The Trans Texas Corridor

Ahhhh, the many webs we weave. How many of you have sat out on your front porch and sipped on a nice cup of coffee? While doing so, listened to the world wake up. Birds chirping. The faint sound of a dog barking. Leaves moving around with the sound of water washing up on a shore. Have you ever looked really hard at a spider web? They look like intricate highway systems. Outer loops with diagonal feeders all around.

Well, let me ask you this, have you ever heard of the Trans Texas Corridor? If not, I strongly encourage you to look in to it. At the end of this blog, I will give you some links for you to do your own investigation should you choose to do so.

Not many people are keeping up with the Trans Texas Corridor because TxDOT and the many special interest groups and politicians don't want you to keep up with it. If you did, this would have been shut down many years ago. But kinda like how a spider builds it's web at night, so does the politician. The Trans Texas Corridor is the brain child of Governor Rick Perry. You hear people say "...things are bigger in Texas." Well, let me just try to begin to tell you how BIG this Trans Texas Corridor really is. It will have 10 vehicle lanes, 6 big truck lanes in each direction, 6 rail tracks, utilities, pipelines all that stretch a 1/4 mile wide for a total of 4,000 miles and taking away one million acres of land. The four Priority Corridors are described as being built (1) parallel to I-35/I-37 and the proposed I-69 from near Denison to the Rio Grande Valley; (2) along the path of I-69 from Laredo around Houston to near Texarkana; (3) parallel to I-45 from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Houston; and, (4) parallel to I-10 from near El Paso to near Orange. These four Priority Corridors alone total 4,000 miles. Together with the additional corridor routes identified in the Crossroads of the Americas: The Trans Texas Corridor Plan the corridors could total 8,000 miles or more. This is just the start. Texas will launch this project that is expected to continue north into Oklahoma, Kansas, and one day, Canada. This is the ground work that makes NAFTA a reality.

Two companies at this point are the brains of this project. Those companies are Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA of Spain, one of the worlds largest developers of toll roads, and Zachry Construction of San Antonio. Here is where it gets really good! Guess what law firm is on the side of Cintra? It's a law firm that was once called Bracewell & Patterson based out of Houston. The law firm is now called Bracewell & Giuliani. As in former mayor Rudy Giuliani. The firm's managing partner, Patrick Oxford of Houston, is the national chairman of Giuliani's presidential campaign. A former University of Texas System regent appointed by then-Gov. George W. Bush, Oxford has strong ties to many of Texas' top political leaders. He raised $100,000 for Bush in his 2000 presidential run, served as co-chairman of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's re-election campaign last year and is treasurer for Sen. John Cornyn's current re-election campaign. And just take a stab at who is one of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's top 20 contributors. You guessed it, Bracewell & Giuliani. Because Texas' primary comes late in the lineup of nomination contests, the state's role in the nomination is primarily that of money generator. Giuliani's campaign finance chairman is Roy Bailey, a former finance chairman of the Texas Republican Party. Dallas billionaire T. Boone Pickens and Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks are major fundraisers. Giuliani had raised $3.69 million in Texas as of July 30, 2007, the most of any presidential candidate. Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton was second with $2 million. Among Giuliani's Republican rivals, Sen. John McCain has raised $1.79 million from Texas donors and Mitt Romney has raised $1.76 million. Giuliani has also developed a bond with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whom he helped win re-election last year. That groundwork could make Perry a high-profile ally in Texas, although the governor hasn't yet endorsed a presidential candidate. Bracewell & Giuliani's political action committee gave $10,000 to Perry a year ago, just a few weeks before his re-election. Perry and Giuliani have talked in person and by telephone several times and have a good relationship. Bracewell & Giuliani represents a business consortium involved in the Trans-Texas Corridor, a costly, high-profile toll road pushed by Perry and opposed by farmers and ranchers.

Landowners say they worry that fields and farmhouses in Texas families for generations would be bulldozed for the highway. The state acknowledges some private land will be taken, but Perry said new roads are needed to handle Texas' growing population and trade.

The consortium sued Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott last year to keep parts of its development agreement with the state secret, saying the information was proprietary. The Texas Department of Transportation took the unusual step of siding with the consortium in the lawsuit against Abbott, whose office had ruled the agreement should be made public.
The transportation department and the consortium dropped the lawsuit last October and agreed to release the contents of the contract.

But the lawsuit further fueled concerns about foreign ownership of a major Texas highway, and the project continues to be criticized by conservative groups like the Eagle Forum and the John Birch Society, who see it as part of an international conspiracy to create a North American Union. The conspiracy theory has also provided fodder for cable television commentators like CNN's Lou Dobbs.

Scott Segal, a Washington-based Bracewell & Giuliani partner in charge of its government relations division, said Giuliani was not involved in the Texas toll road legal work and that the law firm doesn't lobby on behalf of Cintra Zachry.

"Mayor Giuliani has had no association or has done no work for the Cintra Zachry venture," Segal said.

Black, Perry's spokesman, said he doubts Perry even knows that Giuliani's firm has represented the transportation companies in connection with the project.

"The governor does not concern himself with who Rudy Giuliani's law firm may or may not represent," Black said.

Now, after reading all of that, I believe that there is something very fishy going on in Texas politics. For one, it is very hard to get State Officials to admit that they even voted for the Trans Texas Corridor. After getting "back lash" from the citizens of Texas, most have now changed their stance on the Trans Texas Corridor. I do think it's a little odd that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) found a loop hole in Congressman Duncan Hunter's double layer fence and put a stop to it. I also find it odd that Bracewell & Giuliani is one of her biggest contributors. If the above is true and Gov. Rick Perry didn't know that Giuliani's law firm was involved, then he is not fit to be the Governor of Texas. If he didn't know, WHY didn't he know?

Again, the webs we weave. If you would like more information on this project, feel free to go to http://www.corridorwatch.org/ and you can also find the state's propaganda on http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/index.php/trans-texas_corridor I would encourage you to check both of them out. Even if you don't live in Texas, this too, will affect you in some way.

Electile Dysfunction

Electile Dysfunction: the inability to become aroused over any of the remaining choices for President put forth by either party in the 2008 election year.

Now that Congressman Duncan Hunter has dropped out of the race, it is clear that our country is not interested in a TRUE conservative. I'm beginning to wonder if those even exist any more.

Now more than ever, our country is in need of leadership. Someone that can lead us to a better economy. Someone that can lead us in a more clear direction when it comes to bringing jobs back to America. Someone that can lead us in more fair trading with China. Someone that can lead us in the right direction of securing our borders. Someone that can lead us in this fight against illegal immigration. Someone that can take over and lead us to victory in Iraq.

I more less wanted to let my readers know that I am still here. I've been paying very close attention to the debates and what is left of the Republican Party now that Congressman Duncan Hunter is no longer an option. Stay tuned. I am gathering info and collecting thoughts on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex) and her ties to Rudy Giuliani.

Evansville, Indiana - Population 121,582

I know what you are thinking, "what does Evansville Indiana have to do with protecting our borders?" Well, let me tell you. It all has to do with The Shield, the University of Southern Indiana's student newspaper and an article written by J.I. Lutz. The article, should you choose to check it out, is called 'Insight on Illegal Immigration'. I can't type the first thing that came to mind after reading the article, but let's just say it had something to do with bulls and what they excrete.

I lived in Jeffersonville Indiana which is just across the Ohio River from Louisville Kentucky. I lived there for 3 years. The city, and the whole state for that matter, is so far removed from the actual problem of illegal immigration. Don't get me wrong, illegal immigration is everywhere but just not as concentrated as it is in a state such as Texas, a border state. Evansville Indiana had a population of 121,582 in the year 2000 and an estimated population of 115,738 in the year of 2006. Arlington Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas and sits between Dallas and Ft. Worth, had a 2006 population of 367,197. Just a tad bit bigger than, let's say, Evansville Indiana.

Back to the article in The Shield written by J.I. Lutz. The article starts out like this, "The presidential election season has kicked off an open season on immigrants". Okay, let's make a correction right off the bat here: it should read "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS". J.I. Lutz is so mistaken here. The candidates are not, I repeat, are NOT making an issue of immigrants, but rather ILLEGAL immigrants. Big difference and if J.I. Lutz does not know that, then if I were Mr. & Mrs. Lutz, I would think about paying tuition to another school other than the University of Southern Indiana. J.I. Lutz goes on to say "The war in Afghanistan is not going well, and despite claims of progress by President Bush, we are stuck in a horrible quagmire in Iraq with no end in sight." Again, correction needed. When did we declare war with Afghanistan? For that matter, we haven't even declared war in Iraq. But if I'm not mistaken, Bush is getting slammed by Democrats and Republicans alike for pulling out of Afghanistan and turning our efforts towards Iraq. Again, I question the University of Southern Indiana if this is the best we can do as far as teaching our children.

J.I. Lutz goes on to write: "These are real problems that call for bold action from brave, visionary and courageous leaders.
Unfortunately, only a few of those people currently holding or running for office in this country possess those qualities.
Instead we seem to be stuck with a bunch of blow hard demagogues.
It's much safer for politicians to stay away from issues that really matter because taking a stand on any issue of real importance is bound to alienate someone, resulting in loss of votes.
Immigrants have provided a convenient solution to this dilemma for over 150 years.
They are the perfect group to attack.
They can not vote, and they are generally poor.
In this world, poverty is synonymous with powerlessness." Again, let's go back to the part where it says "immigrants". This again, should read, "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS". What is it that people don't understand? There is a huge difference between immigrants and illegal immigrants. For starters, one is legal, one is not. Period. J.I. Lutz calls for a "Courageous Leader" to stand up to these issues. Uh....hello? Does the name Congressman Duncan Hunter ring a bell?

Here is another real interesting thing that J.I. Lutz had to say in the article, "Meanwhile, at the urging of U.S. corporations, Congress has repeatedly opened the flood gates out sourcing jobs to come into the country through programs such as H-1B. Thousands of technology workers have lost their jobs or had their wages reduced because of legal immigrants from counties such as India.
Tech companies like these workers because they are willing to work for lower wages than U.S. workers. These people represent much more of a threat to the U.S. economy than a bunch of people from Mexico here to do yard work and pick tomatoes. But the companies that benefit from their presence have the money to make large campaign contributions." Can we go directly to the part in which it says "....a bunch of people from Mexico here to do yard work and pick tomatoes"? Was that not a racist and bigoted thing to say? Trust me, illegal immigrants do FAR more than just the above described. They do construction work on roads. They roof houses. They work at meat packing plants so that J.I. Lutz has something to eat. They cut tobacco on tobacco farms in Kentucky. And let's not forget the ongoing drug problem that we have that the illegal immigrants have contributed to. Due to the fact that companies pay illegal immigrants, in most cases, with cash, they are able to offer lower wages which in doing so, keeps legal immigrants and native Americans out of jobs. Approximately 28 miles from Evansville Indiana, sits a little town called Princeton Indiana. Why is this of any importance? Well, let me tell you why. Toyota has a plant there. I wonder just how many family members J.I. Lutz has that work at the plant or how many relatives J.I. Lutz has had that worked at the plant. With a population just a little over 8,000, I am sure that Princeton relies on the folks over in Evansville to come to work at the plant each and every day. 24 hours a day. I wonder what will happen when the illegal immigrant has migrated to Evansville Indiana and decides that he or she wants to help build those pretty Japanese cars and trucks? J.I. Lutz goes on to say "Illegal Mexican immigrants, on the other hand, do not make campaign contributions so their only value to a politician is as political tool to be used during election campaigns". To that I say, "uh.....WRONG!". I wonder if J.I. Lutz has ever wondered just how much money is being payed to politicians by the so called 'Illegal Mexican Immigrant' to keep their mouths shut while they cross tons and tons of illegal drugs into this nation on a daily basis? Trust me, the illegal immigrant is very important to the politician. They have to be or else why hasn't the fence been built? What fence you might ask? The one that Congressman Duncan Hunter authored into law and was signed by President Bush. The wall that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas keeps finding a way to postpone the building of. Hmmmm, wonder if she could be taking some of that good 'ole green stuff called "hush money"? My bad, back to the wonderful article written in The Shield by J.I. Lutz in which Lutz has this to say, "....In 1867, California politicians successfully scared the public into thinking that there was a plot by the Chinese to annex the western United States by means of mass immigration."....hmmmmm, has J.I. Lutz heard of the ongoing LEAD BASED PAINT problem that we have going on in this country? If not, let me fill you in. It's coming from China. Does J.I. Lutz know who owns the majority of this nations debt? If not, let me fill you in. It's China. Does J.I. Lutz know what the theme of this years Olympics being held in Beijing China is? If not, let me tell you. It's "One World. One Dream" We didn't come up with that slogan. People of Evansville Indiana damn sure didn't come up with it. You know who did? I'm guessing the folks of China. The same people that J.I. Lutz refers to that pose no threat to The United States of America.

I will end with this: obviously the editors at The Shield, (student paper of The University of Southern Indiana), and teachers at the University do not want their students knowing the truth. I would suggest that J.I. Lutz do just a little bit more homework before writing such garbage. This is nothing more than an article written by someone trying to please a left-wing professor and get a good grade so that he or she can go out into society and become a part of the very biased media that has plagued this nation. Good job University of Southern Indiana. You should be proud of yourselves. Do something GOOD for your students and turn them on to Congressman Duncan Hunter. http://www.gohunter08.com/ I am sure once you get the facts on this man, you will see that he is ready and willing to address many, if not all, of the issues brought up by J.I. Lutz's article.

KP

www.gohunter08.com

Who is Duncan Hunter? That is a very good question. For starters, let's call him Congressman Duncan Hunter. And just in case you didn't know it, he is running for President of The United States of America. Yes, that's right, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) is running against the likes of the Huckster, Mitt, and Fred. Let me share with you real quick how I come to know Congressman Duncan Hunter.



I was born and raised in the Dallas Texas area. In February of 2004, I moved to Louisville Kentucky and stayed there almost 3 years to the day. I returned in February of 2007. Upon return, I did not recognize the city of Dallas. AT ALL! My grandfather lives in a suburb of Dallas, a city called Irving Texas. As I was driving through Irving, I noticed that a lot of the stores that I used to go to as a kid had closed or are now business that only serve the Mexican community. All the advertising signs outside of the stores are all in Spanish. Most of the billboards are in Spanish. Even the marquis outside of the schools that have been in Irving for many many years have announcements on them in Spanish. Wondering what was going on, after just a few weeks back in Texas, I had had enough. I wrote my State Representative. Rep. Betty Brown. I explained to her that I had been away for 3 years and upon my return, I was shocked to see how many illegal immigrants had moved into the Dallas area. I ended my letter with a question. My question to her was to tell me in her opinion, who, out of all of the candidates, had the toughest stance on illegal immigration. Her answer? Congressman Duncan Hunter. I have to say, Rep. Betty Brown changed my life. It was with that answer, I immediately went to work to find out who this Congressman Duncan Hunter was. I had never heard of him.



The first thing I did was "Google" him. There I found http://www.gohunter08.com/ the official web site of the Congressman. Once there, I clicked on " Core Principles ". Take a minute to repeat that to yourself. Core Principles. Doesn't that just have an awesome ring to it? Under "Core Principles", Congressman Duncan Hunter explained to me his views on things such as Right to Life Amendment, Philosophy of Judicial Appointments, Marriage, Parental Rights, Hate Crimes, First Amendment, Second Amendment, Taxes, Balanced Budget. On and on the list goes. All explaining his "Core Principles". Toward the very end of the list was the very thing I was looking for, "Illegal Immigration". The cool thing about all of this, I wanted to know how he felt about Illegal Immigration. All of the other things really didn't matter. So I thought. I think Congressman Duncan Hunter's web site is set up that way on purpose. He doesn't want to be thought of as a "one topic candidate" and that topic is 'Illegal Immigration'. There is so much more to this man other than Illegal Immigration but it is this that he is known for. If you happen to go to his web site, listed under these "Core Principles", this is what the Congressman had to say about himself and his view on Illegal Immigration: "I have a 27 year record of fighting illegal immigration and promoting border security. As a member of Congress with a Southwest border district heavily impacted by the effects of illegal immigration, I have steadfastly opposed amnesty proposals, including voting against the 1986 amnesty law, while tirelessly working to strengthen border security. Amnesty is not the answer. In fact, it encourages a whole new wave of illegal immigrants who seek to catch the next amnesty.
America has one of the most generous immigration policies in the world. It is unacceptable that we allow millions of people to sneak in the back door of our country when the front door is available. We have tried amnesty and it does not work. We must enforce and, as necessary, tighten our immigration laws and secure our border–it is a matter of national security."



After I read that, I was hooked. He already had me at "Core Principles", but this just sealed it up for me. Congressman Duncan Hunter goes on to describe his efforts in putting a fence up in San Diego and the success he had with it and how he helped author the Secure Fence Act. Here is what he had to say: "As part of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform Act (P.L. 104-208), I authored the legislative language mandating a 14-mile triple fence along the San Diego-Mexico land border, which augmented the single layer fence he had built with surplus landing-matt in 1989. Since then I've worked, most notably against strong opposition of the Clinton Administration, to see that project completed. Since construction of the San Diego fence began:
· Illegal alien apprehensions along the fenced region dropped from over 202,000 in 1992 to about 9,000 in 2004. Further, it is estimated that the apprehensions vs. attempts ratio increased to over 90%;
· With the establishment of the San Diego border fence, crime rates in San Diego have fallen off dramatically. According to the FBI Crime Index, crime in San Diego County dropped 56.3% between 1989 to 2000;
· Vehicle drive-throughs in the region have fallen from between 6 to 10 per day before the construction of border infrastructure, to only 4 drive-throughs in 2004 and those occurred only where the secondary fence is incomplete;
· The fence has forced drug smugglers, who once easily crossed the San Diego border, to attempt to enter the U.S. through major ports of entry instead. This significantly increases the likelihood of discovery and seizure of illegal narcotics entering our country.
As a result of the success of the San Diego fence, I authored the provisions of the Secure Fence Act calling for the construction of 854 miles of border fence along the five most prolific smuggling corridors on the Southwest border. While construction of the Secure Fence project is not moving as rapidly as Rep. Hunter would like, the Administration is moving forward and as of September 30, 2007, 70 miles of new border pedestrian fence has been constructed. I remain engaged in ensuring that the Administration meets the mandates put in place by the Secure Fence Act and secures our borders as rapidly as possible."



Unfortunately, his efforts in the Secure Fence Act have been knocked down by the likes of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. That in itself is another blog posting for another day. Let's continue with the efforts of Congressman Duncan Hunter.



Once you do your homework on all of the candidates, it is very clear that there is only one choice and that choice is Congressman Duncan Hunter. Many in the mainstream media don't want you to know or learn about Congressman Duncan Hunter. It doesn't fit THEIR agendas. Many in this same mainstream media say that "....I like Duncan Hunter, but he can't win". Folks, yes he can. He can if you don't let the media poison your minds. Do your homework on all of the candidates. When you do, you will see that there is only ONE true conservative running in this race and that person is Congressman Duncan Hunter. On a side note, not only does the Congressman know how to protect our precious borders, his son knows how to protect the borders of Iraq. The Congressman's oldest son, Duncan D. Hunter, served 3 tours in the Middle East protecting our freedom and our borders from terrorist.



In closing, I want to ask you to do me a favor. If Illegal Immigration is as important to you as it is to me, PLEASE take a look at Congressman Duncan Hunter. If it is not, PLEASE take a look at Congressman Duncan Hunter. He has many, many, other things on his platform that you will like. I promise you. Thanks again for reading my blog and may God bless you all.

http://www.duncanhunter.meetup.com/1/

http://www.gohunter08.com/

Press One For English

So when was the last time you flew on a plane? Did you get to the airport at the recommended 1 hour before flight time? Was there a long line at the TSA security gate? Did you wear your special "air plane" shoes? Fun times! Single file line. One at a time. Emptying your pockets into that little plastic tray or bucket. Taking your shoes off and placing them in another tray. Walking through the door framed shaped metal detector. Forgetting about the pack of gum you have in your shirt pocket to help "pop" your ears on the flight while chewing it. Having the aluminum foil around the gum setting off the alarm on the metal detector. Backing up. Dumping your gum in yet another little plastic bucket so it can now be x-rayed. Walking back through the giant door frame without any alarms. Now you sigh a big sigh of relief. You made it. After 45 minutes of standing in line, all your personal property in several different plastic trays, standing there sock footed, you are now ready to begin your journey to the appropriate gate of which your flight is departing. Just for fun, go to http://www.tsa.gov/ and count the items that you're not allowed to carry on to a plane with you. I counted 73. I'm sure there are more.





An article in The Arizona Republic dated November 11, 2007, briefly describes the measures they will be taking at the Super Bowl in Arizona as far as security goes. It states that a 16 month planning effort was made and outlined by the Arizona Tourism Safety and Security Conference in Scottsdale. Included were 40 Police Chiefs, Arizona Department of Public Safety, the FBI, and Federal Emergency Management Agency. All this to discuss how to keep 70,000 fans that will be attending the game and 150,000 visitors the week of the Super Bowl safe. Officials would not reveal how many people are involved in security because that could be useful information to terrorists they said. We do know this, fans will enter through a secure 300-foot perimeter around the stadium and must pass through metal detectors. This information comes from Brady Castro who is the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee Vice President of Operations. He goes on to say, and I quote, "...it's like getting into the airport."





You can also go to the Six Flags' web site and find this: in keeping with our family-friendly atmosphere, and for health and SAFETY reasons, Six Flags strictly ENFORCES a dress code. Park admission may be denied if clothing is deemed by management to be inappropriate.





Thee Dollhouse, a gentleman's club in Raleigh, NC. vows that a strict dress code is enforced; hats, jeans and t-shirts are not allowed. How many times have you gone to a Denny's and seen a sign on the front door that reads, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service"? Most clubs or bars these days REQUIRE you to be 21 years old to get in. And how do these clubs and bars protect themselves? They check I.D. at the door, or border if you like. To take it a step further, there are some clubs that will wave this magic wand all over your body to check for weapons. You know, those hand held metal detectors. They are protecting their "borders".





I can understand why the hassle at the airport. Nobody wants another 9-11. As frustrating as it is to check on to a plane, we now live in a world that requires this type of extra security. Is it fool proof? I don't think so. But I do think it's sad when Denny's, clubs and bars, amusement parks for families, and even topless bars have tighter security at their borders than the entire country of The United States of America has at its border. Had we had tighter borders, enforcement of laws that are already in place, 9-11 would have NEVER happened. Was 9-11 not tragic enough? What will it take to wake our corporate America runned politicians up? Let's just pretend that there was a person of middle-eastern dissent trying to board a plane with one of the forbidden 73 items and this person got a little out of hand and tried to force themselves past security. And let's just pretend that this person was able to get by security or cross the border into the airport. And let's pretend again that 2 TSA security personnel shot this person in the buttocks to stop them and bring them down. These security personnel would be veered as "hero's" for saving the lives of hundreds of innocent citizens. But in "real" life, let 2 border security officers shoot a known drug smuggling illegal immigrant crossing into this country illegally in the buttocks, they get 10 and 11 years in prison. Doesn't add up does it? Why the cover up? Why are our laws not being enforced and when they are, why are we throwing our border protectors in prison for doing their jobs? Why does Denny's have stricter rules as to who gets across their borders than our own country does when it comes to our nations borders?



I will end with an email that a friend sent to me. It is called "The Bird feeder". Some may have already seen it, but it goes like this: The Bird Feeder:


I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food. Soon the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue. Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, and the table...everywhere. Then some of the birds turned mean: They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And others birds were boisterous and loud: They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill the feeder when it got low on food. After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore. I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be...quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal. Now let's see...our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen. Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor; your child's 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't speak English; Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to press "one" to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than "Old Glory" are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.
Maybe it's time for the government to take down the bird feeder.

It's All A Big Numbers Game

Well, I haven't been adding much over the past few days and I am sorry. The main reason is because I have been collecting my thoughts and doing some heavy surfing on the Internet. Some of the hardest information to find is anything related to illegal immigrants. Reason being, there is no government agency that is keeping records. No records as to an "actual" head count of illegal immigrants. No records on the cost of illegal immigrants to the legal tax payers. All we have are estimates. Every thing I found on this are words like "estimates show"...or "we believe that the estimated number to be"...and on and on. Let me tell you something folks, how ever you would like to word it, we are in some serious trouble! What I am really trying to find out are things like, actual population figures. How many illegal immigrants are in our school districts? How many illegal immigrants are bedded up in our hospitals? How many illegal immigrants are in our city jails and in our state prisons? How many un-registered sex offenders who are illegal immigrants are in our neighborhoods?


I have found that these are some of the hardest numbers and figures to obtain. I have a huge problem with that too. I pay my taxes. Part of my hard earned money goes towards the schools, hospitals, and jails in my city. I should be able to get these figures just by picking up the phone and calling my city hall, mayor, state Representative, my congressman. But what I have found is that is not the case. I have sent email after email to my senators and congressmen, but I all get in return is a basic, computer generated form letters. After several late hours at night, I FINALLY found a report that gave me some sort of idea as to what I was looking for. It wasn't the best, nor the most accurate.


What I found was a report called "The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments". This was a report done in December of 2007. It's a report done by the Congressional Budget Office that was requested by the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee. It's a report that focuses on the estimated costs that certain state and local governments incur for providing various services, especially those related to education, health care, and law enforcement to illegal immigrants. Or as this paper describes them as, unauthorized immigrants. Funny play on words don't you think? You don't hear our government saying things like "unauthorized drugs" do you? No. They say "illegal drugs". Things that make you go, "hummmmmm".


Now, with that in mind, I want to share with you some of the things that I found interesting in this report. Most of what I am about to write comes from this same report. So, when you see the term, unauthorized immigrant(s), trust me, that is not coming from me. I call 'em like I see 'em. ILLEGAL immigrants. Or, ILLEGALS for short.


The report states that there are no comprehensive records that document the number of unauthorized immigrants currently residing in the United States; as a result, the size of that population must be estimated by indirect means. The Department of Homeland Security, (which is a joke in itself), estimates that there are 11.6 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. That was as of Jan. 2006. Researchers at the Pew Hispanic Center estimated an unauthorized population of between 11.5 million and 12.0 million as of March of 2006. So, for the sake of this blog, let's just round it to an even 12 million, what do you say? Do you REALLY know what the number 12 million equates to? Let me throw some figures at you to try to give you a little idea. The total population of Dallas County is 2.3 million. The total population for the ENTIRE state of Kentucky for the year 2006 was 4.2 million. The population for the ENTIRE state of Illinois in the year 2006 was 12.8 million. The 2006 population for the COUNTRY of Ireland was 4.1 million. The total population living in the COUNTRY of Cuba in 2006 was 11.2 million. Sorry for all of the numbers there, I just wanted to give you a little bit better of a perspective of what we are dealing with here. Back to the report.


Using a model developed by the former I.N.S., Pew estimated that as much as one-half of the population of unauthorized immigrants (4.5-6.0 million people) were admitted legally, with visas or border crossing cards, but overstayed or otherwise violated the terms of their authorization; and the remainder of that population (an estimated 6-7million individuals) entered the United States illegally. (just one of the very few times this report used the word "illegal") The report goes on to say that state level estimates are subject to even more uncertainty than estimates of the total size of the population. Historically, most foreign born residents, including unauthorized immigrants, have settled in a few states. In 1990, almost 75% of the total foreign born population and almost 90% of unauthorized immigrants lived in six states: California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas. The population is not defined in the same way across reports. Because the estimates looked at different populations of immigrants, few of them are comparable. For example, although most estimates looked only at unauthorized immigrants, others did not differentiate between unauthorized and legal immigrants. Some included all foreign born residents, regardless of their immigration status, and some included children of unauthorized immigrants who were born in the United Sates (even though those children are U.S. citizens). If the U.S. born children of unauthorized immigrants had been included in the estimates, the costs of certain programs, particularly education, would be much higher. Using data from the Census Bureau's March 2005 Current population Survey (CPS), Pew analysts found that of the appproximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States in 2005, 5.4 million were adult males, 3.9 million were adult females, and 1.8 million were children under the age of 18 years old. An additional 3.1 million children of unauthorized immigrants were U.S. citizens, Pew estimated. (These stats are avaliable at http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/61.pdf ) Among Pew's other findings: Members of unauthorizaed families were typically much younger and less educated than members of families composed of legal immigrants and U.S. citizens. The unauthorized population included 7.2 million workers, typically employed in lower wage occupations in the agricultural, construction, and service industries. Analysts at the Urban Institute reported that in 2004, unauthorized immigrant men were less likely to be unemployed than native born men (4.6% compared with 6.5%) and unauthorized immigrant women were more likely to be unemployed than native born women (8.2% compared with 5.2%).


Now that I have totally filled your head with large population numbers, let's talk COSTS! Boy, where to start! Let's start with education.


Education is the largest single expenditure in state and local budgets. Because state and local governments bear the primary fiscal and administrative responsibility of providing schooling from kindergarten - grade 12, they incur substantial costs to educate children who are unauthorized immigrants. Most of the estimates that CBO reviewed DID NOT include costs associated with children who were born to unauthorized immigrants in the United States because those children are U.S. citizens. Again, if those children had been included in the estimates, their fiscal impact, particularly on education, would have been higher. In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that sates may NOT exclude children from public education because of their immigration status. See Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982) Current estimates indicate that about 2 million school-age children (5-17 years old) in the United States are unauthorized immigrants; an additional 3 million children are U.S. citizens born to unauthorized immigrants. According to the most recent population data released by the Census Bureau, as of July 2006, there were 53.3 million school-age children in the United States. Thus, children who are unauthorized immigrants represent almost 4% of the overall school-age population. Their numbers are growing quickly in some states, adding additional budgetary pressures. For example: as part of a larger study on the impact of unauthorized immigrants in Minnesota, the state's Department of Administration estimated that, during the 2003-2004 school year, the state and local governments in Minnesota spent between $79 million and $118 million to educate and estimated 9,400 to 14,000 children who were unauthorized immigrants. The agency also estimated that an additional $39 million was spent for children who were U.S. citizens but whose parents were unauthorized immigrants. According to census data, Minnesota state and local governments spent about $8 billion for elementary and secondary education during the 2003-2004 school year. The state estimated that its population of immigrant students, both legal and unauthorized, had almost doubled from about 9,000 to more than 16,000 between 2000-2004. (stats on this are available at www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/issues/immigration ) On the basis of population estimate developed by the Pew Hispanic Center, analysts at the New Mexico Fiscal Policy Project reported that, for the 2003-2004 school year, total spending in New Mexico at the state and local levels for 9,200 unauthorized immigrant schoolchildren was about $67 million. The Census Bureau reports that state and local expenditures for elementary and secondary education during that period in New Mexico totaled almost $3 billion. Of the estimated 40,000 unauthorized immigrants currently living in New Mexico, 95% are believed to be recent arrivals, having lived in that state for fewer than 10 years.


Now let's talk medical expenses. Because unauthorized immigrants are less likely to have health insurance, they are more likely to rely on emergency facilities or public hospitals for treatment of non emergency illnesses and other health related problems. In 2000 and 2001, researchers from the RAND Corporation and the University of California surveyed immigrants in Los Angeles County and found that 65% of those respondents who identified themselves as unauthorized had no health insurance in the two years preceding the survey. (available at http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/24/6/1640 ) In a separate study, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that in 2004, more than 50% of those children who were themselves unauthorized immigrants and almost 60% of adult unauthorized immigrants were uninsured. Moreover, 25% of those children who, by virtue of their birth, were U.S. citizens, but whose parents were unauthorized immigrants, also lacked health insurance. (available at http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/46.pdf ) The federal government requires health facilities that receive federal assistance to provide a certain level of service to residents, regardless of their immigration status. The amount of uncompensated care provided by some state and local governments is growing because an increasing number of unauthorized immigrants are using those services. According to a report commissioned by the United States/Mexico Border Counties Coalition, in 2000,county governments that share a border with Mexico incurred almost $190 million in costs for providing uncompensated care to unauthorized immigrants; that figure represented about 1/4 of all uncompensated health costs incurred by those governments in that year. In 2006, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority estimated that it would spend about $9.7 million on emergency Medicaid services for unauthorized immigrants that year, and that 80% of those costs would be for services associated with childbirth. Recent estimates indicate that annual costs for unauthorized immigrants in Colorado were between $217 million and $225 million for education, Medicaid, and law enforcement. By comparison, taxes collected form unauthorized immigrants at both the state and local levels amounted to an estimated $159 million to $194 million annually.


In addition to differences in the types of services that federal, state, and local governments provide and the extent to which the unauthorized population participates in those programs, the income that unauthorized immigrants earn and the taxes they pay also contribute to their net impact on state and local budgets. Unauthorized immigrants typically earn less than do native born citizens and other immigrant groups and, partly as a result, they also pay a smaller portion of their income in taxes. One study conducted by analysts at the Urban Institute found that in 1998, unauthorized immigrants in New York State paid an average of 15% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes; other immigrant groups paid between 21% and 31%. The average household income for unauthorized families is significantly less than that of both legal immigrants and native born citizens; therefore, that income is taxed at a lower rate than the income of other groups. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that in 2004, the average annual income for unauthorized families was $27,400, compared with $47,800 for legal immigrant families and $47,700 for native born families.


Well, that's it as far as throwing figures and numbers and stats at you. I just wanted to give you some sort of idea of the massive amount of illegal immigrants we are dealing with and the costs that they are creating for us. Even though some illegals do pay a portion in taxes, as you can see, their income is much lower therefore less is being taken out. So it is up to us, the legal citizens of the United States to foot the bill.


I guess what really bothered me about this whole finding was this, there are NO government studies being done as far as numbers and costs. This scares me because this is just an admission that we don't know who is in our country. This should scare you as well. We give BILLIONS of dollars to Homeland Security so I don't think that it is too much to ask, as a tax payer, that we know exactly who is in this country and why they are here. If they are here, then they need to be paying taxes just like the rest of us.


Again, I ask you to write or call your elected officials and ask them why it is that we Americans aren't given accurate information when it comes to illegal immigration. If you still don't think that this is an important election year we have coming up, think again. Three things come to mind: illegal immigration, National security, and taxes. I say taxes because I just wonder how long our government is going to continue to foot the bill for the estimated 12 million illegals that are here?

Who Do We Hold Responsible?

A 2005 U.S. Government Accountability Office study looked at 55,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records and found that they had been arrested an average of eight times. Forty-five percent of the arrests were on immigration and drug charges; 12 percent were for violent crimes. Let me repeat part of that, arrested an AVERAGE of EIGHT times!! Let that sink in for a minute. That was almost three years ago. I would like to see the numbers on that study today.

On Monday, September 17th, 2007, Phoenix Police Officer Nick Erlie was gunned down by Erik Jonani Martinez of Mexico. After the killing, it was learned that Martinez, an illegal immigrant, had been arrested twice before. In Feb. of 2005, Martinez was arrested on a probation violation stemming from a stolen car charge. Eight hours after that arrest, he was turned over to the Maricopa County Sheriffs office. In 2006, Martinez was arrested on a domestic violence charge.

On September 17th, Martinez was being pulled over by Officer Erlie on a jaywalking charge . It was then that Martinez shot and killed Officer Erlie. Martinez then carjacked a man before police ran him down, shooting and killing Jonani Martinez.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordan blames the incident on the U.S. Government for failure to secure its borders, even though Phoenix has declared itself as a "sanctuary city".

One year prior to this incident, almost to the very day, Houston Texas Officer Rodney Johnson was shot and killed in September of 2006 by illegal immigrant Juan Leonardo Quintero. Officer Johnson was shot four times in the head by Quintero. When Officer Johnson arrested Quintero and placed Quintero in his patrol car, Johnson failed to find a gun during a routine "pat-down" that Quintero was carrying. Even though Quintero was cuffed and detained, he still managed to get the gun that he was carrying and kill Officer Johnson execution style.

After the shooting, it was learned that Quintero was deported in 2004 after an indecency with a child charge. Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt blamed the U.S. Government by saying, "The subject was deported, and yet he came back, so if the government fulfilled their responsibility of protecting the border we would probably not be standing here today". Houston Texas has declared itself a "sanctuary city".

Not only does the lack of border control put average American citizens and law enforcers lives at risk, illegal immigrants lives are at stake as well. Case in point: two illegal immigrants, while burglarizing a neighbors house, were shot and killed by Pasadena Texas resident, Joe Horn. Joe had been asked to watch over his next door neighbors house while they were away on vacation.

Miguel Dejesus and Diego Ortiz, both from Colombia, were inside Horn's neighbors house when Horn spotted the two men in the house with a bag of loot that they were planning on taking from the home. Horn called 911 and reported the burglary that was in progress at the time. While on the phone with the 911 operator, the two alleged burglars were attempting to get away when Mr. Horn shot and killed both men.

After the shooting, it was learned that Dejesus spent six years in a Texas prison for drug dealing and then was deported. Ortiz was arrested by Houston police on a drug charge as well but not much more is know about Ortiz due to the fact Houston is a "sanctuary city" and does not cooperate with Homeland Security on issues involving illegal aliens.

Some would say that Horn is a hero. I will let you decide for yourself if you want to put that label on him. It is very clear, however, that this has become a "blame game" issue. Nobody wants to take responsibility for our lack of border control or the illegal immigrants that our open borders have brought to this country. The U.S. Government wants to put issues of illegal immigration in the hands of local and city governments. Yet, when tragedy strikes, the local officials want to blame the U.S. Government for not sealing up our borders.

Let me end with this thought. If I own a dog, there are leash laws in place that say that I have to have my dog on a leash in public. If I don't and my dog harms or injures another citizen, I am responsible. If I have my dog in a fenced yard and I put up a "beware of dog" sign up, and someone comes onto my property and gets bit by my dog, I am admitting that my dog may harm you by placing the "beware of dog" sign up on my property. If I loan you my car, and you run a red light and a traffic cam takes a picture of my vehicle running the red light you ran while driving my car, I am responsible for paying the fine for that ticket. Better yet, I am responsible for any injuries resulting from a wreck due to you running a red light and I am susceptible to getting sued as well by the injured. So, off of those two scenarios, is the U.S. Government responsible for any harm done to you and me by an illegal immigrant for the governments lack of securing our borders? Do you know any lawyers willing to test this theory?

KP