All the News That's Fit to be Tied

I have an axe to grind, but unlike the New York Times, I freely admit it.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Immigration Tsarnaev Style


The Tsarnaev’s are the prefect vehicle for Americans to judge the Immigration Bill under consideration by the U.S. Congress and supported by the Gang of Eight. The Tsarnaev’s came to America seeking political asylum. Immigrants normally get asylum when their lives are in danger in their home country or seek safety from persecution or prosecution. The youngest Dzhokhar (pronounced Zocar) Tsarnaev became a citizen in 2012. So the interaction with the family includes several federal and state agencies including Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), State Department, Department of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on the federal level. At the state level they interacted with Housing, Welfare and the Department of Transitional Assistance. So let’s see: They received welfare from Massachusetts, Food Stamps from the Dept of Agriculture, Legal Permanent Residence (LPR) status from INS and clearance to travel to a country from which they sought political asylum from the State Dept. INS failed to note the Tsarnaev’s were traveling to a country they sought asylum from. HUD, Agriculture and the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance failed to notice they were immigrants and not technically eligible for Food Stamps, Section 8 Housing or welfare. This doesn't include the failure of the FBI, who was warned about the older brother who is now dead. Basically all the departments that failed with the Tsarnaevs are going to be trusted to track the activities of 11 Million new immigrants that will be on the “path to citizenship” if the bill passes. Call or email your Senator and Representative or reap the whirlwind.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A Reply to Byron York and the Gang of Eight


After reading Byron York’s Washington Examiner article on the Immigration bill (A look deep inside the Gang of Eight Bill) I have a question for our elite group of Senators who so slavishly seek to enamor the Latino vote for the 2014 election and beyond. I would only add that such pandering is unlikely to provide the result they seek. First and foremost the bill requires that illegal aliens already in the country sign up to take part in the program. Question: What is the incentive for that? Immigrants who do sign up for the program will be finger-printed, background checked, pay a fine and required to learn English. If they are collecting benefits of any kind it will end and they will have been discovered to have further violated the law by taking benefits. Considering Congress has basically conceded they will not be deported, they are in no danger, so why bother? Once an illegal immigrant has joined the program and met all the requirements to become a Restricted Provisional Immigrant (RPI) what is the incentive to continue? It could take 13 to 22 years for an immigrant to become a citizen under the program. During this time INS will issue Green (Legal Permanent Resident) Cards , to no more than 2M a year. So in essence, while these 11,000 million RPI’s are waiting for Green Cards they will be working illegally as they were before the program existed. It takes much less time through legal channels to get a Green Card and citizenship so what is the incentive for it? This bill is a no-win for illegal immigrants. They are better served by the status quo. Their situation will be worse if they sign up then if they try to become legal citizens in a variety of other ways. Everything beyond these issues in the bill is even more complex and therefore even less likely to succeed. Complete reform of the INS and a more sophisticated and streamlined method of Immigration and Naturalization is what is needed. The Gang of Eight Bill is just a Band-Aid for a broken system that cheats the taxpayers that fund it and the immigrants forced to use it.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The Sunday Sermon That Wasn't


The Reverend Leon’s Easter Sunday homily took many by surprise. No such fiery rhetoric was heard at Obama’s inauguration or for that matter at the inauguration of George W. Bush either, which Leon also spoke at.  It was a surprise to all, the media, the attendees and yes, even the President himself. However, Obama probably liked it. It fits in with his Zeitgeist of America.  His anti-colonial, built-on-slavery perspective that makes high taxation, oppressive regulation and the squandering of the nation’s assets a perfect solution for the past sins of the oppressors; although they will never pay enough from Obama’s point of view. If we are lucky there will be something left when he’s gone and we can clean up the mess.