Interesting comment from my friend Joe Carter about some possible perceptions of the Republican party after this primary season:

The level of discourse within the conservative ranks has taken a turn toward the surreal. No wonder many people (including many who call themselves conservatives) think the only answers that conservatism offers are the three T's: Torture, Tax cuts, and Throwing out the brown people.

Last week, republicans called for a bill to amend FISA, and demanded that the bill be enacted into law before Congress took its summer recess. Republicans claimed that the move was "necessitated" by a still secret FISA court ruling that declared George Bush's electronic surveillance program unconstitutional.

Think about that for a moment: A judge declares the undisclosed practice unconstitutional so instead of abandoning the practice, the response is to change the law to 'authorize' the practice deemed unconstitutional? read more »

"Under current law, virtually all armed nongovernmental groups are classified as terrorist organizations and the U.S. is prohibited from accepting their members and combatants as refugees."

After 9/11, the US revised immigration rules to bar members of terrorist groups from entering the country. Typically, the rule was written as to bar judgment and discrimination. As written, "virtually all armed nongovernmental groups are classified as terrorist organizations and the U.S. is prohibited from accepting their members and combatants as refugees." Inadvertently, this has blocked the refugee status and entry of those from groups we previously admitted as friends, such as "Burmese rebel groups such as the Karen National Union and Chin National Front; hill tribes in Vietnam and Laos; the now-defunct, anti-Castro Cuban Alzado insurgency; Ethiopia's Oromo Liberation Front; and southern Sudan's ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement." read more »

Is a rally of illegal immigrants planned for a city near you?

The estimate in this article is of 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. I wonder how anyone can know how many illegals there actually are, given that they are illegal and presumably avoiding detection.

However, according to The Center for Immigration Studies:

"Approximately 1 million people receive permanent residency annually. In addition, the Census Bureau estimates a net increase of 500,000 illegal immigrants annually." read more »

I stumbled across something interesting while surfing the web this morning. Here's the substance of what I posted at NLT (with appropriate links there, since I can't figure out how to do that here):

"SDP’s Ken Blanchard calls our attention to this piece in THE ATLANTIC, describing the research and experience of British education professor James Tooley, who has looked at the performance of small private schools for the poorest of the poor in the developing world. A couple of snippets from the article: read more »

I posted this at No Left Turns.

We wait with bated breath for something more than these airy generalities from Keith Ellison, who, as you surely know, is our first Muslim Congressman.

Surely if hard questions can be posed to Mitt Romney and if deep suspicions about theocracy can be raised every time a conservative Christian speaks, we’re entitled to know exactly how Ellison’s faith informs his politics. read more »

I posted this, replete with links, over at No Left Turns.

"Chris Suellentrop has a very nice piece on the politics of crime and punishment in last Sunday’s NYT Magazine. Ranging from a discussion of largely secular scholarship on what works in preventing or deterring crime (unsurprisingly, swift and certain seems more important than harsh when it comes to punishment) to a consideration of moves on the religious right, largely prompted by Chuck Colson, to reconsider prison reform, Suellentrop paints an interesting picture in which faith-based efforts at rehbilitation play a large part. This has been one of the President’s signature issues, and also marks the career of Sam Brownback (unfortunately for him, the most Bush-like of the current crop of Republican con[or is it pre?]tenders). read more »

Sweden, sometimes considered a mecca of economic equality and social justice, has a stock exchange basically controlled by one family.

From the Economist: Sweden's enduring business dynasty

By the late 1990s the Wallenbergs controlled some 40% of the value of the companies listed on the Swedish stock exchange.