American Republic Online

Glad my grandparents will soon be losing benefits so illegals aren’t excluded from Everyone-Care…

Tonight, the House passed by a slim 220-215 margin a health care reform bill (H.R. 3962) that excludes the restrictions necessary to prevent illegal aliens from accessing benefits. This set up a potential conference committee battle since President Obama and the Senate support tighter restrictions.

The House bill would allow illegal aliens to use the new health care “exchange” and would not require verification to keep illegal aliens out of the other parts of the proposed federal health care system. - NumbersUSA

That’s right the same DHS that has banned the use of the word “terrorist” and the phrase “war on terror” has now found someone to target.  Right leaning voters are apparently the country’s greatest threat:

A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines “rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.

“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” the warning says.

So if you believe in the concept of Federalism (States rights are more important than the Fed) or if you are pro-life or against Amnesty for illegal immigrants… you are an extremist.  Also the White House press secretary is apparently OK with using the T-word with regard with regard to right wing “radicals” if not Islamic radicals.   So I am a triple terrorist threat!  Strange how far the view has shifted on those that still hold to the original intent of the founding fathers on the country and the constitution. Read the rest of this entry »

Well it was Oct 26, 2006 President Bush signed into law a fence for 700 of the 2000 miles of southern border:

“Within about three years, we should have about 370 miles,” said [Senator] Kyl, whose state would be virtually sealed from Mexico through fencing and other barriers.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Ralph Basham said the fence could take many forms, from chain link to solid wall, depending on where it is placed. The shape will be determined with the help of Boeing Co., which was awarded a $67 million contract to install a high-tech “virtual fence” along 28 miles in Arizona. - Washington Post (10/27/06)

18 months later, how’s that 370 miles coming? Half way would be 185 miles of fence, Senator. Senator?  Most recently the virtual fence has been deemed an utter failure who’s “design will not be used as the basis for future developments”.  Yeah it’s not even worth building on for a virtual fence version 2.  Oh and I like how now that it failed it only cost tax payers $20M not the true $67M.  Sounds better when you only mention the construction costs and not the $47M of “other costs”.

Seriously when are we going to learn from the Israelis and just use the trusty chain link, ditches & barbed wire? Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps named for the hope that the voters wouldn’t notice this time, the DREAM act amnesty failed cloture and was killed before it could get going. Here’s the latest plan for stealth amnesty:

Legal status for illegals that are less than 30, have graduated high school or have a GED and claim that they entered the country illegally before turning 16. (We’ll just check that against their immigration records - oh wait.) Also, in the interest of “family unity” or other “humanitarian purposes”, their families can stay. Families simply need to be claimed not verified by blood test or other means.

Popular guess-timates place this at legalizing 12 of the guess-timated 20 million illegals. It did strike me as funny that when the Dems are trying to slip amnesty under the radar, “a child” is defined as someone under 16, but when they’re expanding government health care “a child” is someone under 26.
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This is just sad really…

• Six illegal immigrants arrested at Qualcomm

Wildfires are raging all across southern California. A quarter of a million people have been evacuated from their homes in San Diego alone. Almost two hundred thousand homes stand vacant. High winds are preventing any real progress against the blaze.

With 13 different wildfires across the state, the causes are abundant, but experts believe that illegal immigrants are to blame in starting at least one of the wildfires. Illegals camping in the desert often leave camp fires unattended or don’t completely put out a fire before moving on. Unfortunately, in such remote areas the fires can spread over quite a large area before being noticed by the authorities.

With the home values in California among the highest in the country, these fires could easily cause billions of dollars in damages. Remember that, the next time someone tries to say that illegals don’t cost our country anything.
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A look at the cost of immigration in New Jersey:

Two studies in New Jersey and California in the 90s found

…immigrants used government services at a greater rate than native-born residents did… the typical immigrant family received about $4,044 annually in government services, about 11 percent higher than the average native-born family…

 The net result was that “the average native household generated an annual fiscal surplus of $232” to government, while “the typical foreign household was a net burden of $1,484.”  The gap was even wider in California, where immigrant households produced a net deficit of $3,463 each…

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It’s extremely rare, but it does happen on occasion. Thanks to YouTube you can see the fun few minutes without the drool inducing hours of in-between. These clips occurred after the Republicans won a close vote to bar illegal immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance. Shortly after the final vote was gaveled and the outcome announced, there was a small hubbub and a new tally was announced: victory Democrats.

The swing came from a few votes that were “missed” in the first tally. Now since the House exists to take and tally votes, one can only point to incompetence or ethical issues in this Democratically run congress.

• Video: House Erupts in Chaos
• Video: Republican Whip Blunt Addresses the House Floor

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After another flood of grass roots campaigning (read droves of ticked off voters), the Senate backed away from the Immigration Amnesty bill part deux. In a significant, two day turn-around the 2nd Cloture vote failed 46 to 53. That’s a huge swing from 64-35. Today’s vote had 15 Democrats and 38 Republicans voting with the people.
Today, American’s can celebrate that their politicians still fear losing their jobs enough to produce some results. And barring some unforeseen lunacy, the immigration debacle will be dead for the rest of this year’s session. Perhaps, now the government will focus on building that fence they authorized last fall - seeing as they claimed that immigration problem need to be handled right now.

Speaking of the fence, did you hear that some of the fence that was recently built was constructed one to six feet on the Mexican side of the border. Due to Mexican government demands, it must be torn down and rebuilt on US soil. Not only does the flub create another waste of tax payer dollars, it doesn’t really inspire confidence in our border related abilities.
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