Post #359,451
6/23/12 9:53:42 AM
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Seems reasonable enough.
On core values, if he had any he'd fight for, he's a republican. It's difficult to distinguish between the parties any more except for the theatrics. There's a difference in names and presentation, but it's still SSDD.
Has ANYBODY said anything substantive in the campaigns recently? They just snipe at the other guy. Two square pegs for one round hole.
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Post #359,455
6/23/12 11:13:50 AM
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Gotta know where to look.
These days you can't expect to get substance on TV. Substance rarely has video.
Here's what Obama did in the last week - http://www.whitehous...complete/2012-W25
Here's what Rmoney did in the last week - http://mittromneycen...sources/calendar/
Rmoney's speech to NALEO - http://www.mittromne...ity-all-americans
An effective immigration system can also strengthen our economy, as it has since the nationÂs founding.
Unfortunately, despite his promises, President Obama has failed to address immigration reform.
For two years, this President had huge majorities in the House and Senate  he was free to pursue any policy he pleased. But he did nothing to advance a permanent fix for our broken immigration system. Instead, he failed to act until facing a tough re-election and trying to secure your vote.
Last week, the President finally offered a temporary measure that he seems to think will be just enough to get him through the election. After three and a half years of putting every issue from loan guarantees for his donors to Cash For Clunkers before immigration, now the President has been seized by an overwhelming need to do what he could have done on Day One. I think you deserve better.
Some people have asked if I will let stand the President's executive action. The answer is that I will put in place my own long-term solution that will replace and supersede the President's temporary measure.
As President, I wonÂt settle for a stop-gap measure. I will work with Republicans and Democrats to find a long-term solution. I will prioritize measures that strengthen legal immigration and make it easier. And I will address the problem of illegal immigration in a civil but resolute manner. We may not always agree, but when I make a promise to you, I will keep it.
Let me speak to a few principles that will guide me.
As I have said many times, it is critical that we redouble our efforts to secure the borders. That means both preventing illegal border crossings and making it harder to illegally overstay a visa. We should field enough border patrol agents, complete a high-tech fence, and implement an improved exit verification system.
Our immigration system should help promote strong families, not keep them apart. Our nation benefits when moms and dads and their kids are all living together under the same roof. But, today, too many families are caught in a broken system that costs them time and money and entangles them in red tape. For those seeking to come to America the right way, that kind of bureaucratic nightmare has to end. And we can do this with just a few common-sense reforms.
As President, I will reallocate Green Cards to those seeking to keep their families under one roof. We will exempt from caps the spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents. And we will eliminate other forms of bureaucratic red tape that keep families from being together.
Anything concrete in there? Nope. It's sloganeering.
Obama's speech to NALEO: http://www.whitehous...erence#transcript
Now, once again, the problem is not the lack of technical solutions. We know what the solutions are to this challenge. Just six years ago, an unlikely trio -- John McCain, Ted Kennedy, President Bush -- came together to champion comprehensive immigration reform. (Applause.) I, along with a lot of Democrats, were proud to join 23 Senate Republicans in voting for it. Today, those same Republicans have been driven away from the table by a small faction of their own party. ItÂs created the same kind of stalemate on immigration reform that weÂre seeing on a whole range of other economic issues. And it has given rise to a patchwork of state laws that cause more problems than they solve and are often doing more harm than good. (Applause.)
Now, this makes no sense. ItÂs not good for America. And as long as I am President of the United States, I will not give up the fight to change it.
In the face of a Congress that refuses to do anything on immigration, IÂve said that IÂll take action wherever I can. So my administration has been doing what we can, without the help in Congress, for more than three years now. And last week, we took another step. On Friday, we announced that weÂre lifting the shadow of deportation from deserving young people who were brought to this country as children. (Applause.)
We should have passed the DREAM Act a long time ago. It was written by members of both parties. When it came up for a vote a year and a half ago, Republicans in Congress blocked it. The bill hadnÂt changed. The need hadnÂt changed. The only thing that had changed was politics. (Applause.) The need had not changed. The bill hadnÂt changed -- written with Republicans. The only thing that had changed was politics. And I refused to keep looking young people in the eye, deserving young people in the eye, and tell them, tough luck, the politics is too hard.
IÂve met these young people all across the country. TheyÂre studying in our schools. TheyÂre playing with our children, pledging allegiance to our flag, hoping to serve our country. They are Americans in their hearts, in their minds. They are Americans through and through -- in every single way but on paper. And all they want is to go to college and give back to the country they love. (Applause.) So lifting the shadow of deportation and giving them a reason to hope -- that was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do. (Applause.)
ItÂs not amnesty. It falls short of where we need to be --a path to citizenship. ItÂs not a permanent fix. This is a temporary measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while offering some justice to these young people. But itÂs precisely because itÂs temporary, Congress still needs to come up with a long-term immigration solution -- rather than argue that we did this the wrong way or for the wrong reasons.
So to those who are saying Congress should be the one to fix this -- absolutely. For those who say we should do this in a bipartisan fashion -- absolutely. My door has been open for three and a half years. They know where to find me. (Laughter.)
IÂve said time and again: Send me the DREAM Act; I will sign it right away. (Applause.) And IÂm still willing to work with anyone from either party who is committed to real reform. But in the meantime, the question we should consider is this: Was providing these young people with the opportunity for a temporary measure of relief the right thing to do?
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yes!
THE PRESIDENT: I think it was. ItÂs long past time that we gave them a sense of hope.
Your speaker from yesterday has a different view. In his speech, he said that when he makes a promise to you, heÂll keep it. Well, he has promised to veto the DREAM Act, and we should take him at his word. (Applause.) IÂm just saying. (Laughter and applause.)
And I believe that would be a tragic mistake. You do, too.
On all these issues -- on the investments we need to grow the middle class and leave a better future for our kids, on deficit reduction thatÂs fair and balanced, on immigration reform, on consumer financial protection so that people arenÂt exploited, whether at a payday loan shop or if theyÂre sending remittances back to their families -- on all these issues, Washington has a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the country.
Who is talking about actual actions and policies, and who is playing in a theatre?
There's substance out there, and substantial differences between the candidates and the parties. It's a crime that it takes so much work to find them in the press, but don't fool yourself. They're not the same.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #359,456
6/23/12 12:02:27 PM
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he took thursday off from campaigning?
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 55 years. meep
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Post #359,460
6/23/12 1:53:25 PM
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Maybe.
As opposed to Congress being in session 9 days in April - http://thomas.loc.gov/home/ds/h1122.html ?
Presidents campaign for re-election. They, at least the good ones, also are on the job all the time (phone calls at 3 AM and all that) - Congress, not so much. Film at 11:00.
Of course, Willard's been running for president since 2004, so ...
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #359,487
6/24/12 12:42:04 PM
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I suppose...
I still find it abysmal that we need to go digging for something decent that either one of these turkeys has done recently. In a rational system, we would have to go digging to find questionable behavior. I guess I'm old fashioned or something. Very little of this scene is making sense any more. The republicans want to start another witch hunt because a sting operation went bad and ONE fucking ATF agent got killed by one of millions of guns floating around. This is the U.S. we're talking about. We kill thousands of our own people and hundreds of thousands of icky foreigners just to make a few billionaires a little richer. Obama IS cheerfully murdering civilians in half a dozen countries we're not at war with, but nobody complains about that because there's money in it and the next guy will want to continue the practice. If nothing else it trains drone operators to pick off dissidents when our revolution/civil war comes along.
Where did the "Obama is king" meme come from? He's been a middle management Wall street functionary for his entire tenure. More confusion.
I just wish there was somebody I could vote for that would not make me complicit in murder. It's probably not going to happen in my lifetime. Pity. This used to be a pretty good country.
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Post #359,491
6/24/12 1:18:39 PM
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I understand the sentiment. Progress is slow.
War and state-based police actions (or whatever one wants to call them) are nasty business.
I obviously have no special insight into Obama's thinking on the techniques being used to go after al Qaeda and suspected al Qaeda people. If we are going to go after them with deadly force, it makes more sense to me to do so with drones than with cruise missiles or B-2s.
http://www.globalsec...109-operation.htm
At least with drones, there's nearly real-time video of the target and the chance that a human can call it off if the targeting is mistaken, etc. With dumb bombs and missiles, there's much more opportunity for mistakes, and their target zones are necessarily much larger than with ordnance from a slow-moving, loitering platform.
http://www.iraqbodyc...se/incidents/x020
But obviously in any military-ish conflict (again, whatever one wants to call them), civilians will do most of the dying. :-(
I just wish there was somebody I could vote for that would not make me complicit in murder. It's probably not going to happen in my lifetime. Pity. This used to be a pretty good country.
I understand the sentiment - I really do. But don't let your disappointment blind you to the progress that has been made. We didn't go into Georgia despite McCain's wishes. Our actions in Libya were limited and had a short duration. We haven't talked of marching to Damascus to teach Assad a lesson, and talk of war with Iran has died down.
Compare that to what went on in the 1960s in SE Asia, or in the 1980s in Central America, or in the Bosnian war in the 1990s, and of course in the 2000s in Iraq.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #359,514
6/24/12 11:41:55 PM
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Check history
How often, in the course of American history, has there been a viable candidate for President who wasn't up for a bit of murder here and there?
I'm not the expert historian, so I may have missed somebody, but I'm thinking approximately never.
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Badass! (and delicious)
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