Elliot Spitzer was always a headline seeking arrogant legal thug who specialized in harassing, intimidating and destroying people for his own aggrandizement and psychopathic reasons. He got away with it within the morally corrupt and oppressive US legal system where judges and lawyers have usurped powers over the lives, wealth and property of US citizens. New Yorkers have an opportunity to cleanse the office of the Governor of New York of this sewer of a man. Take him down.Illegals OK'd to drive in N.Y.
By Joseph Curl Washington Times
October 20, 2007
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has started a major political fight over immigration by ordering state officials to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens, prompting at least one county legislature to defy the executive order and pushing toward a showdown in court.
The embattled governor's order has drawn some acerbic commentary, including a cartoon showing Osama bin Laden as a New York City taxi driver. After spending months trying to deflect charges that he used state police to target the Republican leader of the state Senate, Mr. Spitzer appears eager for a fight over this contentious issue.
"The rabid right that wants to pile on and use this to demagogue the issue will not carry the day in New York state," he said recently. "Those who view this as a political issue once again are taking the state in the wrong direction."
The driver's license issue has once again put the governor at odds with New Yorkers. When New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who inJune abandoned the Republican Party, criticized the order recently, the Democratic governor shot back that the mayor was "dead wrong, factually wrong, legally wrong, morally wrong, ethically wrong."
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani joined the list of opponents this week. "Governor Spitzer should not give licenses to illegals," he told the Republican Jewish Coalition on Tuesday. "It doesn't make sense."
The issue heated up late last week, when the Monroe County legislature defied the governor and ordered its county clerk to require anyone seeking a driver's license to provide a valid Social Security number. The decision runs counter to Mr. Spitzer's order, in which illegal aliens with valid foreign passports would be eligible to obtain a state driver's license.
Again, Mr. Spitzer was defiant: "I hate to say it — the clerks have to enforce it," he said. "The clerks who issue driver's licenses are agents of the state. They do not make state law on this. State government does."
In another move, 29 clerks, all but one a Republican, voted to oppose the plan, with 13 vowing to directly disobey the governor, even if ordered to comply. The clerks said their offices would be hard-pressed to determine the legality of applicants.
The issue has prompted high-powered dissent, including on Capitol Hill. Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, New York Republican, has denounced the order as "bad policy exacerbating our broken immigration system."
"Those who have come to the United States illegally should not be rewarded with a New York state driver's license," he said.
John F. Lehman, a former Navy secretary who served on the September 11 commission, called the governor's decree "absurd."
"It's a perfect formula for al Qaeda. They won't be able to resist it. They will be able to come to New York," he said. "It's going to become a magnet to lawbreakers because the surrounding states will adhere to the federal standards."
Critics say the credibility of a New York driver's license could be called into question in other states, because applicants would not be required to prove that they have a Social Security number.
The issue began in July 2006, when an appeals court ruled that the state could have wider latitude in issuing driver's licenses. Republican Gov. George E. Pataki decreed that immigrants would need to prove they were in the United States legally before getting licenses. During the gubernatorial campaign, Mr. Spitzer vowed to change that. With the Republican-led Senate adamantly opposed to any change, the governor bypassed the Legislature by issuing an executive order.
The plan is supposed to go into effect in December, but the Senate's Republican majority has pledged to override Mr. Spitzer's order in an emergency session Oct. 22.
The public is opposed to Mr. Spitzer's plan as well, a recent poll shows.
A Zogby survey of 718 likely voters in New York found that 65 percent of the state's voters are against the proposal. The poll, taken Oct. 11-15, showed that nearly half — 47 percent — of Democrats oppose the plan, compared with 92 percent of Republicans.
I saw a NY State Senator on tv this week, he says Spitzer is punishing his district by withholding millions in aid to children over the driver's license issue. I agree Spitzer is a bad character.
ReplyDeleteIBD has a timely editorial about the efforts of communities like Prince Charles county Va and Hazelton, Pa. which are rolling up the welcome mat.
This week, O'Reilly reported that 17% of federal inmates are foreign nationals. I believe he said the number is almost double state in State prisons.
The cheap labor force from the south is not so cheap if you figure in the social costs. State and local governments across the country are taking the financial hit in health and social services.
But as long as 70% of taxes are paid by 10% of taxpayers who cares? Right? Just give me that S CHIP for my children, $5,000 for my baby and $1,000 a year to match my savings. Oh! when can I expect you to be paying 100% of my health care costs?
You bring up a good point Whit. Taxes should be as widely as possible on every citizen regardless of income. On;y then will every citizen have skin in the game.
ReplyDeleteA sign of the times:
ReplyDeletePhiladelphia is raising the rent on the Boy Scouts. From $1/year to $200K/year. It's because of homosexuals.
From IBD: "A survey a few years back found that 63% of U.S. Air Force Academy graduates, 68% of West Point graduates, 70% of Annapolis graduates and 85% of FBI agents, not to mention 26 of the first 29 astronauts, were all Scouts."
Meanwhile:
"Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) lost a $1 million earmark to fund a Woodstock museum in Liberty, New York yesterday, but was successful in securing $350,000 tax dollars to fund the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Inc.
According to a press release from her Senate office, the money will go towards decreasing the use of crystal methamphetamine-- which contributes HIV transmission-- in the gay community."
What's wrong with this picture?
Ron Paul makes some good points that the US has way too many overseas military bases. The one base that we should always have is in the CONUS. That is where we belong and the first order of business should be to protect it.
ReplyDeleteThree quarters of the need for a federal government is border protection. If the federal government shirks its duty and leaves it up to states like New York, then what do we need a federal government for at all?
Her is what is wrong with Philadelphia, Mayor John Street.
ReplyDeleteThat the Federals are attempting to usurp indeividual and State authroity, while failing in it's basic responsibilities is incicitive of the challenge facing US in the 21st Century.
ReplyDeleteThe Federals begin foreign wars they cannot end, while abandoning the near frontier.
Embrace thecoming era, open your minds and realize that we are living in the "Brave New World".
Trying to establish some order.
If the Federals allow people over the border, should not the States try to indentify and license them?
Or should the States just follow through on the Federals abandonment of responsibility?
If the Federals will not deport, why should the States not regulate these individuals that are not properly documented, by the Federals?
What should Nrw York do with the undocumented aliens, if not document them?
Rat:
ReplyDeleteIdentifying and documenting illegals should be done and at this point the assistance of every level of government will be required in that effort. The point doesn't seem to be identifying and documenting, though. The Feds have seemed to thwart those efforts to date.
Given the history of Federal effort as well the Sanctuary City movement, it appears that the process of providing drivers licenses is just another step to confer legality on illegals.
The danger is that people are watching...They see a government unwilling to enforce its laws or selective in the laws they choose to enforce. How long will it be before a considerable number of taxpayers decide to go dark?
LEAD: Seeking to protect what he called ''a very vulnerable population,'' Mayor Koch said yesterday that he would support a bill amending the city's Human Rights Law to prohibit discrimination based on ''alienage or citizenship status.''
ReplyDeleteSeeking to protect what he called ''a very vulnerable population,'' Mayor Koch said yesterday that he would support a bill amending the city's Human Rights Law to prohibit discrimination based on ''alienage or citizenship status.''
The bill would enable both documented and undocumented aliens to take to the Human Rights Comission complaints of bias in housing, in public accommodations and, with limits for undocumented aliens, in employment.
Officials estimate that there are from 400,000 to 750,000 undocumented aliens in New York City, about 119,000 of whom have applied for legal status under the Federal amnesty program.
400,000 to 700,000 in NYCity, alone.
No one knows, for sure.
The States should pretend these people are not there?
Like pretending the Turks did not commit genocide, in 1915.
Deny the inconvienent truths?
The Federals WILL NOT deport those people. Why not regularize them?
If not that, then what, the Federals will not even permit employeer notification of misidentifed SS numbers amongst their employees.
What to do with 20 million people, 7% of the residents in the country?
Deny that they are here?
Force them further "underground", into the criminal community?
The "grey and black" economies are hugh, whit.
ReplyDeleteGrowing from my perspective.
Rooms packed to the ceiling with cash dollar bills, are common on the news. Drug dealers, mostly, at that level.
If the undocumented are in the country, they usually carry their Mexican license, if they have one.
But no US insurance.
In Phoenix, one in six drivers are unlicensed, maybe one in seven.
Uninsured & unlicensed.
Self-enforcement of the "Law", it's becoming a rare commidity.
Speaking for Joe Six-pack: We know the illegals are here for jobs. Many of us acknowledge that their services are needed. What we strenuously object to is the Fed's unwillingness and prevarications about enforcing the border. Yes, they lied about their efforts and intentions so, we insist they do something about the flood of illegals before we will talk about the ones who are already here. Simple as that. Fix the borders first!
ReplyDeleteOfficials in Georgia claim that Atlanta is down to a 90-day supply of drinking water. The Army Corps says nonsense.
ReplyDeleteWe're talking about 4 million people...without water, relocating, many broke.
How bad is the situation, really? Is this modern age, its so hard to find the truth.
In your linked article, whit, the typical Federal, at his task
ReplyDeleteThe Corps, which manages the water in the region, stresses there's no reason to think Atlanta will soon run out of water.
"We're so far away from that, nobody's doing a contingency plan," said Major Daren Payne, the deputy commander of the Corps' Mobile office. "Quite frankly, there's enough water left to last for months. We've got a serious drought, there's no doubt about it, anytime you deplete your entire storage pool and tap into the reserve."
But, he said, any calls to stockpile bottled water would be "very premature."
Still, some academics and politicians are proposing contingency plans in case the situation worsens.
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said the region should explore piping in additional sources of water — possibly from the Tennessee or Savannah rivers. She even suggested desalinating sea water from Georgia's Atlantic coast.
"We need to look beyond our borders," she said.
Months away, so there is no need to for contingency planning, by the Army. Months, that's 90 days.
Just like New Orleans and Baghdad.
Shit will work itself out, no doubt.
We need to look beyond our borders, for water, in Georgia ...
Welcome to the desert ...
Georgia has been feuding with Florida and Alabama for years over water levels in the Chattahoochee river which is fed by Atlanta's primary water source, Lake Lanier. So, how much of this alarm is hype or hysteria, I don't know. Another factoid is that Atlanta has been called the fastest growing city in the history of the world. Hyperbole, maybe, but it has boomed in the last twenty years.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the desert, we've got plenty of water, but what we need to do is implement reuse systems so that less water has to be taken from the rivers or aquifers.
Whit: Speaking for Joe Six-pack: We know the illegals are here for jobs. Many of us acknowledge that their services are needed.
ReplyDeleteTheir services would not be required if employers paid a living wage. Americans won't do stoop labor for $6 / hr. Employers won't pay $20 an hour when people are present who bid their labor for $6 (as long as the employer doesn't look to closely at their lack of paperwork). We don't have an illegal immigration problem, we have a non-compliant employer problem.
Well, whit, we suck every drop of water from the rivers. The mighty Colorado but a trickle of a muddy stream, when it reachs the Gulf of California. The Salt and the Gila, don't even get there, dry long before the Mexican border.
ReplyDeleteGround water depletion and subsidence a major challenge in some areas of AZ.
The feds ought to withhold federal highway monies from New York State when they start licensing illegals. That would do it. But they won't. We have chaos in our country now. Ordnung, we need ordnung, order.
ReplyDeleteWe have two rivers here, The Big Lost, and The Little Lost, start in the mountains, and end in the sand. They're not sucked dry, they just poop out. Always liked those names, kinda poetic. The Big Lost River, kinda like Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River, which is only a poetic construction, I believe. The Salmon River here is also know as The River of No Return, flows through Hell's Canyon, with the Seven Devils Peaks in the background. Think Dante.
ReplyDeleteBobal one time we were driving home to Seattle from Denver and my husband took the back way from Boise to Lewiston, in order to avoid Oregon totally, in order to stay out of jail, because he never paid his speeding ticket. We went through Riggins and over White Bird Pass, mighty purdy country, I didn't even know all that stuff was back there.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of things automotive--Sweepers grand dad was off the farm and a street sweeper in Stockholm before he got on the boat to NYC. But it wasn't like this. 32 categories of parking violations they have in Chicago! Ah, the revenue flow:)
ReplyDeleteWhite Bird--where the battle took place, between the US Army and the Nez Perce, T.
DR brings up a point that I had not considered and that is if the feds do not step in to control illegal immigrants the states must. There is some merit to that argument, but only if you accept the idea that the federal government can pick and choose to enforce laws at its whim. Anything that diminishes federal authority and transfers it in an orderly method to local authorities is fine with me, if it reduces the size of the federal government and taxes. We could do well with no more than 25% of the federal government that we have.
ReplyDeleteI can dream can't I?
"The title is an incongruous play on the title of the book Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. In its introduction, Pirsig explains that, despite its title, "it should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either." wiki
ReplyDeleteT., have you ever read 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'? I don't know Zen or motorcycles well, but he had a few good pages describing the country we have mentioned.
But what to do, Deuce, when each local authority goes its own way? I can see our town becoming a 'sanctuary city' one of these fine days. By the way the Greater Moscow Alliance is putting on some great ads, and I am lining up a couple of my republican tenants to vote, since I can't being outside the city limits.:)
Today is the day the University of Idaho Vandals football team gets crucified by New Mexico State at where else, Las Cruces, New Mexico. I'm thinking of getting a pint of rum.
ReplyDeleteIt's all good, Rat:) Victory in Iraq
ReplyDeleteThe States are greatly hampered in that effort, duece.
ReplyDeleteStates cannot deport the miscreants, that is beyond their authority. So what other path is available to the States, when the Federals abdicate responsibility but refuse to delegate authority.
Defacto legalization, but without SS#s, so the explotation of the immigrants can continue, unabated.
The trouble with that analysis, bob, is that it assumes the "War" going "well" would be a positive for the GOP. Nothing could be further from the truth.
ReplyDeleteThe "War" must be "won", not "going well", or the GOP is doomed I tell you, DOOMED, in '08.
But if Victory is declared, the troops keep marching home, why that'd possibly turn the ship around.
best rum on the planet
ReplyDeleteRumbob, there is an eighteen year old "Flor y Cana" that is so good it will bring tears to your eyes. You may have to leave Moscow to get it .
ReplyDeletePick a nica or a tica, both mighty fine.
ReplyDeleteSee your Ticas. and raise dos chicas or four cheeckass de Panama
ReplyDeleteIn Pakistan Quandary, U.S. Reviews Stance
ReplyDeleteAfter years of compromises and trade-offs, there are questions inside and outside the administration about whether Mr. Bush has invested too heavily in a single Pakistani leader, an over-reliance that may have prevented the administration from examining longer-term strategic options dealing with a country Mr. Bush designated, somewhat optimistically, a “major non-NATO ally.”
“It never stitched together,” said Dan Markey, a State Department official who dealt with Pakistan until he left government earlier this year. “At every step, there was more risk aversion — because of the risk of rocking the boat seemed so high — than there was a real strategic vision.”
Casa Pia, "Darkness By Day"
ReplyDeleteI've been stealing my wife's "Whalers" Dark Rum.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely something to
"Rummy"
E. Gatica!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking Bacardi, game doesn't start till 5pm so still have time. Think I will. I deserve it. I've rooted for Idaho long enough, sober.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTwo Weiners:
ReplyDeleteIdeehoe and Craig!
Root on!
Craig's favorite Soft-Drink:
ReplyDeleteRoot-Beer.
Appears that ILLEGALS & Queers are doing fine with the politicians --- votes from the ILLEGALS,,,, and contributions from the Queers Nation.
ReplyDeleteAint we just becoming a peachy nation.