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Stock in America just dropped 42 points on news that American Inc. no longer has a monopoly on people who are bat-shit crazy.

A two-meter shark has been caught in a river in southern Iraq more than 200 km (160 miles) from the sea.

Locals blamed the U.S. military for the shark’s presence.

Tahseen Ali, a teacher, said there was a “75 percent chance” Americans had put the shark in the water.

“This is very frightening for us. Our children always swim in the river and I believe that there are more sharks. I believe that America is behind this matter,” said fisherman Hatim Karim.

Yes, we put that shark there to eat your children.  Yes, despite our massive amount of military equipment in the area, we decided to use a damn shark to attack your children.

Not even even a shark with “frikkin’ laser beams”….just a plain old vanilla shark.  Now that you’ve figured it out, I should probably also admit we also organized the famous gerbil invasion of Belgium and the horrific spotted owl attack on the poor Armenians.  We were able to keep both secret until you figured it out….with a 75% confidence level.

[Via Liberty Pundit]

Whenever objections are made to any of Rudy Giuliani’s numerous shortcomings, the response from his supporters are the same.

“He’s our only chance to beat Hillary!!!”

As if that was a good enough reason to sell out one’s principles. Rather than make a stand on one’s beliefs and high standards, we’re supposed to cast those aside in order to prevent a President Clinton.

Gun Control??
Heh, it only violates one measly constitutional amendment, stop being so uptight!

Abortion?
Heh, they can’t even vote yet! Screw em!

Gay Marriage
Heh, it’s not like it’s an attack on the fundamental building block of our society or anything!

Immigration?
Oh come on….national sovereignty is sooooo 20th century.

Yup according to his supporters, lest ye be forced to bow before the temple of Hillary, we are all required to sell out our political souls and embrace that which is Rudy.

Or maybe not….

According to a recent Rasmussen poll (arguably the most accurate of the major pollsters), Hillary doesn’t generate a majority against ANY Republican candidate….even 9/11 Truther Ron Paul. When you average with past polls, Hillary tops out at 48%.

So if half the country is committed to voting against Hillary, regardless of who the Republican candidate is, why are we supposed to just accept Rudy as the price that needs to be paid to avoid a President Hillary?? Especially when one considers that…

In the latest Rasmussen Reports polling, Clinton gets 47% against Fred Thompson, 48% against Mitt Romney, 48% against Mike Huckabee, 44% against Rudy Giuliani, and 44% against John McCain.

To me that looks like any of the Republican candidates stands a decent chance against Hillary. And when one considers the polling data for other candidates, Giuliani looks even less impressive.

Considering all above data, to me it appears as if both Rudy and Thompson are equally positioned to do battle with Hillary in 08. However, for only one of these two candidates do we have to abdicate many core conservative positions. As I’ve paraphrased before, “if one gives up his principles to gain electability, he will gain either and lose both.”

Sorry Rudyheads, I’ll stick to my principles and be able to keep my head high regardless of the outcome in November 08.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mark 8:36-37

UPDATE : Due to some confusion, let me clarify my point further…

My point being that many Rudy supporters cite him being the only chance to beat Hillary as their primary reason,or at least a major one, for supporting him.

I tried to show above how that is a completely ludicrous statement.  A number of the candidates are more than capable of beating Hillary.  And she doesn’t poll well regardless of who the Republican candidate is.  So why embrace, or even accept, a candidate that requires you to toss out so many of your principles?

If you’re so eager to sell out your principles, did you really have them in the first place?

Yes, no candidate is perfect, even Reagan wasn’t.  However, why not push for a candidate that comes the closest??  And if Rudy is that candidate, personally I have some doubts on what your definition of “conservative” is.

Never underestimate the stupidity of Congress.

Not the election of meaningless government positions. It’s time to elect a new MOB Mayor. The polls are open and yours truly is a candidate. Which means you should spam the polls with votes for me like you were a Ron Paul supporter.

Alright, so we defeated the DREAM Act, so I decided to take a few days off to go shoot things. In the meantime, quite a few things have happened, and rather than address them separately, I thought I’d just do a quick roundup of all of them.

AgJobs

Despite the failure of the DREAM Act and the opposition of even some open-borders senators, there is some movement towards adding AgJobs as an amendment to the Farm Bill of 2007 (HR 2419). Word is that this will happen the week of November 5th. I’ll cover it more then, but I’ll give a brief overview right now.

It’s an awful piece of legislation. Basically what it boils down to is anyone claiming to have worked in agricultural can get amnesty and protection from deportation. Plus it extends to their spouses and children. And there are enough loopholes that pretty much anyone that wants to could find a way to qualify.

Now I don’t want to be overly dismissive, but even some open-borders Senators are opposing this. The DREAM Act failed and that had all sorts of ready made heart-rending sob stories ready-made. AgJobs is hardly as marketable. Plus I think some Senators (excluding our own Coleman and Klobuchar) are getting the hint. There appears to be little enthusiasm for another amnesty fight.

SAVE Act (Secure America with Verification and Enforcement)

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) is reportedly going to introduce the SAVE Act in the House. If initial reports are correct this is more than an attempt to act tough on immigration. It sets up a phased approach to requiring employers to verify their employees status. In addition, it also addresses the problem of identity theft by illegal aliens.

I’m withholding judgment until the bill is actually introduced but the initial hype sounds encouraging and it’s worth keeping an eye out for. But the fact that this is starting in the House, and being proposed by a Democrat, gives this a very significant chance of moving forward. However, it’ll need plenty of Democratic co-sponsors to pressure the Democrats into abandoning their usual amnesty platform.

Tancredo To Retire

Rep. Tom Tancredo has announced that he will not seek re-election for his House seat and instead intends to concentrate on his Presidential run. Now I’m a big fan of Tancredo, but his Presidential ambitions are not gonna pan out.

Part of his rationale for retirement is that now that the immigration issue has life of it’s own, there is no need for him to be in the House pushing the issue. I disagree wholeheartedly. While immigration is definitely a top five issue now, our Congress is full of people who would rather just eliminate our borders entirely. We still need people in both the House and Senate to speak for those who believe our national sovereignty means something.

Rep. Tancredo, please reconsider. Now that people are actually paying attention to the immigration issue, we need people willing to speak the truth about what a disaster our immigration policies (official or otherwise) are. You have done that very capably for a long time and we thank you. But the fight is not yet won, actually it’s just started. It’s not time for our prize fighter to throw in the towel.

RightWingNews Immigration Platform Roundup

One of the common denominators amongst all the Republican candidates is that suddenly all of them claim to be tough on illegal immigration. Even Senators who helped author one of the worst amnesty plans ever and former mayors who presided over a sanctuary city are claiming to be “tough on immigration”. It’s hard to tell what is what and who is full of it.

I’ve been meaning to spend the time and map out all the GOPs candidates past and present positions on the issue and their likely future position. Well fortunately I don’t have to do that now, because John Hawkins already did it. Which makes me immensely happy because I can now spend that saved time on less productive tasks.

Thompson’s Immigration Plan

Thompson doesn’t have the most stellar record on immigration. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. However, what makes me willing to trust him a little more on the issue is because he’s laid out a very specific immigration plan. It’s detailed enough that there is hardly room for him to shift his position without being exposing to attacks of flip-flopping from his opponents.

And what’s more it’s exactly what anti-illegal immigration activists are looking for. Which once you see it on paper, it’s remarkably simple.

• No Amnesty
• Enforce the law
• No Sanctuary Cities
• No federal funds to states/cities/organizations that don’t follow the law
• Increase border security
• Attrition through enforcement
• Modernize immigration policies
• Make English the national language

Yup, it’s that simple. Yet there is really no vagueness to it’s language that allows him to budge or fold on the issue. That used to be known as principled leadership. I applaud the move and call on all candidates to either embrace this plan or else admit they’re just pandering for votes.

Europe Demonstrates Folly of Open-Borders

One of the few constructive things Europe does is serve as a great example of why moving towards socialism is a BAD thing. On virtually every issue proposed by Democrats, Europe has already done it and it has failed miserably. Gun control. High taxes. Nanny statism. Socialized medicine. Massive entitlements. Kyoto. You name it.

Now we can officially add another issue to the list. Open borders immigration, for years the UK and the rest of Europe has held some very liberal immigration policies. Now they are being faced to admit what has been fairly obvious for awhile now….uncontrolled immigration is causing their systems to fail.

Immigrants are placing a huge strain on public services, Labour finally admitted.

Crime is up, schools are struggling to cope with Eastern European children, community tensions are rising, health services are coming under enormous pressure and house prices are being driven up, the Government said.

The findings, based on a survey of public sector workers, are the first published by ministers after ten years of an ‘open door’ immigration policy.

Sounds like fun right? Sound like something we want to emulate? Some learn by observing others. Some learn by doing. Some learn by being beaten over the head with repeated errors. It remains to be seen how the US will learn.

Perhaps you’ve noticed a new addition to my sidebar. I’ve decided to participate in Soldier’s Angels Project Valor IT, along with my True North brethren. What is Project Valor?? Well….

Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, helps provide voice-controlled and adaptive laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone or using other adaptive technologies, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the ‘Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field. The experience of MAJ Charles “Chuck” Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered serious hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important these laptops can be to a wounded service member’s recovery.

The challenge being to raise $60,000 for each branch of the military, each blogger is to pick one branch.  I’ve chosen the Marines.  So go ahead and chip in some cash and help out for a very worthy cause.

Now that this amnesty thing is back off the books at least for a couple days, myself and the rest of the MN Militia, have scheduled a conference our in rural Minnesota.  We will be discussing the pheasant population and demonstrating ways to deal with it.

I fully intend to have zero contact with the outside world so don’t expect much to be here, although you can use the comment area as an open thread if you want.

Otherwise, unless one of the MN Militia pulls a Dick Cheney, I will return sometime next week, with my sharp tongue well rested.  Be prepared.

The law abiding citizens of America dodge a real bullet today. Senators Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Norm Coleman, and Amy Klobuchar tried to force amnesty for illegal aliens upon the American people today. Despite overwhelming opposition from the American public, these senators and other like minded “individuals” decided to impose their idea of immigration on us. That idea being namely that our national borders don’t really matter.

Despite their rush to get this to a vote, the American public once again rose up to declare “NO! For the last time NO! For God’s sake NO!”. This resulted in the measure failing to gain the 60 votes necessary for cloture, with the final vote being 52-44. Despite eight Democrats seeing the light and voting again this horrendous forfeiture of our national sovereignty, twelve Republicans, include “our” Senator Norm Coleman, voted against our own national interests by voting for this bill.

Now granted Amy Klobuchar also voted for this bill, but she’s a Democrat, she doesn’t know any better. She has a natural deficiency of moral fiber and a severe brain disease called Liberalitis. However, Norm, who reportedly is still a Republican, should know better. His own party leadership opposed this bill. His own President, in a surprise move, opposed this bill. His own base opposed this bill. His constituency opposed this bill. But he was in support of it, for reasons only he appears to be aware of.

If you would like to know why he did, I suggest you call into his campaign office and demand to now why. And depending on their response, perhaps ask them to explain why exactly you should vote for him if he’s going to vote against our interests on key issues. The number for his campaign office is (651) 645-0766.

Now while one could speculate endlessly on what may or may not be happening inside Coleman’s head, there were other issues happening as well.

First of all it is a bit disconcerting that while this failed cloture, it did so by a far smaller margin than the comprehensive immigration bill did (46-53). Quite a few Senators who had previously voted against cloture on this bill, now voted for cloture. Part of that can be attributed to the fact that there was alot less publicity about this bill, so party loyalty (although certainly not from Republican) might have trumped public criticism. In fact, five Republicans (Brownback, Coleman, Collins, Hatch and Hutchinson) voted against the June amnesty but voted FOR this amnesty. Although it’s already been well publicized that Brownback switched his vote after it because clear how it was going, and Coleman delayed his until after it was already decided.

A big surprise prior to the bill is that Senator Hutchinson stood up to declare that not only was she in support of the bill, but that she had been working with Durbin on a compromise version. She declared that this issue was not finished and she would try to move forward with another version. It falls to us to remain vigilant and let our Senators know that we’re not interested in ANY version of amnesty, regardless of how much lipstick they put on that pig.

A big bonus for supporters of legal immigration, is that Durbin has declared that if they can’t get the DREAM Act passed, then AgJobs and a guest worker program is hopeless. And indeed this one had the most weapons to use to get it passed. The sob stories of poor innocent children almost wrote themselves, and Democratic Senators, in their usual habit, hid behind these children and their stories, rather than address the facts of the issue.

The money quote from around the blogosphere on analysis of this bill has to be from John Hawkins

And they say that you can’t teach old Republican senators new tricks =D. I think we’ve actually thumped them on the noses with rolled up newspapers and yelled, “That’s a bad senator! No amnesty” at them so many times, that it has finally gotten through.

Sure, it may have been frustrating, but the effort turned out to be worth it because now the Republican senators seem to realize that the voters are the Alpha Males and they are the followers on this issue. Helping them to realize their proper place in the American political system will give them structure and make them happier senators!

An amusing quote, even if I’m not sure I completely agree. It’s not that they’ve gotten the message. We still had to make alot of calls, and twelve Republicans still jumped ship. And since this issue keeps coming up, it’s clear that the voters are not the Alpha Males. But I hope he’s right and nonetheless, it’s an amusing quote.

[Cross-posted at True North]

Roll Call below the jump….

(more…)

Wednesday morning is when the DREAM Act is being brought to the floor, potentially with the final votes being before noon. However, if you haven’t made your calls, or even if you have, it’s not too late. Pick up your phone, senators need to hear from you ASAP.

Senator Coleman - 202-224-5641
Senator Klobuchar - 202-224-3244

If you’ve never made a call or aren’t sure what to say, I’ll spell it out for you.

Hi, my name is xxxxxxx yyyyyyy, and I live in Minnesota. I’m calling about bill S. 2205, the DREAM Act, and I would like to ask the Senator Coleman/Klobuchar to please vote against cloture on this bill of amnesty. Thank you.

It’s really that simple. Depending on the Senator’s office and/or the staffer, they may ask your city or zip code or may just say thank you.

Now if you want to say more you can, but BE POLITE! Passions run wild and emotions get high. You may think the Senator would be a perfect outlet for those statements, but remember, you’re talking to a staffer who has already talked to hundreds of people like you.

Now….about the upcoming vote.

What sources I have, combined with what other parts of the blogosphere are reporting, are all conflicting with each other. But it sounds like leaders of both the pro-amnesty and anti-amnesty groups aren’t sure they have the necessary votes. Which to me sounds like it could go either way.

On the plus side, Republican leadership has publicly come out against this bill and are actively working behind the scenes to get the votes they need to defeat it. It’s nice to finally have them on our side for once. Hopefully that’s enough to draw any fence-sitting Republicans into the “no” category.

To defeat the cloture votes we only need 40 votes, and depending on who you talk to we have anywhere from 20 to almost 30 confirmed. Although, I figure we have about 2/3rds the votes necessary, which is a start but we need more.

On the downside, there are an unbelieveable number of Senators who won’t commit either way. And both of Minnesota’s Senators fall in that category. If in either of their re-election campaigns they ever refer to their “principles”, please try to keep your snickering to a minimum.

However, make your calls….they do make a difference. Hawkins has been talking to a few of the Senate aides he knows, and they appear to indicate that many Senators are still smarting from the flogging they got from the public after the last amnesty attempt. Make sure they realize nothing has changed.

Predictions?? Well I expect a repeat of the comprehensive amnesty vote, even though though it could go either way. You’ll see alot of obvious votes get cast, but most of the spineless Senators will sit back and wait to see what way the chips are falling before casting their vote.

As far as which way those chips will fall…..well I do have my prediction. But I’m hesitant to disclose it for fear of either discouraging or causing complacency with even one person who otherwise might call their Senator. So I’ll leave my predictions on this side of the keyboard, where only my live studio audience can hear (don’t you wish you had tickets?!).

[Crossposted at True North]