Lou Dobbs: 'The Dobbs Forum on Immigration Reform'

Source:Lou Dobbs- forum on immigration.

"Not only did President Obama demand quick implementation of immigration reform rather than thoughtful, practical, and thorough policy changes, but his claims of a more secure border do not align with the facts."

From Lou Dobbs

This photo is also from Lou Dobbs program about President Obama’s 2nd term. But the video that this photo is from, is not currently available online right now.

Source:Lou Dobbs- FBN talk show host & pundit, Lou Dobbs.

Funny photo and funny caption. The problem is that Lou Dobbs is a right-wing, populist, nationalist, mouthpiece right now. Sort of the Pat Buchanan with his own TV show and that’s now what CNN is currently interested in.

Source:The Daily Times- more like Lou Dobbs getting kicked out at CNN.

And as far as the bogus (to put it nicely) amnesty figure that the Far-Right likes to throw out there: amnesty would be if we granted all 10-15M illegal immigrants in this country American citizenship or legal residency, just for being in the country. Which no one serious in this debate is suggesting should be offered.

Under comprehensive immigration reform, the illegal immigrants would have to pay a fine for living in the country illegally, based on how long they've lived in this country, illegally. And have to pay back taxes for any back taxes they may owe at the Federal, state and local levels. And would be probational residents in this country for at least ten years and have to meet certain standards. Just to stay and live in the country, like holding a job, paying their taxes, not committing felonies, etc. And payoff the fine that they owe. 

So unless you don't understand the word amnesty or are simply using it to score political points, you can't seriously call this plan amnesty in a credible way. Because you're calling it something that it isn't either through ignorance or being dishonest. And trying to make the case that these illegal immigrants shouldn't be in the country anyway. Whether they came to the country legally or not. 

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Mod Cinema: Such Good Friends (1971) Dyan Cannon Stars

Source:Mod Cinema- Hollywood Goddess Dyan Cannon and an actor who looks like Keith Morrison from Dateline NBC.

"Based upon the novel by Lois Gould and adapted (under the pseudonym Esther Dale) by Elaine May, Such Good Friends focuses on Julie Messinger (played by Dyan Cannon), a woman with intense, often wild emotions that are held in check beneath a rather conventional façade. After her chauvinistic and self-centered husband Richard checks into the hospital for a simple mole removal that goes seriously wrong, Julie discovers that he has been titanically unfaithful to her. This is the straw that breaks the camel's back, and Julie decides it is time for her to break out of her shell, no matter what the consequences. She begins to exhibit a sexual interest in other men (sometimes indiscriminately, as when she seduces her family doctor, played by James Coco), and speaks her mind to others, including her egocentric mother (Nina Foch) and her hypocritical best friend (Jennifer O'Neill). At the end, Julie wanders into Central Park and, presumably, a new life."

From Mod Cinema

This sounds like a hell of a script. A woman who finds out her ailing husband has cheated on her and decides to get revenge on him by going out with his friends. It also sounds like a very funny movie, especially considering Dyan Cannon is the lead actress and she’s so adorable and funny to begin with. 

I mean think about it, the wife of a very wealthy man who will never have to work a day in her life, just as long as she’s married to this man and doesn’t screw that up. Just screws him without hurting him. Whose husband is now in the hospital with a rare and perhaps fatal condition. A man whose given her so much. 

And how does she take his serious condition? Does she freak out and spend time with her family and seek their support? No! She goes into his little black book to see who he’s been socializing with. And decides the best thing to do is not to make sure that her husband can get the best care that he can, but to get try to get revenge on him by sleeping with his friends while her husband is in the hospital. Except for the obvious physical attraction. I’m glad this woman is not my wife. Actually, I'm glad I'm not married, but that's a different story.  

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Politico: Dylan Byers- 'David Brooks: Calls For GOP Split'

Source:Politico- NYT Columnist David Brooks. on NBC's Meet The Press, talking about the future of the Republican Party.

"It's probably futile to try to change current Republicans," he writes in today's paper. "It's smarter to build a new wing of the Republican Party, one that can compete in the Northeast, the mid-Atlantic states, in the upper Midwest and along the West Coast. It's smarter to build a new division that is different the way the Westin is different than the Sheraton."

From Politico

To put it simply: it's time for the stupid wing of the GOP ( the far-right in America ) to be replaced by a smart wing. Not replacing Conservatives with Moderates or Liberals, but replacing Christian-Nationalist, trapped in 1950s Ozzie and Harriet's America, with actual Conservatives and Conservative-Libertarians. 

People who when they say they believe in liberty and limited government, actually mean it because they are against Big Government across the board and see Big Government as the biggest threat to individual freedom in America. Unlike the Far-Right, that makes love with Big Government every night. 

Chicago Tribune: Steve Chapman- 'Atlas Isn't Shrugging'

Source:Chicago Tribune- Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand.

"Charlie Peters, a self-described "neoliberal" who edited The Washington Monthly, told me many years ago that the problem with liberals is they see themselves as heroes in a novel. Many conservatives today do the same thing, and they know just the novel: Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

My friends at the Atlas Society have posted an interview with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI, an excessively devoted fan of the book. Much like Rand, he insists on reducing every policy issue to a simple fight for freedom against government oppression. He says business people can't operate under current policies. He thinks Americans support big government because they suffer from "Stockholm Syndrome." He says Obamacare is "the greatest assault on freedom in my lifetime."

From Chicago Tribune

I myself even though I'm not a follower of Ayn Rand, but a Liberal Democrat instead, (if you want to know where I'm coming from)  look at anything that government does and any policy that it may create based on one thing: does it advance the cause of freedom for the innocent or not. If it does depending on how it's structured, I tend to be in favor of it. If it doesn't and weakens individual freedom in America, I will not only be against it, but fight to stop it or prevent it from even happening. Whether it comes from the right or left. 

So my basic idea of what I want government to do is to protect and promote individual freedom for all Americans who currently have it and deserve it and expand freedom for Americans who don't have it, but deserve it and need it. And for government to do these things they simply have to have the revenue needed to perform these public services. But only what they need and no more and then be held responsible for spending our money responsibility. 

A lot of people from the Center-Left (let's call them Progressives) to the Center-Right (let's call them Classical Liberals and Conservatives) believe in at least some level of individual freedom, both personal and economic. What separates most of us from the Ayn Rand Objectivists and Libertarians on the world is that we're not anti-government. We're not looking to dismantle government. We just want it limited to defending our individual freedom and constitutional rights. 

Crooks and Liars: John Podhoretz- 'Blames President Bush's Failure in Iraq: For Right's Extremism Now'

Source: AEI- Commentary Magazine publisher John Podhoretz, speaking to AEI in Washington.

"At the National Review Conference (which was televised by C-Span), the overriding topic under discussion is how the right got things so very wrong. Reihan Salam interviewed the Jabba pundit emeritus John Podhoretz about how the Republican Party had gotten away from these great thinkers and have run away from the Bush legacy, ignoring the huge deficits they supported when Bush enacted them, pretending that the economy was booming until a black man moved into the Oval Office."

From Crooks & Liars

It is true that when President Bush and Republican Congress's were piling up debt and deficits in the 2000's and the economy sunk in 2008 and we were involved in two wars oversees with no clear end in sight, that Republicans didn't seem to have a problem with that. 

Not all Republicans: Representative Ron Paul, Representative Walter Jones, Senator Tom Coburn, and Senator Chuck Hagel, all had problems with the debt and deficits that were piling up during these years and don't give President Bush high marks for his handling of the economy or Afghanistan and Iraq.

But the so called Tea Party wing of the party, were practically invisible until the fall of 2008 when President Bush and a Democratic Congress passed TARP. ( Or Temporary Assets Relief Program ) And then of course after Barack Obama becomes President of the United States and the Republican Party not only becomes the opposition party in America, but also the minority party in Congress both in the House and Senate.

When political parties that are use to governing and being in power suddenly lose that, there's a transition there that has to be made. And when you are in the opposition you don't have that one person that can lead your transition unless you have a very powerful and effective National Chairman that not only knows the weakness's of your party, but how to fix them and what the next course of action should be. And how to bring members of the party with you and that's what the GOP went through in 2009-10.

Freedom Forum: 'Governor Wallace Attempts to Block Integration - June 11, 1963'

Source:Freedom Forum- Governor George C. Wallace (Democrat, Alabama) attempt to block school integration in Alabama, in 1963.

"On June 11, 1963, Gov. George Wallace tried to block the integration of the University of Alabama by standing in front of the schoolhouse door." 

From Freedom Forum

I don't believe that George C. Wallace (long time former Governor of Alabama) was a racist. And certainly not a Conservative across the board and perhaps not even as it related to civil rights. As we saw Conservative Republicans vote for civil right in Congress in the 1960s. But that George Wallace was a career politician, an addicted politician as well as a smart political strategist. 

Governor Wallace knew he wanted to be involved in Alabama state politics for a very long time and had goals as it related to national politics as well. And was a smart enough politician to know that the most dominant issue in Alabama politics at least in the 1960s and 70s was going to be civil rights and race relations and new being opposed to these things (at least officially) was his easiest path to power and keeping power and exploited this issue as well as it could be done for people who opposed these things. 

George Wallace was a smart enough lawyer to know that he was going to lose these battles in court and the people he was trying to deny civil and constitutional rights to people who were eventually going to be rewarded with those things.

J Hendrix: NHL 1990- Edmonton Oilers @ Winnipeg Jets: OT

Source:J Hendrix- The Oilers and Jets from 1990.

"The Date was April 10th/1990 at the Winnipeg Arena. The Winnipeg Jets were leading the Smythe Division Final VS The All Mighty Edmonton Oilers and This goal will go down in History as one of the greatest ever scored at the Winnipeg Arena. Jets Defenseman Dave Ellett ignites the "Sea Of White" with his goal in Double Overtime putting the Jets up 3-1 in the Series after Reijo Ruotsalainen takes a costly penalty hooking Thomas Steen from a Breakaway opportunity. Unfortunately for the Jets, this was just not their year either as Edmonton would come back and win the next three games knocking the Winnipeg Jets out of the 1990 Stanley Cup Playoffs." 

From J Hendrix

One of the best playoff games in Winnipeg Jets history.

Lou Dobbs: 'President Obama- Says No To Negotiations On The Debt Ceiling'

Source:Lou Dobbs- not so independent Lou Dobbs, going after President Barack Obama.

"With no sense of irony, President Obama, who as a senator voted against an increase to the debt ceiling under the Bush administration, said today that he is not will to negotiate a deal to increase the nation's debt limit."

From Lou Dobbs

The debt ceiling is a tough issue, because it can be argued intelligently from both sides.

From the Right: "We've piled up too many bills borrowed too much money and we must stop this. So before we agree to finance the borrowing of whatever the new agreement on what our debt limit will be, we must agree to start to pay down our debt. Our credit card spending is out of control, so before we can borrow more we need a new financing plan to get our national debt under control so we don't have to borrow so much in the future."

And on the Left there's a solid argument for: "Look, we've already agreed to as a government that we are going to borrow this much. Congress and the President have already run up this tab. All we are doing with the debt ceiling is make that official and putting that money on the credit card. Since we've already spent the money now we just have to borrow the money to pay these bills in the short- term and after we do that we can talk about to get out spending and debt under control."

I lean more to the right on this issue in this sense that our national debt is way too high and we can't sustain it long-term especially as the rate that it's growing. 

And that we need to raise the debt ceiling to avoid default, but that we need to start paying some of these bills now. And send the message that America is not going get by on credit card economics indefinitely and that we are going to start paying our bills. Limit our spending, increase revenue, but we are going to start paying for things as a country again. By paying for them and not by borrowing money from other countries that would love to have more leverage on us. 

If anything President Obama should welcome this debate, because he can say to the House Republicans: "You want to cut the debt and deficit, so do I. You don't have a plan to do that yet that would actually solve the problem. But I do and I'm going to come up with a 1T$ in defense savings without hurting our national security over ten years. By using the draw downs from Afghanistan and Iraq and putting that revenue towards deficit reduction and not back in the defense budget. 

President Obama: "I'm going to save Medicare and Medicaid by no longer having Medicare and Medicaid subsidize hospitals and doctors by how much health care they deliver, but by how healthy their patients are. 

President Obama: "Food Assistance will no longer subsidize the junk food and drink industries and pay for those groceries. Wealthy seniors will be required to pay more for Medicare and Social Security up front. And then pay for all of the Medicare they receive once they are retired. And they can afford it and be taxed on their Social Security benefits as well."

There's a big opportunity politically and governmentally for President Obama here to look like he's protecting Americans especially in the middle class without looking like a borrow and spend Socialist. But also not like someone whose going to balanced the budget and reduce the debt and deficit on the backs of the middle class. By putting forward a balanced, common sense debt ceiling and deficit reduction plan on the table. That gets the job done and can bring the country behind him.

PBS: NewsHour- Gwen Ifill- 'Cuba Loosens Restrictions on Travel Abroad For Its Citizens'

Source:PBS NewsHour - President Fidel Castro and his brother General Raul Castro (Communist Republic of Cuba)

"The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor.[6] It is a nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational television programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing series such as American Experience, America's Test Kitchen, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Between the Lions, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Downton Abbey, Finding Your Roots, Frontline, The Magic School Bus, Masterpiece Theater, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Nature, Nova, the PBS NewsHour, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Keeping up Appearances and This Old House." 

From Wikipedia 

"Ray Suarez reports on Cuba's move to make foreign travel easier for its citizens. Starting in January, most Cubans will only need a passport and a visa from their destination country, though limitations will remain on professionals like doctors. While Cubans celebrated, officials in Washington regarded the news cautiously."

From PBS NewsHour

We may see more Cubans feeling as a result as well as Cubans seeing what democracy looks like, hopefully falling in love with it and taking back to Cuba to fight for it there. 

But if you really want Cuba to feel what democracy and freedom looks like, you need to end the Cuban embargo in America that prohibits America and Cuba from having a real relationship. Not just between the two government's, but the people themselves. 

Cubans coming to America and Americans coming to Cuba. Cubans seeing what freedom and a free press looks like and the ability to live their own lives and be able to speak out even against the government without fear of being thrown in jail for that. 

And Americans being able to experience another beautiful people, culture, eat good food in an another beautiful Caribbean country like Cuba. 

There is so much potential for Cuba if their government simply gets out-of-the-way of their own people. And one way to make that happen is for Cuba and America to have an open relationship. 

The Fiscal Times: Edward Morrissey: 'Five Who Could Lead the Republican Party in 2013'

Source:The Fiscal Times- Potential 2013 GOP POTUS candidates. 

"Another New Year has arrived, and with it the requisite resolutions for improvement in the coming twelve months.  Many of us promise to eat right and exercise more. Most of us probably plan to exercise more spending discipline, too, although that hasn’t translated into political efforts over the last several decades."

From The Fiscal Times

The problem that any opposition party has in America is that we don't have an official opposition leader. Someone to go head to head the with head of state or even work with that person when they can. We don't have that one position to lead an entire opposition and set the policies and alternatives of the opposition party. We do have that in Congress where the Minority Leader in the House and Senate can offer alternatives to what the majority is putting on the floor, to a certain extent.

But Congressional leaders aren't responsible for leading an entire party. That won't be the role of House Speaker John Boehner or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2013-14, the Republicans leaders in Congress. Their jobs will be to lead their caucus's in the 113th Congress. And to set the agenda for their caucus's, not to try to lead the Republican Party as a whole, because again we don't have a Leader of the Opposition in America. Like they do in Canada and in Europe. I wish we did but that's for a different post.

The Republican Party's problem is that they are a broken party and a party that's either broke on ideas or near broke on ideas as far as what they can push that the American people by consensus would support as we found out in the presidential election. That's a big enough problem. Another problem that the Republican Party has is that they are divided between Christian-Nationalists (the Big Government faction in the party) that rather talk about social issues than economics or foreign policy.

The other faction in the Republican Party are the real Conservatives in the party, the people who are economic Conservatives but also believe that personal freedom is important and that there's a limit to what American foreign policy and our military can accomplish. Like former Senator Olympic Snowe who just left Congress after serving there for thirty six years in both the House and Senate, is a perfect example of this. And then there's also a growing conservative-libertarian faction in the party led by Senator Rand Paul and others who are the real Conservatives in the party.

So the Republican Party as the opposition party in America won't have that one person who can bring them together. And set the agenda for where the party should be going, but they might be able to do it by coalition and have a national meeting, but of real Conservatives who are only interested in bringing the GOP back as a real conservative party. And not a party that scares women, gays or minorities, but a party that welcomes a big tent of Conservatives. Who believe in economic freedom to go along with personal freedom and a strong national defense, that's fiscally responsible. 

And maybe the Chairman of the Republican National Committee is the person that could put this conference and coalition together, but they won't have one person to lead the whole party.

JS Milla: MLB 1981- 'The Montreal Expos Win A Playoff Series!'

Source:JS Milla- The Montreal Expos, winning their only playoff series ever.

"Let's say it now:  The Montreal Expos were winners.  True, they never won a pennant, and they never got to play in the Serie Mondiale thanks to an errant fastball in 1981 and a called (player's) strike in 1994.  But the Expos won a heckuva lot of games in the 80s and even the 90s.  And they even won a playoff series---the 1981 National League Division Series---thanks to some terrific pitching from Steve "Cy" Rogers, who beat Steve "Lefty" Carlton twice in one week, giving up one run in 17 2/3 innings of work.  

If Major League Baseball had introduced the modern wildcard playoff format in the 1970s, you would have seen half-a-dozen additional playoff appearances from the Expos...and perhaps more celebrations like this one from October 11, 1981." 

From JS Milla

The Montreal Expos winning a playoff series in the expanded MLB playoff format in 1981. The Montreal Expos were winners in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, and to a certain extent in the early 1990s. And this guy is right that if the wildcard was around back then and you have 5 teams from each league make the playoffs every year. the Expos would've made several more playoff appearances in the 1980s. 

But that could be said for a lot of other MLB franchises: the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, etc. So I don't think that alone makes the Expos special. 

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The New York Times: Marcus Mabry- 'Hugo Chávez Dead: What's Next for Venezuela After President's Death?'

Source:The New York Times- a Venezuelan mourning the death of President Hugo Chavez.

"TimesCast: After President Hugo Chávez's death, The Times's William Neuman surveys the scene in Caracas and the president of the Inter-American Dialogue examines American relations going forward." 

From The New York Times

I don't like wishing the death and ill of anyone unless of course they deserve it they are cold blooded serial murderers or something. And I don't believe Hugo Chavez President of the Bolivar Republic of Venezuela fits into that category, but I can't resist the temptation to believe how President Chavez's death would benefit what is potentially a great developed nation. If the Venezuelan people are simply empowered to make that happen in this large, but not overpopulated country of roughly 25M people. 

Venezuela does not have to be a what could've been country like Cuba. Where the state takes over and attempts to run the lives of an entire country. Venezuela has the resources to take care of themselves if their government just allows them to do that and as much as Hugo Chavez calls himself a Socialist and speaks proudly about socialism, hut he governs more like a Fidel Castro Communist, that tries to not only centralize not only all of the power with the central government, but most if not all of the power in the Presidency itself and thats not a good future for anyone.

If the chips fall into place assuming that President Chavez dies and we are not there yet, Venezuela will be at a fork in the road and have a decision to make. But they'll have four choices and not two. (If that makes any sense) 

Does Venezuela continue down the road of Chavez authoritarianism in the name of socialism. 

Do they try to become the type of authoritarian state thats common in the Mideast where most of the power is centralized with the military and that's possible the military does have a lot of power in Venezuela. 

Do they attempt to make socialism more democratic in Venezuela where it's democratic and set up a social democratic republic in Venezuela. 

Or do they try to make democracy real and move in a more liberal direction where the power is with the people completely. Where Venezuelans are empowered to make the most out of life that they can make for themselves. With government setting up an economic system that empowers all Venezuelans to be able to take care of themselves.

I don't like putting things this way, but Hugo Chavez dying some point this year would give Venezuela especially the Venezuelan people the opportunity to take the country back from the statists there. And empower a country of 25M people to be able to live their own lives in freedom without worrying about big government interfering. And locking them up because they believe they represent some threat to the state or cause or something, but we'll see. 

If Hugo Chavez dies they'll probably have some short-term president and government that will probably be empowered to decide where Venezuela goes from there, do they try to make the interim administration permanent with no real legal opposition. Or do they let the people of Venezuela decide where their country goes. In which direction they move in with multi-party elections where the Socialist Party would have to compete with other parties to keep the power that they have in Caracas.

The Fiscal Times: Patrick Smith: 'Will America Be Aced Out of A New Asian Alliance?'

Source:The Fiscal Times- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, meeting with Asian leaders.

"America’s closest allies in Asia are wasting no time establishing new economic and political alliances that can diminish the role of the U.S. in that region. Both Japan and South Korea are setting their own courses to an extent long considered beyond their reach. If you accept the popular premise of a “post–American era,” this is what it looks like when it arrives."

From The Fiscal Times

It's good news for both America that Japan and Korea that the two largest it not only democratic states in the Far East, are looking to expand their influence and power in Asia and in the world. Especially as China, India and Russia, are on the rise in Asia because there's a limit to what America can do for these countries on our own, in the long-term.

If these countries in the Far East want to be secure then they need to be able and defend themselves to make that happen. Which would not only benefit the United States economy because it would allow us to be able to bring down our debt and deficit, but would also benefit the Korean and Japanese economies by allowing them to have strong vibrant defense industries. 

We are talking about two of the largest economies in the world in America and Japan. And Korea as well as two developed nations that both have the resources to defend themselves, it's just a matter of them spending those resources instead of relying on a country on the other side of the world and their taxpayers to do that for them. And put those resources and more of their people to work.

Japan a country of 130M people with an economy of over 4T$ thats also a large country physically as well. That thanks to the fact that their economy being in recession or stagnation the last twenty years now has the third largest economy in the world behind America and China doesn't have to continue down that road and watch other countries past them economically as well as in influence around the world.

So Japan having a military that could defend itself against anyone in the world as well as be a player in world affairs not just in the Orient or Asia, but around the world. And have more of say about problems that come out around the world, that would benefit them and their economy. 

This wouldn't be a cure to all of their economic problems where they simply aren't growing. But would allow them to put more people back to work and would boost their economic growth and create brand new private industries. In this large developed country thats been stagnating.

America can no longer defend every allied country around the world, especially countries that have the resources to defend themselves. And Japan and Korea especially with the new President of the Communist Republic of Korea saying that he wants better relations with the Democratic Republic and now believes it's time for economic reform. Which in translation means giving North Koreans economic freedom, this is the perfect time for Japan and Korea to step up and become world powers.