Paul Belien has written some pieces for us describing the experience of having his political party banned for being “racist.” Recently the new party, Vlaams Belang, held a demonstration against the Islamization of Belgium, and the police reacted violently.

I just returned home from the anti-Islamization demonstration in Brussels. The Belgian police beat up the peaceful demonstrators in what even the Belgian public television call “an extremely violent fashion.” Here are some video images. The grey-haired man whom we see being attacked by the police first is Luk Van Nieuwenhuysen, the Vice-President of the Flemish Parliament. Shortly afterwards we see the police maltreating Frank Vanhecke, a member of the European Parliament and the party leader of the Vlaams Belang. We see how he is handcuffed and pushed into a police bus. Afterwards we also see the police “taking care” of Filip Dewinter, the VB group leader in the Flemish Parliament. We see how his arm gets caught between the closing doors of the bus. An Italian MEP and a French MEP were also arrested. The demonstrators were kept in cells for seven hours and released this evening.[ Capital of the EUSSR Septermber 11, 2007]

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has more, including this

You’ll note, by the way, that almost every MSM article refers to Vlaams Belang as “far right.”

The open-borders European press and politicians use the same demonization tactics against immigration enforcement proponents abroad as they do here…even as they watch their nations’ sovereignty crumble before their eyes.

Like Toynbee said: “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.”

The Vlaams Belang aren’t particularly far right–they’re Flemish nationalists. And the demonization Michelle refers to is the same thing that led to the death of Pim Fortuyn.

In an interview with GQ, General Powell has this to say:

America could not survive without immigration. Even the undocumented immigrants are contributing to our economy.[GQ ICON: COLIN POWELL: GQ Features on men.style.com]

Er, that’s a negative, General. Undocumented immigrants cost the economy more than they contribute. Yes, they pick strawberries cheaply, but they contribute that to the growers, not the the economy in general.

Their consumption of public services, which includes schools, hospitals, welfare in general, and law enforcement costs means that the average illegal immigrant costs a lot more in a year than he produces, and a heck of a lot more than he pays in taxes.

From a U. of Washington press release:

“David Kopay’s generous gift to the Q Center is both an act of forgiveness and a clear directive to the UW regarding the health and well-being of its glbttsqqi [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, queer, questioning and intersex] students, faculty, and staff ,” says Jennifer Self, director of the Q Center.

On the eve of the September 11th terrorist attacks against the U.S., Hamid Hayat, the Stockton-born son of Pakistani immigrants, was convicted of lying to the F.B.I. about attending terrorist training camps. Note here that Hayat is an American citizen but still maintains strong, jihad related ties to Pakistan…another strong argument against birthright citizenship. Hayat, rejecting a plea-bargain offer of fifteen years in jail opposed to the mandatory thirty-seven years, was sentenced to twenty-four years in federal prison. [Hamid Hayatt Sentenced, By Layla Bohm, Lodi News-Sentinel, September 11, 2007]

Of special interest to VDARE.COM readers, two imams involved in the Hayat case agreed to be deported when it was discovered that they had overstayed their R-1 visas.

And the Lodi Pakistani community, initially reported by the mainstream media as “stunned” by the FBI investigation, is going about business as usual–just like the rest of the town.

As of mid-morning the day after the sentencing, Lodi (where I live) seems indifferent. Only two comments have been posted on the News-Sentinel blog.

And at the local mini-mart, the only subject of interest was the last night’s San Francisco 49er last minute-win over the Arizona Cardinals.

I suppose a whole generation will always remember where they were when they heard about 9/11, just as an earlier one never forgot where they were when they heard JFK had been shot. I was exactly where I am now, looking at a computer screen behind which, through the window, the Connecticut Berkshires roll away to the horizon, when I glanced at the TV and saw the World Trade Center in flames - just as I now see Mayor Bloomberg presiding over a remembrance ceremony.

I went upstairs and told Maggy, ill in bed with the cancer that was to claim her life just 17 months later. Together, we watched the utter destruction of an area we’d both known so well when I worked for Alan Abelson’s Barron’s Magazine some 20 years earlier.

The same eerie feeling of complete change and no change comes over me when I contemplate the political consequences of 9/11. Osama bin Laden, whose head could surely have been obtained through a traditional commercial transaction with one or other local warlord, remains irritatingly at large. The government of Afghanistan, taken from the majority tribe and given to minority tribes, is obviously reverting, amid the usual chaos. Iraq continues to be the object of Washington’s intense attention, as it has been since the first Gulf War, for reasons that deserve analysis but manifestly had nothing to do with 9/11. Domestic terrorism in the U.S., which could have been as serious as the Irish Republican Army’s recent bombing campaign in Britain (why no War On Terror against them, by the way?) mysteriously did not materialize - even though episodic outbreaks of Immigrant Mass Murder sydrome have shown how easily individuals with rifles could paralyze the country. Above all, the Bush Adminstration continued with its fanatical drive to accomodate the Mexodus, heedless of border security.

I find I don’t feel like writing a VDARE.COM reflection on 9/11 this year. It’s a game. America’s elites didn’t really care. They just just got on with their agenda(s).

VDARE.COM has readers who lost loved ones in 9/11 and in the subsequent wars. To them I extend my own commiserations.

Six years ago, Arab terrorists killed almost 3000 people in one day. Ever since then, attempts to restrain illegal Mexican immigration have been met with the claim that we should concentrate on terrorism.

In the last six years, of course, Mexicans and Central Americans have killed many more than 3000 Americans, but retail, rather than wholesale. A mass murder here, a bank robbery there, a woman strangled in a shower stall…and all the victims of Hispanic drunk drivers.

But still, nothing like a genuine Muslim mass murder, like you get in London, Bali, Madrid, and six years ago in New York. Just your day to day killings.

But Mexicans have their own traditions of terrorism. Nuevo Laredo is only slightly less dangerous than Iraq, and recently there’s this massive, coordinated bombing in Mexico.

Sabotage blamed as blasts rip Mexico pipelines
Houston Chronicle
Sept. 10, 2007, 8:53PM
Second such attack in 2 months may cut natural gas supplies 25% while repairs made

By DUDLEY ALTHAUS

MEXICO CITY — Saboteurs attacked four natural gas pipelines in energy-rich Veracruz state Monday, the second time in as many months that the country’s petroleum infrastructure has been targeted.

Explosive charges detonated in the pre-dawn darkness at six locations on the pipelines that link refineries to consumers in Mexico City and other major population centers. The pipelines are operated by the government’s petroleum monopoly, Pemex.

Fighting illegal Mexican immigration may turn out to have anti-terrorism implications after all–and it’s not as if the Wall Street Journal, which wrote in 2002 that John Ashcroft should

worry about …the hijackers who entered the U.S. legally in the case of the September 11 attacks, not Mexicans working at chicken plants in that notorious terror enclave of Shelbyville, Tennessee.

were really interested in controlling Muslim immigration either.

Senator Byron Dorgan has long been a critic of harmful trade treaties, outsourcing and open borders. He is now providing leadership against Mexican trucks being permitted throughout America.

Congress could act quickly to block a new Bush administration pilot program allowing long haul Mexican trucks to operate anywhere in the United States, a U.S. senator said on Monday.

“My hope is the Senate will do as the House has done and we will put the brakes on the pilot program,” Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, told reporters.

Dorgan proposed an amendment denying funding for the one-year program, which was begun late last week.
[Senator makes bid to block Bush on Mexican trucks ABC News 9/10/07]

Today’s Lou Dobbs opened with the sentence: “Tonight, new evidence the Bush administration apparently believes commerce with Mexico is more important than border security.”

Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) agreed that giving unlimited access to US highways to dangerous Mexican trucks is a terrible idea.

POE: I think it’s certainly unwise. It doesn’t help the United States. The system is not reciprocal. American trucks are not yet allowed to go into Mexico. But having trucks that are overweight, with people who may not be able to read a street sign is not going to be advantageous to the United States. We need to study this longer and make sure that each truck is secure. We’ve got word from homeland security they’re going to inspect all these trucks. They’re not even inspecting the people that come into the United States now adequately. They’re not going to be able to inspect these vehicles for safety and pollution and for who is on those vehicles, must less what cargo they’re carrying.

For a recent example of how dangerous foreign drivers can be, see Lack of English blamed for train-truck wreck in North Carolina.

In July, a non-English-speaking foreigner was sentenced for a horrific crash he caused: Illegal Alien Trucker Is Sentenced for Killing Four.

Several Americans have already been killed as a result of Mexican trucking: Victims of Mexican Trucks Remembered.

Oh, and safety news from south of the border is not reassuring: Truck Explosion in Mexico Kills 37.