Since you won't read me any more, here's a cartoon that expresses my feelings perfectly. To me, I'm the guy on the bottom, and your beloved Presidente Arbusto is on top.
Posted on 06/14/2007 11:16:52 AM PDT by kristinn
A spokeman for the Bush administration sent an e-mail to Jim Robinson and myself confirming the authenticity of a post on Free Republic this afternoon regarding the immigration bill currently before the Senate as having been posted on behalf of the White House.
The spokesman, Nicholas Thompson, works for the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. The Politico reported yesterday that Thompson and Kerrie Rushton, associate directors in the Office of Strategic Initiatives who work under Karl Rove, would be engaging the blogosphere on the immigration bill.
Thompson's post is on the thread titled Penalty Mitigation in the Immigration Reform Bill, a vanity posted by philman_36. Thompson posted at comment #53.
Thompson's e-mail to Free Republic included a brief introduction and the text of his posted comment:
Hi,
I just wanted to let you know that I just posted a response to the post "Penalty Mitigation in the Immigration Reform Bill."
The White House appreciates the opportunity to respond on Free Republic.
Response:
I would like to point out that the Secretary is authorized to reduce or mitigate penalities against employers who in good faith are trying to comply with the law. Certainly, we understand that not all employers knowingly hire illegal immigrants; this will remain the case, especially before the bill’s new secure documentation requirements are fully phased in. We do not seek to wrongly penalize honest employers who unknowingly hire illegal immigrants, therefore we reserve the right to reduce or mitigate their penalties if the employer can show good faith compliance in following the law.
For those employers who do knowingly hire illegal immigrants, please know that we intend to penalize these employers strongly, and the Administration has already stepped up these penalties in the last couple of years. For example, a 2005 program, “Operation Rollback,” assessed $15,000,000 in civil fines to employers, an amount greater than the sum of administrative fines collected in the previous eight years and was the largest worksite enforcement penalty in US history. In the first quarter of FY07, criminal and civil forfeitures have totaled $26,700,000 for employers.
As a reminder of what’s in the bill, fines for hiring an illegal worker are $5,000 maximum per illegal worker for the first offense, $10,000 maximum per illegal worker for the second, $25,000 maximum per illegal worker for the third , and $75,000 maximum per illegal worker for the fourth. In addition, the bill increases the maximum criminal penalty for a pattern or practice of unlawful hiring twenty-five-fold, from $3,000 to $75,000, and would impose a prison term of up to six months. This represents a significant increase in fines for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Nicholas Thompson
White House Office of Strategic Initiatives
“why can’t we be players along with others “
Who are some of the “others”? I don’t want to mistake your meaning here.
They have ignored us, we have used many of the means of protest and persuasion to no avail. They are Tyrants and nothing more. They do not listen to reason. We bombarded them with reason and phone calls and the small minority regrouped and are coming back at us again. Maybe its time to up the ante? FYI:
198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION
http://www.starhawk.org/activism/198ways.html
Sir, we are the rabid ranters that listen to Rush that forces *them* listen to Rush. And there are 30 million of us.
It's organic. It's not some sham paradigmic '90s think-outta-the-box marketing catchprase buzzword phenomenom. We are grassroots here, Sir. Reporting daily, LOUDLY, for duty.
I am not criticizing the views - I have some of the same views. I just wish people would present themselves in an effective way where they are not blown off as “the lower classes not worth listening to”.
We are dealing with the elites who look down on all of us anyway. I like to see us give them a run for their money. We are not ignorant, we do see things clearly - we just need to make our views heard as reasoned, well thought out views that have credibility.
Otherwise we are undercutting ourselves and our goals.
We are in war here and it would be nice if we were effective.
And, what do you think when you go over to DU and read the ignorant rantings there? Don’t you sneer at how dumb they are? Well, I don’t like to be sneered at as not worth listening to.
Our ideas are better than that and we are wasting our time undercutting our own views.
Nice to have a CLASS ACT like Elizabeth Dole on the RIGHT side of this issue.
Because I am answering posts to me and explaining.
Why do you bother reading my posts. Surely you need to spend time on the rants.
I must disagree with you. The fact that this bill has not passed yet is because they are hearing us loud and clear.
Oh, they're half @$$ enforcing a few of the dusty laws already on the books. I guess to appease the mean evil vigilantes, racists, scare mongers, xenophobes or what ever they want to throw out this time. What a bunch of scum sucking jerks.
My thoughts exactly - amazing you are having the very same feelings. It is really a gut wrenching fear and not knowing what to do about it.
I haven’t read through 1000+ posts but I wonder if this spokesman has been asked directly about the SPP - the defacto North American Union of Canada, Mexico and the US.
I’m afraid that the White House is doing a vast misdirection on us, apparently assisted by the entire swamp of elitist and insular Senate “royalty”. Here we are on FR, arguing about their pathetic justifications, such as the need for family reunions, doing the work Americans won’t, the price of lettuce, or “’goshdarnit, we just can’t figure out how to deport all those good hardworking people, since we don’t know where they are, and jeez-louise, that would be cruel anyway, and we don’t have enough buses to ship them back...yadeyadeya”.
We accuse them variously of being in bed with fatcat CEO’s who want cheap labor, or we accuse Bush of being naively sentimental about all his Hispanic servants and that he wishes to reward all Mexicans for that, or we accuse them of being utterly incompetent, and that they couldn’t build a fence even if it came gift-wrapped and pre-fabbed from all the loyal citizens of this country.
I think the answer is much worse than that. The White House is happy to have us squabbling over these diversionary arguments. I think they honestly believe in the need for this North American Union. Perhaps they’re looking ahead to all the geopolitical realignments occuring in Asia, Russia, Europe and the Mideast, and calculate that in a world marked by large and hostile blocs of aligned countries, the US needs to solidify a union that guarantees resources, cheap labor and a bit of influence (coercive or otherwise) with Latin America. Mexico would be the perfect enforcer to do some arm-twisting way to the south.
Now, all that might make sense - which could explain why this White House is absolutely obsessive-compulsive about ramming this hugely unpopular shamnesty down our throats. I have never seen such energy, persistence and stamina from this administration on achieving any other initiative, especially in the face of clear, unified and adamant opposition from the base.
Their strategy might be as follows: Set the conditions for a massive influx of Mexicans into the US via this bill. After that - there is no way that citizens can stop whatever comes next, as the newcomers will vote (legally and/or illegally..after all - what are laws when they get in the way of this administration?) to keep these people in power to implement all measures necessary to complete the union. If Democrat voters ever wake up to see the Faustian bargain they smirkingly are mashing in Republican faces, it’ll be too late anyway. This bill, if it becomes law, will be the end of America as we know it.
So I would like to ask Nicholas Thompson directly, if the White House will absolutely and unequivocally state that it is committed to the Constitution and the sovereignty of the US, and that it repudiates any notion of forming a superstate composed of Canada, the US and Mexico, whereby there is free movement of peoples between all three countries. Would you be willing, as a White House spokesman, to state that for the record?
Is that all you do here ClancyJ - go from thread to thread telling others how they should post?
It sounds to me that you are either 1) for this bill or 2) so blinded by your idolatry of Bush that you can’t see how he is doing the exact opposite of what the people he was elected to represent want. THAT is called being a traitor. He is not and has never been our boss, but an elected representative. WE are his boss, not the other way around. You have the same elite mentality those in Washington do - thinking they are above the people.
Now if only I could get one like that from Ms Kay:’)
YOU SAID....”Do any of these people talk to their bosses in a rant?”
I think youve made your point. People get it.
Heres another point though...the President is not our boss...he works for the people. Actually we are his boss.
I think he is getting a very bad performance review here on FR, and all across the Conservative blogosphere. Think that bothers him?
I seriously doubt, however, that anyone on this forum would actually scream in person at the President of the US in a public forum. There is decorum.
Why dont you start your own thread, and invite this WH staff worker to participate? Be polite, and make your case. See what happens..see if you actually get a response.
Why waste your time hangin’ out here ‘ranting’ at the ‘ranters’?
Right on Ms Dawg....
Since you won't read me any more, here's a cartoon that expresses my feelings perfectly. To me, I'm the guy on the bottom, and your beloved Presidente Arbusto is on top.
I’m waiting to see if you will make a statement relevant to the topic.
So far it’s been dozens of complaints and not much else. We get it!
You want everyone to stop ranting, and make intelligent conversation. So, how about you?
Are you ever going to make a cogent statement regarding the travesy that this thread is about?
“And, what do you think when you go over to DU and read the ignorant rantings there? Don’t you sneer at how dumb they are?”
Been there once, many years ago. Didn’t like it. Of course if I were a Lib, then I’d be looking at the sneers differently, so that’s not really a good comparison. There’s other Forums out there you might find a better fit. I don’t think your overall goals can be achieved here, and I’m not convinced that they really should be either. Thanks for the dialogue either way.
bump!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.