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Let’s face it, we’re broke. That is, many of our cities, counties, states and the Federal government have more debt than assets and are spending more money than they take in. Politicians are very good at spending money they (we) don’t have and are even better at hiding what they are doing.
Even with audited numbers, the information in government financial reporting is presented in a way that is so convoluted and confusing that both average readers and professionals can’t understand them.
Mark Twain’s famous quotation, “Figures don’t lie, but liars figure,” has never had greater meaning than when it is applied to today’s politicians and government budgets. Take, for example, the budgets of the City of Santa Barbara, the County of Santa Barbara, the County of San Diego, the State of California and the Federal government, many of which are technically insolvent, albeit without the formality of declaring bankruptcy. The reason: unfunded liabilities are not included on their balance sheets. At the state and local levels, the biggest of these is the pension plans for government employees, but there are other causes, often equally shocking. One case in point is San Diego, which is confronted with $1.9 BILLION in pension liability that they will not be able to pay when the bill comes due. The most recent number reported for Santa Barbara County’s unfunded pension liability is $1 billion.
Most people don’t realize that it is possible to be insolvent yet continue to operate without the formality of declaring bankruptcy. It happens all the time. All that’s needed is the ability to either print money or borrow it, or to simply con people. The Federal government, of course, “prints” money indirectly by having the Federal Reserve System adjust reserve requirements of banks. State and local governments don’t have that particular advantage, so they borrow it by issuing notes or bonds. In California, there are statutes that require approval by a certain percentage of the voters, say 55% in the case of school bonds, but local governments have even found a way around that for certain purposes, by issuing so-called Certificates of Participation (COPs). These are a form of bond, the repayment of which is directly tied to a specific income stream. They do not require voter approval and have been used extensively for capital projects, that is, construction of government buildings.
“When a business cannot meet its financial obligations (i.e., pay its bills and debts), it is said to be insolvent,” according to SpecialInvestor.com, Financial Dictionary. Expressing it another way, it is having more liabilities (debt) than assets. In other words, no net worth. That’s the situation with most government entities today, if all contingent and unfunded liabilities are included in their liabilities.
The big one, of course, is unfunded pension obligations, or pension plans. If these were included, I believe most government entities would clearly be insolvent. Unfortunately, politicians have been able to get around this little problem by borrowing.
It takes time, sometimes a very long time, for the effects of insolvency to reach the point where an enterprise is forced to close its doors. Borrowing from “Peter to pay Paul,” shifting funds from one source to another, dragging payment of bills out over time are among the many techniques that managements employ to keep going. The finality of closing the doors is often a shock to the public, but it’s safe to say that the process has extended over a long period of time before an enterprise is finally forced to shut down.
This is currently the situation with most governments in America: local, state and Federal. Upon close examination, many are clearly insolvent, with those in charge juggling funds to stay afloat, primarily by borrowing. Most financial professionals warn that borrowing money long term to pay short term obligations, that is, current bills, is a guaranteed formula for disaster. But that is exactly what has been going on for years, especially at the state and Federal levels, although many city and county governments have doing the same thing.
The accounting systems for a lot of government entities are a mess, often so bad that they can’t be audited. Amazingly, in many instances, they can’t (or don’t) even keep track of the funds they receive. Three examples serve to illustrate the point:
In June 2001, a report titled, “Government at the Brink,” issued by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, stated, “The Education Department reported in its financial statements that it had $7.5 billion in the bank, when it actually owed that money to the U.S. Treasury,” a discrepancy of $15 billion. That’s BILLION, with a “B”.
How is it possible to lose billions of dollars without even having a clue as to where it went? Think that’s not possible? Think again! In August 2005, the Sacramento Bee noted, “In 1994, Congress found problems with the Interior Department’s administration of 260,000 Indian trust accounts containing $400 million. The Indians allege the department mismanaged oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties from their lands dating back to 1887,” failing “to account for billions of dollars belonging to about 500,000 Indians.”
A July, 2001 article titled, Billions Missing at Education, by Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, stated, “In addition to the $15 billion discrepancy at the education department, the report says that the Internal Revenue Service ‘does not know how much it actually collects in Social Security and Medicare.’”
Perhaps the most chilling aspect of the Irvine/Kincaid report was the observation that “Neither the federal government as a whole nor many agencies can pass a basic financial audit. The books don’t add up, major expenditures are missing, large amounts of property and equipment can’t be located, and often, agencies don’t even know how much they have.”
The litany of financial transgressions and inaccurate or non-existent financial reporting by politicians and government officials goes on, and on, and on, year after year.
As a CPA, albeit long since retired, I can tell you with 100% certainty, if Americans do not force our politicians and government employees to stop treating public monies like a personal slush fund and demand straight and accurate accounting, we will ultimately be forced to repudiate our obligations, wiping out tens of millions of our citizens financially overnight. It has happened be before. Not in America to be sure, but it has happened elsewhere. And, it can and will happen here if we don’t wake up and take action NOW.
The adage, “You get what you pay for,” never seems more apropos to me than when politicians pontificate about how other people should conduct their affairs while, at the same time, displaying their ignorance of the circumstances involved. Such is the case with Obama’s handling of the conflict between Palestine and Israel.
Both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton tried to force the Israelis to accommodate the Palestinians and both failed. The reason is not hard to understand: Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, with the specific goal of pushing the Jews into the sea (translation: killing them all). No amount of accommodation of Palestinian demands has ever or will ever change their goal, which has been openly declared many times.
Pretty much every administration since Jimmy Carter has tried to broker some sort of peace agreement on the two protagonists, and they have all failed. Even when they thought they had accomplished their objective, the tenuous solutions that had been negotiated ultimately collapsed. Being the catalyst for peace between Israel and Palestine has been the brass ring that U.S. presidents often try to catch, but somehow it always seems to elude their grasp.
Fast forward to the Obama administration, and we find that he is making the same mistake former presidents have made: You cannot force a nation to voluntarily commit suicide.
Columnist Mona Charen commented:
…the Obama administration has brought relations with Israel to the lowest point since the state’s founding. No, the Obamaites are not motivated by anti-Semitism. Their sentiments are actually more dangerous. President Barack Obama believes that he understands Israel’s best interests better than Israel’s American supporters, and better than Israelis do themselves.
Speaking at Cairo University in June 2009, the president explained that looking at the Israeli/Palestinian conflict ‘from only one side or the other’ would ‘blind one to the truth.’ That truth, he continued, was that the only possible solution was ‘two states where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.’ Obama could see, even if the benighted parties could not, ‘that (a two-state solution) is in Israel’s interest, Palestine’s interest, America’s interest and the world’s interest.’ He said the same thing upon welcoming Palestinian Authority President Mohmoud Abbas to the Oval Office.
Earlier this month, the president told The New York Times that while ‘we can’t want (peace) more than (the parties do),’ we are “setting out very clearly to both sides our belief that not only is it in the interests of each party to resolve these conflicts, but it’s also in the interest of the United States.
To Israelis, who daily read of thwarted terrorist attacks, who gave up land for peace in Gaza and were rewarded with thousands of missiles fired at Israeli civilians, who can watch Palestinian TV teach Palestinian children that ‘their’ country stretches from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, who see public squares on the West Bank named in honor of mass murderers of Israeli civilians, who see Syria attempting to build a nuclear reactor, Iran closing in on a bomb, and a festering civil war between Hamas and Fatah, the road to a two-state solution may not appear so obvious. Perhaps they lack Obama’s clairvoyance.
In addition to the conceit that Obama understands Israel’s interests better than Israelis do, the administration also has repeatedly stressed in recent weeks that a solution to the Israeli/Palestinian dispute is vital to U.S. interests, and to saving American ‘blood and treasure.’ Settling the Israeli/Palestinian dispute, the Obamaites believe, is more important for America’s long-term interests than preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons. In fact, multiple emissaries have warned Israel against taking military action against Iran.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s actions are not as much about peace between Israel and Palestine as they are about Obama attempting to force a settlement that will enhance his image around the world, regardless of the consequences. He will fail because he doesn’t really understand the history of the Jews and the region. However, given his ego, what’s most worrisome is that he may abandon Israel in a fit of pique when he finds that he cannot force them to commit suicide to further his personal ambitions.
Jewish humor sums up the Jews’ perspective in just nine words – many of their holidays are based on this simple premise: “They tried to kill us – we won – let’s eat.”
Given the history of the blacks in America, one would think that Obama would be at least somewhat sensitive to the concerns of the Jews, but he just doesn’t get it.
What should be done about American citizens who turn against their own country, deliberately acting to hurt other Americans or attempting to destroy buildings and other property? Do they deserve the continued protections of the U.S. Constitution? For example, should they be entitled to Miranda rights when they attack the United States or its citizens or openly declare their allegiance to another country or group, such as al Qaida?
Senator Joseph Lieberman doesn’t think so and has introduced a bill that would enable the government to strip them of their citizenship, reasoning that a 1940 law that makes it possible for the State Department to withdraw the citizenship of people who join the armed forces of an enemy.
I agree. Senator Lieberman has the right idea.
Whatever the difficulties may be of further refining the existing law, it would be worth the trouble. There have already been numerous instances where American citizens have either joined forces with our enemies, such as al Qaida, and should be stripped of their citizenship. American citizenship may be a right of birth or naturalization, but it should not be without limits. It’s also a privilege and carries or should carry certain obligations. I don’t believe people should be able to enjoy all the benefits of U.S. citizenship while, at the same time, they actively plot against the security of this nation and its people.
For example, Adam Gadahn, who was born in the United States, has become the spokesman for al Qaeda, which is actively seeking the destruction of the U.S. Other Americans have been fighting for al-Shabab, or have joined our enemies in Somalia and, of course, there is the notorious case of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 soldiers and wounded 30 others at a Fort Hood, GA, processing center in 2009. Based on the fact that he shouted “Allahu Akbar (“God is greatest”) as he opened fire, it is believed that he was declaring his allegiance to Islam while attacking American soldiers he believed were being processed for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight against his fellow Muslims in those countries.
The recent Times Square incident in Manhattan is another instance in which a naturalized U.S. citizen, this time from Pakistan, Faisal Shahzad, attempted to kill Americans in the cause of our enemies. Shahzad was immediately given his Miranda rights, which may well limit the ability of authorities to obtain information from him, although it is clear that he is linked to the Taliban in Pakistan.
The idea of stripping U.S. citizenship from an American who openly repudiates his country was graphically portrayed in the novel, “The Man Without a Country,” written by Everett Hale in 1863. The story depicts an American army lieutenant, Philip Nolan, who renounces his country in the 1800s, during a trial for treason. Nolan is subsequently sentenced to spend the rest of his life at sea without ever hearing any news or information about the United States.
This allegorical story describes how Nolan ultimately learns the “true worth” of his country, realizing that without it, “he is nothing.”
Hale’s story was so skillfully told that many readers believed it was actually true. It was one of the most effective pieces of patriotic literature ever written about America and is particularly pertinent to the discussion about Senator Lieberman’s proposal that we withdraw citizenship from Americans who openly attack the United States or declare their allegiance to other nations or groups that attack us, such as the Taliban or al Qaida.
Although the would-be Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, considering the nature of his actions, I do not believe he should be entitled to the protections afforded by our Constitution, especially if it is determined that he became a U.S. citizen specifically for the purpose of attacking our homeland.
The U.S. State Department should take steps to strip him of his citizenship, and he should be tried in a military tribunal as an enemy combatant.
I recently received the following email message from a friend:
Harris: Why is it, do you think, that the terrible financial situation in the County (Santa Barbara), the State, does not appear to be any matters of discussion? In both cases, they are a disaster waiting to happen. Is that the reason? The State Controller stated that the state could not borrow any more money last week. Where is the public comment, the concern? Nationally, the situation in CA is a frequent subject of discussion. Not here though. Is the national scene so over-powering? What is going on?
Here’s my response: I believe the situation is due to a combination of a number of things (in no particular order):
1) A media that is staffed by journalists who have no economic training or understanding and who do not do their job.
2) Abysmally poor economics education is taught in our schools, by a teaching establishment that has come to view capitalism and free enterprise as bad or evil.
3) Political Correctness, which has taken over our schools and the media.
4) A large percentage of the population is fat, dumb and happy and is generally uninformed and indifferent to anything that does not directly affect them.
5) A general feeling of helplessness, even among those who do pay attention and care, that they can’t do anything about the situation, with the result that people tune out bad news.
6) A corrupt political class at almost every level of government - who make a career of holding public office. They have structured the system to make it easy to get re-elected, which also makes them indifferent to the opinions of most of their constituents.
7) The pension plans at every level of government, local, state and federal, are a major contributor to the problem of runaway budgets.
In California, the process of expanding government has reached the point that most of what happens in the state legislature is not well reported or reported at all, except by a few columnists.
Much like Congress, the sheer volume of bills that expand government regulation is almost impossible to track at the state and local levels - and generally intrudes on public consciousness only after it’s too late to stop them.
Finally, any legislation that may be controversial is often created largely in secret in an effort to slip it past the public before people can react and resist, or it is passed with an implementation date in the future, which generally goes unnoticed until it is too late to stop it.
A good example is the California Global Warming Solutions Act, passed in 2006, which established a cap-and-trade program that will become effective January 1, 2012. It is the first statewide program to cap all GHG emissions from major industries that also includes penalties for non-compliance. It requires emissions to be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020, a decrease of approximately 25%.
The consequences of this legislation are likely to be so severe that it will impact every trucking business in the state and will probably force many of them to go out of business, in addition to dramatically raising the cost of doing business in California, which will add additional impetus for many businesses to leave the state.
The larger question is what happens when government continues to spend money it doesn’t have?
Speaking to this issue, Dr. Marc Faber noted, “Eventually, I suppose a lot of governments will be bust, including the U.S…Nothing has been resolved, it’s just being postponed…The ultimate crisis will not just bankrupt the banking system and financial as happened in 2008, it will bankrupt governments.” A good example of Dr. Faber’s observation is the economic crisis that’s currently playing out in Greece.
Local and state governments don’t have the luxury of printing money, so their only recourse is to either borrow or cut spending. Californians have exacerbated the problem by approving billions of dollars of bond issues in recent years, without regard to the debt service that’s required to pay them off, generally over 30 or 40 years, roughly doubling the cost in the process. Far too many people simply do not understand that the debt service on bond issues reduces spendable cash flow in future years.
In California, the consequence of failing to meet the state’s obligations timely or at all will eventually cause politicians to panic and leave bondholders in the lurch, without the income investors thought they were buying. They will be locked in without a viable market for resale, except at big discounts, which will drive the cost of additional borrowing sky high.
Finally, we are also seeing this scenario play out at the local level as well. Santa Barbara County has an unfunded pension liability of almost a billion dollars and was last reported to have a $39 million budget deficit. At some point, they are bound to run out of cash and will be unable to pay their bills.
It seems as though the entire world hates America. And there are those, of course, who would like to destroy us, ranging from Islamofascist religious fanatics to socialist and communist believers, to the Americans who hate America crowd, all blaming us for the ills of the world. To what end? Their reasons may vary, but it is certainly not to better the lot of mankind, unless of course you are a Muslim who happens to believe the world would be better off without us and with them in charge. But, who would really be better off if we didn’t exist?
Without doubt, if America did not exist, the world would be a very different place. I just don’t know if those who hate America so much and would like to destroy us have thought much beyond the ends of their noses.
In a sort of reprise of the famous Jimmy Stewart movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life,” in which George Bailey is given the opportunity to see what the world would be like if he had not been born, a brief look at what the world might look like without America may be instructive:
Without America, there would be no United Nations. The U.S. was instrumental in forming the UN and currently finances around 22% of its budget. So, without our financial support, the UN and its many subsidiary organizations would be a far smaller institution, if it could exist at all. Some people would undoubtedly say that would be a good thing.
Without America, France, England and the rest of Europe would be part of Germany today, or under German control, enslaved and cruelly oppressed. Or, without America, Europe, and much of the rest of the world might be living under the repressive thumb of Communism.
Without America, the Japanese would rule Asia and democracy would not have been established in Japan, which was historically ruled by its emperor and the military.
Without America, twenty-five million people would still be living under the cruelly repressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and another twenty-five million Iraqis would continue to exist under the vicious dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
Without America, scientific advances and inventions, ranging from the Cotton Gin to the computer and the Internet would not have happened. A very short list includes, in no particular order: Tractors, nylon, the light bulb, the steamboat, vulcanized rubber, the desktop computer, the supercomputer (Cray), the cash register, Coca-Cola, Polio vaccine, helicopters, the scientific method of manufacturing assembly, open heart surgery, the electron microscope, radio, the steam generator, purified insulin, the transistor, the pH meter, magnetic recording, the telephone, Bessemer process, respirator/ventilator, frozen foods, LASIK eye surgery, vaccine for Hepatitis B, genetic engineering, the calculator, catalytic cracking, instant copying (Xerox), synthetic rubber, superglue, Velcro, plows, internal-combustion engine, the screw propeller, HIV isolation and diagnosis, global positioning system, solid fuel rockets, and on and on, ad infinitum.
I leave it to you to evaluate the impacts of any of the foregoing inventions or the many thousands of other technological, scientific and medical advances made by Americans. Without them, the world would be a very different place indeed: Untold numbers of people would have died or been crippled by disease, afflictions like polio and smallpox would still be rampant throughout the world, technological advances like computers and the Internet probably would probably not exist. Just think how these inventions alone have changed the world in just a few short years. The list of America’s achievements in its short history that have improved mankind’s lot from almost any perspective is literally endless.
Without America, the people in many of the nations that have benefited from our foreign aid would be living in far worse circumstances. We haven’t solved all the problems, to be sure, and according to some critics, we don’t give nearly enough, but we have and continue to help alleviate many of the worst problems in various parts of the world.
Without America, the education of tens of thousands of foreign students who have come to America to study engineering, the sciences and medicine would not have happened. We are responsible for having produced more highly trained foreign students than any nation in the world, and where would the world be without them?
Without America, the economies of most nations around the world would be much poorer. In 2009, the U.S. trade imbalance with China alone amounted to more than $256 billion. Where would the Chinese, who are now challenging the U.S. as the world’s biggest economy, sell their goods and services, or the Japanese sell their cars, were it not for our markets? And India, which has another of the world’s most rapidly expanding economies. Where would they be able to sell their goods and services without the American market being available to them? The list of trading partners who rely on our markets to sustain their own economies is very long. Two notable examples in our own hemisphere, of course, are Mexico and Canada, notwithstanding our current problems with illegal immigrants from Mexico.
There are scads of other American accomplishments that have dramatically changed the world, such as the atomic bomb, the example of a society based on diversity and tolerance for others, the rule of law, as exemplified by the peaceful transfer of government following elections, to name just a few.
We may be many of the things people around the world accuse us of being: arrogant, ill-mannered, spoiled, self-centered, too rich for our own good, but we are also the most generous and selfless nation on earth, and the world would be a much worse place without us. Those who hate us so much might just want to give their distain of us more thought and decide if they really don’t want us around. My question is, what would they do without us?
Remember the admonition, “Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.”
What makes people drive off the end of a cliff, figuratively speaking, that is? Is it some sort of death wish? Perhaps ignorance? How about stupidity?
The headline in the lead article (above the fold) on the front page of the March 24 edition of the Santa Barbara News Press declared: “County’s long-term retirement plan obligations could hit $1B.” The article also stated: “Panel to study issue; supes must close $39 million 2010-11 fiscal plan gap.”
The article caught my attention because, along with many other taxpayers, I have felt for some time that the county has been heading down the path to financial ruin, with the probable outcome being default on the county employees’ retirement fund and/or bankruptcy. Unfortunately, it appears that many Santa Barbara county residents have not been listening, or paying much attention.
I was recently asked if I had any idea why our political leaders, specifically the County Board of Supervisors, mismanage the financial affairs of the county so badly, when the ultimate consequences of their financial decisions are so obvious, even to the most casual observer.
Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to this question. If we knew exactly why people are so willing to destroy themselves and their community financially, I have to assume we could or would put a stop to it. But, it’s not that simple. My response included a number of possible reasons:
Many people simply do not understand that they must stop spending money when there is nothing left.
The notion that someone will come to the rescue and bail them out when they go broke.
Pure, unadulterated ignorance. Too many people cannot add and subtract, even something as simple as a check book.
The failure of our education system. We are now paying the price for adopting education standards that seem to emphasize social skills more than the so-called three R’s, especially “arithmetic.”
The question that constantly plagues me is how so many people can be elected to public office who seem to have no idea that it’s possible to run out of money. Is the electorate that foolish? Perhaps they believe that their elected representatives will exercise reasonable restraint and avoid spending us into the poorhouse.
The majority of the American public is aware that overspending is the road to eventual disaster, and they have been clamoring for our political leaders to stop, especially on the federal level, but our politicos continue to ignore them, racking up ever greater deficits.
On the national level they can get away with this, at least in the short run, because the federal government has the ability to print money - by issuing bonds through the Federal Reserve Bank. The long term inflationary consequences of this are ultimately devastating to the nation’s economy but, at least on the surface, there don’t seem to be any short-term effects that directly affect the public.
However, state and local governments cannot print money, and if they are not able to borrow by floating bond issues, they will reach the point where they run out of cash and will stop paying their bills. That has already happened in California, and the situation was temporarily handled by issuing warrants (promises to pay) until sufficient money was generated from tax collections and by issuing state bonds.
Local governments, such as Santa Barbara County, don’t have that capability. They can juggle various “fund” accounts and borrow short term, at least for a while, but ultimately they must “pay the piper.” And, when that happens, something has to give.
Coming back to the County’s projected $39 million budget deficit, one possible consequence is employee layoffs. As the largest employer in the jurisdiction, with over 4,000 employees, there’s undoubtedly plenty of room to cut payroll without necessarily curtailing services. Obviously, the employee unions don’t like that option, preferring instead to accept temporary work “furloughs” or short term cuts in pay.
But, one way or another, the Board of Supes cannot skate past the inevitable confrontation with reality forever. Sooner or later both they and the unions must adjust to live within the County’s means or face total financial collapse.
Here we go again, thousands of people marching in the streets, protesting America’s immigration laws.
Attempting to deal with the problem of illegal immigrants has made Arizona the poster child for the self-righteous moralizing of much of the rest of the country.
While the flow of misinformation about the legislation has circulated throughout the media, commentators and politicos of every stripe have weighed in on the issue, including the presidents of Mexico and the U.S: The law discriminates against people from Mexico, it’s unconstitutional, it’s unfair (presumably to the illegal immigrants), it can’t be enforced without violating the civil rights of the people who are stopped and asked for documentation to show that they are legally in the country, it’s hateful, and worse.
The bill is only 17 pages long and is not the tangle of legalese that we have come to expect from legislators. However, it appears that most of those who are so vocal about criticizing the law also have not bothered to read it.
Sophia Tareen commented that “…activists, families, students and even politicians marched, practiced civil disobedience and ‘came out’ about their citizenship status in the name of rights for immigrants, including the estimated 12 million living illegally in the U.S.”
My question is: Just what rights do illegal immigrants have or should they have? They are not U.S. citizens and they are not here legally. So why are they marching for their rights?
The problem is, they represent a potential voting block for the Democrats, who are encouraging them to take to the streets and demonstrate. We went through this a while back, and I remember seeing thousands of people in the streets of Los Angeles and elsewhere around the country demanding, not asking or requesting, but demanding their “rights”. I was offended by it then, and I am offended now, and I am not alone. Roughly 70% of Arizonans agree with me.
As for the Arizona legislature, they haven’t done anything more than codify U.S. immigration laws that already exist. However, perhaps the most important issue in the Arizona situation is one we are not hearing about, and that is the question of what constitutes a nation. Is it the people or a common culture, or perhaps ethnic uniformity, as the Chinese or Japanese, or a common religion, as Christian or Muslim, or is it based some natural resource, such as oil.
What actually defines a nation is its borders, which most countries consider sacrosanct? Iran and North Korea are prime examples, but there are countless others. A country that cannot establish and protect its borders risks its sovereignty.
Mexico is a prime example of the sort of draconian immigration laws that the country’s president, Calderon, is aggressively criticizing in Arizona. Following are some examples:
Being in Mexico illegally can land you in jail for up to two years, as can alien marriage fraud.
Law enforcement officials at every level are required to cooperate to enforce Mexico’s immigration laws.
Every Mexican citizen is required to carry an ID card. Without it, they are subject to arrest as an illegal alien.
Political speech by foreigners is prohibited, and those who are not Mexican citizens are not allowed to participate in “the political affairs of the country.”
Mexico is noted for its abusive treatment of illegal aliens from Central America who are caught crossing Mexico’s southern border.
Since most of the school children in Arizona are Hispanic, it’s clear that they will dominate the state’s society in the future. However, Europe’s experience clearly demonstrates that mass immigration does not work to the advantage of the nation that accepts them. For example, three times as many of the Turks in Germany are welfare dependent, who retire, on average, at age 50. The situation with the immigrants in France is similar.
Another overlooked consequence of uncontrolled immigration is the impact that it has on the carbon footprint of the state, in addition to the demands that the increased population places on government, which must necessarily expand to service greater numbers of residents. In short, the massive and uncontrolled influx of illegal immigrants in Arizona is breaking the state financially.
The flood of negative commentary that Arizona’s actions have generated has failed to note that the state has already successfully defended its immigration laws on three previous occasions. In 2005 the state required proof of citizenship for voting and restricted benefits to illegal aliens, in 2006 they defeated a challenge to its human smuggling law, and in 2008 Arizona made it a crime to knowingly employ an illegal immigrant.
Regardless of what the pundits and naysayers may assert, Arizona’s latest foray into immigration legislation will prevail again. They’ve been there and done that.
As much of the world has mourned the loss of “pop icon,” Michael Jackson, since his death in June of last year, it has been difficult to avoid comparing the impact that his untimely passing may have on the larger world around us. Reports indicated that the European T.V. audiences watching his memorial services were much bigger than here in America, and I can’t help but wonder why.
While a large segment of the population was fixated on a memorial service that was turned into a media driven entertainment extravaganza, events that will certainly have a far greater and more meaningful long-term impact on mankind continued to take place around the world: North Korea’s saber-rattling, firing off missiles and threatening the U.S. and Japan; Honduras deposing a leftist leader; Hugo Chavez’ (Venezuela) non-stop denouncing of the United States and financing other left-leaning leaders throughout Latin America; Iran’s brutal repression of the dissent of its population in the streets and continuing its push for the nuclear bomb while continuing its threats to wipe Israel off the map and exterminate the entire Jewish population – and, of course, Russia, moving to re-assert power over eastern Europe and influence around the world. Russia will no longer tolerate being ignored.
If these aren’t sufficient cause for concern, there were the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the endless parade of strife in Pakistan and India, al Qaeda and the Taliban, and the Sudan, among others/
We also continue to have a very full plate on the home front, trying to deal with such problems as the state of the economy, the unbridled overspending of our own government at every level, spending money we don’t have, seemingly without any consideration of the consequences, and incurring record debt that threatens to destroy the U.S. economy, as well as over-expansion of government with the attendant loss of freedom. These are all issues of great concern that will have grave consequences for the future of America.
I can remember a time not too many years ago when the leaders of third world countries were often the subject of jokes. Tin pot dictators, strutting in front of T.V. cameras while they printed money without any backing, armed with the most sophisticated weapons they could buy or steal, threatened other nations in their regions and invading their neighbors, causing mass starvation and deprivation in a list of horribles that seems almost endless.
Today, everywhere we turn there are still major problems, any or all of which will surely transcend the historical importance of Michael Jackson. Without question, he was a superstar and will likely continue to remain one in death. Greater than Elvis? Who knows? Greater than the Beatles? Perhaps, but in my opinion, which is probably not worth much in such matters, not likely.
What about the great American music that was written during the glory days of Tin Pan Alley, or the memorable music of the Broadway shows that has been written over the years, dating back to George M. Cohan, or before? Or, it might be argued that the truly important composers were people like Bach or Beethoven or Wagner, many of whom struggled to put food on the table and died in poverty.
However, my purpose is not to try to assess the relative merits or importance of the music of any period or any composer or performer – but rather to consider their significance when viewed through the prism of world history and the events that shape them.
It is in this context that I view Michael Jackson’s passing and the importance of his contributions against the backdrop of events that will very like shape the future of the world. Viewed from that perspective, in my opinion, he is or was not really important at all.
His music will probably continue to be popular for many years to come, and he will live on as the entertainment idol of a generation. But ultimately, 40 or 50 years from now, he is more likely to be viewed as an historical artifact in the entertainment world, nothing more, much the same as Rudolph Valentino. Michael’s life will not have had any impact of consequence on the truly important issues of his time. He will not have been the catalyst for world peace or even for calming the unceasing turmoil of the world in which he lived.
No disrespect intended, I just think Michael Jackson is or was not all that important. To me, he was just another tragic victim of his own success, which sheltered him from the excesses of his lifestyle and whose money insulated him from overcoming his unfortunate inability and unwillingness to grow up.
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