Trump's case on immigration, done more eloquently

Donald Trump is once again being vilified for his comments on immigration, both on the left and the establishment right.  Once again those comments are being misrepresented during that vilification.  At this point, one has to wonder if those who attack him for what they proclaim would be absurd policy are cementing his base of support, and not effectively

Certainly establishment conservatives appear to be willing to accept that they are creating fodder for Hillary Clinton if they cannot take down Trump.  That in itself is as much a red flag as the idea that Donald Trump might be a sleeper Democrat who will either lose to Hillary on purpose or enact liberal policies should he decide to win. Why? Because it would seem elite Republicans would rather have four more years of progressivism than any chance of populism gaining root in the GOP. That's both short-sighted and not conservative.

In any case, here's what Donald Trump said, followed by a more eloquent rendition by (conservative) blogger extraordinaire, John Hawkins.  To be clear Trump does not want to ban Muslim immigration.  He wants Congress to get it's act together and come up with a better method for handling immigration.  That includes halting operations for Muslims until a smarter approach is enacted. Racist? Even if it is, and that's specious at best, self-preservation must always come first.

This video headlines the negative, though in it's defense it does give the fuller context of Trump's comments:

Here's John Hawkin's view on a temporary halt to immigration.

Immigration is not good for America. At least, not anymore. Immigration has benefitted our nation a great deal and it certainly can do so again, but as long as our current rules are in place, immigration can only hurt our country.

Whether your ancestors came over on the Mayflower or you became a citizen yesterday, an American is an American is an American.

However, even though that’s true, the presumption of our immigration laws seems to be that any person, from any culture, of any educational status, from any country is just as likely to come to America, fit in and become a productive citizen.

That idea is ridiculous on its face.

The whole idea that it doesn’t matter whether we bring in large numbers of uneducated people from socialistic countries with backward cultures where they don’t speak English or large numbers of highly educated people from capitalistic countries with Western cultures that speak English makes no sense. Yes, there are always exceptions to the rule, but unquestionably members of one group are much more likely to fit in, assimilate and add to the tax base than the other group.

The article is worth the read, unlike so many commentaries that have set up a straw man Trump argument on Muslim immigration and then responded to and attacked that.

Thursday Hillary Bash - Bonus Item #1

Welcome to the Hillary Bash Bandwagon...John Hawkins?  To be fair, he's pointing out issues with Hillary that he's previously pointed out, or in addition to things about her he's previously pointed out.  He's not bandwagon hopping.  But this is a good synopsis of Hillary quotes 2 or 3 of which should be enough to dissuade any voter from taking her seriously.  But he's included, count 'em, 20.

John Hawkins has a great read

If John Candy were a smart conservative.

John Hawkins (pictured right) of RightWingNews fame has long been one of the bloggers/writers that I've really admired.  His site has been a success because of his insightful views into the political landscape combined with his ability to parse events into commentary that is easy to connect with as a reader.

He has a great article at Townhall about liberals being on the wrong side of history.  Here's a brief excerpt:

Liberals dream of one day seeing all Americans permanently locked in the smothering, cradle-to-grave death grip of the nanny state. Nothing excites a liberal more than the idea of controlling where you go to school, regulating your work and play, deciding what type of health care you're going to have and then deciding when you get to retire and how much money you have when you do. Even if you want to choose, you can't. Even if you want to break free, you're stuck. You're not allowed to make different choices because liberals have made it illegal...

It's a kinder, gentler version of George Orwell's horrific "boot stamping on a human face - forever." In the liberal version, it's a boot gently pressing you to the ground, forever, "for your own good" -- as if liberals have the slightest idea of what "your own good" might be. Certainly, they believe they know what's best for you. It's what they were told by their college professors, the New York Times and their friends. There's a whole echo chamber dedicated to telling them exactly what they want to hear about how other people should be living.

It's worth the full read.

Did not know that - John Hawkins speaks

One of my favorite right of center political blogs is Right Wing News.  I must confess that when I read it, I still filter through most of the posts by the other authors than the blogs creator John Hawkins, looking for his stuff.  It's not that there aren't great posts from the other authors there - there are some really good ones in fact.  Rather, I like John Hawkins' writing, his ideas and sensibilities on various topics.

What I stumbled upon recently, was the fact that John posts on youtube as well. That's a pleasant surprise. While he hasn't posted to youtube in a few months, here's one of his more recent posts that is still relevant today and will be for a couple of years: Not Jeb Bush.

RWN - John Hawkins' Case For Newt Gingrich

Right Wing News

John Hawkins makes the case for Gingrich over at Right Wing News; My Final Short & Sweet Case For Newt Gingrich. Despite Newt's obvious shortcomings, I agree with John Hawkins - Newt has a number of things in his favor and I am leaning towards Gingrich. He's a better choice than Mitt Romney and despite everything you hear, he's quite electable. As for the rest of the GOP field, there are great qualities in many of the candidates and if it were a three or four way race, I'd be less inclined towards Newt and more towards being undecided. But I don't think any other candidate has the potential sustainability plus polling to go head-to-head with Mitt for the whole of the primaries. John Hawkins makes that his very first point in his case for Newt.

I've always been a fan of Right Wing News, but I have to say, I'm very happy to be in synch with Mr. Hawkins in this case. Not to mention Thomas Sowell and Art Laffer.  I'm in quality company.

Right Wing News

I haven't had time to post much today, and I haven't linked to John Hawkins at Right Wing News in a long time, so here's killing two birds with one stone.  John Hawkins and his catchy intro bit, on why Republicans must allow no compromise on Obamacare.  Makes sense to me.

One Year of Nonsensible Shoes - A blog story

Today is the one year anniversary of this blog.  Happy anniversary to me.  I started Nonsensible Shoes back in November of 2008, after writing numerous emails for my friends, explaining, and to a lesser extent interpreting, the daily happenings of the 2008 U.S. Presidential primaries and general election.  It started out as more explaining but as it went along it became more of a warning of "don't believe the (Obama) hype".  It turned out I enjoyed the interpreting as much as, or more than explaining electoral college and super-delegate details.

Nonsensible Shoes has always been about politics, from a conservative viewpoint.  It will continue to be. However, I really started blogging without any goals beyond getting my points out there for people to consider.  What I hadn't considered myself, was that getting people to notice my ramblings, was a challenging proposition.  Once I got a few visits, I wanted more.  It turns out success, however small, is kind of addictive.

Half way through my first year of blogging I started getting some pretty good (for me) traffic.  In the late spring it fell off and I decided to try to set a goal for myself of getting 20,000 visits in my first year of blogging. I don't know if that was a good goal or not because before this year, I knew nothing of blogging.  After my first year, I can report that I fell just short of my goal, having had 19,695 visits.  However, in late December of last year I added a feed to my account and have had 3,992 views from that.  So I don't feel like I really failed to reach my goal, some of it just came in another form.

However, I still have a lot to learn about blogging; blog design optimization, blog marketing and monetizing a blog.  After one year my audience is no longer growing. In fact I've been so busy with my real job and family life the last few weeks, it's contracted some as a result of neglect of the regular blogging frequency.  In one year I have posted about 800 entries - few have been from the last two weeks.  That will return to normal over the next month or so (I hope). 

The other thing that excited me as an unrepentant capitalist, was that by throwing some Google Ads on my site, I was able to make money doing something I really enjoyed.  That was what opened my eyes to the possibility of eventually making a living doing something I love - talking politics and policy.  Granted I've made less than $40 in my first year.  But it hasn't phased me.  Like I said, I'm still fairly new at this.  I've had people tell me it takes three years to really see some kind of traction on a blog.

I'm inspired in particular by Ed Morrissey who blogged at Captain's Quarters and now Hot Air.  Mr. Morrissey apparently also had a regular full time job but managed to blog on the side and grew his audience over the course of a few years, to, at one point according to Wikipedia, 400,000 per day at the height of the Canadian Adscam scandal. Ed's tireless efforts, and quality writing have been inspirational.  John Hawkins at Right Wing News has also proven for me that effort and quality mean success.  His site has been for years one of my most frequented web visits.

Others have written or told me some of the obvious blogging tips that I'm sure everyone has heard.  Most importantly that quality content is the single biggest factor in succeeding in blogging.  It's in that light that I've set more goals for my next year of blogging.  They don't involve numbers for the most part, other than writing at least as many posts as I have in the past year.

My goals are more internalized - writing ever better quality posts (which means perhaps taking a course or studying methodologies of journalism), and learning more about smart marketing tactics, and web/blog design.  Hopefully by this time next year I will have achieved all of my specific goals and seen some seeds of success as a result.  Perhaps in the following year I can then start thinking about actual numbers again.  A successful blogging year would make a wonderful 2010, especially if it's combined with a conservative Congressional landslide next November.  Of course, just like my personal goal, a landslide will take a lot of hard work and dedication.  Hopefully some conservatives in the RNC and GOP are, one year out, thinking the very same way.

Mentioned on Conservative Grapevine

John Hawkins put this site as site of the day on Conservative Grapevine. I'm flattered/stunned/excited!

Wow, I wasn't expecting this - I would have prepared a speech or at least a few more interesting posts that I'd been working on.

I'd like to thank the Academy for giving us loads of liberal Hollywood types to goof on. I'd like to thank the Obama administration for goofing up everything they touch and again, giving conservative bloggers a boat load of material to work with.

Seriously though, thanks to John Hawkins for putting my site as site of the day on Conservative Grapevine. You'll notice on the blog roll on the left, that Right Wing News is something I consider essential reading.

Thanks John!

Oh, and Obama is lying to you, Global Warming is a sham, and he is less than 3 degrees of separation from Saul Alinsky (the communist) and DON'T FALL for nationalized health care - it sucks!!!!