The Immigration bill

More on the stall on immigration legislation. Apparently, Bush is still blaming Harry Reid for blocking the immigration bill in the Senate.

“Unfortunately, the compromise was blocked by the Senate Democratic minority leader," Bush said, accusing Reid of using a "procedural gimmick" to "single-handedly" block the bill.’

This was of course referring to Harry Reid’s ability to cast all 62 votes that went against cloture. In reality, 62 people voted to stall the bill and continue debate, only one of whom was Harry Reid. Note: there are only 45 Democrats in the Senate. Only 36 people voted to end debate and vote, showing a clear divide among Republicans on what to do on this bill. Half want the guest worker program, allowing immigrants to run into a 11 year process to gain citizenship, assuming they pay a fine, back taxes, learn English, and can prove they’ve been here for five years. The other half, apparently not seeing this is a horribly drawn out process that won’t work at all, feel this is rewarding illegal immigrants.

I would recommend the fine for citizenship. Although this rewards illegal activity, it will bring them into the workforce as a taxpayer, encourage workers to be documented (we should know who lives in our country), and serves the humanitarian cause of helping those in need. This is a long-time Democratic ideal, so I expect their support, but also Republicans who wanted to help out the Iraqi people by ‘liberating’ them apparently share this compassion. We can’t criminalize them for something we didn’t enforce in the past, that’s completely un-American. But we can enforce strong borders now. And to do that, bring our troops home. That includes our troops needlessly stationed in Europe, the Philippines, Cuba, etc. I know this is revolutionary and extreme, but I believe the National Guard should guard the nation. Feel free to comment, I know that last one would get the switchboards lighting up if I had a radio show.

One Republican doubts war

Senator Chuck Hagel, speaking from Pakistan, said today that military action in Iran is “is not a viable, feasible, responsible option.” Great to hear, but this is interesting. Here is a country that is defying the US and the world, and certainly has intentions to build nuclear weapons, like Bush said Iraq did. Just because our military is tied up in Iraq we’re not going to attack Iran? To use that tired phrase from the Republicans, “I hate to think of the message this sends to the world.” “This will give comfort to our enemies.” Only when I say them, they're actually are relevant.

A correction, of sorts.

Perhaps I wrote too soon. I just reported Iran being 16 days away from nuclear weapons, and highlighted the dangers of “crying wolf.” Basically, Bush has lied far too much to ever be taken seriously, and this was back in 2003. But already, this claim by a state department official has been debunked by Mydd.com.

Apparently, if Iran were to perfect nuclear production methods and install enough centrifuges (which they can’t plan to do in 06 at least), then they theoretically could produce nuclear grade uranium in 16 days. Woops! Minor detail missing there. I’m looking forward to the story in 2009 when it is released that Bush knew this was a garbage scare tactic before it was said, but approved the message anyway. I just hope people realize this is not a failure of government, just a failure of Republican government.

Iranian nukes in 16 days

The scare tactics are beginning. Apparently, Iran can build a nuclear weapon in 16 days. The problem here is great. This could be a serious threat, but unfortunately it mirrors the lies that lead up to Iraq. Iraq is close to nukes; Iraq has mobile chemical weapons facilities; Saddam is a threat to America; secular Saddam worked with religious extremists from Al Qaeda; the list goes on and on.

And how will we know if this is true? We won’t. And this is perhaps the biggest security threat to America and the world. Bush and the Republicans are the boy who cried wolf. We need honest, respectable politicians to come into office. We need to clean house the November, and get in Democrats. If Republicans straighten out their party, rid them of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, Frist, Delay (check), etc., and become a more moderate party, then I’ll try again to trust them. And Democrats take note: When you have the power back (hopefully November, or whenever), don’t abuse it.

Bush…lied?!

This is old news, but it’s now official that Bush lied back in May 2003 when he said “we found the weapons of mass destruction.” This was referring to trailers found that Bush claimed were mobile laboratories to make chemical weapons. The part that makes this news again is the fact that Bush knew at the time he said it that they weren’t in any way related to weapons of any level of destruction. Apparently Bush had the intelligence report changed to ‘justify’ the war. The reports that denied the trailers were of significance were shelved and classified.

News Bits – 4/11/06

Arnold Schwarzenegger came out in support of a bill to reduce emissions in the state by 25% in 2020. Great legislation, great call by Arnold. I know I support any Democrat over him, but he is one of my favorite Republicans. A Democrat in the Governors office (could happen this November) would mean more liberal legislation can be approved, more stringent environmental legislation, and equal marriage rights (I only read environmental news from Cali, I don’t know any other specifics).

The federal government, through Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson, warned China about its environmental record. Ironic, considering all the EPA has done under the Bush administration has resisted environmental standards and tried to roll back previous protections (not at all protecting anything but business). There is no argument though that China has a dirtier environment than ours (not per capita, but they are just getting going on clean energy), but perhaps the EU should be making this statement.

In a close election, Silvio Berlusconi has been voted out of office, and replaced with Romano Prodi. Berlusconi was a conservative billionaire, and staunch ally of Bush and the war in Iraq. Prodi is a center-left politician, and will move to end the war for Italians. If this happens, it will highlight the dwindling support, and hopefully help us get out. The election though was so close, with Prodi winning by .1%. New election rules give a huge boost to the winning party in the lower house though, so this .1% win is magnified, although parliament will still be close. The close election caused Berlusconi to refuse to concede until all checks are completed.

Conservative philosophy debunked; Rich get richer, poor and middle class get poorer

This follows completely the complaints I reported from common taxpayers this year. Wages went down for salary earners (adjusted for inflation: wages increased 2.95%, inflation up 3.10%), but increased for the top 100 companies executives by 25% (to 17.9 million a year). [Link]

This is a gross injustice, and it gets worse. Productivity is up, causing corporate profits to rise 21.3%. This income is sitting at the top, surprisingly not trickling down. Furthermore, theoretically, as full employment occurs (as it did in June 2005), companies bid for workers, causing salaries to rise. Didn’t happen. When situations like this occur, it takes government action to stabilize the economy.

So what action do I propose? Eliminating wasteful tax breaks. The $14 billion for oil and gas companies in the energy bill, the break on capital gains, dividend, and interest income taxes only help the rich. Bring back the Estate tax, and reform the AMT. Raise the taxes on the top bracket back to 39.6% from 35%. These changes bring us back to where we were before Bush’s horrible tax cuts that destroyed the budget. Also, close the tax loopholes and shelters that cost us billions, and increase funding for the IRS so they can audit tax cheats (read Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston for details). This would help keep money flowing in the economy, not stagnating at the top while the poor are deprived.

Glad to see that the tax programs have statistically backfired on the President and Republicans. This is evidence of the flawed conservative philosophy, and reveals it as it for what it really is: the hope of rich people to get richer at any expense to the country and the citizens.

Everyone should support lenient immigration reform

The immigration bill is dead for now, thanks to infighting in the Republican Party. George Bush wants a guest worker program, opposed by the more conservative of Republicans. Democrats in the Senate were poised to accept a bill that appeared to be a compromise, which called for immigrants in the nation more than 5 years to pay a fine, learn English, and pay back taxes. This was considered a more moderate bill. Let me comment on this; isn’t forcing someone to learn English against American ideals? It would be an advantage to the immigrant, and no doubt the immigrant would strive to assimilate themselves, and therefore attempt to learn it on their own. Forcing them too is just another hurtle, and forces our culture on others. The fines I see as reasonable; you can’t let people break the law and go completely free, unless they are high ranking Republicans like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzalez, Donald Rumsfeld, Bill Frist, Bob Ney, Rick Santorum, Conrad Burns, etc. (Their crimes include Illegal wiretapping, lying about the war, Abramoff bribes, Frist’s charity scam/insider trading, and Santorum’s K street project). Back taxes are a little different though. Undocumented workers don’t have any way to prove their past income, let alone how long they were in the country. The only way that you can legalize illegal immigrants is to fine them to gain citizenship, and register them. This would get them paying taxes, registered for security purposes, able to buy health insurance, get loans, and participate fully in the economy.

Granting illegal aliens residency would also allow them to vote, which brings up complications. Each party wants to be open to these immigrants, and the large Hispanic population that is sensitive to the issue. Republicans balking at this one is hurting them with the growing Hispanic voting block. This article shows the power of the immigrants. Rarely are their huge marches like this, including 500,000 in Los Angeles today. May 1^st is a general strike for all immigrants, legal and illegal, including refraining from work, buying, or selling. This is the power of democracy in action, and I fully support them in this fight. It is the American way to accept immigrants, and helps to promote our culture and government, which I think is the best in the world (despite my criticisms). For moral, cultural, and political reasons, all politicians should be open to immigration reform, and make it much more lenient than the current proposals are.

The 527 loophole

Recently, Republicans proposed closing the 527 loophole, which gave the Democrats more than three times as much funding as Republicans. The bill is completely politically motivated, but is actually quite progressive. Democrats naturally dragged their feet on it, but should in fact support it for many reasons.

First of all, the bill is progressive in nature. It bans unlimited contributions from moneyed interests, which puts the power in the hands of common people. Taking huge payments out of the system would take some of the influence away from corporations, unions (although I agree with their causes, the union members could provide their support instead hopefully), and billionaires. The politicians would be dependent upon small donations from lots of people. Recall when the soft money ban was put in place by McCain-Feingold. This was supposed to destroy the Democratic Party, but instead boosted its fundraising ability, and expanded the power of people in the party.

I just read an article that said taking the 527 organization and operations into the Democratic Party would be a huge advantage. While the Republicans do door-to-door and direct mailing, Democrats do on a smaller scale, and depend on 527's, such as environmental groups, to get support. This would improve the Democratic Party, if it picked up the slack and harnessed this grassroots support. Most importantly, if the Party took over these operations, it would let people know what the Democratic Party is all about. Of course our informed readers know what the Party is all about, but it would take away the criticism from ignorant Republicans. All in all, we should be right behind this bill, and pass it with our full support. This would show Democrats are not hypocritical on their values, and also help us out tons.