Associated Press    sc     Repeal of immigrant tuition bill draws support from state senators    Omaha -- Nebraska lawmakers are set to again consider repealing a law that offers tuition breaks to some illegal [aliens], and the looming debate is already drawing support. -- A majority of lawmakers participating in an Associated Press pre-session survey say they support rescinding the offer made after lawmakers fought to override Gov. Dave Heineman's veto to pass the law in 2006...

Jim Benish -- The Examiner     Obama's choice of Janet Napolitano is questioned     No decision is more important or critical to Americans than those decisions that insure the safety of our country. As American's we must continually question the decisions of our elected officials. -- Almost a year ago on January 21st, 2009, Janet Napolitano was sworn in as the third Secretary of Homeland Security... [See Obama Watch]

Center for Immigration Studies         Daily news from CIS    Migrant-worker advocates on the local and national levels believe 2010 will be the year Congress passes comprehensive immigration reform [aka amnesty] advocates say is way overdue. -- 'The anticipation is immigration reform will be a hot topic in 2010,' said Earl Eichelberger, director of human services for the New York State Catholic Conference...

David Freddoso -- Washington Examiner      Oops! Freed Gitmo alumni plotted airline bombing    From ABC News: Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents... [See Obama Watch and AG Watch]

Washington Times      Obama defenders try to explain president's absence after failed terrorist attack    Many are asking why President Obama has not stepped in front of cameras he has become so accustomed to and personally address the nation regarding Friday's foiled attack on Northwest Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit. Surely a president would want the nation to know what his direct thoughts are....

Tim Padgett & Dolly Mascareñas -- TIME      Will 2010 be the year the world ends -- for Mexico?    Forget 2012. As far as many Mexicans are concerned, the ancient Mayas were being generous: the sky's actually going to fall next year. Why? Because it's 2010, Mexico's bicentennial, and Mexican history has an eerie way of repeating itself. Mexico's 1910 centennial, after all, saw the start of the bloody, decade-long Mexican Revolution...

Washington Post      Mexico weighs options as lawlessness continues to grip Ciudad Juarez    Senior Mexican officials have begun a sweeping review of the military's two-year occupation of this dangerous border city, concluding that the U.S.-backed deployment of thousands of soldiers against drug traffickers has failed to control the violence and crime, according to officials in both countries...

Michelle Malkin      Obama's statement on the Christmas Day jihadi attack...    ...Obama doesn't bother to wear a tie. He hastily reads a belated statement describing the incident like a small-town sheriff's deputy rather than the leader of the free world. He ticks off investigative steps in a perfunctory, plodding, bloodless manner. "We will continue to every element of our national power..."

Steve McGough -- RadioViceOnline.com      What carry-on explosive can blow up an airliner?    I've been reading discussions concerning the type of explosives terrorists like Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab could bring onto an airliner. Investigators have indicated it was a powder/liquid mix that failed to ignite. The Jawa Report speculates; directing us to a video on making a small, but powerful improvised explosive device...

ABC News      Officials: Only a failed detonator saved Northwest flight    Officials now say tragedy was only averted on Northwest flight 253 because a makeshift detonator failed to work properly. -- Bomb experts say there was more than enough explosive to bring down the Northwest jet, which had nearly 300 people aboard, had the detonator not failed...

Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise      Lawmakers split over whether to count illegals in Census    The approach of next year's national population survey is rekindling a longstanding debate over whether to count [illegal aliens]. -- Inland Southern California's congressional delegation is divided on the issue, which holds huge fiscal and political implications for California...

Heritage Foundation      Twelve anti-family gifts from Congress and Obama    As Congress wraps up its final business for the year, there are at least a dozen detrimental policies included in the omnibus spending bill recently signed into law by the President. Taken as a whole, these policies devalue human life, weaken civil society, and undermine the family... [See Obama Watch]

Arizona Daily Star -- Tucson      Border program has vague goals, little oversight    AA federal program touted as a model for using local law enforcement to help control our borders is handing out $165 million -- but with little tracking of how the money is spent, no clear objective and no benchmarks for success, an Arizona Daily Star investigation has found...

Politico -- Washington         Max Baucus's speech under conservative fire    A speech by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on health care has been generating buzz on the Internet, as the Drudge Report and others are suggesting that Baucus was slurring his speech and possibly "intoxicated" during his remarks....

Beaufort (S.C.) Observer      Obama gives INTERPOL immunity to operate at will in the USA    Last week, as the nation's attention was focused on the Senate's debate on health care reform, President Barack Obama signed an amendment to Executive Order 12425 . It is only one paragraph long and few would pay much attention to what its effect is. But it has enormous implications...

The Examiner      House bill would cut local immigration enforcement program    A bill introduced in the House would eliminate an immigration enforcement program used by Prince William and Loudoun countries, but experts say enforcement partnerships between federal and local governments likely will survive. -- The program, known as 287(g), deputizes local law enforcement officials to enforce some federal immigration laws. Critics have argued that it lacks direction and can lead to racial profiling...

Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D. -- Family Security Matters       10 lumps of coal in the health care scheme    For most Americans, the health reform bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing to pass will be worse than coal in their stockings. Herewith, the Top 10 List of Things You Don't Want From Health Care Reform This Christmas – But Will Get Anyway From Congress...

Rob Sanchez -- VDare.com      H-1B Body shop vs. U.S. First Amendment    The blogger who goes by the nickname "Tunnel Rat" has the status of a folk hero for American computer/IT and engineering professionals. He is celebrated for his acerbic commentaries on his website, ITGrunt. At least a portion of Tunnel Rat's mystique derives from his persona as a geeky Lucha libre-type masked hero...

Robert Spencer -- Right Side News -- Kennesaw, Ga.       Flight 253 and counterterror's epic fail    revealed that Americans are much more vulnerable to such attacks than most have believed - while government officials whistle in the dark. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 just before it landed in Detroit... [See Napolitano Watch]

CBS News      Rep. Peter King: "The system did not work"    Republican Rep. Peter King said Sunday on CBS' "Face The Nation" that the attempted terrorist attack aboard a Delta / Northwest flight on Christmas Day shows "the system did not work," despite comments made by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano... [Related Napolitano balderdash]

American Border Patrol        Photos of the day    This screen grab from a video taken using American Border Patrol's Challenger II shows activity along the fence near Naco, Arizona yesterday, Dec. 27....

Associated Press      First case of highly drug-resistant TB found in US    Lantana, Fla. -- ...[Peruvian national Oswaldo] Juarez's strain-so-called extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) TB-has never before been seen in the U.S., according to Dr. David Ashkin, one of the nation's leading experts on tuberculosis. XXDR tuberculosis is so rare that only a handful of other people in the world are thought to have had it...

Kimberly Dvorak     DHS gaffe nearly results in Christmas air disaster    In what could have been a Christmas day horror, Customs and Border Protection officers apprehended a suspected al-Qaeda terrorist who boarded a Northwest flight bound for Detroit from Nigeria with a stop in Amsterdam. The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, ducked security in Amsterdam... [See Napolitano Watch]

Arizona Daily Star -- Tucson      Assailants shoot, injure Border Patrol officer near Rio Rico    A Border Patrol agent was shot in the ankle Sunday evening south of Tucson, officials said. -- The shooting happened at about 5:30 p.m. near Rio Rico in the Ramanote Canyon area, said Omar Candelaria, a Border Patrol spokesman...

San Diego Union Tribune     Small boat hits reef; passengers flee scene    Ocean Beach -- A small boat that witnesses said was carrying about 20 people struck a reef near the Ocean Beach pier early Christmas Day and was abandoned by its occupants. -- San Diego lifeguards and police, as well as U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents, responded to the area but failed to find anyone...