Is The New Immigration Policy Legal Profiling?

As I type this there is someone being stopped in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, or another state in the south that is close to Mexico, simply because they 'look like they are here illegally'. I'm not kidding. This is the law in these states. Police have been given the authority to stop and question anyone that they feel may be an illegal immigrant. This has been in practice for a number of years but now it is a legal practice. If you recall this was started in Arizona and has caught on like wild fire throughout the south. Every state seems to have adapted this law and somehow tweaked it so that it will pass through the state legislation.

The latest to join is Alabama. As of Sept 29th 2011 the police have the authority to stop anyone that they feel is an illegal immigrant. In addition to this, anyone that is caught giving a ride to an illegal immigrant may face charges as well. Children are not immune as schools will be mandated to check the immigration status of their students.

Are the new changes to the immigration law meant to prevent illegal aliens from entering and staying in this country or a new form of racial profiling? I'm leaning more on the side of racial profiling. I do feel like there should be some sort of change to the law and a restriction of the amount of illegal aliens that enter and subsequently are allowed to remain in this country. In the same frame this seems to be targeted at only one group of immigrants. That group is Mexican or Hispanic. Yes I know that Mexico is landlocked and many illegal immigrants come in this way but so is Canada. What about the other illegal immigrants that are not Mexican that go unnoticed? The law, especially in the southern states like Alabama and Georgia and the southwestern states such as Arizona and Texas, seems to be specifically targeting Hispanics and Mexicans by allowing officers to stop people that they believe are 'potential' illegal immigrants. how would someone know that you are an illegal immigrant or that you are an immigrant period just by looking at you? Many of whom would not be here if it were not for greedy business owners paying them under the table or off the books in order to obtain cheap labor and pay less in taxes. There is some truth to the phrase 'if you build it, they will come' from the Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams. If there are less jobs then they will not come here and stay here illegally.

I feel that this new law that has passed is racial profiling and should not be tolerated.

Politifact Grades: Mitt Romney and Ron Paul (GOP)

I had a chance to read over New York Times blog “Five Thirty Eight” and came across an interesting article; “A Look at Politifact Grades of Candidates.” It took a look as the scores of 2012 Republican Presidential Candidates. Politifact is actually a Pulitzer Prize winner for its great look at political data.

Based on Politifact Grades, two candidates seem to score the highest and are people we should definitely keep an eye on. No matter what party you belong to you should try to know a little about what’s going on each side of the table. The two candidates I think you should keep your eye on are Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. The candidates with the most truthful statements based on Poltifact are Paul with Romney only one point behind. Also a close third is Rick Perry whom had a lesser percentage of truthful statements; Perry had the most half true statements and second place for most true statements.

I will take a short look at Mitt Romney and Ron Paul and give you a few more resources to read.

Ron Paul
Ron Paul has actually been a crowd favorite for many years, definitely at my extremely liberal college. He actually has always been one of GOP members, who made sense rather you agreed or not with him. Ron Paul is a candidate for limited, constitutional government with low taxes and Free Markets being of the utmost importance. Check out Laura Trice’s article on Dr. Ron Paul’s 11 point Plan to Save America. It really doesn’t get any more plain than that article. Dr. Ron Paul is actually a medical doctor by education turned politician. He began his life in politics after studying Austrian School Economists (I will definitely write on Austrian Economists) in the 1970s. He’s currently is a Member of the House of Representatives from Texas’s 22nd District.

Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney is a business man by trade turned politician. His first public office run was in 1994 for U.S. Senate, which he lost. He was later the 70th Governor of Massachusetts. Mitt’s stance focuses on jobs, fiscal responsibility, healthcare and foreign policy. Check out his plan as well as 59 Point Economic Plan, which he feels he can create 11 million jobs in four years.

Qualified Residential Mortgage Rule

I recently was reading an article on the black housing crisis and came across some interesting information. Marc Morial mentioned the politicians proposing to change mortgage rules. They are proposing a new requirement called Qualified Residential Mortgage Rule (QRM). The rule would require homeowners to put at least 20% down when buying property. Such rules would kick a huge group of potential home buyers out the pool. As well as limit a borrower’s debt payments to no more than about one-third of income. The purpose is to reduce the number of risky loans by requiring lenders hold onto 5% of any loans that do not qualify.

Address By The President To A Joint Session of Congress - Official Transcript

Address by the President to a Joint Session of Congress

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, and fellow Americans:

Tonight we meet at an urgent time for our country. We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless, and a political crisis that’s made things worse.

This past week, reporters have been asking, “What will this speech mean for the President? What will it mean for Congress? How will it affect their polls, and the next election?”

But the millions of Americans who are watching right now, they don’t care about politics. They have real-life concerns. Many have spent months looking for work. Others are doing their best just to scrape by -- giving up nights out with the family to save on gas or make the mortgage; postponing retirement to send a kid to college.

GOP Presidential Debate Review

Okay so this really isn't an official recap but this can give you a little insight into the people that are running for the Republican nomination and for president against President Obama next year.

All of the nominees were in attendance at the Ronald Reagan library. Everyone except Sarah Palin, though she has not officially thrown her hat into the ring. I seriously doubt that she will since Rep. Michelle Bachmann is running. There were some definite winners and losers on the night. Some people surprised me in a good way but for the majority it was the same rhetoric and talking points coming from everyone.

The most surprising and most compelling nominee is Utah governor Jon Huntsman. He made some great points and refused to get caught up in all the bashing and slick talk that the others willing and at times voluntarily participated in. Even when directly baited by co moderator Politico's John Harris to directly name someone on the panel that he had earlier problems with (Governor Rick Perry). When he refused to give in to the high school bully tactics, John Harris tried to flip Gov perry into talking about Gov Huntsman but he saw right through it.

Is $300 Billion Enough?

CNN is reporting that President Obama, in an effort to shore up the economy and stimulate some type of job growth, is preparing to unveil a new $300 billion dollar job plan. He is planning to do this during his speech to congress that is scheduled for Thursday. The $300 Billion is mainly in tax cuts and infrastructure spending as well as some state government support.

In order to offset some of the $300 Billion, President Obama would want Congress to raise short term tax revenues for this year in hopes of cutting some of the deficit before his job plan takes affect next year. That is if it passes through Congress and does not get stalled by the opposition.

Of course there a large number of Republican opponents to this proposed program such as Rep. Paul Broun from Georgia. He feels that "it doesn't even sound good". Instead of $300 billion in infrastructure spending and some tax cuts he would rather see $640 billion go towards a 12 month tax holiday (break) for employers.

Stop Coddling The Super-Rich ?

If you haven't already you should definitely read N.Y. Times article by Warren Buffett, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich." It's truly a great opinion piece by Warren Buffet. He shared his views about our deficit and the tax burden.  It's truly mind boggling that a billionaire has only a 17.4% taxes to pay on his taxable income, in comparison to every-day folks hitting 30% and up. It's crazy and it's no way Congress should see this as not a problem. I'm not going to even talk politics to you today. To me it's all about common sense.  You putting all the burden on the people who are your working class and can't afford, but wonder why our deficit is growing. People are losing faith and something needs to be done. Here are a few highlights from the article: