Quote Of The Day

What do you get when you mix the state's leading Republican blog with a newspaper run by middle Georgia Democrats? A sometimes jarring dose of common sense.

At the heart of the issue is the Federal Government’s inability to process enough work visas or to process those that they are able to complete quickly enough. This, combined with the low chance of being caught without a visa and minimal consequences for those who are, has led to employers opting for illegal workers and for an unending stream of those who would take the jobs.

Of course, Charlie Harper glides by, barely touching the political crux of the problem - any straightening of this labyrinthine mess to ease access to a willing labor pool will  immediately elicit cries of "amnesty" for "law breakers" by those who wish to steer his party.

This Side Of The River

A pet political philosophy of mine is "this side of the river"; no matter how right you feel, sometimes you have to look around at who's with you on this side of the river.

In an interview with the Atlantic's Conor Freidersdorf, Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist explains his "side of the river" moment.

In the mid-2000's Gilchrist made headlines for leading people down to the Mexican border to "assist" the Border Patrol in guarding against illegal immigrants. Then some really "interesting" people started showing up.

In 2007, a similar group created a "parody" video portraying a Minutemen killing an an illegal alien and burying him the desert. Gilchrist rightly condemned the horrid thing and that's where, for him, things went sideways.

I got down there on the border and started to lecture them. And they literally threw me off their mountaintop and declared me an enemy of America. At that point I realized it was becoming not about racism, but about outright fascism. You goosestep with me and my ideas or we're going to trash you just like we're going to trash the illegal aliens. And that's when I realized -- that was about 2007 -- that's when I realized that I had opened up a can of worms, somewhat. Part of this issue had opened up a can of worms and brought forth some of the ugliest people you can ever imagine.

Subsequent events even caused him to praise former adversaries the ACLU and soften his stance towards the Southern Poverty and Law Center,

He still holds to fairly hard line views on immigration, but he deserves credit for looking around and realizing, this ain't the place I'm supposed to be.

Republican Strategist: Opposing HB87 Is "Hard Left

It has always amazed me how cavalierly the Republicans in this state ignore parts of their rural base with continued preening over their pet anti-illegal immigration law, House Bill 87.

But rarely does the mask slip to show their real disdain. They are usually a bit more clever - especially those who make a living loving up that base prior to elections.

Today on Peach Pundit, Republican strategist Mark Rountree noted that the OccupyAtlanta folks were now demanding repeal of HB87 (a demand that was apparently by a splinter group and quickly denied by the Occupy folks) and that showed the group had been taken over by the "hard left".

When regular commenter pointed out that many people who don't associate with left wing politics also disagree with HB87, Rountree responded:

Yours is a hard Left demand” from political outer space

So you farmers down south of I-16, you know, all my neighbors and friends who usually pull Republican when you enter the voting booth? The ones with the crops currently rotting in the field? Remember what the suits in Atlanta consider you the next time the election season rolls around.

Nothing but a bunch of whining "hard leftists".

My Morning Wooten

It's gonna be short today because my spleen is venting in a different direction.

Jim trying to argue that an increase in enforcement is the cause for the drop in illegal immigration:

The population of illegals has declined 11 percent in the past year, from 12.5 million to 11.2 million...The economy certainly has something to do with it.

No kidding.

My Morning Wooten

Somedays, they almost write themself.

A Bill Clinton appointee to the federal court bench in San Franscisco, Charles Breyer, who happens to be the brother of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, has blocked the Bush Administration from requiring employers to clear up or discharge employees with questionable Social Security numbers.

Money is not the root of all evil. Bill Clinton is. It is always Bill Clinton's fault. Always.

The injunction by Breyer prevents an administration program from giving U.S. employers 90 days to clear up the legal status of employees with questionable social security numbers. According to the suit, the plan would have involved 140,000 U.S. workers.

The low end estimate of illegal workers in this country is 12 million. For you math whizzes out there, if every single one of those notices nets an unauthorized employee, we would nab 11% of the problem. That's quite a success rate.

But Jim may argue the numbers don't matter. It's the symbolism which is important. But even if you can accept this point of view, you are still missing the bottom line.

"Conservatives" who on the one hand argue government is so incompetent it cannot handle education, health care and any number of other services, completely and utterly trust the same government to tap our phones, detain the correct people without habeas access and use what amounts as a national identity database to force private industry to fire U.S. workers.

Consistency is not a strong suit. Then again. It is politics.

My Morning Wooten

A full plate today.

MARTA hires a new general manager. A year to learn and schmooze, followed by a year to “shake things up” and then one to find another job before the realization sets in that the broken pieces don’t fit back together. Steps one and two may be reversed. In year four, the board finds a marvelous new prospect employed somewhere else. The cycle begins anew. Ho hum.

Guess Jim missed the reports in July of MARTA turning a profit. But why would a forward thinking transportation advocate report the positives of a major mass transit system when instead you can roll out old saws of perceived incompetence? Thank goodness we can always fall back on the ever effecient, never changing DOT.

Any old person who attends a sponsored “free lunch” thinking it’s free probably should have a conservator managing their money. The feds are cracking down on investment firms for luring well-to-do old folks to “free lunch” educational seminars where they’re pushed to open new accounts or make investments. The old people who need protecting are those victimized by con artists such as the one who bilked an 83-year-old north Fulton woman out of $97,000 for a driveway paving. He’d been arrested 40 times in the past 17 years for similar crimes. Lock ‘em up, toss the key in an asphalt truck.

Caveat emptor? Laissez-faire? Jim, did you forget your Adam Smith injection this morning? Or did your heart simply grow three sizes?

Redeveloping Fort McPherson is a boon, a winner every which way. But wait. The good news is bad. Taking the neighborhood upscale could mean that some renters might choose to relocate to places with cheaper rents. This is bad. But on the bright side, it’s another chance for a government remedy. How about a rent freeze?

Ahhhh, there's the free market personality! Perhaps it just took some time for the Adam Smith pill to kick in.

Moveon.org’s full-page ad in The New York Times headlined “General Petraeus Or General Betray Us?” subtitled “Cooking the Books for the White House” demonstrates yet again an eternal truth about America’s loony Left: Unassisted, it will always marginalize itself.

Except not all on the "loony left" agree with MoveOn's tactics. When did Sean Hannity talking points become a primary source for an esteemed newspaperman.

Resistance to allowing Mexican trucks to deliver throughout the United States is driven by pure protectionism, not safety concerns. The administration opts to allow a one-year test. Congress, pushed by the Teamsters and the Sierra Club, balks. Mexico is opening its doors to U.S. truckers.

Wait a minute. We should build a 700 mile long wall because terrorists might walk across a 150 mile wide desert to blow us all to hell but we shouldn't be concerned about trucks crossing the same border and heading to destinations unknown? Oh wait, one argument is an opportunity to attack poor people looking for jobs and the other is an opportunity to attack unions and environmentalists.

Just days after the release of Bill Clinton’s book, “Giving,” wife Hillary lives the sequel, “Giving Back,” returning $850,000 raised by Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu. He’s under federal investigation for allegedly paying straw donors to contribute to Hillary and other candidates. When it serves their interests, the Clintons — and especially Hillary — seem to find the company of shady players

Yes, yes. Only Democrats play footsie with questionable characters. Where have you gone Howard Hunt? A lonely nation turns its eyes to you.

More On Immigration

I was immigration before immigration was cool. I guess I am just a little full of myself today.

But given it is, as Dick Williams put it, "the issue that sucks all the oxygen out of the room", I decided to do a little dumpster diving in my archives. So here are some old chestnuts you might enjoy cracking.

Immigration. The Next Welfare Reform?
Illegals Don't Pay Taxes, Right?
Oh, And What About That Wall?
Deport Them! Or Not.

Gutierrez On Immigration

I'm starting to get a little tired of the immigration debate. It is rapidly becoming the purview of demagogues and cause junkies. Instead of firing off another metaphor laced screed, I'm going to take the lazy bloggy way out and refer instead to what has already been said. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) on yesterday's Meet The Press eloquently summed up my own beliefs on this topic.

It isn’t amnesty. What it is is a pathway to legalization. We have an immigration system that is broken, that’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare for American citizens. We saw the specialist missing in Iraq, Jimenez, from Massachusetts. His wife is being deported. That’s how broken our system is, that those that are on the front line, defending us in the war against terrorism and in Iraq are having their wives deported from the United States of America...Look, it’s a broken system, but I think what we say is, “What are you going to do with the 12 million people?” If you listen to Pat this morning, we have had the most aggressive enforcement in the last 30 years in our interior enforcement, 160,000 people deported this past year. At that rate, it would take us 65 years to rid this nation of all the undocumented workers. It’s not realistic, it’s not humane. It isn’t practical to our national security, or does it secure our economy. The fact is we create, in the United States, this vibrant economy, 400,000 low skill jobs a year, but there’re only 5,000 visas. We eed new workers to keep our economy vibrant and strong.

On yesterday's Georgia Gang, Dick Williams and Phil Kent poo-pooed Stephanie Ramage's assertion that those who would scream "amnesty" are for deportation as a strawman. It certainly had a whiff of hay, but only because the anti-amnesty brigades steadfastly refuse to offer any concrete idea of how they would deal with the 12 million people already here.

We need solutions, not rhetoric and scaremongering. Some people, including President Bush, are attempting to find a way. Others only believe in walls.

Immigration Redux

This morning, my friend Wilson Smith challenged me to do some research on immigration. We had just concluded a spirited discussion on the subject on his radio show. To my never ending amusement, when the podcast of my recording is placed on his web site, it likely will be directly beneath D.A. King's.

Immigration has already become a flash point in the 10 district race. It will be the issue in the 2008 Senate race. And as I told Wilson, it is a murky area where disagreement reigns even amongst the most ardent of party faithfuls. For these reasons, you are assured to see a great deal of future coverage on the issue in these parts.

The latest furor also reminds me of something I wrote last November.

President Bush and the Democrats agree on the basics of immigration reform. As with welfare reform they simply need to smooth out the edges. Find places to compromise. Show the American people that they indeed can work together...It's a unique opportunity for everyone to win. The Democrats pass important bi-partisan legislation demonstrating they can work with the President. President Bush has something besides Iraq on which to hang his legacy hat.

Sound familiar?

A Question For English Only Proponents

Now that a Georgia county, yes county, has made English its official language and a state legislator has proposed law to require all state documents printed only in English, I am reminded of an exchange I had years ago with a co-worker.

Co-worker: Why can't these people just learn the damned language.

griftdrift: So I take it that in the year 2080 when Hispanics become the majority you will be okay with Spanish being the official language and you being forced to learn it?

Co-worker: *silence*

Immigration. The Next Welfare Reform?

The year is 1994. After two years bogged in minor issues and a disastrous campaign to nationalize healthcare, the Clinton administration faces a Republican controlled congress. The first to hold both house in 50 years.

The year is 1995. Acrimony rules as Clinton and new House Speaker Newt Gingrich joust along Pennsylvania Avenue. In November, the war of words hits reality as the government is shut down. Public opinion of boths sides reaches its nadir.

The year is 1996. Clinton and the Republican congress reach a historic compromise to "end welfare as we know it". Modeled after successful state programs like Wisconsin's, it is a comprehensive plan to move welfare mothers into the work force and break generations of government dependancy. Clinton rises from the lowest point of his administration to re-election. Republicans in congress retain control.

The year is 2006. Welfare has ended as we know it. With exception of a few on the left, the 1996 Welfare to Work act is universally seen as a success and one of the crowning achievements of the Clinton administration.

The year is 2006. Democrats take control of both houses of congress for the first time in 12 years. Although President Bush no longer faces re-election, he faces a place in history scarred by the failed Iraq war.

Why bring this all up? My brain sparked like a car battery on a cold night by an exchange in President Bush's November 8th press conference.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. On immigration, many Democrats had more positive things to say about your comprehensive proposal than many Republicans did. Do you think a Democratic Congress gives you a better shot at comprehensive immigration reform?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, I should have brought this up. I do. I think we have a good chance. Thank you. It's an important issue and I hope we can get something done on it. I meant to put that in my list of things that we need to get done.

Bush and the new Democrat congress have a historic opportunity. They have a chance to avoid the time lost by Clinton and the newly minted Republican congress in the 90s. Time that roiled the nation and caused the electorate to seethe like pitchfork wielding peasants at the castle gate.

President Bush and the Democrats agree on the basics of immigration reform. As with welfare reform they simply need to smooth out the edges. Find places to compromise. Show the American people that they indeed can work together.

It's a unique opportunity for everyone to win. The Democrats pass important bi-partisan legislation demonstrating they can work with the President. President Bush has something besides Iraq on which to hang his legacy hat.

If it's obvious to me, it must be obvious to the Washington power players. January is almost here. Get to work boys and girls.

Another View Of The Border

Alan Stewart Carl of Maverick Views has a very interesting piece about his recent visit to the border.

Wrestling and Immigration

Does wrestling really tell the middle class political winds?

An interesting piece well worth reading.

Illegals And Taxes

Illegal immigrants pay more taxes than you think they do.

I keep going back to sales tax. Even if illegal workers avoid income tax, FICA and what not, they certainly pay sales tax. Based on my anecdotal observations, the Spanish speaking workers in my area, illegal, undocumented or otherwise, spend a considerable amount of money at convenience stores on boatloads of crap.

Sales tax is the tax that usually has the most direct impact on a community. Unlike federal or even state dollars, there is little delay in distribution of the the funds. Also, the funds are usually earmarked for local needs such as roads and other public works.

The best example I can give is a recent local option sales tax passed in my county. It was designated for roads and parks. A few months after it passed, a particular road that griftdrift cursed every day for a billion pot holes had a smooth new surface.

Mine and those Hispanic workers tax dollars at work.

There are discussions to be had about the impact of illegal immigrants on public services, but don't fool yourself that they skate by without paying any taxes. Chances are an undocumented someone's purchase of a Red Bull and a bag of chips helped pay for that road your driving on.

Another Lite Day Of Posting

Still in the Sunshine State on family business but I hope to catch a few running items today.

In the meantime, here is some other reading for you.

Immigration will be the big topic of the day: From the right, From the middle, From the left.

Wonkette is hungover. Shocking!

Katherine Harris is not only crazy but possibly going to jail.

You still have time to vote on Eddie On Film's Worst Best Picture Winner Ever. Even if you feel that you haven't seen enough of these go ahead and vote. Remember, opinions are like...

Institute Of Lower Learning will reopen today and is looking for some lively discussion.

While everyone stateside is obsessed with the "immigrant" problem, another Hispanic population is in crisis. And with this one we cannot avoid our responsibility.

Yeah, I know the middle and left links on immigration don't link to particular articles. I hope to fix that later.

Immigration Debate May Have Taken A Nasty Turn

Last night, three buses owned by Royal Bus Lines were burned. By all indications, the fires were deliberately set. Arson was also suspected in a fire that consumed a bus last year. So, while it is potentially just a coincidence, the fact that owner Carlos Ochoa allowed his buses to be used to ferry protestors to recent immigration rallies raises some frightening thoughts.

We do not need racial violence in this city. If that's what this was, let it end now before the violence escalates.

Securing Our Borders

How?

It's a simple question without any simple answer. At least no answer that I have heard.

Securing the borders is phrase often heard in the ongoing immigration debate. It seems that most, left, right and middle, agree that no immigration reform can be achieved without first stemming the constant tide of illegals. But I can't recall anyone saying how it will be done.

And notice I said borders, not border. This issue is not just about Mexico. Recall that before 9-11, Y2K bomber Ahmed Ressam came across the Canadian border. Scaremongers would have us worry about terrorists walking across miles of desert instead of trekking through the northern woods or more conceivably smuggling themselves in through one of the thousands of uninspected shipping crates.

So how do we do it?

How about the military? The most likely scenario is using the National Guard. At least the parts of the Guard that are not already in Iraq. The problem here is training. The Guard is in no way shape or form trained for such a policing action. Immediate deployment to the border would lead to the inevitable tragedy of someone being needlessly killed. The subsequent navel-gazing and investigations would neuter the effort before it had a chance to be effective.

So we train them? Not a bad idea, but it will take money and time. I know the current government is not too worried about fiscal restraint but we are talking millions if not billions of dollars of redirected funds. Also, months if not years of complete reorganization before an effective unit could be deployed. Can we wait?

How about a fence! I'm going to cut some slack on this one and talk only about the southern border. That would be a fence rougly 700 miles long. I hate to break it to you, but Home Depot now has stores south of the border. Even the poorest immigrant can scrape together the pesos needed to buy a pair of wire cutters. In my part of the world, we have a hard enough time maintaining a couple of miles of fence to keep out wild hogs and they don't have the resourcefulness of a father desperate to find work to feed his family.

Those are the two most common shoot from the hip solutions I hear in punditry these days. To me, neither is plausible.

So prove me wrong. If someone out there has a plan that's practical I want to hear it. Link them folks and let's discuss.

Deport Them All!

A friend and I were talking about the immigration debate.

We both had to shake our head at those that scream "we should deport them all".

I suppose I can understand the visceral reaction of wanting to punish lawbreakers but give me a break. There are an estimated 10-11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Somewhere between 200,000 and 800,000 in Georgia alone.

Exactly how is a federal government that couldn't bus a couple of hundred thousand starving people out of New Orleans going to round up several million people they can't even find?

As my friend Campbell put it, "the infrastructure required would make Stalin wet himself".

Thankfully, most people understand that this is a complex issue that will require thoughtful solutions. For those of you who believe they should all be rounded up and sent home, please do not operate any heavy equipment in the near future.

More On Immigration

Michael Stickings at The Reaction has published an excellent piece on immigration. The search for common ground makes sense for us all. Unlike gay marriage, last election's false crisis, practically everyone agrees illegal immigration must be addressed. Articles like this give me hope that we can find common ground and common good.

"Let America's policy towards these immigrants be generous, fair, and
flexible. Do not punish them for having chosen to come to America. Offer
them an
opportunity to settle, legally, for good. If they work, if they pay
their taxes,
if they accept the American way of life and want to be a part
of it, indeed, if
they are already American, broadly speaking, be generous
to them."

This is a must read if you believe in conversation instead of polarization.

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