May 19 2006
Real crisis or just a diversion?
Ever have one of those days where you’re thinking about something, and lo and behold, it’s the topic of the editorial in your local paper? This happened to me a few days ago. I was thinking about how, seemingly out of nowhere, this country now has an illegal immigration ‘crisis’. Now, those of you who know me know I’m a news junkie; it’s not uncommon for me to spend several hours a day reading news from many sources. A few months ago, I’ll be damned if I could find any major goods about out current immigration ‘problem’. Then, whammo, it’ s the issue du jour. So I was looking in our local paper, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, and read this, called ‘Sending in the Guard.’ I love our paper’s editorial board, unabashedly anti-Bush, appropriate if you consider the political makeup of VT (often called the most liberal state in the union-yay!) The article mainy tackles the latest hairbrained idea of our Commander-in-thief of having the National Guard patrol our southern border (what about the Canadians? Isn’t anyone afraid of Canadians? Next thing you know they’ll be selling poutine at McDonald’s - sheesh.)
“…reliance on the military is Bush’s default mode when confronting a difficult problem. Sending troops off to Baghdad or Brownsville gives Bush the aura of command. The trouble is that the military is not the answer to every problem, and certainly the issue of illegal immigration is far beyond the power of a few Guard soldiers in Jeeps to resolve.The first step is to identify the problem. A crisis mentality has gripped Congress on the issue of immigration, mainly because of the draconian anti-immigrant legislation originating in the House. But what is the crisis? There is no crisis of employment; unemployment at present is low. There is an increasing number of people in the country illegally, which challenges our policies and our law. But why is the presence of immigrants a crisis except to the immigrants themselves, who face a crisis of survival?”
This country seems to go through periods of demonizing the ‘other’, a period of irrational xenophobia. Seems like we’re going through one now. Over at Alternet, Robert Scheer’s ‘Our Fake Immigration Crisis’:
“There is no immigration crisis — other than the one created by a small but vocal stripe of opportunist politicians, media demagogues and freelance xenophobes. So it has always been throughout the history of this country when anti-immigrant hysteria periodically reigns during low ebbs in our national sense of security and vision.
The script is as old as the Mayflower: A false alarm is sounded that the values, wages and safety of the current roster of credentialed Americans are jeopardized by the “flood” or “tidal wave” or “river” sneaking across our porous borders — be they Irish, Chinese, Jewish, Russian, Mexican or even the freed slaves seeking to earn an honest living in Northern cities after the Civil War. Any and all manner of societal problems are to be laid on these scapegoats, and the same simplistic solution offered: Find and deport them, and don’t let any more in.”
Now call me a cynical bastard, but I think it’s mostly due to the Repugnicans being scared shitless about major losses in November, and this is nothing more than red meat for the knuckle-dragging GOP base. Also, they’ve kind of beat the gay marriage thing to death, and some polls are even finding people slightly more accepting of it than a few years ago. Who knows if it will backfire? It can definitely put a rift between the corporatist base (who benefits from all the cheap labor) and the social conservative/xenophobe types, the latter of which are starting to realize that they have been played for fools by the GOP anyways. I suspect this , as most of their other bad ideas, will ultimately backfire. It’s sooooo much fun watching the GOP metdown. Gloat, gloat, gloat… after all the bullshit they’ve put this country through, we deserve to.
Now, I also wanna make clear, I’m not one of those that feels like we should turn a blind eye to illegal immigration. It’s a very complex issue, and any solution needs to balance a measure of compassion with the rule of law. These are real human being we’re talking about here, folks, with families and real uncertainties, and deal with things that most of us will never have to deal with, nor could we possibly relate to. And therein lies the problem.. acheiving the balance. How do we cut back (I say cut back because we’ll never be able to stop it completely, even with a huge stupid fence) the numbers of illegal immigrants, without completely devastating the lives of the ones already here?
Now, if the GOP can just tie in gay marriage to illegal immigration,Feel free to take a crack at your own caption for the above picture, and if you see it
soon in some GOP campaign literature, you heard it here first!
Posts
I never knew you looked so good in a sombrero!
Dealing with immigration is a perfectly legitimate topic, but almost all of what we are seeing is just pandering to “The Base” (in the middle east ‘the base’ is translated ‘Al-Qaeda’ by the way. Kind of ironic.).
You can smell the desperation on Republicans today. Gay marriage amendment, English as the ‘official language’, the national anthem sung in Spanish (sky falling).
Bush is now the lamest of lame ducks.
Good stuff, John…but just so your readers know what poutine is:
“Poutine is Acadian slang for mushy mess and is best described as a heart attack in a bowl.
By the way, there is a proper way to pronounce poutine, and it’s not ‘pooteen’. The phonetic pronunciation is ‘poutsin’, which always elicits a vacant stare when one orders it using that word.
The French Fries - The potatos must be hand-cut and very fresh. Fast-food-type fries will not taste quite as good. Also, you must fry the potatoes in pure lard. Vegetable oil and other politically-correct oils spoil the unique taste.
The Gravy - French-Canadian gravy (also known as BBQ Chicken Gravy) is very different than American gravy. First of all, it is very dark and thick, like molasses. Secondly, it has a very flavourful taste which cannot be described…very much like pepper and vinegar and other ‘magical’ ingredients. If you can stand a spoon straight up in it, it’s good! Make sure it’s very, very hot!
The Cheese - The cheese is the most important part of good poutine. You must use FRESH white, cheddar cheese CURDS. These curds have a taste and texture very different than actual cheddar cheese. The cheese curds will actually squeak in your teeth as you bite them. While curds are available in most Canadian supermarkets, they are not found in many American markets (the closest thing in taste is Mozzarella String Cheese - but don’t use this stuff!).
When the curds are placed on the fries and the hot gravy is poured on top, the three flavors combine to produce what can only be described as the BEST junk food taste sensation on earth”
My God, Stephen, thanks for clearing up the poutine thing for me. You made mey circulatory system hurt. ANd I’m starting to suspect that it’s behind the immigration debate… Think about all the lazy fatasses who vote Republican, you know, the ones whose excercise regimen consists of riding the lawn tractor every Sunday…. if they catch on to poutine in the Heartland, that can cut into the American fast food industry’s share. Not good.