Blogs For Victory

No surprise at all:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has delayed a series of proposed immigration raids and other enforcement actions at U.S. workplaces in recent weeks, asking agents in her department to apply more scrutiny to the selection and investigation of targets as well as the timing of raids, federal officials said.

A senior department official said the delays signal a pending change in whom agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement choose to prosecute — increasing the focus on businesses and executives instead of ordinary workers.

“ICE is now scrutinizing these cases more thoroughly to ensure that [targets] are being taken down when they should be taken down, and that the employer is being targeted and the surveillance and the investigation is being done how it should be done,” said the official, discussing Napolitano’s views about sensitive law enforcement matters on the condition of anonymity.

And, of course, allowing the cases to be tied up in courts as business owners have legal teams to dispute ICE actions…meanwhile, the actual law breakers – the illegal immigrants – are essentially let off the hook, thereby ensuring that the human smuggling operations across our borders not only continue, but increase…with, naturally, the inherent risk that it won’t be just maids and drywallers coming across, but also the odd terrorist or two, or fifty.

Short of trying to deport all 12 million or so illegals in country, the best means of striking illegal immigration is to go after the illegals actually at work in America – remember, the reason they come here is to make money to send back home; if we continually disrupt what they are here to do, they will become progressively less likely to come across…and this, in turn, will de-fund the gangs causing Mexico all sorts of trouble as well as forcing the Mexican government to deal with the root cause of illegal immigration: Mexico’s horrifically corrupt and massively discriminatory economy which freezes out Mexican’s or all or mostly Indian descent.

But, of course, to take action against illegals is something the race-baiters in American cannot tolerate. The mere thought that America might gain control of its borders sends them into a foaming-at-the-mouth rage. And, of course, they donate heavily to the Democrat party, and now its time for the Democrat party to pay up for the campaign cash. So, keep that in mind, boys and girls: illegal immigration will continue and America will be less secure because Obama needed campaign cash last year.

This is a fine thing – if you are a liberal elite who lives a highly sheltered life and are extraordinarily unlikely to suffer any consequences of illegal immigration. For everyone else, its a bit of a raw deal – and the rawest deal is that given to the illegals, who will continue to be triply exploited – by the Mexican government which sends them north to earn foreign exchange for Mexico; by the gangs which have sealed tight the northern border of Mexico in order to control – and charge – the human cargo coming north (and, by the way, showing that the border can be secured, if one wishes to do it); and, finally, by rich Americans who neither care about native and legal-immigrant workers, nor about the illegal workers…all that matters is high profits, low costs and cheap domestic servants.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?”

This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.

But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”

Certainly one of the most famous passages of the New Testament. To me, the most important part is Jesus’ strict command to the woman not to sin again. In my understanding, the fact of forgiveness is easily obtained from a merciful Lord, but the expectation is that once forgiven, a person must not do that thing again. This precludes any plan to sin, ask for forgiveness and just mindlessly go back to the sin just completed. Additionally, it strikes me as vastly important that we, in our corporate actions, take careful notice of our own actions and what is motivating us to desire some particular, public action.

Discuss.

My father has now been taken to a Hospice. Days, perhaps a couple weeks, are what remain. While his body is in very bad shape, his mind remains sharp and he’s entirely aware of what is happening. When my mother-in-law passed away last month, she was not aware of what was happening for the last 10 days. Now I’ve seen it both ways – knowing and not knowing – and while it may be easier on the dying to be unaware, there is no doubt that it is easier on the family if the dying person is unable to communicate. To contemplate your own impending death is a fearsome thing especially when you literally don’t know from moment to moment if this is your last. For someone like my father, who has always liked everything laid out and squared away, this has been a bit of a torment.

Fortunately, Our Lord came to my father in the form of the Blessed Sacrament and upon taking it, my father became very much at peace. We know what is coming, and with faith in our Savior, we are ready to do what is fitting. 2009 certainly hasn’t been the best of years, but one must remain aware that others still have it worse and, of course, the trials we are given are a gift from God.

I ask all to pray for my father and my family that we will be at peace and in all things completely trusting in God.

When the Lord knows that good health is necessary for our soul’s welfare, He sends it to us; and when we need sickness, He sends that too. Sickness makes us discover who we are.

— St. Theresa of Avila

…the government, led by comrade Obama, is telling private business how it should be run.

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

On Monday, President Barack Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. The plan is based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government’s behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

General Motors issued a vague statement Sunday night that did not officially confirm Wagoner’s departure. 

Down with Big Brother. Down with Big Brother. Down with Big Brother.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Some banks want to bail out of the bail out.

Gay Patriot notes another double standard for Democrats and Republicans:

During last fall’s presidential campaign, Barney Frank likely served as an inspiration to some bloggers eager to score points with the far left when he became one of “the first Democrats to publicly say Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s family background, including the pregnancy of her unwed teenage daughter, should be fair game for campaign discussion.“

If the daughter of a candidate for Vice President is “fair game” for campaign discussion, it follows that the daughter of the sitting Vice President should be “fair game” for political discussion.

Apparently the mainstream media doesn’t think so.

Starting yesterday, Drudge has been linking a number of articles reporting that a “‘friend’ of Vice President Joseph Biden’s daughter, Ashley, is attempting to hawk a videotape that he claims shows her snorting cocaine at a house party this month in Delaware.“ Yet, except for a few New York area papers (Newsday, NY Post, NY Daily News), the “old media” have not picked up on this story.

In an ideal world, this wouldn’t, indeed, likely shouldn’t be news. But, it seems that whenever the child of a Republican politician is caught up in a scandal, the MSM, following the lead of Democrats like Frank, calls their private lives “fair game.”

It should not be in the news at all – a family going through such a rough patch deserves the chance to deal with it absent intense media coverage. But that only goes, in the MSM, for the children of liberal Democrats. Heck, the MSM even started to pick up on the absurdly false rumor that Palin’s Down’s Syndrome child was actually her grand-son and she was covering up…the worst sort of tabloid trash gets reported about GOPers (including “fake but accurate” stories), while even the largest crimes and misdemeanors are given a pass when it comes to liberals.

Its really rather sad – what we get out of the MSM is the worst of all worlds: a poisoned political atmosphere where one side’s crimes are covered up.

I double dog dare Obama to actually get in front of a genuinely random group of 1,000 Americans and open the floor to questions – he won’t do it, of course, because that is not in the script:

…while the online question portion of the White House town hall was open to any member of the public with an Internet connection, the five fully identified questioners called on randomly by the president in the East Room were anything but a diverse lot. They included: a member of the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union, a member of the Democratic National Committee who campaigned for Obama among Hispanics during the primary; a former Democratic candidate for Virginia state delegate who endorsed Obama last fall in an op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star; and a Virginia businessman who was a donor to Obama’s campaign in 2008.

This is the change we need? A President so afraid of having to answer a tough question that he doesn’t dare put himself in a position where one might come his way?

The Teleprompter Presidency, boys and girls; that is all Obama is…someone who can read a speech.

Getting rather Great Depression-y out there:

As the operations manager of an outreach center for the homeless here, Paul Stack is used to seeing people down on their luck. What he had never seen before was people living in tents and lean-tos on the railroad lot across from the center.

“They just popped up about 18 months ago,” Mr. Stack said. “One day it was empty. The next day, there were people living there.”

Like a dozen or so other cities across the nation, Fresno is dealing with an unhappy déjà vu: the arrival of modern-day Hoovervilles, illegal encampments of homeless people that are reminiscent, on a far smaller scale, of Depression-era shantytowns. At his news conference on Tuesday night, President Obama was asked directly about the tent cities and responded by saying that it was “not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours.”

No, Mr. President, that isn’t it at all – what is wrong here is that people are living out in tents at all, whether it be in a rich or poor nation. It should be no comfort to us were we able to house every single American and yet still have our brothers and sisters living in tents and shacks in other lands. What this represents is not so much poverty as social breakdown.

Now, to be sure, the bulk of the homeless are either shiftless or mentally deficient – in other words, people you can’t so much ask to come off the street as people you should take off the street because they have proven themselves incapable of taking an adult’s place in the world. But especially as our economy has declined more and more people who are hard-working find themselves living out of doors. For a moment, you should put yourself in their shoes – you’ve lost your job due to the plant shutting down, lost your house because the landlord went bankrupt, lost your savings because the stock market crashed…you are out on the streets with your wife and two children and, really, its not your fault. If you suddenly found yourself in this position, how would you feel if someone came up to you and said, “brother, you’re in need – come to my house; it will be a tight fit, but if we all cooperate we can live together until you are back on your feet”?

I think, in that situation, you’d be mighty pleased – but, now, think about it from the point of view you have now: you’re the person with the house and you’ve got that extra bedroom since the kid went off to college. You’d like to turn it into that game room you’ve always wanted…but now you know about homeless people who really are caught in a jam not of their own making. What are you willing to do?

I realize that I’m being entirely unfair here – I mean, some random family off the streets might be a family of thieves or who knows what. To just take someone in on faith that God will provide what is needed and ensure that, come what may, good will emerge from your act of generosity is a bit of a leap – especially in 2009, after we’ve been conditioned for a century to believe we don’t have a direct responsibility for our brothers and sisters and that, really, its better to not get involved and doesn’t Catholic Charities and such take care of these things? But it is our problem – and it is all part of our social breakdown.

And therein lies the fundamental flaw of Obamunism – he’s just going down the same path to social destruction we’ve been following for far too long. We need to pull together as a community – Obama pays lip service to this, but his real goal is the naked individual being ministered to by an all-powerful government. He doesn’t want people who are well off heading to the poor areas to help out – if people do that, they’ll start becoming a solid, functioning (and, by the way, self organized) community. And then where is the need for Obama and the government?

Out there in our increasingly impoverished America grow these shanty towns – called “Hoovervilles” in the 30’s, but rightly called “Obamavilles” today because it is what Obama wants: people suffering and with only the government to help them. Fear not, says Obama, all will be taken care of – and like braying asses, his liberal followers are thrilled that the poor will be helped…and without liberal asses actually having to get out there and deal with those icky poor people who are unfashionably dressed and smell funny and aren’t nearly as cool close up as they are in a heart-rending documentary.

Wake up, people – your brothers and sisters need your help; don’t leave them to the misbegotten ministrations of Big Government. Help them, yourselves.

Next time, Hill old gal, lets not skimp on the preliminary briefing:

During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image.

A hundred points for leaving the flowers, minus a thousand, however, for not knowing that we Catholics believe that God painted the image – its all part of the miracle of Mexico’s conversion. Details can be read here.

A small error, to be sure, but one in a series of foreign policy mis-steps by the gang which was supposed to be oh, so much better than President Bush.

UPDATE: And then Hillary leaves the shrine of the Protectress of the Unborn…to go get the Margaret Sanger “Kill-A-Baby-A-DAY” Award.

And to think I was just going to turn on every light in my house at 8:30pm:

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a leading free-market think tank, plans to recognize “Human Achievement Hour” between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on March 28, 2009. The new one-hour holiday coincides with Earth Hour, a period of time during which governments, individuals, and corporations have agreed to dim or shut off lights in an effort to draw attention to climate change.

“We are so proud that millions of people plan to show their appreciation for human achievement by doing things like eating dinner, watching television, going to the movies, and brushing their teeth,” says Human Achievement Hour Founder and CEI Policy Analyst Michelle Minton. “Never before has a new holiday caught on so quickly.”

The new one-hour holiday, unknown prior to this press release, has already received overwhelming support from many of Washington, D.C.’s leading institutions. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, for example, tells CEI that it does not plan to shut down all of the city’s bus and rail lines for the “Earth Hour.” The Kennedy Center, likewise, has scheduled a performance of the long-running play Sheer Madness, a jazz concert, and a dance performance to coincide with the Human Achievement Hour. Washington, D.C.’s Target store, furthermore, will remain open until 10:00pm on the evening of the 28th. The Smithsonian Institution also plans a film showing that will extend into Human Achievement Hour.

“We salute the people who keep the lights on and produce the energy that helps make human achievement possible,” says Myron Ebell, CEI’s Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy.

Now, with all lights blazing, I’ll be joining my fellow Americans in celebrating this wonderful, new holiday.

Thank you, Governor:

Governor David Paterson said next year’s record budget gap may be $3 billion greater than the $16.2 billion he announced earlier this week and hinted a tax increase on higher incomes is possible.

The newly estimated gap for the year beginning April 1 was 25 percent more than projections six weeks ago, he said.

“We are right now on the verge of cuts and service reductions that I would have to describe as life threatening,” Paterson said. “With situations like that, everything is on the table,” he said in response to a question about increasing the state’s income tax for high earners.

Paterson and legislative leaders said earlier this week that the deficit continues growing because of falling tax collections in a shrinking economy with rising unemployment. If next year’s deficit exceeds the $16.2 billion estimate, the spending plan would be amended, as lawmakers did twice in the current year.

What is so insane about all this is that our tax and spend liberals are noting the decreased revenues from the wealthy and their response to to try to tax them some more…there seems to be zero realization that if you tax them some more their wealth will further erode and you’ll thus get even less revenue at the higher tax rate. And, naturally, the Democrats are raising the specter of death and destruction if they don’t raise taxes. Spending can be cut – but to do so means that large numbers of liberals will have to get real jobs. Just a quick browse through the NY State government reveals these areas of questionable activity, ripe for cuts:

Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority; Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission; The Office of Community Renewal; Governor’s Office of Employee Relations; Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority; Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Clearinghouse; Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness; Nassau County Interim Finance Authority; Olympic Regional Development Authority; Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reform; South Shore Estuary Reserve Council…if anyone can provide a reason why any of these agencies are life and death matters for New York, I’d like to hear it. And this was just a skip-through on the State directory. Imagine what we’d find if we went through it with a fine tooth comb.

But, we know the Democrats won’t – because the vital thing about this spending is that it puts people on the public payroll and thus provides a class of people with a vested interest in the maintenance and expansion of government power. These people know who is keeping them employed, so the votes and the donations flow mostly one way: to the Democrats. But there is a limit – and raising taxes during a massive recession just might do the trick to allow a conservative or two to win in New York.