Feudin’ Banjos, ‘n Writin’ Laws

At the end of every week I take stock of what’s happened. Rare are the weeks which have actual bookends – something that was sublime, and something that was ridiculous. This was one of those weeks. I have Harry Reid of Nevada and David and Joel Letterman of Arizona to thank.

Let’s start with David and Joel. They were on the this season’s first show of “America’s Got Talent.” They came out, stripped off their shirts, and .... This was a moment of zen. Trust me on this; you had to see this to believe it. Go now to YouTube, in the category of America’s Got Talent, look for The Pec Brothers.

I don’t care who you are or where you’ve been, you ain’t seen nuttin like that, no how, no where. And you won’t be able ta hear Feudin’ Banjos ever again without a great, big smile. Oh, it’s not Duelin’ Banjos, like a lot of folks think. In the movie “Deliverance” they used the second title, but they thought it was an ancient, traditional tune. Turned out it had been written recently by Don Reno and Arthur Smith, and was still under copyright in the name I used. But I digress.

Hold that thought about the Pec Brothers, and let’s talk about Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. I watched a lot of Harry on C-SPAN while he was trying to ram his immigration bill through the Senate. On the last day when he had lost two efforts at cloture (so the Senate could vote), Reid gave a long speech about how hard the Senate had “worked” on this bill, and how it would “keep working” on the bill.

Think about that. Just what does Harry Reid mean when he uses the word “work”?

This “grand compromise” on immigration was an inside game in the Senate. It was the legislative equivalent of a saloon fight in a western movie. The people who wrote the bill were the ones still standing when the bar fight was over. But that is not how a deliberative, legislative body ought to make its decisions.

The problem with the Senate, under the so-called leadership of Harry Reid, is it forgot that there is a nation out there which has opinions on the subject of immigration. Reid and the other Senators who were in on this bill, thought their only task was to cobble together pieces of what various Senators wanted, until the number of Senators co-opted by this process was 60, enough to end a filibuster and pass the legislation.

What they forgot, perhaps because it so seldom happens, was that the people do have a veto power over whatever the Senate does. But this only happens when the people get up on their hind legs and yell, “no,” until even the deafest Senator gets the message.

Before we get into how this bill was stopped, a word about why it deserved that fate. This was the third amnesty bill in Congress. Both of the others, also promoted by the legendary Senator Ted Kennedy, were touted as a solution to a clear problem. Kennedy referred to “bringing [immigrants] in from the shadows.” How many drug dealers want to come in from the shadows? How about armed robbers? Or child molesters?

The polls have made it clear that a strong majority of Americans, and of all categories such as Republican, Democrat, independent, young, old and in between, want the same thing. Close the border, enforce the laws, and THEN we’ll talk about how to deal with the illegal immigrants and temporary work programs.

And as for how to deal with the millions of illegals here now, we have a bird feeder rule hereabouts. When you put out feed, you get birds. The more free food, the more birds show up. Or, in terms that any Senator or Congressman should understand, whatever you subsidize, you will get more of, and what ever you penalize, you will bet less of.

That’s why I conclude that Harry Reid is ridiculous when he referred to what he does as Majority Leader as “work.” On the other hand, the performance by the Pec Brothers was sublime. Once you’ve seen it, you’ll remember it to the end of your days.

About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu He lives in the 11th District of North Carolina.

Great piece. And here is an amnesty bill even I could support.

The most common argument made by the open borders crowd is that all the illegals come here to do the jobs Americans won't do. Okay, let's grant this for the sake of argument (dubious though it might be).

If the premise is true that we have more no skill, low skill jobs than there are Americans to fill them, then it stands to reason that we no longer have a need for government programs to fight poverty, at least for people who are at least as qualified to work as someone from Mexico with little or no formal education who may not even be able to read and write in spanish let alone be conversant in English.

So an amnesty bill that I could support would be one that includes a provision to eliminate all Federal poverty programs that give even 1 dime to an able bodied worker. How could the transnationalists oppose this? By their own argument we have such a shortage of unskilled workers that we need to import them from Mexico.

Funny thing is, pass such a bill and the illegal immigration problem really would be solved.

Dear Congressman Billybob,

With all due respect to your legal homespun and edjewcated wisdom, I take issue with only one point of your latest.

To have the word immigration in any sentence, paragraph or paper associated with that travesty that the esteamed senators from the state of Massachusetts and Arizona, have concocted for themselves is to place far too much emphasis on something that the particular travesty really is not at all about, despite the deceiving title.

The esteamed Senators would like the world to believe that what they are doing is fixing immigration when immigration doesn’t need fixin, and the rest of us know it. If I place too much emphasis on my own definiton of Immigration, I’m sure you will let me know.

What the esteamed senator calls immigration is nothing more than a border invasion, and it is successful because no one, or nothing is at the border to stop the invasion. If those who were crossing where they pleased would stop at the various border entry points to have their reasons, visas, papers, checked, the vast majority would be turned away, and not allowed entry.

Even that entry wouldn’t or shouldn’t be called immigration unless the person intends to stay, for the reasons so many millions have immigrated in the past, and has complied with all of the various entry requirments of the Yewnited States Government. In other words they got here legally, and there purpose is indeed immigration as we the people understand it. NOT as our esteamed senators would like us to believe, that what has been taking place since borders began, the illegal crossing thereof, has anything to do with the word or act of immigration. A legal activity. If an illegal act occurs, it ain’t immigration.

When a legal immigrant talks about arrival in the new world, they talk about the boat ride, or plane ride to get here, both result in passing US Customs, with a legal visa in hand. They are coming for various reasons to stay and make a new life for themselves after complying with the legal requirments. Those who choose to bypass those requirments, are not nor will they ever be immigrants in the legal sense, but crooked invaders, that our esteamed senators would love to make legal with the stroke of a pen, and my cry in the wilderness, is, what does that make us if we let them have their way with us?

Finally all spelling or misspelling is my own, and more than likely it was on porpoise, and lastly I must add my senatorial tirade ongoing for at least 10 years, that the US senate is still considered by me to be the single most dangerous body of men and women on the face of the earth. It is only by the Grace of God, and the American people that we still have a government that could be called a Republic, despite the best efforts of those who use and abuse their Constitutional positions granted unfortunately by the seventeenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, another story entirely.

With apologies to those senators who consider themselves humble servants of the people and their home state, and produce bills that actually prove that point, and not my point of tirade. They are few in number.

You and I both know that I could continue for a good while longer, concerning many related issues such as how much the illegal invasion is costing our government states and it’s people, how Mexico’s crude oil import status vis-a-vis the US impacts our relationship, etc, etc, but let me say in closing, that your individual effort to keep the government in check are appreciated, perhaps more than you know.

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