Providence Journal: Getting Nowhere On Immigration via RCP

This piece from my hometown outlines the problems with both immigration propoosals recently passed through the House and Senate. I agree with the author that illegal immigration is a major problem, because of its devaluation of labor.

When politicians talk about change, they mean getting their opponents out of power and themselves in. However, when voters hear change, we should be thinking about new approaches to problems which are not getting solved.

Illegal immigration is a real problem. It threatens the livelihood of our most vulnerable workers. Illegal immigration reduces the wages of unskilled labor by 10 percent, according to one study. It forces the poorest communities to provide services for people who pay little in taxes. And it creates a climate of disorder and lawlessness.

This problem cannot be addressed effectively in the current climate in the capitol. Lawmakers at the extremes of the political spectrum are the ones getting their messages across. Such extremism only hinders progress.

More open immigration policies and more secure borders are both important and worthy aspirations, but the proponents of these goals must stop being set in opposition to one another.

Washington Post: The Truth Is Somewhere In Between

Imagine a political commentator giving an opinion about the lead up to war while minimizing bias and avoiding sensationalism. Or just read what he wrote.

Salt Lake Tribune: The Jesusification of Immigration

NY Times:Catholic Church Sticks Its Guns Against GOP On Immigration via Moderate Voters and dotCommonweal

It is quite preposterous that Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) would criticize the Roman Catholic Church "for invoking God" in their position on a controversial immigration plan in HR 4437. Perhaps he does not realize that the Church can do nothing without such an invocation.

Furthermore, it is impossible that the leadership of the Catholic Church, an organization that prides itself on maintaining centralized control of policy , qualify as the the "left wing of the church." It seems highly unlikely that the left wing of the Catholic Church is in the driver's seat. This is one instance where the GOP, Catholics like King included, cannot deal with the consistent application of doctrine.

As a non-Catholic, I lament that no statement will likely be made by Catholic Bishops about a Catholic politician who accuses them of "committing the sin of hypocrisy" for defending principles of social justice and compassion ahead of political conformity. After all, Pro-Choice Catholics may disagree with Church doctrine on abortion, but I would challenge anybody to show me an instance where they characterize it as hypocrisy.

Washington Post: Rumsfeld Gets Into Iraq

NY Times: Will Congress Kindly Do Its Job

This is the first Times editorial I have read in quite a while. Conventional wisdom seems to now be that Congress needs to stick to their guns on more than just the DPW deal (or perhaps instead of that issue) but neither side of the isle has what it takes to really stand its ground. As it is on occaision, the CW is correct. Congressional Republicans need to wrest power from the leadership that cannot or will not force the President to play by the rules and Democrats must stop playing by the GOP rules by running for office every minute of every day.

If things start to change along those lines, then Americans might be able to retake one or both houses from the White House.

The New Yorker: Ready For By The People

A brief statement about the reasons why it is and will continue to be difficult to enact direct election of the Chief Executive, even though most Americans want just that. FairVote.com, a largely liberal organization, presents an argument that popular sentiments on this subject have remained steady over years. A rather amusing and fascinating anecdote from this article covers the resolution introduced by Wisconsin electors in 1976 calling for the abolition of the EC after casting their votes in the election.

It seems that most criticism of the EC comes from liberals or Democrats, understandably peeved at the result in 2000. Is there really a disparity between principled conservatives and the rest of America on this subject? If there is not, would this not be a great issue for a bi-partisan alliance to bypass the establishment and begin to effect some real reform of our sclerotic political system.