HeartofAmerica: I have hope for 2016 and it includes Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. No one else comes close (in my opinion).

 · _{6 minutes ago}

Miffed White Male

I'm not arguing the policy question of whether increased immigration is good or bad for Republicans.  I'm seeing all kinds of "what a stupid thing to say" commentary on the web over the isolated sentence  "immigrants are more fertile", as if he'd said "Black people like Fried Chicken and Watermelon".

But statistically it's a true statement.  As  Professor Peter Schickele once said, "You can't have opinions about truth". · _{June 16, 2013 at 6:32pm}

Scarlet Pimpernel

What do you mean?  Permanent green card status, but no potential for citizenship for people who came here, or remained here, in violation of American law?  Denial of the vote as a penalty might be a reasonable way of doing it. · _{1 hour ago}

Edited 1 hour ago

Franco: Because the bill doesn't address the central issue - stopping illegal immigration (ahem) - and they still don't want to actually BE "rigorous", That is, the law will be rigorous, but the enforcement won't be, just like now. There will be all kinds of exceptions made, legal challenges and causes to rally behind politically. This will be the start of more immigration problems, not the end. 

These dolts are saying,"We need new laws because the old laws didn't work. We were unwilling to enforce the old laws. But with the new bill, we will magically be able to do all the things we  were disinclined to do before."

There are a lot of lies that come out of Washington, this has to be the most obvious of them all.

 · _{2 minutes ago}

Cagliostro: As a descendent of some convicts who founded a great nation (Australia), I resent the implication that taking criminals into your country is a bad thing!... though I guess it didn't work out too well for the Aborigines.

On a serious note, and asking as an ignorant foreigner, why is it so hard to reach a compromise on legalising the illegals you already have here AFTER you have secured the border? What is it about stopping further illegal immigration that is so controversial? · _{10 minutes ago}

BrentB67

Barbara I am not a libertarian. Do libertarians care if our government does this sort of thing to foreign threats? I could care less. It is when our government turns the binoculars in house that I am frustrated. · _{0 minutes ago}

BrentB67

First, there is no categorical libertarian opposition to government programs that are intended to deal with the threat of force against people (both citizens and others) and property within the United States.

I don't think this position is inconsistent with libertarians, republicans, dems, Tea Party, etc.

The question is what threat are the monitoring systems designed to deal with? If these programs were solely created and employed against non US Citizens, that is an appropriate use. Employing them against US Citizens without the concurrence of a public court is another matter that is not acceptable. · _{2 hours ago}

katievs

Catholic social teaching is definitely critical of certain de-humanizing and de-personalizing tendencies of capitalism, including the tendency to de-stablize natural communities, the tendency to reduce persons to functionaries, and the tendency to exploit the environment. It is critical of any political/economic system that tends in practice to bi-furcate society into a rich ruling class and a subservient, dependent class.

It does not glorify state power.  It does not immentatize the eschaton.  It condemns communism absolutely. It endorses free markets. · _{1 hour ago}

Byron Horatio: I'm actually going to wander off the Thomas Sowell reservation here and you can color me skeptical.  Just from my own experiences and word of mouth, there are a lot of people (particularly young people) who simply aren't willing to work unless they are making significantly above the market rate and wage.  They consider themselves above manual labor and want to go immediately into management from college.  

So my argument against Thomas Sowell here is that even if the wages were higher or above the market rate for agriculture work, Americans still wouldn't do it.  · _{6 hours ago}