SNOW AND FLAKES

I snapped this picture at our parking spot, in the Thousand Trails Preserve at Bend/Sunriver. Those white things are snowflakes, which came down for a brief period yesterday morning. Nothing stuck to the ground, but it definitely has turned colder here in the high desert of central Oregon. The latest, most unbelievable news coming out of D.C. is almost incomprehensible. When I heard this story, I just shook my head in disbelief. Based on the news reports, it seems that our State Department has filed a report, citing the State of Arizona as being problematic in the area of human rights. The narrative in this report is of course based on Arizona's recent enactment of SB1070, which mirrors the federal immigration law. It's common knowledge that if the Feds were enforcing current immigration law, and securing our borders, there would have been no need for Arizona to take matters into their own hands. Nevertheless, even though the new Arizona law specifically prohibits racial profiling, and is essentially the same as Federal law, our State Department thinks that Arizona is now a violator of human rights. Here's the best part - this report was filed with the Human Rights Council at the United Nations! Two countries that are on this council are Cuba and Libya. So, if I have this right, our State Department is referencing the State of Arizona, as being a potential violator of human rights, to a United Nations council on human rights, and two members of that council are Cuba and Libya. Are you kidding me! The absurdity coming out of Washington continues unabated, and on some levels, borders on insanity. There was no dialogue with Arizona, no notification, no nothing. Governor Jan Brewer was astonished, and actually learned of this action by the State Department, on the Internet. Thank goodness, she has enough backbone to stand up to the Federal Government, and wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Part of her letter stated "Simply put, it is downright offensive that the State Department included the State of Arizona and SB1070 in a report to the United Nations Council on Human Rights, whose members include such renowned human rights champions as Cuba and Libya. The idea of our own American Government submitting the duly enacted laws of a State of the U.S. to review by the United Nations is internationalism run amok, and unconstitutional." She further demanded that the reference to Arizona in this report to the U.N. be removed. Her letter, and the State Department Report can be viewed on www.az.gov. With flaky stuff like this coming out of D.C., it's becoming clearer and clearer why an increasing majority of Americans are feeling a huge disconnect with policies and legislation in our nations capitol.