An Opinion
The recent political chatter about “Obamacare” before the Supreme Court of the United States got a great deal of media attention. President Obama added fuel to the fire when he declared, “Ultimately, I am confident the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”
For someone who was a law professor those words were absurd. Even if a bill passed unanimously in the house and senate, it could still be overturned – if the law was in violation of the Constitution.
Viewpoint
Five state legislators do the perp walk on criminal charges in five weeks, with maybe more on the way.
I always try to look at the bright side. One of these legislators wore a wire for three years and there haven’t been nearly as many arrests or indictments as some might have figured. Another silver lining is that a bunch of the charges really aren’t about corrupting government functions, but about political greed and personal sleaze. So we’ve got all of that going for us. Call me Mr. Sunshine.
Eye on the Island
There is no quicker way for a county legislator to generate a headline than to accuse the county executive or the county comptroller of not doing his or her job. But what happens when the governmental official who comes under legislative fire is vindicated?
If the accused party is a Republican who is up for re-election this year, such as Comptroller George Maragos, county legislators move on to another target and hope their next round of allegations have merit. After all, if a county governmental agency is doing its job, that’s not news, right?
Arizona Law Before Supreme Court
Written by Robert McMillan Friday, 20 April 2012 00:00
On April 25, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear arguments dealing with the Arizona State passed immigration law. One of the provisions of the Arizona law permits police to question the immigration status of anyone arrested or even stopped for a traffic violation. Some 20 other states have passed laws similar to the contested Arizona law.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has recused herself since she worked on the original Obama administration’s challenge to the Arizona immigration law.
There should be a decision sometime in June or early July of this year – again, just as with regard to the challenged Health Care law – right in the middle of the 2012 Presidential election. There is no doubt that the enforcement of immigration laws in the United States will get much attention over the next several months – and beyond.
When you look at the number of people who are waiting to immigrate to the United States from all over the globe, the statistics are amazing. Millions of people are waiting to become legal immigrants. At the same time, hundreds of thousands come here illegally each year. There has been no real enforcement of immigration laws by any president since Truman and Eisenhower.
Now, take a look with me at the number of people around the globe who want to make the United States their permanent home. A recent global poll shows that over 165 million adults want to permanently relocate to the United States – yes, over 165 million adults. And those statistics do not count the children of the adults who would want to relocate here.
With a world population of 7.1 billion, the above figure represents a conclusion that over 3 percent of the world’s population would move here at the drop of a hat! Then, when you add in Canada, the figure gets higher. Some 45 million people around the globe want to relocate to Canada.
We have a broken immigration system, and if it is not fixed, the United States could well expect chaos. At the same time, just think what would happen if our gates were totally opened to anyone who wants to come here – legal massive immigration. The result would be a shift in the culture of this nation never before seen. Would the immigrants from around the world “assimilate” themselves to our culture as President Teddy Roosevelt called for in the early 1900s, or could we expect dramatic shifts in our culture and even in the accepted English language? If people in the United States do not speak up, we will be headed down the wrong path.
