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1.) Mark Sanford’s guide to finding happiness on the Appalachian Trail –The guide’s not written yet, but Sanford will have plenty of time to work on such a book if things don’t dramatically change in his congressional race. TheDC’s Alexis Levinson reports:
“With two weeks until Election Day, beleaguered former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford trails his Democratic congressional opponent Elizabeth Colbert Busch by nine points, according to a poll released Monday. Public Policy Polling’s poll of 796 likely South Carolina voters found Colbert Busch leading Sanford 50 percent to 41 percent, with just 5 percent of voters undecided and 3 percent of voters going for Green Party candidate Eugene Platt.”
Ouch.
2.) The immigration bill is actually pretty good! — TheDC’s Matt Lewis argues that the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill isn’t as bad as some as its detractors have made it out to be. In fact, compared to what was expected to emerge, it is rather conservative in parts. One of the more conservative elements, according to Lewis, deals with Obamacare:
“Congressional Democrats wanted Obamacare exchanges to cover all immigrants. However, in addition to putting all illegal immigrants who legalize under the same constraints as legal immigrants with regard to benefit-seeking (i.e., they are legally barred from seeking or receiving welfare), the immigration bill also prevents access to Obamacare. As Sen. Marco Rubio said on Fox News Sunday, ‘[T]hey don’t qualify for any federal benefits … This is an important point. No federal benefits, no food stamps, no welfare, no Obamacare. They have to prove they’re gainfully employed. They have to be able to support themselves, so they’ll never become a public charge.’ This is a point on which President Obama was forced to concede, and a make-or-break point from conservatives’ standpoint.”
Read the whole story to see the other three major conservative elements Lewis sees as significant.
“Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Monday that immigration reform should not go forward until the national security weaknesses exposed by the Boston Marathon bombing are addressed. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senator urged that the bombing — and the fact that the two alleged bombers were immigrants to the United States — be taken into account as the Senate begins the process of considering the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill. ‘As our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to those affected by the tragedy in Boston, I urge you to incorporate the following national security concerns into the comprehensive immigration reform debate,’ Paul wrote. ‘Before Congress moves forward, some important national security questions must be addressed.'”
This seems entirely unnecessary and a tactic by immigration reform opponents to scuttle the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. Or, in the case of Rand Paul, who has come out in favor of some type of regularization of illegal immigrants in the U.S., it is perhaps an excuse to kick a potentially politically toxic issue down the road. Who knows exactly? But it doesn’t make sense to delay the immigration debate because of the Boston bombings. It just doesn’t.
4.) Matt Labash looks forward to a worldwide caliphate — Was Matt Labash’s view of Islam shaken by last week’s Boston terror attack? TheDC’s favorite faux-advice columnist says no:
“The long game is that if the Islamoterrorists ever have their way — subjugating the world and bringing it under one shiny, happy Caliphate — there’ll be fewer infidels to kill, and those ratios are bound to drop precipitously. Then, without Islam to kick around anymore, those Presbyterian extremists are going to have a lot of explaining to do. While Religion of Peace ® extremists can get back to more peaceable domestic enterprises, like throwing homosexuals off tall buildings or stoning adulterous 13-year-old girls in soccer stadiums. In their idealized future, killing 8 year-old boys watching their dad run a marathon through the streets of Boston will no longer be necessary. So to answer your original question, no, it hasn’t changed how I feel about the Religion of Peace® at all.”
Little known fact: Labash studied at a Pakistani madrasa. TheDC Morning hears the curriculum was very similar to Columbia University.
VIDEO: Greg Gutfeld ridicules comparisons of Muslim, Christian extremism