The Many Faces of US Politics...

[deiseach]

Yet the Irish government reacts with outraged indignation whenever the US government, or in this case an American state, talks about enforcing the law against illegal immigrants.

Fixed that for you

[Hedley Lamarr]

for the record Hedley's comment is actually a quote taken from the Salt Lake Tribune as an opinion piece...

I'll take your word for it, but it is not where I read it.

[Hedley Lamarr]

"In the airports, they make sure that heavily bearded young men who look "Middle Eastern" face no greater risk of being selected for special examination than paraplegic grandmothers. The Arizona police should be instructed to stop 13 white, black and Asian people and check that they are legally in the state for every person they stop who looks "Mexican"."


There's about as much chance of that happening as there is of Man utd wining this year's champions league 

[Tyrones own]

Only in PC America is it deemed unfair (by Obama no less) to make an attempt to uphold the law of the land
Try over staying your welcome in Mexico and see where that gets you 

[Tyrones own]

Barack Obama has awakened a sleeping nation

Gary Hubbell
Aspen Times Weekly          February 2010

Barack Obama is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America 's future. He is the best thing ever.

Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest approval ratings among recent presidents, history will see Barack Obama as the source of America 's resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country into levels of debt that we could not have previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize health care have been met with fierce resistance nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending have shown little positive effect on the national economy; unemployment is unacceptably high and looks to remain that way for most of a decade; legacy entitlement programs have ballooned to unsustainable levels, and there is a seething anger in the populace.

That's why Barack Obama is such a good thing for America .

Obama is the symbol of a creeping liberalism that has infected our society like a cancer for the last 100 years. Just as Hitler is the face of fascism, Obama will go down in history as the face of unchecked liberalism. The cancer metastasized to the point where it could no longer be ignored.

Average Americans who have quietly gone about their lives, earning a paycheck, contributing to their favorite charities, going to high school football games on Friday night, spending their weekends at the beach or on hunting trips - they've gotten off the fence. They've woken up. There is a level of political activism in this country that we haven't seen since the American Revolution, and Barack Obama has been the catalyst that has sparked a restructuring of the American political and social consciousness.

Think of the crap we've slowly learned to tolerate over the past 50 years as liberalism sought to re-structure the America that was the symbol of freedom and liberty to all the people of the world. Immigration laws were ignored on the basis of compassion. Welfare policies encouraged irresponsibility, the fracturing of families, and a cycle of generations of dependency. Debt was regarded as a tonic to lubricate the economy. Our children left school having been taught that they are exceptional and special, while great numbers of them cannot perform basic functions of mathematics and literacy. Legislators decided that people could not be trusted to defend their own homes, and stripped citizens of their rights to own firearms. Productive members of society have been penalized with a heavy burden of taxes in order to support legions of do-nothings who loll around, reveling in their addictions, obesity, indolence, ignorance and "disabilities." Criminals have been arrested and re-arrested, coddled and set free to pillage the citizenry yet again. Lawyers routinely extort fortunes from doctors, contractors and business people with dubious torts.

We slowly learned to tolerate these outrages, shaking our heads in disbelief, and we went on with our lives.

But Barack Obama has ripped the lid off a seething cauldron of dissatisfaction and unrest.

In the time of Barack Obama, Black Panther members stand outside polling places in black commando uniforms, slapping truncheons into their palms. ACORN - a taxpayer-supported organization - is given a role in taking the census, even after its members were caught on tape offering advice to set up child prostitution rings. A former Communist is given a paid government position in the White House as an adviser to the president. Auto companies are taken over by the government, and the auto workers' union - whose contracts are completely insupportable in any economic sense - is rewarded with a stake in the company. Government bails out Wall Street investment bankers and insurance companies, who pay their executives outrageous bonuses as thanks for the public support. Terrorists are read their Miranda rights and given free lawyers. And, despite overwhelming public disapproval, Barack Obama has pushed forward with a health care plan that would re-structure one-sixth of the American economy.

I don't know about you, but the other day I was at the courthouse doing some business, and I stepped into the court clerk's office and changed my voter affiliation from "Independent" to "Republican." I am under no illusion that the Republican party is perfect, but at least they're starting to awaken to the fact that we cannot sustain massive levels of debt; we cannot afford to hand out billions of dollars in corporate subsidies; we have to somehow trim our massive entitlement programs; we can no longer be the world's policeman and dole out billions in aid to countries whose citizens seek to harm us.

Literally millions of Americans have had enough. They're organizing, they're studying the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, they're reading history and case law, they're showing up at rallies and meetings, and a slew of conservative candidates are throwing their hats into the ring. Is there a revolution brewing? Yes, in the sense that there is a keen awareness that our priorities and sensibilities must be radically re-structured. Will it be a violent revolution? No. It will be done through the interpretation of the original document that has guided us for 220 years - the Constitution. Just as the pendulum swung to embrace political correctness and liberalism, there will be a backlash, a complete repudiation of a hundred years of nonsense. A hundred years from now, history will perceive the year 2010 as the time when America got back on the right track. And for that, we can thank Barack Hussein Obama.

Gary Hubbell is a hunter, rancher, and former hunting and fly-fishing guide. Gary works as a Colorado ranch real estate broker.

[J70]

Here's another from Mr Hubbell. It seems he felt a little neglected during the last election!

I do wonder how much sympathy he (the belated newcomer to the GOP ) thinks the tea partiers and, especially, the Republican party have for his pursuits of fly-fishing and hunting. "Will we poison that stream with cyanide to make a few quick bucks on massive quantities of low grade ore now that gold prices are so high, or will we forgo it and preserve that trout fishery? Hmmm..."


In election 2008, don't forget Angry White Man

There is a great amount of interest in this year's presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the conservative Republicans are in a quandary about their party's nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.

Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.

There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

His common traits are that he isn't looking for anything from anyone — just the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field. In many cases, he is an independent businessman and employs several people. He pays more than his share of taxes and works hard.

The victimhood syndrome buzzwords — "disenfranchised," "marginalized" and "voiceless" — don't resonate with him. "Press 'one' for English" is a curse-word to him. He's used to picking up the tab, whether it's the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.

He believes the Constitution is to be interpreted literally, not as a "living document" open to the whims and vagaries of a panel of judges who have never worked an honest day in their lives.

The Angry White Man owns firearms, and he's willing to pick up a gun to defend his home and his country. He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and safety of others, and the thought of killing someone who needs killing really doesn't bother him.

The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.

His last name and religion don't matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.

He's a man's man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, spend a few bucks at a strip club once in a blue moon, change his own oil and build things. He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn't ask for a penny. He's the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a couple of friends, drill an oil well, weld a new bumper for his truck, design a factory and publish books. He can fill a train with 100,000 tons of coal and get it to the power plant on time so that you keep the lights on and never know what it took to flip that light switch.

Women either love him or hate him, but they know he's a man, not a dishrag. If they're looking for someone to walk all over, they've got the wrong guy. He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says "Yes, sir" and "No, ma'am."

He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.

He's not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He's willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.

Most important, the Angry White Man is pissed off. When his job site becomes flooded with illegal workers who don't pay taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he gets righteously angry. When his job gets shipped overseas, and he has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he simmers. When Al Sharpton comes on TV, leading some rally for reparations for slavery or some such nonsense, he bites his tongue and he remembers. When a child gets charged with carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school, he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement.

He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It's not that she is a woman. It's that she is who she is. It's the liberal victim groups she panders to, the "poor me" attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.

There are many millions of Angry White Men. Four million Angry White Men are members of the National Rifle Association, and all of them will vote against Hillary Clinton, just as the great majority of them voted for George Bush.

He hopes that she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.

[heganboy]

Gary Hubbell is a hunter, rancher, and former hunting and fly-fishing guide. Gary works as a Colorado ranch real estate broker.

Gary Hubbel is trying to sell more houses so that he can get the 6% real estate commission.

What's your excuse T.O. ?

can you give me a few suggestions of changes you would have the President make, and of course get through the houses and into law?

any thoughts on the arizona immigration bill?

[Hedley Lamarr]

Arizona has just passed the toughest law dealing with illegal immigrants in the US. The law is one which is arguably unconstitutional. In a state such as Arizona — with fewer than seven million people, nearly half a million are thought to be illegal — the law is needed to secure its porous border, one of the main entry points for illegal aliens into the US.

But the new law practically mandates racial profiling.

Arizona police can now stop and question anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant. If the person cannot confirm their status, they can be arrested. The law says race or national origin cannot be the sole factor constituting "reasonable suspicion," but it doesn't prohibit race or ethnicity from being one factor. Race is, in fact, almost always the deciding factor.

Anyone could be stopped simply because they look different from ordinary white Americans.

The irony is that the United States practically invited undocumented laborers into the country during the 1990s, when houses needed to be built and their rooms needed to be cleaned. Back then, there was a demand for a steady supply of cheap labor. Many of those workers started families, paid taxes and even established small businesses. The nation that thinks of itself as the beacon of hope would be unjust if it suggested that those workers don't deserve a path to citizenship after several hard-working, honest years in the country.

Law-abiding immigrants who did it the right and lawful way, waiting to get into the country by applying and waiting for their turn and not going to the head of the line like other freeloaders, deserve citizenship and also deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

The law is also necessary because of the federal government's failure to secure the Arizona border, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to move into the state. Most come from Mexico looking for work, but Arizona's border is also a busy route for drug smugglers.

But legal residents of Arizona or any other state have rights as well. To determine that a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a "predictable" manner and, therefore, is worthy of investigation or arrest, simply on the basis of what he looks like, is discriminatory, racist and bigoted.

While state officials have repeatedly emphasized that the law expressly forbids law enforcement officers from stopping someone on the basis of their ethnicity, the move will lead to racial profiling, as is practiced in international airports where racial profiling is sometimes used to decide who to search more carefully and extensively than someone else. 

The fallout from 9/11 and the American media's continuous stereotyped portrayal of Arabs as terrorists, if a person's physical features look like what is seen as "middle eastern", then they're more likely to be stopped and searched more thoroughly than someone who has the physical features of a fair-skinned person.

The one thing everyone agrees on is that the federal government needs to act on immigration. Where they differ is on how it should be done. Without federal legislation to address the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the US, other states may follow Arizona's lead. If that happens, people in the US who look Arab, or are Arabs, are in for unsettling times.

[Puckoon]

Arizona has just passed the toughest law dealing with illegal immigrants in the US. The law is one which is arguably unconstitutional. In a state such as Arizona — with fewer than seven million people, nearly half a million are thought to be illegal — the law is needed to secure its porous border, one of the main entry points for illegal aliens into the US.

But the new law practically mandates racial profiling.

Arizona police can now stop and question anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant. If the person cannot confirm their status, they can be arrested. The law says race or national origin cannot be the sole factor constituting "reasonable suspicion," but it doesn't prohibit race or ethnicity from being one factor. Race is, in fact, almost always the deciding factor.

Anyone could be stopped simply because they look different from ordinary white Americans.

The irony is that the United States practically invited undocumented laborers into the country during the 1990s, when houses needed to be built and their rooms needed to be cleaned. Back then, there was a demand for a steady supply of cheap labor. Many of those workers started families, paid taxes and even established small businesses. The nation that thinks of itself as the beacon of hope would be unjust if it suggested that those workers don't deserve a path to citizenship after several hard-working, honest years in the country.

Law-abiding immigrants who did it the right and lawful way, waiting to get into the country by applying and waiting for their turn and not going to the head of the line like other freeloaders, deserve citizenship and also deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.

The law is also necessary because of the federal government's failure to secure the Arizona border, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to move into the state. Most come from Mexico looking for work, but Arizona's border is also a busy route for drug smugglers.

But legal residents of Arizona or any other state have rights as well. To determine that a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a "predictable" manner and, therefore, is worthy of investigation or arrest, simply on the basis of what he looks like, is discriminatory, racist and bigoted.

While state officials have repeatedly emphasized that the law expressly forbids law enforcement officers from stopping someone on the basis of their ethnicity, the move will lead to racial profiling, as is practiced in international airports where racial profiling is sometimes used to decide who to search more carefully and extensively than someone else. 

The fallout from 9/11 and the American media's continuous stereotyped portrayal of Arabs as terrorists, if a person's physical features look like what is seen as "middle eastern", then they're more likely to be stopped and searched more thoroughly than someone who has the physical features of a fair-skinned person.

The one thing everyone agrees on is that the federal government needs to act on immigration. Where they differ is on how it should be done. Without federal legislation to address the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the US, other states may follow Arizona's lead. If that happens, people in the US who look Arab, or are Arabs, are in for unsettling times.

Hedley, in your rush to castigate the US for this new policy in Arizona - you and many others have over looked one vital component. The request for papers/identification is only permissible if the police have had probably cause to talk to you in the first instance. You have to have somehow drawn the attention of the authorities with some kind of concerning behaviour - before you can be requested to provide evidence of legality regarding immigration.

[heganboy]

Hedley, in your rush to castigate the US for this new policy in Arizona - you and many others have over looked one vital component. The request for papers/identification is only permissible if the police have had probably cause to talk to you in the first instance. You have to have somehow drawn the attention of the authorities with some kind of concerning behaviour - before you can be requested to provide evidence of legality regarding immigration.

not sure that this is in fact the case:
It requires police officers, "when practicable," to detain people they reasonably suspect are in the country without authorization and to verify their status with federal officials, unless doing so would hinder an investigation or emergency medical treatment.

It also makes it a state crime — a misdemeanor — to not carry immigration papers. In addition, it allows people to sue local government or agencies if they believe federal or state immigration law is not being enforced.

[Puckoon]

According to on the ground officers- that is how it is to be implemented.

Now the actuality of it may be different - and I am sure there will be cases of harrassment - but what I initially posted came from the horses mouth in my opinon. A high ranking crime enforcement official told me that the only time this will be used - is if in fact a reason comes to light for the police to need to "visit with" an individual in the first instance.

[Tyrones own]

Gary Hubbell is a hunter, rancher, and former hunting and fly-fishing guide. Gary works as a Colorado ranch real estate broker.

What's your excuse T.O. ?

For what HB ?...I simply posted this because I happen to believe
in the top line that I had in Bold

can you give me a few suggestions of changes you would have the President make, and of course get through the houses and into law?

Sure...make good on the promises he made on the economy and job creation for example would
be a great start!...and do you need remembering who controls both houses

any thoughts on the arizona immigration bill?

See my post above...........

What's your thoughts on his handling(a week later) of the Oil leak in the gulf Katrina anyone?
Or the attempted car bomb in your back garden?

[Tyrones own]

What part of "it's illegal to be in this country without proper documentation"
much like it is in most other countries in the world don't ye boys understand

[stew]

To me what is unconstitutional is a President allowing illegal aliens into the country and bleeding the Country of much needed jobs for the American and legal workers in the States.

If you are an illegal alien in any Country you should be sent back to were you came from, you are illegally in a foreign country and therefore all Obamas rhetoric on this issue is nonsense, the fact is that Americans should be looking to him to uphold the law of the land, not aid the breaking of the law of the land.

Neither Obama nor the Mexican President talk about the fact that these people have no right to be in the Country in the first place, they are breaking the law by being here and they should be held accountable for that, be they black, white Muslim or Gentile.

With everything that is going on in Mexico these days, not to mention the fact that the border is porous and could be used by various enemies of the US I would have thought that the President would be making sure that all the countries border areas are shored up security wise, not this clown, it is open season at the minute and the fact is that America has no idea of these people history, health wise or if they have criminal records etc.

If you cant come into the country the right way dont come in at all.

[Massey-135]

Gary Hubbell is a hunter, rancher, and former hunting and fly-fishing guide. Gary works as a Colorado ranch real estate broker.

What's your excuse T.O. ?

For what HB ?...I simply posted this because I happen to believe
in the top line that I had in Bold

Do you buy into all the rest of the shite in that article though? i haven't the time or inclination to get into a whole discussion today but most of that article is maddening stuff. the whole middle america thing of friday night football games and going for a weekend hunting? makes me want to puke. and that bit near the end about turning the clock back on over 100 years of liberalism, does he want to bring back racial segragation etc?