Five Steps to Ending Illegal Immigration

Every day I read about illegal immigration, and I have written about it. I listen as politicians bash illegal immigrants, talk about amnesty and how this is going to ruin our country. The funny thing is, ending illegal immigration poses more of a threat to ruining the economy than the immigration itself. So, after thinking through the issues, I have come up with five steps to end illegal immigration. These 5 steps are to be done simultaneously, not one at a time. So here goes.

Step 1: Secure the borders. This has become a soundbite for politicians, but this is a necessary step for any nation that does not want illegal immigration. Securing the borders means hiring more border patrols, or stationing the military along the border, rather than building fences. Get the troops out of Iraq and put them here. This will also help to prevent terrorism. So, you get two for one.

Step 2: Go after the companies. Congress should be aggressive towards companies that hire illegal immigrants. This has begun to work in places like Arizona. Fine the company or send officers and employees to jail for hiring an illegal immigrant. Cut off the demand for the illegal immigrants, solve the supply issue.

Step 3: Reduce entitlements for LEGAL Americans. A big reason companies hire illegal immigrants is because there are no Americans willing to work the jobs. The reason Americans won't work those jobs are because of entitlements. Say you could make 6 dollars an hour sitting in your trailer watching tv or 3 dollars an hour picking strawberries, which would you choose? Many Americans need the entitlements, but many abuse the system. There must be an overhaul in disability and welfare benefits. This will force Americans to go out and work, filling these jobs left by the illegal immigrants.

Step 4: Amnesty. This will piss off many Americans. I know, they got here illegally (did we legally take the land from the native americans?), so why should they get to stay. Economics. Do you know how much it would cost to round up the 12 million illegal immigrants around the nation, determine who they are and where they came from and then ship them back? What a waste of money. Letting them stay isn't going to change anything.

Step 5: Politics. Our politicians need to stop using this issue to win votes. Democrats cannot look at amnesty as a way of gaining new votes for their party. Republicans can't look at amnesty as a way to get current Americans to vote for their party. They must solve the problem for America, not their party.

If my five steps are implemented, there will be less illegals trying to come to America, because there will be less jobs for them. Additionally, less illegals would get in. Illegal Immigration from Mexico solved!

Sorry this post was still kind of long, I will do better.

New Blog for the New Year

The Political Pig has gotten some comments from its avid readers and some say the blog is a "nuclear bomb" of information...or simply that I write too much on each topic. So, in the spirit of the new year, I will try to keep the topics going, but cut back my long rants to make them easier and quicker to read.

I wanted to update everyone that the seven year war with the Vonage Bots may be coming to an end. After Agent V contacted many more Vonage Bots and encountered the same hostilities, one Vonage Bot finally told her everything we needed to know. The account was closed yesterday, leaving the battle of who will pay for the Vongage device to be shipped back to the Vonage Bot kingdom. I think we unfortunately are losing that battle. It may be worth paying the 5 bucks to send it back, rather than arguing in circles for another 5 hours. Remember, DO NOT USE VONAGE.

I just hope the conspiracy of corporate America to ruin my life will finally stop and I can live to the old age of 50 without worrying about another company trying to screw me over or steal my identity.

Beware of the Vonage Bots

I am going to stray from politics today to explain the most absurd thing in the history of consumerism. My wife (Agent V) and I thought about switching to Vonage rather than using Comcast, basically, because it was cheaper. ALWAYS remember the old saying, you get what you pay for. Well, we decided to only inquire about vonage. To do this, Agent V had to go along with the process like she was signing up. Mistake number 2 (mistake number 1 was even calling Vonage). At the end of this process, and after giving her credit card number (mistake 3) she was read the terms of service. Well, I guess because their service is so horrible they have a clause that if you cancel your service before 2 years, you have to pay a bunch of fees. Sounds like a cell phone company (and we know all about their service). Agent V said NO. The pushy sales guy said he would give her discounts, etc. Agent V, said NO again. The guy was a pushy schmuck and wouldn't stop, so Agent V said no one last time, and hung up the phone.

A few days later, what appeared at our door step? It sure wasn't Santa, but a box that said Vonage. The nice Vonage gnomes thought we would like Vonage, even though we said we didn't want it. Maybe because we said No, we really meant Yes or maybe we wanted it as art work. Well, unfortunately for us, this is not nearly the most absurd part of the story.

We call customer service about the fact that the sales guy sent us a Vonage device, even though we didn't sign up. Soon, we found out in order to talk to any one we needed to provide our account information. But wait, we didn't set up an account, we said no, and the guy sent us the box anyways. Doesn't matter to Vonage, you still need the account information. What would that be, well the device number, the email address you set up the account and the answers to the security questions. Well guess what...the guy created a fictitious email account for Agent V and then illegally charged her credit card. Sound like fraud and identity theft to you?

We only found this out after 3 hours on the phone with customer service people that literally had the IQ of snails. The tragic part of the story, we got cut off from the only one that had been given a human brain. I must have been the supreme leader of the Vonage Bots or was like Neo from the Matrix and had escaped the Vonage Bots. When these calls were taking place, we were driving to Florida for Christmas (a time of happiness around the world) and our cell phone got disconnected from the man with a brain, and that was the end of our luck.

Each time we called back, the the Vonage Bots asked for our security answers. Every time we told them that the Vonage Bot that it was a made up account and the email address, we had provided every email account we had, was made up by the sales guy (this is true, we were told by THE BRAIN that our CELL PHONE dropped the call on, but before the call dropped, we didn't get the fictitious email account in full. I can only assume THE BRAIN is now dead). So, every time we explained to the Vonage Bots that the security answers and questions were sent to the fictitious account. We had no access to it. We didn't know them, that fraud was involved. Their answer? How do we know it was fraud without out you giving us these answers. I immediately thought this should be a logic game on the LSAT, because there was going to be no reasoning with these people. We went in circles...I even told them I made up an email account for the Vonage Bot and sent them two security answers and asked them to tell me what they were...and when they couldn't, I said EXACTLY. They then asked for my security answers again. Vonage Bots cannot be rattled at all from the script.

After we told them what happened 30 times, went through 300 Vonage Bots, one with the name "Georgia Rule" (see Lindsay Lohan movies), they said they needed the device number that was at our house 200 miles away. We had lost round 1 with the Vonage Bots.

Today, Agent V calls back with the device number that was imported from the Russian KGB. They still asked for the security answers. Fraud, what is fraud? So, Vonage has stolen our credit card number (we had to cancel the card) and made up a fictitious email account and is basically forcing Vonage service on us. We will never be able to cancel because we don't have access to our own account that was created by Vonage. It's a brilliant new move by a business. If customers do not want to use your services, force it upon them and never let them cancel.

Now, we are going to have to file a police report, contact the appropriate government agencies and possibly sue Vonage. All I can do, is please ask everyone to tell this story from every mountain top and WARN EVERYONE to STAY AWAY FROM VONAGE!!!!!!! Or else, become a Vonage Bot victim (and if you don't believe me about the Vonage Bots, I am sure one of them will be posting my 2 hour screaming tirade with them on youtube one day...who am I kidding, they don't know how to turn on a computer or talk outside of their Vonage Bot scripts).

Off With Their Heads!

Today, New Jersey joined 13 other states and the District of Columbia in outlawing the death penalty. It is the first state to outlaw the death penalty in 42 years. I find American politics to be so incredibly fun to watch, because only here can there be a political party that preaches the value of all life, yet supports the Government killing people. These two ideals directly conflict with each other, yet many people in America feel this way. America is one of the very few democratic industrialized countries that still have the death penalty. In fact, only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Congo execute more people than the United States. How troubling are these statistics?

Personally, I do not support the death penalty. This is not because I think it is inhumane or cruel and unusual punishment. I can completely understand why many people want to kill the person who killed their loved ones. An eye for an eye. The reason I don't support the death penalty is because when a jury gives a sentence of death, that decision is not made through a perfect process. You bring in twelve imperfect individuals to render a judgment through a process that is greatly flawed. As a lawyer, I feel the United States legal system is one of the best out there and perfection and fairness may be impossible to achieve any where, yet our system makes an attempt. But, I don't know how many times I have heard of people being let free, off of death row, because of new evidence that proved they were not the killer. How does this not scare everyone? It is a FACT, that there have been innocent people on death row. I would say there is a high probability that an innocent person has been put to death, through our system, and another innocent person will die in the future. Why do we keep the death penalty? We keep the death penalty for the victims' families and no one else.

It has been proven that the death penalty is not a deterrent. That is one of the reasons New Jersey recently outlawed it. So, if it doesn't deter people from killing, why do we have it? I would personally rather have 10 guilty people released from prison than have 1 innocent person executed by mistake. Yet, no guilty people need to be released. Instead, they can be left in prison to rot for the rest of their lives. No parole, no escape. It costs the government less to house someone for life, than someone on death row. So, again, why do we have the death penalty? It costs more and it doesn't stop people from killing. The answer is simple. People want retribution. The people affected by the killing, want the killer to die. To see that person alive, while their loved one is dead, is hard for anyone affected. I can completely understand this feeling. What Americans have to ask, is whether those peoples feelings count more than the innocent man or woman who will die for a crime they did not commit. Is and innocent LIFE more important than someones feelings?

Many people who preach the death penalty are Christians. They can easily point to text in the Bible that supports the death penalty. I have two responses for those people. 1. America is not like Iran and our laws are not based around religion. 2. The Bible also preaches forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn't just mean forgiving someone for just stealing or lying. It means forgiving someone for doing one of the most horrible things anyone could imagine. If you truly can forgive, you do not need the death penalty to comfort you.

I fully understand I am preaching without having experienced a sick twisted person killing a loved one of mine. Maybe I would change my mind if something like this happened to me, but that doesn't mean I changed my mind for the right reasons. Right now, I am looking at the facts, without bias. The death penalty does not save money and does not save lives. It has the exact opposite effect, by taking innocent lives and costing more money than life in prison, without parole. Besides suggests that the death penalty is outdated and not fit for a democracy. With all of this said, I am not going to lose much sleep over the issue and probably because it doesn't affect my life in one way. Maybe everyone shares my urgency for reform and that's why the death penalty is still here.

What is Terrorism?

I often hear the word "terrorism" or "terrorist". It's said by the media, politicians, businessmen, Today when you think of a terrorist, it is often a middle eastern man holding a rifle in the air. This image has been branded in our minds, after 9-11. In airports, supermarkets, anywhere...people are constantly on guard for someone who fits this look, who looks suspicious. Unfortunately, this has caused stereotypes, and I could go into a long discussion about Islam and racism, but its not the point of this blog.

I am frustrated that this is the only look of terrorism and that the "war" on terrorism, takes place in a battlefield in Iraq or Afghanistan. I read a story today about a little girl. When a man came to attack her and her mom, she shielded her mom from the five or six rounds the man shot at them. What a little hero. Both are still alive as of this blog. This sounds like a news report out of Iraq...one of the many that I ignore because the war does not affect my daily life and is happening thousands of miles away. This could be another article, about why we aren't sacrificing more in a time of war, but this article is about the definition of terrorism. The shooting incident happened in Detroit, not Damascus. It could have happened anywhere...L.A., NYC, Atlanta, or on Main street USA. It is gang violence.

If terrorism comes back to our shores, as it did on 9-11, and were to stay here...I doubt our retaliation would be limited to adding a couple more cops to the streets. I am willing to bet the national guard, army, police force, and every man woman and child would be on the look out. I bet money would not be an issue. So why with gang violence, do we not care? Why isn't gang violence called terrorism? The definition of terrorism is to terrorize people with violence, and sometimes that involves a political purpose, but not always. I think it's pathetic that we are spending billions and now trillions of dollars on a war in Iraq, and we don't spend a fraction of that on preventing our own terrorists that live not just in the big cities, but also the small towns in America.

If I were the President, I would move my war on terrorism from the battlefields of the middle east (where they hate us more than before) and turn it to the streets of America. It is a war. I would actually declare it from the White House steps. And no, not like the joke of a war on drugs...but a real war. I would ask for authorization and send troops into cities where gang violence existed...because it is terrorist violence now. I would amend the Constitution, if need be. I wouldn't stop until they were in jail or dead. Gang violence is not like simple murder. It isn't even revenge murder. Gangs are armies, with the goal of controlling territory. They intimidate residences, government officials, and police to gain this territory. If simple fear doesn't work, then guns will. Yet, we don't treat this like a war, yet they act just like the terrorists in the middle east. They have guns, they blow things up, they kill innocent people, and its all about power and control.

It's time to put an end on gang violence. It's time for our petty leaders in Washington to end this domestic terrorism.

The Customer is Never Right

I am going to take a break from politics today, to discuss a trend I find happening more and more...crappy customer service. It started a couple of years after I got my cell phone, in college. I began to notice that cell phones sucked unless hugging a metal pole, and customer care reps could care less if your phone call got dropped 36 times in a span of 3 minutes. I still hate cell phone companies, and AT&T's stupid commercial about dropped calls (I cancelled them because of dropped calls, which they said didn't happen). Now, its affecting every type of company, which is scary, because America is becoming a service based country.

The reason I am writing this now, is because over the past few months, I have encountered really crappy customer service, which at first seemed plausible or okay, but upon reflection, just sucks. So here is my list of crappy customer service:

1. Pulte Homes. I bought a Pulte townhouse within the last year and I thought everything was going fine. Then I noticed my floors were starting to buckle. Well, wood floors are not perfect, but I figured that we needed to get them fixed, because they did not look normal. Now, 2 1/2 months later, our floors still have not been fixed correctly. They have been completely ripped out, we had to move out for a week, yet some how they still didn't fix them correctly. While, this is not the customer service departments fault (the company's fault for hiring crappy sub contractors), we have experience glitches with customer service the entire time. We were allowed to move back in, yet the house was covered in construction dust, the floors were laid wrong and our kitchen island wasn't even re-attached. Our plumbing was not reattached, and there was urine from the workers fermenting in the toilet. We waited hours for the cleaning people to finally come, and they didn't even clean much of the house. Then, when the flooring guys came back out, unannounced, they got in an argument with my wife that the floors were fine (even though they weren't glued down by the stairs, they said the moving of the wood was normal). These things should have never happened, but even if they did, Pulte's customer care people should have noticed it first and fixed it before we came back. But, they never catch anything. Everything is always done half assed in hopes that we won't find out. Then customer service always plays dumb. After months of dealing with them...they officially suck.

2. American Express. I finally joined the Amex crowd. I was proud when I got my Delta SkyMiles card, and couldn't wait for all those points to come flowing into my sky miles account. I would be flying free, first class to Thailand in no time (Sorry Veronica, we can only afford the crying baby section for you this time). But, Amex decided not to read my Detla SkyMiles number I provided them on my application and opened up another sky miles account for me instead. Awesome, now I have two accounts with miles in them. Okay, no big deal. I called Amex to have it corrected. They put me on hold at least 30 times, said they figured it out (since it is hard to cancel one account and link up the other), a new card would be mailed and all the miles were now in my original account. I kept checking for 2 weeks and it never happened. I called them again...they said they were sorry, and said it was corrected. BUT, this time once it transferred, then I had to order a new card with the correct account number. They also gave me 3,000 BONUS miles for the ordeal. Great customer service, right? Well, it still hasn't happened yet, almost a week later. AND, there are no bonus miles in either one of my accounts. So, either Ryan Ruth keeps getting all of my miles or they aren't fixing the problem. Three weeks later, my account is still screwed up. How hard is this?

3. Brooks Brothers. I needed some new business shirts, since starting my new cool job as a lawyer. I went into every lawyer's essential clothing store, for some new shirts. The only problem? No one would acknowledge I was alive, let alone help me. It was awkward to say the least. Well, I did this three times. I would go in, my shirt size wasn't out, I would look for help, the sales associates would help old rich men throwing hundred dollar bills everywhere, while I was throwing shirts around the store. I felt invisible. Finally, after the third time I emailed Brooks Brothers about the incident, figuring nothing would happen. Well, they immediately emailed me back and the store manager called. Great customer service, right? Well I thought so, too. The manager said she was sorry, offered me 25% off (nothing too special, since they had that sale the weekend before) and tickets to a mall concert. Well, when I went in to finally get my shopping done (the manager said she would personally help me), guess what happened...No one would help me. After once again screaming around the store throwing merchandise, no one would even look at me. I finally went to the registers to get help. It took at least a minute before the one guy kind of made a "waking up" motion, and said "oh, do you need help?". By this time, I was naked and bleeding from my head after bashing it 800 times on the cash register to get his attention. I asked for the manager and she got my shirts. I am not going back to that Brooks Brothers.

4. Macy's. I bought new furniture. They lied about when it would be delivered several times and the ottoman did not match the chair. I called customer service and explained we had guest coming into town, that it was promised a week earlier and that their company lied to us. She said she was sorry, but couldn't do anything. There was not another sofa like the one we bought being delivered in the entire United States. Really? Well, I now have a very rare sofa, and may be selling it on e-bay. Come on, I know she was lying. Then, after I had to buy tailgating chairs and another chair so we could sit, and waiting months for our sofa to be delivered...they took off about 47 cents for the problems, from my credit card bill. I hate the sofa, on top of it all.

These are just four recent incidents in a long line. None of them too horrible (except Pulte), but its four different companies. Housing, Banks/Credit, furniture sales and clothing sales. All four of them never even solved the problem, while each saying they have GREAT customer service. They did at least acknowledge something was wrong and put a band aid on it...but they never did fix the actual problem.

I don't have much hope for America, if companies cant solve their problems. The private market is supposed to solve all problems. The market will work itself out, people say. Well, what if everyone in the market decides to suck? Where does that leave us? The entire airline industry and cell phone industry have taken this approach. It seems like others are following. All I can say, is either I am the most unlucky man alive, or American companies have some big time problems in customer relations that are only going to get worse.

Who has College Debt?

New proposals are showing up everywhere to stop the increase in college tuition and to minimize college debt. This is an interesting problem often with solutions that only cause bigger problems. In most states, college tuition is getting out of control and it's insane at private schools. Now many government officials, from both parties, want to stop the increase of tuition. The idea is simple: If tuition bills stop rising, college debt will stop rising. Unfortunately, this is not the true, for many reasons.

First, lets agree that college tuition is getting pretty out of control for most public schools and almost all private colleges and universities (Note: this is not the case for public colleges and universities in Florida, where I went to school) . I will talk about tuition issues in a moment. But, a big reason students must take out large loans, is because of living expenses, not just tuition. If someone wants to attend a college, they have to get a place to stay, have transportation, buy clothes, food, etc. Many schools now require mandatory health insurance and computers. I am not suggesting any of these things are bad, or not needed, but that adds a lot to the total cost of college. For me, it was a little over half of my loan when I went to law school. Many places, this isn't the case, but it still can reach $15,000 to $20,000 a year easily. Some may say that students should live in college housing, yet many colleges do not have enough housing and when you are a graduate student, do you want to live among freshman? So, even if the political pigs can some how stop the rise of tuition (or erase it entirely), there are these costs that will continue to rise every single year. Loans will still be needed.

Now, to the tuition argument. Under some plans by some very intelligent political pigs, there will be pressure on colleges and universities to either stop raising tuition or help pay for a larger percentage of the tuition. An idea is to force colleges and universities with large endowments to pay a mandatory percentage of their endowments to lower tuition. I am opposed to this, because colleges and universities are not in the business of making profits to pay shareholders. These endowments are to continue upgrading facilities, pay for great faculty and have up to date technology. While I do believe endowments should be used to help students who cannot afford tuition, they should not be used to help subsidize everyone. Remember, if you don't like the cost of Harvard, don't go there. There are plenty of great schools academically, that cost a fraction of Harvard. Additionally, targeting schools with big endowments will only affect a small percentage of colleges and universities. These tend to be the more selective institutions. This does not account for the vast majority of schools. So, how will they pay for need services with less income? Remember, while it seems colleges and universities live in a bubble, they still are affected by price increases, inflation, gas hikes, etc. Many must increase their tuition just to keep up with rising costs. Private schools recieve little to no funding from a state, while state schools increasingly must rely on tuition and endowments, rather than state money, because legislatures don't want to invest tax dollars in education.

My point is that fixing tuition prices will not solve the college debt problem. It will only hurt the academic institutions, creating a worse learning environment for the students, and still forcing students to incur a lot of loans at not so great interest rates.

So, how do we solve the college debt problem? Two possible ways: 1. Government can raise taxes significantly so every man, woman and child can attend public universities and colleges for free, leaving the wealthy who can pay more to attend private schools; or 2. Government can increase the maximum it will loan to college students, and lower the interest rates on such loans.

Number 2 is the best option. Government, without influencing the private market as much, and keeping taxes down, can easily provide more loans at lower interest rates. Wouldn't you rather your tax dollars being invested in the future of America, with a return small monetary return, rather than sending those same dollars to another country for wars and infrastructure? While students will still fall into debt, it will help them avoid private loans which are far more expensive, and the lower interest rates will help to keep payments down over the 30 years of the loan. This alternative is much more managable for the student, and keeps schools out of the red. Remember, government education loans cannot be erased simply by filing bankruptcy. They follow you to the grave.

If we lived in a perfect world, no one would have to work and everything would be free. Since we don't, this is the best way to solve the college debt problem. This allows students to choose their schools freely, allows the schools to raise money and pay for items they deem necessary, and prevent the government from invading even more into the private market and our every day lives. Why the political pigs don't go for this, I am not sure. Remember, Hillary wants to give every new born $5,000 for college. In 18 years, do you think $5,000 would even cover 4 weeks of college tuition? Lets fix the system while not increasing taxes and burdening our nation's schools.