Rep. Gutierrez: I drafted amnesty language for White House
In stark contrast to prior Obama administration statements, Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez told The Daily Caller that he and the National Council of La Raza were deeply involved in the crafting and implementation of a controversial Obama administration memo that many conservatives believe amounts to a policy of amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.
President Obama, Gutierrez said, told him in December 2010 that comprehensive immigration reform could not be achieved legislatively because of fears Democrats would lose future elections. Instead, he said, the president suggested exploring administrative options to accomplish their mutual goals.
FP: American democracy Obama style. A common characteristic of initially democratic capitalist systems senility and decline. Here’s another:
In 1970 two-thirds of families lived in middle-income neighborhoods; by 2008 only 43 percent of families lived in such neighborhoods. At the same time, the percentage of families who lived in predominantly poor or predominantly affluent neighborhoods increased by more than 60 percent. By 2008 nearly one in three families in U.S. metropolitan areas lived in neighborhoods at the extremes of the local income spectrum.
And this is how the system exacerbates the problem and the decline:
Romney says the US needs to import more smart people
This is directly from Mitt Romney's campaign site. The page on Human Capital
Attracting the Best and the Brightest
To ensure that America continues to lead the world in innovation and economic dynamism, a Romney administration would press for an immigration policy designed to maximize America's economic potential. The United States needs to attract and retain job creators from wherever they come. Foreign-born residents with advanced degrees start companies, create jobs, and drive innovation at an especially high rate. While lawful immigrants comprise about 8 percent of the population, immigrants start 16 percent of our top-performing, high-technology companies, hold the position of CEO or lead engineer in 25 percent of high-tech firms, and produce over 25 percent of all patent applications filed from the United States.
Raise visa caps for highly skilled workers
Grant permanent residency to eligible graduates with advanced degrees in math, science, and engineering
Perhaps Mitt and the GOP/Tea Party want to outsource higher education to the developing world where it can be accomplished without taxpayer support through Federal and State subsidies, student loans, research grants, Pell Grants, etc. Also, because so many in the GOP/Tea Party promote anti-science views (see climate denial and Intelligent Design) the base is not opposed to offshoring the unholy business of advanced science education and research.
At any rate, pointing out the need to grant additional visas for immigrants holding advanced science degrees without addressing how we might improve the access to advanced education for our own best and brightest students points out how Romney's priorities align with big business and not middle class Americans.
FP: Couldn’t have said it better myself.
And here’s one way in which the US system instead of improving education, outsources it:
Woman With Asperger’s Dodges Bullet on Nearly $340,000 in Student Loans
A bankruptcy judge has ruled in favor of a Maryland resident who claimed she could not repay her student loans because her Asperger's syndrome prevents her from holding a job.
Carol Todd, who attended the University of Baltimore School of Law in the 1990s before dropping out, successfully made the case that her disability prevented her from repaying the nearly $340,000 she owed in student loans.
In order to relinquish the debt, Todd had to prove she would suffer "undue hardship" if forced to repay her student loans--a condition that is extremely difficult to demonstrate. In deciding in Todd's favor, Judge Robert Gordon, a bankruptcy judge for the District of Maryland, acknowledged Asperger's--an autistic spectrum disorder that is typified by problems with social interaction--as a disability that could prevent Todd from repaying her loans.
"To expect Ms. Todd to ever break the grip of autism and meaningfully channel her energies toward tasks that are not in some way either dictated, or circumscribed, by the demands of her disorder would be to dream the impossible dream," Gordon wrote in his judgment.
FP: The question here is how and why was she lent as much as $340,000 when it was obvious that she would not be able to repay it? Wouldn’t this money have been employed more productively on students who could practice law and repay? Doesn’t that seem identical to the subprime lending from which only the lenders profited and the students and taxpayers got taken? No wonder there is a bubble and guess what will happen to it.
Daniel Greenfield:THIS IS KIND OF A THING
Faiz Shakir, ThinkProgress' longtime Editor in Chief, VP at the Center for American Progress and the new senior advisor and director of new media for Nancy Pelosi... may have helped raise money for Hamas back in college.
It's an exclusive story I wrote for FPM and it has all sorts of troubling implications.
HIS was co-founded by Yusuf Ibish, the father of Hussein Ibish, who is a veteran pro-terrorist and anti-Israel activist, and Syed Hossein Nasr, an Islamic philosopher and opponent of the United States and Israel, who claims to be able to trace his ancestry back to Mohammed. During Faiz Shakir’s time there, HIS was presided over by Zayed Yasin, who became infamous for his “My American Jihad” speech.
In 2000, The Harvard Islamic Society held an Islamic Awareness Week and Faiz Shakir served as the co-chair for the week’s events. One of those events included a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, a group which acted as the fundraising arm for Hamas in the United States. As co-chair of the week’s events, Shakir would have unquestionably been involved in the selection of organizations to donate to.
FP: Looks like slowly but surely the Arab “spring” infiltrates the US government too. After all, how else would the realignment with the Islamists work?
Steve Clemons: What Happens When They Get Drones?
Ignatius, long-time national security columnist for the Washington Post and author as well of the novel-turned-movie Body of Lies, makes an important policy point via fiction that 'the other guys' -- in this case, vengeance-driven Pakistanis who have legitimate grievances against a drone-lobbing America -- will one day have the technology and systems sophistication to to turn the West's military and economic assets against it.
FP: It’s not just Pakistanis. I’ve been thinking for quite a while if terror groups like Al Qaeda, Hamas, Taliban and other Jihadis get their hands not just large drones, but all those min- and micro-drones and other robotics that Israel and the West are working so hard on? The civilized world (at least it used to be) won’t have a chance.
RECOMMENDED READS
Peter E. Gordon: The Border Crossers
Daniel Greenfied: Beinart: THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
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