Category: Issues of the Day

From Jane Smiley’s Notes for Converts:

2. Bush doesn’t care whether you disagree with him. As a man who has dispensed with the reality-based world, and is entirely protected by his handlers from feeling the effects of that world, he is indifferent to what you now think is real. Is the Iraq war a failure and a quagmire? Bush doesn’t care. Is global warming beginning to affect us right now? So what. Have all of his policies with regard to Iran been misguided and counter-productive? He never thinks about it. You know that Katrina tape in which Bush never asked a question? It doesn’t matter how much you know or how passionately you feel or, most importantly, what degree of disintegration you see around you, he’s not going to ask you a question. You and your ideas are dead to him. You cannot change his mind. Nine percent of polled Americans would agree with attacking Iran right now. To George Bush, that will be a mandate, if and when he feels like doing it, because…

3. Bush does what he feels like doing and he deeply resents being told, even politely, that he ought to do anything else. This is called a “sense of entitlement”. Bush is a man who has never been anywhere and never done anything, and yet he has been flattered and cajoled into being president of the United States through his connections, all of whom thought they could use him for their own purposes. He has a surface charm that appeals to a certain type of American man, and he has used that charm to claim all sorts of perks, and then to fail at everything he has ever done. He did not complete his flight training, he failed at oil investing, he was a front man and a glad-hander as a baseball owner. As the Governor of Texas, he originated one educational program that turned out to be a debacle; as the President of the US, his policies have constituted one screw-up after another. You have stuck with him through all of this, made excuses for him, bailed him out. From his point of view, he is perfectly entitled by his own experience to a sense of entitlement. Why would he ever feel the need to reciprocate? He’s never had to before this.

Eugene Robinson writing in The Washington Post:

There are economists, I realize, who argue that illegal immigration — mostly from Mexico — has depressed wages for unskilled labor, to the detriment of low-income, native-born African Americans and whites.

Other economists disagree, and in any case the effect is somewhere between negligible and small. There’s no reason employers can’t be required to pay a living wage to every janitor, whether his name is John or Juan.

But I don’t think the immigration debate is about economics anyway. It’s about culture and it’s about fear.

Among other things, it’s about this voice-mail message: “Para continuar en español, oprima el numero 2. To continue in Spanish, press 2.”

Robinson notes that California and Texas are states without a majority population and that New York, Arizona and Florida are soon to follow. He neglects to include New Mexico and Hawaii, states already without a majority.

Wash Park Prophet takes a look at some numbers and, guess what, here’s another myth challenged:

While foreign born people make up 9.7% of the population of Colorado, foreign born people make up only 6.6% of the prison population, meaning that foreign born people in Colorado are about a third less likely to be convicted of felonies in Colorado than persons born in the United States.

Paul Krugman concluding his column for Monday’s New York Times.

Why might Mr. Bush want another war? For one thing, Mr. Bush, whose presidency is increasingly defined by the quagmire in Iraq, may believe that he can redeem himself with a new Mission Accomplished moment.

And it’s not just Mr. Bush’s legacy that’s at risk. Current polls suggest that the Democrats could take one or both houses of Congress this November, acquiring the ability to launch investigations backed by subpoena power. This could blow the lid off multiple Bush administration scandals. Political analysts openly suggest that an attack on Iran offers Mr. Bush a way to head off this danger, that an appropriately timed military strike could change the domestic political dynamics.

Does this sound far-fetched? It shouldn’t. Given the combination of recklessness and dishonesty Mr. Bush displayed in launching the Iraq war, why should we assume that he wouldn’t do it again?

How we play the game from Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker article on Iran:

American Naval tactical aircraft, operating from carriers in the Arabian Sea, have been flying simulated nuclear-weapons delivery missions—rapid ascending maneuvers known as “over the shoulder” bombing—since last summer, the former official said, within range of Iranian coastal radars.

La Queen Sucia, actually author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, has been providing some valuable observations on the immigration issue. Indeed, a post earlier this week was published in today’s Washington Post.

Here’s her original post,

And a few excerpts from the Post version:

1 The words “immigrant” and “Hispanic” are not synonymous. The majority of Hispanics in the United States are not immigrants. According to 2004 census data, 60 percent of the more than 40 million Hispanics in this country were born here. Of the 40 percent who were born elsewhere, the majority are legal immigrants, not illegal.

2 Many immigrants are not Latino. There could be more than 100,000 Nigerians living in and around Houston. There are thousands of illegal Irish immigrants in and around Boston. China, India, South Korea and Canada are among the leading countries sending people here. Many illegal immigrants are college students and workers who choose to overstay their visas.
…

4 Enough about the flags, already. They’re symbols of cultural pride, not national allegiance. Think Irish flags on St. Patrick’s Day, or Confederate flags over South Carolina. When newspapers ignorantly frame this debate in ethnic terms, people ignorantly respond with misplaced ethnic pride.

At The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh (coincidentally, today is his 69th birthday) tells us Bush is intent on war with Iran. And we all know what happens when Bush wants war.

A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was “absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb” if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.”

One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.” He added, “I was shocked when I heard it, and asked myself, ‘What are they smoking?’ ”

Key quote: “Speaking of President Bush, the House member said, ‘The most worrisome thing is that this guy has a messianic vision.'”

That’s the number of immigrants that entered the United States from 1901-1921 — more than 15 million into a country of just 100 million people over 21 years.

What’s the big deal with 12 million illegal immigrants in a country of 300 million today?

NewMexiKen isn’t saying it isn’t an issue. Let’s just get a little historical perspective on it.

(Photo of sign on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and San Diego.)

Wonkette reports on the immigration bill:

This is the funniest part of the Senate plan:

About 2.8 million illegal immigrants who have been in the country for more than two years but less than five would have three years to return to a port of entry along the border, such as El Paso, cross the border and apply for one of 450,000 green cards that will be available each year. Kennedy said the whole process could take less than a day, and the immigrants could then return to their U.S. homes. However, Republican aides warned that there would be no guarantees, and that some of those immigrants could get stuck across the border.

This portion of the plan was drafted by Senator Rick Santorum’s 8 year-old son, Billy* and is based on both popular playground game “Red Rover Red Rover” and that thing where you tell your little sister that there’s a surprise for her on the front lawn and then lock the door when she goes to look.

So the way NewMexiKen understands it, Tom DeLay is leaving Congress to search for the real corruption.

Not even the senior parents of Washington’s top health official are immune from headaches caused by the new Medicare drug plan.

Dixie and Anne Leavitt – parents of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt – recently were forced to change Medicare plans after learning that the one they chose imperiled their retiree medical coverage.

Salt Lake Tribune

It let’s them relax and talk trash.

You’ll remember two years ago when the Veep encouraged Senator Leahy to engage in sexual behavior not routinely endorsed by the evangelical crowd. Now here’s Justice Scalia — at church no less — with a similar thought. Click to read the story and see the photo.

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The (liberal)Girl Next Door

Walter Cronkite Telling the Truth About the War on Drugs:

Today, our nation is fighting two wars: one abroad and one at home. While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens.

I am speaking of the war on drugs.

And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure.

Key quote: “Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on this effort – with no one held accountable for its failure.”

CBS says its new poll shows the approval rating for President Bush has sunk to 34% (Cheney 18%).

My question: Who are these 34% and what’s wrong with them?

[Clinton never got below 57% approval in the CBS poll during his second term. Nixon was at 24% when he resigned.]

Update: Or as Brad DeLong puts it: “You can fool all of the people some of the time. But you can only fool 34% of the people all the time….”