Palestinians need to fear the drastic measures being considered as a result of Hamas' actions.

You have Hamas and Fatah battling in the streets. Crime is more rampant between Palestinians  today than ever. Food shortages are the norm now. Access to medical care has become limited. These things are not the fault of Israel. These things are wholly own subsidiaries of Hamas activities. 

What Palestinians should fear is Israel thinking this is their only resort for security. The question is, "Should we retake Gaza?"

The average Israeli goes to sleep these days as his lips whisper a prayer, and with great hope in his heart: To wake up in the morning and hear that the IDF has reoccupied the Gaza Strip, and “Sderot experienced its first quiet night.”

Admittedly, there are reasons offered for and against retaking Gaza, but the point I make is Hamas offers Israel very little choice except military action to solve the problem of security for Israel. Palestinians should be very afraid of that - although Israel is likely to be a much better benefactor than Hamas has been.  The question is why should the Palestinians suffer because of Hamas?

This won't get better, I bet.

Well, first there was Hsu. Now there is Celis.

It wasn't much of a story at first. Back in October a rival accused Corpus Christi "attorney" Mauricio Celis of practicing law without a license, which is a felony in Texas. And you know,he seemed to be hemming and hawing about his bona fide lawyerness quite a bit.

Born in Mexico, raised in Rockport, educated in Monterrey, Mexico, and for a while apparently in the air-conditioning business, Celis seemed a South Texas version of the classic American success story.But the story line took a bad turn on Sept. 28, when Thomas Henry, a Corpus Christi lawyer, appeared on a local television station and denounced Celis, 35, as a fraud.

"Mauricio Celis with the law firm of CGT Law Group International does not have a law license in the state of Texas nor does he have a license to practice law anywhere in the world," announced Henry in the paid TV spot.

... "He was wrong in his statements. I have never represented myself to be a lawyer in Texas," Celis said by phone in a brief interview this week.

That and related folderol were good for a few quick jibes in the blogosphere, but never really reached Hsu-like proportions.Well, apparently that little law license tiff raised some more interesting questions, and now another Hsu has dropped:

CORPUS CHRISTI — Mauricio Celis is linked to the Mexican drug trade in a search warrant the state used Friday to raid his law offices and gather computer files, according to financial documents and other business records. The warrant includes a sworn statement by a Texas Attorney General's official accusing Celis of money laundering.

Reckon there are others?

What if the GOP primaries take a post pattern aspect and become drawn out well beyond giga Tuesday? To my way of thinking it is not a bad thing because I think we need to "shake out" the bugs in this race anyway. Understandably, this is because I view the current front runners as a sure sign the GOP is headed too far left and I am not comfortable with that. the most "popular" candidates are not what I am looking for in a president.

Until today, I thought I might be alone in my opinion of the candidates in general and specifically about my thoughts on this year's early primaries.

If you think Iowa's wacky caucus rules make their choice unrepresentative, if you think Wyoming's caucus rules were too strict, if you think the independents of New Hampshire and the crossover Democrats of Michigan might make those states' choices somehow invalid... don't worry. You'll get your say (well, not all of you, but a lot of you). The Super Duper Tuesday states will be huge, and the Maryland-Virginia-D.C. votes a week later might even make a difference.

Whoever the Republican nominee is, he won't be a reflection of the quirky preferences of the early states. He'll have fought and won over a wide variety of political terrain.

The fact that we still have no clear front runner to me negates all of the national polls and solidifies the fact that it is still any body's race. It also vindicates what I said earlier about the early primaries this election cycle.

Finally, to my thinking, the longer the race goes without a clear front runner emerging, the more probable a Thompson nomination becomes. People are going to get sick of these other baubles as the conservative clear-coat wears off.

Hey, guess what? You can't continue to talk about President Bush's suspicion of Iran as being unilateral. I told you how the Dutch feel about Iran right now and now we have indications that Germany has a similar view.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday a U.S. intelligence report saying Tehran had stopped an active nuclear weapons program in 2003 was not an excuse to give the Islamic Republic the "all clear".

I am sure you will come up with something else to extend your vilification of our President over, but this won't be it.

Blue Team - Bi-Racial and Bi-Sexual? AND Already with the recounts!

As we learned last week, Hillary Clinton won big in New Hampshire, flummoxing the polls and pollsters. Most of them have had excuses of one flavor or another, but the bottom lines seems to have been, we are not good at Bi-racial polling, nor bi-sexual polling. In the mean time, Hillary has made several statements along racial lines that have not sat well with black voters. The word on the street is there is a lot more faith in Bill on race than there is in Hillary. 

After shaking up her staff and bringing in the old-school race baiters, you can bet this campaign is going to get messy fast. The question is will Hillary ruin their chances of a win in November just to get the party's nomination? 

Barak Obama has a message for skeptical blacks in South Carolina - "Whites are ready for a black president".  This is something we pointed out here last month. The big question is can Barak fend off the big hit campaign due to be launched against him by a large pro-Hillary group? South Carolina might be more contentious than anticipated. With several activists bringing out the race card, as well as trying to catch Barak riding dirty on his college drug use, he has to come out strong on the issues to get past what we think is simply a very nasty speed bump.  Kerry endorsed Obama though - did it help?

John Edwards could be facing Barak alone, unless Hillary can bring out another win. This would certainly change the dynamic of the race. We think there would be a lot less talk of race from the MSM, if there was also not a sex issue as well. 

Dishonorable mention goes to Dennis Kucinich, who first demanded a recount in New Hampshire and then sued to be included in the debates in Nevada. He doesn't seem to understand he has already been voted off the island of Wannabedaprezi!

Red Team - No Clear Front Runner!

Rudy Giuliani wants your prayers and he really needs them right now. South Carolina is not going to be friendly to him and Michigan is not going to be nice either. With cash problems and staffers going without pay, his campaign doesn't have much steam left. 

Mitt Romney needs a Michigan win to remain viable and he'll probably get it, although the McCain surge could bump him into a second place finish. We'll know soon enough! I don't expect him to drop out before Super Tuesday, as he has enough money to stay in as long as he wants. Romney is also getting a lot of support from Leftists, according to Daily Kos - the idea being that Romney loses against Hillary and Obama in all polls thus far. 

John McCain is still surging and it is paying off. As he gains popularity, he also becomes a magnet for abuse from the GOP base. take into account also that GOP leaders are not supporting him. Romney has garnered a lot more support from party leaders and congressional leaders, while McCain is gaining on popularity chatter. I still don't believe McCain is going to get the nomination. 

Mike Huckabee is losing fast. His campaign is in disarray and his true colors are starting to show. As others attack his policy - which is natural when you become the front runner - he began making his attacks more personal. As he slides in all the national polls, we are hearing a lot less news about him. I think he is close to being done.

Fred Thompson is still rising and expected to finish strong in South Carolina. In our minds, he does not need a win in any of the early primaries. As long as he can keep his campaign afloat money-wise, he can stick through to super-Tuesday and find out what America really thinks. There is a big difference between the primaries elections and the feeling the waters early primaries. His message is resonating well, as his campaign gets better at communicating. There is a rumor that a presidential ticket is shaping up with Fred. How does "Thompson - Watts '08" sound? 

Ron Paul is still in the race and we predict this will continue as long as the money holds out, despite poor results and not so subtle hints from the field that his policy ideas are crazy. We predict he will struggle to remain viable until just shy of Giga Tuesday and then swing his support to no one.

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Today the Democrats debate in Nevada and the Michigan primaries are today!

January 19th - Nevada caucuses!

Stay Tuned and watch the drama unfold! Who is next to leave the island of Wannapedaprezi? Find out what happens the next time - "The tribe has spoken"!

Original Post

It goes like this:

All of a sudden, Assistant HR Managers around the US are in jeopardy of being charged with crimes for hiring illegal immigrants.

Sometime soon, perhaps by the end of this month, Christopher Lamb may plead guilty to harboring an illegal alien. Lamb, 37, was a human resources assistant manager at Swift & Co., among the largest beef and pork processors in the U.S. As immigration emerges as one of the most contentious issues of this election season, his case is emblematic of newly aggressive tactics against management by the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE.

To these people, the government is at fault for enforcing existing laws. The exploitative hiring practices designed to do nothing more than increase profits are not the problem. A culture of lawbreaking by these companies is not the problem.

For years there has been an implicit understanding among businesses that need workers, illegal immigrants willing to do those jobs, communities that benefit from such commerce, and a government that rarely intervened. Now that understanding has been torn apart.

The above statement is nothing more than a lie. The communities are made of the same people who are tired of the burden of illegal immigration. The government is made of people elected by those in the community. The implicit understanding is only between the illegal immigrants and the businesses that need workers well below the cost of a citizen.

If a business cannot compete with others in their industry without breaking the law, maybe they don’t belong in business.

Original Post

I said yesterday that the "illegal" in illegal immigration doesn't seem to mean anything to anyone on either side of the issue anymore. It never really had much meaning from the leftists, and has been diluted to a great extent now on the right.

Well, another phrase seems to have taken on this same semblance of androgyny on the issue of illegal immigration - "Zero Tolerance". Now, I cast no dispersion whatsoever on the men and women protecting our borders day-to-day. They do a fine job with the resources and policies they are handed. This is a policy matter.

Roughly 1000 illegal immigrants are apprehended everyday in the Tucson sector. This is, by vast amounts, the most active area for illegal border crossers. Most of those apprehended are provided with the "catch-and-release" policy of "voluntary return to Mexico" - thus allowing them the opportunity to actually enter the country legally without repercussions. However, the Tucson sector bureaucrats will now be prosecuting 40 per day of these illegal entrants to show that they mean business, as a part of their "zero tolerance" program.

I understand the cost of prosecuting illegal entrants. I understand the burden this places on the court. However, there are two points I would like to make:

Every traffic court in the state handles dozens of cases everyday and no one blinks an eyelash about the burden on the court system. There are prosecuting attorneys there, but no defense attorneys appointed by the court for the benefit of citizens.

Forty indictments per day is not "zero tolerance" It is 960 tolerance.

Update: This is why the "catch-and-release" policies are a bad idea. Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin

Santana Batiz-Aceves, 39, a twice-deported illegal immigrant with a history of drug charges, was arrested about 11:49 a.m. Friday at his Chandler home near Arizona Avenue and Ray Road. He was booked into Maricopa County's Fourth Avenue Jail on suspicion of 25 felonies, including kidnapping, child molestation, sexual abuse, sexual conduct with a minor, aggravated assault, burglary and trespassing.