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.
52 Responses to “A Day Of Thanks (Not Moaning & Whining)”
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I agree 100%. Thank you for saying it so well. Kathie
AJ:
And we are thankful for you. You never let your loyal readers down.
Congrats on Blogger of the Week..well deserved.
Thank you for that post.
That needed to be said. Thanks for doing so. It is so easy to find the things to complain about and it is healthy to take stock of what is right AND wrong in our universe.
Oh, and a national sales tax would mitigate some of the impact of under the table workers. At least they would pay a portion of their share whenever they buy something.
Shut up whiners…
NOTE: Vent to the Whiny-Baby Republicans out there:…
AJ: And I and am sure many others thank you for being a terrific read daily.
Congrats on Blogger of the Week. It is well deserved.
AJ: I hope this doesn’t post more than once…anyway..I think I would probably speak for many of your readers when I say “thank you” for your level headed, insightful posts daily. This was one of the best.
Congrats on Blogger of the Week. Well deserved.
Amen
AJ,
I agree my friend. We have so much to thank W for. It is truly sad that so many conservatives of his own party are so spoiled they want it all.
I guess they have forgotten any good relationship is difficult and both sides must give in on issues to make it work. Unfortunately too many just want to take. There are days that I am disgusted with the “give me everything” attitude of some conservatives. Do these conservatives with children give their children everything they want and demand? My hunch is no. So, why act this way as and adult?
If we lose in Nov., because these spoiled ungrateful short-sighted republicans stay home, they will get allot, I repeat allot less from Reid and Pelosi.
It is truly sad these republicans forget the great economy, low taxes, low unemployment, our safety, no child left behind, medicare overhaul, drug prescription for the elderly, etc. and not to mention the honor returned to the office of the presidency by W.
W will be remembered as a president that had to overcome and deal with obstacles that no other president in our union has, and he did it with class. He did his way. God bless you W. I am proud you are my POTUS. My daughter prays everynight and she says “May God bless you president Bush and your family”. I could not say it any better.
This is my first post on this blog, but I do share the view that we have much to be thankful for regarding George W. Bush. Actually, its quite depressing to listen to Radio host Hugh Hewitt step into the GOP fever swamp on this issue. I fear a GOP implosion come November.
It’s truly a wonder to behold, isn’t it? Head on over to Lucianne.com (just to pick one example) and read some of the posts left there about how President Bush has supposedly sold out the country. Nobody seems to care that this immigration problem has been brewing for decades and that President Bush is now in the impossible position of having to do something reasonable about it. Well, apparently some people are so hung up on the total absolute unacceptability of any form of “amnesty” that providing ANY pathway to citizenship for ANY illegal immigrant, even as part of a compromise intended to at least get the ball rolling toward a real soluti0n to the problem, is just the last straw for them.
It’s stuff like this that’s making me sympathize with the Anchoress for wanting a long break from writing about politics. It might be time to start pruning my list of blog bookmarks. I really don’t need to read La Shawn Barber calling for the impeachment of King George, for example.
Anyway, thanks for the post, AJ — President Bush has been doing wonders for us, and he still has my support, whether or not I’m convinced that his proposals for alleviating the illegal immigration problem are the best we could reasonably hope for.
The President’s Immigration Speech…
So now the left is giddy with the anticipation of their takeover in Congress and hell, it looks like they won’t have to fight too hard since the right is going batty with nonsensical solutions to a problem we have had for decades.
……
I cannot agree more. Thanks, AJ.
I just hope you’ll be able to provide some backup. I may end up needing it.
I still feel really positive about the results in November. I really respect a lot of the bloggers who have gone insane ofver the immigration issue. Some of the same ones who lost it over the Dubai Ports deal.
The conservative party is made up of so many different layers of ideas and some are just jockeying for clout for the mid-terms. I don’t believe for a second that most of them will stay home and not vote and risk Congress being taken over by the Democrats. I also know that most people are smart enough to accept that not everyone thinks exactly the same and that for conservatives, the stakes in not voting are far too great.
I do wish they would tone it down a little…but then I do enjoy watching the left get all excited for what always turns out to be nothing.
Folks,
At Lucciane, Free Republic and other conservative gatherings, the donks are out in force. The donks are trying to cause a rift over this issue. They are trying to hide their spots but make no mistake, they are trying to pull the party apart for this Nov.
First Impressions: Bush’s Speech On Immigration…
I’m splitting my initial response to Bush’s speech tonight into three sections: Content, Delivery, and the Reaction I expect it will receive. Content Overall, I liked the speech quite a bit. I wish President Bush had been more explicit about……
Yes, a lifetime of gratitude is due to our beloved President.
Truly a great man. Thank you AJ for a lovely post-brought tears to my eyes.
I think many are with us and will reject the extremes and come out in November for the President’s choices. It’s a long way til then.
Let the frentic rage…it’s apparently all they have.
God bless George W. Bush and all who work with him and love him.
The President’s Immigration Speech…
Call me uninspired. While I am happy about giving the border patrol assistance with National Guard troops, the speech was much too comprehensive for me. Too much of the same ole’ stuff in this speech. Here’s a bit of it:WASHINGTON…
President Bush mentioned “barriers in rural areas”. I am glad that is going to get some attention. He also mentioned the use of technology which I liked. Use of technology such as UAV’s would be a great training venue for our military. It is an important mission but if they make a mistake, nobody gets killed. In fact there can be many parallels between border operations and force protection operations.
The maximum number of troops involved appears to be doable. 6,000 is about 7.5% of the number of reserves forces currently on active duty (between Army Guard and Army Reserve, not sure of just the Guard number) and about 1.6% of total National Guard strength which was about 353,000 in 2004. NG and Reserve total strength was about 683,000 in 2004 so our current Iraq deployment is about 12% of our total reserve force. I wouldn’t consider adding another 1.6% to be “breaking the back” of our National Guard if the border operations were used as a training arena to keep the skills of people who operate UAVs and engineers who build barriers sharp. In that respect, border operations could provide an asset that could allow units to gain real operational experiance before overseas deployment or keep those skills after they return when they perform their annual training exercises.
I also liked the mention of the end of “catch and release”. I liked the mention of a better credential that would be difficult to forge. The mention of going after employers who hire them was good too. I posted today before the speech that the entire culture of “under the table” employment that is alive and thriving in many areas needs to be eliminated as it provides jobs for illegals and deprives us of tax revenue from legal workers who will work for undocumented cash payments.
I saw just about every issue raised by the far right addressed. Barriers, end of catch/release, going after employers, etc. The one issue the hardliners on the right don’t like is the temporary worker program but I believe the president is right on that issue. If you provide a fair way for legitimate labor, the incentive for smuggling goes away. Bringing employment of migrant labor above the table is better for everyone.
For the life of me I can’t understand what President Bush could have done to satisfy everyone.
Those immigrants who work in your home- they are legal immigrants I hope?
The American Kadima may come sooner than we think…
Actually I disagree. Bush’s position on open borders is so destructive to the country that he will go down as the GOP’S Jimmy Carter. To suggest we should be grateful to this arrogant, clueless and pig -headed moron is the height of folly. Only the true Kool Aid drinkers will fall for his disingenious BS. He has managed to turn a life long conservative Repub against the party. The Party now is composed of the scumbags Hagel, Martinez, Snowe, Collins and De Wine. Now how exactly are they different than the Demos?
American Kadima will be a pro-life, pro-gay rights Republican. Probably look a lot like Rudy, in my opinion.
Ment pro-choice.
Granmary,
How in the world am I supposed to know if they are legal? I contract some guy to paint the house and he gets it done. You think I have time or desire to check everyone for their papers? How about I come by your place and see how many laws you are breaking while I am playing at policeman?
That is right Cab, until Bush came along there was no such thing as an open border. Hispanics did not roof houses or pick lettuce or take care of other people’s children. Yep, it is all his fault.
If the far right wants to run on this go ahead, they will get the support of about 1% of the population. At least that is what Buchanan got in 2000. Even Nader did better than that..
The sad thing is they are starting to make the Democrats look half way rational.
So much for the war on Terror, and AlQaida says the far right. Right now we have a new enemy and his name is Jose.
Excellent post, and a lot of the comments added good points.
One, in particular, caught my attention, and that was the alert that donks are trying to stoke the fire, pretending to be “last straw Repubs” with comments on conservative sites.
Now, that makes sense in light of an Opinion Journal (on-line) poll about the November election, which gives a 70+% result to the option, “Republicans will retain control of both House and Senate” (the other options were: Democrats will win both, Democrats will win the House, Democrats will win the Senate); the remaining 29+% was split, but I don’t recall the breakdown).
Cab, your dave duke brand of conservatism is dead, if not dying.
Patch, why would it be pro choice? Are you getting hperbolic on us? And if you mean pro civil unions (as oppose to pro-gay) then you will find a majority of the country is ready to give gay people some basic rights (like visitation to their dying partners). I am against gay marriage but am fine with civil union changes.
When did the conservatives become so full of hate for their fellow man?
My emai lto Michelle Malkin -
Michelle,
I used to come to blog daily to read your insight, and I would tune into Fox when you were a guest to hear your input.
I think it is time I moved on though because I personally feel you have crossed the line from providing a great service to a disservice on this immigration issue.
President Bush is trying to do his best to appeal to as broad of a consensus. Where were all the other presidents including the beloved Reagan on this issue? Amnesty by Reagan and ignored by the rest. So lets hammer Bush and string him up. Unbelievable.
Yet here you are leading the charge to the whitehouse with Polipundit, Peggy Noonan and La Shawn Barber calling for impeachement. Impeachment? Oh what a web we are weaving.
Michelle I had the upmost respect for you at one time but no more. You are going to hurt our cause in Nov more than POTUS Bush ever could by constantly slamming him because you do not get everything you want. Do you give your children everything they want or try to do the best you can as a parent? Republicans will stay home in Nov because of the likes of Polipundit, La Shawn Barber, Peggy Noonan and yourself.
Let’s see how happy a Reid senate and a Pelosi house will make you. We will have a vacancy on the Supreme Court in the next few years while Bush is in office. With the donks in charge with more senators and us with some rhinos, fat chance at a strong conservative. We will end up with a rhino Hagel type sitting there. But you can then blame Bush for this too, even though you are fanning the flames to our defeat.
There are allot of great blogs out there that are conservative but not insane, so I will move on. Just like you all think the GOP should learn a lesson, maybe you will widen your perspective when fans of yours go elsewhere.
Good luck with your ventures. Hot air is a great idea, but not for me anymore. And I truly do not expect you to agree with me or widen your perspective, that is why I will not be back.
Jeff
No, I am just looking at the people in the middle … the registered independents who have left both parties. In many areas the indepenents outnumber Republicans and Democrats. A person that is pro-choice and pro-gay rights but is otherwise pretty much with the Republican agenda would probably pull in a big chunk of those. Probably a larger chunk than any of the more inflexible members of either party that are pretty tied to a particular platform. In other words, a candidate who could take some parts of agenda A and some parts of agenda B might stand a good chance of winning.
Many Democrats would be willing to cross over and vote for a pro-choice Republican. Probably more would be willing to cross over than the Republicans would lose.
Not saying it is how I feel, I am ambivalent on those two issue myself, just saying that my gut tells me that a Rudy type Republican would win a national election even though he would probaly lose the party primaries. We might be in a position in the fall of 2008 to decide that the person who might be best at winning the national election might not be the person who arrives at the convention with the most delegates.
You ask them for their name, address, and taxpayer id number and you give them a form 1099 along with your check. Any contractor with a license will have a taxpayer id number. The least you can do is to make sure he pays taxes on what you pay him, and giving him a 1099 tells him that the government has been made aware of what you paid him.
By the way, there are several different form 1099. What you would issue the contractor is a 1099-MISC
Sorry to make so much clutter, but the instructions for 1099-MISC are here.
Basically if you paid someone more than $600 for rent or services rendered, you should file a 1099 with them getting a copy.
Crosspatch,
Are you being serious? I hire a company to do a job, I don’t search their employees. Remind me never to do work with you.
Crosspatch,
sorry for the misunderstanding about the independents. I think you will find they are more con than you think!
Okay, so I am full of crap. (won’t be the first time or the last) It turns out that 1099 is only for businesses to fill out. I went that route because *I* got stuck with a 1099 once for working on someone’s computer on my spare time. Seems they had set up a business out of their home and issued me the 1099 but as sole proprietor, the business name was his name. He was doing business as himself.
Oh, I know the independents are more conservative, but they tend not to be rabidly attached to the issues that the religious right wing of the party is so attached to. I simply have a hunch that a candidate that doesn’t appear to be married to Falwell’s might appeal to those who have registered Independent. Otherwise they would have registered Republican.
If I were a Democrat, the pro-choice or gay rights issues wouldn’t have caused me to leave the party over the past say, 5 years. Those have been Democratic Party issues for a long time. It would be the Democrat’s great leftward swing over the past several years and their blame America first crap that would cause me to leave.
Look at it this way … a non-religious woman who is pro-choice but strong defense … what party does she sign up for? What about a gay hawk? What about an older conservative Democrat? A Rudy could win those over at the expense of possibly losing the support of the most hardcore of the religious right. The trade might be worth it in numbers.
crosspatch:
What about the ag workers? Some of these people have been coming over for years to work and there are farms and vineyards that would go bellyup without them. But they tend to be migrants, and so it is hard to track them.
Maybe I could put it another way. Imagine a person who is very strong in the areas of individual responsibility, smaller government, anti-nanny state but is also strong in the area of social tolerance. That person is perfectly willing to accept gay marriage and legal abortion but also wants lower taxes and workfare rather than welfare. That is the position of many in the middle. Many of the Republical ideals concerning government and defense appeals to them but the social agenda turns them off. They don’t have a home with the Republicans or the Democrats.
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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