Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Thursday, June 21. 2007

Call your Senators today

Take a minute and let them know your thoughts about illegal immigration and the bill which is back before the Senate this week. Phone - don't email or write.

Phone info here.

Addendum: Just heard Sean Hannity interview Trent Lott on the radio. Lott was unconvincing and I found his condescending manner obnoxious. It seems that his main point was "We have to do something." Why? Sean noted that Reagan had promised that his amnesty bill would close the borders, but had not. Lott explained that government is not efficient, things take time, etc. Sean said something like "If you couldn't do the border part of that bill, why should anyone believe that you will do the border part of this one?" Sean argued that a bill providing border control would enjoy huge popular support, and that Congress can deal with the other things later.

Addendum: Congress is fed up with the voters. h/t, Insty. Why won't people leave them alone and let them do what is really best for us ignorant jerks?

Posted by The News Junkie in Politics at 11:00 | Comments (37) | Trackback (1)

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Arrogance in DC
Would you like to know what your elected congresscritters think of you?
Weblog: Right Wing Nation
Tracked: Jun 22, 13:25

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Good luck on calling. I ried both of my Senator's offices in DC this A.M. The answering machines would not take messages and you can't talk to a human.

I then called their five or six offices in the state...not even an answering machine.

So then I called my U.S. Rep who I know and talked with one of his semi pooh bahs. She confirmed what I thought. The Senate has shut down the "incoming" from the citizenry..
This holds true for Florida, perhaps not for your state so at least try....and good luck..
#1 Habu on 2007-06-21 11:28 (Reply)
They're gonna fool around until someone organizes a nationwide tax strike. What's IRS gonna do with 50 million tax-strikers who want DC shaped up or shipped out before they'll play ball again?
#2 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 11:50 (Reply)
Give them amnesty? Like with 20 million illegals?
#2.1 The NJ on 2007-06-21 11:58 (Reply)
I used your e-mail contact form to tell my Senator Mitch McConnell, who is the Senate Minority Leader, that I will not vote in November 2008 for anyone who votes for that mess of a bill.

Since he is up for re-election next year, and has been reported to be one who is being encouraged to switch from "Nay" to "Aye", losing constituent votes in a hot election may make a difference !
#3 Jack Coupal on 2007-06-21 12:03 (Reply)
Were I not so languid from this dreadful heat and a trip to Wal-Mart where I had to walk a mile in my shoes, I would go stand in front of a tank with my lightest grocery bag. That would be the bread.

Meantime, I shall have some Pernod and think about Hemingway, that most lanquid of writers.
.
#4 Phoenix on 2007-06-21 13:43 (Reply)
The sad truth is that there is no one in Congress smart enough to solve the problem. Even if they had the motivation to fix it correctly instead of the motivation to get re-elected. Same for social security, budget, energy policy, you name it.
#5 Jim on 2007-06-21 14:27 (Reply)
Jim , I do believe you're right.
#5.1 Habu on 2007-06-21 16:52 (Reply)
http://www.visionrobotics.com/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=26&catid=2
#6 Skookumchuk on 2007-06-21 14:57 (Reply)
"lanquid" ?
#7 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 15:17 (Reply)
skook--re your link, what I used to pray for in the oil patch was a pump that could move dry powder. Sounds prosaic, but there's no way to transfer dry bulk mtrl except by hand held tools ("shovels") or air compressor. Air blows clouds of the "fines" everywhere, and keeps everything around a rig dirty between rainfalls. But still, if it ain't in a 50, 80, or 100 lb bag, air is how stuff is 'blown' from one tank to another, no way to improve it. Augers are good for only the shortest, most stable 'runs'. Point is, the human hand may be the best we'll ever do for orchard harvesting--even efficiency-wise, when the stuff can be rough-handled (for processing rather than 'whole fruit' to end-user).
#8 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 16:30 (Reply)
Maybe. For rough handling of processed fruit I can see it eventually. For whole fruit, I don't know. And it is true they have been trying for a long time. Though robotics and sensing technology is much better now. But my larger point was that in the end - over the very long term for industry in general - the machine wins. Or rather, the trained operator and the machine win. As opposed to many unskilled persons doing it by hand.
#8.1 Skookumchuk on 2007-06-21 16:52 (Reply)
But yes - you have to call and write. Our problem is that we are an insular people living next door to a failed state. And thus we don't realize what that means.
#9 Skookumchuk on 2007-06-21 17:00 (Reply)
True. You have to see mass endemic deprivation up close & personal or you can't imagine it.
#10 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 17:23 (Reply)
all notions of justice and fairness, and sovereignty and nationality, right and wrong, whatever, are quickly trumped by a times-ten wage waiting across the river. That's what we're up against, it's a wonder it's not worse than it is.
#11 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 17:27 (Reply)
If you're making 50K, and could sneak into Mexico and make 500k, you'd be thinking about it all the time, unless dissuaded somehow.
#12 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 17:30 (Reply)
The problem is that wage differential certainly, but also the death of the assimilationist ethos and the rise of identity group politics. You put those two together and you have what we have now.
#13 Skookumchuk on 2007-06-21 17:59 (Reply)
I got thru to Sen Martinez's office for all the good it will do. No answer for Nelson but both Florida senators want all the illegals they can get. Martinez because he Bush's buddy and Nelson because they think are the illegals will be Democrats.
#14 grant1863 on 2007-06-21 18:43 (Reply)
Florida is weird--all those GOP Latinos. Maybe the pubs feel like they need the example, or the symbol, of GOP Latinos--so the national party is eager to please. Who knows. I'm not even sure I'm sitting here anymore. I may be dreaming all this.
#15 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 18:52 (Reply)
I mean, without the Florida GOP Latinos, the pubs are SOL to attract any new votes from the Latino population. The Dems are expert plantation managers--been doing it awhile ya know.
#16 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 18:55 (Reply)
FEAST! Esp Tammy Bruce's idea--

http://instapundit.com/archives2/006463.php
#17 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 19:25 (Reply)
"The sad truth is that there is no one in Congress smart enough to solve the problem."

I bet there are plenty smart enough to solve this problem. But they're not brave enough. Who wants to be labeled 'racist' or 'cruel' or, god knows, 'proud of America'.

Lott's response: "We have to do something." I heard him say that and thought - Right, one more bag of I.V. fluids ought to keep 'er goin'. Hmmm.... now does that mean the voters or America, itself, seeing as how Congress is fed up with us. pfft.
.
#18 Phoenix on 2007-06-21 21:07 (Reply)
Not only am I fed up, I'm fed up with being fed up.
#19 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 21:11 (Reply)
We have brought it upon ourselves you know. I am liking a suggestion elsewhere of a 10,000 member Congress. Oh, maybe that was 10,000 voters per Congress critter. Same effect?

It has been a long time since 'just anyone' can run for national political office. Too many gates too pass through, too many promises made to the gatekeeper's. My feeble suggestion, end retirement benefits. Serve as long as you like, invest your salary well, as any other American. When you're done, you're done. No further handouts from Uncle Sam. All outside income declared every year while in office, maybe ten years subsequent. Most especially if from 'blind' trusts. Let's see the proportion before and after.

True, the really rich, would not mind this restriction. Might embrace it really. But we need something to remind these 'elected' persons that they put their trousers on one leg at a time. Just like the rest of us.

I guess accountability is the one word I'm looking for, which would have saved all those words above.

There, thats writing without thinking :-)
#20 Luther McLeod on 2007-06-21 22:17 (Reply)
but Luther, when you think aloud, it's like sharpening a blade on a grindwheel, seeing the sparks fly up is part of the fun.
#21 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 23:12 (Reply)
Yeah, but usually my sparks are a dull red, versus the golden yellow one would like. Unlike some others here.
#22 Luther McLeod on 2007-06-21 23:21 (Reply)
yellow is too hot, the metal loses its temper--literally, yuk yuk
#23 buddy larsen on 2007-06-21 23:51 (Reply)
yuk, yuk, too.
#24 Luther McLeod on 2007-06-22 00:00 (Reply)
Nice analogy, Buddy. Nice and hot.

I'll cool it down.

When Luther does a "Luther" it's like sliding into clean sheets. It's crisp, cool, comforting, and capacious. Then you get to slide around in those words and thoughts and it's all divine and it smells like Tide. Perfect.

:}
.
#25 Phoenix on 2007-06-22 01:07 (Reply)
damn--Luther--I'd print that & hang it over the desk!
#26 buddy larsen on 2007-06-22 10:01 (Reply)
BL, I'm at a loss for words...really :-) Though the smell of Tide is quite the olfactory imagery.

Thanks Phoenix, though you've elevated the bar so high my already self-conscious writerly persona may never rise again :-)
#27 Luther McLeod on 2007-06-22 13:53 (Reply)
Welcome, Luther.

Just trying to stroke your writerly persona so it won't wilt. We all benefit from you in the sheets.
.
#28 Phoenix on 2007-06-22 17:42 (Reply)
YIKES
#29 larsen b on 2007-06-22 22:43 (Reply)
Hey--it worked--I got thru the spam killer, with a name change. The thing has cut me permanently off several threads. Prob for the best, pollution-control-wise.
:-(
#30 larsen b on 2007-06-22 22:45 (Reply)
Is that really you Buddy?
#31 Luther McLeod on 2007-06-22 22:55 (Reply)
Ya know, it's really the time zones that flatten everything out here. Those Yankee's are fast asleep when things start too pop. Whoops, maybe that was my depends. Shit.
#32 Luther McLeod on 2007-06-22 22:59 (Reply)
Yep--spam killer killed a buncha my posts--esp on the Sun pic and the Indian pic. I said some great stuff--including the answer to the meaning of life which has now slipped my mind. Too bad, all gone. Bad spam-killer.

Hey, this is great, great comments about gov't control:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010248

Depends? Didn't know you wuz a astronaut!
#33 buddy larsen on 2007-06-23 15:53 (Reply)
That is a very good article. Llosa has a keen understanding of the bedrock principals that are at the heart of liberty. "Free Will" being the foundation of all. I really just can't imagine living in a system where "The dictatorship created a system that impregnated every act of life", I don't know what I would do. OTOH, if you've never sipped from the spring of freedom, is it possible to know what you're missing? Not a revelation I know, but that's why freedom of information/literature/associations are always the first things to go in a tyrannical dictatorship. Also interesting is his switch on Iraq. Cool that he actually went there to see for himself.

Sorry to hear about that "answer to the meaning of life" post", I'm sure we would all have enjoyed it...

I mentioned this before but I think www.iespell.com is a nifty little program. Spell check, select all, copy and other nice features. I try to copy all my posts before submitting to the spam killers, but as per its always when I don't copy that posts end up in the netherworld. I lost a few this past week myself.
#34 Luther McLeod on 2007-06-23 18:36 (Reply)

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