Friday, December 30, 2005

Quote for the Day, 12/30/2005   "In fact," Sam the Gonoph says, "I long ago came to the conclusion that all life is 6 to 5 against."   -Damon Runyon, "A Nice Price" 3:33:39 PM    comment []

Katherine Harris Flounders in Florida   I wonder if it's wrong to report that Rep. Katherine Harris's fundraising for the Senate continues to be anemic, even though it won't be official for a couple more weeks?  Because she has once again had to defend herself against the usual charges:  That her campaign is disastrously behind (20 points in most polls) and that she is hideously unpopular (many more voters disapprove than approve of her) and that she has proven an incredibly disappointing fundraiser (her money on hand is considerably less than a tenth of Senator Bill Nelson's:  $470,000 to $6.5 million).  She defended herself against the charge that her campaign is a failure by noting the Cook Political Report still lists it as "competitive", which is true, but deceptive (any campaign where the incumbent is under 55% gets listed that way...and few of them have a 20% lead against their opponent), and by saying that she hasn't really started her campaign yet.  So I guess when she declared her candidacy for the Senate, she was lying.  She ignored the problem of voters hating her, and she ignored her poor fundraising.  The only reason to avoid those topics is because she can't rebut them.  Obviously, voters still hate her.  And if she had made real improvements in fundraising, the time to point it out to voters is before the new year, when she could still convince donors to give twice:  Since she has made no efforts to advertise her fundraising success in the last three months, it is safe to assume it is because she hasn’t had any. The reason Senator Nelson hovers in the low 50s is he is a dull and uncharismatic candidate.  Against a politician who is basically likeable, this would make him vulnerable.  Against the charm-deprived Rep. Harris, 20 points is a very comfortable lead.  We can expect her to try to run one of the most negative campaigns in history, because her disapproval ratings are already so high they can go little higher, while most Floridians don't mind Sen. Nelson; she needs to make him look like Hitler if she is to stand a chance of election.  But the only way she'll be able to run the diabolical campaign of her dreams is if someone gives her money, and it doesn't look like that's going to happen. 1:39:08 PM    comment []

Immigration, Redux   People misunderstand my immigration position.  I don't support illegal immigration.  But big business does; the government does.  (Big business supports illegal immigrants because they are poorly positioned to so much as request wage increases or benefits or even safe working conditions, and as such they provide a break against increased labor costs.)  If we truly believed that illegal immigration was a national security issue, we would station most of our military on the Mexican border, and our Coast Guard and Navy would devote most of its efforts to combing the coasts for illegal entry.  We have satellites above; we can see when people are crossing the border.  Sure, this would be expensive, but if it is truly a national security issue, rather than pandering to people's worst instincts, then surely no purely financial price is too high.  After all, for the first time in our history, more people are entering this country illegally than legally.  It is not that there are millions of people who desperately want to break the law and live as second-class non-citizens.  It is big business and the government that want them to.  It would take enormous efforts to prevent illegal immigration; a wall or an electrified fence wouldn’t begin to solve the problem.  But we could do it.  There are 11 million illegal immigrants in this country; by our actions and our inactions, we have codified a vast criminal underclass in this country.  I leave it to you to decide whether that serves this nation's best interests.  We double spending on "border security" roughly every five years, and the border is less secure than ever. I favor legal immigration.  Make it much easier for people to legally enter this country; illegal immigration would plummet.  But when we make it impossible for people to successfully play by the rules, it is utter hypocrisy to complain that people choose to break them instead.  And again, big business and the government must want things this way; because they could stop it any time they want.  Attacking people for cheap political points when they are doing just what you want them to is dishonest.  Using immigration to make coded racial attacks is even worse than that.  And there's an awful lot of that going on.  In my state, the governor of Minnesota is launching into attacks on illegal immigrants.  Does he want a security fence on the border to Wisconsin? 10:20:19 AM    comment []