Sorry for hitting this up again so soon, but the sheer stupidity of it all is so rich, you’d swear it had to be a government operation. Let me take you into the negotiation room for this brilliant exchange:
Army: You rang?
Government: We need to deploy 6,000 soldiers to the border.
Army: Most of the ones we’ve got really belong to states, and most of them have already been in the desert over in Iraq for a year. (break-injection is administered-3-2-1) We’re sending them down to the border this summer? Interesting…
Government: Look, we know you’re straped, and we know you guys were picturing yourselves being able to save the country from another disaster like Katrina, God Forbid…but the fact is, we’re in trouble. That means YOU’RE in trouble, understand?
Army: Yes sir.
Government: Numbers are down, the hoopleheads are dying for something to talk about. They demand a show, we’re going to give them a show. Hear that?
Army: I’m gonna to be famous?
Government: You bet your ass you are!
In classic Bush fashion, the mission’s plan makes no sense, and in classic GOP Congress fashion, nobody will bother to point it out, then they’ll pretend not to investigate why it ended up being a big waste of America’s time and China’s money. Not exactally King Solomon, right here we have another example of trying to fix a problem by actually dividing the baby, then handing out the pieces. Observe:
1. The National Guard’s annual two week training mission (where they brush up on silly things like “how to improve the unit before it deploys to Iraq again” or “how to provide rescue services in the wake of a hurricane”) – it’s three weeks now, and these units will haul their equipment down to the border for two weeks (the third is entirely spent doing just that). Stay just long enough to barely figure out what the job is, then back home and another unit takes it’s place. This detail is the one that results in this charade costing you and I billions.
2. The Army is taking their orders in this mission from FOUR different bosses all at once. That’s right, each of the border states will have their own slice of the pie, to do with as they wish. I’m sure politics won’t play into how the allocation of soldiers to each governor works itself out though…I’m sure it will all work out clean and easy, especially once one of the governors actually catches a border jumper. That won’t be a story at all…no, the glory-hog effect such things have on all human politicians will not take place here. This isn’t a competition or a show, it is a serious mission, a crusade against those who would rob you, rape you, kill you or even worse if they had the chance. The Republic is in dire need of protection. We’re so clearly exposed, and besides re-or-future election hopes, using the allocated Army toys in the right way, actually catching some of these silent brown killers…THAT Governor could one day become President!
3. Terror is festering in the soul of this country right now. Bird Flu, Illegal Immigrants, Mother Nature, Terrorists…pick your poison.
UPDATE: None of the 4 governors were involved in the planning of this…in fact, they were briefed on their role about 8 hours before it was announced…Rove briefed them, and was reportedly unable to answer any of the governors’ questions.
Who to root for in this case: the mornonic dudes in Washington or the parasitic Mexican illegals?
The one that will cost the least amount of time and money that should be going to schools in America, but ISN’T.
We’re reaching the point of ridiculous when in this country today, with defecits and two wars going on credit already to most of Southeast Asia…with the FACT that this government was not ready for Katrina, hasn’t even made sure that millions of people got their insurance payments YET! Trent Lott of all people is getting the runaround from his insurance company over newly-invented supposed deal breakers having to do with the conundrum of figuring out whether the house flooded because of the water in the streets, or the wind that pushed it there.
If our government isn’t even interested in sorting that mess out…and they aren’t (the insurance lobby is burning the midnight oil…before they hand it to a congressman who pours it all over the chest of a hooker)…considering the fact that Porter Goss picked a #3 guy, an operations post in charge of thousands of CIA employees, because he fed Goss information under the table while in Congress. The man hadn’t managed others. He was a low level career guy, for some reason, stationed for a long time in Germany. This is who Goss picks, a rat…
Michael Chertoff gives a good interview when he’s talking about police work (his background), seen before he became a cabinet member by me in a few of those crime shows, surveilance, the kind of stuff you see on TLC, History, etc. He sounded like he knew the inside and out of all that, and I’d bet a dollar to a doughnut he did and then some.
That said…he’s in over his head and has been for quite a while. His inability to get the administration out in front of Congress before they idiotically handed states equal cuts of the budgeted dollars annually…that’s when I realized that he cared more about what he was told to do than “homeland security” (whatever that means, the definition is growing daily)…
If you don’t fight publicly for a sane policy in spending the money you’d need to actually PROVIDE homeland security, then what the hell do you care that a hurricane is fucking up the bayou? What’s his name is on that, and he talked to the President, I’m enjoying my half day off…
These political appointees have been so inept…not to mention the fact that high level people given “homeland security” jobs with important sounding titles, at least a handfull so far, have been arrested for child porn at work…on their GOVERNMENT computer…
So they’re not giving these jobs out to the brightest people, we know that.
Take a poll today asking whether you’re more afraid of hurricane season or illegal immigrants…show the results state by state and color the chart in red and blue based on the last Presidental election.
I wonder how people from Florida would vote…
I don’t understand the illegal immigration at all. At least I don’t understand why it has become such a HUGE deal.
Of course, Mexican immigrants aren’t all that common up here. We do have some, and their food is great!
How the hell did this issue get to be so big? Not that I’m complaining. It certainly isn’t helping the administration. But then again aren’t there real problems that need solving?
Try living in India…out in the sticks, on under a dollar a week, the caste system so solid, government makes a law reserving so many spots in universities and employment to the impovershed…hospitals and universities clear out, doctors protesting in the streets!
What are the odds of ever seen THAT again in this lifetime?
It’s all about distraction – ridiculous man-made distraction – completely ambivilent towards the 3 distractions building up at sea, or the flooded areas of New England as they were flooding. The government doesn’t need to be putzing around with this shit when it can’t even react to a natural disaster in what’s supposedly the smartest part of the country…got engineers coming out of our ears…LOUSY with them!
Not their job though – that’s what the National Guard is for. Maybe if they were taking more of their orders from the governor than the pentagon, sandbags and knowing where to put them wouldn’t be such a tall order as the rain has already been falling for 24 hours.
Nobody’s paying attention to this shit because it’s local in a big country. What are we even paying taxes for if nobody’s ever going to organize a plan to deal with things like this?
Why isn’t there a weather analyst (there are probably 140 of them working in the pentagon today for all I know, but if there are, I’m quite sure that nobody listens to anything they have to say) predicting these things and coming up with a deployment strategy?
What? Iraq is on, so we have to give up our National Guard units, and there’s no contingency…well thought out Dubya! Fuck You Too!
I want to know the NAME of the weather. I want to know the SIZE of the weather. I want to know WHAT THAT WEATHER HAD FOR BREAKFAST! YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
If I were President, that’s what I’d be saying right now.
I looked into humidity’s eyes and saw his soul.
CM;
Washingtonmonthly.com talks about why immigration has become a hot button issue:
Paul Glastris
MISSION REJECTED… Why has illegal immigration suddenly taken over American politics? After all, undocumented workers have been coming into this country for decades, and it just wasn’t a terribly big issue — here in Washington, at least — two years ago, or four years ago, or six.
A big part of the answer, I think, can be found in a piece we ran last year called “My New Kentucky Home” by journalist Peter Laufer. What’s really changed, Laufer demonstrates, is where immigrants, legal and illegal, settle. Instead of staying in a handful of big cities and border states, as they used to do, immigrants in recent years have been spreading out, to cities and towns that five years ago seldom if ever saw a Latino face. This is true of the western suburbs of St. Louis, where I grew up. When I go back home I get an earful from people in this strongly-Republican area who are shocked at all the burrito places opening up on Manchester Road and all the Spanish-speaking Mexicans they see shopping at Target. As Laufer’s piece shows, this shock is especially keen in the GOP-controlled South. And I suspect it’s that shock that is being reflected now in Washington.
Laufer’s a sharp reporter with a great eye for coming trends. So it’s worth checking out his latest book, Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq for what it has to say about where attitudes towards this war may be heading. Laufer will be speaking in DC this Friday evening at Busboys and Poets along with Markos Moulitsas and other authors from our esteemed friends at Chelsey Green Publishing, so go check him out and buy his book
OK – so people in St. Louis are concerned about the color of their neighbors now? ST. LOUIS?!?!?!?!
Wouldn’t an influx of hispanics RAISE the profile of St. Louis? Or is a burrito just that much more dangerous than crack, heroin and uneducated youth armed with guns?
One thing I notice while perusing comments in conservative blogs, specificaly polipundit, are comments such as”wait until your daughters boyfreind speaks spanish” or ‘your grand children’
Racism might run a little deeper than people realize.
My dad was saying this sort of thing YEARS ago – that in so many years, you wouldn’t be able to get a job unless you spoke both languages.
I always respond with – India and China are teaching their people English right now, because we have the money, the economy that can use their help. They learn OUR language, not the other way around.
Anyone who’s taken in by this crap is a moron in my opinion. Like thirty years from now, everyone working in those skyscrapers in Manhattan, the brokers, bankers, etc…they’ll all be speaking Spanish…
That’s like saying in a few years, God is going to come down to earth and set everything straight…and believing it.
These aren’t rational situations the fear mongers are describing. Especially when 2nd generation illegals succeed above and beyond their parents BECAUSE they’re exposed to English at an early age. They go to school and everything is taught in English, and their children will be able to utilize the language better than they did, and so on.
The whole “reconquista” aregument is painful to listen to. Most illegals are here because they want a better life or they want to send money to their family in Mexico so that they can have a better life, I doubt very seriously they are trying to avenge the mexican American war.
At this point I feel a little bad for Bush, although he pandered to these nut cases and now they want payback. Sort of like the wierd women you date just for sex, and suddenly they want to go out on dates and meet the family. Right now the wing nuts are trying meet the parents and the parents don’t like them.
That’s when you shoot back with … “if Allah wills it.”
Racism might run a little deeper than people realize.
I think the point is your won’t be able to understand your grandchildren’s language, not that Hispanics in the family are bad.
I think racism is pretty much gone in America and I just came to this conclusion a few weeks ago with Cynthia McKinney’s attack on a white police officer. She’s not oppressed by the Man, she is the Man!!!
America is a melting pot and will ony succeed as a melting pot else there will be constant civil strife. Immigrants either need to assimilate to be accepted into society.
I disagree. Racism is alive and kicking. It may not be the traditional white/black variety that we’re so used to, but it definitely exists.
Up here there is racism with the Alaska Natives. Even within the group “Alaska Natives”, Athabascans don’t always think very highly of Tlingits, based on nothing more than old stereotypes. The list goes on and on. And then there is obvious racism where native corporations have native hire preference. Call it what you like, but it is cleary racial discrimination.
And finally, if you really think racism is dead then let me introduce you to my Texan uncles. They’ll tell you all about how worthless Mexicans are (I certainly don’t agree with them).
Yea, racism will always exist as long as people living close to one another don’t look or sound alike in some way. Give this country ten more years of Springer episodes, and there’ll be 3 different classifications for trailor trash. Hate crimes between committed lot neighbor on lot neighbor, based on nothing but Budweiser and the fact that one of them believes in marrying first cousins and the other doesn’t.
The argument that the standard will be lowered across the board to account for the fact that in 100 years we’ll all speak an urban form of spanglish…it hasn’t happened like that so far. Remember the uproar over Ebonics? Walk into a corporate board room, walk into 1000 of them…listen closely and see if you can hear anyone waxing ebonically about what the numbers mean.
It’s terrorism. Someone convinces another to “be afraid of this”, and it eventually catches on. Only then, because of ‘what’s GOING TO HAPPEN if we don’t do this and that’ (whether it makes any sense or not) takes over, and the true natural state of human politics does it’s thing. Whoever needs votes hitches their wagon on this issue, then prays that the opposition is dumb enough to oppose it in a crucial election year.
I’m just a citizen saying this…if I were a Congressman up for reelection in November, I’d go with the flow, not take the bait, then let this cast of GOP misfits go down in history being responsible for how much it costs to run the upkeep on a fence across the entire border…
That’s the SMART play here. Let’s see what these knuckleheads (Dems) end up doing.
Remember the uproar over Ebonics?
I remmeber it being more of an issue on devisivness in that Blacks were segregating themselves by talking like morons. The reason you don’t hear ebonics in the board room is no company would hire a Black person who only spoke ebonics.
Language is a barrier, it always has been and always will be. It is the nature of language. Hispanics who refuse to learn English are only hurting themselves, first by not knowing how to communicate and then again by trying to force the rest of us to assimilate into Hispanic culture.
They’ll tell you all about how worthless Mexicans are
Is this racism or just ignorance? Do you uncles feel the same about Hispanic scientists, lawyers and doctors or is it just the uneducated, ignorant and criminal ones?
With Blacks and slavery, the Africans were never allowed to be educated and the society took an active role in suppressing them.
Do your uncles actively suppress Mexicans or just bitch about how they aren’t like everyone else?
Racism is dead because it has been used for so many non-racist situations that it has no real meaning anymore. Cynthia McKinney had to kick a police officers ass because she is black. Al Sharpton is being pursued by creditors because he is black.
I’m waiting for someone to say traffic signals turn red for black people more often than white people. It rains more in black neighborhoods than in white neighborhoods. Blacks are more prone to prostate cancer than whites. Whites get mnore sunlight than blacks. Where does it end? The moment the word no longer has any meaning.
Exactally – that’s why turning this into a ‘flag burning’ annual waste of time in Congress would be stupid. Giving in to fear mongers only creates more of them.
Is there a difference?
I think if they were looking at two equal individuals to fill a job position, one white and one hispanic they would go with the whitey. I’d say they would hire the whitey even if he were a weaker candidate (btw, I’m a whitey).
Anyway, I think you’ve been plugged into to Tony Snow a bit too long if you think racism is dead. And it certainly isn’t just about black and white. There are many people of varying races that look down on other people of different ethnic origin. Hell, my wife just met a woman in “mom’s club” a month ago who started talking shit about Asians when they all went out for a drink. Far from dead my friend.
What you call fear mongering is what others call debate. The fear mongering comes in response to attempts to open dialogue, someone says “hey, should people who move to America learn Engish so they fit into society better?” and the response is a knee-jerk “Racist” label.
So the people with the ideas keep quiet in public and the talk goes underground where there is far less diversity of view. Liberals stiffle so much debate in the country by “liberally” tossing around the hate/racist moniker.
Republican’s hate gays, hate blacks, hate minorities, hate the elderly, hate the youth. That is all you hear out of Liberals That is precisely why no one thinks the Dems have any platform beyond race baiting and obstructionism. They squelch any for of meaningful dialogue and then we are stuck with the status quo.
The President of Harvard was forced to resign because he dared start a dialogue about why women are under-represented in math and science. I’ve seen Jesse Jackson, when under pressure in an interview, change the subject to the memory of MLK to dodge the tough questions.
Now that the Democrats have as many, if not more, politicians mired in corruption problems they have lost their culture of corruption slogan. It’s going to be an interesting mid-term but debate and free discussion and speech are the only path to solving these issues. Everything is so partisan now, and I’m a shill!!!
I’m not sure how you took the racism issue and turned it into “everyone hates Republicans”.
I heard that he left because he had a very abrasive personality and didn’t REALLY listen to faculty for their views. Hard to be an effective leader when your followers think you are a jack-ass.
Look RT, I’m more conservative than liberal myself, but you have to actually look at Republican policies and then you might understand why certain groups feel they are getting the shaft.
Republican’s hate gays – look at the gay marriage issue.
Republican’s hate blacks – look at urban development and inner-city education funding.
Republicans hate minorities – Immigration
Republicans hate the elderly – look at the extremely confusing Medicare situation.
Republicans hate the youth – you pulled this one out of your butt. Certain people may argue about the effectiveness of no child left behind, or federal funding of schools, but I’ve never run across anyone accusing Republicans of this. Although you could point to the decrease in federal college grants and scholarships.
I think you are entirely missing the point. If you don’t have any preconceived prejudices against a group of people then I think you aren’t being honest with yourself or others.
I’ll come right out and admit that I’m prejudice against people that wear gang banger clothing, white, black, hispanic. I’m afraid that they may pull out a gun and start shooting. Not a rational thing to believe necessarily, but that’s how I feel. This may not be racism, but it is definitely a form of irrational prejudice. In fact I’m more scared of gang bangers than I am of muslims (another irrational fear).
The thing about you RT is that it is ALWAYS about Republican and Democrat. I don’t know about the rest of you but that is definitely NOT how I see the world.