Jeb Bush has a principled stand on immigration. Several, in fact.
Last summer, Jeb Bush was in favor of offering illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. As he told Charlie Rose:
“You have to deal with this issue. You can’t ignore it, and so either a path to citizenship, which I would support — and that does put me probably out of the mainstream of most conservatives — or a path to legalization, a path to residency of some kind.”
In his new book, “Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution”, Bush comes out in stalwart opposition to citizenship.
“It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences — in this case, that those who violated the law can remain but cannot obtain the cherished fruits of citizenship. To do otherwise would signal once again that people who circumvent the system can still obtain the full benefits of American citizenship.”
Today on “Morning Joe”, Bush was back to his initial position. Kind of … He repeatedly stressed that the book was written last year, as if something had happened recently to alter what in the book seems to be a strong, principle-based opposition to a path to citizenship. He also argued that a path to legalization would not create a magnet for future illegal immigration, while a path to citizenship somehow would.
“If you don’t have a difference between a path to citizenship or a path to legalization, you’re going to create a magnet going forward for more illegal immigration. So going forward — we wrote this last year — going forward, if there is a difference, if you can craft that in law where you can have a path to citizenship where there isn’t an incentive for people to come illegally, I’m for it. I don’t have a problem with that.”
A couple of points:
1.) The Bush flip-flop-flip has angered veterans of Mitt Romney’s campaign, which last year felt stranded on unpopular ground with the candidate’s “self-deportation” approach.
“Where the hell was this Jeb Bush during the campaign?” one advisor told the Miami Herald. “He spent all this time criticizing Romney and it turns out he has basically the same position. So he wants people to go back to their country and apply for citizenship? Well, that’s self deportation. We got creamed for talking about that. And now Jeb is saying the same thing.”
2.) The distinction that Bush attempts to draw between legalization and citizenship in fact has little real consequence. Those who have immigrated here illegally were drawn by jobs, the chance to escape Third World living conditions or greater opportunity for their children. Getting U.S. citizenship was way, way down on their list. A nice possibility, maybe, but hardly a deciding factor.
The notion that a path to legalization would be a less powerful magnet than a path to citizenship makes no sense, and Bush is smart enough to know it. But when you’re caught tacking to the right when the political winds are blowing left, and when you have ambitions of becoming the third consecutive Republican president named Bush, you have to scramble a bit.
– Jay Bookman
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2,197 comments Add your comment
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
7:33 am
mornin’, bookmaniac clingers-on…
But you go on you wannabe and celebrate that racist holiday Kwanzaa with the other 13,000 people worldwide who are asses as well…
Fred, seriously–where did I ever post that I, personally, celebrate this holiday?
Hell’s bells, where did I ever post that I even think this holiday is particularly useful or especially worthy of respect? I haven’t, far as I can remember. I stuck to addressing your ongoing campaign of disinformation.
But I will say this. From what I do know of the holiday, it is an expression of solidarity, self-reliance, and commitment to community borne of the mid-60s civil rights movement, at a time when (I would think–I was a wee lad then and didn’t have much of a grasp of this stuff) such things were part of an overall bonding process among black Americans. All that sounds laudable enough to me, but I don’t actually have a dog in that hunt, since it’s not something my family celebrates. My kid knows a little bit about it, but that’s about it.
My only personal investment, really, comes from having endured a constant barrage of online weenies who cry and complain about ANY expressions of black solidarity, who sneer “what if there were a congressional WHITE caucus HUH??” and repeat the usual lies about Obama having belonged to a “racist” church. I am not condemning you to guilt by association with said wankers, but I gotta say, you sound an awful lot like those particular WATBs when you go on about Kwanzaa’s “racism”.
You remain committed to an indefensible position that you’ve dug in and stuck to for no other reason, far as I can tell, that you’re on record and now–and it’d be admitting some kind of massive defeat if you were to acknowledge you were merely being a tool, and a derriere-chapeau.
So Fred, you wanna stay dug in? Here’s a shovel, pal. Have fun.
MiltonMan
March 6th, 2013
7:38 am
…and Obama has never ever changed his mind???
I guess Jay missed a golden opportunity to write a piece on the passing of a good friend by the name of Chavez of the libs & hollywood clowns. Here is none other than Sean Penn:
Today the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion,” says Penn in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela.”
Krystal'sBalls
March 6th, 2013
7:41 am
@Normal, Plain and Simple
March 6th, 2013
7:24 am
It is AMAZING! Sometimes I believe they truly DO NOT think that people can see how shallow and thin they truly are. They do not get the fact that we can see people like Herman Cain for who they truly are, which by the way people like Herman Cain play them just as much as they play him. So they think as you said putting “a few token minorities on display” every now and then will somehow convince the rest of us that they are inclusive.
If there is no message that should have been taken very seriously out of this past election (out of all that were put out there), it was the spot done by actress Rosie Perez. What she did was provide us that “keep it real” moment that many of us know so well. She spoke loudly for the entire minority community in saying that we are NOT some stupid, naive, uneducated, socio-politically unsavvy people. We really DO dissect your policies and attitudes toward us and they SUCK, period!
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
7:43 am
Liberal Bad Dream
March 6th, 2013
7:33 am
Bout time for Coocooman to write an article praising Chavez……
.
.
.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/08/12/ok-this-time-hugo-chavez-has-gone-too-far/
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
7:43 am
Our first But Obama! @ 7.38. Thanks, Miltie.
Best to the fam and your secessionist friends!
Milkweed
March 6th, 2013
7:44 am
the blog registration seems to have dampened the lively (if not sometimes inane) discussions in other places. I must say that early on, I became frustrated with those who continually stray to vitriol and nonsense. Now, I believe that, like in a crowded room, people can still focus on useful conversations amidst the noise.
Would not bother me if you stayed with the open format.
Goldie
March 6th, 2013
7:46 am
What a shocker — another GOP-er who flip-flops on the issues! Just takin’ lessons from Mitt, their Party leader, I suppose.
barking frog
March 6th, 2013
7:47 am
stands
having been around during the sixties and remembering the
situation at the time this holiday was created, it was needed.
Blacks were excluded for the most part from Hanukkah and had
a problem identifying with Christianity that presented mixed
messages in the civil rights movement. It is a holiday that is
not based on miracles derived from Judeo-Christian beliefs
and is quite refreshing in its current state of evolution from
the black separatist movement to a celebration of unity of
African expatriate descendents.
Recon 0311 2533
March 6th, 2013
7:49 am
don’t k now why Republicans think they can put a few token minorities on display and expect the minority masses to suddenly flock to their side,
Well the Democrats fielded Obama and the rests unfortunate history. Democrats haven’t done anything for Blacks and that realization will begin to spread as we see more independent thinking members of the Black community become more conservative in their political views. The old guard of aging liberal Democrats are losing their hold, it’s just that they haven’t realized it yet.
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
7:50 am
Meanwhile, from the “Awsh-t, now this?” file:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/world/asia/malaysians-kill-filipino-fighters-amid-fears-of-wider-conflict.html?_r=0
MANILA – An air and ground assault by Malaysian forces killed at least 13 of the nearly 200 militants seeking to reclaim part of Borneo Island for a Filipino sultan, Malaysian police officials said on Wednesday afternoon.
[...]
In a sign of potential widening of the conflict, the rebel leader said that more of his fighters were planning to go to Borneo on their own to reinforce the Filipino combatants there, even though he did not support the incursion into Sabah.
To halt further incursions, Malaysian and Filipino naval ships have set up a blockade between the southern Philippines and Sabah, a distance that can be traversed by speedboat in about an hour.
Thomas Heyward Jr
March 6th, 2013
7:51 am
It IS amazing that alot of Pavlonian Amerikans hate who they’re told to.
I didn’t know Chavez…never been to Venazuala but…………………………………I DID hear him dis the previous War criminal that we had as president on international Television.
.
I remember thinking that it wasn’t a very good idea, but kind of funny.
Polonium is a terrible weapon but anyhoo……………………………
.
“If a man can be defined by the enemies he makes, then Chavez was a saint.”
-Raimondo
bookman parrot
March 6th, 2013
7:53 am
possible GOP candidate… Bookman must trash … umgowwa
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
7:53 am
It is a holiday that is not based on miracles derived from Judeo-Christian beliefs and is quite refreshing in its current state of evolution from the black separatist movement to a celebration of unity of African expatriate descendents.
Besides, Alan Powers, a.k.a. “The Brain” (from the PBS cartoon Arthur) celebrates it, so how bad could it be?
Mick
March 6th, 2013
7:53 am
A bush/rubio ticket would go down to a flaming defeat – the worst of both worlds! Bush, who wants any more wars? Rubio, a cuban hispanic whose ethnicity is reviled by all other hispanics, and why is that? What other minority group gets into this country just by making it to dry land? It’s absurd…..
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
7:55 am
Recon 0311 2533
March 6th, 2013
7:49 am
“The old guard of aging liberal Democrats are losing their hold, it’s just that they haven’t realized it yet.”
.
.
.
.
I think not.
The middle aged guard and the young guard is even stronger Mr. Silly Pants!
kayaker 71
March 6th, 2013
7:56 am
Mick, 7:53,
“What other minority group gets into this country just by making it to dry land?”…… About 20M latinos.
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
7:57 am
bookman parrot
March 6th, 2013
7:53 am
possible GOP candidate… Bookman must trash … umgowwa
.
.
.
.
impossible GOP candidate
He’s toast.
Stevie Ray
March 6th, 2013
7:58 am
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
7:55 am
I’ve become afraid to ask folks the definition of “middle” aged. I desparately want to remain in that club….party affiliation means little in that respect:-)
GT
March 6th, 2013
8:00 am
This seems to be the Republican Party of our generation. It thinks it has a license to sound good to its supporters yet turn and wink at the victims like you know I’m not that crazy.
The Republican Party has found slavery alive and well in third world countries and have destroyed the American economy by supporting cheap labor practices for profit, then rail about illegal immigration which actually helps the domestic economy and helps keep jobs here instead of going over seas. What is hard to understand is why the blue collar south supports something so toxic to their own well being.
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
8:03 am
Stevie Ray
March 6th, 2013
7:58 am
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
7:55 am
I’ve become afraid to ask folks the definition of “middle” aged. I desparately want to remain in that club….party affiliation means little in that respect:-)
.
.
.
.
Afraid? Oh heavens Woman up!
Each age of your life is what you make it.
The last of our old uncles passed recently…..That makes all my brothers and sisters the
old aunts and uncles now, and our children the young ones.
ANd all of them still like to be affiliated with a good party!
It’s a marvelous transition to behold.
barking frog
March 6th, 2013
8:04 am
Granny Godzilla
The Democrats have also, especially in the last two Presidential
elections, absorbed those identifying as Independents. They may
not have attracted as many Republicans as they wanted but
have convinced many to stay home when extremists run for office.
They call me MISTER JamVet.
March 6th, 2013
8:04 am
Granny, you are correct, that 7:49 is plain old fashioned delusional. Everything about it.
It is the coded version of blacks are too stupid to realize that the Segregationist GOP is their best friend.
As for the Dems losing their hold, winning three out of the last four national elections is sure proof of that, huh?
Like the beatniks of the 50s said, “Crazy, man!”
Thomas Heyward Jr
March 6th, 2013
8:05 am
I’m no statist.
.
But it IS funny to see people hating on Hugo…………..as they fill their tanks up with five dollar a gallon of gas.
.
The price of gas in Venezuala?
18 cents a gallon.
.
Between Washington and our Socialistic well-subsidized gasoline companies and refiners in Amerika ………………that little Gulf of Mexico crossing raises the prices 5000%.
.
But Chavez was the bad guy.
.
weird.
straitroad
March 6th, 2013
8:05 am
As long as there are policticians, there will be flip flops, from the president on down. “Evolving” is what it’s termed when practiced by a politician that we’re ideologically aligned with. “Flip flopping” is only done by politicians that we don’t agree with.
Recon 0311 2533
March 6th, 2013
8:05 am
The Democrats don’t have much of a depth chart for 016. Hillary will be over the hill pushing 70 years of age in 2016 and shotgun Joe is too much of a joke to be a serious presidential candidate. When the campaigner-n-chief continues to drag this nation down to third world status the Democrats will be looking for places to hide in 016.
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:06 am
Rubio, a cuban hispanic whose ethnicity is reviled by all other hispanics
perhaps there’d be some of that, but I don’t know that it’d be such a big deal, since his parents emigrated prior to the revolution and that wacky immigration policy of ours didn’t play a role in his history.
I have to admit that while it seems silly to imagine he’d do gangbusters with the Hispanic vote, I don’t think it’d be a net negative. Of course I don’t experience the kind of day-to-day tensions that might exist with these communities that, I imagine, you have a chance to see where you live, down there in America’s Dong.
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
8:06 am
barking frog
March 6th, 2013
8:04 am
Granny Godzilla
The Democrats have also, especially in the last two Presidential
elections, absorbed those identifying as Independents. They may
not have attracted as many Republicans as they wanted but
have convinced many to stay home when extremists run for office.
.
.
.
This independent voter agrees!
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:09 am
But Chavez was the bad guy.
heh. Is that a Scarface ref? in any case, well played, sir.
Normal, Plain and Simple
March 6th, 2013
8:09 am
Del,
It’s not the Republican side the minorities are flocking to. As long as they keep voting Democrat, the GOP has no chance at the White House. The GOP has many years of anti immigrant/minority record to play down. That won’t be done with just Rubio, just as it wasn’t with Palin.
Normal, Plain and Simple
March 6th, 2013
8:12 am
Hugo Chavez was one of those “Reformers” who wanted the best for his countrymen, but once in office, the taste of power and all that goes with it seduced him. He is/was just another example of “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
Welcome to the Occupation
March 6th, 2013
8:15 am
“Requiescat in pacem, Mr. Chavez. You earned a piece of my heart when you called Mr. Bush the devil.”
Indeed.
GT
March 6th, 2013
8:15 am
barking frog O won the last election surprising the right with his grassroots support. The problem with the right is they have no idea what their constituency is thinking. They throw blind punches spend lots of money and then have no results. And these are the guys you want running the country. They spent or wasted twice as much money, really pissed it way, and they call themselves conservatives?
Recon 0311 2533
March 6th, 2013
8:16 am
House. The GOP has many years of anti immigrant/minority record to play down.
Normal, that my friend is a myth that the Democrats have successfully perpetuated among minorities for a long time but it’s reaching its “sell by” expiration date.
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:17 am
As long as there are policticians, there will be flip flops, from the president on down. “Evolving” is what it’s termed when practiced by a politician that we’re ideologically aligned with. “Flip flopping” is only done by politicians that we don’t agree with.
All quite true, but in case you think that was the thrust of Jay’s piece, I think you’re wrong. Jay’s simply pointing out that political realities have forced Bush’s hand to thread this particular needle. It’s more about those realities than a personal take-down of the former Governor, I think.
(Granted, he takes a bit of a cheap shot in the headline, and he does use the term “flip flop”, but hey, you gotta market your wares, right?)
Stevie Ray
March 6th, 2013
8:18 am
GT
March 6th, 2013
8:00 am
BS penalty flag. Offshoring jobs is nothing new and cetainly not the sole territory of GOP’s. The tactic started to really take off in the mid-late 1980’s with large technology companies who needed to keep competition real with global competitors. I wouldn’t exactly refer to a majority of these enterprises as GOP’s. Apple, Seagate, HP, Microsoft, and the list goes on…this offshoring is nothing new, not the domain of any particular political party, and simply good business for a variety of reasons.
The volume of BS and arm waving about offshoring exceeds the problem several fold. Folks in US don’t want these jobs unless they are paid way above what global competitors pay. The root cause is participation in the global market. Our workers won’t accept competitive global wages…for good reason.
These jobs will never return to US…makes no sense.
GT
March 6th, 2013
8:19 am
Has anyone read about the Kennedy heating oil relationship with Chavez. Watch and see if O doesn’t use that to his advantage in his relationship with whomever the new leader of that country is.
barking frog
March 6th, 2013
8:19 am
GT
you are correct, but Obama also surprised the hell out of
the Democrats, especially the Clinton Clique…
Stevie Ray
March 6th, 2013
8:22 am
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:17 am
Agreed. What’s really funny to me is the idiotic and completely impractical ideas put forth by GOP and lack of those put forth by DEMS. Political hot potato as votes are at stake.
Bush’s idea of sending them self deporting and then returning after paying $5k was one of the dumbest in the history of dumb ideas…Self deportation? Please…the problem may be trending toward a solution as more attractive employment options are beginning to exist back home…kinda like the South Park episode where all the illegals where jumping the fence to get out of US and we turned our guns toward keeping them in for fear out lawns and the like would go untended..
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:22 am
“Requiescat in pacem, Mr. Chavez. You earned a piece of my heart when you called Mr. Bush the devil.”
Indeed.
Ok, just so I’m on record as to why it was an a-holish thing for him to say? It’s not the words themselves, so much, as the setting. These UN headquarters are in New York City; we Americans host these national leaders, and for another leader to say what he said, in that place, he’s not just being disrespectful to Bush, but (by extension, IMHO) his hosts.
Basically, I felt kind of like someone had said something nasty about a family member at some event my family had hosted. I might think that family member is a jerk, but it’s not up to someone else to say it.
If that makes any sense. I know this sense of wounded pride may sound silly, but it’s still there in my gut, FWIW.
Brosephus™ - Comin' straight out of Compton
March 6th, 2013
8:24 am
Democrats haven’t done anything for Blacks and that realization will begin to spread as we see more independent thinking members of the Black community become more conservative in their political views.
Blacks already have conservative views. We simply refuse to align ourselves with the current “conservative” party. Personally, I’d love to see all minorities band together and marginalize both parties. I doubt that would ever happen, but it would cause one of two possible things to happen. First, Whites would have to realize they are no longer in majority control and will have to learn to work WITH people instead of working AROUND them. Either that, or we would likely see people’s true colors with an emergence of American styled apartheid being instituted to keep the new minority in power.
————–
“What other minority group gets into this country just by making it to dry land?”…… About 20M latinos.
Last time I checked, Irish people were not considered Latino. Neither are Brazilians. When you add in those illegal Asians, Africans, and other non-Latin areas, I seriously doubt that statement is even remotely true. However, don’t let me stop you from your illegal latino fantasy there.
barking frog
March 6th, 2013
8:24 am
The third worlding of America is not being done by
either party but by greedy corporate management
focusing on short term profits to the detriment of
their shareholders, employees, and the public.
The parties need to come together to stop this.
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:25 am
The problem with the right is they have no idea what their constituency is thinking.
Or, perhaps, they know full well what their constituency is thinking, they are doing the best they can to piece together a coalition of self-loathing working class Americans and plutocratic benefactors, and it is continually coming apart at the seams but they have the wherewithal to patch it back together more or less ad infinitum?
Welcome to the Occupation
March 6th, 2013
8:25 am
Normal: “Hugo Chavez was one of those “Reformers” who wanted the best for his countrymen, but once in office, the taste of power and all that goes with it seduced him. He is/was just another example of “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
Can you name one single abuse of power or example of political corruption that existed under Hugo Chavez that didn’t already exist under the corporate-run oligarchic developing nation that the US not only backed for decades, but help up as exemplary? It was only when the country was led by a self-proclaimed “socialist” (a BIGGGGG no-no in Washington) and then actually — gasp — proposed to use the nation’s oil revenues to help address devastating poverty in the slums of Caracas and throughout the country that Venzuela actually became a banana republic with a kook leader in the eyes of the Washington establishment. But before that, that same banana republic that was rotted from the inside out with oligarchic corruption was just the darling of the serious Washington thinker types and was held up as a model for developing nations.
So what happened, normal, that suddenly made Venezuala a terrible hell-hole?
Doggone/GA
March 6th, 2013
8:26 am
“we Americans host these national leaders, and for another leader to say what he said, in that place, he’s not just being disrespectful to Bush, but (by extension, IMHO) his hosts”
and I don’t agree. We stand on the principle of free speech. That means we are free to criticise and even insult our leaders. There’s no reason that principle doesn’t extend to the leaders of other countries.
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
8:26 am
con 0311 2533
March 6th, 2013
8:16 am
House. The GOP has many years of anti immigrant/minority record to play down.
Normal, that my friend is a myth that the Democrats have successfully perpetuated among minorities for a long time but it’s reaching its “sell by” expiration date.
.
.
.
.
Are you suggesting that minorities “aren’t too bright”?
First, you’re wrong, they don’t fall for myths.
Second, when will you ever understand that as long as you and your posse keep suggesting
this you will not win?
Welcome to the Occupation
March 6th, 2013
8:28 am
stands: “Basically, I felt kind of like someone had said something nasty about a family member at some event my family had hosted. I might think that family member is a jerk, but it’s not up to someone else to say it. ”
I can respect that opinion. And there’s no doubt truth to it.
Mick
March 6th, 2013
8:29 am
yaker
Cubans get to stay here LEGALLY just by making it to land. Any other immigrant group get that kind of treatment???
stands
In the melting pot that is miami, trust me, all the other hispanics that are not cuban revile them for their general arrogance and special treatment…
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:30 am
…as I typed that rantish bit @ 8.22, I remembered Charlie Rangel saying something similar, so I dug it out, just FYI.
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2006/09/21/rangel-and-pelosi-denounce-chavez-devil-comments.php
I want to express my extreme displeasure with statements by the President of Venezuela attacking U.S. President George Bush in such a personal and disparaging way during his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly.
It should be clear to all heads of government that criticism of Bush Administration policies, either domestic or foreign, does not entitle them to attack the President personally.
George Bush is the President of the United States and represents the entire country. Any demeaning public attack against him is viewed by Republicans and Democrats, and all Americans, as an attack on all of us.
And for the record, here was Nancy Pelosi:
“Hugo Chavez fancies himself a modern day Simon Bolivar but all he is an everyday thug,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference, referring to Chavez’ comments in a U.N. General Assembly speech on Wednesday.
“Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had, speaking at the United Nations,” said Pelosi, a frequent Bush critic. “He demeaned himself and he demeaned Venezuela.”
indigo
March 6th, 2013
8:30 am
GT – 8:00 “what is hard to understand is why the blue collar South supports something so toxic to their own well being”.
Years of highly skilled brainwashing from The Republican Party, Big Business and fundamentalist pastors have made the blue collar electorate a modern equivelant of Lenin’s “useful idiots”.
They will happily stand by while Big Business moguls systematically ruin America while enriching their own personal estates.
There is no cure for stupid.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
March 6th, 2013
8:30 am
We got creamed for talking about that.
LOL. I was kinda hoping the Cons would self-deport after the election. Oh well…it was a good dream.
Gale
March 6th, 2013
8:32 am
100% barking frog @8:24
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
March 6th, 2013
8:32 am
all the other hispanics that are not cuban revile them
but they make such tasty sandwiches…
BSNBC
March 6th, 2013
8:33 am
The Grand flip-flopper of all time is Obama! Say anything, do anything to get an uninflrmed voter and lie to the American public!
St Simons - he-ne-ha
March 6th, 2013
8:34 am
their last, very last election of relevance, and they’re going with – a Bush?
oh lord, from your mouth to god’s ear, cons – pleeeease run him, please
Escaped from Email Purgatory
March 6th, 2013
8:34 am
“Those who have immigrated here illegally were drawn by jobs, the chance to escape Third World living conditions or greater opportunity for their children. Getting U.S. citizenship was way, way down on their list. A nice possibility, maybe, but hardly a deciding factor.”
The conclusion you seem to draw here, Bookman is that millions of illegals (Slur deployment! Slur deployment! Raise PC Breach Status to DefCon 3!) have no intention of mainstreaming themselves in the US.
So behaving as responsible American citizens (filing tax returns, buying insurance, possessing legal documents that provide valid ID and address) is not really a concern. In large measure, they live and work in a social and economic underground.
An existence that provides benefit to commerce perhaps but great detriment to our local and national social welfare infrastructure
“The notion that a path to legalization would be a less powerful magnet than a path to citizenship makes no sense…”
You may be correct. But you’re painting a mighty grim picuture.
You or our President got any bright ideas?
At least Bush is thinking about a viable solution. How many times do you go back to the drawing board – retrace your steps even – when you try to solve complicated problems?
Oh, I forget. That’s the not our President’s style. That’s too much work. No. His political success plan – the only success that really matters to him – is to identify crisis (I’ll resist the urge to say “create crisis”) and exploit it to his political advantage.
As the Wicked Witch of the West moaned as she was vaporizing into thin air, “What a world! What a world!”
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
March 6th, 2013
8:35 am
Normal, that my friend is a myth that the Democrats have successfully perpetuated among minorities for a long time but it’s reaching its “sell by” expiration date.
Yeah, like the treatment of Sotomayor by the Cons in the Senate was all just a fabrication?
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
March 6th, 2013
8:36 am
an uninflrmed vote
Am i unfirmed?
barking frog
March 6th, 2013
8:36 am
indigo 8:30
the same faces in the republican party were in the
democratic party in the south 40 years ago when I
was fighting their good old boy crap back then. they
are not party centric, they are egocentric, and they
were duping the same people they are today.
Brosephus™ - Comin' straight out of Compton
March 6th, 2013
8:38 am
frog @ 8:24
Damn right!!!
GT
March 6th, 2013
8:38 am
Stevie Ray I would say South Carolina would disagree with you on “the exist”. Textiles left that state in shambles a few decades earlier. One of the reasons the Tea Party has found its hold in South Carolina is the politicians like Strom Thurman have convinced the people of South Carolina that the federal government was responsible for their poverty, they didn’t support the domestic textile business, and Old Strom and now the Tea Party is going to be their savior.
I would say until O bail them out the car industry for years was losing traction and jobs to imports. It was Bush that bailed the banks out but O understood the jobs being lost to foreign markets in the car industry, two very different salvage jobs with only one working.
Your two largest black holes in Atlanta are the old Hapeville Ford Plant and the Doraville GM Plant. Sucked the economy right out of these towns and took it to West Point, where the state of Georgia bleeds to death supporting a Korean employer who makes a large part of the cars in plants in Korea and ships them to be assembled in West Point. Very much ,again, supported by a Republican governor. Hell a healthy percent of the workers in West Point live in Alabama, 7 miles from the plant, not Georgia who is paying for the concessions given the Korean company.
kayaker 71
March 6th, 2013
8:39 am
Mick 8:29,
The 20M or so illegals form south of the border never had to leave dry land to get to Amerika. Mostly Mexican with a healthy smattering of those from Nicaragua, The Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Honduras. The Pew Institute determines that there are only 11.1M illegals in this country, however. That number is probably conservative, as there are no easy ways to determine the mix. All good solid Democratic voters, however.
TaxPayer
March 6th, 2013
8:40 am
Number two! Come on cons. Your’re slipping. Deregulate something else so you can be Number One.
Thomas Heyward Jr
March 6th, 2013
8:40 am
Welcome to the Occupation
.
So what happened, normal, that suddenly made Venezuala a terrible hell-hole?
.
——————————————————————
.
Normal has bananna envy.
OUR Bannana Republic has no banannas.
.
We have to import them.
.
sad
St Simons - he-ne-ha
March 6th, 2013
8:41 am
In Venezuela, if the oil revenue split remains 80/20, then it was
a movement, not a dictator, and another con lie will bite the dust.
Welcome to the Occupation
March 6th, 2013
8:41 am
stands for decibels: “I want to express my extreme displeasure with statements by the President of Venezuela attacking U.S. President George Bush in such a personal and disparaging way during his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly.”
Leave it to a liberal to defend a political enemy.
(See where I differ from liberals?)
While I can certainly understand people of all political persuasions taking exception to the statements, to then take the step of issuing a statement shows in my mind that the person issuing it identifies with American empire and ultimately withholds his loyalty for that empire and its prerogatives.
But not surprising coming from a good liberal from the “Empire” state.
Brosephus™ - Comin' straight out of Compton
March 6th, 2013
8:41 am
where the state of Georgia bleeds to death supporting a Korean employer who makes a large part of the cars in plants in Korea and ships them to be assembled in West Point.
Not entirely truthful there. Kia and Hyundai have their own suppliers, Korean companies, that have set up US operations here. Companies like Smart Alabama, Mobis USA, and others make the parts here that go into the cars assembled here. I don’t think the cars are 100% American built, but there are parts produced here as opposed to everything being shipped from Korea.
Welcome to the Occupation
March 6th, 2013
8:44 am
Mis-stated the above, stands. Meant to write that a person issuing it identifies with the American imperial ego and ultimately reserves the right to assert its prerogatives when that sense of entitlement is wounded, in reactionary fashion, regardless of said politician’s putative ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’ status on domestic issues. And that disjunction is a Democratic party specialty.
Stevie Ray
March 6th, 2013
8:45 am
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
8:03 am
I can tell you that it is with great honor that I maintain the maturity of a 15 year old.
Peadawg
March 6th, 2013
8:46 am
This is bad if it’s true
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/06/leaked-email-adds-fuel-to-claims-white-house-playing-politics-over-impact-cuts/
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 6th, 2013
8:47 am
I can tell you that it is with great honor that I maintain the maturity of a 15 year old.
Way to reach for the stars there Stevie!
Brosephus™ - Comin' straight out of Compton
March 6th, 2013
8:47 am
http://immigration.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000844
*Estimated 11 Million, not 20 million
http://immigration.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000845
Top 10 Countries of Origin and Percent Change, 2000-2008
I didn’t realize that citizens of #4 Philippines, #6 Korea, #7 China, #8 Brazil, and #10 India were all considered Hispanic.
Sometimes, facts tend to get in the way of “reality”.
SouthernGent
March 6th, 2013
8:48 am
It appears he might be flip flopping. Hey Jay, why don’t you highlight how many times Obama has flipped and flopped? What, don’t have enough column space to handle it?
Stevie Ray
March 6th, 2013
8:50 am
GT
March 6th, 2013
8:38 am
Milliken and some (Ryobi who made craftsman tools) manufacturers abandoned SC fro various reasons. The most important reason being the need to compete globally…second, particularly in the case of Millken is technology advancements that make the process less labor intensive.
The GM plants were lost due to global competition and a poor product. Since then, once again technology and need to compete globally prime culprits..
In all cases, business reasons, not being a profit forgiving corporate good citizen drives these decisions…IMO
Please don’t bring up Strom Thurman’s name again…he is the last of the bogus racists in congress and spoke volumes for the sad state of affairs there….
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:51 am
But not surprising coming from a good liberal from the “Empire” state.
heh. you had to travel a good ways to make that point, but I enjoyed the ride!
williebkind
March 6th, 2013
8:51 am
I sure would like to know what have the democratic leaders and their avid followers done in the last four years to make this country great except greatly in debt. They spew their garbage about the GOP and demonize GOP leaders but their’s have no answers that will keep this country from indebting its grandchildren. But you go to love how eloquent they express their bullsh*t.
Their elected leader took an oath and has violated it every day! What say you truth sayers on the left? Please show your education and ability to write as if you were a Harvard graduate please.
Stevie Ray
March 6th, 2013
8:52 am
What do you suppose Sean Penn is going to do now that his BFF is wormfood?
GT
March 6th, 2013
8:52 am
Ask the farmer in South Georgia how he is going to compete without illegal labor. He is not, he will tell you. There is daylight between the right fanatics and South Georgia because of this issue. Other state with less zealous more level headed leadership will have the extreme advantage of cheap labor and their agriculture like everything else in this country will surpass Georgia. How long you think South Georgia is going to stick with these fanatics as their crops rot in the field? It is almost comical if it were not so tragic, how much of a beating the citizens of this state take running with the right wing pack.
Mick
March 6th, 2013
8:52 am
yaker
The difference is that the cubans get to stay here legally and….sign right up for all those freebies that the conned are always wailing about 24/7…
Paul
March 6th, 2013
8:52 am
Off topic, but it’s morning, so what isn’t?:
SecState Kerry on Dennis Rodman’s trip to North Korea:
“Dennis Rodman was a great basketball player. And as a diplomat, he is a great basketball player. And that’s where we’ll leave it.”
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
8:53 am
Stevie Ray
March 6th, 2013
8:45 am
Granny Godzilla
March 6th, 2013
8:03 am
I can tell you that it is with great honor that I maintain the maturity of a 15 year old.
.
.
.
Good for you. I like a man with a wee bit of whimsey.
Never dull.
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:53 am
(See where I differ from liberals?)
“But now I’m much older and wiser
And that’s why I’m turning you in…”
stands for decibels
March 6th, 2013
8:55 am
sorry, it’s “But I’ve grown older and wiser/and that’s why I’m turning you in.” my bad.
Sorry Phil, wherever you are now…
Bosch
March 6th, 2013
8:55 am
While I agree that Jeb is the smartest of his siblings, he will never be POTUS, one because of his brother, and two because of Terry Schiavo.
And on another completely other note, why do cons go on about Obama being a tyrant or royal wannabe when their side has the team players signing pledges to a man who has never run for office, holds no accountability to voters and keeps touting failed ideology?
Why not put Grover on the ballot and he can put his money where his mouth is?
TaxPayer
March 6th, 2013
8:57 am
Patriots! So that’s what they call themselves nowadays.
Stevie Ray
March 6th, 2013
8:57 am
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 6th, 2013
8:47 am
Don’t knock it now…from what I see daily, I think it gives me an advantage over those of age appropriate maturity. I don’t take myself seriously and the simple pleasures in life remain fulfilling…such as the fart game, belching contests, and spitballs… I think my development was arrested when I began love affair with math….
Jackie
March 6th, 2013
9:00 am
There is evidence that the immigration policy is not about immigrant farm labor totals but about further suppressing the labor costs of those farm laborers.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/50016592/What_the_Invisible_Farm_Labor_Shortage_Is_Really_About
Paul
March 6th, 2013
9:01 am
Bosch
Because cons can see Obama and they can direct all their angst at him.
But Grover’s the man behind the curtain, a great, unseen force they can’t see (remember, Oz is opening this weekend) or comprehend, so they think everything that happens is…. magic!
Paul
March 6th, 2013
9:03 am
TaxPayer
Hence a certain blogger’s compulsive writing about how militias are the real reason the second amendment came to be –
Even though, as Scalia’s said, that reason is largely irrelevant now and has nothing to do with current gun law.
Bosch
March 6th, 2013
9:04 am
Hey Paul!
Yeah, all that, but never a word about this pledge of failed thinking, treating the economy like its a frat party. Weird huh?
barking frog
March 6th, 2013
9:04 am
Paul
“Dennis Rodman was a great basketball player. And as a diplomat, he is a great basketball player. And that’s where we’ll leave it.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
I remember when Rodman appeared on the Tonight Show wearing a
white dress, full makeup, and white high heels. My first reaction was
“that ignorant s.o.b.” but then I listened and surveyed the statement
he was making. His outfit protested professional sports, feminism,
big man on campus tradition, anti gay and transgender discrimination,
black discrimination and shouted freedom to do whatever the hell I
want. I have been an admirer since then. John Kerry might wait until
he comes back with an invitation from the NK leader to the President
for a phone call before he criticizes too much.
GT
March 6th, 2013
9:05 am
“technology advancements that make the process less labor intensive” then why not stay here? They left because you can pick cotton for slave wages in other parts of the world. You can bring it to the market cheaper even half way around the world.
Cars were made cheaper and better in Japan because labor was cheaper and the worker there is far more educated than the average worker in the US. Obama saved this industry, someone probably could have saved the textile industry, but what Republican has every thought out of the box?
And Strom, who we don’t mention, was the father of the Democrat jumping the fence to a more receptive party for bigotry, as long as you can deliver the votes. The Southern Strategy came right out of South Carolina; Nixon’s wingman was Harold Dent a South Carolina citizen and aide to Strom Thurman. Your whole party today is made up of George Wallace, Lester Maddox and Strom Thurman types.
Joe Hussein Mama
March 6th, 2013
9:06 am
Josef — “JHM And you’re another one…so, there…”
As I said, shrug.
“JHM Oh, I concede to you on that count…I know when I can’t compete…”
For someone who claims to be unable to compete, you’ve certainly been heaping the scorn and obloquy on me lately. Just FYI, you needn’t feel threatened or inadequate because someone else has seen, done, experienced and accomplished a lot in their life, just as you have. Wisdom, knowledge and experience aren’t limited quantities, and neither of us has a corner on those particular markets.
Mick
March 6th, 2013
9:09 am
frog
I halfway agree with you…what’s wrong with trying to communicate with the new tyrant? Rodman at least had some dialogue and thats a good thing. As I recall, ping pong is what opened up china…
Welcome to the Occupation
March 6th, 2013
9:10 am
barking frog, Paul: “Dennis Rodman was a great basketball player. And as a diplomat, he is a great basketball player. And that’s where we’ll leave it.”
Which one is almost tempted to modify slightly to read:
Dennis RodmanJohn Kerry was once a greatbasketball playeranti-war protester. And as a diplomat, he is a greatbasketball playerformer anti-war protester. And that’s where we’ll leave it.Jackie
March 6th, 2013
9:11 am
@GT
Please, don’t forget the master of racial politics, Lee Atwater.
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/uncovered-last-lee-atwaters-infamous
barking frog
March 6th, 2013
9:13 am
Mick
yes, I remember when Kerry was a protester too. Rodman
deserves more than a surface scan, and I think the President
should make the call with Rodman in the Oval Office. See what
the guy has to say.
TaxPayer
March 6th, 2013
9:14 am
It’s a good thing those “Patriots” only hate Obama because he’s a socialist and not because he’s black because that would make those “Patriots” so much more that just “Patriots”.
barking frog
March 6th, 2013
9:16 am
Mick
and I would have Rodman wear his dress, couldn’t be
any sillier than Mitt in his magic panties…
They call me MISTER JamVet.
March 6th, 2013
9:16 am
10 years later, Dixie Chicks right all along.
It didn’t matter that the evidence to invade Iraq was questionable or that Maines later apologized. The damage was done, and one of the most popular acts in the country became its most hated. Its music was banned from radio, CDs were trashed by bulldozers, and one band member’s home was vandalized. Maines introduced “Soldier” with a call for peace, but she would soon find that the group needed metal detectors installed at entrances to shows on its stateside tour because of death threats.
It was a classic case of freedom of speech meeting the irrational repercussions of that speech.
If anything, Maines and company should be viewed as prophets, not pariahs, considering that the weapons of mass destruction the Bush administration led the country to believe Saddam Hussein was housing were never found. Or that since 2006, the majority of Americans have felt the invasion was a mistake to begin with.
Not the Dixie Chicks…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGPD0ZBiMs0
appleseed
March 6th, 2013
9:17 am
Recon throwing it out hoping it will stick.Recon when you are saying the democrats have done nothing for the blacks.Please list what the republicans have done for the blacks.