Blogger has scheduled maintenance down time from 3:00PM PDT until 3:45PM PDT on tomorrow, 18 April, according to Blogger Status.

That’s 6:00-6:45PM on the East Coast.

[corrected East Coast time]

Andante noticed that the decision to make undocumented aliens felons was based on a request from the Department of Justice.

Now, if you were a cynical former law enforcement-type who knew how funding worked, you would probably assume that the Feds were looking for cheap felony arrests to pad their numbers. A couple of hundred people scooped up in a single raid; people would be processed as felony arrests; that would look really good on the paperwork. Most people wouldn’t bother to dig to find out that those “felons” had just finished harvesting somebody’s tomato crop.

We all know it’s just a coincidence that shortly after major raids make a media splash, there is some type of legislation pending in Congress that the DoJ wants passed.

Gary at Easter Lemming notices they are Going After Migrants, but Not Employers:

The number of federal immigration agents who focus on work-site enforcement plunged to 65 nationwide in 2004, from 240 in 1999, according to the Government Accountability Office. Moreover, the government reduced the number of notices of intent to fine employers who hired illegal immigrants to just 3 in 2004 from 417 in 1999.

Those numbers make it plain how concerned the Shrubbery and the Republicans in Congress are about controlling immigration.

Are you enjoying the extra 20 to 25% tacked on the price of a gallon of gas because of the threats against Iran? Will you enjoy the doubling or tripling of the price if Iran is attacked? How about the further doubling or tripling when Iran responds by halting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz?

In Washington Post Hits Blair Over Iran Split Taylor Marsh, writing at Fire Dog Lake, notes that the WaPo thinks Tony Blair is a total wimp for not submitting to the whims of the Shrubbery.

The newly elected prime minister of Italy, Romano Prodi, is pulling troops out of the “Coalition of the Clueless”; so don’t expect to see troops from countries that the majority of Americans can find on a map.

Everyone needs to read the well-linked and documented Wikipedia entry on Iran’s nuclear program. You will learn that Iran is in compliance with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and has the right to enrich uranium under the treaty. Iran, unlike the United States-Indian agreement just completed, is not breaking any rules, nor has the IAEA accused it of any violations.

I would also point out that the US, Germany, and France owe Iran billions of dollars for equipment that Iran paid for, but was never delivered. When the Shah was removed the delivery of equipment for Iran’s nuclear program was stopped, but no one has even suggested that any of the countries was going to return the money to the government of Iran.

The situation is identical to the Iraqi WMDs: Iran is being required to prove a negative, that it doesn’t have a nuclear weapons program.

Just as they had helped Saddam get WMDs, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz were prime movers under the Ford administration for an Iranian nuclear program.

Update: Natasha at Pacific Views has pictures of what they want to nuke.

Atrios of Eschaton is celebrating his fourth blogiversary™ ^{[Talk Left]}.

The traditional gift for the fourth anniversary is fruit or flowers, prunes for the Right and roses for the Left.

It is Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts celebrating the April 19, 1775 Battle of Lexington and Concord.

In addition to the Boston Marathon, it means that people in Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and the District of Columbia get an extra day to file their taxes because the processing center in Massachusetts is closed.