(townhall)  In the predawn darkness of July 13, 1994, 72 desperate Cubans - old and young, male and female - sneaked aboard a decrepit but seaworthy tugboat in Havana harbor and set off for the U.S. and the prospect of freedom.

Let Jack Nicholson label their captive homeland "a paradise!" Let Bonnie Raitt rasp out her ditty calling it a "Happy Little Island!" Let Ted Turner hail their slavemaster as a "Helluva guy!"

Let Democratic party honcho Frank Mankiewics proclaim Castro "one of the most charming men I've ever met!" Let Michael Moore hail the glories of Cuba's healthcare in Sicko.

 Let Barbara Walters add gravitas while soft-soaping Castro during an "interview": "you have brought great health to your country."

The people boarding that tug knew better. And for a simple reason: the cruel hand of fate had slated them to live under Fidel Castro and Che Guevara’s handiwork.

A few miles into the turbulent sea, 30-year-old Maria Garcia felt someone tugging her sleeve. She looked down and it was her 10-year-old son, Juan. "Mami, look!" and he pointed behind them toward shore. "What's those lights?"

"Looks like a boat following us, son," she stuttered while stroking his hair. "Calm down, mi hijo (my son). Try to sleep. When you wake up, we'll be with our cousins in a free country. Don't worry." In fact, Maria suspected the lights belonged to Castro patrol boats coming out to intercept them

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(news.yahoo)  Sixty-seven percent (67%) of U.S. voters say military troops should be sent to the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration.  A new Rasmussen Reports nationwide telephone survey finds that just 18% are opposed and another 15% are not sure.

A majority of Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliated voters all support the concept of using the troops to stop illegal immigration.

President Obama recently announced that he is sending troops to the Mexican border, but the stated purpose is to prevent the spread of drug-related violence.

The new survey also finds that just 26% of voters believe the U.S. Department of Justice should challenge the legality of Arizona's new law in federal court. Fifty-six percent (56%) oppose such a challenge, and 18% more are not sure. Earlier polling found that most Americans trust the Arizona state leaders more than leaders in Washington, DC on the topic of immigration.

The Obama administration has been highly critical of Arizona's new immigration law and is reportedly considering a variety of challenges to it. 

A senior official at the Department of Homeland Security has said that it may not process illegal immigrants sent to them by Arizona authorities. Only 24% of voters support that approach while 55% disagree and believe Homeland Security should process the illegal immigrants arrested under the new law. One-in-five voters (20%) aren't sure which course is best.

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(ocregister)  What with the Fort Hood mass murderer, the Christmas Pantybomber and now the Times Square Bomber, you may have noticed a little uptick in attempted terrorist attacks on the U.S. mainland in the last few months.

Rep. Lamar Smith did, and, at the House Judiciary Committee, he was interested to see if the attorney general of the United States thought there might be any factor in common between these perplexingly diverse incidents.

 At Fort Hood, Maj. Hasan jumped on a table and gunned down his comrades while screaming, "Allahu Akbar!", which is Arabic for "Nothing to see here" and an early indicator of pre-Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Times Square Bomber, we are assured by The Washington Post, CNN and Newsweek, was upset by foreclosure proceedings on his house. Mortgage-related issues. Nothing to do with months of training at a Taliban camp in Waziristan.

You may not be interested in Islam but Islam is interested in you. Islam smells weakness at the heart of the West. The post-World War II order is dying: The European Union's decision to toss a trillion dollars to prop up a Greek economic model that guarantees terminal insolvency is merely the latest manifestation of the chronic combination of fiscal profligacy and demographic decline in the West at twilight. Islam is already the biggest supplier of new Europeans and new Canadians, and the fastest-growing demographic in the Western world.

Last week, the American Association of Pediatricians noted that certain, ahem, "immigrant communities" were shipping their daughters overseas to undergo "female genital mutilation." So, in a spirit of multicultural compromise, they decided to amend their previous opposition to the practice: They're not (for the moment) advocating full-scale clitoridectomies, but they are suggesting federal and state laws be changed to permit them to give a "ritual nick" to young girls.

A few years back, I thought even fainthearted Western liberals might draw the line at "FGM." After all, it's a key pillar of institutional misogyny in Islam: Its entire purpose is to deny women sexual pleasure.

True, many of us hapless Western men find we deny women sexual pleasure without even trying, but we don't demand genital mutilation to guarantee it.

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(dailygut)  So, if you don't live in Arizona, especially along the border, can you lighten up on the new immigration law?

I mean, I'm not that into Arizonan's opinions on whether taxi fares in NYC should be raised. This is the same thing. "All politics is local," the libs love to say.

Take these U.N. human rights experts - an oxymoron, emphasis on moron. According to them, Arizona's new law on illegal immigration could violate international standards, whatever that means.

They claim "a disturbing pattern of legislative activity hostile to ethnic minorities and immigrants has been established...that may allow for police action targeting individuals on the basis of their perceived ethnic origin."

Of course, they leave out the fact that the law already exists (hence the term illegal immigration), or that - as of yet - there hasn't been an incidence of this so-called targeted police action.

But that's not my point anyway. Whether you love the law or hate it - the U.N. spouting off on this crap is like Hitler giving advice on Hanukah shopping.

Take Mexico's Jorge Bustamante - who must be pissed that it's a crime to be in the U.S. illegally. Just like Mexico. In fact, you could end up in jail for years if you're caught there illegally. Here's a tip Busta: focus on why so many of your citizens are coming here, instead of staying there. Something tells me the human rights abuses are a tad worse - if by tad, you mean "Eso es pura mierda."

And of course, there's Farida Shaheed. She's from Pakistan - a shining human rights beacon. As long as you overlook persecution of women, gays, children, religious minorities, non-Muslims, Muslims and sexually harassed goats. But why worry too much about thousands of "honor killings," when a Phoenix cop just asked a Hispanic for his license because of a busted tail light.

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