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chattyTopic: Yahoo Chat Stuff
U.S. and China to strike deal on illegals
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security is near an agreement with China to return up to 39,000 Chinese illegally living in the U.S. to the communist country, which previously had refused to accept deportations.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday said the tentative agreement, which would let the U.S. deport Chinese illegals as they are arrested, will act as a deterrent to other foreign nationals contemplating illegal immigration.
"We can't be in the position any longer where we are paying the burden and bearing the burden for countries that won't cooperate with us and take their own citizens back," said Mr. Chertoff as he completed a weeklong tour of China, Japan and Singapore to discuss security and immigration issues.
Mr. Chertoff said nearly 700 Chinese nationals held in U.S. detention centers are clogging the system and that more than 38,000 have been released on bond after spending the maximum 180 days in lockup.
China has declined to accept the illegals, citing uncertainty about their identities.
"The Chinese government is resolutely opposed to ... illegal immigration," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. "First of all, we have to identify those illegal immigrants and based on that, China is willing to receive the repatriation of illegal immigrants."
Federal immigration judges have issued final orders of removal to Chinese citizens smuggled into the U.S., students and others overstaying their visas, and some awaiting legal immigration.
DHS officials said details of the agreement still are being worked out, as are specific deportation plans. The department uses electronic bracelets to track some illegals released on bond and uses other monitoring programs, such as regular check-ins.
Returning Chinese citizens is a major financial burden for China and a "low priority," Mr. Chertoff said.
"But they've got to understand it's a high priority for us," said Mr. Chertoff, who noted that it costs $95 per day to house each detainee.
China's state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported that a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) told Mr. Chertoff in one meeting that bilateral cooperation is essential to maintaining world peace, stability and development.
Bilateral cooperation on trade, terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation, avian flu and the nuclear buildup in Iran and North Korea also will be top priorities when Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington beginning April 20.
"China hopes to make substantial achievements in extradition, fighting terrorism, Olympic Games security and illegal migration," said Luo Gan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
William Knocke, Homeland Security spokesman, said a senior department official will remain in China for a few extra days to finish the agreement.
"We are encouraged by our discussions with the Chinese government," Mr. Knocke said. "There are details that we need to still work through, but now we have an agreement, in principle, on streamlining the process of repatriating Chinese nationals."
China is at the top of the list of foreign countries that refuse to cooperate with repatriation when their citizens are caught residing in the U.S. illegally.
When asked which other nations refuse to accept their citizens caught illegally in the U.S., Mr. Knocke said, "We're not above naming names if other governments continue to be uncooperative, but the meetings in China were very productive, and we are optimistic about other possible outcomes."
World Peace Herald ~ Washington Times - Audrey Hudson ** U.S. and China to strike deal on illegals
Posted by yaahoo_2006iest
at 9:45 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 5 April 2006 9:48 PM EDT
d'oh
'Anti-Catholic' Resolution Challenged in S.F.
A conservative public interest law firm is suing the city of San Francisco for its "startling attack" on the Catholic Church.
The lawsuit stems from an "anti-Catholic" resolution passed unanimously last month by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
The resolution, according to the Thomas More Law Center, condemned the Catholic Church's moral teachings on homosexuality and urged Catholic leaders to defy Vatican directives telling Catholic agencies not to place children with same-sex couples.
The lawsuit, brought on behalf of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and two San Francisco Catholic citizens, said the nonbinding resolution violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
San Francisco supervisors passed the resolution on March 21 after the Vatican's Cardinal-elect William Levada - the former San Francisco archbishop - said Catholic agencies "should not place children for adoption in homosexual households."
The resolution reads, "It is an insult to all San Franciscans when a foreign country, like the Vatican, meddles with and attempts to negatively influence this great city's existing and established customs and traditions, such as the right of same-sex couples to adopt and care for children in need."
The resolution called Vatican directives against homosexual adoptions "hateful and discriminatory rhetoric [that] is both insulting and callous, and shows a level of insensitivity and ignorance which has seldom been encountered by this Board of Supervisors."
The resolution also called Levada "a decidedly unqualified representative of his former home city and of the people of San Francisco and the values they hold dear."
Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, said the resolution's "demagoguery and virulent words...are reminiscent of the anti-Catholic bigotry of the Ku Klux Klan and the Know Nothings, which marred our nation's earlier history. San Francisco may as well have put up signs at the city limits: 'Faithful Catholics Not Welcomed," he added.
A 2003 Vatican statement said that "allowing children to be adopted by [same-sex couples] would actually mean doing violence to these children." According to the Law Center, the Vatican was trying to say that homosexual adoptions are not conducive to a child's full human development.
The lawsuit claims that the March 21 resolution "sends a clear message" to faithful Catholics "that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community," and it sends a second message - "that those who oppose Catholic religious beliefs, particularly with regard to homosexual unions and adoptions by homosexual partners, are insiders, favored members of the political community."
Robert Muise, the Law Center attorney handling the case, noted that the U.S. Constitution forbids hostility toward any religion. He said in San Francisco, "homosexual activists... are abusing their authority as government officials and misusing the instruments of government to attack the Catholic Church.
"This egregious abuse of power is an outrage and a clear violation of the First Amendment," Muise said.
The Thomas More Law Center describes its mission as the defense and promotion of the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.
This article by Susan Jones originally appeared at CNSNews.com.
I still want to teach
By 
Finally, the union picked a school: Beacon High. Unfortunately, it's not a typical public school -- it's "special." Beacon doesn't have the full incentives or flexibility of a private school: It can't go out of business, and it is burdened by bureaucratic rules and a union contract. But Beacon offers a limited form of what the union opposes: school choice. As with a private school, you don't have to go there, and they don't have to take you. Applicants must submit portfolios, and if too few chose Beacon, it wouldn't be able to remain special. To remain what it is, it must compete.
Recently classes of Beacon students took field trips to France, South Africa, and tellingly, Venezuela and Cuba. Beacon has rooms filled with computers, students learn to do PowerPoint demonstrations, and a class I watched had two teachers (one a student-teacher) for 24 students. Ninety percent of Beacon's students graduate, while the average graduation rate for New York City public schools is only 53 percent.
I guess they didn't want me to look at a normal public school.
But this is the school the UFT picked, and I was up for the challenge. Who knows what I might have learned by teaching?
My producers went to a meeting at the school to choose a class for me to teach. The union representative didn't come, so we were told no decisions could be made. Lots of people came to a second meeting at the school: four people from the union, one person from the city Department of Education, and administrators and teachers from Beacon. They decided I might teach history classes and "media studies," but they would have to talk to more people.
I prepped for my history classes. We had more meetings. The school principal had me sit in on a class with a "superstar" teacher. It was supposed to be a history class, but he seemed to teach "victimhood in racist America." On the class door he posted a New York Times column denouncing the president for spending too much money on war. Can we say "left-wing"?
Then there were more meetings. Finally, four days before what was supposed to be my first day of class, they canceled. Officially, "they" were the public school administrators who said it might be "disruptive" and that it might "set a precedent" that would open their doors to other reporters.
Too bad. Letting cameras into schools would be a good thing. Taxpayers might finally get to see how more than $200,000 per classroom of their money was being spent.
.
special
Kuwaiti women vote for first time
KUWAIT CITY -- Kuwaiti women began casting votes for the first time on Tuesday in a by-election for a municipal council seat, less than a year after winning full political rights in the Gulf state. Two women are among eight candidates running for the seat in the district of Salmiya, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) southeast of the capital.
"It's certainly a historical moment for me. I felt very happy while casting my vote," Afaf Abdullah, a pharmacist, said outside a polling station. "I had participated in cooperative society elections before, but the feeling here is totally different. I feel that justice has been achieved for Kuwaiti women."
Voting began slowly as Tuesday is a normal working day but is expected to pick up before ballots close at 8 pm (1700 GMT). The district has 28,000 eligible voters, 60 percent of whom are women, representing the Shia minority, tribal voters and other Sunnis.
Six of the candidates are Shias including the two women, Jenan Bushehri, holder of a masters degree in engineering and Khaleda Al Khader, a physician who has a doctorate in public health.
"I am so pleased that I have become one of the first Kuwaiti women candidates to run in elections. I have broken the ice and hope this will benefit the cause of women," Khader said at one of the polling centers.
But the mother-of-eight said that she was somewhat disappointed to see voters cast ballots on tribal and sectarian affiliations.
"It's ironic that some of the women voters were carrying pictures of male candidates while ignoring us," she said.
Men and women are voting in segregated booths in accordance with a provision in the election law introduced last year by Islamist and conservative lawmakers.
Kuwaiti women were granted full political rights in an historic vote in parliament in May 2005. The government subsequently appointed two women members of the municipal council and named the first woman cabinet minister.
The Salmiya seat fell vacant after municipal council chairman Abdullah Al Muhailbi was appointed municipality and environment minister in the new Kuwaiti cabinet formed in February.
The council - a civic body that carries out tasks such as city planning, organization and regulation of housing - has 16 members, 10 of whom are elected and the rest appointed by the emir.
Kuwaiti women will also be able to vote in the general election scheduled for 2007. At least five Kuwaiti women have publicly announced plans to run.
The interior ministry in January completed the registration of some 195,000 women voters to raise the number of eligible voters to 334,000 in the Gulf Arab state, which has a native population of just under 1 million.
Suad Ahmed, a middle-aged housewife, said that Tuesday was perhaps one of the happiest days of her life.
"After waiting for 44 years, today I was able to participate in election and play a role in our democracy. It's a great feeling," Ahmed said.
spacey
School Officials Say Move Is Temporary
SAN DIEGO - In the wake of last week's immigration-reform protests, one school district is taking drastic measures, banning all symbols of patriotism, both U.S. and Mexican.
Beginning Monday, the Oceanside Unified School District is banning all flags and patriotic clothing. According to school officials, some students are using the garments and flags to taunt classmates.
Some critics of the move are calling it a violation of free speech protections guaranteed by the Constitution.
The American Civil Liberties Union points to the landmark Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines. In that case, school officials attempted to stop students who were protesting the Viet Nam War from wearing black armbands.
"The school has to be able to show a strong likelihood that there is going to material and substantial disruption of school, and if they don’t meet that standard, then they can't censor student speech," said Kevin Neenan of the ACLU
.
School officials in Oceanside now say that flags -- whether they are U.S. or Mexican or any other country's -- have now become a divider on campuses, saying that some students are using them to taunt other students
Keith Brentlinger displays the U.S. flag outside Hatter, Williams and Purdy, his Oceanside business.
"To me, it's everything," said Brentlinger "I mean, like I said -- we truly live in the greatest country in the world."
Brentlinger said he was shocked on Tuesday when marching immigration-reform protesters tore down the flag outside his business.
"Some of them just grabbed the flag, and pulled it off its aluminum pole, and it got ripped," said Brentlinger.
Brentlinger told NBC 7/39 that he put up a new flag the next day.
"Some protesters drove up in their car and snagged the flag from our building and took off," said Brentlinger. "I was extremely, extremely upset. I mean, it was just ... insulting is the word."
School officials are saying that the ban is just temporary and that they were just trying to prevent violence. They would not say how long the ban would be in effect.
party time!
Service sector growth strengthens in March 
NEW YORK - The pace of growth in the service sector rose unexpectedly in March, as new orders strengthened and prices paid fell, according to a report Wednesday.
The Institute for Supply Management's services index rose to 60.5 in March from 60.1 in February. The median forecast of Wall Street economists was for a fall to 59.
Related: 
A number above 50 indicates growth in the sector. 
The report was the latest sign of strength in the economy and suggests that interest rates could continue to rise. Last month the Federal Reserve disappointed investors by indicating that its credit-tightening could continue further than some had forecast, with at least one and perhaps two more increases in its benchmark short-term interest rate.
"The market was looking for confirmation that there might be a broad slowing of the economy underway, but the data did not reinforce that view," said Tony Crescenzi, chief bond market strategist, Miller Tabak. "In fact, it suggested the slowdown seen in manufacturing was isolated to that sector alone."
The survey's new orders index rose to 59.5 in March from 56.2 in February, while the prices-paid index fell to 60.5 from 64.8 and the jobs component fell to 54.6 from 58.2.
The services sector accounts for about 80% of U.S. economic activity, including businesses like restaurants, hotels, hair salons, banks and airlines.
"I would characterize the report as steady, not too different from last month," said Ralph Kauffman, chair of the ISM Non-Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. "The economy is growing at about the same rate in March as in February.
"
Contributing: The Associated Press
FLASHBACK: Dem Senate Leader Harry Reid: 'Our Federal Wallet Stretched To Limit By Illegal Aliens Getting Welfare'
'Even worse, Americans have seen heinous crimes committed by individuals who are here illegally'
August 5, 1993
The Office of Sen. Harry Reid issued the following:
In response to increased terrorism and abuse of social programs by aliens, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today introduced the first and only comprehensive immigration reform bill in Congress.
Currently, an alien living illegally in the United States often pays no taxes but receives unemployment, welfare, free medical care and other federal benefits. Recent terrorist acts, including the World Trade Center bombing, have underscored the need to keep violent criminals out of the country.
Reid's bill, the Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993, overhauls the nation's immigration laws and calls for a massive scale-down of immigrants allowed into the country from approximately 800,000 to 300,000.
The bill also changes asylum laws to prevent phony asylum seekers. Reid said the U.S. open door policy is being abused at the expense of honest, working citizens.
"We are a country founded upon fairness and justice," Reid said. "An individual in real threat of torture or long-term incarceration because of his or her political beliefs can still seek asylum. But this bill closes the door to those who want to abuse America's inherent generosity and legal system."
Reid's bill also cracks down on illegal immigration. The 1990 census reported 3.3 million illegal aliens in America. Recent estimates indicate about 2.5 million immigrants illegally entered the United States last year.
"Our borders have overflowed with illegal immigrants placing tremendous burdens on our criminal justice system, schools and social programs," Reid said. "The Immigration and Naturalization Service needs the ability to step up enforcement.
"Our federal wallet is stretched to the limit by illegal aliens getting welfare, food stamps, medical care and other benefits often without paying any taxes.
"Safeguards like welfare and free medical care are in place to boost Americans in need of short-term assistance. These programs were not meant to entice freeloaders and scam artists from around the world. "Even worse, Americans have seen heinous crimes committed by individuals who are here illegally," Reid said.
Specific provisions of Reid's Immigration Stabilization Act include the following:
♣ Reduces annual legal immigration levels from approximately 800,000 admissions per year to about 300,000. Relatives other than spouse or minor children will be admitted only if already on immigration waiting lists and their admission does not raise annual immigration levels above 300,000.
♣ Reforms asylum rules to prevent aliens from entering the United States illegally under phony "asylum" claims.
♣ Expands list of felonies considered "aggravated" felonies requiring exclusion and deportation of criminal aliens. Allows courts to order deportation at time of sentencing.
♣ Increases penalties for failing to depart or re-entering the United States after a final order of deportation order. Increases maximum penalties for visa fraud from five years to 10 years.
♣ Curtails alien smuggling by authorizing interdiction and repatriation of aliens seeking to enter the United States unlawfully by sea. Increases penalties for alien smuggling.
♣ Adds "alien smuggling" to the list of crimes subject to sanctions under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Expands the categories of property that are forfeited when used to facilitate the smuggling or harboring of illegal aliens.
♣ Clarifies that a person born in the United States to an alien mother who is not a lawful resident is not a U.S. citizen. This will eliminate incentive for pregnant alien women to enter the United States illegally, often at risk to mother and child, for the purpose of acquiring citizenship for the child and accompanying federal financial benefits.
♣ Mandates that aliens who cannot demonstrably support themselves without public or private assistance are excludable. This will prevent admission of aliens likely to be dependent on public financial support. This requirement extends to the sponsor of any family sponsored immigrant
.
♣ Increases border security and patrol officers to 9,900 full-time positions.
Stylish Washington Post Bias
The puff piece ends with Richards in a Planned Parenthood shelter for teenagers in the poor northeastern section of D.C., talking with girls as they make collages out of magazine pictures, and then "playing a serious game of foosball." The last sentence on Cecile: "'Okay,' she said, still leaning intently over the game, 'we'll do one more, then I'm going home to feed my kids.'"
There was no space in this article for critics of Richards, or of Planned Parenthood.
It read a lot like a January Post profile of Kate Michelman, the retiring NARAL Pro-Choice America boss and new author. Reporter Linton Weeks recounted Michelman's standard story of spousal abandonment and how it inspired her hard-left career. Weeks played up her hobbies (cooking "authentically," and she loves doing the dishes) and her great compassion. As a teen, "Her idea of fun, she said, was organizing a Christmas tree sale to benefit Mexican farm workers in her community."
There were no critics, just former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright bizarrely claiming that Michelman had provided "a voice for those who didn't have a voice and a brain for those who didn't have a brain." It's probably not a good idea to tout someone who favors an annual assembly line of hundreds of thousands of abortions as speaking for the "voiceless."
Now, contrast this fawning with the contempt shown on a regular basis by the Post for pro-lifers. About eleven months ago, on April 18, 2005, Washington Post reporter Marc Leibovich profiled conservative Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania by lining up an army of Democrats to say nasty things about him: "Bob Kerrey once wondered whether Santorum is 'Latin for [anus].' Teresa Heinz Kerry called him 'Forrest Gump with an attitude.' Howard Dean called him a liar."
Leibovich's profile routinely judged Santorum with disdain. "Santorum's voice acquires an exaggerated whine," his anti-Clinton antics on the Senate floor show an "egregious informality," and he has the "careening manner of a hyperactive boy." Leibovich found "Santorum's voice assumes a taunting edge," even as he protested he was unfairly caricatured as a "sort of nasty, mean, ideological kind of guy."
How predictable. If the public policy leader is a conservative, and even worse, pro-life, he must be by definition a nasty, mean, ideological kind of guy. But what about liberals who are pro-abortion?
Let's go back to that Cecile Richards piece for the answer. She was pitched as a plucky, sympathetic underdog, stuck in a "South Dakota bubble," as the plains state tries to outlaw abortion. If she's combative, that's a positive: "She is a veteran Democratic political operative with Annie Lennox hair and a steely, strategic core."
How does the Post navigate around the essence of something as controversial, and in the minds of so many millions, utterly offensive as Planned Parenthood? Easy. Ignore it. There is no mention of the $265 million (2003-2004) it drew from the federal government for its operation. The paper also ignored the primary focus of this conglomerate's business: their annual report admits performing 244,628 surgical abortions in that year - compared to issuing 1,774 adoption referrals. (So much for making abortion safe, legal, and rare.)
Most egregiously, Post reporter Darragh Johnson couldn't even mention that seven women have died from the use of the RU-486 abortion-drug cocktail, four of them at Planned Parenthood clinics, as they spurned Food and Drug Administration orders on how to administer the drugs properly.
I guess the Post needed the room for those heart-warming foosball-before-dinner stories.
Post readers surely enjoy a well-written sketch of Washington figures, but these Style profiles go beyond the pale, abusing the privilege of artistic license. Ultimately, and sadly, they expose only a media elite that can find cuddliness in a culture of death.
surprised
Deputy Press Secretary for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Arrested on Polk County Charges
BARTOW, Florida - Brian J. Doyle, DOB 4/7/50, the Deputy Press Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., was arrested this evening at his residence in Silver Springs, Maryland, on 23 Polk County charges related to the use of a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor.
Doyle's arrest is the result of a joint investigation by the Polk County Sheriff s Office, working with Florida's 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jerry Hill's office, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's Office.
The Investigation
He attempted to seduce the girl during their online chats, encouraging her to purchase a web cam so that she could send graphic images of herself to him, and promised her that he would likewise send nude photos of himself. Many of the conversations he initiated with the victim are too extraordinary and graphic for public release.
The Charges
Tensions Change Dress Code At Local Middle School
to wear anything that's patriotic, including camouflage pants, because they have become a political symbol for a version of patriotism.
"It upsets me that we cannot support our troops, the military," said Kirsten Golgart, an eighth grader who was told she'd be suspended if she didn't change her clothes. "We can't support our country. If we're American, I think we should be proud to be an American."
A letter went home to parents last week that explained for student safety, no clothes were allowed with political messages or flags of any sort.
Myla Shepherd, the principal, said that tensions over the immigration issue were apparent when more than 20 students came to school wearing camouflage jackets and pants, apparently to show what they call their patriotism and American pride.