As measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, the president’s speeches are written at an eighth-grade level. (And we’re not talking simple as in straightforward, precise and concise; but simple as in laden with emotion, and full of hot air and appeals to feelings.)
Read his “Remarks on Immigration.”
As an example of Obama’s eighth-grade writing, take this run-on ramble—a paragraph with the most awful syntax. BHO just adds clauses as he goes. This man’s mind is every bit as disorganized as was Bush’s.
As I said in my speech on the economy yesterday, it makes no sense to expel talented young people, who, for all intents and purposes, are Americans — they’ve been raised as Americans; understand themselves to be part of this country — to expel these young people who want to staff our labs, or start new businesses, or defend our country simply because of the actions of their parents — or because of the inaction of politicians.
What a dreadful cur!
It is, of course, incongruous to profess libertarianism, while supporting free-for-all immigration, affirmative action, anti-private property Civil-Rights laws, and public education extended to all trespassers—these are policies that violate private property, which is the cornerstone of libertarianism.
Most illegal aliens do not come to the U.S. to wage war, but the reality is that, once in the country, almost all wage welfare. Would that the American Welfare State did not exist. But since it does and is, unfortunately, likely to persist for some time to come, it must stop at the Rio Grande.
UPDATE I: Van Esser at NumbersUSA writes the following:
Perhaps I’m missing something but I can’t find a provision of the US Constitution that authorizes a president to act because he/she just can’t wait for Congress. The Obama Administration must have found the language. Otherwise, the new administrative amnesty-in-place for illegal aliens under the age of 31 would be considered an extra-constitutional directive by fiat.
As far as his Orwellian overreach, Strongman Obama is no different than “The Decider” when it comes to flouting our Constitution. Republicans fuss a lot when Democrats sidestep a Constitution that has long been a dead-letter. Democrat do the same.
It’s a meaningless dance.
Big Man Obama gave the great, late, Democratic Senator, Robert Byrd, palpitations. Byrd, RIP, was “a stern constitutional scholar who always stood up for the legislative branch in its role in checking the power of the White House.” According to Politico.com, this old Southern gentleman, after whom Republicans were always chasing for his past indiscretions, warned about Obama’s executive-branch power grab. Chief Obama created a number of new, extra-constitutional White-House fiefdoms: one on health reform, urban affairs policy, and energy and climate change.
AND now on immigration.
Ditto “The Decider.” He habitually sidestepped the chain of command in the military and winked at the Constitutional scheme. Under The Decider’s dictatorship, matters that ought to have been the business of the people or their representatives were routinely consigned to the executive branch.
So quit the posturing, Republicans. The Obama “Get-Out-Of-Deportation-Free-Card” is business as usual in the republic, RIP.
UPDATE II (June 17): BHO claimed that deportation of criminal aliens was up 80 percent. Bush did close to nothing to defend against the invasion from the south. Compared to that standard, it is probably true that Obama has bested Bush in enforcement. But when the numbers are so miniscule, percentage increases are huge. So, if Bush deported 50 illegal aliens, to exaggerate; then at 90, Obama can boast of kicking out 80 percent more.
UPDATE III: DAVID FRUM via VDARE.COM:
Every serious economic study of immigration has found that the net benefits of present policy are exceedingly small. But that small net is an aggregate of very large effects that cancel each other out. The immigrants get higher wages than they would have earned in their former country. The affluent gain lower prices for in-person services. Lower-skilled native-born Americans face downward wage pressure. In any other policy area, people who consider themselves progressive might be expected to revile a policy whose benefits went to foreigners and the rich, and whose costs were born by the American poor. Immigration policy baffles that expectation.
UPDATE IV (June 18): ‘Meanwhile, At The Border . . .’ via The Center for Immigration Studies:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency charged with guarding the U.S. borders, has written a secret draft policy that would let its agents catch and release low-priority illegal immigrants rather than bring them in for processing and prosecution. The policy, which has not been signed off on, would be the latest move by the Obama administration to set new priorities for the nation’s immigration services, and would bring CBP in line with other Homeland Security Department agencies that already use such “prosecutorial discretion.”
The policy was detailed in an internal memo obtained by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith and reviewed by The Washington Times, which confirmed the document.
According to the memo, the draft policy “provides circumstances when to pursue enforcement actions … and includes detailed discussion of several factors CBP personnel should consider when exercising discretion.”
Opponents say it amounts to another “backdoor amnesty” for illegal immigrants and could give the administration a tool to pressure Border Patrol agents not to pursue some people.
To continue the theme of this blog post, how is this different from policy under Bush? On this front it isn’t.
…the underlying reason why America’s deportation system remains inexplicably paralyzed by federal litigation and rigged in favor of relief from removal:
Internationalists in the Bush and Clinton Administrations have decided to confine immigration enforcement only to the U.S. borderlands…until there’s no enforcement at all, because the U.S., Mexico and Canada will have been merged into one unit behind a new “North American security perimeter.”
This shared Canada-U.S-Mexico “security perimeter” is exactly what the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America has in mind for America someday.
When I´m reading about the USA and Europe´s current conjuncture I can´t avoid thinking about Gibbon´s book “The history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”. Romans have accepted the barbarians on the Empire´s territory under the hospitalitas (hospitality) system and in few decades the Roman government has lost the Western provinces. Are we watching an historical repetition? Unfortunately I think so.
Obama speaks at an 8th grade level because that’s where he connects with most of his voters. Of course he can flout the Constitution. Democrats don’t care. Republicans wish they could do it too. The public is clueless. The average shnook doesn’t know the difference in the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independance or the Magna Charta.
Where is the cowardly Congress? Has John Boehner lost the ability to speak? No doubt he doesn’t want to offend the Hispanics.
El Presidente Barack Obama has certainly pissed in his tequila in this latest choke-hold of the constitution.I can’t prove it, but somehow, some way, that other greatest President who in 96 & 98 vetoed the Partial-Birth abortion ban, has his cold,calculating, unclean fingers working the strings for his puppet Barry. El Presidente’s latest torture session with the American people truly has us crying out for deliverance, and most folks believe- and rightly so that Mitt Romney is no Moses. So prepare next perhaps for Obama Care or at least a watered down version of it, and if that doesn’t suit you, the man Rush Limbaugh & Sean Hannity called a conservative in 2008 will be happily obliged to continue the vasectomy of the constitution and freedom. But don’t look at this latest pogrom of the American construction worker as something new, it already happened once upon a time way back in nineteen-hundred eighty six.
Remember, the Group Entitlements are financed by trillions in debt. After the European & US debt bombs go off, the illegals will be leaving. One way or another. The demican-republicrat pols who protected them will also be dealt with.
Here in Holland, we have our hero Geert Wilders who has consistently advocated restriction of immigrants; those who come in legally and certainly those who slip over the border and come in illegally. He is gaining more support because the help given to immigrants is greater than the help given to native-born dutch families who are struggling. This is resented by many and hopefully Geert Wilders will come in in the next election in September with a greater majority. He is in constant danger because of his anti-Islam stance, and in many of our minds he is our Dutch hero, prepared to endanger himself for a truly historical Dutch population with all the traditions and charms of Netherlanders.
[How nice to hear from readers in The Netherlanders; thanks.]
Another step into the land of the absurd: states are “allowed” to charge higher tuition to a citizen of NEW Mexico than a trespasser from old Mexico!, the Supreme Court declares that states are obligated to give benefits to trespassers, the “Justice Department” forbids states from enforcing Congressional rules, the “Supreme Court” allows multiple citizenships whereby people can vote and serve in Armed forces etc. of multiple countries … and now King Messiah Obama is going to nullify law entirely. Sadly, Congress is a doormat that allows its own authority to be rebuked.
Last week, the Washington Post had a piece of journalistic self-adulation by Woodward and Bernstein on how they “saved the republic” by helping to dump Nixon. No sir, you just created a sideshow spectacle while the “republic” was self-destructing. Nixon got “caught” with a third rate burglary while Congress REFUSED to impeach him over misappropriating money to conduct a SECRET WAR and having Cabinet officers lie to Congress under oath about it (eventual cost – 2 million lives!). But beyond burglaries and blow jobs, Congress will not bother to stop Courts, bureaucrats, and Presidents from usurping power.
Constitution – did we once have a Constitution??