The Immigration Imbroglio (May 21, 2007)

Posted in Immigration on May 21, 2007 by e-commentary.org

The outlines of proposed immigration bills include a provision to require those who are in the country illegally to return home before being considered for legal re-entry.  Of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, is there a realistic expectation that even 10,000 would be fooled by this offer?  The desire to control a country’s borders is a reasonable exercise of sovereignty.  However, the border with Mexico will always be as porous as a colander.  Building the Berlin Wall on the border with Mexico is as ill-fated as the Berlin Wall.  Under any scenario, the Wall can only be constructed economically with illegal labor from Mexico.  As someone observed, if the U.S. builds a ten foot wall, those who seek to enter will build an eleven foot ladder.  Some will tunnel under the wall and others will saunter around it.

There are likely to be a million non-legal immigrants a year into the U.S. every year regardless of what is done or not done.  Trying to stem the tide of illegal immigration is akin to passing legislation ordering the tides to stop running.  The tides flow in and out with some predictability.  The tide of immigrants flows one way.  In 2008: 13 million total non-legal immigrants; 2009: 14 million; 2010: 15 million; 2011: ….  Some have said that the immigrants bring with them poverty; every immigrant group coming to America brought with them poverty–the British, French, German, Dutch, Russian, Italian, Irish, Polish, etc.  Americans are legitimately divided on the just solution and would rather debate the challenge.  At core, Americans are simply unwilling to admit the limits of legislation.

Bumper sticker of the week:

No Hoy Excusa La Violencia Domestica

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Term Limits (May 14, 2007)

Posted in Politics, Term Limits on May 14, 2007 by e-commentary.org

Senators Byrd, Stevens and Inouye (and others) haul billions of dollars of pork to West Virginia, Alaska and Hawaii (and other locales).  Some say that the citizens of those states can exercise the franchise and limit their terms of office.  However, the citizens of these states want the pork.  The problem is that the citizens of other states cannot vote to get politicians from offending states out of office and away from the public trough.

Term limits are necessary to reduce abusive spending, among other public maladies.  Term limits of six two-year terms in the House and two six-year terms in the Senate balance the desires for institutional memory and new ideas.  The professional politician will be limited to two dozen years in the Congress.  The 22nd Amendment states in pertinent part that: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice . . . .”  The consummate professional pol is limited to three decades ((2 x 6) + (6 x 2) + (4 x 2)) at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.  Most individuals focus their careers on either the House (Sam Rayburn) or the Senate (Strom Thurmond) and would be limited by these limits.  These limits are hardly restrictive, yet they provide some outside parameters.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Stop Repeat Offenders
Don’t Re-elect Them

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Shop While They Drop – The $2.99 Sacrifice (May 7, 2007)

Posted in Consumerism, Military, Society on May 7, 2007 by e-commentary.org

After the events on 9/11, Bush suggested that the American populace should go shopping.  Not that they should sacrifice but that they should consume.  Not that they should give up but that they go get.  There is a deep disconnection between the American public and the troops in Iraq.  While a few fight, the rest shop ’til they drop.  They shop while the soldiers drop.  They shop for a “Support The Troops” decal, slap it on the back of the SUV and call it good.  The $2.99 sacrifice.

Bumper stickers of the week:

“…And they, since they/ Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs”

War is terrorism with a bigger budget.

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We Will Get Fooled Again (April 30, 2007)

Posted in Supreme Court on April 30, 2007 by e-commentary.org

We did get fooled again.  John Roberts, under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated that he would be an impartial umpire calling balls and strikes at the plate.  He mouthed support for the doctrine of stare decisis – the doctrine that when a court has once established a principle of law as applicable to a state of facts, the court will adhere to that principle and apply it in all future cases where the facts are substantially the same.  He pined for stability in the law.  Alito made the same representations.  Under oath.  They lied.  It is the American way.  The recent abortion case, Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. ___ (2007) is not substantively different than Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000).  An honest Supreme Court could have issued a one-page or even a one sentence decision citing the earlier precedent. Instead, Kennedy and kin disregard precedent, mistate the proper and settled legal standard of review, pat the little ladies condescendingly on the head, and do violence to truth and precedent.  Another day at the office.

Bumper sticker of the week:

I’m Pro-Choice About Everything

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Violence In The Classroom And At The Court (April 23, 2007)

Posted in Guns on April 23, 2007 by e-commentary.org

Making sense of the slaughter at Virginia Tech is trying.  There simply are too many nuts who have access to guns.  Those who oppose efforts to control guns are single issue personalities.  The gun is the iron penis.  Any suggestion that there could be restrictions even on others who could cause harm triggers a primal response.  The unconscious fear of castration and emasculation trumps all other issues and concerns.  The Democrats cannot touch the issue except perhaps to require more reporting of mental health determinations.  However, when the criminals shoot the sheriff and the deputy, the cops and mayors may take action.  Another day on the streets.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Guns Kill People
People With Guns Kill People

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Outrages Du Jour (April 16, 2007)

Posted in Race, Society on April 16, 2007 by e-commentary.org

Is Don Imus a racist?  Al Sharpton?  Jesse Jackson?  Some members of the Duke faculty?  Some editors and writers with the The New York Times?  The Washington Post?  The National Review?  Are the opinion shapers in America more racist and hypocritical than the general populace?

The “Duke Lacrosse Scandal” should go down in history as the “North Carolina District Attorney’s Office Scandal” or “Mediagate.”  Bad behavior that is not illegal is only bad behavior.  Victim’s names should be confidential; liar’s names should be made public.  The legal system only determines guilt or a lack of guilt; the statement by the North Carolina District Attorney that the kids are “innocent” is appropriate and courageous under the circumstances.  The Durham District Attorney, Nifong, should be disbarred and put behind bars, but he is white and a lawyer so he will get off with a scolding.  And if the three kids had been Black?  They likely would have joined tens of thousands of other Black males who have been sent to prison because they might have done something marginally distasteful to someone in power.  The prosecutors and police are often as dangerous as the alleged perps.  That is why there is a Bill of Rights.  It’s all so black and white.

Imus apologized.  This week should see apologies from the others.

And the War Against Women continues unabated.

McCain proved beyond a reasonable doubt that a United States Senator can walk furtively in the Green Zone in Baghdad if he is escorted by a hundred heavily-armed U.S. troops, dozens of Humvees and a covey of Apache helicopters circling overhead.  Some real military strategists such as Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut should be consulted on the issue.

Wolfowitz causes trouble everywhere he goes.  Wolfowitz used his position at the World Bank to get his girlfriend a generous pay package.  It’s time to go.

Lost e-mails?  More lies from the Bush Administration.  The technology may trap them.  Even the 18 minutes deleted by Rosemary Woods has been recovered. Bush will pardon Libby before Libby is sent to prison and anyone else subject to any criminal charges just before Bush flees the White House.  Criminal investigations should be developed now and no charges filed until after Bush leaves office.  Rove and his boys are cunning enough to anticipate the indictments. Bush could issue a blanket pardon to anyone and everyone who ever worked or now works in his White House.  Nothing is inconceivable.

The Supreme Court recently held, in another 5 – 4 decision, that the Environmental Protection Agency must protect the environment.  The health of the environment turns in part on the health of a Jerry Ford appointee, John Paul Stevens, who turns 87 on Friday.

[Kurt Vonnegut – “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.”  He pretended to be himself.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Never lose your sense of outrage

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Walk The Walk, Talk The Talk (April 9, 2007)

Posted in Gay Politics, Language on April 9, 2007 by e-commentary.org

The Iraqi Study Group notes:  “All of our efforts in Iaw, military and civilian, are handicapped by Americans’ lack of knowledge and cultural understanding.  Our embassy of 1,000 has 33 Arabic speakers, just six of whom are at the level of fluency.  In a conflict that demands effective and efficient communication with Iraqis, we are often at a disadvantage.”  Lay off (or retrain) 600 staff members at the embassy and hire 60 Arabic speakers.  The Arabic speakers don’t exist.  They don’t exist because Bush does not want them to exist.

The military discharges individuals who could save fellow soldiers and the Republic.  The policy is billed as “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”  The Don’t Think policy.  That seems to be the policy of the entire Bush administration.  The military should encourage and promote those individuals who can tell the American story in Arabic and understand the language and culture and history of Arabic countries.

The government should build its own army of interpreters.  The Marshall Plan meets Sputnik meets Berlitz. Those who express an interest in Arabic or Farsi or Mandarin or _________ (any language) should be given substantial stipends.  (Hybrid) cars, (healthy?) pizza and, yes, beer money.  There should be $100,000 signing bonuses.  If you talk the (Arabic) talk, you get to walk the walk.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Honk if parts are falling off

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Put me in coach (April 2, 2007)

Posted in Language, Society on April 2, 2007 by e-commentary.org

“Put me in coach.”  Not the game.  The game of life.  A coach can win and satisfy his (or her) shareholders (the athletic department/division and ‘lums) and still educate the kids.  Direct, encourage, cajole and harass the kids at every opportunity to get into the classroom and take advantage of the opportunity given to them to learn.  Conduct practices once a week in Spanish and French (Arabic, Farsi, Mandarin?). Conduct soccer practices in both English and Spanish.  (“Centro, centro”, “otra vez”, “pelota”)  Someone who can motivate them to play on the court/field/pitch can motivate them to attend class.  Playing in the PTA is more important in the long run than playing in the NBA.  Infect them with ideas.

“The young man walks by himself, fast but not fast enough, far but not far enough (faces slide out of sight, talk trails into tattered scraps, footsteps tap faster in alleys); he must catch the last subway, the streetcar, the bus, run up the gangplanks of all the steamboats, register at all the hotels, work in the cities, answer the want ads, learn the trades, take up the jobs, live in all the boardinghouses, sleep in all the beds.  One bed is not enough, one job is not enough, one life is not enough …”  John Dos Passos.

There is some inconsequential game on tv tonight.  The real game is going on outside the coliseum.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Life happens while you’re making plans

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Who Is Your Big Bad Bogeyman? (March 26, 2007)

Posted in Book Reference, Political Parties, Politics on March 26, 2007 by e-commentary.org

In general, at a young age, individuals select, consciously or unconsciously, a Big Bad Bogeyman, either Big Government or Big Business.  All political views emanate from that fundamental decision.  Nock, Van Hayek, M. Friedman and their ilk don’t realize or acknowledge that Big Business can oppress as efficiently and mercilessly as Big Government.  Galbraith, Nader and their ilk don’t realize or acknowledge that Big Government can oppress as efficiently and mercilessly as Big Business.  For all but a few individuals, acknowledging two Big Bogeymen is intellectually and emotionally overwhelming.  F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have said:  “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”  In politics, the few first rate intellects must challenge and confront the two Big Bogeymen who are equally dangerous.  John Dos Passos could handle it.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Question Authority, But Ask The Right Questions

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World War III Turns Four; How Wars Are Fought; Most Victories Are Pyrrhic Defeats (March 19, 2007)

Posted in Military on March 19, 2007 by e-commentary.org

(Today is the four-year anniversary of Bush’s decision to trigger World War III.)

The soldiers in both trenches are invariably brave.  They cover for their companions and their comrades which advances the agenda and careers of their leaders.  The situation is akin to the “invisible hand” in economic theory.  Each individual in a squad pursues his self-interest which is keeping himself and his buddies alive while completing the mission, usually forlorn.  The individual actions aggregate to promote whatever passes for the mission, be it taking the hill or defending the position or increasing the body count. The soldiers are given grades (E-) such as E-3 or E-5.  These soldiers with mettle wear stars (Ag and Cu9Sn1) on their chests and experience combat far more profoundly than those who sport stars on their epaulettes.

Those who have rank (O-) call the shots and decide who gets shot.  The generals (O-7, O-8, etc.) on both sides of the trenches are often either incompetent or unable to control the events, exigencies and other developments that arise.  Those who succeed often succeed because the generals across the field fail even more abjectly.  [See the e-ssay dated March 7, 2005.]  Factories are admittedly a big factor. Civilization has been fortunate that the good guys have had more efficient factories in the last hundred years; America is losing factories daily.  However, in recent military quagmires (Vietnam, World War III/Iraq/Iran/Syria/etc.), the miliary was and is tasked with a hopeless mission.  The mission is not accomplished, it is impossible.  In the Iraq theater, even the generals never had a bloody chance.

The civilian leaders failed and are failing.  The civilian leaders who prosecuted and are prosecuting World War III will never be prosecuted for their ineptitude or their war crimes.  The civilian leaders used the threat of “WeMaD” (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and fooled the general public and the generals into war.  The lies continue unabated.  Bush amassed a cabal of cowards, wimps, draft dodgers, geeks, and chicken hawks and proclaimed them his National Security Team.  These “neo-confidence men” are known generally as “neo-cons.”  Bush sheds them when they disagree.  He stuck his head in a hornet’s nest and does not understand what is going on all around him.  Now he has stuck his head in the sand.

Mix brave soldiers, overwhelmed generals and incompetent civilian leaders, bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer.  The result is not surprising. The notion of a Pyrrhic victory derives from the Greek king Pyrrhus, who, after suffering heavy losses in defeating the Romans in 279 B.C., said to those sent to congratulate him, “Another such victory over the Romans and we are undone.”  America cannot afford another Pyrrhic Defeat.

Bumper sticker of the week:

Land Of The Free Because Of The Brave (despite the civilian leadership)

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