I know that you guys don't care about this shit, but this is getting outrageous. Two Border Patrol agents were sentenced to 11 and12 years in prison for an incident that happened down at the Texas Border. Quick recap- Two agents capture a drug smuggler who was caught with 700 pounds of weed. The smuggler runs and then gets in a scuffle with one of the agents and the other agent shoots him in the ass. The smuggler gets immunity to testify against the two agents and they are convicted and sentenced for shooting the smuggler in the ass. Now I'm still confident that they will get pardoned since Arnold, Pelosi, and Feinstein have all come out in support of the agents along with many other senators in the country. I don't know what the process to get a pardon, but hopefully these two agents will get off. If you haven't been to a Border town to see how crazy it is with the limited number of Agents compared to the number illegals and smugglers wanting to do harm to these guys, it will be shocking. Driving through Yuma, AZ on the way to Carol's place is like going through the wild west. You can see these agents chase illegals in the desert!!! Absolutely amazing.Here are some other amazing props that are coming out in CA in November. Some are very interesting:
Prop 86- New $2.60 tax on cigarettes. Opposing view is that this will crush the smokers and then they will quit which will drive down tax revenue on cigarettes which will hamper Health Care and Schools. I tend to agree since if this does happen and tax revenue will decrease and they will find another way to pick up the gap in another type of tax.
Prop 87- Gas Tax- This is a big one. Gore, Clinton, and company are coming out strong for this measure. They state that the heavy tax on oil companies profits won't be passed down to the consumer and it will drive the search for alternative energy. This is one of those props that have great intentions but when put to use all we will see is the gas companies pass this onto the consumer and nothing will be done on alternative energy sources. I don't know.
4 comments:
This is why I'm so infuriated at the Republicans.
They have a tailor-made issue to win the votes of the "silent majority", like you, Derek, but completely don't want to take it for fear of being "racist" and anti-immigrant.
I believe that if you build the fence and staff it, things like this will be less prevalent. And I would guess that 70% of Americans believe that statement.
So what does Bush and the Republicans do:
(from kausfiles.com):
1) Bush Picks Secret Signing Over Winning Midterm Election: According to the Washington Times, Bush wants to sign the Secure Fence Act--but in private, without the public ceremony Republican Congressmen say they need to help with their reelection campaigns. The Times spoke with a White House official:
The official rejected a signing ceremony, and said the White House doesn't want voters to expect too much out of the wall.
Bush would seem to be sacrificing his party's chances of holding the House to ... to what??
(end quote)
2) (begin quote):
"Food Stamps in Four Hours": You think Ronald Reagan could have gotten some campaign mileage out of this LAT story lauding a program that gets "immigrants who are reluctant to get help from the government" to sign up for food stamps? ... Wake up, Republicans! You've got to make your meal out of the ingredients at hand.... And don't worry that any criticism of food stamps-for-immigrants will alienate Latinos--the vast majority of whom almost certainly share mainstream attitudes about welfare. Indeed, the point of the LAT's story is that the Latino work ethic is so strong that they disproportionately resist welfare:
"The Mexican man is macho. He doesn't want to come to this country and beg," said Alfonso Chavez, the Community Action Partnership's outreach coordinator. [E.A.]
Luckily, an innovative Department of Agriculture program enables Community Action Partnership to break down these archaic anti-begging prejudices! ...
P.S.: What's most amazing about the LAT story is writer Jennifer Delson's insistence on portraying this as a great thing ("Food Stamp Program Finally Speaks Their Language"). I can't tell if she's clueless or consciously propagandizing. ...
(end quote).
What a soundbite that would be...
"Food Stamps in Four Hours... this is what the Democrate leadership wants to give illegals in America..."
It's times and issues like this that make me wonder about the R leadership. If a R House and Senate is sooooo important, why aren't we campaigning to win????
A note on alternative energy. Consumer reports recently did a study on Ethanol and came to the conclusion that its bad for the consumer because a) Ethanol costs more per gallon and b) Enthanol miles/gallon is lower than pure gas. Although both statements are correct, I believe they are completely missing the point.
1) Ethanol is a renewable (at least 85% of it).
2) For a given 55 gallon drum of oil, you can drive a hell of a lot longer (after mixing with the corn)
3) Some farmer in Iowa gets the bulk of the money, not a Shiek in the Middle East
4) I think (I could be wrong) that emissions per mile driven are less.
Am I miss something?
What people don't understand is that cig tax covers education and health care. If the revenue goes down, where are they going to come up with the funding? When I say Health Care, its not smoking related, but funding for hospitals and such.
And do you really think that this will deter smoking? If they are wanting to cut down on child smoking, why not make it illegal? But don' play this game of higher tax will equate to reduced smoking. Its just another way to generate more tax rev.
Oh and its $5 a pack.
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