Saturday, June 30, 2007

Buffet City Scrapbook Entry


Photo: Buffet City Sells Wall Adornments Spring 2007


I'm using my blog to "scrap book" the following article obtained from the ICE website.

Buffet City was a popular Chinese eatery in Springfield, Illinois. The restaurant was closed after an immigration raid in 2006. I include (above) a photo which shows the sale of the large posters which adorned Buffet City's walls. Asking price was $150 each. I snapped the photo early spring 2007.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The two owners of a Springfield restaurant were indicted yesterday for money laundering, and for harboring and employing illegal aliens at the restaurant. The indictment resulted from a worksite enforcement investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Rodger A. Heaton, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois, announced that the owners of Buffet City restaurant, 1774 Wabash Ave., Springfield, were charged by a federal grand jury yesterday. The 10-count indictment charges Xiang Hui Ye, 28, of 3304 Haviland Dr., and Xian Xi Ye, 39, of 2709 Kipling Dr., with one count each of harboring and employing illegal aliens, and eight counts of money laundering.

Both defendants were charged in a criminal complaint filed Sept. 20. Hui Ye, a Chinese citizen who was granted asylum in the U.S., was arrested Sept. 20, and Xi Ye, an illegal alien from China, was arrested Sept. 28. Both remain temporarily detained pending hearings scheduled on Oct. 10 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Byron G. Cudmore.

The indictment alleges that from January 2005 through Sept. 20, 2006, the two men provided housing, employment and transportation to illegal aliens for commercial advantage and financial gain, and that they knowingly hired and recruited illegal aliens to work at their Buffet City restaurant. The money laundering charges allege that one or the other of the defendants signed checks to pay for apartment rental used to house illegal aliens.

If convicted, the statutory penalty for the felony offense of harboring illegal aliens is up to 10 years in prison for each alien. For the misdemeanor offense of hiring or recruiting illegal aliens for employment, the penalty is up to six months in prison and a fine of $3,000 for each illegal alien. For each charge of money laundering, the penalty is up to 20 years in prison.

“ICE aggressively targets employers who knowingly and recklessly employ an illegal alien workforce,” said ICE resident agent-in-charge Greg Archambeault who heads the Springfield office. “Today's enforcement action demonstrates how we use all our investigative tools to go after those who take advantage of illegal labor to make a profit.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Chesley, in the Springfield Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office, is prosecuting the case. The U.S. Department of Labor assisted ICE with the investigation.

Members of the public are reminded that an indictment is merely an accusation; the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The public is encouraged to report suspicious behavior by calling ICE's toll-free hotline: 1-866-3472423.

This investigation was part of the Secure Border Initiative (SBI), a comprehensive multi-year plan by the Department of Homeland Security to secure America's borders and reduce illegal migration. Under SBI, Homeland Security seeks to gain operational control of both the northern and southern borders, while re-engineering the detention and removal system to ensure that illegal aliens are removed from the country quickly and efficiently. SBI also involves strong interior enforcement efforts, including enhanced worksite enforcement investigations and intensified efforts to track down and remove illegal aliens inside this country.

-- ICE --

Friday, June 29, 2007

iShot Him For His iPhone


Bloody IPhone


iShot Him For His iPhone

...........by JP

Head's smashed like a bug

iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone

Blood colors the rug

iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone

Oozing goo was his head

iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone

Alive now dead dead dead

iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone

Now I got what he once had

iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone

His IPhone now I'm so bad

iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone

Asked polite he just laughed

iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone
iShot him for his iPhone

Had to cap his ass

Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix


Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I must admit I bought the book long ago, but never read it. And now as with earlier Harry Potter books I find myself racing to read the book prior to going to see the movie.

How else can I claim to be disappointed in the movie?

Actually, I've found the series of Harry Potter movies so far to be quite faithful to the books - not word for word mind you.

So I'm about ten percent done after some reading tonight - will I be finished in time?

One of my coworkers told me about some of what happens in this book, yet I like what I've read so far.

Harry is turning into a darker character - with passions - feelings - that he wasn't able to have when he was younger. I've heard that he develops more magical skills, and I'm looking to see that too.

And yes, I know the last book in the series is being released next month too - so I'll have some reading to do if I'm ever to catch up with the series.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

iPhone Wet Dream



It's down to hours now. My buddy Dave at The11thhour will be lucky enough to own what I can only dream of - the IPhone.

Many months ago, right after Steve Jobs introduced the IPhone to the rest of the world, I went to www.Apple.com and spent over an hour just reading about this phone.

I sent the link to a coworker, and said I was going to have that phone.

After I bought my daughter her car for her sixteenth birthday I knew then I couldn't afford the IPhone. I couldn't justify moving from my cellular carrier, and buying the phone of my dreams.

Still I told myself, maybe someway I'll do it.

But reality has set in.

As Apple and AT&T have run their IPhone advertisements I've noticed the effect they've had upon me - similar in a way to pornography.

Here is something you want very much. She's classy. She's for a better man than you.
But you can have her for a price. She's for sale. If only you were man enough to handle her.

Oh IPhone, I must have you. I must possess you. I must be one with you my dream phone.

I have for many years believed that the IPhone would in fact be mine. Even before Apple introduced the IPhone I thought out carefully what I'd want in a phone, thinking about Science Fiction predictions on technology of the future.

Now it seems the future is here, and that phone is available in the IPhone.

I've read enough reviews to know the phone has some series limitations. For the money that people will be shelling out the IPhone is an expensive status symbol. Yet despite any flaws it may have I suspect it will be worth every penny considering how much other cell phones suck.

In fact when I look at advertisements for other phones now I laugh in contempt.

The thought of upgrading to something less than the IPhone seems a cruel thought, and I now have decided not to upgrade any of my phones until Apple begins selling to Verizon in two years.

Why would I want some obsolete crap when I can have an IPhone?

I believe that will be the legacy of the IPhone. It has raised the expectation of what a phone should be.

Since I won't be buying an IPhone anytime soon I will hope for the next best thing, to be allowed to play with Dave's IPhone when he gets one - hopefully tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

It's Midnight!


My Cat Midnight

I liked this photo of Midnight. Midnight is a male tuxedo cat.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Now Those Are Some Big Flippers


Introducing On The Right Icadyptes salasi

Thought this recent discovery in paleo-biology was kind of funny.

Five foot tall penguins! Go figure. Then again some of the fish living forty million years ago were huge, and rather evil looking too.


Check out Alabama's Zeuglodon from the same period

Food for thought people of Springfield. You never really know what may be lurking in Loch Springfield.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Dad Owned An Aston Martin


Dad Owned An Aston Martin - This Wasn't It

My father owned an Aston Martin. We kept it locked up in the garage. I recall playing in it from time to time. People always seemed impressed by it when he'd open the garage up to show them.

Eventually he sold it. I always thought he made a mistake when he sold it. I wasn't told how much he made in the sale.

I never thought to ask him how he came to own an English car here in a smallish town in the Midwestern U.S.

Mom, and Dad are gone now so I guess I'll never know the full story.

I hope whoever bought the car kept care of it, and that it's still running.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Tony Blair Going Going - Almost Gone


U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair

After ten years as Prime Minister, and at the helm of Britain's Labor Party, Tony Blair's time in office is rapidly coming to a close. By Wednesday of this week, June 27th, 2007 Mr. Blair will join the ranks of Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher. Yet another player in the U.K. history whose legacy will be debated decades from now.

Whatever we may think of him politically, and few American's have any idea what to think of a U.K. Prime Minister, Mr. Blair has been a steadfast friend of the U.S. From an American perspective I can only thank Mr. Blair for his compromise. Surely a Labor Party leader had to pay terrible cost for maintaining such a friendship after President Clinton's departure.

It must have been difficult to turn your eyes away from continental Europe, and instead look across the Atlantic in search of U.K.'s future.

The fact is Mr. Blair's participation in the Iraqi fiasco played a prominent role in his undoing. While no one can claim that a ten year stint as Prime Minister is anything but a political success Tony Blair was hurt by revelations that U.K. intelligence was aware prior the the U.S. attack on Iraq that intelligence was being cooked up, and that there was no evidence that weapons of mass destruction were present in Iraq.

Despite the Iraq quagmire, which the U.K. plans to eject itself from in short course, Blair's wider legacy will most likely be written by his domestic agenda of which I am unqualified to comment - being an uninformed American.

I will, however, miss Mr. Blair's Question and Answer time with the U.K. Parliament which is televised weekly on CSPAN. He was quick on his feet, and always a gentleman. If only we could be so lucky here in the U.S.

email jp

  • jeromeprophet@gmail.com

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