American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
Sen. John McCain had another of his series of bloggers’ conference calls today, and I had the honor of taking part. Captain Ed has the details.
The most important part of the calls, aside from obviously the PR aspect, is that the Senator is one of the few Republican candidates engaging the bloggers. It really shows Sen. McCain’s commitment to keeping the electorate informed while at the same time hearing out our questions.
My article is up at Pajamas Media
I had the privilege a few minutes ago to take part in a bloggers’ call with Sen. McCain, who is supporting very strongly the new strategy in Iraq. The strategy is succeeding, and the Senator will be addressing the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City to emphasize this message.
Ed Morrissey did an excellent job of liveblogging the call at Heading Right
McCain expects the Democrats to force a “surrender date” when Congress reconvenes. He wants to see organized demonstrations in support of the war effort. McCain reminds us that he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld and the previous strategy, but that the new strategy “can and must work”.
Read the rest.
Hugh Hewitt proposes Necessary Amendments And An Argument For Discretion
(1) An amendment to establish a special category of illegal aliens which includes all males between the ages of 18 and 30 from countries with significant jihadist networks, with that list of countries to be determined by the DoD, the CIA and State. No probationary Z visas under Section 601(h) would issue to such illegals. A special visa could issue, but one that required special care in the background checks and special restrictions on the movement of such applicants until after their background checks were complete.
(2) Construction of at least half of the double-fencing prior to the issuance of a single probationary visa, and completion of all 800+ miles of the double fencing prior to the issuance of any 4 year Z visa or any Y visa.
(3) Acceleration of the six-year build-up in the authorized level of Border Patrol agents so that its number of agents reaches 25,000 within 3 years with the funding for their hiring in place. This should be another hard trigger.
(4) A detailed statement of how and by whom the millions of background checks and interviews called for by the act are to be done, with funding authorized and allocated to support such obligations. This should also be a trigger.
(5) A set of easy to read ceilings on Y visas which cannot be raised except by Congressional directive.
(6) The elimination of social security credits for years worked as an illegal, and the payment –perhaps over a term of years– of at least 50% of unpaid back taxes
That would be a start.
Under the compromise, 400,000 guest workers each year will get special visas that could be renewed up to three times for two years. Four million more would be allowed to come in under generous family provisions. So there will be a big jump in newcomers.
Troubling, too, are the so-called Z-Visas for which those now here illegally will be eligible. This document will give those here illegally access to driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers. If that’s not amnesty, nothing is.
That said, the bill has some positive features. For example, it starts to move us away from an immigration system based on family ties to one based on merit and skills. This is important. It also seems to commit the government to securing the border before the rest of the provisions take effect. If security isn’t first, it will fail.
Further negotiation is no doubt on the way. A common-sense starting point might be Rudy Giuliani’s idea of securing the border first, then making sure all who come are fingerprinted and have tamper-proof IDs. So let the negotiating begin.
Indeed.
NZ Bear has the text of the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill, aka draft immigration bill, aka The “Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007”. It is time-consuming, but you should read it.
Hugh Hewitt has an 8-part series of comments on the bill.
Illegal aliens would not be subject to back taxes. Had I known, I would have declared myself an illegal alien and stopped paying taxes years ago. It would have saved me enough money to buy myself a nice place at an offshore tax haven so I won’t have to pay the taxes that will have to support the bureaucracy the bill will create.
Because it will overload the existing bureaucracy, and not just the DHS and ICE.
Powerline has “F*** you”: The inside story
Senator Cornyn, tacitly supported by Sen. Jon Kyl, pushed hard to streamline legal procedures to allow prompt deportation of illegals. Senator Kennedy resisted.
As the clock moved closer to 1:30 p.m., Senator McCain suddenly lost it. “This is chickenshit,” he told Senator Cornyn. “I think it would expedite things if you would just leave the room, Senator, so we can get along with finishing this up.” Senator Cornyn responded: “Wait a minute. We’ve been meeting for three months on this in good faith, and now you parachute in here this morning and tell me to leave? I think you’re out of line.”
Senator McCain responded: “F*** you! I know what is going on here. I know more about immigration than anybody in this room!” Other Senators moved in to calm things down, and the talks went on. Senator Cornyn’s provision was not included. At 1:30 p.m. sharp, the conferees (not including Senators Cornyn or Menendez and a few other negotiators) were in the press gallery, congratulating each other. Senator Kennedy recognized Senator McCain early to make his televised comments, then Senator McCain departed before the press conference was over for a flight to New York City. Later that afternoon, he missed yet another Senate vote – this one on the Democrats’ $2.9 trillion budget plan, an outline for the largest tax increase in U.S. history.
Mark Steyn calls it Capitulation, from A—— to Z
Time for an Amnesty bill deathwatch?
My take on all this for the 2008 election:
The Republican candidate that manages to do a campaign running against the Bush administration, strong against illegal immigration and strong on winning in Iraq and Afghanistan, will be the winner in all of this. It can be done, and I suggest that the candidate considering this course of action call Sarkozy’s campaign manager. He did it.
Special thanks to Larwyn for the links.
Update From Rob, Kennedy Dupes Republicans on Immigration Bill
Conservatives will be especially disappointed. They’ve already watched President Bush sell out to Kennedy on education and Medicare reform. But Bush’s collusion with the Massachusetts Democrat on immigration reform threatens to alienate them permanently. Heaven forbid that Bush try to reform anything else in his remaining 20 months in office.
Of course, the President doesn’t bear all the responsibility. Many Republicans in Congress are equally responsible for failing to protect the principles that voters sent them to Washington to defend. Conservatives have come to expect such behavior from Republicans such as Sen. Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania moderate. The shocker is that conservative Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) went along with it.
The GOP’s failure on immigration reform is most astounding because the issue is crystal clear: There are those who follow the law and those who break it. If one issue galvanized conservatives, this was it. Some have even traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to safeguard our country. Two Republican members of the U.S. House, Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.) and Tom Tancredo (Colo.), launched long-shot presidential bids because of the issue.
Response to White House Myth/Fact on Immigration Bill
10 Key Myths About the Amnesty Agreement Go read every one of them.
Update: Senator McCain held a bloggers‘ call for a more sympathetic audience.
Sen. McCain started by mentioned his official announcement to run for President. Today’s he’s in Iowa, tomorrow in Nevada and later in Arizona.
Q: How about that statement from Mitt Romney that Bin Laden not worth capturing?
McC; We will get Bin-Laden and we’ll bring him to justice – OBL is a major factor and we’ll will over extremism through the psychological side.
Q. Funding the war:
McC The military have to plan ahead and have the assurance and commitment of the funding in order to give the men and women the maximum capability to do the job. If he was the President he’d probably veto it because of the pork involved make those projects famous. The pork is a practice that has to stop.
Q. Romney & Giuliani are against civil unions in NH – what is McC’s position?
McC: Opposed to the legislation – he’s a Federalist but if he was a citizen of NH he would opposed it.
Q. A reporter that heckled Sen. McCain now says we have an obligaton to stay in Iraq. Is there a shift?
McC: Sen. McCain didn’t hear of that but saw in the Charlie Rose that others said that to withdraw would bring chaos. Suicide bombers continue to be the focus of the effort. Tthere continues to be progress in Bagdhad.
What concerns him most is the Malaki government which wants to take two months off for the Summer but needs to prove they are an inclusive government.
The Ambar province has dramatically improved. Gen. Petreus is concerned on importation of suicide bombers from Iran and Syria. There is measured but small progress taking place, but the Malaki government has to step up to the place.
Q. How about the deadline on Sen. McCain’s letter to the Secreatry of the Air Force?
McC: Sen. McCain hasn’t been in his office for the last week but he’ll get an update immediately.
Q. Saudi plot on oil field, considering how oil is a national securit issue – are hybrid cars a priority?
McC: Oviously there’s a huge national security component to oil importation. Sen McCain supporst ethanol fuel importation, no subsidies to corn ethanol; we need nuclear power and to streamline the process through licensing; and hybrid and electric cars are important. He’s not ready to impose government controls or intervention. What happens in the ME is very important to us but if we weren’t dependent of oil it wpuld be a different situation
Q. The question started on Pres. Bush’s communication skilss at the last press conference – Has Sen McCain noticed if he’s getting different treatment from the media?
McC: The President gave a detailed briefing on the war last week; having the Pres. update and shows a grasp of the issues to the people is important. Sen. McCain doesn’t blame the media; he (the Senator) just needs to do a better job and will continue to include the media and the bloggers.
Q. On the issue of pork: the blogger’s local fire dept applied to Home Security for $35,000 for weights and washer machine. How would McC direct Home Security?
McC: It’s laden with pork and doesn’t reflect where the dangerous areas are. The thing that confuses people is whether a project is worthwhile or not, but there has to be competion, justification and authorization, so it’’ the process that’s broken where people put in these earmarks. He’s judging the process of earmarks, where it’s so corrupt we end up with congressmen going to jail.
Q: On abortion rights: would his SCOTUS appointees be conservatives?
McC: He would not have a litmust test, but he believes in having people who have a proven record of strict interpretation of the Constitution, as the Founding Fathers wanted. McCain would appoint people with judicial experience, but with other life experiences, too – time in the military corporation, small business, with knowledge of the real world. A strict interpretation of the constitution is most important.
Q: How about Social Security and Medicare?
McC: As President he would reach out to Dems and would tell the Amer people to insist that they reach back like Reagan and Tip O’Neil, and would make it a key domestic issue: 2 choices either go bankrupt or work it out.
Q: Is he running as the anti-Bush?
McC: He has the same positions he’s always had. Basically the positions he’s been holding – even when 63% of the American people think he’s closely tied to the President because of the Iraq war but his positions have not changed.
Q: Looking at the electoral college map: Are there any states he could pull to red side?
McC: California can not be ignored any longer and also both Oregon and Washington. We can’t be going into election by writing off large electoral states. Penn, NY, other New Engl states should also be in the running.
Q. (from Rob Bluey, whose employer, the Heritage Foundation, got a compliment from the Senator for its index of Economic Freedom) On defense: Romne wants 4% of GDP for defense?
McC: McCain’s emphasis would me more on what we do rather than we spend. Defense must be fully funded. Look at Putin’s reaction. We also need to emphaise reform: equipment, intelligence, relevancy of equipment, get the costs overruns under control. He’ll go the smartest guys in America and ask them to hep with acqusitions and reform. Fundamental reforms should be made; heads of services should be more involved in the acquisitions process. We need to ask, are we buying the things we need to fight radical Islamic extremism
Q Would McC support a fair tax?
McC would b supportive of any offer that would reform that the majority of the people through Congress would support. There are problems with each of the proposals, but we’re a long way away from a flat tax of 20%.
Thank you to Patrick Hines for inviting me.
Dr Krauthammer notices that Surge Results are Visible, and asks,
How at this point — with only about half of the additional surge troops yet deployed — can Democrats be trying to force the U.S. to give up? The Democrats say they are carrying out their electoral mandate from the November election. But winning a single-vote Senate majority as a result of razor-thin victories in Montana and Virginia is hardly a landslide.
Second, if the electorate was sending an unconflicted message about withdrawal, how did the most uncompromising supporter of the war, Sen. Joe Lieberman, win handily in one of the most liberal states in the country?
And third, where was the mandate for withdrawal? Almost no Democratic candidates campaigned on that. They campaigned for changing the course the administration was on last November.
Which the president has done. He changed the civilian leadership at the Department of Defense, replaced the head of Central Command and, most critically, replaced the Iraq commander with Petraeus — unanimously approved by the Democratic Senate — to implement a new counterinsurgency strategy.
Dr Krauthammer also points out that
John McCain has had no illusions about the difficulty of this war. Nor does he now. In his bold and courageous speech at the Virginia Military Institute defending the war effort, he described the improvements on the ground while acknowledging the enormous difficulties ahead. Insisting that success in Iraq is both possible and necessary, McCain made clear that he is willing to stake his presidential ambitions, indeed his entire political career, on a war policy that is unpopular but that he believes must be pursued for the sake of the country.
I’ve participated in two bloggers’ calls with Sen. McCain and will continue to participate for as long as they have me.
so far this year the 10-year TIPS inflation spread has risen about 21 basis points, putting it above its 5-year average
and that could signal inflation.
But for a French film director today to address the fear of the rise of Muslim violence, it would be necessary to operate at a purely metaphorical level, staying away from anything which might suggest a connection to politically incorrect hate-mongering against Muslims or Islam. After all, France locks up people for what it regards as inciting hatred. Keep the subject matter overtly unrelated, but throw in some telling symbolic details allowing viewers to realize what the game is.
Surprisingly, A French director has slyly made just such a thriller, a skillful one at that, superficially unrelated to the threat of violent Muslims, but obviously speaking symbolically to it. The film, Feux Rouges, or Red Lights, came out in 2004, to largely positive reviews internationally. In the United States, it even won the Independent Spirit Award (considered the OscarsTM of indies) for best foreign film.
Done in the style of Hitchcock and/or Chabrol, it is a tale of a French man standing up to a violent escaped con, one who doesn’t obey the same law as the rest of us, as the film observes. The movie scrupulously avoids any overt suggestion that the escaped convict is ethnically other than French. But by not giving him a name and having him wear a beard, it does not close that door either.
Giuliani writes about My four pillars of American prosperity
1. Reduced spending growth.
2. Lower Tax Rates.
3. Regulatory Reform.
4. Sound monetary policy.
Read it all.
I must remember to ask Maria if there’s a word in Russian for “transparency”.
The difference is not merely of consistency but of conviction. Mr. McCain is making clear he understands that leadership is often by nature unpopular. He has been equally clear about the consequences of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq–“chaos” and “genocide” were among the scenarios he painted for Mr. Pelley.
He has also shown that he understands the moral obligation his vote authorizing the war entailed, which was to see it through to victory, or at least until the conclusion becomes inescapable that victory is impossible. With General David Petraeus only recently installed in Baghdad and his surge strategy not yet fully under way, Mr. McCain realizes that we are nowhere near being able to draw that conclusion.
Betsy comments,
What struck me is how the media coverage is so set on framing McCain’s speech as a political move. The first paragraph of the Washington Post article frames McCain’s speech as an attempt to save his faltering campaign
The WaPo is wrong, and McCain is acting out of conviction.
And don’t miss the WaPo’s Peeps contest: “No more wire hangers!!” (#15)
