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 bills 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 whats 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
Yes, I did. As well as John Kyl. I spent many mornings manning the John Kyl phones and folding and preparing mailings. For what? This knife in my back and worse, a mess of a country to be left to my children. Maybe John Kyl is delusional enough to think he's going to secure himself a nice lifelong judgeship out of this deal. I don't even think it's wise to be holding property in the American South western states anymore. I'll be moving back east in the next year or two, I certainly do see the writing on the wall.
Bump.
Here’s FYI on New America Foundation. I didn’t find Nick there BUT, CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN is on their BOARD. Maybe Nick knows CTW. What are her opinions on this bad Senate bill? She may have influence at the white house cuz she gave the prez Barney.
Clancy, you haven't made a post yet that doesn't urge us to "discuss", not slam.
I can't remember an issue that hasn't been discussed on this board more than this one. It's been discussed, debated, turned upside down and inside out. It's been discussed on talk radion, on TV news, on panel discussions, in town halls, on campuses, at the water cooler. Need I go on?
The discussions for these past years has led us to CONCLUSIONS on this issue. Why discuss forever?
This is what the pro-amnestyites want us to do. Discuss, discuss, discuss. This is a favorite liberal strategerie, by the way.....wear folks down with infinite talk, discussions, debates, concensuses, sensitivity sessions, political correctness, Elsie Dinsmore comments, kumbayas.......
We're stating our CONCLUSIONS here. You don't like that and accuse us of trash talk.
I suggest you state your own opinions. Then pull your hair net down over your eyes when we do our plain talkin' you dislike so much.
Or perhaps there must be another forum you can go to for endless "discussions" on this amnesty issue. I think you'll be happier by far. Let us know next year when you finally reach a CONCLUSION. To Hades with more discussions. This thread is where the rubber meets the road.
Leni
I’m sorry it didn’t work for you. I don’t have a transcript and I believe that is the only video service they are using right now. You might be able to get a clue what it was about by reading the comments under the video. Michelle gave out awards for various things. Graham, Chertoff, Gutierrez, Geraldo and others got thumbs down awards. Ironically, the only one who got a positive nod was Byron Dorgan. ;)
BTTT
For someone complaining about the level of civility shown towards others, youre doing a fair amount of slurring, snarling and foaming at the mouth yourself.
Obviously the low brow minds that regularly post here warranted enough attention from the administration to get a representative to post here. Even though we are just trash talking idiots. Admittedly, we aren’t the Harvard debate team, but anyone who takes more than a few seconds to scan the posts made here should know what we are all about and how we feel about the current amnesty sleight of hand.
And still, we simpletons warranted a representative of the administration posting to us as if we mattered.
So if we so offend your tender sensibilities, then hasta luego amigo, there are other locations to park yourself where you wont have to be associated with the great unwashed.
>>>>What if the illegal immigrants are using Social Security numbers that they have stolen from dead and elderly people?<<<<
It IS happening; check out this article from yesterday:
Illegal Immigrants Steal Social Securities Of Elderly, Dead
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1849684/posts
I saw that article... but again, I’m not sure they are the same person.
You are totally wasting time and opportunity ranting against the president. I’ve been on this site for eight years and most of that time was spent countering the daily rants because he was not the perfect candidate carrying out the personally designated agenda of each poster.
Get to solving problems and let it go. Discuss your complaints respectfully with reasons and views.
My biggest worry about this is the following:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature;
it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.”
“A democracy will continue to exist up until the
time that voters discover they can vote themselves
generous gifts from the public treasury.”
“From that moment on, the majority always vote for
the candidates who promise the most benefits from
the public treasury, with the result that every
democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal
policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
“The average age of the world’s greatest
civilizations from the beginning of history, has
been about 200 year s.”
“During those 200 years, those nations always
progressed through the following sequence:
1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6 from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage”
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University
School of Law, St.Paul, Minnesota, points out
some interesting facts concerning the 2000
Presidential election:
Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29
Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of
the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by
the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore’s
territory mostly encompassed those citizens living
in government-owned tenements and living off various
forms of government welfare...”
Olson believes the United States is now somewhere
between the “complacency and apathy” phase of
Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some
forty percent of the nation’s population already
having reached the “governmental dependency” phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to
twenty-million criminal invaders called illegal’s and
they vote, then we can say good-bye to the USA in
fewer than five years.
Save to read later.
heh heh heh :)
BINGO! There is no respect for our laws because there is no respect for our country! With groups like La Raza there will never be enough until they take over what they think is theirs.
We are in a fight for our country (they are having babies at least thrice the rate we are) and our president is helping them!
hehehehe, they'll be a receptive gaggle of idiots for his hogswallop.
Well, nick just did a drive by and left. I wonder the motive since the latest news is that they are going to go against the majority.
A “leftist government” is all that continues to exist in Massachusetts forever, and I can’t wait to leave it forever! There is no such thing as a bright future in Massachusetts unless you truly have some serious, positive political connections.
Well, I just got Kyl’s answering machine and left him a short but heated threat that I will work against him and anyone that signs onto this amnesty. Tried McConnell’s office and they say business hours are closed. So I’m off to find the number for illegal aliens, I’m sure that one will take me right through to an answering machine at least.
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