John Morton Needs to be Terminated
John Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has managed to alienate me, and I'm one of the pro-immigration conservatives whom supported the 2007 immigration law compromise, which sought to end chained immigration, emphasized merit-based factors (e.g., professional/education, knowledge of English, etc.), modified an obsolete quota system which applied similar quotas to highly-populated countries, and established a temporary worker system. (These pro-growth reforms were supported mostly by Republicans and opposed by progressives like Obama, due to opposition from unions and certain immigrant groups opposing immediate family restrictions.)
I criticized Morton in an earlier post. I don't wish to repeat myself, but the gist is that Morton strongly implied that the federal government would use its constitutional discretion to arbitrarily disregard any identified unauthorized immigrant, not based on the intrinsic merits of documentation, but based on a turf battle between the federal government and state/local law enforcement. Issues on policy differences between the federal government and state/local authorities can be addressed by the judicial branch of government; immigration policy, subject to constitutional constraints, is set by the legislative branch, not the executive. The fact is that state/local authorities do arrest and have arrested unauthorized visitors, regardless of immigrant status. The idea that a law officer could arrest an unauthorized immigrant, without any reference to new laws, but ICE is going to ignore the arrest because the trooper happens to live in Arizona, which passed a law Morton disagrees with, is unacceptable.
But now we get a Houston Chronicle report that ICE is moving forward on immigration detention reform with private detention centers which include things like fresh vegetable bars and self-serve beverages, arts and crafts, tutoring, hanging plants, longer visit times, their own wardrobe, freedom of movement and no "lights-out", lockdowns or pat-downs, access to a manager if they don't want to deal with a guard, unmonitored phone calls, emails, continental breakfasts, and bingo on weekends. Apparently in the eyes of the Obama Administration, people who break immigration laws are more equal than US citizens whom break other laws. No word if the detention centers will leave chocolates on their pillows at night...
I do have a suggestion in place of bingo. In place of the children's game 'pin the tail on the donkey', we have the blindfolded detainee try to place a paper boot on the backside of a jack (or jenny) ass. We have a variety of heads available for the ass, include photos of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and Al Gore, among others...
Kudos to BP For Refusing to Pay for Obama's Anti-Jobs/Business Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Oil Moratorium
The sheer arrogance, the chutzpah, the hypocrisy of Obama unilaterally declaring a deepwater oil rig moratorium, WHICH IS PURELY POLITICAL, and then demanding that BP pay for the results of Obama's decision? How many posts have I written where I've been talking about lowering the demand for externally-produced oil and gas supply by using domestic sources, yielding in more jobs, feasible with today's technology, not these absurd don't-pay-their-own-weight green industry boondoggles, only profitable with massive crony political subsidies? Effectively he is shrinking the oil supply--and the number of well-paid domestic jobs--as a sop to his environmental constituents in the wake of the BP oil spill. Never mind the guy just got a jobs report showing most new jobs came from temporary US Census positions...
And this is on top of the anti-capitalist attack on BP by trying to go after their dividends. Of course, Obama, talking out of the other side of his mouth, often tries to pretend he's worried about senior citizens (after all, the Dems are out promoting $250 "doughnut-hole filling" checks to seniors in reference to the Medicare drug benefit), but when he goes after dividends for political reasons against highly unpopular BP, he's affecting pension systems and other retirement vehicles depending on a steady flow of income.
The administration also got called on misrepresenting the nature of support for their moratorium as their own expert panel did not approve the moratorium. And Obama seems to be suggesting some sort of a fix after the fact to up relief caps for BP to pay (HINT: what does the Constitution say about ex post facto and bills of attainders?)
Even lawyers in the process of suing BP over the spill do not believe that BP will or should pay the costs of Obama's moratorium. So cheers to BP for standing up to the outrageous, unconscionable demands of the extortionist Obama Administration.
Finally, lawyer Ted Frank restates a point I've made in multiple posts:
I haven't found an email address for IBD cartoonist Michael Ramirez. I haven't developed my own artistic skills, so I wanted to forward a couple of ideas. The first is Obama's boot on the neck of an elderly woman waiting for BP's dividend payment to make her ends meet. The second involves contractors erecting a make-work Obama Bridge to Nowhere out of stimulus dollars and at a depth of $13T underwater, hitting a gusher of red ink, with no contingency plan to stop the spending and the waste, the red link spreading to the shore, soaking the skin and clothes of babies and small children playing along the beach.
Political CartoonJohn Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has managed to alienate me, and I'm one of the pro-immigration conservatives whom supported the 2007 immigration law compromise, which sought to end chained immigration, emphasized merit-based factors (e.g., professional/education, knowledge of English, etc.), modified an obsolete quota system which applied similar quotas to highly-populated countries, and established a temporary worker system. (These pro-growth reforms were supported mostly by Republicans and opposed by progressives like Obama, due to opposition from unions and certain immigrant groups opposing immediate family restrictions.)
I criticized Morton in an earlier post. I don't wish to repeat myself, but the gist is that Morton strongly implied that the federal government would use its constitutional discretion to arbitrarily disregard any identified unauthorized immigrant, not based on the intrinsic merits of documentation, but based on a turf battle between the federal government and state/local law enforcement. Issues on policy differences between the federal government and state/local authorities can be addressed by the judicial branch of government; immigration policy, subject to constitutional constraints, is set by the legislative branch, not the executive. The fact is that state/local authorities do arrest and have arrested unauthorized visitors, regardless of immigrant status. The idea that a law officer could arrest an unauthorized immigrant, without any reference to new laws, but ICE is going to ignore the arrest because the trooper happens to live in Arizona, which passed a law Morton disagrees with, is unacceptable.
But now we get a Houston Chronicle report that ICE is moving forward on immigration detention reform with private detention centers which include things like fresh vegetable bars and self-serve beverages, arts and crafts, tutoring, hanging plants, longer visit times, their own wardrobe, freedom of movement and no "lights-out", lockdowns or pat-downs, access to a manager if they don't want to deal with a guard, unmonitored phone calls, emails, continental breakfasts, and bingo on weekends. Apparently in the eyes of the Obama Administration, people who break immigration laws are more equal than US citizens whom break other laws. No word if the detention centers will leave chocolates on their pillows at night...
I do have a suggestion in place of bingo. In place of the children's game 'pin the tail on the donkey', we have the blindfolded detainee try to place a paper boot on the backside of a jack (or jenny) ass. We have a variety of heads available for the ass, include photos of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and Al Gore, among others...
Kudos to BP For Refusing to Pay for Obama's Anti-Jobs/Business Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Oil Moratorium
The sheer arrogance, the chutzpah, the hypocrisy of Obama unilaterally declaring a deepwater oil rig moratorium, WHICH IS PURELY POLITICAL, and then demanding that BP pay for the results of Obama's decision? How many posts have I written where I've been talking about lowering the demand for externally-produced oil and gas supply by using domestic sources, yielding in more jobs, feasible with today's technology, not these absurd don't-pay-their-own-weight green industry boondoggles, only profitable with massive crony political subsidies? Effectively he is shrinking the oil supply--and the number of well-paid domestic jobs--as a sop to his environmental constituents in the wake of the BP oil spill. Never mind the guy just got a jobs report showing most new jobs came from temporary US Census positions...
And this is on top of the anti-capitalist attack on BP by trying to go after their dividends. Of course, Obama, talking out of the other side of his mouth, often tries to pretend he's worried about senior citizens (after all, the Dems are out promoting $250 "doughnut-hole filling" checks to seniors in reference to the Medicare drug benefit), but when he goes after dividends for political reasons against highly unpopular BP, he's affecting pension systems and other retirement vehicles depending on a steady flow of income.
The administration also got called on misrepresenting the nature of support for their moratorium as their own expert panel did not approve the moratorium. And Obama seems to be suggesting some sort of a fix after the fact to up relief caps for BP to pay (HINT: what does the Constitution say about ex post facto and bills of attainders?)
Even lawyers in the process of suing BP over the spill do not believe that BP will or should pay the costs of Obama's moratorium. So cheers to BP for standing up to the outrageous, unconscionable demands of the extortionist Obama Administration.
Finally, lawyer Ted Frank restates a point I've made in multiple posts:
Every other business doing business in the U.S. has to say: What happens when the government decides to come after me? They expect with Chavez in Venezuela, they have to account for that risk, but if the U.S. does it, that just reduces the incentive to invest in the United States. The damage the administration is doing to the U.S. economy by playing these kinds of games is just appalling.If I Was a Cartoonist...
I haven't found an email address for IBD cartoonist Michael Ramirez. I haven't developed my own artistic skills, so I wanted to forward a couple of ideas. The first is Obama's boot on the neck of an elderly woman waiting for BP's dividend payment to make her ends meet. The second involves contractors erecting a make-work Obama Bridge to Nowhere out of stimulus dollars and at a depth of $13T underwater, hitting a gusher of red ink, with no contingency plan to stop the spending and the waste, the red link spreading to the shore, soaking the skin and clothes of babies and small children playing along the beach.
Clay Jones no doubt can foresee a 6-month moratorium on ass-kicking, because unprecedented government incompetence (with ABC News noting 69% negative handling of the BP oil spill vs. the comparable 62% rating of Katrina). I have little doubt that the final report will come to Obama with a mirror attached...
Quote of the Day
Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow.
Lawrence Clark Powell
Musical Interlude: Chart Hits of 1961
I've already listed some of my favorite 1961 songs, e.g., Del Shannon's "Runaway" and Roy Orbison's "Crying". Here are others:
Paris Sisters, "I Love How You Love Me"
Ben E. King, "Stand by Me"
The Lettermen, "The Way You Look Tonight"
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, "Shop Around"
