Immigration Wisdom

See this RealClearPolitics article about the real public attitude toward illegal immigration. Debra Saunders does a very nice job of summarizing the pros and cons. She reaches the conclusion that the public wants the law enforced, including much of the Hispanic public.

As amended, the Arizona law only allows police to check the immigration status of individuals who have been stopped for some other apparent crime or traffic violation. That handles the racial profiling accusation made against the law originally.

Saunders points out that the California electorate has a history of being tough on illegal immigrants. Remembering this history is important for politicians who aspire to reelection.

Barone on the UK

See this Washington Examiner article wherein Michael Barone shows you what American politicians can learn from the elections in the UK. He has some good insights.

New Poll Makes Sense

On April 22 we posted a link to a poll saying American Jews were unhappy with Obama's treatment of Israel.. However, they approved of his foreign policy. We said these two findings didn't make sense together.

Here is a more recent article on Israel National News.com which reports a poll by the McLaughlin Group. These results make more sense. The findings:

The US Jews polled were asked whether they would: (a) vote to re-elect Obama, or (b) consider voting for someone else. 42% said they would vote for Obama and 46%, a plurality, preferred the second answer. 12% said they did not know or refused to answer.

American Jews have been most of the brains and, along with the unions, most of the money supporting the Democratic Party. For a Democrat president who seeks reelection to alienate this key constituency seems ill-advised. Nevertheless, that is what is happening.

Travel Blogging III

Today we drove the lonely highways from Ely, Nevada, to Springdale, Utah. One 80 mile stretch between Major's Place and Pioche has no services whatsoever. It is beautiful country, owned by the Federal Government and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Cattle graze on much of it, at a low density with few cattle per 100 acres.

It was a nice day, albeit windy. I suspect much of Nevada would make wonderful windfarms for wind power generation. And because almost nobody lives there, hardly anybody would be irritated thereby.

The little old towns in Utah tend to have small canals running down both sides of the street, lined with stone or concrete. Time was when these had water running in them, part of the vast system of canals built by the Mormons to irrigate this arid land. Now you are lucky to see water in the roadside canals, we saw some today.

The whole area of south-eastern Utah is booming, new subdivisions and shopping areas everywhere. Someone asked "What do these people do for a living?" and I responded "Mostly they are retired and the rest have jobs providing goods and services for the retired folk."

The greater St. George area is where Mormons retire instead of Palm Springs, Phoenix or Florida. It has LDS-relevant infrastructure with warm weather and spectacular scenery. Oh, and it is really close to Nevada and all those Nevada-style evils (booze, gambling, girly shows) nice Mormons aren't supposed to enjoy, but some do anyway.

Women Hold Tea Parties

See this Wall Street Journal article which dismisses the notion that the Tea Party movement is one led by "angry, white men." It turns out not to be the case:

A recent Quinnipiac poll of voters found a majority of tea party supporters—55%—are women. To put that in perspective, only 48% of women voted for George W. Bush in 2004. And just two years ago, President Obama won 56% of the female vote.

The article goes on to identify, and quote, several women who are founders and regional leaders of this movement; a movement which has no national leaders.

Travel Blogging II

As advertised, we spent today driving east across Nevada on U.S. 50, The Loneliest Highway in America. Is it really? I suspect it is about a push with the highway that goes east from Bend across Oregon toward Boise.

Both roads expose you to the reality that North America isn't exactly full of people, but rather the converse. Particularly here in the arid West there are lots of places where you can drive for miles and the only man-made artifact you see is the highway under your wheels.

This part of US 50 parallels the old Pony Express route and there are places along the way where this is recognized. Supposedly 2010 is the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express.

A lot of this country is at relatively high altitudes, Reno at about 4000 ft., and Ely substantially above 6000 ft. We crossed a couple of passes today that went over 7500 ft. and several more that represented considerable climbs. Those PE ponies must have been some athletes.

What little towns exist between Reno and Ely are mostly mining towns, a couple of them very reminiscent of Bisbee, AZ. They are old and look like places where an antique hunter could find some good stuff. The one exception to the "little old town" model is Fallon which, as home to a Naval Air Station, experiences government payrolls and is full of franchise fast food places.

Go to cruztalking to see the other DrC's photos of our day. The only problem with our drive today was getting sleepy, the scenery was soothing and the Harry Potter 3 CDs we had on the truck's player made it worse.

RVs are somewhat common on this highway; it is a classic road for people for whom the journey is more important than quickly reaching the destination. As I observed them (and us in the rear view mirror), it occurred to me how truly odd it is that there are tens or hundreds of thousands of us out wandering the highways of this great land dragging along a one-bedroom apartment. It is pleasant and comfortable in the extreme, but odd nevertheless.

RVing is not unlike cruising where you travel from place to place and take your hotel (the ship) with you. Either can really spoil you for living-from-a-suitcase travel; just unpack once and don't repack until the trip's end - it's wonderful.

Travel Blogging I

The DrsC are on the road again with our RV, this time headed for southern Utah and the national parks there. Today we drove one of the prettiest blue line highways in North America: CA 70 which follows the Feather River up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is a truly beautiful road, one we've driven many times and really never tire of.

This is gold country, in the mid-1800s fortunes were taken out of the sandbars on the Feather. Some recreational gold claims are still worked on the river; nothing a person could make a living working.

We're camped tonight literally in the shadow of a high rise casino in Reno, tomorrow we drive what is billed as "the loneliest road in North America." That would be U.S. 50 east from Reno to Ely. As much as we've wandered around the U.S. and Canada, we've never driven this road so it will be a new one for us. A few of these still exist.

Confusion

Representative Andre Carson (D - IN) indicates, as reported in this Big Government article, that Tea Party activity is a threat to national security. I believe the threat he perceives is real but not to national security, more likely a threat to his job security. Almost certainly a threat to his being a part of the majority party. So yes, Andre, the threat is real but the target you've identified is wrong.

Oops!

This article in the American Thinker has two different pieces of video you can view, in each of which Michelle Obama refers to her husband, Barack, as "a Kenyan." As the article suggests, those comments could make her a "birther," a person who believes he was born in Africa and therefore not eligible to be President.

The alternative explanation is that Michelle is willing to say whatever is expedient, whether or not it is true. I suspect the latter but it is fun to watch her stoking the birther fires.

Or, Maybe Not

Having posted some negative views of the economy of China, here is a quite positive one in the Investor's Business Daily. They say:

The world’s third-largest economy is back to double-digit growth while much of the world still steadies itself. (snip) The latest IBD 100 list of top-performing stocks boasts an amazing diversity of Chinese ADRs. They include a Web search giant, an auto parts maker, a hotel operator, IT outsourcer and more. As you’ll see, they’re near the top of the IBD 100.

That sounds very positive to me.

CA Ranks #51

Chief Executive magazine reports here the results of their annual survey of which states are the most and least friendly places to do business. CEOs ranked the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

Poor California came in last again. Other states in the bottom five included Massachusetts, New Jersey, Michigan, and New York. This paragraph summarizes what is today wrong with the state of my birth:

Californians pay among the highest income and sales taxes in the nation, the former exceeding 10 percent in the top brackets. Unemployment statewide is over 12.2 percent, higher than the national average. State politics seems consumed with how to divide a shrinking pie rather than how to expand it. Against national trend, union density is climbing from 16.1 percent of workers in 1998 to 17.8 percent in 2002. Organized labor has more political influence in California than in most other states. In addition, unfunded pension and health care liabilities for state workers top $500 billion and the annual pension contribution has climbed from $320 million to $7.3 billion in less than a decade. When state employees reach critical mass, they tend to become a permanent lobby for continual growth in government.

Here is an article in The Orange County Register which discusses the negative content of the survey. I particularly like this comment made by a CEO which explains why Texas ranked #1:

Texas is pro-business with reasonable regulations while California is anti-business with anti-business regulations.

Bloomberg: China at Risk

Go see this article in Bloomberg which reports the results of an interview done with investor Marc Faber about conditions in China. He says:

The Chinese economy is going to slow down regardless. It is more likely that we will even have a crash sometime in the next nine to 12 months.

The article goes on to cite earlier gloomy China forecasts by hedge fund manager Jim Chanos and Harvard University’s Kenneth Rogoff. The equities market in China has been affected too:

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp. and Bank of China Ltd, the nation’s three largest banks, are trading near their lowest valuations on record as rising profits are eclipsed by concern bad loans will increase.

More Polling Data on Immigration

You'll remember that on April 30 we did a post with a link to a Gallup poll which found 51% supported the AZ illegal immigration law, while 39% opposed it. Now here is a New York Times/CBS News poll which finds support for the AZ law is even stronger.

The new poll finds 51% think the law is about right and 9% think it isn't strong enough! Combine these and 60% support state action against illegal immigration. The NYT/CBS poll showed 36% believed the AZ law goes too far, roughly the same number Gallup found.

Do you suppose anybody in Washington is paying attention to the national mood? In our evenly divided nation, 60% in favor of something constitutes a near-landslide.

Giving Greece the Boot

I was listening to Maria Bartiromo's show, The Closing Bell, on CNBC a few minutes ago. She had on as guests two experts on international finance. Maria asked them whether Greece should be kicked out of the Euro zone, they both said "Yes" in unison.

One then added that the EU currently has no mechanism by which to do this, and needs to get such a mechanism ASAP. There followed talk of other members of the P.I.I.G.S. group needing bailouts as well, most likely beginning with Portugal. These are serious happenings across the pond.

I daresay you could access their conversation on the CNBC website.

Weird TV Commercial

Sometimes the TV commercials are more entertaining than the programs they interrupt. I couldn't believe the dialog in this one, which you can view here on Small Screen Scoop. What follows is a transcript of the dialog:

Hi, I’m a believable attractive 18 to 24 year old female. You can relate to me because I’m racially ambiguous. … Don’t all these angles make me seem dynamic? Now I’m going to tell you to buy something. Because I’m wearing white pants. And I have great hair. And you wish you could be me. I like to twirl, maybe in slow motion. And I do it in my white spandex.

It seems to be a tampon ad that spends almost all of its time making fun of traditional tampon ads. Do we live in a weird world? I give 'em props for creativity and brass, it might earn a Clio. Do you think it will sell product?

Quote of the Day

Miguel Octavio, writing in the Johannesburg Times Live website, about the situation in Venezuela:

President Chavez is discovering - as have many other socialist leaders before him - that the laws of economics do not disappear simply because one chooses to ignore them.

Truer words have seldom been written, anywhere. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the citation.

Reds in Greece, Part II

Go see this thoughtful look at the troubles in Greece and the way in which capitalism may not sit comfortably with everyone; it is written by Walter Russell Mead and appears in The American Interest Online. Mead makes the point that some of the angst felt by Greeks is pointed at America and American interests embedded in structures like the International Monetary Fund.

Taking a long view, he says:

The three countries who did the most to build the modern global, liberal, capitalist and democratic world order (the Netherlands, Britain and the United States) were blessed by both the geography fairy and the culture fairy. Geographically they were placed where they were relatively free to develop on their own without being the playthings of foreign interests. Culturally they were the products of a history which gave them a set of attitudes and values that promoted their success as capitalist countries.

Greece didn't develop the culture or have the geography to make capitalism a comfortable fit:

In many parts of the world it is easy to spot a vicious cycle at work. Because a country or a culture missed the visit of either or both of the two modernization good fairies (geography and culture) it starts out handicapped in the race to master capitalism and control their own destiny. As a result, they fall behind, and lose power and control to other, faster rivals. Capitalism becomes ever less popular, ever more associated in the public mind with a world system felt to be wrong and unfair. Those feelings of alienation make it steadily harder for the country to adopt and follow the policies that could reverse the cycle and bring it success.

Go see the entire article which is entirely worth your time.

Reds in Greece

If you've wondered why the Greeks are responding to their financial problems by rioting and striking, as documented in this article in the U.K.'s Telegraph, let me give you a short history lesson by way of explanation. Communism has been popular in Greece for the last half century or more, although never dominant.

During World War II, Greece was occupied by the Germans, as was most of Europe. Many of the Greek anti-German partisans, members of the underground resistance, were inspired and equipped by Soviet Communists. At the end of the war there was a strong Communist movement in Greece. Their reasoning went something like "we Reds fought and died for you when others did not, so we deserve the right to govern Greece."

It is interesting that in the U.S. we hear a lot about the Spanish Civil War between forces of left and right, but hear almost nothing about the post-World War II Greek Civil War where the two sides were the same. President Harry Truman put resources into Greece to prevent a Communist takeover. Greek Communists have never forgiven the U.S. for our help to their non-Communist enemies.

Although much of the rioting has been aimed at Germany's reluctance to subsidize fellow EU member Greece, some of it has been aimed at the U.S. Embassy. I suppose it doesn't help that Prime Minister George Papandreou, while the son and grandson of former Greek Prime Ministers, was born in the United States, and has both an American mother and American citizenship. He has to try to get Greeks to accept less from and give more to their government, never a happy prospect.

Quote of the Day

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., being interviewed by James Taranto in The Wall Street Journal, giving his view of Republican politics:

I remain an optimist, I think things really have gone so far, have gotten so bad, that if the Republicans get in, they'll have to do something. I'm optimistic, but it's sort of like being optimistic in 1939 and saying, "James, I think we can beat the Germans."

That is what you say when, like Winston Churchill in 1939, you have no other choice. I'm not sure the Republicans have figured out the situation is as grim as Tyrrell believes it to be.

A Gloomy View of China

Here is a pessimistic view of the future of China, written for World Affairs Journal by Gordon G. Chang. He summarizes:

In addition to its outdated economic model, China faces a number of other problems, including banks with unacknowledged bad loans on their books, trade friction arising from mercantilist policies, a pandemic of defective products and poisonous foods, a grossly underfunded and inadequate social security system, a society that is rapidly aging as a result of the brutally enforced one-child policy, a rising tide of violent crime, a monumental environmental crisis, ever-worsening corruption, and failing schools and other social services. These are just the most important difficulties.

It is a good, long article for the person who is interested in an in-depth discussion of China. Others have more optimistic views of China's next 5-10 years.