WASHINGTON DC – President Obama’s advisers tried to put the genie back in the bottle after a leaked White House immigration plan drew outrage from Republicans who accused the president of endangering the reform push.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a key figure in immigration reform talks, was among those who slammed the president for the plan. After what was described as a draft White House proposal was first leaked in USA Today, Rubio said over the weekend it would be “dead on arrival in Congress.”

By Monday, Obama insiders were walking the plan back and suggesting the leak was not intentional. (more…)

WASHINGTON — A draft of a White House immigration proposal obtained by USA TODAY would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents within eight years.

The plan also would provide for more security funding and require business owners to check the immigration status of new hires within four years. In addition, the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants could apply for a newly created “Lawful Prospective Immigrant” visa, under the bill being written by the White House.

The draft was obtained from an Obama administration official who said it was being distributed to various agencies. The official requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the proposal publicly.  (read more)

 CHICAGO – Four separate shootings took place in the span of 90 minutes Friday evening in Chicago, the first coming less than an hour after Air Force One departed O’Hare Airport after President Obama spoke on the culture of gun violence and economic decay that plagues many cities, including his hometown.

Four people were wounded on the streets of Chicago’s South and West sides between 5:55 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported. The president was airborne shortly after 5 p.m.

An hour earlier, Obama wrapped up a personal speech at Hyde Park Academy on the South Side, where he mourned the killing of Hadiya Pendleton, the teen who visited Washington for his inauguration just a week before she was gunned down not far from the school. “This is not just a gun issue. It’s also an issue of the kinds of communities that we’re building, and for that we all share a responsibility as citizens to fix it,” he said. (more…)

George Zimmerman is in the crosshairs, but only momentarily and incidentally.  Zimmerman is a political product, a product to be used as as a specific example to the rest of the cultural nation who refuse to bow to the alter of the BGI collective.  

Most of the things we are freaked about today were fully fatal 13 months, or 13 years ago: George Zimmerman’s situation caused many to notice a growing lump on our neck.   The cancer was already killing us.  The lump on the side of our neck really isn’t just a bother because it makes our shirt collars sit funny.  The cancer was metastasized long before we noticed that the shirt was sitting funny and wouldn’t button right.  We should have figured out by now that the shirt is not the problem.  The bump on the side of our neck is not the problem.  The color of the shirt is certainly not the problem. 

The problem is metastasized malignancy.

Refusing to deal with that is a choice, and refusal to make a choice in light of the facts (for fear of the unknowns that lie beyond the choice) is also a choice.   It’s all connected……

…”Moreover,  if the EEOC claims that “criminal record exclusions have a disparate impact  based on race and national origin” why should an employer suffer the  consequences of faulty decisions made by individuals?”…

Back in December we discussed a decision in New Jersey where on September 19, 2012, the Newark, New Jersey Municipal Council passed Ordinance 12-1630, “which limits employers’ ability to conduct criminal background checks.” The ordinance went into effect November 18, 2012 and “prevents employers with five or more employees who do business, employ persons or take applications for employment in the City of Newark, from asking applicants about their criminal history.” (more…)

“This is something I’ve struggled with throughout my presidency. The problem is that I’m the president of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.”

Not everyone will understand the coded message in the headline.  That’s ok.

Here is the media report from yesterday’s fiasco…. (HatTip Manybuddies)

Here are some random thoughts to chew on…. (more…)

Krauthammer: I find this amazing. First of all, just hearing him say every first grader in America has to be prepared for a high-tech economy, that is a bit early, I think. The other part of this is here we are with $16 trillion in debt, a trillion dollars a year of deficits. We have created already, with under Obama, the biggest entitlement in 50 years. And now he wants to create a new entitlement for preschool for every 4-year-old in the country.

The worst part of this, this isn’t just any new entitlement. This is an entitlement in an area where we know the $7 billion a year that we spend on Head Start doesn’t make any difference after the third grade. There is a study that HHS has done that showed that. So it’s failure and yet he wants to double down and to make it universal. That’s probably a definition of a liberal.

Sometimes we find articles, insight, or perspectives that directly align with, solidify and confirm previous deep vetted research and presentations.   Such is the case with this:

CLICK HERE

WASHINGTON DC – Jose Antonio Vargas, an illegal immigrant and former reporter, scolded a congressional panel on Wednesday, saying that he should not be called illegal, and saying it is an insult to his family who brought him here.

“When you inaccurately call me illegal, you not only dehumanize me, you’re offending them,” he said. “No human being is illegal.”

Mr. Vargas testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee alongside Chris Crane — a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and president of the ICE agents’ union — who is unable to arrest him under the administration’s new non-deportation policies.

Mr. Vargas, who “came out” as an illegal immigrant several years ago, delivered an emotional plea for the country to legalize him. (more)