House Democrats voted unanimously in favor of allowing illegals to join our military.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) supported the proposal, saying that citizenship shouldn’t matter. “I know that what really matters on the battlefield isn’t whether you have the right papers, it’s whether you have the heart to fight, patriotism for your country, and the right character,” he said.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh … no. If you’re an illegal alien, then it’s not YOUR country, now is it? Our military has ALWAYS allowed LEGAL immigrants to serve. Many, many immigrants have used military service to fast-track their way to naturalization. But ILLEGALS? Unh-unh. Get your green card first. Then, we can talk.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) opposed the proposal, saying it legitimized Obama’s DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which has been challenged in court as an unconstitutional overreach.
Fortunately, our Republican majority was able to kill the proposal 221-202.
Investigators have asked the FBI to look at damage to the left hand lower portion of the crashed train’s windshield to try and determine if it was hit by a projectile as well.
Before Amtrak 188 crash occurred, there was nothing remarkable about its speed as it passed along its route.
Amtrak trains have multiple systems to alert the engineer of excess speed.
The engineer was in good health.
The engineer was taking no drugs.
The engineer is described as having been very conscientious.
The engineer survived the crash, but suffered a concussion.
He has no memory of the minutes before the train suddenly sped up.
These are not good times for the Republic (and if you laughed or scratched your head at me calling America a republic, I rest my case).
But they are amusing times, at least for those of us capable of extracting some measure of mirth and schadenfreude from the president’s predicament.
With the sand running out on the Obama presidency, it’s finally dawning on the president’s friends and fans that he can be a real jerk.
Consider the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank. For the last six years, he’s spent much of his time rolling his eyes and sneering at Republicans. His subspecialty is heaping ridicule on conservative complaints about, well, everything and anything. If it bothers conservatives, it must be irrational, partisan, churchy, fake, hypocritical — or all of the above. Meanwhile, poor Barack Obama, while not always without fault in Milbank’s eyes, is the grown-up, the good guy trying to do good things amidst a mob of malcontents and ideologues.
That is, until this month. President Obama wants to get a trade deal passed. He needs Democrats to do it. But, Milbank laments, Obama’s blowing it.
“Let’s suppose you are trying to bring a friend around to your point of view,” Milbank writes. “Would you tell her she’s emotional, illogical, outdated, and not very smart? Would you complain that he’s being dishonest, fabricating falsehoods and denying reality with his knee-jerk response?”
“Such a method of a persuasion is likelier to get you a black eye than a convert,” Milbank notes. “Yet this is how President Obama treats his fellow Democrats on trade . . .”
Yes, well, true enough. But lost on Milbank is the fact that this is precisely how Obama treats everyone who disagrees with him. When Obama — who ran for office touting his ability to work with Republicans and vowing to cure the partisan dysfunction in Washington — treated Republicans in a far ruder and shabbier way, Milbank celebrated.
Of course, he was hardly alone.
Republicans, in Obama’s view, are always dishonest, fabricating falsehoods and denying reality with their knee-jerk responses.
To pick just one of countless examples, there was a White House summit on health care in 2010. The president invited members of Congress to discuss the issue in good faith. He then proceeded to treat every concern, objection, and argument from Republicans as dumb, dishonest, or emotional. They were, according to a column by Milbank, “stepping into Prof. Obama’s classroom.” Milbank marveled at how the “teacher” treated them all “like his undisciplined pupils.” Whenever someone said anything politically inconvenient, the president replied that those were just partisan “talking points.”
When Senator John McCain, his opponent in the previous election, noted that Obama had broken numerous promises and that the 2,400-page bill was a feeding trough for special interests, Obama eye-rolled. “Let me just make this point, John,” Obama said. “We’re not campaigning anymore. The election’s over.”
He responded to Senator Lamar Alexander — he called him “Lamar” — “this is an example of where we’ve got to get our facts straight.” When it was Representative John Boehner’s turn to speak, Obama reprimanded “John” for trotting out “the standard talking points” and, in the words of a palpably impressed Milbank, forced Boehner to “wear the dunce cap.”
Again, this was all quintessential Obama then, and it’s quintessential Obama now. All that has changed is that he’s doing the exact same thing to Democrats, and it’s making them sad. Specifically, he’s accused Senator Elizabeth Warren of not having her facts straight. He says she’s just a politician following her partisan self-interest.
But here’s the hilarious part: Liberals can’t take it. The president of NOW, Terry O’Neill, accused Obama of being sexist. O’Neill sniped that Obama’s “clear subtext is that the little lady just doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” She added, “I think it was disrespectful.” Both O’Neill and Senator Sherrod Brown also sniff sexism in the fact that Obama referred to Warren as “Elizabeth.”
“I think referring to her as first name, when he might not have done that for a male senator, perhaps?” Brown mused with his typical syntactical ineptness.
Of course, in that White House health-care summit and in nearly every other public meeting with Republican senators and congressmen, he referred to them all by their first names.
The great irony is that when Republicans complain about Obama’s haughtiness and arrogance, liberals accuse them of being racist. I hope I don’t miss that phase of this spat while I’m off making the popcorn.
Senator Barbara Boxer: “Don’t Call Me Ma’am” – General Michael Walsh
Seattle is the first major city to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour.Why unskilled workers should be earning that kind of money is beyond me.
In Seattle, the increase has already resulted in the loss of 12 minimum wage jobs, plus the loss of livelihood for the local, female owner.
She has tried to make the higher cost of labor work. “I’ve let one person go since April 1, I’ve cut hours since April 1, I’ve taken them myself because I don’t pay myself. I’ve also raised my prices a little bit.”
It’s not working. You just cannot run a business at a loss month after month, so the neighborhood will soon be missing its pizzeria and 13 people will be looking for work in an already depressed job market.
If raising minimum wage is allegedly about compassion, then where’s the compassion for these people?Not to mention that we knew it would happen.
Note: If you’ve encountered claims that minimum wage hikes are neutral or good for the economy, please read the Forbes article below. It goes over the research and exposes the debunked studies these claims are based on.
Another week almost finished. Still waiting for the weather to warm up for more than a day. And stop raining every weekend. There’s a big flea market at our county fairgrounds this weekend. DW mentioned it in passing, which means: I WANT TO GO. Since I had to sell all my toys I don’t collect anything and don’t have the disposable income I once had. But there’s an avon rep who sets up there where my beloved child bride stocks up on her year’s supply of Imari,her favorite fragrance. She also picks up some of D#1’s favorite perfume. I’d really rather not go, but over the years I’ve developed a healthy fear of her. Just sayin’.
Forget “Mansplaining.” The latest feminist whining point is that men don’t think enough about, read enough or listen to enough women. Or maybe too much. It’s not clear. How do they know? They just do. Get it directly from the “killjoy’s” mouth here. Also, SooperMexican reports on some of Guardian writer Jessica Valenti’s stalking habits, and this cartoon is definitely NOT grounds for a lawsuit. I think.
NEWS FLASH! According to the latest statistics there are more Angus steers killed than any other kind of cattle. THIS SENSELESS SLAUGHTER MUST STOP! #Black Lives Matter
Yesterday’s discussion was most gratifying. What I love about our little garden is we can express our opinions openly, honestly, and rationally, without anyone being judgmental. I so appreciated everyone’s thoughts and the valid points everybody made that perhaps others had not considered. If only we could have this type of dialogue on a national level maybe we’d start to understand each other. That, obviously, will not happen because of the control the leftist media has over the national discourse. At least we can talk about whatever we have on our minds here. I don’t much give a damn what anybody else thinks. I’m too old to worry about it.
polination.blog 