So, I'm relieved to say the Dream Act - the bill that would provide citizenship for illegal immigrant offspring if they go to college or join the military - failed.
My growing dislike for the act came from one place: I don't trust anything with a fluffy, positive acronym. The Dream Act? It sounds like something I saw in Tijuana involving Louie Anderson and a tub of pudding. So, of course, the actual bill would be a let down.
Anyway, the name stands for "The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act," and that was the problem. It was a lousy bill based on a bunch of unfortunate words, that together, don't mean squat.
They were picked to spell "dream." That's it.
Now, I was for the Act, until I read up on it. Here's what I noticed:
-the idiotic qualification "if they go to college or join the military" equates sacrifice with reward. I'm all for giving citizenship for immigrants who defend our country -because that's awesome. But getting citizenship because you go to school? Seriously. Snoring in class is easy. War is hell.
-the age range for eligibility, even after it was dialed back - is still too broad (up to age 30), with the potential for lying so wide - that the act seems as porous as our border. It's like we're replacing a sieve, with a sieve.
But look - I'm for some kind of Dream Act, but not this one. Let's revamp legal immigration: first let's act like every other country (including Mexico) and secure our borders, then fix this Act. But to do that, we need to be honest. Stop tying lousy bills to emotional heartstrings. Call it what it is. This is about jobs, not diplomas. My suggestion, ditch the school crap, make the military the primary avenue for citizenship.
Make it a sequel. The Dream Act 2: Killing For A Green Card.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Up our ass one more time
Here we go again. We can call this the Democrats' last effort to tell us to perform a physical impossibility. This is one of the many reasons why we voted these suckers out of office ... we have a $1.27 trillion "omnibus" appropriations bill, packed to the gills with more spending and more earmarks. Oh and the darn thing is 2,000 pages long. Must be another one of those bills that we have to pass in order to find out what is in it. Unless you are chief doughboy Robert Gibbs, who believes that Congress is going to be pouring over all 2,000 pages, just like they did ObamaCare .. a remark which was met with laughter in the press gallery. So when reading the legislation, what might they find? This, for example, in one Senate version of the bill:
$80 million in grants to states and Indian tribes to preserve Pacific salmon
$13 million in clean water grants for rural and Alaskan native villages
$4 million for the Kentucky National Guard's marijuana eradication efforts
$8 million to help maintain the B-1 bomber fleet in his state
Now Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint are insisting that the bill be read in its entirety by the clerk on the Senate floor before a vote is held.
This is nothing short but a complete abuse of the taxpayers. This is politicians showing us who's really the boss. This is the Democrats getting in their last big kick in the voter's rear end before they lose control of the House. This is an outrage ... question is, are the voters paying attention? Will the Republicans fight back?
$80 million in grants to states and Indian tribes to preserve Pacific salmon
$13 million in clean water grants for rural and Alaskan native villages
$4 million for the Kentucky National Guard's marijuana eradication efforts
$8 million to help maintain the B-1 bomber fleet in his state
Now Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint are insisting that the bill be read in its entirety by the clerk on the Senate floor before a vote is held.
This is nothing short but a complete abuse of the taxpayers. This is politicians showing us who's really the boss. This is the Democrats getting in their last big kick in the voter's rear end before they lose control of the House. This is an outrage ... question is, are the voters paying attention? Will the Republicans fight back?
Monday, December 13, 2010
Not so fast Sanctuary City
So Tom Krattenmaker wrote a piece this week for USA Today, about Portland, Oregon being targeted by a Muslim terrorist. This gist: How could they bomb Portland! We're just a quirky place everyone loves!
Or at least, doesn't take seriously.
After the cliched warning to not rush to judgement, Tommy says, and I quote,
Why would Portland, of all places, be the site of a terror attack? The "People's Republic of Portland" - so dubbed for its liberal ways - seems so utterly different from New York, Mumbai, London, or the other places that one associates with terrorist attacks. Portland is so much smaller, light years from the figurative front lines.This is a laid-back city where the red-hot rhetoric around terrorism, Islam, the "ground zero mosque," and the like runs cooler.
So, because Portland's a leftwing haven with homemade fliers for guitar lessons stapled on every Peet's Coffee wall - terrorists should skip us, and focus only on the big, boring cities without all those great organic cafes. Heck, they probably don't use cloth bags or read Chomsky (stuff jihadists care about).
And since Portlanders find red meat topics like terrorism so unseemly - our enemies should totally dig us! We love Bill Moyers!
Damn, these folks are dumb. They think their behavior is at the root of other people's actions. And that, if you're nice, terrorists won't kill you.
These jacknuts don't get that no matter how liberal you are, you represent everything terrorists hate, and your touchy-feeliness only makes them hate your sogginess more. Your clogs don't help.
Trust me - terrorists have more respect for the "red-hot rhetoric" of Dick Cheney than a naval gazing goof like Tom. And closing your eyes to Islamic jihad, in favor of contemplating the dent in your consciousness is why the terrorists may come for you first.
Because you're annoying.
Or at least, doesn't take seriously.
After the cliched warning to not rush to judgement, Tommy says, and I quote,
Why would Portland, of all places, be the site of a terror attack? The "People's Republic of Portland" - so dubbed for its liberal ways - seems so utterly different from New York, Mumbai, London, or the other places that one associates with terrorist attacks. Portland is so much smaller, light years from the figurative front lines.This is a laid-back city where the red-hot rhetoric around terrorism, Islam, the "ground zero mosque," and the like runs cooler.
So, because Portland's a leftwing haven with homemade fliers for guitar lessons stapled on every Peet's Coffee wall - terrorists should skip us, and focus only on the big, boring cities without all those great organic cafes. Heck, they probably don't use cloth bags or read Chomsky (stuff jihadists care about).
And since Portlanders find red meat topics like terrorism so unseemly - our enemies should totally dig us! We love Bill Moyers!
Damn, these folks are dumb. They think their behavior is at the root of other people's actions. And that, if you're nice, terrorists won't kill you.
These jacknuts don't get that no matter how liberal you are, you represent everything terrorists hate, and your touchy-feeliness only makes them hate your sogginess more. Your clogs don't help.
Trust me - terrorists have more respect for the "red-hot rhetoric" of Dick Cheney than a naval gazing goof like Tom. And closing your eyes to Islamic jihad, in favor of contemplating the dent in your consciousness is why the terrorists may come for you first.
Because you're annoying.
Monday, December 06, 2010
The tax commission plan that failed was a FRAUD
On Friday, PrezBo's deficit commission voted on the proposal offered by co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. It didn't pass. It required 14 votes to force a vote in Congress. No cigar. Bowles and Simpson only managed to secure 11 votes. One of the "no" votes was labor union goon Andy Stern. He says that he voted against the proposal because he wants FEWER spending cuts and more tax increases. Sounds about right for a liberal, tax-and-spend union thug ... someone who really had no business serving on this commission in the first place. But ... when you're the number one White House visitor during the first year of Obama's presidency ... well, I guess you could see that one coming. However the most insulting thing is that they go through these Kabuki dances and get away with it because 98% of the American electorate is stupid about how they set the budget, base line accounting, automatic spending increases already legislated in and the fact that all of them are freaking weasels.
Now here's something you probably don't realize ... though you - we all - should have. The commission's deficit proposal doesn't even propose to cut spending! It only proposed to slow the rate of increasing spending . Nope ... not kidding. With the incredible increases we've seen in government spending over the past 10 years .. this grand commission of policy phoobahs couldn't come up with one single actual spending cut in one government agency. Now I ask you ... can you think of any private business that would have behaved this way if bankruptcy wasn't only in the cards, but perhaps inevitable?
Now ... before you star the emails pouring in ... let's talk about this spending cut thing. Our wonderful "leaders" in congress set up a nifty little scam years ago called the "baseline budget." Here's how it works. Virtually every government spending program has automatic built-in spending increases every single year. These spending increases may be based on inflation, the rate of population growth, or any number of economic or political considerations. The point is that these spending programs have scheduled spending increases built in every year.
How do politicians manipulate this? It's very easy. They vote to cut back the amount of a spending increase for any given year ... just the increase ... and then come to you and brag about how they are cutting spending. They're not cutting spending at all ... they're just slowing down the rate at which the spending is increasing. This is exactly what this seemingly worthless deficit commission did. The truth is Obama's deficit commission is actually proposing real spending increases over the next nine years that exceed the rate of inflation! Under the commission plan spending goes from $3.4 trillion today to $5.1 trillion in 2020.
Think about this! You now have the information you need to realize that this commission is a fraud. The commission was made up of the typical Washington politicians and parasites who have been sucking the taxpayers of this country dry for generations. OK ... I know the commission made some suggestions that some are calling bold ... like raising the Social Security retirement age. Yeah ... real bold. They raised the retirement age FOR TODDLERS. That's really sticking you neck out there.
This was NOT a serious effort at deficit reduction.
Look at some simple facts here on government spending:
How much do you think federal government spending increased during the George W. Bush administration? Let's try 83 percent. Now that comes pretty close to doubling federal spending during the Bush administration. Oh, you say, it was the TARP spending! Sorry ... take TARP out of it and you still have well over 70%.
And what about The Community Organizer? In just the first year under ObamaRule our federal sending increased by over 22 percent.
The point here is that the Imperial Federal Government has been growing spending year after year after year for most of our lives, and by huge amounts in the last ten years ... yet this august commission couldn't even manage to come up with a recommendation to cut the level --- the REAL level --- of federal spending by one single dollar. Come on now ... with these numbers in mind can any of you really suggest that this deficit commission was anything other than Obama window dressing? It was a fraud. A complete fraud. It was there to serve the ends of government, politicians and beltway lobbyists .. not for the purpose of serving the people of this country.
Allow me, dear readers, to share with you the thinking process here:
"Look. We know we're in trouble here .. and we know just how much trouble we're in. The thing is the people don't know how bad things are, and until they realize that we're facing a crisis that could completely rob their children and grandchildren of the American dream, we're pretty much free to give lip service to reform and continue with business as usual here."
Know what? They're right. If you really knew what today's politicians are doing to our future generations you would be hunting them down with pitchforks. But you don't, and they know you don't ... so it's pretty much going to be business as usual.
Not through yet ....
Here's something else you need to know about the deficit commission's proposal. This from the AP - and the liberals will hate this because it essentially validates Sarah Palin's warnings ..
For the first time, the government would set -- and enforce -- an overall budget for Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs that cover more than 100 million people, from Alzheimer's patients in nursing homes to premature babies in hospital intensive care.
Palin attracted wide attention by denouncing nonexistent "death panels" in Obama's overhaul, but a fixed budget as the commissioners propose could lead to denial of payment for medical care in some circumstances.
Overall, the nation will spend about $2.6 trillion this year on health care, and there's evidence that a significant share of that is for procedures and tests that are of little benefit to patients. There seems to be room enough to cut, but no consensus on what should go.
The Democrats are claiming this vote to be a success, because they've changed the dialogue in America. That made me true. But sooner or later you have to stop talking and start acting. They will be judged on their actions, not on their ability to talk.
Now here's something you probably don't realize ... though you - we all - should have. The commission's deficit proposal doesn't even propose to cut spending! It only proposed to slow the rate of increasing spending . Nope ... not kidding. With the incredible increases we've seen in government spending over the past 10 years .. this grand commission of policy phoobahs couldn't come up with one single actual spending cut in one government agency. Now I ask you ... can you think of any private business that would have behaved this way if bankruptcy wasn't only in the cards, but perhaps inevitable?
Now ... before you star the emails pouring in ... let's talk about this spending cut thing. Our wonderful "leaders" in congress set up a nifty little scam years ago called the "baseline budget." Here's how it works. Virtually every government spending program has automatic built-in spending increases every single year. These spending increases may be based on inflation, the rate of population growth, or any number of economic or political considerations. The point is that these spending programs have scheduled spending increases built in every year.
How do politicians manipulate this? It's very easy. They vote to cut back the amount of a spending increase for any given year ... just the increase ... and then come to you and brag about how they are cutting spending. They're not cutting spending at all ... they're just slowing down the rate at which the spending is increasing. This is exactly what this seemingly worthless deficit commission did. The truth is Obama's deficit commission is actually proposing real spending increases over the next nine years that exceed the rate of inflation! Under the commission plan spending goes from $3.4 trillion today to $5.1 trillion in 2020.
Think about this! You now have the information you need to realize that this commission is a fraud. The commission was made up of the typical Washington politicians and parasites who have been sucking the taxpayers of this country dry for generations. OK ... I know the commission made some suggestions that some are calling bold ... like raising the Social Security retirement age. Yeah ... real bold. They raised the retirement age FOR TODDLERS. That's really sticking you neck out there.
This was NOT a serious effort at deficit reduction.
Look at some simple facts here on government spending:
How much do you think federal government spending increased during the George W. Bush administration? Let's try 83 percent. Now that comes pretty close to doubling federal spending during the Bush administration. Oh, you say, it was the TARP spending! Sorry ... take TARP out of it and you still have well over 70%.
And what about The Community Organizer? In just the first year under ObamaRule our federal sending increased by over 22 percent.
The point here is that the Imperial Federal Government has been growing spending year after year after year for most of our lives, and by huge amounts in the last ten years ... yet this august commission couldn't even manage to come up with a recommendation to cut the level --- the REAL level --- of federal spending by one single dollar. Come on now ... with these numbers in mind can any of you really suggest that this deficit commission was anything other than Obama window dressing? It was a fraud. A complete fraud. It was there to serve the ends of government, politicians and beltway lobbyists .. not for the purpose of serving the people of this country.
Allow me, dear readers, to share with you the thinking process here:
"Look. We know we're in trouble here .. and we know just how much trouble we're in. The thing is the people don't know how bad things are, and until they realize that we're facing a crisis that could completely rob their children and grandchildren of the American dream, we're pretty much free to give lip service to reform and continue with business as usual here."
Know what? They're right. If you really knew what today's politicians are doing to our future generations you would be hunting them down with pitchforks. But you don't, and they know you don't ... so it's pretty much going to be business as usual.
Not through yet ....
Here's something else you need to know about the deficit commission's proposal. This from the AP - and the liberals will hate this because it essentially validates Sarah Palin's warnings ..
For the first time, the government would set -- and enforce -- an overall budget for Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs that cover more than 100 million people, from Alzheimer's patients in nursing homes to premature babies in hospital intensive care.
Palin attracted wide attention by denouncing nonexistent "death panels" in Obama's overhaul, but a fixed budget as the commissioners propose could lead to denial of payment for medical care in some circumstances.
Overall, the nation will spend about $2.6 trillion this year on health care, and there's evidence that a significant share of that is for procedures and tests that are of little benefit to patients. There seems to be room enough to cut, but no consensus on what should go.
The Democrats are claiming this vote to be a success, because they've changed the dialogue in America. That made me true. But sooner or later you have to stop talking and start acting. They will be judged on their actions, not on their ability to talk.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
With the stroke of a pen PrezBo is not sick anymore
Barack Obama is no longer suffering from a mental illness, according to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I'm not yanking your chain. This is not satire. Narcissistic personality disorder has been eliminated from the upcoming manual of mental disorders. How convenient. The disorder is said to be characterized by an inflated sense of self importance, a special kind of self-absorption described by the New York Times as "a grandiose sense of self, a serious miscalculation of one's abilities and potential that is often accompanied by fantasies of greatness." But that's not all. Those suffering from narcissistic personality disorder automatically expect that others will recognize his superior qualities and will tell him so often.
Sounding eerily familiar? We are talking about a man who referred to himself almost 1,200 times .. and that was just in speeches given in 2009! We are talking about a man's who wrote two autobiographies before accomplishing much of anything. We are talking about a man who rudely reminded John McCain during a bipartisan healthcare summit that the election was over and he (the great Obama) won.
Even though the medical community may no longer recognize narcissistic personality disorder as a mental disorder, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to spot one. Obama truly believes that he's the world's air freshener. Our country's one true hope is that with every day that passes a few more people out there realize what a mistake it was to take someone with no experience or and minimal qualifications and make him the president on the strength of five-word slogans and the ability to read words someone else put on a teleprompter.
Sounding eerily familiar? We are talking about a man who referred to himself almost 1,200 times .. and that was just in speeches given in 2009! We are talking about a man's who wrote two autobiographies before accomplishing much of anything. We are talking about a man who rudely reminded John McCain during a bipartisan healthcare summit that the election was over and he (the great Obama) won.
Even though the medical community may no longer recognize narcissistic personality disorder as a mental disorder, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to spot one. Obama truly believes that he's the world's air freshener. Our country's one true hope is that with every day that passes a few more people out there realize what a mistake it was to take someone with no experience or and minimal qualifications and make him the president on the strength of five-word slogans and the ability to read words someone else put on a teleprompter.
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