GOP Vixen

Passport law may backfire, spur more illegal crossings

Check out my Los Angeles Daily News column today on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, passport regulations that are being implemented to better secure the border but may just end up driving more illegal immigrants north.

"... On Jan. 23, via 9-11 Commission recommendations, begin new requirements that air travelers must have a passport to enter or re-enter the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda. The State Department has been aiming to have the same passport requirements in place for land travelers by Jan. 1, 2008, though recent legislation gives leeway for implementation.

This wouldn't seem like such a big deal except for the fact that Americans are not passport people. Less than a quarter of Americans have passports, and they're not a force of habit, but are usually acquired by necessity for jobs or should someone finally save up for that European vacation.

So will college students, prescription-drug seekers, church groups and shopping-and-cerveza fans like me pony up $97 for the passport, or find someplace else to go? It's not like California has a dearth of recreational activities, or even lacks the same great authentic Mexican food found to the south.

And how, I wondered as I bought a fresh bag of churros from a street vendor, will that affect the scores of entrepreneurs whose livelihood depends on the regular tourist flow? ..."

Read the whole thing!!

Unedited Saddam execution video

It was bound to happen -- at least one of the witnesses to Saddam's execution brought a cell phone to record the event on video. The actions of the hangmen before Saddam drops through the hatch match the previous government tape we've seen, where broadcasts have stopped before the actual hanging, so it seems to be authentic, plus with the yelling and statements described in news reports of the cell phone footage. Here's the video.

Be warned -- it shows the whole hanging.

(Is it just me, or were there like six hangmen too many milling around Saddam? All these guys in black ski masks just wanting to say they were there but doing little except touching the rope for a sec.)

Read more from AP about Saddam's bitchiness in his final moments...

Saddam: A retrospective

Saddam, Saddam, we hardly knew ye...

We do know that today wasn't the first time you were caught just hanging around...

You had some sasquatch moments there after hiding in a hole with Mars bars...

Gone were the days that you got to fire blanks to your heart's content...

And have some goober tell tall tales for you...

But there was no hiding (except from your uber-lefty sympathizers) what you did to people (yes, those are bodies of kids and adults)...

(Why, here's one of your sympathizers now...)

You had a good ol' time with your trial...

Pretended you were a little teapot, short and shout, here's your Grecian Formula, here's your big mouth...

Auditioned for "Inherit the Wind"...

And subjected the world to your obnoxious half-brother...

But lo and behold, Saddam, you finally came to the end of your rope.

And even though you didn't finish your Anfal trial, every Kurd should know that you're finally meeting your justice for Halabja.

Just remember the "South Park" movie -- have fun, Saddam!!

Ding dong, dictator's dead...

So reports Al-Arabiya, which seems to have kicked Al-Jazeera's ass on this story as all I've heard all evening are updates from Al-Arabiya and Al-Iraqiya. More as it develops, but let it be said that I have already had my celebratory Doritos.

Crack open your nacho cheese flavor, people!

NRO: New Year's Resolutions!

2007 is nigh, and I am officially ready because yesterday I found one sole obnoxiously oversized Christmas popcorn tin left on clearance. (Which means I'll eat the butter and cheese, a few nibbles of the caramel corn, and the caramel corn will slowly go stale, resulting in throwing out the sticky tin and all some weeks down the road.) National Review Online is also ready with a slate of New Year's goodies, including my column on my ten resolutions! These include:

• Do a dramatic oral reading of Jimmy Carter’s new book at a Bay Area coffeehouse. After all, great works of fiction deserve such flair, care, and attention. And there is no danger that anyone there will be so flabbergasted by the absurdity of the book that he will choke on his organic peanuts.
• Serve Hebrew National hot dogs to anti-Israel protesters. This is the year that I have finally had it with all of the demonstrators who claim they’re not anti-Semitic, not anti-Israel, just against the Israeli leadership, as they stomp on and burn the Israeli flag, call Israelis Nazis, and praise Hezbollah and Hamas as saviors of humanity. This past year we frighteningly saw some people embrace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial conference as a legitimate tool for questioning the existence of Israel. “Anti-Israel” is far too often a cover for “anti-Semitic,” and in the interest of “never again” (remember that, United Nations?) I intend to annoy the Israel-bashers as much as possible this year.
• Grab other conservative pundits for a weekend of headline-grabbing partying in the manner of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton. I shall be Lohan, pre-gothic hair dye, because unlike Britney, I remember to put on unmentionables. The New York Daily News will catch up with the squad of conservavixens and christen the GOP the “Republican Par-TAY!”

Check out the whole shabang!

Hang time with Saddam

In appeals court action so swift it would American lawyers' (with 20 years of death-penalty appeals) heads spin, the highest judicial body in Iraq has ruled that Saddam must be hanged within 30 days.

Theoretically, that could be today. But Al-Jazeera, interviewing Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari on Tuesday, reported that "suggestions of other governments such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Saddam's fate would be taken note of." However, they also note that Saddam's trial in the Anfal genocide has been adjourned until Jan. 8 -- though the trial can continue until the day he dies, perhaps they have a date in mind.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

"Although the execution could take place immediately, it is likely to take some time to organise as the authorities will want to arrange a strict curfew that will stop almost all road traffic around the country, reducing the risk of car bombs.

For reasons of security, the execution is expected to be held in private, although video and stills of his corpse will have to be widely circulated to prove that he is dead."

I disagree. Considering that hundreds have submitted applications to be Saddam's executioner, I doubt the majority of Iraqis would want their executioner procedures dictated by the sentiments of the EU. One thing is for sure: The hanging of Saddam SHOULD NOT take place in U.S. military facilities (unless you want to make the twit a martyr)! Let his sentence be carried out solely by Iraqis in Iraqi facilities. Then the U.S. can send Jalal Talabani Saddam's Doritos bill. 

Caption this!

Gerald Ford and pimp daddy Leonid Brezhnev

Gerald Ford dies

Betty Ford has just reported that former President Gerald Ford has died. He was 133.

(OK, a bit of an overstatement. Ford was president when I was born.)

But Ford should truly be congratulated on a feat that many would never think possible for the golf-club-wielding former prez: He has upstaged James Brown.

For this, I believe Ford also deserves to lie in state at the Apollo.

(And Ford survived two attempts by women to kill him, whereas some women probably just thought about killing Brown.)

By the way, Ford's library may be in Michigan, but in my mind he will always be the quintessential Rancho Mirage retiree (the desert resort city east of L.A. where he peacefully passed away Tuesday evening). California officially adopted him!

Looking good, Calderon!

GOP Vixen originally supported the candidacy of Felipe Calderon for Mexican president because he wasn't leftist loonbat Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, but have been pleasantly surprised at how he has snapped into action since taking office Dec. 1 amid the howls of leftist loonbat protests. Last week he was at the border in Nogales, promoting the creation of good jobs in Mexico to curb illegal immigration before even pressing the U.S. for a guest-worker program. Now, according to the Houston Chronicle:

"In his first three weeks in office, President Felipe Calderon has sent a message to the rogue powers that have paralyzed or terrorized much of Mexico: Enough is enough.

Just days after his Dec. 1 inauguration, Calderon's government arrested the figurehead of the violent protests in Oaxaca City. A week later, he deployed nearly 7,000 soldiers and police to combat increasingly bloodthirsty drug traffickers in his native Michoacan state.

Calderon's swift use of force is a major departure from the conciliatory style of his predecessor, Vicente Fox. But that may be just the point -- to separate himself from Fox's often weakling image.

The moves come after five months of chaos in colonial Oaxaca and a raft of beheadings in western Michoacan, including one incident in which the traffickers dumped five human heads on a dance floor."

Maybe that was just the Headbangers Ball? Regardless, it great to see a guy who looks like an accountant take no prisoners. Hopefully he'll keep up this policy course and help Mexico exploit its full potential.

Merry Christmas, Iran!

Without Russia and China being the grinches we expected them  to be, the U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to slap sanctions on Iran for its continuing nuclear enrichment. More from AP:

"... The result of two months of tough negotiation, the resolution orders all countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs. It also freezes Iranian assets of 10 key companies and 12 individuals related to those programs.

If Iran refuses to comply, the council warned it would adopt further nonmilitary sanctions, but the resolution emphasized the importance of diplomacy in seeking guarantees 'that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.'"

Considering that Iran will refuse to comply, the Security Council action is just window dressing. And the U.S. opines that it's pretty weak and watered down at that.

"The administration had pushed for tougher penalties. But Russia and China, which both have strong commercial ties to Tehran, and Qatar, across the Persian Gulf from Iran, balked. To get their votes, the resolution dropped a ban on international travel by Iranian officials involved in nuclear and missile development and specified the banned items and technologies."