Today, Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter (NY) Diana DeGette (CO), Nita Lowey (NY), Rosa DeLauro (CT), Lois Capps (CA), Henry Waxman (CA), Jerrold Nadler (NY), and Michael Michaud (ME) wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt urging him to reconsider the appointment of Susan Orr to head the office of family planning. From their letter:

We are deeply disappointed that the Bush Administration, for the second time, has chosen a politically polarizing and unqualified candidate for this appointment. Much like Dr. Eric Keroack, Dr. Orr’s professional background demonstrates an intention by this Administration to undercut the value and importance of family planning services to low-income and uninsured men and women.

In order to ensure that the mission of Title X remains intact, we strongly urge you to reconsider the appointment of Dr. Orr as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs. Americans deserve better.

Responding to an op-ed by Wall Street Journal deputy editor Daniel Henniger today about media coverage of Iraq, Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds lobbed an ad hominem attack on the patriotism of America’s “political and journalistic classes,” saying they “lack sufficient patriotism“:

The problem is that our political and journalistic classes lack sufficient patriotism to promote self-discipline, or perhaps sufficient self-discipline to allow them to act patriotically.

Since 2003, 160 media workers have been killed in Iraq, including two Americans and 48 who were working for international news organizations.

(HT: Andrew Sullivan)

The Iraqi government has “put the U.S. on notice” that they do not want permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, CNN reports today. The message was “delivered directly to Vice President Dick Cheney at the White House” by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie, who told CNN that Iraqis say, “No, big fat no, N-O for the bases in Iraq”:

The people of Iraq, the parliament, the council of representatives and the government of Iraq, they all say no, big fat no, N-O for the bases in Iraq. No military bases for Iraq because we believe that is in direct encroachment to our soveriegnty, and we don’t need it.

Watch it:

Al-Rubaie did not say how Cheney reacted to his message.

Twenty-four year old Tam Tran is the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants and has consistently spoken out on U.S. immigration reform. On May 17, she appeared before the House Immigration Subcommittee to speak in support of the DREAM Act, which would have granted legal status to children of immigrants who complete at least two years of college.

More recently, a USA Today article on Oct. 8 featured Tran in an article on “children caught in the immigration crossfire”:

Without the DREAM Act, Tam Tran, 24, is a person without a country. The daughter of Vietnamese boat people, Tran was born in Germany, where her parents ended up after the German Navy plucked them out of the sea. The family moved to the USA when Tran was 6. … For now, Tran is permitted to stay — only because the United States has no repatriation treaty with Vietnam. Tran, who has never been to Vietnam, says that “I consider myself a Southern Californian.“

Just three days after the article appeared, federal officers entered her home in the middle of the night and forcibly arrested her family. Tran’s family was detained on a “years-old deportation order,” even though they have been in regular communication with immigration officials for almost 20 years since arriving in the United States.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), chair of the immigration subcommitee, equated the family’s arrest to “witness intimidation” and accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials of targeting the Tran family because Tam “testified before Lofgren’s panel earlier this spring.” Earlier this week, USA Today spoke with Lofgren about the Tran family’s arrest:

“Would she and her family have been arrested if she hadn’t spoken out?” Lofgren said of Tran, who was not at home for the raid but has been asked to report to Immigration and Customs officials next week. “I don’t think so.“

Since Bush crony Julie Myers took over ICE, the agency has increasingly become known for its willingness to retaliate against immigrants who publicly discuss their situation in the United States. Arrests have been made after individuals spoke out on everything from immigration reform, to workplace rights, to the right to fair wages, to the right to report crimes without fear of retaliation.

UPDATE: More on the DREAM Act from Migra Matters.

UPDATE II: Kyle at Citizen Orange has more on Tran’s case.

Thanksgiving is still a month away, but WorldNetDaily is already selling “Christmas-defense kits,” with tools to help you “fight back” against the “the American Civil Liberties Union grinches.” Included in these kits are magnets, “Operation: Just Say ‘Merry Christmas’” bracelets, and various bumper stickers. One example:

As Andrew Sullivan notes, “The culture-war season starts earlier every year.”

There was a time when I was firmly convinced that Mike Huckabee was going to be the Republican Party’s nominee in 2008. Now I think that looks very unlikely. Nevertheless, noting a Rasmussen poll that has Huckabee marching into second place in Iowa, Andrew correctly notes that Huckabee “really does represent the GOP that Bush and Rove have helped create: based on fundamentalist religion and dedicated to massive government spending on the needy as a sign of one’s own virtue.” But what he represents is the Republican Party that Bush and Rove have created in terms of their electoral base. Which is why in Iowa, where the fact that he doesn’t have much in the way of money or support from movement conservative elites doesn’t hurt him so much, he’s doing very well:

Nationally, though, he’s in fifth place and it was felt necessary to push Fred Thompson into the race to fill the “white Protestant southern guy” demographic even though Huckabee already fit the bill. And the problem seems to be, basically, that even though Huckabee hasn’t proposed much in the way of bold policies on the campaign trail, he just doesn’t adequately meet the threshold for fanatical devotion to the interests of the rich to make it on today’s institutional right.

As governor, he operated as a pragmatist, sometimes relying on mild and generally non-progressive tax hikes to meet balanced budget requirements without further denuding already low-service Arkansas of public services and for his trouble he gets trashed by the Club for Growth and is basically a non-starter as a figure in national Republican politics. Nevertheless, the logic of something like Huckabeeism (call it Sam’s Club conservatism) is pretty compelling, and if the Republicans get thwacked in 2008 more conservative might begin to see it. The question remains, however, of who’s supposed to pay for it?