With some help from the voter's guide, I finally finished dissecting the issues and decided on my vote. For everyone's reading enjoyment (ahem), here is where I stand on my ballot.

 

President

John McCain 

 

Long explanation.  I like Barack Obama, and if the current polls accurately predict tomorrow's outcome, I won't be heartbroken because I think he represents a great face for the United States.  His charm and eloquence will be a great improvement from the last eight years.  Politically, though, I think Barack Obama just represents run-of-the-mill politics as usual.  He's just a standard representation of the Democratic party platform, and an inexperienced leader. 

 

On the other hand, I've been hoping for several years that John McCain would make it to the White House.  I have always loved that he decided what he believed in, like campaign finance reform or a sensible approach to immigration, and stuck to what he believed in, even if the rest of his party wasn't with him.  I think McCain represents free-thinking, courageous leadership that will stand up against even members of his own party.  That kind of leadership doesn't come around very often. 

 

On the other, other hand, if Barack Obama is our next president, I hope that will mean a reversal of the leadership in the House and the Senate, the same way it happened two years into Clinton's administration and two years into the current Bush administration.  I hate having the same party - either party - control the White House AND the House AND the Senate because that's when the extremist voices in each party start having a possibility of passing through their dangerous ideas.  If the branches are going to be controlled by separate parties, I actually prefer having a Democrat in the White House and Republicans controlling the congress, as long as Republicans will stick to the ideals they are *supposed* to believe in about fiscal responsibility, unlike the idiot Republicans in congress now.

 

 

U.S. Representative District 1

Rob Bishop 

 

I was thrilled when Rob Bishop stood his ground and voted against the ridiculous $700 Billion bailout.  I can't wait to vote AGAINST Orrin Hatch for pushing this stupid legislation through.  Yes, let's borrow our way out of the crisis that was caused by irresponsible debt.  That's brilliant.  In truth the economy will be just as bad off financially as if we hadn't passed that bill, but now we have an extra $700 Billion in debt.

 

 

Governor

Jon Huntsman

 

I've been very happy with Jon Huntsman's leadership of the state, and I hope to see him continue the direction he's headed.

 

 

Attorney General

Mark Shurtleff

I mainly support Mark Shurtleff because I like his approach to the the FLDS church.  Going after the evil leadership like Warren Jeffs and siezing the property is the right way to pressure them to end their sickening practices of forced marriage and underage marriage.  A much better approach than the cowardly bigots in Texas that went in with tanks and snipers to arrest women and children.

 

 

State Auditor

Clare Collard

 

If the leadership of the state is going to be Republican, I like the idea of having the Auditor and Treasurer be Democrats.  I wish we could get rid of the political parties, but I'll work with the two-party system we have.

 

 

State Treasurer

Dick Clark

 

I don't expect this Dick Clark to count down the hits for fifty years without looking like he aged a day, but I like that he lays out what he believes in and plans to do with the state's funds.

 

 

Representative District 17

Pat Herrera

 

Pat Herrera has great qualifications, and the incumbent Julie Fisher didn't even submit a candidate statement.  That is so typical of the way I see the Republican political machine in Utah.  Why bother taking the time to scribble out a statement convincing people to vote for me?  A Democrat doesn't have a chance of beating me, anyway. 

 

 

Judge Carolyn McHugh - Retain

Judge Gregory K. Orme - Retain

Judge James D. Davis - Retain

Judge Pamela T. Greenwood - Retain

Judge Russel W. Bench - Do Not Retain

Judge John R. Morris - Retain

Judge Jon M. Memmott - Retain

Judge Kathleen M. Nelson - Retain

Judge Michael Lyon - Retain

Judge Parley R. Baldwin - Retain

Judge Paul F. Iwasaki - Retain

Judge Thomas L. Kay - Do Not Retain

 

I base my votes for the judges entirely on the survey results from attorneys who have presented cases before these judges.  Russel W. Bench got low marks on "Perceives legal and factual issues" and "Opinions are scholarly and well written".  Judge Thomas L. Kay's survey results seemed to indicate he has an unprofessional attitude.

 

 

Constitutional Amendment A

Yes

 

Constitutional Amendment B

Yes

 

Constitutional Amendment C

Yes

 

Constitutional Amendment D

Yes

 

Constitutional Amendment E

No

 

Constitutional Amendments A thru D were simple, common-sense updates to the constitution that have a negligible impact.  I thought C and D made much better sense in their timing of the legislature's requirements than the current constitution.  But Amendment E is a proposal to lift the ban on investing the state's funds in public stocks.  I don't want the funds for schooling sitting in the stock market.  I know we can have the potential of better gains, but I don't like the risk.  There are lots of ways to get a return on your money besides putting it in the stock market.

 

 

Davis County Commission

J. Dell Holbrook

 

Holbrook has a strong, impressive background.  His opponent owns a mechanic shop.  I know it's a prejudice, but I don't trust mechanics except my own.

 

Davis School Board District 4

Not Voting

 

Only one of the two candidates submitted a statement, and she wasn't all that impressive.  I won't feel the least bit bad about just leaving this race blank.

Are Love and Sorrow Inseparable?

Twenty-one years ago today my father died of a heart attack. I was fifteen years old. The whole family was getting ready to spend the day riding roller coasters and working on our sunburns at Lagoon. My dad drove down to the ATM to get some cash and took my brother Josh with him. Josh was eight.

About two blocks from our house, dad pulled the car over and told Josh he felt sick. He opened the car door and leaned out to throw up. Then he didn't sit back up. Josh started to feel awkward because dad was leaning out of the car so long and not answering him. Then dad slowly slid out of the car onto the road and the car started rolling down the hill without a driver.

I don't know how they stopped the car. I only know I was in our front yard when someone stopped and said my dad had been in an accident just down the road. I didn't wait for anyone. I ran in the direction they pointed. I remember thinking how stupid I was for running barefoot on the gravel-covered asphalt because little rocks were stabbing my feet. I only got about half way there before my mom pulled up in the car and I jumped in.

When we got there the ambulance had already taken my dad away.

That's not the part that makes me sad, though.

Twenty-one years later my mother still misses him every day. She was a single mom for ten years and then for the past eleven years she has been married to my step-dad, who I think is a great guy. But she still reminisces with me a couple of times a week about how she misses my dad.

A couple of nights ago she watched The Notebook on TV. If she just wanted pain, she could have thrown herself down the stairs. It would have been quicker.

I found her wandering out to the kitchen looking for somewhere to be alone. How do you tell your new husband that you're sobbing uncontrollably because you miss your first husband so much?

But her story isn't as sad as my grandmother's.

My grandfather died a few years ago. It was sad, but he had lived a full life and he was close to ninety years old.

For a couple of years both he and my grandmother had been wondering which of them would outlive the other. One day my grandfather woke up and he couldn't shake grandma awake. It was the most terrifying ten minutes of his life before she finally came around and told him to go away and stop bugging her so she could sleep.

Grandma's alzheimers had gotten pretty bad. She would put food on to cook and then turn it off when the smoke alarm went off. So she never remembered grandpa dying.

When my own father died, it was an incredible blow. We were all sitting in a room at the hospital, waiting for news. My older, married sisters and their families were there, too. I was numb. Dad had already survived other heart attacks and strokes. In my fifteen-year-old mind that meant he could just shrug these things off and keep right on going. But I remember looking around and seeing a look of complete terror on my brother Mike's face. When the doctor came in and said, "I'm sorry..." Mike started wailing immediately. I was angry because Mike hadn't even let the doctor finish his sentence and I was sure he still had more to say about what they were still trying or what his chances were. I was in denial. Mike wasn't.

Grandma had to go through that process every day for almost a year. She would wake up and wander around looking for Tom until she found someone that had to break the news to her all over again that Tom had died. She was always furious. Why hadn't they let her go with them to the hospital? She didn't remember any of it, so she didn't believe them, and she was a wreck every day.

Luckily my aunt had taken pictures at the hospital, so they eventually made up a poster board of the story. It included pictures of grandma standing next to his hospital bed while the doctors worked. Grandma would sit and stare at that board for hours every morning, trying and trying to remember it. But after a few hours she would accept it. She was terribly sad, but she went on.

Sometimes I think my father and my grandfather got the easy way out. But I picture them sitting a few feet away, watching this parade of anguish, helpless to comfort the ones they love and miss most.

Is that how love always leaves us? Is love a set of immovable tracks leading to an inevitable train wreck? Does anyone truly love without true suffering?

I don't have the answers. But I know love is better than the alternative. I've been on both roads, and I know it is far better to miss someone and ache with loss than to feel completely alone and not have anyone you even miss.

As for me, I know I will cherish every moment I can with someone who loves me. Children, parents, family. They all will be gone someday. The worst thing that could happen would be to have all the loss without having juiced every possible bit of joy from the happy moments.

YAHOO! I'm being tortured!

There was an article in today's Washington Times about a bill that is stalled in Congress. I remember being really angry when it hit the news a year or two ago that Yahoo had given people's online usage data to the Chinese government, and the Chinese government had used the data to lock up and torture people for disagreeing with them. I don't get angry at the news, but that one set me off.

You don't help evil accomplish its ends. Cowardice and greed are inexcusable, especially when it might costs a man his life. If I was a Yahoo employee, this is something I would resign over.

So I haven't done this for several years, but I wrote a letter to my senators. Here's what I sent to Senators Hatch and Bennett (don't worry, I changed the name on Bob Bennett's letter).

---------------------------------

Dear Senator Hatch:

I firmly believe that by nature men have the desire to be noble, brave, and on the side of everything that is right. I also know that life repeatedly requires us to make sacrifices, both great and small, to remain true to noble principles. When those sacrifices are required, men are tested and we see who will choose short-term personal gain and who will choose loyalty to their loftier ideals.

Internet companies such as Google and Yahoo have repeatedly had to face tough decisions that test their ideals. The Chinese government has come to them several times asking for specific internet usage data in connection with dissident individuals such as Shi Tao and Wang Xioaning. The threat behind the Chinese request is that non-compliance could lead to the companies not being allowed to do business in China, which leaves these companies forced to choose between their own profits and pleasing their shareholders or staying true to our closely held ideals of privacy and freedom.

When I was a teenager I was strongly affected by a scene in Herman Wouk's novel Winds of War. The scene involves Americans trying to get out of Europe in the early stages of World War II. They are stopped by German soldiers who want to separate the travelers into Jews and non-Jews and put them on separate trains. The Americans, who are all strangers to each other, stubbornly refuse to be separated and refuse to identify whether any in their group are Jewish, saying if you take any of us to the Jewish train, you have to take all of us. The German soldiers apply pressure and threats in several ways, pressuring specific individuals to get them to speak out, but in the end all the Americans stand together and the Germans have to allow them all to get on the non-Jewish train. The reader knows specific characters are Jewish and if any one of the Americans just pointed the finger and said "She's Jewish" it would have meant a cattle car to the concentration camps.

I remember thinking how tough that choice would be. If I was facing a soldier with a rifle and considering the possibility that I might not make it back to my family in the U.S. would I have the courage to protect a stranger? And the situation did not just require individual nobility. It required group nobility. If any single member of the group had given the reins over to their cowardly or self-serving side, it would have sent someone to the gas chambers. I loved that the scene ended with the entire group acting nobly and courageously. On the other hand, I was ashamed to hear that sixty years later we have abandoned those principles and American corporations are now cooperating with a regime's efforts to oppress its own population. The evidence Yahoo provided to the Chinese government has already led to the incarceration, and probably torture of political prisoners, and may possibly lead to their deaths.

There is a bill in the House of Representatives now to bar internet firms from helping repressive regimes track down cyber-dissidents. It is the Global Online Freedom Act, sponsored by Rep. Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey. There was a recent article about the bill in the Washington Times. The article is online at http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jul/16/quick-vote-on-internet-freedom-sought/

There is no corresponding bill in the Senate yet. I urge you to get involved in whatever efforts are being made in the Senate to draft and pursue corresponding legislation.

I agree with all the voices clamoring that China is our next big threat. The espionage they carry out on our soil and their growing financial and military advances all point toward danger in our future. It is in our best interest for these political dissidents to thrive in the world's last great bastion of communism. Every voice that is silenced now in China may mean thousands of American lives lost in a future conflict. On the other hand, supporting this legislation will cost us nothing in the way of tax dollars or human life. Please do whatever is in your power to lend your influence to seeing a bill through the Senate.

On Sunday I hiked Bell Canyon in Salt Lake. Bell Canyon is the next canyon south of Little Cottonwood Canyon. The trailhead leaves from a parking area at 10230 S Wasatch Blvd, and the first hundred yards or so is "suburb hiking" right past homes and backyards.

Bell Canyon is a steep hike, but it has a fast payoff. You only go one half mile before you come to a nice lake where you can do some catch and release fishing (artificial lures only).

The trail climbs steadily through the suburban neighborhood for one to two hundred yards, then drops down to cross the creek coming out of the canyon.

Enjoy the cool shade and the burbling creek here for a moment, because once you cross the bridge, this is where the trail gets steep. The hike to the lake is only half a mile, but in that half mile the trail climbs almost 500 feet, so it's not unlike climbing fifty flights of stairs.

For a moment the trail almost seems vertical, but it's a short stretch. Once you climb what feels like a dirt ladder for about fifty yards or so, the trail goes back to a more gradual, steady climb, then you come over the first rise and arrive at Bell Canyon Reservoir.

I was with a group that included children so we were happy to hang out at the lake and then go back down, but the hike doesn't have to end here. The trail up Bell Canyon actually continues on for several more miles, and eventually joins up with the White Pine trail in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Yesterday I hiked Adam's Canyon in Layton. The trailhead is very accessible. It's at the top of Oak Hills Drive, which is the same thing as Gentile Rd in Layton. You go up Highway 89 just a little north of Oak Hills Drive, and you can turn off the road and come back on East Side Drive to the parking lot right next to the little reservoir. The trailhead rises from there along some switchbacks that are supported by retaining walls and railings. Whoever took all the time to install the railings and retaining walls, thank you very much. These switchbacks are not necessarily the steepest or the most challenging part of the hike, but I actually found them the most tiring part of the day, both on the way up and on the way down.

After pushing through the switchbacks and crossing some open spaces, I finally entered the canyon, and this is where the hike really becomes enjoyable. Almost the entire hike is along side the creek that comes down out of the canyon, which means the sound is wonderful through the whole hike. I came across several other groups while I was hiking, and most of the groups included children as young as 8 or 9 years old, so this is not an overly difficult trail.

There are a couple of places where the trail crosses the creek, and the water was high, as can be seen from the picture of this bridge. The water was flowing right over the top of the bridge in several places. In another spot where crossing the creek meant choosing rocks, there were not very many rocks to choose from because of the water level.

The creek cascades down the mountain in some gorgeaous ways. There are several small waterfalls that make the hike completely beautiful. This waterfall comes over a rock. In the picture you can't see it, but there is actually quite a good sized space behind the waterfall, up under that rock.

There hasn't been any snow around my house for quite some time, but I didn't have to hike very long before I started running into snow. In several places the trail went right along the top of the snow, which made for some fun, slippery times and a few instances where my foot would sink several feet. For this view, I climbed up on top of the rock wall that ran along the side of the trail. Great view from up there, and as a bonus, I got a clear cellular signal. You can see the line of snow in the lower right side of the picture. I'm looking down on the trail, which goes right along the top of the snow there.

At the top of the trail, hikers are rewarded with this final waterfall, which drops into a pool. It is by far the prettiest spot on the entire hike.

The trail ends at this waterfall, but I didn't feel like stopping, so I climbed a crevice that rises north of this waterfall and crossed over the ridge to a summit above the waterfall. The view was fantastic above there. I took several pictures from up there that I need to stitch together into a panorama.

There was another peak I wanted to climb, but I knew I didn't have enough daylight, so I started down. To start my descent, I selected a track of one of DJ Rufus White's house mixes called "The Children Need to Get to School". I wasn't rushing, but I still came down pretty quickly, even doing about ten minutes of trail running when the trails permitted. The music track is 61 minutes long, and it ended just as I was coming down the last switchback, so it took me almost exactly an hour to descend, but a lot of that was climbing down the rock above the waterfall.

Yes, I still have opinions

After the baby was born I stopped posting much here, and instead when I was ready to post something, I would post on my filmmaking blog.

Of course, my political opinions haven't disappeared, and after everything that has happened in the last six months, I just have to express my opinion here.

Blech.

I supported the president before, but my approval has completely evaporated. I still think the war in Iraq was the right move. Even knowing now that there were no WMD's, I would support going in there again if we had to do it all over. I think strategically, removing Saddam's regime was the smart thing to do.

So, if I'm not against the war, what changed my mind?

Two things.

1 - Cronyism. Suggesting Miers and Gonzales for the Supreme Court. Stretching bill after bill to try to force through ridiculous benefits for his energy pals like opening the Arctic Refuge. The obvious pandering to pals without regard for the nation's interests has destroyed my trust.

2 - Treatment of detainees. Sometimes violence is unavoidable. There are times in the schoolyard when you have to take a stand, even if it means punches get thrown. Still, if you have to descend into the pit of atrocities, you use the minimum force necessary to accomplish your goals, and you restore calm and peace as quickly as possible afterward so you don't get consumed by the darkness. When the president decided our prisoners didn't merit Geneva convention rights, he moved us into the middle of the darkness and built a home.

There is a new jester in the Wamba family. Isn't she beautiful?

Heard the President's appearance at Fort Bragg last night. I was in the car so I got to listen to most of his address on the radio. I thought he hit several of the right points that he needed to emphasize.

Once we removed Saddam Hussein from power, there was no turning back. We have to see Iraq through to a stable, new government. We cannot pull our troops out until the job is done.

I agree with the president that all the talk about setting a date for withdrawing troops is ridiculous. His timetable that "As the Iraqis step up, we will step down" is the right approach, and it is all that should be said.

I think he addressed several of the things that America needed to hear to keep our support up for a difficult task.

He did not address the issues that have me upset, though.

The insurgency will lose an enormous amount of its support once we are gone and Iraq governs itself. But as long as we keep the policies in place that create the problems at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, we are a huge liability to the new Iraqi government.

As long as we mistreat our prisoners, we villify ourselves in the eyes of the Iraqi people who were just recently so grateful to us for their liberation. To whatever extent we make ourselves evil, we taint the new Iraqi government that we helped establish, and we encourage young idealists to join the insurgency.

Here is my list of what I would like to see:

1. We need to recognize that all our prisoners are regular prisoners of war and re-instate their Geneva Convention rights.
2. We need to comply with the Supreme Court ruling about hearings for Guantanamo prisoners.
3. We need to help the new Iraqi government claim the moral high ground. There are several ways this could happen.

• The new Iraqi government should vehemently and publicly call us to task for the mistreatment of prisoners. Every time the new Iraqi Prime Minister meets with a U.S. official, he should publicly mention that he hopes we will soon respect the human rights of our prisoners.
• Use Saddam's old television network to greater advantage in highlighting the difference between the agenda of the insurgency and the agenda of the new government.
  - We want to rebuild the infrastructure for your electricity. The insurgents want you to sit in the dark without air conditioning.
  - We want you to be able to speak your opinion freely. The insurgents want you to feel the silencing oppression of the old regime.
  - We want a government that fairly represents the needs of Shias, Kurds, and Sunnis equally. The insurgents want our children to spend their lives killing each other in hatred.

This kind of campaign needs to co-opt the idealism that is driving young men to join the insurgency by portraying the bravery and heroism of the citizens who stand up to the insurgents. Very simple 15-second TV and radio spots with different "every man" individuals saying, "My name is Ali and I am a clerk at the new Parliament. I know I am in danger, but I go to work every day anyway because I believe in my future and the future of Iraq." or "My name is Ahmed. I am an emergency room doctor. I am in danger every day, but I stay because I want a better life for my children." or "My name is Moayad. I make repairs at a power plant. The insurgents threaten me but I carry on because that is best for my family and all Iraqis."

Then, when a car bomb kills a doctor or a maintenance worker, the people relate it to the face they've seen and the statement of a suicide bomber is no longer "I hate America", but it becomes "I hate Iraq."

The Iraqis will only defeat the insurgency if they can believe that the insurgents are evil and resisting them is noble. As long as we continue to confirm their opinion that we are evil, the young, dedicated idealists will blow themselves to oblivion to undermine the new government instead of joining the forces to defend their new homeland.

We cannot be both the benevolent liberator and the regime of torture. It is immoral, and it is strategically flawed.

Sidenote: a friend of mine says that modding computers is this generation's version of the 60's hot rod. Except that in the 60's a souped-up hot rod attracted women, whereas a guy that tricks out his computer sees the opposite effect.

I have to show off the computer I just built. I went crazy and descended into my deepest nerdness. Here are the results.

I am building the computer to use as a movie editor. I already had a Matrox RT.X100 card, but my old computer wasn't powerful enough. I decided to build a computer with one of Matrox's tested and approved setups, so here are the parts I put into it and where I bought them.

• ASUS Dual processor motherboard - used from eBay
  
• Matrox dual monitor video card - also used from eBay
  
• 2 Jet engine shaped CPU fans - from Directron (my favorite part of the whole rig)
  
• 480 watt power supply - from Directron
  
• 16X DVD burner - from Overstock
  
• 300 GB hard drive - from Fry's Electronics in Sacramento (already had this lying around)
  
• 2 removable hard drive docks - from Outpost (1 for footage, 1 for exporting)
  
• Matrox real time video editing card - from Guy Graphics (already had this)
  
• Antec Mid Tower case - from local CompUSA store
  
• 2 Antec case fans - from local CompUSA store
  
• Glowing IDE cables - from local CompUSA store
  
• 2 LCD monitors - from Wal Mart (where I hate to take my business, but it was late and I didn't want to wait. Aaargh, the guilt.)
  
• Superman case badge - from Directron

If I had planned ahead, I probably would have bought a case from Xoxide, but I waited until the motherboard was already here, and if there was a problem with the used motherboard I wanted to be able to address it immediately. As it is, I'm glad I got the plain case because I like the idea of modding the case myself. I plan to cut a window in the side shaped like a Superman shield.

Utah is fascinated with the unfolding Warren Jeffs story, and anything that has to do with polygamy. Jeffs and his group have their own town where they can be away from the rest of civilization, but Utah has polygamist families scattered all over the state. I haven't learned to pick them out yet, but everyone else seems to have perfected the art of spotting a member of a polygamist family, because I am constantly surprised when someone leans over, nudges me with their elbow and says "See that guy over there? He's one of them."

It all has a very familiar feel to it. It feels exactly like when I was a kid and someone would nudge me and say "See that guy over there? He's gay."

Last week I was buying something and the lady behind the counter was telling me she had some polygamist clients "and they're the nicest people".

A neighbor tells me "Don't get me wrong. I used to know a guy who was a polygamist, and he was a great guy."

It makes me wonder if the parallels go even deeper.

I look at the issue of gay marriage, and I think it's just a matter of time before it's a reality. When it is accepted, though, how will the law be able to say that gay marriage is all right but polygamist marriage is not?

I wonder if in ten years polygamists will be coming out of the closet. They'll be "Polygamist And Proud".

I wonder when Salt Lake will have Polygamy Pride Parades.

Today I talked to a friend I haven't heard from in several years. She tells me she got a degree in women's studies. We laughed a bit about how useful that degree is to her career, and when I got off the phone I thought what a travesty it is to even offer Women's Studies as a degree.

Universities are taking all the people who are interested in women's issues and offering them degrees that do absolutely nothing to advance women's interests. If you really want to do something about women's issues you should get a law degree and lobby for issues, or get a business degree and start challenging the glass ceiling, or get a degree in engineering or airline mechanics or any other field where women are underrepresented.

Any of those choices would help advance the cause. You would be qualified to make a difference.

Getting a degree in women's studies doesn't advance anything. It only qualifies you to complain, and you could have done that with a GED.

There are neo-nazis in the suburbs.

I woke up this morning to find my quiet, suburban neighborhood had been blanketed with leaflets from a hate group offering to teach me about "Black History and the white victims it created". It also told me to "break the stranglehold" of the Jews "or this country's going down the drain."

My ten-year-old daughter was getting in the car to go to school when she noticed the packet on the driveway. It was a small plastic sleeve with three leaflets rolled together so that the large headline "LOVE YOUR RACE" was the only thing visible. My daughter was intrigued and wanted to read it on the way to school. I told her I wanted to see it first and then I was shocked by what it contained.

I couldn't believe a group like this would target my little suburban neighborhood.

I picked up another leaflet roll on my front lawn, but as I drove down the block to go to work I saw every front lawn in the neighborhood had been blessed with the little packets of hate.

Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer don't agree about Condoleezza Rice. I'm not surprised that Boxer is the one objecting because Boxer will mindlessly object to anything that comes from the other side of the aisle. While Feinstein votes in step with her party 85-90% of the time, Boxer votes right down the party line 98% of the time. Makes it seem like Boxer cannot think for herself.

Last night I heard a radio show talking about Pres. Bush's idea to grant amnesty to all illegal aliens.

When people talk about illegals or protecting the borders, I usually take their comments with a grain of salt because I think a lot is prompted by prejudice.

But I think the nature of illegal immigration has changed in recent history, and we need to make changes to U.S. policies.

For a long time, when people in California said "illegal aliens" they were talking about people who had sneaked over the border from Mexico and the issues were just about whether they were taking jobs away or bogging down the welfare rolls. Truth is, neither of those issues ever got me very bothered.

Today, however, I think illegal immigration has become much more organized. Russian mafia has made for more American crime. Asian sex traffickers bring over young women enslaved as prostitutes. Even illegal immigration from Mexico has changed as the Mexican border has become the main avenue for drug trafficking into the U.S.

We need to be more organized, too.

I think the first thing we need to do is counter-intuitive. We need to make it easier to come into the country legally. A lot of people are working here illegally because it is next to impossible to get permission to work in the U.S. and the process takes years. I think that was intentional in the past. It was like an unwritten waiting period so if someone caused trouble before the process was complete we have an easy remedy; we deport them. But a system that difficult forces people to break the law if they want to be productive members of society. And unresponsive disorganization is a poor excuse for a screening process.

That brings me to the second thing we need, which is a decent screening process. Something that will prevent someone else from coming into the country illegally, signing up for flight school in Florida and piloting a plane into a New York skyscraper. I couldn't even start to say how we would screen people, and I doubt there is an easy method, but it has to be done.

Once we have a simplified process that doesn't encourage people to break the law, and we have a decent screening process in place (assuming those aren't mutually exclusive), we need a better way of enforcing our immigration laws. There are all kinds of problems with the current enforcement. The worst I've seen are documented here.

Currently, I don't think we can force people to only come through the proper channels. But when we have a decent system, then we can start talking about cleaning up the other systems.

When we put a decent system in place, the bottleneck will open and the issue of amnesty for illegal aliens will become a moot point. And when those who are currently in the country illegally finally make it through a system, who knows what we might catch, and what kinds of future terrors might be avoided.