A bloodbath just south of the Mexican border has alarmed neighboring Arizona towns that have nervously monitored a rise in violence in the Mexican state of Sonora the past two months.

Mexican police killed 15 armed assailants in a fierce gun battle Wednesday after tracking a group that killed four policemen, leading to fears this morning that an armed outlaw convoy was headed to the U.S. border.

About 40 assailants apparently related to Mexico’s powerful drug gangs, drove in a convoy of up to 15 vehicles into the town of Cananea, 20 miles south of the U.S. border, to seize the policemen Wednesday. Mexican state police confronted the gunmen in the mountains 60 miles south of Cananea and reportedly killed 15 of the gunmen.

Source: WorldNetDaily

I’m really not sure what to say of this, but I guess it just goes to show further reasons that we need to be as careful as possible when it comes to border security and drug law enforcement. It seems to me that the best way to deal with these Mexican Drug Gangs would be to increase enforcement of our own laws and to more severely prosecute those who are caught smuggling drugs - or anything for that matter - across the border. Is that really too much to ask?

Then again, especially with Thursday’s travesty of an amnesty bill, I’m really not sure I have much faith left in our national leadership to make this happen. Even as Bush was pushing for immigration ‘reform’, I had confidence that the Republican congress would be smart enough to avoid it. When the Democrats took over, I was just about ready to start praying that they would never agree with Bush enough to get a bill through. Now that they all seem to agree, I guess the only option left is for public opinion to squash the bill - something I don’t see us having the power to do.

Yes, the proposed bill includes many security and enforcement procedures, but I refuse to accept any form on amnesty until every inch of the border is walled off with high fencing, barbed wire, and under video surveillance. Until every vehicle legally crossing is inspected and the cargo x-rayed, and until every police officer in the country is required to check immigration status when making an arrest. If all of this was done, then I’d be willing to discuss amnesty.

At the same time, I have to give props to the Senators for working out such a difficult agreement and, despite my many dislikes, making a number of important and needed reforms. Taking a look at the White House Fact Sheet, some of it actually looks decent.

• The plan establishes a merit based system for immigration, granting priority to the best of the best
• New English requirements and a push for greater assimilation
• An end to extended family (uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.) family migration benefits, which apparently account for nearly 2/3 of green cards issued
• Temporary worker program - although I don’t really support it, it seems like a good way to reduce future illegal immigration or at least track people - if we enforce the laws
• Increased sanctions on companies who hire illegal workers

Despite the good aspects, there are a few major things I still really want to see

• Recognition of English as the official language of the United States
• An end to the ‘birth right’ citizenship of the 14th amendment - you should be born a citizen if and only if one or both of your parents is a citizen
• Severe increases in the penalties for future illegal immigrants, including no-questions-asked deportation and a permanent bar from gaining a green card once that occurs, for both those who sneak in and those who overstay visas

If someone had a bill which included all that, I’d be ecstatic. Until then, down with amnesty and immigration ‘reform!’ Congress and President Bush, please give the American People what we want, don’t give in to illegals and huge corporations.

I’ve read through the Voter’s Guide and made my decisions, now that the drop boxes are closed, I’ll make them public (along with my reasoning) for all to see. Voting is supposed to be a private matter, but I really don’t care if people know - I’m proud of my choices.

State Measures:

39: YES - On the surface, this measure looks like an obvious yes. After what happened in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, I am very much inclined to vote for it. On the other hand, the opposition makes a good point that it will cost up to $30 million a year, with a good chunk of that being lawyers fees. The economic development aspect makes sense, but I’m really not sure that I like the idea to begin with. In the end, I’ll make this a reluctant yes.

40: YES - I most certainly understand what the opposition means when they say that electing judges by district will lead to different interpretations, but I think that it is a good thing. Judges are supposed to be non-partisan, but we all know that they lean one way or another. It seems to me that in selecting judges by district, the more rural and conservative parts of the state will have more of a say in how our laws are interpreted. If we can???t pull every bit of politics out of the courts, we should at least balance it. Besides, if it worked so well for years, it should work just as well now.

41: NO - I’m all for lower taxes, I’m all for smaller government, what I’m not for is a huge cut in school funding. This measure could take as much as $337 million from the schools. In Beaverton the amount would be about $21.22 million. I just can’t do that. In Beaverton we have the best public schools in the state, and we’re still hugely overcrowded. My school has just over 2600 students and was built (rather, upgraded for) only 2100. Until we get some real reform in the way the school system is run, schools need every penny they can get. Cut the waste, and then we can cut the taxes

42: No - This is silly, if you ask me. I’m not sure just how good an indicator of likely payouts a credit rating is, but I’m sure there is some sort of correlation. People who are irresponsible with money are probably more likely to have other accidents as well. I just can justify raising rates for responsible people.

43: YES - I can’t see why one wouldn’t support this measure. It does nothing to restrict the availability of abortions, it does not require parental permission, it simply requires parental notification before girl makes one of the most difficult decisions of her life. I understand that some girly come from abusive families, but it seems that the judicial overrides will work just fine.

44: YES - For a measure with no arguments in opposition, it would be hard to vote any other way. It costs the state nothing and will help tens of thousands of Oregonians without insurance get he medications they need.

45: YES - This is a tough one; I see valid points and good arguments on both sides. I very much dislike that some lawmakers seem to do nothing and keep getting re-elected, but at the same time there are many good, multi-term legislators. In the end, new voices win out in my mind.

46: YES - I agree that campaign finance reform is a good idea. Although I think that the legislature should come up with a plan that makes sense (unlike Measure 47) and then send it to the voters, this measure has very high requirement of 75% of both houses. It is the high requirement that makes me feel this is OK.

47: NO - While the idea of restricting campaign financing and spending makes - at least for candidates - some sense, all of the tedious rules and regulations in this measure (it is almost nine full pages in the Voter’s Guide) seem like overkill. I should be able to donate to Political Parties and PAC type organizations without restriction, and it is overkill to require major donor names and businesses in ads. I especially dislike the need for a special number if you donate more than $500 a year. This measure is simply insane.

48: NO - Again, this may come as a bit of a surprise, but I can’t bring myself to vote for this. Our state is growing, but not at an even rate. The Beaverton School District is the fastest growing district in the state and I simply can’t justify cutting millions from school funding. Cutting taxes is one thing, but limiting the spending of existing tax revenue makes no sense to me.

Candidates:

US Representative (District 1): Derrick Kitts - Yes, I’m mostly voting down party lines, but he seems like a good candidate. David Wu’s had his turn, now it’s time for a change.

Governor: Ron Saxton - Again, a somewhat partisan decision, but I’m not much of a fan of our current governor. Besides that, the Oregonian (a fairly liberal paper) endorsed Saxton over the incumbent Democrat Ted Kulongoski - something they very rarely do. I just hope that Mary Starrett doesn’t spoil it.

State Senate (District 17): Piotr Kuklinski - I do like Brad Avakian, but I felt that partisanship was the way to go. Regardless, I’m pretty sure that Avakian will win.

State House (District 34): Joan Draper - I don’t really know much about either of the candidates, but she seems to have a good platform and ideas.

State Supreme Court (Position 6): Jack Roberts - He seems to have good experience and a positive stance on judicial fairness.

State Court of Appeals (Position 9): Ellen F. Rosenblum - unopposed and I don’t know of a good write-in.

Circuit Court (District 20): Charlie Bailey - He seems to have a good background and a slate of endorsements from actual people, not just newspapers.

County Commissioner (Distinct 2): Desari Caldwell - She is running unopposed and seems to be a decent candidate.

METRO (District 4): Kathryn Harrington - She is endorsed by the major local papers and I like her background and previous experience a bit more than Cox.

Local Measures:

34-126: YES - Libraries are an important asset to the community. It seems that $33 a year for the average home is a small price to pay.

34-127: YES - Public safety is perhaps the number one responsibility of government; $81 dollars is nothing for these services.

26-80: YES - Oregon is renowned for its wilderness and conservation; it seems that some more money for wildlife and wetlands won’t hurt.

34-139: YES - This is a no brainier. If you’ve been in a Beaverton area high school in the last few years it is clear how important this is. We desperately need a new school and expansions of existing ones. Either pass this bond or put a moratorium on the construction of new homes in the greater Beaverton area.

34-133: YES - Fire and Rescue is just as important to public safety and well being as police are. To not pass this would be stupid.

The thing with sites like YouTube is that you never know if a clip is authentic. That said, I have been able to confirm that it was, in fact, a Santorum ad. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/10/31/94601.shtml For your viewing pleasure:

As a responsible blogger, it is my duty to investigate the facts of what I post. As such, decided to look into the claims by The Center for Security Policy.

I didn’t find much of anything on their site, but NewsMax.com offers an explanation:

Apparently Casey is (and was at the time) a board member and had some say in how the investments were made.

I’m not normally one to attack Republicans, but this ad really seems to take the claims made in the report a little too far and a our of context. Last time I checked, being a board member for a pension fund that works with companies that operate in nations that are linked to terrorism is in no way akin to investing in ‘organizations linked to terrorism’.

If I lived in Pennsylvania, I’d still vote for Santorum, although I wish politicians would not have to stoop so low in their attack ads.

This is a rant more than anything else, and certainly not a major news item, but I want to get it out there anyway.

For those of you who are not familiar with the major players in Blogosphere search, Technorati is perhaps the most popular blog-specific search engine out there. As of late, however, some sort of bug (it could be on my end, but I suspect it to be on there end) has prevented News. Views. Common Sense. from being updated on their site.

Especially for a small blog with very little readership, Technorati is a great way to increase hits and was referring about half my visitors in early mid August. Then, all of a sudden, they decided to stop crawling my site. Automatic pings do nothing, manual pings do nothing, five different support e-mails do nothing. I’m really starting to loose my faith in them. Something went wrong and I have had no luck getting it fixed.

On the other hand, this seems to be a fairly common problem that has occurred on a number of blogs and is Easily resolved, as can be seen here, here, and here.

I’ve sent them yet another e-mail and all I have to say is that I really hope something gets done soon.