ACORN and the 2010 Census

In a previous post, we predicted that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the organization implicated in widespread vote fraud to help their fellow "community organizer" become president, would participate in the 2010 Census headcount. Guess what?

Why is the Census important? The Washington Times explains:

What is at stake from an accurate census is huge. The allocation of seats in Congress, and ultimately questions of who controls it, depend on an accurate count. Much of the money Congress spends is allocated based on the census. Requiring that the census be non-partisan is the first requirement that must be met.

For this reason, questions are also being raised about the person, a Univ. of Michigan sociology professor who advocates "sampling," tapped to run the Census. The White House's attempt to politicize the process will likely face legal challenges on constitutional and other grounds. Allegations also have now surfaced that the New York Times spiked a story about the Obama campaign's direct involvement with ACORN corruption, according to this report on FNC:And while we're on the subject, other than to facilitate vote fraud, what rational reason do Democrats have for fighting tooth and nail in every jurisdiction against the simple requirement to show a photo ID for voting? Here's a companion FNC video on ACORN vote fraud.

Worksite Immigration Raids Put On ICE

This just in from the Washington Post:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has delayed a series of proposed immigration raids and other enforcement actions at U.S. workplaces in recent weeks, asking agents in her department to apply more scrutiny to the selection and investigation of targets as well as the timing of raids, federal officials said.

A senior department official said the delays signal a pending change in whom agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement choose to prosecute -- increasing the focus on businesses and executives instead of ordinary workers.

Was DHS Secretary Napolitano for immigration enforcement before she was against it?

Drug Smuggling Increasingly Land Based

As part of its coverage of the security situation in Mexico, global intelligence clearinghouse STRATFOR has posted an informative and timely analysis of the changing nature of the drug trade in the Western Hemisphere:

While the United States remains the top destination for South American-produced cocaine, and Mexico continues to serve as the primary transshipment route, the path between Mexico and South America is clearly changing.

These changes have been most pronounced in Central America, where Mexican drug-trafficking organizations have begun to rely increasingly on land-based smuggling routes as several countries in the region have stepped up monitoring and interdiction of airborne and maritime shipments transiting from South America to Mexico.

The results of these changes have been extraordinary…Notwithstanding the difficulty associated with estimating drug flows, it is clear that Central America has evolved into a significant transshipment route for drugs, and that the changes have taken place rapidly. These developments warrant a closer look at the mechanics of the drug trade in the region, the actors involved, and the implications for Central American governments — for whom drug-trafficking organizations represent a much more daunting threat than they do for Mexico.

Click here for the complete STRATFOR report.

Update: U.S. trucking companies operating in Mexico or near the southwest border have been warned "to establish special security procedures in light of the surge in drug-related violence along the key commercial corridor."

Enemy Combatants To Get Welfare?

In his first news conference as an administration official, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair suggested on March 26 that Gitmo detainees may soon be coming to a Social Services agency near you:

During his news conference, Blair also said the Obama administration is still wrestling with what to do with the remaining 240 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which the president has ordered closed

Some of the detainees, deemed non-threatening, may be released into the United States as free men, Blair confirmed.

That would happen when they can't be returned to their home countries, because the governments either won't take them or the U.S. fears they will be abused or tortured. That is the case with 17 Uighers (WEE'-gurz), Chinese Muslim separatists who were cleared for release from the jail long ago. The U.S. can't find a country willing to take them, and it will not turn them over to China.

Blair said the former prisoners would have get some sort of assistance to start their new lives in the United States.

"We can't put them out on the street," he said.

Blair also said the administration has abandoned waterboarding, but is considering other, unspecified "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Border Security Initiative Gets Mixed Reviews

On Tuesday, March 24, DHS Secretary Napolitano announced the administration's $700 million southwest border security initiative calling for "additional personnel, increased intelligence capability and better coordination with state, local and Mexican law enforcement authorities." However, some federal and state lawmakers say more needs to be done.

A plan by President Barack Obama to send more federal agents to the Mexican border is inadequate to control growing drug violence in the two countries, an influential U.S. senator said on Wednesday, and he said he would seek $385 million more from Congress.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said he would try to quickly pass funding to hire 1,600 more Customs and Border Patrol agents and extra immigration officers, build up law enforcement centers and fight human trafficking....

"I don't think it's enough," Lieberman said at a hearing of his committee. "The danger here is clear and present. It threatens to get worse."

More reaction from elected officials here. And Investor's Business Daily also finds the plan wanting, noting that what it calls "a wall of bureaucracy" is an insufficient method for securing the border.

Update: The head of the Border Patrol union is underwhelmed by the plan. And HumanEvents.com is really underwhelmed.

State Secrets Privilege To Be Tested

The Obama administration now seeks to invoke a more extensive state-secrets privilege then its predecessor, despite what was said on the campaign trail. Sound familiar? A ruling from Judge Vaughn R. Walker could be handed down at any moment:

Civil liberties advocates are accusing the Obama administration of forsaking campaign rhetoric and adopting the same expansive arguments that his predecessor used to cloak some of the most sensitive intelligence-gathering programs of the Bush White House.

The first signs have come just weeks into the new administration, in a case filed by an Oregon charity suspected of funding terrorism. President Obama's Justice Department not only sought to dismiss the lawsuit by arguing that it implicated "state secrets," but also escalated the standoff -- proposing that government lawyers might take classified documents from the court's custody to keep the charity's representatives from reviewing them.

The suit by the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation has proceeded further than any other in challenging the use of warrantless wiretaps, threatening to expose the inner workings of that program. It is the second time the new Justice Department has followed its predecessors in claiming the state-secrets privilege, which would allow the government to exclude evidence in a civil case on grounds that it jeopardizes national security.

See our earlier post on this matter here.

Update: Judge Walker denied the government's motion on April 17.

The War on Terror: Just Words?

More changes in the Obama administration's approved lexicon according to the Washington Post:

The end of the Global War on Terror -- or at least the use of that phrase -- has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time amongst senior administration officials, and this morning speechwriters and other staff were notified via this e-mail to use "Overseas Contingency Operation" instead.

"Recently, in a LtGen [John] Bergman, USMC, statement for the 25 March [congressional] hearing, OMB required that the following change be made before going to the Hill," Dave Riedel, of the Office of Security Review, wrote in an e-mail.

"OMB says: 'This Administration prefers to avoid using the term "Long War" or "Global War on Terror" [GWOT]. Please use "Overseas Contingency Operation.'"

Riedel asked recipients to "Please pass on to your speech writers and try to catch this change before the statements make it to OMB."

In The Tyranny of Words by Stuart Chase, the author observes that "Language is apparently a sword which cuts both ways. With its help man can conquer the unknown; with it he can grievously wound himself."