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[For
National Issues Blogging go to theOneRepublic's Blog]
[6/30/05
Thursday]
[Ken
Masugi - Local Liberty Blog - Claremont
Institute] 12:01 am [permalink]
 Dual
Citizenship Dilemma: Where Does Mexico End? Mexico’s
Congress voted overwhelmingly to permit voting
by mail, thus allowing as many as 4 million immigrants,
legal and illegal, living in the U.S. to vote without returning
to their country (LAT, Chris Kraul, Sam Quinones).
Of course this raises as well the issue of dual citizenship—can
someone belong to two countries at the same time? The issue
is particularly acute with regard to Mexico, because of its
proximity and the past history of border disputes.
Although
no one has exact figures, as many as 10 million Mexican citizens
live in the United States, about half of them believed to
be legal immigrants, many of whom hold dual citizenship,
and about half illegal immigrants. As many as 4 million of
these immigrants, both legal and illegal, may be eligible
to vote next year, according to estimates by the Mexican
Senate.
And this
leads us to wonder about the LAT’s good Opinion ideas:
Where is the immigration
thinking out loud series? Recall this
version of the late unpleasantness.
John
Fonte questioned the legitimacy of dual citizenship in
this essay on the Hudson Institute’s website. Look for his
essay on current immigration issues in the next issue of Local
Liberty, which will feature three essays on immigration.
Subscriptions are, for now, free. See below for an excerpt
from his critique of dual citizenship:
Mexican
legislative bodies have reserved seats for deputies representing
Mexicans living in the United States. The general idea makes
sense, but the problem is the Mexican government has designated
as "Mexicans" naturalized American citizens and even their
children born in the United States. Several years ago, Fox
Cabinet member Juan Hernandez declared "we are betting" Mexican-Americans
will "think Mexico first" to the "seventh generation." Thus,
Mexican government policies directly challenge American national
interests in patriotically assimilating these newcomers. [visit Local
Liberty Blog]
[6/29/05
Wednesday]
[Ken
Masugi - Local Liberty Blog - Claremont
Institute] 12:01 am [permalink]
Walters
on Regional Reform Dan
Walters urges consideration of regionalism--governance
including perhaps several counties on various issues--as
a way of moving beyond Sacramento sclerosis and local weakness.
State
government's political sclerosis is, if anything, becoming
more acute. And given the astonishing breadth of California's
cultural, economic, political and geographic diversity,
perhaps it's impossible for state-level policymaking to
flourish again…
Regionalism
has its potential downside, diminishing an already battered
sense of statewide community. But it may offer California
its only realistic hope for restoring effective governance
because local governments are too parochial and the state
government is completely gridlocked.
But is this
too great a bow to the false god of efficiency? The great problem
with regional government, what makes it efficient, is that
it is in large measure unaccountable. How do you vote them
out of office? The regional government is comprised of officials
elected from an array of constituencies. This is the peril
our politics has brought us to, the temptation to take decisions
out of our hands (our liberty) for the sake of supposedly better
government. [visit Local
Liberty Blog]
[6/27/05
Monday]
[Tom
McClintock] 12:01 am [permalink]
SCOTUS Kelo v. City of New London, Connecticut: Last
week the U.S. Supreme Court broke the social compact by striking down one of
Americans’ most fundamental rights. Their decision nullifies the Constitution’s
Public Use clause and opens an era when the rich and powerful may use government
to seize the property of ordinary citizens for private gain.
The responsibility
now falls on the various states to reassert and restore the
property rights of their citizens. I am today announcing my
intention to introduce an amendment to the California Constitution
to restore the original meaning of the property protections
in the Bill of Rights. This amendment will require that the
government must either own the property it seizes through eminent
domain or guarantee the public the legal right to use the property.
In addition, it will require that such property must be restored
to the original owner or his rightful successor, if the government
ceased to use it for the purpose of the eminent domain action. [McClintock Blog]
[6/25/05
Saturday]
[Chuck
DeVore - columnist] 11:02
am [permalink]
In the “you think we have it
bad” department West Virginia is going to
the polls today (Saturday) to vote on taking out $5.5 billion
in bonds to pay for their under-funded teachers’ retirement
system.
Long known
for its big union infused power politics, West Virginia serves
as a cautionary tale for us out West. With a population of
only 1,815,354 (Orange County has 3 million residents), Democrat
Governor Joe Manchin, III has proposed to add over $3,000 of
bonded indebtedness to every man, woman, and child in the state
to fund its teachers’ pension system. There are 26,000
retired teachers in the state with another 19,313 teaching
and presumably eligible to retire some day. Taking into account
all 45,313 of the retired and active teachers, the $5.5 billion
of debt equals over $121,000 per teacher. (I’m surprised
that West Virginia’s U.S. Senators and kings of pork
Robert C. Byrd and John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV
haven’t orchestrated a federal bailout.)
To further
place things into context, the entire West Virginia state budget
is $3.19 billion. Unfunded pension liabilities exceed the state
budget in 12 other states too.
Complicating
Gov. Manchin’s low-voter-turnout-on-a-summer-weekend-sneak-it-through-strategy,
Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy Co., has spent many
thousands of dollars of his own money to urge voters to reject
the ballot initiative. The mining executive argues that the
plan is risky and has attacked the $55 million in fees that
will go to the bankers, lawyers and others who assembled the
deal.
How did West
Virginia get into this mess? Demographically, the state is
old and poor. On the federal level, the rest of America pours
in $1.73 for every dollar paid by West Virginians (California
get about 76 cents on the dollar back from D.C.). But, and
here’s the problem, West Virginia’s business climate
ranks 47th in the nation (see www.TaxFoundation.org)
while since 1990 West Virginia's state and local tax burden
has risen from below the national average to well above the
national average.
Let West
Virginia’s ills serve as a powerful warning to California
that it is impossible to tax and regulate a government budget
back to fiscal fitness and that unbridled government union
power will eventually bankrupt government. Supporting the Paycheck
Protection initiative is one sure way we can check unlimited
government union power. While supporting the governor’s
budget reform and redistricting initiatives are the best way
to make progress on fiscal responsibility in California.[www.ChuckDeVore.com]
[6/23/05
Thursday]
[Nick
Winter-Found
in the ebag] 8:02 am [permalink]
Polling
games a letter from reader Mike Hontz -
I thought it was interesting that in an article by
Gary Delsohn the Sacbee it states that 52% of registered
voters opposed the special election and when told
the cost the percent goes up to 61%. But not once
does the article state what was in the ballot.
If asked, “do
you think children under 17 should get parental consent before
getting an abortion or should rank and file members of unions
be able to be asked if their dues can be used for political
parties” would the poll have changed a bit? [Mark – yep,
selective emphasis, eh?... ‘cause within the poll numbers
those measures are favored to pass AND other numbers that show
the Legislature is lower in poll numbers than the Governor!
- Ed.]
[Ken
Masugi - Local Liberty Blog - Claremont
Institute] 12:09 am [permalink]
Can
Republicans Be Principled AND Victorious? LAT columnist Patt
Morrison ridicules the California Republican Assembly,
a volunteer Republican group that takes principled conservative
stands and endorses candidates.
The
CRA is the bemuscled bouncer of California GOP politics.
You want the nomination, or even an endorsement? You go
through the CRA. By the time a candidate staggers out the
far end of its conservative purity-test grinder, there's
not much electable meat left on his bones.
But the Goldwater
debacle ultimately gave birth to a more principled Republican
party. Why elect Republicans, the CRA has convincingly argued,
who simply acquiesce to Democratic stances on taxes, morality,
and regulation? Why bother with politics at all? Wouldn't it
be better to soak up the sun?
Long-time
CRA member and political theorist Richard Reeb provides a thoughtful
analysis of the CRA in this
essay. His recommendation to big-hatted Patt and the CRA
would be the big tent not of New Majority semi-Republican types
but the colossal tent offered by Abraham Lincoln. [visit Local
Liberty Blog]
[6/22/05
Wednesday]
[Ken
Masugi - Local Liberty Blog - Claremont
Institute] 8:09 am [link]
End
of the Black Dragon Gang? While attention has
been focused on Mexican and Central
American gangs, Asian gangs have proved menacing as
well. With the conviction of three Black Dragon gang leaders,
David Pierson in the LAT writes that the gang "suffered
an inglorious downfall." Oddly, the article, on p.
1 of the California section, is not posted on the LAT website
nor available by Google news.The existence of gangs questions
fundamental authority and morality. Hence, the appropriateness
of the twin themes of the "Gangs of New York"--
the ethnic gangs and the Civil War.[visit Local
Liberty Blog]
[6/20/05
Monday]
[Ken
Masugi - Local Liberty Blog - Claremont
Institute] 11:59 am | 
