A great letter on immigration

Name: Alma
Hometown: New York, NY
As a past illegal immigrant, now naturalized citizen, I'll say this: Yes, we do come here largely because Mexico has problems - namely our government (talk about an understatement). Regardless, we come here to work, not for the rule of law. The rule of law makes it possible for people to get ahead here, but understand, most of us have no intention of staying when we cross the border. We stay, in my case particularly, because we come to feel an attachment to this society. We don't stay for the welfare and the food stamps everyone keeps talking about. We stay because our kids join the baseball team, because we buy a house, because we start a business, because we have careers, because we have something to give back knowing that no one will take away what we earn (well, except Uncle Sam, come tax time). I realize most people reading this don't believe we contribute anything to this society. Everyone seems to think the last immigrants who contributed anything came at the turn of the last century. But, please consider that some of us arrived less than twenty years ago and have forged a business, a profession (and a serious resume), a community and a 401(k) and tax contributions at the top bracket. Some of us don't do as well and therefore contribute less. Nonetheless, the question of whether people should be coming and if so, how they should arrive, is largely irrelevant. We are coming and will continue to do so. Yes, Mexico has to take more responsibility for its people, but its people are becoming your people, whether you like it or not (seriously, legislation and a giant wall aren't going to stop the will to survive). The only relevant question is: how do we help those arriving to become the most productive members of society they can be? Are you going to let us get an education, pay our taxes and become a part of your community? No? Then what - you'd rather ostracise us, keep us uneducated in menial jobs where we'll earn next to nothing, send all of our infinitesimally small paychecks back to Mexico and teach us to hate you? We come from a broken country and are attempting to become part of one that is allegedly whole, if you break this one out of hatred towards us, it makes us no worse off - ours is already broken, remember? If you want to divide these United States, so be it - after all, this was your land before it was mine.

Center-left coalition predicted to win majority of Knesset seats

Israel election results, hot off the exit polls:

Kadima-Labor-Meretz-Arab Parties: 62-66 seats

Likud-rightist parties: 48-51 seats.

If these results hold, Olmert will have the support he needs to make his unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank a reality. And I say more power to him.

Had I been in Israel, I would have been torn between Kadima and Labor, but very curious to learn more about Yisrael Beitenu. They've jumped into the political mainstream with 12-14 seats, beating out even the Likud, which seems to have sunk to the 4th largest party. This is a major, huge, enormous change in Israeli politics--it would be the equivalent of the Reform Party winning a majority in the American House of Representatives. No, more than that--it's the equivalent of a new party, formed last year by, say, Bill Clinton, surging to power and winning a mandate in the House. No, Kadima didn't win a majority in the Knesset, but because of differences in the way the Israeli system works from the way the American system works, the analogy holds.

Hamas will not arrest terrorists who attack Israel

Incoming Palestinian interior minister Saeed Seyam, chosen by Hamas to oversee three security services, said on Thursday he will not order the arrest of militants carrying out attacks against Israel.

"The day will never come when any Palestinian would be arrested because of his political affiliation or because of resisting the occupation," Seyam told Reuters in an interview. "The file of political detention must be closed."

This article also says that Hamas will "try to coordinate militants' operations."

Sounds like a declaration of war to me. Israel needs to take this threat very seriously. If the Palestinian government is going to become an agency that coordinates terrorist attacks against Israel, then a state of war will exist between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and it's time for Israel to treat the situation as such. No more talk about dialogue, no more talk about a non-existent "peace process," nothing. If it's war Hamas wants, then war we should give them. Either that or we go for complete cut-off. Build the wall, close the borders, say "Fuck you, we're done, you can go have your little terrorist state and be miserable, we don't want any part of it."

God damn. I'm leaning Likud now.

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Hamas Denies Running Suicide Bombing Website for Palestinian Children

Sickening article--there's apparently a website that encourages kids to become suicide bombers. An Israeli agency accuses Hamas of running the website, and Hamas denies it.

This is the face of the Palestinian "resistance" to the Israeli "occupation." Websites that encourage children to kill themselves and take innocent civilians with them. Virulent hatred and lies spread about Jews in schools, mosques and society in general. A glorification of violence in the pursuit of a fanatical Islamist state. And the Palestinian people have elected the worst, most vicious killers to be their representatives.

Is peace even possible under these conditions? Every time I hear about another inhuman Palestinian "resistance" tactic, like this suicide bomber website for kids, it pushes me that much closer to Likud's thinking. But I'm still not there--yet. If I were in Israel today, and I had to vote, I don't know who I'd vote for. My heart is with Meretz, but my desire for Israeli security and some kind of an end to the farce that this "peace process" has become might lead me to vote Kadima. I think that's about as far right as I'd go.

Still. This story disgusts me. The inhumanity of the Palestinian extremists disgusts me. The fact that these extremists have been elected as "legitimate" representatives of the Palestinian people disgusts me. And the fact that much of the world community doesn't see these terrorists for what they are disgusts me.

Tulsa Cops Endorse "Democrat" Taylor

Well, the mayoral election has taken an interesting turn. Bill LaFortune is eating it for putting police chief David Been on administrative leave. Been had received unanimous support from the FOP, and last night, during a meeting to discuss a vote of confidence for the mayor, the police union cancelled the vote of confidence and instead decided to endorse LaFortune's "Democratic" challenger, Kathy Taylor.

That certainly puts a new wrinkle in this particular electoral scrotum.

Sign the petition!

Dear Friend,

Yesterday, in an interview for Fox News Radio, Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO) accused Senator Russ Feingold (D - WI) of "[siding] with terrorists" by introducing a resolution to censure George Bush.

Senator Feingold's censure resolution seeks to hold the President accountable for authorizing a domestic spying program that clearly violates federal law and for misleading the country about its existence and its legality.

To question Senator Feingold's patriotism and suggest that he is "siding with terrorists" by seeking to hold President Bush accountable for violating federal law is despicable.

Click on the following link to join me in calling on Senator Allard to apologize publicly:

http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/petition/allardapologize/kvtxg

Click on the following link for an audio clip of Allard's attack on Senator Feingold: http://www.ProgressNowAction.org/AllardAudio

Thank you!