I’m not going to go into much detail about tonight’s debate, but there’s one area of the GOP base that is starting to disgust me. The anti-immigration wing of the party is starting to lose its mind. Tonight Newt Gingrich gave a very thoughtful response on illegal immigration and yet if you read tweets and comments you’d think he’s endorsed amnesty. I have explained my gripes with Newt Gingrich, so it’s not like I’m in the tank for the guy. He’s been all over the place on this issue, but most people who are suddenly shocked and dismayed to learn his current position are idiots.
Is it really the GOP position to deport every single illegal immigrant who has ever come to the United States? It’s just an idiotic position. Tonight, Gingrich used the extreme example of a family of illegal immigrants who’ve lived in the country for 25 years, but he has a point. The nation must secure the border. After the border is secure the nation is going to have to make some difficult choices about what to do with the people who are already here.
Mitt Romney is now the most extreme candidate on immigration. Romney’s position is shrewd because he realizes that only a pure anti-amnesty candidate will get the nomination. Nothing is going to happen on this issue because the left wants amnesty and the right thinks anything less that a mass deportation is amnesty. Both are ridiculous positions. In 2008, McCain basically had to flip flop on immigration to get the nomination. Rick Perry was taken to the woodshed for his immigration policies in Texas. Suddenly immigration is the third rail of GOP politics. It’s pathetic.
Gossip Girl or serious journalist? After watching the Republican debate on MSNBC last night I'm leaning toward Gossip Girl.
As usual, Henshaw made some good points about last night’s Republican debate, though I’m not sure I agree with his winners and losers. Alas, it is quite difficult to come up with an objective list of winners and losers since a debate isn’t quite as easy to score as, say, a boxing match. And even boxing matches that declare a winner without a KO are sometimes controversial.
Even so, here’s my list of winners, losers and those who fought to a draw… Winners: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain. Losers: Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman. Draw: Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum.
Part of my problem scoring and declaring a winner is that these debates don’t allow for much explanation by any one candidate, thus they tend to stick to rhetoric and key words. Even when it’s narrowed down to two candidates during the Presidential race, debates don’t offer much substance.
Still, the candidates could make a move away from the pack by better articulating core principles. In the case of a conservative candidate, one of these core principles, and what is perhaps the most important one, is the role of the Federal government.
Ron Paul and Herman Cain came closest to hitting the mark on this, though no one’s really listening to them. The others danced around it and the moderators probably don’t know the difference between Federalism and oligarchy, though they certainly know how to gossip (“A friend of your campaign manager said that Rick Perry is a wussie. Why is he a wussie?”)
There was a golden opportunity at this debate to point out that the governors in the debate did the best they could with the circumstances specific to their states and the needs of their constituents. And that’s the point. Who best to make decisions for the welfare of its citizens than local and state government? And, who is more accountable to their voters than local and state government?
You can yammer on and on about this and that you did as governor, or that this governor had this much or this little job growth in his state, but it’s just a waste of time. Just once I’d like to see a candidate point out that an ever-encroaching Federal government endangers the individual and his liberty. The growth of the Federal government is, in fact, a move toward oligarchy; rule by the few over the many. Moreover, it’s an oligarchy that favors certain people and groups over others, destroying the concept of equality before the law. The bailouts, stimulus and health care bamboozles are striking examples of this inequality created by cronyism.
Still, I don’t know how much you can blame the candidates for their shallow answers. The moderators made it quite difficult to provide any depth by purposely pitting one candidate against the other and framing the questions to make it sound as if they were defending the indefensible. “Rick Perry, Romney said or did this. Respond,” or, “Why are Republicans so heartless?” Bullshit. Ask them a real policy question.
Speaking of BS, how about that brief foray into “science”? The Charlie Crist-like Huntsman took a sideways swipe at Perry, playing the ever-so-reasonable-and-moderate Republican card. He’s pro-science because he has not an ounce of skepticism about the wild-eyed lunatic-fringe claims of a madman (Al Gore)?
Meanwhile, Perry’s response was less than adequate. Once again, a golden opportunity to put the nail in the coffin of the climate change debate wasted. Will anyone rise to the occasion and point out simple logic? As a reminder, logical and thought-provoking arguments Perry could have made include:
- The sun may have something to do with our climate, given that it accounts for 99.86 percent of the mass of the entire solar system
- The climate has been changing for more than four billion years; it always has and it always will. This would mark the first time in the history of earth that a species was willfully unable to adapt to a changing climate. Who’s more stupid, the dinosaurs who simply didn’t know they needed to adapt, or human beings who drown in extremely slow-rising water because they thought the government was going to do something about it?
- Do Climate Changelings/Global Warmongers really believe that we have the power to regulate the earth’s thermostat, and if we did, what is the proper setting?
- Further, if we had the power to regulate the climate, who makes the decision about where to set the thermostat and who benefits from the settings? Will the entire earth be like San Diego, or will only those parts the enviro-nitwits care about live eternally in San Diego’s climate?
- Global warming is far better for life on earth than is global cooling. You can look it up. But the beauty of “climate change” is that you can claim the climate’s changing no matter what’s going on globally or locally. A little warmer this year? Climate change! Unusually cold another? Climate change! No change? Climate change!
The whole thing is absurd, as is the case for a larger and more meddlesome federal government, and yet it’s nearly impossible to get a cohesive, coherent and concise answer on either subject from the candidates. Immigration? I know that Rick Santorum’s grandparents were immigrants, but that doesn’t tell me jack diddly about his plan.
Perhaps most absurd, and also the best part of the debate, was the commercial produced by Californians for Population Stabilization, which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that there’s a special interest group for anything and everything these days.
Californians for Population Stabilization is against legal immigration. That’s right, legal immigrants are taking jobs away from Californians and Californians for Population Stabilization wants to end this travesty. What’s next? Californians against Seeing Eye Dogs and other Working Dogs?
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryd1-xco9cg
1996 was a simpler time. Back then, billing the federal government for incarcerating illegal immigrants wasn’t controversial. Rick Perry billed U.S. Department of Homeland Security for nearly $350 million to cover the costs he says Texas has incurred incarcerating illegal immigrants in state prisons and county jails.
I’m so happy President Clinton solved this problem for the United States.
Let the Section 8 block party commence!
Bread and Circuses: 30,000 people lined up for Section 8 housing application in East Point, Georgia today. The chance to receive a government-subsided apartment is a bigger draw in Atlanta than the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. It’s comforting to know that there are so many people ready to take a hand out
The massive event sometimes descended into a chaotic mob scene filled with anger and impatience. Some 62 people needed medical attention and 20 of them were transported to a hospital, authorities said. A baby went into a seizure in the heat and was stabilized at a hospital. People were removed on stretchers and when a throng of people who had been waiting hours in a line were told to move to another line, people started pushing, shoving and cursing, witnesses said.
You would be hard pressed to find any event that symbolizes Atlanta better than this angry mob. The best part of the this story is that East Point officials declared the event a success. I’m not sure if the officials are completely clueless or that they set their expectations so low that 62 people who needed medical attention is a success. At least no one was shot.
Harry Reid’s Race Obsession: The left’s obsession with racism is diabolical. Illegal immigration is not a race issue. The only people bringing up race into this debate are Democrats like Harry Reid who view illegal immigrants and Hispanics as a potential voting bloc.
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid on Tuesday slammed Republicans for blocking comprehensive immigration reform and told Hispanics they shouldn’t be treated differently because “their skin’s a tone darker” than that of America’s early European immigrants. “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK,” Reid said, speaking to Latino supporters whose votes he needs to win re-election in November. “Do I need to say more?”
This type of divisive and ignorant rhetoric needs to come to an end. It’s not constructive; it’s ugly and it represents the worst about politics. Democrats don’t seem to have anything else to offer besides characterizing everyone who disagrees with their politics as racists. This comes after four years of corruption, failed policies, and broken promises.
College Football Polls! It’s silly season again. It’s that time of the year when polls are out that rank college football teams based on what they accomplished last season with different players. College Football News came out with their top five on Monday and Georgia is 3rd! What? Yeah, the Dawgs will start the season around 20 in the two most important polls, but it’s nice see someone thinks they’re a sleeper team. Plus, College Football News is a pretty popular site. I’ve been reading it for almost a decade and they’re usually pretty good with predictions. That means UGA will likely lose four games.
Duke Nukem FOREVER: There are video game classics like Doom, Civilization, and Super Mario Brothers. These games are classics due to their overwhelming popularity. Then there’s Duke Nukem Forever. This game has been in development since 1997. No game has been delayed, restarted and funded more than Duke Nukem Forever. Like the city of Houston, the game is synonymous with futility. Last year it appeared that game had finally died, but it appears that it’s still alive:
Oh boy, another Duke Nukem story. It seems that the lawsuit between 3D Realms and Take 2 has been settled, and now Duke Nukem Forever is in the capable hands of Gearbox, developer of Borderlands and the Brothers In Arms series. The question is: who could possibly care? Consider my predicament. I’ve heard about Duke Nukem Forever since 1997, when I first read about it in a game magazine. (Ultra Game Players, I believe.) How can I possibly care about the game in 2010, or 2011, or 2012?
They should just abandon the game altogether and work on a movie about the making of the game. I’m sure a movie would be 100% more interesting than any game that comes out at this point.
All he is saying, is give stupidity a chance.
How do you debate with people who clearly think you are evil? This is what I have to ask myself. Why am I evil? I believe that United States immigration laws should be enforced. The state of Arizona experiences the problems of illegal immigration more so than say… Vermont. In Vermont there aren’t many instances of illegals kidnapping, killing, or wrecking into people.
In a previous life I was a musician. I guess I should say I still am a musician; I just gave up the idea of doing it professionally. The worst part of being a musician is listening to stupid musicians. Most “artists” are bleeding heart brain-dead morons. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t successful (I jest). It’s easy to ignore these people, but even the music news outlets are terrible. For example:
Pretty much everyone on the Left agrees that Arizona’s tough new immigration law SB 1070 is evil, racist, and terrifying.
That’s the latest from Pitchfork which is an independent music website. Are immigration laws racist by default? I wonder how many of these so called “progressives” would remain so willfully ignorant if they had a loved one killed by an uninsured illegal immigrant in a car accident. Conor Oberst is now boycotting the state of Arizona. For those that don’t know who Conor Oberst is, he’s a somewhat popular independent singer/songwriter. He “feels things.” Feeling is the most important part of being a liberal. Here is how Oberst feels about me:
“The only thing, clearly, that these people care about is Money and Power, that and the creation and preservation of an Anglo-Centric Police State where every Immigrant and Non-White citizen is considered subhuman. They want them stripped of their basic human rights and reduced to slaves for Corporate America and the White Race. They are engaged in blatant class warfare. It is evil, pure and simple.”
Hipster dufus, say what? If Arizona is trying deport illegal immigrants from the country how is that promoting slavery? I’m not sure people like Conor Oberst actually believe in America. Sure, they get warm fuzzy feelings during Independence Day, but that’s only if there’s a liberal in the White House. That feeling only lasts for a few minutes. I truly believe people who think this way (generalizing for sure) don’t care if there are open boarders. They believe in a collective humanity where anything goes.
Of course, they really don’t believe in that, but they would like to feel like they do. Whatever the hell that means. The willfully ignorant left doesn’t have a logical plan for immigration besides legalizing a built-in Demcoratic voter bloc. Simply stating that opponents of illegal immigration are racists is like calling those who oppose murderer anti-choice. Wait, wait, wait… did that just happen?
I love the blogosphere. It’s awesome that everyone who has an opinion can share it. However, if you’re going to share your opinions be prepared to have them spotlighted, especially if it’s on the Cannibal Huffington Post. Today I came across a comment from TN60 that I thought was funny and delusional enough to share on The Daily Plunge.
I always saw the police state of AZ as the worst of the worst for Republicans, and it would stir up the Latino voters to go the voting booth. You are definately going to see it in TX and Colorado and California, as well. That is why you see Bloomberg joining Murdoch on immigration. Murdoch can’t afford to lose his Conservative base who watch Loony clowns.
Then you have the whackos in NV, Ky and Utah, talking about civil rights and cutting Medicare and S/S and there goes the old people. The young people who were behind Obama’s win, wanted change, and so far, due to Republicans Obstruction, they will get behind Democrats, because Republican Rule was what they came out in numbers to defeat. Black voters already know that Republicans are not in their corner and they have voted Democratic in large numbers for years.
If the Democrats can manage to turn the anger at the Republicans as the party of everything BIGs, and not for the “little people”, I see reduction in Repbulican numbers in November.
Where do you begin? This comment plays on every paranoid delusion that exists on the left. It even has the “youth vote” myth. As I’ve stated before, most progressives do not care about illegal immigration. They view illegal immigrants as an untapped voting bloc that the racist Republicans will not allow. That’s why brain-dead outlets like the Huffington Post are comfortable letting convicted felons post as long as it reinforces their worldview.
The White House says Arizona Senator Jon Kyle is a liar for claiming that President Obama is in favor of amnesty for illegal immigrants. It would be nice if the White House could be honest for once. Transparency is a goal this administration will never achieve. Now Obama’s Labor Department is worried about “fair wages” for illegal immigrants:
This is so idiotic I don’t even know where to begin. First of all, it’s illegal for companies to hire illegal immigrants. Shouldn’t we be more concerned that companies are hiring illegal immigrants? Personally, I’m not worried about the “exploited workers” since they moved here illegally and are obviously fine with being “exploited.” If I was an illegal immigrant the last thing I’m going to do is call the Federal government.
The nation is facing the worst recession is two decades and this administration seems more worried about illegal alien wages than about cracking down on illegal immigration. How does President Obama expect anyone to believe Senator Kyl is lying when the Labor Department is creating videos like that?
Update: Apparently Senator Kyl is backing off his remarks. It doesn’t change the content of this post, but it should be noted.
It was the Summer of 1999. I was but twenty years old back then. The world was my oyster or something. That summer I went to a music festival in Tanglewood Park. It’s been so long ago now I can’t remember anything about the festival other than the fact it was hot as hell. I went with my friend Jess, and I got the worst sunburn of my life. The band we were hyped about seeing that day was The Nixons. I don’t remember anything about their set. I’m sure when they played “Sister” it was forgettable amazing.
The only reason I mention the Summer of Limp Bizkit is what happened to me following the festival. Since I was twenty I didn’t touch any alcohol that day. It was a half hour drive from my house to Tanglewood Park. This would be a rather forgetful drive for most people, but unfortunately my means of transportation was a 1988 Hyundai Excel (aka The Blue Cloud). My first car earned that nickname because it was blue and it produced a lot of smoke. Much of that said smoke was actually exhaust inside the vehicle. There aren’t enough vegan organic meals to go around to make that a healthy lifestyle.
This looks a lot like my first car. Just add smoke.
I can’t exaggerate enough how bad of a car this was to drive. I can’t believe I drove it on the interstate. For example, the car wouldn’t idle so I had to give it gas when I stopped at a traffic light or else the car would stall. I had to continuously add oil to the engine because it was burning a quart a week. The Blue Cloud wasn’t exactly environmentally friendly. I’m sure my carbon footprint was the size of the Grand Canyon. To put it mildly the car wasn’t much of a status symbol. The day of the festival I was just happy it didn’t break down before I reached my destination.
In 1999, I was even skinnier than I am today. I guess it makes sense a cop might pull me over for being a sunburned ginger leaving a concert.
After I left the concert I drove home alone. As I was making my way back to I-40 a police officer pulled me over. This was a little unsettling. It was the first time the pigs the police had ever pulled me over. I pulled over next to an old church. The police officer informed me that I had pulled in front of a truck at a stop light. The police officer’s story was a complete fabrication. The car was so dangerous to drive I wouldn’t pull in front of a bike let alone a truck. The Blue Cloud was a deathtrap. The Hyundai would fold like a wet blanket in any kind of collision.
Basically what the fascist pig police officer was doing was acting on a hunch. I was driving a piece of crap car, by myself, and I was leaving a concert. We all know that music festivals are a mecca for beer guzzlers and drug addicts. In other words, I was profiled. The police officer thought it might be a good idea to see if I was under the influence. It’s still annoys me that he made up the story about me pulling in front of a car, but he didn’t give me a ticket.
My guess is that the cop was shocked when he found out that I hadn’t been drinking. Plus, the driver of the car was a polite twenty year old young man who was somewhat educated. My only crime was driving The Blue Cloud. Hey, if Al Gore had his way the cop would have arrested me for polluting the environment.
My point is that cops profile people all the time. People make decisions based on the best information available (well, sometimes). If a cop in Arizona pulls someone over and they can’t speak English, they don’t have a drivers license, or don’t have registration, there’s likely a problem. On my drive home that day I wasn’t angry that I had been pulled over for no reason. I appreciated the fact that the cops were looking for drunk drivers. My inconvenience is a lot better than vehicular homicide.
There have been a lot of ignorant opinions offered about the Arizona immigration law. It’s difficult to stand out when the list of ill-informed morons is almost endless; however, CNN published an op-ed by Ruben Navarrette Jr. that will live in infamy. Navarrette likens Arizona’s plea for illegal immigration control to a rouge rogue state searching for nuclear weapons. No, really.
Don’t be surprised if, any day now, you read that the People’s Republic of Arizona is in the market for nuclear warheads to put an end, once and for all, to illegal immigration on its southern border. After all, it’s the next logical step for the rogue state.
That’s the next logical step? Obviously Navarrette doesn’t have a firm grasp of logic. The only logical next step here is to believe that he’s a blithering idiot. Oh wait… There’s more?!
Brewer just signed SB 1070, a disgraceful anti-immigration and pro-racial-profiling law, to give local and state cops throughout the state the chance to suit up and play border patrol agent. Why shouldn’t she get the chance to suit up and play general?
The Arizona law isn’t about immigration, it’s about “illegal immigration.” How many times do people like Navarette need to be told the difference between illegal and legal immigration. Let me repeat it slowly so Navarett can understand: I-L-L-E-G-A-L. Against the law. Criminal… The fact that Navarette can’t tell the difference and would rather yell “racist” tells me all I need to know. This is the kind of opinion piece that makes you want to gouge your eyes out with popsicle sticks.
Navarette goes on to claim to be “in the know” with border officials and sets up the weak straw man about enforcing the laws that bar companies from hiring illegals. Evidently it’s not racist or anti-immigration to enforce those laws. What about the illegal immigrants that join gangs and never get jobs? How exactly does cracking down on businesses that hire illegals (which should happen) stop that from happening? I’m sorry. I was thinking logically.
Northbound and down, loaded up and truckin', we gonna do what they say can't be done! Tell you what, I'll drive Bandit's car with a young Sally Field while we transport illegal immigrants from Arizona to their new home in Boulder, Colorado!
Don’t you hate it when someone cuts in line in front of you or drives in the right lane until the last moment, then cuts over and right in front of you when two lanes narrow into one? That’s basically the behavior those opposed to Arizona’s very sensible and reasonable law are advocating.
They’re saying, in essence: If you’re not from Mexico or points south and cross the border illegally, go to the back of the line! If you happen to be in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen and you’re from Chad, sorry, but it’s now racist to go through the proper procedures. Therefore, because others are bypassing the system, you’ll have to move back in line.
As mentioned in Henshaw’s previous post, the City of Boulder (Colorado) has decided to take action and stand by those in favor of breaking the law. Here’s the key section of the official press release from the city:
BOULDER – The City of Boulder today suspended all official city-sponsored travel to Arizona. The directive by City Manager Jane Brautigam is in response to the passage of Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, which calls for police in that state to use “reasonable suspicion” to question and detain possible undocumented immigrants.
“The city is taking this action to demonstrate our opposition to Arizona’s new public policy, signed into law April 23, to require documentation for all persons who may be suspected of being in that state without official status or approval,” said Brautigam. “Such a policy is contrary to Boulder’s commitment to diversity and is a violation of our community’s core values.”
I don’t even know where to begin with the willful ignorance displayed by Boulder’s “City Manager” (placed in quotes because Jane couldn’t manage a t-ball team), but could she at least not mischaracterize Arizona’s law? If you have to lie to support your policy perhaps you shouldn’t be in a position of authority, but that’s just me.
My solution to illegal immigration used to be a little more complicated, involving a streamlining of the immigration process, the requirement that all illegals currently in the U.S. register and start the process of becoming legal and sealing the border good and tight. Now, thanks to Boulder’s convenient declaration from a thousand miles away, I have a new solution: ship all illegal immigrants caught at the border to Boulder!
I’m happy to rent an 18-wheeler and help out. There will be no discrimination. Whether you’re here simply to support your family or you need to contact your compañeros in MS 13, we won’t ask any questions. We’ll just drop you off at Boulder’s city limits and wish you the best in your new hometown. Since Boulder is all about “diversity” and other politically-correct words that mean nothing I’m sure the city will welcome its new citizens with open arms.
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