NOVATOWNHALL

I can’t prove it. I can speculate.

As I mentioned here, I’ve suspected it since Zawahiri started doing the al Qaeda videos.

Seriously, all his audio and video releases of the past few years have been vague “Death to the Infidels!” blabbering with no reference to anything current. Something tells me we’re getting Tupac remixes.

To my knowledge, the last time he made specific reference to a current event was after we waxed Zarqawi, and it doesn’t take psychic powers from allah to know that was coming.

What’s with the jet black beard?

Listen up, al Qaeda. I don’t believe you. I want proof of life. Give me a picture of the guy holding up today’s newspaper or something. Idiots.

[After you read the following, you can find more on this topic at this post, a week later]

This is what “blight” looks like from the house across the street, and this is how it is allowed to happen. (click on photos for larger images)

For all of you who don’t have firsthand familiarity with the illegal alien problem in Northern Virginia, let me share a true-life story which might help paint the picture of what has been happening here in Sterling for the past five to seven years. In sum, I believe segments of our government at every level are at war with the legal residents of our nation, an economic war conducted on behalf of powerful business interests, a war that most citizens don’t even realize has already been declared on them.

I am going to relate this tale about Sterling to demonstrate what has gone wrong at the micro level - because the macro-level issues have been so thoroughly politicized that most people who are not on the front lines can’t make heads or tails of the controversy. Facts about border security and what the federal government is or isn’t doing are remote and opaque. Facts about what is happening at the neighborhood level are much easier to grasp.

In most American communities, where the rubber hits the road on the illegal immigration problem lies in the actions of three local government functions: Public safety, business licensing and zoning enforcement. We have covered the first two in substantial depth on this blog over the years (check here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) We’ve touched on zoning, but it is time to probe a little further.

When we turn over this particular log, as most Sterling residents know and which was amply testified to at the May 14 community meeting, the reality is not pretty. Both the Sheriff’s Office and the Zoning Administration division received abysmally low grades from local residents.

This was no major surprise to me.

From my personal experience with filing zoning violation complaints in Loudoun County for the past two-plus years, I believe the Zoning Administration division of the Department of Building and Development is worse than ineffective. From my vantage point, I believe this particular section of the county government is, like Robert Mugabe’s Ministry of Justice, “part of the problem.”

Read the rest of this entry »

In an earlier post, I lament the impending demise of “Western Civilization.”  Gadfly “Sanity” suggests that, to keep that from happening, we should, “commit to freedom (yay SCOTUS!).”  I can only assume that he was referring to the SCOTUS  decision to allow Gitmo detainees to file habeas corpus writs in federal court.

Viscerally, I do not like the decision.  As far as I’m concerned, terrorists have no rights.  The problem is, who are the terrorists?  Is there no chance at all that someone at Gitmo is wrongly imprisoned?  That is the whole point of a habeas petition.  When a soldier is captured in uniform, it is clear that he is a soldier of the enemy.  But without a uniform…?

The problem is, where are the witnesses?  Are we going to call soldiers back from Iraq and Afghanistan to testify?  Well, Congress is going to have to go back to work and answer that question.  Even so, we are not fighting WWII-style, in which soldiers did only one tour of duty.  We rotate our soldiers now, and they can testify when they are home.

So while I do not really like the decision, I think it is the right one.

Our friend LI at Too Conservative has a great discussion going about George W. Bush’s legacy. Here is my take:

Toppling Saddam was the right thing to do, in my view, but handling the occupation with military-lite was a really bad idea. We started “rebuilding” before our soldiers had put the hammer down on all the bad guys. “Rules of engagement” … whatever happened to WINNING. The war should have been fought less like Vietnam and more like “Devil’s Guard” by Elford. Don’t get me started …

On the other hand, we have not been attacked on American soil in roughly 6.5 years. Our men and women are fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here. Bush has delivered on homeland security.

On the OTHER hand, as a relative who is pretty non-political but leans conservative said to me, “I don’t know why we have our young men and women over there dying for those people.”

There is a strong sense among many Americans the money and blood America has contributed to securing Iraq is looking like a questionable investment considering what the Iraqis themselves are contributing. Let’s be blunt: They don’t seem worth it. This may be unfair, but the perception is they don’t care enough to fix their own country so how can we fix it for them.

The resolution of this whole war with the religious fanatics we no longer are supposed to identify by name will be years in the future, and I agree Bush’s legacy on this issue will be determined by how it ends.

But right here and now, why the hell are we spending billions of dollars a month to rebuild and secure Iraq when they are sitting on an ocean of oil? If the Democrats had managed to nominate someone without the crushing negatives of Barack Obama, I would say they win in November in a walk just by repeating the above sentence over and over.

On the OTHER hand, Bush did well with his Supreme Court appointments. In fact, he did phenomenally well. He did much better than his dad. The only way W could have done better would have been if he’d been able to make another appointment. Platinum legacy on this issue.

But on the ultimate, final, this-is-it-and-no-tag-backs hand, Bush was a disaster on illegal immigration. Previous recent presidents were no great shakes on immigration enforcement, but the Bush administration turned a blind eye, opened the floodgates, and cut our enforcement agencies off at the knees for years.

As an example, the illegal invasion of Herndon began under Clinton, but hastened greatly under Bush. The invasion of Sterling, as with so many American communities, was 100% on George W. Bush’s watch, after word got around in the business community that Title 8 of the U.S. code was now officially classified under: fuhgetaboudit.

People say, well GW Bush has ALWAYS said he’s in favor of free flow of people and goods across our border with Mexico, so anyone who is disappointed with how his executive branch managed immigration enforcement simply was not listening when Bush was working his way up the ranks. Fair enough. So we can’t nail him for being duplicitous, and shame on us for not calling him out on it before he became, er, president of the United States. But his policy of allowing a massive increase of illegal immigration was a bad one and the results have been bad, and his legacy will reflect this terrible public policy mistake.

I am only going to give you this heads-up one time.  For those of us with ADD, ADHD and Altzeimers-too bad.  Staple a post-it to your forehead and look in the mirror often!  What?  Can’t read backwards either?  I have no other suggestions for you.

It seems that decisions made elsewhere and from middle-managment are about to give us a complete scenerio of how to kill a satellite; from beginning to end.  The interviews are still being made as I type this.  The program should include those people that made the decision, those people that implemented the decision, and those people that revamped everything to make it workable.  If we get really lucky (and I believe we will), there will be nose camera footage of the missle to target up to the last few seconds before impact.  Some things just have to remain classified as it should be.  Oh, stop crying and whinning.  If you want to see what missle impacts look like, google footage for the first Gulf War.

All this should come about around mid-June timeframe.  It is developed and brought to you by the Discovery Channel BUT will air on the Military Channel.  Get those VCR’s (or TiVO’s) ready.  Ought to be a good time!

This came to me recently and I just wanted to share it.  If you don’t know who Sheriff Joe is I would suggest you go read the book.  He is a criminals’ and liberals’ worst nightmare and the best thing that ever happened to a part of Arizona (yes, I just excluded John McCain).

Update on Joe ArpaioOh, there’s MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars
a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs.  Sheriff Joe
offered to take the department over, and the County
Supervisors said okay.The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by
prisoners. They feed and care for the strays.  Every
animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily.  He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition
and behavior.. They give great classes for anyone who’d
like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs
off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and
had them place in dog shows The best part?  His budget for the entire department is
now under $3 million Teresa and I adopted a Weimeraner
from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was
neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him.  
Cost us $78.The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be
out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is
for utilities, bu ilding maintenance, etc.  He pays the
prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals..I have long wondered when the rest of the country would
take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy
some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the
county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow
most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the
work and harvesting by hand.  He has a pretty good sized
hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes
the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and
you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the
Holidays, and plant it later.  We have six trees in our
yard from the Prison.  Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vo te.Now he’s in trouble with the ACLU again.  He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn’t doing enough in his eyes,
so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing
immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought
4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border.  
He’s kind of a ‘Git-R Dun’ kind of Sheriff. 

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO
HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF
AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY: Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ‘ Tent City Jail’:He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them..
He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but ‘G’ movies.He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He
Wouldn’t Get Sued For Discrimination.He took away cable TV Until he found out there was
a Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails
So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again Only Let In The
Disney Channel And The Weather Channel.

 More On The Arizona Sheriff:With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports:About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At The Maricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued Pink Boxer Shorts.On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were
either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the
tents, which reached 138 Degrees Inside The Week Before.
Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As Sweat
Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their
PINK SOCKS.‘It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,’ Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The TENTS for 1 year. ‘It’s Inhumane.’Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent
city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink,
and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic.  He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates:
‘Its 120 Degrees In Iraq And Our Soldiers Are Living
In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear,
But They Didn’t Commit Any Crimes,
So Shut Y our Damned Mouths!’
Way To Go, Sheriff! Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it’s time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can’t afford to have for themselves.      

 I’m not advacating a pig farm in Loudoun County (unless it is in the open area out west.  Pigs are smelly creatures) but much of his principles could be applied here.  I’m up for it.  How about you?

(posted for Marjorie)

I KNOW THIS DOES NOT BELONG ON THIS BLOG BUT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ALL AMERICANS: IT IS AS FOLLOWS:

            The Merida Initiative is a new foreign assistance program designed to combat drug trafficking, transnational crime, and terrorism in Mexico and Central America .  President Bush’s proposed fiscal year 2009 (FY09) Budget includes $550 million as a part of a multi-year, $1.4 billion program. 
 
            Specifically, this program would provide training, technologies, and equipment to help Mexican authorities fight the war on drugs and organized crime. Some of the equipment includes helicopters, surveillance aircraft, ion scanners, secure communications systems, and other technologies. It is important that we continue to fight the war on drugs not only at home but abroad as well. We must work to ensure that drugs and criminals do not reach our soil.
 
CONTACT OUR SENATORS, CONGRESS PERSON AND OUR PRESIDENT NOT TO HAVE THIS PASSED. KEEP IN MIND HOW MUCH MONEY IS SENT TO MEXICO BY ILLEGALS EVERY YEAR, KEEP IN MIND WE TRAIN , WE LOOSE OUR NATION…. FUEL FOR THOUGHT. USE THE MONEY TO BUILD OUR BORDER WALL SOONER THAN LATER.

I’m not at the correct computer so I cannot link sites but I will give you times and locations.  Sorry.

Going backwards (in more ways than one) today’s Washington Post on the front page talks about an ILLEGAL immigrant who worried about graduating from Loudoun County public schools because he would loose his refuge.  Refuge?  But it seems that parents and counselors helped him out by having him return to Mexico for a year and speeding his visa to re-enter the U.S.  Now he can afford to go to college with in-state tuition.   How nice.  The article also states that there are about 65,000 illegal high school graduates a year.  Hummm.

Thursday, January 10 has an article in the Loudoun Easterner that states the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors retracted their efforts to pursue allowing illegals from getting business permits and going after the businesses that hire illegals.   The state will handle it.  It is a federal problem.  We have other issues of more importance (i.e. the roads that are crowded, the schools that are crowded) and we need to find out how to pay for things with a depressed housing market.  After all, we don’t coax business to Loudoun to off-set taxes of homeowners.  We coax business so that we have places to go for school field trips.  Loudoun is alot more affluent than Fairfax and the residences can afford anything thrown at them.  We have deep pockets you know!

On this same thursday an article on the front page of the Washington Post talks about what Kaine will do with the issue of illegal immigration.  The state is proposing new laws againest illegals and pushing the point to the federal level.  “Kaine stressed that the state has taken steps to enforce laws and that he will fight proposals that seem mean-spirited”.  What is mean spirited about enforcing the law?  Also he states that “One in 10 Virginians was born outside the United States, Kaine said, and foreign companies created 2,000 jobs in the state.”  We created more jobs overseas then what is created here.  And those born outside the U.S. seem to mostly congregate in No. Va.

When the Democrats get into office, things change.  Not for the better.  With the articles above, socialism is festering right along.  Do you think a Democratic president will be any different or just a tremendous boost for the cause.

As Kaine states, “6 percent of Virginians have serious mental illness and that one in four have a diagnosed mental illness.”  Welcome to the state of mentals.

We are fortunate to have an extremely valuable new Web resource for everyone interested in becoming educated about the illegal immigration issue: Extensive video interviews which are actually source material for the upcoming movie The Promise of Home.

Subjects include Roy Beck, Michael Cutler, Steven Camarota, Ed Meese, and many others. If you weren’t able to hear Starletta Hairston tell her story at October’s Help Save Loudoun meeting, here is your chance.