I won’t go into the litany that Liberal Democrats, such as Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Barbara Boxer, among others, tirelessly cite in demanding a timetable from the president for troop withdrawal from Iraq. That litany is known by all and it’s careworn and, for the most part, trite, and it little serves the interests of the nation in combatting Islamic Jihadists and the terrorism they espouse and carry out worldwide. The President is going to see the thing through “on his watch” and that is that, good polls or bad polls.

Where the Democrats are really dropping the ball and what far too many Americans continue to remain indifferent about is the security of our nation’s borders — borders that are egregiously porous — and the huge security threat that they pose for us. This should be Issue One — right up there on the front burner in Congress and in the White House and the next time around in the voting booths.

Forget the issue of a link — real, perceived, or apocryphal — between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. That’s been beaten to death. Let it go!

The bigger issue, the one that could put a legitimate test to President Bush’s claim that his Number #1 priority is to protect Americans from acts of terrorism here at home, is that he’s knowingly permitting millions to enter our country illegally, mostly across our contiguous southern border with Mexico. It’s disgraceful, it’s harmful, it’s costly, and the day will come when it will be the genesis of and indeed the route taken to another major attack on this country. It is just a matter of time. It’s becoming an inevitability. And it is here that the President’s dog don’t hunt, as they say here in Texas — the notion that his Administration’s strategy is to fight terrorism overseas, away from American soil, and not on the ground of the terrorists’ choosing.

Read the following from the “New York Times” (courtesy of a link at the “Drudge Report”) and tell me why it is that Republicans, the opposition Party, and concerned Americans across this land of ours are not insisting on a major Presidential Address on the state of our borders, the threats to us from illegal immigrants and the human trafficers who bring them here, and immigration reform sans amnesty?

I’m telling you whether you support the war in Iraq as I do or you’re adamantly opposed to it, the effects of unfettered illegal immigration will be more long-lasting and have far greater consequences for this country than the war we’re engaged in in the Middle East.

The Democrats decried Karl Rove’s remarks and continue circling their wagons around the war in Iraq. I think it’s high time they and Americans everywhere align those wagons along this nation’s southern border and demand real answers and action from President Bush. If anybody and his uncle can cross into the United States at will from the Mexican side, then it doesn’t take a genius to know that terrorists will make good use of those corridors to breech our borders, set up their cells, and eventually strike us.

I support the President in most areas. I voted for him twice. But I’m tired of hearing the same justifications for our war in Iraq over and over again. What I want — what all of us, regardless of Party affiliation, should be demanding of the President — is a “State of the Borders Address” and some genuine candor as to why his Administration, this Congress, and the tax-gobbling Department of Homeland Security are not stopping the influx of illegals and only proposing amnesty for the 10 to 20 million illegals already afoot in our land.

Stop the invasion, Mr. President! It’s your obligation as President and Commander-In-Chief.

El Presidente Vicente Fox is up to his old tricks again, this time having his Mexican government issue postage stamps with images of “dark-skinned, Jim Crow-era cartoon characters,” as the “Houston Chronicle” (registration required) reports this morning.

Mexican postal officials said the five-stamp series features Memin Pinguin, a 1940s comic-book character, because he is beloved in Mexico. A spokesman for the Mexican Embassy described the depiction as a cultural image that has no meaning whatsoever and is not intended to offend.

“Just as Speedy Gonzalez has never been interpreted in a racial manner by the people in Mexico,” embassy spokesman Rafael Laveaga said. “He is a cartoon character. I am certain that this commemorative postage stamp is not intended to be interpreted on a racial basis in Mexico or anywhere else.”

But the leaders of the NAACP, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the National Council of La Raza and the National Urban League denounced the image in strong terms, calling it the worst kind of black stereotype.

“It is offensive,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, who like other leaders called on Mexican President Vicente Fox to apologize and stop circulation of the stamps.

It was the second time in seven weeks that Jackson called on Fox to apologize for a racial offense. In May, Fox apologized for saying that Mexican migrants in the United States work jobs that “even blacks don’t want,” a comment he said was taken out of context.

Seems neither Jesse Jackson, nor Al Sharpton, accomplished much when each scurried down to Mexico City to grandstand over some ill-considered remarks President Fox made about Mexican illegal emigrants to the United States being willing to do jobs that poor American Blacks were unwilling to do.

The two self-styled civil rights leaders are more into photo-ops and headline-grabbing, than in accomplishing anything substantive. And, frankly, in fairness to them, no one in this country is able to accomplish much of anything with the corrupt Mexican government and its leadership anyway. Even Mexicans have a struggle in doing so.

Alternate Source: Michelle Malkin

The headline of this post is in quotations, as it’s the front page, top-of-the-fold headline in this morning’s print edition of the “Houston Chronicle.” I wonder if the headline writer was having some fun with the readership that resides outside of Texas?

Waco is a city in north Texas and its name is pronounced with the long vowel sound for “a,” as in “wade.” Oftentimes, however, innocently or otherwise, people from outside of Texas see the printed “Waco” and presume it has the short vowel sound for “a,” as in “plant.” Stand-up comics have had fun with the word “Waco” for years by purposefully mispronouncing it.

If you read the headline with the short vowel sound for the “a” in “Waco,” the headline can take on any number of meanings, some of them rather bizarre!

For example, is Waco a mad scientist working in an underground laboratory; or a Swedish immigrant turned Texan, perhaps, who has jettisoned his former passion for horseflesh and turned instead to dalliances with bovines? Or is Waco just some goofy redneck hiding a diseased cow behind a U.S. Army-issued camouflage tarp in his carport?

The mind can conjure up so many images provided you pronounce “Waco” with the short vowel sound for “a!”

POSTSCRIPT: As Paul Harvey would say, here’s the “rest of the story”:

Mad cow traced to Waco

The animal, born and raised in Texas, was sent to a pet food plant

You’ve got to see it to believe it! (Courtesy of the Associated Press)

The “Houston Chronicle,” in a story reported by Peggy O’Hare and Mike Glenn, tells the foolhardy tale of a high school chemistry teacher whose quid pro quo for giving passing grades to two failing chemistry students was that they must torch her automobile in an insurance fraud scheme. One student received an “80″ final exam score and the other a “90″ as rewards for having burned up the teacher’s 2003 Chevrolet Malibu, so she could collect insurance money.

Now both students are to be arrested on arson charges and the teacher, still at-large, is being sought on charges of insurance fraud and arson.

There was obviously some bad chemistry at work when this scheme was concocted.

The brisket was an absolute triumph — moist, flavorful, and delicious beyond my expectations. Forgive me, but I must toss modesty aside. I nailed it.

With all due respect to the BBQ establishments I’ve been to over the years (and they are legion), this was the best damn brisket I believe I’ve ever eaten. My wife agrees!

I began carving at the “toe” or thin end of the brisket, which is usually subject to drying out in the cooking process. But, from the first slice I had moisture in the meat. And, oh, that “bark” — it was the consistency of a heavy paste (probably owing to the mustard) and ever so spicy and flavorful. The amount of cayenne I used in the dry rub recipe turned out to be just fine.

Here’s a photo of the finished product:

And here are some slices from the thin end of the brisket, so you can see the dark outer layer of “bark” and the pink “smoke ring” around the periphery of the meat. My goodness is it tender and moist.

Just know this, Dear Readers: you can’t take shortcuts. Great BBQ is an art and a science; but, most of all, it demands unwavering patience. You must do it “low-n-slow” and never rush the cooking time. If “Q” is worth doing, it is worth doing right.

By the way, as I slice towards the “heel” (the thicker end) of the brisket, it’s only going to get better!

The brisket came out of the smoker at 8:45am CDT this morning — a full 23 and 1/2 hours after it went in to the cooking chamber, and after it had reached an internal temperature of 185 degrees F.

I then placed it in a tight wrap of double aluminum foil and placed it in a pre-heated oven at 150 degrees F. for 1 and 1/2 hours to let the meat “rest” and assure that its moisture is not just at the surface of the brisket.

It is now 10:15am CDT — 24 hours to the minute since I placed the brisket in the smoker’s cooking chamber yesterday morning. It is now ready to be carved and my wife and I have postponed breakfast in the interest of each of us enjoying a thick, meat-piled-high, barbecue brisket sandwich. We’ll be using regular hamburger buns and for condiments hamburger-style dill chips and pickled Jalapeno slices. We’ll top off the brisket and condiments with some Cattlemen’s Smokey barbecue sauce.

I’m just waiting for my wife to conclude her morning exercises, so I can begin slicing the brisket and ultimately render her morning work-out useless!

The big questions: will it slice easily, will the meat be moist, and did I overdue the dry rub recipe with too much cayenne (or will the “bark” have a good kick to it)? I’m not worried in the least about having good smoke penetration and a nice smoke ring.

Next post will advise on whether or not I hit a home run and there should be a photo or two for you!

The “Houston Chronicle’s” Washington D.C.-based political columnist Cragg Hines claims the central purpose of President Bush’s address to the nation last night from Fort Bragg on the war in Iraq was to rally the Republican Party’s conservative base.

Bush’s setting may have been Fort Bragg, the big, war-ready base in North Carolina, and Bush’s audience may have been assembled troops, but the president’s target, however, as it has been throughout much of his tenure, was his political base, which he needs to rally. If Bush bought his policy some more time with the public at large, all the better for his purposes. But the main aim of the speech was to address recent eruptions from conservatives.

Hines’ liberal bent is the catalyst for his disengenuous claim, as are the pontifications of the ranter incarnate, James Carville.

A better, more forthright statement would have been that Bush hadn’t a chance in hell, no matter how eloquent, on point, and truthful as to the facts, of dislodging the hardwired, anti-war bias of liberal Democrats in this country. The president’s address was to the nation and to its military, but only the military and Bush’s conservative base seem to ever get it — that terrorism must be defeated and that you cannot do much better than to have the enemy coming to you in droves on foreign soil.

True, there were no WMDs in Iraq. The original justification for invading Iraq was ill-founded and based on egregiously faulty intelligence. Better now, however, as a response to the human slaughter that was “9/11,” is the fact that Islamic terrorists are being drawn to Iraq like moths to a flame and that if we only stay the course we can kill a good many of them and kill or capture their leaders. Better to deal with insurgents and car bombs over there than terrorist-spawned murder and mayhem in our own city streets.

If you followed my live-blogging yesterday in multiple posts about doing an 18-pound brisket Texas-style in my smoker, then you may be wondering if and when it will be done and with what kind of results. Well, the internal temperature of the meat is presently sitting at 180 degrees F., so there are just 5 more degrees to go! We’re in the home stretch and nearing the Finish Line! This large piece of meat has been slow-cooking in the cooking chamber for 22 hours and 30 minutes now.

Once the brisket reaches 185 degrees F., I should be able to stick a fork in the meat and easily rotate it. That’s how tender this otherwise toughest among all the cuts of beef should be if I’ve done everything correctly. I’ll then wrap it in foil and let the meat “rest” in a warm oven for a minimum of one hour.

I’ll get some photos posted for you once it’s completed.

I’m presently debating whether I want sliced, BBQ brisket and scrambled eggs for breakfast or a BBQ brisket sandwich and a cold beer. Either choice is a good one provided the “Q” is top-notch.

Take the time to read Peggy Noonan’s latest “OpinionJournal.com” column in its entirety and see if you agree, as I do, that far too many politicians are too full of themselves these days and strut about like pampered peacocks. Senators John McCain (RINO-AZ) and Robert Byrd (D-WV) are two that immediately come to mind, although Ms. Noonan doesn’t specifically cite them. She does, however, point to Freshman Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who I similarly covered in this post.

I, too, was offended at the Clinton’s grand-standing at the Reverend Billy Graham’s New York crusade, said to be his last. As Peggy Noonan writes:

And there are the Clintons. There are always the Clintons. The man for whom Barack Obama worked so hard in 1992 showed up with his wife this week to take center stage at Billy Graham’s last crusade in New York. Billy Graham is a great man. He bears within him deep reservoirs of sweetness, and the reservoirs often overflow. It was embarrassing to see America’s two most famous political grifters plop themselves in the first row dressed in telegenic silk and allow themselves to become the focus of sweet words they knew would come.

Why did they feel it right to inject a partisan political component into a spiritual event? Why take advantage of the good nature and generosity of an old hero? Why, after spending their entire adulthoods in public life, have they not developed or at least learned to imitate simple class?

How exactly does it work? How does legitimate self-confidence become wildly inflated self-regard? How does self respect become unblinking conceit? How exactly does one’s character become destabilized in Washington?

Figures.

Hope there’s a mass migration north.

“Q School” in golf means the grueling competition to earn a PGA card. Here in Texas it means knowing how to slow-cook a good-size piece of tough meat and make it damn near melt in your mouth. Well, I’m a little past the half-way point in trying to accomplish just that. I put an 18-pound brisket in my smoker at 9:15am CDT this morning and in a matter of minutes 12 hours of cooking time will have elapsed. The meat needs to get to an internal temperature of 185 degrees F. and I want to get that reading in the thicker “heel” end of the meat. I’m sitting at 130 degrees F. presently. I’m using a digital read-out cooking thermometer and this is the first time all day that I have checked the temperature of the meat.

I’ll tell you this: the brisket smells wonderful. But, patience must prevail. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

My goal? I want to end up with a “60-mile BBQ brisket sandwich.”

“What’s that?,” you ask.

Well, Dear Readers, that’s a sandwich so damn good that you’d be willing to drive 60 miles to eat one (or two, or three)! And those are one-way miles!

Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter may be on the receiving end of his own majority view — and let’s hope so! After all, what goes around, comes around.

That would be poetic justice! Can you believe the “Just Desserts’ Cafe?” (Do read the link).

HAT TIP: Matt Drudge

It’s approaching 5:30pm CDT, as I write this. The brisket went into the smoker at 9:15am CDT this morning, so it’s been cooking “low-n-slow” for 8 and 1/4 hours now at just shy of 250 degrees F.

You can see the “bark” beginning to develop nicely now — i.e., the crust on the meat formed by the mustard and the dry rub, and being kept moist by the “mop” I’ve been using.

The offset firebox is to the left of this photo of the cooking chamber, so, as you can see, I continue to keep the thicker end of the brisket, known as the “heel,” nearer to the opening to the firebox. You “Q” artists will note I’m not only beginning to see some shrinkage in the brisket, but I’ve also cocked it so the “heel” is no longer quite as close to the firebox as it was this morning.

It appears to be coming along nicely, but there’s a long way to go yet! My guess is the first barbecue brisket sandwich will be eaten tomorrow morning for breakfast. But more on that later.

Anyone out there beginning to drool yet?

His books grace the bookshelves of my library and have been some of the most satisfying reads I’ve enjoyed over my lifetime, with his trilogy on the Civil War my favorite among them. Indeed, it was Foote, long before Ken Burns’ documentary on the Civil War gave him celebrity, who fostered my abiding interest in the War Between the States.

Now Shelby Foote is dead at age 88. He will be missed.

In “Booknotes: America’s Finest Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas” — a compendium edited by Brian Lamb — Shelby Foote wrote:

I have a strong belief that novelists have a great deal to teach historians about plotting, about character drawing, about other things, especially the concern about learning to be a good writer, which many historians don’t bother to do.

I suspect I like to think of myself as a novelist because that’s what I was for most of my life and that’s the way I thought of myself, and I haven’t changed. It pleases me when someone tells me what they like best is my novels. But I’ve faced the fact that I probably am more apt to be known for writing the three-volume history on the Civil War than for anything else.

On his craft:

I’ve always worked in the room where I usually sleep, so that I sleep near my desk, and the typewriter’s over here. There’s something about it. When I go somewhere else, like in the summer I’ll go down the coast or something, I can’t work away from home.

I’m not like D. H. lawrence, who could write anywhere and, in fact, never had a home. But to me it’s a very deliberate thing. Five or six hundred words is a good day for me.

I write with a “dip pen,” which causes all kinds of problems — everything from finding blotters to pen points — but it makes me take my time, and it gives me a real feeling of satisfaction.

But a dip pen, you have to dip it in ink and write three or four words and dip it again. It has a real influence on the way I write, so different not only from a typewriter but from using a pencil or a fountain pen.

After it’s written, the 500 words every day, I set it aside to dry; then copy it off on a typewriter, make a typewritten copy of it, and then recopy on that until finally the day is over and I’m all the way satisfied with it, and I put it on the stack — make a clean copy and put it on the stack. That way I don’t have to engage in something that to me is a particular form of heartbreak, which is revision. I don’t do that.

The day and his life are now over. Shelbe Foote died yesterday. I suspect neither his writing, nor his life, needed revision. I will miss him; but he lives in the books he wrote and they are his gifts to the nation.

POSTSCRIPT: Shelby Foote buried.

The brisket has been in the smoker for six (6) hours now. I just mopped it and the color of the meat is beautiful at this point, in part owing to the mustard I coated it with earlier this morning before applying the dry rub. In time, however, the outside of the meat will become very dark, indeed almost black.

It’s quite hot here (and has been all of June). I suspect temperatures are in the 97 - 100 degrees range in our immediate area today. Accordingly, I’ve had trouble keeping the temperature in the cooking chamber at the 225 degrees F. level, which is optimal. Instead, it’s generally held at 240 - 250 degrees F. As I wrote earlier, I just don’t want to get above a 250 degrees F. threshold.

In the next several hours, I’ll get a photo of the brisket for you. I have a feeling this is going to be exceptional “Q” when I’m done with it. I’d guess at this point that it’ll be slow-cooking for another fifteen (15) to sixteen (16) hours. An 18 pound brisket should take 1 and 1/4 hours per pound minimum, which would require twenty-two (22) hours or so. I’ll be up most of the night tending to this beauty! Hope the beer holds out.

Great “Q” requires patience!