January 10, 2004

'Chemical weapons' found in Iraq

Danish troops have found dozens of mortar shells in southern Iraq which could contain chemical weapons according to initial tests.

The 36 120mm mortar rounds appeared to have been buried for at least 10 years, the army said.

All showed traces of blister gases, the army said, a group of chemical compounds which include mustard gas.

The larger question is "when," 'if ever', are the "BBC" going to leave off their moronic sneer quotes and just report a d*mn headline?!?!

January 09, 2004

Bush Urges Immigration Policy Overhaul

Promoting a plan that could brighten his election-year prospects with Hispanic voters, President Bush on Wednesday proposed legal status - at least temporarily - for millions of illegal immigrants working in the United States.

But the sweeping policy overhaul, offered with few specifics, also angered many in the president's conservative Republican base of support and drew criticism from advocacy groups who questioned whether it would do much to help immigrants.

Democrats were united in calling the plan a political ploy that offers a false promise of legitimacy for the undocumented workers.

Decrying a system that now has "millions of hardworking men and women condemned to fear and insecurity in a massive undocumented economy," Bush urged Congress to approve a temporary worker program.

The program would be open to all undocumented workers now in the United States. Applicants who can show they have a job - or for those still in their home countries, a job offer - would get an initial three-year work permit that would be renewable for an unspecified period.

"We should have immigration laws that work and make us proud. Yet today we do not," Bush said in the White House's East Room, which he entered to loud cheers from dozens of representatives from Hispanic organizations and immigration groups.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, praised Bush for opening the debate and said that a new immigration policy should "extend a welcoming hand to those whose presence will benefit our nation and our economy."

Allowing undocumented workers, who make up an unknown percentage of the approximately 8 million illegal immigrants now in the United States, to work legally here would benefit all Americans, Bush argued. He said it would make the nation's borders more secure by allowing officials to focus more on the real threats to the country and would meet U.S. employers' dire need for workers willing to take the low-wage, low-skill jobs unwanted by many Americans.

It also is the right thing to do, Bush said, to pull immigrants who now live in the shadows of American society under the protection of U.S. labor laws, allow them to travel freely back and forth to their home countries, bring dependents they can support here with them and grant them the confidence to talk openly to authorities about crimes and exploitation on the job.

"One of the primary reasons America became a great power in the 20th century is because we welcomed the talent and the character and the patriotism of immigrant families," the president said. "We must make our immigration laws more rational and more humane. And I believe we can do so without jeopardizing the livelihoods of American citizens."

But even as Bush made the announcement, the tough sales job ahead for the White House was apparent as the president's plan drew heated criticism from both the right and the left.

Many conservatives balked at the idea of any reward for people who broke the law by coming to the United States.

"I'm not for allowing illegals to stay in this country," said Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va. "I think they should have to go back to their home countries ... and get in line with Jack, Suzy and John and apply for a guest worker position."
[That's precisely what Bush is proposing, Goode, you idiot.--Jen]

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., predicted Bush's "dangerous and unworkable" proposals would be rejected by Congress. "Neither Mexicans nor anyone else will go through the hassle and paperwork of seeking legal jobs as long as the border is porous and employers can ignore the laws with impunity," he said.

Bush said the program does not provide blanket amnesty - which he defined as an "automatic path to citizenship" - for foreigners who are in the United States illegally.

"America is a welcoming country, but citizenship must not be the automatic reward for violating the laws of America," he said.

While visiting Mexico on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he was confident that Congress would pass the proposal "because it is a security issue."

Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez welcomed the proposal, but said the United States needs a more concrete plan to help migrants.

But workers accepted into the program would be allowed to immediately, with an employer's sponsorship, begin applying for a green card, which allows permanent U.S. residency. Although these workers would get no advantage over other applicants already in the long line for green cards, an illegal immigrant who attempted to apply now would simply be deported

With about half the illegal immigrants estimated to be from Mexico, the program was designed in part to win Bush increased support among the powerful Hispanic voting bloc in the November presidential election.
[What total BS!--Jen]
He won just over one-third of that constituency in 2000.

It also was aimed at smoothing the United States' sometimes-rocky relations with Mexico ahead of a visit by Bush there next week.
[More BS! Fox is hating it already, because it means he might have to "fix" the Mexican economy!--J.T.]
But the plan was not the broad and immediate amnesty program that Mexican President Vicente Fox has wanted, and the Mexican government's response was tepid. Fox, after a call Wednesday morning from Bush outlining the plan, called it merely "very interesting."

I loved this plan when I first heard the details and here's why:
First of all, as Governor of Texas, President Bush had lots of first-hand experience with our previous non-policy policy on undocumented workers, as Texas has had lots of problems with this for at least the last 30 years (if not forever, what with the Alamo and then our victory for Texas independence at San Jacinto...!).
Bush is NOT doing this to win over Hispanic voters--although its implementation would see that immigrant workers from Hispanic countries would receive more fair treatment--or to "smooth over relations" with Vicente Fox.
I think Bush gave up on Fox a long time ago...and Fox has done a pathetic job of
governing Mexico.
President Bush is stepping into the breach left by so many presidents before him, including even President Reagan, whose amnesty didn't help the problem at all, in an attempt to fix a huge domestic problem, i.e. one of labor being abused, both that of undocumented workers and of American citizens, and to close our porous borders in wartime and since 9/11 when the homeland has been under attack.
Our current tacit policy of "don't ask, don't tell" regarding illegal immigrant laborers hurts them because they aren't eligible to receive truly good wages, any labor benefits like workman's comp, health and dental care, or retirement benefits and the American taxpayers are hurt because our tax money must support scads of social programs to fill this breach.
In addition, illegal immigrant workers usually don't keep the money here, nor do they pay federal, state and local taxes (or Social Security withholding) on their "off the books, cash only" wages.
The "real costs" to Americans of having "cheap" illegal labor are huge.
I believe the way that Bush's plan will work is that because it requires immigrants to have a "specific" job or job offer to leave their home country, you will see very little of this after it goes into effect.
Most migrant workers from Latin America come to do low-paid, unskilled or low-skill jobs which they find when they get over the border.
Most US employers aren't going to go to the expense of advertising, recruiting and screening potential Hispanic employees for such low-paying, low-skill-level jobs and they won't.
Some won't want the American public to know that they've used illegal alien labor.
Others will find that the jobs they've had illegal workers doing are either unnecessary or can be done by machines or that Americans will be actually willing to take them (at higher, more fair wages).
Clearly, we haven't been able to summon the political will to solve this problem via our Congresspeople nor have we been able or willing to enforce the immigration laws we have on the books already.
Only President Bush using the "bully pulpit" and the impetus of national security in wartime has the authority and resolve to motivate Congress to get off their fat rear ends and pass this!
The Dims, along with La Raza Unida and LULAC, don't like this because to them it means (illegal) voters, whom they promise big social (think "Pork") programs and because I think they see where this is ultimately going.
Some of the GOP are "outraged" as a knee jerk reaction because they mis-hear the plan's details and think that Bush is giving undocumented workers a blanket amnesty.
As I've tried to point out, he's doing anything but that.
The Fox Administration in Mexico will hate it, because it means that their "safety valve" of the US is closing and soon and Vicente will have to fix his own moribund economy or be voted out.
(I predict the latter. What has he done, anything?)
It's high time that immigrants from primarily Mexico and Central America stopped getting a "free pass" into America just because they can get across the border on foot or by a short car trip.
Immigrants from Europe, Asia and Africa have always, since our founding, had to go through the paces to come here legally, settle down and become citizens.
Most Hispanics come here simply to work--they send most of their wages back to their home countries and go back there when they've made enough money.
I imagine that they wouldn't leave home if they economically didn't have to.
If we close the door (and in my mind, it will mean leaning on the US employers as much or more than the migrant workers) and force countries like Mexico to get their act together, we're all going to be a lot happier, more productive and above all, safer and more secure.
Kudos to President Bush and his team: once again, he pleasantly surprised me with his ingenious solution to an old problem!
Can he and his Administration think "outside the box" or what?!
Given the reaction he's gotten from both the Left and his own beloved Right, President Bush has taken another big political risk to do this now and in such a bold fashion.
If he were worried about his reelection, rather than doing the Right Thing for America and Americans, he would have waited until the race was over in November or just left the problem to fester, as his predecessors have.
Knowing that Islamist terrorists could waltz over either border (with Mexico or Canada) with a nuke or a dirty bomb at any time and dealing with the fear that they may already have will give a POTUS "Dutch courage" to fix the problem pretty decisively and President Bush has got a plan.
Look for the Canadian border to be strengthened along with that of Mexico's should Congress have the infinite wisdom and foresight to pass this, as I pray and hope they will.

Terror Alert Level Lowered to Yellow

The Bush administration lowered the national terror alert level Friday as Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said that an urgent threat had passed.

"I know we are all thankful that nothing happened," said Ridge, announcing the lowering of the threat level at a news conference. However, airports and airlines will keep their high alert status, said a government official speaking on condition of anonymity.

Yes, we are thankful, Sec. Ridge!
(Sorry air travellers. Looks like you'll have to grin and bear it a bit longer.)

January 06, 2004

We won't scrap WMD stockpile unless Israel does, says Assad

Syria is entitled to defend itself by acquiring its own chemical and biological deterrent, President Bashar Assad said last night as he rejected American and British demands for concessions on weapons of mass destruction.

In his first major statement since Libya's decision last month to scrap its nuclear and chemical programmes, he came closer than ever before to admitting that his country possessed stockpiles of WMD.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Assad said that any deal to destroy Syria's chemical and biological capability would come about only if Israel agreed to abandon its undeclared nuclear arsenal.

Since the capture of Saddam Hussein and Col Muammar Gaddafi's decision to dismantle his WMD programme, Mr Assad has risen towards the top of America's target list.

'
I'd say that Mr. Assad's behavior has caused him to rise on our target list.
He's got 3 big things going against him:
--He's right next door to Iraq. Some of these WMDs have probably been rolled into Syria by Saddam's boys and explains why we can't find them in Iraq.
--Syria is Sunni Ba'athist.
--Syria's the de facto ruler of Lebanon and has been since 1989 when Ariel Sharon pulled the Israeli forces out.
Well, make that 4--4--things he's got going against him:
--He's been making all the wrong kinds of noises since we conducted Operation Iraqi Freedom, not the right kind like his Muslim brother Khaddafi.

The White House and Downing Street have been waiting for his response to Col Gaddafi's appeal for other Arab leaders to follow his example or risk inflicting a "tragedy" on their people.
[...]
Asked about American and British claims that Syria had a WMD capability, he stopped short of the categorical denial that has been his government's stock response until now.

Instead, he pointed to the Israelis' recent attack on alleged Palestinian bases in Syria and the occupation of the Golan Heights as evidence that Syria needed a deterrent. "We are a country which is [partly] occupied and from time to time we are exposed to Israeli aggression," he said. "It is natural for us to look for means to defend ourselves. It is not difficult to get most of these weapons anywhere in the world and they can be obtained at any time."

Mr Assad said that Col Gaddafi's surprise decision to allow international inspectors to supervise the
dismantling of WMD programmes was a "correct step".

He called on the international community to support the proposal that Syria presented to the United Nations last year for removing all WMD from the Middle East, including Israel's nuclear stockpile.

"Unless this applies to all countries, we are wasting our time."

It is the worst kept secret in the Middle East that Damascus has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical agents in the region.

The latest CIA report on weapons of mass destruction says: "Syria continued to seek CW-related expertise from foreign sources [this year]. Damascus already held a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin but apparently tried to develop more toxic and persistent nerve agents. It is highly probable that Syria also continued to develop an offensive BW [biological weapon] capability."

Mr Assad tempered his refusal to compromise on WMD by holding out the prospect of joint patrols with America along the Syria-Iraq border to prevent the passage of arms and fighters.

Acknowledging pressure from the US and Britain to crack down on Palestinian extremists based in Syria, he claimed that their offices had been closed and their activities curtailed. The groups could no longer "do anything military from these places. They are closed".

But he risked infuriating the West by stepping up his defence of Palestinian suicide bombers. He said the attacks had become "a reality we cannot control" and blamed them on "the Israeli killings, the Israeli occupations".

Despite his passionate advocacy of the Palestinian cause and his use in the past of inflammatory language about Israel and Jews, he denied hating them. "If you hate, you cannot talk about peace," he said.

Mr Assad repeated Syria's offer to resume negotiations with Israel over the occupation of the Golan Heights which were interrupted when a deal was in sight nearly a decade ago. But he said that an agreement was impossible as long as Israel insisted on starting negotiations from scratch rather than picking up where they left off.

Tony Blair, speaking on a flight back from Iraq before news emerged of the Assad interview, repeated his hope that Syria would follow Libya's example.

He said: "We offer Syria the possibility of a partnership for the future. But it is important that they realise that the terms are very clear and have been set out by ourselves and the Americans many times.

"You can see very clearly with what happened just before Christmas in respect of Libya that it is important to say to countries that may have engaged in such programmes: 'Look, there is a different way of dealing with this.'

"It can be dealt with diplomatically if people are prepared to do so, but it does have to be dealt with."

That all sounds very nice, Tony, but I don't think it's going to happen.
You know, Baby Assad led a quiet life as an eye doctor before his father died and left him to run the country.
You can tell he has myopia, though, and in his case--as with so many Muslims in the Middle East--he hates Israelis and Jews and probably loathes democracy almost as much.
The Israelis aren't "occupying" anything: they won that land in the Golan Heights fair and square in the 6-Day-War of '67 and a bit more in '73 in the Yom Kippur War (and that's if you don't believe that God gave them the land millenia ago!).
Assad knows full well that Israel isn't going to give up their nukes, not when they're the tiny island of democracy in a sea of armed Muslim tyranny, oligarchy and jihad!
Don't worry, Boy Assad.
Your day of reckoning is coming quickly--Be ye also ready!

N. Korea Offers to Halt Nuke Facilities
U.S. Refuses to Lift Sanctions on Libya
The good news out of these stories is:
1. Maybe both Libya and North Korea mean what they're saying this time and are really in the process of disarming.
2. We're not taking IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei's word for it that Libya's nuke program "wasn't that advanced." (or whatever disclaimer he tried to use last week to get his Muslim "brother" Muammar off the hook.)
Stay tuned for developments--this is far from over.
My guess is that both Khaddafi and Kim Jung-Il are trying to talk, promise and lie their way out of accountability for their WMD programs, just like their pal and former ally Saddam tried to do with us last year.
Poor Saddam: everyone thinks he's an idiot (even his "friends"), except Jacques ChIRAQ!
I hope they both know by now that George W. Bush doesn't just talk, he backs talk up with real action, the kind of action involving aircraft carriers off of one's coasts and thousands of Uncle Sam's men and women in uniform with M16s.

I'm sure this little meeting in Moscow over the weekend between old buddies China and Russia over the NorK situation had nothing whatsoever to do with the Kim's newly-discovered spirit of cooperation either!
He's probably worried that the ChiComs will cut off the gas again!

January 05, 2004

ADL Says Hitler Ad Should Never Have Appeared on MoveOn.org

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said it was deeply troubled that MoveOn.org had allowed an outrageous and highly offensive political ad that directly compared President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler to be posted on its Web site.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director and author of "Never Again: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism," issued the following statement:

"It is shocking that a mainstream political group like MoveOn.org not only allowed this vile and outrageous comparison of the American President to Adolf Hitler to be entered into its "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest in the first place, but that they even went so far as to make it available to the public on the Internet. Those responsible for this contest at MoveOn.org should have immediately identified this advertisement as one going far beyond legitimate criticism and rejected it out of hand. Instead, they made an irresponsible decision that has given legitimacy to the exploitative manipulation of images in a campaign season.

"MoveOn.org clearly would not have accepted a pornographic ad as legitimate criticism of a candidate. Why did they think that images of Hitler, the Nazi whose evil regime was responsible for the slaughter of millions of people during the Holocaust, was a fitting and credible expression of criticism of President Bush and his policies? Their lack of discretion cheapens the level of political discourse in America, and their comments explaining it were hardly comforting."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER CRITICIZES MOVEON.ORG FOR POSTING AD COMPARING BUSH TO HITLER

The Simon Wiesenthal Center sharply criticized MoveOn.org for accepting and posting an ad comparing President George Bush to Adolf Hitler.

“Politics and preparing for a presidential election is one thing, but comparing the Bush Administration’s fight against Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein with the policies of Adolf Hitler is shameful and beyond the pale and has no place in the legitimate discourse of American politics,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Center’s dean and founder.

“This ad is not about Democrats or Republicans - it is about lies and a distortion of history,” he added.

MoveOn.org was right to pull the ad but they should apologize for not using better judgment in posting it in the first place,” Hier concluded.

To read more and view ad, go to: Drudge Report .

The Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

While the ADL's Mr. Foxman may be shocked, I'm sorry to say that I am not: the Left has been saying that "Bush is Hitler" for at least 2 years. Now, they've only made their sentiments more overt, as well as visual and aural.
If you don't have the stomach to watch the ad (Drudge has the link), as I didn't, all you need to know is that they've put text of what they think about the Bush Administration over the film and audio of one of Hitler's typical "Ein Volke, Ein Reich, Ein Welt" rants from the WWII years.
(And when is the Left/Communism/Marxism stronger than when they're "fighting Fascism?" So it's important to them to demonize our President accordingly.)
And while I'd love to think that Rabbi Meir is right and that the Leftists over at MoveOn.org will realize how shameful their hate-filled rhetoric is, but I doubt that they will.
Their language and tone has been hateful, shameful, revolting and shameless at least since President Bush's election in November 2000, but clearly, given this "ad," they aren't through, at least in their own minds.
But in my mind, put it fork in them 'cuz they're long done.
And as long as we're on the subject of Hitler, Howard Dean's angry ravings sound a lot more like Old Adolph...!
Thank God for men like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, that we'll never have a "reich" here or a "soviet" either; we have a constitutional, democratic republic.
What the Liberal Lying Left is revealing about themselves is not only their utter tastelessness and crudity, but most of all, their complete ignorance.
To make this odious comparison between President Bush, one of our greatest Presidents since the founding of this nation, and the Butcher of Berlin--Hitler--who founded National Socialism, started WWII, and had 12 million people murdered of which 6 million were Jews, shows a profound ignorance both of the history of the Third Reich and of Hitler's "reign" as Fuhrer and of our own US History and what occupying the Oval Office was meant to be in the eyes of the Founding Fathers and what it does mean when a patriot, statesman and true leader like President Bush holds that office.
Even Saddam Hussein with his mass graves and his wars with Iran, Kuwait and Israel could only envy Hitler's record, while Joseph Stalin (whom the Left never holds up for opprobrium, still holds the title with about 30 million dead in his name.

U.S stocks soar on tech strength