The Republican presidential race appears to have shifted from debating the economy to discussing social issues - same-sex marriage, abortion and, amazingly enough, birth control. The year is 2012 and ...
Mitt Romney believes that his best line of attack is making the claim that he has not spent a moment as a D.C. politician while his two main opponents, Newt ...
No two ways about it, Rick Santorum had a good night. Not only did he sweep Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri but he also got off the best line of the ...
Few would argue the fact that Citizens United has been a major player in the Republican primary...and many if not most would concede that none of it has been healthy ...
As if you needed another reason to not vote Romney.
Celebrity business magnate Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday, telling reporters he will not mount an independent campaign if ...
In a perfect world, the Republican contest to find a nominee to face Barack Obama would go on forever...or at least until August. You cannot attach a number to the ...
I suspect there are a ton of conservatives secretly agreeing with Begala and while it's too early in the game for Dems to get cocky, it's difficult to not smile ...
Quotes don't get much better than this one by Bob Dole.
"Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?" asked a perplexed Gingrich, to whom Dole bluntly ...
After the beating Gingrich took last night, it's hard to imagine under what scenario he can make a comeback. Florida is going to Romney and for Gingrich to regain the ...
There's a lot out there on the President's SOTU, so I'll keep my thoughts short and sweet.
The speech did what it had to do which was target liberals and independents ...
The highlights from last night's debate.
- Newt Gingrich can't wait to become president so he can revisit the early 60s and overthrow Castro in Cuba. War, baby, war.
- Santorum, who ...
It appears that the South Carolina verdict is forcing Romney to start taking Gingrich seriously.
“We’re not choosing a talk show host, we’re choosing a leader,” Romney said, saying that their ...
Mike Huckabee offers advice to Mitt Romney concerning his unreleased tax returns.
Let him [Romney] make this challenge: "I'll release my tax returns when Barack Obama releases his college transcripts and ...
Via Political Humor...
"Mitt Romney is coming under fire because even though he is a multimillionaire, he only paid 15 percent in taxes. That's not a tax, that's barely a tip." ...
Good line.
My guess is that after Romney fails to beat Obama in the general, Huntsman will be back in 2016. The most electable guy in the field and he could ...
I found this pretty funny...and accurate. It comes from a reader over at Balloon Juice.
So, let’s review. The contenders for the GOP nomination are
A vulture capitalist who believes that any ...
Lively little debate going on at one of last week's posts with Libertarianism put under the microscope.
ocLiberal:
I know I am in sketchy territory here, (start the indignant shouting now) but ...
In the contest to determine the winner of the Far-Right Politics gold medal, rack up a few more points for Newt Gingrich.
“I think an intelligent conservative wants the right federal ...
Via Political Humor...
"Congratulations to Mitt Romney. He won the New Hampshire primary last night. See, this is proof that even the multimillionaire son of a multimillionaire can beat the odds ...
The Justice Department filed suit Tuesday against Arizona, charging that the state’s new immigration law is unconstitutional and requesting a preliminary injunction to stop the legislation from taking effect.
The lawsuit says the law illegally intrudes on federal prerogatives, invoking as its main argument the legal doctrine of “preemption,” which is based on the Constitution’s supremacy clause and says that federal law trumps state statutes. The Justice Department argues that enforcing immigration laws is a federal responsibility.
But the filing also asserts that the Arizona law would harm people’s civil rights, leading to police harassment of U.S. citizens and foreigners.
Although it was no secret that the Justice Department would take action, the right is going to go nuts over this. Let the games begin.
___ .
To receive new posts directly on your Facebook page, become a member of MarioPiperniDotCom’s page. Click here .
I part company one this issue and in doing so I realize that some
folks will “set me straight” so to speak.
If its the Federal Government’s job to handle Immigration laws then
why are they not doing it? The “we pulled you over because you fit
the description” is used maybe wrongly by the Police all the time.
To draw a parallel between Nazi’s asking to see the papers of People
who’s Country they invaded and Arizona asking to see the papers of
People who they think are invading their country are different, and
I’m totally pissed that every time I speak about this I’m called a
racist.
Yes I admit that the Arizona law is screwy at best but I understand the frustration of the citizens.
At last count there are about 23 million illegals in the United States and of those over 22 million are from South of the border,
money wired to Mexico since 1996 is estimated to be around
31 billion dollars and the cost of free social services provided
to illegals since 1996 is estimated to be around 379 billion bucks
give or take, also since 1996 weve spent over a 160 billion on
educating illegals Children (K-12)—- to me this sounds just what
many prominent Mexican officials have openly stated it is.
I believe that all Humans on this Planet are Brothers and I believe
in civil liberties but if I hear the word racist used to smash a
applicable law then any law ever pasted to curve illegal imagration
will be voided if the Country the illegals are coming from just
happen to have dark skin.
Ive said it before; if millions of blond haired blue eyed Germans
decided to come into this Country illegally would you have a problem
with it? and if you decided to round them up and send them home
until they could go threw the proper channels to become legal would
we be called racist for doing so?
3-2-1 o.k. you can start yelling at me ——— now!
* I understand your frustration with the immigration issue and it is totally justified. Governments past and current have delayed enacting legislation which opened the door for a state like Arizona to deal with it as they saw fit. As you know, there is no easy fix and certainly there is no solution which could possibly be legislated which will please everyone. Million of those illegals have children who were born in the U.S. What do you do with them? Ship them out to a country which is not theirs? My point, again, is that there is no easy fix.
* That said, is passing any law acceptable on the grounds that someone had to do something? I don’t think so. What the Arizona law does is to put under suspicion anyone who looks like a Latino. An American of Mexican heritage who was born and raised in the same country as you is now under suspicion because of his skin color and facial features. Is that the America you want?
* Further add to the mix that Az’s governor came out with a statement last week where she claimed that the majority of illegals were in the drug business. Ludicrous and it did not help her sell her bill to those who believe that a degree of racism is behind the bill.
* I don’t think you’re a racist. I think you’re a frustrated American who is fed up with the immigration issue and wants it resolved one way or another.
* I could go on here but I hope some others jump in with their thoughts.
One final point: there will ALWAYS be an illegal immigration problem no matter what laws are passed by the U.S. or any other first world country. For as long as there are people who yearn for a better life for themselves and their families and find themselves unable to attain their goals in their place of birth, they will always find a way to enter and no fence and no law will be able to stop them.
I’m not implying that a country should not attempt to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into their country. I’m just being pragmatic and say that illegal immigration is one of the consequences of being a successful country.
Well i’ll have to resort to one of the most juvenile statements
i’ll ever make — other then that “my wife’s holding a 45 up
against my head” statement I made yesterday.
Why even have any immigration laws at all?
Its not going to work no matter what we do so
we throw up our hands and say welcome come on in.
You cant get your Ducks in a row in your Country
so come to ours which we fought tooth and nail for
and is ready to go —- our do what Mario does and
fight tooth and nail to fix the Country you already
have.
(note) I put that “do what Mario does” thing in there
because my statement was soooo juvenile I felt a bit of
kissing up would be appropriate and because its true,
see I did it again by saying “its true”
It almost sounds like you’re saying that it’s hard to fix, so don’t bother, and that the illegal’s aren’t really doing anything wrong, it’s just that we’re so successful.
Poppycock.
Greg presented that the illegals have cost nearly $600 billion in the last 15 years and that they make up nearly 8% of the -ENTIRE- US population and your response is that it’s complicated? Anchor Babies? The race card?
“It almost sounds like you’re saying that it’s hard to fix, so don’t bother…”.
Why make a statement like that when I clearly wrote, “I’m not implying that a country should not attempt to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into their country.”
Was that not clear enough for you? My language was precise so you could spare me the “almost sounds like” poppycock.
As for the anchor babies you refer to, I don’t know whether or not the lives of millions of AMERICAN children has any effect on you or not. Whatever your thoughts on that issue, it is a real problem and, yes, it does complicate the matter whether you care to admit it or not.
I did clearly write that it “almost sounds like…”.
Would it have been closer if I’d said that it appeared like you wrote that you were not implying that a country should not attempt to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into their country, but that since there are no easy solutions, especially none that would please everyone, that we are better off with the status quo of doing almost nothing, than to try radical and offensive solutions like asking people a simple question like “what is your immigration status”.
It’s too rare that the INS acts, but when they do they handcuff everyone first and then question them. And ‘everyone’ doesn’t include the Anglo managers. Is the Arizona law more racist or totalitarian than that?
Alternatives? Solutions?
As for the anchor babies, I agree, it’s a real problem.
I have no solutions except to say that for reasons both humanitarian and economic, some form of amnesty will have to be a part of whatever is proposed. I cannot imagine rounding up 15 million or so illegal immigrants and shipping them off on cattle cars is a viable fix.
With the exception of mathematics, complex equations seldom have clean or elegant solutions, no matter how much we’d like them to.
I find this one of the saddest topics of discussion. I understand the frustration, and I do not have the answers on how to fix it. My problem is that every time someone starts screaming about illegals, I can’t stop thinking about how “we” stole lands from the American Indians and then forced them to live on barren land and showed no respect for their culture. Then “we” stole land from Texas to California from Mexico and forced them to leave their homes. I know, this is old history, but why are people so hateful towards a culture that was here first and now they just want to live a better life than what they have in Mexico. (I am not forgetting about other people from other parts of the world who also want to live a better life). Granted, if they break our laws, they need to be deported. We just cannot let states or governors pass laws that strip people (citizens) of their civil liberties or call all illegals drug lords. By the way, those of you who think illegals don’t have a reason to come here, have you ever visited Mexico City, the most polluted and toxic city in the world or a small town where the homes are made of sticks and the floors are dirt and no running water or electricity. If you have, then you understand why people would rather risk their life and come here to clean your home or mow your lawn.
If the government believes the Arizona law is unconstitutional, it is their duty to bring it before the courts. Is this not the same Constitution teapartiers want protected at all costs? They should be applauding the administration for upholding the laws of the nation.
No some form of amnesty is not needed.
And yes most small towns in the Central Valley of California
look exactly like what Kathryn said Mexico City
looks like, and no they didnt look that way 30 years ago.
I know cause Ive lived here all my life and Ive been
threw almost all the towns up and down the Valley both
then and now, you really need to live here to grasp the
fact that we “the Central Valley” are now for all pratical
purposes part of Mexico, I love diversity because it spices
up the Human experience but do I really need to learn Spanish
to talk to half the People around here? — do I have to dial
one first?
I went into walmart in the town of Visalia and as soon as I
walked in I turned around and walked out, I went into a Wal-Mart
in Washington State last week and stayed, I wont even go into
the reasons why.
Now Libertine, Mario relax either way its not the end of the World,
one thing about America thats really cool is we can agree to
disagree without argument— so a good idea is to spend some
time thinking about kittens or Flowers or 1962 V.W. Bugs or
whatever puts you in a happy place.
.
this issue is not going to be resolved unless people can have honest discussions about immigration, on the left you have people basically calling for amnesty (I use the term left loosely, because this country has shifted so far to the right that now the GOP saint Reagan’s views are now part of the left’s position on immigration) the right lies and tells you that the come here to get public services, the reality is those are incidental benefits, they would come even if those services were gone as long as they can make more money than at home, and Bush used to say employers don’t know what to do when it comes to checking documents, when the reality is they knew exactly what they were doing and that somehow E-Verify was a burden even though it is free, (it should be mandatory) or they are getting in state tuition even though they are illegal (because they lived there for over a year, that’s how it works in most states) nor will they make a distinction between someone that came here as an adult and someone that was brought here as a small child who had no say in the matter.
on the left you have people saying if you oppose immigration you must be racist or hate “brown people” which does not bother to take into account people’s experiences, drive around L.A. county and visit places like Maywood, Lynwood… , and see how they have changed over the last few decades, and then turn around and tell people that they are racist because they don’t want to live in a gang infested neighborhood or if they make eye contact with someone that has a shaved head and tattoos it could provoke e a fight or worse, it is being told you have to learn a foreign because people come here that cannot be bothered with learning our language, it is one thing to learn another language(which we should) it is quite another to learn one because someone refuses to speak yours, in these countries like Germany where people speak more than one language it is not because people more there and want you to accommodate them it is usually because English is the language of science and commerce otherwise they would be speaking Turkish (Germany’s largest immigrant group) and that is not the case. No one on the left ever talks about the brown on black violence (I personally knew a couple of people that were shot including one to death) and yet if a white is involved in racially motivated violence the left is all over it, Latino’s killing blacks is a common occurrence in Southern California and outside the Los Angeles times you hardly ever hear about it. It is that kind of hypocrisy that drives people nuts. It is being told you have to have your act together before you start a family and then telling people “they just want to feed their families” not the message you are brought up with in this country, stay in school establish yourself, become financially secure then worry about having a family, in 1970 there were 40 million people in Mexico now there are around 110 million people in addition to the one that came here, ( I use Mexico as an example because that is where the bulk of the illegal immigration comes from) and Mexico is not a poor country, it actually is a rich country with Billionaires and a GDP of over a trillion dollars. That will not let you buy land on its borders or coast or allow non Mexican to protest and treats people from central America like garbage and no one outside right-wing talk radio will discuss it, and people wonder why people listen to these clowns that have the audience go against their own self interest, it is because they get something they are not getting elsewhere, they address issues that are not being addressed and then the drill a lot of nonsense, disinformation and outright lies into the audiences heads.
Until people have an open and honest discussion and move away from their party’s talking points this issue will not be resolved.
I part company one this issue and in doing so I realize that some
folks will “set me straight” so to speak.
If its the Federal Government’s job to handle Immigration laws then
why are they not doing it? The “we pulled you over because you fit
the description” is used maybe wrongly by the Police all the time.
To draw a parallel between Nazi’s asking to see the papers of People
who’s Country they invaded and Arizona asking to see the papers of
People who they think are invading their country are different, and
I’m totally pissed that every time I speak about this I’m called a
racist.
Yes I admit that the Arizona law is screwy at best but I understand the frustration of the citizens.
At last count there are about 23 million illegals in the United States and of those over 22 million are from South of the border,
money wired to Mexico since 1996 is estimated to be around
31 billion dollars and the cost of free social services provided
to illegals since 1996 is estimated to be around 379 billion bucks
give or take, also since 1996 weve spent over a 160 billion on
educating illegals Children (K-12)—- to me this sounds just what
many prominent Mexican officials have openly stated it is.
I believe that all Humans on this Planet are Brothers and I believe
in civil liberties but if I hear the word racist used to smash a
applicable law then any law ever pasted to curve illegal imagration
will be voided if the Country the illegals are coming from just
happen to have dark skin.
Ive said it before; if millions of blond haired blue eyed Germans
decided to come into this Country illegally would you have a problem
with it? and if you decided to round them up and send them home
until they could go threw the proper channels to become legal would
we be called racist for doing so?
3-2-1 o.k. you can start yelling at me ——— now!
Greg, some quick points.
* I understand your frustration with the immigration issue and it is totally justified. Governments past and current have delayed enacting legislation which opened the door for a state like Arizona to deal with it as they saw fit. As you know, there is no easy fix and certainly there is no solution which could possibly be legislated which will please everyone. Million of those illegals have children who were born in the U.S. What do you do with them? Ship them out to a country which is not theirs? My point, again, is that there is no easy fix.
* That said, is passing any law acceptable on the grounds that someone had to do something? I don’t think so. What the Arizona law does is to put under suspicion anyone who looks like a Latino. An American of Mexican heritage who was born and raised in the same country as you is now under suspicion because of his skin color and facial features. Is that the America you want?
* Further add to the mix that Az’s governor came out with a statement last week where she claimed that the majority of illegals were in the drug business. Ludicrous and it did not help her sell her bill to those who believe that a degree of racism is behind the bill.
* I don’t think you’re a racist. I think you’re a frustrated American who is fed up with the immigration issue and wants it resolved one way or another.
* I could go on here but I hope some others jump in with their thoughts.
One final point: there will ALWAYS be an illegal immigration problem no matter what laws are passed by the U.S. or any other first world country. For as long as there are people who yearn for a better life for themselves and their families and find themselves unable to attain their goals in their place of birth, they will always find a way to enter and no fence and no law will be able to stop them.
I’m not implying that a country should not attempt to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into their country. I’m just being pragmatic and say that illegal immigration is one of the consequences of being a successful country.
Well i’ll have to resort to one of the most juvenile statements
i’ll ever make — other then that “my wife’s holding a 45 up
against my head” statement I made yesterday.
Why even have any immigration laws at all?
Its not going to work no matter what we do so
we throw up our hands and say welcome come on in.
You cant get your Ducks in a row in your Country
so come to ours which we fought tooth and nail for
and is ready to go —- our do what Mario does and
fight tooth and nail to fix the Country you already
have.
(note) I put that “do what Mario does” thing in there
because my statement was soooo juvenile I felt a bit of
kissing up would be appropriate and because its true,
see I did it again by saying “its true”
It almost sounds like you’re saying that it’s hard to fix, so don’t bother, and that the illegal’s aren’t really doing anything wrong, it’s just that we’re so successful.
Poppycock.
Greg presented that the illegals have cost nearly $600 billion in the last 15 years and that they make up nearly 8% of the -ENTIRE- US population and your response is that it’s complicated? Anchor Babies? The race card?
Really? No suggestions on how to do better?
Poppycock? Ok.
“It almost sounds like you’re saying that it’s hard to fix, so don’t bother…”.
Why make a statement like that when I clearly wrote, “I’m not implying that a country should not attempt to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into their country.”
Was that not clear enough for you? My language was precise so you could spare me the “almost sounds like” poppycock.
As for the anchor babies you refer to, I don’t know whether or not the lives of millions of AMERICAN children has any effect on you or not. Whatever your thoughts on that issue, it is a real problem and, yes, it does complicate the matter whether you care to admit it or not.
I did clearly write that it “almost sounds like…”.
Would it have been closer if I’d said that it appeared like you wrote that you were not implying that a country should not attempt to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into their country, but that since there are no easy solutions, especially none that would please everyone, that we are better off with the status quo of doing almost nothing, than to try radical and offensive solutions like asking people a simple question like “what is your immigration status”.
It’s too rare that the INS acts, but when they do they handcuff everyone first and then question them. And ‘everyone’ doesn’t include the Anglo managers. Is the Arizona law more racist or totalitarian than that?
Alternatives? Solutions?
As for the anchor babies, I agree, it’s a real problem.
I have no solutions except to say that for reasons both humanitarian and economic, some form of amnesty will have to be a part of whatever is proposed. I cannot imagine rounding up 15 million or so illegal immigrants and shipping them off on cattle cars is a viable fix.
With the exception of mathematics, complex equations seldom have clean or elegant solutions, no matter how much we’d like them to.
I find this one of the saddest topics of discussion. I understand the frustration, and I do not have the answers on how to fix it. My problem is that every time someone starts screaming about illegals, I can’t stop thinking about how “we” stole lands from the American Indians and then forced them to live on barren land and showed no respect for their culture. Then “we” stole land from Texas to California from Mexico and forced them to leave their homes. I know, this is old history, but why are people so hateful towards a culture that was here first and now they just want to live a better life than what they have in Mexico. (I am not forgetting about other people from other parts of the world who also want to live a better life). Granted, if they break our laws, they need to be deported. We just cannot let states or governors pass laws that strip people (citizens) of their civil liberties or call all illegals drug lords. By the way, those of you who think illegals don’t have a reason to come here, have you ever visited Mexico City, the most polluted and toxic city in the world or a small town where the homes are made of sticks and the floors are dirt and no running water or electricity. If you have, then you understand why people would rather risk their life and come here to clean your home or mow your lawn.
I forgot to thank you Mario. We truly need more people like you that recognize what direction we need to go. Yes, some form of amnesty is needed.
If the government believes the Arizona law is unconstitutional, it is their duty to bring it before the courts. Is this not the same Constitution teapartiers want protected at all costs? They should be applauding the administration for upholding the laws of the nation.
No some form of amnesty is not needed.
And yes most small towns in the Central Valley of California
look exactly like what Kathryn said Mexico City
looks like, and no they didnt look that way 30 years ago.
I know cause Ive lived here all my life and Ive been
threw almost all the towns up and down the Valley both
then and now, you really need to live here to grasp the
fact that we “the Central Valley” are now for all pratical
purposes part of Mexico, I love diversity because it spices
up the Human experience but do I really need to learn Spanish
to talk to half the People around here? — do I have to dial
one first?
I went into walmart in the town of Visalia and as soon as I
walked in I turned around and walked out, I went into a Wal-Mart
in Washington State last week and stayed, I wont even go into
the reasons why.
Now Libertine, Mario relax either way its not the end of the World,
one thing about America thats really cool is we can agree to
disagree without argument— so a good idea is to spend some
time thinking about kittens or Flowers or 1962 V.W. Bugs or
whatever puts you in a happy place.
.
this issue is not going to be resolved unless people can have honest discussions about immigration, on the left you have people basically calling for amnesty (I use the term left loosely, because this country has shifted so far to the right that now the GOP saint Reagan’s views are now part of the left’s position on immigration) the right lies and tells you that the come here to get public services, the reality is those are incidental benefits, they would come even if those services were gone as long as they can make more money than at home, and Bush used to say employers don’t know what to do when it comes to checking documents, when the reality is they knew exactly what they were doing and that somehow E-Verify was a burden even though it is free, (it should be mandatory) or they are getting in state tuition even though they are illegal (because they lived there for over a year, that’s how it works in most states) nor will they make a distinction between someone that came here as an adult and someone that was brought here as a small child who had no say in the matter.
on the left you have people saying if you oppose immigration you must be racist or hate “brown people” which does not bother to take into account people’s experiences, drive around L.A. county and visit places like Maywood, Lynwood… , and see how they have changed over the last few decades, and then turn around and tell people that they are racist because they don’t want to live in a gang infested neighborhood or if they make eye contact with someone that has a shaved head and tattoos it could provoke e a fight or worse, it is being told you have to learn a foreign because people come here that cannot be bothered with learning our language, it is one thing to learn another language(which we should) it is quite another to learn one because someone refuses to speak yours, in these countries like Germany where people speak more than one language it is not because people more there and want you to accommodate them it is usually because English is the language of science and commerce otherwise they would be speaking Turkish (Germany’s largest immigrant group) and that is not the case. No one on the left ever talks about the brown on black violence (I personally knew a couple of people that were shot including one to death) and yet if a white is involved in racially motivated violence the left is all over it, Latino’s killing blacks is a common occurrence in Southern California and outside the Los Angeles times you hardly ever hear about it. It is that kind of hypocrisy that drives people nuts. It is being told you have to have your act together before you start a family and then telling people “they just want to feed their families” not the message you are brought up with in this country, stay in school establish yourself, become financially secure then worry about having a family, in 1970 there were 40 million people in Mexico now there are around 110 million people in addition to the one that came here, ( I use Mexico as an example because that is where the bulk of the illegal immigration comes from) and Mexico is not a poor country, it actually is a rich country with Billionaires and a GDP of over a trillion dollars. That will not let you buy land on its borders or coast or allow non Mexican to protest and treats people from central America like garbage and no one outside right-wing talk radio will discuss it, and people wonder why people listen to these clowns that have the audience go against their own self interest, it is because they get something they are not getting elsewhere, they address issues that are not being addressed and then the drill a lot of nonsense, disinformation and outright lies into the audiences heads.
Until people have an open and honest discussion and move away from their party’s talking points this issue will not be resolved.
Yea!!!
And Kittens are cute, Flowers smell good
and 1962 V.W. Bugs are easy to work on…….