16 illegal aliens sue Arizona rancher

Now this is totally messed up!:

An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home.

His Cross Rail Ranch near Douglas, Ariz., is known by federal and county law enforcement authorities as “the avenue of choice” for immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally.

Trial continues Monday in the federal lawsuit, which seeks $32 million in actual and punitive damages for civil rights violations, the infliction of emotional distress and other crimes. Also named are Mr. Barnett’s wife, Barbara, his brother, Donald, and Larry Dever, sheriff in Cochise County, Ariz., where the Barnetts live. The civil trial is expected to continue until Friday.

The lawsuit is based on a March 7, 2004, incident in a dry wash on the 22,000-acre ranch, when he approached a group of illegal immigrants while carrying a gun and accompanied by a large dog.

Attorneys for the immigrants – five women and 11 men who were trying to cross illegally into the United States – have accused Mr. Barnett of holding the group captive at gunpoint, threatening to turn his dog loose on them and saying he would shoot anyone who tried to escape.

The immigrants are represented at trial by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), which also charged that Sheriff Dever did nothing to prevent Mr. Barnett from holding their clients at “gunpoint, yelling obscenities at them and kicking one of the women.”

In the lawsuit, MALDEF said Mr. Barnett approached the group as the immigrants moved through his property, and that he was carrying a pistol and threatening them in English and Spanish. At one point, it said, Mr. Barnett’s dog barked at several of the women and he yelled at them in Spanish, “My dog is hungry and he’s hungry for buttocks.”

via Washington Times – 16 illegals sue Arizona rancher.

Let me get this straight…… A man defends his land against unwanted intruders and he’s being sued?!?!?! Something is wrong with America. I would have just shot them all. Told the law that they charged me or tried to attack and I was simply defending myself. It would have been my word against theirs.  But this guy shows a little aggression and brandishes a gun and he gets sued? Oy.

Of course, these are Obama’s people and thanks to the stupid idiot Republican Party who ran an idiot moderate, and a dumb assed harpy bitch. We are going to see a bunch more of this.  Welcome to Liberal America people! Because it is only going to get worse from here! 🙄

Others: Townhall.com, Debbie Schlussel and Infidel Bloggers Alliance

Australian Fires Devastate

I have not blogged about this, because it really didn’t not hit close to home. However, I was over reading in the comments section at Rachel Lucas’s Blog.

It seems that Australian Conservative Blogger Tim Blair has really been covering this story big time:

Here are his postings:
FIRE LATEST
STATE RALLIES
BRIAN NAYLOR
FIRE WITHOUT END
STATE ABLAZE

It my understanding that some of the blazes were intentionally set.

Google News has much more on the fires.

The Australian Red Cross is taking donations.

Funny News: Ann Coulter is being Probed

This is a bit interesting….:

Ann Coulter is being probed. Following our Jan. 11 column, Connecticut’s Elections Enforcement Commission is making a “thorough investigation” of whether the conservative pundit broke the law by voting in the Nutmeg State while living in New York City, according to a commission spokeswoman.

Officials are responding to a formal complaint filed by Coulterwatch.com blogger Dan Borchers. “For over 10 years, Ann Coulter has gotten away with illegal, immoral and unethical behavior, ranging from plagiarism to defamation, perjury to voter fraud,” claims the conservative Borchers. Coulter declined to comment, but in the past has branded Borchers a stalker. He says the FBI has determined he poses no threat.

Meanwhile, private eye Joe Culligan, whose WebofDeception.com brought Coulter’s Connecticut voting record to light, has been poking into Rahm Emanuel’s living arrangements.

via New York Daily News: Ann Coulter under investigation.

Ann Coulter, being um, Probed?!?! Ha! Wishful thinking on her part, I’m sure. 😛 😉 😀 😆

I’d rather oink a goat! 😮

The only woman in the world that is so totally unfuckable. (Did I just say that?)

Patriot News: New Continental Congress to Meet in Philadelphia

I think this is important to know:

Early this year, selected delegates representing the People of each of the fifty states will convene in Philadelphia to debate our constitutional crisis and establish practicable strategies the People can take, en masse, to peacefully reclaim Liberty and restore Constitutional Order.

These historical proceedings will be known as the “Continental Congress 2009.”

Taking a page from the history of America’s Founders, the Delegates will convene in Philadelphia across from Independence Hall for a period of several weeks to begin the virtuous tasks of organizing to resist tyranny and imposing, once again, the yoke of Law upon our servant federal government.

A series of promotional meetings is currently being held across the country to advance public interest in the initiative and to expose potential donors to this most important cause in the defense of Liberty and the Constitution.

via NWV News — New Continental Congress to Meet in Philadelphia.

As patriots and protectors of the constitution it is important to stand against this sort of attack on our Constitution.

Radical Eco-Activist gets 22 Years for 1999 Arson at MSU

Justice Served or Overzealous Justice?  You Decide.

A radical activist who helped set a $1 million fire to protest research on genetically modified crops was sentenced Thursday to nearly 22 years in prison _ even more than the prosecution recommended.

Marie Mason decided to “elevate her grievances beyond the norms of civilized society” through fire and destruction, U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney said. The case _ which was prosecuted as domestic terrorism _ was “about an abandonment of the marketplace of ideas,” he added.

The explosion and fire caused more than $1 million in damage to Michigan State University’s Agriculture Hall on New Year’s Eve 1999.

In her plea agreement, she also admitted causing another $3 million in damage through other acts from 1999 to 2003, including destroying homes under construction in the Detroit area and Indiana and setting fire to two boats owned by a man who formerly raised minks.

The 47-year-old Mason, of Cincinnati, had acted on behalf of the radical group Earth Liberation Front, or ELF, which has been implicated in a spate of similar crimes, mostly in the West.

She had pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy and arson after reaching a deal with prosecutors. The prosecution had been aided by Frank Ambrose, her former husband, who cooperated with the FBI.

The investigation was cold until spring 2007, when a man looking for scrap cardboard found gas masks, an M-80 explosive, maps and anti-government writings in a suburban Detroit trash bin.

They belonged to Ambrose, who apparently was trying to shed remnants of his past. The FBI searched his home, and he became an informant, blowing the whistle on himself and Mason and going undercover to record 178 conversations with other activists.

At MSU, Mason and Ambrose targeted a campus office that held records on research related to moth-resistant potatoes for poor parts of Africa. Computers, file cabinets and desks were doused with a flammable liquid. Vapors contributed to an explosion, and the fire got out of control.

The explosion burned Mason’s hair and prevented her from finishing the message, “No GMO,” on a wall, a reference to genetically modified organisms.

via Woman Gets 22 Years For ’99 Mich. Campus Arson, Radical Activist Gets 22 Years In Prison For $1 Million Arson Fire At Mich. Campus In 1999 – CBS News.

The Libertarian in me says; A lady gets 22 years for setting fire to a Eco-Lab, but a President and his cabinet deceive the American people into a war that had nothing to do with September 11’th and he is sitting in Texas. Something is wrong with America.  For the record, nobody was killed as a result of this fire, 4000+ of our finest young people are dead. The fire cost what? 1 Million?? How much is the Iraq war costing us; 1 Trillion? Does anyone else see the oddball nature of this? Of course, the Fascist Neo-Con’s just love this conviction. That’s because they just love tossing around that word, “Terrorism.” That’s because it serves their masters well.

Thankfully, Mason’s lawyer is appealing this judgment, and I believe it is warranted, I believe this crime is wrong, but 22 years is extremely excessive.

Update: Jazz Shaw who writes at the Moderate Voice,  kind of agrees with me.

Colorado McCain Staffer picked up on Child Molestor Charges, Liberal Blogs fawn over story

Here’s the new Meme for the Liberal Blogsphere for the weekend or this day at least.

Via the Colorado Liberal Independent:

Police arrested the former manager of Sen. John McCain’s Pueblo presidential campaign office Wednesday on charges he sexually assaulted a 5-year-old boy left in his care so the boy’s mother could attend a rally for McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, The Denver Post’s Howard Pankratz reported Thursday afternoon.

It’s the second arrest on charges of sexual assault on a child by a person in position of trust in a week for Jeffrey Claude Bartleson, 52, who has faced similar allegations at least five times since 1982 without being convicted of a crime, according to the Pueblo Chieftain’s Nick Bonham.

Two detectives have been assigned full-time to the investigation and are looking into allegations Bartleson lured victims through church groups, his work as a sponsor at a hospital drug rehab unit, and during involvement in political work.

I just have to ask, do you think that if President Barack Hussein Obama’s Campaign Manager had been picked up for oinking some kid, that the media would be all over it, like this?

I somehow very highly doubt it. 🙄

…besides that, why wasn’t this kids Mother watching her son more closely?

Japan could serve as a lesson to the United States

Barack Obama could learn a lesson from Japan. There’s a very good article in the New York Times today, on the mistakes made by the country of Japan in the 1990’s to fix their failing economy:

The Hamada Marine Bridge soars majestically over this small fishing harbor, so much larger than the squid boats anchored below that it seems out of place.

And it is not just the bridge. Two decades of generous public works spending have showered this city of 61,000 mostly graying residents with a highway, a two-lane bypass, a university, a prison, a children’s art museum, the Sun Village Hamada sports center, a bright red welcome center, a ski resort and an aquarium featuring three ring-blowing Beluga whales.

Nor is this remote port in western Japan unusual. Japan’s rural areas have been paved over and filled in with roads, dams and other big infrastructure projects, the legacy of trillions of dollars spent to lift the economy from a severe downturn caused by the bursting of a real estate bubble in the late 1980s. During those nearly two decades, Japan accumulated the largest public debt in the developed world — totaling 180 percent of its $5.5 trillion economy — while failing to generate a convincing recovery.

Now, as the Obama administration embarks on a similar path, proposing to spend more than $820 billion to stimulate the sagging American economy, many economists are taking a fresh look at Japan’s troubled experience. While Japan is not exactly comparable to the United States — especially as a late developer with a history of heavy state investment in infrastructure — economists say it can still offer important lessons about the pitfalls, and chances for success, of a stimulus package in an advanced economy.

The Lesson to be learned here is:

“It is not enough just to hire workers to dig holes and then fill them in again,” said Toshihiro Ihori, an economics professor at the University of Tokyo. “One lesson from Japan is that public works get the best results when they create something useful for the future.

But the real lesson to be learned here is the follow and pay special close attention to what is said here:

In the end, say economists, it was not public works but an expensive cleanup of the debt-ridden banking system, combined with growing exports to China and the United States, that brought a close to Japan’s Lost Decade. This has led many to conclude that spending did little more than sink Japan deeply into debt, leaving an enormous tax burden for future generations.

Gee, is that not what Ron Paul said ALL ALONG, while he was running for President of the United States? For Ron Paul’s troubles and hard work he was slandered, maligned  and marginalized by the Neo-Conservatives who hated him and the Liberal Democrats who were sacred to death of him.

I highly suggest that you read the rest of this article. The United States could learn much from this lesson that Japan had to learn. We could very well end up causing more harm than good to our economy.

Others: Glenn Thrush’s Blogs, Hot Air, A Blog For All, Cafe Hayek, Weekly Standard and QandO

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has pancreatic cancer

This is truly sad. 🙁

Via the AP:

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery Thursday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the court said.

Ginsburg, 75, had the surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She will remain in the hospital for seven to 10 days, said her surgeon, Dr. Murray Brennan, according to a release issued by the court.

The court announcement said the cancer is apparently in the early stages.

In 1999, Ginsburg had surgery for colon cancer and had chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The only woman on the court, she has been a justice since 1993.

The pancreatic cancer was discovered during a routine, annual exam late last month at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

A CAT scan revealed a tumor measuring about 1 centimeter across the center of the pancreas, the court said.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers: Nearly 38,000 cases a year are diagnosed and overall, fewer than 5 percent survive five years.

You know, politics in one thing, but real life is another. My best wishes and prayers are with the Ginsburg family and with Justice Ginsberg as well.

In the spirit of keeping things civil on this sad subject, I am shutting off comments on this posting. I just don’t need the problems with some idiot leaving an asshat comment.

God Bless the Lady. 🙁

Panasonic to eliminate 15,000 Jobs

Another victim of the worldwide economic collapse:

Panasonic on Wednesday said that it was shedding 15,000 jobs, the second significant layoff in Japan’s electronics industry in less than a week, and the latest example of how Japanese companies, exporters in particular, are scrambling to cut costs as demand evaporates.

Panasonic, along with Mitsubishi Motors and Mazda, also joined the rapidly lengthening list of companies to sharply revise their full-year outlooks Wednesday, with Panasonic now projecting a net loss of 380 billion yen or $4.2 billion for the year ending March 31, rather than the 30 billion yen profit it forecast on Nov. 27. Mitsubishi expects a net loss of 60 billion yen and Mazda 13 billion.

The speed of the demand downturn in recent months has taken manufacturers and economists by surprise, and forced many companies to sharply lower profit warnings made only months or even weeks ago.

via Panasonic to Cut 15,000 Jobs – NYTimes.com.

I hate to sound like I am repeating myself. But this is more damage done by the Clinton Administration and the inaction of the Republican Majority of 2003. The easing of the housing loan regulations is what created all this, thus creating a economic bubble. Which has now burst. Of course, throwing money at it, will not fix it. Now, we have the tech sector taking the hit, because of the downturn in the economy. Expect more of this to come as time goes on.