Unacceptable!—-Shannon Column: The 2010 Mexican roundup

Michael Shannon has a guest column in the News & Messenger. Unfortunately, his rantings often go over into the realm of unacceptable public speech. By allowing him to have a column in the News & Messenger, the newspaper gives his voice a platform of legitimacy that includes prejudice, ignorance, and racism. Were Shannon to post his diatribe against Hispanics and Chief Deane as a letter to the editor, he would be exercising free speech. Because he writes as a guest columnist, the News & Messenger becomes complict in spreading this hateful message:

Shannon Column: The 2010 Mexican roundup

There was a near miss in Fairfax County for Prince William County’s Jefe de la Policia Charlie Deane. Authorities there arrested a Belgian accused of soliciting prostitution. A records check, conducted as part of the Federal “Secure Communities” program, revealed this miscreant was also an illegal alien.

Thank goodness this bad man was caught before he had a chance to cross the Occoquan.

Adding Belgian outreach to his already extensive Hispanic illegal alien outreach could have pushed Jefe Deane over the edge. There is only so much apologizing for enforcing the law that one man can do.

Reaching out to Belgians is particularly difficult in that you have to pander in two languages: Flemish and French. Plus Deane would have had to find a police officer with a French surname that spoke French and a Flemish surnamed officer that spoke Flemish otherwise his outreach would not be sincere.

Que Lastima!

That sort of complication makes last year’s Hispanic Contrition Tour (or Festival de Contrición) look like a model of efficiency, since one abject apology in Spanish covers about 15 countries and most of the landscapers in the county.

“Secure Communities” is actually sort of an SAT test for illegals. It only matches arrestees with a database of aliens who had a visa and overstayed, or aliens who were caught earlier and are making a return visit to the hoosegow.

If Juan is clever enough to avoid attracting attention after he wades the Rio Grande—not difficult under Deane’s lethargic enforcement regime—his name won’t be in the database. And if there is no database hit, then Juan remains in El Norte.

“Secure Communities” is a much less stringent affair than the 287g program that allows deputized local officials to determine whether or not to pursue deportation of illegals.

Of course if it were up to Deane, the welcome mat (or alfombra de bienvenida) would never be withdrawn. He worries that a lot of crime is going unreported due to a victim’s immigration status, hence the constant reassurance that Deane’s heart is not really in immigration work.

But I wonder if when Charlie is talking to “immigrant rights groups”, do the terms “aiding and abetting” or “conspiracy” ever come to mind?

The audience for his outreach often is illegal or knows other illegals, harbors illegals, knowingly does business with illegals and generally approves of the mass violation of the nation’s borders. Yet our jefe is unperturbed.

It is interesting to compare Deane’s come-one-come-all (or viene uno que llega a todos) philosophy with that of Frederick County, MD Sheriff Charles Jenkins (trust me, the first name is the only similarity).

Jenkins’ policy is to target every inmate identified as an illegal for deportation, which amounts to about 9 percent of his jail population.

“One of the first persons we processed [for deportation] was driving under the influence of alcohol through a school zone during school hours at 30 miles over the speed limit,” Jenkins told the Washington Post. “Is he any less of a threat to the community than a [top-level] offender? I would argue no.”

A sentiment not shared by Deane who downplays illegal alien crime by explaining the most common violations are driving without a license, public intoxication and driving under the influence of alcohol.

That’s certain to be comforting to the taxpayer in an auto crash with an illegal who had neither a licencia de operador del automóvil or insurance.

It’s a mere property crime, don’t you know, and besides the county furnishes Deane with his ride.

But now if looks like Charlie’s foot-dragging has finally paid off.

The census has come to town and thar’s gold in them thar Mexicans. Why our Board of Supervisor’s says Uncle Sam’s bounty on illegals is $1,000 a head and we want to count every last Jesús and Jesúsa.

That measly thousand bucks will just about cover the county fee for the ambulance and first visit to the emergency room for our newly welcome South-of-the-Border guest.

After Obama’s thousand bucks is gone, who pays for the schools and associated social costs that illegals bring?

Once the public gets past the whiplash-inducing political hypocrisy, I don’t foresee a counting problem. Just ask Charlie for the list of groups he’s apologized to and work up from there.

One thing is certain: Hispanics aren’t shy about lecturing the U.S. on how to improve the illegal immigrant experience. Just this week Columbian fanny-shaker Shakira was in the White House to discuss “child development programs in Latin America.”

But she’s behind the curve. We already have a program for that. It’s called “anchor babies.”

Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He wants you to share the machines and can be reached at [email protected].

The News & Messenger needs to balance its columnists with individuals who maintain proper public decorum. It is the opinion of this blog’s administrators that Mr. Shannon’s public writings should no longer be a part of the News & Messenger. Translation: Fire Mike Shannon.

Enteroctopus dofleini is coming! Hide the kids!

Enteroctopus dofleini — a giant Pacific Octopus is headed to Washington National Zoo.  Its claim to fame is that it will grow 13 times its present size  over the next year.  Sadly, it won’t be black and white like the little panda who recently left for his new home in China.   The zoo hopes to ignite excitement over invertebrates which make up more than 95% of the animal kingdom. 

Alan Peters, the Zoo’s curator of invertebrates  calls it the “giant panda” of invertebrates.  Here are some giant Octopus facts  from Yahoo News:

Now for some octopus facts: They emerge from eggs only a little larger than a grain of rice, but as adults they can tip the scales at more than 100 pounds. Some have arm spans of 25 feet (be glad you’re not sitting across the table from one.)

The Zoo’s new octopus doesn’t yet have a name. That will come in March. Zoo officials think it’s a he, but aren’t 100 percent certain.

According to Wikipedia:

The North Pacific Giant Octopus is considered to be short-lived for an animal its size, with life spans that average only 3-5 years in the wild. To make up for its relatively short life span, the octopus is extremely prolific. It can lay up to 100,000 eggs which are intensively cared for by the females. Hatchlings are about the size of a grain of rice, and only a very few survive to adulthood.

During reproduction, the male octopus deposits a spermatophore (or sperm packet) more than 1 meter long. Large spermatophores are characteristic of octopuses in this genus.[4]

Is it possible for an invertebrate to attract the same kinds of crowds as little Tai Shan did?  Is it possible to get attached to an invertibrate the same as one does a mammal?  Do octopus even have personalities?  Is keeping an invertibrate  the same as keeping a mammal in captivity?  How do our contributors feel about this youngster who is coming to live at the National Zoo?

Welcome to Moonhowlings

Today is our birthday…I mean our REAL birthday! Moonhowlings was born today. Anti was fun but our name really bothered us and other people. We didn’t want to be seen as a reaction. So, here we are, all spanking new and welcoming our family over from our old home.

So who are we? Elena and I are the same moderate chix you knew over on Anti. We will be the blog admins/moderators and Alanna has kindly agreed to be our technical support when we ski into trees and stuff like that. And you all are the same folks you have always been. Note the new address however: www.moonhowlings.net

You will not have to link from Anti.

The web ‘clothes’ will remain the same and hopefully you will not find things changed around too much. Let us know if something is broken and we will try to fix it or holler for Alanna. And so we continue…and howl at the moon.