Say Anything Blog

CNN reports on the results of our Employer Sanctions Law.  My theory--they are leaving Arizona to move to Arkansas.

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP)—Illegal immigrants in Arizona, frustrated with a flagging economy and tough new legislation cracking down on their employers, are returning to their home countries or trying their luck in other states.

For months, immigrants have taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the state’s new employer-sanctions law, which takes effect January 1. The voter-approved legislation is an attempt to lessen the economic incentive for illegal immigrants in Arizona, the busiest crossing point along the U.S.-Mexico border.

And by all appearances, it’s starting to work.

“People are calling me telling me about their friend, their cousin, their neighbors—they’re moving back to Mexico,” said Magdalena Schwartz, an immigrant-rights activist and pastor at a Mesa church. “They don’t want to live in fear, in terror.”

Martin Herrera, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant and masonry worker who lives in Camp Verde, 70 miles north of Phoenix, said he is planning to return to Mexico as soon as he ties up loose ends after living here for four years.

“I don’t want to live here because of the new law and the oppressive environment,” he said. “I’ll be better in my country.”

He called the employer-sanctions law “absurd.”

“Everybody here, legally or illegally, we are part of a motor that makes this country run,” Herrera said. “Once we leave, the motor is going to start to slow down.”

There’s no way to know how many illegal immigrants are leaving Arizona, especially now with many returning home for normal holiday visits. But economists, immigration lawyers and people who work in the immigrant community agree it’s happening.

Note how the “Christian” they quoted said “live in terror”.  It is similar to Huckabee playing the bleeding heart game.

BUT COLD HARD ENFORCEMENT WORKS.

Arizona’s Proposition 300 takes effect:

Nearly 4,000 students at Arizona universities and community colleges have been denied in-state tuition this year because they failed to prove they were legal residents. The largest share is at the community colleges.

Arizona universities and colleges recently began requiring students to prove their citizenship after state voters passed Proposition 300, a ballot initiative that prevents undocumented students from getting in-state tuition and state-funded financial aid.

Undocumented students can still attend colleges and universities, but they must pay out-of-state tuition. At many schools, the out-of-state prices are more than triple the in-state tuition.

Maricopa Community Colleges, the state’s largest community college district, had the most students whose legal status was unverified, according to a recent report to the state’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee. The report shows 1,720 students were ineligible for in-state tuition. Of those, 145 were denied state financial aid. The district has nearly 111,443 in-state students. Arizona State University reported 207 students were ineligible for in-state tuition, while University of Arizona reported 119 and Northern Arizona University reported 20.

This proposition passed OVERWELMINGLY in 2006.  72% to 28%. 

Mike Huckabee is against this sort of measure to deny illegals taxpayer subsidized benefits like In-State Tuition. 



This is why I do not support Huckabee.  Plain and simple.

Digging a little deeper into the folks behind the Huckabee movement finds one Representative Don Young (R-AK):

Little Rock, AR – Former Governor Mike Huckabee announced Friday that U.S. Representative Don Young (R-AK) will serve as congressional chairman of his presidential exploratory committee and U.S. Representative John Boozman (R-AR) will serve as co-chairman. 

“It’s an honor to have the strong support of such dedicated and well respected members of the U.S. Congress,” said Huckabee.

“As Governor of Arkansas and NGA Chairman, I worked closely with Don on a range of critical issues, including transportation – which is a passion we both share.  I’ve seen him in action and respect his commitment – not only to the people of Alaska, but to our country.  I have deep respect for the job he has done in Congress, and I know he’ll do a great job as chairman of my congressional team.”

You may remember Transporation and Alaska more for Ted Stevens’ Bridge to Nowhere, but Don Young was just as responsible.  And he is no fan of limiting government spending either:

Rep. Don Young attacked his fellow Republicans on the House floor Wednesday, as he defended education funds allocated to his home state of Alaska.

“You want my money, my money,” Young stridently declared before warning conservatives that “those who bite me will be bitten back.”

Young took extreme exception to an amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to strike money in a spending bill for native Alaskan and Hawaiian educational programs.

Conservatives have stoked the ire of their fellow Republicans for years by challenging federal spending, both broadly and on specific projects. But it’s rare that their GOP colleagues express that displeasure openly on the floor.

During his brief tirade Wednesday, Young suggested Republicans lost their majority because Garrett, whom he did not specifically name, and others had challenged spending during the GOP’s tenure. He also had disparaging things to say about the great state of New Jersey—home to the Sopranos and Bon Jovi.

And lest we forget, Young, who used to chair the House Transportation Committee, is responsible for the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere,” a proposed span connecting Ketchikan, Alaska, with the tiny island of Gravina that would have cost $315 million—and eventually came to symbolize profligate spending under Republican rule.
Oh, and he has spent more than $250,000 on legal fees so far this year at the same time that federal investigators probe some of his campaign’s biggest contributors.

This is Mike Huckabee.  This is who he has in charge of his campaign.  This is who he turns to.  This isn’t about religion.  It is about a big government, big spending Liberal who is running on a platform of raising taxes, increasing spending, and religion.

Only part of the story is told by using total casualty numbers from Iraq.  These figures include accidents, heart attacks, other health related issues, and so forth.  Hostile fire deaths are the single best measure of progress and in that sense, the numbers have improved even more when adjusted for non-hostile fire deaths:

Michelle Malkin reports that the comments were part of a prank by a Boston radio station:

Follow-up question: Why didn’t the shock jock show staffers identify their affiliation to the Daily News? Was it a show-sanctioned prank or not?

Answer: See-Dub notes that another of the show’s staffers, Rich Shertenlieb, was apparently the same dork who held up one of these “Iron My Shirt” signs at the Masters in 2003.

Update: Reader Ron points to a Wikipedia entry that points to a possible radio prank. The hecklers had been identified by the NYDailyNews earlier in the day as Nick Gemelli and Adolfo Gonzalez–but the paper did not make the connection with the radio show. As Ron points out, the Wikipedia entry lists “Intern Nick” and “Adolfo” as staffers for a Boston radio station show called “The Toucher and Rich Show:”

These guys enjoy this little prank and did this at the Masters in 2003.

From last night’s debate:

MCCAIN: ... have sued the pharmaceutical companies because of overcharging of millions of dollars of Medicaid costs to their patients.

MCCAIN: How could that happen? How could pharmaceutical companies be able to cover up the cost to the point where nobody knows? Why shouldn’t we be able to reimport drugs from Canada?

It’s because of the power of the pharmaceutical companies. We should have pharmaceutical companies competing to take care of our Medicare and Medicaid patients.

ROMNEY: OK, don’t leave me. Don’t send the pharmaceutical companies into the big bad guys.

MCCAIN: Well, they are.

ROMNEY: No, actually they’re trying to create products to make us well and make us better, and they’re doing the work of the free market.

And are there excesses? I’m sure there are, and we should go after excesses. But they’re an important industry to this country.

But let me note something else, and that is the market will work. And the reason health care isn’t working like a market right now is you have 47 million people that are saying, “I’m not going to play. I’m just going to get free care paid for by everybody else.” That doesn’t work.

Number two, the buyer doesn’t have information about what the cost or quality is, or different choices they could have. If you take the government out of it to a much greater extent, you’d get it to work like a market and it will rein in cost.

McCain is saying the same things that Huckabee is saying in their pandering to the masses and the populist rhetoric.  It is important to note these kind of statements as one can expect that McCain and Huckabee will take on drug and oil companies, though with less veracity than the Dems.  But the thinking is still the same.

From Fox News:

Calling himself “a different kind of Republican,” Huckabee often appears to be channeling John Edwards or Lou Dobbs. He rails against high corporate profits and attacks free trade agreements. As governor, he raised the minimum wage and increased business regulation. He says it is “a biblical duty” to pass more regulation to fight global warming.

Huck got letters from victims, but ignored them because Dumond had “found Jesus”.

And then Huckabee denies getting the letters, only to have his campaign come back later and admit that the letters were genuine.

Huck has never met a gift he doesn’t like.  Quid Pro Quo.



Gift Cards.  Free Suits.  Gift Registers… The guy just screams “Fiscal Conservative”.

Expect the Huckabee supporters to explain why his gift taking habits are not an issue, just like his amnesty plans are not an issue, just like his tax hikes are not an issue, just like his pardoning of rapists who “found Jesus” is not an issue.  The real issue is that Huckabee is an Evangelical preacher from the south who is pro-life and a social conservative and he isn’t some damned Godless heathen Mormon.  And he has been endorsed by Chuck Norris and Jesus.  Chuck Norris and Jesus say “vote for Huck” so why should we dig any deeper than that?

Funny, but some folks here want us to overlook a tax hiking, free spending, Amnesty supporting, Illegal subsidizing, rapist freeing “Conservative” because Huckster speaks Gospel speak.

Huckabee’s star burned bright when folks were hoodwinked by a slick talking Pastor from down south, but as folks investigate and look at his record, he is far from Conservative.

This is cross posted at Ski-Blog.com

Got sent a link to a new skiing blog today and was reviewing it.  Came across this article from the Pimp Daddy of skiing, Warren Miller.

If you are to believe Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, who also received an Academy Award for his documentary about global warming, everyone should immediately sell any ski or snowboard equipment they own and give up their futile search for powder.

To that scenario I say, “Forget it, Al!” All weather is unusual and the snow will show up and everyone will forget all of the doom and gloom of last winter…

After many years of traveling the world, everywhere I’ve filmed the weather was always unusual. Do I think the unusual weather conditions during the last decade are based solely on internal combustion engines?

A resounding, “No!” ...

There are many other factors besides Al Gore that affect the overall temperature of our planet. Of great significance are solar flares and cosmic radiation. One solar flare explosion can be the equivalent of several dozen atomic bomb blasts. When the radiation collides with the earth’s atmosphere, it causes more clouds to form and they lower the overall temperature.

So put all of this information together and chances are you will be making your winter reservations at the same time based on when we had them last year. Scientific evidence relating to potential snow conditions is completely irrelevant to your winter vacation plans.

So get out in the garage and tune up whatever you will be riding on this winter, get your body in shape and try not to get freaked out by Nobel Prize-winner Al Gore. Even though he did invent e-mail and the science of global warming in the office of his air-conditioned, 22-room home, that is fortunately a very long way from any ski resort. Or, at least, it’s a short flight in his private jet.

Warren Miller makes movies too.  Probably better documentaries than Al Gore does.

From the WaPo:

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who was the first to address the crowd at Hy-Vee Hall, said he would do a number of things to alleviate poverty in America, including raising the federal minimum wage to $9.50 per hour.

He would pose that same question later in the Brown and Black Forum at North High School to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who pledged that he would do likewise.

I had an interesting thought on this matter.  We look at who the “poor” are.  We are told that most are single mothers working two jobs to make ends meet. Being a single mother implies that these women have substantial housing and daycare costs to provide for their kids.  High food costs.  And we already have high gas costs.  This demographic tends to have a disproportianate number of smokers, and the Dems have already targetted tobacco for tax increases.  Further, they want to increase energy costs to discourage use in order to fight global warming.

And then it hit me what the minimum wage increase to $9.50 will do.  Daycare workers typically make close to the minimum wage when working in the Corporate Daycare centers like Kindercare, etc.  These daycare centers typically have very low fixed cost structures and large variable costs related to the number of kids that attend.  A significant portion of their overall expense (and I am estimating that runs as high as 50-60% of their total cost model) is spent on labor. Effectively doubling the minimum wage from $5.15 to $9.50 is going to increase the cost of food immediately.  It will create a ripple effect that increases the cost of gasoline, automobiles, and so on because it forces all business to account for the additional labor costs.  And beyond that, it will lead to massive layoffs as companies eliminate low end positions and consolidate workforces.  But it will almost certainly double the cost of childcare.  Childcare will increase in cost by almost 100%.  Right now, the going rate for childcare in Phoenix at a corporate daycare center ranges from $150-200 per week.  That will double to $250-300 at a bare minimum because of the increase in labor costs.  And expect that quality will also suffer as daycare centers reduce the instruction time and the child to caregiver ratio.

The rich and upper middle class can afford nannies for the price that daycare costs a couple with two children.  If daycare for two kids is $500 a week, that is $2000 a month.  And for $2000 a month, one can easily find and afford good live-in help.

The working poor making above $10.00 a hour are not going to get raises because businesses will be forced to cut costs and raises above this threshold will not happen due to the raises mandated on employees making less than $10.00.  So imagine that in order to “help the poor”, the lower middle class find that their daycare costs double, their food costs skyrocket, and their paychecks stagnate because business’s profit margins shrink.

It is a scary thought.  Rampant inflation.  Skyrocketing costs.  Increased unemployment.  Wage stagnation.  And more folks on welfare rolls.  Welcome to the Democrat Party’s economic policy.  At least Hillary is a corporate whore and won’t slit the throats of the American economy because it will sabotage her Cattle Futures and Arkansas Real Estate investments.

The UK Independent has this article on changes in solar activity that may just hold the key to Global Warming.  Color me surprised when they point out that this gigantic ball of molten energy that appears for approximately half of the year and causes the hemispheres of the Earth to experience hot and cold cycles called “seasons” based on the amount of energy the receive from it may actually be more important to the temperature of the globe than the Carbon Dioxide emissions and “greenhouse gases”.

What is problematic is that the Independent's editors think that the prospect of a mini-Ice Age, starvation, and famine provide a "RAY OF HOPE" to combat global warming. I guess that perspective relies on you believing Global Warming is a major problem and not a cyclical event caused by the molten ball of gas we call a "SUN". I am afraid that the cure may be worse than the disease.

Sunspots – dark magnetic blotches on the Sun’s surface – come and go in a roughly 11-year cycle of activity first noticed in 1843. It’s related to the motion of super-hot, electrically charged gas inside the Sun – a kind of internal conveyor belt where vast sub-surface rivers of gas take 40 years to circulate from the equator to the poles and back. Somehow, in a way not very well understood, this circulation produces the sunspot cycle in which every 11 years there is a sunspot maximum followed by a minimum. But recently the Sun’s internal circulation has been failing. In May 2006 this conveyor belt had slowed to a crawl – a record low. Nasa scientist David Hathaway said: “It’s off the bottom of the charts… this has important repercussions for future solar activity.” What’s more, it’s not the only indicator that the Sun is up to something.

Sunspots can be long or short, weak or strong and sometimes they can go away altogether. Following the discovery of the cycle, astronomers looked back through previous observations and were able to see it clearly until they reached the 17th century, when it seemed to disappear. It turned out to be a real absence, not one caused by a lack of observations. Astronomers called it the “Maunder Minimum.” It was an astonishing discovery: our Sun can change. Between 1645 and 1715 sunspots were rare. About 50 were observed; there should have been 50,000.

Ever since the sunspot cycle was discovered, researchers have looked for its rhythm superimposed on the Earth’s climate. In some cases it’s there but usually at low levels. But there was something strange about the time when the sunspots disappeared that left scientists to ponder if the sun’s unusual behaviour could have something to do with the fact that the 17th century was also a time when the Earth’s northern hemisphere chilled with devastating consequences.

Scientists call that event the “Little Ice Age” and it affected Europe at just the wrong time. In response to the more benign climate of the earlier Medieval Warm Period, Europe’s population may have doubled. But in the mid-17th century demographic growth stopped and in some areas fell, in part due to the reduced crop yields caused by climate change. Bread prices doubled and then quintupled and hunger weakened the population. The Italian historian Majolino Bisaccioni suggested that the wave of bad weather and revolutions might be due to the influence of the stars. But the Jesuit astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli speculated that fluctuations in the number of sunspots might be to blame, for he had noticed they were absent.

Looking back through sunspot records reveals many periods when the Sun’s activity was high and low and in general they are related to warm and cool climatic periods. As well as the Little Ice Age, there was the weak Sun and the cold Iron Age, the active sun and the warm Bronze Age. Scientists cannot readily explain how the Sun’s activity affects the Earth but it is an observational correlation that the Sun’s moods have a climatic effect on the Earth.

This is hugely problematic.  Global Warming is not a problem.  We are at the top end of a solar cycle and the direction that things go from here is uncertain.  Does the Earth continue to heat like a hockey stick, which is completely unsupported by both historic evidence and by the results of any scientific study? 

Historic evidence that the global warming scaremongers are ignoring has very dire predictions for the Earth.  Historic predictions are that the Earth will experience a cooling period like it has for the last several million years.  And if it is like the mini-Ice Age, that may mean starvation and famines, not simply rising ocean levels and more storms.

Charlize Theron learns about the world and wants to tell us about it.  Her latest movie In the Valley of Elah grossed a whoppin' $6.5M since its release two months ago.  I would suggest that she learn more about the roles she takes and about her agent’s advice from the movie and less about Iraq and advocacy from Susan Sarandon (her costar):

Charlize Theron has blasted President George W. Bush for being “irresponsible.”

The Oscar-winning actress, who stars in Paul Haggis’ war thriller ‘In the Valley of Elah’ - says her latest role helped her form her own opinions about the war in Iraq.

She said, “My opinion is that our president should be a little bit more responsible. When we watch the news, we see those politicians in their very expensive suits and air-conditioned buildings telling us how our soldiers are doing in Iraq.

“I think this film is the voice of the soldiers that we’re not hearing in journalistic news today.”

However, Charlize has no plans to use her fame to impose her political opinions on others, like so many actors do.

She added, “I don’t want to be that kind of actor. If I were that kind of person, I would be a politician. But I’m not a politician - I’m an entertainer and I always will be.”

Wow. Not hearing the voice of soliders in the news? But you costar in a movie with Susan Sarandon and suddenly, you hear soldier's voices? The News Media is too "conservative" or "pro-war" or "pro-Bush" that Code Pink, Sarandon and Theron are not hearing "the voices of the soldiers"? Wow.

South Phoenix’s South Mountain Community College hires daughter of Democrat Congressman despite warnings by district’s HR folks:

An internal investigator warned Maricopa Community Colleges’ top officials that hiring the daughter of a U.S. congressman broke the college’s stated goal of hiring the best candidate and had the appearance of political patronage, according to district records and interviews with the investigator.

Gerry Bradshaw, a former equal-employment-opportunity investigator for the district, also advised Chancellor Rufus Glasper against approving two salary exceptions that put Laura Pastor at the top of the pay scale when she was hired in 2005, one of her e-mails to Glasper shows.

“We still believe there is a cloud over the recommendation of the successful candidate,” Bradshaw wrote to Glasper at the time of the hiring. “I am under the professional belief that if an in-depth public scrutiny was undertaken that doubt may be cast and we will not be able to totally defend the hiring decision."…

Pastor is the daughter of Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Phoenix. The congressman has funneled millions of dollars in grants into a Maricopa Colleges’ scholarship program that his daughter was hired to run, including $1 million at the time she was being interviewed for the job…

South Mountain President Ken Atwater said Pastor’s application was reviewed by a search committee, which named her as one of three finalists. After interviewing each of the finalists, Atwater said he selected Pastor.

Atwater said favoritism did not play a part in the selection.

He acknowledged hosting a political fundraiser at his home for Rep. Pastor in the past.

But “it had no bearing (on the hiring), in no way, shape or form,” Atwater said, adding that the selection committee chairman supported hiring Pastor.

“Her hiring was the right thing to do,” Atwater said.

At least Pastor’s grants were not placed in his freezer first.

New Study claims Detroit is most dangerous city in US:

DETROIT - In another blow to the Motor City’s tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation’s most dangerous city, according to a private research group’s controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBI crime statistics.

The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Society of Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statement attacking it as “an irresponsible misuse” of crime data…

The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people based on per capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based on its seriousness, CQ Press said…

“What I take exception to is the use of these statistics and the damage they inflict on a number of these cities,” said Mayor Robert Duffy, chairman of the Criminal and Social Justice Committee for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Critics also complain that numbers don’t tell the whole story because of differences among cities.

“You’re not comparing apples and oranges; you’re comparing watermelons and grapes,” said Rob Casey, who heads the FBI section that puts out the Uniform Crime Report that provides the data for the Quitno report…

“These rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state or region,” the FBI said. “Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents.”

Misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities?  I guess residents shouldn’t pay attention to statistics and in reality don’t have to worry about being raped, murdered, or assaulted?

What exactly do they mean by “differences amoung cities?  You mean that people are shot and killed or raped differently in Detroit?  That people are more likely to report it in Detroit than say Mission Viejo, CA?

Detroit’s mayor sent the following criticism to the study’s authors:

“Muthafucka talkin shit bout Dtown, we gonna come and burn your shit down like afta the Pistons win a championship, bitch!”