They want a mass amnesty, followed by a reduction in legal immigration, and of course there is the paucity of immigration enforcement provisions.  This is of course the exact opposite of what it should be, with no amnesty, an easing of the bureaucratic hell of our legal immigration systems, and strict enforcement of immigration law. 

Chad and I obviously have differing opinions on the illegal immigration problem, but I thought I'd take the time to offer why it is I'm so virulently opposed to any sort of amnesty, because I think it ties into the argument between Goldstein and Patterico are having over intentionalism and language. 

I fully believe that to reward illegals with citizenship is completely counter to the founding principles of our nation, the idea that all men are created equal under the law.  We fought one horrible bloody war to make that happen, and countless skirmishes, both in the courtrooms, in elections, and in some cases in the streets to try and make that happen.  We're not perfect, and we never will be, but overall we've done pretty damn good. 

Offering up any sort of mass amnesty is rewarding illegal behavior, the government loses its ability to say that all are equal under the law under its rule, which will critically undermine the ability of the government to administer the law.  After all, why shouldn't you get a pass for violating the law, the government not only refused to punish lawbreakers, they rewarded them for their lawbreaking!  And maybe some other schmuck on trial when you're up for jury duty.  Every trial could become a trial against the government and justice system.  If this were to happen, odds are the government would try and remove the public from the administration of justice, just to try and restore order.  Not a good thing. 

Then you have the resentment that comes with it, the fact that illegals will be despised because they received special favors from the government.  This will inevitably lead to social tensions and severe division within the nation.  Beyond that you have the logical disconnect of having tens of millions of people who are escaping nations that are criminally corrupt and don't administer the law fairly or equally, by demanding that a nation that isn't (on the whole) corrupt and does administer the law fairly and equally.  You can't, and Americans won't pretend you can like the government demands they do. 

The problem for Amnesty proponents is that to go forward with an Amnesty is that doing so is directly counter to the principles laid out in the Constitution.  The Constitution isn't a set of rights that the government doles out or administers, it is an acknowledgment of the rights of the American people.  When the government deviates from the Constitution, it does so only so far as the American public will allow it to.  If the government moves to create an amnesty, at some point, the American public may well choose to slap the government back into compliance with the contract it signed.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:56 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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Gov. Bobby Jinday and President Obama both held fundraisers in the past few nights.  Jindal doubled Obama's haul. 

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 01:52 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Here's McCain, speaking before the Heritage Foundation:

"Over 50 million people voted for me and Sarah Palin - mostly for Sarah Palin," McCain said to an eruption of laughter. But "there was a sizable majority of the other party returned to Congress. And, elections have consequences. Elections have consequences. And these consequences we are seeing now in full display."

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 01:29 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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This exchange, paraphrased from Thursday night's show...

Dem caller: You insulted the president!  How dare you call him an idiot.

Levin: Well, I think he is an idiot and he's a bad president.  Whatcha think about that, you drone!?

Dem caller:  He's only been in office 52 days!  You haven't given him a chance!

Levin:  Do you think this idiot's doing a great job?

Dem caller:  I think he's doin' a good job, yeah!

Levin:  So you can think he's doing a good job, but if I say I think he's doing a bad job, I get "He's only been in office 52 days.  That's not enough time to judge."  How the hell does that make any sense?!

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 07:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Goldstein is going to have an opportunity to respond to Patterico's post on the Limbaugh story at Hotair.  Jeff's got a preview up at PW, so take a look, and be sure to check out his Hotair post when that goes up.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 01:36 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Two men* enter, one man leaves.  Guess which one leaves.

*Yeah, I know it's a stretch to call David Frum a "man."

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 01:14 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Mike at Cold Fury offers up a Rush-inspired post.  Seriously, like all good things in life, it's this simple.  One of the biggest failures among the GOP leadership, and even among conservatives is the willingness to accept premises from the media and the Left (BIRM), and then try and build a coherent argument from there. 

One of the biggest failures in 2008 was the GOP's acceptance of the left's false premise that it was Bush, the GOP and corporate greed that caused the collapse of the financial system, not disastrous policies that encouraged, even forced banks and financiers to offer loans to people who clearly were not going to be able to pay them, spearheaded by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and most other Democrats.  McCain pretty much paralyzed himself as far as offering an effective response by accepting the Democrats' premise, by the time he even began to try and turn that ship around, it was too late.  Where did that get us?

Not to go Huck on y'all, but it actually reminds me of the parable about building on the rock.  Every time we accept the Left's false premises, we build on sand, and that building will collapse.  This is a point that Jeff Goldstein has been hammering on for ages, particularly when it comes to framing language...though perhaps not with as many New Testament references.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:22 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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I'm just nine minutes into Mark Levin's show from today, and he's already called out David Frum, Ross Douthat, David Brooks, John Derbyshire, and Jonah Goldberg. 

It's a thing of beauty.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 09:19 PM | Comments (31) | Add Comment
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You don't pick a fight with The Godfather.  Limbaugh is going to crush him.  This is exactly why I was opposed to Steele as RNC chair.  Whenever he's given a chance to pick conservatism or Republicanism, Diet Democrat or full-on Democrat, he always, always picks at least Diet Democrat.

Like Nazis, he says.  Hey Steele? 

We aren't going to reward the GOP leadership for trashing us the same way voters reward Murtha for trashing his district anymore.  Enough's enough, and Limbaugh correctly realizes it's time to lay down the law, all other considerations aside.  Steele has backed down.

Mike at Cold Fury offers his thoughts, definitely worth a read.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 04:37 PM | Comments (35) | Add Comment
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...this is a damn good speech.  I just watched the whole thing.  I'm energized.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 12:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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