I don't know if you'll agree with my opinion or not, but I've been laughing since yesterday when I saw this blurb go by in the news.
Apparently, this 16 year old girl named, Jakadrien Turner, ran away from her home in Houston a year ago where she had lived with her parents. They hadn't seen her since. According to Houston police, she was arrested on April 2, 2011, for misdemeanor theft in that city and claimed to be Tika Lanay Cortez, a Colombian woman born in 1990. They also said, it was unclear if she had been living under that name. After running the name through a database, to determine if she was wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the results were negative so they turned over to the Harris County jail and she was booked on the theft charge.
A sheriff's office employee recommended that an immigration detainer be put on her, and upon her release from jail she was turned over to ICE where U.S. immigration officials insist they followed procedure and found nothing to indicate that the girl wasn't a Colombian woman living illegally in the country. An ICE official said she claimed to be Cortez throughout the criminal proceedings in Houston and the ensuing deportation process, in which an immigration judge ultimately ordered her back to Colombia.
An ICE official said its standard practice before any deportation to coordinate with the other country in order to establish that person is from there, which they did. The Colombians then followed procedure, ultimately not only helping get her there but putting her in a program called, "Welcome Home" after she arrived. According to the agency, she was given shelter, psychological assistance and a job at a call center.
Sometime later, the girl was located by the Dallas Police Department through her Internet use, with help from Colombian and U.S. officials, after prodding by her grandmother, Lorene Taylor, and then returned here.
And now, folks on all sides are jumping up and down, pointing fingers at each other for allowing this fiasco to happen because the girl's so young. And, as usual, nobody wants to accept the blame which means with the family on one side, the cops on another and the immigration people in the middle, law suits will file, the press will blow the whole thing out of proportion and the situation is likely to escalate.
But it sees to me that nobody wants to sit back and consider the facts which are quite clear. A wayward girl stole or bought a passport belonging to someone else, then committed a crime and got caught. Then, for whatever reason she never disclosed the truth to authorities when questioned, and as a result got deported. Which to me is the same thing as a lame-brained thief stealing a suitcase from some stranger, not knowing the guy was a terrorist. However, the case actually contained a bomb and when the thief later opened the case, he blew himself to bits.
So, my question for today is: Why are any of these folks upset about what this apparently dim bulb did to herself every step of the way?
That's it for today folks.
Adios
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
BloggeRhythms 1/6/2012
While the candidates beat each other up in the Republican primary race, the news stories focus on the fact that the factions are warring, but don't necessarily detail specifics of the battles. That's why readers pick up phrases such as "Romney vacillates," but don't always learn that while an opponent may use a word like vacillate as a negative description, it simply may be that Romney learns from his mistakes and consequently, changes his mind when he believes he's been wrong on a subject. And, if that's the case, he's doing the right thing by altering his opinion, after gaining knowledge from less than desired results.
Along those same lines, if I were advising Mitt Romney, I'd tell him to not only keep on improving himself by applying the knowledge he's gained to adjust his viewpoint for the better as he learns from his mistakes, I'd use it as a campaign theme against the current incumbent. Because that guy not only hasn't learned a thing in three years in the White House about how to make himself better, he's steadfastly stuck to his guns to the extent that his rigidity has led to phenomenal failure in every aspect of his responsibility as a supposed leader. Consequently, here you have a perfect example of how bad a mistake it is to never change your mind, despite the fact that everything you do every day glaringly proves you were absolutely wrong in the first place.
Aside from the benefits to Mr.Romney himself of what can be gained by learning from one's errors, I believe there's also a lesson here for the whole Republican party. Because if they truly allow Rick Santorum to win their nomination, they may as well concede the general election right now. Because the special interests of the hard-line conservatives in the party aren't acceptable to the nation as a whole. Therefore, they're painting themselves into a corner and also taking the more moderate Republicans with them as they shut off any chance for beating the opposition at the polls. So, I guess that's where the phrase "lunatic fringe" really applies, because all these folk are really good at is shooting themselves in the foot.
Consequently, as I've suggested here many times before, if you want to get anything done at all, the first objective is to get your foot in the door, And all these hard-liners will be far better off with a nationally acceptable moderate Republican in office to work with than they will with any Democrat who will never give them a thing or a chance. So, maybe it's time for these rabid rebels to back off a bit, simply shut up and let Romney win. And if they do that, at least we all know one thing. The guy in office right now is well on his way out the door.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
Along those same lines, if I were advising Mitt Romney, I'd tell him to not only keep on improving himself by applying the knowledge he's gained to adjust his viewpoint for the better as he learns from his mistakes, I'd use it as a campaign theme against the current incumbent. Because that guy not only hasn't learned a thing in three years in the White House about how to make himself better, he's steadfastly stuck to his guns to the extent that his rigidity has led to phenomenal failure in every aspect of his responsibility as a supposed leader. Consequently, here you have a perfect example of how bad a mistake it is to never change your mind, despite the fact that everything you do every day glaringly proves you were absolutely wrong in the first place.
Aside from the benefits to Mr.Romney himself of what can be gained by learning from one's errors, I believe there's also a lesson here for the whole Republican party. Because if they truly allow Rick Santorum to win their nomination, they may as well concede the general election right now. Because the special interests of the hard-line conservatives in the party aren't acceptable to the nation as a whole. Therefore, they're painting themselves into a corner and also taking the more moderate Republicans with them as they shut off any chance for beating the opposition at the polls. So, I guess that's where the phrase "lunatic fringe" really applies, because all these folk are really good at is shooting themselves in the foot.
Consequently, as I've suggested here many times before, if you want to get anything done at all, the first objective is to get your foot in the door, And all these hard-liners will be far better off with a nationally acceptable moderate Republican in office to work with than they will with any Democrat who will never give them a thing or a chance. So, maybe it's time for these rabid rebels to back off a bit, simply shut up and let Romney win. And if they do that, at least we all know one thing. The guy in office right now is well on his way out the door.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
Thursday, January 5, 2012
BloggeRhythms 1/5/2012
As every day goes by, politicians prove that they either live in a world of their own which has no connection to reality, or have absolutely no regard for the intellect of those they address. Today's example comes from the president's campaign manager, a guy named Jim Messina.
According to Messina, Mitt Romney must "win by 30 points or so" in New Hampshire to build momentum for his campaign. The quote came from an item on the Fox News website, which went on to say that the president's campaign is "trying to raise expectations for Romney for the Tuesday primary after Romney's narrow victory over former Pennsylvania Senator, Rick Santorum."
What intrigued me about Messina's statement, and the fact that Fox thought it worthy of posting, is that I can't figure out for the life of me how or why the inane words of an opponent has anything to do with what happens in their rival's party.
But beyond that, Romney just eked out a victory in a contest in Iowa where he didn't even really compete. He's got six times as much money as any individual rival, and New Hampshire's a state where he owns a home and he was previously governor of next door Massachusetts. Nonetheless, Obama campaign officials said the Iowa results make Romney a weak front-runner
Well, if these guys think Romney's a weak front-runner because his recent victory was close, I think they ought to spend some time looking in mirrors. Because they represent a guy who's approval rating shrinks every time he makes a decision and he's single-handedly done more to turn the country into a third world nation that even Jimmy Carter.
And what all that says to me is that by next November, no matter who the Republicans nominate to run against him...if the present incumbent's approval ratings increase by thirty percent that will likely be his total, because at the rate he's going now his own number's going to be about zero by then.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
According to Messina, Mitt Romney must "win by 30 points or so" in New Hampshire to build momentum for his campaign. The quote came from an item on the Fox News website, which went on to say that the president's campaign is "trying to raise expectations for Romney for the Tuesday primary after Romney's narrow victory over former Pennsylvania Senator, Rick Santorum."
What intrigued me about Messina's statement, and the fact that Fox thought it worthy of posting, is that I can't figure out for the life of me how or why the inane words of an opponent has anything to do with what happens in their rival's party.
But beyond that, Romney just eked out a victory in a contest in Iowa where he didn't even really compete. He's got six times as much money as any individual rival, and New Hampshire's a state where he owns a home and he was previously governor of next door Massachusetts. Nonetheless, Obama campaign officials said the Iowa results make Romney a weak front-runner
Well, if these guys think Romney's a weak front-runner because his recent victory was close, I think they ought to spend some time looking in mirrors. Because they represent a guy who's approval rating shrinks every time he makes a decision and he's single-handedly done more to turn the country into a third world nation that even Jimmy Carter.
And what all that says to me is that by next November, no matter who the Republicans nominate to run against him...if the present incumbent's approval ratings increase by thirty percent that will likely be his total, because at the rate he's going now his own number's going to be about zero by then.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
BloggeRhythms 1/4/2012
Now that the Iowa circus is over, except for Rick Santorum's high finish, nothing's really changed much in the Republican presidential candidate race. Mitt Romney, who spent neither much time or money in the state, did better than expected and is still the most likely to eventually win the nomination.
The odds are that Santorum, who's extremely conservative, did so well because Iowa Republicans tend to be quite conservative too. He also spent huge amounts of time there, as well as lots of money. But, that doesn't usually mean much elsewhere in the nation where more moderate candidates often rise to the top.
As far as the rest of the field goes, the only item I saw of interest was that, Newt Gingrich, apparently blew a fuse because he didn't do very well and went after opponents this morning. He now says they bombarded him with negative advertising, which to my mind was pretty funny.
The reason for my laughter was that, as I've mentioned here before, Gingrich calls ads negative when they mention his documented track record, and that's what's happened here. The ads simply point out that he vacillates, supports opposition's idea when appropriate, and takes up causes of those willing to pay him but then denies he's been bought.
In the meantime, many Republican pundits are bemoaning the way this nomination race keeps producing new names at the top, suggesting a very long campaign till it all sorts out. They say, the barbs and jabs should be aimed at the current president and not each other, because time's being wasted as well as significant amounts of funds.
I, on the other hand, think exactly the reverse. Because while these folks are fighting amongst themselves they're still getting their basically similar points across to the public, and the country itself is still going in the wrong direction due to it's current leadership. These are things that can be seen by all.
But, if a Republican candidate was chosen by now, there'd be almost a year of head to head verbal competition between the two contestants for the White House, which would soon become boring and allow the arguments to burn out.
So then, I think Republican's are much better off right now by arguing with each other and not partaking in direct confrontation with someone who, as every day goes by, is further killing his chances for re-election by his incompetent self.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
The odds are that Santorum, who's extremely conservative, did so well because Iowa Republicans tend to be quite conservative too. He also spent huge amounts of time there, as well as lots of money. But, that doesn't usually mean much elsewhere in the nation where more moderate candidates often rise to the top.
As far as the rest of the field goes, the only item I saw of interest was that, Newt Gingrich, apparently blew a fuse because he didn't do very well and went after opponents this morning. He now says they bombarded him with negative advertising, which to my mind was pretty funny.
The reason for my laughter was that, as I've mentioned here before, Gingrich calls ads negative when they mention his documented track record, and that's what's happened here. The ads simply point out that he vacillates, supports opposition's idea when appropriate, and takes up causes of those willing to pay him but then denies he's been bought.
In the meantime, many Republican pundits are bemoaning the way this nomination race keeps producing new names at the top, suggesting a very long campaign till it all sorts out. They say, the barbs and jabs should be aimed at the current president and not each other, because time's being wasted as well as significant amounts of funds.
I, on the other hand, think exactly the reverse. Because while these folks are fighting amongst themselves they're still getting their basically similar points across to the public, and the country itself is still going in the wrong direction due to it's current leadership. These are things that can be seen by all.
But, if a Republican candidate was chosen by now, there'd be almost a year of head to head verbal competition between the two contestants for the White House, which would soon become boring and allow the arguments to burn out.
So then, I think Republican's are much better off right now by arguing with each other and not partaking in direct confrontation with someone who, as every day goes by, is further killing his chances for re-election by his incompetent self.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
BloggeRhythms 1/2/2012
All today's headlines say pretty much the same thing. It's down to the wire in Iowa, and the prediction is that two of the top finishers will be Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. Mitt Romney's expected to round out the top three, and perhaps might even win.
As for me, I'm still quite confused because it still seems that this whole caucus is a non-event. And the reason for my inability to grasp the importance of the vote is that I have exactly the same chance of winning the presidency as do both Santorum and Paul, and not a soul in Iowa, or almost anywhere on the planet knows who I am nor cares to find out. Consequently, since for these two, their odds of gaining the White House amount to less than zero, regardless of winning in the midst of fly-over country...what's the point?
So, in the end, since I really think this whole scenario's a huge waste of time and hasn't got much meaning at all, I think I'm finally getting the picture. Because what could be more appropriate for politicians than wasting vast hours of everyone's time, spending millions upon millions for no reason, and producing nothing worthwhile in the end at all?
That's it for today folks.
Adios
As for me, I'm still quite confused because it still seems that this whole caucus is a non-event. And the reason for my inability to grasp the importance of the vote is that I have exactly the same chance of winning the presidency as do both Santorum and Paul, and not a soul in Iowa, or almost anywhere on the planet knows who I am nor cares to find out. Consequently, since for these two, their odds of gaining the White House amount to less than zero, regardless of winning in the midst of fly-over country...what's the point?
So, in the end, since I really think this whole scenario's a huge waste of time and hasn't got much meaning at all, I think I'm finally getting the picture. Because what could be more appropriate for politicians than wasting vast hours of everyone's time, spending millions upon millions for no reason, and producing nothing worthwhile in the end at all?
That's it for today folks.
Adios
Sunday, January 1, 2012
BloggeRhythms 1/1/2012
Best wishes to all for a Happy New Year. However, as far as interesting news goes, there just doesn't seem to be any. But I did find a short entry on Fox News website that reports that Newt Gingrich told an audience in Iowa that he prays "before virtually every speech and virtually every major decision."
I thought the subject interesting because although I didn't think that I had anything in common with Newt at all, it turns out that I do. Because I've done more or less the same kind of praying quite often myself. And without getting into specifics as to which Deity I addressed, or how I did it, I just wanted to mention the subject because it rang a bell.
Frankly, I prayed much more often when I was younger, and especially while attending school. Because I fervently hoped that help would come my way from above when taking tests I hadn't prepared for, or that a blizzard would close the schools on days that subjects like advanced algebra was discussed.
As I got older I also prayed a lot in other places, such as at water holes on golf courses, fervently beseeching that my ball stay dry and reach the green. Not to mention very long sessions on my knees before visiting the IRS.
The reason I mention all this is that over time I finally figured out that while prayer is a wonderful thing, you can't always be sure that your pleas and pledges are going to be heard or answered affirmatively. So, just to add some insurance that things turn out as they should, I found it best to do my homework, practice the things I cared about, always did the best job I could...and in that way added some insurance, just in case my Deity was busy elsewhere when I knelt.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
I thought the subject interesting because although I didn't think that I had anything in common with Newt at all, it turns out that I do. Because I've done more or less the same kind of praying quite often myself. And without getting into specifics as to which Deity I addressed, or how I did it, I just wanted to mention the subject because it rang a bell.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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