So here we go again, we are just into the second month of 2015 and the political games for next year's Presidential race have already began to emerge.

The Republican party in control of both chambers have, it can be argued, once again been guilty of wasting valuable time taking votes on bills that are dead on arrival in the Senate. That coupled with their efforts to continue to undermine Obama's Affordable Care Act, has left many wondering if it is at all possible to move past the gridlock that has brought this nations political system to a grinding halt for these past six years. In addition, the Republican efforts to defund the President's executive action on Immigration have left the Immigrant community and their supporters wondering if they will ever see a genuine fix to our broken system. And as anyone who is at all familiar with how the laws of this land are formed will tell you, the Republican stance is a waste of time and energy. This is because no matter how many votes they take to oppose Obama's actions, they will end up in a cul-de-sac. The simple reason being they do not have enough votes to overcome a filibuster in the Senate and even if they did manage such a vote they still lack the numbers to overcome a Presidential veto.  

There is a further position taken up by the archconservative wing of the Republican Party that is to most fair-minded people seen as truly mean spirited and downright un-American. I'm referring to the proposal to undo/revoke Obama's D.A.C.A. That is very hard to understand, why punish the children for the miss-doings of their parents. This is truly an unchristian position to take and one that is not supported by the vast majority of the American people.

And so looking into the future it seems that the Republican Party is willing to take the chance on kicking the Immigration issue down the road to 2017. That to me is a huge mistake for two reasons. Firstly, I can't see them retaining control of the Senate past the 2016 election and secondly, it also presumes that they can take control of the White House which is in the view of many neutral commentators a very long shot at this time.

Tale Of Two Pebbles

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter.

Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.

If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. If she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Take a moment to ponder this. What would you recommend that the girl do?

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me!" she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."

The moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty. The girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.