I give Representative Tancredo one thing – he’s original. Here’s what Tancredo’s site says:

Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will send a head of lettuce and a fruit basket to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today. Tancredo made the move after Chertoff told reporters earlier this week that enforcing the law is causing produce shortages.

“The administration has taken hyperbole to a whole new level this time,” said Tancredo, “They are now trying to convince the public that without amnesty, the American people are going to starve?”

“The agriculture industry and the free market has managed to keep producing through floods, droughts, and $3.00 per gallon gas,” said Tancredo, “I doubt very seriously that a nominal increase in labor costs is going to be the end of lettuce as we know it.”

According to National Journal’s Hotline this morning, Chertoff said in a conference call on 6/27 with reporters that, “We’re living in a world in which lettuce and fruit is not being picked because we are enforcing the law.”

A staffer from Congressman Tancredo’s office will deliver a head of lettuce and a small fruit basket from a local grocery store to Secretary Chertoff’s office at 3 PM ET today located at 3801 Nebraska Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20528.

Congressman Tancredo wrote in the card, “Much, much more where this comes from.”

Zing! Besides, there’s another person who’ll be out of work soon, who’d be glad to take the job.

It’s always enjoyable to watch the latest Kos Kids antics on the latest issues. Today’s is immigration. Titled “Immigration Reform: An American Solution”, the piece out lines the diarist’s solution to the immigration crisis – though, in reality, it doesn’t solve anything. Now, there’s nothing like some mandatory requirements on the immigrant’s part, to solve our illegal immigration crisis!

I mean to say that one of the variables I propose, Mandatory Voting, is universal and extends to all Americans. The other variable, Paying Taxes, already has seeped into our culture and is accepted alongside the many other mandatory governmental requirements such as car insurance, social security numbers, etc. Let us not forget taxes were originally a hard sell, I mean who the hell wants to pay taxes. Collectively it binds us and provides financial fortitude to our common land.

Mandatory Voting is the same. Collectively we must reengage each other through participating in local, state and federal elections. Like taxes we are collectively ensuring representative fortitude. After all a government founded upon the concept of representation is hardly served by complete disdain for voting or complete disconnect from the impact of voting.

Mandatory voting could swing two ways. We could make it incentive based or penalty based. I prefer a tax incentive for those who rack up local, state and federal voting points. I also prefer no penalty for those who just refuse to participate by choice or otherwise, again this is the American way…we must remain free to make our own decisions in the broadest feasible construct.

Bush wiretaps for national security? Stop them! Holding terrorists in Gitmo? Stop it! Requiring immigrants to vote by law? I like it! But, wait. You can’t complete a Kos diary without bashing Bush, now can you?

I also suggest this weakness is doused by eliminating US military posture in Arab lands.  We can’t even take care of ourselves, look around, homelessness, immigrants doing our dirty work and gluttony and convenience drive our culture.  We must reassert our collective intellect in recapturing the essence of the American construct.  That is an open society that seeks to include citizens from around the world.

Vote and pay taxes.  Easy!  Come one come all. Vote out the dirty war dogs that stain our American trajectory with their blood lust and alienation of the American public by electronic rigging of voting and the elitist Electoral College.

Uh huh. Our “elitist” electoral college. The same one which elected Clinton twice? The same one which elected Carter? And LBJ? Amazing how it’s elitist when a Republican gets elected, but not when a Democrat does. “immigrants doing our dirty work”? You mean, like working in offices, running small businesses, going to college, working as doctors…oh, unless you’re referring to illegal immigrants.

Of course Dems want illegals to get a vote ASAP. 2/3 of illegals would vote Democratic if they could. Even the commentators at Kos think this diarist’s idea is half-baked at best.

Voting is mandatory in Belgium, I believe. With a smaller population it’s not so difficult to enforce. But in the US?  Do we seriously want to fine/otherwise punish all those who can’t be bothered with voting?

Although I wish more people whould become engaged in politics, the last thing I want is a bunch of American Idol watching, uninformed, ininspired neanderthals voting for the first name that is recognizeable.

Need I point out the irony in the last one?

Denver just announced that it would take up policies to help stop global warming.

Denver is gearing up to fight global warming, and residents may soon be asked to make personal sacrifices to help save the planet.

The new plan is aimed at making Denver a national leader in reducing gas emissions that have been linked to global warming, giving a major push to alternative energy, stepping up recycling and changing building codes to encourage energy conservation.

But the proposal also contains some ideas that may be unpopular, such as penalizing heavy users of electricity and natural gas and basing auto insurance premiums on the number of miles traveled.

Meanwhile, there is a certain type of irony, which no man could reproduce.

Did you have frost on your windows this morning? It felt more like March or early April along the Front Range.

The temperature at Denver International Airport fell to 31 degrees at 5:44 a.m. Friday, setting a new record low for the date.

This shattered the old record of 37 degrees, last set in 1974.

The new record low will also become the latest freeze on record for the city of Denver. The previous date of latest freeze ever recorded was June 2, 1951.

Temperatures have only dropped below freezing two other times during the month of June; in 1919 and 1951.

Heh.