TODAY'S RAMBLINGS
As I occasionally do, I'm going to turn the reigns of this part of the blog over to someone much smarter than I.  In this case, it's the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. 

This past Friday, The Washington Post published an excellent editorial by 43 on his recommendations for a reasonable immigration policy.  And his insightful prose is accompanied by his expressive paintings of the very immigrants some wish to demonize.  Say what you want about his presidency (and I've said plenty), the guy can f'ing paint.

I hope you'll read President Bush's very thoughtful take on addressing our immigration issues. 

Note:  at the urging of some devoted readers, especially the budding political scientist Elizabeth "Polly" Michaels, I'm going to seek to present a fact-based middle ground, or at least point out the insanity (or even sanity) of one or both sides as much as I can in this blog.

And I don't know how the hell it gets any more middle than W. and I agreeing almost completely on something as big as immigration.   

Oh yeah - and we also arrived in paradise.  After a 3 hour bare-knuckle drive on the 210 across the northern LA basin, the skies figuratively (much less traffic) and literally (no smog) cleared as we turned on to glorious Hwy 126 towards Ventura and the coast.  We arrive almost precisely at our 3pm check-in.

The Palm Cottage is even better than last year, if that's possible.  And overall, if there's a better combo of weather, sky, mountains, city, trees/greenery, beach, and ocean than Montecito, I have yet to experience it.

On our walk to dinner Saturday night to the Textbook Montecito haunt, Tre Lune, we had a close-up with the  follically excited Conan O'Brien, who was dining al fresco up the street at Ca Dario's with what looked to be industry chums.  It was funny, because even after an almost 3 hour meal ourselves, when we walked past Ca Dario's, there was CoCo, still holding court, at what can only be described as prime Montecito dining real estate.  I guess Ellen and Portia had a table already?

But what was extra cool this time we walked by him was that we literally heard him say - no joke - "I told them I'd have to have at least 2 years guaranteed."   Wow, what a thrill seeing/hearing a B+/A- Hollywood star recounting playing hardball in the rough-and-tumble world that is late night television.

FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES
The reaction was both swift and strong from everywhere to both my original Calling on Republicans post, and then the response to it by the famous conservative, Anonymous.   If you haven't already, I urge all of you to read his cogent and informative history of the progressive and conservative movements in the US.

Hunter Deuce liked my original post, but took some issue with the response from our conservative anonymous friend.

Anonymous wrote in his rebuttal to my OP:

Anonymous, I hear you, and I mostly agree.  And in the abstract, you are certainly correct - and you did say "most" people.  You're also echoing MLK:  "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

However, and to paraphrase Hunter:  you are leaving out a lot of people.   There are still very large populations here in America where life expectancy is going down, and they are hungry.

But in the defense of our Anonymous author, Hunter Deuce cherry-picked a small (and yes, perhaps arguable) part of what was written, and used it to bring into question most everything Anonymous wrote?  I don't think that's  right, and it obfuscates the otherwise important points.  So that's one fail and counting for the often-erudite Mr. Deuce.

To conclude, and in the simply elegant words of the multimedia artistic genius and budding website developer Cyd Pepfog Darwin, who also responded to the reply by Anonymous:

Whoops - I forgot to thank Dr. Downs, who used her red pen from her professorial days to correct me.  No, I won't be partying with Megan and Harry here in Montecito - because as the Good Dr. 5 Star reminded me:  Harry is of course in Britain for Prince Philip's permo-nap ceremony.  My bad, Doreen!

A big thank you to everyone who participated in this last round of discussions.  It is very gratifying and I really appreciate you taking the time to read this.  Keep those cards and letters coming.

KLUF
Do you want disaffection?  Polarization?  Angst?  And do you want hardnosed political discourse, mixed with guitars, bass, and drums?  If so, I give you, in pristine 96 kHz/24 bit high resolution, The Clash and their seminal "London Calling".