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This week, the House is in recess for the summer district work period and will reconvene on September 6. Lethal Immigration Frighteningly, illegal immigration by aliens from “Countries of Interest” such as those the State Department considers sponsors of terrorism (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria) and others with significant militant Islamist movements (Afghanistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Yemen) has increased greatly since the 9/11 attacks. Department of Homeland Security figures show that, between October 1, 2002, and June 30, 2003, 4,226 Special Interest Aliens (SIA) were captured on America’s southern and northern borders. By June 30, 2004, that had increased by 42.5 percent to 6,022 SIAs. Data from 2004 shows the apprehension of 7 Saudis, 10 Syrians, 18 Lebanese, 19 Iranians, 25 Egyptians, 28 Jordanians, and 164 Pakistanis, among others. As Deroy Murdock puts it in this week’s National Review Online, “If these figures seem small, recall the havoc 19 Middle Easterners unleashed on September 11.” With this weighing heavily on his mind, look for President Bush to reveal a plan for meeting the real security threat posed by illegal immigration when Congress reconvenes next month. Discrimination for Dollars The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) has created gender-segregated classes for the benefit of visiting faculty from Saudi Arabia. King Abdulaziz University paid Virginia Tech $246,000 to design and operate a faculty development program this summer to include courses covering Web site development and online instruction. At the urging of the Saudi university, Virginia Tech established separate classes for the approximately 30 male and 30 female faculty members. Understandably, some of Virginia Tech’s own professors have protested that a state-supported institution shouldn’t promote such discrimination, arguing that it created a hostile environment for women. According to the Associated Press, Provost Mark McNamee has said that the gender segregation isn’t compatible with Virginia Tech’s practices and called the controversy “a learning moment” that will help guide the university’s future contracts with foreign universities. Unfortunately, what the Saudi guests have taken away from this “learning moment” is that, for the right price, American academia is willing to abandon its principles of equal treatment for groups traditionally protected by political correctness. Remembering As we approach the month of September, I have introduced H. Con. Res. 220 – a resolution expressing the sense of the Congress on the fourth anniversary of the terrorists attacks launched against the United States on September 11, 2001. The last four years have not diluted the memory or weakened the resolve of our citizens. It is important to extend our deepest gratitude to our Armed Forces and first responders serving both at home and abroad in the war against terrorism. This resolution is further proof that Congress stands firmly behind our troops and remains resolved to pursue those responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11, until they are discovered, detained, and punished. Holy Cow! “However sympathetically you interpret the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, it puts animals in a fundamentally different category from human beings ... I think in the end we have, reluctantly, to recognize that the Judeo-Christian religious tradition is our foe.” – Peter Singer, PETA’s philosophical godfather, quoted in a new report entitled Holy Cows: How PETA twists religion to push animal “rights”. |
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