Republicans and Immigration

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Photo Credit: National Review Republicans are terribly confused over illegal immigration. They still can’t quite figure out its role in the last election.

Did the issue lose them the Latino vote? Maybe — but why did they also forfeit the Asian vote, and by nearly the same margin? Why did the caricature of Republicans as old white nativists resonate with Asians as well? If support for closing the border and refusing amnesty lost Republicans the election, why do a majority of Americans continue to poll in opposition to any sort of collective amnesty?

And why, in some polls, did Latinos seem more concerned about continuing big-government readiness to help the poor and tax the wealthy than about immigration reform? Alan Simpson and Ronald Reagan, who helped to give us the 1986 amnesty, are not heroes to the Latino community. Is there statistical support for the often-repeated axiom that Latinos, as a group, are more likely than members of the so-called majority culture to embrace traditional family values — lower divorce rates, lower rates of illegitimacy, lower crime rates, higher graduation rates?

Of course, kinder, gentler talk — unlike the buffoonery that was heard in some of last year’s sloppy Republican primary debates — would have helped. Yet in 2008 circumspection and prudence did not aid all that much the moderate John McCain, who in the past had championed a sort of amnesty lite. And all the silly and often gratuitous braggadocio about upping the height of the border wall or electrifying it was more than trumped by the crass pandering of Barack Obama, who called on Latinos to “punish our enemies”; joined with a foreign nation, Mexico, to sue one of his own states, Arizona; and claimed his opponents wanted to arrest children on their way to ice-cream parlors. Note there is no national commentary deploring the fact that the president of the United States engaged in just the sort of crass ethnic showmanship that characterized the Republican debates. Apparently, because his pandering worked and the Republicans’ did not, under the laws of politics only the latter was pandering.

Confused by questions like these, Republicans don’t quite know what to do about the 11 to 15 million illegal aliens in our midst, with more to come in future years. And in lieu of wisdom, principles, and consistency, Republican are mostly experimenting, trying to square the circle and win the Latino vote with clichés about conservative values and a vaguely familiar message of amnesty for those already here predicated on no additional illegal immigration. But the problem can be only reduced, not solved, by kinder, gentler language and outreach to Latino groups, for in the end it is an existential issue well beyond trimming.

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Obama’s One Percent Problem: Wall Street Scores While Main Street Suffers, Dow Within 100 Points of All-Time High

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Photo Credit: YoTuTStocks soared for a second day to finish near session highs Wednesday, with the Dow within less than 100 points of an all-time closing high, boosted by upbeat earnings and economic reports and as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke reaffirmed his support of the central bank’s stimulus policy.

“It would not be shocking to see a final push through, but I want to point out that seasonality is not necessarily on our side, which keeps us from going pedal to the medal,” said Josh Brown, financial advisor at Fusion Analytics. “We had a very similar market environment in early 2011 and last year. So it would not shock me to see a sprint close to the highs of the year, have our typical pullback, and when people realize that sequestration is not the end of the world, we could resume. That would be a better moment to load on new longs.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 175.24 points, or 1.26 percent, to close at 14,075.37, propelled by JPMorgan and Caterpillar. The Dow is now less than 100 points from hitting its all-time closing high of 14,164.53.

The S&P 500 jumped 19.05 points, or 1.27 percent, to finish at 1,515.99. And the Nasdaq advanced 32.61 points, or 1.04 percent, to end at 3,162.26.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, tumbled below 15. All 10 key S&P sectors finished firmly in positive territory, led by materials and industrials.

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Video: Russian Media Reports on ‘Day of Resistance’ Protest of Gun Control Measures

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Photo Credit: Jim UrquhartThousands of Second Amendment activists across the US took part in a Day of Resistance against President Obama’s gun control measures, calling his plans unconstitutional. Words are not all they’re prepared to use to protect their right to bear arms.

People gathered at dozens of cities and towns across the United States, crowds numbering from a hundred to a thousand people. They were carrying American flags and banners with words of harsh criticism against Obama’s proposed gun control regulations. “Come and take it!” “Dictators Want You Disarmed,” “Honk If You Want to Keep Your 2nd Amendment” and “Don’t tread on me” were among the most common slogans. Protesters believe owing a gun is a basic right of every American citizen.

“This isn’t a Democratic thing, or a Republican thing, or a Tea Party thing, this is an American thing. This is about the rights this nation was founded on,” Ryan Studabaker, rally organizer from Bluffton, Indiana, told Wane.com.

Based on production data from firearm manufacturers, there are roughly 300 million firearms owned by civilians in the United States – roughly one for every citizen.

“The 2nd Amendment prohibits the government from infringing on our right to bear arms. We want to make darn sure they don’t infringe on our rights. If we lost the Second Amendment, we’ll lose them all,” Jerry Martin, a rally participant in Kenenwick, Washington, told NBC.

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Why Marriage Matters For America And Conservatism

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Photo Credit: Ken Weingart Some former officials in the Republican Party are urging the Supreme Court to redefine marriage for the nation. But support for marriage as the union of a man and a woman is essential to American—and conservative—principles. Indeed, nothing could be less conservative than urging an activist court to redefine an essential institution of civil society.

As my co-authors and I argue in our new book, What Is Marriage?, and in the amicus brief we filed with the Supreme Court, marriage exists to bring a man and a woman together as husband and wife to be father and mother to any children their union produces. It is based on the anthropological truth that men and women are different and complementary, on the biological fact that reproduction depends on a man and a woman, and on the social reality that children need a mother and a father. Marriage has public purposes that transcend its private purposes.

Marriage predates government. It is the fundamental building block of all human civilization. All Americans, especially conservatives, should respect this crucial institution of civil society. This is why 41 states, with good reason, affirm that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Government recognizes marriage because it is an institution that benefits society in a way that no other relationship does. Marriage is society’s least restrictive means to ensure the well-being of children. State recognition of marriage protects children by encouraging men and women to commit to each other and take responsibility for their children. While respecting everyone’s liberty, government rightly recognizes, protects, and promotes marriage as the ideal institution for childbearing and childrearing.

Redefining marriage would further distance marriage from the needs of children. It would deny as a matter of policy the ideal that a child needs a mom and a dad. We know that children tend to do best when raised by a mother and a father. The confusion resulting from further delinking childbearing from marriage would force the state to intervene more often in family life and cause welfare programs to grow even more.

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Se·ques·ter: To Isolate, Or Hide Away

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Photo Credit: Irish Central Sequester. Since we are getting bombarded with the word, I decided to look it up to see what it means in the dictionary.

In its noun form, it is a general cut to government spending

In the verb, it means to isolate or hide away. In this case I think it’s use is the verb and the truth is hidden away.

In order to get the Republicans to agree to avert the fiscal cliff/debt ceiling crisis two years ago, the President said he would be glad to cut expenditures…in two years. So the President came up with a deal and it was called sequestration. Well the two years is up and the cuts will occur in two days.

Like all of the other fiscal cliffs and debt ceiling crises we have been exposed to for the past 4 years, nothing gets done until the last minute. There is no leadership, no one at the helm to bring all of the parties together and hammer out a deal.

Obama’s sequestration included cuts to the military that he figured would be revolting to Republicans and they would eventually agree to compromise with him. But the Republicans seem willing to go along with these cuts, the wars are winding down and there is less pressure on the military.

This reaction from the Republicans was unexpected to Obama. In his sequestration he had also included cuts to many social programs his base relies on…cuts he never thought he would have to make.

President Obama has taken to the road to try to drum up outrage against Republicans to pressure them to cave in on the sequestration cuts.

President Obama treats the sequester like it is a red headed step child, as if he was the innocent bystander and had nothing to do with it…But award winning journalist Bob Woodward, blew the whistle and firmly placed paternity rights to sequestration in Obamas corner.

But in this case “sequester” hides the truth. The truth is that these so called “cuts” are only a pinprick to the growth of government spending.

Both sides are equally guilty of protecting their pet projects and sacred cows which automatically grow fatter each year under baseline budgeting.

Senator Tom Coburn who knows better than most what the game is about, said the other day: “There’s easy ways to cut this money in ways the American people will never feel. What you hear is an outrage because nobody wants to cut spending.”

Senator Coburn has documented billions in waste and fraud that could be cut from the budget…read his excellent, 2012 Wastebook. But none of this is being addressed in the “sequester.”

The CATO Institute did an exhaustive study on how we are spending 100 billion on corporate welfare. But none of this is being touched with the “sequester” either. Here is their excellent report: Corporate Welfare in the Federal Budget.

The people and their children who will have to shoulder the burden of this out out of control spending, are tired of having the truth about the debt and deficit “sequestered” away by their leaders.

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U.S. Offers Training and Other Aid to Syrian Rebels

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WASHINGTON — The United States is significantly stepping up its support for the Syrian opposition, senior administration officials said on Wednesday, helping to train rebels at a base in the region and for the first time offering armed groups nonlethal assistance and equipment that could help their military campaign.

The training mission, already under way, represents the deepest American involvement yet in the Syrian conflict, though the size and scope of the mission is not clear, nor is its host country. The offer of nonlethal assistance is expected to come from Secretary of State John Kerry at a meeting on Thursday in Rome with opposition leaders. Mr. Kerry is also expected to raise the prospect of direct financial aid, though officials cautioned that the White House still had to sign off on all the elements.

Before arriving in Rome on Wednesday, Mr. Kerry declared in Paris that the Syrian opposition needed additional assistance and indicated that the United States and its partners planned to provide some.

Under a broad definition of “nonlethal,” assistance to the opposition could include items like vehicles, communications equipment and night vision gear. The Obama administration has said it will not — at least for now — provide arms to the opposition.

One major goal of the administration is to help the opposition build up its credibility within Syria by providing traditional government services to the civilian population. Since the conflict erupted two years ago, the United States has sent $365 million in humanitarian aid to Syrians. American officials have been increasingly worried that extremist members of the resistance against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, notably the Al Nusra Front, which the United States has asserted is affiliated with Al Qaeda, will take control of portions of Syria and cement its authority by providing public services, much as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon.

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J.C. Watts: GOP ‘In Denial’ About Its Image Problems With Minorities

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHoteyFormer Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) says the Republican Party is “in denial” about its image problems with minority voters — and he argues the “burden of proof” is on the GOP to show it is sincere about repairing relationships with communities tilting toward Democrats.

“We are in denial — because the fact is that many people associate the Republican Party as the party of the rich,” Watts told The Hill on Wednesday.

Watts, who left Congress in 2003, recently launched INSIGHT America, a nonprofit group designed to boost diversity within the GOP. It’s one of several GOP efforts at minority outreach launched in the wake of the 2012 election, in which President Obama won large majorities of the black, Hispanic and Asian American vote.

“Right now, there is not a strong relationship between minority communities and the Republican Party,” said Watts, who was in Washington on Wednesday to give a speech to the Heritage Foundation.

“The burden of proof is on us and it starts with relationships … We lost eight out of 10 demographics in the last election, so we have to be getting back to basics,” he added.

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US Imam Calls On Muslims In US To Wage Jihad

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Photo Credit: YouTubeThe controversial imam of a prominent mosque in Arlington, Va., has urged immigrant Muslims in the United States to wage war for Islam.

“The enemies of Allah are lining up. The question for us is, are we lining [up] or are we afraid because they may call us terrorists?” Shaker Elsayed told a crowd of Ethiopian Muslims during a lecture at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va.

“Let me give you the good news: they are already calling us terrorists anyway. Whether you sitting at home, watching TV, drinking coffee, sleeping or playing with your kids, you are a terrorist because you are a Muslim.”

“Well, give them a run for their money. Make it worth it. Make this title worth it, and be a good Muslim,” said the Cairo-born Muslim.

“Muslim men when it is a price to pay, they are first in line. … They are the first in the community-service line. They are the first in jihad line,” he declared to applause.

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The Unaffordable Care Act

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Photo Credit: APThe Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report Tuesday showing that if cost-control measures are not maintained the Affordable Care Act could increase the deficit by $6.2 trillion, or .7 percent of GDP, over the next 75 years.

The report shows President Barack Obama’s comments that Obamacare would “not add a dime to the long term debt [are] false,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) said at a Budget Committee hearing.

“The result of this brand new report confirmed everything that Republicans were saying about the bill,” Sessions said. The report is the first to look at the long-term effects of the Affordable Care Act beyond a ten-year period.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) previously had projected the cost of Obamacare over a ten-year period and found it would save more than $100 billion if certain policies remained the same—policies that CBO director Doug Elmendorf said would be hard to maintain.

“CBO’s cost estimate noted that the legislation maintains and puts into effect a number of policies that might be difficult to sustain over a long period of time,” Elmendorf said at the time. The new GAO study ran two projections: one in which those cost reduction policies were maintained and another projection in which Congress phased out the reduction policies put into Obamacare.

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Banality: RINOs Counter Tea Party With Empty Rhetoric

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Photo Credit: MIke Theiler I’m told we’re living in a Moderate Moment. After Mitt Romney lost the election, moderate Republicans started emerging from every corner of the country, from Northwest Washington, D.C. to Arlington, Virginia. It was time, they declared, for calm voices to prevail in the Republican Party. The Tea Party, the right-wing, the “Conservative Entertainment Complex” — all this must be cast overboard for the GOP to win again.

The latest iteration of this came in Wednesday’s Washington Post from columnist Kathleen Parker: RINO, of course, refers to Republicans In Name Only and is the pejorative term used against those who fail to march in lockstep with the so-called conservative base. I used “so-called” because, though the hard-right faction of the party tends to be viewed as The Base, this isn’t necessarily so. My guess is there are now more RINOs than those who, though evangelical in their zeal, are poison to their party’s ability to win national elections.

Parker calls for a RINO uprising, a new faction on the right to counter the Tea Party. That’s all well and good. There are genuine differences of opinion on the right, and a little inward dialectic never hurt anyone.

But how would her brand of Republicanism differ from the conservative base she derides? This is the closest thing we get to a policy prescription in her column: “Most would like the country to rock along without drama — operating within a reasonable budget, with respect for privacy and the rule of law, compassion for the disadvantaged and an abundance of concern for national security, including border control but not necessarily drone attacks on citizens.”

Yes, if only there was a political movement calling for reasonable budgets, more privacy for the individual, upholding the rule of law, and concern for national security. She must imagine hordes of earthy Tea Partiers holding the Post in their gunpowder-stained fingers while recoiling and exclaiming, “Compassion for the disadvantaged?! This paper’s gone to the dogs!”

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