"Stimulus" bill passes Senate,...

...will wonders never cease?!

I know, I know, nobody likes a smart alec, but I can't help feeling completely justified in reacting this way. Plus, I'm not really out to win anyone's approval anyway. If you don't like my attitude, move on. If you can put up with it for a couple of more paragraphs, continue reading.

When are people going to wake up? The U.S. Senate, as I've said numerous times since the results of the late election came in, is a filibuster proof Senate precisely because there are a number of RINOs who occupy seats in the U.S. Senate. Obama and the Democrats, I guarantee you, know this. All of this hope and hype about the Democrats needing to be very careful so as not to lose the support of three rogue Republican Senators which was supposedly hanging by a proverbial thread is herein effectively shown for what it is, just that - hype, and hope.

I listened with disgust yesterday to the talking heads claiming that Senate Democrats had at least better be on pins and needles unless they wanted to lose the fragile support of the three lone Repulicans who they'd barely, through tough back room negotiations, managed to swing to their side on the "stimulus" package. Right. And now we learn that not only did they somehow manage to keep their support while simultaneously growing the bill, they managed to do so with the removal from the Senate bill of the House's stipulation for the inclusion of E-Verify to protect American workers from their jobs going to illegal aliens.

I'm shocked, SHOCKED!

I don't know how much more of this my heart can take. Is it possible, with the Democrats occupying less than 60 seats in the Senate, that Congress will pass so-called "Comprehensive Immigration Reform," thus effectively nullifying all of the work that has been done at the state and local level to do what the central government has neither the will, nor the basic instinct to do, i.e., preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States?

Say it isn't so.

Read More

14 Reasons to Elect Tancredo

I was over at Tom Tancredo's site (which is finally updated following Saturday's Iowa Straw Poll) earlier and I ran across these comments posted at his blog - the title of the post is actually “14 Reasons to Deport Illegal Aliens,” but I figured they were better denominated “14 Reasons to Elect Tancredo,” given that much of this is likely to not be resolved short of doing just that:...

14 Reasons to Deport Illegal Aliens...

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year.
http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the United States . http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine and marijuana, crossed into the U. S. from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report:
http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period." http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

14. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States ". http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

So using the LOWEST estimates, the annual cost OF ILLEGAL ALIENS is $338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR! So if deporting them costs between $206 and $230 BILLION DOLLARS, get rid of em', We'll be ahead after the 1st year!!!

Thanks to Luther. Please pass this on. Americans need to wake up!

VOTE TANCREDO FOR PRESIDENT! (end of post)

Read More

What About Immigration Congressman???

Below is a letter I received in the mail from my state Representative yesterday. In the letter you'll note how 'proud' my representative is of his social 'achievements' during his tenure in office. But as he says, there's a lot more work to be done. So without further ado...

Dear District 17 Friend:

I hope this letter finds you well. As you may know, our state Legislature faces many tough decisions as we weigh priorities on a daily basis. As your State Representative, I am proud to represent you and work for a better Oklahoma. Our annual Legislative session ended in May, and I am now back in the District listening to your concerns for our State.

While in Oklahoma City this session, I was able to help negotiate and pass:

• The “All Kids Act,” increasing Medicaid eligibility for children from 185% of the poverty level to 300% while also providing coverage to families of four making up to $62,000 annually. This legislation will result in as many as 42,000 additional Oklahoma children being covered by health insurance.

• Legislation expanding student access to a quality college education as well as providing a permanent funding source for OHLAP. OHLAP allows students whose family makes under a certain income and meet certain educational and public service requirements, to have their tuition paid by the state.

I also helped to defeat legislation that would have given tax exemptions to oil companies. Those proposed exemptions would have resulted in a deficit in funding for the county government and local school districts and an increase in property taxes.

While I am proud of our many successes achieved during the past legislative session, I know my work is not finished. There are several initiatives I plan to address next year. As your State Representative, I will continue to fight for:

• Protection of our water resources from out-of-state interests.

• Safer communities for Oklahoma children.

• Increased funding for roads and bridges.

• Responsible government and ethics reform.

It is an honor and a privilege to serve you in the House of Representatives. I will continue to put aside partisan politics to do what is right for all Oklahomans as I work to find solutions to everyday concerns. Even though I am back at home in the District until the Legislature reconvenes in February, you can still contact me through my Capitol office by calling the toll free number...

Sincerely,...

Well, I certainly intend to give his office a call. I should like to know why there's no mention of the accomplishments of the body of which he is a member regarding the immigration situation as it now stands in my State. This is one of my chiefest concerns, nay, it is my chiefest concern. And though the Legislature has dealt with the situation legislatively, one of my concerns is that there's a battle about to ensue in the courts over this legislation. It seems to me that the immigration situation in this State is and should be priority numero uno for our representatives in the State Legislature, and until this State successfully and without question ameliorates this crisis. Our State's courts are likely to be clogged with suits filed on behalf of immigrants, legal and illegal, in this State, leaving Oklahoma citizens seeking justice out in the cold. Beyond that, every point that my representative makes about what his priorities are and have been in that body have something to do with the immigration situation as it now stands in the State of Oklahoma.

So, I ask you again, Sir, how is it that you're working to solve that problem at the root of these other things you're so proud of achieving? If you're not dealing with that crisis first and foremost, then you're not representing my interests, nor the interests of Oklahomans.

-DW

Read More

2/3 to 3/4 of Americans Communists, depending...

Anyone who knows me well at all knows that I don't care for polls and surveys and such. I think it's a rare occurance indeed when a survey consisting of five hundred or a thousand people polled hits upon a single, much less numerous sentiments consistent with the general sense of a citizenry topping 270 million.

I don't think it's necessarily a purposeful misleading that these poll-takers are engaging in, but I don't necessarily believe it isn't either. It all depends on the reasoning behind the particular poll taken, who's conducting it, what kinds of questions are asked, what kinds of answers are provided, and so on and so forth. All of these factors weigh into the final outcome of the survey in question.

I admit that I'm not well versed in the science of poll taking. And I suppose that there are methods to the madness that I'm probably overlooking. But I think it's hard to make a case for polls basing their findings on such an insignificant proportion of the citizenry as the one the story below cites...

WASHINGTON (AP) --

Income differences in the U.S. are too stark, and the government should provide jobs and training for those having a tough time, according to majorities in a national poll released Thursday.

About seven in 10 said discrepancies between income levels are too large, a sentiment voiced by nearly two-thirds of those from households earning at least $80,000 a year, the survey said. Three-fourths of people earning less than $80,000 agreed.

Eight in 10 said the gap between the rich and the middle class has worsened over the last 25 years, said the survey by the University of Connecticut's Center for Survey Research and Analysis.

The poll comes in the early stages of a 2008 presidential campaign in which several Democratic candidates have discussed a widening distance between the country's rich and poor.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has made ''two Americas'' one of his favorite themes. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois have also touched on the topic.

In the survey, 58 percent said large pay differences help get people to work harder. Yet 61 percent said such discrepancies are not needed for the country to prosper.

Two-thirds said the government should make sure there is a job for everyone who wants one. Small majorities said it should provide jobs for people who can't find private employment, increase federal training programs and redistribute money with high taxes on the wealthy.

Even so, nearly two-thirds said it is not the government's responsibility to ease income differences.

The survey was conducted from June 18 to July 2 and involved telephone interviews with 500 adults nationally. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

My question is simply this: How do these surveys show such disparate results on different, yet obviously related questions asked of the same individuals; why are there such inconsistencies shown in the answers given? Are people truly that fickle about what they believe?

The results to which I refer in this particular survey are of course those showing very even percentages (58% and 61% respectively) of people who apparently believe on the one hand that 'large pay differences help get people to work harder,' yet on the other that 'such discrepancies (in pay I'm assuming) are not needed for the country to prosper.' Huh!?....prosperity has no relationship to incentive, yet it does; productivity is, or it isn't to be associated with success? I'm getting more confused by the second.

Other results from this survey I'm referring to are the ones indicating that two out of three people surveyed believe the government should 'make sure there is a job for everyone who wants one,' and nearly two out of three people surveyed believe that 'it's not the government's responsibility to ease income differences.' Say what!? On the one hand it IS the government's responsibility to provide jobs for those unemployed 'against their will;' on the other hand, and at the same time, it IS NOT the responsibility of government to do anything about the income gap between the, what, 'over-employed,' and the 'under-employed?'

Okay, obviously I'm utterly confused now. And I admit that the more surveys I read, the more confused I get, as a general rule. That probably accounts for most of why I'm simply not a survey/poll kinda fella. The results have never made much sense to me, and I think, based in part on these and others I've had the misfortune to read, they probably never will.

The only thing I've ever found to be consistent in the published results of most polls I've read is the overall tendency for them to show inconsistencies in the thinking of the individuals polled. In other words, they're consistently inconsistent. That fact in itself is enough for me to shy away from putting any stock whatsoever in poll and survey results of virtually any kind, on questions of virtually any kind.

Having taken a few polls myself, I can tell you that my personal experience is that the questions are always either too vaguely asked (not specific enough), or the answers provided are too few or too vague in themselves; or both. In fact, I've given up right in the midst of taking a poll due to these very factors before. I have no interest whatsoever in answering questions wherein someone has already predetermined for me that my answers must fall within a certain range of responses carefully chosen and framed by...someone.

So what is my point, you may be asking? I guess my main point is that I don't like polls, and I want you to know it. Other than that I'd be remiss if I didn't touch on the upside to the poll - only a 'small majority' of Americans (according to the survey) are true believers in the principles of communism. We can chalk that up to the triumph of capitalism I guess.

-DW

Read More