A Mayor's right to choose

Wikipedia:

Giuliani was criticized for embracing illegal immigrants. Giuliani continued a policy of preventing city employees from contacting the Immigration and Naturalization Service about immigration violations, on the grounds that illegal aliens must be able to take actions such as to send their children to school or report crime and violations without fear of deportation. He ordered city attorneys to defend this policy in federal court. The court ruled that New York City's sanctuary laws were illegal. After the City of New York lost an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, Giuliani vowed to ignore the law.

City Journal:

Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the Supreme Court to defend the city’s sanctuary policy against a 1996 federal law decreeing that cities could not prohibit their employees from cooperating with the INS. Oh yeah? said Giuliani; just watch me. The INS, he claimed, with what turned out to be grotesque irony, only aims to “terrorize people.” Though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.

Banana Republicans

Senator Mel Martinez joined 6 other GOP senators to vote for cloture of the Immigration Bill. The GOP base loathes the bill and 38 of 45 GOP senators voted against. How then can Martinez remain GOP Chairman?

Now is a tipping point. Either build the fence, secure the border, deport criminals and deter employers or accept a demographic Reconquista. That means "humanely enforce the law", a policy opposed by the President, the GOP Chairman, the head of Homeland Security, the Majority Party in the Senate and the House, John McCain, the MSM of course and The Wall Street Journal - a Grand Alliance for the Grand Bargain versus the Grand Old Party.

The McCain-Kennedy Shamnesty Bill is a blessing because it's dragged the border and demographics into open politics. Let a new 'Grand Bargain' be made between conservatives and working Democrats. Immigration and the border may be the issue of 2008 and may work magic for Giuliani or Romney. Hispanics and liberals may vote for Amnesty and insecure borders, but they mostly vote Dem anyway. Blacks and blue collar workers have a real incentive to switch in critical states. Many are socially conservative anyway and could be Reagan Republicans were it not for identity politics. "Humanely enforce the law" is good policy and good politics.

By the way 'sanctuary cities' is a bad idea for a society that wants 'a government of laws not of men.' Why should Paris Hilton accept the justice of jail for breaking probation in Los Angeles?

Americans scoff at the UK's Islamification which is driven by short-term electoral gain. UK Moslems vote as a bloc and Moslem electoral fraud in postal voting has tainted British democracy in unprecedented ways. So scoff away, Yanqui, you're dead right. BUT you have imported a Latin American political culture which is a government of men not of laws... sanctuary cities, illegal immigration, amnesty, La Raza, bilingualism. The perceived electoral value of Hispanics as a bloc drives the political class to outrages on democracy. Well, while you're jostling for elections, you'll lose America for your children and mine. I have a name for Bush, McCain, Martinez and the rest: Banana Republicans.

PS this is how Latinos see it:

“California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn’t like it should leave.” Mario Obledo, California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations and California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Governor Jerry Brown, also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton

“We are practicing ‘La Reconquista’ in California.” Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General

“The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot.” Excelsior, the national newspaper of Mexico.

“We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. The explosion is in our population . . I love it. They are shitting in their pants with fear. I love it.” Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez, University of Texas

“Remember 187--proposition to deny taxpayer funds for services to non-citizens--was the last gasp of white America in California.” Art Torres, Chairman of the California Democratic Party

“We need to avoid a white backlash by using codes understood by Latinos . . . “ Professor Fernando Guerra, Loyola Marymount University

"We paid a political price in the last election cycle. If we get the same type of Hispanic support in the next election cycle than we did in the last, there's no way we could elect a Republican president' in 2008." Mel Martinez, GOP Chairman

CO2 PMQ QED WAWAA

Prime Minister's Questions yesterday in the UK Parliament:

Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con):

Why did carbon dioxide emissions in both the UK and the EU rise last year while falling in the United States of America...

The Prime Minister:

blah blah blah... European emissions trading system... blah blah blah...only through that...blah blah blah...Kyoto.

Comment by Iain Murray

Blair's failure to answer the question asked, while typical, is indicative that he knows the real answer but cannot deliver it: that America's free enterprise system is better at delivering greenhouse gas reductions than the targets and timetables approach of the EU. The American experience proves that it is not "only through that trading scheme" that any difference can be made.

My friends, (mocking McCain) this is not about CO2. It's about power for transnational elites and their fleas. A superpowerful, free-enterprise, democratic, self-determining USA antithesizes the énarquiste weltanschauung (just having fun with polylingual polysyllables - it's the coffee) and there's a secular war whose fronts are the UN, Kyoto, the MSM, Academia, the US Supreme Court and The Culture Wars. My friends, it's a vast left-wing conspiracy. I guess we need a name for the whole shebang. 'The War on Error' doesn't capture the moral dimension. 'The War against the War against America' - 'WAWAA' - is my best shot on this pot of coffee. My friends, good morning.

The horror, the horror

There's something about logos that brings out all that's most spastic in ponytail aesthetics. Once a CEO has bought into a logo, it's blasphemy to state the obvious - same with IT projects or the Emperor's New Clothes.

The crazed emperor of the London Olympics is Sebastian Coe, one of the greatest athletes of all time. I once walked behind him at Athens airport. It was like walking behind a man with wings on his ankles...he just glided down the corridor with no effort. Here he is announcing the new logo..

See also Fake Steve.

Death or glory or a cup of tea

Michael Yon has posted the first of 4 accounts of the British army in Iraq.

The Queen’s Royal Lancers have been living out in the desert for about six months, like nomads moving from place to place, sleeping under the stars, getting much of their resupply of food and water by nighttime parachute drop as they patrol the Iran-Iraq border.

I'm proud of my fighting compatriots and take special pride in the mutual respect of the US/UK allies in this account. For me it's vicarious and I'm conscious of not having earnt my own freedom, but if one is going to be proud of anything outside the family, then this is it.

The expertise that's been acquired by the Allies in Iraq and Afghanistan will be priceless in future.

Psycho-economics

Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker) has an astute piece on the psycho-economics of trophy newpaper ownership.

The cachet of the New York Times is worth more to the Sulzberger family than to anyone else. The Sulzbergers' relationship to the Times is the chief source of their status; without it they are mere mortals with a bit of cash; and so the Sulzbergers cling to their control of the Times as tightly as ever.
Instead of getting out while the getting is good, they flop around looking for new ways to raise money without ceding control, and to make money without leaving the news business. Which is to say, they are working as hard as they possibly can to throw good money after bad -- with the predictable result that they have alienated their outside investors.

But...

The cachet of the Wall Street Journal to the Bancrofts, by contrast, is worth very little. There are too many Bancrofts, and they are too loosely associated with the paper: Even if they do theoretically control the Journal, no one but Rupert Murdoch wants to invite them to dinner to discuss the page one A-heads.
There's a word for an investor who clings to an asset whose chief value, its cachet, is of virtually no value to them: insane

I disagree with Michael Lewis that Murdoch is overvaluing the WSJ. The world is ripe for a print and web-based global clearing house for business matters and non-elitist opinion. The WSJ franchise can be vastly expanded, especially since Pearson has gone out of its way to ruin the FT.

You read it here first

Blair's abdication is nigh. Gordon Brown has a couple of years till a general election. The 'Conservative' leader, David Cameron, is universally recognized is an opportunist, unprincipled, inexperienced, socially liberal scumbag of the most transparent sort, BUT he's had much better poll numbers than his predecessors and is given an easy ride by large elements of the MSM, especially the BBC which played a big part in getting him elected leader against the favourite, the socially somewhat conservative, David Davis. Cameron is openly ridiculed and despised in some influential quarters, so he may not win the general election despite a pervasive feeling of 'throw the bums out and give us some new bums.'

If Labour loses the next election, but more importantly the election after that, then the last 10 years will seem like a golden age to the hordes of feather-bedded pols and tax-funded nosy parkers who infest Great Britain. Then the issues of Iraq and friendliness with the Toxic Texan will have receded and Tony Blair will be remembered as the Undefeated Champion of 3 General Elections, by far the most successful leader Labour has ever had. He will still be youngish, vigourous and his reputation will have been resuscitated. He won elections and he had principles, quite Thatcheresque.

I therefore forecast that Blair will be drafted back to power within 7 years.

Lies, damned lies and carbon credits

FT
Europe furious at US climate call

A spokesman for Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor and current G8 president, said Germany’s stance that climate talks should take place within the United Nations was “non-negotiable”.

Guardian
Truth about Kyoto: huge profits, little carbon saved

The [Clean Development Mechanism] is one of two global markets which have been set up in the wake of the Kyoto climate summit in 1997. Both finally started work in January 2005. Although both were launched with the claim that they would reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, evidence collected by the Guardian suggests that thus far, both markets have earned fortunes for speculators and for some of the companies which produce most greenhouse gases and yet, through a combination of teething troubles and multiple forms of malpractice and possibly fraud, they have delivered little or no benefit for the environment.

While the [Clean Development Mechanism] is run under the umbrella of the UN, the second market is overseen by the European commission.

The Guardian investigation is rich with comic detail of the brazen scams. God knows how much the envirocrats are skimming off the top. It all comes from you and me, folks, so smile while you're being shafted by these smug, moralising, gormless, elitist, manipulative, anti-scientific, parasitic, 3-pool heating, Stalinist twerps.

Kudos to The Grauniad for giving scoffers like me the material to berate their soulmates.

You read it here second

A funny blog is The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs ("Dude, I invented the friggin iPod. Have you heard of it?"). At the recent, wonderful reminiscence orgy of Jobs and Bill Gates, Gates opened with the line "First I want to clarify, I'm not Fake Steve Jobs" and raised the blog's profile a couple of notches to 50,000 visitors the next day.

So who is Fake Steve if he's not Bill Gates? The answer may be here and I'm more than half convinced despite the denial.

Bought the T-shirt

The game was Wednesday's European Cup Final when AC Milan beat Liverpool 2-1. On the left is Kaka , the Brazilian now rated as the best player in the world. On the right is Steve Gerrard, the Liverpool captain, a great player and leader.

Kaka is an evangelical Christian. His lifestyle and virtues are impressive. I shudder at such people, but that may be the devil in me. I shudder more still at the religion of Atheism, so I'm glad that Kaka sticks it up 'em in this photo.

The Nominees

It's been obvious to me for a while that Romney will be the GOP nominee. All his trends are up, he wants it and he's competent. The more he's exposed, the more he impresses. He sounds like the real deal and seems to handle pressure well. Giuliani is the competition thanks to his tremendous name recognition, but he doesn't have the desire and his cloudiness on abortion, immigration and other social issues dilutes his image as a forceful executive. McCain is frankly despised. So that's that.

Gore is waiting to be drafted with loving kisses and adoration and that will happen when it becomes clear that both H.Clinton and Obama are unelectable versus Giuliani or Romney. In dangerous times executive achievement trumps vapid socialism and bs about gender or race. Gore has zero executive achievement, but sounds like he does, at least against the insubstantiality of Clinton and Obama. He's electable and the serious liberals want and need the Presidency very badly now. Ergo they'll draft him.

So Romney v Gore it will be. Note that Gore will have Steve Jobs on his side. That may be pretty influential with young voters. Jobs has earnt credibility in a way that the Hollywood airheads have not. It will be a formidable clash. I'd back Romney just because he's right on the issues and is good in debate plus he has the good humour to gore Gore.

UPDATE: Obama and Clinton give a 360 degree demo of their Presidential demeanour (if 'Presidential' means 'cockroach') by their vote on troop-funding and the manner of it:

Both Clinton and Obama had remained publicly uncommitted in the hours before the vote. Neither were on the Senate floor as voting began. Halfway through, Obama walked into the chamber and cast his "no" vote. Clinton did the same a few minutes later.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I realise I've ignored John Edwards, but the man's a clown's clown, yea he beclowns himself in new ways. Kerry's ex-campaign manager's repellent story that Edwards told Kerry twice the same story about lying (the right word) on his dead son's slab at the funeral home prefaced by saying that he had never told anyone else - that witnesses the ambulance chasing, tort lawyering, gay-queasy, silky phony's unelectability. The netroots may like his stances, but their motive is to capture the Party rather than win elections.