*CONTINUED DEMOCRATIC OBSTRUCTION: Not content to leave the nation’s federal benches partly empty while failing to pass spending bills, among many other failures (see cover story), Senate Democrats late last week were still refusing to approve a reasonable Homeland Security bill despite its importance to America’s national security. After both houses passed a continuing resolution to keep the government operating through November 22, House members went home to campaign last week, subject to being called back by Speaker Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill.) if there’s ever a Senate-passed version of the Homeland Security bill that they have to deal with.
President Bush wants the new Cabinet department to have a free hand to hire and fire security officials in order to maximize performance in this key area, but Democrats insist that union rules should apply, which would make it well nigh impossible to fire a Homeland Security worker or move him to a spot where he’s more needed. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D.-S.D.) says Bush is playing politics, but Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, a Democrat, said, "The enemy is fast and nimble, and we must be as well. This proposal ensures that the President will have the tools to meet a rapidly changing threat."
*NORTH KOREAN UNSURPRISE: Only the perpetually na??¯ve were surprised when Communist North Korea admitted the truth of Bush Administration charges that it has a nuclear weapons program. Such a program is a clear violation of a 1994 agreement with the United States and the North Korean government said that agreement was now "nullified." House Policy Committee Chairman Chris Cox (R.-Calif.), Sen. Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.), and Rep. Ed Markey (D.-Mass.)-who have for some time been warning against the United States’ lax policies toward North Korea, including our assistance with nuclear energy-released a joint statement October 17 that said: "The revelation that North Korea has secretly continued its nuclear weapons program should come as no surprise. It demonstrates once again how foolish it is to put faith into agreements designed to appease dictatorships that have a long history of deception."
On June 6 of this year, Cox was joined by Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R.-N.Y.) and Markey in asking the Bush Administration to put an end to the construction of nuclear reactors in North Korea. And well over two years ago, on April 11, 2000, Cox’s office said, "The House Policy Committee will examine ways to put an end to the Clinton-Gore aid to Kim Jong Il’s Stalinist North Korean dictatorship. That aid is being used to feed Kim Jong Il’s million-man army, to provide fuel oil for North Korean military industries, and to build light water nuclear reactors that will provide plutonium for nuclear weapons."
*‘FIREARMS FINGERPRINTING’ WARINESS: Despite the hysteria for more gun laws being whipped up by gun-control activists and the liberal media in the wake of the sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area, President Bush is resisting the call for "firearms fingerprinting." "How many laws can we really have to stop crime, if people are determined in their heart to violate them no matter how many there are or what they say?" asked White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "There is an issue about fingerprints, of course, as a very effective way to catch people who are engaged in robbery or theft. Is that to say that every citizen in the United States should be fingerprinted in order to catch robbers and thieves?" The White House is not ruling out the possibility of a policy change in the future. "There are some issues that are raised with this that deal with the accuracy of the ballistic fingerprinting that need to be explored and reviewed before any final determination can be made," said Fleischer.
*HOUSE SOBERS UP: The House on October 16 easily passed-296 to 94-the Sober Borders Act (HR 2155), sponsored by Rep. Jeff Flake (R.-Ariz.). The bill would close a legal loophole that currently prevents the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from helping local officials detain drunk drivers trying to enter the United States. "Our ports of entry shouldn’t be safe-havens for drunk drivers," said Flake. "It’s ludicrous that those charged with protecting our borders are powerless to defend us from obvious drunk drivers coming into the country. The Sober Borders Act is common-sense legislation that will save lives. I’m glad that the House has passed it and am hopeful that the Senate will take action on it before this Congress adjourns." There is a chance the Senate will take up the measure in the lame-duck session now scheduled to begin November 22.
*VISA FAILURES: Rep. George Gekas (R.-Pa.), an immigration hawk and chairman of the House subcommittee on immigration, discovered at a hearing October 9 that the INS knew that Hesham Mohamed Ali Hedayet, the terrorist who opened fire at the El Al counter in the Los Angeles airport, may have had connections to terrorism. When Hedayet entered the country in 1992, he claimed that the Egyptian government had made him sign a confession that he was a member of the terrorist al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya. Despite knowing of the confession and the possibility it was valid, the INS let Hedayet stay in the country while his deportation proceedings went forward. When his wife won the visa lottery, he was allowed to stay.
Separately, Joel Mowbray reported in the October 28 National Review that at least 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers should have been denied visas based on the State Department’s own rules at the time of their applications. Instead, State issued them visas. NR obtained all but four of the hijackers’ applications and found that six experts agreed that every one of the 15 was faulty. "Consider, for example, the U.S. destinations most of them listed. Only one of the 15 provided an actual address-and that was only because his first application was refused-and the rest listed only general locations, including ‘California,’ ‘New York,’ ‘Hotel D.C.,’ and ‘Hotel.’ One terrorist amazingly listed his U.S. destination as simply ‘No.’ Even more amazingly, he got a visa," wrote Mowbray.
*TAKE AIM: In Maryland, perhaps the state that least respects the right to keep and bear arms, the push for new gun laws is never-ending. But evidence emerged last week-just as a sniper was terrorizing the National Capital area-that the cash-strapped state government decided to cut corners by not enforcing one of the very few gun laws that actually might do some good. Maryland, in an effort to save a few thousand dollars, refused to provide criminal records last year for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), demanding first that the feds reimburse them.
"This revelation is hugely ironic," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), who along with Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.) is calling for a federal investigation. "While Annapolis tries to tout its gun control positions, it has blatantly ignored one of the most significant measures available in existing law to ensure that guns don’t get into the hands of criminals." Maryland has taken $6.7 million in federal money since 1995 to improve its criminal records, and may have saved a paltry $50,000 by refusing to provide its records to the FBI.
