More Reasons to Bash Bush on the Immigration Bill

I was reading Rush Limbaugh’s site because I like to be fair and balanced, and I thought a caller brought up some good points in one of the transcripts.

The topic is the immigration bill, and how Sen. Dianne Feinstein is demonizing the conservatives who are against it by saying they’ve never gotten so much racist e-mail.

CALLER: I just wanted to say that we should inform Mrs. Feinstein that our current policy, our current immigration policy is already racist.  It’s very much in favor of our neighbors to the south border.  If someone comes over from China in a shipping container where half of those people die, the other half that survive get sent back to China.  If somebody comes floating over the ocean on a boat or a piece of raft of some sort –
RUSH:  Like from Sri Lanka.  Yeah.
CALLER:  — we send ‘em right back.  So we don’t do the same thing with Mexico. We don’t apply our immigration policies uniformly and we show a great deal of –
RUSH:  That’s actually a good point.
CALLER:  — racism to the Mexican people.
RUSH:  We are biased against all other people, because 60% of the illegals in this country are from Mexico.  You’re absolutely right.

This makes me really frustrated with Bush, whose “compassionate conservatism” has really turned out to be “severely polarizing moderatism.” I mean, it’s okay to polarize sometimes, but don’t do it as a moderate.

As soon as Mexicans enter the United States, Democrats will be waiting to shake their hands and say “welcome to America.  Have some welfare and health care.  Remember to vote for us, because Republicans hate you!”

And then they talk about the “great spirit” of legal immigrants in the early 20th Century.  As if that makes all immigration, in any form, a good thing.  As if the growth we saw before World War I really means we can broadstroke all immigration as self-evident good, like it’s a virtue.  Please.

Limbaugh went on to describe how the Democrats can use immigration to then expand the current welfare state, as naturally most illegal immigrants from Mexican tend to be poor, and who turns down free welfare?  Yes, this would happen.  So why is Bush on their side?

It’s a clear issue to me now, with some unclear solutions.  It’s clear that this bill isn’t the solution, which isn’t a surprise.  Really, I should have read “Kennedy-McCain” and have been done with it.

Thanks For Nothing, Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani “unveiled his platform” to the public, or at least issues a large set of proposals that, if he were elected, he would carry out.

Among his stances:  lowering taxes (good), imposing accountability on Washington, and leading us to energy independence.  He also wants to set new highs for easy generalities and 9/11 references.

To win my support, you don’t need much.  You need to be Pro-life, pro-big Military, anti-high taxes and be a strong leader/communicator.  What I mean by “strong” is that you stand out from the pack.  And the only Republican I see doing that, besides Ron Paul just because he’s crazy, is Mitt Romney.

So these things sound good, and I actually think Rudy might deliver on some issues if he were President.  He’s strong on terrorism, as well.  Just be Pro-life, Rudy.  You can do it.

China Discovers Remains of Bird-Like Dinosaur

The missing link has been found!  Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Park was right!  Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself, but it looks like China found the remains of a surprisingly bird-ish dinosaur.  Scientists fought off dozens of Chinese sous chefs who quickly tried to serve it with soy sauce.

Eight meters (26 ft) long and standing at twice the height of a man at the shoulder, the fossil of the feathered but flightless Gigantoraptor erlianensis was found in the Erlian basin in Inner Mongolia, researchers wrote in the latest issue of Nature.

Essentially, imagine a gay T-Rex wearing a feather boa.

Do You Like Me? Yes/No/Maybe

An interesting article over at CNN about likeability for the current Presidential candidates.  It shows that likeability isn’t the main factor for peoples’ presidential preferences, although it helps.  “Electability” might be a better word.

Hillary Clinton is now the frontrunner among New Hampshire Democrats. But when Democrats were asked which candidate they find most likeable, Clinton came in third, behind Barack Obama and John Edwards.

I can’t believe Dennis Kucinich wasn’t up there.  How can you not like Dennis Kucinich?  He’s like four feet tall!  Of the Republicans, my guess is that Rudy and Romney would have higher likeability factors than McCain, despite the poll numbers.
So I read a little further:

Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani are rated pretty likeable by New Hampshire Republicans. John McCain is not — maybe too much straight talk on Iraq and immigration.

Ba-zing.  McCain is also a crusty old man.

Have Americans elected a president they didn’t particularly like? “Try Richard M. Nixon,” [Stephen] Hess [a historian] said. “Twice.”

So there’s hope for the unlikeables.

You Can Mess With Anyone Except the Media

Do not mess with the media.  They are evil.

Angeline Jolie learned that lesson the hard way this week.  After setting strict standards for who and what could appear to question her at the premier of “A Mighty Heart,” her new movie, the media went nuts.

She initially banned Fox News from the event - which, of course, was hyped on Fox News - and demanded that reporters limit their questions to non-relationship issues.

Even gay blogger Perez Hilton was with Fox News on this one.  The media has one thing going for them - free speech - and it’s that free speech that is a totally inviolable crime.  The media is so sensitive about losing power, it actually unites gays and Fox News.

Of course, Angelina was being stupid, but if the media would have let her get away with it, she wouldn’t have rescinded.

A similar thing happened to Rush Limbaugh in the sports world when he criticized the media for being biased toward Donovan McNabb because he’s black.  Crusty, ugly sportswriters said “No!  We’re not racist!” and absolutely buried Rush, to the point where he had to resign.

The fact that they’re willing to do it to liberals, too, is interesting.

Was Angelina out of line?  I don’t know.  She’s free to respond or not respond to whatever she wants.  She was out of line for asking for so much power over the event that entire companies would be banned.

But the real lesson here is what the media - from the gays to Fox News - will do to you - whether you’re Rush or Angelina - if you threaten the stranglehold on information they have these days.