ldunning

Yes only certain people would qualify for post secondary education. Those whose grade point averages are high enough and score high enough on SAT/ACT tests. While I am usually opposed to excess government spending I can back paying for higher education. I recognize the vast majority of people don't belong in 4 year institutions. This is why a 2 year technical plan would be involved. If you wanted this could be limited to families making below $100,000 a year or some arbitrary number. I am also in favor of mandatory military service regardless of ones gender. Military service could be tied into payment for college. The GI bill expanded. As far as backlash- I went to the University of South Carolina some years ago. To be in the honors groups a student had to have a certain gpa. In writing, USC stated African American students could have a lower gpa and receive honors, than students from other ethnic groups. A large number of students who earned their honors thought it wasn't fair. A number of African American students who met the benchmark for non-African American students felt cheated because they were presumed to have the lower standard. Special treatment for anyone regardless of who or what they are is not correct.

Yes only certain people would qualify for post secondary education. Those whose grade point averages are high enough and score high enough on SAT/ACT tests. While I am usually opposed to excess government spending I can back paying for higher education. I recognize the vast majority of people don't belong in 4 year institutions. This is why a 2 year technical plan would be involved. If you wanted this could be limited to families making below $100,000 a year or some arbitrary number. I am also in favor of mandatory military service regardless of ones gender. Military service could be tied into payment for college. The GI bill expanded. As far as backlash- I went to the University of South Carolina some years ago. To be in the honors groups a student had to have a certain gpa. In writing, USC stated African American students could have a lower gpa and receive honors, than students from other ethnic groups. A large number of students who earned their honors thought it wasn't fair. A number of African American students who met the benchmark for non-African American students felt cheated because they were presumed to have the lower standard. Special treatment for anyone regardless of who or what they are is not correct.

Didn't we try that already. The totality of the welfare system, which I abhor, is geared towards giving people a chance to improve their lives. In reality it mires more people to the bottom of the economic ladder than helps. I would not be opposed to say 100% payment of college costs for high school students meeting high benchmarks. I would not be opposed to paying for technical training for anyone who manages to graduate high school. In effect it would extend the current public school system for 2 or 4 more years. This would probably only work if students could attend any school they wanted from kindergarten. I digress- What new social program could possibly be enacted that wouldn't be the miserable failure that the current social programs are. In any event the same problem applies. Would some people get more help than others because of their genetic heritage?

Didn't we try that already. The totality of the welfare system, which I abhor, is geared towards giving people a chance to improve their lives. In reality it mires more people to the bottom of the economic ladder than helps. I would not be opposed to say 100% payment of college costs for high school students meeting high benchmarks. I would not be opposed to paying for technical training for anyone who manages to graduate high school. In effect it would extend the current public school system for 2 or 4 more years. This would probably only work if students could attend any school they wanted from kindergarten. I digress- What new social program could possibly be enacted that wouldn't be the miserable failure that the current social programs are. In any event the same problem applies. Would some people get more help than others because of their genetic heritage?

The payment to a coyote begins at $2,000 U.S. It goes up from there. Also not every illegal alien is poor by our standards or their home country's standards. There is Walmart brand smuggling and Neiman Marcus smuggling. Do you want to buy a quick dash across the border or do you want to be sealed inside a shipping container and shipped overseas. Additionally this would take care of family preference as poor people would take loans in their home country, enter, and could work to save enough money to bring in their families. And they get loans now to pay coyotes

The payment to a coyote begins at $2,000 U.S. It goes up from there. Also not every illegal alien is poor by our standards or their home country's standards. There is Walmart brand smuggling and Neiman Marcus smuggling. Do you want to buy a quick dash across the border or do you want to be sealed inside a shipping container and shipped overseas. Additionally this would take care of family preference as poor people would take loans in their home country, enter, and could work to save enough money to bring in their families. And they get loans now to pay coyotes

How about I want an assault weapon because I want one. Second amendment. The founding fathers saw that a time may come when the populace being governed may need adequate measures for defense. If not from foreign enemy then from our own government. I don't see our government going that far down the path just yet- but very often the only difference between a Republican and a Democrat is which parts of the Bill of Rights they want to dismantle. I don't currently own any weapons but if I want one I am going to get it.

How about I want an assault weapon because I want one. Second amendment. The founding fathers saw that a time may come when the populace being governed may need adequate measures for defense. If not from foreign enemy then from our own government. I don't see our government going that far down the path just yet- but very often the only difference between a Republican and a Democrat is which parts of the Bill of Rights they want to dismantle. I don't currently own any weapons but if I want one I am going to get it.

Lets say hypothetically that this country decides to engage in payments to parties for slavery. How exactly would that math work? If you are African American but your family arrived *after* the slavery ended you would get nothing? If you are African American but genetic testing shows you are of European genetic heritage would your payment would be reduced by a percentage? If you are Caucasion but genetic testing shows you have African heritiage would you get a little piece of the pie? Could money be deducted if historical records showed you are decendant from one of the few African American people who managed to own slaves? Who would have to pay for this? Taxpayers? Is the government going to take money out of someone's pocket and then give it back to them? I'm just curious since we don't have a class of injured people who are alive today or even closely people related to the class of people who were injured.

Lets say hypothetically that this country decides to engage in payments to parties for slavery. How exactly would that math work? If you are African American but your family arrived after the slavery ended you would get nothing? If you are African American but genetic testing shows you are of European genetic heritage would your payment would be reduced by a percentage? If you are Caucasion but genetic testing shows you have African heritiage would you get a little piece of the pie? Could money be deducted if historical records showed you are decendant from one of the few African American people who managed to own slaves? Who would have to pay for this? Taxpayers? Is the government going to take money out of someone's pocket and then give it back to them? I'm just curious since we don't have a class of injured people who are alive today or even closely people related to the class of people who were injured.

The problem with the immigration problem is it is too complex to sum up into a for or against issue. Folks on both sides of this issue are simultaneously right and wrong in their views. The biggest is the it is a crime to be an illegal immigrant. It is a civil violation to be in this country without the correct documentation or permission. It becomes a criminal issue when you are told to leave- deported- and fail to do so. THe immigration system is hopelessly broken. Everyone can agree to this. How we are going to fix it becomes and matter of debate. what to do with the people who came here and bypassed system is a contentious issue to be mild. Illegal immigration is an expected outcome of the problem this country has with supply and demand in the labor market. Specifically in the unskilled and semi-skilled end of the labor force. THerare x number of employers whoneed x number of workers. American workers are hard to come by mostly because no citizen in this country *has* to get a job in order to eat and have a place to live. In South Carolina the total dollar amount of government aid you can get by being jobless comes to around $30,000 per year and we sit on the poorer end of the aid spectrum. This list includes food stamps, housing vouchers, childcare vouchers (no you don't have to acutally have a job to get these. But that is a later post on the inefficiencies of government), medicaid and the list goes on. $30,000 from a state on the poorer end of the public benefits spectrum. People aren't stupid. No one is going to scrub a toilet or haul bricks or perform any task for less than what they can get staying home. However decreasing the supply doesn't decrease the demand. Enter the illegal immigrant. They wan't a job and the marketplace has a job. So you have two ways to fix the problem. Increase the supply of American workers by decreasing the incentive to not work, increase the supply by letting in more foreign workers, or decrease the demand by some method too heinous to contemplate. Now the folks who didn't wait in this immigration line have to be dealt with. To some degree they are more American than the people waiting passively in this mythic line. Americans are supposed to be agressive in the resolution of problems. We are supposed to be the kind of people who don't wait passively for the government to fix things. We are supposed to be the people who do it for ourselves. Illegal immigrants to some degree embody this principle. Illegal doesn't necessarily equate to Hispanic, but we all know this is the largest immigrant group legal and illegal. This is the same group starting their own businesses, buying homes (and losing them to foreclosure), and generally taking care of themselves. Lots of rambling later- I somewhat agree with the post- but I am in favor of seperating the wheat from the chaf of this current illegal group. Keep those who have Americanized themselves, makethem pay fines,and pay ALL of their taxes owed. Send back anyone with a criminal record or not made attempts to assimilate into the American culture. Resolve further problems by setting up entry points at the border. $5,000 per family member paid up front, DNA swabs of the cheek, fingerprints, and sattelite ankle bracelet monitoring until all criminal background checks are complete. $5,000 times 12 million illegal immigrants. You do the math

The problem with the immigration problem is it is too complex to sum up into a for or against issue. Folks on both sides of this issue are simultaneously right and wrong in their views. The biggest is the it is a crime to be an illegal immigrant. It is a civil violation to be in this country without the correct documentation or permission. It becomes a criminal issue when you are told to leave- deported- and fail to do so. THe immigration system is hopelessly broken. Everyone can agree to this. How we are going to fix it becomes and matter of debate. what to do with the people who came here and bypassed system is a contentious issue to be mild. Illegal immigration is an expected outcome of the problem this country has with supply and demand in the labor market. Specifically in the unskilled and semi-skilled end of the labor force. THerare x number of employers whoneed x number of workers. American workers are hard to come by mostly because no citizen in this country has to get a job in order to eat and have a place to live. In South Carolina the total dollar amount of government aid you can get by being jobless comes to around $30,000 per year and we sit on the poorer end of the aid spectrum. This list includes food stamps, housing vouchers, childcare vouchers (no you don't have to acutally have a job to get these. But that is a later post on the inefficiencies of government), medicaid and the list goes on. $30,000 from a state on the poorer end of the public benefits spectrum. People aren't stupid. No one is going to scrub a toilet or haul bricks or perform any task for less than what they can get staying home. However decreasing the supply doesn't decrease the demand. Enter the illegal immigrant. They wan't a job and the marketplace has a job. So you have two ways to fix the problem. Increase the supply of American workers by decreasing the incentive to not work, increase the supply by letting in more foreign workers, or decrease the demand by some method too heinous to contemplate. Now the folks who didn't wait in this immigration line have to be dealt with. To some degree they are more American than the people waiting passively in this mythic line. Americans are supposed to be agressive in the resolution of problems. We are supposed to be the kind of people who don't wait passively for the government to fix things. We are supposed to be the people who do it for ourselves. Illegal immigrants to some degree embody this principle. Illegal doesn't necessarily equate to Hispanic, but we all know this is the largest immigrant group legal and illegal. This is the same group starting their own businesses, buying homes (and losing them to foreclosure), and generally taking care of themselves. Lots of rambling later- I somewhat agree with the post- but I am in favor of seperating the wheat from the chaf of this current illegal group. Keep those who have Americanized themselves, makethem pay fines,and pay ALL of their taxes owed. Send back anyone with a criminal record or not made attempts to assimilate into the American culture. Resolve further problems by setting up entry points at the border. $5,000 per family member paid up front, DNA swabs of the cheek, fingerprints, and sattelite ankle bracelet monitoring until all criminal background checks are complete. $5,000 times 12 million illegal immigrants. You do the math

Younger, Children at home. Strong fiscal credentials with the social stances to boot. BONUS! Southern governer to bring in those southern votes. This guy could really help convince some voters in November to come to the polls and vote for McCain. Then again- I could just be biased to presume a McCain nomination or that Sanford would accept. Sanford once said on a radio talkshow that his wife wants him to get a real job. He added she can back that request up with her hunting rifle that she knows how to use. Did Sanford just add NRA backing too.

Younger, Children at home. Strong fiscal credentials with the social stances to boot. BONUS! Southern governer to bring in those southern votes. This guy could really help convince some voters in November to come to the polls and vote for McCain. Then again- I could just be biased to presume a McCain nomination or that Sanford would accept. Sanford once said on a radio talkshow that his wife wants him to get a real job. He added she can back that request up with her hunting rifle that she knows how to use. Did Sanford just add NRA backing too.