Mulligan
By Mitch Berg
Elliot Spitzer gundecks his plan to give drivers’ licenses to illegals:
The governor is due to meet Wednesday morning with New York’s congressional delegation, many of whom openly oppose the program. Debate over the issue also has spilled into New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The governor’s office signaled to New York lawmakers Tuesday that Spitzer will say at the meeting that he is shelving the plan and that immigration is a federal issue to be handled by Washington, according to congressional aides who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because no formal announcement had been made.
While plan advocates rationalized it by claiming it would make the roads safer, that was bit of a red herring – think how much safer we’d be with millions of criminals off the road in the first place? – the real problem was the disingenuity of the plan’s supporters, who either didn’t know about the loopholes the plan offered to illegals, or didn’t care.
Political incompetence or tone-deafness on their part doesn’t constitute and emergency on ours.
Last month, Spitzer sought to salvage the license effort by striking a deal with the Department of Homeland Security to create three distinct types of state driver’s licenses: one “enhanced” that will be as secure as a passport; a second-tier license good for boarding airplanes; and a third marked not valid for federal purposes that would be available to illegal immigrants and others.
How about one that is stamped “CRIMINAL”?
Clinton has been criticized by her Democratic and Republican rivals for her noncommittal answers on the subject. She has said she sympathizes with governors like Spitzer who are forced to confront the issue of immigration because the federal government has not enacted immigration reform. She has not taken a position on the actual plan offered by Spitzer.
Because then all the nasty men would be mean to her?
They do have a point; the government – Congress as well as the President – has been shamefully craven on immigration.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:21 am
If Spitzer’s plan goes though angryclown will finally get to drive that Yugo legally!
November 14th, 2007 at 9:24 am
It was a political blunder on Spitzer’s part – red meat for you nativist kooks. Nevermind that these “CRIMINALS” typically violate the law only when entering the country and are vastly less likely to break other laws than citizens. And that the drivers’ licenses couldn’t be used to get on airplanes or for any other federally regulated purpose.
Hey, how’s that effort to leverage Hispanics’ social conservatism into GOP votes?
Guess you prefer “wide stance” to “big tent.”
November 14th, 2007 at 9:25 am
It was a political blunder on Spitzer’s part – red meat for you nativist kooks
Three generations off the boat, bigfella.
High fence, wide gate. Walk through it.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Mitch boasted: “Three generations off the boat.”
Um, so?
Actually it’s a low fence with a narrow gate. Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many people stepping over it.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Clowny bloviated:
He’s wrong:
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=research_illegalsandcrime
November 14th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Clown plugged his ears and endlessly repeated…:
Um, so?
So I’m not a nativist. My grandma grew up speaking Norwegian. My great-grandfather came to this country alone at age 14 with a note asking the people at Ellis Island to help him get to his sister in Minnesota. I grew up around Vietnamese and Indian immigrants. I am vastly more pro-immigration than you could possibly imagine.
Legal immigration.
Actually it’s a low fence with a narrow gate. Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many people stepping over it.
Right. Hence, I wrote I favor a high fence and a wide gate. That would imply, for those who care about reading comprehension, that I advocate changes to the system.
Minor points, to be sure, but important, in their own little way.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Excellent point, Mitch. Guess that means that nobody in America except American Indians (currently being trashed over on Tracy and Kermie’s blog, I’m given to understand) can be prejudiced against immigrants. Bullshit. It is quintessential wingnut behavior to suck up the benefits of a free and generous country and then deny them to the next guy in line.
Angryclown doubts that you truly favor a wide gate (stance?) Because none of your Mitchketeers and other fellow travellers do.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:15 am
If Spitzer’s plan goes though angryclown will finally get to drive that Yugo legally!
The amazing thing is that mangy clown can fit about 25 of his cohorts in that Yugo.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:40 am
It is quintessential wingnut behavior to suck up the benefits of a free and generous country and then deny them to the next guy in line.
In your humble and objective opinion, natch.
Angryclown doubts that you truly favor a wide gate (stance?) Because none of your Mitchketeers and other fellow travellers do.
But your stance is ever so wide.
When it comes to immigration. Natch.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Gee, thanks for a link to the anti-immigrant rocket scientists over at FAIR, Andrew Rothman. I guess you suppose that provides an adequate fig-leaf to cover the racism that drives wingnut views of immigration (let me guess – you’re 4th generation off the boat and live on the same street as a Lithuanian, and therefore can’t possibly be anti-immigrant). Angryclown doesn’t think so.
Here’s one of the many studies that Angryclown finds more convincing:
http://www.ailf.org/ipc/special_report/sr_022107.pdf
November 14th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Met with ligit information, bitchieclown spins out a report from a lefty group. Well done, clownie. Keep plugging your ears and covering your eyes.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I would be some where around 10-15 generations off of the boat, but I have no idea why I am not allowed to be pro legal immigration but against illegal immigration. I may be obstinate but “because AC says so” doesn’t seem to be a valid reason. Also not sure how that makes me a racist. Should Canada go to hell and Canadians start pouring over the border, I would be against that too. Canadians. Doing the jobs we won’t do.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Dave, you are a true shithead if you think a brief, unsigned “study” on the FAIR website, which doesn’t provide an adequate explanation of the statistics and assumptions behind it, is “ligit.”
November 14th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Use of curse words only shows the weakness of your arguement, and the emptiness of your mind, clownie.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
No, Dave, it is meant to express a belief that you have excrement in your head, instead of a brain.
Too ligit to quit.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Democrats complain about rising economic inequality in the US. Democrats want to import more low and unskilled workers and vastly increase the number of H1B1 visas. Democrats also support the notion of ‘closed shops’, that is, a union workplace with no non-union employees permitted to work for wages.
Trying to reconcile all these contradictory notions has driven the Democrats insane.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Fortunately Angryclown is not limited by what one party or the other thinks.
Imagine what that must be like, while you’re getting your daily wingnut marching orders, Terry.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
“Fortunately Angryclown is not limited by what one party or the other thinks.”
Nope. Simply being limited by your own arrogance and inflated sense of self-importance is sufficient for you, AC.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I’ve BANNED you, clown. responding to a comment I’ve made is a waste of your valuable masturbation time.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
How DARE you! You don’t ban Angryclown. Angryclown bans you!
November 14th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Better than a shun, let me tell you from experience.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Cathcart, you are banned *and shunned*!
November 14th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Banned/Shunned? Meh, I’m used to getting BS from AngryClown.
November 14th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Did someone say something?
Cathcart is so not invited to Angryclown’s barn-raising.
November 14th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Like in “Footloose”? Will Jesus and his dinosaur be there?
What a strange and crazy world you imagine others inhabit, angryclown. 😉
November 14th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Spitzer’s such a maroon.
When Giuliani fought to extend rights and benefits to the illegals, he knew that the cops would just profile ’em anyway. Everybody’s happy.
Spitzer needed to give licenses with one hand and carry a plunger with the other.
/jc
November 14th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Ah yes, Troy, a strange, parallel fantasy world where Governors deal with water shortages by asking Jesus for rain, Presidential candidates boast that they don’t believe in evolution and gay manwhores get press credentials to lob softball questions to the most powerful man in the world.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
If only clown would shun me! If only, Like Ulysess, I could use some clever stratagem to blind forever the terrible eye that is fixed upon me! Alas, all such plans are like dreams that fade into nothingness under the light of the pitiless sun. I must console myself with the teachings of Luther; that my salvation is to be found in Faith, not Reason, and that, with prayer and contemplation, I may yet cling to the hope that I will outlive the fucker.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Didn’t I just shun/ban you? Swear to God, I can’t keep you wingnuts straight.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
If you shunned me you’d stop responding to my comments, moron.
November 14th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
A joke at your expense, Terry. Hard to keep up with somebody who reads above grade level, eh?
November 14th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Angryclown: The Internet version of Gary Busey in the movie Carney. It explains the makeup.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Oh, clown, how cruel you are to torment me with false hope! No wonder they call you the Don Torquemada of the internet! Or maybe it’s Don Qixote.
I only wish I could trick you into insulting someone else, like Mitch.
But he has the power to ban you from this blog, so you won’t.
Torquemada it is, then. No one could ever accuse Qixote of cowardice!
November 14th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Also Angryclown likes Mitch and respects him for putting his opinions here for anyone and everyone to take shots at. Plus his opinions on everything but politics are eminently correct and sensible.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
“Plus his opinions on everything but politics are eminently correct and sensible.”
I don’t think your wide stance will get you anywhere with Mitch, but you’re welcome to try.
November 14th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I invite you, Terry, to settle the controversy once and for all. Is Terry a dude’s name or a chick name?
November 14th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
“Is Terry a dude’s name or a chick name?”
I refuse to provide material for your sexual fantasies. Say, are you the guy who used to call in to KSTP in the 80’s and try to pass himself off as “Carl” from Caddyshack?
November 15th, 2007 at 5:35 am
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Stupid varmint.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
You keep bringing up failings attributed to a few (sometimes to just one), then project those onto an entire group of people, angryclown.
It is stupid, and you are critical of others when they engage in such behavior, but you do it a lot. :-/
November 15th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
You’re right, Troy. Angryclown should be more specific. Angryclown’s comments are directed toward you, the rest of the Mitchketeers and all wingnuts, everywhere, who think like you. It’s a big shoe, Cinderella, but it looks like a perfect fit!
November 15th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
you are critical of others when they engage in such behavior,
Being a liberal means never having to admit you’re sending armies of strawmen forth to do futile battle.