One of the things I just don’t get about this country is how we are so willing as a government and as a people it seems are so willing to look the other way when people break our immigration laws. The far right seems to think its okay because it means cheap labor, and the left seems to think its okay because it fits with their idea of a global government.
What is so wrong with us that we don’t want to protect our borders, or enforce our own laws? Nearly every other country on the planet will strictly enforce their border policy, even as far as to do so with their standing army. Make any suggestion that we as a nation do the same, and look out for all the labels being thrown your way.
I look at this way, if someone is willing to enter this country illegally and break that law, what other laws are they going to not bother following when they’re here? Case in point is a story from Portland Oregon about two cousins who currently stand accused of killing a 15-year old girl in Milwaukie Oregon. Both of whom, admit to being in the country illegally.
As more of the facts seem to find their way into the media about this case I start getting angrier and angrier that we as a country seem to think that breaking immigration laws is okay. The murder apparently took place during an attempted rape. It turns out the one of the cousins had recently pled guilty of drunk driving *AND* not being a resident, yet he was not remanded to ICE.
This whole attitude of “Not My Job” has got to stop when it comes to law enforcement. If you stop someone for a standard traffic stop, what harm is there in running a cross check for legal status? If you’re in this country illegally, and you get caught, and I don’t care by whom, you need to be deported.
Of course this means we also actually have to enforce our borders. I don’t care if we put our troops on the border or build a couple of walls, it needs to get done. People willing to break our laws and enter this country illegally are going to be willing to break other laws. Drug trafficking, and DUI are probably just the most common.
Not everyone who wants to be here as the right to be here. If you want to live here, follow the rules.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
A bridge too far
I started the introduction post with the intention of writing this entry, but I didn’t want it to go very long. One thing you’re going to find out reading this blog, is not only am I a blowhard, I can be a long winded blowhard. It’s my nature to want to explain everything. Why? I think I’m pedantic. [1]
Basically, this whole mess in Minnesota has me thinking about how our government has a tendency to spend our tax dollars. Especially those tax dollars that are collected in the name of “Road Safety.” Now the Minnesota state officials were quick to point out that this section of the bridge was “under repair” when this tragedy occurred, and are not speculating if this may have contributed to the disaster or not but let’s face it, either way this a pretty big oops for whoever screwed up the engineering either in the original design or the reconstruction.
Thing is though this, now national, catastrophe has a lot of local news agencies stirred up about the state of the bridges in their local markets, because it makes good news. What this doesn’t make is for good government decisions. Any time a government agency tries to fix something so that some disaster that occurred somewhere else doesn’t occur here, all they’re really saying is: “Open up your pockets and give us your money.” I’m quite sure when this story hit the national news, at least 49 bureaucrats around the country started salivating at the thought they could now use this disaster as an excuse to get more money out their local state constituencies.
Now some of this can be directed at how our current federal tax system works in the way they construct boondoggles and pork in the name of state and county subsidies, which is a rant for a totally different time, and one I’m sure we’ll get into at some point in the future, because my fix for that little system while simplistic in design would be a bitch to get through congress in any form.
The thing is there is already enough money in the system to fix and or maintain our roads and bridges as they exist now. Or at least there should be. Or there would be if the taxes collected in the name of such things actually went to paying for such things. They’re not. At least not in Oregon where I live, which is where I will always turn to when it comes time to pony up examples and what not. Why? Because it effects me and therefore what I’m gonna know. If you want to know about what happens to the money in your neck of the world do your own research.
Oregon’s constitutionally dedicated State Highway Fund derives most of its revenue from three major highway user taxes: vehicle registration fees, motor vehicle fuel taxes (primarily the gasoline tax), and motor carrier fees (the weight-mile tax). There are some other taxes as well, depending on what you drive and what not, but for the most part, most the money that is for Oregon roads and bridges comes from these sources. This is all fine and good. If the money that was brought in by these measures actually were spent on these measures. They’re not.
The problem, at least in Oregon, is that a lot of the revenue collected across all sources in up in that nebulous black hole known as the “All Funds Budget.” Where all sorts of things like the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), Oregon State Police, and a bunch of other departments find themselves trying to cut themselves a piece of this pie.
The other issue is non-roads related projects. Mostly mass transit and bicycle related projects. A huge portion of the ODOT budget seems to find itself allocated for projects that have absolutely nothing to do with where the money came from and isolated to a very small geographic area of the state in part because that is where a good portion of the voter base is.
There are other issues involved, such as the fact that the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) [2] is a bloated piece of garbage that continues to suck larger are larger portions of everyone’s budget. Meanwhile roads continue to deteriorate, and bridges, such as the Sellwood Bridge [3] in Portland is a bright shining example of Government ignoring the problem because they don’t want to deal with the real answers.
The real answers are simple. Spend the money where it is suppose to go, fixing current roads and bridges, and adding new ones as capacity needs increase. However, new roads and bridges aren’t as sexy or politically correct as light rail, bike paths and 9 Million dollar tram project [5] so that doctors that live in new million dollar waterfront condos don’t have to take a stinky bus to the hospital on the hill.
Now I need an Ibuprofen, I’ve got a headache.
--------------------
[1] Hi Les! [4]
[2] PERS issues are huge blog post of their own.
[3] An 82-year old bridge that scores a 2 on the 100 point federal bridge sufficiency scale, yet it is still deemed safe for cars and trucks, as many as 31,000 that cross it on a daily basis. Just don’t count mine as one of them.
[4] Welcome everyone to the footnotes portion of my rant. This is where the fun is. [6]
[5] Actual Cost: 60 Million dollars [7].
[6] Hi Sherry! Thought I forgot about you huh?
[7] Don’t get me started. The amount of future rants I see coming just from this one, could keep me writing all night. I’m supposed to be working here.
Basically, this whole mess in Minnesota has me thinking about how our government has a tendency to spend our tax dollars. Especially those tax dollars that are collected in the name of “Road Safety.” Now the Minnesota state officials were quick to point out that this section of the bridge was “under repair” when this tragedy occurred, and are not speculating if this may have contributed to the disaster or not but let’s face it, either way this a pretty big oops for whoever screwed up the engineering either in the original design or the reconstruction.
Thing is though this, now national, catastrophe has a lot of local news agencies stirred up about the state of the bridges in their local markets, because it makes good news. What this doesn’t make is for good government decisions. Any time a government agency tries to fix something so that some disaster that occurred somewhere else doesn’t occur here, all they’re really saying is: “Open up your pockets and give us your money.” I’m quite sure when this story hit the national news, at least 49 bureaucrats around the country started salivating at the thought they could now use this disaster as an excuse to get more money out their local state constituencies.
Now some of this can be directed at how our current federal tax system works in the way they construct boondoggles and pork in the name of state and county subsidies, which is a rant for a totally different time, and one I’m sure we’ll get into at some point in the future, because my fix for that little system while simplistic in design would be a bitch to get through congress in any form.
The thing is there is already enough money in the system to fix and or maintain our roads and bridges as they exist now. Or at least there should be. Or there would be if the taxes collected in the name of such things actually went to paying for such things. They’re not. At least not in Oregon where I live, which is where I will always turn to when it comes time to pony up examples and what not. Why? Because it effects me and therefore what I’m gonna know. If you want to know about what happens to the money in your neck of the world do your own research.
Oregon’s constitutionally dedicated State Highway Fund derives most of its revenue from three major highway user taxes: vehicle registration fees, motor vehicle fuel taxes (primarily the gasoline tax), and motor carrier fees (the weight-mile tax). There are some other taxes as well, depending on what you drive and what not, but for the most part, most the money that is for Oregon roads and bridges comes from these sources. This is all fine and good. If the money that was brought in by these measures actually were spent on these measures. They’re not.
The problem, at least in Oregon, is that a lot of the revenue collected across all sources in up in that nebulous black hole known as the “All Funds Budget.” Where all sorts of things like the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), Oregon State Police, and a bunch of other departments find themselves trying to cut themselves a piece of this pie.
The other issue is non-roads related projects. Mostly mass transit and bicycle related projects. A huge portion of the ODOT budget seems to find itself allocated for projects that have absolutely nothing to do with where the money came from and isolated to a very small geographic area of the state in part because that is where a good portion of the voter base is.
There are other issues involved, such as the fact that the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) [2] is a bloated piece of garbage that continues to suck larger are larger portions of everyone’s budget. Meanwhile roads continue to deteriorate, and bridges, such as the Sellwood Bridge [3] in Portland is a bright shining example of Government ignoring the problem because they don’t want to deal with the real answers.
The real answers are simple. Spend the money where it is suppose to go, fixing current roads and bridges, and adding new ones as capacity needs increase. However, new roads and bridges aren’t as sexy or politically correct as light rail, bike paths and 9 Million dollar tram project [5] so that doctors that live in new million dollar waterfront condos don’t have to take a stinky bus to the hospital on the hill.
Now I need an Ibuprofen, I’ve got a headache.
--------------------
[1] Hi Les! [4]
[2] PERS issues are huge blog post of their own.
[3] An 82-year old bridge that scores a 2 on the 100 point federal bridge sufficiency scale, yet it is still deemed safe for cars and trucks, as many as 31,000 that cross it on a daily basis. Just don’t count mine as one of them.
[4] Welcome everyone to the footnotes portion of my rant. This is where the fun is. [6]
[5] Actual Cost: 60 Million dollars [7].
[6] Hi Sherry! Thought I forgot about you huh?
[7] Don’t get me started. The amount of future rants I see coming just from this one, could keep me writing all night. I’m supposed to be working here.
An Introduction ... Of Sorts.
Now I’ve had this blog for a long time, and I’ve intended it to be a place for me to well, rant, about government waste and what not me being a Libertarian and all. I always intended to make my first post a little something about who I am, where I come from, and what my views are politically. That however, would turn out to be a book of huge proportions and quite frankly, I don’t think anyone would read it. Besides, I can fill in those blanks as I blog.
I have no delusions about how many people will actually read this thing. I’m not going to link here from my LiveJournal as that is about my personal life, and I intend this to be a strictly political rant. I am also, not the best informed of voters on the planet. I consider myself just a wee bit more informed as I *TRY* to actually research things before forming opinions, but to be honest I don’t exactly have the same amount of time as someone who, say, does political opinion for a living, so I will tend to voice my opinion and hope those that agree with me have the facts to back us both up.
That being said, I am very much a Libertarian. Card carrying in fact. I support my party mostly by financial means, but I hope to be involved at least at some level, in the upcoming campaigns in my local area if I can find the time. Basically, for those of you who don’t know, and to try and distill my beliefs down to their simplest form, I believe people should have the right to do whatever they want to do so long as what they are doing doesn’t interfere with the rights of others to do whatever they want to do. It sounds simple, and at some level it is. However it isn’t cart-blanche to do whatever the hell you please. I’m quite sure we’ll be discussing examples every time I open up a topic, so I’m not going to get into that now.
I am also a huge fan of freedom of speech, however if you’re going post replies here I’m going to have some rules. Absolutely *NO* Anonymous posting. Given the way that Blogger allows people to post, even if you don’t have a Blogger please give a name. Also, although I can’t enforce it, please use the same name. It’s annoying to try and talk to people when they use several names in attempt to be cute or something.
I also reserve the right to not post for weeks on end. I have a life. It’s not much of one, but I like it. I live in a city where it rains. A lot. I don’t mind it, but when it stops I want to ether play golf, ride my bike or go skiing. And when it is raining, or even when it’s not, I enjoy my sex life. So does my girlfriend. I’m also habitually lazy. I hope you get used to it. This will be a fun ride, as I’m an opinionated jerk. I’ll even back up my claims from time to time. When I bother to actually do my own research.
Shall we get started?
I have no delusions about how many people will actually read this thing. I’m not going to link here from my LiveJournal as that is about my personal life, and I intend this to be a strictly political rant. I am also, not the best informed of voters on the planet. I consider myself just a wee bit more informed as I *TRY* to actually research things before forming opinions, but to be honest I don’t exactly have the same amount of time as someone who, say, does political opinion for a living, so I will tend to voice my opinion and hope those that agree with me have the facts to back us both up.
That being said, I am very much a Libertarian. Card carrying in fact. I support my party mostly by financial means, but I hope to be involved at least at some level, in the upcoming campaigns in my local area if I can find the time. Basically, for those of you who don’t know, and to try and distill my beliefs down to their simplest form, I believe people should have the right to do whatever they want to do so long as what they are doing doesn’t interfere with the rights of others to do whatever they want to do. It sounds simple, and at some level it is. However it isn’t cart-blanche to do whatever the hell you please. I’m quite sure we’ll be discussing examples every time I open up a topic, so I’m not going to get into that now.
I am also a huge fan of freedom of speech, however if you’re going post replies here I’m going to have some rules. Absolutely *NO* Anonymous posting. Given the way that Blogger allows people to post, even if you don’t have a Blogger please give a name. Also, although I can’t enforce it, please use the same name. It’s annoying to try and talk to people when they use several names in attempt to be cute or something.
I also reserve the right to not post for weeks on end. I have a life. It’s not much of one, but I like it. I live in a city where it rains. A lot. I don’t mind it, but when it stops I want to ether play golf, ride my bike or go skiing. And when it is raining, or even when it’s not, I enjoy my sex life. So does my girlfriend. I’m also habitually lazy. I hope you get used to it. This will be a fun ride, as I’m an opinionated jerk. I’ll even back up my claims from time to time. When I bother to actually do my own research.
Shall we get started?
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