Republicans and immigration reform

The House Republican leadership is trying to sell their colleagues on a series of broad immigration principles, including a path to legal status for those here illegally.

Politico reports that “Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team introduced the principles at their annual policy retreat here. Top Republicans circulated a tightly held one-page memo titled “standards for immigration reform” toward the tail-end of a day that include strategy conversations about Obamacare, the economy and the national debt.

“In the private meeting where the language was introduced, Boehner (R-Ohio) told Republicans that the standards are “as far as we are willing to go.”

“Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that for her caucus, it is a special path to citizenship or nothing,” Boehner said, according to a source in the room. “If Democrats insist on that, then we are not going to get anywhere this year.” Boehner said the standards represent “a fair, principled way for us to solve this issue.” The strategy marks a shift for House Republicans. In 2013, Boehner’s chamber ignored the bipartisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate. But toward the end of last year and early this year, Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) began hashing out this approach to rally Republicans toward reform. “It’s important to act on immigration reform because we’re focused on jobs and economic growth, and this is about jobs and growth,” Boehner said in his pitch in the closed meeting. “Reform is also about our national security. The safety and security of our nation depends on our ability to secure our border, enforce our laws, improve channels for legal entry to the country, and identify who is here illegally.” Continue reading “Republicans and immigration reform”

The British are …

Earlier this summer Britain announced the online pornography would be blocked from people’s home unless requested by internet subscribers. Now another story has surfaced, as reported today by the BBC:

“More than 300,000 attempts were made to access pornographic websites at the Houses of Parliament in the past year, official records suggest. It is unclear whether MPs, peers or other staff are responsible, House of Commons officials said.

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“The figures were not all “purposeful requests” and may have been exaggerated by third-party software and websites that reload themselves, they added. About 5,000 people work on the parliamentary estate. The data was released following a Freedom of Information request by Huffington Post UK, which published the story under the headline “Oh Yes, Minister!” on its homepage. However, the figures vary wildly: in November, there were 114,844 attempts to access websites classed as pornographic, but just 15 in February.

“A Commons spokeswoman said: “We do not consider the data to provide an accurate representation of the number of purposeful requests made by network users.” This was because there was a “variety of ways in which websites can be designed to act, react and interact and due to the potential operation of third party software,” she said. Some of the hits may have been registered by websites that generate a number of views during a single visit, or those that automatically link to other sites via pop-ups, she explained.”

 

More at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23954447

 

The House I live In – The “War on Drugs”

Over the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has cost more than $1 trillion and accounted
for over 45 million arrests.

The U.S. holds 25% of the world’s prisoners, yet accounts for
only 5% of the world’s population.imgres

Black individuals comprise 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of drug users, yet they are 37%
of the people arrested for drug offenses and 56% of those incarcerated for drug crimes.

As America remains embroiled in conflict overseas, a less visible war is taking place at
home, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage upon
future generations of Americans. In forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for
more than 45 million arrests, made America the world’s largest jailer, and damaged poor
communities at home and abroad. Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more
available today than ever before. Continue reading “The House I live In – The “War on Drugs””

Invasion of the killer robots

imgres-3It’s no secret that lots of killing is begin done today, not directly by people, but by machines such as remotely controlled drone aircraft.

A new global campaign to persuade nations to ban “killer robots” before they reach the production stage is to be launched in the UK by a group of academics, pressure groups and Nobel peace prize laureates, reports today’s edition of The Guardian.

“Robot warfare and autonomous weapons, the next step from unmanned drones, are already being worked on by scientists and will be available within the decade, said Dr Noel Sharkey, a leading robotics and artificial intelligence expert and professor at Sheffield University. He believes that development of the weapons is taking place in an effectively unregulated environment, with little attention being paid to moral implications and international law. Continue reading “Invasion of the killer robots”

Barry’s boys club

imgres-2With “binders full of women” still lingering in public memory, a New Yorks Times reporter made an uncomfortable observation about recent White House appointments.

Obama’s key advisors appear to be all male.

As January has unfolded, “Mr. Obama has put together a national security team dominated by men, with Senator John Kerry nominated to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as the secretary of state, Chuck Hagel chosen to be the defense secretary and John O. Brennan nominated as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency,” reported the Times. Continue reading “Barry’s boys club”

The house for straight white men

This isn’t exactly a huge surprise, given the behavior of American conservatives in recent months. But it’s official now. There will be no women running committees in the U.S. House of Representatives in its upcoming session. In fact, there will be no diversity whatsoever within the straight, white leadership.

As Politico reports today, “After a day of meetings closed to the public, the House Republican Steering Committee announced an all-male slate of committee chairs, including 12 returning lawmakers who will head up some of the most important panels in Washington. The chairs for the House Ethics Committee and House Administration Committee have yet to be chosen, so a woman could end up in one of those slots.

Continue reading “The house for straight white men”