Thursday, June 07, 2007

The Death of a Bill

Just as I was prepared to fire the silver bullet at the afore-mentioned conservative pundits, asking, so, what's your plan?, Sean Hannity let fly with a concrete suggestion.
Before we do anything, stop the flow.
Easier said than done, but the point is taken.
Illegal immigration is a monumental multi-faceted problem, but turning the water off before you start to mop up the puddle is common sense.
Beefing up border patrol, included in the now dying bill, is perhaps more of the same, but again, I trust border agents to turn back the tide more than I trust a fence.
A comprehensive electronic database allowing the government to closely monitor employers is an even better idea included in the dying bill.
Much of the focus has been on the illegals instead of the avenues taken by them.
They aren't swimming the river individually.
Preemptive intelligence focused on smuggling networks would seem to be only more common sense.
The proposed path to citizenship has suffered another accusation by yet another conservative pundit, Mike McConnell. To make a way, straight and narrow though it may be, to citizenship for those who chose to enter the country illegally is not fair to those who wish to enter the country but have chosen not to come in under the radar.
I find that an odd argument, especially coming from the no-nonsense McConnell.
This is not about them, this is about us, correct?
The primary objective is how to fix the problem for America, not all the foreigners who want in.
And if we are to begin trying to be all things to all people, let us either apologize to the Hutus slaughtered in Rwanda or forsake Darfur altogether.
America is a steward trusted with great responsibility, but our own interests come into play.
Altruism applied in our personal lives is commanded, but applied geo-politically unfortunately doesn't preserve a nation very well.
The security issues raised by Mark trump the economic issues.
If we have nukes going off in our cities, priorities will hurriedly realign.
More later.
And by the way, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will be popping champagne corks if this bill is killed.
Unlike Bush, they do everything for political expediency, and don't think they aren't going to play up this Republican division for every dime it's worth

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

From some things I have heard, some of the members of the border patrol feel like their hands are tied, so maybe this needs to be addressed. I love your analogy about turning the water off before starting to mop up the puddle.

Anonymous said...

For $5 they can buy an innertube and go around the fence, for $10 a shovel to go under the fence, for $20 a ladder to go over the fence, for $30 boltcutters that will cut through 1/2in. rebar. My suggestion is that the main objective should be the employers who hire them, because if they can't get jobs, they won't come.