90 Miles From Tyranny : 2015-07-19

John Kerry Calls Alternatives to Iran Deal ‘Unicorn’ and ‘Fantasy’

Secretary of State John Kerry made a heated defense of the Iran nuclear deal Thursday, saying the U.S. will face international isolation and degraded security if Congress rejects the deal.

“The diplomatic support that we have built with all these other countries, that we’ve accumulated, would disappear overnight,” Kerry said at a contentious Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Kerry said congressional rejection would give Iran a “green light” to install advanced centrifuges, double its uranium enrichment process and “proceed full speed ahead with a heavy water reactor … and do it all without the unprecedented inspection and transparency measures that we have secured.”

“Everything that we have prevented will then start taking place,” he said, noting that Iran already has extensive experience with the technology used to build a nuclear weapon. “We can’t bomb that knowledge away, nor can we...

When taking oath, new citizens will no longer be required to pledge to defend U.S.

Continuing to "transform" America, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that new citizens taking the oath of allegiance will no longer have to pledge to "bear arms on behalf of the United States" or "perform noncombatant service" in the Armed Forces as part of the naturalization process.

And you thought it couldn't get any worse?

Washington Examiner:

Those lines are in the Oath of Allegiance that people recite as they become U.S. citizens. But USCIS said people "may" be able to exclude those phrases for reasons related to religion or if they have a conscientious objection.
USCIS said people with certain religious training or with a "deeply held moral or ethical code" may not have to say the phrases as they are naturalized.
The agency said people don't have to belong to a specific church or religion to use this exemption, and may attest to U.S. officials administering the oath that they have these beliefs.
USCIS said it would take "feedback" on this policy change through August 4, 2015.

Because nothing quite says "I love my new country" more than refusing to defend her when she's under attack.

I have no problem with those who refuse service for genuine religious reasons.  This is a choice that has been available to citizens since the Revolution.  But the oath of allegiance is not the place to express that creed.  I can't imagine what motivated USCIS to issue this rule, except that it betokens a desire to alter tradition and...


Illegal Alien Crime Wave in Texas: 611,234 Crimes, 2,993 Murders

The murder of Kathryn Steinle on the Embarcadero in San
Confessed Texas killer Juan Vasquez
Francisco by an illegal alien is the most familiar example of a crime committed by an alien. But an unreleased internal report by the Texas Department of Public Safety reveals that illegal aliens have been involved in thousands of crimes in Texas alone, including nearly 3,000 homicides.

PJ Media obtained an never-before-released copy of a Texas DPS report on human smuggling containing the numbers of crimes committed by illegal aliens in Texas. According to the analysis conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, foreign aliens committed 611,234 unique crimes in Texas from 2008 to 2014, including thousands of homicides and sexual assaults.

The report describes an alien crime wave of staggering proportions exacerbated by federal officials unwilling to enforce immigration laws.

The Texas DPS report says well over 100,000 individual criminal aliens have been booked into Texas jails:

From October 2008 to April 2014, Texas identified a total177,588 unique criminal alien defendants booked into Texas county jails. These individuals have been identified through the Secure Communities initiative, in which Texas has participated since October 2008.

There are almost certainly more criminal aliens who haven’t been identified as aliens. The 177,588 criminal aliens...

At Senate Meeting, Laura Wilkerson gives testimony on her youngest son Joshua’s horrific torture and death while the audience wept.

Wilkerson called on Congress to place American lives and interests over foreigners, especially those illegally living in the country.

During the hearing, titled “Oversight of the Administration’s Misdirected Immigration Enforcement Policies: Examining the Impact on Public Safety and Honoring the Victims,” Wilkerson broke from her written testimony to deliver a dire warning.

“This was our family’s 9/11 terrorist attack by a foreign invader,” she said at the most pivotal point in her testimony. “It is going to take another life lost by a Senator, a Congressman, the President, even another of today’s heroes, someone from Hollywood before someone in a position moves on this.”

“My son’s name was Joshua Wilkerson,” she began. “On November 16, 2010, he was beaten, strangled, tortured until he died. He was tied up, thrown in a field, and set on fire. His killer, Hermilo Moralez, was brought here illegally by his illegal parents when he was ten years old, so he fit the ‘DREAM’ kid description. He was sentenced to life in prison, which means it will be 30 years before he’s up for parole. He’ll be a 49-year-old man, who I don’t expect to be deported. And I just hope he doesn’t come to live in your city.”

Ms. Wilkerson’s son was murder by an illegal immigrant who...

From Sea to Shining Sea: 5 Examples of Voter Fraud across America


Contrary to the assertions of many, voter fraud is not a myth.

It is a stark reality that exists nationwide, from the rural counties of Georgia to the urban centers of New York.

The Heritage Foundation has documented nearly 250 cases where nefarious citizens, officials, candidates and campaign operatives conspired to commit vote fraud, compromising the integrity of our elections to achieve their ideological goals.

That list is just a tiny sampling of voter fraud, and it keeps growing. In May, the Heritage Foundation highlighted several recent cases.

1. Kentucky

In eastern Kentucky, Ross Harris and Loren Glenn Turner funneled $41,000 to the 2002 county judgeship campaign of Doug Hays for what the defendants claimed was a lawful operation to pay more than 1,200 people $50 each to drive voters to the polls.

But a jury determined that this alleged vote-hauling program was just a disguise for what was in reality a vote-buying scheme. The punishment reflected the severity of the fraud: Hays was sentenced to six months behind bars, and Harris was hit with a $100,000 fine.

2. Mississippi

Not to be outdone, William Greg Eason of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi bribed voters with beer and money to cast fraudulent absentee ballots for a...

More Murder And Mayhem From Undeported Illegal Aliens

Deportation orders failed to oust two illegal immigrants who are now up on drug charges and under investigation in the July 4 shooting death of a Lawrence grandmother — in an alarming case that critics say illustrates a revolving immigration door with dangerous consequences.

Dominican Republic nationals Wilton Lara-Calmona and Jose M. Lara-Mejia were arrested on drug charges by police investigating the shooting death of Mirta Rivera, 41. The Lawrence nurse was killed in her sleep by a gunshot fired through the ceiling from an upstairs apartment, where both men lived.

But Immigration and Customs Enforcement records reviewed by the Herald show the men shouldn’t have been in the country in the first place.

Lara-Calmona, 38, was deported in April 2012 and arrested for re-entering the country last November, the records show.

Lara-Mejia, 35, was nabbed crossing the border in August 2013 and ordered deported in April 2014, but had remained in the country illegally.

ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer confirmed that Lara-Mejia “was ordered removed by a federal immigration judge on April 9, 2014, after failing to appear before the immigration court. He was considered an ICE fugitive until his July 4, 2015, arrest by local authorities in Lawrence, Massachusetts.”

Rivera’s shocking shooting death — killed as she lay in her bed — comes as the country’s immigration policies are under renewed scrutiny. Only days before the Lawrence shooting, an illegal immigrant previously deported five times allegedly shot and killed a young woman walking on a busy San Francisco pier with her father.

“Basically we’re hanging a huge ‘welcome back,’ sign for them,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies with the Center for Immigration Studies. “Illegal immigrants who have already been deported see a reason to come back because they are not afraid of immigration enforcement once they get here.”

Vaughan said crime involving illegals could be preventable, but the Obama administration has encouraged officials to look the other way when it comes to enforcing immigration laws — like the law that carries a two-year prison sentence for illegal re-entry, 10 years when it involves a felony crime.

“There is a law on the books intended to make people...

Sunday, July 19, 2015