This is an URGENT APPEAL for all to call their US Senators/Reps (if Republicans, of course!) to ask them to vote AGAINST Mel Martinez’s nomination for Republican National Committee Chair! I just called my Idaho reps.

Vote is TOMORROW (Jan 17)!

I used these numbers, first one worked to Capitol Switchboard this afternooon
Toll Free Numbers
(800) 862-5530
(800) 833-6354
(866) 340-9281
(866) 220-0044

To find all members of your State’s delegation, see here>

{Vdare.com note:For information about the Mel Martinez for RNC Chairman controversy, see November 15, 2006 The Fulford File, Email RNC About Martinez Nomination! ]

After the disaster of the recent election, you’d think the Republican Establishment, including Bush, would have gotten the message: their base is mad at them.

Not so. Like the Bourbons, who had a broadly similar experience, they have learned nothing and they have forgotten nothing.

The Bush nomination  of Mel Martinez to be Chairthing of the Republican National Committee has caused a lot of complaint—including here on VDARE.COM, where Patrick Cleburne characterized the decision as: "RNC To White Men: —- Off ! (Again). "

The presidential candidacy of Open Borders zealot John McCain appears to have hit a snag in, of all places, his own home state of Arizona. In a recent straw poll of Republican precinct committeemen in the state’s most populous county, McCain finished a distant fourth with only 50 of the 458 votes cast. Mitt Romney came in second with 82 votes, and Newt Gingrich third with 53.

Who won the straw poll? California Congressman Duncan Hunter came in first with 96 votes, and attributed his success to his tough stances on immigration and national security. Hunter, who has a career grade of A+ from the ever reliable Americans for Better Immigration website, has a long history of fighting for serious immigration reform.

Hunter also opposes free trade, and has repeatedly voted against trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and the WTO on the grounds they hurt American manufacturing and contribute to our massive trade deficit. Formerly Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, he supports the War in Iraq, but the Vietnam veteran and one time Army Ranger can hardly be called a chicken hawk.

Political observes immediately noticed the immigration connection:

Lyle Tuttle, the Maricopa County Republican Committee chairman, said Hunter’s showing wasn’t expected.

“I was surprised, but when you look at it you see that Duncan is a pretty solid conservative and he should take pride in that he scored so well.”

Tuttle said McCain’s stance on immigration in which he favors amnesty for illegal immigrants hurts with the Phoenix-area Republicans as well as the GOP’s rank and file across Arizona, a state that like California shares a border with Mexico.

“That and his attempt to appeal to the center of the political spectrum have not played with the conservative people here in Arizona,” Tuttle said during a telephone interview.

[Hunter Takes Arizona GOP Straw Poll, North County Times, 1/15/07]

Hunter didn’t fare so well when party officials were asked to name “acceptable presidential candidates,” coming in seventh, but veteran immigration reformer Tom Tancredo came in fourth, and both were ahead of McCain, who finished ninth. McCain did, however, come in first in one category. When asked to name “unacceptable presidential candidates,” 282 named McCain.

Also, when asked to name the reasons for the GOP’s recent electoral defeat, “too lenient on immigration,” came in third, after Iraq (first) and spending (second).

During their appearance in South Carolina to celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr.holiday, Sens. Joe Biden (D-DE) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) piped up about removing the evil Confederate Flag from the grounds of the state capitol. (Aren’t those South Carolinians ever going to get their minds right?)

“If I were a state legislator, I’d vote for it to move off the grounds, out of the state,” said Biden, who no doubt sees that piece of cloth as being solely responsible for undermining the political, social and economic gains blacks have made since the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“I don’t think it belongs on the Capitol grounds,” echoed Dodd in an interview . “It belongs in a museum.” Dodd went on to say there is no place for the Confederate symbol in today’s society because Americans are fighting under one flag in Iraq, Afghanistan, yada, yada, yada . . .

Memo to Biden and Dodd : The Pavlovian MSM may swallow the pre-approved patriotic pap from your campaign spinners, but the rest of us ain’t buying it. You - and the nation’s so-called black leaders - are dodging the real issue, i.e., why the continuing support for an immigration policy that is hurting blacks far worse than any lousy flag possibly could? Anybody, especially politicians, can spout off about the “emotional” damage this flag allegedly does to some blacks and their guilt-ridden white allies, but how about addressing the U.S. government’s responsibility for the flood of uneducated and unskilled foreign workers who are forcing blacks to compete for jobs that are rightfully theirs?

Hey, Jake from Freedom Folks here; No need to be scared — we’re in the VDARE.com blogroll, after all!

Bryanna is up to her eyebrows in diapers and deadlines and asked if I would clue y’all in on the amazing nationwide protest that happened all over the country this last weekend. You know, the one the national MSM soundly and roundly ignored?

Yeah, that one.

Americans all over the country joined together last Saturday to protest the wrongful conviction of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose
Compean. If you aren’t familiar with the story, here’s a good backgrounder.

In a nutshell, agents Ramos and Compean find themselves facing more than a decade in prison for doing their jobs. While the agents made
mistakes, as you’ll see in the article at the link, these should have been administrative matters.

None of what they did or didn’t do rose to the level of an indictable offense.

The salt in the wound here is President Bush’s Christmas pardon (story here) of several drug dealers while ignoring and mocking pardon requests for Ramos and Compean.

Events were held in Chicago, El Paso, Austin, San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Ft. Myers.

So without further ado, here’s a non-comprehensive (just a little immigration humor there) roundup of MSM and bloggy coverage of the various events:

Chicago bloggers Freedom Folks (that’s us!) attended the event.

The Minutemen Midwest also have photos up.

(My lovely wife also created that graphic which you are welcome to
steal…here.)

SOS had things covered in the heart of occupied Aztlan, a.k.a. Los Angeles (here.)

Here is some local MSM coverageof the El Paso event, including an interview with agent Compean.

In San Diego it was the Oceanside Citizens Brigade making noise (here.)

In Philly, Stop The Invasion had the honors (here.)

The (new to me) website Illegal Immigrant Protest brings us pictures of the Ft. Myers event and others (site was remarkably slow for me so YMMV).

In Phoenix, the American Freedom Riders–who put this whole nationwide shindig together–rallied around agents Ramos and Compean. Agent
Ramos, who is a biker, rode in the protest (here.)

And our good blog buddy Immigration Watchdog has some nice video here.

If you have anything (non-profanity laden) to say to our President
or the Attorney General feel free! Just keep it clean!

Now back to your regularly scheduled Vdare programming!

BB Note: Thanks Jake! You da man!