Oh man! One of the creepiest things I've ever experienced was a sloth walking across the ground toward me in Panama. It just looks....evil, somehow. Hard to explain, it's just "wrong" in a kind of scary looking way.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

It's interesting, because there is almost a perfect "control" case to test against. John McCain was born in the Panama Canal region. It would be very easy to raise a huge stink about him not being a "natural born citizen" and yet ... there has been very little.

I hypothesize this is because his "Americaness" is physically obvious. He's lily white, has a great "American" name like McCain and served his country as a fighter pilot in his youth. (instead of a community organizer in the ghettos of Chicago).

It's very difficult to prove racist subtext and motives - mainly because people know they are wrong and will not own up to them.

>> ^blankfist:

You mind if I play devil's advocate? I don't know much about his birth certificate issue aside from what I've heard from you guys on the Sift and a couple videos online, but if the rules of this so-called "social contract" dictates that the POTUS must be a naturalized citizen, is it fair to call those challenging it racist?
I don't care one way or another, mind you, but it seems a bit charged to assume it's racist. Please feel free to prove me wrong.

>> ^jimnms:

So Donald says you can't be president if you're not born in the US. John McCain was born in Panama, not the US. Why was McCain eligible to be president? Because his parents were US citizens. Obama's mother was born in Kansas. You are born a US citizen if at least one parent is a citizen and has lived in the US prior to birth. He's a US citizen no matter where he was born, so why would he need to lie about where he was born?


While I don't want to lend any credibility to the birthers, this is not true.

McCain was declared a natural born citizen by SR511 in 2008.

You are automatically a citizen if both of your parents are citizens, are married, and at least one of them has lived here prior to your birth, no matter where you are born. This, however, does not seem to have always been the case and I'm having a hard time finding specifics on when the laws were changed. Remember, McCain was born in 1936 and many of the changes to citizenship laws have not been retroactive.

But nowhere does the law say this makes you a natural born citizen. I don't believe natural born citizen actually has a clear, legal definition in the US, actually, and that's the biggest problem with these arguments. It's often held to refer to jus soli ("right of soil", born within US territory) only. By that definition, neither McCain or a Kenya-born Obama would qualify.

So Donald says you can't be president if you're not born in the US. John McCain was born in Panama, not the US. Why was McCain eligible to be president? Because his parents were US citizens. Obama's mother was born in Kansas. You are born a US citizen if at least one parent is a citizen and has lived in the US prior to birth. He's a US citizen no matter where he was born, so why would he need to lie about where he was born?

When a widespread tsunami warning is issued this is what the list looks like after an 8.9 130 km off the coast of Japan:


Japan, Russia, Marcus Is., N. Marianas, Guam, Wake Is., Taiwan, Yap, Philippines, Marshall Is., Belau, Midway Is., Pohnpei, Chuuk, Kosrae, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Johnston Is., Solomon Is., Kiribati, Howland-baker, Hawaii, Tuvalu, Palmyra Is., Vanuatu, Tokelau, Jarvis Is., Wallis-futuna, Samoa, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue, Fiji, New Caledonia, Tonga, Mexico, Kermadec is, Fr. Polynesia, Pitcairn, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Antarctica, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru

Here is some insane raw footage of water moving through Miyagi Prefecture-There is another clip with a raging fire moving with the rush of water which may be part of the fire from a turbine a Nuclear Power facility.

If CBS fills that half-hour slot with nothing but dead air it will be an improvement. According to Wiki they've made 177 episodes, it's considered one of the biggest hit shows of the past decade, and it is syndicated in 49 other countries, including Iceland, Panama, Taiwan, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.

And you guys wonder why I'm a cynic.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
It is time to take the kid gloves off and build the Panama Canal 2.0 on our southern border.

Wouldn't it be easier if you just fenced in your house. Easier for us, I mean. Cmon do it! At least till the war on terror is won.

The current Panama Canal by comparison is 77 km (48 mi) long
(the US/Mexico border is (3,138 km or 1,950 miles)

The estimated cost for the new Panama Canal (announced in July 2009 by the Belgian dredging company Jan De Nul) is approx 100 million dollars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_canal

Some quick Math:
$100,000,000 div by 77km is $1,298,701.30 per km
$1,298,701.30 x 3,138km equals $4,075,324,679.40
and of course, add inflation over the 10 years or so it would take plus unseen overtures and you've got a 5-7 billion dollar project.

PS - just let me know if my math is faulty, although I'd like to be, I'm not a mathematician

Also: How much money does the US spend on it's War Machine?
Click here to find out: http://costofwar.com/en/

Edit: I'm not saying to build it, I'm just quoting the numbers

There's this thing called Rain.. which likes to fill up big empty holes in the earth.

I'll give you a few seconds - well - better make that a few minutes - to wipe the rabid foam from your mouth so you can think again, which you obviously didn't bother doing previously.

Look at the Panama canal. No - really - look at it. Look at the pictures they took while they were building it. There are places they trenched over 20 meters deep and wide in dirt and rock. Dig a huge trench like that, and put a 20ft wall with razor-wire on the other side.

Guardsmen do things called "patrols". I know perhaps you may not have heard of these complex military manuevers - being a neolib and all - but rest assured they happen. They are efficient things, where a single soldier or a small group conducts a "patrol" over a large area and if they find unusual activity they do another brilliant thing called "reporting". At that point the unit can call for an exotic thing called "reinforcements". Again - I know I'm getting really technical, but try to keep up. Oh - and to really blow your mind - there are these other things called "sensors" and "cameras" which make very small numbers of people able to monitor extremely large areas. Really wild stuff.

And there's no need for you to flash your racism against brown skin here. No one was doing that until you started in on it. When will neolibs stop judging people by the color of their skin, and start judging based on the content of character? It's a distant dream - I know - but I still hope for it. Racism is such an ugly thing. It is truly sad to see the neolib left perpetuate it so freely.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

It is time to take the kid gloves off and build the Panama Canal 2.0 on our southern border.


Wow.. you are so ungodly like stupid. Clearly you don't stop to think things out.

Even if you could "dig a trench deep enough" WHICH YOU FUCKING COULDN'T...

There's this thing called Rain.. which likes to fill up big empty holes in the earth.

:: Atomic facepalm :: Do you even know where the term Wetback comes from?!

Not to mention..

It would take would take nearly 2.1 MILLION National Guardsmen
[standing shoulder to shoulder] on duty 24 hours 365 days a year to "properly seal" the border.

So effectively 4.2 to 8.4 million guardsmen.. and all funded by tax dollars! yay!

~~~
Your delusional Conserva-topia aside tho..

The majority of illegal aliens cross the border inside of 18 wheelers.

And yes, the border guards are bribed just as easily as all the politicians we rag on.

So next time, could you please think thru your crazy Acme cartoon plans before you go spouting off:

"Dude guys! We can totally just build a ladder to the mooooon.. and put all the brown icky people up there!"
-_-

M'eh. To me this simply highlights the pointlessness of addressing a serious issue with half-measures.

Mexico has proven that it is either not capable or interested in controlling its citizens. In fact, if anything, they are complicit in shoving illegals across the border. We have to treat them like 'the enemy' in regards to this issue. They are not interested in the sovreignty of U.S. borders. Quite the opposite.

"Good fences make good neighbors" said the poet. True that. The U.S. has been piddling around with pathetic walls that are little more than speed bumps. It is time to take the kid gloves off and build the Panama Canal 2.0 on our southern border. If we can dig through a freaking country, then we can dig a trench deep enough to seal our border properly.

Start in Arizona, and go west & east. Each state mans the wall with its own national guard. It'll take time, but eventually it will be finished and then the flood of illegals becomes a tiny trickle of student visas and Canadian fruit runners.

What about in Canada?!?!?>> ^kronosposeidon:

doublepromote
YEARDLEY – IN 16 THEATERS across the US, MAY 18 – 23, 2010. The theatrical run is for one week, playing twice a day on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Locations:
Carmike 10 – Panama City, FL
Royal Palm 20 – Bradenton, FL
Amelia Island 7 – Fernandina, FL
Wynnsong 15 – Durham, NC
Carmike 12 – Greenville, NC
Carmike 14 – Hickory, NC
Carmike 16 – Wilmington, NC
Wynnsong 12 – Winston-Salem, NC
Chapel Hills 15 – Colorado Springs, CO
Broadway 16 – Myrtle Beach, SC
Carmike 9 – Minot, ND
Carmike 12 – Kennewick, WA
Oakwood Mall 12 – Eau Claire, WI
Carmike 15 – Apple Valley, MN
Wynnsong 15 – Moundsville, MN
Horizon 10 – Traverese City, MI

*doublepromote

YEARDLEY – IN 16 THEATERS across the US, MAY 18 – 23, 2010. The theatrical run is for one week, playing twice a day on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

Locations:

Carmike 10 – Panama City, FL
Royal Palm 20 – Bradenton, FL
Amelia Island 7 – Fernandina, FL

Wynnsong 15 – Durham, NC
Carmike 12 – Greenville, NC
Carmike 14 – Hickory, NC
Carmike 16 – Wilmington, NC
Wynnsong 12 – Winston-Salem, NC
Chapel Hills 15 – Colorado Springs, CO

Broadway 16 – Myrtle Beach, SC
Carmike 9 – Minot, ND
Carmike 12 – Kennewick, WA
Oakwood Mall 12 – Eau Claire, WI
Carmike 15 – Apple Valley, MN
Wynnsong 15 – Moundsville, MN
Horizon 10 – Traverese City, MI

If brown folks bother you, just say it.

The position is one of law enforcement. The only relevant factor is 'legal' or 'illegal'. It is pretty weak when the only argument is to toss the race card and ignore the germaine issue of law enforcement.

...tyrannical overreach of government, but now assert ... this Arizona law that empowers the police to shake down anyone for documentation on mere suspicion, and arrest people who can't prove their citizenship on the spot.

The opposition to health care has always been discussed as the tyrannical overreach of the FEDERAL government. I've always stated that the state, county, and municipal level is where government should primarily be vested with Federal authority being limited to oversight & regulation. I know the left generally distrusts an approach that isn't centrally planned though. Let a STATE decide what is best for itself? The horror!

That's the hardest thing about this bill is that it seems to be doing some good, when in reality it is not

I tend to agree, but for different reasons. I can only shake my head at the left's attempt to paint this as a race issue. That seems like unfounded race baiting based only on presumption. But on the other hand, Arizona's law is a bandaid on a sword stroke. There are a lot of illegals of all shapes & sizes and they exist all over the country. Even if Arizona manages to clamp down, the illegals will just go somewhere else. The US has an OK - if cumbersome - student, temp worker, and immigration program. What we don't have is an effective system to deport illegals when they are identified.

The first step is to cut off the influx. Build the border wall. Walls work. Walls are effective. Ask the Huns, East Germans, and Palestinians. The US built the Panama Canal. Building an effective border wall is child's play by comparison.

Next, we have to require citizenship ID in order to obtain essential services. Renting or owning property, utilities, phones, education, bank accounts, cash by wire, employment, credit cards, driver permits, insurance, medical care and other key functions should all require ID. If you cannot supply the ID, then you get flagged for review and if you are an illegal you get deported. And yes, any time a cop pulls you over or picks you up - no matter who you are - you should be identified. If the police find they have an illegal, then the illegal gets remanded and deported.

I see no racism or malice in the sensible enforcement of immigration policy. Illegals are - by definition - illegal. I don't get why there are people who think that enforcing the law is racist. The accusation of racism seems to be a politically motivated red herring to me.

>> ^RedSky:
Just to point out, this is from mid-late 2008.


Very true. The reason I posted it, and believe it to still be relevant is because it justifies the opinion that I had in response to enoch's post. I don't think America would involve themselves directly in a conflict with Iran, but rather fund militant groups to pressure change within their government. Similar to what we did in the Afgan/russia conflict. In many south American conflicts in the 70's. In the procurment of Hawaii, panama, and Iraq in the 80's. There is an excellent book about this topic if anyone is interested:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Q3o2BaNiJksC&dq=overthrow+book&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=_f6HS8-uBJHh8Qby-tjDDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=r
esult&resnum=4&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=overthrow%20book&f=false