Wednesday, 17 April 2013

The Immigration Reform Spiral

For the last two weeks....immigration reform has been discussed and hyped up by every major news organization.  The 'gang of eight' episode is it....all tied into one or die.

Well....there's this little piece that came out in the last day or explain how the proposed reform would work.

There are these little triggers to must order for any of the mechanism in ten years to occur, and you, the illegal, get your American citizenship.

First, Homeland security has just six months to create, fund, and start a real border security plan.  If they fail....the whole mess stops right there.  You can imagine the boys over at Homeland Security....sitting there and drinking coffee, and just not willing to be pushed around on some lousy mandated six-month schedule.

Second, Homeland Security must fund the border fence construction, with a six-month window to develop and implement this.  The odds?  Less than fifty percent.  Course, they will plan and implement forty-four different bridge projects with no real urgency.

Third, Homeland Security must somehow, by a miracle perhaps....achieve a one-hundred percent awareness and ninety percent success in high-risk areas of the border area.  They are given five years to achieve this.  The odds....I'd give less than twenty percent chance of a success rate here.

Fourth?  A universal E-verify program must be implemented within the next ten years.  This means it actually has to work.  A work-visa program also has to be in place within the same period.

My humble opinion is that this whole reform thing by the 'gang of eight' is mostly bogus, and just for show.  It trips out the President's summer agenda and leaves the rest of 2013 for mostly budget talks.  As for you illegal folks?  Don't bet too much on any success with this.  Mostly because of Homeland Security.....the success of this mess is really screwed up.

To fix this?  Well....if it's like my roof.....I'd hire a couple of illegals to run Homeland Security, and get things fixed up the right way.  But that would upset some folks.

The Car Thing

America is a land of regulation.  We've been that way....since the Constitution was written.'s a positive thing.  Most of the time, it's an issue of a burden, which outlives itself.

There's this little regulation that we wrote back in 1968.  Nothing is clear about 'why' it was necessary.  The regulation basically states that when you construct a car in America....the light switch can only go from low-beam to high-beam or vice-versa.....period.  Maybe in 1968, there was someone out there with fancy ideas of a medium-beam or ultra-high just don't know.

So, today....Audi is standing there and asking that the regulation be tossed out.  The reason?  They've been messing around with LED bulbs, putting a number of them into the light assembly.  They've put sensors into the actually see ahead.  The sensor will pick up oncoming vehicles, note the light situation, and adjust without any hand movement or foot movement.  The nifty thing?  The light sensor might adjust enough so that a very low beam is now extended out....not affecting on-coming traffic, but giving you a plus-up on just what you see on the road.

But Audi can't deliver this bold new concept to America, unless some idiots change the regulation.

A guy from Bama would be curious about this.  So naturally....he'd ask questions.  Well....this option only comes with the A8, which runs at a minimum of $72k, and the option itself?  It will run around $3k, if it's approved by the US government.

Would you pay for a fancy sensor and light assembly....say $3k?  Would you be willing to part with $72k to get a car with just about everything you dreamed of?

That's the problem.

My humble guess is that maybe a dozen folks throughout the whole state of Alabama might be willing to go and buy such a car.  Most guys would quickly figure up the relationship could buy four Ford F-150's for that amount, or three Mazda MX-5s.  It's not something that would draw you to spend that kind of money.  Course, the other side of this is that it'd be a car that you'd keep for ten years, and likely still be worth $10k at the ten-year point.  But then you wouldn't want to spoil the backseat with bait and tackle, your hunting dog, or such.

The plus-side?  There would be a hundred folks to make their way over to your house, and ask you to demonstrate your light assembly.  Folks would rig up cars to approach on a driveway, and watch in amazement from their lawn chairs as the light switched from high to low on it's own.  You might eventually earn a nickname in the local town...."Audi" Jones.

Stranger things in life have occurred in Bama.

The Boston Bomb Guy?

At the beginning of the episode in Boston.....with the curious note of some Saudi college student being detained....I had a belief that this might all lead to him and was just one Muslim guy.  In the last couple of hours, you can sense that the FBI isn't getting any connection out of this guy, and nothing in house leads onto more clues.  His involvement?  Probably just an innocent bystander.

So who did it?

Possibly North Korean agents? wouldn't be difficult for a couple of guys to pick up the materials....manufacture the bombs in the back of a rental van, and place them at the right spots.

Possibly some nutcase 16-year old kid?  Everything used could have been bought for less than a thousand bucks.  There's probably 100k teenage kids who would have been smart enough to do it in the US.

Possibly some Latino drug gang?  There's not much to gain except the feds on your tail.  If there's no profit, why bother?

Possibly the Aryan Brotherhood guys....just demonstrating their abilities?  It wouldn't surprise me, but they would have left some calling card to show their involvement.

In the end, I think you are looking for one guy.  He's bought three pressure cookers from some Wal-Mart or Dollar-General Store.  He's probably a guy with an agenda but always talking up the fairness of life.  He's smart.....maybe a year or two of college.  He might even have a tour in the Army within his background.  The key thing?  He's made a mistake or two.  Some photo is going to pin him with a back-pack and by this weekend....the nation will be searching for him.