Newsbits: Immigration Reform Plan, Raytheon, Moon Robots

Democrats unveil immigration reform plan | Reuters

Not going to believe it until I see genuine reform, not useless identification cards that’ll be forged faster than you can say illegal and more laws that Congress and the administration will de-fund or order they be ignored as has been done for decades. Congress and past Presidents sold out the American public long ago to the illegals rather than secure the border as is their duty and responsibility.

Avionics Magazine :: Raytheon Awarded Radar Contract

Japan sees moonwalking humanoids by 2015 | Crave – CNET

Just as the Obama administration ditches NASA plans to return to the moon, a group in Japan is vowing to send humanoid robots there by 2015. Call it a giant leap for droidkind.

News Bits: Immigration, Deficit, Belarus, Hypersonic Missile

Peaceful protest proper approach on Arizona law | law, enforcement, people – Opinion – YumaSun

The peaceful protests and civil disobedience of the civil rights era are an example of the power of proper opposition. Those who want to protest this law need to look to that example.

At least some still have common sense. Too bad it isn’t the protesters, who by their very actions turn people against them. I lost what little sympathy I had for those opposing the law the instant some became violent (attacking police) and resorted to vandalism (refried bean swastikas? talk about racial profiling yourself!). Hell, even my Hispanic neighbors think the protesters are morons. (Their exact words were much harsher.) The protesters have the right to protest peacefully and challenge the law in court, nothing more. If the law is truly unconstitutional it will be deemed as such.

Napolitano has ‘deep concerns’ over immigration law Says the lady who did nothing during her tenure as Arizona governor to truly deal with illegal immigration aside from the occasional token troops on the border publicity stunts and has completely failed to secure the border in her time as head of DHS.

US Immigration – Congress Turns to Immigration Reform I’ll believe it when I see the borders secured, laws enforced, States not left bankrupt by federal immigration mandates, and Americans not sold out in favor of illegals.

Obama says everything on table for tackling budget deficits | Reuters
Simple suggestions for the morons in D.C.: Cut spending, no new taxes/fees/fines, ban earmarks, suspend non-emergency related foreign aid, cut business taxes to bring back industry and jobs, etc. And don’t even think about a value added tax (VAT) on the citizenry. VAT will end their political careers in a heartbeat when people realize it will hurt the middle class and poor the most.

Belarus leader warns against Kyrgyz-type turmoil | Reuters Too bad Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule diminishes his concerned words.

Japan seeks foreign engines for stealth fighter prototypes

.:: Aero-News Network: The Aviation and Aerospace World’s Daily/Real-Time News and Information Service ::.

Called the “Prompt Global Strike” (PGS) system, it is built around a hypersonic missile that could travel at speeds of up to Mach 5 or 3,6000 miles per hour. A Tomahawk cruise missile flies at about 550 miles per hour.

***

The PGS has drawn mixed reaction from the international community. The Deputy Secretary of the Russian National Security Council, General Yuri Baluyevsky, said that the U.S. had only agreed to recent nuclear arms reductions because of its ability to “kill you using conventional high-precision weapons.”

AutoCAD Freestyle released

Autodesk releases AutoCAD Freestyle on its 28th birthday | The CAD Geek Blog

AutoCAD Freestyle isn’t for the seasoned AutoCAD/AutoCAD LT professional who needs advanced drafting and design tools to create complex drawings. Instead think of AutoCAD Freestyle as a product your mom could use. While there’s an obvious market for homeowners needing to create drawings for a new deck, or even small landscaping companies, I can also see AutoCAD Freestyle as a potential collaboration tool. Perhaps AutoCAD Freestyle can make the “napkin sketch” so commonly passed to a CAD drafter extinct.

Autodesk – AutoCAD Freestyle

McCain to Obama: Send troops…

McCain to Obama: Send troops to border if you don’t like new immigration law – TheHill.com

“If the president doesn’t like what the Arizona Legislature and governor may be doing, then I call on the president to immediately call for the dispatch of 3,000 National Guard troops to our border and mandate that 3,000 additional Border Patrol [officers] be sent to our border as well,” McCain said at a news conference Friday in downtown Phoenix, according to a report in the Arizona Republic.

“And that way, then the state of Arizona will not have to enact legislation which they have to do because of the federal government’s failure to carry out its responsibilities, which is to secure the borders.”

McCain isn’t a paragon of virtue when it comes to immigration enforcement and reform (more precisely the lack thereof) but his support of Arizona’s pot shot at the broken federal system is more acceptable than Obama’s contemptuous disregard for people’s concerns about illegal immigration. But it’s not just the President that is the problem it’s the entire federal government for ignoring the responsibilities and duties to protect the border and citizens of this land.

A couple more links on AZ Immigration Law

Assorted opinions and reactions:

Arizona’s new immigration law is our own fault

Arizona did what it did because we as a society and as a government, failed to address the problem of illegal immigration honestly and without political bias.

The unvarnished truth.

Challenging Arizona’s Immigration Law – KCBS
As is to be expected with any controversial law.

Arizona’s immigration law too tough? Not if you live there. « Thoughts Of A Conservative Christian

Arizona immigration bill: Mayor Gordon says Phoenix may sue

He’s not doing this out of concern for the city of Phoenix. The city wouldn’t be in such terrible shape if he and the city council had the citizenry’s best interests at heart. Remember, these are the same asshats that thought dog parks were more important than dealing with the city’s budget and poor. So of course our corrupt Mayor Gordon is against the law. He’s one of the those that basically opposes any change to the failed system in place. He’s one of the pro-sanctuary politicians that caused the problem in the first place by undermining law enforcement and trying to turn Phoenix into a sanctuary city for illegals.

AZ Gov. Brewer Signs Immigration Law

Arizona governor signs immigration bill – CNN.com

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a state bill Friday that requires police to determine whether a person is in the United States legally, which critics say will foster racial profiling and discrimination but supporters say will crack down on illegal immigration.

The Republican governor also issued an executive order that would require additional training for local officers on how to implement the law without engaging in racial profiling.

“This training will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the United States,” Brewer said after signing the bill.

Previously, officers could check someone’s immigration status only if that person was suspected in another crime.

Read the law here: SB1070 (PDF) via azleg.gov.

Reactions are mixed, of course, and I expect there’s already a legal challenge being filed as I write this. Some fights between protesters and supporters (some calling it a riot) but the police and crowds seem to have kept themselves civil for the most part. Disagreement is to be expected on such a hot button issue, but fighting in such a manner is unacceptable.

Sadly the issue of illegal immigration would have not come to this point if the federal government and it’s agencies had done their jobs of protecting the border and bringing genuine reform to immigration and immigrant worker laws. How can there be any discussion of controlling illegal immigration and reforming current immigration laws when it can not even be discussed without accusations, fiery rhetoric, and smearing one another? In the end America’s failure to address immigration and the willful refusal to enforce the existing laws that has brought Arizona and the nation to this state of affairs. It is clear sign of the failure of our nation’s people and leadership to work together for the best interests of the entire country.

The question now: what are we going to about it? Ignore it through useless pillorying of differing views or actually put aside selfishness and special interests to solve the underlying problem?

Obama: Az immigration bill ‘misguided’

The Associated Press: Obama says Arizona immigration bill ‘misguided’

For those who want to read the actual law and not the political spin around it: sb1070h (pdf file) via azleg.gov. Read it in its entirety and decide for yourself.

Ah, so Obama is now concerned about illegal immigration? Obviously not. He’s just ticked that federal unwillingness to enforce the law forced a state (e.g. Arizona) to take matters into their own hands. Imagine that, making people enforce a law. Must be a shocking concept to corrupt politicians in DC and elsewhere. Besides it is not a law about immigrants, but illegal immigrants. In the end any questions about its constitutionality will be fought out in the courts.

Speaking of boycotts, Representative Grijalva has shown his true loyalty lay with the pro-sanctuary groups: Papers Please | Arizona Rep Grijalva Ready To Call for State Boycott | Breaking News WorldNewsVine. I hope this shows people in Grijalvas district why he is another corrupt politician than needs to be removed. A Representative should not be calling for actions against his constituents that will cause nothing but harm. Fortunately others aren’t as stupid as Grijalva such as Giffords won’t get behind Grijalva’s call for boycott. But unfortunate some have taken their anger at Grijalva too far: Grijalva offices to close early due to threats .

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Obama: Arizonans “irresponsible” for immigration-enforcement vote

However, Arizonans didn’t pass this law because Congress hasn’t enacted comprehensive immigration reform, as Obama insisted at the White House today. They passed this law because the federal government has abdicated its responsibilities to enforce existing immigration law. We don’t need a comprehensive immigration reform bill to resolve that — we just need the Department of Homeland Security and Barack Obama to do their jobs.

This is exactly why the law was passed  by the state legislature.

Ban Pork Projects

House Republicans Want Ban on Pork Projects — Dems Scoff

House Minority Leader John Boehner said Thursday that he wants a one year ban on congressional earmarks – those costly projects often slipped into legislation at the request of special interests — as a way of reducing the federal budget deficit.

I would agree except the ban should be permanent or barring that until the U.S. debt and deficit are eliminated. But I know it won’t happen with the corrupt political parties in the country and special interests destroying the country with their rampant greed, irresponsibility and selfishness.

Text of SB1070 (Az’s Immigration Law)

The full text of Arizona’s SB1070 Immigration Bill can be read here: Format Document- azleg.gov

SB 1070 makes changes to laws relating to the enforcement on immigration laws, failure to carry an alien registration document, day laborers, harboring or transporting illegal aliens and employer sanctions.

I read it over and don’t see any problems. It seems pretty straight forward with protections to prevent abuse. But then I’m not a lawyer. Never the less I thought it was worth looking at for myself rather than listen to the political rhetoric associated with the changes to the laws.

Space News: X-37 Space Plane

Air Force to launch X-37 space plane: Precursor to war in orbit? – Yahoo! News (Author’s note: I hate the fear mongering title to this article.)

‘Arms control advocates say it is pretty clearly the beginning of a “weaponization of space” – precursor to a precision global strike capability that would allow the US to hover for months at a time over anywhere it chose with little anyone could do about it.

The “weaponization of space” is inevitable as long as mankind intends to go into space. Some would say it’s already been weaponized by the use of satellites for spy satellites, GPS, et al, for military and national security uses.

Some history of the X-37:  X-37 Spacecraft History – Central Florida News 13

Fact Sheet: NASA – X-37 fact sheet (05/03)

X-37: Ready for Launch | The Daily Planet

On Thursday, April 22, the U.S. Air Force will finally launch its little, unmanned X-37 orbital spaceplane on top of an Atlas V rocket. The liftoff, which will take place in a window between 7:52 p.m. and 8:01 p.m., will mark the culmination of years of development for the newest U.S. spacecraft—and the world’s only reusable one after the space shuttle’s planned retirement toward the end of this year.

It’s a beauty, that one.