Holocaust Rememberance Day

I've been listening to the Syracuse classical music station (don't ask, I don't know) in the car and at night. Tonight they've been playing songs from composers killed in concentration camps, including the premiere American performance of Marcel Tyberg's Symphony No. 3. Tyberg left all his hand-written scores with a student before he was carted off to be killed; this particular symphony had to be copied from the originals to be performed.

I don't know enough about symphonic music to give an informed opinion, but I'm enjoying it. And enjoying a beer, in anticipation of being dragged off to Right-Wing Extremist/Planet-Destroying Fattie Death Camp. Sigh.

Quote of the Indeterminate Time Period

"American Revolutionary history...porn for conservatives!!!"

Celebrate Diversity!

except veterans, small-business owners, practicing Catholics, gun owners, talk-radio listeners, tea-party attendees, Texans, smokers, limited-government proponents, pro-lifers, taxpayers, NASCAR fans, Boy Scouts, oil-company employees, secure-border advocates, capitalists, global-warming agnostics, Cuban refugees, school-choicers . . .

He forgot meat eaters, people who don't want their health care rationed by a bureaucrat, beer drinkers, women who choose to have more than one child with a husband instead of by serial casual sex partners, anyone living outside an urban area especially in "undesirable" areas like the South and Midwest, and people who get migraines from !#*&!&! fluorescent light bulbs.

Well this is interesting...

The Obama administration is again delaying implementation of a rule that would require government contractors to verify the immigration status of their employees. Contractors won’t have to use the Homeland Security Department’s E-Verify system until June 30, according to a Federal Register notice published Friday.

The really interesting part is there were only six results when I searched Google News for "Obama e-verify", and they were publications dealing solely in government or HR news (I learned about it from an e-mail from NumbersUSA). Either the MSM hasn't picked it up--note it was released on a Friday, for maximum disinterest--or no one thinks it's worth reporting. I'll check back tomorrow.

Plaintiffs in the court case, which includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argue the rule violates the law by requiring government contractors to use a system that is voluntary for other employers.

Haven't we already seen this with TARP? If you want that sweet gubbament money, you gotta dance for it. Granted, these businesses are provided actual products or services for their money, but I'm sure they make custom arrangements to please customers every day.

Plaintiffs also claim the rule is too vague and will force contractors to verify all employees to avoid potential suspension and debarment, which would be a financial hardship.

I'm not sure where they pulled that from, as the law says very plainly that only new hires after the date--now June 30--should be verified. Sneak 'em in now, boys. Businesses shouldn't have to enforce the laws, the laws should be enforced at the border and by police at all levels--but I don't believe this is a real motivation.

Quasi-related, here's a sob story from a mainstream newspaper about a citizen "forced" to seek welfare after her illegally-resident Haitian husband was deported, 16 years after entry. I'm having a hard time mustering up sympathy--she had a choice whether or not she married and had babies with this specific man, she chose to not work while knowing her husband could be deported, etc.

OTOH, I want to know when he "applied for asylum" because if it's taking 16 years to decide asylum cases, that's too long. Since the guy left Haiti, Clinton deposed Aristide, then he came back, then he was permanently exiled, then his friend was elected...the outcome could have been different at any point. I suspect he only applied after an earlier investigation into his status.

"Deportation is no different than any law enforcement action,'' said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies. "If people are not self-sufficient as a consequence of a spouse breaking the law, that's not a good reason not to enforce the law.''

(I was going to imagine what our cities would be like if it was, but they're mostly not married...nevermind.)

And finally--Ace writes up this sort of phenomenon as "government program works as designed, media outraged":

Recently, the mother of two [a different mother] went to Family Central to get state assistance for child care. She was denied, she said, because the agency determined she earns too much as a medical assistant.

Yeah, damn shame you can't take advantage of a program designed for people less able to help themselves than you are. She then goes on to bitch about student loans and credit card debt. I can be sympathetic about the loans to a point--Did she take out extra to buy a cool laptop? Did she go to the local community college or a swank private school? Did she really need the degree for her job? If the loans are through the feds, did she ask for a hardship deferment?--but credit cards? That's all on you, honey. You used the items or enjoyed the meals or whatever with the understanding that you'd be expected to pay for them at some point...and now you want other people to pay for your childcare so you can make those payments? Grow up.

Further, note the article doesn't mention any men who can't function after their wives are deported. It would be interesting to know why this is--could they find none? Does the public not feel the same sympathy for men who make dumb choices?

(Full disclosure: I racked up five figures of CC debt traveling and buying stuff when I was in grad school, then spent the next five years being broke and trapped and bored to tears while every spare penny went to paying it off. So I understand how CC debt is crippling, but I also understand it's a choice people make. And my student loans were about the size of a house downpayment--but again, that was my stupid choice. You'll notice I don't complain about repayment, only about the ways government wants to manipulate the housing market and the economy, and tax my wages, ensuring I'll never be able in the future to save up a down payment or find a monthly repayment I can afford on my one--when I have a job, I'm seriously exploring fields that can't be offshored--income. Sigh.)

Looks like I got out just in time.

Getting kind violent on the North Shore. Eh, I'm still going back.

Update: Work is good so far, I'm learning useful new things. I've joined a gym so I can keep lifting weights, and I'm signed up for an amateur adult art class in two weeks. Not much time for political blogging--can barely keep up with the reading. This might just be a geology/history blog for awhile. I got a lot out of the Wisconsin version of Roadside Geology, so I bought the NY version.

Look, Lake Ontario!

There appears to have been a tea party out here, but the headlines go to Gov. Paterson deciding New York should have gay marriage (if you click on that tea party photo...I really hate seeing people staple stuff to an American flag. Disrespectful. Bah.).

...and the sales tax is 8%. WTF. Well, if my brother can spend a year in Iraq, I can spend six months in New York. :P

...and while I'm complaining

Some Communist git I know in real life told me I have "really bought a load of shit from the teabaggers." (I assume that's the tolerant open-mindedness they publicly congratulate themselves for having.)

Meanwhile, I'm at least 600 miles away from anyone who cares about me so I can earn a wage, most of which is going to be siphoned by government and given to people who can't even be bothered to read the paperwork after they've lied on mortgage application forms.

It must be really nice to have no sense of responsibilty.

Irony...

The Daily Kos has noticed that the Sadr militia--I assume the same Sadr militia that Kos support in their effort to liberate Iraq from evil imperialist soldiers from that hellhole of Christofascist gay oppression, the U.S., but please tell me if there is more than one Sadr militia--are torturing and killing gay men in Iraq.

Unsurprisingly, they are willfully clueless about the "why." Apparently it's W's fault, because everyone loved gay men when Saddam Hussein was in power. *blink*

OK.

I'm ready to go home now. *sigh*

Adventures With Bratwurst

Greetings from the land of bitter clingers! I-80 through western/central PA is probably very beautiful when it's not fogged over, and when there are leaves.

I can't take pictures of myself, so I brought a stand-in:



Had a good time in Ohio with Grandpa and his orange cats. Tomorrow, Syracuse.

On the road...

Going to spend a few days with my grandfather in Ohio before ending up in Syracuse to start work.

I'm really bummed about quasi-leaving Milwaukee, and not completely because Satan's Little Helper is staying here with his new best friend.

Don't they sell razor blades or rope in Canada?

A man suspected of stealing a plane from Canada, flying erratically over three states and attracting U.S. fighter escorts told authorities he was trying to commit suicide, a Missouri state trooper said Tuesday morning.

Call me a bitch, but I have no sympathy for drama queens who endanger innocent bystanders in their suicides. You want to die? Stay home and die, and let the rest of us get on with our lives.

I wonder how the WI National Guard decided he wasn't a viable threat...

Yeah, this grinds...

Victor Davis Hanson, on Obama bad-mouthing America to the European heads of state:

A modest suggestion: from now on, every president who wishes to go abroad and review all his lesser citizens' collective past and present sins, with accompanying apologies — to applause from foreigners — must first, in the spirit of New Testament atonement, review his own regrettable transgressions.

...although I have no idea why he thinks America is uniquely "guilty", besides his sheer ignorance (Heather hat Schadenfreude weil sie kann mehr Österreichish sprechen dann Barry*). I guess they don't teach European history in America anymore, but you'd think in the time he was growing up in Indonesia, someone might have mentioned the Dutch.

It's the 21st Century...no one alive in the U.S. today has been a slave, with the following exceptions that "progressives" do not care about: women and children smuggled over the border to work in the sex trade, illegal immigrants trapped in sweatshops to "pay off" their smugglers, and children forced to perform "mandatory volunteerism" to obtain the junior high or high school diploma formerly seen as their free right. So let's get on with it already.

* I make no claims to proper grammar/word order. My respect for people who learn English as an adult--especially if their native language wasn't in the same Indo-European family--has soared since I started trying to learn Deutsch. It physically hurts trying to figure out where to put prepositions when you've done it a different way your whole life...

Indiana Feticide Bill

A follow-up, of sorts.

The Indiana House approved a bill today that would impose up to 20 years in prison for crimes that lead to the death of an unborn child at any stage of development.

The catalyst was a bank robber who shot a pregnant teller in the stomach, killing her twins; murder charges could not be made because she wasn't seven months along. They still can't; the new bill just increases the sentence.

Yeah, I still want the death penalty for the bank shooter.

Well this is interesting...

The US Customs and Immigrations Services "Handbook for Employers" says

Providing a Social Security number on Form I-9 is voluntary for all employees unless you are an employer participating in the USCIS E-Verify Program, which requires an employee’s Social Security number for employment eligibility verification. You may not, however, ask an employee to provide you a specific document with his or her Social Security number on it.

It also says documents from List A (such as my U.S. passport) require no additional documents, employers cannot require more documents than are necessary, and employers cannot tell employees which documents they can present.

I am irritated.

Retweets.

Well, BHO suggested that we all needed to learn another language, maybe learning "Austrian" is what he meant.

(Reference.)

Aren't you glad we FINALLY have a SMART PRESIDENT? Good grief.

Well, !(*#$!

E-Verify went into effect today. My passport (for which I presented a birth certificate to the U.S. State Department) is no longer sufficient proof that I am legally entitled to work in the United States UPDATE: satisfies Uncle Sam but not my new employer.

They require a Social Security Administration-issued card. Which I had, once, somewhere, but can't find anywhere. No, it's not in my wallet--the SSA tells you not to carry it with you. It should be with my birth certificate/passport/car title/etc, but it's not. I've been through every box of paper in my apartment, and it's nowhere. I think the last time I saw it was 2003, or four moves ago. ("How did you get your last job?" "They never asked for it--I filled in the the I-9 form and faxed it to them.")

I can get a replacement...sometime, eventually, cards are mailed out of Baltimore in the order the applications are received. The E-Verifying has to be done before I can start work.

Yeah, I'm too stupid to live. I fully expect when I call and ask them what I'm supposed to do they will tell me not bother to show up, they will find someone else. UPDATE: This is someone else's problem now. :)

I wonder how much it would cost to get the guys who sell fake documents to illegal aliens to make me up one with my real number on it...hell, how do you find these people?

UPDATE: USCIS puts the I-9 directions online, where I can see it.

On the other hand...

I am amused by the irony in the phrase "gay marriage Mecca."

Huh.

Headline from this morning's Register:
Unanimous ruling: Iowa marriage no longer limited to one man, one woman

...guess the mere mention of polygamy wasn't really a "scare tactic."

I don't know enough about the Iowa Constitution to comment, really. The Iowans I know online are having literal orgasms about the ruling* (brain bleach). I suspect if it had gone the other way they'd be bitching about tyranny and oppression, although it seems more tyrannical to me to have laws implemented by a handful of judges instead of by elected representatives...

Hell, all they would have had to do was submit a bill to the current legislature repealing the old law. It would have passed easily, with no dissent allowed, like the new tax plan.

But I find the inference of polygamy the most interesting part. Don't know if it will be Muslims or "loving triads" who get first try at it...you can work up a good head of pathos for the latter, especially if there are half-siblings born from the relationship.

* They're also spewing all sorts of hatred, bigotry, and intolerance against Christians, nuclear families, and old people, as part of their celebration of "victory over hatred, bigotry, and intolerance!" and the irony is not amusing me.

I'll be damned.

I just complained about this...

Iowa Democrats want to tax Iowans on their federal taxes.

And they had the State Patrol throw out the audience who attended the session.

"Gross display of arrogance and disdain for taxpayers." Popular these days.

UPDATE: This may be the first time the comments at the DSM Register aren't full of ignorant crap.

I'm pretty sure the Nazis would have shot Failor in the lobby. I probably shouldn't give them any ideas.