Time is getting close as far as filing deadlines go here in Tennessee. Rumors still abound that State Senator Jim Bryson will announce his candidacy for governor at any moment. If he does, he will have to give up his Senate seat (District 23). Already I’m getting phone calls from individuals ready to run. There’s a heavyweight waiting in the wings, whose support structure will be nearly unbeatable.

If Bryson announces, I’ll have the rundown here.

More props to my law school alma mater…this time out of the Nashville blogosphere.

Law and economics – it’s the wave of the future. And GMUSL is at the forefront.

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Cap Weinberger was a giant. The Secretary of Defense during Reagan’s all-out assault on communism is no longer with us.

A great generation of men who did not waiver in the face of the greatest evil the world has ever seen is now slowly passing. We’re all worse for it. It is our job to maintain the example and ensure it lives on.

Or more accurately, the RealSpeak Rules of Debate. Mark Rose has the list.

Representative Campfield has the scoop here.

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We know how we have been attacked in the past. And we know within a reasonable certainty how we could potentially be attacked in the future. We as conservatives must focus on national security – not the pseudo-national security found in a lot of the immigration rhetoric as of late. This is something of concern (New York Times link, so registration may be required)

NEWARK — Two signs just inside the entrance of the Oak Island rail depot here hint at dangers inside. “Our Employees’ Safety Is in Your Hands.” one reads. “You Are Accountable for Your Safety,” reads another.

Beyond those two placards, however, there are few visible signs that security is a high priority at the railyard, just three miles from downtown Newark and seven miles from Manhattan, where 90-ton tanker cars full of deadly chemical gases are routinely stored and shipped.

Gates to the depot are unlocked and unguarded, allowing unimpeded access to tracks where cars loaded with deadly chlorine, ammonia or oleum gases are stored.

Along the track bed, many switching devices are unlocked, so unauthorized passers-by could redirect, and possibly derail, a train by simply pulling a lever. Security is so lax that a reporter and photographer recently spent 10 minutes driving along a rail bed beside cars holding toxic chemicals without being challenged, or even approached, by railroad employees.

Which is long enough to plant an explosive device with a remote detonator. Scary stuff if you ask me. There are certain aspects of national security enhancement that we can control where our desired policy can be effectuated – we need to focus on those aspects and not others (i.e. not Mexican migrant workers). Rail borne weapons of mass destruction are something we ought to already be prepared for. A chlorine spill, among other potentially nasty substances, in a residential area would be disasterous, and something that we may be able to prevent.

Here’s to hoping that these ride-along NYT reports found a loophole in security, and that this particular vulnerability is a fluke.

The Washington Post has an article on the two different immigration approaches of the House and Senate today. The House doesn’t get it

A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that unauthorized immigrants make up nearly 5 percent of the labor force. In the Washington region, they make up nearly 10 percent of the 3.1 million-strong workforce, providing mainly unskilled labor.

The federal government has a work visa — known as H-2B — that aims to help unskilled migrants enter the country legally. But the government issues only about 66,000 new H-2B visas each year. The guest workers, who generally take jobs in businesses such as restaurants, amusement parks, cleaning companies and landscaping firms, are allowed to stay for 10 months.

The House bill as passed would end the H-2b visa program. To have a society where our collective work ethic is slipping closer and closer to outright laziness, we ought to be welcoming hard working immigrants, and ought to be welcoming more than 66,000 per year. Then there are problems in the Senate, where the proposal extends the guest worker program and lengthens the application of the visa to 3 years, but the onus for enforcement is placed squarely on businesses, with substantial penalties for hiring an undocumented worker.

The whole article is worth reading, and demonstrates well the real effects of the “send ‘em home now” crowd’s rhetoric and the wages paid and businesses reliant on immigrant labor. We are at or near full employment levels. You can’t just cut out 5% of the work force and not send ripples through the entire economy. If these workers are forced out, there simply are not enough citizen workers to take the jobs.

UPDATE Mark Rose notes the public opinion behind controlling illegal immigration. To which I respond – Yeah, but the end-game is bad….really bad. Not just politically, but for the country. We have representative government to stand against bad policy, despite any popular support otherwise. This is a case where we need to do just that. Senator Specter, who I seldom respect, is on the right track. I just wish he’d go further with the concept of Americanization.

David Bernstein, present professor at George Mason University School of Law (my alma mater), has this to say about GMU’s success in reaching the Final Four

Holy Cow, George Mason’s in the Final Four!: I generally completely ignore “March Madness,” and have no interest in college basketball. But we here in the Bernstein household (GMU professor, GMU graduate school alum, and baby) are very excited by George Mason’s success. If nothing else, we are going to be a lot less likely to hear “where?” when we say we teach at/graduated from George Mason. Relatedly, while some mediocre law schools clearly benefit from being affiliated with renowned universities (I won’t mention any names here), GMU Law School has long suffered from being affiliated with (what is unfairly known as) “that commuter school in Fairfax.” So go Patriots!

A rising tide floats all boats.

Okay, you lazy Republicans who read this blog (jesting, really), we need people to run for the State House of Representatives this year in Davidson County. There are ten possible seats – nine are held by Democrats, some of whom are of the worst sort. Information about qualifying to run can be found here, which you can do in an afternoon.

If you have any questions about running, please feel free to email me nmoore-at-nathanmoorelaw.com. House races are fun, and you can meet every voter in your district. This is representative government at its best. These are some seats we can win with good, committed candidates.

So, tomorrow is Monday. Go pick up a petition. The deadline is April 6th.

When you complain about your job, think about this guy (and of course, Lee’s dad).

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The protests in Los Angeles, among others, are not to be taken lightly. Especially so in LA, where it seems no one predicted the size of the protests (500,000 at last count). The people protesting will, for the most part, be dismissed as lawless advocates by many on my side of the political spectrum. It’s time for conservative pundits to can the xenophobic soundbites. Those on the left…who knows. The social dynamic in southern California, New Mexico and Arizona is something we should look more closely into. Let’s start with some reality.

We cannot seal the southern border. It is too long, too porous, and would require too much manpower. We would do better to use those resources to scan every cargo container that enters the country (also, almost an impossible task). Mexicans did not attack us on 9/11 – if national security is the real concern, we shouldn’t overlook our much longer and less monitored neighbor to the North. If it’s not national security concerning us, I think we need to ask some tough questions of ourselves.

Though it’s a popular thing to propose, it is physically impossible to block off the Mexican border, and the Hispanic vote in enough districts has become sufficiently powerful to scare many congressman away from any such idea altogether to where it is also nearly politically impossible. The alternative then, if we cannot stop the flow of northward bound immigration, is to monitor it. A guest worker program with some method of American indoctrination would do that. Some acts are malum in se (where the act itself is clearly bad, like murder). Immigration to America, which has infected so many millions throughout history, does not fall into that category. We’re talking about a set of immigration rules that have outlived any modicum of usefulness. The desire of the world to come here is a net positive. We have established a set of laws we cannot enforce, with dubious policy goals in light of the volume we must now handle and the national security concerns post-9/11. If the system isn’t accomplishing its stated goals, we have to change it.

Besides, illegal immigrants aren’t the real problem. A zero tolerance policy toward those who are here will result in the eventual de-Americanization of the southwest region of our country. If a Mexican national comes here, illegally or not, we need to assimilate them or risk an expansion in influence of the Mexican government in our affairs that we cannot afford. After the next generation of Mexican immigrants becomes newly minted citizens, border of Mexico will de facto expand into the southern border of United States. To avoid this, we need a program of Americanization, not the continued call for enforcement of unenforceable laws. Treating illegal immigrants as some scourge accomplishes nothing. They aren’t going anywhere, and by most estimates add much more to the economy than they may receive in government assistance. Let’s make the desire to reach America at any cost work for America. We can absorb more.

A guest worker program, or something similar, with a goal toward Americanization should be put into place. Mandatory English classes along with weekly American history classes would go a long way to this end. The goal should be to de-Mexicanize the immigrating Mexican worker, not foster an underground culture unassimilated into American society.

(note, a new category has been added, starting with this post, under “Immigration”).

UPDATE Harry Monroe has more here.

FURTHER UPDATE And of course, there are those who are angry and want more unrest, for no other reason than the complete destruction of American society.

FURTHER FURTHER UPDATE My point made here. As Harry Monroe said in the comments, we can’t be accused of being knee-jerk. This, however, is just that.

UPDATE AD INFINITUM Virginia Postrel notes

Anti-immigration forces have made great strides politically by cynically conflating terrorists and criminals with dishwashers and construction workers. Any real plan to “secure the borders” should make it easier, not harder, to separate the two. Workers, especially those who want to settle and become citizens (or have their children become citizens), are not threats. They’re contributors to American society.

Bingo.

Mark Rose has a list of random thoughts this morning. A couple caught my attention. The first one

1. One of the criticisms abortion-rights advocates make against right-to-lifers is our apparent hypocrisy of opposing abortion while, for the most part, supporting capital punishment. It’s a legitimate question, I admit, so forgive me if I’m unable to overcome my apparent hypocrisy. I do support the death penalty, in theory, although my support of the death penalty as it is practiced is somewhat more tepid given the decades-long appeals process that the current system allows. But I digress. My point is this: I’d rather be guilty of hypocrisy for opposing abortion and supporting capital punishment that be guilty of hypocrisy for supporting abortion and opposing capital punishment. I find it much more difficult to reconcile the latter hypocrisy than the former, because, in the end, the left has it in for the unborn and people with feeding tubes, but if you’re a convicted murderer or a terrorist, you’re generally safe with the Democrats.

I always enjoy this one. If the unborn received the same due process rights as those accused of capital offenses, I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with abortion. We can have a trial, the prospective aborting mother can put on proof, and can show a court beyond a reasonable doubt that her unborn child has committed an offense against the world worthy of death. Then he/she can appeal.

That’s the difference.

The second one is this

2. I have a couple of questions on restaurant etiquette. Let’s say I go in somewhere and have a sit-down meal, and the bill comes to $6. Fifteen percent of $6 is $0.90, but I can’t let myself leave less than a dollar tip, which comes to 17% in this example. But it’s still only a dollar tip. Is there some unwritten “minimum allowable tip” that I need to be following? Question #2: How much are you supposed to tip the takeout server?

There are some jobs one has along the way that really stick with you and have lifelong effects. Being a waiter is one of those jobs. As a former server, my standard is 20%, but never less than $2.00 per head. As far as takeout servers go, I normally hit somewhere around 10% – I think I left $3.00 on a $16.00 Chinese takeout order the other night, primarily because the guy I always get my food from always goes to the extra trouble to get me the really hot and good Chinese mustard from the buffet bar.

So, with your random thoughts, my random answers. Now that I have received a couple hours of sleep, it’s off to work (or blog some more…who am I really kidding).

Swap Blog has a post on a debate often had over what version of the Bible is the “correct” one. The Swap Blog and the Swap Wife apparently had dinner with a couple whose church, which he did not blame, believed only the King James Version was valid – first of all, I’d be curious to find out how many in that particular church knew precisely who King James was. And second, the KJV had many, many translation errors, translated in a rush, and was completed before more complete texts of certain books had been found. The revised KJV fixes a lot of that. The point is, there is nothing special about the original KJV translation.

I just think such things are silly legalities that do more to divide the church than unite it. Swap says it best

Basically, If you are going to a church were you are afraid to admit you are not reading the same translation as the pastor you need to go to another church.

Arguing, fighting, over what version of the Bible to use is stupid. It does not save people, it does not build unity in the body – it actually sows discord, and it shows the world Christians arguing over petty “family issues”. That is a terrible witness not matter how you look at it. Again, no one is going to go to Hell if they do not use the KJV. If that was true every person in non English speaking lands would be hell bound.

Yup.

At least in theory, we seem to have escaped unscathed. This is particulary heartening

2. As a matter of substance, this is about everything that the Internet political community could hope for: broad exemptions for most political activity on the Internet, except by those entities that are already highly regulated (such as political committees and candidates). On top of the explicit, clear, and broad exemptions for election-related blogging and other political activity (even if done by incorporated blogs under most circumstances), the draft FEC document went out of its way to expand the media exemption to cover the Internet, and to make clear that the term “periodical publication” is meant to apply broadly to any kind of reporting or commentary, no matter how updated and no matter how partisan it might be. The proposed rules also create very generous safe harbors for individuals engaged in independent political activity on corporate or union owned computers.

Good. I was just starting to enjoy this.

Wisconsin has just passed a law capping pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases

Rep. Curt Gielow (R-Mequon), co-author of the latest measure, said having such a limit in place was important to bringing stability to the health care marketplace.

“It’s a fine balance between fairness to the injured plaintiff and fairness to the overall public that needs access to health care,” Gielow said.

Actually, it’s a boon to insurance companies, who no longer have to pay big settlements and judgments while maintaining the same rate of increase in premiums. Torts are not the reason for rising costs of healthcare – the disconnect between insurance providers and their customers, both doctors and patients, is the reason. Individuals who have been permanently damaged because of someone else’s reckless or negligent behavior deserve compensation. The call for tort reform is a frequent one from members of my party, but it’s bad policy. It will not get us where we want to go.

“Are they killing the gnat with a sledgehammer?”

Bad news for University of Georgia tailgaters here.

The Monroe Doctrine appears to be back online.

The Nashville and Tennessee blogosphere are certainly better for it.

According to George Lucas, J.R. Ewing is responsible for much of the instability we see in the world

People see shows such as “Dallas,” about a wealthy Texas oil family, and decide they want the grand lifestyles portrayed, according to Lucas.

“They say that is what I want to be,” Lucas said. “That destabilizes a lot of the world.”

“There has been a conflict going on for thousands of years between the haves and the have-nots, and now we are in a position for the first time to show the have-nots what they do not have.”

Sounds rather Marxist to me, actually. Or perhaps maybe touches on some sort of ill-thought cultural mercantilism. Class warfare is the default – not the exportation of opportunity and the requirements for it to materialize – freedom and capitalism. Then there’s this

“We are a provincial country. Our president has barely been out of the country.”

How we both control world culture and exist as a “provincial country” isn’t exactly explained. I love the work that George Lucas has done. Most people do. But his rebuke makes little sense. There is some truth to it, though. True, Hollywood represents America to a lot of the world. That in itself, in the present sense, is shameful. They should do better. But George, the problem isn’t Dallas.

No one does it better than the education unions. From the Nashville City Paper

Two education bills recently filed in the state Legislature are generating a good deal of controversy, as critics say the bills are nothing more than modified school vouchers.

If passed, both bills could spur questions of church-state issues because the legislation would allow public dollars to follow students moving from failing public schools to private institutions, including those with religious affiliations.

The bills are a direct attack on public education, according to Jerry Winters, spokesman for the Tennessee Education Association (TEA).

“They are simply a foot in the door for a broader voucher bill that we totally oppose,” he said.

It’s rather awful, I think, to defend failing schools so unequivocally. The bills apply to students in schools that aren’t working, where additional money has proven to be uneffective. Not to be outdone, our local union leader and apologist extraordinaire Jayme Merritt (whose last name is an unfortunately ironic homophone) confirms again that public education isn’t about the kids

The main problem with the bill is that it takes dollars designated for public education and puts them into private and/or religious schools, said Jamye Merritt, MNEA president.

“These bills put a significant drain on public school funds,” she said. “$7,500 per student is a lot for the entire year, though we still don’t know how significant the drain will be.”

How dare we expect money allotted per student to actually follow that student! Who could be against that? Compulsory “education”, monopolistic concerns, and desire for outright power make the education unions largely irrelevant to this debate. Contrary to intimations otherwise, the TEA’s and MNEA’s job is to represent their members first. As such, their incentives are misaligned with the public at large. At no point do the needs or interests of the children being educated come before the well-being of their members. Unfortunately for Tennessee, and a whole bunch of kids in failing public schools (do you hear much about failing private schools?), the educators’ unions hold a significant number of seats on the board of directors of the Democratic Party. And the Democratic Party still controls the Tennessee State House. Until that power is wrestled away, we can be assured there will no shortage of failing public schools.