Blog @ MoreWhat.com

Nothin’ like throwin’ a little mud on the liberals. For all the years of adoration toward the Kennedy administration, Camelot and the popular fascination with such American icons one thing seems certain. No matter how good some works are in politics there always seems to be a downside. That which can cause one to shake their head in disappointment.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Kennedy orgies in romper room
FBI’s XXX files on John, Bobby & Ted

The file on the mob plot began with the informant’s disclosures to the FBI’s Milwaukee office. The FBI added an unsigned statement that said a multimillionaire Manhattan divorcée knew about the orgies.

“It was reported that Mrs. Jacqueline Hammond, age 40, has considerable information concerning sex parties,” the statement said.

Among those who took part were John, Robert and Ted Kennedy, Monroe, Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Lawford and his wife, Patricia Kennedy, it said.

The statement indicated Hammond, who was divorced from a US ambassador, was credible.

It was widely reported in the early 1960s that John Kennedy kept a two-bedroom apartment at The Carlyle, and it was later claimed that he spent the night there with Monroe after she sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” at his 45th-birthday celebration.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday sought to shift the nation’s attention to a sunnier topic: the coming benefits from the Democrats’ recently-passed healthcare reforms.

Surrounded by a sea of seniors in Wheaton, Md., Obama defended the legislation from GOP attacks and trumpeted the arrival of one of earliest benefits of the new law: a $250 rebate to tens of thousands of seniors caught in the coverage gap of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit — a gap known unendearingly as the “doughnut hole.” The government will begin mailing out those checks on Thursday.

That Barry, what a joker. Does he know anything at all about the ‘doughnut hole’? A $250 check to cover the gap would be laughable if it wasn’t so pathetic. Aside from being able to carry your lame-ass live-at-home 26 year old children on your health insurance nothing much happens with Obamacare until 2014. Well, except for all the new taxes and reductions in Medicare to pay Medicaid for all the new participants Barry wants.

No point in retelling all the sad points about Obamacare here. If you have not learned about it by now you are either disinterested or one of those nut cases believing Barry is going to pay for everything you want.

BTW, the only reason President Obama is ‘trumpeting’ Obamacare is he knows most voters will thump Democrats at the polls this November and he is in campaign mode as usual doing damage control. He should have thought about that before the Cornhusker Cash or Louisiana Purchase bribes he gave Democrats to pass his legislation.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Republican Rand Paul said Tuesday he differs with the Libertarian Party by opposing abortion and supporting judicious overseas troop deployment, distancing himself from the party his father once represented in a presidential election.

The U.S. Senate candidate from Kentucky told syndicated conservative talk show host Sean Hannity that he doesn’t fit the mold of a Libertarian. Paul said his conservative social views and willingness to send troops abroad to protect the U.S. set him apart from the party some have tried to associate him with.

An earlier post on this blog reminded readers that Rand Paul is a Libertarian and not a conservative. It would be nice to think that is responsible for his statements on Sean Hannity’s radio show. But then this is just another insignificant blog and could not possibly influence big time politicians.

Mark Levin supports Rand Paul and from what I heard considers him a conservative. I respect Mark Levin and his opinions but am reminded of Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts. I don’t believe Scott Brown is a conservative either.

Maybe Rand Paul could explain in detail what he means by ‘judicious overseas troop deployment.’ Is this someone carefully dancing around the facts or is he truly a conservative in libertarian’s clothing. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

If politics was an honest living it might not be necessary to be so skeptical. (or cynical if you prefer that word)

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Liberals in public office and elsewhere are willing and eager to punish BP for the oil spill. They are equally excited about bashing President Bush for everything they do not like. They always love to raise taxes especially for the wealthy but that doesn’t stop them from doing it to the rest of us. And certainly nothing would please them more than to cripple the recovery by making Wall Street villain of the year as their version of trickle down economics cripples Main Street as well.

So why do we never hear about liberals wanting to cap teachers salaries as they would do to all CEOs? Why don’t we hear about professors being held to the same standard of villain for getting in bed with special interest in a quid pro quo involving research? If TAs do most of the teaching why do professors command the salaries and perks they do? You can add the salaries of many others connected to education programs when asking that question.

Let’s not overlook school budgets, sports programs and coaching salaries either. Liberals cry foul that education is too expensive while athletic departments are like prostitutes for professional sports. Just like the sleazy relationships between professors and special interest funding for research the ADs as well as coaches, professional sports interests and athletic programs do little for the institutions they represent.

The current story about ‘realignment’ in college sports is a case in point. And go figure, Barry Switzer is central to making the point about college sports being sleazy.

Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, a coaching rival of Osborne’s in the 1970s and ’80s and longtime friend, said hearing Nebraska and the Big Ten in the same sentence doesn’t sound right.

Switzer told The Associated Press he doesn’t envy Osborne having to play a major role in the possible destruction of the Big 12, which evolved from the old Big Eight and Southwest Conference.

“I’m sure it weighs heavily on Tom,” Switzer said. “I hate to think we would lose what we have and what we built for so long. Finances are a factor, and sometimes you have to give up tradition for finances.”

McClurg said the Big 12 has been a good fit for Nebraska but the Big Ten, if it extends an invitation, could be better. It would greatly expand the school’s reach and could mean far more money for the school’s athletic programs.

“We have to seriously evaluate any opportunity that comes our way,” McClurg said, “because everybody else is doing that.”

Isn’t that special. ‘Everybody else is doing that.’ Wisdom coming from a venue of higher learning. Switzer says, ’sometimes you have to give up tradition for finances.’

American taxpayers are constantly presented with soaring expenses for education programs. And American education continues to decline when compared to other nations. There is a theory that liberals, you know, the educated elite from Ivy League diploma mills, favor dumbing down the public to enable their socialist agenda.

So crack open that beer. Remain on the couch until that next collega game is on the TV. While you’re waiting consider this.

Your interest in watching may be driven by tradition. But that’s not what drives college sports any longer. Another piece of Americana is slipping away. Let’s stop that. Refuse to be dumbed down and take a stand. Or simply crack open another beer and ignore this minor rant.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

In an earlier post it was suggested a biblical reference about teaching a person to fish can feed them for a lifetime. It was part of commentary on entitlements and out of control spending. A final comment in the post warned the NEA would then ask for more funding but suggested the NEA would not ask to be held accountable for actually teaching. That brings us to the following story.

NY passes students who get wrong answers on tests

Despite promises that the exams — which determine whether students advance to the next grade — would not be dumbed down this year, students got “partial credit” for wrong answers after failing to correctly add, subtract, multiply and divide. Some got credit for no answer at all.

Examples in the fourth-grade scoring guide include:

* A kid who answers that a 2-foot-long skateboard is 48 inches long gets half-credit for adding 24 and 24 instead of the correct 12 plus 12.

That’s just one item in the guide. You can follow the link for the full story. But you do not need to read the rest to understand the sad state of affairs in US education. Is there any wonder why US education continues to cost more while student achievement continues to flat line and fall behind other students around the world?

You cannot teach a kid to fish if they don’t know what a fish is. But with this style of education you can all but guarantee most of these students will become entitlement recipients that promote the liberal agenda of the nanny state. Not to mention burden the taxpayer who will always be expected to pay for this failure.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Here’s a perfect example of why PORK, earmarks, ’stimulus’ or any other call for ‘government help’ is nothing more than politicians seeking political cover or nanny state advocates portraying taxpayer funds as manna from heaven.

Cash-strapped states press Congress for more Medicaid help

States are turning up the pressure on federal lawmakers to help them pay their Medicaid bills, cautioning that they’ll otherwise face a dire fiscal situation that could hurt their economic recovery.

The state-federal health program for the poor consumes more than 20 percent of state spending, according to the National Governors Association, and without extra federal funds advocates say states will have to raise taxes, slash social spending or cripple their Medicaid programs.

The first paragraph above might accidentally point to the real problem. POLS suggest their ‘economic recovery’ will be hurt if they don’t get federal TAXPAYER dollars to fund shortfalls for state Medicaid spending. That’s their emotional ploy to justify getting the money.

What they should be saying is that taxpayers cannot continue being asked to pay more for entitlements! Asking for federal taxpayer dollars merely let’s them seek political cover by not speaking the truth on out of control spending and avoiding personal political damage by increasing state taxes to cover the entitlement spending.

You can draw your own conclusion on why programs like Medicaid continue to require more spending. But it is hard to avoid the reality. As long as you offer ‘freebies’ for program participants that are paid for by someone else the demand for the program benefits and the associated costs will continue to rise. The costs will always exceed the taxpayer’s ability to pay for it.

That is the twisted burden shift caused by entitlements. Someone creates a program to provide benefit to someone lacking the funds to pay for it themselves. Over time the taxpayer lacks the funds to pay for the benefit of the recipient who lacks the funds.

There is a biblical reference that fits this scenario. Give someone a fish and you can feed them for a day. Teach them to fish and they can feed themselves for a lifetime.

OMG, with that reference the NEA will ask for more education funding. It doesn’t matter. They would ask for more funding without the reference. But they won’t ask to be held accountable to teach anyone to feed themselves for a lifetime.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Fresh concern about the health of the U.S. and European economies sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling back below 10000 and drove the euro to new four-year lows against the dollar.

Friday got off to a struggling start as investors reacted to comments late Thursday from a Hungarian official who likened his nation’s debt woes to those of Greece. Then, before the New York open, the Labor Department released U.S. jobs data that was much weaker than expected.

Remember the markets tumbling dramatically some weeks ago initially blamed on a trading mistake and later liberals everywhere were outraged including President Obama? Ya, they used the event to push their so-called Wall Street reforms.

Funny, much about this decline in the markets is credited to ‘weaker than expected’ jobs data. The same jobs data where all but 41,000 or so jobs of the more than 400,000 are due to the liberal majority government hiring temporary census workers.

President Obama was still trying to spin this week’s news as positive and claim it demonstrates his agenda is working. Which is more than you can say for the record number of people not working because of it.

Yes, the agenda of President Obama and his liberals is working. That is if you believe the same socialist agenda is working in the EU. Places like Greece and the US state of California are finding out how well that agenda works.

Once those US census jobs dry up, the tax increases and restrictions of Obamacare cause more jobs to be lost Mr President will have some more explaining to do. That is if the oil spill in the Gulf ever gets off the front page.

Can you identify one item initiated by President Obama that provided a positive outcome for the United States?

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Another example of a misguided conclusion driven by politics features President Obama, space exploration and self-serving alliances. The report presenting this political nonsense is provided below.

Obama Space Plan ‘Vindicated’ by Private Rocket Launch, Builder Says
Clara Moskowitz
SPACE.com Senior Writer
Fri Jun 4, 7:15 pm ET

The successful liftoff of a new private rocket helps vindicate President Barack Obama’s plan to rely on commercial spaceships to carry cargo and possibly astronauts to orbit, the rocket’s millionaire owner said.

Commercial firm Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) blasted off its first Falcon 9 rocket Friday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

“I think this bodes very well for the Obama plan,” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said after the launch. “It really helps vindicate the approach he’s taking.”

Why is this report political nonsense? First of all, the report and Elon Musk suggest this rocket is ‘private’ not ‘public’ in terms of funding. Not exactly.

Established in 2002 by Elon Musk , the founder of PayPal and the Zip2 Corporation, SpaceX has already developed two brand new launch vehicles, established an impressive launch manifest, and been awarded COTS funding by NASA to demonstrate delivery and return of cargo to the International Space Station.

Then there is the suggestion that private space travel is Obama’s plan. Like he developed it. Not exactly.

Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group joined forces to develop a fleet of commercial spaceships and launch aircraft. Rutan is responsible for the following:

White Knight launched SpaceShipOne 14 times, including the first privately funded human spaceflight. The final launch, on October 4, 2004, won the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE.

Let’s give credit where credit is due. Rutan, Branson and others were moving toward private space flight projects well before Musk’s NASA-funded project or President Obama’s endorsement of it. However, Obama should get credit for favoring privately funded space exploration if he in fact does.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

As with any tragic circumstance there are always people, places and things forever affected. Reasonable people everywhere will be empathetic and often contribute to solving the problems encountered. This is when the best humans have to offer shines. The generosity and community spirit of many Americans excels when tragedy strikes. But there is a problem that can overshadow inspirational human action.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is no exception. News reports are dominated by angry and otherwise emotional responses to the frustrating day to day events of this disaster in the making. Politicians are doing their dance and President Obama is no exception. Feeling the heat over what some call his Katrina the President lashed out at BP on his recent trip to the region and some have called for BP’s CEO to step down.

BP chief says not quitting over spill - newspaper

Chief Executive Tony Hayward has said he is not thinking of quitting despite the outcry in the United States over the scale of damage from a ruptured deep-sea oil wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico.

“It hasn’t crossed my mind. It’s clearly crossed other people’s minds but not mine,” he told The Sunday Telegraph in an interview when asked if he had thought of stepping down as head of the British energy giant.

All the angst and PR being displayed by so many is not helping. All involved should be doing what some are. Offering constructive suggestions and seeking solutions to the problem. Raising the emotional component of a tragic event does not contribute to solving the problem. There will be plenty of time for that for those interested when the problem has been resolved. Which may in fact be a very long time. But emotional outbreaks and political rhetoric will not make that day come more quickly. Quite the contrary, these actions will delay a positive outcome.

As for BP’s chief resigning, it makes about as much sense as McDonald’s chief resigning over the following:

McDonald’s pulls 12M cadmium-tainted Shrek glasses

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cadmium has been discovered in the painted design on “Shrek”-themed drinking glasses being sold nationwide at McDonald’s, forcing the burger giant to recall 12 million of the cheap U.S.-made collectibles while dramatically expanding contamination concerns about the toxic metal beyond imported children’s jewelry.

If you think that is not a fair comparison consider this. There is no excuse for not knowing what is in a product you sell. There is no excuse for not knowing cadmium has toxic properties and is an element long thought to cause severe health problems. Whether it is or not one should not allow it to be used at least in products sold to the public.

In comparison to the BP oil spill the McDonald’s recall is on point. Another case where someone let a problem or its solution slip through the cracks. If you think the problems caused by the BP spill outweigh the risk to millions of children try making that case on the network news. Every liberal on the planet will skewer your life for all to see.

The real point here is leave the CEO of BP and the one at McDonald’s alone. Or at least wait until the story ends and we know where we are before you seek your pound of flesh.

Can we simply work on the problem and leave the blame game for another time? Probably not, but hey, I’m just sayin’…..

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

If the recent rev/con of the United Nations on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for 2010 is any indication the world is no closer to being the nuke-free peaceful utopia envisioned by UN rhetoric or that of US President Barack Hussein Obama. Statements made by Iran and Israel merely extend the never ending debate on Middle East peace that is equally illusive.

The following report from a few days ago inspired this post.

Israel denounces NPT ‘hypocrisy’ as Iran hails accord
by Gavin Rabinowitz Gavin Rabinowitz – Sat May 29, 4:24 pm ET

TORONTO (AFP) – Israel Saturday denounced as “hypocritical” a resolution adopted by the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s 189 nations and said it would refuse to take part in a conference on a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East.

Israel said the resolution adopted at the United Nations on Friday singles out the Jewish state and fails to mention arch-foe Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

One may have to take the announcement above at face value until the 28 page doc from the UN is available. As of this writing the following notice was found at the UN’s website.

8:58 AM 6/2/2010
Parts I and II of the Final Document of the 2010 NPT Review Conference are still being finalized and will be posted here (in English only) as soon as they are available. Other language versions will be added when ready.

It always seems that some sources are able to receive these items before the general public. But there are other items that help paint the picture.

UN NPT conference backs steps to disarm
Sat May 29 2010 12:05

A Major Gap

The disarmament action plan also inevitably leaves a major gap, since it doesn’t obligate four nations that are not members of the treaty - India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, all of which have or are suspected of having nuclear arsenals.

On the Middle East, Arab states and Israel’s allies had been at odds over wording in the plan to convene a conference in 2012 to begin a process to turn the region into a zone free of nuclear and other mass-destruction weapons.

This Arab proposal for a WMD-free zone, to pressure Israel to give up its undeclared arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear warheads, was endorsed by the 1995 NPT conference but never acted on.

Israel has long said a full Arab-Israeli peace must precede such weapons bans. But at this conference the US, Israel’s chief supporter, said it welcomed “practical measures” leading toward the goal of a nuke-free zone, and US diplomats discussed possibilities with Israel.

And what about Iran?

NPT 101: Is Iran violating the nuclear treaty?
By Scott Peterson, Staff writer / May 4, 2010
Istanbul, Turkey

Is Iran violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)?The answer isn’t black and white. It depends on whom you ask – and how deftly you define “violation.” But in essence, Iran is following the letter but not always the spirit of the NPT.

Iran claims it is in complete compliance with its NPT obligations, including declaring all its nuclear material and allowing inspectors to monitor its facilities. It advocates against nuclear weapons and notes that despite thousands of hours of inspections in Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – the United Nations body that monitors NPT compliance – has found no evidence of a bomb program.

It is not like the IAEA never dropped the ball regarding Iraq, Iran or other investigations they have undertaken. No one really knows the status of Iran’s nuke program but their repeated call for the elimination of Israel raises suspicion about nuclear weapons.

But let’s not get all worked up over Israel’s denouncement of this year’s nuclear theatre courtesy of the United Nations. Just last year there was at least one similar response by another nation under similar circumstances.

Friday, September 25, 2009, 00:47 IST
UN passes NPT resolution, India says no

New Delhi: India refused to abide by the UN Security Council resolution asking all non-NPT nations to sign the pact, saying it cannot accept the “externally prescribed norms or standards” on issues that are contrary to its national interests or infringe on its sovereignty.

India maintained that it cannot join the NPT as a non-weapon country even as it reiterated its commitment to no testing and no-first-use besides non-discriminatory universal non-proliferation.

The details may have changed over the years but generally speaking we are no closer to a nuke-free world than we were decades ago. Nothing anyone has expressed improved the chances of the world becoming peaceful. Perhaps focusing on nukes misses the point although it makes for popular news stories. War and other armed conflict with ‘conventional weapons’ as well as violence in general needs to be addressed in addition to nuclear threats before ‘universal’ peace can be achieved. Something that seems unlikely given the history of humans on this planet.

It would be helpful to keep the nuclear club at its present size. It would be more helpful to keep terrorists from making an IED from nuclear material e.g., a ’suitcase bomb.’ It might be fair to state that government leaders over a long period of time have caused this predicament in the way relationships, strategies and tactics have been arranged. Changing alliances and ‘national interests’ at odds with solutions that benefit all or at least do not unduly burden some while others gain are at the heart of the matter.

Until those trends are resolved the larger problem of a nuke-free world and an end to armed conflict are simply wishful thinking.

If only wishing for a perfect world made it so.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Brewer Backs McCain for Senate

“It’s interesting. Sen. McCain, of course, has represented the state of Arizona for a long time. And J.D. Hayworth has served in Congress for eight years,” the governor said.

“I believe philosophically, they’re different breeds of politicians. And people will just have to make that decision. I’ve known Sen. McCain for a long time, and I think he’s served Arizona well.”

McCain along with Bush, Kennedy and others tried to pass shamnesty in 2007 yet Jan Brewer as well as some others support McCain. It is situations like this that make it hard to believe people are serious about opposing illegal immigration and shamnesty. In this case, perhaps Brewer does it because McCain is establishment GOP and she will need them to survive politically. She gets to do the dirty work on illegal immigration and in return for allowing the GOP to side step the issue gets their support for her career.

Obama says he made a mistake on immigration when he took Napolitano for Homeland Security. It opened the door for then Secretary of State Jan Brewer to become governor of Arizona. Napolitano had opposed any legislation like SB 1070 and Brewer signed it into law.

Brewer first threw her support to McCain in February. SB 1070 was passed and signed in April.

As suspected, the Obama/Brewer sit down appears to have accomplished little. They may whithhold significant details but there is nothing to suggest either person blinked or that anything substantial is in the works.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

For the record, a series of videos will be presented here on the issue of illegal immigration. The content of this first video in the series is absolutely not endorsed by this blog. To the contrary, Felipe Calderon is in lock step with the open borders, shamnesty crowd. Keep in mind that US Congressional Democrats gave him a standing ovation. Needless to say, Republican members of Congress did not.

But it IS an election year in the US. And the GOP can read the polls. 2/3 to 3/4 of the US population is ‘bone tired’ of illegal immigration. In 2007 the GOP was not so keen on enforcing US immigration law or securing the borders.

What changed? Tea Parties didn’t hurt. Angry voters got their attention. The anti-incumbent mood was a wake up call. This year the public may finally be heard. Thank you Arizona for getting the ball rolling again.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Illegal immigrants: Deport thyself

In the same week that Rand Paul coasts to victory with a stunning voter majority in the Kentucky race for US Senate a ‘controversy’ is manufactured. A reasonable take on the story is offered at the Washington Post.

from David Weigel | May 20, 2010; 12:09 PM ET at WaPo:

I can’t decide whether Paul has benefited or been hurt by the change of focus from the original story — whether his opposition to basically any federal intervention in business practices meant he opposed the Americans With Disabilities Act, opposed FDA regulation of food, etc. Instead, this has become a fairly tired “is candidate a racist or isn’t he?” story — one that Paul thinks he can deflect.

And here’s part of the ‘take’ at PMSNBC:

In his 15-minute interview with Maddow, Paul repeatedly declined or sidestepped opportunities to endorse the provisions of the 1964 law which require hotels, restaurants, and other businesses to accept all customers without discriminating on the basis of race or ethnicity.

He repeated several times that he opposes racial discrimination. “I’m not in favor of any discrimination of any form, I would never belong to any club that excluded anybody for race,” he said. At the end of the interview, Paul added, “I don’t believe that any private property (owner) should discriminate either.”

But he did not say whether he supported using federal law to enforce non-discrimination in privately owned businesses. He said “had I been around” in 1964 “I would have tried to modify that.”

He also said the debate over the civil right law’s limits on rights of private property owners “is still a valid discussion.”

Suffice it to say that in the liberal camp you are a bad person if you want to ‘modify’ any legislation they support or ‘discuss’ any part of their self-approved agenda. Hey libs, everything is subject to discussion, even your tired old race card tactic.

Below is a link to Rand Paul’s site and his press release on the story.

Rand Paul Sets the Record Straight
Published on 20 May 2010 by Jesse

In response to liberal media attacks, Dr. Rand Paul today released the following statement:

Seems clear what Rand Paul was saying. He obviously opposes discrimination as does this blog author. But he also is concerned about government overstepping its constitutional limits as well as other threats to freedom and liberty as layed out by the founding documents of our nation. While this blog author does not necessarily agree with everything Rand Paul or his father Ron may express, any differences of opinion would benefit from more discussion.

Discussing issues is an idea lost on liberals. They would prefer you surrender your freedom and allow them to control everything, no questions asked.

Stanford Matthews
Morewhat.com

One sound bite or excerpt is probably as good as another regarding a recent backlash toward the ’social networking’ site Facebook. What appears to be a privacy policy may in fact be a default agreement to allow Facebook to exploit users’ personal information.

Facebook Privacy: How About Some Honesty?

You can say what you want about striving for granular this-that-or-the-other, but the truth is we all know what happens when you present people with a 5,830-word privacy policy and 80-gazillion intricate options: They say “screw it” and move on. Or adjust only a small handful of the now-defaulted-to-public-sharing options. And then, voila: Facebook gets to share their data with the world, opening new doors for advertising and profit.

As expressed on this blog before the author has no interest in things like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the ‘wow’ fad sites trying to replace good old-fashioned communication between humans. That would be similar to the gripe on this blog suggesting wireless phones are anything but. Cameras, mobile internet access, bells and whistles, texting but sadly little in the way of reasonable performance for voice communications not to mention competitive pricing.

But then the public gets what the public wants from the market. Anything for any price as long as they think it’s cool. And the free market knows how to make you believe it is. Because most people make it easy for them.

How’s that for honesty?

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Metcalfe’s Arizona-Style Apprehension Measure Offers 140,000+ Illegal Aliens Two Options: Leave PA or Go to Jail

5/4/2010

Legislation could save PA taxpayers more than $728 million annually

Citing mounting taxpayer costs combined with the $1 billion Rendell budget deficit, lost jobs and ever-increasing crime resulting from Pennsylvania’s illegal alien invasion, Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) today introduced the newest and toughest addition (House Bill 2479) to the National Security Begins at Home legislative package.

“With the federal government currently AWOL in fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities to protect American lives, property and jobs against the clear and present dangers of illegal alien invaders, state lawmakers from Arizona to Oklahoma, Georgia to Utah and now Pennsylvania are left with no choice but to take individual action to address this critical economic and national security epidemic,” said Metcalfe. “The purpose of this legislation is to offer every illegal alien residing in Pennsylvania two options, leave immediately or go to jail. Whether you came to steal Pennsylvania jobs or to leech off of our state’s fraud-ridden, ‘close your eyes and verify’ welfare system, once this law is enacted there will be absolutely no economic incentives for you to remain here.”

Metcalfe’s Arizona-modeled legislation would provide state and local law enforcement with full authority to apprehend Pennsylvania’s estimated 140,000 illegal aliens and several other sweeping reform measures, including:

• Creating a new criminal offense for illegal aliens who violate federal law by either willfully failing to register as an alien or failing to possess proper proof of such registration when stopped for another primary offense such as a traffic violation.
• Requiring law enforcement officers to attempt to verify the immigration status of suspected illegal aliens.
• Creating a new criminal offense for persons who are unlawfully present in the United States and are an unauthorized alien applying for work.
• Allowing law enforcement officers to arrest illegal aliens for any public offense which would warrant removal from the United States.
• Creating a new felony offense for intentionally smuggling illegal aliens for profit; and authorizing law enforcement officers to impound any vehicle driven by an illegal alien, or used to transport illegal aliens.

House Bill 2479 also incorporates several other previously introduced National Security Begins at Home provisions, including cracking down on “Sanctuary” cities, employers who refuse to use the federal government’s FREE e-verify system to verify the immigration status of potential employees or that knowingly hire illegal aliens; and ending access to public benefits without verification of lawful status within the United States.

Offering support for House Bill 2479 during today’s press conference included Kathleen Appell, Citizens for Immigration Control in Pennsylvania; Mariann Davies Esq., You Don’t Speak for Me; Jeff Lewis, national director, Federal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Coalition (FIRE); and Ned Pfeifer, president, Eagle Forum.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) was also on hand to once again highlight FAIR’s recent research on the ever-increasing taxpayer costs directly associated with Pennsylvania’s illegal alien population, which has nearly tripled since 2000:

• Pennsylvania has the 16th largest concentration of illegal aliens in the United States.
• Providing education to the estimated 48,500 illegal alien children (or 2.7 percent of K-12 students) attending Pennsylvania’s public schools costs state taxpayers nearly $660 million annually.
• Expanding this initial price tag to include unreimbursed health care expenditures and incarceration costs, total state taxpayer costs for illegal aliens increases to $728 million annually or about $150 per Pennsylvania resident household.

On the upside, FAIR’s report also concluded that the annual fiscal costs to Pennsylvania taxpayers associated with illegal aliens are not inevitable. The complete Cost of Illegal Immigration to Pennsylvanians report can be reviewed and downloaded at FAIRUS.org.

“Giving Pennsylvania law enforcement full authority to apprehend illegal alien invaders for eventual deportation has everything to do with fully restoring the rule of law in favor of tax-paying Pennsylvania citizens who are currently footing the bill for no less than $728 million annually to clothe, feed, educate, medicate and incarcerate illegal aliens,” said Metcalfe. “Most importantly, this legislation recognizes that Pennsylvania citizens have a constitutional right to expect their rights and laws to be enforced, especially against foreign invaders.”