Priorities

Defiant Arizona To Step Up War On Illegal Immigration
The Washington Times: Arizona took a public-relations punch to the gut after passing the nation’s toughest anti-illegal-immigration law earlier this year, but anyone who thinks (or hopes) the State Legislature will lower its profile on the border-security issue in 2011 likely will be disappointed. The state is positioned like never before to expand its efforts to combat illegal Immigration. The November election saw Republican Jan Brewer elected to a Second Term as Governor, largely on t...

Dont Buy The Washington Posts False Choice on Immigration
The Washington Post editorializes today: “In a handful of Southern and Western states, Republican governors and lawmakers are vowing to replicate Arizona’s harshly nativist law or go even further with bills that would outlaw the presence of undocumented immigrants or require police to screen suspects for Immigration status - or both. The assumption underlying such Legislation is that the 11 million Illegal Immigrants in this country, including the 7 million who hold jobs, can...

Neb. abortion ban eyed well past state lines
LINCOLN, Neb. — Mike Flood, the 35-year-old speaker of Nebraska's Legislature, had a problem: He wanted to stop the state's well-known Abortion provider from offering late-term abortions. A long line of U.S. Supreme Court precedents seemed to stand in his way. But Flood believes that a 2007 decision offers hope for him and other State Legislators looking for ways to restrict abortion. Using that decision as a road map, last spring Flood wrote and won passage of Legislation that bans abor...

New York's new governor : Fathers and sons
THE inauguration of Andrew Cuomo as Governor of New York state will be a low-key affair. Unlike Eliot Spitzer’s 2007 inaugural, a sort of coronation at which James Taylor sang, Mr Cuomo’s will be drab. He will simply take the oath of office at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Twelve hours later he will be sworn in. “This is not a time for the grand and expensive celebrations of the recent past,” he says. “It is the time to return dignity, integrity and performance ...

New gun law in New Hampshire makes it legal to display a gun during a threatening situation: Free Ward Bird!
  As of the first of the year, a new gun law will go into effect in New Hampshire which states that it is not a Crime for a person to simply display a gun in an attempt to ward off a possible attacker. In reality this is not a new law; the New Hampshire constitution clearly states that a person has the right to use a gun in defense of himself, his property, or his state, this simply would clarify the constitution. (Although one would think that the New Hampshire constitution is cu...

Border security will soon be a moot point in negotiating for immigration reform
LatinaLista.net -- Before President Obama left on Vacation, he reassured Latino leaders that he had not given up on getting the DREAM Act passed or tackling Immigration Reform. Yet, some members of his own party are parroting GOP Rhetoric in saying that until the border is secure there can be no address of either issue. The thinking among these politicians, who live over 1,700 miles away from the US-Mexico border (that's from Juarez to DC), is that it will take more border enforcement to eradi...

More states following Arizona in push for tougher immigration laws
WASHINGTON — Arizona’s get-tough approach to illegal Immigration has sparked court challenges likely to take years to resolve. Randy Terrill, a Republican state lawmaker from Oklahoma, won’t be waiting to see what judges decide. Terrill is among dozens of State Legislators drafting measures that match or go further than the Arizona law, which requires police to check the Immigration status of people stopped for questioning. He is readying Legislation to allow Oklahoma authorit...

Anti-Abortion Regulations on the Rise
Yahoo! Buzz When the Supreme Court addresses the constitutionality of Abortion it is bound to have dramatic repercussions. Such is the case with the court’s 2007 decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld the federal ban on partial-birth abortions and has given rise to many new state laws restricting abortions, according to an article today in the Washington Post. In his majority opinion in Gonzales, Anthony Kennedy affirmed a woman’s right to an Abortion pre-viability but wrote t...

State Health Care Compact an ObamaCare Repeal Idea
Next year, Republicans in Congress will float their Legislation to Repeal ObamaCare, though some suggest the Legislation is not likely to succeed in overturning the Controversial law. With President Barack Obama still in office and Democrats controlling the U.S. Senate, an expected bill approved by the newly-minted prolife Republican majority in the House of Representatives would place pressure on Obama and Democrats leading up to the presidential Elections but not likely be approved by either o...

Support builds in fight to dim light pollution
The push to turn down the lights in American cities is gaining broad support from several unlikely allies — from conservationists and builders to city planners and the Military. Dark-sky Legislation — laws that require measures such as shielding outdoor lighting to reduce light Pollution — have been embraced by about 300 counties, cities and towns. More than 50 state bills have been introduced in the past two years and seven were enacted. Eighteen states —Arizona, Arkansa...

Many states look to Arizonas SB 1070 as a model for new immigration legislation
Governor-elect Susana Martinez selected Hanna Skandera, Deputy Commissioner of education in Florida from 2005 to 2007, to head the Public Education Department. Skandera also served as education undersecretary for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., and was an education policy adviser to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during his unsuccessful 2008 Presidential Campaign. Gov. Bill Richardson announced today that he was “encouraged” after his trip to North Korea, particularly over the coun...

Reid & Co. Open Fire on GOP
The 111th Congress produced some real 11th-hour gains for the Obama Administration, and by extension the president’s party, but some Democrats, such as Sen. Harry Reid and outgoing Sen. Arlen Specter, aren’t ready to get over some of the biggest partisan clashes of the last two years. —KA First, the soft-spoken Reid told a reporter that if the GOP doesn’t move on Immigration Reform during the next Congress, it’ll be because “they have real problems with their ...

Going after abortion providers
The Washington Post today looks at the gradual and deliberate erosion of Roe in State Legislatures beginning in Nebraska where the speaker, Michael Flood, did whatever he could to shut down a specific Abortion provider. A long line of Supreme Court precedents seemed to stand in his way. But Flood believes that a 2007 decision offers hope for him and other State Legislators looking for ways to restrict abortion. Using that decision as a road map, this spring Flood wrote and won passage of legi...

Tests of 'Roe' more frequent since justices upheld late-term abortion ban in '07
LINCOLN, NEB. - Mike Flood, the 35-year-old speaker of Nebraska's legislature, had a problem: He wanted to stop the state's well-known Abortion provider from offering late-term abortions. This Story Tests of 'Roe' more frequent since justices upheld late-term Abortion ban in '07 State Abortion law Graphic: Abortion laws Activists Protest doctor performing late-term abortions at Md. clinic Abortion protests in Maryland View All Items in This Story View Only Top Items in This Story A long line ...

Hastings picks Resources chairs
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) on Wednesday announced his picks to chair the existing four subcommittees of the House Natural Resources Committee. "Each subcommittee chairman will play a crucial role in conducting thoughtful Oversight of the administration's decisions and promoting sensible natural resources policies that will create jobs, strengthen our economy, reduce spending and protect our environment." Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 Hastings has appointed the ...

Crist leaving office after political blunders
Tallahassee, Fla. | Outgoing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will linger in some short-term memories for his failed independent Senate run and his pardon of dead rock star Jim Morrison. People thinking longer term will recall a Governor who persuaded Republicans and Democrats to work together but blundered away his potential for success at the national level. Mr. Crist, who leaves office Tuesday, enjoyed widespread popularity for much of his term. He built a reputation as a national leader on climat...

The DREAM Act Needs a Brutal Beltway Lobby Shop
“Dreamers, other undocumented Activists, and allies may need to do the hard work of challenging the system itself, which means deconstructing the ideas about Citizenship, identity, community, and loyalty that the Immigration regime is based on.” …OR they might have to finally do the easy work of not getting arrested symbolically, or organizing to sing & pray together. Instead, centralize resources; hire one or more of the most-brutal lobby shops on the Hill; and get the DRE...

Chris Matthews: Dems Love Illegals; Show Me the Birth Certificate
What’s Chris Matthews been up to the last couple of days? Oh, just looking for a conservative talk-radio gig. Here he is saying Democrats have decided to do nothing about Immigration Reform because they love illegal Immigration so much. And that Obama is going after those who hire Illegal Immigrants only because he wants the Republicans to let him have more illegal immigrants, or something. Huh? And also Chris Matthews now needs to see Obama’s Birth Certificate. Hmm. Sure, seems sor...

National Review Wonders Who Ron Paul Is
The framing introduction to this National Review chat with Ron Paul does a fairly good job summing up the set of beliefs that Ron Paul combines that give all sorts of folk who are apt to be with him on one thing to be against him on another. He's an anti-abortion and anti-open borders Libertarian, an anti-interventionst far-right Republican, a fiscal conservative for Earmarks, a hyperindividualist dogged with a Racism Scandal, a man the progressive left frequently loves for his views on war and...

Will Congress address illegal immigration this year?
Where do you live and does illegal (not legal but illegal) Immigration have a direct impact on you? if yes, post how Where do you live and does illegal (not legal but illegal) Immigration have a direct impact on you? if yes, post how ...

The Mean Season
Townies is a series about life in New York. Tags: blizzard, Florida, New York City When I moved to New York City in August 2001, as an 18-year-old, olive-tan Floridian who had never seen snow, the closest I came to owning layers was the fake fur decorating the plastic thong on my flip flops. I had one long sleeve shirt to my name and an itchy hand-me-down sweater that my mother used on ski weekends in Colorado in the ’70s. With the onset of fall, I remember was ho...

Rossputin blog post: Liberal thinks it turned off Hispanics
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet embraces his wife, Susan Daggett, before delivering his Victory Speech at City Park the day after the Nov. 2 election. At right, is U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post) Liberal Ellen Dumm wants to know if The Spot is giving an award for the Stupidest Blog Post of the Year because she has a nomination, an item from conservative Ross Kaminsky after Michael Bennet won his Senate race. I don’t know of any award, but if you have...

Shorten, Skip, Consolidate
S.C. Senator Mike Rose (R-Dorchester) is sponsoring Legislation that would require the S.C. General Assembly to meet every other year - like they do in Texas. His colleague, S.C. Senator Phil Shoopman (R-Greenville) has sponsored a bill that would shorten the legislative session from five to three months each year … like they do in numerous other states. Let’s do both! Seriously … it’s not like this corrupt, self-important assemblage of left-leaning, tax-and-spend R...

State ethics officials need more authority to punish corrupt public officials
Tallahassee -- Florida ethics officials need more authority to investigate and more power to punish public officials and others for what amounts to a ``Florida Corruption tax'' that is eroding public trust and stealing Taxpayers' money, a statewide Grand Jury said Wednesday. More than a year after being asked by Gov. Charlie Crist to investigate a ``culture of corruption'' in Florida, the Grand Jury submitted findings to the Florida Supreme Court, essentially agreeing with Crist. Existing det...

Randall Amster: Arizona Bans Ethnic Studies and, Along With it, Reason and Justice
While much condemnation has rightly been expressed toward Arizona's anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, a less-reported and potentially more insidious measure is set to take effect on January 1, 2011. This new law, which was passed by the conservative State Legislature at the behest of then-School Superintendent (and now Attorney General-elect) Tom Horne, is designated as HB 2281 and is colloquially referred to as a measure to ban Ethnic Studies programs in the state. As with SB 1070, the implication...