• Criminals,  Liberal Morons,  Politics

    Representative Cynthia McKinney Watch: Police Union Calls for McKinney Ethics Investigation

    Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., shows her Georgia identification as she qualifies to run for re-election at the Capitol in Atlanta, Monday, April 24, 2006 in Atlanta.

    AP: Police Union to Call for Ethics Probe of Rep. McKinney

    Police labor officials, angry over a federal grand jury’s refusal to indict Rep. Cynthia McKinney for assaulting a police officer, said Monday they want the House ethics committee to review her conduct.

    And they said the grand jury’s decision last week sent the message that “it’s okay to hit a police officer.”

    “We hope that members of Congress will review her actions in light of their rules within their own ethics committee,” Andrew Maybo, chairman of the U.S. Capitol Police Labor Committee, told reporters Monday at a news conference in Washington.

    Maybo said the Fraternal Order of Police would send a letter later this week to the ethics committee suggesting that McKinney’s behavior violated an item in the chamber’s ethics manual that calls for members to “conduct (themselves) at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives.”

    Big Deal! But, Flap supposes it is better than nothing.

    But, does anyone really expect the House Ethics Committee to do anything – after all, she apologized on the floor of the House?

    Good Grief…….

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    Previous:

    Representative Cynthia McKinney Watch: Federal Grand Jury Votes to NOT Indict McKinney for Assault

    Representative Cynthia McKinney Watch: McKinney Deal?

    Representative Cynthia McKinney Watch: McKinney Probe Enters 3rd Month


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  • North Korea

    North Korea Watch: Korea Says it “Is NOT Bound” by Missile Test Ban

    Taepodong-2

    Financial Times: N Korea ‘is not bound’ by missile test ban

    North Korea on Tuesday declared that it was not bound by a moratorium on testing long-range missiles, and increasing fears that it would launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.

    The North Korean threat follows days of escalating tension prompted by evidence that Pyongyang is preparing to test a long-range Taepodong-2 missile that could reach Japan and parts of the continental US.

    Ri Pyong Dok, a North Korean foreign ministry official, told Japanese journalists in Pyongyang that a long-range missile test launch “is not bound by any statement such as the Pyongyang Declaration”, Kyodo news reported.

    Mr Ri was referring to an agreement signed in 2002 between Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s leader, and Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, in which Pyongyang promised not to test long-range missiles.

    This sounds like an excuse and a rationale to test their new multistage ICBM system. The United States has several options:

    1. Preemptive destruction of the missile prior to launch with B-2 delivered Smart Bombs.

    2. Missile interception by Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) or Aegis Ship-Based BMD or both.

    or…..

    3. Do nothing and await diplomatic resolution through the United Nations Security Council.

    Each has its advantages and risks.

    But, if the United States wants to preemptively prevent a North Korean launch look for action as soon as the weather clears.

    Stay tuned as anxious diplomatic talks continue…..

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    Previous:

    North Korea Watch: United States Activates Missile Defense Shield – Part 2

    North Korea Watch: United States Activates Missile Defense Shield

    North Korea Watch: North Korea Threatens to “Mercilessly Wipe Out” US Forces In Case of War

    North Korea Watch: North Korea Close to Test Firing Taepodong-2 Missile – Capable of Reaching Mainland United States

    North Korea Watch: North Korea Denies Reported Plans to Test-Fire a Long-Range Missile Capable of Reaching the U.S. Mainland

    North Korea Watch: Preparing to Launch A Long Range Ballistic Missile?

    North Korea Watch: North Koreans Can and Have Made a Few Nuclear Devices

    North Korea Harvesting More Plutonium for Nuclear Weapons

    North Korea Warned


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  • Illegal Immigration

    Illegal Immigration Watch: GOP Congressional Leaders – Pathway to Citizenship Bill is DEAD

    Loren Avis holds an American flag while attending a Defend Colorado Now rally at the State Capitol in Denver, Thursday, June 15, 2006. Hoping to send a strong message to state and federal leaders, illegal immigration critics on Thursday kicked off another round of signature-gathering for proposal to deny most services to those in the country illegally, even though a court has barred it from the ballot.

    AP: GOP leaders: No immigration bill this year

    In a defeat for President Bush, Republican congressional leaders said Tuesday that broad immigration legislation is all but doomed for the year, a victim of election-year concerns in the House and conservatives’ implacable opposition to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.

    “Our number one priority is to secure the border, and right now I haven’t heard a lot of pressure to have a path to citizenship,” said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., announcing plans for an unusual series of hearings to begin in August on Senate-passed immigration legislation.

    “I think it is easy to say the first priority of the House is to secure the borders,” added Rep. Roy Blunt (news, bio, voting record), the GOP whip.

    Both the Speaker and GOP Whip are correct. In fact, Republican Congressmen who run from the President’s “Path to Citizenship,” poll better with voters. Look at the election of Brian Bilbray in California just a few weeks ago.

    In deference to the president, neither Hastert nor any other Republican official in either house said publicly that the president’s ambitious plan — including a guest worker program as well as an opportunity for citizenship for many illegal immigrants — was dead for the year.

    But several Republicans in both houses, speaking on condition of anonymity, were less guarded.

    “There will be no path to citizenship,” said one lawmaker who attended a strategy session in Hastert’s office.

    In other words, the Senate Immigration Bill passed over the objection of many GOP Senators is DEAD.

    Some officials added that Republicans have begun discussing a pre-election strategy for seizing the political high ground on an issue that so far has served to highlight divisions within the party. Among the possibilities, these officials said, are holding votes in the House or Senate this fall on additional measures to secure the borders, or on legislation that would prevent illegal immigrants from receiving Social Security payments or other government benefits.

    Hastert announced no schedule for the completion of hearings. He and other members of the leadership sidestepped numerous times when asked whether a House-Senate compromise along the lines of what Bush has sought could come to a vote by year’s end. “I am not putting any timetable on this thing, but I think we need to get this thing done right,” the speaker told reporters.

    The Republican-controlled House passed border security legislation last year, largely along party lines. By contrast, the Senate approved a bipartisan bill calling for tougher border enforcement; penalties against employers who hire illegal immigrants, a new guest worker program and a shot at citizenship for most of the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country illegally.

    The measure won the support of only 23 of the Senate’s 55 Republicans. Frist, a likely presidential contender for 2008, is under pressure from conservatives not to agree to a compromise bill they oppose. Democrats, on the other hand, are insisting on assurances that any final bill will remain bipartisan.

    Hastert told reporters he had conveyed his views on immigration privately to Bush in recent days, and other officials said opinions among House Republicans hardened when Republican Rep. Brian Bilbray won a special election this month in the San Diego area. Bilbray campaigned for tougher immigration measures than Bush favors, and equated the president’s approach to amnesty.

    Well, the President is wrong and does not have to run for re-election EVER. All GOP members of the House are up at the polls this November and MUST have the will of the people to continue. Believe me voters want the Mexican border secured, illegal immigration stopped and stopped immediately prior to any “pathway to citizenship.”

    Several Republican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hastert and the president had expressed differing views at one meeting about the importance of immigration in Bilbray’s victory. These officials said Hastert assigned it greater weight than the president. The
    Republican National Committee ran a 72-hour program in the campaign’s final days that many Republicans credit with maximizing the vote for the winner.

    Additionally, the RNC conducted a postelection poll of the San Diego-area district that suggests voters take a dim view of citizenship for illegal immigrants.

    The poll found that when people were asked if they prefer a comprehensive bill to one that emphasizes border security and imposing criminal penalties on individuals already in the country illegally, the comprehensive approach was favored, 45-32. But when asked if they favor a comprehensive approach or a security-first bill that “under no circumstances” allows for citizenship, 43 percent said they prefer focusing on the border, and 33 percent picked overall reform.

    Let the Dims run on the President’s approach to illegal immigration in the Fall. The GOP House Leadership may well be saving Republican majority control of the Congress by facing down the President.

    Secure the Border first!

    Captain Ed has No Amnesty, No Normalization, No Border Security

    That strategy carries some risks, but mostly for the Senate, and that mostly for the moderates. The issue of border security has received high-profile attention, and if this session of Congress still produces nothing significant, the blame will fall on the upper chamber, especially the moderate and liberal Senators that insisted on linking border security to the larger issue of immigration. The House may well force the Senate to de-link the issues and come together on a straight border-security bill before the elections.

    One fact is certain: this issue isn’t dead, even if immigration reform is on life support.

    Allah has House GOP says immigration compromise is dead

    Hastert says Sensenbrenner and some of the other committee chairmen are going to hold “field hearings” this summer to gauge public opinion on the subject. Ostensibly. Actually, they’re going to use them to put immigration front and center before the midterms in hopes of stirring disaffected Republicans.

    In some ways that’s savvy: immigration is already a top priority among voters, and turning the election into a referendum on the issue will act as a bit of a hedge if things go south in Iraq (depending upon how far south they go, natch). On the other hand, judging from the latest poll, the public is receptive to the Senate approach. If the GOP craps out and the left takes back the House, then we really are looking at amnesty, with or without the “comprehensive immigration reform” euphemism.

    The GOP will hold their base with these moves and unless the economy tanks the Left will have a difficult time taking control of the House.

    Score one for Hastert who is still pissed at Bush for having fired Peter Goss as CIA Director.

    Stay tuned……

    Discuss this blog post and MORE…. at the FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blogs, My Dental Forum

    A US Border Patrol officer patrols the fence at the US-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona. The United States has begun to roll out the first of up to 6,000 National Guard troops on the Mexican border in a bid to reduce illegal immigration, the US Border Patrol chief said.

    Previous:

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Pennsylvania City to “CRACKDOWN” on Illegal Immigration

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Operation Return to Sender

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Federal Immigration Agents Raid Dulles International Airport

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert Wants “A LONG LOOK” at Senate Immigration Bill

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Mexican Border Crossings Reduced Since National Guard Troops Deployed

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Arizona Court Upholds Immigration Smuggling Law

    Illegal Immigration Watch: California Anti-illegal Immigration Billboards Go Up on Freeways

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Watch Illegal Aliens Cross From Mexico into the United States on the Internet

    Illegal Immigration Watch: “Anchor” Babies Away

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Dunkin’ Donuts Now Screening Employees For Work Status

    Illegal Immigration Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Orders National Guard To Mexican Border


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  • Iraq War

    Iraq War Watch: Al Qaeda “Religious Emir” Killed in Iraq

    A U.S. army soldier is seen during a routine patrol in Tikrit, Iraq.

    AP: Key figure in al-Qaida in Iraq killed

    A key al-Qaida in Iraq leader described as the group’s “religious emir” was killed in a U.S. airstrike hours before two American soldiers went missing and in the same area, the military said Tuesday.

    Mansour Suleiman Mansour Khalifi al-Mashhadani, or Sheik Mansour, and two foreign fighters were killed as they tried to flee in a vehicle near the town of Youssifiyah, in the so-called Sunni “Triangle of Death.”

    U.S. coalition forces had been tracking al-Mashhadani for some time, American military spokesman William Caldwell said in announcing his death. He said al-Mashhadani was an Iraqi, 35 to 37 years old, and that one of the men killed with him was an al-Qaida cell leader identified as Abu Tariq.

    The three men were killed just hours before an insurgent attack on a traffic checkpoint near Youssifiyah, by a Euphrates River canal. One U.S. soldier was killed in the attack and two were reported missing afterward.

    Two bodies believed to be those of the missing men — Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., were recovered in the same area.

    Caldwell said the Iraqi militant played a key religious and recruiting role in the group. The spokesman said Mansour was linked to the senior leadership, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 7 U.S. airstrike, and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the man the U.S. military has identified as al-Zarqawi’s replacement.

    Mansour “reportedly served as a right-hand man of Zarqawi’s, and also served as a liaison between al-Qaida in Iraq and the various tribes in the Youssifiyah area, as well as playing a key role in their media operations,” Caldwell said.

    Citing intelligence sources, Caldwell also said Mansour was responsible for the shooting down of a coalition aircraft this spring.

    Another one bites the dust…….

    Kill them all…….


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  • Illegal Immigration

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Pennsylvania City to “CRACKDOWN” on Illegal Immigration

    Mayor Lou Barletta stands in his office, Wednesday, June 14, 2006, in Hazleton, Pa. With tensions rising and its police department and municipal budget stretched thin, this small northeastern Pennsylvania city is about to begin what Barletta calls one of the toughest crackdowns on illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States.

    AP: City to crackdown on illegal immigration

    With tensions rising and its police department and municipal budget stretched thin, this small northeastern Pennsylvania city is about to begin what the mayor calls one of the toughest crackdowns on illegal immigrants in the United States.

    “Illegal immigrants are destroying the city,” said Mayor Lou Barletta, a Republican. “I don’t want them here, period.”

    Last week Barletta introduced, and the City Council tentatively approved, a measure that would revoke the business licenses of companies that employ illegal immigrants; impose $1,000 fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants; and make English the city’s official language.

    As Congress debates changes to the nation’s immigration policy, some cities are taking matters into their own hands, saying they have no choice but to crack down on illegal immigrants themselves.

    Barletta said he had to act after two illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic were charged last month with shooting and killing a man. Other recent incidents involving illegal immigrants have rattled this former coal town 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia, including the arrest of a 14-year-old boy for firing a gun at a playground.

    “This is crazy,” said Barletta, who took office in 2000. “People are afraid to walk the streets. There’s going to be law and order back in Hazleton and I’m going to use every tool I possibly can.”

    Excellent!

    Local and state governments can NO LONGER turn the other way and/or blame the federal government for their lack of enforcement action.

    Remember Flap’s 4 point plan for illegal immigration:

    1. Send the National Guard to the border but allow them to bolster enforcement until more border patrol agents are trained and ON THE JOB.

    2. Support legislation in the Congress to fund the training and deployment of additional border agents/officers. Ony when these officers are deployed in sufficient numbers to deter illegal immigration should the National Guard be redeployed away from the border.

    3. Support legislation to fund and build physical barriers and walls to physically impede the flow of illegal aliens coming across the border. “Virtual” fencing is NOT acceptable alone. There must be REAL physical impediments to the flow of people.

    4. Enforce existing immigration laws against employers. Fine them big and jail corporate leaders, if you must. America must be freed from the addiction of cheap Mexican and illegal labor.

    Local governments must be involved and local police MUST enforce immigration laws. Flap finds it ludicrous that in Moorpark, California one block from a Ventura County Sheriff’s substation there exists an illegal alien congregation spot for illegal worker “day” employment, yet the police do nothing.

    In San Bernardino, Calif., voters will decide whether to adopt a measure similar to the one in Hazleton. Elsewhere, an Idaho county filed a racketeering lawsuit against agricultural companies accused of hiring illegal immigrants. In New Hampshire, a pair of police chiefs began arresting illegal immigrants for trespassing.

    “They’re being forced to pick up the financial tab for all of this nonsense and they are doing whatever they can to find ways to combat it at the local level,” said Susan Tully, national field director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates limits on immigration.

    Time has come for state and local governments to stop passing the buck. Enforce the laws or vote state and local officials out of office.

    Stay tuned……
    Discuss this blog post and MORE…. at the FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blogs, My Dental Forum

    Previous:

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Operation Return to Sender

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Federal Immigration Agents Raid Dulles International Airport

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert Wants “A LONG LOOK” at Senate Immigration Bill

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Mexican Border Crossings Reduced Since National Guard Troops Deployed

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Arizona Court Upholds Immigration Smuggling Law

    Illegal Immigration Watch: California Anti-illegal Immigration Billboards Go Up on Freeways

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Watch Illegal Aliens Cross From Mexico into the United States on the Internet

    Illegal Immigration Watch: “Anchor” Babies Away

    Illegal Immigration Watch: Dunkin’ Donuts Now Screening Employees For Work Status

    Illegal Immigration Watch: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Orders National Guard To Mexican Border


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  • Media

    Los Angeles Times Watch: Tribune Company CEO “HIT” by the Los Angeles Times Editors

    MEDIA GIANT: Tribune Chairman and CEO Dennis FitzSimons, front, fields questions from Los Angeles Times editors at the newspaper’s offices last week. With him is Scott Smith, president of Tribune Publishing.

    Los Angeles Times: Tribune CEO Comes Under Fire

    Dennis FitzSimons, who has been something of a mystery despite his job, faces public criticism.

    People who admire Dennis J. FitzSimons say he works like an ox, is dead honest, inspires deep loyalty in the people around him and, when pushed, will fight.

    His critics say that, in addition, the chairman and chief executive of Tribune Co. can be self-confident to the point of arrogance and touchy about being challenged. Some doubt his strategic vision and, as the first Tribune chief to rise through the broadcast division, his “feel” for newspapers.

    Even in Tribune’s hometown of Chicago, where everybody has an opinion about what goes on inside the iconic Tribune Tower, FitzSimons is something of a mystery despite his role as head of a $6-billion media giant that owns the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Cubs and other properties.

    “He’s gone unexamined here in Chicago for someone in that position,” said Steve Rhodes, a former writer for Chicago magazine and the Tribune who now heads the Windy City online journal the Beachwood Reporter.

    That is changing, as FitzSimons, who turns 56 on Monday, has found himself the target of dissident Tribune directors who have publicly criticized the performance of management — and FitzSimons by extension — in provocative and insulting terms.

    On FitzSimons’ watch, they said, Tribune has flubbed opportunities “to invest aggressively in growing new businesses” and has been unable to arrest the decline of its core newspaper and broadcast TV units. This “strategic failure has had disastrous effects,” the dissidents — representing members of California’s Chandler family — said in a letter to the Tribune board made public in a regulatory filing last week.

    Read it all here.

    This is a classic “hit piece” by the Editors of the Los Angeles Times. They usually reserve their ire for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger or other politicans who they hate but this time they go after their own boss.

    Flap agrees with Hugh Hewitt and would clean house, irrespective of the Chandler families meddling.

    Unless declining circulation and business losses are in FitzSimon’s business plan?

    Previous:

    Los Angeles Times Watch: Up For Sale?


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  • North Korea

    North Korea Watch: United States Activates Missile Defense Shield – Part 2

    ***Scroll Down for Updates***

    A Ground Based Interceptor Missile Leaves its Silo.

    Washington Times: N. Korean threat activates shield

    The Pentagon activated its new U.S. ground-based interceptor missile defense system, and officials announced yesterday that any long-range missile launch by North Korea would be considered a “provocative act.”

    Poor weather conditions above where the missile site was located by U.S. intelligence satellites indicates that an immediate launch is unlikely, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    However, intelligence officials said preparations have advanced to the point where a launch could take place within several days to a month.

    Two Navy Aegis warships are patrolling near North Korea as part of the global missile defense and would be among the first sensors that would trigger the use of interceptors, the officials said yesterday.

    The U.S. missile defense system includes 11 long-range interceptor missiles, including nine deployed at Fort Greeley, Alaska, and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The system was switched from test to operational mode within the past two weeks, the officials said.

    It appears the United States is positioning itself to intercept North Korea’s multi-stage Taepodong-2. The GBI missiles are deployed and the support Aegis warships are within range.

    Of course, the United States or Japan could use a sea-based missile to intercept.

    Aegis Ship-Based BMD

    One senior Bush administration official told The Washington Times that an option being considered would be to shoot down the Taepodong missile with responding interceptors.

    “U.S. Northern Command continues to monitor the situation, and we are prepared to defend the country in any way necessary,” said spokesman Michael Kucharek.

    Will the United States intercept and destroy North Korea’s Taepodong ballistic missile?

    Likely……..


    Stay tuned…….

    Update #1 7:05 AM PDT

    AP: North Korea insists it can test missiles

    North Korea asserted it has full autonomy to conduct missile tests, and that outsiders do not have the right to criticize its plans, Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported Tuesday.

    Kyodo News quoted an unidentified official from the North Korean Foreign Ministry as saying that Pyongyang did not regard itself as bound by prior agreements to refrain from missile testing.

    “Our actions are not bound by the Pyongyang Declaration, the joint declaration made at the six-party talks in September last year or any other statements,” Kyodo quoted the official as telling Japanese reporters in North Korea.

    The official said his remarks represented Pyongyang’s official line on the matter, Kyodo said.

    In the meantime…….

    North Korea also criticized a Japanese move to buy missiles and associated equipment from the U.S. to upgrade its missile defense system, claiming it showed an intent to become “a military giant” and mount “overseas aggression,” the North’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in commentary carried by KCNA.

    As tensions grew, meanwhile, the U.S. staged war games in the western Pacific on Tuesday with 22,000 troops, 280 aircraft and three aircraft carriers.

    Update #2 8:25 AM PDT

    Reuters: US makes missile defense system operational

    The United States has moved its ground-based interceptor missile defense system from test mode to operational amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch, a U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.

    The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a Washington Times report that the
    Pentagon has activated the system, which has been in the developmental stage for years.

    “It’s good to be ready,” the official said.

    U.S. officials say evidence such as satellite pictures suggests Pyongyang may have finished fueling a Taepodong-2 missile, which some experts said could reach as far as Alaska.

    “There’s real caution in how to characterize it so as to not be provocative in our own approach,” the defense official said of the move to activate the system.

    A missile is launched from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70), during a test to intercept a separating ballistic missile target November 17, 2005. The United States has moved its ground-based interceptor missile defense system from test mode to operational amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch, a U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.
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    Previous:

    North Korea Watch: United States Activates Missile Defense Shield

    North Korea Watch: North Korea Threatens to “Mercilessly Wipe Out” US Forces In Case of War

    North Korea Watch: North Korea Close to Test Firing Taepodong-2 Missile – Capable of Reaching Mainland United States

    North Korea Watch: North Korea Denies Reported Plans to Test-Fire a Long-Range Missile Capable of Reaching the U.S. Mainland

    North Korea Watch: Preparing to Launch A Long Range Ballistic Missile?

    North Korea Watch: North Koreans Can and Have Made a Few Nuclear Devices

    North Korea Harvesting More Plutonium for Nuclear Weapons

    North Korea Warned


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