Black Caucus-Fox News to Sponsor Presidential Debates

Kudos to the leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus Political Education & Leadership Institute for seizing on the opportunity to co-sponsor presidential debates with Fox News.

It's just too bad that the Hispanic Congressional Caucus is so deep into petty dramas that it's essentially forfeited.

Perhaps CBC can give Joe Baca some tips on how to ensure the HCC is politically relevant.

Immigration Reform is a Golden Opportunity for the GOP

In Immigration deal working (Los Angeles Times, 3.30.07), Nicole Gaouette reports that the Bush White House is working behind-the scenes to advance immigration reform. The next step is for U.S. Senator Ed Kennedy (D-MA) to respond with a senate proposal.

The White House's reasons for a deal are simple: 1) they're in desperate need for a domestic policy success; 2) sensible immigration reform is a requirement if the GOP is interested in winning back Latino support; and 3) the growing power of independent voters means that the GOP must focus less on demagoguery and more on fixing problems such as immigration.

Of course, the site of constructive liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans working to reform immigration in the U.S. will drive Tom Tancredo, Patrick Buchanan, xenophobes and racists, nuts.

Immigration reform is a wonderful opportunity for the GOP to embrace the future and shed itself of the reactionaries. When Tancredo-Buchanan threaten to lead angry nativists out of the Republican Party, the GOP should open the door wide and say good riddance.

Mayor Mike's 'Cash for doing right' Scheme

'Cash for good behavior' schemes have existed in one form or fashion since I can remember. But now according to this story Mayor Michael Bloomberg has raised lots of money to try a scaled up experiment involving 2500 families.

Let's just say that I am deeply skeptical about paying people--poor, rich or middle class--for doing what they ought to be doing anyway. I was once a "recipient'.

While in high school, well-intentioned but misguided people included me in a program that paid me for my grades. The money--raised privately--was doled out in small monthly checks which was put in an envelope with my name on it. It was supposed to give encouragement to disadvantaged but promising minority students to stay on the right track.

I took the envelopes home and dutifully stuffed them in my dresser unopened.

I viewed the payments as an insult. Just because my family was poor didn't mean that I lacked the internal motivation to go to school, finish my homework, stay away from drugs, etc.

That's not to say that I don't support all rewards programs targeted to the poor. For example, it seems to me that what would have worked better in my case would have been prepaid college tuition. Even then the cost of attending a low-cost state college appeared to be virtually impossible financially. The knowledge of a pre-paid tuition as a reward for high school success would have done wonders for me as a person and a student.

The truth about NYC's program is that the folks doling out the money will screen for families that are already motivated in the right ways. The families will collect the money and the Mayor and his people will claim success. But what will have changed?

Clooney on Obama

"We were at a rally on Darfur," Clooney said. "People were standing around backstage. All of a sudden, Obama walks out and steps onto the stage. Everyone stopped to hear what he had to say…. I've never been around anyone who can literally take someone's breath away."

"I spend a lot of time talking with other people, and I tell them, 'You really have to educate yourself on Obama because the guy is real,' " he said. "He fascinates me. People say, 'Oh, he's too young,' you know. But you cannot learn or teach leadership. You either have it or you don't."

"Everyone says the country isn't ready for a black president. I think that's ridiculous. Is he going to lose Illinois? Is he going to lose New York or California because he's black? No. And maybe he makes some inroads into other places, and maybe, for once, he could get young people to show up and vote."

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The Shifting Romney

Is Mitt Romney not the most transparent politician out there?

First he was for "reproductive rights", and now that he's running for president, he's against abortion. He was for gay rights; now he's opposed. He voted against Ronald Reagan; now he claims to have been a fan all along. And on and on.

This week's flip happened in Iowa. While speaking to a Council Bluffs luncheon, he came out against a pathway to citizenship for the country's undocumented immigrant workers--something he was for as recently a year ago.

Whether liberal, conservative or a moderate, how can anyone vote for a person that appears to change with the wind?

Photo: Reuters

A GOP Edge for '08?

With all of the current problems of the GOP and the Bush White House, TIME's Jay Carney (Poll: A Surprising G.O.P. Edge for '08, 3.29.07) wonders why the leading democrats for president continue to struggle against their Republican rivals?

TIME's recent poll and others consistently show Rudy and McCain out polling Clinton and Edwards. Only Obama gives Rudy and McCain a run for their money.

Carney suspects that it's coming down to how people feel about the individual candidates and less about party affiliation. I agree. Personal qualities of candidates is increasingly trumping party labels at a time when the public is fed-up with both major political parties.

As I indicated in yesterday's post, a major problem for Democrats is that Americans know AND dislike Hillary Clinton. And people still don't have much of a feel for Edwards or Obama. On the other hand, Rudy and McCain are well-known AND well-liked.

However, likability is just one in a string of factors people use in deciding who to vote for. Additionally, the campaigns of serious candidates can be upended by the tactics of clever opponents or by unforeseen events.

NOW, Forbes and Jesse Pick Horses

There were a number of big endorsements yesterday. Jesse Jackson is voting for Obama because he'll work to form a more perfect union. NOW likes Hillary because she's a 'feminist'. And Steve Forbes backs Rudy because he, too, is a supply-sider. (Additionally, John Edwards seeks to build on his '04 support from labor unions.)

While I'm not sure these endorsements will in anyway prove decisive, they're interesting in two ways:

1) Define the Candidates - Politicians get their early support from the people and groups they best relate to--and/or they are most eager to represent. Obama needs a solid African American vote if he's to beat Hillary. Hillary needs the women's vote is she's to prevail against her male opponents. CEO Rudy wants to be the business vote. And trail lawyer Edwards seeks to be Big Labor's boy.

2) Horsey Rides - The early endorsers are looking to trade of the value of early support for big time access later. It's a big risk because their favored horse may pull up lame. However, the gamble can make all difference in who gets contracts, whose ideas become policy and who gets to make important decisions.

Expanding Legal Immigration as Nation's Destiny

Expert sees expanding legal immigration as nation's destiny (by Sid Salter, The Clarion Ledger - 3.28.07)

With an estimated 12-to-15 million illegal immigrants already in the United States and more coming to the tune of 1.5 million each year, the illegal immigration debate is one certain to dominate presidential and congressional politics in 2008.

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Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a nationally respected expert on immigration issues, is a rare breed of think tank author and speaker - a fiscal conservative who believes that "sensible levels of open immigration" is in this nation's best interests.

Her conservative message? "People are sick of porous borders and sick of immigrants ignoring the rule of law."

Her conservative solution? "Get illegal immigrants legal and in the system, make them accountable and help the ones who are here illegally to do the things necessary to get legal."

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"Supply and demand creates a flow of 1.5 million Hispanic immigrants a year, but current laws only allow 1 million to legally enter the country," said Jacoby. "The other 500,000 enter the country illegally and there is a cost for that illegality."

Jacoby said the answer to the nation's immigration debate is to bring current legal immigration quotas "into line with supply and demand."

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Is the GOP Doomed in '08?

Conservative Republican Bob Lonsberry thinks so.

The way it stands now, we Republicans are on track to get the thumping of a lifetime. We are about to get spanked, and spanked hard.

Read why in his WILL 2008 MEAN DOOM FOR REPUBLICANS? (3.28.07).

Of course, some Republicans believe that a crushing defeat in '08 doesn't so much represent the demise of the GOP, but rather the beginning of its liberation from the looney right.

Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon

A mysterious giant hexagon lies above Saturn's north pole, captured by cameras on NASA's Cassini Orbiter.

Spanning 25,000km - equivalent to the width of two planet Earths - the bizarre geometric feature appears to remain virtually still in the atmosphere as clouds swirl around it.

Click here for NASA's animation of Spinning Saturn and the other unworldly phenomena.

Report by Universal Taíno (Just kidding!)