Reconquer - It Doesn't Surprise Mayor Antonio

The Mexican Cession (1848) is shown in red with the Gadsden Purchase (1853) in orange.
© 2004 Matthew Trump.

Last week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa summed up the enormous undercurrent of discontent in the crowds gathered to protest our government's move to address immigration saying: "We wave these American flags because we say to the Americans that we clean your toilets, we clean your hotels and we take care of your children and now we ask you to help us take care of our children as well."

Excuse me; didn't we elect you mayor of an American city to represent the interests of the citizens of America that live in the city? Mayor, you sound as if the American citizens of your city do not matter and only the Latin illegal immigrants do.

Maybe we should all move to Tijuana and have the Mayor of that city take care of our children as Mayor Antonio wants us to do for the special interest group that he represents!

Excerpts from The Washington Times -

Mexican aliens seek to retake 'stolen' land
By Valerie Richardson - THE WASHINGTON TIMES - April 16, 2006

DENVER -- La reconquista, a radical movement calling for Mexico to "reconquer" America's Southwest, has stepped out of the shadows at recent immigration-reform protests nationwide as marchers held signs saying, "Uncle Sam Stole Our Land!" and waved Mexico's flag.
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The revolutionary tone has surprised even longtime immigration watchers such as Ira Mehlman, the Los Angeles-based spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

"I've always been skeptical myself about this [reconquista], but what I've seen over the last few weeks leads me to believe that there's more there than I thought," Mr. Mehlman said.

"You're seeing people marching with Mexican flags chanting, 'This is our country.' I don't think that we can dismiss this as youthful exuberance or a bunch of hotheads," he said.

Hispanic rights leaders insist there's nothing to the so-called reconquista, sometimes referred to as Aztlan, the mythical ancestral homeland of the Aztecs that reportedly stretches from the border to southern Oregon and Colorado.
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At the same time, some analysts say the seismic demographic shifts brought on by unchecked border crossings and birth rates are resulting in a de facto reconquista.

"Demographically, socially and culturally, the reconquista of the Southwest United States by Mexico is well under way," Harvard University professor Samuel P. Huntington said in 2004.

"No other immigrant group in U.S. history has asserted or could assert a historical claim to U.S. territory. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans can and do make that claim," he said.
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MEChA, an acronym for the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan, has come under fire for revolutionary language in its "El Plan de Aztlan," a founding document that declares "the independence of our mestizo nation," decries the "brutal gringo invasion," and says that land "rightfully ours will be fought for and defended."

What's notable about MEChA is its otherwise mainstream image. Most Hispanic leaders, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, belonged to MEChA in high school or college. Former Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante came under fire from conservatives for refusing to renounce his membership during the 2003 gubernatorial race.
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"Aztlan isn't what people say it is, like the reconquista," said Mr. Rangel, who carried a MEChA sign at Monday's rally. "It's a spiritual homeland to Chicanos."
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MAXINE says - If it walks like a duck .... !

Mayor Antonio has been clear to stand in support of Latin illegal immigrants and it is easy to see why in the context of this article.

Tell the Mayor to visit Campo de Cahuenga in North Hollywood, California, near Cahuenga Pass. It originally was an adobe farmhouse on the Rancho Verdugo where the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed between Lieutenant Colonel John C. Frémont and General Andrés Pico in 1847, ending hostilities in California between Mexico and the United States. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ceding California and Texas to the United States, formally ended the war.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the peace treaty that ended the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). The treaty provided for the Mexican Cession, in which Mexico ceded 1.36 million km² (525,000 square miles) to the United States in exchange for USD$15 million. The United States also agreed to take over $3.25 million in debts Mexico owed to American citizens.
(ht: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mexican-American_War)

Easter - Jesus Christ Has Risen Indeed

Romans 6:8-11

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

Easter ain't eggs!

Easter is the living hope that the death and rising of Jesus Christ signifies:

• Hope of God's Presence in our midst of our most troubling circumstances.
• Hope of God's Power in the wake of our acknowledged failures.
• Hope of God's Promise in the face of our greatest fears.

1 Peter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... (NIV)

Romney Explodes Democracy

Governor Mitt Romney signed the landmark health insurance bill in Faneuil Hall yesterday as political leaders, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy, looked on. (David L. Ryan/ Globe Staff)

There is a famous quote about democracy by a noted Scottish jurist and historian, Alexander Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) that reads in part:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."

The Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, has found a way to give the voters largess from the public treasury.

Excerpts from The Boston Globe -

Joy, worries on healthcare
As Romney signs bill, doubts arise about revenues
By Scott Helman and Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff April 13, 2006

Governor Mitt Romney signed most of a sweeping new healthcare bill into law yesterday at a festive Faneuil Hall ceremony hailed as a hallmark of bipartisan achievement, even as healthcare specialists expressed concern that the plan could start losing money in three years.
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In a moment widely praised as historic for the state and seen as a big boost to Romney's presidential aspirations, the Republican governor basked in the credit and shared some, too, as he was joined by Democratic leaders of the Legislature and US Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

But amid the wide grins and handshakes, questions surfaced about the cost and the sweep of the legislation, which makes Massachusetts the first state to try to insure nearly all of its residents through an individual mandate to buy insurance.

A legislative staff analysis estimates that the groundbreaking healthcare plan would start losing money in two to three years, which could put pressure on lawmakers to spend more tax money, increase the fee on businesses or scale back the coverage of the sweeping bill. The analysis projects that the plan will be about $160 million short of its estimated cost of $1.56 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2008.
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So, is this really a good idea? Sure, we love to not pay for health care, but these type of programs will kill our way of life and explode our democracy.

To continue with quoting Tytler -

"The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
from bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependency;
from dependency back again to bondage."

Yon Files 2 - From Kabul To The Poppy Fields

Some of the fields below obviously are poppy, but other areas are difficult to make out. Although only one species of poppy has narcotic properties, the number of variations remains uncatalogued. Photo Credit: Michael Yon

Michael Yon travels to the region where the number one cash crop in Afghanistan is grown. It is not so much that al-Qaida and the Taliban are the management problem here ... it is the speed at which these poppies can be grown and processed into heroin.

Excerpts from Michael Yon -

Friday, April 14th, 2006
Kabul to Lashkargar

When we landed in Kabul, Steve put the driver in the back and drove us through the crowded streets. There was a thirty minute ride ahead of us, alternating between racing and jamming in traffic. As we drove away from the airport, there were fewer Coalition soldiers about, and on the hills surrounding the town a dense warren of mud and stone houses that could have been erected thousands of years ago, although many insist that Kabul was once a little paradise.
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There’s lots of money in the addiction-business, and opium injects more liquidity into Afghanistan than all those 85 other products combined. Afghanistan is the Opium Poppy King, producing nearly all of the world’s supply. Continuing the trend of the past several years, the 2006 crop is believed to be the largest in the history of the world. This, I am told, is closely related to the coincident rising tide of violence in this country.

Over our two days in Kabul, I got more background information from locals and from Brits, one of whom had spent more than two decades in Afghanistan and surrounds. Both nights we drove downtown to meet people for dinner. The restaurant menus were in English, the prices in dollars. The first night I had fresh tuna that was flown in from Dubai. Later that night Steve cleverly managed to back his Land Cruiser into a parked SUV. The Afghan driver, who had been sleeping, came to high alert and jumped out the door, but the telephone number exchange was civil and matter of fact.
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Soon the Beechcraft had lifted us back into the dusty sky for the final leg to Lashkargar, the capital of Helmand Province, the navel of earth’s heroin production. Whereas the poppy in Uruzgan Province was not blooming and therefore difficult to spot from the air, much of the poppy in Helmand was flowering, and easy to see from the sky. The vast amounts of poppies under cultivation were astonishing, and had I not made photographic proof, I might be reluctant to say just how much is here.
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Steve tells me that Afghan farmers cultivate eleven variations of the opium species of poppy, and often one farmer will grow several types at once. Some plants need less water or are more cold resistant, and others are bred for late or early harvest, and still others are characterized by bigger yields or better disease resistance. Many of the poppy farms we would see on the ground had sections with white flowers, another with pink and a third with red.
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Needed: People for the Un-insulting Treatment of People

Photo Credit: KSBY, NBC Channel 6

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) do not have a clue when it comes to drawing analogies that strike a chord with other people with whom they would like sway to their cause.

Earlier this week in an open demonstration on the UC Santa Barbara campus, PETA erected a large billboard that created quite a stir. The billboard had images and a message comparing the lynching of two black men to the killing of animals for food. When a PETA spokeswoman offered her defense of the exhibition, emotions boiled over, especially among African-American students.

Not long after the controversial exhibit was put up, something blew it over. It's unclear whether it was a gust of wind or something else. The PETA protesters quickly decided that it was time to pack it up. UCSB police were on hand during the shouting match, but both sides were peaceful.
(Report from KSBY Channel 6 titled - "PETA banner sparks students' ire", Wednesday, April 12, 2006, By: Matt Cota)
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This is not the first time PETA has put their foot in it. This organization compares the treatment of chickens for food to the Holocaust. These tactics employed by PETA are prime examples of when over-reaching as an art form becomes detrimental to ones cause. Do ya' think?

Chicken Serving Choices Cause Labeling Confusion

When buying chicken at the supermarket, it is a good policy to know if the chicken you are buying needs to be cooked before it is served ... or not.

It is due to this problem, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has recommended to food producers a new labeling standard. The new label standard requires producers to clearly label products as: "Uncooked: For Safety, Must be Cooked to an Internal Temperature of 165 degrees F as Measured by Use of a Thermometer". Further, the new labeling needs to be submitted for approval by May 1st or suffer recalls.

Excerpts from Food Navigator via FMI dailyLead-

Revised labelling required for poultry products
By Ahmed ElAmin

4/11/2006 - By next month food companies will be required to have more explicit instructions that uncooked, breaded or boneless poultry products need to be cooked.

The new requirement was sparked by a recent food recall due to consumer confusion over whether such products needed to be cooked. The product led to a number of people falling sick from Salmonella enteritidis.
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The labelling re-application requirement applies to frozen poultry products that may also be stuffed or filled, charmarked, or artificially colored. Such products are similar frozen stuffed chicken entrees from that the FSIS recalled on March 10.
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The FSIS will also approve the accompanying cooking instructions to insure consumers understand them. The instructions may not meet regulatory standards if consumers are directed to use a cooking method that is not practical or not likely to achieve the necessary level of food safety, the FSIS stated.

Microwaving or using a toaster oven to cook frozen product may not achieve the recommended internal temperature.
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Serenade Foods Division, a Milford, Ind., firm, voluntarily recalled 75,800 pounds of frozen stuffed chicken entrees in March. The raw chicken entrees, because of their frozen state, labeling, and cooked appearance, may have caused consumers to believe these raw products are pre-cooked, the recall notice stated.

The products were contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis that causes human illness. Illnesses have been linked directly to these products through case history of the patients and through microbiological testing of both the products and affected consumers.
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This notice would be really funny if food poisoning wasn't so painful and life threatening.

Veterans For Freedom - The Anti-Murtha

Image Credit: vetsforfreedom.org

Here is a web communications portal put together by veterans of our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. These people have a different point of view as to why our tax money and precious living capitol is being spent in these and other countries after 9/11.

Excerpts from Vets For Freedom Mission Statement:

The primary mission of Vets for Freedom will be to support our troops and insert our collective insights and experiences into this national debate. What makes this organization unique is that it is a nonpartisan group made up of veterans of all ranks and all walks of life who have firsthand experience of the horrors of war. We will seek to ensure that political discussions over the Iraq War are honest and forthright by telling the story from the firsthand perspectives of veterans.
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The Global War on Terror is being fought on two fronts. Our troops are performing magnificently in Iraq fighting a tough and dirty enemy. We are winning in Iraq through a combined military, political, diplomatic and economic effort. However, we are losing the war for the will of the American public to see this conflict through because of the distorted means by which it is too often portrayed.

Inaccurate or politically inflamed media reports and policymaker statements based on rumor, speculation and even nonexistent events place an almost singular focus on negative aspects of the conflict versus any attention to many successes that take place almost daily. Those of us from the frontline have a much different view, but for reasons beyond our understanding, our perspective has been largely ignored. Vets for Freedom seeks to change this environment, providing viewpoints both positive and negative on what will be needed to achieve victory.
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To be successful, veterans and their supporters must now fight the second front of this war. We must win the American people to win in Iraq.

Semper Fi!
Wade Zirkle
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Wade Zirkle, Executive Director of Veterans For Freedom, has written an Op-Ed column for the Washington Post where he articulates a point of view about John Murtha and the effects his actions in Congress have had on our troops in the mission.

Excerpts from the Washington Post -

Troops in Support Of the War
By Wade Zirkle - Thursday, April 13, 2006; Page A21

Earlier this year there was a town hall meeting on the Iraq war, sponsored by Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), with the participation of such antiwar organizations as CodePink and MoveOn.org. The event also featured Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a former Marine who had become an outspoken critic of the war. To this Iraq war veteran, it was a good example of something that's become all too common: People from politics, the media and elsewhere purporting to represent "our" views. With all due respect, most often they don't.
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In view of his distinguished military career, John Murtha has been the subject of much attention from the media and is a sought-after spokesman for opponents of the Iraq war. He has earned the right to speak. But his comments supposedly expressing the negative views of those who have and are now serving in the Middle East run counter to what I and others know and hear from our own colleagues -- from junior officers to the enlisted backbone of our fighting force.

Murtha undoubtedly knows full well that the greatest single thing that drags on morale in war is the loss of a buddy. But second to that is politicians questioning, in amplified tones, the validity of that loss to our families, colleagues, the nation and the world.

While we don't question his motives, we do question his assumptions. When he called for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, there was a sense of respectful disagreement among most military personnel. But when he subsequently stated that he would not join today's military, he made clear to the majority of us that he is out of touch with the troops. Quite frankly, it was received as a slap in the face.
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The morale of the trigger-pulling class of today's fighting force is strong. Unfortunately, we have not had a microphone or media audience willing to report our comments. Despite this frustration, our military continues to proudly dedicate itself to the mission at hand: a free, democratic and stable Iraq and a more secure America. All citizens have a right to express their views on this important national challenge, and all should be heard. Veterans ask no more, and they deserve no less.
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MAXINE urges all, who have the will, to donate to Veterans For Freedom if this portal and position is something that appeals to you.

The MSM should put on a spokesperson from this organization every time they show statements from Code Pink, Cindy Sheehan, John Murtha, MoveOn.org, Dick Durban, and etc., in an effort to achieve some balance in their war position presentations they broadcast.
(ht: Hugh Hewitt)

Arizona Steps On Board The E85 Train

Arizona State Capitol - Photo Credit: Pat & Debbi Furrie

Kansas, Iowa, and now Arizona.

The biggest problem with E85 is distribution complicated by current emissions regulations. Every dollar that adds to the Arab oil infrastructure is another dollar that could flow to terrorists. War-footing is the issue and E85 is one of the quickest answers as to how the average American can participate in the war-on-terror.

Excerpts from The Arizona Daily Star -

Ethanol fuel blend gets boost from state
By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona Published: 04.12.2006

PHOENIX — A new state law should clear the way for more widespread use of a new fuel blend composed largely of ethanol.

But the law, signed Tuesday by Gov. Janet Napolitano, assumes any service station will sell it. And it also assumes Arizonans actually buy cars and trucks that can use it.

That second point is critical: Motorists who think they're doing good for the environment by filling up on the fuel — made up of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline — could end up voiding their warranties and potentially ruining their engines.

State law does allow the sale of the blend, known as E85, in most of the state. The big exception is in the Phoenix area, where air pollution problems require the sale of specially blended fuels.
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So who will sell it?

"That's the $100,000 question," Shuler said. He said Pinal Energy hopes to persuade a service station near the new plant to offer it, with an eye on creating more demand.

There are only four places in the state where motorists can get E85 — three in Tucson and one in Sierra Vista.
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For example, Chevrolet manufactures Impala and Monte Carlo models with a 3.5-liter engine that can be fueled with E85. But not all of those vehicles with that engine will handle the fuel.

DaimlerChrysler announced earlier this month that some flex-fuel vehicles previously available only to fleet buyers will now be offered to the general public.
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Travel To Afghanistan Q2-2006 - The Story Begins

Afghanistan from the sky - Photo Credit: Michael Yon

Michael Yon, one of the most widely recognized military type bloggers, is on a writing mission to Afghanistan and Iraq. This link is of his first dispatch from the field upon his entry to Afghanistan.

Maxine plans to post a link whenever Michael has a post in continuation of his story.

Excerpts from Michael Yon -

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006
Curious Circumstance
Mysterious Land
By Michael Yon

I met up with an old friend in Dubai. Steve Shaulis and I served together in the Army, and we attended the Defense Language Institute together. After we both left the Army, we headed in very different directions. Steve began doing business in places like Romania, Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Singapore, and I started a business in Poland. Still, over the past twenty years we’ve managed to stay in contact, encountering each other now and then on three continents and in perhaps a dozen countries.

Steve first began his forays into Afghanistan in 1997, years before the latest phase of the war. Back then, he was doing business during the reign of the Taliban. Sometimes I’d visit Steve when he was home in Florida, where we’d don our scuba gear at night and walk out his back door to hunt for lobsters in the ocean. While we were finning underwater in the darkness cutting swaths with our lights to lobster hideouts, faxes from Afghanistan would be piling up in his office.

Although television was eventually banned there, many of the Taliban were fanatical about pro wrestling. Steve looks like a wrestler, and he’d sometimes wear wrestling T-shirts which often prompted the Taliban guards to ask for updates on their favorites. The Undertaker was particularly popular there. “They might be fanatics,” he told me, “but they are simple folk.”
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Enemy operations in Afghanistan are financed largely with drug money. Poppy eradication in Thailand had been a great success, and though the Taliban are widely credited in the press for having stamped out poppies in Afghanistan, their eradication program had only succeeded for a year. After the invasion, the Afghan farmers again planted opium poppies, so in 2002-03, poppy propagation in Afghanistan was on the up tick. Then, in 2004 the crop was bigger still, exceeded only by the crop in 2005. A State Department official recently told me that the 2006 harvest will be the biggest in world history—and nearly all of the opium from those flowers will be exported.
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The Coalition forces are in Afghanistan for the long haul; permanent bases are under construction. Steve is currently fulfilling $15 million in base construction contracts in dangerous parts of the country. These contracts are mostly for the United Kingdom, the United States, and the United Nations.
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Some troops have begun calling the battle for Afghanistan “the Forgotten War.” They are largely correct. When it comes to national and media attention, Iraq is not much better, but since there are roughly six or seven times more troops in Iraq, it might seem that our soldiers there would get more recognition. An Army officer told me recently that per capita casualties for Afghanistan and Iraq are nearly the same. Although six times as much coverage would be about right, mathematically, most soldiers I encountered who were serving in Iraq told me they had never seen a journalist there.
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Before coming to Afghanistan, I emailed to Nick Meo, a British journalist whom I had come to know in Asia a couple of years before. Nick is now in Iraq, but he had spent much recent time in Afghanistan. I asked Nick for suggestions about traveling in Kandahar, Helmand, and Urozgan provinces.

He answered quickly:

Yes. My suggestion is don’t go. They are too dangerous to travel in by yourself if you don’t know your way around. If you’re going with Steve then you should be okay, but they are all very dangerous places now and security has deteriorated massively in the last year. You might just about get away with driving or flying to Kandahar, and making some trips outside the city—maybe to Lashkargar. But you will not make it back alive from north Helmand or Uruzgan.

I did not take his advice, but as of this writing I am still alive. The journey has begun.
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I urge all to read all. Following Michael Yon will be a little like following the stories from the front during World War II.

Mr. Yon does not pull punches and he also does not have a liberal bias or agenda. He is an experienced journalist who chooses to work independently.

It's Money, NOT Heat That Fuels Warming Debate

Photo Credit: Time.com

The argument is clear, it's not the forces of religion that corrupt science and the work of scientists ... it is the bureaucratic, and fourth estate - left.

Scientists are motivated to feed the alarmist groundswell through the process of grants and media adulation. The religious forces in this country actually embrace the unemotional and apolitical application of science - a method that allows us to better understand the miracles of the Earth around us.

Excerpts from WSJ's Opinion Journal -

Climate of Fear
Global-warming alarmists intimidate dissenting scientists into silence.
BY RICHARD LINDZEN - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

There have been repeated claims that this past year's hurricane activity was another sign of human-induced climate change. Everything from the heat wave in Paris to heavy snows in Buffalo has been blamed on people burning gasoline to fuel their cars, and coal and natural gas to heat, cool and electrify their homes. Yet how can a barely discernible, one-degree increase in the recorded global mean temperature since the late 19th century possibly gain public acceptance as the source of recent weather catastrophes? And how can it translate into unlikely claims about future catastrophes?

The answer has much to do with misunderstanding the science of climate, plus a willingness to debase climate science into a triangle of alarmism. Ambiguous scientific statements about climate are hyped by those with a vested interest in alarm, thus raising the political stakes for policy makers who provide funds for more science research to feed more alarm to increase the political stakes.
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But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis.
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So how is it that we don't have more scientists speaking up about this junk science? It's my belief that many scientists have been cowed not merely by money but by fear. An example: Earlier this year, Texas Rep. Joe Barton issued letters to paleoclimatologist Michael Mann and some of his co-authors seeking the details behind a taxpayer-funded analysis that claimed the 1990s were likely the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year in the last millennium. Mr. Barton's concern was based on the fact that the IPCC had singled out Mr. Mann's work as a means to encourage policy makers to take action. And they did so before his work could be replicated and tested--a task made difficult because Mr. Mann, a key IPCC author, had refused to release the details for analysis. The scientific community's defense of Mr. Mann was, nonetheless, immediate and harsh. The president of the National Academy of Sciences--as well as the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union--formally protested, saying that Rep. Barton's singling out of a scientist's work smacked of intimidation.

All of which starkly contrasts to the silence of the scientific community when anti-alarmists were in the crosshairs of then-Sen. Al Gore. In 1992, he ran two congressional hearings during which he tried to bully dissenting scientists, including myself, into changing our views and supporting his climate alarmism. Nor did the scientific community complain when Mr. Gore, as vice president, tried to enlist Ted Koppel in a witch hunt to discredit anti-alarmist scientists--a request that Mr. Koppel deemed publicly inappropriate. And they were mum when subsequent articles and books by Ross Gelbspan libelously labeled scientists who differed with Mr. Gore as stooges of the fossil-fuel industry.
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Alarm rather than genuine scientific curiosity, it appears, is essential to maintaining funding. And only the most senior scientists today can stand up against this alarmist gale, and defy the iron triangle of climate scientists, advocates and policymakers.

M. Lindzen is Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT.
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Roosevelt (Teddy Bear) And Immigration

Protesters march in downtown St. Louis in support of immigration reform Sunday, April 9, 2006. More that five thousand took part in the rally which included St. Louis political leaders and others. (AP Photo/James A. Finley)

At roughly 300 million and illegal immigrant population estimated at 12 to 15 million, the numbers suggest that the American citizen is America, not the illegal immigrant.

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907 -

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.

But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.

We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Get in line and become an American (respect our laws and sovereignty) or go home.