Filed Under: Sanctuary City?

(Headlines) SF implements immigration check for arrestees

The Associated Press

Posted: 06/01/2010 12:57:20 PM PDT

“SAN FRANCISCO—A federal program that checks the immigration status of arrestees is being implemented in San Francisco despite the local sheriff’s attempt to opt out.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program known as Secure Communities goes into effect in the city Tuesday. It requires local authorities to share fingerprint data with federal authorities.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15204010

Filed Under: Follow the Money

 

Interest groups’ $1.3B shapes policy in California

Teachers biggest election spenders

Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer

Posted: 05/31/2010 10:01:19 PM PDT

Unions can flex serious muscle when it comes to fighting for political agendas as evidenced by the vast amounts of money they spend on influencing state policy.

A report released in March titled “Big Money Talks” revealed 15 public-interest groups spent $1.3 billion toward policy shaping in the past decade, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission report, “Big Money Talks.”

The list is topped by the California Teachers Association, which spent $212 million in the past 10 years for campaign financing and lobbying.

…The commission, which authored the report and oversees campaign finance behavior in the state, concluded a handful of special interests – which includes two unions – have a disproportionate amount of influence on state elections and public policy.

…The second highest spender on the list, the California State Council of Service Employees, also represents the interests of the members of the Service Employees International Union. The group spent about $108 million toward influencing politics in the past decade. “

http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/sanbernardinocounty/ci_15200962

Filed Under: Are We Greece Yet?

 

“Feeling tapped out after stimulus, ObamaCare and everything else? Senator Bob Casey has one more deal for you. If the Pennsylvania Democrat gets his way, U.S. taxpayers will also pick up the astonishing tab for poorly managed union pension plans.

Mr. Casey is gathering support for his curiously named “Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act,” a bailout for union-run retirement plans. Similar to House legislation from North Dakota Democrat Earl Pomeroy and Ohio Republican Patrick Tiberi, the bill would transfer tens of billions of dollars worth of retiree liabilities to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, i.e., to taxpayers. “

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303491304575188263180553530.html

Part 5: It Pays to Remember

Part 5:

Among the efforts of the Communist party (CPUSA) was media, including Hollywood. CPUSA was successful. Where they could not get a big name, they were active to get the staff – in the case of Walter Lippmann, they placed a highly-prized agent, Mary Price as Secretary.  That was the object in many places, because journalists always know much more than they write, protect some information they know, and are famous for developing “sources.”

It was during the time when Whittaker Chambers was Time Magazine’s tenure as head of the foreign desk for Time Magazine that he had his views changed from a leading KGB agent to become an anti-Communist. There were still two Communists working for him at Time (he had just lost his favorable view of Communism, he had not yet gone to the FBI —  but John Scott and Richard Lauterbach were still Communists, as was Stephen Laird..  Joseph Barnes, Foreign Editor of the New York Herald Tribune was identified in decrypted KGB messages as a Communist sympathizer, who remained outside the official CPUSA ranks, but still useful. The Deputy Chief of Latin America for CBS  radio was a courier of CPUSA funds, and a researcher of recruits. 

There were many more in media and one of our advantages in finding them is that people in media tend to write memoirs.

And that holds true as well for the “Hollywood 10” – those who were “blacklisted” as a result of their Communist affiliation. While they are still feted in liberal circles for refusing to answer the question about their Communist affiliation, in fact we now know that they were, indeed, Communists.

 “       The other ten refused, citing their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly. The crucial question they refused to answer is now generally rendered as “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” Such membership was not and had never been illegal.^[a] In fact, each had at one time or another been a member; most still were, while a few had been in the past and only briefly. These ten were formally accused of contempt of Congress and proceedings against them began in the full House of Representatives.”

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Blacklist

Now, in my reading of media and Hollywood types, I find no accusations that anyone committed espionage. In effect, they were the propaganda arm of CPUSA, not cloak and dagger types..

“Out of the Mouths of Babes”

One good way to start your day is to read the “Schooled” brief in the Voiceofsandiego.org.

In today’s post there is an analysis of a school board election debate by a la Jolla High student, Roger Li – IT IS IMPRESSIVE.

I can’t comment on much of the content – he was there and I was not – but his writing, and analytical skills are obvious.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/education/schooled/

Decades ago I recommended to the PUSD that, at the end of the school year, the board invite foreign exchange students to comment on the schooling they had received during the school year. That way the school could get a different view from students who actually underwent the schooling and who were not long-term and possibly jaded recipients of that system. (I might add that the exchange students time in a US school did not count toward their educational progress in their native lands.)

I made those recommendations after hosting two foreign students for a separate school year and one for a summer. The two (one Japanese, one half Indonesian, half Swedish) who underwent public education in the Poway Unified (a top California system), were uniformly dismayed with the poor educational level of the schooling they received.

Paint Them Triple-Stupid! (Darwin Award Material)

Everyone knows what a blockade is, and who the Israelis are

Anyone who tries to run a blockade – whether in 1812, the Civil War, or the Cuban missile crises – knows the risk.

People who announce in the press that they intend to run a blockade, and give press coverage to the voyage are stupid.

When the Israelis announce they will stop the blockade runners with force, and you go ahead and get underway, you are doubly stupid.

If you then oppose a boarding party of Israelis commandos – you are triple stupid and can only expect to get sympathy from others who carry the same gene.

These were provocateurs, willing to die to get the international left up in arms.

It was all Kabuki Theatre and scripted. Mess with the bull, you get the horns.

It’s not the bull’s fault.