Free Republic

I think in the long run this is a great idea, Congress should have the power to restrict birthright citizenship to children of citizens and permanent residents of the US. See http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2005/12/Birthright-Citizenship-and-the-Constitution

However there are many issues more important and less derisive in the short run. Many people who have a superficial understanding of the issues will see this in a very negative light. WE SHOULD LOOK TO OTHER ISSUES FIRST. This will be used against us in the 2010 election and if I was the opposition I would hope that this gets nationwide attention.

I think in the long run this is a great idea, Congress should have the power to restrict birthright citizenship to children of citizens and permanent residents of the US. See http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2005/12/Birthright-Citizenship-and-the-Constitution

However there are many issues more important and less derisive in the short run. Many people who have a superficial understanding of the issues will see this in a very negative light. WE SHOULD LOOK TO OTHER ISSUES FIRST. This will be used against us in the 2010 election and if I was the opposition I would hope that this gets nationwide attention.

I was just blocked for just using his comment rating system. I did not even post anything.
It’s a shame

She enlisted for 2 or 4 years and had a 8 year total obligation. Almost enlistment contracts are written this way. She did get out normally.

She is not in the wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She has zero pension. Her husband does not have to quit his job to take care of the kids. The military will have to figure a way to accommodate the kids. There is daycare on most bases. Maybe she can serve stateside.

Not much here:

The Chicago Reporter
December 1996

spiral
notebook
Voter Turnout Low, Tune Out High
By Johnathon E. Briggs

“Don’t vote! Overthrow the system!,” read the flyer passed out on Election Day by members of the Progressive Labor Party.

“We’ve got to overthrow capitalism. The system can’t work for us,” a young black man told commuters at the Chicago Transit Authority el station at 87th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway. “Don’t vote for anyone who doesn’t have your best interest at heart!”

Two-and-a-half miles to the east, in Jesse Owens Park, the 8th Ward’s 4th Precinct polling place was open for business. A woman walked briskly toward the entrance with her 4-year old daughter.

“Good morning,” said poll watcher Fernando Ellis. ‘Is she voting too?” The woman replied with an enthusiastic “Yes!”

By 8 a.m., black voters were lining up inside the park’s fieldhouse. “Black folks are coming out of the woodwork,” said Ellis, as he handed out leaflets and palm cards urging voters to “Punch 10!”

But across Chicago and the nation, black voters didn’t come out of the woodwork, and neither did anyone else.

Turnout for the 1996 presidential election, as measured by the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots, was 63.2 percent, according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. But a more accurate measure of political participation-the percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots-shows that only 43.7 percent of Chicago citizens of voting age went to the polls Nov. 5, according to an analysis by The Chicago Reporter

Experts and polls suggest that many Americans have ‘turned off” to the political process, convinced that government and politicians no longer are able or willing to solve their problems.

Andre Wilkins, 36, a registered voter from the West Side, said he saw no point in voting unless it produced something tangible, such as a full-time job.

“I haven’t voted for anyone in my entire life, because I see no reason to vote,” said Wilkins, who spent the holidays working part-time on a Loop street comer collecting donations for the Salvation Army.

Wilkins’ view is echoed by Elizabeth Haseltine, a Polish-born U.S. citizen who, along with her husband, operates Accent on Greenery Inc., a flower shop at 3409 N. Harlem Ave.

Haseltine has been eligible to vote for nearly a decade, but said she’s too busy running her two businesses to ‘waste’ her time voting “I don’t vote. I leave it to my husband,” she said. ‘It can’t change anything In the neighborhood anyway.”

The Reporter analyzed votes by precinct for the Nov. 5 election and 10 years of ward results to determine why, after 18 elections In a decade, electoral politics may no longer hold sway in a city that made famous the slogan, “Vote Early and Often.”

Last summer, a nationwide poll conducted by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism found that non-voters cross all racial and income lines. They include those who are otherwise active in their communities as well as people alienated from the political process.

The Reporter and Medill graduate students teamed up to look at middle-class neighborhoods In three wards: in the predominantly African American 8th Ward on the South Side; the white 36th Ward on the Northwest Side; and the Latino 22nd Ward on the Southwest Side.

Among the findings:
Turnout among black and white voters follows a similar pattern, though these voters go to the polls for different reasons. Popular black candidates spur black turnout, while whites appear to be motivated by having more choices on the ballot.

Black participation in mayoral elections has plummeted since 1987, even though viable black candidates continue to seek the office.

Black and Latino voters are more loyal to the Democratic Party than whites, casting a higher percentage of straight Democratic ballots.

Black voters have turned off to politics because their representatives lost their independence from City Hall, said political strategist and activist Richard Barnett.

“I think some folks are disaffected because a lot of the people who used to be independent have aU of sudden now sold out to [Mayor Richard M.] Daley,” he said.

Voting Habits
The day after Election Day at the 87th Street el station, no non-voters were to be found, at least none willing to admit it

When asked if he had voted, one black man promptly said yes. But when asked when and where he voted, the man couldn’t remember and refused to give his name.

“That’s what’s wrong with the world,” said a black woman who saw the exchange. “People complain, but don’t do anything because they thinks it makes no difference,” she said, proudly displaying her voter stub.

Stephanie Federic, 26, a longtime 8th Ward resident who had not voted since the 1992 presidential election said, ‘You don’t know who to trust anymore. All politicians will tell you one thing, but when they get into office, they do something else.’

But as a black woman “walking the Christian line,” she decided to vote this time because black leaders had sacrificed to give her that right

In Chicago’s black wards, the decision to vote is driven in part by the presence of a popular black candidate on the ballot. During the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson’s presidential bid in 1988, for example, black voters cast 337,201 ballots in the Illinois Democratic Primary, compared to 284,900 ballots from whites, the Reporter’s analysis shows.

Over the last decade, black voter participation has never been higher than in 1987, when Mayor Harold Washington won re-election with the help of 461,216 votes in black wards, the analysis shows.

“Harold Washington was our Camelot,” said Heddy L. Roberts, 46, who has lived in the 8th Ward since 1974. “When he ran I was very excited... and the fact that he was black just made it more so.”

But the black vote in mayoral contests has been dropping ever since. By 1995, the percentage of eligible voters casting ballots was nearly half of what it was in 1987.

Only Carol Moseley-Braun’s successful U.S. Senate run in 1992 brought out black voters in force, when they cast 459,797 votes, just 1,419 shy of their 1987 totals.

And although precinct workers and community activists credit increased voter turnout in minority areas to Republican attacks on welfare, immigration and affirmative action, the Nov. 5 tallies still fell short of the 1987 totals by 101,758 votes.

Split Ballots
Pauline Olbrisch, 89, has lived in the 8th Precinct of the 36th Ward for 46 years.

After decades of splitting her ballot (voting Democratic in municipal elections and Republican in presidential contests), she is now inclined to just stay home.

“It’s not only the Democrats, it’s the Republicans, too,” she said. “Things are going wrong everywhere, especially here.”

“Here” refers to a neighborhood that is still about 96 percent white, but with a growing Latino and Asian American presence, according to 1995 census estimates by the Reporter. The signs on the doors of most businesses near Belmont and Harlem avenues now announce that proprietors “habla Polish, Italian and Espanola.”

“Residents used to see [kids named] Brian, Guido, Tom and Vito,” said Chicago Police Lt John Finnegan, a volunteer for Alderman William J.P. Banks’ 36th Ward organization. “Now they’re seeing the shaved heads and baggy pants of Juan and Julio hanging out in the same places.”

The Reporter’s analysis of ballots cast reveals that whites tend to split their tickets more than blacks.

In the Nov. 5 election, voters in precincts that are at least 90 percent white cast just 58 percent of their votes for President Bill Clinton, while voters in 90 percent black districts cast 96 percent for Clinton, the Reporter’s analysis shows.

White voters also were equally divided in the race for Cook County State’s Attorney, casting 50.1 percent of their votes for Republican incumbent Jack O’Malley and 48.2 percent for Democrat Richard Devine. Despite the presence of two black candidates, black voters delivered 58.4 percent of their ballots for Devine, who won the contest in an upset

Banks said that voters in his ward have been “very apt” to split their ballots. And although Democratic precinct captains would seem to be frustrated by such behavior, “they don’t mind that these people are voting Republican,” said Paul Kleppner director of the Office for Social Policy Research at Northern Illinois University.

Black voters are not perceived to be as “reliable” as their white counterparts, said Kleppner, an expert in voting analysis.

Yet more blacks than whites responded to the Democratic Party’s “Punch 10” campaign, which promoted a straight Democratic ticket. In the black precincts, 40 percent of voters chose the straight Democratic ticket, compared to 25 percent in white precincts, the Reporter found.

When asked why blacks are more loyal Democrats, political activist Barnett said, “That’s the Republicans’ fault “They always put up these mean-spirited people who try to use blacks as a whipping post in order to gain votes from the white community.”

Electoral Barriers
Alberto Hernandez, 18, and his brother, Andres, 19, carne to the 22nd Ward’s Little Village neighborhood from Mexico seven years ago. But despite their interest in politics and social issues, they couldn’t vote Nov. 5 because they are not citizens.

Their situation is typical of many Hispanic Chicagoans. Voters in predominantly latino wards cast 66,233 ballots in the Nov. 5 election, 7.4 percent of the citywide vote. Only 16.2 percent of eligible Latino voters voted Nov. 5, the Reporter’s analysis shows.

For some Latino voters, language is a barrier to political participation. Thomas Sedlacek, a 22nd Ward election judge who doesn’t speak Spanish, said he accepted a ballot from a woman on Election Day, tore off the receipt and put it in the box. Only then did the woman approach a Spanish-speaking volunteer to explain that she had not yet voted, Sedlacek said.

Juan Andrade Jr., president of the Midwest Northeast Voter Registration and Education Project said minor incidents like these keep many Latinos from the polls.

“People are scared to death about going to vote without their little [registration] card. They think they can’t vote without it,” he said.

Still, Andrade calls 1996 “The Year of the Latino.” Hispanic turnout was at its highest level since the 1992 election, the Reporter found. The turnout was spurted by Republican “scapegoating” of Hispanics on issues ranging from bilingual education to immigration reform, Andrade said.

“They just totally underestimated the character of the Latino vote,” he said.

Hypnotic State
Since 1972, the number of non-voters has increased among the poorest 25 percent of the population, while voting among the middle 50 percent and the top 25 percent has increased, Kleppner said.

“That’s a rational response. Who’s articulating the interests of lower income voters? No one,” he said.

In Chicago, that statement has been taken to its gloomiest conclusion by Lu Palmer, founder and chairman of Chicago Black United Communities: ‘I think the situation has gotten so bad that [we’ve reached] the point of no return,” he said.

But freshman state Sen. Barack Obama, a South Side Democrat, said that black voters can still shape the political agenda in Chicago. Young people must get involved with community organizations, block clubs and other organizations that will lead them back to the political process.

“The starting point is for people to feel that they can actually have an impact on the system,” Obama said. “And if you start simply by encouraging people to vote on Election Day, then you’re starting too late.”

To encourage turnout, Election Day should be a holiday or held on the weekend, so that church officials could lead their congregations to the polls, said the Rev. Willie T. Barrow, chairman of Operation PUSH. Pictorial ballots similar to those used in South Africa would help voters identify candidates, she said.

But R. Eugene Pincham, the Justice Party candidate for state’s attorney, worries that an emphasis on political slogans and images can prevent voters from considering the issues or a candidate’s qualifications. The Punch 10 campaign “proved again that the public does what the media tells them to do,” Pincham said.

“All people wanted to know was the number for [straight Democratic ticket]. It’s like a hypnosis,” Palmer agreed.

That may have been the strategy of 36th Ward precinct workers, who admitted that they pushed Punch 10 on uncertain voters.

“Their eyesight is going bad and they don’t like to read small print,” said political worker Finnegan, referring to the ward’s elderly citizens. “This way, they don’t have to remember a lot of names.”

Joe Losacco, who runs the ward’s 15th Precinct, said he used the same approach with Latino voters. “We have a lot of Hispanics and its tough to communicate,” he said. “It’s hard to get them to vote, because they don’t understand. We kept pointing to the number 10.”

Contributing. Eric Chandler, Tim Craig, Elena Carla Eboh, Josh Goldberg, Kerry Hall, Michelle Holcenberg, Siobhan Hughes, Ellen McCarty, Sridhar Pappu, Michelle Silver, Kristen Simpson and Carol Wang. Interns Mary E. Guest and Robert P Musker helped research this article.

The real issue I think for Australia is Indonesia with 222,781,000 people, they have gained more people in the past 5 years than Australia has people. This is what really keeps the Military leaders there up at night. They are only a few hundred miles away.

I might add that they are a majority ROP nation.

Is there a rule on Woman working with Infantry?? I thought Woman were not allowed in front line combat units.

Not that I do not think they are doing a great job. But if they can do the job here maybe they should be allowed to patrol with American Infantry as well.

Patton's grim expression did not change. "There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily", he roared into the microphone, "All because one man went to sleep on the job". He paused and the men grew silent. "But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did"."

                        General Patton 1944

I am surprised at the following quote from the article:

“This stands in contrast to the accelerating out-migration of whites from most of the suburbs, including a new white flight from Richmond and Putnam Counties,” he said, adding, “It signals a revival of the core, but continued suburban exodus of whites.”

This is not a PC comment. He is probably taken out of context but to imply that you have a revival because white people live there is interesting and surprising to see in the NYT.

If true this is very bad. We have a nuke armed failed nation.

Any nation that does not have a monopoly on violence can not enforce its own laws and is headed for trouble.

Ask Lebanon about this.

Just called St. Pete police, they said they are looking at everyone on the list, I would assume this guy also.

Good Work.

Here is another article
Here is a picture:
He is described as Asian. Is this in the British sense?

AMLO (Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador)is best buddies with Chavez and Castro. This idiot is probably responsible for the Bush admins refusal to do anything about immigration from Mexico. If the Mexicans ever lost there $20 - $30B in remittances they would probably vote for this idiot.

Did a search, he might be this guy:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:XwxyneB6-20J:crcsl.org/wwwboard/messages/10.htm+Abdul+Rahman+Seuti+Magba-Kamara+&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a

Abdul Rahman Seuti Magba-Kamara

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:kCJ18uCaxiQJ:www.cocorioko.com/news_page+Seuti+Magba-Kamara+&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4&client=firefox-a

This one indicates he lives in the US

But is could be just a coincidence.

Just wrote my Senator. It might help.

I'll try to reply tomorrow, but it's to late to think clearly, section 2 on my post about a Hugo look alike somewhat answered it, but I'll try to elaborate later.
Have a good night.

I see two issues here:

1. Look at the entire Gulf Coast of the US, that's where they will go via boat, if we build a wall. It will keep the USCG & Navy very busy keeping the boats full of Mexicans out. I would think the Pacific would have issues as well, but the Gulf Coast has many more places to beach a boat. (It seems to make sense even now, sounds like a good research project, I wonder how many boats are stopped now with illegal Mexicans)

2. Cuba and Venezuela would love to get another Hugo Chavez in place. I can almost guarantee that would cause either the massive immigration issues or possible US Military intervention in Mexico. If you really want to be scared here are some links on one of the Mexican Presidential candidates:
Info on Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Best friend of Castro and Hugo):
Link: http://www.publiuspundit.com/index.php?cat=78
http://www.answers.com/topic/andr-s-manuel-l-pez-obrador
http://www.mexidata.info/id196.html

All this said I still think a wall is a good idea, we just need to understand it may be much more costly than what we are paying now.

I'm not sure I buy this take on the situation, but it's true that in the US we do not have nearly the problem, if you want to succeed here you just work hard, in France I don't think it's that easy.


Via Instapundit.com

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ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Joel Shepherd emails:


It's not an intefada. I'm an Australian SF author temporarily living in Paris; sadly I don't have my own blog (yet), but I'm writing a freelance article on liberte-cherie, the French libertarian organisation (www.liberte-cherie.com). I'm no expert, but I'm learning some things.

The problem in France is not the same as in the UK or the Netherlands. There, there's been an overdose of PC multi culturalism... but American critics are wrong to assign that to France. France HAS insisted on integration, as seen by the controversial ban on headscarves in French schools. And most French muslims do consider themselves French, to varying degrees, and Islamic extremism is pretty small thing here (there was far more protest against the headscarf ban outside of France than inside). So it's not an intefada.

There's just no damn jobs. White college grads can't get jobs, what hope do immigrants from regions with bad schools have? I think this is more like the LA Rodney King riots -- there's people there who want the French dream, just as in LA people wanted the American dream, but they just don't see it when they look around, and they resent the fact enormously. They can't change schools to get a better education because the government says you have to go to the school where you live, and they live where they do because of the zoning laws... which I'm no expert about, but I do know that the government owns 30 percent of all housing in France, and poor immigrants basically live where they're told. The government tries to give them everything and does it extremely badly, there's no upward mobility, and it doesn't breed a happy community. Religion exacerbates the feeling of exclusion, I'm sure, but the rioting seems mostly driven by economics and bad social policy.

So yeah, it's a stupid French government problem, but not the one some American critics are ascribing... however attractive it might be to do so.

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As far as the USCG is concerned operating under normal peace time rules of engagement and performing federal law enforcement you are very wrong. For US flag vessels we can search anywhere/anytime in US or International waters. However for foreign flag vessels in International waters the rules are strict and searches without flag state permission do not happen outside of wartime, and even then it would only be done on rock solid intelligence.

One small correction, the USCG can board any vessel in international waters no matter the nationality to verify paperwork and to ensure the vessel is not stateless. However the boarding stops when this has been completed and there is not any searching of the vessel allowed. However this means that if you run and ignore orders to stop you can be stopped by force. Now mind you this is not done very often with foreign flagged vessels but the right to do so is there.