I've never been a Saints fan, but it's nice to see that they're going to their 1st ever Superbowl. It would have been great to see Brett with another Superbowl ring as well. He was looking rather old and battered trying to relive his glory days by the end of the 3rd quarter yesterday. He played a great game though, as did the rest of the Vikings, nothing to be ashamed of.

My hometown team didn't make the playoffs this year(no surprise there), so anyone but the New Jersey Jets has been my motto this post-season. They have the most obnoxious fans in the NFL, hands down.

I'm annoyed that it takes so long for blog claims to go through Technorati. My account page says they "have successfully crawled your blog and found the claim token, and your claim is now awaiting review." for all three blogs here - a few days I understand but it's been about 6 weeks(as of Jan 7th 2010) and counting. So I tried deleting my claims to resubmit and try again, figuring if noone at Technorati has gotten around to approving them by now they weren't going to. Turns out it may 'take a few days' for the deletions to go through as well. wtf? And should I even bother? I've used their service in the past and they used to be pretty decent. Nothing like success and self-importance to breed incompetency(among other things) ya know? I would have posted this in my bio on Technorati too but even at the condensed 230 character version(there's a 250 character limit) it refuses to submit. Maybe *it*'ll go through in 6 weeks?

I was reading about the guy who shot four police officers in Washington on the Seattle Times website(via SLU), what a horrible state of affairs that our society has been broken down this low.

When Clemmons received the 60-year sentence, he was already serving 48 years on five felony convictions and facing up to 95 more years on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property. Records from Clemmons' sentencing described him as 5-foot-7 and 108 pounds. The crimes were committed when he was 17.

Clemmons served 11 years before being released.

It's unacceptable that he was released back into society after serving merely 11 of the one hundred and eight years he was sentenced, and while facing up to 95 additional years for still more crimes. I hope Huckabee, the unnamed judge that allowed him to post bail/bond, and anyone else involved is somehow held responsible.

But more than that, there needs to be a turn-around in our country. People such as this Clemmons, and the countless more like him, have absolutely no business being free in our society. They need to stop being churned right back out on the streets to essentially terrorize a populace. This applies to another article linked on the above Seattle Times page as well, regarding Illegal aliens being "quietly let go". The article points out that..

In a recent speech, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged that immigration laws now lack teeth in successfully prosecuting employers who knowingly hire illegally immigrants and said fines are so low dishonest businesses often ignore them.

The union representing these illegal workers, who come into and remain in our country illegally, is protesting the firings. They say that fully more than 50% of their members "might be" illegal, and seem to claim that the company's use of E-Verify program was "innapropriate" per Obama's Homeland Security department.

Service Employees International Union Local 6, which represents about 280 of Seattle Building's workers, said as many as 150 of them might be undocumented. The company has an estimated workforce of up to 300 people.

...

Verifying eligibility

In a letter to workers, Seattle Building said immigration investigators were looking into statements regarding its compliance with immigration laws that were made by a former executive who left the company in May.

In August the firm signed up for E-Verify, a free federal online service that allows employers to compare information provided by new hires against government social security and immigration records.

In September, Seattle Building told its union it had received an audit notice. It then began notifying workers whose Social Security numbers did not match their names, giving them about a month to verify their work eligibility or lose their jobs.

Sergio Salinas, SEIU Local 6's president, said the union has filed grievances against Seattle Building over the firings but admitted there's nothing it can do to stop them.

He said unlike other immigration investigations elsewhere, Seattle Building used E-Verify to ferret out those on its payroll who might be illegal — something a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security, which administers the program, call an "inappropriate" use of E-Verify. The system is intended to be used for new hires — not to check existing employees.

In other words, everyone get's off all around. no accountability or enforcement is to be had, anywhere. Why should anyone bother being law-abiding anymore? While there are those who say, "they're hard workers, just trying to make a better life for themselves, etc." a.) they can accomplish this in their own countries, or are they that incapable? and b.) this Mr. Clemmons guy was a "hard worker" who owned and ran his own business out of his home, and family man I suppose it could be argued, who just had a bad and troubled childhood while growing up, etc. we've all heard the excuses. And of course his grandmother says, "All I know is he is a pretty good guy,".

Now I don't have a problem with giving a guy(or girl) a break, however not just for the sake of doing so, and certainly not after showing such contemptuous law-breaking, be it our immigration laws or burglary, theft, assault, etc. Certainly not when serving 100+ year sentence and facing close to 100 more. Certainly not in cases like this:

Agents arrested Domingo Salazar, 33, who was described as an illegal alien who had been deported to Mexico after being arrested in a similar sex trafficking case.

Sources said he returned to the US and ran a new trafficking ring that brought in several unwitting women from Mexico to become prostitutes.

While in Mexico he began a romantic relationship with the teen and later paid a smuggler to bring her to the US in April 2007.

This guy should have been removed from our society after the first offense, not freed knowing he'd most likely return illegally once or thrice again. Meanwhile, in another example of the breakdown of our society:

To survive, [illegal immigrants at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta] needed dialysis at a cost of about $50,000 a year, which their sporadic work as housekeepers, painters and laborers could not begin to cover.
. . .
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning, the 15 or so patients would settle into their recliners, four to a room, and while away the monotonous three-hour treatments by chitchatting in Spanish.

That all changed on Oct. 4, when the strapped public hospital closed its outpatient dialysis clinic, leaving 51 patients — almost all illegal immigrants — in a life-or-death limbo.
. . .
Like other hospitals, particularly public hospitals, Grady has been left to provide costly treatments to nonpaying illegal residents ... American taxpayers and health care consumers have borne the expense.

Over time, the mounting losses have compromised Grady's charitable mission, forcing layoffs, increases in fees and the elimination of services.

"Years and years of providing this free care has led Grady to the breaking point," said Matt Gove, one of the hospital's senior vice presidents. "If we don’t make the gut-wrenching decisions now, there won't be a Grady later. Then, everyone loses."
. . .
Officials at Grady, which will provide more than $300 million in uncompensated care this year, estimate that as many as a fifth of its uninsured patients are illegal immigrants.

It gets better, Grady actually got sued for it! The article continues:

The hospital's agreement with MexCare, obtained through a state open records request, calls for Grady to pay $18,000 for every patient relocated — $6,750 in travel expenses and escort fees, a $750 administrative fee, and payment for 30 dialysis treatments at $350 each.

A grateful Adolfo D. Sanchez, 31, explained "No place in Mexico would have offered dialysis for free." His words were echoed by Bertha A. Montelongo who explained, "In Mexico, it's different. There, you have to pay."

Stories such as all of the above can be read daily in our country, this is hardly an anomaly or "bad day". Who's responsible for this overall breakdown? Democrats and Republicans alike, including in the Judicial branches, unions, and no shortage of other institutions which need to be disbanded and replaced in order to perform and serve their proper roles in a civilized society. That may sound harsh, but.. We live in what has become a criminal society, across the board, the politicians support it, the media, everyone but the majority of the populace. What else do you do? It's a similar type of revolving door that this Maurice Clemmons went through, only on an institutional level, which ensures it always remains more of the same breakdown. Really, why should a union have up to(by their own estimates!) half of their represented members be illegals? Why should hospitals be sued for no longer being able to continue their charity, by people who have hospitals and health care in their own home countries and shouldn't even be in ours, having entered and stayed illegally, produced false or stolen documents to illegally procure jobs, housing, public services, etc.(yet the media refers to them largely as "undocumented", while in other news peddling WMD's in Iraqn), and are the large part of the reason for the shut-down and reduction in services for all(especially law-abiding people like - presumably - you and I)? For that matter, as I said above, when this is the case then why bother being law-abiding in the first place?

Enforce our laws, and that doesn't mean going through the motions of doing so to achieve the exact opposite, as has been too long the case. It's an idea whose time is long overdue.

Was just perusing Pat Buchanan's newest article @ TAC, about money spent on education vs. results. He starts by pointing out that among the 50 states, NY spends more per pupil in public schools than anyone else(going by 2005 statistics), at an amount of $14,100 and slightly less for NYC. DC was ranked 3rd.

The District of Columbia ranks dead last in academic achievement in the US, with 50% of all black and hispanic students dropping out of high school, and of those who graduate nearly half are reading and doing math at 7th 8th and 9th grade levels. Now I'm not the most proficient at math mind you, but last I checked half of 50% is 1/4. Only one out of every four of these kids can read and do math at higher than jr. high levels. It gets better here in NY, being reported that around 200 students at the City University of New York were tested in basic math skills in their first math class. The results? 90% can't do basic algebra, 1/3rd of these students aren't capable of even converting a decimal into a fraction. The latter is elementary school math, at least when I was in school(which wasn't *that* long ago). These are COLLEGE STUDENTS, and roughly one in every three should never have made it out of 6th grade. Pushing failing kids through grades in order to graduate from high school is bad enough, but we're pushing them into universities too? WTF?

Pat Buchanan goes on to ask, "Is it not a time for truth?" The full article(and reader comments) can be read at http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2009/11/20/dumb-and-dumber/

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