Lou Dobbs delivers a sermon

Keep religion out of politics, Lou Dobbs writes. I couldn't agree more.

Mr. Dobbs' sermon on immigration (does he ever talk about anything else?) begins so well. How could he be so right and so wrong at the same time, though?

He's talking about churches' involvement in politics, and offers examples of various churches embracing illegal immigrants. He's, on purpose, I think, politicizing an issue that has nothing to with politics. Churches have always throughout history taken care of immigrants, refugees and other humanitarian causes.

However much Lou Dobbs wishes he could just dump all these illegal aliens on the other side of the border (there's only one border he's talking about...), there are good reasons why churches across the US are using their powers to protect some of the illegal aliens from further harm. It's got nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with humanitarian aid.

Keep the politics out of religion, I say.

-TPP

There's nothing like the USCIS bureucracy

In roughly 4 months I will be forever done with the USCIS (unless I apply for US citizenship). That will be one of the happiest days of my life. No longer will I have to worry that some paperpushing assmaggot loses my paperwork (been there, done that), sends me the wrong forms causing undue delays in processing (been there, done that) or simply pushes me around just for the hell of it (been there, done that).

What little trouble I've had with this Government office is nothing compared to the problems Mohammad Sarfaraz Hussain has had with the USCIS. Mohammad is unfortunately Pakistani, so his paperwork is probably flagged to be strip searched every time it changes hands at the USCIS. He came into the US when he was 8 years old, 13 years ago. He's as American as they come.

He's being deported, again, despite a judge having already once dismissed his deportation case in 2003. I guess the USCIS gets to try deporting people multiple times. Remember, non-citizens have no rights.

Since he's unable to stay in the country without getting deported, he's now applying for asylum because he fears if he gets deported to Pakistan, he will become a target of the anti-americanism in the country. Pretty ingenius. Let's see if the USCIS wants to kill him or not.

Update: Mohammad got his asylum despite heavy opposition from DHS/USCIS.

-TPP

Charge Nancy Grace with murder

Melinda Duckett, a mother of a missing two-year-old, was interviewed by Nancy Grace, one of the attack hounds pretending to be TV journalists. Within 24 hours of the interview Melinda Duckett committed suicide. In the interview Ms. Grace came inches short of actually accusing her of killing her baby. In her usual style Ms. Grace was presuming her interviewee was guilty, just because Ms. Grace thought she was.

Melinda Duckett might've very well killed her baby, who knows. However, when an interviewer knows her interviewee has a history of suicide attempts and is already distressed, would it be wise to push as hard as Ms. Grace did?

It probably wouldn't, but then Ms. Grace never has cared for anything other than her ratings, so it doesn't really come as a great surprise to me she would recklessly endanger the life of Melinda Duckett.

I suppose she thinks she did a great service to the mankind for what she did. I'm sure she also thinks the guilty deserve anything they got coming to them. Too bad Melinda Duckett wasn't found guilty by anyone else than Ms. Grace at this point.

Take Nancy Grace off the air, and arrest her for murdering Melinda Duckett.

Update: Melinda Duckett's family is sueing CNN and Nancy Grace

-TPP

In Soviet US - you are a terrorist

Yay for warrantless wiretaps. Hip hip hurray!

-TPP

How to stop the press from interviewing your citizens - Soviet style

A reporter for Helsingin Sanomat, the most important Finnish newspaper, visited Mari-El in October 2005 and tried interviewing local Mari-El activists. The interviews of the most prominent activists weren't exactly successful due to the active harrassment from President Leonid Markelov's goons.

The article describes how three of the interviews the reporter was able to secure were interrupted Gestapo style by the local (Russian) officials. From fabricated criminal charges to eviction procedures that just had to be scheduled at the same time with the interview.

If you want to oppress your people, couldn't you find something slightly less transparent than harrassing them when a foreign reporter is visiting? I mean, you can't possibly harrass the foreign reporter when he's back in his home country to stop him from writing about it.

How about paying neo nazis to beat the living daylights out of whoever you want beaten? Oh, wait, Markelov's been there and done that, too.

The Russians clamoring for old the Soviet era must truly be happy these days. At least the authoritarian dictatorship is well established again.

-TPP

CAN SPAM Act sponsor spams

Congressman Richard Pombo doesn't seem to think there's nothing wrong with spam and is spamming his attack ads on an opposing candidate to his constituents.

He's the same Richard Pombo who 3 years ago was all about stopping spam by sponsoring the CAN SPAM Act.

So is he a flip-flopper (naah, he's a Republican and we all know only Democrats can be flip-floppers, right?), a hypocrite or a garden variety jackass?

I vote for "all of the above".

-TPP

Kimi Räikkönen going to Ferrari

Formula 1 Championship, here we come!

Kimi's been robbed of one championship already by McLaren's reliability problems. Forza Ferrari!

-TPP

Up yours, spammer scum

Jeremy Jaynes aka Gaven Stubberfield, which was the alias he used when spamming, is going to prison for 9 years after The Court of Appeals of Virginia upheld his earlier conviction.

Up yours, spammer scum. Hope you enjoy the rest of your life scumbag.

-TPP

Vladimir Kozlov, a Mari-El activist, illegally held inside Russia

The news article on the Information Center of Finno-Ugric Peoples website continues to document the persecution of Mari-El activists in Russia.

The latest trouble leaves Vladimir Kozlov unable to leave Russia. The Russian authorities have purposedly delayed issuing a new passport for Mr. Kozlov to replace the one that was torn by Russian border officials the last time he tried leaving the country. This is unconstitutional in the new "democratic" Russia.

I've written about Vladimir Kozlov's troubles with the Russian dictatorship before:
Mari-El activists still persecuted in Russia

English translation of the Estonian language news article appended.

-TPP

Mari opposition leader barred exit from Russia

Russian authorities are refusing to issue a new passport to Mr Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the Mari Congress ("Mari Ushem") -- principal opposition force in the Republic of Mari-El, -- thus preventing him from attending an international conference on minority rights in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, over the weekend.

Mr Kozlov's problems with his passport began in May 2006, when Russian border guards in Vyborg removed him from a train bound for Helsinki, Finland, where he was to attend a summer course for museum workers. The official reason for the move was that Mr Kozlov's passport was torn. Russian border officials had ripped two pages off Mr Kozlov's passport, thus rendering the document invalid.

After this incident, Mr Kozlov has failed to obtain a new passport, despite several attempts. Under Russian law, the maximum period for issuing passports is one month. Russia retains a two-passport system, in which an "internal passport" is required in dealings with officials within Russia and a "foreign passport" for travel outside Russia. Refusing foreign passports was a common practice in the Soviet Union for preventing undesired individuals from establishing contacts abroad.

Mari national leader barred from taking part in minority rights seminar Finno-Ugric Peoples' Information Centre/ Tallinn, 06 Sep 2006

The Today Show covers Steve Irwin's death

The Crocodile Hunter Mr. Steve Irwin was killed earlier today while filming an underwater documentary. He'll be missed.

There's nobody who's more enthuasiastic and passionate about wildlife and nature conservation than him. He was always great fun to watch even if you were terrified of the creatures he was wrestling with.

That's what you would've expected to perhaps see in the news coverage of his death. How sadly mistaken I was. I briefly caught the morning news shows covering the news. I was disgusted by what I saw.

Pretty much all the major networks had decided to cover his death in the following manner:

20 second blurb stating he'd died and how. No elaboration, nothing, no word on how his family was doing or that he'd died doing what he loved.

The next few minutes were devoted not to telling about his lifework and his achievements. Naah, that would've apparently been much too boring. Instead all the major networks went onto showing people how Mr. Irwin in 2004 took his baby in an alligator pit while feeding the alligators. This was covered in length, as if it was the defining moment of his life. The Today Show went as far as to show almost the entire interview of Steve Irwin by Matt Lauer. In the interview Matt Lauer is practically ripping Mr. Irwin a new asshole. It was very confrontational.

Where is the respect, humility and decency in that?? Utterly despicable.

One wonders at what point did the NBC producers stop being human beings in favor of the neverending chase for ratings.

-TPP

Fabricated criminal charges Russia's latest weapon against Mari-El activists

The Russian Federation and its little dictator wannabe, Leonid Markelov, are once again persecuting Mari-El activists. As if directly from the Oppression 101 text book by Stalin and Hitler, the oppression proceeds in a truly predictable way.

Last year it was near fatal beat downs, and today it's using the judicial system with fabricated criminal charges. I wonder when (if) the trial starts, if Markelov decides to dress the guilty, um, defendants in oversized clothing. It's also in the same Oppression 101 text book.

Vitaly Tanakov and Nina Maksimova are both charged with "incitement to ethnic, racial or religious enmity". Apparently promoting Mari-El culture and cultural events is streng verboten. Human rights organization are all saying there is no justification in bringing up charges against Mr. Tanakov and Ms. Maksimova.

The Markelov dictatorship is also stepping up the garden variety kind of harrassment of Mari-El activists. Anonymous phone calls, interrogations and harrassing relatives and children of Mari-El activists have been common place in recent times.

I guess one should be "happy" the recent terror campaign hasn't involved the use of violence towards Mari-El activists, but that's just a matter of time, again.

Putin is all talk when it comes to human rights. The two-faced lieing bastard lets his henchmen crack down on ethnic minorities in lesser states like Mari-El while he can prance around in Moscow introducing smoke and mirror PR statements pretending to be the patron saint of human rights in Russia making friends with western countries.

I hope the western countries are not so easily deceived.

Update: The news made it to USInfo as well: usinfo.state.gov

I've written about Russia's human rights violations against Mari-El activists before:
The IHF issues a stinging report on human rights situation in the Republic of Mari El
Mari-El activists still persecuted in Russia
The people of Mari being systematically persecuted by Russians


-TPP

The Virtual President

Mark Warner, former Governor of Virginia, had an interview in Second Life, a virtual world game (kind of like MMORPG, but without leveling and fighting), earlier today.

He's the first politician in the US, and possibly in the world, to hold a political event in a virtual environment. The interview is a precursor to a virtual town meeting he's holding in Second Life later this year.

Governor Warner was interviewed by James Wagner Au (aka Hamlet) of New World Notes (NWN). NWN has the transcript of the interview.

It's certainly an encouraging event when most politicians seem to be more interested in scoring family-value points by scapegoating video games and social media for all the sins in the world.

The Washington Post also has an article about the interview. Looks like there're a few things they might want to sort out before the town hall meeting.

-TPP