Immigration Reform - Aren't We All the Immigrants?

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With Immigration reform promised in his first year by President Barack Obama back in 2009, and this being his fifth year in office, there is a chance Immigration reform actually might make it through Congress.  However, as far as our nation's capitol, nothing can be guaranteed except extended procrastination.

 

Long ago we should have had meaningful Immigration reform, the first since major bills were passed in 1965 and 1986, if we had not forgotten that when it comes down to the real facts, we really are a nation of immigrants.

 

 

There are a lot of things the president and congress can do to change or manipulate reality or to rewrite history but the plain truth is clear.  In 2010 there were 2.9 million pure blooded Native American and Native Alaskan Indians in America and 2.3 million Natives with mixed blood, a total of 5.2 million.
 

 

Since the total US population in 2010 was 308,745,538 that means just 1.8% of the population are original Americans, or 98.2% of Americans are immigrants or ancestors of immigrants.

 

Unlike the many countries settled since the discovery of America in 1492 the United States has the most diverse ancestry in the world.  The largest ancestral country of origin for Americans is Germany yet it only represents 15.5% of our total population.  No major country in the world can claim similar diversity of ancestry, not even newer nations like the US such as South American nations, Canada or Australia.

 

 

Since the 1800's there have been more Germans ancestors than any other immigrants to America with 48 million in 2010.  Also since the 1800's Irish have been firmly in second place with 34.7 million in 2010.

 

The dominant Hispanic country of ancestry is Mexico - 31.8 million followed by the English - 25.9 million, Italian -  17.2 million, Polish - 9.6 million, French - -8.7 million, Scottish - 5.4 million, Dutch - 4.6 million, Norwegian - 4.4 million and Scottish/Irish - 4.4 million show the dominance of European nations to American ancestry.  High profile immigrants from Russia, China, Cuba, India, Korea and Japan all range between 1-3 million.

 

 

In total about 500 ancestries have been reported to the US Census Bureau on behalf of the American population.

 

So I guess the bottom line in our message to all the nations of the world is, "We are you!"  Truly we are the only true melting pot of culture, religion, society and wealth in the world.  It makes us unique, but also makes us responsible to set the definitive example of how all of the people on Earth should be able to live in peace, harmony, prosperity and individual freedom.

 

 

Such inherent American virtues and characteristics should be embedded in our laws and actions but the dysfunctional federal government including the president and congress have made a mockery of adherence to American values.  They are yet to achieve the most basic of all actions, approving a budget, and have failed to approve one every year Obama has been president.

 

Well they better approve meaningful Immigration reform or the ancestors of immigrants may very well deport those same federal elected officials.

 

 

As for a lingering immigration issue that may still derail the reform movement, the issue of securing our borders, several years ago I proposed a very simple and logical way to achieve security.

 

We have about 2.5 million defense soldiers and civilian employees but only 1.1 million are in the USA. Since about 100,000 are in both Iraq and Afghanistan that leaves 1.2 million DOD employees all over the rest of the world.

 

There are over 735 American military bases outside the USA including 38 large and medium size facilities. At the height of the British Empire in 1898 they had 36 bases spread out around the world and at the height of the Roman Empire in 117 AD they had 37 major bases. Of course they were both trying to conquer the world. We aren't supposed to be conquering the world so we should get rid of the excess bases.

 

 

We could save billions of dollars a year if we moved a number of the very expensive foreign bases back to America and strategically located them along our southern border.  The presence of tens of thousands of US military troops and their bases would be a far greater deterrent to illegal immigrants or drugs than a few thousand more border patrol agents and a higher fence.

 

Immigration is not a political issue and should not be caught in the debate between two partisan parties.  If truth be known two partisan political parties have no business controlling the agenda for America and after their performance the last few years isn't it time we wake up?

 

 

Our Constitution does not guarantee control of any kind to the Democrats or Republicans so we need to campaign for freedom from the archaic and worn out platforms and control of the two political parties and return to what worked the first couple of hundred years, multiple political parties to choose from in elections.

 

 

The following is a summary of the history of Immigration reform in America from University of North Carolina - Greensboro.  You should read it and you will better understand the story behind the Immigration debate.

 

University of North Carolina Greensboro

 

 

A Brief Look at the History of Immigration Reform

by Dr. Raleigh Bailey, CNNC Director and Research Fellow

The U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written by refugees and immigrants and their children who sought religious and economic freedom. These documents represented ideals that became cherished around the world. For the first 100 years of U.S. history, there were no immigration laws.

The first immigration law passed by Congress was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. At that time Chinese workers were being recruited in large numbers to do hard labor on the West Coast, building railroads and other large construction projects. However, California land developers did not want the workers to have the right to stay, buy land, and become citizens.

At the same time, our northern and southern borders were essentially porous. Much of what is now Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California were part of Mexico until the U.S. claimed the lands through wars or treaties. As the Southwest became U.S. territory, the Hispanic populations there came under U.S. rule. In many cases, families were suddenly divided by citizenship and residency requirements, though mutual visitation was ongoing.

 

With the depression of the 1930s, many family farms were lost. Land was bought up by agribusinesses. Farm labor needs were met by the newly homeless families who had lost their lands. With World War II, when young men were called to the military, agribusiness began to rely on migrant farmworkers from Latin America and the Caribbean. Many workers were brought as contract labor and others came on their own for growing seasons, returning to join their families after the crops were harvested.

 

 

Approximately 5 million Mexicans participated in the Bracero program, a labor agreement between the U.S. and Mexico, between 1942 and 1964. The exploitation of these workers is well-documented. After the war and the growing shift toward manufacturing and urbanization, agriculture continued to rely on migrant farmworkers, both those who were documented and recruited by labor contractors and those who simply crossed the border to continue their seasonal work jobs. That system has continued to the present day.

 

The 1960s brought major changes to the U.S. immigration system. Following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, a newly conscientious U.S. Congress passed a new law, the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, which struck down our Eurocentric bias. Persons from countries around the globe could apply to migrate to the US if they met conditions related to family reunification, U.S. employment needs, or refugee status. The flood of refugees to the U.S. after the Vietnam War led to the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980, which formalized the refugee resettlement process and established a new flow of people seeking freedom and security.

 

 

Several years later Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. This legislation was the first time a bill made it unlawful for an employer to hire an undocumented worker, and it created a pathway to citizenship for migrant farmworkers who had a history of work in the U.S. and who had no legal problems other than being unauthorized. It was a significant piece of legislation designed to rectify the fact that the U.S. recruited and depended upon vast numbers of Latin American farmworkers who did not have travel documents in order to sustain our agricultural economy. Many of these people then moved out of the fields and into construction jobs created by our growing economy. New farmworkers, many of them without documents, then came to fill the farm jobs.

 

In 1994 the U.S. and Mexico passed NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. U.S. agribusinesses were able to sell government-subsidized corn in Mexico at below market prices, destroying the traditional farm economy there. This was further complicated by the Mexican government’s decision to suspend the “ejido” system. Ejidos, written into the Mexican constitution, are communal farm lands shared by families and villagers and passed from generation to generation. The suspension allowed ejido lands to be sold to multinational agribusiness corporations. As a result, more unemployed young men who were strong and brave enough made the dangerous trek to “El Norte.”

 

 

 In 1996 the U.S. Congress passed two major bills that severely penalized undocumented residents and restricted legal immigrants from using many public services, even if those immigrants worked and paid taxes in the U.S. The Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRRRA) was especially repressive as it required people who had an “unlawful presence” to return to their countries of origin for periods of three to ten years before they could apply to return. This was true even for spouses of American citizens.

 

Another bill, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) restricted tax-paying legal immigrants from using most public services and imposed major hardships on low-income workers, creating major legal and social snafus. Initially, pregnant immigrant women were denied access to WIC (the food supplement program for low-income pregnant women). Many premature births of high-risk, malnourished babies occurred, dramatically increasing medical costs for families and health providers. The federal government then concluded that immigrant women (documented and undocumented) could get WIC since it was nurturing their U.S.-citizen unborn babies.

 

 

In the 2000 census, North Carolina had the fastest-growing Latino population in the U.S. Most of these newcomers were immigrants, many of them undocumented and connected with the farm labor economy of the state. In the 2010 census, the state’s Latino population continued to grow but mostly due to the U.S.-born children of the newcomers from the previous decade. North Carolina has an estimated 150,000 migrant farmworkers annually, mostly from Mexico and other Central American countries. Our state has one of the largest farmworker populations in the U.S. With the tightened border security, many farmworkers now stay all year, unable to return home to see their families for fear they could not make the trek back across the desert. Some start new families here. Many families back home continue to depend on the paychecks of their husbands, sons, and fathers.

Other newcomers come on time-limited visas from around the world as students, business people, or tourists, and then they overstay their visas. Most unauthorized newcomers fall into this category. Others may be green card holders, but if U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) does not have documentation of their place of residence, their legal permanent residence status is terminated. Populations who come to the U.S. and to North Carolina as refugees regularly petition to bring their family members from their countries of origin. As recently-arrived newcomers, these refugees are typically low-income wage earners. If their families are granted permission to join them, they often come as immigrants but not as refugees, which means that they have no access to most public services. These expanded families struggle to survive because even though they are working they are barred from supplemental assistance available to others.

 

 

Economic impact is one of the major issues related to the proposed immigration reform. Most economists are clear that immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented residents, would have a strong positive impact on economic growth. Newcomers are drawn to the U.S. for job opportunities, are mostly young and entrepreneurial in spirit, and will be workers, consumers, and taxpayers. The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress, agrees with this analysis.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, provides an alternative analysis. The Heritage Foundation posits that providing a path to citizenship for undocumented residents will be a drain on the economy. While they acknowledge that it will be an initial boom to the economy, they project that it will be a drain over a 50-year period. The reasoning of their research analyst is that low-income undocumented workers, Hispanics in particular, have lower IQ’s than U.S.-citizen whites. Therefore, their children will also have lower IQ’s, creating an ongoing pool of low-income and low-IQ U.S.-citizen workers who will need government subsidies. In many circles, the Heritage Foundation analysis is being compared to efforts to defend segregation in the early and mid-twentieth century.

 

 

The U.S. is recognized as the world’s premier immigrant nation, historically the champion of freedom, a model of innovation and entrepreneurship, and by far the wealthiest nation. As we struggle to pass immigration reform and reconcile our ambivalence toward the undocumented who sustain our economy, the refugees who are our historic champions of freedom, and the newcomers who are drivers of innovation, the whole world is watching.

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Obamaville - June 14, 2013

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 Obamaville - June 14, 2013 - The Midterm Check Up

 

Halfway through the first year of his second term as President of these United States, just what have we realized of the Obama Dream we were given when he first ran to be chief executive, commander in chief, the husband of the First Lady or maybe biggest spender in our history?

 

Is writing this story a journalist's "dream" ticket to a Pulitzer, or a "nightmare" demotion to writing those dreaded obituaries?

 

My a lot can happen by the 5th year of a presidency --- or not.

 

First you have to get elected, and then elected again.  It means the people might have been fooled once, but they presumably knew what they were doing when they re-elected you.  Now what happens really is the fault of the people who voted for Obama.

 

Ages ago a newly elected Barack Obama promised a lot and did some pretty serious Bushwhacking in the process.  In his first year as the first minority to ever be elected president he promised to deliver things like comprehensive Immigration Reform and closing Guantanamo Prison in Cuba.

 

 

Of course the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would be ended immediately with a high degree of success.  The dastardly Bush recession would be fixed and everyone will keep their homes and get back their lost jobs.  In the meantime he would give everyone in our country health insurance and lower the cost of healthcare.

 

There might have been some mention of a new concept of redistribution of wealth from the "elite" class to the middle class, which in Obamaese means anyone making less than a million or two million dollars a year.  Truth is very difficult to find in the fog in our nation's capitol.

 

Now where I come from about a hundred miles from where Mark Twain grew up, if someone told me the middle class was everyone except the rich, powerful and very few "elite", I might scratch my head in wonder.

 

 

So if the middle class is everyone else, how many "elite's" are there?  Of course the wealthy "elites" have mastered hiding their money from detection by IRS or any other criminal or social tax deductible organization.  The truth is no one really knows this answer, including the All Omnipotent NSA since they REALLY are watching you all the time.

 

So it is a guess by anyone that 1-5% of Americans belong to the so called "elite".  Yet these people control all the wealth of America and much of the world according to those who know and speak the truth.

 

 

 

Now, back to my most recent line of thought, if no more than 5% are "elite" and we are going to redistribute their wealth so we all get what we deserve, then everyone becomes a card carrying member of the "elite".

 

Guess we might need all those illegal immigrants since none of the "elite" work like the middle class has been doing ever since we first drove out the British.  That's one way to drive down the unemployment rate, just eliminate the middle class.  Won't be any jobless if everyone is home managing their money instead of making it.

 

One other big Obama promise was to throw those crooks on Wall Street or Main Street, where ever they might be carrying out their predatory practices, in jail.

 

Then reality set in.  Suddenly, when he was elected president, he was expected to do what he said he would do.  Like nothing counted when he was just a presidential candidate.  Only if you were the final one elected would your promises have to be honest, truthful and delivered.

 

No first year Immigration reform or prison closings.  Five years later they are both just as he found them when he became responsible for all Americans as president.

 

 

 

As for ending the two wars being fought to end the bigger war on terror, our president's words of peace and cooperation for all Earthlings got him the coveted Nobel Peace prize a couple of weeks later as the one person in the world who did more than everyone else to bring about peace.

 

Clearly words speak louder than actions for a few weeks later he ordered tens of thousands of more American troops and billions of dollars in military expenditures in Afghanistan.  What a difference a few weeks can make.

 

Eventually, long after he had promised, we are pretty much out of Iraq.  Now that the war on terror between the US and Al-Qaeda is over the people of Iraq can finish their Civil Separatist war which is far more brutal and deadly than our Geneva Convention based efforts.

 

One thing the Obama administration did learn from all the war efforts is the value of drones, those unmanned airplanes that can successfully kill terrorists without risking the lives of American soldiers.  Any deaths of innocent civilians including children are just collateral damage to the mission.

 

Afghanistan, after billions in bribes, is just now winding down.  Both wars cost far too many lives of the brave American soldiers, men and women, sent to the war zones.

 

 

Fixing Bush's financial recession has been a little bit more complicated than Obama might have suspected since it seemed to take several years to find everything that could be blamed on Bush.

 

In Detroit he saved the world auto industry by transforming General Motors Corporation into the Government Motors Corporation.  His AIG bailout gave billions of dollars to those barons of Wall Street like Goldman Sachs.

 

Millions of Americans lost their jobs and millions of Americans lost their homes since Obama was elected.  The economy is declared to be stable and safe.

 

But people have not found new jobs or replaced foreclosed homes.  And those who have suffered most are the very middle class he promised to save.

 

Seniors saw their retirement savings vanish away.  Minorities by the millions lost their jobs and homes.  So did the Caucasians.  Ironically, many were the very special interest groups who overwhelmingly elected Obama to office.  I guess you can't bite the hand that feeds you when you are the one doing the feeding.

 

No major crooks have been sent to jail.

 

 

As for health care and costs, after a brutal couple of  years Obama Care did get approved but all the tough promises to keep were delayed until after the re-election campaign.  Now we are beginning to see that much of it is impossible to implement.

 

Neither health insurance or medical treatment costs have gone down but continue their upward trajectory.  Americans spend more being sicker than nearly all other developed countries.  We also spend far more on legal drugs than anyone else meaning we are either much sicker or love being legally "stoned".

 

 

Obama might have another first to his credit, not having a budget approved the entire time he has been president.

 

On the other hand, he has had a few trouble spots he did not expect.  The Benghazi attack in Libya left four Americans including the Ambassador dead.

 

The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) targeted Tea Party conservatives for harassment while the NSA (National Security Agency) targeted just plain people for about everything with their cell phone and internet tapping and hacking initiatives.

 

 

The Office of the Chief Executive and Commander in chief (the White House) of course knew nothing of such actions by their own agencies and people.

 

Then there is the Mexican drug war and Syrian civil war in which the big news is we have done nothing in either case.  As a result of our inaction or intellectual constipation 93,000 people have died in Syria and between 60,000 and 90,000 have died in Mexico.

 

Need we say more about the state of affairs of the nation?  To be perfectly honest there are a lot more good, inspiring or entertaining stories we need to cover.

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Harry Reid Plays Politics and Gets Burned using American Soldiers as Pawns

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In one of the dumbest acts ever seen by a leader of the Senate, Democrat leader Harry Reid put his own re-election above the interests of America's fighting forces in Afghanistan and Iraq by loading a Defense Appropriation bill with social issues including the Don't Ask Don't Tell gay policy change for the military and illegal immigration amnesty, both extremely controversial to most Americans. To add insult to injury he denied Republicans the right to attempt to amend the massive bill or eliminate the unrelated social changes.

Now Harry is locked in a tough election campaign and the amnesty would directly help him but most of America is firmly opposed to it. This type of politics as usual and backroom deal making is why the Democrats are sinking into oblivion and why the Tea Party has become a dominant force in politics.

By the way, in spite of liberal media attempts to paint the vote as Republican obstructionism two Democratic Arkansas Senators voted against it meaning Democrats and Republicans blocked this travesty.  One need look no further than today's headlines to see why Americans are demanding change again, this time change that works.
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News You Won't Read in Papers!

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Newspapers simply won't publish letters to the editor which they either deem politically incorrect (read below) or which does not agree with the philosophy they're pushing on the public. This woman wrote a great letter to the editor of an Orange County, California newspaper that should have been published but it was not. With your help it will get published via cyberspace!



From:"David LaBonte"

My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to "print" it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined. Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:



Dear Editor:

So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.



They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.

Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan . They were defending the United States of America as one people.



When we liberated France, no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.



And here we are with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.



And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty , it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.

(signed)
Rosemary LaBonte

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The Week in Review - Politics, Pollution, Procrastination and Prayer - What a Future!

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On the political front there were primaries and two special elections. The anti-incumbents won in Kentucky and Pennsylvania sending a signal to both Democrat and Republican parties. Then in the special elections a far more conservative Democrat than the moderate Republican won in Pennsylvania and a far more conservative Republican than two Democrats won in Hawaii. For the week the real winners were the conservative public, especially united in their opposition to the Obama and Democrats madcap spending addiction and total disregard for the spiraling federal deficit.

Also in politics Rand Paul, Kentucky Tea Party winner, naively mistook victory for a honeymoon with the press and found out just how deep and devious the venom of left wing media can be when he made his first appearances on the radical left PBS and MSNBC bastions. By weeks end someone finally took Rand to the woodshed for a little education in surviving with the sharks of the elite media.



Our self-proclaimed transparent president Barack Obama knows all about media and how fast they can turn on you and has been doing a good job of manipulating them. You would never know it, but Obama has not had an open news conference, one in which the media can ask about anything, since last July. Even George Bush held open news conferences twice a month throughout his eight year term. Obama has gone 10 months with no open news conference.

On the pollution front the BP oil spill has been partly stopped, and an effort to seal it will be made in the next couple of days. No one knows how many thousands of barrels have already escaped or how far it will be spread. There are predictions for catastrophic damage and losses, much from the seemingly thousands of lawyers lined up to sue everyone for damages which will line the pockets of the lawyers but do little to help the local economy.



The Obama administration may wind up being one of the biggest losers in this disaster because they were too busy playing politics to make sure their own regulatory agencies did their regulating. Yes there were problems with the technology, with the equipment and with the procedures, but there were also problems with the Obama people who have had nearly a year and a half to investigate their regulatory agencies and make sure all safety and equipment inspections take place. If the regulators were too cozy with the oil industry it was Obama's fault, they reported to him.

On the financial front we teetered on the brink of disaster over the European crisis and are far from out of it yet. After the shocking stock collapse the week before we got a report from Obama's SEC and other agencies saying it will take several more weeks to repair the regulatory flaws before they are sure the crash of 1000 Dow points in minutes won't happen again. No that is not very reassuring. Why don't they just declare an emergency and fix the damn mess?

Also on the financial front the Senate approved a version of the financial reform act, now it goes to a conference with the House and final action is expected by July. That means it took Congress three years since the housing meltdown and two years since the banking meltdown to start to fix the problems. It also means it will have taken President Obama and his Calvary of change agents about 18 months to come up with a fix for the economy. If that is rapid response by the president and the Democrats controlling Congress we are in very serious trouble.

When the bill goes to conference with the House it still contains some derivative language the banks hate and still makes no mention of the housing crisis which triggered the collapse of the economy. Rumor has it that no Democrat in Congress has the guts to say the strict derivative language should be dropped to satisfy the big bankers who financed the campaigns of Obama and the Congress. So watch to see if Obama, who has tried to paint a picture of himself as champion of the bank bashers, is not the one to request the derivative language be modified in order to protect the Democrats up for re-election.



If you doubt his claim as the champion bank basher just look at this letter I got from him this week. It came from the barackobama.com committee:

Jim --

On Thursday, the Senate passed historic Wall Street reform. This movement proved again that the strongest special interests, who for so long have called the shots in Washington, can be beat.
When opponents in Congress tried to block the legislation altogether, you stood up -- and they backed down. When the lobbyists pushed for loopholes and exemptions just before a final vote, you did not relent -- and we fought them off.
Your support brought us to this day -- and, because of that, we're poised to implement sensible reforms that will provide a stronger foundation for economic growth.
Now, the House and Senate must iron out their differences before I can sign it into law. But the financial industry will not give up. They have already spent more than $1 million per member of Congress, lobbying on this issue. And in the coming days, they will go all in. This is their last shot to stall, weaken, or kill reform, and they are not accustomed to losing.
But this movement has you -- and together, we have beaten the special interests before.
Please donate $5 or more today to help Organizing for America continue to mobilize thousands -- to counter the special interests' attacks and get strong Wall Street reform to my desk.
Every American has a stake in this bill.
If you have ever been treated unfairly by a credit card company, this reform works for you -- never again will Americans be duped by fine print or hidden fees.
If you ever try to take out a home loan or student loan, this reform works for you -- putting an end to predatory and deceptive lending practices.
And, if you or your small business relies on credit from community banks that are being punished for playing by the rules while their competitors do not, this reform works for you -- reining in the big banks and making sure all our lenders are subject to tough oversight.
These reforms would put in place the strongest consumer financial protections in history. And, by helping safeguard our economy from recklessness on Wall Street, it would ensure that a crisis like the one that caused this recession never happens again.
This is not a zero-sum game where Wall Street loses and Main Street wins. As we have learned, in today's economy, we are all connected. When the economy prospers, we all win. Senators of both parties recognize that fact, and that is why lawmakers stood up to the lobbyists and worked across the aisle to ensure that Wall Street reform passed.
But this fight is not yet over. And it is up to us to overcome this final test and pass reform into law. When we do, the power of this movement to make change in Washington -- despite the best efforts of the special interests -- will no longer be up for debate.
Please donate $5 or more today:
https://donate.barackobama.com/WSRSenateVictory
Thank you,
President Barack Obama



If Obama makes any move to change the reform legislation and water down the derivatives section he is a total hypocrite. Besides, aren't all lobbyist committees required to be registered lobbyists? If Obama can have a committee directly lobbying for a bill and raising millions of dollars to do it aren't they a lobbyist and special interest too? Yes we are back into the silly season.

As for pollution, BP is still struggling to clean up the spill and seal off the leak. Congressional hearings have already pointed out flaws in the regulatory process by the Obama people for not doing safety inspections and in the oil industry for not solving all safety problems, testing new technology and not having a plan for such a disaster.

While the leak will get sealed at some point, the clean up of oil already leaked is the source of much wild speculation and certain to be the target of multi-billion dollar damage suits by every lawyer who is part of the number one contributor to the Obama campaign and the Democrats running Congress. At least the unemployment rate for lawyers is sure to go down.



As for speculation about how serious the spill will be, I have my on speculation to throw in the mixing pot. We all know that oil leaking into the ocean is a normal thing and there are microbes in the ocean that feed off the oil. Normally there is not this much oil for feeding the microbes. So I predict that with hurricane season a week away there will be tropical storms and hurricanes that hit the gulf.

All the surface oil will most likely reduce the destruction by the storms because they have to move across heavy water with all the oil in it. However, the churning seas will widely disperse and break up the concentrations of oil in the gulf. The natural process will enable the microbes to attack the oil residue much more aggressively. At the same time the turbulence of the gulf and the massive volume of water thrown onto the shores by the hurricanes will help clean up the shore and wetlands that have been contaminated with oil.

The liberal media have said it will take many billions of dollars and more than a decade to clean up the mess. I say with the help of Mother Nature and/or Divine Intervention because of all the prayers being offered for help, the damage and length of time to recover could be far less. Sometimes it takes supernatural action to clean up the mess of men.

On the immigration front the liberals continue to bellow like stuck pigs about the Arizona law that has been significantly modified since original passage. Neither Obama nor the Democratic leadership in Congress will admit that Arizona was forced to act because Congress and the president decided it was too risky to push immigration reform with the November elections. That sounds more like backroom politics than leadership.

Of course the California liberals have followed suit and are trying to adopt restrictions in travel to Arizona to penalize the Arizona people. That sounds more like an action you would find in Soviet Russia than America. How can a state adopt any action that grossly discriminates against another state and ignores the fact the Congress and president failed to do their job? Only the liberals can figure out such bizarre strategies. And yes, as I said in an earlier article, Arizona has now threatened to shut off the electricity to California if they discriminate as they threatened. More than 25% of Los Angeles electricity comes from across the border in Arizona.

Top of all this activity off with the fact that Obama, after running around the country holding a series of press opportunities to boast of how the economy has turned around thanks to his trillion dollar deficit spending, watched helplessly as the stock market lost more value than any week since the economic crash. Of course Obama was just staying away from Washington for the week because of the election losses and mismanagement of the oil spill but he still claimed credit for fixing things prematurely, a fitting exclamation point on how little he still understands his job.



Let's see, Europe is on the brink of economic disaster, the national debt exceeds $13trillion, North Korea is charged with sinking a South Korean ship, Iran cuts nuclear deals as Obama tries to shut them down in the UN, the death toll of American military in Afghanistan passes 1,000, the stock market falls the most since the crash, oil continues spilling in the Gulf, financial reform moves forward as immigration reform moves backward, and the only thing PBS, MSNBC, NBC and ABC can ask Rand Paul is about the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed by Lyndon Johnson. Now what is wrong with this picture?

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Leftist Liberals Better Stop Slamming Arizona Immigration Laws

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While the liberal elitists of the nation, including President Obama, have been quick to jump on the new Arizona Immigration Law making all kinds of crazy claims about how bad it is and calling for it's suspension and court challenges, perhaps they should not be so quick to judge.

First of all, Arizona only acted because they have waited years for the inept Congress to address the issue and in spite of the promise of the President, there has been no effort by Obama or the Democrats controlling Congress to bring it up for debate. We are going on 18 months since the agents of change took office and still nothing.



So Arizona, the place where most illegal immigrants come to America, is left holding the bag while Congress twiddles it's collective thumbs. Any action that might force Congress and the President to take action is a good thing.

Perhaps more important, in spite of the screams of the liberals, a new poll today shows 64% of Americans support the Arizona law getting tough on illegal immigrants. If nothing else at least Arizona has shown us courage where it is missing in Congress.



There are supposed to be over 12 million illegal immigrants, and some claim there are over 20 million. That means millions of jobs are being lost to them. It also means millions in tax revenue is lost. Yet in many states including Maryland the illegal immigrants get state and federal benefits including health insurance coverage, education, housing and food.

While some have social security cards most have US driver's licenses, drive cars and trucks registered in the US, and some even pay federal taxes. Even in those cases there are many who substantially under-report their income to limit the amount of taxes paid.



California, home to many left liberals, is taking action at the state and city level to punish Arizona for passing the law. Do they forget that Arizona is the source of over 23% of all the electricity consumed in California and over 5 million acre feet of water to Southern California per year. Arizona could initiate action to drop the water supply to 550,000 acre feet per year leaving Southern California high and dry.

Liberals beware, the groups you attack like Arizona could make your life very miserable if they applied your tactics to the electricity and water you depend on from them. Right now Arizona is showing a lot more moxie and class than the liberals by demonstrating they will do what the Congress can't by passing immigration reform, and by not making hollow threats like California did over the far more important water and electric rights that benefit the liberals.



Finally, state law enforcement costs to fight the illegal immigration and crime from the illegal drug trade from Mexico which impacts on all America is huge because Obama and the Congress do not have the guts to act on these national and federal priorities. Failure to act by the federal government is costing Arizona lives, giving Arizona one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world, and creating an unfair burden on one of the most patriotic and beautiful states in the nation.

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