By bminerly Do the threats of Alberto Gonzalez to prosecute journalists for publishing stories of alleged government wrongdoing with regard to domestic surveillance bother you? Especially when you think about how the New York Times held the story of the NSA warrantless wiretapping issue for over a year before publishing it at the White House's request, but never threatened legal action then?

Response from Douglas Cunningham [ADMINISTRATOR] moderately, yes. troublesome, shall we say. that said, the washington post navigated the plame thing while the nytimes did not. the post did not pretend to be above the law. further, this all should have been anticipated (by the press) when we went down the road on the plame case. who are you going to haul into a courtroom to find a leaker? it's going to have to be journalists. i do think that we have too much discussion of secret activities, making them no longer secret. that's bad for the country. dc
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By bminerly If Bush felt the government couldn't afford to deploy 10,000 new Border Patrol agents over five years as of 2005, why can we afford to deploy National Guardsmen for the next two years who aren't even trained to do this type of work?

Response from Douglas Cunningham [ADMINISTRATOR] well, that's a conundrum. obviously, his mind has been changed. dc
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By Ghostly My family came from Germany, my husband's fron Ukrain, our families like many other people who has entered the United States LEGALY had to learn English. It is not racist for the mexicans or any other nationality to learn English. This Country was started by English speaking people. What makes these people think, that they are above everyone else? That they do not have to enter legaly or learn to speak English, like many of immigrants has over the years. My family line goes back to the begining of our Country.

Response from Douglas Cunningham [ADMINISTRATOR] i don't think it's racist to expect that immigrants learn english. that said, i think an astounding number of immigrants today do, in fact, learn english, and quite rapidly. and i think that many, likely most, of them desire to assimilate, even if the protest leaders don't. dc
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By bminerly Should investment income be taxed at the same rate as wage income? Why or why not?

Response from Douglas Cunningham [ADMINISTRATOR] short term, yes. long-term, i advocate the lower capital gains rate. the lower rate has led to vastly more turnover in investments than would otherwise have occurred. this has freed up capital to be put to use in other places. it has also increased government receipts. naturally, this is characterized as a 'tax break' for the 'wealthy'. and yes, if you juxtapose the new rate and the old rate, yes, the lower rate is a hell of a lot lower. but we're missing the point that most, certainly a large number, of these sales would not have occurred if the higher rate remained in place. capital would remain locked in place, and the money pouring into government coffers would remain with the rich people. the sales would not have occurred. which would be good, because why? doug
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By bminerly Your description of the waving of Mexican flags as a "disconnect" in the contrived "crisis" of illegal immigrants was an amusing distortion of what Hispanics are saying on the matter. They feel, quite rightly in my opinion, that they are being scapegoated and demonized by the Republican Party to distract the nation from the ills of the party and the country. How else to explain the fact that the White House has both supported and opposed the Sensenbrenner bill that would make illegal immigrants felons, and the fact that Bush has spoken in favor of English being the US' official language while his Attorney General says that Bush does not? It's easy to claim a position after the fact when you claim all of them beforehand, and that's what we're seeing now with this campaign. I wonder, Doug, if you think that the waving of Puerto Rican, Irish and Italian flags on Fifth Avenue in parades is a disconnect as well. Of course, I haven't heard anyone discussing the rounding up and deportation of the tens of thousands of illegal Irish in this country (and yes, that number is real).

Response from Douglas Cunningham [ADMINISTRATOR] waving a flag from another country during an ethnic parade is a completely different situation from waving it during a protest by illegal immigrants. the disconnect is to intimate, as you do, that those situations are the same, or nearly the same. they are not. i hardly think this is strictly a republican issue. you know, surely, that big labor is not at all keen on further immigration. but the dems have an interesting tactic now, almost as interesting as bush and whether he's genuine. and that is to say, pretty much no matter what happens, that bush is trying to distract everyone from this horrible mess (insert horrible mess) by demonizing (insert oppressed group). in other words, there never are legitimate policy or political differences, because it's been declared that the republicans are playing a constant shell game of distraction. i suppose you can think that, but it won't advance these issues. the felon thing is pointless. we cannot round up and deport 12 million or 15 people. doug
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By boris854 Your thoughts on this proposal. The foundation is the premise that Illegal Immigrants are a drain on the economy due to excessive use of services, with no input via taxes as they are not registered. Give every illegal a work registration card, so now they can be "documented workers" like the President Suggests. However, instead of Income Tax and Social Security, scrap all that and have a Value Added Tax (VAT) toat covers the tax expenditures for the social programs and retirements. In essence, the newly documented workers (and the rest of us) will be paying Income Tax via Sales Tax, and the revinue stream will go up beause even the foreign documented workers have to buy bread and milk..

Response from Douglas Cunningham [ADMINISTRATOR] i understand your premise as to 'drain on the economy', but i don't think that's in fact the case. and many, even some of the illegals, are paying taxes. a number through some other type of federal number, the name escapes me, but it's similar to a social security number. the vat makes a lot of sense, and of course, it taxes consumption. there would be a modest increase from the purchases of illegal immigrants, yes. all that said, i think that if we get a vat, we'll still end up with all of our other taxes, and government will just spend more money. doug
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By boris854 Reading your column this morning, the Illegal Immigration Issue confronting us shows just how morally bankrupt and personally reprehensible our lowmakers have become in Washington. When will they: A. Decide to Control the border (and if the Mexican Government wants to sue if NG troops arrest someone, then tell them to XXXX up a rope). B. Register Everyone that is in the Unnited States C. Hunt Down and Deport those that will not Register. Since when did accepting immigrants turn into a surrender of our sovereignity as a nation?

Response from Douglas Cunningham [ADMINISTRATOR] hi, i have to tell you, i'm not optimistic that our lawmakers will take any action of any kind, let alone action of the type you describe. the guard troops are positive, but their numbers are far inadequate to the task. i am at a loss as to why getting control of this somehow makes us evil. that said, we simply cannot round up 12 million people and deport them. the logistics are impossible. but before we make any headway, we've gotta get control of the border. once we get control, then we can debate the other aspects. doug
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