Another trip down the blogroll. Let’s see what some of the “newbies” are doing.

Beautiful Atrocities is “outraged.” The amazing thing about this fantastic parody of “The Today Show” is that, like all good satire, it has the ring of truth. The fact that the reporter who fed the lack of armor question to Secretary Rumsfeld felt he had “his best day as a journalist”—even though as Bill at INDC points out it would be a stretch to call what he did “journalism,”—the reaction by Democrats and war critics has been both predictable and lame. This “gotcha” mentality may, in fact be harming the war effort according to LGF’s Charles Johnson.

The question I’d have for that reporter and indeed for many in the national press would be “How much do you think about reporting information that could result in American casualties?” Did, as Johnson’s post point out, 65 straight days of coverage of the Abu Gahraib prison scandal radicalize some segments of the Iraqi population against the Americans? In their partisan zeal to defeat the President, did some reporters cross the line and become advocates not for a political opposition but for the battlefield enemies of our soldiers?

Satire gets you thinking, doesn’t it?

The Carnivorous Conservative is photoblogging here and here. The Air Force testimony reminds me of a series of “photoshop” pictures in “Hustler” Magazine years ago that had Senators from BOTH parties doing commentaries on Anita Hill’s titillating testimony before the Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Ted Kennedy was a lout then…he’s a lout now.

David Earney is blogging the weather…in Baghdad. He’s also spot on with his analysis of Bush’s endorsement of Kofi Annan:

“There is no way to make the UN a fairly elected body, but empowering the institution and actually having a UN that is capable of really accomplishing things scares the hell out of me.”

David’s thought is that Kofi and the whole gang of incompetent boobs who currently run the UN bureaucracy are actually less of a threat than someone who could say, be an effective spokesman for the Security Council.

Amen to that.

Digger has some choice thoughts on the Kerik imbroglio.

“I think the man is qualified for the position of Director of Homeland Security, but I also have a twinge of happiness in this occurring. People care about this illegal alien problem we have and I’m happy to see people paying for their hiring of these individuals.”

I agree. The immigration issue, to me, is not about race…it’s about sovereignty. If there is one definition of sovereignty accepted the world over it has to be a nation’s right to defensible borders. When people pour over those borders as if they weren’t there, that damages our sovereignty and cripples our ability to defend ourselves.

My fear is that we won’t develop the political courage to address this problem until terrorists slip over the border and devastate an American city. The opponents of immigration reform should realize once that happens, the current proposals will seem like mild palliatives compared to the draconian measures sure to follow on the heels of a terrorist attack.

Iowahawk is channeling Jesse Jackson and charging vote fraud in Wizbang’s Weblog Awards.

A sample of the Reverend’s oratory:

“Reverend Iowahawk contacted me soon after the evidence of impropriety began. He explained the many problems and irregularities being reported. He assured me his check would clear. I decided I must be involved.”

With the Reverend on the case, I have no doubt we’ll get to the bottom of it.

Rightwingsparkle has a different take on immigration reform:

“Living in Texas and in a large city near the Mexican border, employing illegal aliens is commonplace. I know what your going to say…it is still illegal. Which is one of the reasons this guest worker program should take affect. A lot of Republicans have a problem with Bush’s immigration policies, but I understand where he is coming from. I know we have a security problem now, but Mexicans are not the ones we fear. This guest worker program will at least identify those here and coming in.”

Reading her post tugs at the heartstrings of most conservatives. The question I would have for Mrs. Sparkle would be: By making current “illegals” legal, don’t we just encourage another wave of border crossings similar to what happened after Bush 41’s amnesty program?

The key to immigration reform is enforcement. I fear that enforcing any program encompassing millions of guest workers would necessarily be haphazard and unfair to both employers and immigrants. Or do we grow the INS into another gigantic federal department, sucking tax dollars into ineffective and worthless “showcase” programs?

Preston Taylor Holmes is mad at France (again). It seems Jacques (please trim your nosehairs) Chirac is a little nostalgic for soviet style repression of free speech:

“The French, led by their spineless, corrupt leader, Jacques “The Worm” Chirac, are seeking to outlaw “sexist and homophobic” comments. That’s right, you call somebody an ass-pirate, and you’re going to jail for up to a year. Then you’ll find out what ass-pirate really means.”

Mr. Holmes’ suggestion about how to deal with the problem may seem extreme to some. But it begs the question as to how much longer we can carry on the charade that the French are our “allies” when they trash the United States every chance they get and start to pull crap like this on their own citizens.

Vive liberté!