Macaca
11-11 08:15 AM
Extreme Politics (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/books/review/Brinkley-t.html) By ALAN BRINKLEY | New York Times, November 11, 2007
Alan Brinkley is the Allan Nevins professor of history and the provost at Columbia University.
Few people would dispute that the politics of Washington are as polarized today as they have been in decades. The question Ronald Brownstein poses in this provocative book is whether what he calls “extreme partisanship” is simply a result of the tactics of recent party leaders, or whether it is an enduring product of a systemic change in the structure and behavior of the political world. Brownstein, formerly the chief political correspondent for The Los Angeles Times and now the political director of the Atlantic Media Company, gives considerable credence to both explanations. But the most important part of “The Second Civil War” — and the most debatable — is his claim that the current political climate is the logical, perhaps even inevitable, result of a structural change that stretched over a generation.
A half-century ago, Brownstein says, the two parties looked very different from how they appear today. The Democratic Party was a motley combination of the conservative white South; workers in the industrial North as well as African-Americans and other minorities; and cosmopolitan liberals in the major cities of the East and West Coasts. Republicans dominated the suburbs, the business world, the farm belt and traditional elites. But the constituencies of both parties were sufficiently diverse, both demographically and ideologically, to mute the differences between them. There were enough liberals in the Republican Party, and enough conservatives among the Democrats, to require continual negotiation and compromise and to permit either party to help shape policy and to be competitive in most elections. Brownstein calls this “the Age of Bargaining,” and while he concedes that this era helped prevent bold decisions (like confronting racial discrimination), he clearly prefers it to the fractious world that followed.
The turbulent politics of the 1960s and ’70s introduced newly ideological perspectives to the two major parties and inaugurated what Brownstein calls “the great sorting out” — a movement of politicians and voters into two ideological camps, one dominated by an intensified conservatism and the other by an aggressive liberalism. By the end of the 1970s, he argues, the Republican Party was no longer a broad coalition but a party dominated by its most conservative voices; the Democratic Party had become a more consistently liberal force, and had similarly banished many of its dissenting voices. Some scholars and critics of American politics in the 1950s had called for exactly such a change, insisting that clear ideological differences would give voters a real choice and thus a greater role in the democratic process. But to Brownstein, the “sorting out” was a catastrophe that led directly to the meanspirited, take-no-prisoners partisanship of today.
There is considerable truth in this story. But the transformation of American politics that he describes was the product of more extensive forces than he allows and has been, at least so far, less profound than he claims. Brownstein correctly cites the Democrats’ embrace of the civil rights movement as a catalyst for partisan change — moving the white South solidly into the Republican Party and shifting it farther to the right, while pushing the Democrats farther to the left. But he offers few other explanations for “the great sorting out” beyond the preferences and behavior of party leaders. A more persuasive explanation would have to include other large social changes: the enormous shift of population into the Sun Belt over the last several decades; the new immigration and the dramatic increase it created in ethnic minorities within the electorate; the escalation of economic inequality, beginning in the 1970s, which raised the expectations of the wealthy and the anxiety of lower-middle-class and working-class people (an anxiety conservatives used to gain support for lowering taxes and attacking government); the end of the cold war and the emergence of a much less stable international system; and perhaps most of all, the movement of much of the political center out of the party system altogether and into the largest single category of voters — independents. Voters may not have changed their ideology very much. Most evidence suggests that a majority of Americans remain relatively moderate and pragmatic. But many have lost interest, and confidence, in the political system and the government, leaving the most fervent party loyalists with greatly increased influence on the choice of candidates and policies.
Brownstein skillfully and convincingly recounts the process by which the conservative movement gained control of the Republican Party and its Congressional delegation. He is especially deft at identifying the institutional and procedural tools that the most conservative wing of the party used after 2000 both to vanquish Republican moderates and to limit the ability of the Democratic minority to participate meaningfully in the legislative process. He is less successful (and somewhat halfhearted) in making the case for a comparable ideological homogeneity among the Democrats, as becomes clear in the book’s opening passage. Brownstein appropriately cites the former House Republican leader Tom DeLay’s farewell speech in 2006 as a sign of his party’s recent strategy. DeLay ridiculed those who complained about “bitter, divisive partisan rancor.” Partisanship, he stated, “is not a symptom of democracy’s weakness but of its health and its strength.”
But making the same argument about a similar dogmatism and zealotry among Democrats is a considerable stretch. To make this case, Brownstein cites not an elected official (let alone a Congressional leader), but the readers of the Daily Kos, a popular left-wing/libertarian Web site that promotes what Brownstein calls “a scorched-earth opposition to the G.O.P.” According to him, “DeLay and the Democratic Internet activists ... each sought to reconfigure their political party to the same specifications — as a warrior party that would commit to opposing the other side with every conceivable means at its disposal.” The Kos is a significant force, and some leading Democrats have attended its yearly conventions. But few party leaders share the most extreme views of Kos supporters, and even fewer embrace their “passionate partisanship.” Many Democrats might wish that their party leaders would emulate the aggressively partisan style of the Republican right. But it would be hard to argue that they have come even remotely close to the ideological purity of their conservative counterparts. More often, they have seemed cowed and timorous in the face of Republican discipline, and have over time themselves moved increasingly rightward; their recapture of Congress has so far appeared to have emboldened them only modestly.
There is no definitive answer to the question of whether the current level of polarization is the inevitable result of long-term systemic changes, or whether it is a transitory product of a particular political moment. But much of this so-called age of extreme partisanship has looked very much like Brownstein’s “Age of Bargaining.” Ronald Reagan, the great hero of the right and a much more effective spokesman for its views than President Bush, certainly oversaw a significant shift in the ideology and policy of the Republican Party. But through much of his presidency, both he and the Congressional Republicans displayed considerable pragmatism, engaged in negotiation with their opponents and accepted many compromises. Bill Clinton, bedeviled though he was by partisan fury, was a master of compromise and negotiation — and of co-opting and transforming the views of his adversaries. Only under George W. Bush — through a combination of his control of both houses of Congress, his own inflexibility and the post-9/11 climate — did extreme partisanship manage to dominate the agenda. Given the apparent failure of this project, it seems unlikely that a new president, whether Democrat or Republican, will be able to recreate the dispiriting political world of the last seven years.
Division of the U.S. Didn’t Occur Overnight (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/books/13kaku.html) By MICHIKO KAKUTANI | New York Times, November 13, 2007
THE SECOND CIVIL WAR How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America By Ronald Brownstein, The Penguin Press. $27.95
Alan Brinkley is the Allan Nevins professor of history and the provost at Columbia University.
Few people would dispute that the politics of Washington are as polarized today as they have been in decades. The question Ronald Brownstein poses in this provocative book is whether what he calls “extreme partisanship” is simply a result of the tactics of recent party leaders, or whether it is an enduring product of a systemic change in the structure and behavior of the political world. Brownstein, formerly the chief political correspondent for The Los Angeles Times and now the political director of the Atlantic Media Company, gives considerable credence to both explanations. But the most important part of “The Second Civil War” — and the most debatable — is his claim that the current political climate is the logical, perhaps even inevitable, result of a structural change that stretched over a generation.
A half-century ago, Brownstein says, the two parties looked very different from how they appear today. The Democratic Party was a motley combination of the conservative white South; workers in the industrial North as well as African-Americans and other minorities; and cosmopolitan liberals in the major cities of the East and West Coasts. Republicans dominated the suburbs, the business world, the farm belt and traditional elites. But the constituencies of both parties were sufficiently diverse, both demographically and ideologically, to mute the differences between them. There were enough liberals in the Republican Party, and enough conservatives among the Democrats, to require continual negotiation and compromise and to permit either party to help shape policy and to be competitive in most elections. Brownstein calls this “the Age of Bargaining,” and while he concedes that this era helped prevent bold decisions (like confronting racial discrimination), he clearly prefers it to the fractious world that followed.
The turbulent politics of the 1960s and ’70s introduced newly ideological perspectives to the two major parties and inaugurated what Brownstein calls “the great sorting out” — a movement of politicians and voters into two ideological camps, one dominated by an intensified conservatism and the other by an aggressive liberalism. By the end of the 1970s, he argues, the Republican Party was no longer a broad coalition but a party dominated by its most conservative voices; the Democratic Party had become a more consistently liberal force, and had similarly banished many of its dissenting voices. Some scholars and critics of American politics in the 1950s had called for exactly such a change, insisting that clear ideological differences would give voters a real choice and thus a greater role in the democratic process. But to Brownstein, the “sorting out” was a catastrophe that led directly to the meanspirited, take-no-prisoners partisanship of today.
There is considerable truth in this story. But the transformation of American politics that he describes was the product of more extensive forces than he allows and has been, at least so far, less profound than he claims. Brownstein correctly cites the Democrats’ embrace of the civil rights movement as a catalyst for partisan change — moving the white South solidly into the Republican Party and shifting it farther to the right, while pushing the Democrats farther to the left. But he offers few other explanations for “the great sorting out” beyond the preferences and behavior of party leaders. A more persuasive explanation would have to include other large social changes: the enormous shift of population into the Sun Belt over the last several decades; the new immigration and the dramatic increase it created in ethnic minorities within the electorate; the escalation of economic inequality, beginning in the 1970s, which raised the expectations of the wealthy and the anxiety of lower-middle-class and working-class people (an anxiety conservatives used to gain support for lowering taxes and attacking government); the end of the cold war and the emergence of a much less stable international system; and perhaps most of all, the movement of much of the political center out of the party system altogether and into the largest single category of voters — independents. Voters may not have changed their ideology very much. Most evidence suggests that a majority of Americans remain relatively moderate and pragmatic. But many have lost interest, and confidence, in the political system and the government, leaving the most fervent party loyalists with greatly increased influence on the choice of candidates and policies.
Brownstein skillfully and convincingly recounts the process by which the conservative movement gained control of the Republican Party and its Congressional delegation. He is especially deft at identifying the institutional and procedural tools that the most conservative wing of the party used after 2000 both to vanquish Republican moderates and to limit the ability of the Democratic minority to participate meaningfully in the legislative process. He is less successful (and somewhat halfhearted) in making the case for a comparable ideological homogeneity among the Democrats, as becomes clear in the book’s opening passage. Brownstein appropriately cites the former House Republican leader Tom DeLay’s farewell speech in 2006 as a sign of his party’s recent strategy. DeLay ridiculed those who complained about “bitter, divisive partisan rancor.” Partisanship, he stated, “is not a symptom of democracy’s weakness but of its health and its strength.”
But making the same argument about a similar dogmatism and zealotry among Democrats is a considerable stretch. To make this case, Brownstein cites not an elected official (let alone a Congressional leader), but the readers of the Daily Kos, a popular left-wing/libertarian Web site that promotes what Brownstein calls “a scorched-earth opposition to the G.O.P.” According to him, “DeLay and the Democratic Internet activists ... each sought to reconfigure their political party to the same specifications — as a warrior party that would commit to opposing the other side with every conceivable means at its disposal.” The Kos is a significant force, and some leading Democrats have attended its yearly conventions. But few party leaders share the most extreme views of Kos supporters, and even fewer embrace their “passionate partisanship.” Many Democrats might wish that their party leaders would emulate the aggressively partisan style of the Republican right. But it would be hard to argue that they have come even remotely close to the ideological purity of their conservative counterparts. More often, they have seemed cowed and timorous in the face of Republican discipline, and have over time themselves moved increasingly rightward; their recapture of Congress has so far appeared to have emboldened them only modestly.
There is no definitive answer to the question of whether the current level of polarization is the inevitable result of long-term systemic changes, or whether it is a transitory product of a particular political moment. But much of this so-called age of extreme partisanship has looked very much like Brownstein’s “Age of Bargaining.” Ronald Reagan, the great hero of the right and a much more effective spokesman for its views than President Bush, certainly oversaw a significant shift in the ideology and policy of the Republican Party. But through much of his presidency, both he and the Congressional Republicans displayed considerable pragmatism, engaged in negotiation with their opponents and accepted many compromises. Bill Clinton, bedeviled though he was by partisan fury, was a master of compromise and negotiation — and of co-opting and transforming the views of his adversaries. Only under George W. Bush — through a combination of his control of both houses of Congress, his own inflexibility and the post-9/11 climate — did extreme partisanship manage to dominate the agenda. Given the apparent failure of this project, it seems unlikely that a new president, whether Democrat or Republican, will be able to recreate the dispiriting political world of the last seven years.
Division of the U.S. Didn’t Occur Overnight (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/books/13kaku.html) By MICHIKO KAKUTANI | New York Times, November 13, 2007
THE SECOND CIVIL WAR How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America By Ronald Brownstein, The Penguin Press. $27.95
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hima
07-03 04:46 PM
Filed I 485 mid June. I'm in the same boat as you, did not get receipt date. I hope they do not send the application back... I was wondering if the July bulletin affects those who filed I 485 in June.
ajaysri
09-13 12:30 PM
Does the published cumulative demand data represent
a) all pending 485 cases that include primary applicants and their dependents
OR
b) all pending 485 cases that include primary applicants only?
If say, the demand data for EB3, till 2004 says 35,000 - does this mean there are a total of 35,000 pending cases in total OR does this represent primary applicants only?
If it represents primary applicants only, what is the multiplication factor we need to use to get an approximate number for total pending 485 cases?
Thanks,
Ajaysri
a) all pending 485 cases that include primary applicants and their dependents
OR
b) all pending 485 cases that include primary applicants only?
If say, the demand data for EB3, till 2004 says 35,000 - does this mean there are a total of 35,000 pending cases in total OR does this represent primary applicants only?
If it represents primary applicants only, what is the multiplication factor we need to use to get an approximate number for total pending 485 cases?
Thanks,
Ajaysri
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ganip
11-12 11:19 AM
Hi,
I applied for SSN for my wife using the EAD,the person at the SSN office noticed that the date of birth on the EAD was not correct, but still took the application.Our lawyer reapplied for a new EAD last week but we recieved the SSN, please let me know if my wife can work using the SSN or wait till the reapplied EAD is approved.
I applied for SSN for my wife using the EAD,the person at the SSN office noticed that the date of birth on the EAD was not correct, but still took the application.Our lawyer reapplied for a new EAD last week but we recieved the SSN, please let me know if my wife can work using the SSN or wait till the reapplied EAD is approved.
more...
casinoroyale
03-13 09:50 PM
What is I-140 Interfiling mean? :confused:
upuaut
08-29 02:03 AM
in order to get the animation to 'stick' you have to toggle that button that says "animate" on the top of the screen. The reason they do it that way is this. If you've already set up an animation, but then find that you need to change something in the basic structure of the item, you can turn off that toggle, edit the item and have it not effect the animation that you set up.
more...
chanduv23
11-25 07:53 PM
Follow this link for joining your State Chapter
http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=52
http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=52
2010 that Xbox 360s aren#39;t made
srinivasj
07-07 01:38 PM
Yes, you need to get the difference in fees. HDFC knows about this and will issue a new colored fee slip.
Thanks Oscarzumaran....do they issue a new receipt number too..? or can I still use my old one just in case if dates open up...?
Thanks Oscarzumaran....do they issue a new receipt number too..? or can I still use my old one just in case if dates open up...?
more...
tikka
06-11 11:13 AM
howdy -- im jumping in to see what i can do to help-win this collective effort.
Anyone here?
Anyone here?
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kirupa
04-30 07:28 PM
Aww - that's so nice. (Pets the stamp) :)
more...
keaby
03-05 04:36 PM
Can someone inform if the pre tax Health Insurace premiums deducted in pay roll are computed towards meeting the LCA wage.
This deduction is not visible in W2 earnings..
This deduction is not visible in W2 earnings..
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cvt123
06-19 07:31 PM
I read some where that more immigrant visa will be available starting from July 1? Is it true?
more...
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willIWill
06-16 03:09 PM
USCIS has updated the processing times and the dashboard today .
USCIS: National Processing Volumes and Trends (http://dashboard.uscis.gov/)
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplay.do
USCIS: National Processing Volumes and Trends (http://dashboard.uscis.gov/)
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplay.do
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fall2004us
10-06 06:27 PM
Hello gurus,
My H1 expires in march 2009, I have valid EAD and AP, I want to renew my H1to be on the safer side.
My wife made use of her EAD for few months and now she is not working, and we are planning to visit India for few weeks next year and get H1 and H4 stamped.
here are my questions:
1. Can my wife get her H4 extension when I apply for my H1 extension ?
2. Does USCIS know that she used her EAD (Is there a way that they can find out) and will there be any problem in approving H4 extension ?
3. Now that she is not using her EAD, Is she back on H4 status ? She came here as H4 and never made a trip back.
My H1 expires in march 2009, I have valid EAD and AP, I want to renew my H1to be on the safer side.
My wife made use of her EAD for few months and now she is not working, and we are planning to visit India for few weeks next year and get H1 and H4 stamped.
here are my questions:
1. Can my wife get her H4 extension when I apply for my H1 extension ?
2. Does USCIS know that she used her EAD (Is there a way that they can find out) and will there be any problem in approving H4 extension ?
3. Now that she is not using her EAD, Is she back on H4 status ? She came here as H4 and never made a trip back.
more...
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Blog Feeds
04-26 11:30 AM
Thanks to a healthy dose of jet lag (My wife and I just returned from walking on the Great Wall of China a few days ago!), I finally found the time to read the Supreme's new decision in Kentucky v. Padilla. Although I was impressed that Justice Stevens, in the majority opinion, found that criminal defendants who are not U.S. citizens have a 6th Amendment right to be informed by their criminal counsel as to the immigration consequences of pleading guilty to a particular crime, it struck me that the most likely effect of this decision may be for criminal...
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/carlshusterman/2010/04/padilla-bring-back-the-jrad.html)
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/carlshusterman/2010/04/padilla-bring-back-the-jrad.html)
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GoneSouth
09-15 04:10 PM
Say, there seems to be some confusion over the which is the SKIL bill and which is the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA).
GovTrack lists the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act as S.2611, sponsored by Sen. Arlen Spector. This was the bill that the Senate passed on 05/25/06. OK easy enough.
If I do a search for securing knowledge innovation in GovTack, S.2691 pops up, sponsor Sen. John Cornyn. OK all good.
If I look up SKIL Bill on google though, immigration.about.com seems to think that the SKIL bill is S.2611. Possibly this one site is just confused?
GovTrack lists the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act as S.2611, sponsored by Sen. Arlen Spector. This was the bill that the Senate passed on 05/25/06. OK easy enough.
If I do a search for securing knowledge innovation in GovTack, S.2691 pops up, sponsor Sen. John Cornyn. OK all good.
If I look up SKIL Bill on google though, immigration.about.com seems to think that the SKIL bill is S.2611. Possibly this one site is just confused?
more...
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tnite
11-02 09:08 PM
Today I rceived someone else's EAD. We received three EADs, one each for me and my wife and another adressed to me with EAD inside being some one else's.
Weired ways of USCIS!!!!
I shall call USCIS and notify them of this.
welcome to the bizarro world.
Weired ways of USCIS!!!!
I shall call USCIS and notify them of this.
welcome to the bizarro world.
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watertown
09-26 11:33 AM
I had my I-485 interview at Boston-CIS in May,2007 and since then they were telling me lots of BS like NC, One security check open, additional review. Finally they sent me a letter telling me I need to attend NSEER interview at ICE office in Boston and I did that this week and the nice ICE officer told me that he was sending my file back to NSC. Last time I saw that thick file was when I was interviewed by IO at Boston-CIS!. Does it mean NSC will approve it now? I'm EB2 ROW and I was never finger printed more than once. So far had 2 EAD/AP and I applied in 2006 August
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Blog Feeds
01-15 11:20 AM
Cuban-born Emilio Estefan has been one of the most well-known residents of my home town of Miami since my childhood. He was a member of the famous band The Miami Sound Machine and in the years since he has become a highly successful Latin music producer in South Florida's music community. Estefan has been nominated for 28 Grammys over the years and won 14 times. He's also the husband of fellow band member Gloria Estefan. And he is the producer of well-known Latin music stars Marc Antony, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin. And if life as a musician and producer...
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2010/01/immigrant-of-the-day-emilio-estefan-musicianproducer.html)
More... (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2010/01/immigrant-of-the-day-emilio-estefan-musicianproducer.html)
aldorr
06-28 11:54 PM
So, I was up on the roof at work and happened to have an orange with me... so I balanced it on my head and snapped this pic looking like I'm about to suck the Transamerica Pyramid up through a straw. Oh, then I did a bit of editing in Photoshop.
Enjoy,
aldorr
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3230/orangeself.jpg
http://img197.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orangeself.jpg
Enjoy,
aldorr
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3230/orangeself.jpg
http://img197.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orangeself.jpg
leo2606
10-05 06:06 PM
There is already another thread opened, please check following link
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14205
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14205
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