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| Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart or, quite possibly, me |
From the Washington Post:
Immigration reform is dead for the year, top GOP reformer says
BY GREG SARGENT
November 7 at 1:15 pm
In what will be seen as another blow to immigration reform’s chances, a top pro-reform Republican in the House concedes House Republicans are not going to act on immigration reform this year, and he worries that the window for getting anything done next year is closing fast.
“We have very few days available on the floor in the House, so I don’t think we’re going to be able to do it this year,” GOP Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida told me by phone today.
Diaz-Balart has been deeply involved in bipartisan negotiations over immigration for years now, and is thought to be in touch with House GOP leaders on the issue, so folks involved in the immigration debate pay close attention to what he says.
Worse, Diaz-Balart said that if something were not done early next year — by February or March, before GOP primaries heat up – reform is dead for the foreseeable future.
“I’m hopeful that we can get to it early next year,” he said. “But I am keenly aware that next year, you start running into the election cycle. If we cannot get it done by early next year, then it’s clearly dead. It flatlines.”
Reformers on both sides have been pushing for action this year. Three House Republicans have urged the leadership to allow a vote on something, and House Democrats have introduced their own proposal. GOP leaders have not scheduled a vote on reform this year, but they haven’t ruled one out.
Even some Republicans have ripped the GOP leadership’s foot dragging. GOP Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada recently said it would be “disappointing” if leaders were to “punt the issue until 2014 for political reasons.”
I love listening to politicians denounce politics. What Rep. Heck means is that as the midterm elections approach and voters start paying more attention, insiders like him have less opportunity to put a fast one over on the public.
Now Diaz-Balart says a vote this year isn’t going to happen. This matters because he is one of the key Republicans who is negotiating over a piecemeal proposal to do something about the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country.
This proposal has yet to be released, but the Tea Leaves suggest it will include probation for the 11 million, enabling them to work legally, contingent on getting E-Verify running (if it isn’t after five years, those on probation would revert to illegal status).
Right. That would happen. Sure.
This idea, which was in the now-defunct House Gang of Seven plan, is seen as one of the few ways Republicans might be able to support reform that deals with the 11 million.
Immigration reform leader
Esteban Relias
I'm fascinated by how Mario Diaz-Balart (who is a former in-law of Fidel Castro) is automatically assumed to be a civil rights leader for the dusky masses of his people on the burning issue of undocumented immigration. Yet, he and I are pretty much doppelgangers in looks.
This whole Revenge of Catherine of Aragon phenomenon is kind of like if former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, in need of a new gig, put on a dress, demanded to be called Jenny Ventura, and through sheer steroid-powered masculine charisma became a feminist leader.
This whole Revenge of Catherine of Aragon phenomenon is kind of like if former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, in need of a new gig, put on a dress, demanded to be called Jenny Ventura, and through sheer steroid-powered masculine charisma became a feminist leader.
He does look like you. A less masculine, dweebier version of you.
ReplyDeleteI'm cautiously optimistic that we may have dodged the proverbial bullet for now. Of course, the GOP may well try to screw us again, so who knows?
ReplyDeleteIt now all depends on how the 2014 elections turn out. If Democrats lose seats then amnesty is probably dead. If they lose the Senate than it's guaranteed dead for the rest of the Obama years. President Hillary Clinton will probably revive the whole thing again in 2017.
The powers that be have no intention of bringing immigration to a vote. They like things just as they are.
ReplyDeleteWow! Steve, start calling yourself Esteban Ruiz-Sailera.
ReplyDeleteBert wrote:
ReplyDeleteI'm cautiously optimistic that we may have dodged the proverbial bullet for now. Of course, the GOP may well try to screw us again, so who knows?
Let's never forget that the 1986 amnesty foisted on us by the traitor Reagan was passed by Congress in the month before the Congressional elections of that year.
Eternal vigilance, patriots. Eternal vigilance.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteYou have the best ever sense of humor, don't change!
"I love listening to politicians denounce politics."
ReplyDeleteobama is the all-time king of this, so you must love listening to his speeches. lol. he'll swear up and down that the most overtly political thing in the world is not political at all.
Yeah but you know that looks are just skin deep, right? You too can be Hispanic if you really want to.
ReplyDeleteBTW, it probably should be Esteban Velero.
Another thing, Google conspiracy-wise: I regularly get to do this stupid captcha thing on Google-owned sites and nowhere they are as difficult as here.
Why not "Esteban Marinero"?
ReplyDeleteYou could probably publish your stuff in Salon unedited with that nom de plume.
"I'm cautiously optimistic that we may have dodged the proverbial bullet for now. Of course, the GOP may well try to screw us again, so who knows? It now all depends on how the 2014 elections turn out."
ReplyDeleteI'm worried about a lame duck session. Nothing is further from the next election than a lame duck session, and no matter what happens, Democrats will still be in control then.
The double irony, of course, is that these Conquistador-Americans that are so venally dogged in their pursuit of Catherine's revenge aren't even Catalans, but Castillian.
ReplyDelete"Why not "Esteban Marinero"?"
ReplyDeleteEl no es marinero. Es capitan, es capitan.
Yo no soy marinero
ReplyDeleteYo no soy marinero, soy capitan
Soy capitan, soy capitan
Bamba, bamba
Bamba, bamba
Bamba, bamba, bam
Para bailar La Bamba
Para bailar La Bamba
Se necessita una poca de gracia
Una poca de gracia
Para mi, para ti, ay arriba, ay arriba
Another Valley Dude ...
ReplyDeleteI love the flagrant contempt for the voters on display here.
ReplyDeleteThose poor pols! Why do we have to inconvenience them with elections? Can't we see what an imposition we're making upon our betters?
Steve,
ReplyDeleteThe resemblance is much stronger with your old Margaret Thatcher picture and... if you don't appreciate that being pointed out, well just delete this post :)
Really, for a middle-aged guy you're very handsome. I wouldn't be surprised if you were more average for looks in your younger years (compared to your peers), but are now above average when compared to them. Of course, you live near Hollywood, so your perception is probably very different from mine.
"Catherine of Aragon's revenge" ?
ReplyDeleteWhat are you alluding to Steve?
Is it the notion that England's Henry VIII's spurned Spanish wife is working out her revenge against Anglo-Saxon descended nations form beyond the grave?
Interesting theory Steve, but the immigrationism displayed by the Spanish political class prior to the shit-hitting-the-fan in 2008, was by far the worst, most egregious example of that terrible phenomenom ever recorded in modern world history. A true and remarkably hidden fact.
The silly bastards who ran Spain presided over a truly awesome influx. Made Ellis Island 1900 look like a veritable vicarage tea party - as they say in England.
I wonder if Steve and balart-Diaz are distant genetic relatives?
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has ever taken a 23andme test is astonished by the rather odd and unexpected nationality of distant (and sometimes not too distant)'genetic relatives' that are uncovered there. As a person of pure European descent, I've got matches all the way from Finland to Portugal,from Norway to Malta. Remote matches that might be spurious nonetheless, but it makes one wonder what on earth went on in continental Europe during those long, long centuries.
Esteban Ruiz-Sailera
ReplyDeleteHow about Esteban Velero? That translates to Steven Sailboat - close enough and fun its own right - while capturing the smooth spanish vowel flow.
The all-time greatest pseudonym for Sailer was the anagram "Elvis Easter." That's a killer name (which is why I still remember it).
Anyway, this is sounding like fan worship, so I'll stop... Actually, I don't even like Sailer. Screw Sailer. Abajo el velero!
Speaking of contempt for voters, Diaz-Balart actually represented a completely different district before 2010. It was significantly more Democratic, so he convinced his brother to retire and ran in his seat, which was more Republican.
ReplyDeleteDiaz-Balart was replaced with the corrupt David Rivera, who lost last year to Democrat Joe Garcia.
Looks like the ethnic Spanish elite want to import more cheap labour and domestic staff like back home in Mexico.
ReplyDeleteThe only question is whether the the future is going to be like Brazil, as they think, or like Bosnia in the 1990s, as I suspect most people on here think.
GC
The name "Sailer" comes from the German word "Seiler" which means rope maker ("Seil" means rope). I guess the anglicized version of Steve's name would be "Steve Roper", and the Spanish equivalent would be "Steve Cordelero", which sounds pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteSo senor Esteban Ernesto Marinero will be your new crime fighting alter ego?
ReplyDeleteI like it.
By the way senor Esteban, has anyone ever told you that your old photo from the old isteve website when you still had your beard bore a striking resemblance to Bob Villa.
The beard looked good on you and made you less threatening, like Paul Krugman.
I still think beardless Steve bears a striking resemblance to actor William Hurt (who played, among other things, the leader of the Dutch-Nordic Mafia in "A History of Violence").
ReplyDeleteSo the "plan" is to put the 11 or 30 or 36 or 40 million illegals on "probation," at which time they'll get a legal forbearance of deportation and a work permit.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is different from the Senate Gang Bangers of Eight bill...how...?
The only difference is that all that is dependent on E-Verify getting up and running (supposedly), but that's still a bad deal because even if you have working E-Verify (hello, Health Care dot gov?), the subsequent granting of work permits to all the illegals here makes the E-Verify moot.
And might I add, things you know already because I know you read V-Dare, the legal forberance of amnesty and the work permit IS the amnesty, it's all the amnesty the illegals themselves and the EL CHEAPO labor lobby really want. The only hitch is that Democrats and liberals want them to be citizens aka voters ASAP for YAY BLUE TEAM considerations.
jody said..."I love listening to politicians denounce politics."
ReplyDeleteObama is the all-time king of this, so you must love listening to his speeches. lol. he'll swear up and down that the most overtly political thing in the world is not political at all.
Obama is shameless about denouncing the very things he's the most guilty of, like "petty partisan bickering" when he's the pettiest partisan bickerer of all time. I also like his fake sincerity when he says he's willing to listen to any good suggestions from Republicans, when he has not the slightest intention of doing so.
My idea is to icnrease the tax credits for the mildly retarded that represent 2 percent of the population. They can do some of the lower skilled work in fast food, or the very general labor in construction and cleaning. Some have job coaches these days that the government gives them. Another group is the high school drop outs among the learning disability group which could get tax breaks as well. The worst cases of LD and Adhd are on welfare anyways. A tax break will make up for the some of the ADHD population that have trouble with attendant and so forth. This group is 5 to 10 percent and the worst of this group is 2 to 4 percent. Native born mentally retarded and learning disability sometimes are not use as much in employment these days because of immigrants without papers.
ReplyDeleteApproximately 85% of the mentally retarded population is in the mildly retarded category. Their IQ score ranges from 50–70, and they can often acquire academic skills up to about the sixth-grade level. They can become fairly self-sufficient and in some cases live independently, with community and social support.
ReplyDeleteThey read and write and sometimes calucate math better than an illegal immirgant, increase tax breaks for the mentally challenges which is probably a milion of the higher funnction mentally challenge to do fast food, cleaning and so forth that were sometimes taken away from them by illegal immirgants. The novel Charly was about a mentally challenged janior.
re: http://www.minddisorders.com/Kau-Nu/Mental-retardation.html#ixzz2k6w0Bqtr