How to Combat Terrorism

For the best and most enduring protection from every form of evil terrorism, the US should take these five steps.

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." --  Ayn Rand, The Nature of Government

I have no desire to get embroiled in the current tangled debate on immigration, either legal or illegal.  However, I have watched with interest the intense campaign for President Bush first to intervene in the trial of two border patrol agents accused of shooting a suspected Mexican drug dealer as he fled, and then to pardon the agents for the crime after they were convicted.

CNN's Lou Dobbs has led the crusade against illegal immigration for the past several years, and seems to be in the camp that believes if you're an immigrant and you're illegal, the gloves come off.  You deserve what you get.  I agree with Dobbs that our borders must be secured and that Mexicans entering our country legally should be welcomed as they have been throughout our history.  However, those like Osvaldo Aldrete Davila who slip across the border illegally should be stopped and sent back home -- not shot as they are trying to escape.

The agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, entered prison last week amid shrieks of injustice, to begin serving sentences of 11 and 12 years. They were convicted not only of shooting Davila, who was unarmed and running away, but of destroying evidence, covering up a crime scene and filing false reports concerning the circumstances.  

Everyone's talking about the newest Republican scandal unfolding in Nevada, but in case you haven't had the time to think much about it, I'd like to highlight the following...

First, this NEW scandal will refocus the national spotlight back to the seemingly infinite stream of Republican improprieties giving one final push to the image of the corrupt Republican party - just in case it was slipping anyone's mind.

Second, this will clearly shift momentum from Gibbons to his Democratic challenger for Nevada Governor, Dina Titus.

Already, Titus is fighting the good fight but trailing Gibbons by about 6 points.

The average of the last 5 non-partisan polls looks like this:

Jim Gibbons (R) 47
Dina Titus (D) 41

Expect this latest episode of Republican greed, self-entitlement, and hypocrisy to induce a HUGE swing in favor of Titus -- yet another Governorship in the Democrat's column.

Also to be considered is the battle between Jill Derby (D) and Dean Heller (R) for Nevada's 2nd congressional district -- the one being vacated by Gibbons.

The only two non-partisan polls conducted show a close race.

Mason-Dixon - 9/19-21/06

Jill Derby (D) ~ 42
Dean Heller (R) ~ 45

Research 2000 - 9/5-7/06

Jill Derby (D) ~ 37
Dean Heller (R) ~ 45

With the high-profile Republican incumbent crashing and burning in scandal, there is a high likelihood that there will be some negative energy weighing on his would-be Republican successor. It may only be for a few points but in a race this tight, a few points are all you need.

Also note that it's too late to take Gibbons name off the ballot, so if this continues in the direction that I think it will, that will mean Jim Gibbons' name will be sitting at the top of the ballot reminding the good voters of Nevada of the scandal, corruption, dishonesty, criminality, perversion, and hypocrisy that the GOP has wrought upon this land.

It will be a fine reminder that it's time for a change.

Jim Gibbons is the Republican Representative from Nevada's 2nd District as well as the GOP's candidate for the state's governorship.

His wife, Dawn Gibbons, was running for the congressional seat he's leaving vacant -- that is, until she was soundly defeated in the Republican primary.

Both have long been known as being 'tough on illegal immigration', but now the Gibbons are being taken down by their own former employee -- an illegal immigrant from Peru.

Patricia Pastor Sandoval worked for Jim and his wife Dawn for several years, starting in 1987. During that time, Sandoval claims the Gibbons knew of her illegal status and took pains to cover it up, occasionally requiring her to hide in the basement to conceal her illegal status. To boot, the Gibbons family dismissed US laws by:

• paying Sandoval only $4 per hour, less than the $5.15 per hour federal minimum wage

• knowingly employing an undocumented alien

• paying her 'under the table'

• and failing to pay employer taxes.

Another outrageous injustice from our friendly neighborhood Department of Homeland Security:

Questions are being raised about the arrest, detention, and treatment of a long-term Ukrainian legal resident alien in Florida.

Bella Maryanovsky, a thirty-year legal resident of the United States, was arrested last week on Tuesday, September 19, when she entered immigration offices for a routine update of her green card papers. It appears she was arrested under a new immigration program called "Operation Return to Sender."

For the third time in a little over a month George Allen must face questions stemming from remarks and actions that demonstrate what could be politely termed racial intolerance, but in fact reek of old fashioned racism. According to a recently released article in Salon, Allen's former college teammates are now coming forward with tales of blatant racism that some, like Rush Limbaugh, will characterize as "college pranks,"  but clearly border on hate crimes. In one incident, Allen had his friends drive him to the local black neighborhood so he could take the severed head of a deer and stuff it into a mailbox.

While Allen's case may be extreme, it says something about what has happened to Republican Party. For some, it's been a game of "catch me if you can" with racism for years. Late night comics tell jokes about "how few Blacks Republicans there are," but the American people have known for years about the underlying truths behind those jokes. The Republican Party has increasingly become a home for racists of every stripe and the sooner that party starts to come to terms with that reality, the better.

I'm sure the Republicans are disappointed.  Not only has the turmoil in the Middle East proved that Bush tipped the dominos in the wrong direction, it's taking the spotlight away from their series of staged events on "border security."

But then, maybe it's better that people don't look too closely.  After all, while the Republicans hint at it all the time, it may be they don't want to be seen saying straight out that it's really hard to tell an Middle Eastern terrorist from a Hispanic farmworker.  And that's just what's being said at these hearings.

If the media reported everything that's being said, most people would be astonished.  What the Republicans are proposing isn't immigration reform.  It's war.

The recent failure in the Senate to repeal the estate tax stands as a rare victory for sane fiscal policy.  The NYT editorialized about the event under the heading "What Passes for Good News."

In fact, the Senate vote came alarming close to ending a tax on inheritances of the richest half-a-percent of households, with a majority of Senators (57--but they needed 60 for a repeal) supporting a measure which would have cost the treasury $800 billion over 10 years at a time of ballooning budget deficits and war.

Of course, the politics of the repeal were the focus of most analyses--would the White House be adhered to or get rebuffed on an issue dear to them--but the economics of the tax cut are deeply revealing of the fundamental flaw of economic policy today.

And that flaw is this: we have, over the past three decades, shifted from we're-in-this-together (WITT) economics to you're-on-your-own (YOYO) economics.

With their focus solidly on the gay marriage amendment and estate tax repeal, the conservative movement is busy rearranging deck chairs on...well, not quite the Titanic, but on a rotting ship of state.

Here's a test: name one economic policy, other than tax cuts, associated with outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Give up?

Now think about this: what is the economic policy of the Bush administration? What about the Congress? What about the Democrats?

The diary below was originally posted earlier today in the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

The conservative shift in American politics undermined the economic security of working people. Increasingly, individuals are absorbing more risks, working longer hours and earning less. Meanwhile, corporations and government benefit from less accountability to tax payers, consumers and employees. Renowned economist Jared Bernstein proposes in his new book, All Together Now: Common Sense For A Fair Economy, (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.) that we're ensnared in a "YOYO economy". The acronym YOYO means, "You're On Your Own." Bernstein's book illustrates how the "YOYOists" have schemed to transfer the burden of economic risk onto individuals and their families.

According to the LA Times, "English would be declared the 'national language' of the United States under a measure approved by the Senate today, a largely symbolic move that supporters said would promote unity and ensure assimilation by immigrants." The Senate "passed two amendments, one Democratic and one Republican. The Democratic version is more specific on protecting translation and bilingual services."

Senator James Inhofe has "led the attempt to declare English the national language, a campaign he said began more than a century ago." Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said of the amendment, "I really believe this amendment is racist. I think it's directed basically to people who speak Spanish."

Senator Ken Salazar, "one of three Hispanic senators, whose family settled in Colorado before it became a state, asserted that the Inhofe amendment threatened a return 'to the dark days of American history' when Hispanic children were punished for speaking Spanish in school, sometimes by having soap thrust in their mouths."

In a further immigration roundup:

The Senate by 58 to 35, "killed an amendment that would have blocked eventual citizenship for future immigrants who arrive under a temporary work permit."

And...

In a seemingly antithetic move, "The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment -- even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents."

President Bush visited Yuma, Arizona, yesterday, to highlight his immigration plan. In particular, Bush stated his backing for building fences along parts of the US-Mexico border. While in Yuma, the President "declared that he supported fencing some but not all of America's 1,950-mile border with Mexico." Bush, "has in the past indicated he is opposed to fencing, and White House officials were kept busy on Thursday trying to explain the change in his position." Bush's position on the border fence marked "the first time it is has endorsed a specific amount of fencing."

Meanwhile, "As Bush headed to Yuma Thursday morning, the White House sent to Congress a revision in its $92-billion request for emergency spending, most of it to cover costs associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Within that amount, it is seeking $1.95 billion to meet the costs of deploying 1,000 new Border Patrol agents, and for fences, lights, and some of the border work of the National Guard."

"In his speech," President Bush "outlined a plan to start patrolling the US-Mexican border using members of the National Guard. He said that this will give us the most secure border in the world. One weekend a month and two full weeks each summer."

-- Jay Leno (05/15/06)

"President Bush is going to address the nation Monday night on the immigration issue. Bush said he would have given the address tonight, but they couldn't get the 'mission accomplished' sign finished in Spanish soon enough."

-- Jay Leno (05/15/06)

"On Thursday, the President will follow up his speech by going to the Arizona border, which will be historic. It will be the first time he's ever actually showed up with a National Guard unit."

-- Jay Leno (05/15/06)

Last night, Bush announced that he will use the National Guard to help secure the nation's border with Mexico against illegal immigrants -- a response to one of the many issues on which Bush holds low public approval (A Newsweek poll last week found 61% disapproving of President Bush's handling of immigration. A CBS News/New York Times poll from the previous week showed 58% disapproved.)

And although administration officials are denying that 'Mr Bush [is] trying to assuage congressional Republican concerns over border security' and 'mollify the Republican base' with his Immigration speech last night, pundits and the media paint a starkly different and more realistic picture.