Tax policy:
* "The tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're going to have to cut that short and not give that to you. We are going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
--San Francisco fund-raiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer - 6/8/2004
On a brief fundraising swing through Arizona, Thompson said it makes sense to have sworn officers working "in cooperation with the federal authorities."
"I've been places where they're working hand-in-glove," the former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" star said. "That's the ideal way to do it."
Thompson told reporters he's not concerned that putting local police in the position of trying to determine who is in this country illegally might lead to racial profiling "any more with that kind of cooperation than otherwise."
During the CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate Thompson got in his licks by chiding former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani about what he said has been that city's "sanctuary" policies. CNN/YouTube question number 3 was posed was directed to Thompson:
Good evening. There are thousands of people in Canada and Mexico waiting to come to America legally. They want to become American citizens. They want to be part of the American dream. Yet, there are those in the Senate that want to grant amnesty for those that come here illegally.
Will you pledge tonight, if elected president, to veto any immigration bill that involves amnesty for those that have come here illegally?
Thank you.
Cooper: Senator Thompson?
(Applause)
Thompson: Yes, I pledge that. A nation that cannot and will not defend its own borders will not forever remain a sovereign nation. And it's unfair...
(Applause)
We have -- we have thousands of people standing in line at embassies around the world to become United States American citizens, to come here to get a green card, to come here and to assimilate and be a part of our culture. They are part of what has made our country great. Some of our better citizens. We all know them and love them.
Now, it's our country together -- their's and ours, now together. It's our home. And we now get to decide who comes into our home.
And to place somebody above them or in front of them in line is the wrong thing to do.
We've got to strengthen the border. We've got to enforce the border. We've got to punish employers -- employers who will not obey the law. And we've got to eliminate sanctuary cities and say to sanctuary cities, if you continue this, we're going to cut off federal funding for you, you're not going to do it with federal money.
(Applause)
Now, there are parts of what both of these gentlemen have just said that I would like to associate myself with.
First of all, of course, Governor Romney supported the Bush immigration plan until a short time ago. Now he's taken another position, surprisingly.
(Laughter)
As far as Mayor Giuliani is concerned, I am a little surprised the mayor says, you know, everybody's responsible for everybody that they hire, but we'll have to address that a little bit further later. I think we've all had people probably that we have hired that in retrospect probably is a bad decision.
(Laughter)
He did have a sanctuary city. In 1996, I helped pass a bill outlawing sanctuary cities. The mayor went to court to overturn it. So, if it wasn't a sanctuary city, I'd call that a frivolous lawsuit.
(Applause)
Giuliani was allowed to respond:
Giuliani: New York City was not a sanctuary city. New York City did three exceptions. The three exceptions were to allow children to go to school, to allow those illegal immigrants who were the victims of crime to report the person who assaulted them, beat them up, mugged them.
And third, to allow emergency care in the hospitals, which we were required to do by federal law. We had a policy of reporting every single illegal immigrant other than those three who commit any kind of crime or were suspected of crime, and we reported thousands of them to immigration service. Few of them were deported.
McCain was asked to address the same question and came off as much more compassionate:
McCain: You know, this whole debate saddens me a little bit because we do have a serious situation in America. In 1986, we passed a law that said we would enforce our borders, and gave amnesty to a couple of million people. We gave the amnesty. Now we have 12 million people and still borders that are not enforced.
I came to the Senate not to do the easy things, but to do the hard things. Mel Martinez and I knew this was going to be a tough issue, but we thought the status quo was unacceptable: broken borders; 12 million people here illegally; a need for a temporary worker program, certainly in my state in the agricultural section, certainly in this state of Florida.
And we tried to get something done. We said we'd enforce the borders. The American people didn't believe us. They don't believe us because of our failure in Katrina, our failure in Iraq, our failures in reining in corruption and out of control spending.
So we tried and we failed. And I appreciate the president's efforts. He comes from a border state too. And what we've learned is that the American people want the borders enforced. We must enforce the -- secure the borders first.
But then you've still got two other aspects of this issue that have to be resolved as well. And we need to sit down as Americans and recognize these are God's children as well.
I don't disagree with McCain. But I strongly agree with Fred. State and local police should help enforce immigration laws, we must control the border and end the sanctuary policies that some cities, such as New Haven and San Francisco have adopted.
You can watch the exchange between Thompson, Giuliani and McCain in the following video:
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's response to a question asking about funding space exploration generated cheers from the audience:
Maybe Hillary could be on the first rocket to Mars.
More seriously, Huckabee said he supported expanding the space program because of how it has dramatically improved our lives:
Whether we ought to go to Mars is not a decision that I would want to make, but I would certainly want to make sure that we expand the space program, because every one of us who are sitting here tonight have our lives dramatically improved because there was a space program -- whether it's these screens that we see or the incredible electronics that we use, including the GPS systems that got many of you to this arena tonight.[From the CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate transcript]
Tancredo was dismissive of sending Americans to Mars:
We can't afford some things, and by the way, going to Mars is one of them.
Less than 24 hours after the Hartford Courant reported that post offices in Connecticut would not collect toys for the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program, the Postal Service had a change a heart.
After participating in the program for 15 years the Postal Service decided post offices across the state could not collect toys this holiday season for the Toys for Tots program, because asking customers to donate has been deemed a form of solicitation that violates a U.S. Postal Service policy.
"We are going to put the boxes back," Maureen Marion, a postal service spokesman, said Thursday night. "In those offices that have traditionally had Toys for Tots boxes, they will be restored for this season." Last Friday toy donation boxes began disappearing from post office lobbies after officials interpreted that federal regulations prohibit solicitations on postal property.
But upon further review, Marion said, the boxes will be coming back. "We should have brought other postal officials into this discussion," said Marion, adding that "we will revisit how to interpret the law and how it affects those involved."
Translation, we will try to stop this program again next year. Add this to the War against Christmas file.
In an article about on Bill Clinton's claim that he was against the Iraq war from the start and what this means for Hillary's Presidential run, USA Today's Jill Lawrence quoted from my "There He Goes Again" post:
"Bill Clinton Rewrites History on Iraq?" wondered ABC News' Political Radar blog. "A political blunder of monumental proportions," Dan Spencer wrote at the conservative Redstate.com. At liberal DailyKos.com, the headline was "Bill Clinton's 'truthiness' problem."
I guess it's time I start posting under my own name.
According to the Onion News Network, whether a candidate seems like they could take a sucker punch in a drunken brawl is extremely important to voters.
In an interview with the New York Post, Democratic Presidential wannabee Barack Obama - asked whether he would hire Bill Clinton for a job in an Obama administration were he to win in 2008 - said, "In a second."
Obama also said he would bring on former Vice President Al Gore "in a minute," citing Gore's work on climate change and global warming.
With the Democrats' Defeatocrats' plans to force our surrender in Iraq setback by all the progress recently reported from Iraq, the Dems decided to change the subject:
This underscores the party leadership’s concern to avoid getting bogged down in more debate about Iraq and to make sure it is President Bush and Republicans who are blamed in the 2008 election for voter anxieties about the economy.
No sooner did The Hill report on the Congressional Democrats attempt to change the subject and seize on public fears of an economic downturn, than the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy expanded at the fastest pace in four years during the third quarter, growing at a real annual rate of 4.9%.
Scott Mactavish, a former Hollywood insider and US Navy vet, has produced and directed a new pro-troops film entitled GOD AND COUNTRY.
GOD AND COUNTRY is a direct rebuttal of the films put out by Brian DePalma, Mark Cuban and the other Hollywood 'elite':
"American troops have a long and noble tradition of humanitarian service. From handing out candy bars and care packages to street children, to offering medical and dental care to the poor, to building churches and orphanages in third world countries... these American men and women commit thousands of hours to the service of others around the world, without expectation of gratitude or praise. GOD AND COUNTRY examines these heroes and their missions, and reveals a side of the military rarely mentioned in the mainstream media."
The DVD is shipping December 15th.
You can pre-order and learn more at the GOD AND COUNTRYwebsite.
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