts to bring the bill to a final vote.

The legislation, which had been endorsed by President Bush, would tighten borders, institute a new system to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers in addition to giving up to 12 million illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status.

Conceived by an improbable coalition that nicknamed the deal a “grand bargain,” the measure exposed deep rifts within both parties and is loathed by most GOP conservatives.

Senate Majority Harry Reid, D-Nev., who had made no secret of his distaste for parts of the bill, said earlier he would move on to other matters if the immigration measure’s supporters didn’t get 60 votes Thursday night.

The defeat set off a bitter round of partisan recriminations, with Democrats and Republicans each accusing the other of killing it.

Most Republicans voted against ending debate, saying they needed more time to make the bill tougher with tighter border security measures and a more arduous legalization process for unlawful immigrants.

All but a handful of Democrats supported the move, but they, too, were holding their noses at provisions of the bill. Many of them argued it makes second-class citizens of a new crop of temporary workers and rips apart families by prioritizing employability over blood ties in future immigration.

Still, they had argued that the measure, on balance, was worth advancing.

“We can all find different aspects of this legislation that we differ with,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the leading Democratic architect of the bill.

Snatched from Blue Collar Republican

GOP legislator represents the state of denial

Something about all this talk about “fixing” the state’s affirmative action policy really chafes my hide.

Something about Eugene Kane really ‘chafes’ MY hide!

Sen. Grothman is the chairman of a state affirmative action review committee and has apparently decided there’s no longer any need for the state government to consider race when it comes to doing business or university admissions. In fact, it seems Grothman, a West Bend Republican, doesn’t see any need for racial diversity at all.

No, actually, we ARE already a racially diverse society. Continuously pointing out our differences adds absolutely nothing to our society.

This is what he told a reporter:

“I think it’s racist to imply that I’m going to learn something from you because your great-great-grandparents came from someplace else. Unless you literally grow up in another country, you’re an American just like everyone else.

“You follow the Packers, eat McDonald’s, and share the same tastes as everyone else.”

This clown wasn’t even in the room. Senator Grothman didn’t say this to a reporter, he said it to Representative Grigsby. Get your ‘facts’ straight Kane!

Ms. Grigsby’s response was the same as what mine would have been. I don’t follow the Packers, I’m not crazy about McDonald’s, and my tastes aren’t the same as everyone else’s. However, unlike Kane, I understand what the Senator meant by his statement.

This is yet another attempt by Grothman to legislate racial and ethnic matters for which he clearly has no grasp. If he did, he would understand Wisconsin lags behind many other states in terms of equal conditions for all of its citizens.

The “lagging behind”, as Mr. Kane puts it, is caused more by the lack of leadership and education, than anything else. If you use the color of your skin as an excuse to fail, then no matter how much legislation is enacted for ‘affirmative action’, you will fail, period.

Grothman is the same guy who made disparaging remarks about America’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee a few years back. He questioned whether the museum’s name was appropriate because, in his opinion, black Americans had never experienced a holocaust.

Numbers pulled out of the air by a few people turned a horrible part of our history into a ‘holocaust’. The systematic slaughter of 12 million people IS a holocaust. There was no concerted effort to eradicate the Africans brought to this country, originally as indentured servants.

Grothman’s original proposals included loony provisions like requiring applicants to demonstrate “knowledge or experience” of their racial and ethnic background and requiring minorities to prove they were at least 25% of that group to qualify for preferential treatment.

There is absolutely nothing ‘loony’ about having a limit on how far back your ‘minority status’ goes. Where does it end?

The debate about affirmative action requires thoughtful insight in order to “fix” policies that have worked in the past but may need tinkering. Leaving the tinkering to someone like Grothman would be like asking your most clueless relative to work on your car.

How well has it worked? Other than dividing Americans into ‘hyphens’?  Am I a Seminole-Irish-American?  Is my granddaughter an Irish-Seminole-African-American?  No,  I AM AN AMERICAN, and so is she.  Period!  Part of Senator Grothman’s intention was to remove the ‘hyphens’.

Officials beg off big raises

Because it’s a touchy matter to accept generous raises from other politicians, especially when most public employees are looking at skimpy increases, at least three statewide elected officials say they will turn down big increases that lawmakers offered them in the newly passed state budget.

A politician? Turning down a RAISE? I think I just had a heart attack!

Suspended DA still being paid by state
Elected officials can’t simply be fired

The district attorney accused of helping a murderer-friend get a lighter sentence continues to pull a six-figure state salary though he hasn’t been allowed to work since October, his interim replacement said.

Can’t be fired, eh? Ok, then he should be pushed to resign. I wonder if any politician, no matter what the level, has any class anymore…..or ethics.

Republicans, Doyle agree to lifetime tracking of sex offenders

Republican legislators resuscitated lifetime tracking for hundreds of sexual predators Wednesday, chopping about $5 million out of the program in a compromise with Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.
(…)
“This is a win for Wisconsin’s children and Wisconsin’s communities,” said Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, who crafted the tracking program and sits on the budget-writing committee.

This is a good thing, but every time they “compromise”, I get worried!

Immigration Reform Supporters Hold Out Hope to Save Bill

Some senators are holding out hope that they can save an immigration reform bill on Thursday after it barely survived a deal-breaking challenge shortly after midnight. But Senate aides are telling FOX News the bill appears dead.

Lord, I can only HOPE it’s dead! Enforce the existing laws, and stop trying to make news ones until you can!

‘Israel dissolution rally’ planned for Washington

The anti-Israel protest, which is expected to attract thousands, has been organized by the United for Peace and Justice group, the Muslims American Society Freedom Foundation, the Communist Party USA, and “other extremist organizations,” according to a Stand With US press release.
(…)
“This counter-rally truly is the product of a few citizens who are deeply outraged that Israel’s opponents might have demonstrated in our nation’s capitol without any patriotic opposing voices who will tell truth to counter these lies,” Stand With Us told its supporters in an email.

Anyone who claims to be a Christian cannot stand by and watch the anti Israel bunch try to destroy it. What do these people hope to gain? I wish I could be there.

US to donate $3.5 million to Nahr al-Bared refugees

US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman said Wednesday his country intends to contribute $3.5 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine refugees following a “Flash Appeal” from UNRWA for funds to help for residents of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli. The contribution will provide urgently needed humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees displaced by fighting between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese Army at the camp. Feltman announced the pledge at a briefing on the Nahr al-Bared situation by Premier Fouad Siniora at the Grand Serail. The US contribution will make up 28 percent of the $12.66 million total sought by UNRWA’s Flash Appeal to provide humanitarian relief to the displaced.

How much equipment could that $3.5 mil buy for our soldiers?

House Democrats to insert earmarks behind closed doors

A taxpayer watchdog group says Democrats in Congress are not living up to their promise of openness and transparency in the appropriations process. The group, Citizens Against Government Waste, says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s vow that her party would preside over “the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history” has already proven to be a phony promise.

The Dhimmis being sneaky? What a shocker! (SERIOUS sarcasm) And the fact Obey is involved? I hear a snake slithering.

Sentencing of Scooter Libby

The sentencing of Scooter Libby was the last in a series of acts that has resulted in a shocking injustice – one created by and enabled by federal officials. As I’ve been saying for many months, this is a “he said-she said” case about political infighting that would have never been brought in any other prosecutor’s office in America.

The CIA started the ball rolling by sending the Democratic partisan husband of one of its employees to Niger on a sensitive mission. Knowing an opportunity when he saw one, he returned and blasted the Bush Administration (the fact that he blatantly falsified a few important things along the way is another story). It should not have been a shock to CIA officials when people then asked, “Who is this guy and why was he sent to Niger?” The only mystery in Washington is why the CIA employee-wife’s name, Valerie Plame, took as long as it did to leak.

Nevertheless, the CIA demanded that the Department of Justice investigate the leak of her name (not surprisingly, the fact that the CIA was making such a request was leaked). This put pressure on the DOJ. The DOJ, in turn, promptly caved to the media and Congressional pressure to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the Plame leak. However, there were two glaring problems for anyone with a sense of justice, or who may have gone to law school for one semester.

The Justice Department and the new Special Counsel knew that:

1.) The leaking of Valerie Plame’s name did not constitute a crime because she was not a “covered person” under the relative criminal statue and,

2.) They already knew the name of the leaker: State Department official Richard Armitage.

Yet small matters such as these do not matter much to Justice Department officials trying to cover their own fanny, or to a newly minted Special Prosecutor with a reputation to make and members of the media to satisfy.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald proceeded to make public statements and employ tactics that would have brought condemnation in any other setting. He moved heaven and earth for a year and a half in order to come up with some sort of “process” crime against a high-level Administration official — so that he could try them in one of the most anti-Bush Administration places in America, Washington DC.

The best he could come up with was a man who was not well known to the public, but who was basically working two full-time jobs after 9/11 — trying to prevent such a thing from happening again. The White House physician says that, “Mr. Libby worked himself to exhaustion day after day reviewing national intelligence estimates.” Of course, he had to make time for hours of testimony before Fitzgerald’s grand jury and Fitzgerald found inconsistencies. At trial, practically every government witness not only was inconsistent with other government witnesses, but was inconsistent with regard to their own prior testimony.

During his closing arguments, Fitzgerald did what has caused many a prosecutor to get a mistrial: He asked the jury to consider “facts” that had not been placed into evidence or proven in any way. It was so egregious it was even too much for the judge, who admonished him.

Mr. Libby was convicted of perjury and false statements. For sentencing, the federal probation office filed a statement that the applicable federal guidelines called for a sentence of from 15 to 21 months. He also identified several grounds for what is known in the law as a “downward departure” from that range. In this case, Mr. Libby had led an exemplary life, and had sacrificed in order to serve his country and will presumably lose his law license. In other words, under the law, the judge would have had ample reason for giving Mr. Libby less than 15 months, including probation.

Fitzgerald, seeing this probation report and reverting to form as someone without professional judgment or scruples when it comes to landing his prey, weighed in. Throughout the trial, Fitzgerald insisted that Valerie Plame’s status was irrelevant and that the defense could not use her status in any way. But now that it came time for sentencing, Fitzgerald insisted that her status be considered, and that Mr. Libby be treated as if he’d violated the law he’d never even been charged with.

Proving once again that Fitzgerald can get away with practically anything in Washington, the judge apparently accepted Fitzgerald’s argument, contrary to all notions of basic fairness. The judge rejected his own probation office’s recommendation, not only doubling the 15-month minimum to 30 months, but also fining Mr. Libby $250,000 and giving him 400 hours of public service. Apparently, the judge is going to make Mr. Libby start serving his sentence in the near future, before he can get his appeal heard.

Unfortunately, this is an example of what Washington is all about these days. All too often the intersection of politics, law and the media results in a lack of responsibility by practitioners in all three areas. Having all this crashing down on the head of one man and his family, in a time when national security leaks are published regularly on the front pages of the newspapers without consequence, will justifiably add to the cynicism and outrage on the part of all observers.

For the preamble to our Constitution, our founders stated explicitly the purposes for our Constitution. Listed even before providing for domestic tranquility or for the common defense was the establishment of justice. Official behavior, with regard to matters like the Scooter Libby case, are not what our framers had in mind. Now this excessive sentence, given by the Federal District Judge is just another in a long line of reasons why Mr. Libby should be pardoned.

Bush’s America: Roach Motel

Republicans’ defense of President Bush’s immigration bill is more enraging than their defense of Harriet Miers. Back then, Bush’s conservative base was accused of being sexist for opposing an unqualified woman’s nomination to the highest court in the land. Now we’re racists for not wanting to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

I don’t know why conservatives like Linda Chavez have to argue like liberals by smearing their opponents as racists. Oh wait, now I remember! Their arguments are as strong as liberals’ arguments usually are.

Apart from abortion, no subject produces so much disingenuousness as America’s immigration policy, both legal and illegal. For nearly 50 years, Americans have been intentionally lied to about our immigration laws.

In 1965, Teddy Kennedy overhauled immigration law with the specific purpose of effecting a dramatic change in the nation’s demographics. Bobby Kennedy had civil rights, so Teddy needed something big: He would preside over a civil rights bill for the entire Third World! My word, but that man could drink in those days.

With his 1965 immigration act, Kennedy embarked on entirely transforming American culture for no good reason. (You know how people always say the same arguments against illegal immigrants today were once made about the Irish to show how silly those arguments are? If only the U.S. Senate had had an “Irish Need Not Apply” sign!)

Until that point, immigration law basically took a laissez-faire approach, with country quotas attempting to replicate the traditional immigration patterns. Most immigrants to America had historically come from Great Britain, Germany and Scandinavian countries. Consequently, immigration quotas roughly reflected that balance, with smaller numbers of immigrants admitted from other countries.

But in an angry, long-awaited payback to WASPs, Kennedy decided he was going to radically transform the racial composition of the country. Instead of taking 15 immigrants from England and three from China, America would henceforth take three from England and 15 from China. Payback’s a bitch, Daughters of the American Revolution!

Some of those hardworking immigrants who just want a chance to succeed were arrested in a plot to blow up JFK Airport last week.

Most immigrants still come from a handful of countries; Kennedy simply changed which countries those would be. In 2005, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the overwhelming majority of immigrants came from only 10 countries, none of which had sent a lot of immigrants to America for the country’s first 200 years: Mexico (161,445), India (84,681), China (69,967), the Philippines (60,748), Cuba (36,261), Vietnam (32,784), the Dominican Republic (27,504), Korea (26,562), Colombia (25,571) and Ukraine (22,761).

In 1960, whites were 90 percent of the country. The Census Bureau recently estimated that whites already account for less than two-thirds of the population and will be a minority by 2050. Other estimates put that day much sooner.

One may assume the new majority will not be such compassionate overlords as the white majority has been. If this sort of drastic change were legally imposed on any group other than white Americans, it would be called genocide. Yet whites are called racists merely for mentioning the fact that current immigration law is intentionally designed to reduce their percentage in the population.

We needed to have “more discussion” about Iraq for nearly two years before finally invading. When will we be allowed to begin discussion of a government policy enacted by stealth 40 years ago specifically intended to decimate one particular ethnic group in our own country?

If liberals think Iraqis are genetically incapable of pulling off even the most rudimentary form of democracy, why do they believe 50 million Mexicans will magically become good Americans, imbued in the nation’s history and culture, upon crossing the Rio Grande? Maybe we should dunk Iraqis in the Rio and see what happens.

And as long as we’re adopting an open borders policy for immigration, how about opening the borders for emigration? As it stands, anyone can come in and start plotting terrorist attacks or collecting government services right away. But the rest of us can never escape having to pay for it.

You can leave the country, you can renounce your citizenship — but you still owe taxes for 10 years. The government does not allow us to stop supporting welfare recipients in America, millions more of whom it plans to import under Bush’s bill. That’s not a free market — it’s a roach motel.

If these free-marketeers at The Wall Street Journal want the free movement of people, how about letting us freely leave after they’ve wrecked the country?

In Samuel P. Huntington’s book “Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity,” he asks: “Would America be the America it is today if in the 17th and 18th centuries it had been settled not by British Protestants but by French, Spanish or Portuguese Catholics? The answer is no. It would not be America; it would be Quebec, Mexico or Brazil.”

I don’t want to live in Mexico, Quebec or Brazil. But now I guess I have no choice, since “open borders” means I can never leave.