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The Iraq War-What would George Washington do?

Posted by jarhead on Friday, July 06, 2007 1:56:15 PM
     Recently Richard Lugar lost his spine and gave in to left wing pressure to get out of Iraq. And now I understand that John Doolittle, a California Republican representative and my former rep, has indicated that we have to be out 'of the front lines' by year end. Really-year end. So we telegraph our quit date and hope the enemy is not too encouraged to 'stay the course'. My God.
     There is a public sentiment that we do need to succeed in Iraq. While many are concerned about how the war is being conducted a majority of American's are not spineless, vote pursuing, self promoting wimps-they understand that we are at war, the last time we quit millions died (Viet Nam) and that this time quiting won't just mean millions die there-this war WILL follow us home. We know this from 9/11, the Fort Dix conspiracy and the Kennedy Air Port plot. We have not had a serious success by terrorists since 9/11 due in part to good luck, in part to effective monitoring systems (pourous southern border not withstanding) and in part because the enemy is occupied elsewhere.
      The enemy is investing heavily in defeating us in Iraq for a reason. Beating us there will greatly influence all the fence sitters in the Islamic community to believe that if the worlds remaining super power can be beaten it's time to join the fray. It will also throw the entire region into chaos, destabalize the world oil driven economy and, of course, the terrorists will be on us and killing us as quickly as possible here in our schoolyards, malls and public places. They will finish what they started.
      What the Lugars and the Doolittles of the Republican party need to do is what our President apparently does not understand the need to do and that is to tell the American people, repeatedly, why we need to be in Iraq, why we must succeed and why the sacrifices now are far smaller than if we pull back and have to return to do it right later. But apparently the Republican leadership is not really Repubilcan at all. Apparently they think that the 2006 election proved conclusively that being a Democrat is the way to go so they are going to be Democrats.
      Jimmy Carter would be proud of these whiners and wienies but George Washington would surely throw them collectively accross the Potomac in disgust. Could you imagine these quiters at Valley Forge-we'd never have had nation. I am now registered independant after 40 years as a Republican for good reasons-the Immigration fiasco is one and now we have cut and run. Is it any wonder the party is not raising money? Bed rock Republican's like myself (formerly) will no longer support this kind of nonsense.
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Patriotism

Posted by jarhead on Tuesday, July 03, 2007 4:12:41 PM
        I was at a local public event recently and at one point the national anthem was played. I stopped in my tracks, put my hand over my heart and paid my respects as it was sung (we weren't singing along but thats OK). Around me were folks continuing to have discussions, drinking beer with hats on and oblivious to the anthem and a few folks walking out-unconcerned that their nations anthem was being played. I was appalled.
       In discussing this later with some folks at work I've come to understand what is behind some of this. While those of us who are older or served in our nations armed forces or police forces have come to understand the ediquite for properly observing the anthem, the flag and the pledge of allegience many more have not learned those valuable lessons. When I was a child in school we said the pledge every morning. At school events we did the same and you stood for the flag if it was being brought into the room or area. I also learned to respect the flag for what it stands for. 
       In U. S. History I learned about this nations struggles to come into existence, about its unique place in the world as a great example of what a diverse people can achieve when they respect each others differences while still working together for the good of the whole by succeeding individually; succeeding individually by taking advantage of this nations great gift to its citizens-the gift of unfettered opportunity in a free and democratic society. Our nations traditions and achievements are unique in the history of the world. And while it has not always been a work of perfection, we have much to be proud of and, more importantly, we all have an obligation to understand our history and traditions so we can all work together to continue this grand experiment. There have been very heavy prices paid through out our history to maintain our great nation. Understanding that our freedoms are not free is part of what respecting our nations symbols is about.
      In talking to my co-workers I came to understand that today's children do not necessarily say the anthem every morning. Nor do our history books necessarily tell the full and wonderful story of our nations founding, its founding principles and how those principles have been pursued with determination and, as with the Civil War, the spilling of much blood so that we can one day be as good as the words that sparked our beginnings so long ago-"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the prusuit of happiness." Unique in all the world not just in the writing but in the reality of our nations traditions right down to today. 
     We may need a public service campaign to get everyone to understand what our great nations is really about, how unique it is and how important it is that all of us who enjoy its great gifts to take a few minutes out and respect the anthem and the passing of the flag-for our children as well as ourselves. They stand for something far greater and more wonderful than a few simple words can possibly convey.
      
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Chertoff of terror threat

Posted by jarhead on Monday, July 02, 2007 3:56:11 PM
     So our Homeland Defense head wienie is sure we should be concerned about threats from Europe. But our porous southern border is just Okey Dokey with him. I beleive the fense is now 13 miles complete and excuses abounding for not having built more. I'm sure there is a spotted owl in there somewhere.
    I cannot fathom what it takes for these people, who are supposed to be responsible for our nations security , to finally get on with securing our borders. 9/11 happened in 2001 and we have 13 miles of fence. I don't know how these people sleep at night knowing that when an attack attributable to folks coming across our southern border does occur they will be hung out to dry for their personal responsibility for every death and injury resulting. 
    Consider that we had a span of a major bridge down in San Francisco just a few weeks ago and its back up and in use. We cleaned up the Twin Towers rubble in weeks. As recently as the Viet Nam war we could put down a major airstrip on swamp land in days. But we can't build a defense to prevent what any reasonable person must recognize as an enormous threat to our national security and American lives. The excuses don't wash. What is missing with the fence is what has been missing for the last 21 years-the will to enforce our laws and secure our borders. But what was irresponsible and derelict until 9/11 is now criminal neglect. Do we really have to have people die to get those responsible to get the job done?
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Immigration Redux

Posted by jarhead on Saturday, June 30, 2007 5:04:24 PM

I just listened to Mike McConnell on immigration and his argument was that now we can expect even weaker legislation and we would have been smart to accept what he perceived as the best we could hope for. My letter to him follows:

 

Mike McConnell,
 
I'm in California and rarely get to hear and when I do I like much of what I hear-but not all. Here are a couple of things I think you are missing on the immigration debate:
 
1.  It went down because of an overwhelming response from an irate public. While our elected elite ARE arrogant and isolated they do fear for their futures and an outraged public that follows through, meaning some of the supporters of this bill lose office like Lott and Graham, then there will be some attention paid to what the public wants. Just giving up and saying it's the best we can expect to do got Graham booed off the stage in his native state. If our founding fathers had been so weak of will there would be no United States to worry about.
 
2.  A lot of us think there should be some attempt at enforcement before we talk about all these new programs like 'touch back', 'employer verification' and 'Z Visa tracking'. Its against the law today and has been for 21 years since the last amnesty to employ illegals -so why is it still happening? Why are we finding members of every plot from 9/11 to the Kennedy terrorist plot are here on expired visas? If the current system for such tracking can't handle the limited number of visas now in place, especially those from countries of 'interest' just how in the hell will it take on 12 million more? Touch back?? Really? And what current system will efficiently and effectively monitor that?
    These things can't work because our current systems of enforcement have not been utilized and have either atrophied or never been developed because of lack of use. A demonstrated will to enforce will get all this moving in the right direction.
 
3. 700 miles of fence authorized and maybe, depending on how you measure and what you measure-80 miles done. So maybe in 10 YEARS we might be done?
 
Here's what I think:
 
1.  Start enforcing existing laws. Raid suspected employers of illegals. BUT give everyone 6 months to figure out how to deal with their current batch of illegals. I believe that if we have 12 million folks working here, assuming they are working, and we have record low unemployment we need some of these folks.  If you gotta have 'em and properly paid with proper benefits there are no takers for their jobs, then they get a work visa. You have to advertise the job, evaluate applicants fairly and hire U.S. citizens where qualified. No fines or recriminations if you do it right starting now. After 6 months-go to jail.
 
2.  Build the fence-NOW. We repaired a span of a bridge in San Francisco recently in days using private contractors and incentives for early completion. If we really WANT the fence we can get it built DAMN fast.
 
3.  Put Black Hawks and Hummers on the border and when the bad guys want a shoot out give 'em one. Don't count bullets and don't expect a 90 page dissertation on every encounter. Expect armed drug runners to attack and take them down! Hell the Mexican side of the border will benefit too because once the border is shut there is no reason for the gangs to be fighting for territory on that side. And there is NO excuse for ANY armed miltiary of a foriegn country to be on our side. They either immediately surrender, turn tail and run like hell or get taken down.
 
4.  The protection of our borders is a Federal issue. If a community in California wants to declare itself a 'sanctuary' cut all federal grants and funds, remove all federal agencies from the area and prosecute those upholding such sanctuary to the full extent of the law.
 
None of this is impractical. If enough senators and representatives get on board this could be done and needs to be done. If enough of the public back it the congressional support will materialize. It's folk like you who can help get that done. You have a bully pulpit. Just try to think about this in a different way.  If our founding fathers had been so weak of will as to accept any compromise as better than demanding what's right there would be no United States to worry about. Isn't it time we lived up to what they did to found this great nation instead of frittering it away piece meal by a willingness to believe that we can't do any better. Jimmy Carter would be proud-George Washington would throw you across the Potamac.
 
 
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What Next?

Posted by jarhead on Friday, June 29, 2007 9:55:15 AM
     So the bill is now defeated or at least shelved for the next few years. From its supporters we hear that we have settled for the pre-existing status quo. Why?
     This bill trumpeted to be about enforcement as much as it was about amnesty. The resistence to it has been almost exclusively about enforcement and the American people's lack of trust in the government to enforce, either because of a lack of will and, as a direct result of 21 years of neglected enforcement, a lack of capacity as well. So why status quo? Because as we suspected all along there was no intent to enforce. If there is any serious intent on the part of the ivory tower crowd inside the beltway to regain the trust of the American people then start enforceing. Crack down in the work place, crack down at the border and build the fence. I know the systems to enforce were either never put in place or have atrophied from lack of use so this may take a little time. Can the focus be only on enforcement?
     I beleive that with 12 million folks here working at one job or another and unemployment are record lows we may actually need some of the folks. We don't need them working under the table, not paying their fair share along with their employers and burdening our emergency rooms and other social services. We need these folks out in the open, properly paid and properly paying. What should be on the table now is legislation to help those employers who have been doing this wrong for 21 years to come in out of the cold, identify their needs and employ these folks with proper pay and benefits. And that means something that looks at a guest worker program. 
     So what's next? A heavy dose of enforcement coupled with a recognition that we might just need some of these folks and a, therefore, a way for them to be here properly paid and properly paying their way. What we don't need or want or deserve is the status quo.
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Fairness Doctrine

Posted by jarhead on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 3:50:22 PM
     So the disgruntled Left and the befuddled Republicans supporting the immigration bill currently back before the Senate don't like having their little backroom deal exposed to daylight before they could shove it through the Senate undebated. And because talk radio has taken the lead in informing the public on these shenanigans they become the target of an attempt at censure. 
    Censure is exactly what this is. It has nothing to do with fairness. The Constutituion, in the First Amendment, clearly states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press..". Freedom, not fairness, not balanced-just Freedom. 
    Talk radio exists because the product can pay for itself. The product is ideas and in the marketplace of ideas those espoused by the bulk of talk radio are clearly very marketable. If they were not marketable there would be no listenership, therefore no advertisers and therefore no show. That is exactly why Air America failed-a dirth of ideas that could attract enough listeners to fund itself through advertisers. It is at its very most elemental exactly what our society is all about. Freedom of choice in the freedom to choose what we listen to and the freedom to speak out on ideas. 
    The fairness doctrine is not fair at all. It is an attempt to force the public to listen to ideas they do not give a fig about at the expense of those ideas that do sell. That is unAmerican.

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Immigration redux

Posted by jarhead on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 3:49:03 PM
     Unfortuneatly for our President and his cronies in the Senate you are ultimately measured by what you DO not what you say. There has been little or no effort to enforce existing laws and legislation much of which is simply rehashed in the new bill. If there is no will to enforce existing law what reasonable person would possibly believe there will be the will to enforce new laws? Moreover consider that the infrastructure to enforce has either atrophied or was never in place because the activity was not being undertaken. The folks that are in charge of visas for instance cannot even keep track of the limited number of folks here on expired visas from countries of interest, some of whom have been involved in every plot since 9/11-how pray tell will this inept group take on the tracking of 12 million more??
     I just heard the argument made that this bill is different because with this law our enforcement folks don't have to track anyone down; the illegals will present themselves bright eyed and bushy tailed to take part in this new system. There are two major flaws with that piece of logic:

1.  A great many of these folks don't care about legality. They just want to collect the bucks and send them home. If they have to come out in the open and their jobs are suddenly elevated in cost to employers to what they should have been to begin with, they may not even keep those jobs; qualified American workers will take them. And if you think 'work papers' is some sort of panecea remember that making employers check those papers IS enforcement and enforcement that could be taking place currently but is not. Why will we suddenly have the will to enforce when we did not have the will before? And who will do it???
2. This 'logic' does nothing to address the need to ENFORCE the border. This gaping hole in our national security must be closed, we have ample legislation and law on the books to get it done BUT it has not been done to date. If the will has not existed to date how will a new law make any difference? It won't.

     This bill has two parts to it. The part that rewards law breakers at the expense of those patiently and lawfully waiting in line by awarding amnesty and the part that says we will finally get tough on law breakers. The part about getting tough calls on our federal government to do things it has had no will to do in the past and demonstrably no capacity to do. In the end this is the Reagan amnesty redux. All amnesty and no enforcement. No matter how much perfume or how many bows you put on this pig its still a pig. Damn the amendments-stop this pig in its tracks.
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Bidding for votes

Posted by jarhead on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 3:35:33 PM
     I just read Clint Bolick's article GOP Runs a Big Risk of Losing Hispanics.  My first reaction was anger at his presumption that those in the Republican party opposing this bill are anti-immigrant. We are anti ILLEGAL immigrant. We very much support legal immigration. That said this article, along with all the other attempts to push this law forward, are flawed for several reasons.
    First and foremost the enforcement first folks like me are concerned about our national security. Some of the Fort Dix conspirators came across our southern border. There is no telling how many others are already here and there have to be yet more trying to use that wide open back door to get at us. Just how long can we expect to keep getting lucky? We have to shut down the border NOW for reasons of national security. To have failed to do so in the years since 9/11 is simply criminal.
    The next flaw is the attempt to portray this as the best we can do anyway. The best we can do is enforce our laws. We don't enforce any of the existing laws on the books. Some of those may not have the stiffer penalties included in the new law but if there has been no will to enforce our borders and existing immigration laws including the approval for 700 miles of fence then why would any reasonable person believe that the same laws rehashed will be enforced either? All these new laws are window dressing to try to make amnesty look better. In the end this is about bidding for votes. The point of  Bolick's article is that the republican party needs to reach out to the Hispanic community and that this bill does that. A lot of the jobs that illegals are taking at under the table wages are coming from hard working legal Hispanics. I would bet that  they are no happier with illegal immigration and the risk to their families that borders open to terrorists poses then anyone else. Selling out our countries security for a few votes, that may not change to republican anyway, is at best irresponsible and at worst traitorous.
    Last but not least is the simple fact that the current immigration tracking systems are inadequate for the current burden of tracking current immigrants in the system. Members of almost every terrorist plot we know of were here on expired visas. These are folks from 'countries of interest' and we can't keep track of them or find them to get them under control. And this same system will be asked to take on 12 million more?? Really?? How utterly silly. Some of these ideas might even make sense if there were the mechanisms in place to enforce and track and check out illegals but there simply not such mechanisms so the enforcement side of this bill is DOA.  
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Why Immigration Reform?

Posted by jarhead on Friday, May 18, 2007 4:25:27 PM
 

So today we have what John McCain would have us believe is the best immigration reform we can hope for. But why reform?

We already have laws that prohibit illegal immigration, we already have laws that make it illegal to employ illegals and we now have the authorization to build a fence. What have we done with all this existing capability?

We have communities all over the nation thumbing their noses at federal law by providing sanctuaries for illegal including law enforcement organzations prohibited from cooperating with federal authorities. We have employers hiring large numbers of illegals not because they can't find U.S. citizens who'll do the work but because they can pay them under the table with no need to worry about benefits or state and federal madated contributions. And while we have legislation authorizing a fence we still don't have a fence. If there is no will to enforce existing laws then why in God's name do we think a raft of new laws will be any more enforceable?

The United States is a sovereign nation entitled to secure borders. These secure borders in OTHER nations serve several goals. They promote security assuring that criminals are not allowed into the nation. They also allow each nation to assure that the right folks are immigrating to match real needs with in the nation. And most importantly in this time of global war with that faction of Islam focused on world domination it is doubly important to assure that any nations borders are secure. So what is there to reform?

First we need that fence and very fast. How much longer can we expect to get lucky? At some point the terrorists will exploit our lack of border control and American lives will be the price paid for political expediency.

We also must come down very hard on those who employee illegals. This aspect of the illegal immigration situation is quite simple. The laws of supply and demand are clearly at work. So long as we tolerate a demand for illegals generated by unsrupulous employers there will be folks coming here to take those jobs. Remove the demand by punishing such employers harshly and the supply will self correct. We must understand the simple fact that a large segment of jobs that here to fore could be expected to be filled by middle class legal citizens-Carpentry, Masonry and a range of other tasks that won’t raise the price of lettuce but do put hardworking legal citizens out of a job-are being performed by a legion of illegals being paid under the table with no benefits nor even a living wage by our normal standards. But there are also some folks that we really do need so we should respect those we do need to have here by paying them properly, providing benefits and bringing them out of the shadows. We have a quota system that currently does not account for this need. That system needs to be adjusted where necessary AND those jobs should be opened to EVERYONE wishing to immigrate to our nation including those patiently doing the right thing and obeying our immigration laws. Surely there is no justice in rewarding the lawbreakers and line jumpers with fast tracks to citizenship and continued retention of illegally obtained jobs while those who would obey our laws and honor our nation’s sovereignty are pushed aside.

So we don't need reform so much as we need a strategy that recognizes that we've gone too long without real border control and a strategy which focuses on enforcing existing laws. What we don't need is a raft of new laws no more enforceable than the old as a way to pretend we've done something. Our conservative congressmen and senators need to stand way back and look at the big picture, stop worrying about bi-partisanship as a goal unto itself, and take a principled stand against this nonsense.

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