In 2012 Jeb Bush sought to distance himself from conservatism, but in 2014 he wears it like a badge

Judge for yourself from the video and full transcript here a couple of days ago when Jeb insisted he isn't going to change what he believes if he decides to run for president, but it's plain as day to me that he has already flip-flopped and wants this conservative thing both ways, just like his brother did and just like his father did, because he's basically an open borders libertarian who doesn't want to go to the trouble of lifting up existing Americans to fill the "skills gap" and instead wants to bring in the best and the brightest from abroad to take those jobs:

"WE HAVE A LOT OF PROBLEMS THAT COULD BE SOLVED IF WE FIX A FEW BIG THINGS AND IMMIGRATION IS ONE OF THEM. SO LONG STORY SHORT, IF I WAS TO RUN, I WOULD TRY TO PERSUADE PEOPLE. I'M NOT GOING TO CHANGE WHAT I BELIEVE. AND MY BELIE[F]S, [I] THINK, ARE GOOD SOLID, MAINSTREAM CONSERVATIVE THOUGHTS."

Flashback to February 2012 here when Jeb Bush sought to distance himself from conservatism, his own and its then-current expression in the Republican presidential debates:

"I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I'm wondering, I don't think I've changed, but it's a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people's fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective and that's kind of where we are," said the former Florida Governor. "I think it changes when we get to the general election. I hope."

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So in 2012 we have this incoherent jibber jabber that it was totally acceptable to "change for the general election" but he hasn't changed a lick even though he used to be a conservative but in 2014 it's not acceptable to change and Jeb Bush is all transparency and light and hasn't changed a wit don't you know (except he used to be a conservative), and if anyone's changed it's them, those fake conservative demagogues, and vote for me because I'm what I've always been, blah blah blah.

For Jeb Bush conservatism is exhausted by three things in the interview: reforming what's broken, limited government and liberty. Nothing there about preserving anything valuable which exists or what those things might be or how they got that way, or how people in this country who have perverted liberty into license are supposed to be capable of limiting the government when they can't, and won't, control themselves.

And evidently it also just comes down to consistency, which is the hobgoblin of libertarian minds.

It haunts him still.

Obama's war on growth: Per capita measure shows GDP didn't recover to 2007 level until 3Q2013

So says Ironman, here:

"Going by this measure we see that it wasn't until the third quarter of 2013 that the U.S. economy really recovered to its pre-recession level. And then, it has only been since the second quarter of 2014 that it has grown beyond that level.

"The interesting thing is that tracking the GDP per capita measure this way would more closely match the perceptions of the American people regarding the overall health of the U.S. economy. Say as measured by the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index, which returned to its prerecession levels just a few months ahead of real GDP per capita.

"Contrary to what at least one particular economist [Jonathan Gruber] and his fellow travelers [Bill Maher/Kathleen Sebelius] might think about their cognitive abilities and financial literacy, regular Americans would seem to be pretty capable of collectively assessing the real condition of the U.S. economy."

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Yes, self-perceptions matter.

Coincident with the extraordinarily long 6 year wait for the real economy to recover, the self-identification of the American people by lower class in January 2014 has swelled by 50 million since 2008, according to the results of a regular Pew survey, showing just how many people have died on the vine of a militant, leftist Obama administration and Democrat Party bent on destroying the middle class.

When the New York Times suddenly tells you after the election that 30 million prime-working-age Americans 25-54 aren't working, you know that where there's smoke, there's fire. With fewer than 5 million job openings in the country for those 30 million, legalizing 11 million illegal aliens isn't just an act of charity toward some, but a declaration of war against all.

Barack Obama has been burning down the house, one family at a time.

Independent voters overwhelmingly oppose Obama's illegal immigration cram-down

The middle class knows an obvious threat to its jobs when it sees it.

HotAir reports on the recent Bloomberg poll, here:

Obama gets a 37/54 on immigration a couple of weeks after his big “I’m gonna act alone” statement, which isn’t surprising, considering that Bloomberg respondents oppose executive action by a wide margin, 39/56. A bigger majority of independents oppose this (57%) according to their news report, although the data release didn’t include those breakdowns.

Interestingly, this isn’t a poll of registered voters, either. The survey sample was 1,001 adults, which should be the most favorable sample type for Obama and the Democrats. If it’s that bad with this kind of sample, imagine what the numbers would be among registered voters or likely 2016 voters.

How to stimulate the economy and deport illegal aliens in the United States at the same time

In 1954 the Eisenhower Administration employed 750 agents who rounded up and deported 1.1 million Mexicans illegally in the country in what was called Operation Wetback. It took them one year.

With full-time employment in the United States still flat on its back with 3 million fewer working full-time than at the 2007 peak at 123.2 million, there is a plentiful number of people here which could be usefully employed at the federal level in the effort to enforce current immigration law and help secure the border.

Those who say we could never round up 11 million illegals fail to appreciate that the ratio of the agents to the deported in 1954 was 1:1,466. A deportation force of 7,500 Americans employed by the federal government, therefore, should be able to round up and deport 11 million illegals today. And if you paid them $50,000 each, the cost to the Treasury would be less than a half billion dollars. Peanuts in a $4 trillion dollar government.

We just have to want to do it.

But why stop with just 11 million illegals when there may be as many as 30 million here illegally, from places like Ireland, France, Poland and you name it? Triple the budget to employ 23,000 and you could really start to clean the place up and restore law and order, once and for all, and JOBS.

We owe it to ourselves. 

And while we're at it, it's the president's job to enforce the immigration law

News networks to help Obama by not broadcasting his unconstitutional plan to break the immigration law

There's no sense in riling up the people unnecessarily over such a trivial issue, after all. Note that this blackout includes so-called conservative Fox News Network, which is co-opted by its open-borders libertarian owner, Rupert Murdoch (Australian-American naturalized in 1985).  

"If anyone assumes the government by fraud [hello ObamaCare] this is a tyranny. ... To preserve a tyranny ... guard against everything that gives rise to high spirits." -- Aristotle

Liberal contributor from The New Republic advocates for tyranny as all Lincoln lovers must

Here:

[T]here will be situations in which the common good demands and requires that the executive go beyond the letter and even the spirit of the law. In these extreme or emergency situations — situations in which an existential threat poses a grave danger, with the survival of the political community itself at stake — the executive's extralegal decisions effectively become the community's higher law.

Probably the clearest example from American history is Abraham Lincoln's 1861 suspension of habeas corpus, defiance of the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (who denounced Lincoln's actions as unconstitutional), and subsequent arrest (without charge) of pro-secessionist Maryland state legislators who appeared poised to condemn the suspension and vote to join the Confederacy.

Was Lincoln acting like a tyrant, as Maryland native John Wilkes Booth and many other critics of the time contended? You bet he was. And it's a good thing, too. Had Maryland seceded, Washington would have been surrounded by enemy armies and the South almost certainly would have won the Civil War quickly and decisively. Extralegal action was required to keep that from happening.

Republican Senator-elect Cory Gardner of Colorado is a total moron

"I support immigration reform, making sure that we start where American people want to it start, border security. Build a strong smart guest worker program because that has to be part and parcel of border security. But to simply say no, I believe is unacceptable. Just to say no to everything is unacceptable. That's the message that American people sent on Tuesday night."

-- quoted here

Reminds me of the now-defunct Senator Scott Brown, lately of Massachusetts and not-so-lately of New Hampshire, who also said No to the Republican leadership shortly after taking Senator Ted Kennedy's seat in the US Senate. That worked out great, didn't it, Senator Elizabeth Warren?

Hm. Just what is it that it is acceptable to say No to, Mr. Gardner?

"You shall have no other gods before me?"

"You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth?"

"You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name?"

"You shall not murder?"

"You shall not commit adultery?"

"You shall not steal?"

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor?"

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house?"

"You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor?"

Justin Amash, typical libertarian: For illegal immigration amnesty, unless he's talking to conservatives

Americans elect 9 senators liberal on illegal immigration, but 14 for strong borders and against amnesty

Americans elected the following Republicans last night who are for strong border security and against amnesty for illegal aliens:

Sessions (AL), Cotton (AR), Perdue (GA), Risch (ID), Roberts (KS), McConnell (KY), Cochran (MS), Daines (MT), Tillis (NC-may be strong), Inhofe (OK), Lankford (OK), Scott (SC), Capito (WV) and Enzi (WY).

A grades from NumbersUSA: Sessions, Risch, Roberts, Lankford, Scott, Enzi

B grades: Cotton, McConnell, Cochran, Inhofe

C grades: Daines, Capito

no grade: Tillis

True reformer: Perdue

Republican Senator-elect John Cornyn of Texas also has a divided mind on illegal immigration

According to NumbersUSA.com.

Republican Senator-elect Lamar Alexander from Tennessee is another illegal immigration nightmare for America

According to NumbersUSA.com.

They don't call Republican Senator-elect Lindsey Graham of South Carolina "Lindsey Grahamnesty" for nothing

According to NumbersUSA.com.

Republican Senator-elect Susan Collins in Maine is a disaster on illegal immigration and illegal alien amnesty

According to NumbersUSA.com.

Republican Senator-elect Mike Rounds in South Dakota is definitely not opposed to illegal alien amnesty and wants more immigration

According to NumbersUSA.com.

Republican Senator-elect Ben Sasse in Nebraska has a very divided mind on illegal immigration

According to NumbersUSA.com.

Republican Senator-elect Dan Sullivan in Alaska will not oppose illegal alien amnesty

According to NumbersUSA.com.

Republican Senator-elect Cory Gardner in Colorado definitely does not oppose illegal alien amnesty

According to NumbersUSA here.

Republican Senator-elect Joni Ernst from Iowa leans toward voting for illegal alien amnesty

So says NumbersUSA, here.

Republican control of the Senate may well mean immigration amnesty

Most Republicans running for still-in-play US Senate seats are endorsed by the pro-immigration-amnesty US Chamber of Commerce. Consider those listed below without NumbersUSA high rankings or recommendations in parentheses to be sympathetic to amnesty when it comes time to vote on immigration reform, despite what they may say to get elected. The US Chamber doesn't endorse lightly these days, and it wants more cheap labor in this country, which comes at the expense of already unemployed and underemployed Americans.

Endorsed by the US Chamber:

Mitch McConnell in Kentucky (B+)

Thom Tillis in North Carolina

Thad Cochran in Mississippi (B+)

Tom Cotton in Arkansas (B+)

Joni Ernst in Iowa

Scott Brown in New Hampshire (D+)

Steve Daines in Montana (C+)

Corey Gardiner in Colorado (F-)

Mike Rounds in South Dakota

Shelly Moore Capito in West Virginia (C+)

Dan Sullivan in Alaska

Pat Roberts in Kansas (rated A+ by NumbersUSA)

Ed Gillespie in Virginia

Jim Oberweis in Illinois (used to be opposed to amnesty, but not now)

Terri Lynn Land in Michigan

Mike McFadden in Minnesota

Monica Wehby in Oregon

Not endorsed by US Chamber:

Ben Sasse in Nebraska

David Perdue in Georgia (rated "true reformer" by NumbersUSA)

Bill Cassidy in Louisiana (rated A- by Numbers USA)

Endorsement uncertain:

Jeff Bell in New Jersey

Allen Weh in New Mexico