Help me write a reply to this editorial to my small town rw-rag!

[Amy6627]

http://www.coronadonewsca.com/articles/2006/09/21/opinion/news03.txt

Grading The Congress

A commentary by J. F. Kelly, Jr.

Much media emphasis is lavished lately on the plunging popularity of President George W. Bush. Far less is expended on the public approval rating of the Congress, which is even lower and, in my view, deservedly so. This has been an unproductive and disappointing Congress which has failed to address some truly urgent issues.

With mid-term elections fast approaching, it is time for voters to evaluate the performance of their elected representatives and determine their worthiness for reelection or higher office. In doing so, voters should grade them, not on their speech-making talents or cleverness in criticizing their political opponents, but rather on what they have actually accomplished or, more to the point, failed to accomplish. Let's start with the failures since they come so quickly to mind.

First of all, they weren't very productive in the area of lawmaking, supposedly their primary duty, preferring to focus instead on posturing for reelection or running for higher office and taking positions on the president's performance of his duties particularly with regard to the prosecution of the war on terrorism. This is easier, of course, than the hard work of crafting needed legislation. The Senate, perhaps, deserves the most blame, having blocked important actions that were passed by the House, especially regarding illegal immigration, oil drilling in Alaska, UN reform and repeal of the death tax, to name a few. The Senate also continues to abuse the advice and consent function by blocking presidential judicial appointments, denying obviously qualified candidates a fair hearing for purely partisan, political reasons.

But the Senate's biggest failure has been its unwillingness to deal with the pressing problem of illegal immigration after the House passed a bill that would emphasize enforcement measures and make sneaking into this country a felony instead of a misdemeanor as it is now. Lacking the political courage to act on this urgent issue because of fears of losing Hispanic votes defies public demand for action now to secure our borders and has caused valuable time to be lost in stemming the flow of illegals, still estimated to be at least half a million a year.

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The rest here: http://www.coronadonewsca.com/articles/2006/09/21/opinion/news03.txt

[Warpy]

1. First, I fail to see what repealing the INHERITANCE TAX

will do for the war against terrorism, except to defund it.

Second, the oil in ANWR is bunker oil, a type of high sulfur oil that US refineries can't handle. It will be sent to Asia and do nothing for our independence from the Middle East.

Third, the way to stop illegals coming into this country is to make it unprofitable to hire them. In other words, enforcing the fines against employers will do the trick. Too bad Mr * considers those laws inconvenient for his big donors.

Unless we want to criminalize poverty, punishing the illegals in any manner besides sending them home is unconscionable and unchristian.

Think.

That should get you started, anyway.

[Amy6627]

2. Thanks! Great points.

[Greyhound]

3. Typical blah, blah, blah, from the reich-wing. But here's a nickels worth

of free advice.

His primary bugaboo seems to be the illegal immigrants, so I would point out that neither party has proposed a workable solution to the problem as they are primarily interested in passing stupid, ineffective laws that only serve as cover for more graft and cronyism while simultaneously doing nothing to reduce the numbers coming over. The only proposal that makes any sense to me is to punish the employers of illegal immigrants so severely that there will simply no jobs here to get. No prisons, walls, minefields, motes, military intervention, or massive round-ups and deportations required, just dry up the market and they will stop coming.

Our party's failure to propose any positive solutions makes it impossible to point to the re:puke:s as the bad guys, and therefore, allows them to run against us on this issue, particularly in the southwest where we live.

[Amy6627]

4. Excellent, thanks!

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

5. And if he's complaining about the Senate

... not rubber stamping everything the House does, well thats why there IS a Senate so states would have equal representation and NOT be at the 'tyranny of the majority' (T.Jefferson).

So question if the author is backhandingly saying the Senate should be disbanded and the Tyrannical Majority left to bully the rest of the population.

[Amy6627]

6. Great, thank you.