GOP Vixen

Jailed Border Patrol agents to get Senate hearing

Just heard from a source that the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up the case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, the two Border Patrol agents serving 11-12 year sentences in the shooting of drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila after a chase along the Texas-Mexico border. Sen. Dianne Feinstein will be presiding over the "Hearing to Examine the Prosecution of Igancio Ramos and Jose Compean," which will be July 17 at 10 a.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. I know there's been a lot of interest in this case, as well as street protests, but if you need to catch up on the facts of the case the Daily Bulletin has done a fantastic job of coverage.

The Mexica Movement

Today in the Los Angeles Daily News I write about that which has no place in the immigration debate: the separatists.

"...To say that this group does the pro-immigration movement absolutely no good is an understatement. Many Americans are wary of reconquista aims voiced over the years by groups such as MEChA. But the Mexica Movement - largely composed of young people, from what I've seen at events - minces no words about its aims, which are broader and accompanied by more disturbing rhetoric.

'We are slaves of the parasitic genocidal Europeans,' states the Mexica Movement's philosophy, and another online Mexica article states about Europeans that 'a cancer must be removed and parasites must also be removed, for the sake of your life as a healthy human being.'

According to the Mexica Movement, begun in 1993, all Western Hemisphere borders are considered European and illegal, and North America is its indigenous nation of 'Anahuac' of the 'Nican Tlaca' people. The concept of the Aztlan homeland (territory purchased by the U.S. at the end of the Mexican-American War) is criticized for recognizing European borders.

Che Guevara is even panned for being too European: 'Che was an Argentine, European descent, not our people!' states the Mexica Movement's Web site. 'We don't need no pinche Che!'

The Mexica Movement is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, well-organized and omnipresent with the slickest signs and literature at rallies, that calls Latinos who protest illegal immigration 'self haters,' traitors and more: 'The only rational comparison would be to the numerous Jewish Nazis who worked for Hitler and somehow rationalized sending their own brothers and sisters to concentration camps, and in some cases personally firing the ovens,' as written on the Mexica Web site's report of a December 2005 protest. After all, 'individualism is treason,' notes their philosophy statement.

'Where's your anger and your confrontation of this occupation and ongoing colonization? ... But we care more about 6 million Jews.

'... Participation in liberation is not a choice, it is an obligation. ... We need a new generation of warriors.'

Liberation, they claim, will be aided by demographic shifts. 'We were only 4% in the 1970 census. We were 14% in the 2000 census. We are projected to be 25% in 2020. We are projected to be over 50% of the population of the "Western USA" in 2050. We will easily be the majority of the population of the "USA" in 2100. We've got to be prepared for liberation then by getting knowledge now.'..."

Read the whole thing!

Habla Ingles, Home Depot?

I've never been a big fan of Home Depot. I realize some men get aroused just walking in the door, smelling the plywood and running their hands along power-tool displays, but I prefer the local Ace Hardware -- where you can park right outside the door, find what you need within a minute, and not feel like you're a goner should an earthquake strike. Home Depot has a pretty decent nursery section, but even the Armstrong Garden Center is superior. Yet I went to Home Depot the other evening looking for a small patio box in which to tastefully store new car care products for the Vixenmobile.

While strolling the aisles, a promotional message came across the store's speakers, advertising specials and the whatnot -- in Spanish. Checking out, I tried to use the self-service checkout. I pressed the touchscreen button for English -- and the checkout proceeded with instructions in Spanish. As this store seems to have some of the rudest employees around, a woman tasked with watching the self-checkout customers refused to help -- only told me that I was doing it wrong.

Now, anyone who knows this blog knows that I embrace diversity and enjoy running down to Mexico as often as possible for some shopping and cerveza. But I'd really like to remind Home Depot that we are, indeed, still the United States and there are still people who speak English who need hardware. And they're giving us great reason to go to the local Ace.

Concerns grow in jailing of Border Patrol agents

Check out my Los Angeles Daily News column today on the reason for the rally I attended on Saturday: the incarceration of officers convicted in border shootings.

"... And as rumblings about the Ramos-Compean case grow louder on Capitol Hill - and the White House continues to be unresponsive - a review of the case reveals troubling details. Like the fact that Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, the drug smuggler who was shot in the butt, was given immunity to testify that the Border Patrol agents violated his civil rights - despite the fact that Aldrete-Davila was driving a van full of marijuana when spotted by the agents.

And amazingly, the federal government had charged the agents with assault with intent to commit murder, though they were acquitted of that and convicted on various lesser charges.

Ramos has said that Aldrete-Davila turned toward him in a foot pursuit and pointed what looked like a gun. 'I shot,' Ramos told Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reporter Sara Carter before his sentencing. 'But I didn't think he was hit, because he kept running into the brush and then disappeared into it. Later, we all watched as he jumped into a van waiting for him. He seemed fine.'

'The supervisors knew that shots were fired,' he added. 'Since nobody was injured or hurt, we didn't file the report. That's the only thing I would've done different.'

As to the allegations that Ramos shot a fleeing man, National Border Patrol Council President T.J. Bonner told me that the path of the bullet through Aldrete-Davila was consistent with someone who had turned around.

To characterize the incident as the shooting of an unarmed migrant is disingenuous, too. Since the smuggler fled afterward, we'll never know what Aldrete-Davila was packing. To believe that a man would be transporting 800 pounds of marijuana with a street value of a cool million without a weapon to protect his loot from other smugglers is highly ignorant. To believe the word of a drug smuggler is similarly crazy.

But it sure sounds good if you're trying to vilify those who would secure our borders. The call to counterprotest issued on ANSWER L.A.'s Web site stated that Ramos, Compean and Hernandez were guilty of shooting 'unarmed immigrants.'..."

Read the whole thing!

I should note that I've seen a huge difference of opinion among the right on whether these guys should be in jail, should be jailed for such a long term, or whether Bush should pardon them (the White House has refused to intervene). And while healthy debate on the issue is good, I'm afraid I'm seeing some condemnation of the officers arising from those seemingly just wanting to defend the Bush administration. Whether it be on this or another issue, let me opine that we as conservatives lose credibility for blindly pushing any politician's agenda -- as rational, conscientuous thinkers, we should disseminate each issue and call out our leaders if they aren't doing the right thing, regardless of party.

NRO: Protest goes Hollywood

Check out my National Review Online report on Saturday's protest to support jailed Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, and Texas sheriff's Deputy Gilmer Hernandez. Being in Hollywood, the counterprotest that showed up truly took on Tinsel Town dimensions. Read on:

"... Whereas the color palette for the officers’ cohort was red, white, and blue, the counterdemonstrators seemed to have favored the costume design of Subcomandante Marcos — faces covered by rags, black as the new black, and 'brown power' T-shirts for a dash of revolutionary flair.

ANSWER’s props included the amplified bullhorns and signs equating Minutemen to the Ku Klux Klan, as well as the standard Aztec dancers with incense and drums. One counterprotester felt no need for cumbersome signs and simply feigned masturbation at the flag-waving crowd; another masked guy in camouflage waved a hole-pocked American flag upside down, with 'God less Amerikkka/This flag kills' scrawled across what remained of the stripes. 'Burn that stupid flag!' urged one of his friends.

When it came to their director — the cause of success or failure for so many Hollywood projects — the counterdemonstrators were outdone.

Ted Hayes, the 'Rasta Republican' who founded the Dome Village to shelter L.A.’s homeless, was at the mic, perched atop a truck bed. The founder of the Crispus Attucks Brigades, an African-American anti-illegal-immigration group named after that American patriot killed at the Boston Massacre, rallied a crowd that was far more diverse than any prime-time television series made in this liberal town.

To Hayes’s left was a black man wearing a multicolored hat with “Malcolm X” sewn into the front and waving a large American flag. To Hayes’s right was David Hernandez, a grassroots L.A. activist who fought to keep the cross that had been on the Los Angeles County seal since its design in 1957 from being removed (and it was removed, under pressure from the ACLU — and without voter input — in 2004).

'The first casualty of political correctness is truth,' said onetime congressional candidate Hernandez, as tourists milled outside the Pantages Theatre. 'The second is justice. The third is freedom.'

The ANSWER group’s script was a little less refined. 'Get your white ass back to Europe, stupid bitch!' one young man shouted at a woman in her 50s. Another pocket of protesters yelled, 'Death to the Minutemen! Power to the worker!'..."

Read the whole thing! And enjoy more pics from Saturday's protest:

Protest crasher: Hollywood

Yesterday I went to a protest on Hollywood Boulevard in support of jailed Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean and Edwards County sheriff's Deputy Gilmer Hernandez -- the "Texas Three." More on all of this later -- including upcoming columns, as I stayed for the whole thing and got lotsa juicy stuff -- but now, after dowloading/photoshopping about 150 pictures I took at the event, I must take my sore feet to bed.

First, a few shots to whet one's appetite -- these in honor of the Los Angeles Police Department:

The Los Angeles Police Commission employs new, controversial methods to keep an eye on officers in the field

The LAPD hopes that if the bad guys just trip on their bicycles, they may not have to use force

Opening soon at the Pantages Theatre: "An LAPD Chorus Line"

Hungry cops know the hot dog stand is best tackled in riot gear

L.A.'s finest (aren't they fine??)

"May I suggest using the nightstick, officer?"

Think your Sudafed sacrifice is helping stop meth? Think again!

Check out my Los Angeles Daily News column today on those annoying laws that make you feel like you'll get strip-searched for buying cold meds -- and how they've only contributed to making the meth problem in this country even worse:

"Nowadays, I dread sinus problems not so much for the pain and pressure as for the headache of purchasing medicine for relief.

The Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005, which trumps laws that had already been passed in many states, made stores move their cold medicines containing the decongestant pseudoephedrine - which can be extracted and used to make methamphetamine - behind the counter, limit the amount that consumers can purchase and require purchasers to present photo identification. Stores must also keep personal information about these customers in a logbook for two years.

The regulations lend an illicit air to a legitimate attempt to banish a stuffy nose. Many cold meds now include phenylephrine, which doesn't carry the same restrictions - or efficacy.

'Phenylephrine, at the FDA-approved dose of 10 mg for adults, is unlikely to provide relief of nasal congestion,' University of Florida pharmacy professor Leslie Hendeles and Randy C. Hatton, co-director of the Drug Information Service at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida, wrote in a July 2006 letter to the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 'Only 38% of the dose reaches the systemic circulation, compared with 90% of a pseudoephedrine dose.'

But if consumers view this new counter ritual as a small sacrifice to keep meth off the streets, they may be disappointed to see that tough restrictions at the drugstore have failed to dent availability of the illegal drug. Restricting pseudoephedrine may have shut down small-time neighborhood meth cookeries, but Mexican cartels have seized the opportunity to swoop into unconquered territory and make those meth customers their own.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center's 2007 National Drug Threat Assessment, 'Marked success in decreasing domestic methamphetamine production through law enforcement pressure and strong precursor chemical sales restrictions has enabled Mexican (drug trafficking organizations) to rapidly expand their control over methamphetamine distribution - even in eastern states - as users and distributors who previously produced the drug have sought new, consistent sources.'

Additionally, the flow of 'ice' - highly concentrated meth that is usually smoked - from Mexico has increased sharply, most likely creating more addicts because of the better high it creates, states the report.

So while lawmakers have focused on regulating sniffling customers at drugstore counters, Mexican cartels have monopolized the gaps left in the meth market, bringing their goods - and guns - across a porous border. 'Now, approximately 80 percent of all meth purchased in the U.S. originates from Mexican labs,' U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in a May address at the National Methamphetamine and Chemicals Initiative Strategy Conference..."

Read the whole thing! Now excuse me as I go ration out my decongestant like toilet paper in the Soviet Union...

I can't wait to go to Tijuana...

... to see the newly rearmed "Lord of the Flies" police department in action:

"The police department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons two weeks ago on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers.

Municipal police spokesman Fernando Bojorquez said Monday that the slingshots, along with bags of ballbearings, were given to officers patrolling areas of the city visited by tourists.

Tijuana's police force of 2,000 officers has been without guns since Jan. 5, but some patrol alongside armed state police."

And yes, I will be going there very soon ... stay tuned to GOP Vixen for the latest on corrupt border towns now armed with harsh language (and, hopefully soon, SuperSoakers).

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!!

NRO: The not-so-'Great Labor March'

Check out my National Review Online column today about the rather sparsely attended "Great Labor March" on Saturday in downtown L.A., and how radical political agendas may be driving away immigrant participants:

"... Many of the protesters on Saturday — largely lower class, and probably mostly from the downtown area, judging by the vast amount of parking available — were waving American flags and listening to rally leaders advocating full legalization, panning deportation, and dissing guest-worker programs. At the same time, they were being heavily courted by wannabe revolutionaries who would rather spit on an American flag than wave one, and who are fervently trying to stoke class warfare.

Sandwiched between those grilling stations were the revolutionaries’ card tables, laden with books, newspapers, and fliers, meant to lure these single-issue political activists to their myriad paranoid causes. As I snapped a photo of one of the booths, fronted with a Spanish-language sign advocating unconditional military defense of China, Cuba, Vietnam, and North Korea, a white guy in a wide straw hat ran up to me, wielding the Workers Vanguard newspaper — published by the International Communist League — and trying to sell a subscription.

It’s unclear how much the marchers cared about freeing Mumia Abu-Jamal (and they’re making 'progress,' claimed the newspaper hawker) or panning U.N. intervention in Lebanon; tucked inside the newspaper, though, was a flier advocating a fight for immigrants’ rights — as well as breaking with the Democratic party to build a revolutionary workers’ party and unite in class struggle against the capitalist rulers. 'Our aim is the achievement of new October Revolutions — nothing else, nothing other, nothing less,' reads the ICL’s website.

The ANSWER coalition — renowned for shoving itself into any event that remotely criticizes the Bush administration — provided slick signs and set up shop in front of a banner reading 'No borders in the workers’ struggle' in Spanish and English. One white woman near the booth wore a kaffiyeh.

Many of the protesters just want to stay in America — nothing more — but some actually do have far-left positions, as evidenced by the marchers who wore PRD (Mexico’s leftist Democratic Revolution party) shirts and hoisted Spanish-language signs championing Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the perpetual presidential candidate whose wailing insistence that he’s the real winner over Felipe Calderon is starting to make Al Gore look gracious.

And some of the Hispanic groups that are taking these protests on a radical bent already prosper on a network of socialist beliefs, including the Mexica Movement, which faithfully shows up to these things with a barrage of slick signs declaring that this is their continent and whites should go back to Europe (this is a group that declares on its website that 'individualism is treason'), At Saturday’s rally, they lined up their signs (including 'White racists go back to Europe') and set up a big table with t-shirts — the gist of which was that they’re not Hispanic (too European) or Latino (too Roman) but Mexican — and 'educational' materials on the sidewalk directly in front of the L.A. Times building. The Mexica Movement wasn’t one of the groups pitching Che signs in the air at the rally — as their website proclaims, he’s too white for them.

This presence created a bit of a hostile environment for the pro-assimilation folks. As a speaker told the crowd that it was important to speak in English so people would understand how much they love the U.S.A., a young Hispanic man in the middle of the crowd taunted him through a bullhorn, asking if he wanted to talk to 'real Mexicans.' Several feet away, a solitary Hispanic woman tried starting a 'U.S.A.!' chant, to no avail. ..."

Read the whole thing! Here are pics I posted previously on the topic, and below are some more from Saturday: