Stop The Invasion

Well I am home now since I only have to drive about three hours to get home. Many of the attendees traveled from the West Coast to attend this event and that is an expensive and time consuming endeavor. That is just how dedicated all of the participants were at Hold the Feet to the Fire.

Dana Rohrabacher said it Tuesday night at the fund-raiser for Ramos and Compean - he said (and I paraphrase) "YOU are the patriots just like in 1775, when a group of patriots banded together to take back their country and route the British from this great country!" I would say at least 95% of the event participants, not including FAIR staff or radio host staff, paid for their own travel and lodging and took time from work to attend. You could not ask for more dedication to a cause. They were not giving away free Mercedes at this event. They were not raffling anything. The people who attended simply had a chance to participate in a historical event that is poised to change the course of this country for the BETTER by having 37 radio show hosts collaborate on a SINGLE topic - illegal immigration - because they have had ENOUGH just like us!

It was wonderful to meet the other bloggers and work with William Gheen from Alipac and all the FAIR staff. I was thrilled to meet and work side by side with Frosty Wooldridge - who is a tireless and very talented patriot in this endeavor. I always find his writing to be right on the mark, very eloquent and straight from the heart.

Roy Beck was also very much involved with this event and graciously gave interviews to many many people. He is sort of the "old guard" of this movement, having sounded the alarm over 10 years ago. He said he feels sometimes that even though he has made his living trying to educate people about this issue, he feels very afraid that his life mission might be for nothing. Roy Beck and NumbersUSA have invaluable data that help all patriots in the fight and I urge you to support them so they can continue to provide this VALUABLE data to us. NumbersUSA will not charge you to fax to your representatives - it is strictly voluntary donations and no this is not a commercial for NumbersUSA but after meeting Roy Beck in person and hearing him in person several times, I can tell you he is totally dedicated to stopping illegal immigration and he has no hidden agenda.

I was very impressed with how this event came together and how absolutely electrifying it was to be on the second floor of the Phoenix Park Hotel this week watching all the Radio Row activity. There were radio hosts around every nook and cranny up there and another amazing thing to see was how the technical staff were able to setup a portable radio station in only a 12 by 6 area.

As a blogger, it was actually hard to WRITE because there were so many exciting people to interview coming by that we would drop our keyboards and jump up with the video cameras to capture what we could. We would barely get any notice that perhaps Duncan Hunter would be stopping by or the Ramos family was available for video interviews. I looked up one time to be thrilled to see one of my Ramos and Compean heroes in front of me.. Walter Adams. This man knows how to give a speech and I will always remember his resounding phrase on Lou Dobbs from a Ramos and Compean press conference were he said "The INDIFFERENCE of this ADMINISTRATION to the Ramos and Compean case is SHAMEFUL!". I truly think he has been or could be a Southern Baptist preacher shouting "Praise the Lord!"

I can assure you that in the next few days you will see TONS of new video and photos from the bloggers on Blogger's Row - which turned out to be a mobile Blogger's Row of sorts.. but we flowed with it and made do.

All the bloggers agreed that we are much more in our element in our own homes using our own kick-ass computers to do video and photo editing. Mobile blogging is quite a different animal and generally the equipment you will be using will do its best to thwart your efforts according to Murphy's Law. In fact, it was quite appropriate for Murphy to make so many visits to Blogger's Row since the Phoenix Park Hotel had a distinctively Irish appeal - such as the Dubliner Pub.

It was truly a privilege to meet the members of the Ramos family, Patty Compean, wife of Jose Compean and Ashley Hernandez, wife of Gilmer Hernandez. These family members have traveled constantly to help energize efforts to free Ramos, Compean and Hernandez from prison. I am sure none of them would have dreamed that they would be called upon to do this kind of public speaking and traveling before 2005, when the lives of these families changed drastically.

Attending the event also was Gary Brugman, who was the very FIRST Border Patrol agent to be prosecuted by Johnny Sutton for doing his job. Gary served 24 of his 27 month sentence, he lost his fiance, his job, his house, his son.. and he can no longer vote or own a firearm... because of doing his job. I did not see many of the 37 radio hosts interviewing him which is a shame because his story is worth telling. Bloggers on Blogger's Row got a very good interview with him and that video will be up very soon.

While searching for some info to link to for Compean and Ramos I came up THIS interesting link which essentially says that Congressman Dreier was " was shocked by the verdict in the Ramos/Compean case". Hmm well that's funny because I don't see Congressman Dreier's name on HR 563 which is the House Resolution for granting Compean and Ramos a Presidential Pardon. I didn't even need to look that info up because some of our Lobbyists during Hold Their Feet to the Fire said they felt that Dreier was not interested in true illegal immigration reform such as securing the border and workplace enforcement. What a surprise to see a politician talking out of two sides of his mouth - he is "shocked" by the verdict in the Compean and Ramos case but does not lend his support to the House Resolution that could set them free???? I bet they hate it when we point out these little inconsistencies...

Some more pictures



Bloggers up in the Alipac Suite atop the Phoenix Park Hotel
left to right - Jake Jacobsen (Freedom Folks), Ruth Miller (Stop The Invasion), Dan Amato (Digger's Realm) and Tony Dolz (Dolz.com)




Monica Ramos (wife of Ignacio Ramos), Frank Jorge (avimm.com), Joe Loya (Monica's father)


Chelene Nightingale from Save Our State and Ruth from Stop The Invasion blog


Digger getting the gory details from Raymond Herrera about the visit with Congressman Nunes that left the Ramos family in tears

Labels: Hold Their Feet to the Fire Roger Hedgecock FAIR Alipac Washington bloggers