Arm the Hippies of Whatcom County

Attention Whatcom County NRA members: You now have a reason to own your guns. Volunteer "Minutemen" began patrolling stretches of the Whatcom County Canadian border yesterday. Minutemen are best known for constantly patrolling the Mexican border and drawing attention to illegal immigration. Sixty to 100 volunteers, most of whom have some military or law enforcement experience, are expected to patrol the remote sections of the Whatcom County border all month long.

A bunch of hippies, probably from Bellingham, have held protests against the Minutemen at the Peace Arch. This is ridiculous. We need all the border patrol help we can get. While the U.S. Border Patrol does not support the Minutemen, they don't stop them either because Minutemen obey the law. The U.S. Border Patrol simply doesn't want to acknowledge that our border security is poor and that they need the help.

Illegal immigration at the Canadian border hasn't been a huge problem like it has at the Mexican border, but the drug-smuggling, border-crossing tunnel discovered in July should spark interest in our local border security. It sparked the interest of Minutemen, and we should welcome their voluntary efforts.

The First 1,000 Views

Justice for Guantanamo

Back in my undergraduate days, I wrote a research paper (25 pages, 125+ footnotes) analyzing how the NY Times reported on the Guantanamo Bay detainee camp. I made three conclusions:

1. The Times reported the events at the camp thoroughly, compared to other media.
2. The Times provided a clearly disapproving stance in its editorials.
3. The treatment of detainees at the camp were below Geneva Convention standards and reflected poorly upon U.S. militia.

Finally, senators are uniting to address that third, most-important conclusion. Arizona Senator John McCain spearheaded a bill regulating the detention, interrogation and treatment of prisoners held by U.S. military, hopefully preventing a future Abu Ghraib and restricting questionable tactics at detainee camps like Guantanamo. Forty-six Republicans and 43 Democrats voted to pass the legislation 90 to 9 yesterday.

The bill was also endorsed by more than two dozen retired senior military officers, including Colin Powell.

McCain, a famous Vietnam prisoner of war, emphasized the need for the U.S. to raise its standards of war above other countries in a closing statement on the senate floor:

"Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us - every single one of us - knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies."

This bipartisan effort is a major blow to the White House, which released a statement saying the bill threatens to "restrict the president's authority to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack and bringing terrorists to justice." I don’t know that interrogations have anything to do with the president directly, but, nevertheless, W. threatens to veto.

W. is scheduled to brief the nation today about our escapades in the Middle East. He’ll basically reinforce the same message: “Stay the course.”

New Halo Movie on the Way!

Every night you can find me and Scott playing best-selling Microsoft Xbox game “Halo 2.” I usually demoralize Scott, although he scores the occasional win, and we remain entertained enough to continue this nightly ritual to the disapproval of our girlfriends.

To my pleasant surprise, the Seattle P-I reported today that "Lord of the Rings" mastermind Peter Jackson has signed on to be the executive producer for a Halo movie scheduled for release summer 2007. No director or actors have been named yet, but I demand a Bill Gates cameo.

What Up, Boo?

This is for Katrine: Sergio as a thug looking for his boo.

I've posted a new photo album. I don't have too many pictures this time, but now people are back in town and I'll be sure to capture the moments for next time. I'm looking forward to a fun, but short, Thursday night. I do have to work on Friday.

Update: Matt Wood is quitting his preschool teacher post to try and work for DSHS. The question: Is this a good career move for the Radical Right? I look forward to hearing your responses.