Immigration Reform?

Considering the 12,000,000-figure, it's unreasonable to insist on their eventual return to Mexico, Central America, or elsewehere. The issue should be framed in the context of flushing-out every single, possible illegal and regularizing their status...then sort-out who can stay for eventual citizenship or "resident-status"...and who should be permanently booted-out. There should be two, twin goals...finding out who's actually here...and deciding if they can stay and under what circumstances. Get the list first; then weed-out the "undesirables" with criminal records. The best way to encourage those who actually wish to go home, even part-time, is to eliminate the "gotchas" and the risks of being barred "after" they voluntarily go home.

That the borders with Mexico and Canada will be "porous" is a fact we have to live with. For "security" purposes, it makes more sense to concentrate jointly on the Canadian and Mexican entreports to the rest of the world. If we are concerns about Islamofascist terrorists, stop them wherever they might set-foot in North or Central American soil...not the thousands of miles of American frontier. The Islamofascists can't walk on water, they have to fly into an airport's international terminal, or enter via ship's gangplank.

'Not a whole lot'a Politicking Going-on..."

The following open-letter was faxed to Patrick Guerriero at Washington, D.C. Headquarters


24 Mar 2006

Patrick,
I've spent the last several days looking at the program for the LCR National Convention; looking at Expedia and Hotels.com for a better deal on rooms....and stewing. Looking at the options and mulling whether to skip Thursday-night, or just go Saturday, etc... And part of my problem is the Agenda...or rather what's not on the Agenda.

If your NOT a VIP or Trustee; there's the Thurs. Reception at the Capitol Club and the party later-on at Remington's....but if your not a VIP you're not invited to the intervening dinner. There's no open-attendance dinner or party Friday other than the Trustee's cocktail hour, and the Saturday evening party is for VIP's-only as-well. And Sunday morning is the brunch for those "available". As I read this, that means that the general LCR members will not have an opportunity for interacting with the VIP's at-all socially between Thursday's reception and Sunday's brunch. All of the opinion-shapers and decision-makers will be out-of-reach and out of earshot for the duration of the LCR Convention after Thursday afternoon's reception.

The official program bothers me in that it's the agenda of a gay-rights group, not a Republican electoral organization. On Friday we have;
A speech in Gay Marriage,
A speech on DADT, Keynote Speech by Bishop Robinson's speech on Faith and Sexual Orientation,
Followed by a panel discussion on religious intolerance.
and a "Gay Rights" panel discussion.

On Saturday is the LCR Convention;
GOP Women and the Big Tent,
"Insights" into 2006 ands 2008
And "immigration reform, the war on terror and the spending situation in Washington."

I don't see any "partisan politics" being committed...and I don't see any accountability of LCR-National to the general membership, nor the membership assembled. There's no General Membership Business Meeting scheduled, and I don't see any reports being made on the performance of the National, and I would have liked to hear some reports or comments from chapters on what was successful for them and not-successful. How they went about raising funds, soliciting both for their chapters functions, but also how they raised monies that where then channeled to their local, county and state GOP organizations. Your and I both know that the two things that can any political organization influence in either party is the ability to mobilize manpower and money.

Where's the grassroots organization and activism?? No small-group discussions? I see lots of "rights activism" but little "Republican political action"...and that worries me. Why no break-out seminars on getting involved in the partisan-political process. Presentations on why a gay Republican should run for local office. The How-to of organizing and growing chapters; or how to make a difference. I don't see anyone speaking on how their Chapter has made in-roads into the GOP establishment...nor on how chapters can synergistically aid other chapters. Where's the "politics"? How to orchestrate a mailing campaign. How to effectively lobby state legislators without waving huge bags of money. Where's the the real-world examples of how to be effective on a county GOP committee to gain influence with the Committee.

I have often publicly-stated that I think that St. Hillarybeast will successfully carry 2008, and the the LCR should concentrate the following 4 to 8 years on local, county and state elections...This means the courthouses, the statehouses and the halls of Congress. If the LCR is to gain political throw-weight for the big, national GOP Conventions, it has to earn that throw-weight at the local level. The tactics of 2004 were a mistake; that opinion and political fealities could be swayed through "marketing" and taking public postures.

I would like to attend, but I figure it's $1500.-minumum at attend; and do what? Other than sitting in the dark, I don't see the general membership of the LCR doing-much that counts; either at the Convention, nor once they get back home. At the moment, I think I'll just leave my options open.

Respectfully...

To Be Unarmed....

David Kopel's essay on armed Jewish resistance in WW2 speaks to the ancient Machavelian quote" to be unarmed is to be dispised", and to many minority groups throughout the world including Darfor in the Sudan.

... "The kind of people who specialize in perpetrating genocide are bullies. How many bullies are willing to take a chance of getting shot by the intended victim? If potential massacre victims can plausibly threaten to harm at least a few of their attackers, then the calculus of the attackers may change dramatically.

Besides directly facilitating the ability of armed soldiers to control unarmed civilian genocide victims, there is a second way in which disarmament promotes genocide. As the American Founder Joel Barlow wrote, “Disarmament palsies the hand and brutalizes the mind: an habitual disuse of physical force totally destroys the moral; and men lose at once the power of protecting themselves, and of discerning the cause of their oppression.”[62]

If every family in the world owned a good-quality rifle and an ample supply of ammunition, genocide would be greatly reduced, and perhaps eliminated. [my emphasis] Not all countries with severe gun controls perpetrate genocide; but no genocidal governments allow any but the most politically reliable segments of the population to own guns. Because every government which in the last hundred years which has engaged in genocide has first disarmed its victim population, there is reason to believe that those governments see a relationship between gun control and the maintenance of the government’s murderous power. "...


- Perhaps the World would be a peaceful place if "to be armed" was recognised as a Universal Right.

007 in Training

Action footage

"...Stuck on Stupid"

It's disgraceful and insulting for Mayor Ray Nagin to impersonate Lt. Gen Russell Honore'...even during Mardi Gras. This man should be removed from office for incompetence...or mental imbalance. On-horseback, wearing four-stars and fake-ribbons....grrrrr.

Nagin owes the good General an apology, preferably in the traditional Japanese-manner.

Hat-tip to Sweetness-n-Light.