Tuesday, November 05, 2013

'I Spy' - with Portuguese subtitles!

(My new American Thinker post)
Remember the outrage from Brazil about the US spying on their President & other leaders?

Well, we learned today that Brazil has been doing some spying of its own:   

 "The Brazilian government confirmed Monday that its intelligence service targeted U.S., Russian, Iranian and Iraqi diplomats and property during spy activities carried out about a decade ago in the capital Brasilia.    
The relatively low-key surveillance was reported by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, based on Brazilian intelligence service documents it obtained from an undisclosed source."  

 OK, so we spy on them and they spy on us.   

 So can we call it a tie?  Isn't that what happens in soccer, or the national sport in Brazil?   

 Can we all admit that spying is a part of the game?  Nations need information and spying is how they get it.   

 The larger point is the irresponsible and treasonous Snowden "leak".  It put all of this stuff on the front pages.   

 There is a serious side to the leak because some leaders may be afraid to work with the US in the future.  

 P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.




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Hard to see how immigration reform passes now

(My new American Thinker post)
As we navigate through the ObamaCare fiasco and "the promise of keeping your policy," it's hard to see how immigration reform can fit into this busy calendar.  We will see more protests directed at Congress but it won't really have an impact.

 2013 is over.  There is no bill on the floor and the Senate proposal will not get out of the House.  The Senate bill was never debated openly by Senators.  The ObamaCare 2,000 page fiasco will make it difficult to pass anything "comprehensive" in the near future!
The first quarter of 2014 will be all about the budget.  We will see a repeat of the last 60 days without the shutdown.  The other big difference is that President Obama is weaker politically than two months ago.
The primaries start in the second quarter and every politician, running or defending his seat, will be on an election mode.  Politicians avoid controversy during election seasons so forget immigration.
Furthermore, Democrats will have to do very heavy lifting with ObamaCare.  Do you think that they want immigration reform on their agenda?  I don't think so!

 Last, but not least, there is a bipartisan coalition to do border security and some limited version of The Dream Act.  However, I don't see anything happening on immigration reform before the 2014 midterms.

P.S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr


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