Newly Released Papers Energize Alito’s Critics

Well folks it looks like the fight is coming, I had for awhile been saying there wouldn’t be a filibuster but I think there is growing evidence the Dems will try it. But with Graham and McCain now on record saying that Alito doesn’t represent “extreme circumstances that means that the Nuclear Option could be invoked.

This is a win, win fight for us…. so I say BRING IT ON.

I was reading this article today by James Pinkerton who is criticizing President Bush for not being strong enough on stopping illegal immigration. Just two days ago I threw my own two cents in on Bush’s anti-illegal immigration speech in which I also pointed out that Bush neglected to address some major issues in his “plan”. I particularly made the following point:

Actually, Mr. President, there is a way to stop it. It’s called a wall. China built one a thousand years ago; we can do it now. Admitting that may even seem crude by today’s standards, the technology exists today to monitor the border effectively and stop the flow of illegal immigrants even without the Great Wall of Arizona. Perhaps a combination of both would be in order?

Now I read this today from Pinkerton’s article:

Here’s a prediction: Tancredo will win. A wall will get built - with none of Bush’s holes. It will be part physical barrier, part electronic surveillance, part get-serious law enforcement. And it will work, because while walls might not be politically correct, they are effective. Walls work to keep people and property secure, they work to keep nations secure.

What do ya know. More and more people seem to be opening up to this idea so I guess it isn’t such a neanderthal scheme after all. I hope Pinkerton’s prediction is correct. With Bush losing some battles in his own party lately, it’s certainly possible that the true Republicans out there will force his hand on this one.

Ever hear of the name James Shikwati? Me neither, until I read an article in Der Spiegel Online, a German news daily. The interviewer is obviously playing devil’s advocate with Mr. Shikwati because the questions are so loaded not even a German could be that condescending.

This man should win a Nobel Prize in economics:

SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa…

Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop.

SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.

It gets better as Mr. Shikwati explains why aid will never “save Africa”:

SPIEGEL: Do you have an explanation for this paradox?

Shikwati: Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa’s problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn’t even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.

While it is true that many conservatives already know this (or instinctively suspect it) hearing an African who has firsthand knowledge of this debacle is revealing.

This next portion of the interview is particularly disturbing considering President Bush’s billion-dollar AIDS relief to Africa.

SPIEGEL: Would Africa actually be able to solve these problems on its own?

Shikwati: Of course. Hunger should not be a problem in most of the countries south of the Sahara. In addition, there are vast natural resources: oil, gold, diamonds. Africa is always only portrayed as a continent of suffering, but most figures are vastly exaggerated. In the industrial nations, there’s a sense that Africa would go under without development aid. But believe me, Africa existed before you Europeans came along. And we didn’t do all that poorly either.

SPIEGEL: But AIDS didn’t exist at that time.

Shikwati: If one were to believe all the horrorifying reports, then all Kenyans should actually be dead by now. But now, tests are being carried out everywhere, and it turns out that the figures were vastly exaggerated. It’s not three million Kenyans that are infected. All of the sudden, it’s only about one million. Malaria is just as much of a problem, but people rarely talk about that.

SPIEGEL: And why’s that?

Shikwati: AIDS is big business, maybe Africa’s biggest business. There’s nothing else that can generate as much aid money as shocking figures on AIDS. AIDS is a political disease here, and we should be very skeptical.

So how can we help Africa? Maybe we don’t need to help Africa, we just need to stop killing its people with kindness.