On May 15, when Dudya addressed nation about the immigration issue, he urged the Senate to pass their version of the immigration bill by Memorial Day. On my post, Decoding Dudya's Speech, I mentioned Dudya's belief regarding a relationship between citizenship and military service.

Preferential access to citizenship for those who serve in the military is not unusual. However, it is how Dudya views the relationship between citizenship and military service that makes it more sinister. There is nothing wrong linking citizenship and responsibility for military service, but, Dudya’s idea that a civil-military relationship is defined by political partisanship, moral superiority, and constitutional resistance is what makes his rhetoric sinister. One cannot place degrees of citizenship (face deportation or serve in the military) on the basis of parameters that undermine the constitutional and professional ethic of the military's political neutrality.

In that post I stated that as of April 2003, there were 68,826 foreign-born, both naturalized citizens and non-citizens. The number has increased, as of December 2004, there are approximately 69,300 foreign born serving in the US armed forces.

Memorial Day is to commemorate the US men and women who died in military service. It began first to honor Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War. After World War I, it expanded to include those who died in any war or military action.

In honor of the fallen soldiers a short history lesson about the forgotten soldiers who also died shaping US history. What is not often told in the history books their voices will finally be heard, many of them were also immigrants and they have made and continue to make significant contributions to the development of this nation.

American Revolution
After the Spanish defeat in the Seven Years War, Spain had to break up their claimed territory to the English in the Spanish Colony of Florida. Spanish Florida included modern-day Florida and parts of modern-day Alabama and Mississippi.

Bernardo de Galvez - From 1775-77, de Galvez provided rations and weapons to the Continental Army. In 1777, he arranged safe passage for James Willing, an American agent of the Continental Congress, who had led a successful campaign along the Mississippi harassing British shipping, plantation owners and military outpost.

Before Spain entered the American Revolutionary War, Gálvez did much to aid the American patriots. He corresponded directly with Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Henry Lee, personally received their emissaries, Oliver Pollock and Capt. George Gibson, and responded to their pleas by securing the port of New Orleans so that only American, Spanish, and French ships could move up and down the Mississippi River. Over the river, a veritable lifeline, great amounts of arms, ammunition, military supplies, and money were delivered to the embattled American forces under George Washington and George Rogers Clark. Spain formally declared war against Great Britain on June 21, 1779, and King Carlos III commissioned Gálvez to raise a force of men and conduct a campaign against the British along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast....After the fighting, Gálvez helped draft the terms of treaty that ended the war, and he was cited by the American Congress for his aid during the conflict.

Gálvez also organized a militia of Native- Americans, freed African-Americans and his own Spanish regular soldiers to attack British held forts at Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. A year later, he engaged the British at Mobile, Alabama and a year after that at Pensacola, in western Florida. In each case, de Galvez was able to force the British from their entrenchments and freed these cities. The largest bay on the Texas coast is named after him as well as an island. The bay was called Bahía de Galvezton, which was later called Galveston.

Francisco de Miranda - de Miranda fought in the siege and surrender of Pensacola, and later in the Spanish capture of the Bahamas, which he negotiated as the official representative of the governor of Cuba. While in Cuba, de Miranda played a role in obtaining supplies for the French Admiral de Grasse who then sailed to the Chesapeake Bay to assist the Americans to capture Yorktown, Virginia.

Jordi Ferragut Mesquida - a Spanish–Catalan merchant captain from Minorca, had joined the American Revolutionary and served as a cavalry officer.

War of 1812
Captain Jorge Farragut also fought in the War of 1812 as a member of the US Navy.

U.S.-Mexican War
Battle of the Alamo - Seven Mexicans died as they fought on the side of the Texans: Juan Abamillo, Juan Antonio Badillo, Carlos Espalier, Gregorio Esparza, Antonio Fuentes, Calba Fugua, and Jose Maria Guerrero.

Lieutenant Colonel Juan Nepomucene Seguin - fought in the Battles of San Antonio and San Jacinto. He later was mayor of San Antonio but fled to Mexico in 1842 due to Anglo/Texan hostilities. He later returned to Texas, but was forced to return to Mexico where he lived until his death in 1890.

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo - Born in 1808 to an upper class family in California Mexican. Vellejo helped the US win California from Mexico.

Vallejo was extremely critical of much of Mexican upper class society and government. Much to the horror of his family, at age twenty-three he had been unofficially excommunicated from the Catholic Church for his refusal to turn over banned books to a local priest. He consistently identified with Mexican liberals, who stressed the rule of law and an efficient government with constitutionally limited powers, separate from religious authority. Like many other Mexican liberals, he saw the United States as something of a model form of government. Accordingly, in 1836 he supported a short-lived rebellion led by his nephew, Juan Batista Alvarado, that led to the proclamation of California as a "free state."

Given his attraction to the United States, Vallejo's treatment at the hands of American rebels in 1846 came as a rude shock. General John C. Fremont, the leader of the so-called "Bear Flag Rebellion," imprisoned Vallejo and his younger brother at Sutter's Fort for two months without filing any formal charges.

The city of Vallejo, CA, was named in his honor, a vineyard produces wines with his name, and in 1965, the U.S. Navy commissioned the nuclear powered fleet ballistic missile submarine USS MG Vallejo, one of "the forty-one for freedom," in honor of this distinguished Hispanic.

The Civil War
Admiral James (David) Glasgow Farragut - The most famous Hispanic during the Civil War. Farragut is the son of Jordi Ferragut Mesquida became President Lincoln's Admiral during the Civil War.

David's birth name was James, but it was changed in 1812, following his adoption by future naval Captain David Porter in 1808 (which made him the foster brother of future Civil War Admiral David Dixon Porter).

At the age of 9 he was appointed as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy. At 13 he served aboard the USS Essex during the War of 1812. In 1862, he successfully commanded Union forces and captured the city of New Orleans which promoted him to the rank of rear admiral, a rank never before used in the Navy. He then orchestrated the capture of Mobile, AL. On July, 1866, he was promoted to full Admiral. He took the command of the European Squadron and while in the Mediterranean, he visited the birthplace of his father in Ciuddela, Minorca, where he received a hero's welcome.

The highest ranking Hispanic in the Union Army was General George Meade, who was born and raised in Cadiz, Spain. He won the battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

At the end of the war, over 9,900 Mexican-Americans fought on both sides of the war. Most served in the regular army or volunteer units which were integrated.

Confeferate Units - 2,550 fought in the ranks of the Confederacy

Hispanics served in Confederate units such as the Benavides Regiments (Thirty-third Texas Cavalry), led by Colonel Santos Benavides and the 10th Texas Cavalry, commanded by Major Leonides M. Martin.

According to the historian Jerry Don Thompson, significant numbers of Hispanics also served in the 55th Alabama Infantry, Manigault's Battalion of South Carolina Artillery, 6th Missouri Infantry, the Chalmetle Regiment of Louisiana Infantry, and the Second Texas Mounted Rifles. Other Confederate unites which contained large numbers of Hispanics included Vigil's Independent Companies - Cavalry, the Louisiana Zouaves 1st Florida Cavalry, the Spanish Legion of the European Brigade, the Spanish Guard (part of the Home Guard of Mobile, Alabama), and four independent New Mexico militia companies known by their commanders names (Gonzales, Martinez, Tafolla, and Perea), 1st Florida Cavalry, Confederate Army and Captain Joseph De La Garza Confederate Army from San Antonio.

Even though Santos Benavides, who rose to colonel, and thus became the highest ranking Tejano to serve the Confederacy. The Confederacy ill equipped Benavides, which also meant he was frequently without food. He was also forced to march across vast expanses of South Texas and northern Mexico. Benavides was joined with his two brothers, Refugio and Cristóbal, who both became captains in the regiment. He was one of the last to surrender.

Loretta Janet Velasquez, a Cuban-born woman, enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1860. She was the Confederate's Joan of Arc. She fought at Bull Run, Ball’s Bluff, and Fort Donelson, until she was found out in New Orleans and later discharged. She re-enlisted and fought at Shiloh. She later became a spy, working in both male and female guise.

Union units - 1,000 fought for the Union Army, which included some Mexican nationals.

Unionist Mexican-American Californians
1st California Native Cavalry - under Captain Antonio María de la Guerra.
469 Mexican-Americans served under Major Salvador Vallejo

Unionist Mexican-Texans
Juan Cortina - aided Union partisans in Texas.
Adrián J. Vidal and "Vidal's Independent Partisan Rangers," - soldier in both the Confederate and Union armies. Vidal acted as the eyes of the Union Army in the Valley.

He enlisted as a private in a Confederate company in San Antonio in October 1862, was promoted to lieutenant and eventually captain, and was placed in command of a company of militia at Boca del Río to guard the entrance to the Rio Grande. He was recognized for bravery by Confederate authorities for his capture of a federal gunboat and crew there. Unable to obtain adequate supplies and clothing while in the Confederate Army and frustrated with his inability to communicate in English with his superiors, Vidal led a mutiny in October 1863.

After switching sides, Vidal and his men were able to get through Brownsville, where he and his men plundered neighboring ranches and killing several Confederate sympathizers. Vidal enlisted in the Union Army along with many of his men who served with him in the Confederate Army. But even in the Union Army, he and his men were faced with discrimination so he and his men had fled into Mexico to help Cortina.

Texas Union Units

• 2nd Regiment Cavalry - Organized at Brownsville, TX, Dec, 1863;
• 2nd Battalion Cavalry - Organized at Brazos Santiago, TX, March, 1865;
• Independent Company Partisan Rangers - Organized at Brownsville, TX, Nov, 1863.

Names of those who served in Federal Texas units.

New Mexico units

• 1st Cavalry - Organized 1862
• 1st Infantry - Organized at Ft Union and Santa Fe, NM, 1861.
• 1st Battalion Cavalry & Infantry - Organized in NM 1866.
• 1st Militia Infantry (Romero's Independent Comp) - Organized in NM 1861.
• 2nd Infantry (Aragon's Comp) - Organized at Santa Fe., NM, July and Aug, 1861.
• 3rd Regiment Infantry - Organized at Ft Union and Albuquerque, NM, Aug to Oct, 1861.
• 4th Regiment Infantry - Organized at Ft Union, NM, Sept, 1861.
• 5th Regiment Infantry - Organized at Albuquerque, NM, Nov, 1861.
• Mink's Independent Cavalry Company - Organized at Santa Fe, NM, July, 1861.
• Graydon's Independent Cavalry Company - Organized at Ft Craig, NM, Feb, 1862.
• Haspell's Independent Cavalry Company - Organized at Albuqurque, NM, July, 1861.
• Vidal's Independent Cavalry Company - Organized at Santa Fe, NM, July, 1861.
• Perea's Battalion Militia - Organized at large 1861
• Montoya's Company, from Perea's Battalion
• El Valle's Co from Perea's Battalion
• Baca's Company from Perea's Battalion
• Capt. Duran's Company, New Mexico Military
• Alba Jose Clemente's Company, 1st Co New Mexico
• Capt. Alarid's Independent Company Militia - Organized at Santa Fe, NM, Dec, 1861;
• Capt. Gonzales' Independent Company Militia - Organized at Ft Craig, NM, Nov, 1861;
• Capt. Sena's Co. A. 1st Militia, Infantry (2 Months, 1862)
• Capt. Simpson's Independent Co., Mounted Spies and Guides
• Mora Independent Company Militia - Organized at Mora, NM, Nov, 1861; and
• Tafolla's Independent Company Militia - Organized at Ft Craig, NM, Nov, 1861;

Names of those who served in Federal New Mexico units.

Federico Fernandez Cavada - Cavada, a Cuban-born Unionist fought in in the Battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg and was later caught and sent Libby Prison in Richmond, VA. After the war, Cavada went back to Cuba to fight in Cuba's 10-Year War which he attained the rank of general.

Luis Fenellosa Emilio - born in Salem Massachusetts of Spanish immigrant parents, was a company commander in the famous 54th Massachusetts ("Colored") Regiment. One of the few officers that survived the charge on Fort Wagner, South Carolina he later became the Regiment's commander. His memoirs called "A Brave Black Regiment," were the basis for the Academy Award-winning film, "Glory."

The Spanish-American War
Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" - private John B. Alamia, Sergeant George W. Armijo, Private G.W. Aringo, Private Jose M. Baca, Private Frank C. Brito, Private Jose Brito, Private Abel B. Duran, Private Joseph L. Duran, and Saddler Joe T. Sandoval.

Maximiliano Luna Luna was also a Captain of the Rough Riders, US Voluntary Cavalry, and a 1st Lieutenant of the 34th US Volunteer Infantry. Captin Luna died in the Philippines in 1899 in the The Boxer Rebellion.

The Boxer Rebellion
France Silva who later was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery and heroic actions.

World War I
More than 4,000 Hispanics were trained for military service, but were often relegated to menial jobs and ridicule by their English-speaking military peers.

Nicolas Lucero - received the French Croix de Guerre for his brave action in destroying two German machine gun emplacements and maintaining a constant fire against enemy positions for over three hours.

Private Marcelino Serna - shot by a German soldier and seriously wounded. Private Serna was able to continue fighting and subsequently captured 24 German soldiers protecting them from execution by other U.S. soldiers. For his actions, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and later was decorated with the French Croix de Guerre, the Victory Medal with three bars, and twice with the Purple Heart.

Frederico Molina and notably, David Barkley, who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The US reward for serving, an anti-immigration policy that included mass deportation, roundups and repatriation that forced many established Hispanics out of their homes and separated families.

World War II
It is estimated that 250,000 to 500,000 Hispanics served in the Armed Forces during WW II.

US at Pearl Harbor - Sgt. Felipe Trejo of Santa Fe, NM and Epimenio Rubi of Winslow, AZ died that day.

The infamous "Bataan Death March" - the Hispanic soldiers that died in the march were mostly from units from New Mexico.

Units with large numbers of Hispanic participants
The 158th Regimental Combat Team (a National Guard unit from AZ) was sent to Panama to guard the Panama Canal Zone. They were moved in January 1943 to Brisbane, Australia, where they were committed to combat at Milne Bay, Kiriwina Island, Port Moresby, and Arawe (all in New Guinea) in 1943. Then fought their way on to Wake and Noemfoor Islands in New Guinea during 1944 and the Lingayen Gulf, Batangas and Legaspi, Luzon, in the Philippines during 1945 and finally to Yokohama, Japan for duty. General Douglas McArthur refered to these soldiers as "the greatest fighting combat team ever deployed for battle."

511th Parachute Infantry Regiment (11thAirborne Division) - awarded the Medal of Honor for destroying 11 Japanese pillboxes on Luzon in the Philippines.

127th Infantry Regiment (32nd Infantry Division) - Staff Sergeant Ismael Villegas and Private First Class David Gonzalez of the also received Congressional Medals of Honor for their action on the Villa Verde Trail in Luzon during March and April 1945.

165th Infantry Regiment (27th Infantry Division) - Sergeant Alejandro Ruiz received the Medal of Honor for his bravery in Okinawa and a Silver Star while serving as a Japanese interpreter.

Guy "Gaby" Gabaldon - he personally captured over 1,000 Japanese civilians and soldiers and forcing them to surrender to the U.S. military. Marine Private Gaby Gabaldon was awarded the Navy Cross, the second-highest Marine Service award. His two Japanese-American "brothers" joined the US armed forces in the European campaign but his foster parents and sister were sent to a US detention center.

Private Joe Martinez, the first Hispanic recipient of the Medal of Honor during World War II. After being attacked by Japanese soldiers 15 days later after Martinez's unit landed at Holz Bay. Private Martinez, led his group on the assault. When they were pushed back, Private Martinez again led the charge against the enemy forces. He was mortally wounded on his second attempt, which motivated his fellow soldiers to drive the enemy back from their position.

Korean War
9 Hispanics received the Medal of Honor

The Puerto Rican 65th Infantry Division - only all-Hispanic Division to serve during the Korean War. It earned four Distinguished Service Crosses and 124 Silver Stars.

Captain Manual J. Fernandez - USAF had 14.5 enemy kills in 125 missions. He was the third-ranked fighter pilot of the war and retired as a Colonel.

The Vietnam War
Approximately 80,000 Hispanics served in the Vietnam theater of operations and 13 won the Medal of Honor, 6 of them Marines.

Sergeant First Class Isaac Camacho - first Hispanic POW of the Vietnam era, escaped 20 months later. He was awarded the Silver and Bronze Stars.

Lieutenant Commander Everett Alvarez, Jr. - first American pilot taken as a prisoner of war and remained a prisoner longer than anyone else, eight and a half years.

Master Sergeant Juan J. Valdez - presence gave credence to the America’s war: "First in...last to leave."

Post-Vietnam Era
As of 1990, six ships and three active submarines have been named for Hispanics, including the nuclear-powered 688 class fast attack submarine, USS San Juan, named after the capital city of Puerto Rico.

Admiral Horacio Rivera - In 1979, first Hispanic four-star Admiral and served as Vice Chief of Naval Operations.

Edward Hidalgo - Secretary of the Navy

Desert Shield/Storm
20,000 Hispanic servicemen and servicewomen who participated in Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

According to Defense Manpower Data Center Statistics, Hispanics comprised 7.9 percent of the Fleet Marine Force, 6.0% of the Navy, 4.2% of the Army and 3.1% of the Air Force military personnel in the Persian Gulf military operation during the war.

26 brave Hispanic heroes are included among the 144 Americans killed in action:Andy Alaniz (Texas), Jose Arteaga (Connecticut), John A. Bolivar (Pennsylvania), Manuel Danila (Wyoming), Manuel M. Davila (Wyoming), Delwin Delgado (Florida), Luis R. Delgado (Texas), Mario Fajardo (New York), Eliseo Felix, Jr. (Arizona), Arthur Galvan
(California), Arthur O. Garza (Texas), Daniel Garza (Texas), Rosendo Herrera (Texas), Candelario Montalvo, Jr. (Texas), Garett A. Mongrella (New Jersey), Patbouvier E. Ortiz (New York), Daniel G. Perez (Texas), Kip A. Poremba (Virginia), Manuel Rivera, Jr. (Florida), Eloy A. Rodriguez, Jr. (Florida), Ronald Rondazzo (Maryland), Mario V. Velasquez (Puerto Rico), Carpio Villareal (Texas), and Carlos A. Viquez (New York).

Bosnia Peacekeeping Operations
Specialist Steven M. Gonzales - Prisoners of War (P.O.W.)
Staff Sergeant Andrew A. Ramirez - Prisoners of War (P.O.W.)

Afghanistan/Iraq
The number of Hispanic deaths in BushCo's war = 274

It is undeniable that Hispanics have a strong commitment to America's defense. Once again history has shown the commitment Hispanics put into this country from America the American Revolution to the current BushCo war. How does the government repay them them, an anti-immigration policy like the one right after WWI and WWII that will once again included mass deportation, roundups and repatriation that forced many established Hispanics out of their homes and separated families. American is doomed once again to repeat its ugly history.

Source of information: Hispanics in the Defense of America

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It must be good to know the President or the President's daughter. When a break-up happens, usually parents would take the side of their children. Not in the case of Jenna Bush and Blake Gottesman, the current personal aide and body man to Dudya. In Ronald Kessler's book, Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady, Kessler writes Laura’s personal life. And of the stories Laura talks about is an incident between Jenna and Blake.

In 1998, when Bush was governor of Texas, daughter Jenna woke him at 1:30 a.m. to tell him her boyfriend, Blake Gottesman, had been mean to her, and she asked her father to speak with him. Jenna became angry when, instead of defending her, Bush told Gottesman, "Could the two of you please just work this out in the morning?"

Ever since then, its been the good life for Blake.

Blake began working for Dudya his presidential campaign back in 1999. After that he attended Claremont-McKenna College in California for one year. At Claremont, he served as a Personal Assistant to the President of the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College. According to Wikipedia:

Today, CMC is consistently ranked as one of the country's top liberal arts colleges; it ranked 10th in U.S. News and World Report in 2005. CMC is also the youngest and smallest college ranked in the list's top 20 schools. Furthermore, admission to the college is highly selective--only 20% of applicants were admitted in 2005.

The Princeton Review lists Claremont McKenna among the nation's top twenty colleges for the "Best Quality of Life," "Happiest Students," and "Most Politically Active Students."

But I guess he couldn't hack it so he dropped out and became Dudya personal aide, the new "Altoid Boy" since the old "Altoid Boy," Israel Hernandez became an assistant to Karl Rove.

So what is Blake's job? According to the New York Times, Blake can be considered Dudya's servant boy. His duties are chief bag-carrier, dog-sitter, call-screener, hand-cleanser, paper-sorter, speech-reader, lectern-duster, schedule-keeper and Altoid-provider.

Part Sherpa, part butler, part air traffic controller, Gottesman, 25, is the president's personal aide. It is a job steeped in the minutiae of carrying Bush's Altoids, Sharpie markers and hand sanitizer, and in the delicacy of handling the check on the rare occasions when the president dines out. Gottesman also keeps track of the paper flow to the president, logs all his meetings and phone calls, and questions senior aides about grammar and phrasing in Bush's speech texts.

The pay has to be good to be at his beck-n-call, 24 hours a day. In 2004, the Washington Post ran an article on the White House salary figures which were leaked to the Post. How much did Blake earn: in 2003 - $52,100 and in 2004 - $54,400. That seems pretty modest considering that we have to cater to Dudya's needs. But in 2005, he received a major increase in salary, he raking in a cool $70K.

Gottesman, who makes about $70,000 a year, declined to be interviewed for this article, saying cooperation would paint him as a publicity hound.

What are his other perks? How admissions to Harvard Business School which was recently reported by the student paper The Harvard Crimson.

A 26-year-old college dropout who carries President Bush’s breath mints and makes him peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches will follow in his boss’s footsteps this fall when he enrolls at Harvard Business School (HBS).

Though it is rare for HBS—or any other professional or graduate school—to admit a student who does not have an undergraduate degree, admissions officers made an exception for Blake Gottesman...

Considering Dudya received his MBA also at HBS, one has to wonder if Dudya had any influence in getting young Blake into the same graduate program.

President George W. Bush is the very first President to hold a Masters Degree in Business Administration. Even better (or worse, depending on your perspective), his MBA is from Harvard Business School, where postgraduate management training was invented in the early part of the last century, and which to many stands as a symbol of the good, the bad, and the ugly faces of modern management. Harvard MBAs indisputably lead more major corporations, receive higher starting salaries fresh out of school, and carry with them more élan and glamour than the graduates of any rival business schools – facts which do not necessarily lead to admiration and love.

How is possible that someone who never completed his undergraduate degree be able to enroll into Harvard Business School. According the HBS' website, Admissions Requirements are:

To be considered for admission, a candidate must have successfully completed the following:

• A degree program at an accredited U.S. four-year undergraduate college/university or its equivalent in another country;
• Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) exam. The GMAT is a prerequisite for admission;

The application for the MBA class entering in the fall of 2006 consisted of the following:

• Responses to the application essay questions


• Current resume
• Three recommendations (must be submitted online)
• Self-reported transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate academic institutions attended (full- or part-time)
• HBS Community Standards Statement
• Statement of Application Integrity
• GMAT
• Nonrefundable U.S. $225 application fee (credit card only)

Jim Aisner, a spokesman for HBS told The Economist:

extraordinary circumstances will sometimes compel it to drop the rule. He will not comment on the case of Mr Gottesman, but he does note that the lack of a degree would hardly keep the likes of Bill Gates or Michael Dell, both college dropouts, from being admitted.

I think if Gates or Dell wanted to go back to college to get their MBA, I think their experience is trumps carrying Dudya's Altoids any day. So what special program can get somebody into an Ivy League school like Harvard Business School? Could it be that Harvard has a legacy admission system that helped young Blake into Harvard?

Blake is similar to Bush, when Bush was admitted into HBS. When Bush was admitted to Yale in 1964 it was through an affirmative action program for children of alumni - called a "legacy" system. Both Poppy ('48) and Grand daddy Bush ('17) where Yalies and at that time being a child of an alumnus got you in. But how did Bush get into HBS if nobody in his family went to Harvard? Maybe a 2003 article in The American Prospect (TAP) can shed some light.

And has anyone asked the president how he got into Harvard Business School, the nation's premier training ground for corporate executives? We like to think that the school selects students based on meritocratic criteria: college grades, scores on the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) or some experience in the real world of business that would demonstrate the skills necessary to run a major corporation.

In 1973 he was discharged from the National Guard in order to enter Harvard Business School. By that time, Bush had already been rejected in his home state by the University of Texas' law school because of his lackluster performance at Yale.

At the time Bush's application landed at Harvard Business School, Bush Senior - who had recovered from his defeated bids for U.S. Senate in 1964 and 1970 and was by then a former congressman from Texas, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former U.S. diplomatic liaison to China - was chairman of the Republican National Committee. Might Senior's fame have played a role?

So did Blake get a favorable letter of recommendation from his boss? I wonder if Dudya thought long and hard before he agreed to do this for one of his former daughter's boyfriend and now personal aide. Not because Dudya will be loosing a great personal butler, but Dudya had already come out opposing colleges using "legacy admissions." Surely, Dudya wouldn't want someone attending his alumnus who doesn’t meet HBS high standards. Or could he? In an issue of Harvard's Nieman Watchdog, it was reported that Bush opposed "legacy admissions."

Q. (For President Bush): Mr. Bush, you said at the Unity conference of minority journalists that you are opposed to a person's legacy being a factor in admission to college. Is that your position?

Q. If it is your position, do you have any follow-up action in mind? For example, will you urge colleges to end the practice?

Q. (For college presidents): Do you yourself favor or oppose "legacy admissions?" If you had to make a trade-off — legacy admissions on the one hand, vs. decreases in gifts from alumni if legacy admissions are ended — which would you choose, and why?

On Aug. 6, President Bush told the Unity convention of minority journalists in Washington, DC, that he opposes "legacy admissions" to colleges — the policy of favoring children of alumni.

"I think it [admissions] ought to be based on merit," [President] Bush said in responding to a question this morning at the Washington Convention Center from Roland S. Martin, a commentator who is running the editorial operations of the Chicago Defender for three months. Martin represented the National Association of Black Journalists on the panel of questioners.

Either Harvard had lowered its requirements on merits for admission or Blake got into through Harvard's affirmative action program for those who are well connected unless Blake is Dudya's long lost son. The GOP shill about the importance on the use of a "race neutral" policy when it comes to college admissions and how be based on merit alone. This is nothing more than facade. How did Blake fairly compete with all the rest of the people (not just minorities, everybody!) who applied to get into HBS? Given the President's schedule, did Blake even take the GMAT?

Blake may not be Dudya's child, but he is treating Blake as the son never had. I wonder how Jenna feels about that.

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There are none so blind as those who will not see what Michelle Malkin is doing, building a straw man argument to race bate. Malkin went on the attack for a post on with she viewed it as liberals making racist attack on her.

The so-called offending Wonkette post:

wonkette: OMG I AM WATCHING MICHELLE MALKIN'S INTERNET VIDEOS FOR THE FIRST TIME
operative: she has internet videos?
operative: does she do the thing with the ping-pong balls?*
wonkette: SHE HAS A WHOLE FUCKING INTERNET VIDEO NETWORK THIS SHIT IS BANANAS
wonkette: OMG THE "POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE" MIDI!@
operative: they have a fucking MIDI?
wonkette: DON’T SMOKE HEMP!
wonkette: IMMIGRANTS!
operative: Does she call Arianna an ignorant slut?
wonkette: GET A REAL JOB
wonkette: SHE SAID "GET A REAL JOB"
operative: AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!111111111111
operative: BECAUSE PEOPLE SHOULD GET REAL JOBS!
operative: ON THE INTERNET!!!!!!!!
wonkette: SHE IS A PROFESSIONAL INTERNET PUNDIT AND NOW SHE'S TELLING WHO EXACTLY TO GET A REAL JOB?
operative: I think she's referring to the Unabomber
wonkette: i think i envy the unabomber for probably not knowing who michelle malkin is.
operative: plus, he's got a great haircut
wonkette: also: less scary

In a typical Malkin temper tantrum fashion, she blogged about it, DO YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?:

Pat yourselves on the backs, you tolerant liberal bastards.

***

This is hardly
the first
time
liberals
have
made Asian whore ping-pong ball jokes about me.

But Wonkette has now mainstreamed it. And I'm sick of it. Are you proud of yourselves?

Trolls being trolls did get Wonkette to apologize, at the bottom of the original post it said, "Update: This is not funny. We apologize." Was there a need to apologize. No! So how did she make the connection between "Asians whores" and ping pong balls? In Malkin's post, she does provide individuals links in the sentence "This is hardly the first time liberals have made Asian whore ping-pong ball jokes about me." (Links begin at hardly.) The majority of the links are comments she took from Crooks and Liars to build her "straw man" argument that racist, misogynist slurs were used against her. She provides a Google link to show that this is not first time a racist connection between Asian prostitutes and ping-pong balls have been used against her by such Moonbat liberals. However, upon further investigation to his link, Malkin once again misleads her readers. Seth Abramson of The Suburban Ecstasies blog provides an excellent break down into Malkin's fallacy.

What I do believe is that Malkin's use of this link to establish that progressives believe she is a ping-pong ball-queefing whore is misleading, particularly to the extent that she casts this phenomenon as one which has "racist" underpinnings (cf. I should think that any particularly dexterous whore, of any ethnicity, could do this, or at least make an admirable attempt at same, if called upon to try).

I note that the first Google hit for the search-terms Malkin typed into her computer, "ping" and "pong" and "ball" and "queefing" and "bitch" and "Malkin," refers to the above-referenced vaginal gymnastics as (at least as applied to Thai hookers) a "racist" and "sexist" and "obscene" stereotype.

I note that the first Google hit for the search-terms Malkin typed into her computer, "ping" and "pong" and "ball" and "queefing" and "bitch" and "Malkin," refers to the above-referenced vaginal gymnastics as (at least as applied to Thai hookers) a "racist" and "sexist" and "obscene" stereotype. In fact, the phrase is used on the site as a way of underscoring Malkin's own penchant for racial profiling (as long as she's not being profiled herself).

The site Seth talks about is a link to is a post Queefing CPAC done by Rev. Mykeru on his site at Mykeru.com. Mykeru's made no mention at all about Asians whores, in fact, if one did a phrase search for "Asian whores" that search would come up empty. The only reference he made about hookers was in reference to Gannon which is nowhere near calling Malkin an Asian whore.

You know the Christo-fascist right are like that, in just not thinking things through. The same goes for economics and military strategy too, as well as every unscripted utterance out of George W. Bush's mouth. Oh, and handing out press passes to hookers.

There's your male hooker reference. Let's move on. (Emphasis supplied.)

One tactic Malkin enjoys doing is to generalize and cherry-pick criticism knowing that her readers will believe everything she said as the gospel truth. One would have to wonder if any of her readers who researched her claim would actually question her, but who knows.

The problem with Malkin, she is really nothing more than a lying two-faced sack of shit. It amazes me how she feels the right to act wounded and claim racism in the first place. There is not a damn day that goes by where she spews her vile and venom and hatred and name calling based on race. Let's not forget that she is one of the biggest bigoted advocates for internment camps and racial profiling, in fact, she probably arrest herself for trying to cross the border.

Malkin's action is another attempt of the right-wing hypocrites playing the race card. It's people like Malkin and her posse of sycophants who easily throw around terms like "Liberal racism" and other straw man phrases to bully us around. They also twist, manipulate, distort and exaggerate the facts so they can continue to play the race card over and over again. This is no different.

Their distortions and exaggerations of Mykeru's only ring true in their little Echo Chamber they’ve built. They know outside their little Freeper world, they would subjected to their uncontested beliefs to scrutiny and criticism of the public. Inside, the likes of Ann Coulter, Sawn Hannity, Lou Dobbs are seen as a patriot, but in reality they are nothing more than hacks, liars and an embarrassment the human race. At the same time, it is the conservative white males, who have created someone like Malkin to talk about race so she can have us believe the race issue is over but it is nothing more to lead us astray.

They call us racist but this nothing more but reverse psychology. They make you think that if you try to stop the racist from targeting you, you're practicing reverse discrimination. But when they are called out with irrefutable evidence against their straw man argument the issue becomes irrelevant with no justification to their decisions.

No, people like Malkin enjoy using false logic on us with the aims of making the victim look like the criminal, and the criminal look like the victim. But let's travel down memory lane to exam the hatred, the violence, the racism, and the ignorance BEHIND her pretty little facade.

It was Malkin who drew first blood by outing the telephone numbers and email addresses of some college students allowing her loyalists to make death threats. It was not the liberal moonbats, she likes to the world to see.

It is Malkin who defends known racist and racist organizations like Steve Sailer, VDARE.COM, and other White Supremacist groups.

It is Malkin who recently made the racist assumption that Mexican day-laborers were behind 9/11. And this is not the first time she has spoken ill about immigrants. It was Malkin who posted the phone number of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement so her apologist could call and report Mirla Lopez, an undocumented immigrant attending the University of Texas. As long as Michelle Malkin continues to tirelessly beat the anti-immigrant drums, she is doing nothing more than giving permission for her loyalists to act on her behalf by carrying out her orders.

The reality is White Supremacist aren't going ask us if we are born here; they'll kill us because we are different from them. They don't attack me because I’m a pro-immigration; they attack me 'cause I'm different from them. They will attack all of us for the same reason and Malkin is no different in their eyes. We’re all in the same bag, in the same boat. Malkin is a fool to believe if she is different from us.

And because she refuses to see that she continues to aide them by spreading their hate through her columns and blog. Well, Ms. Malkin, may the blood of each migrant worker killed by your vigilante apologist be on your hands.

Its time to let the people know how bloody her hands are. Its time to let the people know the hypocrisy she practices. It is time to hold in check. Michelle Malkin you are now on notice!

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A continuation of the For Whom "The Wall" Profits series

Back in November of last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new plan, the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) or SBInet, in dealing with the immigration issue. This initiative is to replace the Customs and Border Protection's two programs, Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System and America's Shield Initiative.

The initiative will replace and expand upon previous efforts that failed to materialize, namely the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System and America's Shield Initiative. The difference this time is that DHS plans to develop a comprehensive border security approach that integrates surveillance technology, physical infrastructure, personnel and processes...

It was not until January of this year, DHS unveiled it to the public and realize SBI is not front initiative to line the pockets of BushCo.

Answer.com defines cronyism as: favoritism shown to friends and associates (as by appointing them to positions without regard for their qualifications); in fact, cronyism is associated with the phrase "to the victor goes the spoils." Its no secret Bush has appointed a number of his friends in key positions and SBI is no exception.

Major Players
DHS Deputy Secretary - Michael P. Jackson: Jackson previously served as chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin IMS's Transportation Systems and Services, and as SVP and counselor to the president for the American Trucking Associations. Jackson was recruited by DHS for "his management prowess" according to GovExec.com.

Recruited to Homeland Security for his management prowess, Jackson, 51, is effectively its chief operating officer. "It's one of the best jobs in the whole U.S. government," he says. He's been the daily manager of the secretary's "Second Stage Review" of the department. He also spends a great deal of time working with other agencies, Congress, and the White House on policy questions. He draws on his years of management experience at companies like Lockheed Martin.

Turning to Wikipedia to get a good starting point to understand what are the functions of a chief operating officer, a COO is:.

a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation. The COO is one of the highest ranking members of an organization, monitoring the daily operations of the company and reporting to the chief executive officer directly. The COO in some companies is also the president, but he or she is usually an executive or senior vice president. ... The duties of the COO may reside in certain organizations with a Vice President of Operations.

So in other words, a COO runs the place.

Before he became DHS' Deputy Secretary, he was deputy secretary of Transportation from May 2001 to August 2003. At that position he also served as DOT's COO. During his tenure, Jackson helped create DOT's Transportation Security Administration (TSA). So far, TSA is been riddled with problems and most of it occurred during his tenure at DOT.

According to an OIG report (PDF), in 2005, acting DHS' Inspector General Richard Skinner reported that the Transportation Security Administration was involved in 14 different data transfers totaling more than 20 million records in 2002 and 2003.

And according to Wired News:

The report describes an array of data dumps from airlines to TSA contractors and paints a picture of an agency unable to keep track of its own operations, leading to false denials of data transfers to the media and inaccurate sworn testimony to the Senate.
...
Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways and American, Frontier, Continental and America West airlines -- along with three airline record processing firms, all secretly turned over data directly to the TSA and government contractors.

The data included names, addresses, dates of birth, itineraries and credit card numbers.

The data dumps occurred in 2003 and was first reported by Wired News when JetBlue violated its privacy policy by turning over 5 million records to Torch Concepts, an Alabama-based an Army subcontractor.

In 2004, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that the problem was much worse.

American Airlines has now indicated that it provided over one million passenger itineraries at TSA's request, which raises the question of why agency officials told GAO that it did not have access to such data.

According to press reports, American Airlines authorized its vendor, Airline Automation, to provide TSA with one week’s worth of PNR data on its customers. The vendor then reportedly provided the data to four companies competing for contracts with TSA - HNC Software, Infoglide Software, Ascent Technology, and Lockheed Martin.

Yet, the same four competing companies for CAPPS II testing also happens to be TSA's subcontractors.

Anyone who flew American Airlines during June of 2002 should assume that all information given by them to American Airlines, including credit card numbers, is in the possession of both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the following TSA subcontractors: HNC Software; Infoglide Software; Ascent Technology; and Lockheed Martin. Furthermore, as the passenger records were used to test the CAPPS II passenger profiling system, it should be assumed that the Social Security number, date of birth, as well as the associated credit histories and law enforcement records of many of the 1.2 million customers affected were combined into a single file and are now in the possession of the above-named companies as well as the Department of Homeland Security.

CAPPS II (Computer Assisted Passenger Profiling System) is nothing less than a Soviet-style system of internal border controls. The deployment of the CAPPS II Internal Border Controls, the Department of Homeland Security is slowly turning our country more into Communist East Germany circa 1974.

In 2004, Sherrie Gossett from the conservative media watchdog group Accuracy In Media wrote:

Michael P. Jackson, who also comes from Lockheed Martin, became the Deputy Secretary of Transportation. A Lockheed Martin spokesman had nothing to say about whether ...[if] Jackson would give the company any advantage in securing contracts with Transportation.

It looks like it did and it will again in Jackson's new position as DHS' COO, opps, as Deputy Security.

If Deputy Secretary Jackson was recruited by DHS for his prowess in management performance as COO at DOT, it sure wasn't for public accountability, but rather being accountable for lining the pocket of his former employer.

Read more!

After the events of 9/11, the US has dramatically altered the political landscape for positive immigration reform, and so has the old adage that good fences make good neighbors. The saying has now taken on a new meaning now that the Senate has voted to construct a 370 mile "Border Wall" along the Southern border.

The short term plan for border security involves the National Guard. However the long term plan is another story. Via Gordo at appletreeblog.com, the New York Times report that the construction of the "Border Wall" will go through the Secure Borders Initiative (SBI) which will involve BushCo defense contractor regulars with their expensive toys.

...to really patch up the broken border, President Bush is preparing to turn to a familiar administration partner: the nation's giant military contractors.

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, three of the largest, are among the companies that said they would submit bids within two weeks for a multibillion-dollar federal contract to build what the administration calls a "virtual fence" along the nation's land borders.

Using some of the same high-priced, high-tech tools these companies have already put to work in Iraq and Afghanistan — like unmanned aerial vehicles, ground surveillance satellites and motion-detection video equipment — the military contractors are zeroing in on the rivers, deserts, mountains and settled areas that separate Mexico and Canada from the United States.

The contractors will not only supply the technology but they will also develop the strategy on how to use the technology and how to utilize the soldiers to secure the borders.

"This is an unusual invitation," the deputy secretary of homeland security, Michael Jackson, told contractors this year at an industry briefing, just before the bidding period for this new contract started. "We're asking you to come back and tell us how to do our business."

Sounds like BushCo is outsourcing the Pentagon as well as privatizing the military and this is not new according to Peter W. Singer, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. (PDF):

The industry, known as "privatized military firms" ("PMFs"), range from small consulting firms, comprised of retired generals, to transnational corporations that lease out wings of fighter jets or battalions of commandos. ... [F]rom 1994-2002, the U.S. Defense Department entered into over 3,000 contracts with U.S.-based firms, estimated at a contract value of more than US$300 billion. PMFs now provide the logistics for every major U.S. military deployment, and have even taken over the Reserve Officer Training Corps ("ROTC") programs at over two hundred U.S. universities; that is, private company employees now train the U.S. military leaders of tomorrow. In fact, with the recent purchase of Military Professional Resources Inc., a PMF based in Virginia, by the Fortune-500 corporation L-3, many Americans unknowingly own slices of the industry in their 401(k) stock portfolios.

Prior to March 2003, the Pentagon contracted with Northrop Grumman to their unmanned Predator drones, Global Hawk, in the invasion of Iraq. The same type of unmanned Predator drones that will be used for the border according to the New York Times report. It was also Northrop Grumman who manned the B-2 stealth bombers weapons systems in Iraq.

Another contractor that will enjoy the spoils of the war on immigrants is Raytheon. Raytheon plans to provide a package of sensor and video equipment that is currently used in Iraq. Back in Oct 2005, Raytheon stated in a press release it was awarded $1.1 million from the U.S. Department of Defense's Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office for Raytheon 's Project ATHENA.

Project ATHENA is a joint battlespace information infrastructure that enables the integration of a wide range of information and data provided by a variety of sensors and information sources. It provides a common operating picture of real-time events, which enables responders to quickly discern information and respond to threats arising from the maritime environment.

Then in April 2006, Raytheon completed their test on Project ATHENA in Brownsville, TX.

A high-tech system to guard the southern U.S. border known as Project Athena was tested recently by Raytheon.

The Athena command and sensor network was used for six weeks to support Border Patrol and Customs operations with surveillance and "actionable intelligence" in the sprawling Rio Grande sector.

According to Raytheon's Press Release:

Raytheon Company's Project Athena successfully completed an operational demonstration along the southwest border of Texas to provide persistent multi-domain surveillance and "actionable intelligence" to a joint interagency task force in support of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) law enforcement agencies.

The Athena integrated C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and sensor system was rapidly fielded to support the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Rio Grande Sector and 14 other interagency partners. During the six-week mission, Athena and CBP successfully detected, intercepted and deterred transnational threats, drugs, and alien smuggling across the U.S.-Mexican border over a large joint operations area including 160 miles of coastline, 120 miles of land border, and nine ports of entry.

It is hard to tell what the true function of Project ATHENA would actually do from the news clipping or from the press releases. However, in Dec 2005, the Boston Globe ran a story on another test Raytheon conducted. The article is very disturbing.

Athena is part of a larger push by Raytheon, the nation's fifth-largest military contractor, into homeland security. With the growth in spending expected to slow in the second half of this decade at the Department of Defense, its top customer, executives of the Waltham company have set their sights on capturing more business from the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies that fund new programs protecting air and sea ports, borders, railroads, and highways.

Project Athena, which seeks to foil both terrorists and drug traffickers, was deployed for a 45-day field demonstration at the Port of Buffalo this fall. Raytheon is now using feedback from the US Northern Command on the Buffalo trial to refine the system's "anomaly detection and response" capabilities as it prepares for deployments at two other US ports this winter and spring. Thus far, Raytheon has won $8.5 million in contracts from the Pentagon's Counter-Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office for Athena, but it's positioning itself to compete for much larger orders when the opportunity arises.
...
"The 'who pays' issue hasn't been resolved," noted Mary Anne Sudol, defense and aerospace analyst for the New York brokerage Caris & Co. "There's been a lot of tugging between the federal, state, and local governments, and the independent port authorities. Ports say it's a federal mandate, but the Homeland Security department says the responsibility rests with the port authorities." ... [T]he heart of the Athena system uses sensors, cameras, radars, public databases, and satellite imagery originally rolled out for military programs.

Project Athena is a networked system that can be installed at shore sites or quickly assembled at remote command posts. It integrates information from a variety of sensors and data banks to track container and tanker ships and other maritime activity. Software programs crawl through thousands of online shipping records to identify suspicious ships based on their ownership, history, registration, or destination. Once they are identified, Athena operators can track targeted ships through aerial or satellite surveillance and alert defense authorities to a potential threat.

As it expands, the system will also track activity in and around coastal airports and in air space over the ocean, working on the premise that a hijacked plane could attack an oil tanker, or a terrorist on a ship could launch a shoulder-fired missile at a passenger jet. Similarly, alternating between wide-area views and zooming in on specific targets, it will seek to keep tabs on smaller boats, coastal industrial plants, rail installations, and ground vehicles traveling on roads near ports.

According to the NY Times, another high tech toy will be used will come from Lockheed Martin. Lockheed has plans to use the Tethered Aerostat Radar. According to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS):

Tethered Aerostat Radar System is a balloon-borne radar. The primary aerostat mission is to provide radar data in support of other federal agencies involved in the nation's drug interdiction program. One aerostat, located at Cudjoe Key, Fla., transmits TV Marti, which sends American television signals into Cuba for the U.S. Information Agency. The air drug interdiction program consists of land-based aerostat radar detection ballons along the U.S. southern border and in the Carribbean, and a series of airborne surveillance assets such as P-3 AEW, interceptor aircraft, and apprehension helicopters. The purpose is to seal off the border to illegal drugs coming in by aircraft. The program has been expanded to interdict the narcotic flow before it gets to the U.S. border.
...
But aerostat balloons are not perfect. Weather, terrain, and other factors affect the performance of the aerostats. They have proven to be a fair weather friend. They must be brought to ground in high winds. Significant problems have plagued the contractor trying to get the bugs out of the aerostats plan for the Texas border.

Formidable problems that will arise as DHS and PMFs navigate through uncharted territory - these problems will consist of accountability, ideology, and national interest. And by definition a private military company is a business regardless they are in Iraq or the Southern border, their primary purpose is not to pursue US policy, but to make money. The stakes at protecting our borders are far higher than in the corporate realm: in this most essential public sphere, national security and people's lives are constantly put at risk.

Read more!

Recently Senate the Senate approved the admendment to build 370 miles of triple-layered fencing. The vote was 83-16 in favor to build the fence and along with 500 miles of vehicle barriers. And of course the wingnuts are jumping for joy. The truth is "The Wall" was already being built.

The idea of building a border fence began in 1990, when Congressman Ducan Hunter (R-CA) presented his plan, Four Achievable Victories, to President Bush. And later that year, the US began working on the supply roads and the construction of the fence.

What is more depressing is when our own Senators don't know our history. Sen Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is under the impression we had an open-door policy.

Construction of the barrier would send "a signal that open-border days are over. ... Good fences make good neighbors, fences don't make bad neighbors," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala. He said border areas where barriers already exist have experienced economic improvement and reduced crime.

But I think the statement came from Sen Dick Durbin (D-IL):

What we have here has become a symbol for the right wing in American politics. Our relationship with Mexico would come down to a barrier between our two countries.

Like every atrocity carried out by this government, it was sold as a "security" measure, but is in reality an act of aggression, sending mixed signals to our neighbors to South, "We luv ya, just stay the hell away." The injustice of this future electrified construction of brick and mortar, reinforced steel and barbed wire, with its future forbidding guard-towers festooned with weaponry, will soon be a permanent visible symbol American superiority. The memorialize architectural provocation will be nothing more but a reminder of the American conquest of the Southwest, a clear message that United States is the Big Dog in the Western Hemisphere. The right wingnut house can sleep easy knowing that $1.9 billion will be used for new vehicles, aircraft, helicopter gun-ships and boats to shoot down children barely into their teens as a matter of course. The neo-cons along with their white supremacy backers aggression have been relentless, puts their own country and interests (as they perceives them) first.

The so-called "Base" knows that Bush and the rest of the heartless Grand Oppressive Police will not abandon their agenda. And the spineless Democratic Party, in fear of losing their seat, will continue to bow at the whims of the neo-cons. With mid-term elections coming up, it was no surprise to see that both moderate Republicans and Democrats vote in favor of the "wall," they have continued doing what they have done in the past, cower to the GOP’s ultra right.

Fascist leaders like Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sessions, Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Tom Tancredo (R-CO) know they only have to push, and push, and push until they get what they want, without giving an inch except under extreme duress – the sort of pressure that our President seems incapable of applying. To the rest of the world, it's Bush the Conqueror, the Great Preemptor, but with poll ratings at an all time low, the leader is suddenly George the Meek, George the Mild, deferential to a fault. And to Bush's lap-dog, Mexico's current President Vicente Fox, who currently campaigning for another National Action Party (Mexico's conservative party) victory in the upcoming Presidential race, Bush is a two-faced backstabber.

Maybe Bush should have remembered what his hero Ronald Reagan did when he did not hesitate to say what needed to be said: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!"

Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state. Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar.

President von Weizsacker has said, "The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed." Today I say: As long as the gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. Yet I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.

In this season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their air-raid shelters to find devastation. Thousands of miles away, the people of the United States reached out to help. And in 1947 Secretary of State--as you've been told--George Marshall announced the creation of what would become known as the Marshall Plan. Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he said: "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."

In the Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan. I was struck by the sign on a burnt-out, gutted structure that was being rebuilt. I understand that Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted throughout the western sectors of the city. The sign read simply: "The Marshall Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world." A strong, free world in the West, that dream became real. Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant. Italy, France, Belgium--virtually every nation in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth; the European Community was founded.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

You can hear the wingnuts and the isolationist cheer with joy now. They shout with excitement with the illusion that the Wall of Separation will keep terrorists out, not keep people in. It is nothing but wishful thinking The US cannot exist in isolation, bristling with weaponry and little else. US exports is dependent on the Mexico, and this "Wall" does nothing more but send a message a message to Mexico, Central and South America that can damage future relations and in the end, the US economy will come crashing down.

The isolationist's will argue that the "Wall" will function as a lightning rod for terrorists, but in reality, no matter how many tax dollars are thrown on it, it will fail. No wall, no matter how high it is built, will keep out a determined terrorists. Not even the Great Wall of China was able to keep out it's builders enemies. As long as we continue following a policy of isolationism by building this viciously vindictive Wall as a sign of American supremacy, the prospects for peace – will vanish within this generation and will be no better than the ones who build first wall of separation.

Mr. Bush, don't build that wall!

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With less than six months to go before the midterm elections, the Decider decided to address the immigration issue. Duke at Migra Matters wrote:

With less than six month to go before the midterm elections, and Republicans fearing catastrophic losses, President Bush tonight took to the airwaves to try to throw some water on the rapidly growing brushfire of immigration reform that threatens to destroy his party. With poll numbers below 30%, a near mutiny brewing from House Republicans, and a loss of support amongst his conservative base, Bush attempted a political high wire act that would have tested even the most skilled political acrobat. For the feeble footed Boy King, it was nothing more than an exercise in futility.

Sad but true, the whole purpose of the Preznit's address was in order to save his endangered species - the Republican voters. Catnip points out that Glenn Greenwald posted on his site about the rumblings of mutiny (impeachment) within right-wing blogosphere due to Dudya's failure to protect the US/Mexico border.

Several prominent conservative bloggers argued vehemently in favor of Bush's impeachment. Leading the charge was LaShawn Barber, who actually drafted articles of impeachment and supported them with this argument:

I believe George Bush’s failure to enforce immigration law and stop the foreign invasion, which he has the power and authority to do, warrants impeachment. Because of Bush, illegal invaders are emboldened, demanding that which they have no legal right to obtain.

While the invasion has caused incalculable physical and economic harm to legal citizens, the president proposes to offer amnesty and allow the harm to continue. To the detriment of those he swore to protect, Bush chooses instead to protect those he has no duty to protect. His actions are in violation of the Constitution.

The anger on the Right over Bush's limp and fearful approach to the immigration problem is so severe that they are even comparing President Bush to Bill Clinton and referring to the Commander-in-Chief with a highly mocking tone...

With all the political scandals occurring in their party, this is the issue that broke the zombies back? Silly wingnuts.

Beside coming out in public to pay homage to the peoples like a wounded animal hunted down by vengeful hyenas, did Dudya say anything new? Nope, not a damn thing and continuing to hold true to form, fabricating facts.

(Complete transcript of Bush speech)

Lie number #1: Expanding the Border Patrol

Since I became president, we have increased funding for border security by 66 percent, and expanded the Border Patrol from about 9,000 to 12,000 agents. The men and women of our Border Patrol are doing a fine job in difficult circumstances, and over the past five years, we have apprehended and sent home about 6 million people entering America illegally.

Fact: The Arizona Daily Star ran a story about the accuracy of the 6 million that supposedly be apprehended and sent home. According to Princeton professor Douglas Massey, the numbers Dudya quoted are misleading because under the agency's guidelines, a person can be counted as multiple apprehensions because the agency counts the event of each apprehension, not the number of people apprehended. Another problem about the accuracy of those numbers is when border-wide apprehension numbers bulge in one sector they usually drop in nearby sectors or vice versa, according to David Spener, a sociologist at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX.

As Tucson Sector apprehensions declined by 10 percent in fiscal year 2005, apprehensions increased by 41 percent in the Yuma Sector to the west and by 18 percent in the El Paso Sector to the East. That trend continues so far this year as well.

Borderwide apprehensions for 2005 were only 5 percent higher than they were in 1984. In between, though, apprehensions peaked as high as 1.6 million in 1986 and in 2000 and below 1 million in 1988-1989 and again in 2002-2003.

Border Patrol officials recognize the funneling or bulging theory.

"If it makes it harder for them to cross, we are going to see a decrease because they are going to cross somewhere else," said Stevens, about increased resources in the Tucson Sector.

Lie #2: Temporary worker program would reduce the appeal of human smugglers

A temporary worker program would meet the needs of our economy, and it would give honest immigrants a way to provide for their families while respecting the law. A temporary worker program would reduce the appeal of human smugglers and make it less likely that people would risk their lives to cross the border.

Since the a temporary worker program does not go far enough to protect the temporary worker, therefore, it will not provide any incentives for the undocumented worker to come forward. Second, what immigrant would rather return home and face hunger, poverty, and unemployment. It is easier for them to continue to stay within the black market. And third, a temporary worker program had already been used here in the US, it was called the "Bracero program." This temporary agricultural worker program that began during WWII and ended in 1964 was plagued with abuses and exploitation, and it did not provide full labor protections, labor mobility, the right to organize, and a path to permanent residence. So who is going to protect them, they will still be considered as non-citizens without any rights.

Lie #3: Undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes

It would ease the financial burden on state and local governments, by replacing illegal workers with lawful taxpayers. And above all, a temporary worker program would add to our security by making certain we know who is in our country and why they are here.
...
I believe that illegal immigrants who have roots in our country and want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law to pay their taxes to learn English and to work in a job for a number of years.

Fact: Undocumented immigrants pay taxes, in fact, they pay for Medicare, Social Security and personal income taxes. Yet, nativists like Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO), have popularized the notion that "illegal aliens" are a colossal drain on the nation's hospitals, schools and welfare programs — consuming services that they don't pay for. After the 1996 welfare reform bill passed, it disqualified Undocumented immigrants from being able to use all Federal government programs including food stamps, housing assistance, Medicaid and Medicare-funded hospitalization.

The only services that undocumented are allowed to receive are emergency medical care and K-12 education. Another fact is that state revenues are collected directly by households and these include gross income tax, sales and use tax, motor vehicle fees, motor vehicle taxes, alcoholic beverage tax, cigarette tax, inheritance/estate transfer tax, business personal property tax, and the realty transfer tax and 25% come from the corporate sector. When ever an undocumented enters a store and purchase groceries, taxes have been paid.

In regards to education, state expenditures on public elementary and secondary education equal the sum of the state's contribution to per pupil expenditures in a school district plus the average per pupil share of state costs on general education administration and support services. The state share to an area's school district budget varies according to the resources available to the district. n general, the fraction of per pupil expenditure paid by the state varies inversely with the property tax collected by the school district. Average per pupil expenditure for each student is found by taking a weighted average of the per pupil expenditure of each school district by the average daily enrollment (ADE) figures reported by school districts to compute a district-wide average share of public schooling costs. The average per pupil expenditure and the average fraction for which the state is responsible yields a dollar figure for the state's elementary and secondary costs per pupil. This dollar figure is then allocated to every child, between 6 to 17 years old, who lives in the district and those who are enrolled which indicates "in public school." The state incurs additional costs for general education administration and management that are not part of a school district's per pupil expenditures. Additional education costs are incurred by limited English proficient (LEP) students who are eligible for special education services such as remedial skills and bilingual education programs. There is no satisfactory way to break out bilingual education costs without making gross assumptions about relative school district participation in these state programs. Per pupil expenditures are higher in school districts located in urban areas than in the surrounding school districts, partly reflecting the higher cost of education for LEP pupils. And remember that includes every student. It is hard to tell how many Spanish speaking students a school will have before funds are allocated.

Lie #4: Electronic employer verification system will make it hard to find work

Yet businesses often cannot verify the legal status of their employees, because of the widespread problem of document fraud. Therefore, comprehensive immigration reform must include a better system for verifying documents and work eligibility. A key part of that system should be a new identification card for every legal foreign worker. This card should use biometric technology, such as digital fingerprints, to make it tamper-proof. A tamper-proof card would help us enforce the law and leave employers with no excuse for violating it. And by making it harder for illegal immigrants to find work in our country, we would discourage people from crossing the border illegally in the first place.

Fact: The system would require verification from two federal agencies; the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) according to the three proposed bills - EEVS (Electronic Employer Verification System) in the Senate bill, the BEVP (Basic Employer Verification Program) House version, and NEECS (New Employment Eligibility Confirmation System) that was proposed in the failed McCain/Kennedy Bill. Considering Dudya asked for, one of those measures will be included in the final bill and it will affect everybody.

In August 2005, the Government Accountability Office reviewed that program and found:

Even with a strengthened employment verification process, a credible worksite enforcement program is needed because no verification process is foolproof and not all employers may want to comply with the law. ... [E]mployers, particularly those not located at or near critical infrastructure sites, who attempt to circumvent IRCA face less of a likelihood that ICE will investigate them for failing to comply with the current employment verification process or knowingly hiring unauthorized
workers. ... In addition, given ICE’s limited resources and competing priorities for those resources, additional output goals and measures are needed to help ICE track the progress of its worksite enforcement efforts, effectively determine the resources needed to meet worksite enforcement program goals, and ensure that program resources are used efficiently and effectively.

Kerry Howley for Reason wrote a great summary regarding the consequences this system will have throughout the country.

Lie #5 The whole English BS

Americans are bound together by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the flag we fly, and an ability to speak and write the English language. English is also the key to unlocking the opportunity of America.

Here is the deal, the whole English only thing is bullshit and I will tell you why. While everybody is yappying people forget there are more than 50 states, we do have territories.

The list of the main insular areas:
Puerto Rico - The official languages of the island are Spanish and English. Spanish is the primary language in government; English is taught as a foreign language in schools. In 1991, Governor Rafael Hernández Colón signed a law declaring Spanish as the sole official language of the island's government. Upon signing this law into effect, English had lost its status as an official second language. in 1993, Governor Pedro Rosselló (PNP AKA Rethug) overturned the law and re-established English as an official language. This was seen by many as a move by the pro-statehood governor to move the island closer to statehood, something that never came about under his two consecutive four-year terms.

Northern Mariana Islands - Languages: English, Chamorro, Carolinian, Chinese, Tagalog note: 86% of population speaks a language other than English at home

American Samoa - Samoan 90.6% (closely related to Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages), English 2.9%, Tongan 2.4%, other Pacific islander 2.1%, other 2% note: most people are bilingual (2000 census)

Guam - Languages: English 38.3%, Chamorro 22.2%, Philippine languages 22.2%, other Pacific island languages 6.8%, Asian languages 7%, other languages 3.5% (2000 census)

note: Although the English language and Japanese language are commonplace on both Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands, people still use the Chamorro language. Chamorro is also used in mainland United States by immigrants and some of their descendants.

Are we suppose to force these places to speak English also, they are as American as those who live here in the Main land. [Update: Click on comments for further discussion on the English only issue.]

Besides twisting his facts, Dudya also did a lot of Orwellian doublespeak. Dudya talks about sending 6,000 National Guard troops to the border, yet, he says "The United States is not going to militarize the southern border." He goes on to say "Mexico is our neighbor and friend," yet, "the border should ... shut to illegal immigrants, as well as criminals, drug dealers and terrorists." And best one of all, "There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program of mass deportation."

If there is something that needs be decoded in his speech, it was at the end of his speech.

During the liberation of Iraq, Master Gunnery Sergeant Denogean was seriously injured. When asked if he had any requests, he made two a promotion for the corporal who helped rescue him and the chance to become an American citizen. And when this brave Marine raised his right hand, and swore an oath to become a citizen of the country he had defended for more than 26 years, I was honored to stand at his side.
...
We will always be proud to welcome people like Guadalupe Denogean as fellow Americans. Our new immigrants are just what they have always been people willing to risk everything for the dream of freedom.

Bush was not talking about the risks this immigrants face as they cross the border. Yes, immigrants are willing to risk everything, even if it means being a solider in BushCo's war to have an opportunity to be an American citizen. Ever since Dudya signed an Executive Order 13269, there really was no need for a military draft, the executive order has a provided a fast track for every non-citizen to become citizens for severing in BushCo's war, without worry of deportation.

The War on Terrorism has led to changes in the immigration laws and regulations that greatly benefit soldiers and their spouses. First, active duty soldiers who are not U.S. citizens are now immediately eligible to apply for naturalization. Second, conditional lawful permanent resident alien spouses of soldiers who are deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom may request that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) extend their conditional status for one year, and in six-month increments thereafter, until their spouses return from abroad.

On 3 July 2002, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13,269, (1) expediting the naturalization of aliens (2) and noncitizen nationals (3) serving in an active duty status (4) during the War on Terrorism. This executive order made all aliens and noncitizen nationals serving honorably on active duty between 11 September 2001 and a future date, to be determined by executive order, eligible for immediate naturalization under section 329 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act. (5) This authority does not require a period of residence or any specified period of physical presence in the United States before the soldier's application for naturalization. (6) The soldier must show, however, that for at least one year before filing for naturalization, he or she has been, and continues to be: (1) of good moral character; (2) attached to the principles of the Constitution; and (3) favoring the good order and happiness of the United States.

Preferential access to citizenship for those who serve in the military is not unusual. However, it is how Dudya views the relationship between citizenship and military service that makes it more sinister. There is nothing wrong linking citizenship and responsibility for military service, but, Dudya’s idea that a civil-military relationship is defined by political partisanship, moral superiority, and constitutional resistance is what makes his rhetoric sinister. One cannot place degrees of citizenship (face deportation or serve in the military) on the basis of parameters that undermine the constitutional and professional ethic of the military's political neutrality.

As of April 2003, there were 68,826 foreign-born, both naturalized citizens and non-citizens, individuals who are also risking everything to fight in BushCo's war.

So once again, Dudya tries to pull a fast one, hoping his base is dumb enough to believe it until election day in November.

Technorati : President Bush, Immigration, the border, Operation Gatekeeper, Border Patrol, militarizing border

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When the US is not hunting down immigrants, one thing America loves to pride itself is that it can describe itself as melting pot. One of the reasons, it has always attracted people who are in search of the "American Dream" from all over the world. Just talk to any immigrant, they will simply tell you, they came here to achieve the American Dream. However, the US is also schizophrenic when it comes to immigration, the US can turn on a whim, which it has; in certain time periods, US immigration policy has chosen that certain kind of immigrants will be allowed to achieve this Dream. And like many individuals with schizophrenia, it make things difficult for individuals and families to achieve that dream by turning it into their worst nightmare.

But who really cares about immigrants from South of the border? It's not like they really have any rights. They are just foreigners with funny accents who is simply just another "invader" only coming over here to take away American jobs, feed off the welfare system, mug old ladies in the night, steal your cars, or go on a killing spree, as Idaho’s Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez warns the nation about these invaders. (And Vasquez should know; he's a grandson of Mexican immigrants.) Or, worse yet, columnist and blogger, Michelle Malkin informs us that these dangerous multiculturalists are bent on destroying the English language, but its not just the Mexicans, it's also the Vietnamese. (And Malkin should know; she's a daughter of Filipino immigrants.)

Don't even waste your tears over those invaders or their Third World families, they'll get caught sooner or later and get thrown in some private detention camp. And if they've suffered, it's ok, it's for worthy cause, its to save an endangered species - the Republican electoral votes. So don't freak out if your favorite neighborhood Chinese restaurant shuts down, they most likely were hiring illegal aliens (not just Chinese, some of them are Vietnamese and Hispanic) and they are all mostly being hauled off to some federal detention facility.

Chertoff also said Homeland Security would open detention facilities in the next few weeks to house entire families of illegal immigrants who hope to bring their children along in order to avoid jail time. "It'll be humane, but we're not going to let people get away with this," he said.

We just don't have the time or the emotional capital to spend worrying about their freedom. We have more pressing matters to worry about, we have to worry about possible terrorism and our safety. The only way we can do this - declare war on immigration.

The battle plan is already under way. Throw more millions of dollars to continue building the existing McNamara Line along the Southern border? Who cares, money grows on trees! Force every American to carry a national ID card. Don't complain, it's been done. Force employers to check-in with Department of Homeland Security and their an employee verification system, before hiring? It's only fair, we have to save our jobs. They're stealing American jobs, remember?

And along the way, we will have some collateral damage, so sho cares if innocent families are ripped apart, it's war. And war is hell, Goddamn it! Besides every American should follow the chicken hawk motto: "We have to destroy a village in order to save it." ... click read more to continue ...

This is post-9/11, we should already be used to this type of military talk. We have have been at war, the "War on Terrorism" and the Southern border is just another front, in our war for security. Just recently, our Commander-in-Thief announced his plans for deploying the National Guard to be stationed along the border. But the simple truth, the government was quietly militarizing the Border Patrol and the border since the "Contract on America."

The idea of building a border fence began in 1990, when Congressman Ducan Hunter (R-CA) presented his plan, Four Achievable Victories, to President Bush. And later that year, the US began working on the supply roads and the construction of the fence.

Goals presented in the report include the building of a border road, the lighting of the twelve major smuggling corridors, the replacing of the chain-link fence with steel matting, and the use of the National Guard to build the roads and fence.

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And soon after the passage of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the US Border Patrol has grown into the nation's largest uniformed law enforcement agency (11,000 agents) deployed along the 2,000-mile border. In a study conducted by the by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse TRAC found that despite the increase in the number of Border Patrol agents, the number of apprehensions, however, dropped by 10% from 1,324,202 in 1995 to 1,188,977 in 2005.

Although the number of apprehensions did go down, in another TRAC study, TRAC found that that the Bush Administration had adopted an across-the-board get-tough policy when it came to immigration. The Department of Homeland Security more immigration referrals for prosecution, more prosecutions and more convictions.

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The overall counts for the entire nation seem clear. Referrals climbed from just under 24,000 in FY 2003 to almost 40,000 in FY 2004 -- an increase of 65%. In the same period, prosecutions rose 82% -- from almost 21,000 to just under 38,000. And the increase in convictions was similarly up, 18,000 to 31,000.

Click for larger image

Interestingly, TRAC found that by subtracting the "skyrocketing enforcement actions" occurring in the Southern District of TX from the national counts, a totally different outcome occurred. TRAC found that nationally, the number of referrals for prosecution only went up by 8%, prosecutions went up 16% and convictions actually fell, down by 4%. How interesting that South Texas is the only district that raises the national average. And it is also interesting that Bush is deciding to deploy troops to along the border.

Operation Gatekeeper
In 1994, Operation Gatekeeper was introduced with the purpose of reducing the flow of undocumented migrants into San Diego County by sealing high-traffic urban zones and forcing migrants into harsh, hostile terrain. In 1995, similar projects were introduced in Texas (Operation Hold the Line), and in Arizona (Operation Safeguard). Supporters hoped for prevention through deterrence.

Gatekeeper was developed from the 1994 U.S. Border Patrol Strategic Plan. The plan recognizes that

illegal entrants crossing through remote, uninhabited expanses...can find themselves in mortal danger... [and] the influx will adjust to Border Patrol changing tactics.

Instead of deterring unauthorized crossings, Gatekeeper only deterred those crossing the border from using the regular crossing routes to finding newer ones — migrants started avoiding the secured urban areas and began pouring into more unsafe desert and mountain landscapes to cross the border. The repercussions were tragic: migrants inundated ranches, farms, and small towns; human trafficking activity surged; and death tolls along the border soared.

In 1998 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of San Diego & Imperial Counties filled a petition with the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding how the United States was in direct violation of international human rights law by directing immigrant paths that can ultimately be fatal.

The Border Patrol's blueprint for Gatekeeper itself says that the environment to which the migrant traffic was to be channeled — places where "the days are blazing hot and the nights freezing cold" — posed a "mortal danger" to illegal entrants. Three hundred and sixty migrants, including women and children, have died at the California border since the start of Operation Gatekeeper in 1994, most of them from exposure in the Tecate mountains and dehydration in the Imperial desert. Increasingly, migrants are drowning in the swift currents of the All American canal that cuts across Calexico and Mexicali, in attempts to avoid long treks across the desert.

Other forms of terror and abuse can be attributed to the Border Patrol and other U.S. agencies. Operation Gatekeeper has also been condemned by Amnesty International:

The allegations of ill-treatment Amnesty International collected include people struck with batons, fists and feet, often as punishment for attempting to run away from Border Patrol agents; denial of food, water and blankets for many hours while detained in Border Patrol stations and at Ports of Entry for INS processing; sexual abuse of men and women; denial of medical attention, and abusive, racially derogatory and unprofessional conduct towards the public sometimes resulting in the wrongful deportation of US citizens to Mexico. People who reported that they had been ill-treated included men, women and children, almost exclusively of Latin American descent. They included citizens and legal permanent residents of the USA, and members of Native American First Nations whose tribal lands span the U.S.-Mexico border.

The brutality and disregard displayed by the Border Patrol has enabled and encouraged vigilante groups such as the Minutemen Project to act out against the migrants.

According to the LA Times, in 2004, a total of 460 migrants have died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. And according to the US Customs and Border Protection, in 2003, 340 people died trying to cross the Mexican border into the United States.

Like Father, Like Son: Military Joint Operations
During King George I reign of terror, then-Secretary of Defense and now Vice President Dick Cheney, announced the activation of Joint Task Force Six (JTF-6) at Fort Bliss, Texas. JTF-6 is

the Joint Forces Command component that provides Department of Defense counterdrug support to federal, regional, state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the continental United States.

Military support is designed to assist law enforcement in their mission to detect, deter, disrupt, and dismantle illegal drug trafficking organizations. All military support to counterdrug operations is based on a valid support request from a law enforcement agency.

JTF-6 grew out of George Bush I's National Drug Control Strategy and was used under the Texas version of Gatekeeper, "Operation Alliance."

Operation Alliance prepares border control strategies and coordinates drug enforcement activities of 17 federal and numerous state and local law enforcement agencies combating drug smuggling. The primary smuggling route across the southwest border is by land. In spite of law enforcement agencies' efforts to counter drug smuggling, the flow of drugs between the ports of entry along the southwest border continue due to vast open areas and a relatively low law enforcement presence.

The last joint operation between the military and the Border Patrol was in 1997, when marines killed an 18-year-old US citizen, Ezekiel Hernandez in the border town of Redford, Texas.

On May 20, 1997 a U.S. Marine shot the then-18 year old to death near his Redford, Texas home as he tended his goats.

Then-U.S. Marine Cpl. Clemente Banuelos said Hernandez threatened him with a rifle during joint U.S. Border patrol and military drug surveillance missions, Brownsville Herald archives show. Banuelos was cleared of wrongdoing.

King George I justified the militarization of the border by linking illegal immigration with the "War on Drugs" — a process that began during the Reagan years. In a 1996 article written by Jose Palafox, "Militarizing the Border," in Covert Action Quarterly, most of the drug trafficking comes through ports of entry with the help of corrupt government agents.

Over the last twenty years, hundreds of customs and border patrol agents have been indicted for taking bribes to allow smugglers to bring over not only people but also drugs, cocaine.

In Arizona, DHS indicted a Border Patrol agent for "harboring an illegal immigrant" after exposing DHS’s abuses on undocumented immigrants. Ephraim Cruz, a Douglas Border Patrol had blown the whistle on U.S. government abuse of undocumented immigrants.

A U.S. Border Patrol officer who lodged complaints about alleged illegal immigrant abuse has been indicted on five charges of transporting and harboring an illegal immigrant.

The indictment charges that Douglas agent Ephraim Cruz, 32, knowingly brought into the country an illegal immigrant, Maria De Socorro Terrazas-Orozco, on Jan 22 (2005).

Last year, Cruz complained in several internal memos obtained by the Tucson Citizen that migrants were going up to 24 hours without food and were unnecessarily crowded into cells.

And according to the Douglas Dispatch:

Ephraim Cruz is the same border agent that filed a memorandum to his supervisors that outlined his concerns about mistreatment of illegal immigrants and health and safety issues on March 21, 2004.

The memo stated that "aliens in our custody are not being fed. On one occasion, a juvenile (was) feeling week and broke out in large red bumps throughout his body, allegedly due to lack of nutritional sustenance. That young boy had been here nearly twenty hours without a meal."

The memo further stated that ... a young teenage girl had been granted humanitarian voluntary return after complains of feeling faint.

"That girl had been here three shifts also without a meal," the memo stated.

As for the criminal element, according to a February 2000 Office of Inspector Report, Border Patrol Efforts Along the Northern Border, Evaluation and Inspections Report, it is the Northern Border that is more likely to encounter "an alien" smuggling weapons and drugs and high levels of human trafficking:

Border Patrol sectors on the Canadian border face significant law enforcement challenges, even though the volume of known illegal alien and drug trafficking is much less than it is along the Mexican border. Between FY 1993 and FY 1998, the Border Patrol's eight northern sectors apprehended 81,285 deportable individuals, including 5,704 smuggled aliens. In addition, the northern sectors apprehended 4,384 non-deportable individuals--legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens--for criminal activity (e.g., alien smuggling). These statistics quantify the successes of the Border Patrol. However, they do not provide an indication of the nature or extent of illegal activity that goes undetected due to limited staffing and resources.

Although the numbers of incidents is low, BPAs in the northern border sectors experience organized criminal activity more often than BPAs along the southwest border. According to Border Patrol workload data ... for FY 1993 through FY 1998, the BPAs in northern border sectors were 14 times as likely to encounter an alien involved with smuggling weapons and 9 times as likely to encounter an alien involved with smuggling drugs when compared to BPAs in southwest sectors.

The current Bush Administration's support for immigration reform has been half-hearted, which is no surprise. The continuation of the militarization of the border has to make one wonder if this is Vice President Cheney's subtle way of completing a job he couldn't finish, while King George II plays the puppet. It should be noted, one of the main issues addressed in the report is the high levels of "illegal immigration" from three groups, Chinese, South Koreans, and Mexicans.

INS's 1997 Anti-Smuggling Strategy document states that "[i]ntelligence information suggests that use of the Northern border by smuggling organizations is on the rise." ... Northern Border Patrol sectors have identified trends in illegal immigration and alien smuggling operations, including an influx of nationals from China, South Korea, and Mexico crossing the border illegally.

In December 1998, a joint operation, led by INS investigators and involving law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada, broke up a smuggling ring that for two years had used the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory in New York to smuggle approximately 3,600 undocumented Chinese nationals into the United States....

South Koreans and Mexicans are not required to obtain a visa to enter Canada. Consequently, increasing numbers of citizens of both countries are traveling to Canada and later illegally entering the United States.

The report also mentions that the original plan that created Gatekeeper, Border Patrol Strategic Plan 1994 and Beyond, calls for four phases, not three, for controlling the US borders, including the Northern Border.

• Phase I - Control San Diego and El Paso Corridors
• Phase II - Control South Texas and Tucson Corridors
• Phase III - Control Remainder of Southwest Border
• Phase IV - Control all the United States Borders/Adjust to Flow

Phase IV is meant to control the Northern Border, yet, there are no set date. But the subtle signs of the Bush Administration beginning to expand Gatekeeper to the Northern border are there. Beginning next year, all US citizens are required to have a passport for all air and sea travel to or from Canada.

Are you awake America? Do you care now? Your fear of the brown invaders spreading throughout this country, has now shut you in. Your fear has allowed Bush and Cheney to create the ultimate roach motel. And like the roach motel, Americans check in, but they don't check out.

"Even the new world order cannot guarantee an era of perpetual peace. But enduring peace must be our mission." - King George Bush I

Hat tip to Arcturus for bringing this up.

Technorati : President Bush, Immigration, the border, Operation Gatekeeper, Operation Hold the Line, Operation Stronghold, Border Patrol, militarizing border

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