Dog finally off Wash. state voter rolls - Yahoo! News
SEATTLE - Duncan M. McDonald is finally off the voter rolls after the Australian shepherd-terrier mix was sent absentee ballots for three elections.

King County Elections Director Sherril Huff said she canceled the voter registration Tuesday for the dog owned by Jane K. Balogh, 66, who registered her pet to protest a change in the law that she said made it too easy for non-citizens to cast ballots.

Balogh put her phone bill in the dog’s name, then used that as identification when she mailed in the registration form in April 2006. In November, she wrote “VOID” across Duncan’s ballot and returned it with an image of a paw print on the signature line.

She admitted the ruse when an election official called, but the dog was still sent absentee ballots for school bond elections in February and May.

“Quite frankly, the process did take too long, and it should have been addressed after the November election,” said Bobbie Egan, an elections office spokeswoman.

County election procedures are being reviewed to provide speedier action against voting fraud, Egan said.

The removal came three weeks after Balogh was charged in King County Superior Court with making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, a misdemeanor. She pleaded not guilty to the charge in June.

A sheriff’s investigator wrote that she admitted registering the dog under false pretenses “to make a point that anyone could vote, even an animal.”

A preliminary court hearing was pending.

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I wonder how many illegals vote?

We need skinner illegals (I’m tired of driving across the border twice as often).

Was just thinking that if the 12 million illegal immigrants that will get all the rights of a U.S. citizen with this new ‘Z’ visa; will that mean their wages will go up? I mean now employeers will have to pay the minimum wage and all the other payroll taxes required by law. Will immigrants join Unions to get Union benifits/wages?

More than 50% of the 12 million illegal immigrants do not have the equivalent of a high-school diploma.

Will employers be incentivised to keep them ‘off the rolls’? Will the threat of enforcement force them to put them on the legitament payroll?

Senator Joe Lieberman: Lieberman Statement on Immigration Reform Agreement
WASHINGTON -Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) issued the following statement on the Immigration Reform agreement reached yesterday:

“The bi-partisan compromise on immigration reform legislation represents an important first step forward in addressing a serious national problem. It is long past time that we reform our immigration system in order to secure our borders, enforce our immigration laws, and provide a path to earned legalization for the millions of immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for years, held jobs, paid taxes, and contributed to our communities. The bill also promotes economic opportunity, and Connecticut and the nation would specifically benefit from provisions which would provide more access for employers to highly skilled workers who are needed to fuel economic growth. I understand that there are concerns about elements of this compromise. Working together across party lines we can make this good first step into an even better bill.”

I was reading Senator Lieberman’s position on the Immigration bill and heard some talk that he is very upset with the Democrats. Eventhough he’s a Democrat, he did loose his primary run, but won as an Independent. However, when he went to Washington he still stayed on as a Democrat. Could Lieberman switch over to the Republicans? Would this not give power to the Senate back to the Republicans?

As a conservative I have to say that I would seriously consider voting for him - he’s that much of a statesmen. As for his immigration stance, I think he and alot of the politians will find that over this Memorial Day holiday weekend they will get ALOT of negative press.

Seems to me that McCain is getting alot of negative press - we’ll see once the poll numbers come in, but I suspect that he will loose at least 4-5% of his support.

As much as people hate the United States, its funny that so many of them want to come live here to have all the rights, privileges, and opportunities that their own country does not give them.

– Me

The bill, as it is currently written, will allow family members to also apply for Amnesty. So the 12-25 million here could invite their family members not yet in the United States, thus giving amnesty to 25-80 million more people.

When these new immigrants get the new ‘Z’ visa, they will automatically be allowed all social services natralized American citizens are afforded. The Heritage Foundation estimates that the average illegal immigrants currently makes about $25,000-$30,000 a year. They use, on average, $10,000 of services they estimate. When the illegal immigrants get the new visa they will start paying taxes, but that is only $1,500-$2,000 an additional per year (primiarly from income taxes). Therefore the new immigrants will still be using a disproportionate amount of social services. They estimate, over 20 years, that these new immigrants will cost the American tax payer over $2 trillion.

When so many new people are added to a country, it does not give them enough time to acclimate to that country, thus the country changes from its own values to that these news immigrants.

• Healthcare (Medicare, Emergency Rooms closings)
• Social Services (Social Security, Welfare)
• Education (costs of schools, English-as-a-second Language classes)
• ‘Anchor Babies’ (14-year-olds having babies)
• Criminal (32% of all violent crime is done by illegals)
• Employment (H-1B visa depress American wages in that field, Low-skilled Americans have a harder time getting a job)
• Policial (66% of new immigrants vote Democrat)

My father came legally here in 1970 when he was 16 and my mom legally in 1971 when she was 14. In 1972 my father joined the military and became a citizen in 1975. My mom became a citizen in 1982.

As a 1st generation American I can say that controlled legal immigration is good for our country.

Our priorties should be:

1. Control the physical border (fences, drones, Border Patrol agents)
2. National Identification Card (national database for employee status verification)
3. Employeer Enforcement (once the National ID is in place, enforce existing laws)
4. Visa Enforcement (arrest Visa violators - some of the hijackers of 9/11 did this)
5. Change the Constitution (do not allow children of illegal immigrants to become legal citizens, but DO allow them to apply when they turn 18)

Source: Washington Post

All illegal immigrants who arrived before Jan. 1, 2007, could stay and work after paying a $1,500 fee, passing a criminal background check, and showing a strong work record.

They would also have to pay a fine of $5,000.

After eight years, they could apply for a green card.

A new visa category would be created for parents of U.S. citizens, allowing them to visit for up to 100 days per year.

A temporary-worker program would allow 400,000 immigrant workers to enter on two-year visas, after which they would have to return home for a year before reapplying. The visas could be renewed up to three times.

A new point system would add factors for green-card eligibility to lessen the “chain migration” of family members.

The Border Patrol and interior enforcement would be expanded, and a new security perimeter would be created. Such border enforcement provisions would have to be implemented before immigrant-rights measures take effect.

President Bush is looking forward to signing the deal that senators from <b><u>both parties </u></b>and members of his administration reached on comprehensive immigration reform, according to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.

The negotiators reached agreement Thursday and members from both parties agreed that the compromise is a good bill and lauded the process of crafting it.

“This is what my ninth grade teacher told me government is all about and I finally got to experience it,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

The deal would strengthen the borders while also giving legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the country.

“If I get deported and need to cross the border again, that’s not a problem,” he said. Source: Illegals Immigrants not happy.

I find the current economy doing pretty well, minus the sub-prime mortgages part, but other than that its pretty good.

Unlike the late 1990s where we had a boon based on the dot-coms, this boon seems to have been rallied by the tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. Those tax cuts lowered the top rates and thus gave a ‘tax cut to the rich’ and gave us a 95.6% employment rate.

Yet during that time revenues to the government have increased faster than ever in modern history. Granted the Republican congress, who historially has been fiscially responsible, actually spent it faster than it came in.

A Keyneian economist would probably note that all the expenditures by the government right now (alot of pork-barrel spending, war spending, entitlement spending), futher stimulates the economy.

So my question is, why raise taxes if it only slows the economy, reduces revenue to the government, and increases unemployment?

Are all those issues less important than the notion of ’sticking it to the rich’?

Immigration is ok as long as those who immigrate meld into your populace. When they don’t, like Muslims in France, then they become a second class and disjointed - they have no loyalty except for the country from which they came.

I’m a Green Republican - I know its an oxymorn. I believe in deregulating the energy industry, promoting alternative energies, and protecting the environment by buying the land from the people instead of staying there’s a ‘Knat catcher’ on your land so you can’t sell.

Why do we have a 80 cent tarrif on Ethanol from Brazil? Why is it that I am not allowed to put solar panels on my house? Why do we have like 70 different blends of gasoline? (making it just 3 or 4 would drop gas prices 50 cents)

Cut taxes on everyone, including the rich. Remember, you don’t have your job from someone who is poor. Reduce H-1B visas. Incentivize kids to do engineering and sciences. Allow businesses into high school to teach a trade like in Europe (i.e. the local Jiffy Lube hires some high school students and teaches them to fix cars while paying them minimum wage).

Allow people to adopt a fetus instead of it being destroyed - how many potential mothers regretted their decision - at least allow someone else to raise them. I’m sure the technology would allow a fetus to be transplanted to another woman some day.

Make it only citizens who are sane, that MUST go though a background check (even at Gun shows), to be allowed to purchase a gun - sorry no green cards allowed.

Allow illegal immigrants the opportunity to join the military on a 5 year path to citizenship - my father join the military as a legal immigrant in 1970 (became a citizen in 1973 and then served 30 years - I’m proud of him).

Add survalence technology at the border with software to track moving objects and alert someone. All these cameras would goto a website that shows the feeds of these cameras that have been alerted of some kind of moving object detected by the software. Have ordinary citizens goto these websites and report any suspecious activity - each time they do and it leads to an arrest that citizen gets $35.

Allow survalence cameras everywhere, HOWEVER, if a crime occured in an area a warrant would first need to be issued to get the video/audio feeds. I see it just like ATM cameras on ATM machines or survalence footage from a store - just require a warrant so its not against the 4th amendment.