Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Tuesday

This linkfest is for the 5th of June, 2007.

If you have something interesting you'd like to share, feel free to link it here and leave a trackback.

Just remember the trackback policy .

For the best exposure, go to the blogger's oasis and use the linkfest chooser to choose the posts you'd like to hook up with.

Blogs for borders video blogburst 060507

In this weeks edition...

Johnny Sutton puts another Border Patrol agent behind bars, wait till you hear why!

A gangbanger responds to MJ!

And three horrific crimes that would have been prevented had our president done his job!

Vote for us at RealClearPolitics...Here!

Learn more about Noe Aleman here, and donate here.

Digger's had the opportunity to interview Noe in Washington his report is here.

As always, we need to keep the pressure on until the 'Shamnesty Bill' dies a fitting death. You know what to do.

This has been the Blogs For Borders Video Blogburst. The Blogs For Borders Blogroll is dedicated to American sovereignty, border security and a sane immigration policy. If you'd like to join go to the Blogs For Borders Website and send us an email with "sign me up" in the subject line.

Technorati Tags: illegal immigration, amnesty, noe aleman, johnny sutton, 100% Preventable, rape, gang rape, mexico, shamnesty, john mccain, president bush, michael chertoff, elvira arrelano, latin kings, death threats

A Congressman indicted

Well, a few bloggers, including one of my favorites are already on this story. Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat — Louisiana) has been indicted on 16 federal charges resulting from a long investigation of corruption.

There's not much I can add to the story of the $90,000.00 in cold cash found in his freezer. I can say that I've complained about the Democratic "culture of corruption" for quite some time, noting how Democratic politicians usually get a pass in the media. It doesn't look like it's happening this time though.

So far today I've seen reports in the Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the New York Times, the Washington Times, from CBS News, and from ABC News, but not the Washington Post. It doesn't look like he's going to get a pass on this one.

But wait a minute... aren't Congressmen immune from prosecution? Isn't it unconstitutional to arrest them while they're in office?

In short, the answer to that question is "it depends". In this case though, the answer is "NO". The Constitution does provide a limited immunity for Congressmen but it's not absolute.

Article I > Section 6

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat — Louisiana) has been indicted on FELONY charges. His immunity as a Representative does not apply.

There should be no constitutional crisis if and when he's arrested. We may yet hear of one, but I think it's clear. Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat — Louisiana) is eligible to be arrested and treated the same way that other criminal suspects are treated.

Perhaps the Democratic culture of corruption won't get a pass this time after all. Now if only they'd indict this felon.

Update: Here's an excerpts from the Seattle PI story:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to push this week for Jefferson to be stripped of his seat on the Small Business Committee, according to a leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.

"If these charges are proven true, they constitute an egregious and unacceptable abuse of public trust and power," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "Democrats are committed to upholding a high ethical standard and eliminating corruption and unethical behavior from the Congress."

"If these charges are proven true"? While it's only now that he's been indicted, Nancy Pelosi knew about Congressman William Jefferson (Democrat — Louisiana)'s cold cash. She should have blocked his ability to gain the seat in the first place if she was really interested in upholding a high ethical standard. After all, it's the seriousness of the charge with Democrats isn't it?

House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said Jefferson should be expelled from Congress if he is found guilty and refuses to resign.

"The American people rightfully expect the highest ethical standards from their elected leaders," Boehner said.

Is the cold war coming back?

Do we really need more proof that Vladimir Putin want's to bring back the "glory days" of the old Soviet Union? The Seattle PI is reporting on some harsh words at the outset of President Bush's trip to Europe. Of course, to read their headline, it looks like it's all the President's fault. "Bush opens Europe trip on jarring note" indeed.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- President Bush's European trip was jarred as it began Monday by deteriorating relations with Russia and threatening words from President Vladimir Putin.

Bush and Putin will see each other at the annual summit of industrialized nations, beginning Wednesday at the Baltic Sea resort city of Heiligendamm, Germany. In a diplomatic poke in the eye at Putin, Bush bracketed the summit with stops in the Czech Republic and Poland - the two countries where the United States wants to build a missile defense system for Europe.

Already complaining of being encircled by NATO's expansion, Putin said putting missile defenses on Russia's doorstep would ignite a new arms race. He threatened to retarget Russia's missiles toward Europe.

That's not a threat we can safely ignore. We have a mutual defense treaty with most of Europe. Threatening Europe in this way is the same as threatening the United States.

It's really starting to sound like Mr. Putin wants a return to the days of the cold war. Maybe this will distract Russians from the horrible things his government is doing?

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Putin to cool down.

"This isn't the Soviet Union and we need to drop the rhetoric that sounds like what the United States and the Soviet Union used to say about each other and realize it is the United States and Russia in a very different period," Rice said on the way to an Organization of American States meeting in Panama City, Panama.

"It doesn't really help anybody to start threatening the Europeans," she said. "You cannot launch a threat at Europe that is separable from the United States."

Well, you actually could. As long as you do it through immigration and outpacing the European birth-rate.

Still Secretary Rice has a point. Vladimir Putin's rhetoric is sounding more and more like the rhetoric of the old Soviet Union. He's afraid of NATO. Why would that be?

Aside from his sharp words at Washington, Putin also took a slap at Britain for seeking the extradition of a Russian businessman who is a suspect in the killing of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. Putin called London's move "stupidity." German Chancellor Angela Merkel also had a run-in with Putin last month, criticizing Russia's crackdown on political opponents.

That's right. Putin took a slap at Britain for seeking the extradition of a chief suspect in the murder of a British Citizen who just happened to be one of Putin's biggest critics. I guess he believes that Russia should get a pass for obstructing the investigation.

Still, we know that the polonium used to murder Alexander Litvinenko came from Russia. We know that the amount of polonium used is not commonly available except to governments. We know that Mr. Litvinenko was critical of Putin's government and that he was not the first person to oppose that government to be poisoned.

The Russians could do without a "leader" like Vladimir Putin. But I'm sure they've seen what happens to his opposition.

Comprehensive traffic reform

What is it about politicians these days? They all seem to be hooked on "comprehensive" solutions to complex problems. "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" comes to mind.

It seems to me that often these "comprehensive" solutions are often worse than the problems they're trying to solve. What's wrong with the "divide and conquer" approach anyway?

I write software for a living. There's no way that I would even attempt to create a "comprehensive" software package all at once. Instead, I analyze the problem and break it down into smaller problems. I try to keep a big picture of the whole problem so that I have a guide for where I want to go, but I solve the smaller problems individually. It tends to work better that way.

It seems to me that solving society's problems ought to be approached in a similar fashion. We need to keep the big picture in mind, but we need to deal with problems in a way that lets us tackle them as we can, rather than trying an "all-or-nothing" approach.

Of course, one of the reasons why politicians use the "comprehensive" approach is so that they can ram unpalatable things down the electorate's collective throat. We've got a "big" problem, so we need a "big" solution. "Of course the bill's not perfect. Are you going to throw out the good for the perfect?"

So it goes with the comprehensive traffic package that Sound Transit is pushing on the voters this November. The real problem we have is traffic congestion. There are a lot of people that need to go a lot of places, and our highways are running at or near capacity. Simply put, we need more highway capacity, or we need an alternative way to move people around.

So what's the unpalatable part of the comprehensive traffic passage? That depends on who you ask, but for me it's the light rail package. Our current "light rail" solution, the Sounder isn't really light rail at all. It shares track space with freight trains. Because of this, it runs on a limited schedule. It's subject to delays when freight needs to move on the rails. Even worse, the part of the system that runs to Everett costs about $33,000.00 per year per passenger to keep running, above and beyond ticket costs.

This sort of "efficiency" isn't what we need. Especially when extending the system won't help with traffic congestion at all. Why should we spend $23 billion over the next 20 years for something that won't even solve the problem? Especially when the Seattle Times is reporting that we'll have to pay another $14 billion to cover the construction debt afterward?

If Sound Transit wins voter approval to extend light rail far beyond Seattle at a cost of more than $23 billion by 2027, taxpayers would still owe an additional $14 billion in construction debt afterward.

Financing costs mean that voters in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties will be looking at a half-century commitment when they decide on a regional-transportation measure in November. The last bonds for the 50-mile rail plan, and other transit projects, would be paid off in 2057.

By then, Sound Transit's spending would exceed $37 billion, counting inflation and interest charges.

Everyone knows this plan isn't going to fix the real traffic problems in our area — congested traffic. It seems silly to spend more than two thirds of our money on light rail and neglect the roads. This is especially true when King County's own studies show that less than 10% of all daily commutes use public transit. Admittedly, those numbers are from 1998, but based on other, more recent, statistics it doesn't look like a significant change has taken place.

Sound Transit's proposal will be linked in a single ballot question Nov. 6 with regional highway projects.

Bottom line?

Add $37.9 billion in transit dollars to $16.1 billion for the roads, and the tally reaches $54 billion, including debt and inflation.

For the average household, this would mean $150 in new sales taxes next year and $68 in new car-tab taxes for the average automobile — figures that would go up with inflation until at least 2027.

Just a few years ago the people of Washington fought hard for, and won a big reduction in the cost of registering a vehicle. All of those gains will go out the window with this "comprehensive" transportation package.

Sound Transit leaders have said that with the expense, they're offering a far-reaching rail system to satisfy popular demand. "You've got a big problem, and you've got a big solution to solve the problem," Ilgenfritz said.

It sounds to me like the solution is a bigger problem than the problem they're trying to solve. Washingtonians already pay some of the highest taxes in the nation. It will be a tremendous shame to increase that tax burden for the next fifty years to pay for a "solution" that won't even fix the problem.

Cross posted at NW Bloggers.

Microsoft Windows Live Writer Beta 2

Microsoft has released Beta 2 of Windows Live Writer. The UI looks a little slicker than the previous beta. The install was painless. All of the plugins I added to the previous beta are still there.

At least it's not a step back like Vista was or Outlook 2007.

There are a couple of things I like about it so far. One is the enhanced "insert hyperlink" functionality. The U.I. for this feature has been upgraded a bit, and they've also added some new functionality.

Now you can insert a hyperlink to a previous weblog post by clicking a button. A dialog pops up with the most recent posts made from your local machine. If the post you want isn't in that list, you can pull up to 500 posts from each of your weblogs to find the one you want to link to. I think that will be handy. No more scrolling though the weblog trying to find a post.

The "insert picture" U.I. has been updated too. Now in addition to uploading a local image, you can specify the URL of an image from the Internet. Some of the same features are available when you do this, but the image isn't automatically re-sized. To re-size the image you have to explicitly select the options to do it. Writer also doesn't render it as a hyperlink to the original image and upload the thumbnail and original like it does when you choose a local image.

I still think it's a cool feature enhancement.

They've also added some formatting features that were missing. One that I really wished they had in the previous version was strike-thru text. Before I had to switch to the HTML view and manually edit the style tags to get it. Now, it's available by selecting the text and clicking a button.

They've also added a set of APIs that Weblog Providers can use to make the tool even more compatible with their weblogs. So far, I'm liking what I see. I've been waiting for this update for a while.