Immigration & amnesty ...

A lady wrote the best letter in the Editorials in ages!!

Please read this all the way through and decide if we need to look at things a little differently.

Recently large demonstrations have taken place across the country protesting the fact that Congress is finally addressing the issue of illegal immigration. Certain people are angry that the US might protect its own borders, might make it harder to sneak into this country and, once here, to stay indefinitely. Let me see if I correctly understand the thinking behind these protests.

Let's say I break into your house. Let's say that when you discover me in your house, you insist that I leave. But I say, "I've made all the beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry and swept the floors; I've done all the things you don't like to do. I'm hard-working and honest (except for when I broke into your house).

According to the protesters, not only must you let me stay, you must add me to your family's insurance plan, educate my kids, and provide other benefits to me and to my family (my husband will do your yard work because he too is hard-working and honest, except for that breaking in part).

If you try to call the police or force me out, I will call my friends who will picket your house carrying signs that proclaim my right to be there.

It's only fair, after all, because you have a nicer house than I do, and I'm just trying to better myself. I'm hard-working and honest, um, except for well, you know.

And what a deal it is for me!! I live in your house, contributing only a fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about it without being accused of selfishness, prejudice and being an anti-housebreaker. Oh yeah, and I want you to learn my language so you can communicate with me.
Why can't people see how ridiculous this is?! Only in America do we have the freedom to be this stupid.  So often people fall victim to the "if it's not in my back yard it doesn't effect me" line of thinking.  This editorial brings to light an important analogy of how the Immigration and Amnesty issues effects everyone.  Some states are looking to go so far as too give Illeagal aliens such benefits that everyone would want to be one:
Becoming Illegal (From a Maryland resident to his senator)


The Honorable Paul S. Sarbanes
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510


Dear Senator Sarbanes,
As a native Marylander and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.

My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stem from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.

Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.

Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin using the local emergency room as my primary health care provider. Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year. Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her law school applications, as well as "in-state" tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United States for my son.

Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver's license and making those burdensome car insurance premiums. This is very important to me given that I still have college age children driving my car.

If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative. Thank you for your assistance.

Your Loyal Constituent,
Pete McGlaughlin

Get your Forms (NOW)!! Call your Internal Revenue
Service 1-800-289-1040.

Please pass this onto your friends so they can save on this great offer!!!!
If you agree with what you have just read, pass it on (in English).  Share it if you see the value of it as a good simile.  If not, blow it off along with your freedom, future Social Security funds, etc!

-JustBob

A & Q

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail

Save Our Congress

From http://saveourcongress.izikoo.com/ :

Dear Friends, This is a time of crisis for all Americans. We stand on the verge of a major shift in political power in Congress. Republican control of the House and Senate is crucial to maintaining the progress our country has made in recent years. But all across this great nation, Republicans are in struggling in heavily contested races. The Democrats have gained traction in the media, and have become more effective at spreading their message. We need your help! We need your help to spread the message that if Democrats take control of Congress, then there will be major changes in the political climate of this nation. To illustrate the drastic actions Democrats want to take, Save Our Congress has created 3 small presentations we would like you to view. Then we need you to help spread the word. This presentation can be sent to your friends and family to encourage them to get out there on November 7th, and Vote Republican. You can also embed this presentation in your own websites and blogs. The more people who understand what is at stake, the more powerful we will become. And that will lead us to success!

If you can not view the image please click here.

Better Thunderbird and Exchange co-existance

One of the servers that I access from Thunderbird is a Microsoft Exchange server. Until today, one the things that bothered me was the mis-matched 'trash' folders. Thunderbird calls the folder "Trash" and Exchange call the folder "Deleted Items". Today I did a bit of searching on Google and found this post: (http://tinyurl.com/n68lz).

Here is the relevant section:

Omran Quaiser wrote:
> Is it possible to rename the Trash folder, because the ISP of mine
> calls it a different way. So I have got two of them, if I write my
> mails with the web-frontend.

It takes a bit of prefs.js hacking - the preference is
pref("mail.server.server1.trash_folder_name", "Deleted Items");
(Change the 1 and Deleted Items as appropriate)

Here is what I did:

1. Exited Thunderbird.
2. Made a copy of the prefs.js file (for a backup).
3. Located the section I was looking for by searching for the server's hostname.
4. Added the following line: user_pref("mail.server.server5.trash_folder_name", "Deleted Items");
5. Restarted Thunderbird and tested. Thunderbird now shows the Trash Can icon on the "Deleted Items" folder. Delete messages can now be found in the correct folder.
6. Deleted the "Trash" folder that Thunderbird had created aut0matically.

These simple steps appear to greatly improve the integration between the two applications.