EckerNet.Com

I get pleas for money by conservative candidates and organizations at all levels. As with most people, I have limited funds, so I have to make tough choices on who gets how much. Basically I want to see that my money is being well spent on things I believe in. As it’s my money I don’t feel that’s inappropriate.

Now I perfectly understand that I will not agree with any one person or organization on every issue. And really I don’t expect to. When it really comes down to it, I have a couple big issues I put my foot down on, otherwise I just like to know my money is being well spent. Lately the RNC has failed on both of those accounts.

Big issues, have lately been fiscal conservatism and immigration. Republicans have been spending like drunk sailors (no offense to my sailor friends). Actually that’s not even accurate, because at least sailors are spending their own money and when they run out they stop spending. The other issue immigration, well….some of them have be doing a good job, but then you have renegades like McCain promoting amnesty, and our top elected official pushing it as well. Now I understand the RNC doesn’t put a shock collar on it’s candidates, although it might be something for them to look into. But both are largely unpopular with their base and the nation at large, and neither make any sense, so why do it?

But then I’d also like to know that my money is being well spent, and it’s obvious that money given to the RNC is not spent wisely.

Lugar said that if one Democratic senator were to step forward and support Bolton, he might be able to set a committee vote before the recess. In the meantime, Lugar added, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican, is holding up the nomination with questions about the Bush administration’s Middle East policy.

Now like most of the conservative persuasion, I wasn’t exactly happy that the Republican Party committed large amounts of funds to get Chafee through the primary. But I bit my tongue for a couple reasons. First of all, I wasn’t convinced his opponent Steve Laffey could win the election, so a half-assed Republican is better than a Democrat any day. And also because I thought it may indebt him to the party and he would be more willing to actually act like a Republican.

However, after committing massive funds to get him through the primary he turns around and spits on the conservatives the first chance he gets?? If we’re gonna spend money on something, shouldn’t we expect something for that money???

Sorry RNC, I would love to help you out, but when you turn a blind eye to my favorite issues and then show reckless disregard for spending the money that’s been donated to you, well, you aren’t exactly making a real good case for yourselves. Instead I’ll spend my money on local candidates and organizations like the NRA.

Wow, clearly after a couple thousand years of violence, the eternally angry islamofacist crowd is running out of ideas.

Just to refresh your memory of some of the most recent insults to Islam that apparently required rioting, burning of churches, murder, terrorism, and misc random acts of violence:

• Cartoons in a newspaper 
• Erroneous pig nose pictures 
• Unemployment 
• Being called violent 
• Book being published 
• Film made 
• Two year old movie 
• Erroneous reports of a Koran being flushed 
• A beauty pageant was held 
• The moon is full 
• The moon is not full
• The sky is blue
• Water is wet

Well now they are rioting in Brussels….

It looks as if immigrants youths want to turn nightly rioting during the Islamic holy month of ramadan into an annual tradition. Around 8:30pm last night violence erupted again in Brussels, the capital of Europe. The riots centered on the Brussels Marollen quarter and the area near the Midi Train Station, where the international trains from London and Paris arrive. Youths threw stones at passing people and cars, windows of parked cars were smashed, bus shelters were demolished, cars were set ablaze, a youth club was arsoned and a shop was looted. Two molotov cocktails were thrown into St.Peter’s hospital, one of the main hospitals of central Brussels. The fire brigade was able to extinguish the fires at the hospital, but youths managed to steal the keys of the fire engine.

So why are they rioting you ask, as if they ever seem to need a reason…

The immigrant youths claim that they are upset by the death of Fayçal Chaaban, a 25-year old criminal, in a Brussels prison last Sunday. Yesterday morning the authorities announced they would hold a meeting with the youths to hear their grievances about security in prison, but the meeting, which was due last night, could not take place because of the riots.

Ahhhh irony. The problem here is that the authorities thought the youth really cared. They don’t. It’s just another reason to riot, they never really cared what you had to say. If not the death of a criminal then the fact that the sun came up today will do just as well.

In one of my recent posts on the a fence on the border, a commenter, Thogek, left the following:

reportero points out:
“The solution to this whole immigration issue is in Mexico.”

I think that may largely be true. But Mexico and its people don’t have a whole lot of incentive to do anything to address the problem as long as it’s so easy for the problem to simply export itself to the north…

Now this is an opinion I’ve heard stated more than once, and certainly I can understand the rationalization behind it. After all Mexico has more than it’s fair share of problems. Rampant corruption at all levels of government and law enforcement. Massive unemployment problems. Questionable infrastructure. In addition to an illegal immigration problem on their own southern border. Certainly Mexico fixing itself would be a very large step in solving the problem.

However, that said, individuals respond to incentives. Every decision that is ever made was made because of the incentives involved, whether they were consciously considered or not. And Thogek makes a valid point that there is currently little incentive for Mexico to solve it’s own problems rather than just export them to the US. So the perpetual cycle continues and people will continue to exist in the squalid conditions that prevades much of Mexicos countryside.

That cycle needs to be broken, not only for the welfare of the US, but also for those Mexicans south of our border.

In a corrupt system that currently defines the Mexican government, foreign aid would accomplish very little. For evidence of these, please refer to virtually every dollar of foreign aid we send to Africa.

However, by preventing, or at least making very difficult, the export of Mexicos problems to the US we do provide an incentive for Mexicans to help themselves. No longer is it possible to just run away from their problems. Those that would simply have fled to the United States would remain in Mexico. Rather than working illegally for substandard wages here in the US they would be in Mexico demanding change. Perhaps realizing that Mexico is their home and it’s up to them to change it. Certainly fleeing Mexico and bringing the same problems with them to the United States is not a winning solution.

Yet another proponent of the use of border fences to protect their nations border has been announced. And this time hopefully it’s someone President Bush will listen to….after all, they are old friends.

Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with plans to build a fence to block terrorists from crossing its 560-mile border with Iraq another sign of growing alarm that Sunni-Shiite strife could spill over and drag Iraq’s neighbors into its civil conflict.

The barrier, which hasn’t been started, is part of a $12 billion package of measures including electronic sensors, security bases and physical barriers to protect the oil-rich kingdom from external threats, said Nawaf Obaid, head of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, an independent research institute that advises the Saudi government.

See President Bush, it’s not racist, or un-neighborly, or rude to build a fence between yourself and your neighbor. You’re just not interested in your neighbors riff-raff spilling over into your yard. If Saudi Arabia can manage it surely we can. And turns out they are not alone

At the southeastern corner of the Saudi Arabian Peninsula, meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates is building a barrier along its border with Oman mainly to keep out illegal migrants just as the U.S. Congress is considering a fence for parts of the U.S. border with Mexico. And Israel is trying to protect itself from suicide bombers by building barriers along its borders with Palestinian areas.

Seems like everyone is building a fence but us. Probably because we’re the only one with a neighbor who doesn’t give a shit.

The spokesman for Iraq’s Interior Ministry, Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said Iraqi officials had heard of the Saudi plans to improve border security “and we thank them for it.”

“If the Saudis want to build border defenses to stop the infiltration of terrorists, they can do that to protect their borders,” he said.

Heh, if the Iraqis can understand, surely you can explain to your ol buddy Vicente why he can take his whining and which anatomically incorrect place he can shove it. We’re building it, and that’s it.

Obaid said contracts for building the fence, expected to cost about $500 million and take five to six years to finish, have not been awarded and work is not expected to begin before next year.

I’ll make a bold prediction here, and say that Saudi Arabia FINISHES their fence, before we START ours.

According to a Press Release from the MN GOP

Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Ron Carey made the following statement today regarding the selection of the Twin Cities to host the 2008 Republican National Convention.

“We are thrilled Minnesota will be the host of the 2008 Republican National Convention. Minnesota is the best place in the United States to live and we are excited to showcase our state to the entire world.

“We believe this election will be decided on the banks of the Mississippi River. We look forward to helping nominate the next president of the United States.”

Excellent, this will be alot of fun, plus it accomplishes alot politically. Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa are all basically former-blue-with-a-distinct-shade-of-purple-states. Having the Republican National Convention here is going to take over the media market here for quite awhile and hopefully should be enough to push all three into the red category, for at least this election.

Now some might theorize that our own governor may be a potential candidate for the Presidential ticket. In fact my BPOU chair, myself and another local activist were just discussing this last night. Personally I don’t think he’s there yet.

First of all, what are the two issues ticking off the base right now?? Fiscal conservatism and immigration. Fiscally, Tim hasn’t got the best track record. And people can list all sorts of reasons for that, and some of them might even be true. But the fact remains. Immigration, now he HAS pushed that, but who besides Minnesotans really considers Minnesota a border state. Let’s face it, the passion is on the southern border. Is incorrect as that perception may be, nobody cares about the northern border. Plus there are still hurt feelings within the state party, and who know if those could be sufficiently mended over to give him all the support he’d need here at home.

However, I think he’d make a great vice-presidential candidate. He’s young, he’s got charisma in spades, he’s a governor (as opposed to a Senator….that’s good BTW). Plus putting him on the ticket probably more than likely delivers the midwest votes.

So yes it would be nice to see Pawlenty added to the ticket right here at home.

The real issue remains though. I mean with the national convention virtually in my backyard, how do I, a lowly blogger, get in the front door? Commence Operation Ass Kiss. Cause seriously, how cool would that be?

Link

Juan Leonardo Quintero, an illegal immigrant, has been charged with killing a Houston police officer last week after a routine traffic stop.

Police Chief Harold Hurtt blamed the federal government for failing to secure U.S. borders.

[...]

The suspect should not have been in the United States.

Quintero was deported in 2004 after a conviction for indecency with a child.

“The subject was deported, and yet he came back, so if the government fulfilled their responsibility of protecting the border we would probably not be standing here today,” Hurtt said.

[...]

[The slain officer had] received a commendation for valor for pulling several children from a burning building.

He leaves behind a wife who is also a police officer and their five children.

Personally I would think this is the type of job that doesn’t need doing. I was kind of hoping our Commander-In-Chief and his colleagues in Congress would agree.

Let’s just say if I had been holding my breath I would be dead, buried and decaying by now.

Since juvenile hack-personal-attacks are now the in thing, I suppose I should get on board and do some of my own. So I’m afraid I’m gonna have to bring something to the worlds attention.

An unimpeachable, yet anonymous, source has promised me this is totally made up true. MDE once worked as a paperboy for the Star Tribune, a liberal propaganda rag.

I mean since the bar has been set that nobody can do anything that might make them any amount of cash without reporting it on everything they write regardless of the timeframe involved, then obviously this paper route thing should have been revealed as well.

There it’s out. MDE once worked for liberals. I mean sure he tries to explain it away by making sense giving excuses, but the facts speak for themselves. I apologize for the shame I’ve brought him and his family. It was especially hard when I ran into him tonight at his BPOU meeting. I couldn’t even look the poor guy in the eyes, as I knew I would be exposing him. Sorry MDE.

Ok as some may have noticed, Triple_A has a love to leave comments saying nothing more than “Si Se Peude” in my comments area. Personally I think it’s a bit silly and it clutters up my comments because it interrupts the usual mindless nonsense with spanish mindless nonsense.

So this posts comment area is Triple A’s personal playground. Post as many Si Se Peudes as you want…it’s all yours. Now stop leaving them elsewhere.

Came across a column by Ruben Navarrette Jr. today on the latest immigration moves in Congress. Navarrette, while he could be considered a conservative by most measures, is well known for his rather “relaxed” view on enforcing our immigration laws. He doesn’t disappoint in his latest column.

On one hand he quite correctly pinpoints the reason for the latest immigration moves in Congress. Purely political. Republicans threw something together at the last minute in hopes of salvaging an image they hope will allow them to survive this latest political firestorm they’ve managed to ignore for awhile now. In that I wholeheartedly agree with him. Yet somehow he manages to get virtually everything else wrong.

First, as any border patrol agent will tell you, there’s no fence that can keep out someone who is desperate to feed his family and who’s willing to go around, go over, or go under.

Welcome to Navarrette’s School for Political Debate. Lesson One : Building a Strawman. First, take a ridiculous argument and claim that is what your opponent really believes. Second, blow it down and demonstrate how ridiculous it is. Third, pretend this means you have defeated your opponent.

The only people I’ve heard claim that a fence will stop everyone is the people arguing against a fence. It won’t, that is well known, but that’s not the point. The point is that in conjunction with out methods it is amazingly effective. I present to the court of public opinion, Exhibit A : Israel.

The fence is an obstacle. Obstacles…well they obstruct. They are most effective in urban areas. Normally illegals can come across the border and just disappear into the urban jungle. A fence makes it more difficult and it slows them down, which allows Border Patrol to get there to stop them. In addition, it also forces many to go around the fence….go around to areas that are more rural where illegals are easier to spot and easier to round up.

Basically, a fence is a tool. It helps the Border Patrol do their job, but it does not, and was never intended to do it for them. Continuing to claim that people think this is the cause only serves to show the weakness of Navarrette’s viewpoint.

Next, every time we crack down on the border, it enhances the bottom line for these multimillion-dollar smuggling outfits. Whereas it used to cost about $500 to cross the border, now the price is closer to $3,000. If we build more walls, the smugglers will raise prices again. That’s bad. It creates an incentive for smugglers to stay in business since business is so good.

By this same rationale, we should stop enforcing drug laws when the price of crack reaches a certain point. Or we should stop arresting people for murder, when the prices of a hitman gets too high.

The prices are higher because the job is harder. It’s called supply and demand, you might have heard of that before. The demand is still there, but the supply is down because it’s become harder to cross. Don’t try to pretend you have an economical argument for illegal immigration. If you want to start down this road, let’s also discuss the low wages for labor in the border states.

Lastly, we’ve built fences before, and it only resulted in more illegal immigration. It used to be that one member of a family would go north — a father, son or brother — and he’d work and go back to Mexico for Christmas or Mother’s Day.

Each time he returned home, there was the chance he’d stay. Now, it’s too difficult and expensive to cross, so the workers no longer go back. Instead, they’re paying smugglers to bring their families to join them in the United States.

Once again, why are you afraid of us doing something that is working? It’s become difficult and expensive for criminals to break the law. That is a good thing!

If as you say entering the US is becoming more difficult, then good. We’re on the right path. Hopefully eventually the father won’t even be able to get into the US. And if he does, we’ll be able to track down him and his family and deport them. Feature, not a bug.

The smart thing is to stop the magnet that draws illegal immigrants here: Jobs, jobs, jobs provided by U.S. employers.

And yet, nowhere in the GOP’s 10-point enforcement plan do you find any mention of employer sanctions.

I don’t suppose that has anything to do with the fact that the Republican Party is the party of business, and, more and more in America, businesses depend on illegal immigrant labor.

Heh! Someone found their ticket for the clue train. Finally. I was getting lonely.

You’re right. We do have to take away the carrot, rather than just lengthen the stick. You’re right that employer sanctions also need to be taken seriously. Ideally I’d like to see them in this bill. However, you should know damn well why it is not. After all you came up with the reason just a few paragraphs ago.

[ Cue Jeopardy Music ]

Ohhhh, time is up. That’s right, Ruben–You lost. And let me tell you what you didn’t win: a twenty colume set of the Encyclopedia International, a case of Turtle Wax, and a year’s supply of Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco Treat. But that’s not all. You also made yourself look like a jerk in front of millions of people. You brought shame and disgrace to your family name for generations to come. You don’t get to come back tomorrow. You don’t even get a lousy copy of our home game. *

Sorry, Ruben but the answer was politics. This bill is a political bill, nothing more. Few people behind this bill are really guided by a sense of right or actually wanting to protect our borders. They want to score political points. So they’ve latched onto the few points that everyone agrees with. Not everyone agrees with employer sanctions, so that’s political poison right before an election.

Say, maybe those Congressional Republicans aren’t so dumb after all. They know a thing or two about survival. Now if they could only brush up on the requirements of leadership.

See, there you got it! You’re right, this isn’t leadership. This is politics, why would you look for leadership from politicians you silly fool?

* Shamelessly stolen borrowed from “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Ok I was up in the permafrost of Superior this weekend attending a wedding. I was kind of hoping that this global warming thing I keep hearing about would have turned it into the next Bahamas but I’m here to report that no it is not. Well either that or I’m just trying to keep it a secret until I can buy up all the lakefront property.

Number of topics popped up while I was gone, and to be honest I don’t have the time to invest in a full fledged post on any of them, so I’ll just write up a quick blurb on some of them.

Osama Is Dead…from typhoid this time. Yeah we’ve heard this before. And once again this is only a rumor. Since we haven’t heard anything more in the past 24 hours I would suspect it is about as correct as all the previous rumors. Even when I first heard it I didn’t exactly put much stock in it. I mean it came from the French!! Although via the Saudis…and if anyone should know it’s should them. I think they still hang out on the weekends after all.

I was secretly hoping it was true, not just because it would mean the guy is dead (he’s one of the very few people I actually wish death on). But also because of the manner of his death. If we actually kill/execute the guy it’s gonna cause lots of problems in whatever region of the world we caught him. And his death will probably be used as a claim that it’s a new war on Islam or whatever. So death by Allah’s will would be even better.

Noah Kunin is a fucktard Ok I’ve been asked about my opinion on this from several people, so I figure it’s at least worth a comment here.

What Kunin did was illegal and unethical and he deserves to answer for that. Bloggers (and internet users) tend to forget sometimes that even though it’s the internet, there are rules for conduct. As far as the Klobuchar campaign goes, it does appear (so far) that they didn’t do anything “illegal”. However, there are some puzzling questions that still need to be answered. And of course with the election around the corner the chances that anything truthful or unbiased is going to be released is pretty zero.

I did take it a bit personally though. As a group the blogosphere has done well for itself, we’ve broken alot stories, we’ve pushed alot more, and as a result we’ve forced the MSM out of their comfort zone fairly often. And it’s been done ethically for the most part. Without doctoring photos, or taking things out of context and such. So when bloggers do things like this it makes every blogger look bad. Cause sure as shit the media is gonna jump all over these “bloggers without gatekeepers”. Thanks alot Noah Kunin

Immigration vote in the Senate So reportedly a bill basically just included a fence on the border is to be voted on in the Senate. Not a bad more, even if it’s being done for strictly political reasons. Frist knows the base, and the public in general, is pissed about nothing being done on immigration. Republican leadership finally sees how the Democrats could turn this into a huge weapon for November. And it finally appears to be an admission by the Senates Republican leadership that the Bush-McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill is not very popular with the public and therefore is never going to see the light of day. All of this is a good thing. Granted alot more needs to be done on immigration but at least this is a start. And I don’t even mind terribly that it’s being done for all the wrong reasons….just as long as it gets done.

The Pope must convert to Islam or Die…says followers of the “Religion of Peace” who are offended by the Pope quoting a centuries old statement implying that Islam is spread by forcing people to convert at the tip of the sword. Sometimes irony just writes itself.

Personally I get a kick out of the whole thing, and I only wish that the Vatican grew a pair of testicles (even if they don’t actually need them) and stood up to these guys. I mean what you said is largely true, why apologize even for the reaction to your comments?? Point out that the very people demanding an apology are doing exactly what you said. Quit reinforcing their belief that this type of bullshit is acceptable and productive.

The belief that their religion is above question is ridiculous. That’s their belief, not ours. Tolerance means you have to tolerate it. It doesn’t mean you have to like it, much less follow it. They have their beliefs. My belief is they are full of shit.