For Dems only.

[NorthSideSox72]

Go Cuellar.  He's right.

 

I agree with his stance on toughening the borders, and sending back illegal immigrants.

 

But deputizing the militias... sorry, minutemen... is a horrible idea. You want to put a bunch of untrained, armed locals in charge of our borders? Fabulous.

 

And the wall thing is a bad idea. As I mentioned in a previous thread on this, the better method to fixing this problem is technology. I agree on employing more Border Patrol personnel, but you can make them much more effective by giving them better tools: cameras, sensor arrays, more helicopters and aircraft with FLIR, GPS-integrated radio systems, etc. That will be cheaper and more effective than a cement wall.

 

If you put a wall in, you do horrific damage to ecosystems in the southwest. That, and the cost savings as above, make the tech approach much smarter than a wall.

[Rex Kickass]

Or you could withhold aid to Mexico until they make it better for Mexicans to stay in their own country.

[NorthSideSox72]

Or you could withhold aid to Mexico until they make it better for Mexicans to stay in their own country.

 

That's a good idea as well. Or at least force them to use the money more in areas near the borders.

[Rex Kickass]

Illegal immigration will not be a problem when we force our free trade partners to make worker's conditions closer to what we enjoy here.

[NorthSideSox72]

Illegal immigration will not be a problem when we force our free trade partners to make worker's conditions closer to what we enjoy here.

 

It will be LESS of a problem, but even with major reforms, there will still be border runners in significant numbers. Maybe sometime many decades from now, that will have changed enough to stop the flow. But its not going to stop anytime soon.

[Rex Kickass]

I think a more generous guest worker program for Latin America would go a long way too. Especially if there was an opportunity to gain citizenship from it.

[Balta1701]

It would also be much less of a problem if we were to actually crack down on employing illegal immigrants beyond denying cabinet positions to people who employ them, which seems to be basically the only punishment going around right now.

[NorthSideSox72]

I think a more generous guest worker program for Latin America would go a long way too. Especially if there was an opportunity to gain citizenship from it.

 

As long as the program did not admit those who had come across illegally.

 

If you want to have a guest worker program, then it needs to be administered only to those willing to follow the rules. Otherwise, you just encourage more illegal crossings.

 

An example of how it could work: Company A needs 300 widget painters for their plant in Las Cruces. They post an ad in the Juarez papers saying so, and apply to the US government for it. In the application, they state the reasons why they can't find 300 workers at that wage rate in southern New Mexico that are legal residents, so they need help. They then hold a sort of job fair in Juarez, and pick the 300 they want. Those 300 are checked by US law enforcement against various criminal databases, etc., then they are issued guest worker permits.

 

Voila!

[Rex Kickass]

As long as they get the same federal minimum wage standards guaranteed by the government for US Citizens, I'd be totally down with it. And they have to have an opportunity to become a permanent resident after x years.

[NorthSideSox72]

As long as they get the same federal minimum wage standards guaranteed by the government for US Citizens, I'd be totally down with it. And they have to have an opportunity to become a permanent resident after x years.

 

Agreed.

 

So can we write up a bill now or what?

[Balta1701]

Agreed.

 

So can we write up a bill now or what?

It will die a quick death at the hands of the majority.

[NorthSideSox72]

It will die a quick death at the hands of the majority.

 

I'm not so sure. Bush wanted a guest worker program, and it had some steam at first, before it died off. If you attached the restrictions on it that I noted, specifcally that it could only be used for immigrants brought over legally, I think you could get some of the right wingers (not all) to come on board. Moderates on both sides would likely be interested, along with a lot of Dems. I think it would have a shot.

[Balta1701]

I'm not so sure.  Bush wanted a guest worker program, and it had some steam at first, before it died off.  If you attached the restrictions on it that I noted, specifcally that it could only be used for immigrants brought over legally, I think you could get some of the right wingers (not all) to come on board.  Moderates on both sides would likely be interested, along with a lot of Dems.  I think it would have a shot.

Don't you realize that getting "Some" of them on board really doesn't matter? The reason these sorts of things are held up is not that they can't get majority support, it's instead that some powerful Republican on one committee somewhere decides to hold it up, and the Republicans in this Congress have allowed that to be sufficient to block bills many times. There are already moderate Republicans who have proposed similar things, but they haven't gone anywhere. Link

[NorthSideSox72]

Don't you realize that getting "Some" of them on board really doesn't matter?  The reason these sorts of things are held up is not that they can't get majority support, it's instead that some powerful Republican on one committee somewhere decides to hold it up, and the Republicans in this Congress have allowed that to be sufficient to block bills many times.  There are already moderate Republicans who have proposed similar things, but they haven't gone anywhere.  Link

 

That's just because they don't have me there to convince them otherwise.

 

Is there a way to make my statement only a little green?

[Balta1701]

From the "They keep finding new ways to make me think they're inept" category:

 

The business world and government departments depend upon it, grade-school kids are taught how to use it and Osama bin Laden’s followers have become skilled practitioners. But congressional investigations of government responses to Hurricane Katrina have revealed that two of the nation’s key crisis managers, the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, do not use e-mail.

[Balta1701]

Bush's budget this year proposes the smallest increase in military pay since 1994. Link.

[Balta1701]

Halliburton Co., coming off a banner year in the energy sector and flush with Pentagon contracts abroad, announced Thursday a series of measures to share the spoils with shareholders.

 

The Houston-based company said its board of directors approved a two-for-one stock split that would double its shares outstanding to 2 billion. Stockholders must still sign off on the split.

 

The quarterly dividend for Halliburton stock was also raised 20% to 15 cents a share. The higher payout is set for March 23 for shareholders as of March 2.

 

A $1 billion share buyback is also in the works, the company said.

 

Linky.

[Mplssoxfan]

From the "They keep finding new ways to make me think they're inept" category:

Come on. Even my 78 year old father uses email.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Come on.  Even my 78 year old father uses email.

Reading between the lines, I'm sure it's not that they don't know how to use email. It's that they apparently don't know how to save their emails.

[Balta1701]

Richard Cohen, one of the left-leaning columnists for the Washington Post.

 

Here's the thing, Gabriela: You will never need to know algebra. I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it. You will never need to know -- never mind want to know -- how many boys it will take to mow a lawn if one of them quits halfway and two more show up later -- or something like that. Most of math can now be done by a computer or a calculator. On the other hand, no computer can write a column or even a thank-you note -- or reason even a little bit. If, say, the school asked you for another year of English or, God forbid, history, so that you actually had to know something about your world, I would be on its side. But algebra? Please.

 

I'll use Prof. Myers on this one.

 

Because Richard Cohen is ignorant of elementary mathematics, he can smugly tell a young lady to throw away any chance being a scientist, a technician, a teacher, an accountant; any possibility of contributing to science and technology, of even being able to grasp what she's doing beyond pushing buttons. It's Richard Cohen condescendingly telling someone, "You're as stupid as I am; give up." And everything he said is completely wrong.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Bush's budget this year proposes the smallest increase in military pay since 1994.  Link.

 

 

 

This is my first, and probably only, post in this thread but I felt I had something to add.

 

 

All service members, in addition to budgeted raises, get automatic pay hikes when they reach certain levels of time in service. You get a hike at 2,3,4 years then every other year until you're done unless you sit at the same rank for too long then your pay for that grade will cap out.

 

Using myself as an example, Im currently a Staff Sergeant and approaching my 8 year anniversery. Once I hit it ( September 1st of this year ) my base pay will go from 2465 a month to 2685 ( a hike of 8.9% ). Not included are the tax-free allowances for food and housing which amount to roughly 1000 a month for my area.

 

Point of all that number crunching is that the pay hikes proposed in the budget are not the only time we get a raise.

[Texsox]

This is my first, and probably only, post in this thread but I felt I had something to add.

All service members, in addition to budgeted raises, get automatic pay hikes when they reach certain levels of time in service.  You get a hike at 2,3,4 years then every other year until you're done unless you sit at the same rank for too long then your pay for that grade will cap out.

 

Using myself as an example, Im currently a Staff Sergeant and approaching my 8 year anniversery.  Once I hit it ( September 1st of this year ) my base pay will go from 2465 a month to 2685 ( a hike of 8.9% ).  Not included are the tax-free allowances for food and housing which amount to roughly 1000 a month for my area.

 

Point of all that number crunching is that the pay hikes proposed in the budget are not the only time we get a raise.

You are in a great union*

 

There are so many jobs in the public sector that are underpaid, weighing the risks against the financial rewards, a first year soldier in a war zone has to be the most underpaid person in the US. Of course the guys they are shooting are probably even worse off. Less pay and s***ty weapons.

 

 

*won't be his only

[Balta1701]

Lieberman has only an 11 point lead, and is under 50%, in the Conn. Dem. Primary against challenger Ned Lamont. Given Lamont's name recognition is probably 10% right now, that's a lot of trouble for Joementum.

[Texsox]

Lieberman has only an 11 point lead, and is under 50%, in the Conn. Dem. Primary against challenger Ned Lamont.  Given Lamont's name recognition is probably 10% right now, that's a lot of trouble for Joementum.

 

He could always run as a Republican later

[Rex Kickass]

He won't do that, but he might run as an independent. But chances are if he loses the primary, he's just going to lose period.