General Musharraf is under enormous pressure - as much from the jehadis as from Washington - and a single wrong step could mean things going pear-shaped. [my emphasis]
First, we dump the unrealistic quotas on immigrants from Mexico and Central America. If there’s work to be done, let them in. Establish employment offices in Mexican towns all along the border, and invite prospective employers to send agents down in search of labor. This way, immigrants wouldn’t have to cross the border illegally to look for work – they could apply for a job in Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, or any other frontier town, and take a bus across the border.
Of course, we would want to make sure that terrorists or other undesirables didn’t abuse the system -- or that honest workers wouldn't be abused by unscrupulous employers -- so we would take photos and fingerprints of all of the applicants, and provide them with a guest-worker card. Their employer would be reponsible for paying them at least minimum wage, as well as all the applicable taxes. If the guest worker diasppeared, the employer would be responsible for reporting them to the INS.
Hand in hand with stiff penalties for abusing the system, this would largely take care of the problem of economic immigrants crossing the border illegally.
Asked how he would beat primary rivals with more experience on foreign policy, Dean said he would keep reminding Democrats that he was the only major candidate who opposed the Iraq war, despite polls showing the vast majority of the American public supporting the invasion at the time.
"The bottom line is, what kind of foreign policy experience do you want in Washington, in the White House?" he said. "Do you want the kind of foreign policy experience that was willing to vote for the Iraq war, or not?"
And how will he convince swing voters who weren't so opposed to the war to fire President Bush?
"By going after him on terrorism, where he's really weak," Dean replied. [my emphasis]
It will be precisely 729 days between the time Patriots coach Bill Belichick traveled back to Boston with the franchise's first Vince Lombardi Trophy in hand and the second time he gets to hold the prized hardware aloft on a riser in Reliant Stadium. OK, now, here's the spooky part: In the two seasons since the Pats last captured the NFL title, they have scored -- drum roll, here, please -- 729 points.
When US President George W. Bush visited Canberra in October, he told his friend John Howard that the Democratic candidate who, if he won the primaries, would be his most formidable opponent in the 2004 presidential election was Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman.
Hallelujah, praise the Lord. This is something that I have been advocating and praying for for more than twelve years, since the Gulf War of 1991. Saddam Hussein was a homicidal maniac, a brutal dictator, who wanted to dominate the Arab world and was supporting terrorists...
...This news also makes clear the choice the Democrats face next year. If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a more dangerous place.
But the liberated Dean is beyond categories like liberal and centrist because he is beyond coherence. He'll make a string of outspoken comments over a period of weeks — on "re-regulating" the economy or gay marriage — but none of them have any relation to the others. When you actually try to pin him down on a policy, you often find there is nothing there.
For example, asked how we should proceed in Iraq, he says hawkishly, "We can't pull out responsibly." Then on another occasion he says dovishly, "Our troops need to come home," and explains, fantastically, that we need to recruit 110,000 foreign troops to take the place of our reserves. Then he says we should not be spending billions more dollars there. Then he says again that we have to stay and finish the job.