Good News, Bad News

The good news is that the Supreme Court is considering the Texas re-districting plan. The bad news is that it sounds like they'll uphold it. Once again the court is giving short shrift to fair democratic procedure in favor of a narrow, self-serving legalism. As with the campaign finance case, the point was actually made that if the voters don't like the result, they can remove the offenders. Which completely ignores that with re-districting, as with campaign finance, the democratic process itself is being manipulated - making voter accountability extremely difficult. How can Alito say that the voters should decide when these abuses are designed to insulate politicians from competition?

The good news is that unmarrieds and those without children aren't freaks after all - only 24% of households are marrieds with children. The bad news is that you'd never think this was the case turning on the television. For some reason a rare social structure has become the only acceptable mode of living.

The good news is that neither the guest worker plan nor the "kick the immigrants out" plan nor the "open the borders" plan appears to be passing the Congress this year. The bad news is that I agree with something in the national review:

Unlike the 1986 measure, the recipients of this amnesty would not automatically be put on a path to citizenship (i.e., would not be given green cards), but would instead remain in the United States for the rest of their lives as non-citizens — a permanent underclass.

Because this policy worked so well in Europe!

It's fun watching the Republicans twisting themselves in knots trying to satisfy the Latino community by not appearing racist, the business community which wants cheap labor, and the white nationalist community that feels invaded. The real answer to illegal immigration is massive intervention to improve the Mexican economy and cracking down on sweatshop owners. But the Republicans can't do this, because it would offend the only constituency they really give a damn about - corporations.

And finally it's good news that I'm done blogging this morning. The bad news is that now I have to get ready for work.