How To Deport Most Illegal Immigrants

This blog does not address illegal immigration very often. It is a convoluted subject. I don't think most people are passionate about the subject and as is often the case, the sizable minority expresses more frustration and anger than constructive solutions.

Six years ago I resided in Newmarket, New Hampshire.  Newmarket borders a college town and is slightly bohemian. All in all it is a nice place to live.

I rented an apartment in a building that held five other units. There were illegal immigrants living in my building. There were even more illegal immigrants living and working on my block. None of them swam the Rio Grande. They came from Sweden, the UK, the Bahamas, Russia, China and probably elsewhere.

Sometime in the future I'll do a 'Where Are They Now' follow-up because it does get interesting. For now though, let me state that we are perhaps the only country in the world who routinely provides non-emergency services for illegal aliens.

If you travel abroad and have a coronary, the host country will usually offer whatever assistance is available. But sojourn to any of the cute and cuddly and non-militaristic European countries so praised by Oprah Winfrey and Morley Safer and Bernie Sanders and try to collect on their free health care, subsidized housing and free education for the kids. You might get a one way ticket home but that's about it.

The Kasichs and the Batchelors and the Establishment Republicans remind us that it is impossible to deport 11 million illegals. Maybe. But what if we fined states and counties and municipalities who knowingly provided free public education for people who are here illegally? It is illegal for employers to hire employees who are known to be here illegally. Why not extend the same standard to the public sector?

Why do we provide free public education for children of illegals? Unfortunately, it does not stop with school. Illegal aliens are often arrested in possession of EBT (food stamp) cards, sometimes multiple cards issued to other aliases. (Let's put illegal immigrant voting on the back burner for now.) They can apply for fuel assistance and pay little or nothing for prescription drugs that would cost most Americans a few hours' wages. All over the world, people know how to beat our system.

In a sentence, if we stopped subsidizing illegal immigration many--if not most--of them would go home voluntarily. That is something the Jebs and the Donalds don't want to address.

Other Proposed Pipelines

President Obama, in his shrouding of the Keystone Pipeline, reminded us that the project is no economic silver bullet. Maybe not, but add up all of the proposed pipelines and you might have yourself a silver mortar shell.

I grabbed the above from http://www.fractracker.org/2014/03/proposed-pipelines/. They seem to be a Luddite anti-fracking, anti-pipeline, anti-technology organization. Regardless, they provide interesting maps and metadata.

Maybe there are shovel ready jobs after all.

Too drunk for MADD? No problem

From the When the Roll is Called up, They'll be Yonder department, a Pinellas County deputy was too drunk to pick up his award from Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Deputy Michael Szeliga skipped the two days of MADD sponsored training to devote more time to intoxication. He was eventually suspended for one day after missing two days of training which he probably thinks was too harsh but not to worry his career is still on track. He is now a detective in the Special Victims Unit but with a resume builder such as this he would be the ideal candidate for Obama's Secret Service.

What Do Americans Think Of The Keystone Pipeline?

Here are three places to express your own opinion online:

1

2

3

Going back a ways: CNN did a poll in December 2014 that showed that the construction of the pipeline was favored by a 2 to 1 majority.

A month earlier Pew did a poll that produced similar numbers.

 

Yet another 2 to 1 plurality taken at about the same time.

 

From March 2015, most Americans are not familiar with the Keystone Pipeline.

 

 

From September of this year, we have an API (American Petroleum Institute) poll that shows 68% of Americans support the Keystone XL.

 

Do we really need to conduct polls to gauge public sentiment on this one? The disapproval is palpable. The only people who support the oresident are those with "Bernie" bumper stickers on their Priuses.

 

Once more, this administration's instinct to rule against the will of the people will bear strange fruit. Obama's decision to kill the pipeline will not bode well for the Democrats in 2016. If the Dems had more seats to lose, we might see another wave election.

 

 

 

Bevin

On Wednesday, Boston talk radio was ablaze with Matt Bevin's upset victory in the Kentucky gubernatorial race. Howie Carr reported that Bevin ran a campaign that focused on Matt Bevin and was losing in the polls. In the final weeks he retooled his campaign to run against Barack Obama and victory was clutched from the mighty jaws of Jack Conway. So the story goes.

I like the story but I am not sure it's entirely accurate. I have been reading the local and national sites and I cannot get a confirmation of this. Bevin was always opposed to Medicaid expansion and he was an early supporter of Kim Davis. I don't know if he ran TV or radio spots denouncing the current administration or if he ran ads equating Conway with the radical-in-chief. Have not been able to find anything like that.

At any rate, the sagacious Tom Brokaw (you saw the Dominick Dunne spectacles) promotes a similar spin.

Update: Flash bangers appeal to the Supreme Court

To update the post of 10/31/15 Let's not confuse racism with stupidity the city of Evansville has appealed the decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals directly to the Supreme Court. The petition for a writ of certiorari was placed on the Supreme Court's docket Tuesday, filed on behalf of Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin and 11 officers named in the lawsuit and the plaintiff's lawyers have until December 2 to respond. As the Supreme Courts accepts only a few of the more than 10,000 petitions filed each year this action can only be viewed as a Hail Mary pass.
The writ argues that the Court of Appeals failed to look at the Fourth Amendment issues from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene instead of from hindsight. Unfortunately for the appellants reasonable officers are in short supply in the EPD. A reasonable officer would have had the good sense to run the legality of flash banging a residence by a lawyer who would have told him that the use of flash bang grenades in private dwellings is generally considered to be an excessive use of force by the courts. The reasonable office test is meant discern how a reasonable officer would respond when forced to make an immediate decision not how inept police administrators willfully violate the constitutional rights of innocent people. In this instance said inept police administrator,  Chief Billy Bolin, literally had weeks to formulate a reasonable course of action.  Even in the age of Obama stupidity is not a defense.

RIP Fred Thompson

 

Republicans might be cowards and traitors and hypocrites but I maintain that they are the lesser of two evils and that this dubious distinction has become more obvious over time.

 

One quick comparison. When the sleaziest and most corrupt president in US history appeared to be complicit in weaponizing the IRS for the purposes of winning a presidential election, the Democrats circled the wagons and helped to facilitate a cover-up. Party first, country second.

 

When Richard Nixon was accused of attempting to do what Obama succeeded at doing, the GOP put country before party. Senator Howard Baker, Republican from Tennessee, markedly asked, "What did the president know and when did he know it?"

 

 Some people claim that Minority Counsel Fred Thompson

prompted the question. I don't know but it is certainly believable. Thompson was a lawful man in a country descending into thugocracy. His kind were once the norm. Now they are a rarity, made even rarer by Thompson's departure.

Rest in peace, Fred.