With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me. - Herman Melville > Moby Dick
Here's one of the big questions, really, one to chew on over the weekend, one that's asked a lot around this town. How could a bunch of people who ran such a brilliant campaign be doing such a lousy job at the politics of governing?
The answer is actually very simple.
Obama and his team have successfully rammed through a number of measures through the congress that would, and will, fundamentally change the nature of our government and our relationship with it.
Obama's plummeting popularity is a consequence of his political success.
Confusing President Obama's popularity with his political success is a mistake. He has been very successful. Obama is very unpopular now because of his political successes.
"Donors wanted! Become a member today!" reads an announcement on the website. On the menu page, the restaurant, called Flimé, is careful only to indicate "meat" without giving away what kind -- surely an effort to keep the ruse going. Those who want to become members must submit a form complete with responses about health and exercise habits.
"After the medical check, you can decide which body part you want to donate!" the website says. The form tells prospective members that "Flimé only covers the costs for hospitalization.... The designated use of the donated body part is free to Flimé." The German version of the website is also advertising for a job opening for an "open-minded surgeon."
Dekker wants to break the record for the youngest world solo sail set in May by Australian teenager Jessica Watson. Watson completed a non-stop, unassisted round-the-world trip a few days before her 17th birthday.
Dekker turns 17 on September 20, 2012, allowing her a little over two years to complete the trip, during which she intends to stop at several ports along the way.
Dekker has said her route from Portugal will take her across the Atlantic Ocean and into the Pacific via the Panama Canal. She plans to stop at the Galapagos islands before heading to Australia, Thailand and through the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden back to Europe.
This is not the same race as Jessica Watson's. It is similar, but it is not the same.
Jessica Watson sailed The Three Capes route. Laura Dekker is sailing the equatorial route. Another difference is that Jessica Watson sailed non-stop and Laura Dekker will make port in several places.
I am less comfortable with Laura Dekker's adventure then I was with Jessica Watson's.
Laura Dekker is very young. Many people will object on that alone. While I find her age to be a little worrisome, I am more concerned about the route that she will travel. Jessica Watson traveled south and sailed around the three Capes, Cape Agulhas, Cape Leeuwin and Cape Horn).
Where Watson had to brave stormy seas, Dekker will have to brave filthy pirates. I would prefer storms over pirates. Where as the sea and the storms are indifferent and lack malice, pirates are the scum of the planet. Pirates are malice.
Training can solve most problems associated with age, storms and seas. Pirates are different. With Pirates, age becomes a problem.
Laura Dekker will be at sea for over a year. She will travel around the equator and pass through some of the most pirate infested waters of the world. She will avoid the physical dangers of the three capes. Hopefully she will be able to avoid the Pirates as well.
Often in politics, the wrong solution to a issue is sought to solve a problem that the law already provides a workable remedy.
In an attempt to discourage illegal immigrants from exploiting their children as a means to remain in the US, Republican politicians are suggesting that it is time to revise the 14th Amendment of the constitution to disallow birth-right citizenship.
Birth-right citizenship is being exploited. The numbers are truly staggering.
In Texas, between 60,000 to 65,000 babies achieve U.S. citizenship annually by being born in the state's hospitals, according to a tally released by the state's Health and Human Services Commission. Last year, such births represented almost 16 percent of the total births statewide.
Between 2001 and 2009, births to illegal immigrant women totaled 542,152 in Texas alone.
Thats just Texas.
It would be interesting to know what the national numbers are.
The 14th Amendment is not the problem. The lack of will at the federal level to enforce our immigration laws is the problem.
If Illegal aliens have a baby in the US, fine. The children may have US citizenship. The parents still do not. The parents still should be made to leave the US. The children may return to the US at a later time or even be allowed to remain with legal US residents. The Illegal parents still MUST leave.
If the law was enforced, there would be no anchor-baby problem. The law is not enforced, so anchor-babies are exploited.
“What’s very troubling is the fact that at a time when we in law enforcement and our state need help from the federal government, instead of sending help they put up billboard-size signs warning our citizens to stay out of the desert in my county because of dangerous drug and human smuggling and weapons and bandits and all these other things and then, behind that, they drag us into court with the ACLU,” Babeu said.
What is the Obama Administration's goal? Why do they refuse to meaningful defend the border and why do the want to prevent the States from doing the job the Federal Government refuses to do?
Could it be that the Obama Administration does not think that the border should be effectively closed to illegal immigrants?
On the day parts of Arizona's immigration law, SB 1070, went into effect, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in the news for another reason: there's a price on his head - allegedly offered by a Mexican drug cartel.
This is not the first instance of a Mexican Drug Cartel threatening to kill US Law Enforcement Officers.
A Mexican drug cartel has threatened Nogales police officers, saying they will be targeted for retribution if they conduct off-duty drug busts.
Nogales Police Chief Jeffrey Kirkham told the Nogales International on Friday that the threats stemmed from an incident approximately two weeks ago, when off-duty officers surprised marijuana smugglers while riding horseback in an unincorporated border area east of town.
The officers seized part of the drug load, and the smugglers were able to flee back into Mexico with the other part.
“As a result of that,” Kirkham said, “our officers have received threats from the cartel that they are to look the other way if they are off-duty, or they will be targeted by a sniper or by other means.”
In our nation's history, we have dealt with a similar problem with Mexico.
It resulted in what the history books call "The Punitive Expedition" or "The Poncho Villa Expedition."
In late 1915 - early 1916, Poncho Villa began a campaign of killing Americans living and working in Northern Mexico. It escalated from there to a cross border war into New Mexico.
Poncho Villa's raid into Columbus New Mexico, killing 18 and wounding 8, sparked a military response from the US.
A General Pershing type incursion into Mexico to hunt down Mexican Narco-Terrorist may have to be repeated if the Democrat led US Government is unable or unwilling to secure our borders with Mexico. This would not be a good war, though it may become a necessary one.
The Democrats in Washington D.C. need to recognize the risks they are running by refusing to look at the cross border threats from Mexican gangsters as serious threats to our national security.
So far to date, the most aggressive and forward posture that the Obama Administration has initiated to contain the violence that is spilling across the border from Mexico, is to put up signs in the desert on the American side of the border, warning Americans to stay out of threatened US land. Tactically, Obama has implemented a policy of retreat.
The signs were posted over a month after a Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy was shot by suspected drug traffickers while patrolling the area around the junction of Interstate 8 and Arizona Highway 84. Last week, two bodies belived to those of drug mules were found shot to death in the same area where the deputy was ambushed. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said in an interview Tuscon's KGUN TV that the cartels are in increasing control of parts of Arizona, including Pinal County.
As unpleasant as it may be for Obama and the Democrats that control Washington D.C. to consider, they have to secure the US border with Mexico. If they fail to do so, they will be responsible for having failed to prevent a war that we will end up having to fight on our southern border.
[Fenway's Not Another New England Sports Blog! has more on the topic of the Mexican Narco-insurgency and the illegal immigration issue. Its worth taking a look at.]
