May 15 2006
A Day Of Thanks (Not Moaning & Whining)
*** Update: Check out Mac Ranger on this matter (great round up). A lot of us are getting tired twith the all or nothing crowd. How about all for us and nothing for them? Just asking ***
Today conservatives and Americans across this nation, especially those who voted for George W Bush, should be thankful for what we have accomplished and for having George Bush as President. My tolerance for the whiners who don’t get all they want, or who say the pace of getting America to become more responsive to conservative ideas is too slow, is totally used up. Tonight, when George Bush speaks he is going to discuss how we can take SOME steps towards getting a handle on immigration and the security threats it represents.
I want to give thanks to W for taking the war to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and for not shrinking from his course when the French and Germans bawked, when the UN whimpered, when the left wailed and when the right ran away.
I want to thank him for protecting all our families and neighbors since 9-11.
I want to thank him for reducing taxes and pulling this economy together since my family just about went under due to the economic hits from 9-11, and now I am working a dream job exploring the solar system.
I want to thank W for protecting the lives of some of the embryos who otherwise would have become a product to harvest for spare cells (to make spare parts).
I want to thank W for making the education system accountable and force it to produce statistics on its performance.
Thanks also for giving my 80+year old parents a prescription drug plan so they can live out their lives with dignity and in the best health preventive medicine can offer. I know that at their age to fix things once their broken is much harder than keeping them from breaking in the first place.
Thank you as well to the immigrants who come here and extend the American fabric and re-establish respect for the family and the work ethic. I still believe working without papers is aking to driving a car which is not properly registered. While not legal, it pales next to the people I deal with everyday in my 75 mile commute on the busy and dangerous DC Beltway. For perspective, I do not thank all the drivers chatting on the phone, reading, eating, doing their face who risk my LIFE with their casualness. I am less concerned about the immigrant workers coming to do top notch work on my house than the insane drivers who could kill me or my family. Let’s not even discuss how little thanks I have for drunk drivers (and drunk is only a few drinks away).
I want to thank LJSTrata for putting up with me for so long and keeping this site going through its first Blogoversart (5/18/06).
I owe a big thanks to Powerline this week for naming us Blog of the Week – which is an extreme honor we will cherish.
I want to thank my kids and family for being who they are.
I do not have any words of thanks to he those who leak national secrets to the media because they cannot address their issues through our established political processes. None. Anomous leaks are not a badge of honor.
I have no words of thanks to those who are so frustrated they have turned on Bush when he needs our support, and threaten to sit out elections. Why would I have any thanks for that kind of action? I am thankful we avoided a President Gore and President Kerry. Gore would have lost his mind after 9-11 (look at how he handled the 2000 election). And Kerry would have been so confused about what to do he would have signed legislation beforing vetoing it.
I am thankful for our new allies in Iraq, Afgahnistan, the UAE, Qatar and Pakistan. They are not perfect allies, but they are better than enemies. Just like Bush is 100 fold better than a manic Gore or a confused Kerry. I thank Bush for doing all he did, and doing it despite the naysayers and quitters, the moaners and whiners, and especially the serial surrenderers. Thanks George Bush. And no thanks goes to anyone who gives us nothing on immigration because they could not get all they wanted. I am tired of the zero sum game. It is a game for fools.
Yes and in the area where I grew up they were a major part of the workforce but it was seasonal. We are seeing something different now. We are seeing builders putting up developments with illegal labor. Look at the kitchen staff of most restaurants.
Traditionally they were ag employees, but not anymore. They are in all service industries and chances are good they are working “under the table” for cash. One way to even the playing field would be a national sales tax. Imagine if there was a 3% national sales tax and a 2% decrease in income tax. It would just about be a wash for legal workers (because that extra 1% would be accounted for in deductiona and other adjustments to income) but it would be a direct 3% hit on the cost of living of illegals and anyone else making undocumented money. The result would be that “under the table” workers would need a raise to maintain their quality of life while legal wokers would see no impact. At the same time we would start collecting tax revenue from illegal workers, hookers, drug dealers, under the table workers of all sorts. The impact would be a lot larger than documents would suggest because it would tax an undocumented economy.
My gut says Bush’s speech tonite helps improve his numbers.
Border Derangement Syndrome…
It’s quite astounding really, how so many conservatives are flat out embarrassing themselves with petulant whining and their nonstop attacks on the President over immigration.This isn’t even about disagreement. We regularly disagree with fellow…
Two solution suggestions:
(1) Pass The Fair Tax Act, which abolishes the Internal Revenue Service, eliminates the present federal income tax — including the approximate 22% embedded tax on every product we buy (taxes imposed on producers and added to the item price before it gets to market) and the double taxation of American business (foreign businesses pay US taxes only on product sold here; American corporations have to pay US taxes on their product sold here and abroad, as well as paying taxes to the foreign government(s) involved — that, as much as lower labor costs, is the reason many businesses have moved their corporate headquarters to foreign ports).
The Fair Tax, a sales tax, brings the entire underground economy into the taxpaying body — not just illegal aliens but also crooks, con-men and scam artists, drug dealers, hookers, bookmakers, even counterfeiters. Plus, with elimination of punitive taxes, billions of dollars now playing hide-and-seek from the IRS in offshore and Swiss accounts, will be put to work in investments which fund business growth and expansion, create jobs and new opportunities for everyone.
(2) Eliminate the government-supplied (i.e., taxpayer funded) freebies for non-citizens — ALL of the freebies, including “emergency” medical, education, food stamps, SSI (that’s one that I do resent) and any form of welfare. Move this financial burden to the responsibility of the activist organizations demanding rights for “undocumented immigrants” (that’s an oxymoron, by the way).
Let these organizations do private fund-raising to pay for temporary needs of illegals — Americans are extremely generous about voluntary donations to help those in any kind of need; but removing the governmental buraucracies will lead to weeding out those who come in merely to beat the system or, worse, the drug smugglers and other crooks and creeps. In short, force these podium-pounding activists to put their OWN effort and money where their mouths are.
It’s their cause. They should be willing to raise the revenue to pay for it.
Moonbats Can Now Be Relieved……
of their duties. The reinforcements have arrived. The battle against the big bad evil Presidente Jorge Arbusto will now be handled by the righties against amnesty for illegal immigrants. You heard me moonies, grab your tie dyed t-shirts, your stinky bi…
The President on Immigration…
The President gave his speech on immigration last night, and effectively charted out what is being widely described as the “middle ground.”…
Been with you from your beginning, AJ. You continue to say things well. I agree with most.
I agree with the sentiment of this but in practice, I am not sure. The reason I am not sure is that I am thinking of children. It isn’t their fault that their parents came here illegally. When you start denying things like this you begin to hurt innocent people who didn’t do anything wrong. I would agree with not qualifying for SSI but what do you do? Ship Daddy back to Mexico? What happens to the wife and kids left behind here?
Economically we are going to need those workers. When the boomers start to retire, we will have more people leaving the workforce and collecting benefits than we have entering the workforce and paying taxes to pay those benefits. While Social Security claims the trust fund won’t run out for several years, what they aren’t telling people is that there is no trust fund. The trust fund is in government bonds. Social security lent the money to the government who spent it and they hold IOUs. When it comes time to start dipping into that trust fund, the federal government is going to have to start covering those bonds which means that money will drop right into the federal budget deficit. In other words, for every Social Security trust fund bond cashed, we are going to need to find someone else to buy a bond to cover it.
One measure to head that off is to create a guest worker system and get these illegals paying taxes into the Social Security system. Those guest workers might actually save Social Security.
MY OBLIGATORY RESPONSE TO THE PRESIDENT’S IMMIGRATION SPEECH…
I didn’t really feel like writing about the President’s speech because, quite simply, I didn’t feel that I had anything useful to add to either side of the debate. The President struck all the right notes but he did it in a desultory…
AJ, feel free to come by my house anytime & check to see if I have broken the law. I just had new hardwood floors installed & will be glad to show you my receipts & cancelled check for the payment, as well as putting you in touch with the person who installed them. I can assure that there are millions of us who would never consider breaking any law. I have had one citation in my life [ letting my auto tag expire by one day- simple forgetfulness on my part] I did not even contemplate going to court to try to get out of the fine. I forgot,which was my responsibility, & so I paid the ticket. Apparently you think everyone is a lawbreaker or you would not have mentioned ” which laws you are breaking” rather than “if you have broken the law” That says a lot about you, that you assume everyone [ like you, maybe?] routinely breaks the law.
National Review Attempts to Stir Up Conservative I…
The people who once said how refreshing it was to have a President with moral integrity and who did not “rule by the polls” are demanding that the President do just the opposite. It is ridiculous and childish….
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