You live in a beautiful house with a beautiful garden in a beautiful and peaceful neighborhood in a beautiful city. You and your partner have been living in this beautiful house for nearly a decade and you have done several renovations - inside and out - to maintain the beauty and charm of the house. Not too long ago, you had a beautiful new wooden fence put up.

     Since you and your partner have been living in this beautiful house in this beautiful and peaceful neighborhood, you have hosted many beautiful gatherings with friends and family. So far, you have nothing but beautiful memories, and these memories bring you a sense of peace and inspire you to create even more beautiful memories.

     You and your partner value your house not because of its beauty, but because it is your home. You have invested a lot of time, money and energy in converting your house into a true, beautiful, peaceful and inviting home.

     But alas, the beauty and the peace and security of your home has been threatened by illegal aliens who are trespassing your property, leaving trash all over the place, and even urinating and defecating on your freshly mowed lawn. You are not alone. You are among the hundreds and thousands of law-abiding U.S. citizens (native-born or naturalized) whose very existence and whose way of life are constantly being threatened by hundreds and thousands of illegal aliens who have no respect for law. Some of these aliens have strong criminal backgrounds...

... and some are men who have abandoned their wives and children!

     If you value your property, if you value your home, if you value your way of life, if you value America,  say no to illegal immigration and say yes to building the fence!

    And can you imagine America encouraging its poor legal residents to move up to Canada? My God! Would our Canadian friends still remain our friends?

        I listened to the infamous, newly minted Spanish version of the "Star-Spangled Banner" called "Nuestro Himno" and here's what I think:

1. It is painful to listen to it and hard to sing (at least in the current version). I speak fluent Spanish and I just couldn't follow the excessive elongation of the last syllables in each verse.

2. Some blogger commented that the lyrics in Spanish are whiny. I don't think so. In the original English version by Key,  the flag is still "gallantly" standing after giving a "perilous" fight. In the chorus of the Spanish version, the singer questions the invincibility of the flag.  The second verse evokes images of slavery and oppression as the singer urges his "people" to break the chains and to continue fighting (I suppose, for their "right" to remain in America).

3. I don't have any problem with national anthems being sung in other languages, as long as the foreign interpretations remain loyal to the original. A good example is the Philippine national anthem written and sung in Filipino, English and Spanish.  Besides, the U.S. national anthem has been recorded and sung in jazz, hard metal rock, country, pop and hip-hop. Singing it in Spanish does not worry me; it's how the lyrics and ideas are presented that does. 

"Star-Spangled Banner" in its original English written by Francis Scott Key in 1814:     Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

And now the Spanish version and its English translation:

And what are your thoughts, dear readers?

     Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, in her latest article, decries President Bush's claim that Americans lack compassion towards illegal aliens. Malkin fires back by saying that Bush lacks compasssion towards U.S. citizens:

The victims of illegal immigration

By Michelle Malkin

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com 

President Bush accuses those of us who want to secure America's borders and fully enforce our immigration laws of lacking "compassion."

Huh. Well, I have yet to hear an ounce of compassion from President Bush for America's countless casualties of lax immigration enforcement. Where's the sympathy for innocent, law-abiding citizens who have lost their lives at the hands of illegal aliens and their open-borders enablers?

Nope, we haven't heard a word about the victims as the White House pours on its unadulterated pro-illegal alien rhetoric and "undocumented workers do the jobs Americans won't do" propaganda — all in support of a massive, ill-timed, bureaucratic nightmare-inducing amnesty plan that will inevitably increase illegal immigration.

Last week, a notorious illegal alien serial killer who traipsed freely across the U.S.-Mexican border during a 25-year, escalating crime spree popped up in the news again. The case of Angel Resendiz, a convicted death row murderer in President Bush's home state of Texas, is a timely reminder of the deadly costs of our continued homeland security chaos.

Time and again, illegal alien day laborer Resendiz broke the law getting into our country; broke more laws while in the country; and then broke the law repeatedly and brazenly after being released, deported, and allowed to return. His most brutal acts included the slayings of 12 people, ranging in age from 16 to 81, which ended in 1999 when Resendiz surrendered to a Texas Ranger in El Paso. For the last seven years, Resendiz has been perched comfortably on Death Row — eating chocolate cream pies, watching Spanish-language television, whining about depression, and selling locks of his hair on Internet auction sites.

His execution, scheduled for May 10, has been delayed pending yet another of his endless appeals claiming to be "insane."

As I recounted in my book Invasion, Resendiz entered and exited our country at will. From the time he was 14, he racked up arrests and convictions ranging from trespassing, destruction of property, burglary, aggravated batter, and grand theft auto to carrying a loaded firearm and false representation of U.S. citizenship. He had at least 25 encounters with U.S. law enforcement between August 1976 and August 1996, when he was arrested and released for trespassing in a Kentucky railyard.

During that period, he was convicted at least nine times on several serious felon charges. He was deported to Mexico by the feds at least three times and was "voluntarily returned" to Mexico at least four times without formal proceedings. Throughout 1998, the Border Patrol continued its blind catch-and-release policy — apprehending Resendiz seven times and letting him go on his own recognizance despite his massive criminal record and three prior deportations. Shoddy fingerprint databases, immigration paperwork negligence, and unpoliced borders led to:

- The bludgeoning death of Florida teenager Jesse Howell and the rape and strangulation murder of his fiancé, Wendy Von Huben.

- The bludgeoning death of University of Kentucky student Christopher Maier and the rape and near-murder of his girlfriend, who survived the attack.

- The murder of Leafie Mason, an elderly Texas whom Resendiz hammered to death with a fire iron.

- The rape, stabbing, and bludgeoning death of Baylor College of Medicine researcher Claudia Benton.

- The sledgehammer bludgeonings of Texas pastor Norman Sirnic and his wife, Karen.

- The bludgeoning death of Houston teacher Noemi Dominguez.

- The murder of elderly Texas widow Josephine Konvicka, who was killed with a grubbing hoe.

- The murders of George Morber, shot in the head, and Carolyn Frederick, clubbed to death.

The last four of Resendiz's victims were murdered after Resendiz had been released by federal immigration officials — even though there were already warrants outstanding for his arrest.

Resendiz made a bloody mockery of our homeland security chaos. Congress and the White House are now preparing to add grave insult to fatal injury by refusing to fix the persistent problems that facilitated Resendiz's crimes.

Campaigning for amnesty this week, President Bush mouthed the open-borders mantra against tough deportation policies and lectured immigration enforcement advocates about their lack of sensitivity.

"I can understand it's emotional," he said, but "we're talking about human beings, decent human beings that need to be treated with respect."

I don't think the victims of "undocumented worker" Angel Resendiz would agree.

     Right on, Michelle. Although I do not necessarily agree with Malkin's views all the time, her latest column underlines once again Dubya's idiocy and cluelessness in the face of imminent threat and danger. 

Crime Victims of Illegal Aliens

The Illegal Alien Crime Wave

Myths and Lies of Illegal Immigration

     Last Tuesday, the Associated Press published a fact sheet presenting some highlights of the immigration proposals that are currently being debated in the U.S. Congress.

Senate Judiciary Committee's bill:

—Allows illegal immigrants who were in the United States before 2004 to continuing working legally for six years if they pay a $1,000 fine and clear a criminal background check. They would become eligible for permanent residence upon paying another $1,000 fine, any back taxes and having learned English.

—New immigrants would have to have temporary work visas. They also could earn legal permanent residence after six years.

—Adds up to 14,000 new Border Patrol agents by 2011 to the current force of 11,300 agents.

—Authorizes a "virtual wall" of unmanned vehicles, cameras and censors to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border.

—Creates a special guest worker program for an estimated 1.5 million immigrant farm workers, who can also earn legal permanent residency.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's proposal:

—Requires all employers to verify the identity and immigration status of their employees through an electronic system.

—Assesses civil penalties of between $500 and $20,000 against employers for each illegal immigrant they hire and criminal penalties of up to $20,000 per illegal immigrant hired and up to six months in jail for engaging in a pattern of employing illegal workers.

—More than doubles the number of employment-based green cards, from 140,000 to 290,000, and makes more employment based visas available to unskilled workers. It also would free up other visas by exempting immediate relatives of U.S. citizens from being counted in the annual pool of 480,000 visas, and increase country-by-country ceilings on family sponsored and employment-based immigrants.

—Cancels visas of immigrants who have overstayed their visas and requires them to return to their home country to undergo additional screening at U.S. consulates.

—Makes it a misdemeanor crime for an immigrant to be in the country illegally.

—Increases the number of visas available for high-tech workers.

—Does not address President Bush's proposal for a guest worker program.

House bill passed in December:

—Requires all employers to use within six years a database to verify Social Security numbers of employees or face civil or criminal penalties for hiring illegal workers.

—Requires mandatory detention for all non-Mexican illegal immigrants arrested at ports of entry or at land and sea borders.

—Establishes mandatory sentences for smuggling illegal immigrants and for re-entering the United States illegally after deportation.

—Makes illegal presence in the country a felony.

—Makes a drunken driving conviction a deportable offense.

—Requires building two-layer fences along 700 miles of the 2,000-mile border between Mexico and the United States.

—Does not address President Bush's proposed guest worker program for illegal immigrants already in U.S.

     After having seen images of highschool students (many of whom are Americans of Mexican descent) desecrating the U.S. flag by flying it upside down underneath the Mexican flag, I see myself agreeing even more with Bill Frist's proposals. Read his blog here.

     Meanwhile, Latino television viewers are enjoying two new telenovelas ("soap operas') "made in the United States that depict the conflicting and sometimes unsavory lives of undocumented immigrants."

     Across the ocean, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi warns against multiculturalism.

     Last weekend, hundreds and thousands of people - mostly Hispanics - converged in Los Angeles and other cities across the U.S. to protest the immigration reforms initiated by the Republican party. Last December, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would make illegal residency a felony; it would also impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and erect fences along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border. The Senate is to begin debating the proposals today.

     The huge presence of Hispanics in the rallies would suggest that all Hispanics in the U.S. disagree with the immigration reforms. Surprisingly, there are many Hispanics - some of whom are foreign-born - who align themselves with the Republican party. Consider these news reports:

     Don't assume U.S. Hispanics are soft on immigration

     Maintain or cut migration, most Hispanics in U.S. say

     Poll finds Hispanics split on illegals, immigration

     Native-born Hispanics tend to be critical

     Latinos against illegal immigration

     These Hispanics - as well as other legal immigrants in the U.S. - surely would agree with former president James Madison who said that “Americans should welcome immigrants who truly desire to join our society and assimilate. But, he said, it should reject those who want to operate as independent subcultures.”

     ... with Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers, who said, "The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits and on the love of country."

     ... and with former president Woodrow Wilson who said in a speech entitled Americanism and the Foreign-Born: "And while you bring all countries with you, you come with a purpose of leaving all other countries behind you, bringing what is best of their spirit, but not looking over your shoulder and seeking to perpetuate what you intended to leave behind in them."

     I'd like to see more Hispanic parents naming their sons James, Alexander or Woodrow! Well, maybe not Woodrow. Woody would be good enough.

     After the atrocious death of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in November 2004 by an Islamo thug, the Dutch have had it with Islamists who want to impose their primitive, intolerant, and asinine religious beliefs on every aspect of liberal Dutch society. Now, the Netherlands is fighting back by imposing a rigorous test for foreign Muslims who wish to immigrate:

     I'd like to see more Rita Verdonks in the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration.

     I'd like to see less Karel Steenbrinks in U.S. higher education and religious culture. Doesn't Steenbrinks realize that it takes radicals to change the world? Moses. Jesus. Buddha. George Washington. Gandhi. Hitler. Stalin. Mohammed. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mother Teresa. A radical person aspires for a higher ideal, though not all radicals seek to subjugate every Western and freedom-loving society like what the Islamofascists are doing.

     I will be raising plenty of Dutch tulips in my garden this spring.