LCSO apparently all ICE all the time now

A few weeks ago I made mention of the 180° change in attitude displayed by our current Sheriff, Steve Simpson, regarding participation in the ICE 287(g) program. This week, I got an e-mail update from the Sheriff’s office (part of my overall alert profile with the county’s communications system – if you’re local you should sign up!) titled “Joint Operation Between ICE and Sheriff’s Office Nets 13 Arrests in Crackdown on Gangs”.

(That’s what the subject line of the e-mail reads. When I went to the Sheriff’s Office web site to link to the news release, the “ICE” part is omitted in the release title there. Hmmm…. wonder what that’s all about.)

Loudoun County, Virginia- An operation conducted in August targeting Criminal Street gangs’ in Loudoun County netted 13 arrests.

Members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Loudoun Sheriff’s Gang Intelligence Unit worked together to locate subjects who are suspected of being actively involved in firearms and narcotics trafficking, money laundering and violent criminal activities.

 The charges ranged from weapons and narcotics violations to federal criminal fugitive warrants. Four of those charged in the operation were held by federal authorities based on their immigration status.

The names and ages of those arrested and what they were detained for is listed in the release. Don’t get me wrong – I’m very, very glad to see our local law enforcement working with ICE to get those people who came here illegally deported. As our friends on the Left often say, I question the timing. I cannot help but wonder if the good Sheriff is engaged in this sudden flurry of joint operating with ICE simply because he wants to get re-elected. What does that portend for after the elections, assuming he wins? Will we continue to see the LCSO aggressively going after illegals and getting ICE involved? Or will we see a return to the activity levels that existed before he lost the GOP nomination and decided to run as an independent, rather than support the GOP nominee as he promised?

That’s got to be a consideration in determining one’s vote. Keep it in mind.

Who said that?

See if you can accurately identify who said this list of comments. (Hat tip: Confederate Yankee)

Zogby poll shows 42% of Dems polled think Bush caused/allowed 9/11 to happen

HotAir has a post up about a Zogby poll that shows 42% of the Democrats polled believe that President Bush either knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance and allowed them to happen or that he actually ordered them himself. Go have a read over there and follow the links to other folks running analysis on the numbers. Allahpundit (the author of the HotAir post) focused a bit of attention on the numbers showing up in the 18-24 age category that the “9/11 Truth” organization is touting. Those numbers came in that 72% of the respondents in that category believe Bush allowed the attacks to occur, which the Truthers are implying shows that they’ve got real influence with the youth vote.

Of course, if you take an actual look at the data Allahpundit points us to, you’ll note that the entire category of 18-24 year-olds represented in the polling sample amounts to just 45 people. Of those 45, 33 said Bush “Let it happen”. I’m finding it very, very hard to credit this response. When I was in college, my fraternity alone had more than 45 members. If you were basing an analysis of our age category on the answers you’d have received by walking into our house just before one of our meetings and posing a question, I daresay your conclusions about the feelings of the age group as whole would be suspect, to say the least.

Which leads me to the 2 observations about this poll that I’d like to share. First, the sample size is 988 people. That’s a fair number, but it’s below the threshold of a statistically significant sample for the voting populace of the United States if I’m recalling my stats course from a couple of years ago. The sample size should have been nearly double that to cover a population the size of ours.

Second, what was the geographic distribution of the polling sample? If the 988 people contacted were all from the New England area, I’d expect a completely different set of answers than if those same folks were from the MidWest. None of that information is available at the links provided – the 9/11 Truth site only shows the results page. I’d like to think that Zogby’s not going to run a bogus polling sample but you have to provide your methodology to be completely transparent. Of course, the poll was commissioned by the 9/11 Truth people so it’s possible Zogby’s not at liberty to release that info.

I have friends and family who are Democrats and none of them are shy about telling me what they think of the war, the President, or this Administration. None of them have once suggested that President Bush was responsible for ordering or allowing the 9/11 attacks so I have to wonder where Zogby dug these people up.