Into The Wilderness

The NY Times editors takes a swipe at Hillary, deliver an absurd plug for John Edwards, and forget the glorious recent history of their own Governor in an editorial on immigration:

The Immigration Wilderness 

The nation certainly sounds as if it’s in an angry place on immigration.

A major Senate reform bill collapsed in rancor in June, and every effort to revive innocuous bits of it, like a bill to legalize exemplary high school graduates, has been crushed. Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York hatched a plan to let illegal immigrants earn driver’s licenses — and steamrollered into the Valley of Death. Asked if she supported Mr. Spitzer, Senator Hillary Clinton tied herself in knots looking for the safest answer. 

Well, yes she did and thanks for remembering.  But why single her out?  By the time of the following debate John Edwards had fully flip-flopped from his 2004 view and had opined that, lacking comprehensive reform at the Federal level, he could not support the issuance of driver's licenses to illegal not-yet-documented-but-potentially-voting immigrants; Barack Obama waffled around his support for the issuance of driver's licenses and drew catcalls.

Yet here is the Times on Edwards:

America is waiting for a leader to risk saying that the best answer is not the simplest one. As John Edwards said at the last debate, “When is our party going to show a little backbone and strength and courage and speak up for those people who have been left behind?”

They duly note that this quote was from a different context, namely health care reform, but fail to note that Edwards, like Hillary, has lost his zeal for the oppressed in the driver's license debate.

Oh, well - the editors were forgetting a lot:

Americans accept this approach [of comprehensive]. The National Immigration Forum has compiled nearly two dozen polls from 2007 alone that show Americans consistently favoring a combination of tough enforcement and earned legalization over just enforcement. Elections confirm this. Straight-talking moderates like Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico thrive in the immigration crucible along the southern border. Those who obsess about immigration as single-issue hard-liners, like the Arizonans J. D. Hayworth and Randy Graf, have disappeared, booted by voters. Voters in Virginia this month rejected similar candidates and handed control of the State Senate to Democrats.

Virginia?  New Mexico?  C'mon, Eliot Spitzer of New York backpedaled like a Jets defensive back on his scheme to offer driver's licenses to illegals, and the NY Times almost covered it.  Bash Spitzer, Edwards and Obama with Hillary.

Comments

[RFS]

Wow. The Jets comment was really cruel.

[Jane]

Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York hatched a plan to let illegal immigrants earn driver’s license

Where exactly was the "earning" part? Getting across the border?

[Rick Ballard]

"Where exactly was the "earning" part?"

Jane,

My understanding is that the "earning" portion involved a promissory note promising an illegal vote in exchange for the license. Enforcement of the agreement may prove problematic but there's always 'la migra' to lend a hand in persuading the recalcitrant.

[kim]

Ain't Steve snippy? Post it here; I wanna see.
===============================================

[Jane]

Rick,

That's what I thought!

[JJ]

"America is waiting for a leader to risk saying that the best answer is not the simplest one."

Good grief. Psssst, answer: George Bush. Has said it repeatedly.

Rephrase that: "America is waiting for a change in journalism where editors begin to realize the best answer is not always a simple one... or of the type that only they want to hear."

[kim]

Oui, Zhey-Zhey.
=================

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

If he was really intending to be cruel, he would have used a Knicks analogy:

Booing begins before the national anthem. Basketball fans in New York are angry, and they can't wait to express themselves.

They're mad at the Knicks' expanding losing streak. They're hung over from the summer in court, where the team and its coach, Isiah Thomas, were involved in a sordid sexual harassment suit.

They're tired of a team that seems to be in perpetual rebuild mode. Tired of backcourts that don't share the ball. And they're done with one of their own, guard Stephon Marbury, who went AWOL for a road game in Phoenix recently.

They're tired of all the losing.

So Tuesday night, the Knicks' first game home after an 0-4 road trip, the sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden is in no mood to warmly welcome back the home team.

They boo Thomas.

They boo Coney Island legend Marbury during player introductions, and the booing continues every time the point guard touches the ball.

They boo every one of the Knicks' 29 turnovers. And finally, as Golden State stretches its lead to 105-78, the chants begin.

"Fire I-si-ah." "Fire I-si-ah."

[maryrose]

08- The year of the Celtics. That should make Jane very happy.The Cleveland Cavaliers can't win unless LeBron has 40+ points a game

[Larry]

Isiah was a marvelous player. Alas, he has failed badly in every "civilan" position since he retired.

I can't bear to watch the debates, afraid I'll throw something at the tv. I depend on people like you all to keep me up to date.

[Scrapiron]

The people of Va simply planted a rapid growing tax tree and it's already bearing fruit. Every tax and fee in the state has been raised several times by the 'dimocrat' governors and more are lurking on the horizon. Soon this will be just another state no one can afford to live in. Maybe enough Mexican criminals will move north to open a good area in Mexico for us to move south.

[windansea]

anyone see this,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-and-valerie-wilson/treason-is-not-old-news_b_73852.html

[hit and run]

Wait. windansea just happens to show up, with a joe and val article in hand...RIGHT AFTER Scrapiron is musing on moving to Mexico?

I Question The Timing.

But I Question My Questioning Of The Timing because windansea was strangely silent on the moving to Mexico point.

I Blame Bush.

[hit and run]

From the Department of Slow on the Uptake...

Of course, windansea saw the moving to Mexico reference, and thought to himself, "The last thing we need here is a any more loud, dirty Americans...." and so he employed the thirteenth oldest trick in the book, "oh, look, a squirrel!"

[Jane]

08- The year of the Celtics. That should make Jane very happy.

The Celtics, the Patriots, the BC Eagles and of course the Red Sox. I'm finding myself actually following sports this year. Oh the horror of it all!

[Walter]

BC Eagles

Mizzou-Rah!

[JGH]

Wind n' asia:

Both Val and Joe are legacies of spies. Val's NSA, Air Force and Joe's Dipo dad(CIA)Madrid(where the 'bask' bomb went off).

The US intelligence community used to discriminate against foreign borns. No chance. Prouty was probably picked for this and she wasn't put in jail. Plame wasn't prosecuted for her IIPA violation at DoJ. They also sold off the husband/wife of a dipo/CIA can clear Americans overseas even if they are CIA thing that might show some Ames and why Plame chose to spy the way she did in his pattern. Ames wife was from Nicaragua or something, but I doubt she cleared anybody because the point of Ames is he was leaking people outside the intelligence community overseas as well as those in it; like people who went to Europe.

An,
Joe and Val are supposed to be the best with families to back them up. They have done more damage than anyone in history. Plame has exceeded Ames.

[hit and run]

Walter:
Mizzou-Rah!

Every where I look online, I should be getting the game on ABC. Sounds great! Only, I turn ABC on here and I get 20/20.

Dude, ABC, Show Me.

Boise State v Hawaii ain't quite the same.

Though, I can't help but extend Thanksgiving for the fact that they ain't playing AT Boise State. Not that I have anything against blue turf, but I have this thing against blue turf.

[Ann]

Now, what can be better than Arkansas upsetting LSU?

[narciso]

Look they're are not the smartest or wisest people in the intelligence community or the
most ethical (witness Joe Wilson's contacts
with nuclear material proliferating, famine
inducing COGEMA in Niger;his work with the AlAmoudi's through Rock Creek Partners or his work with the other Al Amoudi on behalf of AIG in the Sudan) But they're not the worst. Agee was a proven agent of the KGB/DGI; Ames was a paid agent of the KGB/SVR; Nicolson gave 400 profiles of his CT trainees to the SVR and in short order to every hostile agency on the planet. Mary McCarthy, who according to her Wiki page was opposed to the Al Shifa strike in 1998.
A facility tied through its owner, to the bin Mahfouzes and the same Al Amoudi's
and other likely leakers like Mrs. Graham, late of the DNI; compromised detention facilities at Stare Frejutska and Mikhail
Colgeanu AFB in Eastern Europe. Vincent Cannistraro,( Jiddah 1975) besides his work with the VIPsers and his poor speculation at the time of OKC; lobbied against further
restrictions against Sheik Rahman (the subject of at least one of the imfamous PDBs)after having been who prevented any oversight of the sponsors of that same Sheiks (Hekmatyar, Abu Sayyaf) at the time of the Mujahadeen campaign against the Soviets. Larry Johnson, seems topontificate without reflection (speculating immediately
during the TWA 800 disaster about terrorism,
downplaying terrorism concerns in the Summer
of 2001! Ridculing concerns over the Ft. Dix and London/Glasgow doctor's plot; yet
he's still a reliable counter terror expert,
from his perch at Berg & Paladin consulting?)

[Ann]

And what could be better than bashing the TIMES and agreeing with Ann Coulter all in one day:

NYT Suicide Manual for Dems By Ann Coulter

[Ann]

"They recognize that they made a big mistake," he said. "They realize that they were on the wrong path and that they wasted many chances with what they did."

Did a Democrat say this or an Iraqi?

Ex-Sunni insurgent becomes U.S. ally

[Fritz]

Loved the line, "Eliot Spitzer of New York backpedaled like a Jets defensive back," but it is a lousy simile. Granted that Gov. Spitzer wasn't the most graceful with his retreat, but judging by their current record the Jets can't backpedal at all. By default, Spitzer wins.

[Walter]

HnR,

The Armageddon at Arrowhead is tommorow. Should be a high-scoring game: Look for the total score to be higher than the KU-MU b-ball game later this year.

And since I spent yesterday with the traditional family, I'd like to say that I am also grateful for the fun, interesting and informative people who comment here. Special thanks to TM for creating and hosting the discussion.

I am less thankful for the outcome of the 100th annual Turkey Day game. The Pioneers beat the Statesmen 49-7.

If we've learned nothing else from Mr. Bolton, we've learned that this is an age that demands statesmen.

[hit and run]

Heh, I just saw not more than 4 minutes ago the commercial on ESPN indicating that the game is tomorrow (whoops, look at the time, later today!)

Well, go Hawaii tonight (this morning!). Beat the blue turfers.

[Walter]

... blue turfers.

My five-year-old caught part of their game recently. If you thought that the birds and bees were a tough question to answer, try "Daddy, why is the grass blue?"

And, no. He didn't buy the suggestion that it came from Kentucky.

[hit and run]

Well, my six year old decided he wanted to play football in the back yard today. And my four year old followed us out. And we had a great time throwing, kicking, chasing the ball. All culminating in the two of them on top of me rolling around in the grass until I tickled them off of me.

But anytime I say, "Hey, let's watch the game" referring to any football game on tv, the response is not only unenthusiastic, it is downright hostile.

They are safely self-inoculated against encountering blue turf on tv for the foreseeable future.

If only Jmax played football.

(Hmmm, with the helmets, I could probably get away with that for at least another year or so...)