;)
The Commentariat -- August 20, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Bill Barrow of the AP: "As part of her promise to address rising college costs, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling to expand the AmeriCorps service program launched under her husband's administration. Clinton calls for spending about $20 billion over 10 years on the expansion, increasing the number of civil service volunteers from 75,000 to 250,000 and more than doubling the educational grant that enrollees can receive."
*****
Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "Former president Jimmy Carter said that the cancer doctors discovered earlier this year has spread to his brain and that he will receive his first radiation treatment for the disease Thursday afternoon. 'I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes,' Carter, 90, said at a news conference." The New York Times story, by Alan Blinder, is here. Here are clips from President Carter's news conference:
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "In dozens of lawsuits around the country involving local disputes, the federal government has filed so-called statements of interest, throwing its weight behind private lawsuits and, in many cases, pushing the boundaries of civil rights law.... Recently ... the Justice Department has filed statements of interest in cases involving legal aid in New York, transgender students in Michigan, juvenile prisoners in solitary detention in California, and people who take videos of police officers in Baltimore."
E. J. Dionne: "You can bet that the Texas voting case or another in North Carolina, or both, will make their way to a Supreme Court that has already gutted the Voting Rights Act once in a 2013 decision written by [Chief Justice John] Roberts. Will he do it again? And will voters in 2016 realize just how important a president's power to name future Supreme Court justices is to the very right they will be exercising on Election Day?" CW: Yes & no, in that order.
Linda Greenhouse: "In the breadth of its perspective on the history and current problematic state of the death penalty, in its cleareyed dissection of the irreconcilable conflict at the heart of modern death-penalty jurisprudence, the Connecticut Supreme Court not only produced an important decision for its own jurisdiction; but it addressed the United States Supreme Court frankly and directly."
George Yancy of the New York Times interviews Cornel West. CW: In my opinion, West is a preening, narcissistic crank, but he is worth reading for the direction of his complaints, which should be considered if not necessarily shared or adopted in full.
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Obama will travel to New Orleans next week for the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Congress is unlikely to override a promised veto by President Obama if both chambers reject a deal to curtail Iran's nuclear capabilities, according to a Washington Post analysis of where the votes currently stand." With charts! ...
... Oh yeah? What about this? George Jahn of the AP: "Iran will be allowed to use its own inspectors to investigate a site it has been accused of using to develop nuclear arms, operating under a secret agreement with the U.N. agency that normally carries out such work, according to a document seen by The Associated Press.... The White House has repeatedly denied claims of a secret side deal favorable to Tehran.... The document is labeled 'separate arrangement II,' indicating there is another confidential agreement between Iran and the IAEA.... Iran is to provide agency experts with photos and videos of locations the IAEA says are linked to the alleged weapons work, 'taking into account military concerns.' That wording suggests that -- beyond being barred from physically visiting the site -- the agency won't get photo or video information from areas Iran says are off-limits...." ...
... CW: I didn't know what to make of this story. The AP doesn't usually make up stuff. All the prominent commentary on it came from the winger fringe, so no help there. Then ....
... Juan Cole: "The accord actually provides for the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency always to be present at such inspections. The reason for the presence of Iranian experts is that there is a long history of outside nuclear teams being sent in by the Great Powers for espionage. I.e., the Iranian inspectors are there to keep an eye on the UN inspectors, not to cover up Iranian activities.... The AP should retract its inaccurate allegations."
Sean Fitz-Gerald of New York: "Regal Cinemas, the nation's largest movie-theater chain, announced it's beginning to search ticket buyers' bags before letting them in, according to multiple reports. The move comes on the heels of an uptick in movie-theater shootings as well as the release of a survey that found roughly half of moviegoers interviewed wanted more security."
Presidential Race
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times posts full video of Hillary Clinton's meeting with BlackLivesMatter activists last week. "The combination of patience and gentle scolding with which she responded seemed a distillation of Mrs. Clinton's worldview: that movement politics gets you only so far, and that activists must pave the way for those in office to act.... [The video] also showed Mrs. Clinton as even her admirers lament that she is seldom seen: spontaneous, impassioned and seemingly unconcerned about potential repercussions." ...
... CW: What you're seeing here is a candidate with a presidential advantage, which she uses to a positive end. Because Clinton has a Secret Service detail, she was able to keep these young people from disrupting her public meeting, but she had the guts & sense not to shut them out entirely & to engage them in an actual dialog -- which for all the participants is far superior to a shout-down. Allowing the dialog to be taped was pretty smart, too. ...
... Kendall Breitman of Bloomberg: "When it comes to using a private server for her e-mails when she was secretary of state, Hillary Clinton 'didn't really think it through,' according to her communications director...., Jennifer Palmieri. '... Others had done it before and it was just more convenient and she kept it like that, and she didn't really -- that's the thing, she didn't really think it through.' 'She has said, had she, she would have done it differently,' Palmieri added. ...
... CW: Again, this is a problem that derives from having a staff that doesn't have the guts to tell the boss she making a mistake, even when the issue is one the boss hasn't given much thought. I see this as a serious flaw to Hillary's management style, & there's little reason to think the style wouldn't carry over to the White House.
"There Goes the Electability Argument!" Ed Kilgore: "... new CNN/ORC poll findings [Wednesday] should provide a very rude shock to those who think Republican voters will finally wake up and realize Donald Trump would be a disaster as a general election candidate and stampede instead to a 'grown-up' like Establishment fave Jeb Bush. At this particular moment, Donald Trump is running better than Jeb Bush in trial general election match-ups with Hillary Clinton." ...
... CW: As I've said before, this should unsettle Democrats, too. ...
... Steve M. New York Crank "... don't write off Bernie so fast. If Hillary flounders, his momentum will pick up. And given that this could be a populist vs. populist race, Bernie just might make more sense to populist voters."
Mark Murray of NBC News: "Eight GOP presidential candidates have now said they oppose "birthright citizenship" if their parents are not documented citizens; that is, they favor repealing or ignoring or reinterpreting the part of the Fourteenth Amendment that guarantees citizenship to U.S.-born babies." ...
... Trump Is Just Copying Me. -- Ted Cruz. Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz says that he 'absolutely' supports ending birthright citizenship.... Cruz says 'virtually every element' in Trump's immigration plan 'is contained within legislation' that he has previously filed." CW: Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father & (U.S.) American mother. He had dual citizenship -- U.S. & Canada -- till he decided to run for president. In March of this year famed birther Donald Trump called Cruz's Canadian birth a "hurdle" that "somebody could look at very seriously." That's two GOP candidates now -- Cruz & Walker -- who claim authorship for Trump's extreme anti-immigration policy. BUT ...
... A Fine Bromance. Tim Mak of the Daily Beast: "It's a bromance with a payoff -- the senator [Ted Cruz] has been developing the billionaire's support and their aides are even discussing joint events, but if Trump drops out, Cruz aims to clean up." ...
... Eliza Collins of Politico: "Jeb Bush doesn't want birthright citizenship to go away, but he is calling for stronger enforcement for people who abuse it." ...
... David Leopold, past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, in TPM, explains the law re: "birthright citizenship." Donald "Trump claims that birthright citizenship must end because it's the 'biggest magnet for illegal immigration' -- it attracts illegal immigrants using their 'anchor babies' to reap the benefits of U.S. citizenship."... The 'magnet' to which Trump refers is an arduous 31-year-long slog to legal status for the undocumented parent.... According to the Migration Policy Institute (pdf), repeal of birthright citizenship would lead to a dramatic increase in the number of unauthorized children living in the U.S. -- as many as 24 million by 2050.... Trump's extremist proposal to end birthright citizenship ... comes at the grave cost of abridging civil rights, even hearkening back to the days of Dred Scott...." ...
... AND, if you're into original intent, Li'l Randy is wrong here, "... I don't think the 14th Amendment was meant to apply to illegal aliens. It was meant to apply to the children of slaves." Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post: "... the framers of the 14th Amendment were thinking of immigrants' children, as they made clear in an 1866 debate on the Senate floor. Sen. Edgar Cowan (R-Pa.) was an opponent of birthright citizenship.... When he asked whether the proposed legislation would cover children of immigrants, Sen. John Conness (R-Calif.), a supporter, said it would." ...
... CW BTW: Terkel is reading a sanitized version of Conness's remark: "The proposition before us...relates...to the children begotten of Chinese parents in California, and it is proposed to declare that they shall be citizens.... I am in favor of doing so." Charles Pierce has "Chinese" as "Mongol"; Paul Finkelman has it as "Mongolian." Finkelman identifies Conness as a racist, who opposed equality for black Americans &, as a Californian, was hostile to Chinese immigrants. He seems, however, to have come around, as the concept of equality expanded. Nothing about intent is straightforward, despite what "law office historians" & Nino Scalia would assert. ...
... "Act Two of the Trump Epic." Josh Marshall of TPM: "Trump is now defining the GOP policy agenda. And that makes him far more than a top candidate or even a nominee. Ending birthright citizenship used to be an idea embraced on the far right of the House GOP caucus and bandied about by rightwing policy wonks. Trump has now not only made it a signature of his campaign. He's also pulling all the other candidates along with him.... In three years we've now gone from the need to support comprehensive immigration reform, to balking on supporting the deal, to embracing the policies that used to be held by the comical likes of Steve King...."
Eliza Collins: "In a 30-minute news conference in Derry, New Hampshire [yesterday], that was broadcast live on Fox News and CNN..., [Donald Trump] ripped into [Jeb Bush].... Bush saying the U.S. had to show they had 'skin in the game' by committing more resources to combating the Islamic State was 'one of the the dumber things I've heard, ever, in politics,' Trump said. 'Between Common Core, his 'act of love' on immigration and 'skin in the game' with Iraq ... I don't see how he's electable. And then on top of that he talks about women's health issues,' Trump said.... 'Right down the road, we have Jeb -- very small crowd,' he said[, referring to Jeb!'s simultaneous event in nearby Merrimack, New Hampshire]. 'You know what's happening to Jeb's crowd right down the street? They're sleeping now.'"
I had to do it for myself. -- Donald Trump, on why he's running
I think this is what people mean by "authencity." -- Constant Weader
... Time reporters interview Donald Trump for the magazine's cover story, & he says he's so much better than all the other bozos running for president. Et-cetera. Michael Scherer has the cover story here, with a lot of embedded videos of Trump saying he's so much better than all the other bozos running for president, etc. ...
... More of the Same. Tal Kopan of CNN: "... Donald Trump took on an array of subjects and political figures during a lengthy interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday.... Trump said the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton's email use is 'devastating,' and that it's not surprising that he came within 6 points of the Democrat in a head-to-head polling match-up. 'I think it's devastating for the election, but I think her bigger problem is not the election. I think her bigger problem is going to be the criminal (problem),' Trump said."
Philip Rucker & Jose Del Real of the Washington Post: In New Hampshire, Trump & Kasich are squeezing out Jeb! "Trump led the field in New Hampshire with 18 percent, followed by Bush at 13 percent and Kasich right behind at 12 percent, according to a recent Boston Herald/Franklin Pierce University poll of likely GOP primary voters."
Sahil Kapur: Experts suggest the state-run high-risk insurance pools that both Scott Walker & Marco Rubio propose would be prohibitively expensive, which is kind of a moot point because Congress would never fund them anyway. ...
... The Audacity of Dopes. CW: One thing that gets me about these Walker & Rubio "plans": ObamaCare, such as it is, took tens of thousands of hours to develop into something that had a chance to get through Congress & that was also cost-effective & workable. These bozos think they can dash off some "ideas" on a napkin, most of which are already known to be unworkable, unpassable, & meaner than dirt, then foist them off as a blueprint for a real replacement for the ACA. ...
... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones produces two charts that show how much ScottieCare "screws the poor," no matter the age of the head of household. Drum acknowledges that his post is "anticlimactic" because readers could already guess how his comparisons between ScottieCare & ObamaCare would turn out.
CW: I have been avoiding linking to any stories about Mike Huckabee, because of his remarks comparing the Iran deal to the Holocaust. But to update you a bit, Huckleberry is in Israel, demonstrating anew what an astounding, bigoted ignoramus he is. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Huck held a fundraiser for Americans living in West Bank settlements deemed illegal under international law.... The dude seems off-balance."
Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "Finally another declared independent candidate, Deez Nuts, polls at 9% in North Carolina to go along with his 8% in Minnesota and 7% in Iowa in our recent polling." ...
... Ben Collins & Emily Shire of the Daily Beast: "Brady Olson is 15 years old. He filed to run for the President of the United States with the FEC on July 26 as Deez Nuts." ...
... Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone interviews Deez/Brady: "I really didn't want to see Clinton, Bush, or Trump in the White House, so I guess I'm just trying to put up a fight.... I'm fifteen, so I haven't been registered yet. I side more with the Libertarian Party." (CW: Like so many 15-year-old boys.)
Beyond the Beltway
Andy Grimm of the Times-Picayune: "Five New Orleans Police officers convicted in the shooting of unarmed pedestrians at the Danziger Bridge days after Hurricane Katrina are entitled to a new trial, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday (Aug. 18). The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Englehardt's 2013 decision to throw out the convictions of the officers on charges related to shootings that left two civilians dead, and a coverup involving the lead NOPD investigator on the case. 'The reasons for granting a new trial are novel and extraordinary,' the appeals court decision said, citing the misconduct of then-federal prosecutors who posted pseudonymous comments on NOLA.com stories about the case. The ruling also said the Department of Justice 'inadequately investigated' the misconduct." ...
... CW: Englehardt & all three justices on the Appeals Court panel are GOP appointees. ...
... Charles Pierce: "There should be a special circle of derision reserved exclusively for prosecutors who botch important cases in very stupid ways."
AP: "Vast areas of California's Central Valley are sinking faster than in the past as massive amounts of groundwater are pumped during the historic drought, Nasa said in new research released on Wednesday. The research shows that in some places the ground is sinking nearly two inches each month, putting infrastructure on the surface at growing risk of damage." ...
... Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "... a new study released Thursday says human-caused global warming is worsening ... [California's drought]. The study by Columbia University's Earth Institute isn't the first to say warming has played a key role in fueling California's dry conditions, but it's the first to measure its impact, predicting that it increased the problem by as much as 25 percent."
Jaime Fuller of New York: "After NJ.com reported [Wednesday] morning that drones were available for purchase at Brookstone and Hudson News locations at Newark International Airport, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it was 'strongly opposed to the sale of drones at terminal shops' and that they should stop being sold 'immediately.' The New York Post reports that a Brookstone in Terminal 7 at JFK International Airport also sells drones.... 'This is obviously not a very well thought out retail strategy,'" an airport law enorcement official said. CW: Aw, c'mon, capitalism is awesome.
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Reader Comments (11)
Marie,
Thanks for the leg work on that Iranian Side Deal. All I knew of this was what I spotted yesterday, Ted Cruz having a conniption fit about that AP report, rolling on the floor, stamping his feet and tossing his porridge around the room. Like you, I was a bit taken aback because, as you say, the AP is not typically home to fantasy writers. I meant to dig into it this morning when I had time to see what the real story was since I was not inclined to believe Cruz's version (surprised?). The sidebar deal described by the AP seemed nuts.
But the Juan Cole story clears things up nicely. But that brings up another point, something I've been tangentially concerned about for years. So, we've all been commenting on the Iran deal. But you know what? I haven't read it. Not all (or even most of it). I've seen pieces of it but mostly I've been relying on the various reports by people who--I think--have read it, and people whose reportorial skills I trust.
This, naturally, happens quite a bit because who has time to read through all the laws, legal documents, treaties, etc? We'd never have time to write about them, i.e., stuff we may or may not know very much about. And I'm reasonably sure that many of the media pundits who comment on such things have never read much more than executive summaries (if that), or else they swipe stuff from other sources who may or may not know what they're talking about as well.
Yikes!
But here's the problem. Anyone who has sat down to read through legal documents, proposed laws, treaties, agreements, or even basic business deals, realizes that there's reading and then there's READING (and understanding). A lot of these things are couched in phraseology and legalese and draw upon decades if not centuries of precedent in their presentation that make them all but impenetrable to the amateur (read: average citizen). Which makes me wonder how many of those complaining about the Iran deal (especially those whose job it is to actually read and understand these things) have provided due diligence.
It's pretty clear that Ted Cruz, who has a pretty substantial background in reading and writing legal documents, hasn't read it, otherwise, he'd have read what Juan Cole seems to have been able to uncover.
And certainly all legal documents are not the same. A bill concerning trade is not the same as one connected to communications law, and both of those are miles away from an international nuclear weapons agreement. But people like Cruz have staff and have plenty of access to experts who can help with translations of the more recondite chapters and verses. I realize it's not in his interest to be forthcoming should he come across a passage that puts out whatever flames he was hoping to fan, but reporters have access to experts as well and should not simply be regurgitating Cruz's description without having one of their own by which to measure his accuracy and ability to, ya know, know what the hell he's talking about.
Just a short thought on the idea that too many people out there don't truly know what's going on and exactly what they're talking about and they all seem to rely on reports from one or two sources whose credibility can vary dramatically. I mean, just imagine Lyle Denniston's reporting on a Supreme Court decision versus, say, Ann Coulter's.
Luckily, I find Mr. Cole to be credible and his description of what seems to be the case regarding these inspections is entirely believable and reasonable.
The AP story seemed a bit....whacko. I mean, who would agree to the type of deal reported therein?
No wonder Cruz was tossing his porridge.
Anyway, you saved me some time. Thanks.
Wow, there is nothing like watching a couple of minutes Donald Trump to get your blood pressure up. (NY Times video link…"Trump Vows Action on Illegal Immigration"). His statement about pregnant women waiting on the border to have their ‘anchor babies’ here is wrong on so many levels. But it does express a belief that some people have about undocumented immigrants, that they are coming here to live off of our social welfare benefits. Trump specifically mentions Social Security and Medicare.
My response to that is, our social welfare benefits are really not all that great. Social Security is based on your 35 years of your work history. Try living on just your S.S. benefit.
And with Medicare you are still on the hook for a lot of your health care costs. Undocumented immigrants are coming here to work, not to live on the public dole.
Further, I wonder if there is a not so hidden crazy subtext in his remarks that says ‘if we just got rid of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid “they” would not have any reason to come here anymore’?
Driving home yesterday, I listened to a fine report on NPR about Julius Rosenwald and his philanthropy, http://www.npr.org/2015/08/19/432910288/rosenwald-celebrates-the-greatest-philanthropist-youve-never-heard-of.
I find it heartening to hear how much good works the rich and successful can do if they want.
I couldn't help but think about Amazon's Bezo and what he could learn and do if he had motivation to do truly good works. With all of Bezo's wealth he still treats most of the employees like shit if recent stories are to be believed. And I believe the stories. My tangential story about Amazon and its management goes like this: When I went to buy my house, I needed all the documentation about my pay, employment history etc. from our human resource director. Next time I came to work, my contract pay had dropped 15% because the HR director knew I was now on the hook for a mortgage. Then she was hired by Amazon for their HR. I buy my books from abe.com or Powells.
"Finkelman identifies Conness as a racist, who opposed equality for black Americans &, as a Californian, was hostile to Chinese immigrants. He seems, however, to have come around ..."
So, back in the day when you could buy votes directly with Union Pacific stock and land transfers, and the UP was building out of California, and all sorts of other federal bucks (Morrill Act land grants, etc.) were pumping cash into developing western areas (because the confederate state senators were no longer there to block federal infrastructure investment), a bigot decided to come around.
I'm not saying Conniss was bribed, just that the opportunities for vote buying were greater at that time than ever before or since.
Michael,
It's hard sometimes to determine whether Trump has adopted certain positions because he senses some useful pocket of wickedness in the Confederate zeitgeist, or if he really believes all this bullshit he's been slinging about immigrants. If these positions are adopted out of a convenient electoral strategy, he sure gives the impression that they're homegrown and dearly held beliefs.
But Trump is not the typical cookie cutter Confederate. He does raise the blood pressure, that's for sure, but his attacks on the other wingers are refreshing in a kind of Grand Guignol way. Ripping the Cruzes and Rubios and Walkers for getting down on their knees in front of the Kochs is fun to watch.
About Social Security and medicare, he may have switched (who the hell knows what he's gonna say from day to day; inconsistency may turn out to be another hobgoblin of the small mind), but he used to voice at least nominal support for both programs, setting him apart from the other loons, although this support could have been rescinded in the last day or so, depending on which side of the bed he woke up on.
And talking about Grand Guignol, it's a dank and dangerous funhouse that the GOP candidate clowns inhabit. One with furtive, scary figures with gleaming red eyes hiding in dark corners. Trump says "Build a huge wall" and the rest of them leap up to shout "That's what I've been saying all along!" But walls and deportations and tearing up the Constitution evince a poisonous, terrified, and terrifying worldview.
Trump, like the proverbial broken clock, may be right twice a day, but the rest of the time, the gears are churning in all directions at once. It doesn't make for a pretty sight with clock hands whipping about backwards and forwards. That, plus the fact that his imagery is routinely despicable ("pregnant women waiting on the border"), makes me all the more anxious about Hillary Clinton's campaign.
@Michael D.: As you say, the "anchor baby" meme is mostly myth.
Apparently there are quite a number of wealthy women who come here legally from other countries to have babies, & they can take advantage of some limited social benefits for new mothers & infants. Most are probably just looking for better medical care than is available to them at home.
There are also several million undocumented women who have had babies in this country, but they weren't exactly swimming across the Rio Grande at 8-1/2 months. They've had their children in the natural course of their lives, usually years after they entered the U.S. Last summer's spate of women & children crossing into the U.S. from Central America was the result of specific unsafe conditions in their home countries, where gangs of thugs were marauding the streets.
I think Trump is just exploiting the anchor baby claims in furtherance of his odd antipathy to immigrants (his mother is an immigrant -- maybe he has issues!). He is one of the few GOP presidential candidates who says he will retain Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid: "'People have been paying in for years. They're gonna cut Social Security. They're gonna cut Medicare. They're gonna cut Medicaid, I'm the one saying that's saying I'm not gonna do that!"
Marie
@Patrick: Conness long opposed slavery, but that wouldn't make him a non-racist, by our standards, any more than it would make Lincoln a modern-day civil-rights icon were he living today with his 1860s views. In the thinking of the time, it would have been consistent to oppose both slavery & minority voting rights, for instance. California politics were a mess, & Conness -- who was a party hack & may well have accepted a convenient bribe or two -- sat astride the two parties, finally forming a new "Union Republican" party, which Conness led. The state legislature selected Conness as U.S. senator only when the election became deadlocked after there emerged a bribery scandal involving the other two candidates.
Marie
re Anchor Babies, see:
http://links.newyorker.mkt4334.com/ctt?kn=2&ms=Nzk5OTc0NwS2&r=MjczNzc0ODkyMDQS1&b=0&j=NzQyMzc3MzQyS0&mt=1&rt=0
@Akhilleus, Marie, D.C. Clark, Thank you for your thoughtful responses to my post. Yes, it is remarkable that in some ways Trump is not the worst of the Republican candidates. (But then George W did lower the bar pretty low). Trump has said he would not cut Social Security benefits. By the way, raising the retirement age as other Republican candidates have called for, is the same thing as cutting Social Security benefits.
Thanks again, this is a great blog, I check it out every day!
Since the term "anchor babies" is on the table today, I thought I'd take a moment to remind myself exactly how stupid Jeb(!) Bush is.
With some dispatch we (meaning Marie) have dispensed with the notion that having anchor babies is a thing for immigrants. It's only a thing if by that you mean something that naturally occurs rather than the reason for coming here.
Jebbers is obviously not a visitor to Reality Chex or any other kind of reality. He is pissed, I mean P.O'd that Democrats have invented the term "Anchor Babies" and are using it against the immigrant lovin' GOP. According to Jeb(!), Democrats are trying steal all the love of those Mexicans who come here to have their babies so they can mooch off Real Americans for the rest of their lives.
He declares that the Anchor Babies meme is too a thing and is also "...a political wedge issue the left uses to win elections and we ought to be the party that solves this problem so that we can get back to the business of creating high-sustained economic growth."
Oh yeah, because the Democratic Party is the one talking about building a gigantic wall on the Mexican border, detailing plans to deport 11 million people AND considering using drones to bomb Mexico, just because. I mean, aren't they? Republicans are the ones who avoid such nakedly stupid solutions. Right? Or do I have that backwards. SOMEone has it backwards. Can't be Jeb(!) though, can it?
He also demands (those Bushes sure do love to make demands!) that someone come up with another name for those babies who are born here and whose parents come here to mooch. Forever.
So someone did. Hillary Clinton suggests "How about 'babies' or 'children' or 'American citizens'" Sorry, Hills, that only works if you believe in the Constitution. Maybe you haven't heard that that's no longer a document in good standing. Except for the Second Amendment. In fact, maybe they can reduce the whole thing to just: Begin Constitution: "We can carry guns anyplace at any time, no matter what and it can be as many as we want and to shoot people who need shootin'. For Jesus. And Freeedom." End Constitution.
Ya know, I never really believed that Jebbie was "The Smart One" but I had no idea he could give The Decider such a run for the Stupid.
Douche.
I see where The Decider is going to visit New Orleans as part of the 10th anniversary of Katrina.
Isn't that a little like Herbert Hoover visiting Wall St. to commemorate Black Tuesday?
Heckuva job, Georgie.