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A.P. quotes a Mexican citizen as an example of feelings in Mexico regarding the proposal to use a fence to reduce illegal immigration:
"We learned to believe in the United States. We have a binational life," he said of Zacatecas, a state that has been sending migrants north for more than a century. "It isn't just a feeling of rejection. It's against what we see as part of our life, our culture, our territory."
"Our territory?" Mexican citizens consider the U.S. to be their "territory?" Nothing could say more distinctly that illegal immigration is in part an attempt to replace American culture with that of Mexico.
This notion of being binational leads to divided loyalties. The U.S. has always welcomed immigrants. But the immigrants have to come here legally, and they have to become U.S. citizens, with no divided loyalties, and without a belief that the U.S. is a territory belonging to their nation of origin.
From Dick Morris:
CIVIL LIBERTIES & SECURITY: DEMS FOR TERROR
...By voting to allow these provisions to lapse, the Democrats have shown a total disregard for national security.
It is particularly galling that Sens. Clinton and Chuck Schumer - whose New York constituents are in the terrorists' bull's-eye - voted to let these vital protections expire.
How galling? One of the key provisions due to expire in two weeks is one that President Bill Clinton presented as the cornerstone of his response to the escalation of terrorism in the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
The measure allows "roving wiretaps" - so that the FBI can tap all phones a suspect uses, rather than just one specific number. Hillary's vote to let this provision expire is incredible.
Dems also are seeking to re-enable the wall between the various agencies that need to cooperate to prevent terrorist attacks:
As a further Christmas anti-present to New Yorkers, Clinton, Schumer & Co. are also killing the Patriot Act provision that demolishes the infamous wall - erected by Clinton-era Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick - between those who investigate terrorism and those who prosecute suspects.
The goal was to avoid tainting criminal prosecutions, by avoiding the collection of evidence without a full search warrant. But the result was to keep the left hand from knowing what the right hand was doing when it came to preventing acts of terrorism.
Like the 9/11 attacks.
As a result of the wall, the FBI was unable to access the personal computer of Zacarias Moussaoui when it had him in custody before 9/11; that laptop reportedly contained the names of other hijackers.
Dems love to blame the government for not preventing the 9-11 attacks -- yet here they attempt to hog-tie the government so that it will be hampered in preventing just such attacks.
The Patriot Act has already saved thousands of lives:
Equally irresponsible is the criticism Democrats are leveling at President Bush for his use of National Security Agency wiretaps to catch terrorists. Before Clinton and Schumer criticize this policy, they'd do well to reflect on the fact that the Brooklyn Bridge might well be rubble, with thousands dead, if Bush did not use these wiretaps.
In 2002, the feds (presumably the NSA) picked up random cellphone chatter using the words "Brooklyn Bridge" (which apparently didn't translate well into Arabic). They notified the New York Police Department, which flooded the bridge with cops. Then the feds overheard a phone call in which a man said things were "too hot" on the bridge to pull off an operation. Later, an interrogation of a terrorist allowed by the Patriot Act led cops to the doorstep of this would-be bridge bomber. (His plans would definitely have brought down the bridge, NYPD sources told me.)
(For more detail from Morris on how the Patriot Act has already saved lives, see this previous post.)
Why won't conventional search warrants work? Again Morris explains it concisely:
Why didn't Bush get a warrant? On who? For what? The NSA wasn't looking for a man who might blow up the bridge. It had no idea what it was looking for. It just intercepted random phone calls from people in the United States to those outside - and so heard the allusions to the bridge that tipped them off.
The Dems are seeking election victories by actions that are literally endangering the lives of all Americans.
Am I questioning their patriotism? Who cares? The goal here is saving American lives.
A new report today from Freedom House shows the tremendous advances made by freedom in the world since 1975.
The data for this chart is found on page 3 of the Freedom House report.
The percentage of free countries went from 25% (40 countries) in 1975, to 46% (89 countries) today. The percentage of "not free" countries went from 41% (65 countries) to 24% (45 countries).
Free countries went from being the smallest of the three classifications, to being the largest.
This is in just 30 years -- less than an eye blink in the history of mankind.
