01-19-2009, 09:10 PM
Well, a new president begins his job tomorrow. I'm posting this article for those of you who follow the immigration issue. Obviously, the economy and jobs for Americans should come first. But I read that the immigration bills might come piecemeal -so stay informed. NumberUSA is a good place to sign up for alerts and free faxes to send.
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/node
As Obama Takes The White House, Amnesty Ranks Thirteenth (Of Thirteen) On His Priority List
January 16, 2009
By Joe Guzzardi
Admitting defeat is tough. Accepting that you arenât going to get your way is a bummer.
But the wise course for those on the short end of the stick is to look toward another day instead of pouting and stomping off making rash statements that you canât deliver on.
Key aides to President-elect Barack Obama have confirmed what I promised to you in my first 2009 column: âComprehensive immigration reformâ is deadâ for now and possibly for some considerable time into the future
And the spoiled sport is none other than the National Council of La Razaâs whining brat, Janet Murguia.
The actual death-knell statement made by Obamaâs operatives included comments to the effect that in order to âavoid political distractionsâ and instead to âfocus on reversing the economic slide,â the president would have to âdelayâ some of the âpromisesâ he made during his campaign. [Economy May Delay Work on Obamaâs Campaign Pledges, by Peter Baker, New York Times, January 10, 2009]
Just in case anyone missed his administrationâs revised focus, Obama will clarify it during an interview with ABCâs This Week which is scheduled to air Sunday:
âI want to be realistic here. Not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped.â
Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, boiled it down this way:
âOur No. 1 goal: jobs. Our No. 2 goal: jobs. Our No. 3 goal: jobs.â
In a conversation with Murguia about immigration in which he tried to let her down gently, Emanuel reportedly told her that itâs important âto talkâ about the issues but that no commitments to a timetable could be made.
But Murguia recognized the brush-off and reacted quickly.
Through a conference called arranged by her fellow Treason Lobbyists at the National Immigration Forum, Murguia said:
âPresident-elect Obama has made clear a campaign commitment to address this issue in his first year, and we know he takes that very seriously. And we plan to hold him accountable.â
Thatâs cheek!
The president of a ethnocentric, single-issue organization plans to hold the president of the U.S. âaccountableâ for not making her narrow agenda among his top priorities.
How, I wonder, does Murguia expect to make good on her pledge?
Murguia, for all her experience, didnât read the tealeaves.
Obama didnât really make a âclear campaign commitment.â What Obama did was to speak out in favor of comprehensive immigration reform to those audiences where he knew that position would play well.
If Murguia with her extensive Capitol Hill background bought into Obamaâs campaign mumbo-jumbo, then sheâs not as sharp as she thinks she is.
Murguia might move to the ledge if she knew just how far down on Obamaâs priority list immigration is.
A sidebar in the print edition of the New York Times story cited above categorizes âThe New Administrationâs Prioritiesâ and divides them into three groups.
As identified, and using the administrationâs labels and the Timesâ text, they are:
âImmediate Prioritiesâ:
Infrastructure: finance roads, bridges, schools and other construction projects
Tax cuts: provide tax breaks for workers and businesses
Stem cells: reverse restrictions on embryonic stem cell research
National Security: begin withdrawing combat forces from Iraq and begin sending them to Afghanistan.
âDown Paymentsâ:
Health care: computerize medical records and expand a childrenâs health care program while taking longer to pass a plan offering universal care.
Energy Independence: double alternative energy supplies while waiting to develop a more comprehensive energy policy.
Down the Road:
Trade: renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement may be put on a long timeframe.
Climate Change: a market-based cap on carbon-based emissions may not pass this year.
Repealing Bushâs tax cuts: rather than repeal President Bushâs tax cuts for the wealthiest this year, they may be left to expire under current law in 2010.
Gay rights: overturning a ban on gays serving openly in the military may not happen until later this year.
Immigration: while some rules may be changed right away, a comprehensive overhaul of immigration may take longer.
There you have it.
On Obamaâs to-do list, immigration ranks thirteenth and last. And best of all, I canât think of any federal policy left off Obamaâs list that might come in fourteenth.
Note also that when and if Obama gets around to immigration, âsomeâ rules âmayâ be changed right away but a complete overhaul may take âlonger.â
Murguiaâs comrade Frank Sharry, executive director of another open borders advocacy group, Americaâs Voice, seems at least somewhat more grounded. Sharry projects a window of opportunity open between September 2009 and March 2010 when there are no elections scheduled and Obama may have calmed the turbulent first months of his administration. (Contact Americaâs Voice here.)
But Sherryâs thinking is wishful too.
Obama advisors are already looking ahead to the November 2010 with an eye toward avoiding the calamitous mid-term election results that plagued Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton in 1982 and 1994
Forward thinking is consistent with Obamaâs pattern. We know now that he initially began his presidential campaign in January 2005, the same month that he was first sworn in as Illinoisâ U.S. Senator.
The outlook for âcomprehensive immigration reformâ is so bleak that even Obama's âimmigration transition teamââtwo law professors, Tino Cuéllar of Stanford University and Georgetown's Alexander Aleinikoffâhas nothing to say.
Neither replied to ârepeated requestsâ from San Antonio News-Express reporter Hernán Rozemberg who wanted their opinion on whether there would be progress on immigration during Obamaâs first year. [Immigration Issue on Backburner, by Hernán Rozemberg, San Antonio News-Express, January 12, 2009]
The worst thing that we can expect from the first years of Obamaâs administrationâand I view this as very badâis that under new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, fewer workplace enforcement raids will occur.
We may be surprisedâas we were with the conversion we witnessed in Michael Chertoff. Napolitano has promised to go after unscrupulous employers and enforce the border. But Iâll believe it when I see it. [Napolitano Signals Shift in Worksite Raids, by Stewart M. Powell, Houston Chronicle, January 15, 2009]
Ominous sign: Napolitanoâs announced first matter of business is to âre-visitâ REAL IDâlast June, as Governor, she signed legislation refusing to implement REAL ID.
In summary: âI told you so,â âI told you so,â and âI told you so.â
In June 2008, I wrote that Murguia should be removed as La Razaâs president and chief executive officer, a position sheâs held for four years without moving the organizationâs agenda forward one inch.
At that time, Murguia foolishly warned Lou Dobbs that she would be hold him âaccountableâ for so-called hate crimes if and when they should be committed. Now Murguia has added Obama to her long list of people who should bow down to her.
Certainly, Murguiaâs fellow subversives must be ready to try someone different. How much worse could they do?
In October 2008, my column forecast that you would miss Chertoff when he left. Is there anyone who wouldnât be more comfortable with Chertoff than Napolitano since all we know about her for sure is that she advocates open borders?
And in January 2009, as I noted in my opening paragraphs, I predicted that amnesty would not pass this year. Not only isnât one on the horizon but nary a single soul in Obamaâs administration is willing to mention the word.
Weâre going to have to suffer through occasional idiotic statements from Congressional leaders Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. And I expect camouflaged efforts at amnesty through the ever-present DREAM Act which has been defeated more times than I can count over my twenty plus years of activism.
We have beaten back these types of efforts in economic times much more conducive to amnesty.
Although we must remain ever vigilant, for now weâre safe.
Best of all, weâve shut the other guys up for a while. What a blessing that is!
Joe Guzzardi [email him] is a California native who recently fled the state because of over-immigration, over-population and a rapidly deteriorating quality of life. He has moved to Pittsburgh, PA where the air is clean and the growth rate stable. A long-time instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, Guzzardi has been writing a weekly column since 1988. It currently appears in the Lodi News-Sentinel.
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http://www.numbersusa.com/content/node
As Obama Takes The White House, Amnesty Ranks Thirteenth (Of Thirteen) On His Priority List
January 16, 2009
By Joe Guzzardi
Admitting defeat is tough. Accepting that you arenât going to get your way is a bummer.
But the wise course for those on the short end of the stick is to look toward another day instead of pouting and stomping off making rash statements that you canât deliver on.
Key aides to President-elect Barack Obama have confirmed what I promised to you in my first 2009 column: âComprehensive immigration reformâ is deadâ for now and possibly for some considerable time into the future
And the spoiled sport is none other than the National Council of La Razaâs whining brat, Janet Murguia.
The actual death-knell statement made by Obamaâs operatives included comments to the effect that in order to âavoid political distractionsâ and instead to âfocus on reversing the economic slide,â the president would have to âdelayâ some of the âpromisesâ he made during his campaign. [Economy May Delay Work on Obamaâs Campaign Pledges, by Peter Baker, New York Times, January 10, 2009]
Just in case anyone missed his administrationâs revised focus, Obama will clarify it during an interview with ABCâs This Week which is scheduled to air Sunday:
âI want to be realistic here. Not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped.â
Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, boiled it down this way:
âOur No. 1 goal: jobs. Our No. 2 goal: jobs. Our No. 3 goal: jobs.â
In a conversation with Murguia about immigration in which he tried to let her down gently, Emanuel reportedly told her that itâs important âto talkâ about the issues but that no commitments to a timetable could be made.
But Murguia recognized the brush-off and reacted quickly.
Through a conference called arranged by her fellow Treason Lobbyists at the National Immigration Forum, Murguia said:
âPresident-elect Obama has made clear a campaign commitment to address this issue in his first year, and we know he takes that very seriously. And we plan to hold him accountable.â
Thatâs cheek!
The president of a ethnocentric, single-issue organization plans to hold the president of the U.S. âaccountableâ for not making her narrow agenda among his top priorities.
How, I wonder, does Murguia expect to make good on her pledge?
Murguia, for all her experience, didnât read the tealeaves.
Obama didnât really make a âclear campaign commitment.â What Obama did was to speak out in favor of comprehensive immigration reform to those audiences where he knew that position would play well.
If Murguia with her extensive Capitol Hill background bought into Obamaâs campaign mumbo-jumbo, then sheâs not as sharp as she thinks she is.
Murguia might move to the ledge if she knew just how far down on Obamaâs priority list immigration is.
A sidebar in the print edition of the New York Times story cited above categorizes âThe New Administrationâs Prioritiesâ and divides them into three groups.
As identified, and using the administrationâs labels and the Timesâ text, they are:
âImmediate Prioritiesâ:
Infrastructure: finance roads, bridges, schools and other construction projects
Tax cuts: provide tax breaks for workers and businesses
Stem cells: reverse restrictions on embryonic stem cell research
National Security: begin withdrawing combat forces from Iraq and begin sending them to Afghanistan.
âDown Paymentsâ:
Health care: computerize medical records and expand a childrenâs health care program while taking longer to pass a plan offering universal care.
Energy Independence: double alternative energy supplies while waiting to develop a more comprehensive energy policy.
Down the Road:
Trade: renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement may be put on a long timeframe.
Climate Change: a market-based cap on carbon-based emissions may not pass this year.
Repealing Bushâs tax cuts: rather than repeal President Bushâs tax cuts for the wealthiest this year, they may be left to expire under current law in 2010.
Gay rights: overturning a ban on gays serving openly in the military may not happen until later this year.
Immigration: while some rules may be changed right away, a comprehensive overhaul of immigration may take longer.
There you have it.
On Obamaâs to-do list, immigration ranks thirteenth and last. And best of all, I canât think of any federal policy left off Obamaâs list that might come in fourteenth.
Note also that when and if Obama gets around to immigration, âsomeâ rules âmayâ be changed right away but a complete overhaul may take âlonger.â
Murguiaâs comrade Frank Sharry, executive director of another open borders advocacy group, Americaâs Voice, seems at least somewhat more grounded. Sharry projects a window of opportunity open between September 2009 and March 2010 when there are no elections scheduled and Obama may have calmed the turbulent first months of his administration. (Contact Americaâs Voice here.)
But Sherryâs thinking is wishful too.
Obama advisors are already looking ahead to the November 2010 with an eye toward avoiding the calamitous mid-term election results that plagued Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton in 1982 and 1994
Forward thinking is consistent with Obamaâs pattern. We know now that he initially began his presidential campaign in January 2005, the same month that he was first sworn in as Illinoisâ U.S. Senator.
The outlook for âcomprehensive immigration reformâ is so bleak that even Obama's âimmigration transition teamââtwo law professors, Tino Cuéllar of Stanford University and Georgetown's Alexander Aleinikoffâhas nothing to say.
Neither replied to ârepeated requestsâ from San Antonio News-Express reporter Hernán Rozemberg who wanted their opinion on whether there would be progress on immigration during Obamaâs first year. [Immigration Issue on Backburner, by Hernán Rozemberg, San Antonio News-Express, January 12, 2009]
The worst thing that we can expect from the first years of Obamaâs administrationâand I view this as very badâis that under new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, fewer workplace enforcement raids will occur.
We may be surprisedâas we were with the conversion we witnessed in Michael Chertoff. Napolitano has promised to go after unscrupulous employers and enforce the border. But Iâll believe it when I see it. [Napolitano Signals Shift in Worksite Raids, by Stewart M. Powell, Houston Chronicle, January 15, 2009]
Ominous sign: Napolitanoâs announced first matter of business is to âre-visitâ REAL IDâlast June, as Governor, she signed legislation refusing to implement REAL ID.
In summary: âI told you so,â âI told you so,â and âI told you so.â
In June 2008, I wrote that Murguia should be removed as La Razaâs president and chief executive officer, a position sheâs held for four years without moving the organizationâs agenda forward one inch.
At that time, Murguia foolishly warned Lou Dobbs that she would be hold him âaccountableâ for so-called hate crimes if and when they should be committed. Now Murguia has added Obama to her long list of people who should bow down to her.
Certainly, Murguiaâs fellow subversives must be ready to try someone different. How much worse could they do?
In October 2008, my column forecast that you would miss Chertoff when he left. Is there anyone who wouldnât be more comfortable with Chertoff than Napolitano since all we know about her for sure is that she advocates open borders?
And in January 2009, as I noted in my opening paragraphs, I predicted that amnesty would not pass this year. Not only isnât one on the horizon but nary a single soul in Obamaâs administration is willing to mention the word.
Weâre going to have to suffer through occasional idiotic statements from Congressional leaders Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. And I expect camouflaged efforts at amnesty through the ever-present DREAM Act which has been defeated more times than I can count over my twenty plus years of activism.
We have beaten back these types of efforts in economic times much more conducive to amnesty.
Although we must remain ever vigilant, for now weâre safe.
Best of all, weâve shut the other guys up for a while. What a blessing that is!
Joe Guzzardi [email him] is a California native who recently fled the state because of over-immigration, over-population and a rapidly deteriorating quality of life. He has moved to Pittsburgh, PA where the air is clean and the growth rate stable. A long-time instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, Guzzardi has been writing a weekly column since 1988. It currently appears in the Lodi News-Sentinel.
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