Mountain Views News          Saturday, March 9, 2013

15

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, March 9, 2013 

HAIL Hamilton My Turn

STUART Tolchin..........On LIFE

Mountain 
Views

News

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

CITY EDITOR

Dean Lee 

EAST VALLEY EDITOR

Joan Schmidt

BUSINESS EDITOR

LaQuetta Shamblee

SENIOR COMMUNITY 
EDITOR

Pat Birdsall

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

CONTRIBUTORS

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Stuart Tolchin

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Hail Hamilton 

Rich Johnson

Chris Bertrand

Ron Carter

Rev. James Snyder

Bobby Eldridge

Mary Carney

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Greg Wellborn

Dr. John Talevich

Ben Show

Sean Kayden

Jasmine Kelsey Williams


BILLIONAIRE’S PLAYGROUND

Editors Note: Hail Hamilton has been on leave since 
January. We welcome him back!

PART I: “AMNESTY BY ANY OTHER 
NAME IS STILL AMNESTY...”

 This is the first in a series of articles about President 
Obama’s proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform and 
why Americans should oppose it. It is based on information from a variety of 
sources including the Cato Institute, Center for Immigration Studies, Federation for 
American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA, and Pew Hispanic Center.

 In a May 24, 2006 New York Times Op-Ed, “An Amnesty by Any Other Name...,” 
Ed Meese III, former attorney general under President Reagan, lamented the 1986 
decision to grant amnesty to an estimated 2.7 million illegal aliens living in the 
United States.

 “In exchange for allowing aliens to stay, he decided, border security and enforcement 
of immigration laws would be greatly strengthened — in particular, through sanctions 
against employers who hired illegal immigrants. If jobs were the attraction for illegal 
immigrants, then cutting off that option was crucial.

 “Beyond this, most illegal immigrants who could establish that they had resided 
in America continuously for five years would be granted temporary resident status, 
which could be upgraded to permanent residency after 18 months and, after another 
five years, to citizenship...These are pretty much the same provisions included in the 
new Senate proposal and cited by its supporters as proof that they have eschewed 
amnesty in favor of earned citizenship.

 “The difference is that President Reagan called this what it was: amnesty. Indeed, 
look up the term “amnesty” in Black’s Law Dictionary, and you’ll find it says, “the 
1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act provided amnesty for undocumented 
aliens already in the country.”

 If President Obama really wants to reform our immigration system he should 
take following steps before any kind of immigration reform, comprehensive or 
otherwise, is considered.

Secure our Borders

 The Department of Homeland Security reported in December that they reached 
their target of 18,000 border patrol agents protecting the land and sea borders of 
the United States, most of who are stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border. The 
border patrol uses a variety of tools to deter and apprehend smugglers and potential 
illegal immigrants, including using dune buggies to combat drug smuggling on the 
California-Baja California border, mounted patrols to combat human smugglers, 
and helicopters equipped with thermal imaging devices to find illegal alien convoys 
at night. Still, much more needs to be done. We need:

¦ More agents for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and 
Custom Enforcement agencies under DHS
¦ Expanded capacity to detain and remove undocumented immigrants
¦ Increased enforcement at worksites, stepping up fugitive operations and 
updating contracts with state and local law enforcement agencies
¦ Upgrading ports of entry and enhanced spending on steel fencing along 
the border
¦ Building a “virtual fence” under the so-called SBInet advanced technology 
program to increase the detection of illegal trafficking of narcotics and people


Workplace Verification (E-Verify)

 As an employer, you want to do the right thing. But how can you insure that 
your prospective employee has a legal right to work in the United States? The 
simple solution: use E-Verify, the Department of Homeland Security’s Electronic 
Employment Verification Program. E-Verify enables employers to quickly and 
easily verify the work authorization of their newly hired employees. E-Verify does 
this by providing access to the Verification Information System (VIS) database. 
This database is a nationally accessible database of immigration status information, 
including more than 60 million records.

Attrition Through Enforcement

 The mainstream media and open borders groups constantly reiterate to the 
American people that there are only two solutions to our nation’s illegal alien crisis – 
give illegal aliens amnesty or round them up and deport them. This is a diversionary 
tactic to draw public attention away from the most effective and efficient solution 
– Attrition Through Enforcement. Again, the internet-based program of E-Verify 
could be easily and accurately used to distinguish those who have the right to work 
in the United States from those who don’t.

 Don’t be fooled. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is amnesty -- pure and 
simple. Only this time around, the 11-22 million illegal aliens living in the United 
States makes the 1986 Reagan amnesty look like a walk in the park.

 A few nights ago I 
stumbled across the 
Charlie Rose show 
at 11:30 p.m. on 
Public television. 
There right before 
me were two 
billionaires: Bill 
Gates and Michael Bloomberg explaining 
how they were attempting to save the 
planet. In a way it was reassuring to 
see these two brilliant super-successful 
billionaires explaining how they had 
come around to using their excess 
billions for the common good.

 Both men seemed sincere and good-
intentioned. The great beneficiary of the 
technological revolution and the Mayor 
of New York City both emphasized that 
they were not just throwing money at 
problems but, in fact, were aware of the 
need to measure the effectiveness of their 
efforts and to learn from their mistakes.

 Mayor Bloomberg explained his 
involvement in attempting to affect the 
failed public School education programs 
that exist across the United States. 
Today’s School Board elections in the Los 
Angeles Unified School District involved 
a slate of candidates who received huge 
donations from national foundations 
funded by Mr. Bloomberg running 
against local candidates. Generally the 
local candidates were forced to rely on 
contributions they raised from within the 
state. The results are still pending.

 Why does this activity by the mayor and 
Mr. Gates give me a chill? Of course it is 
nice to think that these wise and wealthy 
men have decided to devote themselves 
to what they see as the public good. Still 
I am reminded of the efforts of Sheldon 
Adelson, the global gambling empire 
magnate, who has used his billions to 
fund Tea Party candidates across the 
nation. Similar financial support efforts 
by the Mormon Church and other 
religious denominations that have been 
used to oppose Progressive candidates 
and, to my mind, portend a future where 
money buys complete political power.

 Maybe I’m just being an alarmist. I 
admit it; I don’t trust the rich. Their 
efforts, no matter how sugar-coated, 
remind me of the lessons taught in the 
casinos. Those lessons I am sure are 
intended to dupe players into betting 
more and more money which inevitably 
leads to the loss of more money by the 
players and more money for the casino 
owners. 

 Whatever happened to good 
old Democracy? You know - that 
government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people? Did Lincoln make 
the whole thing up? Is all this talk, 
especially in election times, of freedom 
and liberty and independence, just 
illusion? Is the only real game in town 
the battle to see who can accumulate the 
most stuff before they die? Worse yet, 
are the billionaires secretly hiding the 
fact that their real game is the creation of 
their own immortality?

 I do not think this reference to the search 
for a kind of immortality is completely 
fanciful. To me the technological 
revolution which originally was sold 
to us as labor-saving devices intended 
to simplify our lives has now become 
something completely different. Life has 
become more complicated and families 
have broken down. Communication 
takes place in some mystical cyber-space 
where all our words are monitored. 
Meanwhile at the levels of the powerful 
everything is kept secret and hidden. 
Our powerful ones are not transparent 
but we are—poor Bradley Manning. 
What are the real secrets that that the 
powerful ones try to keep?

 I agree that Bloomberg and Gates seem 
like really good guys but do not believe 
that any particular individuals, especially 
very rich ones, can ever be completely 
relied upon or trusted. Great concern for 
humanity has historically not proved to 
be the road to great wealth and power. It is 
probably more important that Americans 
rely on Democratic Institutions and not 
allow these Institutions to be obscured 
by the power of money. One man - 
one vote. No more - no less. We have 
to make our government responsive 
and responsible. Right now it is neither; 
but to expect the rich and powerful to 
act in he interest of the Public Good 
just because they momentarily feel like 
it would be fun is an illusion like Santa 
Claus and the Easter Bunny - beloved but 
imaginary.

 It is unpleasant to realize that all 
our Western education and all our 
technological advancement has not 
created a modern culture wherein 
individuals appreciate the power and 
miracle of their own existence. Instead, 
many of us are filled with stress and 
looking around for someone to save us 
from ourselves. It would really be nice if 
we could rely on someone or something. 
I’m all for it. Please point me in the right 
direction but, until I know otherwise, I 
still assert that the maintenance of family 
and friendships and local communities 
are a better starting place than the belief 
in the kindness of strangers. . 

 Read your local newspapers - like this 
one. You see that is in my imagined self-
interest; see, even I cannot be completely 
trusted.

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OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder


HOW TO HAVE YOUR CAKE AND 
EAT IT TOO!

JOE GANDLEMAN An Independent’s Eye 


SEQUESTRATION SHOWS FAILURE OF 
AMERICA'S POLITICAL CLASS

TUCSON, Arizona -- An old vaudeville joke went like this: "Do 
I look like an idiot? Do I look like a jerk who doesn't know 
what's going on? Do you think I'm dumb? Don't answer that!" 

The sequester, with its draconian cuts, was an idea both sides 
considered so bad, so awful, so incredibly dumb that SURELY 
no responsible politician, political leader or party would let it 
stand. Welllllll...

And here we are. The word "sequester" brings to mind the 
Spanish word "secuestro," which means kidnapping. Sequestration held selected 
programs in a meat-cleaver-cutting ransom unless the political class displayed an 
assumed minimal political I.Q. by compromising, so held-for-ransom programs 
didn't suffer the consequences. Pundits now argue over which side will suffer the 
most political damage from the big cuts that weren't supposed to happen.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie -- the guy with the 74 percent home state approval 
rating who the conservative CPAC group pointedly didn't invite to its gathering because 
he won't always parrot the conservative or Republican Party line -- is notably 
unimpressed by both Obama and Republicans. 

"I don't understand it, I don't understand why they haven't fixed it already," he told 
reporters. "It seems to me that it should be pretty easy to fix. Real leadership would 
get this fixed. Get everybody in the room and you fix it and you don't let them leave 
until you fix it. That's what real leadership is; not calling a meeting two hours before 
the thing's going to hit to have a photo-op in the driveway at the White House. 
That's not real leadership. Fix it!"

Then he added: "If anybody in this room thinks they understand Washington, D.C., 
please come on up, stand behind the podium and you give the answers, because I 
don't have the first damn idea of what they're doing down there."

Neither do they.

The sequester proves that all drips aren't found in Marco Rubio's water bottle. It 
suggests America's post-Greatest Generation leaders -- particularly baby boomers 
still acting out 1960s-derived polarizations -- are seemingly unworthy of the 
elected positions they hold when compared to leaders who held their positions in 
the past. 

Partisans and analysts always offer a logical spin for today's gridlock and hackery. 
There's always a partisan talking point, a partisan choir and a partisan echo 
chamber. But when you compare the political leadership of generations past and 
today's, you have to think: there must have been a secret political sequester because 
America's leadership is now downsized.

It's fascinating to watch members of Congress with government-supplied health 
care, millionaire radio and cable talk hosts, and well-paid pundits, eagerly call for 
cuts that will cause pain to working families, the poor, children and the elderly. 
These politicos and pundits won't feel the cuts. If consensus and compromise are 
now considered oh, so 20th century, so is the once-valued idea of empathy.

Some analysts such as The National Journal's Charlie Cook now sadly conclude 
that our leaders' inability to seriously tackle America's debt means the sequester is 
perhaps "a bad idea whose time has come" since it'll result in at least some cuts. But, 
no matter what happens, political class has now defined itself:

"Do we look like a bunch of people incapable of putting aside partisan differences 
and ignoring pressures from our parties' bases and interest groups? Do we look 
like we're constantly calculating how our every move and utterance will help our 
parties in their 24/7 drives to win and cling to power? Do some of us look like we 
couldn't care less what happens to America's weakest and neediest? Do we look 
like political Tom Thumbs next to the political Jolly Green Giants of past decades? 
Don't answer that!"

Polls -- and history books -- will.

Joe Gandelman is a veteran journalist who wrote for newspapers overseas and in the 
United States. He has appeared on cable news show political panels and is Editor-in-
Chief of The Moderate Voice, an Internet hub for independents, centrists and moderates. 
CNN's John Avlon named him as one of the top 25 Centrists Columnists and 
Commentators. He can be reached at jgandelman@themoderatevoice.com and can be 
booked to speak at your event at www.mavenproductions.com.

Somebody came up 
with the idea that 
you cannot have 
your cake and eat it 
too. I am not sure 
where that came from, and I am not exactly 
sure what it means. If I cannot eat 
my cake, whose cake can I eat?

I think it all depends on how you present 
"the cake" in question.

One of the things most important and 
strongly supervised in our home by the 
Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage has to 
do with the presence of such food items 
as cake. At times, I think she is overly obsessed 
with some diet phenomenon.

I, on the other hand, am rather open to 
the delicacies of such dietary niceties as 
cakes.

Like I said, there is a way to get around 
everything. My problem is, how can I 
have my cake and eat it too?

Recently my wife took a week's vacation 
to New York to visit her relatives. While 
she was away for that week, I was in 
charge of our little homestead. Whatever 
happened, happened because I did it. 
Whatever didn't happen, didn't happen 
because I didn't do it.

I have a simple rule in life. Do what you 
like and have fun doing it. My wife's rule 
in life is, do exactly what I tell you and 
do it now! When she is not present in the 
home, especially for a weeklong duration, 
I am the one supervising the rules. 
And so, during that week my rules ruled. 
I will not say I had fun during that week, 
because I would not want that kind of information 
to be leaked to certain people.

All during the week, I ate every kind of 
delicacy I could wrap my lips around. 
Not one shred of salad could be found in 
the house during the whole week. Salads 
were outlawed, desserts were in order.

On the day my wife was scheduled to return 
from her New York trip, I had to go 
to school and pick up one of my granddaughters. 
She was sick and nobody else 
was available but Yours Truly.

When I picked her up she did not look 
quite as sick as I would have figured, but 
who am I to question the wisdom of a 
schoolteacher. We spent the entire afternoon 
eating lunch at McDonald's, shopping 
at the Dollar Tree and just having a 
rip snorting time of our life. If this is sick, 
may I be sick every day of my life.

As a supposedly sick seven-year-old, her 
energy ran her grandpa firmly into the 
ground. I am not sure I ever had that 
much energy. It was great to spend an afternoon 
with one of my granddaughters. 
Usually this is the privilege of grandma 
and so I felt honored to take her place for 
one afternoon.

Towards the end of the afternoon my 
granddaughter said, "When will grandma 
get home?"

I calculated it and responded by telling 
her that according to the schedule she 
should be getting home around 6 o'clock. 
As that information saturated her little 
brain she then said, "Well, can we have a 
surprise party for grandma?"

Off to the store we went. Things needed 
for purchasing to put together the surprise 
welcome home party for grandma. 
There were cards to purchase. I say cards 
because she could not choose between 
two cards and so we decided, or rather 
I should say, she decided to get both of 
them. Women start early in life, don't 
they.

There were ribbons to buy and then she 
saw a nice bouquet of roses. We bought 
the roses.

All this time I was thinking about a special 
project I had in mind. That special 
project took the form of a special welcome 
home cake. I took my granddaughter 
over to the case where all of the cakes 
were displayed and invited her to pick 
out one that suited her. As far as I am 
concerned, a cake is a cake and my favorite 
cake is the one I am eating at the time.

She picked out a beautiful cake and we 
went to the checkout counter and paid 
for our wonderful purchases. Now it was 
home to set up our little welcome home 
party for grandma.

My granddaughter spent quite a bit of 
time drawing pictures on the inside of 
the cards while I paid special attention to 
how to display the cake. I was sure that 
grandma, who usually does not approve 
of cake coming into our home, would not 
disapprove of this cake if we presented it 
right.

When grandma walked in the door, 
we yelled "Surprise" and boy was she 
surprised.

Then came the time for us to present the 
cake and eat it as well. Whoever says you 
can't have your cake and eat it too needs 
to sit down and talk with me. I have 
found a wonderful way of having my 
cake and eating it too without the sneering 
disapproval of You Know Who.

I like what the Bible says. "There has no 
temptation taken you but such as is common 
to man: but God is faithful, who will 
not suffer you to be tempted above that 
ye are able; but will with the temptation 
also make a way to escape, that ye may 
be able to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13 
KJV).

God always provides the cake and then 
invites us to eat it with Him.

E-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. His web 
site is www.jamessnyderministries.com.

Mountain Views News

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