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The Centreville Citizens Coalition is a brand new civic group formed to address the illegal alien problem in that area, which has become especially notorious at the library - a de facto day labor center for illegal workers. Please contact the Coalition if you are concerned and want to find like-minded people committed to solving such problems.

Referred by Blog Fu.

As hinted at here last month, there appears to have been a bit of back room treachery going on among a clique of local Republicans for the purpose of getting Steve Simpson re-elected as sheriff, after Mr. Simpson got clobbered at the Republican Convention in June and took about four hours to break his pledge to support the party nominee.

The chicanery seems to have included a really pitiable whispering campaign which a semi-prominent local Republican even attempted to disseminate here but which has gone absolutely nowhere - especially now that the superior candidate, Greg Ahlemann, has decided to confront all the allegations directly (more here).

Tough luck for the weasels: Greg Ahlemann is no shrinking violet.

Now comes the revelation via a leaked e-mail exchange - just posted by Loudoun Insider - that some prominent GOPers may have basically leaned on the Ahlemann campaign to shut up about the activities of Simpson supporters within the party. So rather then being thrown out on their arses, the turncoats were permitted to stay, and - if the e-mails are genuine - they counterattacked.

No one I've spoken with has confirmed the e-mail messages are for real, although the lack of response suggests to me they are. Read them for yourself and you'll see they have the semblance of authenticity.

What this means is some people supposedly in the party are really not going to make it easy for the party nominee, Greg Ahlemann, to win this election. What this says about the party is, in my opinion, not much, but then, I have a REALLY cynical view of human nature. There is no reason to think the natural snakiness inhabiting the human race as a whole would not also inhabit the Loudoun County Republican Committee in precisely the same proportions.

More significant is what this episode portends for the public perception of Steve Simpson.

My take on Mr. Simpson from the beginning, since I began following the illegal immigration issue last year and the campaign at the beginning of this year, is he is a decent guy, a little on the feckless side, who happens to have so interest whatsoever in doing anything proactive about discouraging illegal aliens from coming to this area. In Mr. Simpson's words, it's a federal issue, end of story. Until Greg Ahlemann stepped onto the scene in February, Mr. Simpson's entire stated philosophy on the issue was a litany of excuses for why his department will NEVER do anything more than it was currently doing. (You can read the Sheriff's take on the issue, and some of the flack he took from locals, during the February townhall meeting here and here; a little more citizen flack here.)

Mr. Simpson's response to citizens' complaints has been, in essence, you really have nothing to complain about because things are getting better, and in any case there is nothing I can do about it.

Naturally, this approach has not endeared the sitting sheriff to many local residents, and the current controversy will sully his reputation even further while providing quite a bit of motivation to those who want him out of office. QUITE a bit of motivation, I would guess.

I can imagine that local activists who might be getting a bit weary of the campaign season, which has been going on for nearly a year, might get a fresh blast of energy if messages begin circulating to the effect "Hey look at this outrage! Are we going to let them get away with this? Do you need any MORE reasons to work to get Greg Ahlemann elected?" Getting Steve Simpson out of there, while also knocking his supporters down a few pegs, could provide the inspiration to take a few more hours off of work, get up a little earlier on a Saturday, knock on a few more doors.

In a low-turnout election, a few more motivated people three weeks out could make a difference, if such messages were to circulate. Hypothetically.

Our buddies at Equality Loudoun just conducted a fascinating, in-depth interview with Loudoun County Sheriff candidate Greg Ahlemann, no holds barred and no punches pulled. As I've said before, Mr. Ahlemann is at his best in one on one personal interaction. His forthrightness is what won him an improbable landslide victory at the June Republican Convention, and the same quality shines here. Thanks to the EV guys for the detailed and undoubtedly laborious transcription.

Go read it now! If you are not very familiar with Mr. Ahlemann, this discussion will definitely help fill in some of the gaps.

And so all I’m talking about doing is a program that the federal government has already said, hey, local jurisdictions, you can use this in your own community to help deal with, you know, the criminal aspect of it. They don’t give us the authority to go in businesses and check IDs and deport people, because they’re not going to take those people. That’s not our job, and that takes away from what we as law enforcement officers need to be doing, which is dealing with crime and the criminal element. Probably the biggest thing that a group like La Voz could get out, and different community groups, is to get this information out, that having the ICE program here is not going to target people who are here illegally who have not committed crimes. We will not have the authority to deport you, to separate you from your family - obviously there will be a deterrent value, there will be a lot of people who will say, Loudoun is hard on it, so maybe I’m not going to go there to drink, maybe if I live in Centreville I’m not going to come down to Pepe’s and drink, and if I get caught drinking and driving I might be deported, so you can’t put a price tag on that.

Another example of pitiable Democrat wrath:

There is a local liberal Web site called Loudoun Force (sorry, losers, you will not get a link from here) whose "admin" just deleted one of my comments with the rationale

Comment from Joe Budzinski from the Help Save Loudoun organization has been unapproved because it violated the Service Discussion Guidelines.

My comment took David Weintraub and Laura Valle to task for their inane comments made in a thread there. I would have saved a copy of the comment if I had any idea the proprietors were high school sophomores, but since I did not I will have to recount from memory.

David and Laura stated that, in essence, the problems citizens of eastern Loudoun attributed to illegal aliens were bogus. I replied that David and Laura should refrain from holding forth on such matters when the two of them live quite nicely distanced from Sterling. I also advised Laura Valle that the more she speaks out in contempt of Sterling's citizens, the more her organization will be front and center in the debate.

I suggested to Laura that this has not been working out well for La Voz because the citizens of Sterling do not appreciate a western Loudoun elitist telling them they do not know what is happening in Sterling. I also advised Laura Valle that it seems every time she pipes up (or her buddy David pipes up for her), she burnishes her credentials as an antagonist to Loudoun's citizens. I opined that, as the single paid employee of a taxpayer-funded non-profit in Loudoun County, Laura is not acting wisely to continue to position herself as an antagonist to those who are paying her salary.

Two lessons: One - Loudoun Force is a farce. If the above opinion is considered beyond the scope of acceptable debate, the Web site is a joke and a waste of time.

Two - It is high time the citizens of Loudoun County speak up about whether an individual who holds them in such contempt should be funded from the public till. Write to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors at bos@loudoun.gov and tell our supervisors how you feel about paying Laura Valle's salary.

What is ironic is the idiots who run the site did not gather that the suggestion in my comment was actually very good, objective advice for Laura Valle. I am guessing they took down my comment before she got to read it. Too bad for Laura.

UPDATE: Well, okay then! Someone from Loudoun Farce just stopped by to leave a copy of my comment that they deleted last night (when they also edited something Dan wrote and kicked him and Greg out of the site.)

I appreciate that, and as a result I am going to give LF exactly one link, right here.

I encourage our NVTH readers to make exactly one visit to LF by clicking on that link. Read Laura Valle's original post there and the remaining comments. Then come back here, shake the dust off your sandals, and scroll down to the LF reprinting of my comment posted Sept 23, 1:31 pm. Read the section titled "Mr. Budzinski's Post".

This is what got us all kicked out of LF. I believe the Loudoun Farce rep left it here to shame us, but I am not sure it accomplishes that goal.

Now that my note has been resurrected, I do hope Laura reads it, because it was written with her best interests in mind.

Ok, joke's over: This is what I really meant to say.

...I do not blame Mr. Weintraub for his confusion about the illegal migration conundrum, and I truly thank him for making it public, because it is a crazy situation.

But I really had you going for a while there, Jonathan and David, didn't I?

UPDATE: The letter that initiated the discussion has fallen off the Times-Mirror front page, so here is the link again for those who have not read it. There is a fascinating discussion going on in the comments.

UPDATE: Read my accompanying letter at the Loudoun Times-Mirror Web site here. Read David Weintraub's "assuming readers have a very short memory" response here. Compare the facts in the latter column, printed Sept 24, with the article below.

The recent behavior of David and Jonathan Weintraub, prominent Democratic activists from Lovettsville, illustrates how clinging tenaciously to a position you know is wrong can get you a little unhinged. (They are also bloggers.)

The Weintraubs are liberal, pro-illegal alien advocates .... a formulation which, I sincerely believe, most Americans are soon going to recognize as a contradiction in terms. "Construction company owner" pro-illegal alien advocates, or "poultry processing magnate" pro-illegal alien advocates each make perfectly good sense. But "liberals" advocating to redirect funds from disadvantaged Americans and reduce wages for American workers makes absolutely no sense.

Staggering under the burden of this predicament, David Weintraub lashed out in a letter to the Loudoun Times-Mirror, and Jonathan chimed in with a comment, with plucky, yet ultimately feeble, attempts to shift public attention from their plight.

Bizarrely, both Weintraubs denounced certain local people by stating outright lies about things these people allegedly said or did at recent events - without even bothering to check whether there was a reviewable record of what actually occurred. As it turns out, there is. And while it will bring me great pain to lay out all of these facts and corrections, I feel compelled to do so as a service to the Weintraubs, in order to help them take the first difficult steps back toward intellectual coherence.

A Shameful Start

David got the ball rolling with the letter, modestly titled "Shame on Mr. Budzinski".

First of all, shame on Mr. Joseph Budzinski, spokesman for Help Save Loudoun, for trying to claim that La Voz is engaging in improper political activity. Mr. Budzinski knowingly made this misrepresentation.

Now, this is a direct assertion that I said a specific thing, made even more unambiguous by the second sentence, that I did so "knowingly." Presuming to know what I know, David probably should have gone the extra yard and hazard a guess about what I might do, which is to fact-check him.

David is referring to a public statement I made about two weeks earlier about Laura Valle and the organization for which she serves as executive director, La Voz of Loudoun. Ms. Valle had been featured in several recent media reports about opposition to the Loudoun Board of Supervisors' July 17 resolution on immigration enforcement.

Two of the reports linked Ms. Valle with Mukit Hossain, executive director of the Virginia Muslim Political Action Committee, with the Post article stating the two of them would be "rallying" people to attend the Board's next meeting.

My statement was made during an interview with reporter Jason Jacks in a front page story of the August 24 edition of ... the Loudoun-Times Mirror. Since it is the same newspaper, it's not a stretch to think someone might go back and read it. But apparently David's zeal overcame his reason, and he left himself a tad exposed. Because it has an online edition, we can see exactly what was in Mr. Jacks' August 24 report:

What's more, Joseph Budzinski, spokesman for Help Save Loudoun, a group that thinks local governments should enforce immigration laws, said he questioned the public money because La Voz's interim executive director, Laura Valle, has been acting like a political "activist" of late rather than the head of a nonprofit.

"It appears to me that some of what La Voz does goes beyond that of a 501(c)3 [nonprofit]," he said. "I think there are some questions to be answered about this. ... It came as a surprise to me to learn how much money they get from Loudoun..."

Note the word "activist" is in quotes, indicating something I said, but the word "political" is not. I have requested the editors of the Times-Mirror ask Mr. Jacks to check his record of our conversation, because I am pretty sure I did not use the word "political." My primary reason for questioning La Voz' funding was because I thought Ms. Valle seemed to be providing services for and advocating for illegal aliens, and against the citizens of Loudoun County - which is fine for her to do, but not with public funding.

But let's assume Mr. Jacks used the word "political" in his question and I responded without a correction, or let's even assume I used the word somewhere in my reply: What I said is that because of how Ms. Valle has been "acting" and what "appears" to be going on, I thought the question needed to be asked whether La Voz should be receiving public funding - asking this question was the action by Board member Eugene Delgaudio that I was being asked to comment on. Affirming there is a "question" is not the same as to "knowingly" "claim that La Voz is engaging in improper political activity." This is a deliberate misrepresentation.

But wait, there's more. Shortly afterward, Mr. Jacks quotes Ms. Valle:

With respect to political activism, she said La Voz "is pretty light" compared to other immigrant groups ...

.
Ms. Valle here admits that La Voz does engage in political activism. So in the article David Weintraub used as evidence for my "misrepresentation" - the only person who makes a "claim" that La Voz engages in political activity is ... the executive director of La Voz.

David Weintraub apparently lives in a world where people can say all sorts of crazy nonsense and no one ever asks for citations or bothers to check the record. It is my mission to deliver David from that world.

A Note About Laura Valle

In case you are wondering why anyone would give a rat's patoutie about public funding for this nonprofit organization called La Voz, some background:

Though I had met Ms. Valle once, briefly, after television interviews in Leesburg, my first extended introduction to her occurred when I read a provocative July 23 column on the Times-Mirror Web site (which I encourage everyone to read), in which she compared "so called anti-illegal immigrant activists around the country" to Adolph Hitler. The only "ranting and raving" party named by Ms. Valle in the column was Help Save Loudoun, the local citizens' group for which I am a spokesman. Help Save Loudoun is the only such group mentioned by name in Ms. Valle's column.

Ms. Valle wrote that Help Save Loudoun's members

....will preface their outrageous statements by saying that this 'is a nation of immigrants' or that 'my Grandmother came from Italy', etc. They say these things to counter the accusations that they are bigoted, discriminatory, or anti-immigrant.

After labeling Help Save Loudoun as "anti-immigrant" and putting the above phrases into our mouths, Ms. Valle proceeded to launch into a breathtaking display of obfuscation, invoking further caricatures to say that people who are concerned about overcrowded houses are "making an assumption about a person based on the color of their skin or the language they speak."

Then, from her sheltered aerie out in Lucketts (in western Loudoun County), Ms. Valle delivered a tidy slap in the face to the residents of Sterling and those of our neighboring state:

Do these people not realize that if every undocumented person in this county were deported they would still have overcrowded houses with unregistered cars parked in the drives, they would still see people peeing outside (on a side note - I most recently observed that behavior on a private golf course when a golfer had had too much to drink, apparently could not make it to the restroom in time, and instead used a tree). When all the illegals are gone and their neighborhood has still not returned to what it once was, well, what issue will they hide behind then? And if overcrowded, run down houses with cars parked on the lawns are an indication of an 'infestation of illegals' then I am afraid we might have to check the papers of a significant percentage of West Virginia's residents!

The above paragraph perfectly represents the sanctimonious perspective of the elite illegal alien advocates. It is no surprise that the Weintraubs, hailing from Lovettsville, display a natural kinship with Ms. Valle's sneering appraisal of the citizens of eastern Loudoun County who simply want the rules in their neighborhoods enforced. How unsurprising to learn Ms. Valle deems her experience at the golf course in any way proportional to what so many residents of Sterling have to deal with from the house next door.

Memo to the Weintraubs and Ms. Valle: The reason the tide has turned in America is because millions of us who live in regular neighborhoods now have firsthand experience with the negative effects of the influx of illegal aliens into our communities. We do not have the benefit of a ten mile cushion of farmland between our homes and the new suburban reality. Many of us do not even play golf.

After reading her column, a number of people had the distinct impression that Ms. Valle was unfairly targeting Help Save Loudoun, which had prided itself on NEVER ranting and raving nor making broad statements about illegal immigrants. Our primary focus of action, in fact, was on illegal employers. Many of our members took exception to her broadside, which seemed disingenuous, and were surprised to learn she was taxpayer funded.

Shortly after this column appeared and she was featured as spearheading the rallies against the Board, it came to light that Ms. Valle's organization receives over $25,000 in annual funding from Loudoun County taxpayers.

On August 15, La Voz held a public meeting in Leesburg to discuss illegal immigration. Ms. Valle stated the following in response to the question: Does La Voz use taxpayer money to provide services to illegal aliens?

How do you deny somebody the opportunity to learn English, or to help their children that are in the schools - we don't have the capacity, I don't think we have the will, and I don't think it's in anyone's interests to do so.

In other words: Yes.

The final exhibit in our discussion of La Voz is an extremely revealing letter by Ms. Valle printed in the September 4 edition of the Times-Mirror.

Ms. Valle takes a moment to explain how her organization got its name:

The name La Voz (The Voice) was chosen in 2002 by a group of concerned citizens during a community meeting. We have always hoped that it would communicate the message that we are an organization that cares for immigrants.

Why would she bother to spell this out? She had to because she got called on it.

The name La Voz' leaders decided on matches that of another organization which was already prominent in 2002 and, along with the Mexica Movement, is one of the most notorious ideological entities engaged in the illegal migration debate: La Voz de Aztlan.

La Voz de Aztlan exemplifies everything that the most shrill, apocalyptic and paranoid anti-illegal advocates might warn you about, and then some. La Voz (de Aztlan) celebrates anchor babies and unabashedly promotes the reconquista of the southwest U.S., proclaiming Los Angeles the "Capital of Aztlan."

This La Voz also gleefully promotes the agendas of America's enemies. The death of NFL player-turned-soldier Pat Tillman draws snide remarks; the beheading of journalist Nick Berg is portrayed as taking place in Abu Ghraib prison; Osama bin Laden is viewed as the modern Pancho Villa; and, in case there was any doubt about La Voz' sympathies, their Web site even reprints the infamous blood libel against the Jews, Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

La Voz (de Aztlan) takes a benign view of Nazi Germany:

This acceptance of the jew history of Germany would be laughable when one studies the true dogma of the Third Reich. Consequences of internalizing jew lies and acting on them, as we Aztecas, like others, have had led to a misinformed and erroneous view of Nazi Germany. If the jewish depiction of Nazi Germany was true, Hitler would not have supported Francisco Franco in Spain, Mussolini in Italy or have aligned himself with Emporer Hirohito's Dai Nippon (Great Japan). Himmler's Waffen SS was the most perfectly multinational combat organization in the war. Arab civilians prospered more under the Axis than British/jewish occupation. We must be careful not to accept as fact the lies which are published and broadcast about Nazi Germany. We must remember at all times that the jew media censors what gets aired and printed and what most people read, see or hear has been censored to assure it conforms to the zionist agenda.

In sum, La Voz de Aztlan is the type of odious organization that any reasonable American would run away from as fast as our feet could carry us. To the contrary, La Voz of Loudoun adopted their name. This would be akin to the founders of Help Save Loudoun deciding to name our organization the "Ku Klux Kaptains."

Ms. Valle's letter goes on to note

... a bull’s-eye painted squarely on our backs. For what? For helping people. It has been a challenge to navigate through the minefield that is this issue, all the while trying to keep my own opinions and emotions at a healthy distance. It has been a tremendous learning experience, and though I have stumbled along the way, I am proud of my work and the work of the Board of La Voz of Loudoun....

The Board of Directors, volunteer members, and paid staff of La Voz of Loudoun wants it known that we will continue to stay on the high ground. We hope that others will join us there.

Let's all be clear about this: La Voz (of Loudoun) only got a "bulls eye" on their back because they compared Loudoun citizens asking for better law enforcement to Nazis. Claiming "the high ground" in the debate is a pitiful attempt to deflect attention from what Ms. Valle has actually said and done. She admits her "stumble." Good. But this is misdirection, plain and simple, unartfully employed and completely transparent.

The reasons some people might have questions about public funding for La Voz (of Loudoun) have nothing to do with alleged improper "political" activity, but with the organization's aiding and abetting of illegal migration and working against the interests of Loudoun County's citizens.

Crazy Over Greg Ahlemann

The Weintraubs' unstable ground gets even shakier when they discuss Greg Ahlemann, the Republican candidate for Loudoun County Sheriff. Democrats and turncoat Republicans Independents are noticeably freaked out by the Greg Ahlemann candidacy. Ahlemann is such an excellent public speaker and exemplary individual, and has such a compelling vision for the Sheriff's Office that the other two candidates pale in comparison. This has supporters of the trailing candidates very, very scared. Their only resort is to disinformation.

Unfortunately, that pesky public record stands in their way.

David Weintraub's letter continues:

He was present at the Sterling informational forum that Sterling Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio refused to attend, and he knows that the only person there who had to be reprimanded for political campaigning of any kind was Greg Ahlemann, candidate for Loudoun sheriff.

And Jonathan said this in the comments:

Joe Budzinski lied about my community on his Nova Town Hall blog and collaborated with the local anti-gay industry.

Now we see the most transparent political stunts, like sheriff candidate Greg Ahlemann politicizing a La Voz forum and then testifying to the BoS that their funding should be cut because their forum was politicized.

[As to the first sentence, I would say simply: Prove it, Jonathan. My statements about your "community" and my collaboration with said "industry" should be easy enough to cite if such evidence exists. Of course, the way you've framed it, just about any statement could be presented as about a "community" or "industry."]

Let's turn first to the newspaper report:

During questions and answers, Republican Loudoun sheriff candidate Greg Ahlemann, a former Loudoun deputy, said police can detain someone for something as simple as "running a red light" if they are not carrying identification.

He also recounted an incident of an illegal immigrant from Sterling who last year hit and killed a Herndon man with his car. The driver, Jose Santos Sibrian Espinoza, had been cited by police at least a dozen times for traffic violations before the incident.

"I support the 287(g) program," Ahlemann said.

After Ahlemann's comments, Christ the Redeemer's Father C. Donald Howard reminded Ahlemann that the meeting was not a political forum and asked him not to speak again.

This confirms that Mr. Ahlemann was reprimanded, although the evidence of his "campaigning" or "politicizing" is quite absent.

As luck would have it, I have audio recordings of everything Mr. Ahlemann said after he introduced himself.

After one of the panelists had talked about the 287(g) Immigration and Customs Enforcement training program for local law enforcement, during the questions and answer session, Mr. Ahlemann raised his hand and was handed the microphone. He said "My name is Greg Ahlemann and I am running for Loudoun County sheriff" and he proceeded to provide the following information about 287(g). The first recording begins with the interpreter translating Mr. Ahlemann's first words which were before I got out my recorder:

Shortly thereafter, an audience member was called on, and had a question for Mr. Ahlemann, which he answered as follows:

At this point the priest stood up and said Mr. Ahlemann was no longer allowed to talk. They went back to Q & A, and the next question was for Mr. Ahlemann. When the interpreter explained that Mr. Ahlemann was no longer allowed to answer questions, three or four other hands that had been raised went down and there was an audible sigh of disappointment from the audience.

When the event was over, Mr. Ahlemann was surrounded by a crowd of at least 10 audience members, and he spent 15 solid minutes speaking with them.

After listening to the recordings, which are raw audio captures of the event, you will see that Mr. Ahlemann did not do ANY campaigning. The only reason he was "reprimanded" is the priest did not want him speaking - despite the fact that the audience clearly wanted him to talk more. Mr. Ahlemann had direct knowledge of things the people wanted to know. School board member Warren Guerin - who is also a candidate for office - was allowed to speak without reprimand.

But hey, maybe I doctored the audio. Anyone who was at the August 26 event can listen to the recordings and, if truthful, will tell you that is exactly what was said. But maybe it's a conspiracy. Well, we do have another test.

Jonathan Weintraub claims Ahlemann testified about La Voz "that their funding should be cut because their forum was politicized" to the Loudoun County Supervisors on September 4.

WHOOPS! Wouldn't you know it, but there also happens to be a very public record, which is totally incontrovertible, of exactly what Mr. Ahlemann said in that forum. It turns out the Loudoun government has this newfangled thing called a "webcast" on the Internet.

Go to the Loudoun County video archive on this page. Scroll down to the "Board of Supervisors' Business Meeting" of Sep 4, 2007, and click on "Watch."

On the right side of the page, scroll down till you can see item #III, "Public Comment" and click on the link This will skip you ahead in the recording. Then grab the little bar under the video window on the left side of the page and move it as close as you can to 54:38. There you will get to hear and watch Greg Ahlemann's speech verbatim.

For your convenience, in case you cannot watch it, I have transcribed Mr. Ahlemann's September 4 speech below:

My name is Greg Ahlemann. I reside in Leesburg. I appreciate the opportunity to come before you today to speak. I will say that some politicians and power players within politics don't care for me very much, because I'm very outspoken about what I believe. I also believe that's what elections are for. That's one of the reasons why I'm here today.

I'm quite concerned with the fact that we can use county tax dollars to provide services for illegal immigrants, who are in this country illegally, and reward contracts and donations to groups like La Voz who provide services for illegal immigrants when we can't afford to pay our deputies and our teachers enough to live in this community.

I look at the deputies at the back of the room, the deputies in the lobby that are here today. I venture to say that many of the new deputies that come to work for the Sheriff's Office don't live in Loudoun County. Some of them don't even live in the state of Virginia. We can't afford to get them shift differential.

But for people that are in this country illegally we can take our tax dollars and provide services for them. While we neglect the people whose very lives our deputies are paid to protect. It seems like a problem to me.

Our deputies are not members of our communities, many of them. Their kids don't go to our schools. Their not part of our neighborhoods because they can't afford to live here, all while we're sending tax dollars to fund illegal immigrants. Is this really what we think is best for our county and for our communities?

I've spoke to you before about contracts. And I've read just briefly what the attorney had to say about the contracts here. I can tell you, car washes and things like that, we're going to have studies and these things are going to go on long past the election. We could have studies on this for years.

I could tell you, personally, if elected sheriff, I'm not gonna need a study to tell me that our deputies can wash their own vehicles until the Board of Supervisors can decide whether or not we will pay for illegal immigrants if they're working there and send our tax dollars there. I will take a stand on that.

Unfortunately, since January of 2004, when the Department of Homeland Security contacted the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office to invite them to participate in the ICE program, nothing's been done about it. It took until May 1 of this year when I sat in this room and listened as the Sheriff's Office talked about how they were gonna look into the ICE program. During that time, there have been accidents, there have been people killed, like the gentleman that was in Herndon who was killed by someone that the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office had in their custody.

How long do we need to have studies to enforce the law? These things are no brainers. And I also wonder how sincere are our elected officials about really doing something about this. The programs that you guys will decide, and our elected officials will decide on, will only be as effective as the sincerity of those enforcing it.

Thank you

There is, to put it mildly, substantial evidence against the Weintraubs. Without putting too fine a point on it: Their claims are blatant deceits.

Greg Ahlemann did not say a single word about cutting funding for La Voz "because their forum was politicized."

The Weintraubs are lying. The evidence proves it.

Conclusion

Pro-illegal migration "liberals" are in an untenable situation because they have pitted themselves against lower- and middle-class Americans who should be their natural constituency. For a number of years they have employed terms like "compassion" and "civil rights" to justify illegal employment practices without any thought to the other people who might be deserving of compassion, namely their fellow citizens, nor the historical population of citizens who truly have been victims of civil rights abuses, such as African Americans.

The common definition of a progressive activist does not include "facilitator of corporate corruption," but we are living in an unusual time, an ellipsis in American political history. Major social and economic structural changes have occurred during the past two decades, and the political end result is still a long way off. At the moment, we live in an environment of contradictions.

Country club Republicans and self-proclaimed "liberal" elites, who do not live in the communities most affected by illegal migration, are lined up with bad-citizen business owners to encourage the influx of unskilled workers from other countries.

This corrupt elite has a definite constituency among profiteers and illegal migrants, but is solidly opposed to the best interests of most of the legal residents. What is happening in American today is, the citizens have begun to push back.

When illegal migration was only a trickle, the impact was minimal and localized. Today, the effects are broad-based. The local situation serves as an instructive example.

Over the past few years, legal residents of Sterling could be excused for becoming cynical after assuming the county government would take action on businesses hiring under the table, commercial vehicles on their streets, businesses run from homes, single-family houses turned into multi-family residences, drivers without operators licenses or proper insurance, and an assortment of other infractions for which citizens felt they would be held liable but for which illegal migrants seemed to enjoy a lower level of scrutiny and enforcement.

To protect the illegal employment establishment, government agencies seemed to have a policy of looking the other way on infractions by illegal aliens. The general approach has appeared to be: The feds won't take them, and we do not know what to do with them, so we will just let them go.

Now that so many communities have been affected by the influx, legal residents are demanding a different approach. When the problems were largely confined within Sterling Park, the rest of Loudoun County's residents had the luxury of viewing illegal immigration as a theoretical matter. Today, the problem is recognized almost everywhere east of Rt. 15.

For many of us in this county and this country, the problem is right next door. Citizens have seen their livelihoods impacted by corrupt employers who game the system, their local governments' budgets strained by increased demand for social services, and their neighborhoods blighted by unenforced local regulations because authorities are inclined to look the other way.

This is where Help Save Loudoun comes in. We are the advocates for legal immigrants and legal residents. We believe the illegal migration problem is directly rooted in corrupt business practices, and the only way we are going to turn the corner on this problem is by enforcing the law on employers who hire illegal aliens.

We believe that solving this problem must begin at the local level. Just as local police are permitted to catch bank robbers for the federal crime of robbing banks, local governments can take specific steps toward enforcing immigration laws. We also believe that our local and state governments can end the don't ask/don't tell policy toward crimes committed by illegal aliens.

We believe our local government officials have wide discretion to ensure the safety and security of our communities, and they need to exercise it.

If our local, state and federal governments would simply do what they are supposed to do, the majority of illegal aliens would leave - self-deport - and companies would be forced to become good citizens and do what it takes to hire and house legal workers (hey, guys, check out the eastern regions of North Carolina - bet you could find some laborers there), and people like the Weintraubs would have an unambiguous calling to work for the betterment of our least fortunate citizens, remember how to tell the truth, and go back to being classical liberals again.

Bill Buchanan, the Legislative Director for ANCIR, has an excellent blog that's been live since June.

Bill knows more about the illegal migration issue than just about anyone you'll ever meet, and he can reel off data, legislative information and history as easily as breathing. He is an eloquent speaker on issues related to illegal immigration and frequently a guest on radio talk shows around the country.

A regular in the halls of Congress, he spent a great deal of time in Richmond during our 2007 session monitoring the action, inaction and downright treachery of our elected representatives. He created this handy report on the Senate fate of important immigration enforcement bills passed by the House.

I strongly recommend making Buck's Blog one of your regular reading stations. Almost no one knows about it yet but there is a wealth of material there and it is well worth your time.

Please pay a visit and let's help get Bill's blogging career going with some comments!

Heh.

The interesting thing is all along I thought Jonathan was the instigator in that crew. Maybe that was all a feint.

In any case, this is going to be fun.

HEY! Some good news, finally.

The Blog Rating site has just returned our application package and we won a "G" rating!

Our review notes "This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words: gun (1x)"

Presumably, if not for that one word, we would have gotten an "A" - the only possible less threatening rating - which means not only "General" but "All" audiences are permitted, including your grandma and your puppy.

I am so relieved to learn that my project here will serve as a counterbalance to the notoriously tawdry little dark corner of the Web my wife presides over, which earns a solid "R" rating.

I am also relieved we've gotten over the whole faggot thing. The push-back on that really did seem like an overreaction.

A few times a year, it is beginning to look like, I get to spend a little time with my good friend Kevin of the inscrutably brilliant Digital Camel blog.

Back in May, it was fishing. This time, on a whole n'other level of danger, it was kickball.

Adult kickball, that is. Try to imagine it. Chances are, what you are imagining is exactly what it is. Unless, of course, you are not imagining the beer part, because the chief difference between kickball now and kickball when I was six is that now everyone gets to have a beer with them at all times. I considered this when I was six, by the way, but was not able to pull it off.

I did not play because there was simply so much to soak in, and Kevin and el Jefe provided enough fireworks.

We had an authentic Baltimore day and evening, traversing the gritty places, the fancy places and the places that defy one-word description.

Late at night, we hit the Ottobar. We don't have anything like the Ottobar in Sterling.

Kevin's wrap up is here.

Apropos for a gal from a family of educators, my wife in her spare time educates - in contradistinction to one such as myself, who in his spare time rabble-rouses. (No family influence in that, I would maintain).

This week, she explains the origins of:

Ku Klux Klan
mystery
scintillate

If you have other words you would like to learn the origins of, please feel free to submit them here or in her comments section. I'm personally curious about:

brouhaha
irregardless
wombat

I am told the latter do not fly, but I refuse to believe it.

Appropriately enough for a really slow news day in August, there is fresh heck brewing anew in the "Guess the Loudoun Insider" department.

Apparently our comment section served as unwitting conduit for the proposition LI is actually my countryman and distant relative, Jeff Wolinski. As a bona fide Loudoun outsider, I haven't a clue about the significance of this.

We had great fun back in the cold, dark days of January batting this around (more here). Of course, as always happens with those guys, it devolved into a drinking game faster than you can say "jagermeister" and no one remembers how it all ended.

This is interesting.

It's interesting on more than one level, and I am only dealing here with the meta-level. If you want the background, go read all of that post, related posts, related links, and various corresponding links.

The upshot is GoDaddy has a huge hole in its supposed "private registration" program. If you want to find who owns a particular domain managed under GoDaddy, you can follow the steps outlined in that post to get the root of the e-mail address of whoever owns the domain.

For years, Domains by Proxy has been the major "anonymous" domain ownership service which allowed you to own a domain and not have your identity publicly available through a whois.sc lookup - which unveils all the information about the people behind every Web site.

So if, for example, someone had a Web site about a certain prophet of a certain religion, the ownership of which could expose one to intimidation or possible beheading, Domains by Proxy allowed ownership without the usual public listing.

Now, with the advent of the GoDaddy behemoth domain-and-Web-hosting-majordomo, you can bring all of your domains and private registrations under one, very easy to manage roof.

Downside: there is a hole in that roof.

If anyone in the world wants to know who owns a domain managed under GoDaddy, they can simply type in the domain name at the GoDaddy Account Retrieval page and receive most of the e-mail address of the owner.

GoDaddy's nifty database search program returns the root e-mail address of every domain owner via a public lookup. Everyone who thought they had "private registration" through Domains by Proxy, and is unfortunate enough to have the management thereof under GoDaddy, is no longer private unless they have an anonymous e-mail contact set up with GoDaddy.

Lesson One: GoDaddy has a serious flaw in their database lookup.

Lesson Two: If the above item is not fixed immediately by GoDaddy, then everyone who has a private registration managed by GoDaddy - and wishes to remain anonymous - had better change their GoDaddy account information pronto if it does not have an unidentifiable e-mail address as the primary contact info.

(You can get an anonymous e-mail in various places, including mail.com).

Congrats to the Daily Whackjob crew for ferreting out this massive security breach at GoDaddy.

A classic Kevin art/social commentary essay.

There were a couple radio interviews this week:

This was on Washington Post radio.

This one was on PBS station KCRW. (My part is the second half, about 15 minutes in, but the first part is worth listening to).

In what I'm sure is pure disinformation meant to dampen my overwhelming zeal, the Washington Post blog is spinning that I was not the first choice for the one interview, but was only selected because some public officials supposedly turned it down. In reality, I'm quite certain that the public officials were only considered because of my legendary busy schedule, and everyone was quite delighted that I was, in fact, available after all.

If you listen to either of those, I am certain you will agree that my tactic of never interrupting my counterpart, and allowing them to speak for two or three times as long as I speak, will, in the end, prove to be the most effective approach. It's all about winning the war, baby, winning the war.

[Following is a guest editorial by Nan Matthis of American Daughter]

The First Victims of the North American Union?

The bridge that collapsed in Minnesota yesterday carried United States Interstate 35 over the Mississippi River. And, as we pointed out in a previous article, the proposed NAFTA superhighway will use the I-35 corridor.

Inspection reports had raised some concerns about fatigue in the metal components of the span. Such indicators should have triggered retrofit beyond the rather cosmetic efforts being made at the time of the catastrophic failure, particularly for such a critical component of our highway system. So the question arises, Why was this bridge not repaired or replaced in a timely manner?

Since this is a federal highway, garden variety negligence and incompetence by Congress is one obvious answer. The federal transportation budget had enough money, but the funds were squandered on pork barrel projects designed to buy votes for the incumbents (recall that bridge to nowhere in Alaska).

But there is also a more sinister possibility. It is possible that repairs were deferred, in anticipation of complete replacement with a wider bridge when the North America Supercorridor Coalition (NASCO) project reached Minneapolis. The 2001 report to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, prepared by the University of Minnesota, contains the following statement:

I have been tagged by Riley to "list eight habits or facts about yourself, then tag eight more people." Piece of cake.

1). From ages 8 - 11, I grew up enamored with NASCAR, sharks, boxing (Muhammad Ali), and Elke Sommer.

2). I am both compelled, and repelled, by Wild Man Fischer's "My Name Is Larry." I can listen to it over and over.

3). From age 13-17 my entire life revolved around Bruce Springsteen, and I saw him in concert 4 times before the "Born To Run" album was released, once at a movie theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. Soon after he began playing "large venues," I moved on to Frank Zappa and Tom Waits.

4). I am insomniac to a degree that most would find debilitating.

5). I believe in the bottom of my heart that "everyone else can be wrong." This is surprisingly annoying to some people.

6). If our nation was ever to suffer shortages of red wine, seltzer water or nicotine gum, it would be a cold, dark time for one particular citizen.

7). I love Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldiers," because I was a huge Banana Splits fan.

8). Favorite movie: "The Man Who Would Be King." Followed closely by the DVD-collection seasons of "24".

I hereby tag:

Reverend "Bob" Dobbs

Ralph Reed

Lyndon Larouche

Wavy Gravy

Straight White Guy

R. Crumb

Gilbert Shelton

Ed of MonkeyWatch

[Following is a guest editorial by the most excellent Nan Matthis of American Daughter]

North American Union

by Nancy Matthis at ADMC.

It's almost a done deal. While most patriotic Americans have been preoccupied this summer with the invasion of illegal aliens across our southern border with Mexico, President Bush has been quietly finalizing plans with Stephen Harper and Felipe Calderon to eradicate our national sovereignty. They'll wrap it up on August 20 at a meeting in Montebello, Quebec.

Soon the United States will be subsumed into a North American Union, just as the nations in Europe have been gobbled up by the European Union. Boundaries will melt away and our dollar will be replaced with the amero, giving the "globalistas" an opportunity to get rid of that pesky phrase In God we trust which reminds us of our rapidly vanishing heritage.

Judging from reports we receive from our friends across the pond, this is not a good thing for nations with successful economies. What it does is bring all the participants into the same business climate, a sort of socialism at the national level -- an advantage for the less robust nations and a huge disadvantage for the vibrant economies.

One of the worst results of such a union is the migration of people within the union that results. In the European Union, for example, poor Romanians are pouring into the United Kingdom and dumping themselves onto the overburdened social services system. Currently in the United States, illegal immigration across our southern border is overtaxing our schools, hospitals, law enforcement and welfare systems. Within the North American Union, the fiscal penalties to our citizens would be greatly multiplied, and it would be legal.

As this calamity bears down on us, the mainstream media are strangely silent. One has to look to Canada to find anyone sounding the alarm. We want to call our readers' attention to this copyrighted article by Global Research. We excerpt a portion here under the principle of "fair use" but we urge everyone to visit their website and read all of it:

...extiende su bienvenida a trabajadores undocumentados.

New Haven, Connecticut has set up an extremely generous new program for illegal aliens, providing many of the benefits of citizenship. To assist in this effort, ALIPAC is conducting a major national campaign to encourage all illegal aliens from everywhere in the U.S. to move to New Haven, Connecticut.

It is supposed to be a fine city, so I say we all get on board and dedicate a little time to furthering this effort.

Print off several copies of this flyer, then run, do not walk, to your local grocery store bulletin board, etc.

Great background info here.

Pretty powerful stuff worth listening to till the end. I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of this in the coming months. The sheer number of illegals being brought across the southern border is shifting public perception of the issue, across party lines.

You had your Yuan ... that was something.

Ming? Eh. Overrated, I think. They should have gotten out more.

But Blog Fu, (maybe we need to start calling it "Blog Khan") - now there's a dynasty that's going places.

Craig Hudgins, Independent candidate for Virginia Senate (challenging incumbent Ken Stolle), will be the guest on Bearing Drift's podcast tonight at 7:00 pm. Clicking on the graphic at that link should allow you to listen.

To call in with questions: (718) 664-9599

You could also probably leave questions in the comments section to that post.

Ken Stolle helped kill quite a few immigration-enforcement bills which passed the House of Delegates with veto-proof majorities in the recent session.

For this reason alone, it is worth your time to hear what Craig Hudgins has to say.

[This is a guest editorial from American Daughter]

We have to encourage this sort of thing because it keeps them off the streets. This leaves the streets for those of us who are old enough to appreciate them.

I got nuthin' of substance thus yet, so forgive the breeziness of what follows, but my far more disciplined and productive wife has a recap here. I hope it was some consolation for her that we spent much of the social time demonstrating our non-political sides.

Jim and Brian of Bearing Drift have some notes. (Scroll down). Jim is a prince for all the work he put into this great conference.

Jay of VV has a nice wrap up. After learning the details, I can say Jay's palatial estate in the boondocks is the blogger-dwelling I most want to visit.

Kat of CatHouse Chat also has a good recap. Kat shares some of my hard-edged interests and concerns, so it was pleasantly surprising to discover she is nothing like me, but actually quite friendly.

The Whacked crew seem to have the only photo coverage - good work! (Scroll down). From my initial impression of their collective personalities, I had the idea that must be among the Best Places to Work in the blogosphere.

In reality, though, I'm sure it's more like a sweatshop. That's how it always is.

There seem to have been some controversies at the event, which I managed to miss, either as a result of socializing or daydreaming, so I apologize in advance for the lack of juicy tidbits here.

I can say the whole brouhaha about "liberal" bloggers staying home turned out to be quite the non-issue because the several liberals who attended represented the species extraordinarily well.

Whackjob himself is a frickin' nut and one of the funniest people I've ever met - so, frankly, there simply may not have been sufficient time for many more liberals because we were all so enthralled by the Greg-meister's routine.

And speaking of funny, Johnny Camacho - you know, the 17-year old guy running for county supervisor, and Kenton - the 16-year old whose traffic had it's biggest spike during the run up to the 2005 elections - have this deadpan hilarious schtick going which someone seriously should make a film about. I am most encouraged by these fine gentlemen being liberals now because in order to eventually say "I used to be a liberal" one really should have been a liberal - and they now have that part of the life-puzzle completed.

Vivian Paige is treat to talk with and such a decent person she reminds you the whole "liberal"-"conservative" polarity is a false or semi-useless construct when it comes to actual, well, people sharing views.

Along the same lines, Dan of VB Dems is another among many "liberals" who shares far more of my own beliefs than many of my fellow "conservatives." Disenchantment with the Parties-that-be being chief among these. Those of us who suffered through the Ross Perot implosion share a special kinship.

Switching to the other side of the ideological spectrum ... Jim Bowden was one of the main people I wanted to meet and I was privileged to spend over an hour talking with him. Some good counsel came over the bridge. On top of that, I bought a copy of his book which I encourage all of you to do as well.

Blog Fu was busy educating the nation, as is his wont, so his availability was limited.

Chris of Spank That Donkey brought a pile of Duncan Hunter for President t-shirts which was a stroke of genius. I wore mine with pride.

Kilo has the enthusiasm thing down pat.

I'm Not Emeril is, appropriately, secretive with his recipes. On the other hand, he is a force of nature, so he has that going for him, which is nice.

I met a number of other great folks for whom I do not have links at the ready. (Sorry!) It was great to meet all of you.

Special thanks to the incredible Christopher Newport University people for allowing us to have the conference in their facility. It was top notch in every respect and a huge contribution to the Virginia blogosphere.

Blogs United will be a going concern, apparently, following the overall success of this event. I encourage Virginia bloggers of every stripe to attend the next one. It was a really good time.

I'm at the Blogs United conference in Newport News for the weekend.

Initial impressions:

- Don't move to Newport News unless you really enjoy sitting in your car.

- Most bloggers are young enough to be my offspring, technically.

- Of the ones who are not, most hold their liquor extremely well.

- Jim, Kat and Jay deserve our everlasting gratitude for all the work that went into this.

I may not have the opportunity to actually "blog" this event, on account of basic laziness, but those delightful young men of Daily Whackjob are dutifully on the task so I encourage you to visit over there.

This is the video the pro-illegal alien advocates don't want you to see.

Because of the state's tough immigration enforcement law that just went into effect July 1, illegal aliens in Georgia are leaving in droves - some returning to Mexico, some going to other states.

If we in Virginia can take action at the local and state level to convince the illegals that this may not be the ideal place to come to, more will return to Mexico or other home countries, and thus will begin the process of advocating for reforms there. Which is what should have been happening in the first place and which the corrupt people running those countries are extremely grateful not to have had to deal with.

The following should be required viewing for every current or prospective office holder at every level of government.

Blog Fu will be on national TV tomorrow to talk about the positive board action in Prince William.

Also, be sure to read