Happpy New Year

As were in the last 45 minutes of 2005, I'd like to wish a Happy New Year to all my friends and readers.

May 2006 be a better year than 2005.

All the best to all of you for the year to come.

Yet more signs of the Democrats sliding towards irrelevance

Foxnews: Disgruntled Dems Consider Challenge to Lieberman

On top of that, Democrats attending the regular State Central Committee meeting last Wednesday criticized Lieberman [due to his failure to toe the anti-war party line] and called for support for a primary challenge against him at the party's convention in May.

"I speak to Democratic state senators all the time. They always said, 'Joe is a rat, but he's our rat.' Now they are saying, 'Joe's a rat and we can't afford to have him at the top of our ticket,'" said Democrat Keith Crane of Branford, Conn. "I think Joe is going to get a rude awakening in May."

There's even more in the article so read it in full.

So much for the Democrats' famous tolerance for dissent. If the Democrats kep this trend to push further leftwards with this anti-war, September 10th mindset they'll continue down the path to irrelevance, right when we could use a strong and principled opposition party that actually takes national security seriously.

FBI Confirms radiation monitoring of Muslim sites

The FBI has confirmed that they Monitored Muslim Sites for Radiation(via Foxnews).

WASHINGTON — A classified radiation monitoring program, conducted without warrants, has targeted private U.S. property in an effort to prevent an Al Qaeda attack, federal law enforcement officials confirmed Friday.

While declining to provide details including the number of cities and sites monitored, the officials said the air monitoring took place since the Sept. 11 attacks and from publicly accessible areas — which they said made warrants and court orders unnecessary.

Since monitoring the air in a public place is permissible there is nothing illegal with this process.

Especially considering that this was monitoring for the purpose of finding harmful substances ie radioactive materials, there should be no surprise that this is necessary in this day and age of Islamist terrorists.

Now, of course, there should be an investigation as to who leaked the existence of this classified program to the US News and World Report. I daresay the revelation of this program is certainly more damaging than the outing of the non-covert Plame.

Possible vote sale during Detroit City Election

Detroit Free Press: Election director suspects vote sale

Detroit's top elections official said Wednesday she is concerned that people may have sold votes on the eve of the city's Nov. 8 election, and said she may ask the Wayne County prosecutor to investigate
....
Sexton, 55, said he noticed that members of a political group -- the Eastside Community Slate -- had brought voters to the election headquarters with what he later heard was an arrangement to hire them as poll workers the next day. Sexton said it looked like they were being paid to cast ballots for the slate's candidates.

Sexton told police and the Free Press he overheard two voters discussing what he believed were plans to collect money for their votes.

"It's a hundred, right?" Sexton described one man as saying to another in line. Sexton said the other man replied, "No, it's $75, and I will be the first one here at 5:30 to collect."

Sexton said the Eastside Slate worker made "a beeline" to voters as they left the elections building and asked them: "Now you voted my ballot, right? You voted my slate?"

They answered yes, Sexton said, and the slate worker collected slips of paper indicating that each person had voted.

It will be interesting to see if this is investigated or not, as the police report of the incident currently says "Disposition: Not a crime"

Perhaps next time the Eastside Slate, like Caesar's wife, should act in a way above suspicion, as this set of events IS suspicious.

BAMN's intimidation tactics succeed in delaying placing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on ballot

In an impressive display of thugery and the circumventing of the democratic process, the pro-affirmative action group The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights
And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary successfully intimidated the Board of Canvassers from certifying the Michigan Civil Rights initiative Proposal from being placed on the ballot:

The meeting was disrupted by an opposition group, By Any Means Necessary, which recruited students from Cody, Cass Tech, Crockett and Mumford high schools in Detroit and Oak Park High School to swarm the meeting and keep the board from voting.

Students chanted "no voter fraud" and "they say Jim Crow, we say hell no," danced on chair seats and made obscene gestures at the board.

At one point, many of the protesters rushed toward the board members, overturning a testimony table. Lansing police officers were called to restore order.

The board recessed for lunch, returned to a different room at the Lansing Center 90 minutes later and managed to vote on the issue over shouts from a smaller group of protesters.

Interestingly, for a group dedicated to keeping affirmative action by any means necessary (off the ballot) and racial equality, they certainly didn't mind playing the race card:

Republican board members DeGrow and Lyn Bankes voted in favor. Democrat Paul Mitchell voted no and Democrat Doyle O'Connor did not vote.

Mitchell, an African-American, earlier had said he was prepared to vote to certify, and tried to explain that to the angry crowd above shouts such as "be a black man about it."

So a bunch of thugs managed to disrupt the electoral process and according to the Detroit News only one 17 year old was arrested for disorderly conduct.

Impressive job BAMN, using mob action and intimidation to prevent people from even having the opportunity to vote on the issue of affirmative action and the chance that the people might vote for something you don't like. Hmm, I do believe a bunch of people in white sheets used similar despicable tactics back in the recent past to stop others from voting.

Detroit Illegal Alien Smuggling Ring Busted

From the Detroit Free Press

A 35-year-old Jordanian man has pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C., to helping a Detroit-based ring smuggle more than 200 illegal immigrants from the Middle East into the United States. Thaer Omran Ismail Asaifi, also known as Abu Harp, pleaded guilty Monday to participating in a conspiracy prosecutors say they believe was headed by his wife, Neeran Hakim Zaia, 51, of Sterling Heights from early 2001 through September 2004. Asaifi said he helped smuggle scores of illegal immigrants to the United States.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which conducted a three-year undercover investigation code-named Operation Tortuga, said Asaifi, his wife and others illegally smuggled Iraqi and Jordanian nationals into the country through Equador and Peru.

Good job ICE.

Michigan Sec State Clerks Plead Guilty to providing false Licenses and IDs

As reported in the Detroit Free Press:

Three former Michigan Secretary of State clerks plan to plead guilty to charges that they sold fraudulent driver's licenses and identification cards to illegal immigrants and people with bad driving records

And who were the buyers?

Wilkey said she sold the documents to Daher Al-Mayahi, 37, of Dearborn Heights and Ali Hawil, 34 of Dearborn, who also have pleaded guilty in the case and are scheduled for sentencing Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow.

Al-Mayahi is an Iraqi national and permanent U.S. resident. Hawil is a citizen of Guinea and is facing deportation.

This was apparently an ongoing scheeme for Al-Mayahi and Hawil to get identification for a number of illegals:

The men admitted bringing illegal immigrants from the East Coast to Michigan to obtain driver's licenses or identification documents as a first step toward receiving immigrant visas and other documents so they could stay in the United States.

Not to mention vote, travel with an identity off of any watch list and do various other activities.

Federal authorities, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have been cracking down on driver's license fraud because the licenses can be used for immigration, bank and mortgage fraud; identity theft and terrorism.

You don't say. One hopes the authorities have extensivley questioned the men and checked for terrorist ties and the whereabout sof asll those provided with the falke drivers licenses and ID cards.

Liberal Party in Canada Proposes handgun ban

Source: The Vancouver Sun MONTREAL -- Prime Minister Paul Martin will propose a ban on most handguns in Canada, CanWest News Service has learned.

Sources say Martin, who will make the election campaign announcement this morning, wants to choke off the supply of handguns in this country, particularly guns brought into the country illegally and those sold on the black market.

There will be some exemptions, including maintaining the right for police to carry handguns. The prime minister is also expected to announce a significant increase in resources for police to deal with the ban.

Nice of the Canadian government to continue to allow police to carry handguns I suppose. Then again former Liberal Justice minister Allan Rock, who introduced the new registration scheme back in 1994 was

"I came to Ottawa with the firm belief that the only people in this country who should have guns are police officers and soldiers."

-- Allan Rock, Canada's Minister of Justice
Maclean's "Taking Aim on Guns", April 25, 1994, page 12.

Nice to see the Liberals are carrying out his beliefs.

This is of course an election campaign ploy on the part of the Liberals, whose prior firearm registration boondogle will likely cost over a billion dollars before it is functioning - far more than the $2 million price tag they stated it would cost. With rising crime, a corruption scandal in government, what else would the Liberals do to earn cheap political points with their base?

So much for the Liberal Party's previous promises that Registration would not lead to confiscation and their portraying those who said it would lead to confiscation as being alarmist.

Hat tips: Instapundit, The Volokh Conspiracy

King David's Palace possibly found

A potential find of vast historical significance.

As reported in The Washington Post: A Dig Into Jerusalem's Past Fuels Present-Day Debates:

Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar believes the evidence she has uncovered during months of excavation and biblical comparison points to an extraordinary discovery.

She believes she has found the palace of King David, the poet-warrior who the Bible says consolidated the ancient Jewish kingdom around the 10th century B.C. and expanded its borders to encompass the Land of Israel.

If corroborative evidence is found confirming that this is King David's Palace, this could literally be the find of the century.

Hat Tip: Transterrestial Musings