State Of The Union Addresses Past: A Look Back At A History Of Forgotten Promises

While entertaini­ng, this collection plays a tad loose with reasons and implies some lack of effort or competence from U.S. Presidents Clinton, Bush II, and Obama seeking peace in the Mideast. You can blame Palestinia­n absolutism and Israeli scepticism for this continuing problem. Likewise, this video underplays the ineffectiv­eness of this particular administra­tion by trying the old "everybody fails" defense. Unfortunat­ely, the learning curve for the current administra­tion has been far steeper than most administra­tions and our problems far greater. The gap between promise and performanc­e has been quite exceptiona­l.
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What Is 'Back of the Line' Citizenship for Unauthorized Immigrants in the U.S.?

"While preference may be given to the parents of citizen children, and English-language fluency will likely be non-negotiable prerequisite..."



Have you seen actual evidence that the Obama administration will actually require real English fluency somewhere? The "revised" citizenship exam only requires, according to Price-Waterhouse experts who created it, a "high-beginning" ESL level of English. Translation into non-academic/bureaucratic jargon: that's a second grade literacy and speaking level.



As a former director of a citizenship center in Los Angeles County during the Clinton "let's naturalize everybody and win in 1996", I saw first-hand how broken the INS interview process became. The still standing 1911 requirement that citizens must be "able to read, write, and speak English" was interpreted to mean "can people answer 'yes' and 'no' to simple questions and answer two one-sentence dictations. The most common dictation? "I live in LA." Wow! Standards!



The revised test, however, is barely an improvement. As Mayor Giuliani noted during his failed presidential campaign, it's reasonable for citizenship applicants to actually meet the legal critieria - as written - that they "can read, write, and speak English."



Given the history of Clinton-Bush-Obama administration of watering down this simple legal requirement, I see no evidence that "English-language fluency will likely be non-negotiable prerequisite" in 2011 and 2012. Do you?
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Geithner Refuses To Say Whether He'd Be Happy With Warren Leading Consumer Agency (VIDEO)

Why is Geithner still in the cabinet? Have any of his policies worked out as he publicly described or predicted with such extreme confidence? Why have Fortune 500 company profits gone up 34% while unemployment almost doubled under his tenure? Why is Obama so loyal to such a corporate advocate?
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The Real Reason Geithner Is Afraid of Elizabeth Warren

At some point, Obama must support consumers and citizens over mega-banks and corporate executives if he wants to avoid the label corporate puppet.



But, alas, that seems quite unlikely. He's far more concerned about his donors than his voters.



Bring on a primary challenge. Where is Dean, Biden, Clinton, Feingold? Somebody should challenge this inexperienced, incompetent, and far too corporate President.
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Five Observations about an Ugly, Primitive and Important Debate over Illegal Immigration

President Obama's important speech on illegal immigration and the need to reform the United States' immigration policies deserves to heard. Obama articulated the problems with the current debate with impossible expectations by both open borders advocates (amnesty now!) and anti-illegal immigration activists (deportation now!). He also emphasized the need for a reasonable, fair, and comprehensive immigration reform.

Let me make five moderate observations on this hyper-emotional subject as a former director of a citizenship program in Los Angeles

1. The only way to build consensus for fair, rational and humane immigration reform is to FIRST vigorously enforce the current immigrations. It's like the oil gusher in the Gulf; nobody thinks Obama wants the disaster, but he's been utterly impotent and far too friendly to BP while appearing indifferent to the real suffering of American citizens. President Obama, please protect the borders.

2. Fair immigration reform should both grant visas to needed technical specialists, doctors, nurses, and engineers - and prosecute anyone who has used false documents while illegally working in the United States. Identity theft is a real crime that devastates individuals and harms the society. Again, enforcing state and federal laws is a reasonable starting point.

3. Citizenship must be earned by paying significant fines ($20,000?), passing a real English test (not the bogus 2nd grade equivalent of the new citizenship test), and establishing a waiting period of 5 years after the 10 million illegal adult immigrants receive their green cards. Rewarding lawbreakers over people who follow the rules almost guarantees more lawlessness.

By the way, enlightened immigration activists should vigorously support expansion of adult education classes and emphasize the multiple advantages of speaking and writing English. English has become the lingua franca of international business, yet too many ethnic nationalists keep demanding Spanish language programs instead of English. This profound error has lead to millions of miseducated, barely literate immigrants - and citizens who need translations to vote. Pathetic.

4. Democrats and Republicans need to avoid silly demagoguery, focus on genuine national interests, and stop pandering to corporate interests over American workers. Translation: no guest worker program for McDonalds, Marriot Hotels, and other service jobs that can be filled by American teenagers and the 10% unemployed. Immigration reform should and must work for the American people, not just the people are who pseudo-Americans and faux patriots.

5. Given the level of widespread popular opposition to this latest immigration reform and the vast corruption in our political system, bet on the corporate sponsored law being debated – and passed – by a lame duck Congress. Why? Well, there will be plenty of unemployed Congressional Representatives looking to pander to corporate interests and seeking financial rewards. Incumbent representatives have also shown themselves very eager to appease corporate campaign donors. Remember how NAFTA and GATT got passed? Both won approval from lame duck sessions despite widespread public opposition.

Bottomline: It appears that America's dysfunctional political system often fails to reflect both longterm national interests and popular will on vital, complicated problems. Hopefully, I'm wrong. I want to be wrong.

Gunmen Trash UN Gaza Summer Camp

"Islamic extremists, including a Hamas legislator, have accused the U.N. in the past of corrupting Gaza's youth, objecting to camp activities such as folklore dancing. A number of Islamic groups more militant than Hamas have carried out violence in the territory in the past few years." Crazy begets crazy, as Islamic fanaticism grows and deepens.



"Hamas is also becoming more assertive in imposing its strict version of Islam on daily life in Gaza. It has ordered male coiffeurs out of women's salons, and teenage girls are under intense pressure from teachers to wear headscarves and robes in government schools." And this "pressure" to conform comes in the form of honor killings, public whippings, and stonings.



Sometimes idealistic idiots have to suffer first hand from extremist violence before they believe it exists. Yet the UN, which famously remained neutral as Serbs slaughtered thousands of innocent civilians in a UN safe zone in Bosnia, never seems to learn that sometimes you must defend yourself from violent gunmen.



So the UN, long a defend of Islamic terrorist states and constant defamer of the only democratic government in the Mideast (Israel), has discovered that Hamas really is a violent, psychopathic and Islamic movement. They really want to impose Sharia and kill the last Jew behind the last tree - just like their charter says and they have publicly proclaimed for years.



Will our so-called, misguided humanitarians ever learn? Perhaps not. Probably not.
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POLITICO Arena: Dean Baker's response to 'Open Mic, 03/06-03/08'

Why not tax Wall Street speculation? Why not tax every stock trade over a certain amount? Why not impose an Eisenhower era tax rate on Hedge fund managers?

Oh, don't be reasonable!

POLITICO Arena: Dean Baker's response to 'Open Mic, 03/06-03/08'