Some New Year Surprises
Happy New Year, Colorado!
Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson's 1850 poem "Ring Out, Wild Bells", begins:
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,.."
In the spirit of ringing out the tried and true, President Obama has given us a surprise New Year's gift - the highly effective 287(g) program has been cancelled!
The CIS article "ICE Cancels Enforcement Agreements with 32 Local Partners", reports that:
"Last week, ICE quietly announced that it was terminating 32 local enforcement task force partnerships, known as 287(g) agreements, some of which have been operating successfully for as long as ten years. This follows the revocation earlier this year of seven other task force agreements in Arizona. ICE has offered no specific reasons for the cancellation of these agreements, other than that it thinks it can do a better job without its local partners ...
Since ICE no longer shares the good news on 287(g) task forces, I will. These are some of the programs that ICE terminated:
1. A Colorado State Patrol unit dedicated to apprehending and investigating alien and drug smugglers operating on Colorado highways, which made more than 2,000 arrests and resulted in a steep drop in the number of highway fatalities.
2. A Florida national security and terrorism investigative unit that arrested non-citizens caught surveilling critical infrastructure targets and working in airports and seaports.
3. A Frederick County, Md., unit that arrested drunk and unlicensed drivers, transnational gang members, and other serious offenders.
4. A Collier County, Fla., task force whose 287(g) training prevented the release and escape of a man who murdered his 8-month old daughter, also wanted for child rape and firearms offenses (and hundreds of other non-citizen offenders).
5. A Beaufort County, S.C., task force focused on gang members, identity fraud rings, and illegal employment.
6. An Alabama unit dedicated to investigating identity fraud at the state motor vehicle agency.
7. A Georgia state patrol unit focused on alien smuggling..."
As the Obama administration engages in a headlong rush toward Corporate Feudalism disguised as European Socialism, America might anticipate additional new years surprises. For example, a seventh amnesty for illegal aliens. In this Daily Caller article, Obama promises new immigration plan but keeps endgame close to his vest":
"President Barack Obama promised Dec. 30 to introduce an immigration bill during 2013...
He may be gunning for a victory in the mid-term elections by introducing a bill so radical that it will spark an emotional controversy from whites, which would then spur many angry Latinos to vote Democratic in the 2014 midterm elections, said Robert de Posada, former head of a GOP-affiliated group, The Latino Coalition.
"The word that I've heard from many, is [that he will] submit a very, very liberal plan that most Republicans will not support, that most southern and moderate Democrats will not support," he said.
When the bill fails, "they can announce once again that they tried [and that Latinos] need to rally in the next election," said Posada..."
However, a redoubled attack on the Second Amendment may push back administration attempts to give amnesty to illegal aliens. The Los Angeles Times article "Immigration reform could get overshadowed in Congress" notes that:
"...The lingering tax fight and the renewed debate on gun control may push the immigration effort into the spring. Some advocates say lawmakers need to multitask...
Key congressional committees are preparing for a package of gun control laws to be negotiated and possibly introduced in Congress during the first few months of next year. The shift would push the debate in Congress over immigration reform into the spring..."
The Hill's Briefing Room article, "Obama hopes to enact new gun-control measures in 2013" observes that:
"..[President Obama] has also called on Congress to move quickly to reinstate the federal assault weapons ban and a ban on the sale of high-capacity magazines..."
One might ask that in light of such a radical agenda, how was it that Obama was elected to a second term? The well-written article, "Why Romney Didn't Get Enough Votes to Win" explains that:
"It is a different world, and a different America. Obama is part of that different America, knows it, and knows how to tap into it. That is why he won.
...The simplest reason why Romney lost was because it is impossible to compete against free stuff. Every businessman knows this; that is why the "loss leader" or the giveaway is such a powerful marketing tool. Obama's America is one in which free stuff is given away: the adults among the 47,000,000 on food stamps clearly recognized for whom they should vote, and so they did, by the tens of millions; those who - courtesy of Obama - receive two full years of unemployment benefits (which, of course, both disincentivizes looking for work and also motivates people to work off the books while collecting their windfall) surely know for whom to vote; so too those who anticipate "free" health care, who expect the government to pay their mortgages, who look for the government to give them jobs. The lure of free stuff is irresistible...
That engenders the second reason why Romney lost: the inescapable conclusion that the electorate is dumb - ignorant, and uninformed. Indeed, it does not pay to be an informed voter, because most other voters - the clear majority - are unintelligent and easily swayed by emotion and raw populism. That is the indelicate way of saying that too many people vote with their hearts and not their heads. That is why Obama did not have to produce a second term agenda, or even defend his first-term record. He needed only to portray Mitt Romney as a rapacious capitalist who throws elderly women over a cliff, when he is not just snatching away their cancer medication, while starving the poor and cutting taxes for the rich...
During his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai Stevenson: "Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!" Stevenson called back: "That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!" Truer words were never spoken..."
Many think that Romney would have won overwhelmingly had he proclaimed just the 10 words: "I will secure our borders and enforce all immigration laws."
It is abundantly clear that we will have an interesting political year to look forward to during which the fight to preserve America will continue.