Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Immigration: Of Things Illegal And Legal

Let’s be honest here; America is a nation OF immigrants.  Not only that, but the greatness of our nation is in large part the product of the greatness of those immigrants.  This isn’t, or shouldn’t be, surprising.  After all, it is the precise individual who is willing to risk everything to come to an unknown land in order to build a better life for himself that creates the very greatness we’re discussing.

With that said I’ve been baffled by the resistance republicans have to immigrants and immigration reform.  Baffled for two reasons:

  1. It is the leftist that is the statist.  It’s not the lovers of Liberty that want to empower the state to dictate the whos, the whys and the whens of an otherwise free people to decide where they wanna live and work.  Building a state that controls such thing is normally the domain of the left, of the democrat; of the statist.  It distresses me that the republicans have abandoned a principle based in Liberty like this.
  2. The Latino population is not one that naturally is liberal.  The Latino is very conservative.  They are very religious, value a strong family and embrace personal responsibility in the form of a massive work ethic that not only supports the immediate family but often the extended family.  Even if that family is in another country.  By alienating the Latino, the republicans are walking away from a natural base.  And a base that is only going to grow.

All of which makes what Obama did today distressing:

(Reuters) – About 800,000 young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children could be spared deportation under new immigration rules announced by President Barack Obama on Friday …

I’m not distressed that Obama made bad policy here, he didn’t.  Allowing immigrants who wanna live and work here the legal opportunity is absolutely the right thing.  And for this, I am in rare but enthusiastic support of the President.  Rather I’m distressed because the republicans have so utterly failed in the whole immigration debate.

This decision will garner support from the Latino vote.  And to be sure, those folks won’t suddenly turn into died in the wool leftists.  But, BUT, we know that politics is a team sport and soon, not very long to be sure, as people begin to affiliate with a “tribe” they will become a member of that tribe and we’ll find it hard to convert them back to their natural support.

Congratulations to President Obama.  Here I think he did the right thing.  And the right lost a massive opportunity to do the right thing as well.

Bush And Obama: Killing vs. Torture

I was listening to my 2nd favorite talk show host, Jason Lewis, on the way to Charlotte last night.  During his show, he mentioned the news concerning the killing of Al Qaeda’s #2 guy.  I’ll get to Mr. Lewis’ main point in a second, it has to do with the double standard in the war on terror.  But first, I wanna more fully clarify my stance on “enhanced interrogation techniques”, oftentimes known as “torture.”

As I type this it strikes me as possible that people hear “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the same way that I hear “kinetic military action.”

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Scott Walker: Wisconsin Wins

Scott Walker Wins Wisconsin Recall

I predicted a 2-4 point loss.  The emotional game goes to the challenger in recalls.  Further, the unions that are dependent on this election have decades of built in ground game.  I was listening to the radio and I heard that they knocked on thousands of doors and called even more.  Walker was ahead in the polls, but he was slowing down in the final days.

I had the ill luck of having to drive to Charlotte tonight, so I wasn’t able to watch the election results at all.  I tried keeping track on my phone, but that proved to be untenable on the road.  So I called family and friends and asked them to keep me up to date via texts.

What a great trip!

Walker took a massive lead early and never really was challenged.  Fox called it when 25% of the vote was in, the rest soon followed suit.

What Does This Mean

Wisconsin has now elected their governor twice.  Twice, and he still has another term to run for.  Mr. Walker was clear about what he was gonna do when he ran the first time.  Then, when in office, he did them.  Rather, he TRIED to do them.  When faced with a vote that they didn’t like, the Democrats ran from their job, ran from their capital and even ran from their state.  All to prevent a vote.

An interesting functional filibuster don’t ya say?

Then, when the democrats tried to take control of the senate by recalling a number of members, they lost.  The senate remained in control of the republicans.  Finally, after the requisite number of months in office, the democrats tried to recall him.  While they were successful in forcing the election, they were unsuccessful in their bid to unseat him.

The people have spoken.  Spoken at least three times.  They want this governor, they want this senate, they want these reforms and they are tired of the status quo.

The reforms that the legally elected republicans moved into law through a legally sanctioned vote have worked for the state.  Budgets have seen significant relief, many have been balanced.  School districts have been able to obtain fiscal flexibility while not having to lay off teachers.  In short, Walker works.

Finally the people of Wisconsin are not pleased that the recall election even took place.  The recall process is meant to force out a governor that has been guilty of some crime or of some ethical lapse.  Mr. Walker is guilty of neither.  The only thing he did was pass legislation that made the liberals mad.

So they sulked and pouted and wanted a redo.

And the good folks of Wisconsin didn’t appreciate that.

Does This Have Implications Nationally

I don’t think so.  I think that Wisconsin remains steadily blue.  The folks there are liberal at heart but simply found that they need a dose of fiscal reality.  The continued spending and taxing of the past finally caught up.  They’ve had enough.

As I’m listening to the news now I am hearing that a large number of folks who voted for Walker will continue to support Obama in the upcoming election in November.  I think the number is 18%.

That’s big.

Wisconsin will roll blue for the President this fall.

Snips And Snails And Puppy Dog Tails

The word out of Texas is that we have a Planned Parenthood employee assisting a mother in mapping out a plan on what she should do if her child is a girl instead of a boy.

Now, to be clear, I don’t care if the employee knew or didn’t know she was being filmed or set up.  The reaction is what I’m interested in.

If you support abortion, that is the ability of a mother to choose to have or not have the “thing” that grows in her, can you reasonably support a law that bans that mother’s choice based on the future sex of that “thing?”

I don’t think you can.

An that begs the question.

Government Spending: Obama And The Rest

We’ve all seen or heard about the Market Watch piece by Rex Nutting:

Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.

But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.

And the graphs that follow made it through Facebook like a wildfire:

Pretty startling.  If true, and Politifact says it mostly is, it paints a significantly different picture than most people have come to accept.  And to be sure, there have been some herculean efforts to point out that Nutting, Obama and Politifact may not be explaining the whole reality.  For example, the stimulus is charged to Bush but the repayment of that stimulus is credited to Obama.  At the very least, the two actions should be charged to the same guy, either one seems fair.  Then there’s the fiscal activities that took place during Bush’s fiscal year but that Obama passed.  Those should not be given to Bush but rather to Obama.

However, there’s been something gnawing at me during this whole debate and until I read a piece this morning by Dan Mitchell.

He makes a great case that while Obama IS a big government big spender, it’s not as if the Republicans are innocent.

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Only Because I’m In North Carolina

It’s all over the inner tubes….

A teacher at North Rowan High School in Spencer, NC went nuts on a kid in her class because questioned Barack Obama.  And he’s right, she IS nuts and went out of control on this kid.  Out. Of. Control.

But aside from the individual aspect of it, I don’t think it’s news.

There is nothing very new here.

She is a teacher.  And we know that teachers are part of teacher’s unions.  And teacher’s unions vote for Democrats.

We all know that this is prevalent throughout our schools.

Nothing to see here, just keep on moving.

Obamamedia

If there was any doubt about who the media wants to win the election:

I’m pretty sure that this ends the argument about a media bias.

Obama’s North Carolina Problem

Obama won North Carolina in 2008.  I think that my state is going to prove to be a bitterly contested battle ground state in 2012.  Further, Obama feels the same way; he’s been campaigning here for the better part of a year now.

But he’s in trouble:

Just about 200,000 Democrat voters couldn’t pull the lever for Obama.  That’s better than 20% of democrats.

That’s a lot.

Obama – Forward

 

Obama has unveiled his new campaign logo and slogan.  I have to admit, I like what Obama has done with both such slogans.  In both cases they are but a few words; Hope, Change and now Forward.  And more importantly, they are action words, something that we do.  However, on the downside, change, like forward, are actions that don’t necessarily mean positive progress is being made.  Obama is definitely a change, but I don’t think you’ll find a majority of Americans who think that he has been positive change.

All in all, I think Forward is better than it is worse.  At first blush.

But dig a little deeper….

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The Free Market

Man is self interested.  This may, or may not, cause concern.

In the history of all the world, man has been most prosperous when he has been most free.

Free to own property.

Free to sell his labor.

Free to sell his products.

Free to sell his land.

Only in those places where government restricts man’s ability to engage in free trade is he most enslaved.

Vote Obama.  Vote dependency.  Give away your life.