"A bipartisan House bill that had been in the works for months has never been released publicly. Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican who leads the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Friday that majority leader Eric Cantor is writing the bill with him."
I cringe upon wondering what part$ they kept.
"Hope for broad action on immigration dims; Conservatives in House spurn Senate plan" by Noah Bierman | Globe Staff, July 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — Of the issues deemed most likely to break through congressional sclerosis this year, immigration policy overhaul once topped the list. But now a comprehensive Senate plan that passed with bipartisan support is dead in the House, casting serious doubt on further action on one of the nation’s most vexing issues....
Ooookay. Message received. Keep in mind.
Sunday, several Republican and Democratic lawmakers took to talk shows in an effort to revive the issue....
They were Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, Representative Mike Kelly, a Republican of Pennsylvania, and Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, according to muh Globe.
Don't forget to pay your Hatch tax, illegal.
Many Republican leaders have worried that conservatives’ opposition to comprehensive immigration legislation will give the party an “anti-immigrant” reputation, one that could undermine its bid to regain the White House....
First of all, I don't care about the White House implications. I care about the law and what the bill really is.
“Leaders of the party were not elected. We were. And we’re listening to our constituents,” said Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, emerging from a closed-door meeting last week, where the GOP caucus aired its differences on the issue.
To a certain degree they are, but when it come$ to the important things.
Many House Republicans object to a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants. They oppose greater authority for the president over border security.
I'm with them on those; however, notice the agenda-pu$hing media's focus and framing?
And they see the immigration bill as too sweeping, in the same category of big-government solution as President Obama’s health care law.
Yeah, turns out Obamacare is a disaster -- but only temporary(?)!!
The Senate bill affects nearly every segment of immigration law. It includes an enforcement plan that adds $46 billion for a border security “surge,” boosts the number of work visas, and increases employment verification.
Now THAT is what I AM LOOKING FOR! Did the House Republicans betray us and pass those portions of the bill?
A 13-year path to citizenship is at the legislation’s core — and also at the core of conservatives’ opposition.
But not the in$ourcing?
Supporters of the overhaul are now grasping at anything to keep the bill from dying, hoping that pleas delivered during a raucous closed-door meeting last week from House leaders to rank-and-file members to at least engage in the issue will rescue it.
Gee, this is really rank shit spin by the agenda-pu$hing mouthpiece.
They argue that doing nothing about the 11 million illegal immigrants amounts to de facto amnesty, leaving an entire class of people to operate in the shadows of American society....
Related: Illegals Already Have Amnesty
See WHO it BENEFIT$?
Several Republican Party leaders have argued that their party will suffer long-term consequences if they are seen as anti-immigrant, as evidenced by Mitt Romney’s dismal showing with Hispanic voters in the 2012 elections....
Yeah, well, the fact that Mitt Romney was the personification of corporate AmeriKa didn't have anything to do with it? The fact that he slavishly bowed to Israel in an attempt to get elected, nothing. The fact that the Republican Party shit all over Ron Paul supporters had nothing to do with it. No, it was the immigration issue which lost him the presidency. Yeah, that's why neither he nor Obama got my vote (I wrote in Nader, the perfect president for these times).
But rank-and-file House Republicans are deeply skeptical. They offered a variety of responses, some of them vague, over how to handle the issue during interviews last week.
Stop the throw Americans out of work acts and I'll be fine with you. Forget this political strategy s***.
The most conservative members continue to say illegal immigrants should be deported without exception because, by coming to America without documentation, they broke the law. Some House Republicans said there should be exceptions for some, including those who arrived as children and had no choice in the matter. Other members shaded the issue differently, saying the government could offer steps to “regularization,” without defining the term, for some who came illegally that falls short of citizenship.
Media focus is on amnesty, and it's looking like there will be a partial component. Bet if you kids join the military they will citizen you.
A bipartisan House bill that had been in the works for months has never been released publicly.
Oh, so things were being kept secret as we were shoveled this shit?
Instead, the chamber is set to consider four smaller bills, approved at the committee level, that would increase visas for skilled workers, create a system requiring employers to verify workers’ legal status through a government database known as E-Verify, set higher wages for foreign agricultural workers, and give local communities and states greater authority over immigration enforcement.
It's as I feared and suspected.
House leaders are working on a fifth bill that would provide “legal status” to illegal immigrants who were brought to the US by their parents....
Otherwise known as amnesty, agree or disagree on the issue.
Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican who leads the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Friday that he and majority leader Eric Cantor, who is writing the bill with him, believe the measure is part of an effort to “find a way to fairly deal with those who are currently in the country unlawfully.”
Amnesty as they WRITE a COMPREHENSIVE BILL the agenda-pu$hing mouthpiece indicated wouldn't be done, it's dead!
**************************
Regardless, it’s far from guaranteed to win approval even in the House, where Speaker John Boehner, under pressure from members, has promised not to introduce any immigration bills that do not have majority Republican support.
Oh, $omehow I think the vi$as will.
That gives far more influence to such members as Representative Mo Brooks, an Alabama Republican, who read “America the Beautiful” during last week’s closed-door Republican caucus to dramatize his argument that no illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay.
“Anyone who’s come to our country, whose first step on American soil is to thumb their nose at our law and violate our law, we should not reward them with our highest honor, which is citizenship,” he said afterward. “They need to go back to where they came from, one at a time, just as they came here one at a time.”
The impossible implication of a racist, right?
I think the strategy should be applied to Israel. Usurping Khazarian Jews need to go back.
--more--"
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Sanders $ells Out on Immigration Bill
About where I left off.
"Senate passes immigration overhaul bill; Extensive plan splits Republicans; House GOP vows to pass own bill" by Ashley Parker and Jonathan Martin | New York Times, June 28, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved the most significant overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws in a generation with broad support generated by a sense among leading Republicans that the party needed to join with Democrats to remove a wedge between Republicans and Hispanic voters.
Just wondering if you are tired of the parti$an$hip $moke$creen.
The strong 68-32 vote in the often polarized Senate tossed the issue into the House, where the Republican leadership has said that it will not take up the measure and is instead focused on much narrower legislation....
They picked it apart and then package what will please certain intere$ts.
The legislation — drafted largely behind closed doors by the group of eight senators — brought together an unlikely coalition of Democrats and Republicans, business groups and labor unions, farmworkers and growers, and Latino, gay rights, and immigration advocates.
That ought to alert you right there as to its agenda-pushing qualities, especially since Leahy took out the gay rights provisions to get it passed, and all labor got was a knew bureaucracy to issue reports.
Along the way, the legislation was shaped and tweaked in a series of backroom deals and negotiations that, in many ways, seemed to mirror its inception.
This is AmeriKan democracy at work!
As late as Wednesday night, several members of the bipartisan group, including John McCain of Arizona and his Republican colleague Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as well as Schumer, found themselves calling Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, trying to shore up support. In separate calls, the senators urged Christie to help persuade Republican Senator Jeffrey S. Chiesa — newly appointed by Christie — to vote for the bill. (Chiesa was one of the 14 Republicans who voted “yes” on Thursday).
All 12 senators from New England voted for the measure, including Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Mo Cowan of Massachusetts, independents Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, and Republicans Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Susan Collins of Maine....
Well, Liz should know better, but I knew when I voted for her she would hew the Democrat's party line on issues peripheral to her specialties. Sanders the $ocialist(?) should be ashamed of himself. I never knew they were so easy to buy off.
--more--"
Nothing about the work visa provisions in that piece.
"For House GOP, citizenship plan a deal breaker; Leaders vow piecemeal tactic on immigration" by Philip Elliott | Associated Press, July 01, 2013
WASHINGTON — Representative Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that any attempt at comprehensive immigration legislation in the Republican-controlled House cannot offer a ‘‘special pathway to citizenship’’ for those in the United States illegally.
Focus.
That approach could block the Republicans’ hopes of ever winning the White House, said Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader.
Tired of retyping myself.
With last week’s passage in the Senate of a comprehensive immigration bill, the emotionally heated and politically perilous debate is now heading toward the House, where conservative incumbents could face primary challenges if they appear too lenient on the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants....
That approach, Pelosi said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,’’ would bring electoral doom for Republicans looking to take back the White House after the 2016 elections. Republicans, she advised, should follow the Senate lead ‘‘if they ever want to win a presidential race.’’
??
In 2012, Obama won reelection with the backing of 71 percent of Hispanic voters and 73 percent of Asian-American voters. A thwarted immigration overhaul could again send those voting blocs to Democrats’ side.
I always wonder why the mouthpiece media lumps all immigrants into a monolithic block. If I had spent years doing it legally and going through the process the last thing I would be for would be some lawbreaker getting a free pass.
‘‘We wouldn’t even be where we are right now had it not been that 70 percent of Hispanics voted for President Obama, voted Democratic in the last election,’’ Pelosi said. ‘‘That caused an epiphany in the Senate, that’s for sure. So, all of a sudden now, we have already passed comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate. That’s a big victory.’’
The Senate bill would provide a long and difficult pathway to citizenship for those living in the country illegally, as well as tough measures to secure the border.
And the work visas?
Conservatives have stood opposed to any pathway to full citizenship for those workers, and House lawmakers have urged a piecemeal approach to the issue instead of the Senate’s sweeping effort.
Illustrating the strong opposition among conservative lawmakers in the House, Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, said flatly: ‘‘The Senate bill is not going to pass.’’
I wrote good in my printed paper's margin there, but as we suspected and now confirmed, it was just another layer of agenda-pu$hing deception and obfuscation.
House Republicans have said they would consider each piece of immigration separately as they tried to navigate the politically dicey subject that could complicate not only their efforts to reclaim the White House but also thwart some incumbent GOP lawmakers’ attempt to win reelection.
Oh, I wouldn't worry about House elections.
See: Sunday Globe Special: Carving Up North Carolina
Yeah, the House will be Republican until 2022.
But don't let that intrude on the s***-shoveled ma$$ media narrative!
House Speaker John Boehner has ruled out taking up the Senate bill and said the Republican-controlled chamber would chart its own version, with a focus on border security.
So there WILL BE a House Republican COMPREHENSIVE BILL!
In the Democratic-controlled Senate, 14 Republicans joined all Democratic senators and independents in the 68-to-32 vote.
Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee and an author of the current Senate immigration bill, nodded to the politics. ‘‘Republicans realize the implications of the future of the Republican Party in America if we don’t get this issue behind us,’’ he said on “Fox News Sunday.’’
That now falls to Boehner’s chamber, where conservatives in his party have complicated his agenda on other subjects.
Really? When? When didn't Israel, Wall Street, and corporate AmeriKa get what they wanted?
Republicans and Democrats alike were watching Boehner’s next move.
‘‘I’m hopeful that we can convince our House colleagues,’’ McCain said. ‘‘I believe that Speaker Boehner has a tough job ahead.’’
If it fails, Democrats stood eager to blame Boehner and his party.
Fine, as long as those visa bills are killed.
‘‘Will he allow a small group, maybe even a majority of his caucus, to control the debate and the future on this issue?’’ asked Representative Luis Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois. ‘‘If he decides to do that, we will then end in a stalemate and an impasse once again.’’
They already do; it's called the Zionist AmeriKan Media.
But an immigration bill could be trouble for Boehner’s rank-and-file members.
‘‘They fear Republican primaries from the right if they vote ‘yes,’ ’’ said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat New York.
But Democrats were unlikely to yield on their principles, warned Schumer, who helped write the Senate bill. ‘‘No Democrat will vote for any bill without a path to citizenship,’’ Schumer said.
Fine. Good. That'll kill amnesty.
--more--"
Related: Democrats insist measure include path to citizenship
Yeah, the focus is all on amnesty and southern border security now.
"One judge, 7,000 convictions — and flawed border crackdown" July 06, 2013
No federal district judge has sent more people to prison than Robert C. Brack, who presides over the US courthouse in the border town of Las Cruces, N.M. Between 2006 and 2012, Judge Brack locked up more than 7,000 defendants — an average of 100 a month. It’s a distinction he would just as soon forgo.
The overwhelming majority of defendants sentenced by Brack are illegal immigrants, prosecuted because they tried to cross the border after having previously been deported. Though many Americans don’t realize it, immigration-related cases now account for nearly 50 percent of all federal prosecutions, reflecting a change in federal priorities that has clogged courtrooms along the US-Mexico border, and filled cells with convicts who pose no danger to the public.
Related: The Illegal Immigrant Imprisonment Industry
Now things are making $en$e!
Also see:
Sunday Globe Specials: Initiating Immigration Reform
Slow Saturday Special: U.S. Government Defends Privacy of Illegal Immigrant Criminals
Because they released killers and rapists.
When Brack was first appointed to the bench in 2003, most migrants caught crossing the border without a visa were simply sent back to Mexico. Immigration violations were commonly dealt with in civil proceedings; prosecution was generally reserved for those with serious crimes on their record — such as violent assaults, drug trafficking, or firearms offenses. But under a hard-line policy launched during the Bush administration, anyone caught trying to enter the United States unlawfully a second time could be prosecuted as a felon and jailed upon conviction. The result: a sharp spike in the number of federal prisoners serving time for immigration violations.
The pri$on-indu$trial complex got a big boo$t!
That might have been a welcome development if those being prosecuted and incarcerated represented a threat to public safety. The evidence shows the opposite....
And yet they are letting out murderers and rapists because they can't hold to repatriate after six months.
As a judge, Brack is duty-bound to apply existing law. But he is under no obligation to deny the injustice of the current system. Federal immigration authorities claim that the sharply increased likelihood that a border apprehension will result in a prison sentence has made the border more secure. But Brack argues that many of those he is compelled to lock up are being branded as felons for nothing more menacing than seeking work as farmhands.
You guys are about to get a raise.
Even more poignant are the cases of illegal immigrants who were caught trying to re-enter the country for the most elemental reason of all: to rejoin their American families.
Yes, just forget about the drug gangs and sex trafficking rampant among the illegal population.
“I didn’t set out to sentence the most people in America,” Brack says. He owes that unwanted record to an immigration system that punishes migrants as if they were hostile foes, and forces judges to throw the book at people who mean us no harm.
Why not? They do the same to American citizens and Muslim "terrorists."
As the long-overdue immigration bill wends its way through Congress, Americans have to hope that comprehensive reform will soon be followed by common sense in the nation’s courtrooms.
What part of "illegal" doesn't the law-and-order Globe understand?
--more--"
"Immigration judges pushing for independence; Say department impedes timely, open operation" by Maria Sacchetti | Globe Staff, July 17, 2013
Federal immigration judges are urging Congress to liberate them from the Department of Justice, a dramatic bid for independence that could eventually open immigration court records to the public for the first time in US history.
That is something we all need, and the more public the better!
As lawmakers debate immigration legislation, the judges have intensified lobbying efforts in Washington with phone calls, letters, and personal trips to the Capitol, armed with support from national legal organizations including the American Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association.
Now we will see how powerful the immigrant judge's and lawyers lobby.
The judges say the backlogged immigration courts need the freedom to control their own budgets, issue timely decisions, and prevent unfair treatment of judges — all things they maintain are not happening within the Justice Department bureaucracy.
“The DOJ has contributed to selling the Immigration Courts short rather than defending their independence or enhancing their stature,” the judges’ union, the National Association of Immigration Judges, said in a report given to Congress. “This has serious and insidious repercussions.”
A move out of the Justice Department could also allow immigration judges to decide which court records be kept from the public, similar to regular courts.
The judges’ call for independence comes as labor unions in the Department of Homeland Security, which runs enforcement and citizenship services, are calling on Congress to fix immigration laws and be more transparent to the public. Traditional court records are public but immigration court and arrest records are generally confidential to protect the immigrant’s privacy.
This government doesn't protect anyone's privacy; that is claimed to save them from embarrassment for letting thieves, rapists, and murderers out while still detaining illegals whose only crime is setting foot on the soil.
Related: Israelis to Get Immigration Exemption
Well, there is always that.
“Somebody needs to flip the light switch on and make all of this stuff more visible,” said Chris Crane, president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, which represents detention and deportation officers. “These people work for the taxpayers. Why should they be able to hide anything?”
Because that is this corporate and totalitarian government's knee-jerk response to everything.
The judges’ lobbying is the latest sign of a glaring disconnect between the immigration officers on the front lines and the lawmakers in Washington who are charting their future in a sometimes haphazard effort to fix the nation’s troubled immigration system and address the 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally.
I've typed it so many times I'm tired of repeating myself: as we have seen, all the money goes to the interests of Israel, well-connected corporations and other campaign contributors, the war machine of empire, and the funding of lavish political lifestyles by the people in charge of implementing austerity measures. That last bit sure looks like a poop-shoot violation.
The judges feel a sense of urgency because they fear that new immigration legislation — if it passes — could flood the courts with new cases. Their request for independence won little support from the Senate, which passed an immigration bill last month that ignored their request, but now the judges are targeting the House....
And that is the "good" house of Congress, the Democrat-controlled side.
A Senate aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said senators crafting the bill feared an independent court would be too costly.
All of a sudden they are concerned about cost -- which means I'm surprisingly on the side of the judges and immigrants. Those invisible hell-hole jails we throw them into are undeserving of the American founding and reputation.
The future of the Senate bill is uncertain because House leaders have said they would not take it up and instead would focus on their own legislation.
Thus we will get a conference on what was pa$$ed, and we will get $ome form of legi$lation.
The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Justice Department agency that runs the courts, also raised concerns about the cost of an independent immigration court....
Costs again.
Though they wear black robes and preside over courtrooms, the judges are lawyers named by the attorney general, the nation’s top prosecutor and the head of the Department of Justice. It took over the courts from the Department of Labor in 1940, amid national security concerns during World War II.
Immigration judges have slowly gained prestige over the years....
Not enough to avoid being ignored by Congre$$.
But the judges’ union told Congress that the court’s ties to the Department of Justice have damaged its credibility. In documents to Congress, the union recited a litany of conflicts, including the illegal recruiting of judges during the previous administration based on their political affiliations and the failure of the Justice Department to allow judges to hold people in contempt. The union said some judges have even faced discipline for issuing unfavorable decisions.
That was the Gonzalez-Rove driven attorney-gate, remember that?
Where are they now, huh? Once again, government illegality is not prosecuted and goes unpunished. Tired of the game yet?
As of June, the courts had more than 300,000 cases pending, which the judges called a record high, including more than 8,000 in Boston, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
How many future Marathon bombers in there, huh?
At the same time, immigration judges say they suffer burnout, handling about 1,500 cases each, compared with 440 for federal judges, in life-or-death matters, including immigrants facing deportation to countries where their lives might be in danger.
This corporate government is burning us all out.
Judge Dana Leigh Marks, an immigration judge in San Francisco, said the Congressional Budget Office should determine the cost of an independent court before lawmakers dismiss the proposal.
In its proposal, the judges’ union urged Congress to use its power under Article 1 of the Constitution to create an independent court of judges named by the president to a fixed term and confirmed by the Senate. Those judges would not have lifetime tenure or the salary protections that regular federal judges have.
Constitution? What's that?
The judges modeled their proposal after the US Tax Court, created in 1969 amid similar concerns about conflicts of interest under the Department of Treasury. Though tax court judges’ decisions and records are generally public, professors said immigration court records would be open to the public only if Congress, or the judges, made it so.
Marks, president of the union, said it is likely the judges would follow the tradition of regular courts, limiting access only to cases that would endanger someone’s safety.
“We support the same amount of transparency that other courts receive,” she said.
Well, almost all.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association has also backed the creation of an independent court.
“If we’re going to put people’s futures in their hands then we need them to be a truly independent decision maker and not an arm of carrying out the policies of the Justice Department,” said Crystal Williams, executive director for the Immigration Lawyers Association.
Others doubted the House and Senate would change the immigration court system now, since they cannot even agree on the broader issue of immigration overhaul....
Well, they agree on $ome things.
--more--"
And LOOK who the DEMOCRATS have EMBRACED:
‘‘America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time,’’ George W. Bush said in Dallas Wednesday (LARRY W. SMITH /EPA)
Is it just me or is there a certain irony in AmeriKa's greatest law-breaker and mass-murdering war criminal -- by rank of office if nothing else -- spouting and spewing about a "lawful society?"
WASHINGTON — As House Republicans weighed their next steps on
immigration Wednesday, former president George W. Bush nudged them ever
so gently from the Texas sidelines to carry a ‘‘benevolent spirit’’ into
a debate that includes a possible path to citizenship for millions
living in the country illegally.
The former president’s ability to sway a new generation of House
conservatives was a matter of considerable doubt, especially because
many lawmakers backed by the Tea Party movement are on record in
opposition to a citizenship provision.
‘‘We care what people back home say, not what some former president
says,’’ declared Representative Tim Huelskamp, a second-term Kansas
Republican who has clashed with party leadership.
(Blog editor smiled at that!)
Still, the timing and substance of Bush’s remarks were reminders of
the imperative that national party leaders feel that Republicans must
broaden their appeal among Hispanic voters to compete successfully in
future presidential elections.
‘‘America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time,’’ Bush said at a naturalization ceremony in Dallas.
Democrats embraced his message....
They mean me$$age.
Oh, yeah, about that parti$an$hip.... sigh.
Oh, yeah, about that parti$an$hip.... sigh.
While the Senate last month passed a sweeping bipartisan bill that
includes a path to citizenship, the House has moved more incrementally.
Its Judiciary Committee has cleared four smaller measures, which include....
The article DOES NOT TELL ME what they APPROVED!
In more than four years since he left the White House, Bush has
rarely spoken out publicly about either policy or politics, and he said
he did not particularly want to yesterday.
But he said the nation has a problem....
So do I.
So do I.
"Obama pays tribute to Bush for volunteer effort; Presidents jointly present ‘Point of Light’ award" by Mark Landler | New York Times, July 16, 2013
WASHINGTON — In a homecoming tinged with nostalgia and an unspoken sense of farewell, President Obama on Monday welcomed his oldest living predecessor, George H.W. Bush, to the White House, where the two men, united in their fervor for volunteer service, presented an award to a retired Iowa couple.
Yeah, that way government tax dollars can be redirected to Wall Street, well-connected corporations and friends, Israel, and the war profiteering defense contractors.
I guess parti$an$hip is only for students needing lower loan rates -- or anything else the American people need.
Appearing together in the East Room, Obama and Bush, who is 89, bestowed the 5,000th “Daily Point of Light” award — named after Bush’s signature initiative on volunteer service — to Floyd Hammer and Kathy Hamilton, who founded a nonprofit organization that delivers free meals to hungry children in 15 countries.
Yeah, that's great -- after the FARM BILL has been STRIPPED of FOOD STAMPS needed by 48 million Americans!
Paying tribute to Bush for “how bright a light you shine,” Obama recounted how his predecessor began awarding these prizes while still in the White House and has continued to hand them out every day since he left the presidency in 1993.
Yeah, the current patriarch of the Bush crime family is such an altruistic and visionary soul.
“When you do a parachute jump at the age of 85,” Obama said, gesturing to a smiling Bush, in a wheelchair, “this is somebody who is not going to slow down anytime soon.”
Bush, who was hospitalized in intensive care with a high fever over the holidays this winter, appeared frail but alert and in good spirits. He wore a pair of jaunty, mismatched red-and-white striped socks, which his son Neil said reflected the determination of his father, who no longer jumps out of planes, to become a style icon instead.
Related: Meet the Next President George Bush
Not Neil. Maybe Jeb.
Bush spoke briefly, his voice familiar and steady, to thank the president and Michelle Obama for their hospitality. After handing the microphone to Neil Bush, who chairs the “Points of Light” organization, he admonished his son to “keep it short.”
That the same Neil involved in the Silverado S&L rip-off?
In addition to his son, Bush was joined by his wife, Barbara Bush, other members of his family, though not former president George W. Bush. Before the ceremony, the Obamas hosted the Bushes for lunch in the Red Room of the White House.
Yeah, they still eat good.
It has been a season of conciliation for the Bush family and Obama, who ran for the White House on a blunt critique of George W. Bush’s war in Iraq.
That's not the way I remember the campaign. WTF?
During his recent trip to Africa, Obama crossed paths with the younger Bush, paying tribute to him for his AIDS initiative, which Obama described as one of his “crowning achievements.”
How offensive!
“Because of the commitment of the Bush administration and the American people,” Obama said before their meeting in Tanzania, “millions of people’s lives have been saved.”
And how many millions more died on the altar of his and your war lies?
Bush returned the favor, speaking out in favor of an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, which he failed to push through Congress in 2007 and which is now Obama’s major legislative goal.
Oh, that's why he had to do what he didn't want to do.
“I think it’s very important to fix a broken system, to treat people with respect. And have confidence in our capacity to assimilate people,” Bush said recently on the ABC program “This Week.”
I'm so glad I do not watch those things anymore.
At the ceremony, Obama, who started his career as a community organizer, said he had been inspired by the elder Bush’s example.
(Blog editor really doesn't know what to say. Never saw a word about such a thing until now. Please tell me Obama didn't suck the shriveled old man's shriveled cock).
Bush, he noted, passed a federal law on volunteer service in 1990 that laid the groundwork for AmeriCorps and other organizations. But it is the phrase “Points of Lights” with which he is indelibly associated.
The words, which Bush first used in his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, quickly worked their way into popular culture.
And not in a positive way. It was viewed as a sham and a joke at the time, and still is.
--more--"
Yup, a thousands points of light -- which are nothing more than trains hauling away tax loot.
WASHINGTON — In a homecoming tinged with nostalgia and an unspoken sense of farewell, President Obama on Monday welcomed his oldest living predecessor, George H.W. Bush, to the White House, where the two men, united in their fervor for volunteer service, presented an award to a retired Iowa couple.
Yeah, that way government tax dollars can be redirected to Wall Street, well-connected corporations and friends, Israel, and the war profiteering defense contractors.
I guess parti$an$hip is only for students needing lower loan rates -- or anything else the American people need.
Appearing together in the East Room, Obama and Bush, who is 89, bestowed the 5,000th “Daily Point of Light” award — named after Bush’s signature initiative on volunteer service — to Floyd Hammer and Kathy Hamilton, who founded a nonprofit organization that delivers free meals to hungry children in 15 countries.
Yeah, that's great -- after the FARM BILL has been STRIPPED of FOOD STAMPS needed by 48 million Americans!
Paying tribute to Bush for “how bright a light you shine,” Obama recounted how his predecessor began awarding these prizes while still in the White House and has continued to hand them out every day since he left the presidency in 1993.
Yeah, the current patriarch of the Bush crime family is such an altruistic and visionary soul.
“When you do a parachute jump at the age of 85,” Obama said, gesturing to a smiling Bush, in a wheelchair, “this is somebody who is not going to slow down anytime soon.”
Bush, who was hospitalized in intensive care with a high fever over the holidays this winter, appeared frail but alert and in good spirits. He wore a pair of jaunty, mismatched red-and-white striped socks, which his son Neil said reflected the determination of his father, who no longer jumps out of planes, to become a style icon instead.
Related: Meet the Next President George Bush
Not Neil. Maybe Jeb.
Bush spoke briefly, his voice familiar and steady, to thank the president and Michelle Obama for their hospitality. After handing the microphone to Neil Bush, who chairs the “Points of Light” organization, he admonished his son to “keep it short.”
That the same Neil involved in the Silverado S&L rip-off?
In addition to his son, Bush was joined by his wife, Barbara Bush, other members of his family, though not former president George W. Bush. Before the ceremony, the Obamas hosted the Bushes for lunch in the Red Room of the White House.
Yeah, they still eat good.
It has been a season of conciliation for the Bush family and Obama, who ran for the White House on a blunt critique of George W. Bush’s war in Iraq.
That's not the way I remember the campaign. WTF?
During his recent trip to Africa, Obama crossed paths with the younger Bush, paying tribute to him for his AIDS initiative, which Obama described as one of his “crowning achievements.”
How offensive!
“Because of the commitment of the Bush administration and the American people,” Obama said before their meeting in Tanzania, “millions of people’s lives have been saved.”
And how many millions more died on the altar of his and your war lies?
Bush returned the favor, speaking out in favor of an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, which he failed to push through Congress in 2007 and which is now Obama’s major legislative goal.
Oh, that's why he had to do what he didn't want to do.
“I think it’s very important to fix a broken system, to treat people with respect. And have confidence in our capacity to assimilate people,” Bush said recently on the ABC program “This Week.”
I'm so glad I do not watch those things anymore.
At the ceremony, Obama, who started his career as a community organizer, said he had been inspired by the elder Bush’s example.
(Blog editor really doesn't know what to say. Never saw a word about such a thing until now. Please tell me Obama didn't suck the shriveled old man's shriveled cock).
Bush, he noted, passed a federal law on volunteer service in 1990 that laid the groundwork for AmeriCorps and other organizations. But it is the phrase “Points of Lights” with which he is indelibly associated.
The words, which Bush first used in his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, quickly worked their way into popular culture.
And not in a positive way. It was viewed as a sham and a joke at the time, and still is.
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Yup, a thousands points of light -- which are nothing more than trains hauling away tax loot.
"English-only rule scrapped at Utah prisons" by BRADY McCOMBS | Associated Press, July 11, 2013
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah prisoners will be allowed to talk with visitors in Spanish or any other language they want now that a longstanding English-only rule has been scrapped.
By Aug. 1, signs in the Utah state prison saying, ‘‘All visits will be conducted in English,’’ will be taken down in a policy change ordered by Utah’s new prison boss, Rollin Cook.
That will put an end to the nation’s only written rule from a state prison system forbidding foreign languages during visits, said Chesa Boudin, a federal public defender in San Francisco and one of three authors of a Yale University law school study that reviewed prison rules across the United States.
‘‘I was shocked,’’ Boudin said of when he learned of the rule. ‘‘This is a country that prides itself on its diversity: racially, ethnically, linguistically. Utah, while not the epicenter of immigration in this country, has many language groups.’’
The rule for visitations was initially put in place as a safety measure so corrections officers could understand what was being said by inmates and visitors, said a Utah Department of Corrections spokesman.
But government can listen to your phone calls, read your e-mails, collect all communications of the planet, etc, etc, etc.
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Who is in those jails?
"Immigration agents arrest 93 foreign-born sex offenders" Associated Press, July 06, 2013
NEW YORK — Immigration authorities arrested 93 foreign-born sex offenders in New York through a targeted enforcement initiative.
But good, hardworking immigrants just trying to put food on the table.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said that of the 93 people arrested, 67 were child predators convicted of sex offenses involving minors. The remaining offenders were convicted of victimizing adults.
With the exception of one woman from Ecuador convicted of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl, all of those arrested were men. Those arrested were from more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic.
They were picked up between June 17 and June 28.
ICE said its enforcement efforts give top priority to cases involving foreigners who pose threats to national security and public safety. Those include sex offenders and members of transnational street gangs.
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Let's just amnesty them.
"2 Colombians held in sex trafficking case" by Matt Rocheleau | Globe Correspondent, July 11, 2013
Two Colombian nationals face charges of sex trafficking and running a house of prostitution in Allston following a yearlong, ongoing investigation, authorities said.
Time to legalize the world's oldest profession.
A judge ordered Hector Gallego, 50, and Wider Gomez Agudelo, 41, held on $75,000 bail and on immigration detainers at their arraignments last week in Brighton District Court, said Renee Nadeau Algarin, spokeswoman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office.
Both men pleaded not guilty to charges of trafficking a person for sexual servitude, deriving support from prostitution, and keeping a house of prostitution, Algarin said by e-mail Wednesday.
“From what we’ve been able to determine about the operation thus far, it exploited numerous women, almost all of them immigrants,” Algarin said.
“The women were expected to engage in sexual contact with multiple strangers for money that would go almost entirely to the defendants,” she continued. “It’s similar to other operations we’ve seen, in which the victims are not allowed to leave until they’re rotated to another trafficking operation.”
Federal officials, including agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Boston police obtained a federal search warrant. On June 20, the investigators raided an apartment at 255 Cambridge St., where prosecutors said the prostitution operation was being run, said Algarin.
There, authorities seized: cash; identification and immigration documents, some of which were real and some of which were fake; handcuffs; phones and communication devices; and paraphernalia associated with prostitution, Algarin said.
During the search, Gallego allegedly “engaged officers in a violent struggle,” injuring two ICE special agents, Algarin said. He has also been charged with two counts of assault and battery on a police officer.
They didn't kill him like they did Todashev?
Both men were arrested the day of the search and detained, Algarin said. Formal criminal charges were filed against them June 28.
The search was part of a yearlong, continuing investigation into an alleged human trafficking operation, she said.
One day after the search, Shawn Neudauer, a spokesman for ICE, responded to questions by providing a brief statement describing the search as “a law enforcement operation in Boston” involving agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and Boston police. He and authorities from other agencies, did not comment further until Algarin’s e-mail Wednesday.
Gallego and Agudelo are scheduled to return to court July 15, Algarin said.
Nothing about it in today's Globe.
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I didn't mean to spoil the party.
"Nearly 200 take the oath as friends, family cheer" by Jeremy C. Fox | Globe Correspondent, July 11, 2013
Sponsored by the US Department of Justice and US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Boston ceremony included the presentation of each new citizen with a commemorative edition of President Kennedy’s inaugural address.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum spokeswoman Rachel Flor said the library hosts naturalization ceremonies about six times a year.
“It’s always really a special event for the library to hold,” she said. “It’s always exciting for the new citizens, and they arrive clearly with a sense of pride, excitement, nerves. We just feel really honored to be part of such an important day.”
They did it the legal way!
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Sorry you just dimmed your prospects for employment.
"Cape businesses squeezed as wages increase" by Sarah Shemkus | Globe Correspondent, June 28, 2013
When tourist season hit, the Lighthouse Inn in West Dennis was ready to receive guests. The room rates were set, reservations had been made, and the housekeeping staff of temporary foreign workers was in place.
Then innkeeper Gregory Stone got a notice from the federal government. Because of a string of lawsuits and legal rulings, he suddenly had to pay his cleaners an additional $2 per hour, throwing off his payroll budget for the season and potentially cutting into the summer profits that he needs to carry him through the year
“We’re just going to have to live with it,” Stone said.
For more than a decade, employers on Cape Cod and the Islands have depended on seasonal foreign workers to meet their summer staffing needs because they cannot find US citizens to fill the jobs.
Related: Lazy American Kids
Maybe they are just sick of the lame-a$$, $elf-$erving $hit.
But new rules for the H-2B seasonal worker visa program have sparked unexpected increases in required wages – some in excess of 40 percent — after room rates, menus, and other prices have been set for the season.
And there are only going to be more of them if the work visas go through.
Some Cape Cod resorts are now paying hourly wages that are $4 or more above expected rates, Cape tourism officials said. The minimum required wage for a house cleaner has jumped more than 30 percent to $13 per hour from $9.91, according to figures from the H-2B Workforce Coalition, an association of employers who use the program. Drivers must now be paid $18.02 per hour, up more than 40 percent from $12.76.
What is $tunning is that is a LOT MORE than I HAVE BEEN PAID for FACTORY WORK around here.
“That’s really problematic for employers,” said Laurie Flanagan, the coalition’s cochair. “We’re seeing a lot of sticker shock over the new wage rates. It is just something that H-2B employers can’t absorb.”
The wage increases are just one of the issues employers who use the H-2B program are grappling with this summer. While the Department of Labor developed new pay rules, it stopped processing H-2B applications, delaying the arrival of many workers and leaving employers scrambling to get dishes washed and rooms cleaned in the early part of the season.
Oh, those are things American kids won't do?
Related:
Sorry, kids.
Many business owners are also keeping a close eye on the debate over the immigration bill, which passed the Senate Thursday but faces opposition in the Republican-controlled House. They are worried that lawmakers, concerned about jobs for American workers, might not appreciate the importance of seasonal foreign help to tourism industries and make the program more restrictive and costly.
I don't think you have to worry about that -- just the rai$es.
“My fear is that going forward that people don’t understand the program,” said William Zammer, who owns four restaurants on Cape Cod. “I have tried in numerous ways and have not been able to fill those positions. If I could find American workers, I would do it.”
Yeah, sure you would.
For many Cape and Islands businesses, the H-2B visa is at the heart of summer hiring. The program allows businesses to bring in workers from abroad to fill low-skill positions for which they cannot find qualified domestic applicants. Employers must pay the local prevailing wage for the position, as determined by the US Department of Labor.
Please tell me you AmeriKan kids are not stoo-pid enough to but that pile of excrement.
Before the last recession, which began in late 2007, as many as 5,000 workers came to Cape Cod on these visas each year, generally starting in early spring. The economic crisis lowered that number as businesses did less hiring and high unemployment created more willing, eligible local workers.
You will be lucky to land a temp job.
Today, the number of H-2b workers on the Cape is about half the prerecession peak, but the program remains an essential part of many employers’ staffing strategies.
Employers who use H-2B are required to pay the foreign workers the prevailing wage as a way to prevent exploitation of foreign workers and depressing wages for American workers....
They aren't depressing the wage, they are taking it away completely!
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Also see:
The case for regional immigration
A GOP case against immigration reform
I made mine and it all had to do with work visas and the insourcing of cheap foreign labor. That's going through on a biparti$an basis.
Meanwhile, there will still be a pool of 12 million illegals so the wealthy and business can continue to subvert the wages and benefits of legal citizens.
