John's Recommended Articles

"Many Americans have come to reject the label, but few question the idea at the heart of the "melting pot" tradition: Immigration works only if immigrants come to feel like full participants in our society, with all the rights, responsibilities and opportunities enjoyed by others, no matter how long they've been here. Developed gradually, partly by accident and partly by design, this approach to social integration is based as much in tradition as in law. But a key element is birthright citizenship -- in practice for whites since the nation's founding, and codified for all in the 14th Amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States . . ."

Newcomers put down roots and invest all-out in their lives here because they know their children will be guaranteed full membership. And children, knowing they have a secure place and a shot at the same opportunities as all other young people, feel entitled to aspire to the nation's highest pinnacles of success.

The repercussions of a national campaign to rescind birthright citizenship will make what happened in California in the 1990s, in the wake of the GOP's support for the anti-immigrant ballot initiative, Proposition 187, look like child's play. The party may as well give up any hope of appealing to the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc.

The consequences of such a policy for the melting pot -- for our future as a cohesive pluralist nation -- will be more momentous still. Think about the millions of children who will be born in coming years to the 11 million illegal immigrants already living on American soil. These young people will know no other home, many will never learn the language of their parents, and if what has happened in Europe is any guide, very few will even consider going back to the Old Country.

The overwhelming majority would finish out their lives here in the U.S. as second-class noncitizens with no hope of full participation in our society and little incentive to try in school or to aspire to mainstream success. Talk about a recipe for a permanent underclass: legally marginalized, undereducated, languishing near the bottom of the economic ladder and -- can anyone doubt -- increasingly resentful.

Republicans in Congress are right when they say that we have to find new ways to deter illegal immigration and to better manage the costs of the social services, including emergency-room maternity care, now extended to immigrants, both legal and illegal. But there are other"

'I think it's a lie to say that the president lied' - John McCain; USNews.com: The National Interest

Did the President Lie?
The Republican National Committee has an excellent video--available at the homepage, linked here--with clips of various Democrats, during both the Clinton and Bush administrations, arguing about the menace that Saddam Hussein posed. With most Democrats now claiming that they would have been on Saddam's side all along if only that evil genius George W. Bush, that idiot, hadn't led them astray, it's worth reviewing. It's especially hard to credit the notion that BUSH LIED!!!! and fooled Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton and Sandy Berger all the way back in 1998.

President Bush:
"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. Some Democrats and antiwar critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.

"They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction. And many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in the Congress this way: 'When I vote to give the president of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat, to our security.' That's why more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate–who had access to the same intelligence–voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power."

Colorado voters defang the Tabor-toothed tiger.: "Tabor has been great for our economy, but it has always galled the spending lobby. With revenues slow to recover after the 2001 recession, the empire saw its chance to strike back. Referendum C not only grows government by canceling all refunds until 2011; it also purports (unconstitutionally, many think) to loosen the revenue limit forever. Tabor is now toothless.
..... But to repeat, the people spoke. They're OK with all that money moving from their pockets into an unreformed bureaucracy that keeps on running school systems and road systems, prison systems and medical welfare systems in a 19th- or, at best, a mid-20th-century manner. A lot of them apparently just want to be taken care of, and never mind the details. "

Alito isn't 'pro-life' or 'pro-choice' but 'pro-law.'
Read about the nomination of Samuel Alito for SCOTUS.