Stephen -- this is the only way to contact you I guess -- your front page articles in today's Times leave out Maryland as one of the states that do not check immigration status when issuing licenses. You say, "Seven states allow illegal aliens to get a driver's permit of some sort: Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington." You should know that Maryland is a sanctuary state. And with the Motor-Voter law, every illegal immigrant that is issued a license is also handed a voter registration application. This is frustrating to say the least. Why did you leave these tidbits out?

From your post:
"It should be noted that Norris doesn't address one critical complaint about Huckabee's immigration record:"

From Norris' post:
"Critics accuse him primarily of two abuses: 1) Working with some of Arkansas' big businesses via the establishment of a Mexican consulate in Little Rock to draw illegal immigrants to the state to accept low-paying jobs. 2) Giving in-state tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants."

He actually doesn't address "one critical complaint"--he addresses two. :)

The people in our nation should mature a little and begin to understand that opinions can differ, and that someone who holds political beliefs opposite to one's own is not automatically a demonic person. Conservatives generally believe that liberals have betrayed the traditional spiritual values that were incorporated into the founding of this country, and liberals generally believe that conservatives maliciously block their efforts to implement social reforms. There is truth in both of these opinions, but there is a much larger truth which requires deeper thought, and which is almost entirely ignored -- that both sides also have motives that are honest and honorable. This point is most clearly seen in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles -- Hollywood by common name. Liberals in Hollywood commonly identify themselves as such, while conservatives will not do so and often resort to legal statements when challenged. Why? Why indeed. It cannot be called simply bullying, it must be called what it is -- intimidation by threat of career destruction. This is the crux of the matter and this is what needs to have some rational thought applied to it. It is time to grow up, individually and as a nation. Why are we Americans despised in the world and called "ugly". Exactly because we have held on too long to infantile ways, which may have been appropriate in the first youth of our nation but are not appropriate any longer. Fairness, based on intelligence, based on underlying goodwill, is the correct modus operandi and modus vivendi for a rational person, and anyone who does not practice this, or even believe in it, is exhibiting symptoms of delayed growth and infantilism. The fact is, there is a quite brutal system of suppression active in Hollywood, implemented by certain celebrities, and also by less well known "suits", all of whom act almost as mafiosi to protect those who comply and to clobber those who do not. This is a black eye for the cause of liberalism, and those who profess the liberal philosophy should apply some cerebral mentation to this injustice, or in other words think it over a little. Are we old enough to think in this nation? Or do we continue to sit in the sandbox and bash each other with plastic toys? Try to grow up America, it's really getting tiresome. Kindness and fairness, there is no other way.