FederalRepublic.net

From the Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The two top Republicans in Congress, confronted with internal party divisions as well as large public demonstrations, said Tuesday they intend to pass immigration legislation that does not subject illegal aliens to prosecution as felons.

A written statement by House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, did not say whether they would seek legislation subjecting illegal immigrants to misdemeanor prosecution or possibly a civil penalty such as a fine.

“It remains our intent to produce a strong border security bill that will not make unlawful presence in the United States a felony,” the two men said. An estimated 11 million men, women and children are in the United States illegally.

The Republican-controlled House passed legislation late last year that is generally limited to border security measures. It makes illegal immigrants subject to felony prosecution.

Senate efforts to write a broader bill — covering border security, a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for many of the 11 million in the country illegally — are gridlocked with lawmakers on a two-week vacation.

Frist has said he intends to bring the issue back to the Senate floor, although he stopped short of a flat commitment and the prospects for passage of an election-year immigration bill are uncertain.

Link

When it comes to correcting the illegal immigration problem in our country, most lawmakers, both GOP and Democratic Party, have it all wrong. As a nation of laws, the United States must apply the law to illegal aliens.

Gridlock in the Senate and controversy in the House over the possibility that illegal aliens could be all considered felons it not only silly, but it displays how much the Congress of the United States has no interest in securing our country from those who enter illegally or punishing those who have broken our entry laws.

Our lawmakers MUST secure the borders first. They must take the steps to secure our borders from unlawful entry, while preserving the integrity of the legal immigration process. Building a fence and increasing funding and manpower to our border control agencies would be a start. Second, Congress must punish illegals for entering our country and breaking our entry laws. There must be strict penalties, especially in terms of deportation. Third, there must be legislation in place to punish employers of illegal aliens and force employers to verify social security numbers of their employees. Finally, Congress must realize how unfair it is being to lawful immigrants who waited years to enter the United States. It is not in the best interest of the country to reward illegal immigration, while subjecting those who wish to enter legally to red tape and unnecessary delays. We must honor those who wish to enter lawfully and punish those who don’t.

Text from the Associated Press

BUSH: Good morning. Today, I’m announcing my nomination of two outstanding individuals to serve in my Cabinet and on my economic team.

First, I will nominate Rob Portman to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Rob will replace Josh Bolten, who this week started in his new role as my chief of staff.

The Office of Management and Budget is one of the most essential agencies of our government. The OMB has a central responsibility of implementing the full range of my administration’s agenda, from defense programs that will keep our people secure, to energy initiatives that will break our dependence on oil, to tax policies that keep our economy growing and creating jobs.

In these and other areas, the job of the OMB director is to ensure that the government spends the taxpayers’ money wisely or not at all.

He is the person in charge of meeting our goal to cutting the budget deficit in half by 2009.

And he’s responsible for managing federal programs efficiently. The American people deserve results for every hard-earned dollar they send to Washington.

The job of OMB director is a really important post, and Rob Portman is the right man to take it on. Rob’s talent, expertise and record of success are well known within my administration and on Capitol Hill.

For the past 11 months, Rob has served as United States trade representative.

When he took the job, I told him to focus on opening new markets for American exports, to ensure that our producers and farmers are treated fairly, and to get Congress to pass the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement.

He’s accomplished those goals.

I signed CAFTA into law last summer. And Rob Portman and his staff completed trade agreements with Bahrain, Oman, Peru and Colombia. He also re-energized the Doha trade talks at the World Trade Organization.

Before joining my Cabinet, Rob represented the 2nd District of Ohio in the United States Congress for more than a decade. He was a key part of the House leadership. He was an influential member of the Ways and Means Committee and he served as vice chairman of the Budget Committee.

His legislative achievements ranged from reforming the Internal Revenue Service, providing tax relief for working families, to encouraging retirement savings.

Rob’s leadership in Congress was also marked by an ability to work across the aisle and bring people together to get things done. And he’s going to bring that same skill to his new post.

As director of OMB, Rob will have a leading role in my economic team. He will be part of the daily senior staff meetings led by Josh Bolten. He will consult often and work closely with legislators on Capitol Hill. He’ll be a powerful voice for pro-growth policies and spending restraint.

Rob’s a man of deep integrity. He knows the priorities of my administration. He can get things done. And the Senate should confirm him promptly as the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Link

From CBS News

President Bush said Tuesday that “all options are on the table” to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons, but said he will continue to focus on the international diplomatic option to persuade Tehran to drop its nuclear ambitions.

“We want to solve this issue diplomatically and we’re working hard to do so,” Mr. Bush told reporters in the Rose Garden.

Mr. Bush also said there should be a unified effort involving countries “who recognize the danger of Iran having a nuclear weapon,” and he noted that U.S. officials are working closely nations such as Great Britain, France and Germany on the issue.”

-Snip-

Iran has so far refused to give up uranium enrichment, which the United States and some of its allies suspect is meant to produce weapons. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Mr. Bush was asked if his administration was planning for the possibility of a nuclear strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.

“All options are on the table,” he said.

Link

In a show of strength, President Bush has revealed all options are on the table to difuse Iran’s nuclear ambitions. However, a show of strength is not enough. The world must take action now to rid Iran of its nuclear technologies, before diplomatic efforts become meaningless.

A nuclear Iran would not only tip the balance of power in the Middle East from Isreal to Iran, but would bring a whole new dynamic to the Middle East peace process. Having an official goal of blowing Isreal off the map, Iran would bring its dangerous dynamic toward the destruction of Isreal and United States interests. Iran’s regime must be dealt with swiftly and harshly, with the world uncompromising and unappeasing. The world must come together to deal with the threat of a nuclear Iran, showing there is strength in unity.

The United States is a nation of laws. It’s been that way since it’s founding. However, recent events have put the people and law-making bodies at the center of an American feud - the debate over illegal immigration.

Two stories out this morning clearly show there is a huge divide in this country over illegal immigration, a divide that will not be easily solved. Shannon McCaffrey from the Associated Press has written a piece about Georgia’s new law concerning illegal immigration, a law that is said to be one of the toughest in the country:

Georgia’s governor signed a sweeping immigration bill Monday that supporters and critics say gives the state some of the toughest measures against illegal immigrants in the nation.

“I want to make this clear: we are not, Georgia’s government is not, and this bill is not, anti-immigrant,” Gov. Sunny Perdue said at the signing.

“We simply believe that everyone who lives in our state needs to abide by our laws.”

The law requires verification that adults seeking many state-administered benefits are in the country legally. It sanctions employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and mandates that companies with state contracts check the immigration status of employees.

The law also requires police to check the immigration status of people they arrest.

The measure is believed to be the first comprehensive immigration package to make it through a statehouse this session, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Many of the new law’s provisions will not take effect until July 1, 2007.

However, in the great state of Arizona, the governor is less clear about the need to crack down on illegal immigrants and employers who hire them. In a daring veto, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano shot down a bill that would’ve cracked down on illegals by charging them with trespassing:

Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a bill that would have criminalized the presence of illegal immigrants in Arizona, citing opposition from police agencies that want immigration arrests to remain the responsibility of the federal government.

The proposal would have expanded the state’s trespassing law to let local authorities arrest illegal immigrants anywhere in Arizona, the nation’s busiest illegal entry point. Congress also had considered criminalizing the presence of illegal immigrants in the country.

In a letter to lawmakers, Napolitano said she opposes automatically turning all immigrants who sneaked into the state into criminals and that the bill provided no funding for the new duties.

“It is unfortunate that the Legislature has once again ignored the officials who are most directly affected by illegal immigration and instead has passed yet another bill that will have no effect on the problem but that will impose an unfunded burden on law enforcement,” Napolitano wrote Monday.

Supporters said the bill would have given Arizona a chance to get a handle on its vast border problems by providing a second layer of enforcement to catch the tens of thousands of immigrants who slip past federal agents each year.

Republican Sen. Barbara Leff of Paradise Valley, who proposed the bill, said the governor has painted herself as tough on illegal immigration by declaring a state of emergency at Arizona’s border, but has taken little action to back up her rhetoric.

“I don’t think the governor wants to do anything about this problem,” Leff said. She said the bill would have been a means to detain illegal immigrants until federal agents can pick them up.

Link

By Robert Burns

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday he believes the public push by several retired generals to force him from office is going to die out.

“Well, you know, this, too, will pass,” he told Rush Limbaugh’s nationally syndicated radio show.

Several general officers, including two with recent experience as division commanders in Iraq, have criticized Rumsfeld’s management of the Pentagon and of the war, arguing that he should step down.

“I think about it and I must say there’s always two sides to these things, and the sharper the criticism comes, sometimes the sharper the defense comes from people who don’t agree with the critics,” Rumsfeld said.

He said he was pleased to see that retired Gen. Richard Myers, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who developed and executed the Iraq invasion plan, had rebutted the critics and expressed support for him. President Bush issued a strongly worded statement of support last Friday.

Asked by Limbaugh why certain retired generals had chosen to call publicly for his resignation, Rumsfeld replied, “Well, I just don’t know. I can’t climb into other people’s minds.” He noted that retired Adm. Vern Clark, a former chief of naval operations, had said publicly that Rumsfeld is a suitably tough-minded leader. Rumsfeld’s critics have said he is arrogant and disregarded the advice of military officers.

“So I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Rumsfeld said.

Link

Like the criticism of other Bush Administration officials by the mainstream press, I too believe the call for Secretary Rumsfeld to step down will die down in no more than several weeks. The calls from Rumsfeld to resign have been shouted from the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003 by the Democratic Party and continued well into the 2004 general election cycle. This time, the call is no different and has demonstrated no real impact other than showing the bias of the left wing media and the obstructionism of the Democratic Party - a party of no ideas other than denouncing the Bush Administration and raising taxes.

History has always played a vital role in teaching lessons for the future. It is said those who haven’t learned from their history are doomed to repeat it. Today’s United States are no exception. However, it is troubling to find that children know less and less about this country’s history than past generations. Gordon Wood writing for the Boston Globe has communicated this fact:

The best place for our youngsters to acquire knowledge of our history is in school. Yet from all the data gathered, it appears that young people are not learning much about America’s past. One recent test of seniors from 55 top liberal arts colleges revealed an appalling ignorance of American history. Eighty-one percent of the students could not identify Valley Forge or the ringing words from Lincoln’s ‘’Gettysburg Address” — ‘’Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Only 34 percent could name George Washington as the victorious general at Yorktown.

By contrast, most of the students knew the popular culture only too well. Ninety-nine percent of them could recognize the cartoon characters Beavis and Butt-Head. A society whose best students have such a thin understanding of its past is a society in trouble.

The Bush administration and Congress have been rightly concerned with declines in students’ reading and mathematical abilities, and they passed No Child Left Behind as a remedy. But they seemed to have had no awareness of the disastrous consequences of this act for teaching history in the schools. When I mentioned this to a prominent Republican, who is a big fan of history, he asked, ‘’How so?” ‘’Well,” I replied, ‘’if you were a superintendent of schools who was going to be judged solely on how well his students did in reading and mathematics, where would you put your energy and money? Certainly not in teaching history.” ‘’We never thought of that,” he said.

Link

Though reading, writing, and science are the subjects taking up the most emphasis in the ever changing world of grade school, history must be a part of those emphasized as well. United States history must be taught in a manner that it is retained by children, stressing the importance and uniqueness of American values and the details of our history. Today’s children must be taught the lessons of history - that appeasement doesn’t work, that America has overcome obstacles like multiple depressions, civil war and strife, and massive natural disasters because of our hardworking and individualist spirit, and that our freedoms not only drive us to succeed as a nation, but promote liberty and prosperity in this world.

Laurie Kellman from the Associated Press has written a story concerning Republican Party goals for the coming mid-term elections. She writes:

Protection of marriage amendment? Check. Anti-flag burning legislation? Check. New abortion limits? Check.

Between now and the November elections, Republicans are penciling in plans to take action on social issues important to religious conservatives, the foundation of the GOP base, as they defend their congressional majority.

In a year where an unpopular war in Iraq has helped drive President Bush’s approval ratings below 40 percent, core conservatives whose turnout in November is vital to the party want assurances that they are not being taken for granted.

-Snip-

“If they get to these things this summer, which we expect that they will, that will go a long way toward energizing the values voters at the base of the Republican Party,” said Bauer, head of Americans United to Preserve Marriage.

GOP leaders long have known that the war and merely riding the coattails of a second-term president could disillusion their base.

The reality is that the Republican Party seems to be losing touch with its core constituency, meaning conservative religious voters and traditionalists. This block of voters tend to believe in the traditional American values of limited government, low taxes, fiscal responsibility, a strong defense, and the like. However, the Republican Party has continued to throw its values in the air, favoring power instead of doing the people’s business.

Under Republican leadership, discretionary spending has increased in this country, tying down generations with debt and a huge federal deficit, which will most likely not be paid within the next few decades, if that. Republicans have taken socialist ideas from the Democratic Party, like the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, and made them their own.

If the Republican Party does not turn its back to political expediency and the lure of power, they will be cast out of office by the angry voters that voted Republicans into office in the first place.

From Day to Day Cartoons

Townhall.com is carrying a piece by Herman Cain communicating the importance of tax reform in the United States. Mr. Cain advocates replacing our 60,000 page progressive tax system with the more equal and less confusing Fair Tax:

The first good news is that the 2003 tax rate cuts on income, capital gains and dividends have produced historical economic growth, and that growth is projected to last into 2006. Gross Domestic Product has grown for 17 consecutive quarters, the unemployment rate is lower than the decade rates of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and manufacturing productivity is rising. These and numerous other measures of economic growth have caused tax revenue from businesses and individuals to increase over 10 percent from the same period last year.

Second, many states are considering tax and spending limitation legislation to rein in out-of-control spending and return wasted tax dollars to the taxpayers. Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia and Texas are just a few of the states where taxpayers have finally said enough is enough. Constituent-led grassroots movements in these and other states are shining the light on decades of wasteful spending at the state level and demanding accountability.

The third piece of good news is that support is growing for complete replacement of the tax code with a national consumption tax. More and more taxpayers are demanding action from their representatives in Congress, and their representatives are listening.

Further, Americans for Fair Taxation argue the Fair Tax would help to streamline the tax process:

The FairTax: 

• Abolishes the IRS
• Closes all tax loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
• Maintains our current Social Security and Medicare benefits
• Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
• Allows American products to compete fairly
• Reimburses the tax on purchases of basic necessities
• Enables retirees to keep their entire pension
• Enables workers to keep their entire paycheck

The idea of a Fair Tax or consumption tax on goods and services produced in the United States is a logical step in the right direction. If a Fair Tax was accepted and created as law, the United States government would have no choice but to focus on the well-being of the economy by cutting back regulation and promoting an environment of economic stability. A Fair Fax would also allow the government to bring in more revenue to cut the deficit and balance the federal budget, while promoting fiscal sanity by putting the power of government back into the people’s hands.

To help put into prospective the true meaning of the Easter holiday, I have posted the Easter story taken from Matthew chapter 28 (NIV).

The Resurrection

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

The Guards’ Report

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

The Great Commission
 
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Link

This Easter, let us remember the real reason for the season - that Christ rose from the dead on the third day, after sacrificing himself for the sins of all mankind. Happy Easter everyone!