• Secure the borders first to slow down the influx of new illegal immigrants and require those patrolling them to be government trained officials. Do away with all minutemen penalizing anyone caught acting as one.
• Require ALL businesses hiring any foreign national to run a check on all AI and SS numbers to ensure documentation is legit.
• Allow all illegal immigrants working and residing in the US at the time the law goes into effect to be "grandfathered in" as permanent resident aliens with no citizenship option or ability to petition other family members to the States. By doing this, we wouldn't be causing additional possible hardship to the country as I believe we do actually depend on their labor. In addition, it is also "punishment" for coming in the wrong way as these people would not be allowed to vote, serve on a jury, enlist, etc. They also would have no chance at getting other family members in at anytime as can be done now.
• Streamline the immigration process by reducing the amount of paperwork involved by possibly allowing the initial forms to be filed electronically.
• Reduce the fees involved. Rather than having several for each particular requirement, have one flat fee per type of visa which is paid up front.
• Do away with greencard renewal for those who do not become a citizen. Issue one and have it be good for life or until the "alien" leaves the country for a period of more than two years. If that period expires, they must reapply and go through the visa process again.
• Negotiate a work exchange program between Canada, the US, and Mexico. This would allow a person the opportunity to pay a small flat fee and swap places with someone in the country they choose to go to for a set amount of time (say a maximum of a year). After the time is up, the company the person is working for may petition on the worker's behalf to have them stay permanently.

I could go on but I just don't have the time. These, however, are some of the main ideas I would put forth after experiencing things from both sides of the table by not only going to a foreign country on a work exchange visa but also from going through the petition process to bring Chi here.

And now for something completely different.....

Yesterday I went to my parents' house for Easter dinner. My mom, my sister, and I were sitting and talking about various different things. My mother mentioned she saw someone with a bumper sticker on their car which said, "Border control, not gun control". How completely asinine. Um sorry but if it came down to a choice between those two things for me, I'd choose the gun control first seeing as the majority of the illegal immigrants who come into this country are fairly harmless.

The Nebraska legislature has voted to split the Omaha school system into three districts. Now normally this wouldn't be anything overly newsworthy, however, it's how it's being split that just leaves me shaking my head in shame. It seems this split is little more than state sponsored segregation. One district is mostly black, another predominantly white, and the third largely Hispanic. On one hand I could see how in a way this could actually be good in the respect that particular groups might get certain needs met more easily, but I really think the damage would outweigh any good that may come from it. In my book, diversity is the way to go because it allows you to learn about different cultures and the people from them. Leave it to a republican to come up with garbage like this.

I was reading a news article online the other day about this woman who is an American living in London. She was giving her little whiney blah blah about people there showing hatred towards her because she's an American. What a load of crap! Granted there are some people who do keep this mentality but I really don't think they are as plentiful as she tries to make it sound. I don't once remember coming across someone over there that hated or even acted like they hated me because I am American. Of course that could be because I didn't take the attitude that I'm better than everyone else because I'm American - pomposity has no place. Sure one of the guys I worked with and I would always rib each other (he'd call me a Yank and I'd call him a Limey) but it was all in good fun and neither of us took it seriously.

I also think it could be the fact that she said even though she doesn't like the stuff Dubya does, she defends him. Ok I know it isn't fair for people in another country to judge someone based on their country's leader but c'mon people! You deserve to get picked on if you are actually going to defend someone like George Bush especially in a foreign country because let me tell you, in many places, he doesn't even go over as well as he does here and we all know how well he ISN'T doing.

The last thing I want to address is people who use/play others and think nothing of it. I had someone who I thought was my friend do this to me lately and it really just kind of pissed me off. She wanted to get a "cheap" used car for her son. I told her I would be willing to talk to the car guy we got our cars from to see if he could do anything for her because I knew he wouldn't screw her around. She accepted and acted very appreciative and thankful that I was willing to help her. The next day which was Saturday, I got a hold of our awesome car guy and he told me that he could help her out and just to have her contact him. Monday was the next time I was going to talk to her so I figured I would just let her know what the scoop was then. Wouldn't you know, she went out and actually bought a car on Saturday. Not only did she spend a good $500 over the maximum she wanted to fork over, the car ended up having a problem with it about three days after she took delivery. Now it doesn't piss me off that she didn't buy from our guy - that was for her to decide. It's the fact that she basically told me she wanted my help even though I think she had this particular car picked out before I even said anything to her about talking to our dealer. All I can say is if you are looking for a way to get me to not want to have anything to do with you anymore, this would be the way to go about it.

If this wasn't enough, she also told me how she is using this guy so she can maybe have an advantage in a child custody battle. Her ex drug dealing/junkie boyfriend has now decided that he wants custody of their daughter. This detective guy came to her house and served her papers. I guess he was being helpful by saying if the ex-boyfriend did anything to violate his patrol, he would go pick him up in an instant to help her get out of the mess. Anyway, she said that she knew he was kind of sweet on her and even though he's married with kids, she was going to milk it as much as she possibly could so that he would help her - she's been to lunch with him quite a few times already. My jaw nearly dropped to the floor when I heard her say that. I couldn't believe that one she would be so stupid and two that she could do something that might break up a marriage especially one that involves children. She always bitched when her boyfriend would step out on her and yet here she is playing the part of the person someone else is stepping to. UGH! Some people just have no shame.

Alrighty roo....I'm outta here.

Til next time....