Archive for August 2011

Less than a month after disastrous National Assembly elections in 2005, U.S. officials met with the Vatican’s third highest ranking archbishop to discuss the church’s outlook on Venezuela along with the Vatican’s positions on a number of other Latin American leaders, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable published Wednesday by WikiLeaks.

During the conversation, recounted in a cable composed on Dec. 23, 2005, Vatican internal affairs chief Archbishop Leonardo Sandri said the church views a number of Latin American leaders as “dangerous,” including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and then-Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Obrador was defeated by rival Felipe Calderón, but continued to campaign for months thereafter, insisting the election had been stolen through fraud. The Vatican saw him as a threat similar to Chavez or former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, according to the cable.

Two Mexican citizens unlawfully in possession of nine weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were arrested after a lengthy vehicle pursuit Monday following a joint operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Pinal Country Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol. As part of an ongoing drug and weapons smuggling investigation, HSI agents and PCSO deputies identified a grey four-door sedan suspected of being used to transport drugs and weapons back and forth from Phoenix to the Mexican border. Agents located the sedan at a gas station in Maricopa, Ariz., but when PCSO deputies attempted to stop the vehicle for a traffic violation, the driver failed to yield and fled south. A lengthy pursuit then ensued. HSI requested support from CBP Office of Air and Marine (OAM) helicopters and the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) to help track the fleeing vehicle. After a 20-mile pursuit, HSI and PCSO found the vehicle disabled beside a dirt road in a desert area south of I-8 at Smith Road. The sedan’s trunk and doors were open. No occupants were located in the vehicle but a substantial amount of ammunition was discovered in the trunk. OAM and BORTAC conducted an aerial search of the area and located two suspects several hundred yards from the abandoned vehicle. Javier Garcia-Torres, 39, and Horacio Rios-Trapero 22, both illegal aliens from Mexico, were booked into the Pinal County Jail on state charges for felony flight from law enforcement. Both are expected to face federal weapons charges within the next few days. “Through the strong partnerships we have with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies, we are identifying these smuggling networks and deterring their ability to move contraband in Arizona,” said Matt Allen, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Arizona. “It takes a team effort to disrupt the smuggling organizations working here, and my agents are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Pinal County and the Border Patrol to protect our citizens from criminal activity.” “The drug cartels of Mexico have shown countless times they have very little regard for human life both here in the United States and Mexico,” said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. “The weapons, ammunition and other supplies seized in this case were headed to Mexico to be used by these same cartel members. We are thankful for the help from ICE HSI and the U.S. Border Patrol for not only this case but many others. These cooperative efforts need to remain strong to help protect our citizens from violence.”

Hot on the heels of the demand by the Muslim invaders of Britain that their children be given special rights to Sharia law interest-free Student Loans, which would give them an unfair financial advantage over non-Muslim students, comes an attempt by Muslim former Labour MP Shahid Malik to curtail the rights of the indigenous British people to peacefully protest on the streets of our own country.

In a letter printed in the Independent newspaper on Monday, Malik backs the ‘responsible’ and ‘legitimate’ call by the Mayor of Muslim-populated Tower Hamlets to ban a proposed demonstration by the English Defence League in that London borough.

Complaining that under existing public order legislation the Home Office has no power to ban such a demonstration, Malik then has the gall to suggest that the legislation is outdated and that ‘the time has come to amend public order legislation to allow the fullest protection for our communities’.

Citing such outlandish reasons as the recent ethnic riots, proposed police cuts, the hypothetical chance of more violence in ‘our’ communities and, beyond belief, the alleged and unproved links between the EDL and the Norwegian murderer Breivik, Malik seriously proposes that the right of the British people to peacefully protest in their own country should be ended.

Tucson Unified School District Governing Board President Mark Stegeman was ousted from his seat and replaced by fellow Board Member Miguel Cuevas Tuesday night.

The vote, initiated by board member Adelita Grijalva, passed 3-2 with Stegeman and Michael Hicks voting no.

Grijalva said Stegeman had abused the position - an accusation he firmly denied.

Despite calls for his resignation by some community members, Stegeman will continue to serve on the Governing Board through his term, which is set to expire Dec. 31, 2012.

Cuevas will retain the president’s seat through the end of the calendar year.

After the vote, Cuevas said Stegeman had become a polarizing figure, unable to build consensus with the board or the community.

Millionaires are now legally entitled to collect food stamps as long as they have little or no current monthly income. 35 states have abolished testing of how much money people have. The food stamp program has become a magnet for abuses and absurdities. The number of food-stamp recipients has soared from 26 million in 2007 to 44 million today, and costs have risen from $33 billion to $77 billion. The U.S. Department of Agriculture now has only 40 inspectors to oversee 200,000 merchants that accept food stamps. Retailers who traffic illegally in food stamps by redeeming stamps for cash or alcohol or other prohibited items “are less likely to face criminal penalties or prosecution” than in earlier years. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Wisconsin food-stamp recipients routinely sell their benefit cards on Facebook, and that “nearly 2,000 recipients claimed they lost their card six or more times in just one year” [2010] and received replacements.

Prosecutors have stopped prosecuting the majority of food-stamp fraud cases. A Seattle television station reported that some food stamp recipients were selling their cards for cash on street corners and using the proceeds for illegal drugs or prostitution. In Iowa, it was found that 30% of the inmates in jail were collecting food stamps sent to their non-jail mailing addresses. The food stamp poster boy is 59-year-old Leroy Fick who won a $2 million lottery jackpot, and the Michigan Department of Human Services ruled he could continue receiving food stamps.

In California, a white male cop claims he was passed over for a promotion in 2007 because of racial bias.

“The city has a longstanding custom and practice in discriminating against white males,” according to a lawsuit complaint filed by officers Heinz Hofmann and Thomas Buckley.

“The reason plaintiffs were passed over for lower-ranking minorities,” the complaint says, “was because plaintiffs are white,” local sources report.

Hoffman and Buckley’s attorney, Patrick Manshardt said, “The primary issue was race. Lieutenant Hoffman and Lieutenant Buckley weren’t of the race that the department was seeking to promote.”

Manshardt said the Department has a history of unlawful, antiwhite discrimination. The attorney previously won a $1.6 million settlement for his clients in 2007 after five African Americans were promoted unfairly over white officers, Manshardt says.

Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet

No matter how low Labor sink in their smears of anyone that disagrees with their deceitful carbon tax, they still manage to amaze by pulling a real shocker out of the bag:

Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of having a racist climate change policy.

Mr Abbott has warned that Australian businesses buying carbon permits under an emissions trading scheme could be conned by unscrupulous international traders.

…

Mr Combet described Mr Abbott’s position as “economic xenophobia” in an address to the National Press Club.

“It sends the signal that it’s somehow dubious to trade with foreigners. It’s typical dog-whistle politics, trashing the commitment that’s existed for many years on both sides of politics to economic liberalisation and open trade,” he said.

“It is in effect a white carbon policy designed to harvest more votes no matter what the cost.” (source)

Issac Mendez Ramirez

Contrary to what President Bush often claimed, family values do stop at the Rio Grande for many illegal aliens. In addition to suppressing wages, bankrupting our hospitals, and over-crowding our jails and public schools, illegal aliens are preying upon our children

In Operation Predator sweeps across the country conducted between 2003-2007, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents nabbed over 10,700 foreign national child molesters. Many of these predators had been previously convicted of other crimes, and many had already been deported once. The number predators apprehended in the sweeps actually only represent the tip of the iceberg.

In fact, a study conducted by the Violent Crimes Institute reports that between 1999 and 2006, there were nearly 1,000,000 sex crimes committed in the United States by illegal aliens.

Using U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration, as well as state and local law enforcement data, Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute determined that there are no less than 240,000 illegal alien sex offenders currently inside the U.S.

For the last two weeks, PJMedia has been publishing a series of articles on the radical attorneys who have been hired as career civil servants in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division since President Obama took office. The reports reveal an unprecedented effort by Attorney General Eric Holder and his Civil Rights Division political leadership to stack the Division from top to bottom with a cadre of hard core, left-wing partisans. The ideological litmus test being employed is undeniable: conservatives and even apolitical lawyers need not apply. Only fervent liberals are welcome. And the proof is in the resumes — every single new attorney in the Division fits that description.

Today we turn to the Employment Litigation Section. This is the fifth section to be covered in PJM’s series. Previous pieces focused on the Voting Section, the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices, the Special Litigation Section, and the Education Section.

The Employment Section is primarily responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provisions applicable to state and local governments under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez has a downright disturbing agenda for the Section. Speaking to the liberal American Constitution Society, he promised that his Division would pursue “disparate impact” litigation — where no proof of actual discrimination is required but mere disproportionate workforce representation — with vigor rarely before seen. He wasn’t kidding. Indeed, the Division’s aggressive efforts to defend and expand the use of racial preferences in public sector hiring, promotions, and contracting ought to offend all Americans who believe in the promise of a just and colorblind society. Although politically correct terms like goals” and “timetables” are de rigueur, there is no hiding what is really being advocated here: racial quotas.