Georgia seeks Arizona-like immigration law- Critique

In almost all the states that border Mexico, illegal immigration is becoming a major problem for the neighboring states to deal with. Like Arizona, Georgia is also considering to make stricter laws against illegal immigration. Georgia is not considering adopting the extreme measures like Arizona, and they don’t plan on requiring police to check immigration status, while enforcing laws. But however Georgia is debating the birthright citizenship. Legislators are also debating whether to ban illegal immigrants from Georgia colleges or not. I think this will be a terrible idea for them to do so. Attending college should not be determined by citizenship, test scores and grade point averages should be more important.  For one state to enforce stricter Illegal immigration laws in this country is no good at all. Illegal immigrants can travel from state to state with ease.

If the United States really wanted to keep the illegal immigrants out of the country they can do so by enforcing national laws, such as stronger employer sanctions and penalties, more manpower and funding for border control.  But the majority of the Americans do not mind the illegal immigrants in their country, as long as the immigrants are doing the “dirty” jobs here in America.

 To illustrate this, Stephen Colbert recently testified before the U.S. House of Representatives about the day he spent working with farm workers in the fields of California. The farm workers had invited interested Americans to spend a day working with farmers to see for themselves what farm work is really like. Only a handful of people accepted the invitation, showing most Americans don’t want to do the back breaking labor that illegal farm workers do to support their families and earn a wage much higher than in their native countries.

The immigration debate is complex, emotionally charged with serious political, economic and social consequences. Some politicians and political commentators would rather demagogue the issues rather than try to reach comprehensive immigration reform.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/24/stephen-colbert-appears-capitol-hill-hearing-illegal-immigrants/

Americans Still Cling to Ignorance Critique

Victor Davis Hanson’s analysis, (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/09/30/americans_still_cling_to_ignorance_107366.html) is full of distortions half truths and inaccuracies.  It is astounding that in this day and age Mr. Hanson is celebrating and proud of the ignorance of the average American. Survey after survey has shown that American high school students score near the bottom in math and science compared to high school students of the top twenty industrialized nations.

He rips into President Carter’s failings, with barely a mention of his many successes, such as the Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel which still holds today. Carter was right to pursue a policy of energy conservation and independence. One of the major reasons that the US maintains a bloated defense budget is to maintain its dominance of the Persian Gulf to keep the only flowing freely.

Mr. Hanson next turns his sights on Senator Kerry. Kerry is absolutely right to bemoan the electorate’s tendency to fall for "a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what's happening." A stark reminder of this is the health care reform debate. At one of the many public rallies organized by the Tea Party this summer, one of the angry participants was heard to say that he didn’t want a government takeover of health care and that the Democrats should “keep their hands off his Medicare plan.” By many measure of health care spending and outcomes, the US places near the bottom among the industrialized countries.

About Kerry’s remark to students to study well in school lest they end up stuck in Iraq. Hanson once again takes a cheap shot at Kerry, by stating: "He apparently had forgotten that soldiers volunteer for military service, and are overwhelmingly high school graduates.” It is quite obvious, that Mr. Hanson has not done his homework on the subject. It is well known that wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are being fought disproportionally by minorities, and the less well educated. In addition, due to short of qualified recruits the US military lowered its standards to accept convicted felons.

In the final analysis it appears that Hanson is blinded by his ideology in trying to justify his opposition to a host of issues, such as health care reform, the need to close Guantanamo and immigration reform. His extolling of the Tea Party’s positions and Republican obstructionism is deplorable. He would do well to read “Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free” by Charles P. Pierce.   With his sharp wit and sound reasoning, Pierce delivers a gut-wrenching and humorous lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States, and how a nation founded on intellectual curiosity has somehow degenerated into a nation of simpletons more likely to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate.

Downhill With the GOP Critique

In the September 24 edition of the New York Times, Paul Krugman wrote
a very interesting and engaging analysis of the Republican Party’s
obstructionist tactics leading up to the midterm elections in
November.  Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning economist has frequently
skewered Republican policies on a number of issues, such as Obama’s
stimulus package, health care reform, and the Bush tax cut extensions.
Krugman’s intended audience are the readers of the New York Times who
are generally considered to be more liberal than conservatives and
independent voters who are not wedded to the Republican Party’s flight
from realism.  Krugman’s credibility is quite high, while he generally
writes articles critical of the Republican’s he has not spared the
Obama administration from his incisive analysis, and razor sharp wit.
He was quite critical of Obama’s stimulus package, arguing that it was
too small to have a quick impact on economic growth.

Krugman makes a convincing case in demolishing Republican posturing
and hypocrisy surrounding the Bush tax cuts. In their public speeches
and positions papers the Republicans go to great lengths to portray
themselves in favor of wanting to control the federal deficit, while
at and the same time proposing a permanent extension of the tax cuts
for all taxpayers, which will add 3.7 trillion to the deficit over the
next decade.  Whereas, the Obama administration’s plan to leave the
tax cuts in place for those making under $250,000 a year and let the
tax rates for those making over $250,000 revert back to where they
were before the Bush tax plan came into effect, would save $700
billion over the Republican proposal.  Using flawless logic, backed by
relevant facts and figures, Krugman characterizes the Republican
stance as a “war on arithmetic”.

Krugman then analyzes the real motives of the Republicans. He asserts
that the man goal of the GOP is to gain power and not be bothered
accounting deficiencies of government. This is the argument makes
eminent good sense, as why would the Republicans, supposed to be the
party of fiscal restraint, make such reckless and irresponsible
proposals to saddle the economy with huge deficits.  The ultimate goal
is to eliminate Medicare and privatize social security and render the
Federal government ineffective and ungovernable, like a real banana
republic.  Here, Krugman is being a bit charitable to the Republicans
as in the words of one of their ideologues, Grover Norquist, founder
of the Americans for Tax Reform, the the Republicans goal should be to
so hamstring the government with deficits, that there will be no
choice, but to shrink the government so much that it can be “flushed
it down the toilet”.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24krugman.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB