What is all the fuss about illegal migrant workers??  We should embrace our neighbors to the South and give them all jobs in the US Military (mostly as support troops such as cooks, laundry, etc.).  After four years of active duty and four years of being in the reserves they will have earned citizenship.  As a matter of fact, all immigrating to this country should have to prove their patriotism in this way.  This solves many problems: 

1. Boosts our troop numbers which are at dangerous low levels now (according to active and recently retired officers).

2. Gives the illegal crossers a legal way to come here and better themselves and their families.

3. Allows the illegal crossers to be tracked by our government and thwarts terrorist crossing over due to the eight years of service required and close scrutiny by military brass. (of course no immigrant candidate would be allowed near sensitive or high security items and would be limited to support roles only). 

4. It would also allow these immigrant candidates to learn English, Obtain a skill, and further their education with incentives like the free college courses given at most military bases or even utilizing the GI Bill/College fund program that would assist them to get educated even after they EARN citizenship. (Keep in mind as long as they are uneducated they will be a drain on our hard earned tax dollars!  We pay a huge unbelievable price in terms of crime, poverty, homelessness, welfare, etc. due partly to immigrants that have no education or cannot even speak our language.).  I know this well from living in “little havana” Miami, how poverty leads to crime when immigrants are faced with hopelessness.  Allowing them to earn their citizenship will give them honor and purpose.  A way for them to earn respect and build a good life. 

Fences seperate and causes division between people.  The Berlin wall showed us that it does not work and only causes more problems.  Our Country was built on immigration….., only Bullies, Fear, and those lacking insight would try to close the gate and change what helped us to become the strongest Nation in the World.  It’s time we use a little of that American ingenuity (which led to so many discoveries and inventions) to tackle problems such as illegal immigration and other issues ONE BY ONE.

So what if big companies will now loose their cheap labor? They are more than welcome to open a plant in Mexico or China just like NIKE Shoes and many others already have.  At least then those countries can keep their workers employed too which is good for many reasons: 1. For example, if China had no American companies there, more Chinese would have to rely on a military career for a job.  Hmmmmm…..A larger Chinese military? In retrospect, it is alot harder to go to war if countries’ economies are entertwined.  Isn’t PEACE what we are trying to accomplish?  2. Also, when American companies provides jobs in other countries like Mexico, it allows that country to develope more, to tap into their own natural resources, that then can be shared with the World in the marketplace.  Imagine if you will, if Mexico supplied half our oil needs.  Do you think gas would be back at $1.09/gallon??  I do.  3. Lastly, and most importantly, forcing US companies to build outside the US to employ cheaper labor builds trade with these countries and will change our own country’s future by forcing our workforce to become more skilled and more technologically advanced, thus ensuring that we will be able to meet the challenges of the future.

PS- For any that would not believe immigrants could serve in the military, please look up the American Revolutionary War and more recently, the Iraqis being trained by US Military now.

Does Molly Ivins realy think Bush is militarizing the border. This is just another of his dog and pony shows.  he is trying to make the people think he is doing something to secure our borders.
Those national guard troops will be on vacation down there.  IF molly or anyone else thinks that he is trying to secure the border they are easily hood winked. It is amazing how the American people can be so easily deceived by this man.

It’s interesting to see so many hide behind the cloak of legality in the immigration debate. You don’t see these legalists make as much of a big deal out of the other laws in the over 75,000 pages of the Federal Register.
  They also confuse what is legal with what is moral. It is the belief that a law is a good law ,simply because it is a law, without any consideration of whether a law is, in fact, moral.
  Dred Scott and thousands of other slaves defied the Fugitive Slave Act and ran away from southern plantation masters in the 1800s. Would anyone today dare to claim that a runaway slave was a criminal?
  In the 1930s hundreds of Jews were rejected entrance in the name of immigration quotas, many of whom perished in Hitler’s concentration camps. If any had defied immigration law and jumped ship, would anyone in their right mind call them criminals?
  If we Americans really believe all are created equal, why don’t we believe all have a right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness wherever they want? What’s the difference between a Chinese emigrating to New York and someone moving to L.A from Chicago? Essentially there is no difference. Borders are nothing but arbitrary human constructs, needlessly obsessed about and fought over. Is a border a good border, simply because it is a border?
  Thomas Paine was ahead of his time, but in light of today’s ever shrinking world, I believe he had the right idea when he wrote, “The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion”.

I wonder how many illegal immigrants will end up working as laborers on the fence project…..

So, which is going to build the fence, Halliburton or Bechtel?  Why bother to build a fence that’s a lot shorter than the border?  They are grinning and licking their chops, again, at Halliburton and Bechtel.  They know the answer.

Big business still gets their cheap illegal labor, because the fence doesn’t work, big business that has the Bushies on their payroll gets more multi-bazillion buck contracts…......

Remember that, by definition, one half of the population is of below average intelligence, and that average isn’t all that bright, either.  Gee, I wonder who voted for Bush the SECOND time?

There is a cruelty involved in how America is relating to undocumented border-crossing people. The cruelty is in the mixed message: 1] Come, and you can get a job and feed your family…...but, 2] if you come, we’ll treat you like criminals.

If both sides of this cruel equation aren’t solved, i.e., if employers who hire the undocumented aren’t stopped from holding out the carrots, then the criminalizing of the undocumented is just a wielding-the-stick sham for election year political posturing.

I’m not in liberal mode today.

“It’s likely that the move is a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, a law established after the Civil War that prohibits the use of U.S. troops for domestic law enforcement. Passed in 1878 to prohibit federal troops from running elections in the former confederate states, it is considered a bulwark against the development of a police state.”  This from an article on whatreallyhappened.com.

I’m having a lot of problem with this one.

I fail to see US Troops, deployed to the MexAm border, as “domestic law enforcement’.

I see where, under the circumstances of a few years ago, border patrol was a law enforcement function when some illegals tried, and mostly succeeded, to skirt the legal process of immigrating to America by border jumping. Difficult to control but not out of control nor, usually, deadly.

I firmly posit, now, that illegal border hopping has become an out of control crisis with a sinister twist. It is no longer a benign cyst but a cancerous tumor which is invading the body America with terminal prognosis.

Armed Mexican Soldiers are accompanying drug running and illegal human smuggling convoys across the open areas of the border with impunity and have opened fire on border patrols.

Disease and violence are crossing the border unchecked.

Border jumpers state openly that the invasion will continue no matter what we do to stop it and the whores in our government capitulate to the illegals by awarding them guest worker status and citizenship. That’s equivalent to an uninvited guest in my home being allowed to live there because he managed to thwart my efforts to evict him and then, if he’s good, he gets to take part in determining the management of my home.

The bleeding hearts among us say that these uninvited ‘guests’ are only seeking a better life for themselves and their families. That’s nice. I’m all for the pursuit of happiness. In fact, I pursue it daily here in America. I’m a citizen here born and raised.

There are a lot of powerful people in my government and running my government who wish to halt my pursuit of happiness for their own aims. Love it or leave it I am told.

Is that the mindset that the Mexicans, Chinese, Bosnians &etc;. are adhering to?

There is an inherent problem with that thought process. If I love America should I leave it because evil people have chosen to destroy it? Where do I go? I loved the principles upon which America was built. No other country on Earth matches that. My ancestors worked, fought and died to establish those principles.

I will not leave what I love so that evil people with no principles or morals may turn my country into an abysmal septic tank. So, that means that I am responsible to take back from the New World Order that which they have stolen from me.

By that same process of thought it occurs that, factually, there is no place to run to as the word inserted between ‘New’ and ‘Order’ is WORLD. So, tell me you love it or leave it spouting assholes, where do I go? Since there really is no place which matches these principles and even if there were it would be usurped in the short run you think I should just capitulate to the inevitable. Right?

Not gonna happen in this lifetime.

The point to this diatribe is that the illegals and, in my opinion, even those seeking to immigrate legally should fight for their own rights in their own countries. They have no right to attempt to live off of what others have fought and worked so hard to attain in America or any other country when they haven’t the drive nor the courage to fight in their own countries. Then, once here, they lobby to change our laws and customs to accommodate them. THEY HAVE NO RIGHT!

This situation on the borders and at all points of ingress into our country has become a foreign invasion into a sovereign nation. At that point it changed from a law enforcement activity to a Defense activity.

They have altered the paradigm. We are under occupation in our southwest by forces of Mexico which have actually issued a declaration of war and the intent to claim and occupy a part of our country as their own mythical Aztlan. And that’s okay with you idiots?

Again, not gonna happen in this lifetime!

Posse Comitatus is no longer a valid excuse to argue against troop deployment to the border areas. Calling that a Police State is total hogwash and bullshit!

You whine and moan about the illegal, devastating, empirical deployment of our soldiers to other countries and, rightly, state that these countries were no threat to America. We want our soldiers brought back from these illegal escapades.

Then, use them for what they are designed for! Protection of our country against foreign invasion. Posse Comitatus does not apply! These people are neither citizens nor immigrants. They are hostile forces!

When Martial Law is declared in America then you can cry that there is a violation of Posse Comitatus. Then it will be valid but futile as the evil government you hate will have repealed it anyway.

This act of troops on the border will only be a valid Posse Comitatus protest if Bush does what I believe he is setting up to do; namely, use the troops to remove the Minutemen and protect the border jumpers and insure that the borders are thrown wide open to usher in the NAU (North American Union).

So all of you idiot bleeding hearts who are thinking that I am nothing more than a reactionary had better start looking at who the real enemy is. It is your government under the control of the New World Order.

A nation is no longer viable for this dictatorship. They want the entire continent and the world.

We can only stop this if we eliminate the illegals and control our border. This is a war! This is an attack on this country by the New World Order. Our troops should be there, just not the way Bush and Fox envision it.

So, tell me, ‘Great Fool’, are you suggesting that I give up everything, allow anything, to prevent “drowning” in somebody’s bathtub?  Peace at any cost, right Great Fool?

It appears to me that you labled yourself aptly!

Oh!

That’s me!  Right ‘Great Fool’? 
“Reactionary “thinkers” (“they only _think_ they think”)”.

Omigosh!  I’m flattered.  At first I didn’t realize that what you wrote was a critique of my post.  In fact, at first, I was having a really hard time trying to decipher WTF you wrote at all!

You’re about as paranoid as they come ‘Great Fool’ (In the event you didn’t notice, I’m an American so I won’t bother to use the Japanese. okay?)

Actually, I wasn’t attempting to taunt you or anyone else but you seem to be inviting taunts so you brought it on yourself.

Am I a Reactionary Thinker ‘Great Fool’?

Sometimes.  Sometimes not.  What would make me a Proactionary thinker in your mind?

You can be Reactive, Proactive or inactive or…
You can be so deep and thoughty that it’s impossible to act because you’re so busy running off at the mouth that you’ll never even know how to act.  You’ll be so busy trying to think your deep thoughts that even communication on any intelligible level is impossible.

That’s the problem with the 10% who only think they think.

It appears to me, ‘Great Fool’, that you are firmly entrenched in that 10%.

Ahead of the curve for the _reactionaries_ - “daigu” is “great fool” in Japanese.  It is a divine irony that this dominionist phantasm of “end times” begins to look prescient as such idiocy, if not pure lunacy, continues to exude from this abysmal president and his sychophants who can offer nothing more than school yard taunting if confronted with actual evidence. Maybe the end is near, and these events are just indications of how well prepared they are….  Jesus may well be coming back, and boy, does SHE have reason to be pissed. 

Reactionary “thinkers” (“they only _think_ they think”) please send all the laughable taunts you can dream up.  Poor crybabies, you’ve gotten what you want, and we’ll all soon drown in G.Norquist’s “bathtub,” you included.  APOCALYPSE NOW.

I liked Molly Ivins’ piece because it confirmed what I said years ago about GB. However, I did not use the word ‘lunacy’ to describe Bush’s irrational thinking and behavior; I said, instead, that his brain cells have been permanently damaged from his long years of being given to alcohol consumption. It is my contention that big corporations poured millions of dollars behind his campaign to elect him because they knew well that such a person can easily be manipulated to put their personal interests before the nation interests.
When GB won the first term, I consoled myself by saying it was an aberration which the collective judgment of Americans will be able to correct by voting him out of office in his bid for the second term. However, when he won a second term, I almost lost faith in democracy and started questioning the judgment of those little than 50% who voted him into office again. Now, despite all the lies, deception, corruption, arrogance and irrational policies, the man continues to rule without a real grassroot movement to impeach him and kick him out of office in disgrace. My thinking now is that Bush’s case is that of a lunatic ruling over a lunatic majority population who think he and they are okay, and everyone who doesn’t like it is the one who is lunatic. Using the fearmongering card effectively, he managed to turn the population into a herd mentality. Lunatic ruling over lunatics for eight long years might be a good title for a book or a movie. The movie I know I don’t have the means to produce, but I will attempt the book, so help me God!

Look Bush believes he was picked by God. Franklin Gramham the son of the con artrists Billy said Bush was selected by God showing Billy while he amassed 300 Million didn’t teach Franklin the difference between the Supreme Being and the Supreme Court.
I am sure the former drunk who knows he is not that bright so he thinks his good fortune must be due to a higher power, so I expect when the horseshoe keeps falling out of his ass and realizes the Creator was not with im he will return to DRINK

Yes Molly - I have serious doubts that George W Bush is in full healthy control of his mental faculties.
Even school students can see through his horrendous, continuous lying.
He says he is not militarizing the border, but he certainly is! He says he is against amnesty - but amnesty is exactly what he is doing.
6,000 American soldiers stretched out along a 2,000 mile border, leaves three soldiers, per mile! And it is perfectly obvious that fences “do not” keep them out. (what a waste of funds)
What exactly are they going to accomplish - if they cannot apprehend/arrest and transport captured illegal imigrants. It is Lunacy by definition. Just like everything else he says and does.
We have controlling Laws - funds and manpower should be used to enforce existing Laws.
The reason - why - no one has moved to impeach George W Bush for lying to the Congress is because the Vice President would only be “more of the same.” etcetera.
Jonathan
Jonathan

Instead of sending all your work to other countries why on earth didn’t you send it to Mexico.  Maybe then you wouldn’t be facing an illegal entries in the amount you do.

Even the poor in Mexico has to eat, don’t they.

Comment on comment#9598:

Hey Dave Moberg, people like you are part of the problem!  What’s the matter, those fat oil dividends paying off toooo much to care about us little guys—You know, the ones who actually WORK FOR A LIVING?!!!  You need to get your head out of your keister once in a while and check out the REAL WORLD! 
Molly Ivins is a national treasure, and tells the truth on those lousy bastards who jack “We the People” around and are getting away with it!—Because of people like YOU!! You ought to be ashamed of yourself—For “tolerating” George W. “DumbAss”!  JS

Molly,

What is happening on our border is not just illegal border hoppers.  It is an invasion of foreign people of one sovereign nation across the sovereign borders of another nation.

Our military was designed and conceived to protect this nation from agression and attack.  Instead they are being misused to create empire and murder innocent people in other countries.

I fully believe that our military should be patrolling our border.  You cite one incident where an innocent was killed.  I expect there may be more but that is not the point.

Accidents will occur.  Don’t believe it?  Count the ones in Afganistan and Iraq.

We are suffering the illegal incursion of these people from Mexico as well as many other countries of the world.  Soon, there are going to be many more accidents well within the US if we don’t stop it.

I don’t believe you have to worry about it though. 

I doubt seriously yhat Bush really intends for the illegals to really be stopped.  I also doubt that there are enough troops available for him to tap for border patrol.

What I really think is that he is going to send some troops down there to protect the illegals because we are getting really angry.  Vicente is upset that we are actually starting to get serious about the border so he wants cuz’n'law George to send troops to see to it his invaders get across safely.

“We have to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if worse comes to the worst, we have got to kill him.”

“You gringos have spilled enough of our blood, now it’s your turn to bleed, you fucking sub-human beasts.”

The above two quotes are by University of Texas Professor Jose Angel Gutierrez in a public speech. Gutierrez is also the founder of ‘La Raza’ which is exclusively for the Hispanic race. For everything and everyone OUTSIDE the race - nothing!

William Gheen, President of PAC ALIPAC, tells us ‘How to Reverse Illegal Immigration in America’. Wow! A whole article saying we need to enforce existing laws. Hell, I’m impressed.

The Minutemen organization intends to erect two short, 50’ – 150’, fences along the busiest portion of the US/Mexico border in Arizona. Wow! I’m all agog!

But here’s the kicker to that, the US Border Patrol is informing to the Mexican Government, under orders from the US Government, on the whereabouts of the minutemen in order to reassure the Mexican Government that “Migrant Rights” are being observed. Migrants?? Rights??

Sorry Molly.  It don’t pass the smell test.

Give me 50,000 illegals any day if we can deport the same amount of bible-quoting, dumbass Dittoheads!

The basic reason immigration is all screwed up is that the number of immigrants allowed in from Mexico has been held to absurdly low levels. That is what we need to be talkng about. Our economy needs these workers as the Baby Boomers begin to age out. When you outlaw things that basic economics and human nature promote, you do not stop them; you just hand over control of them to criminals. For reference see The War On Drugs.

I cannot believe that no one can see the simplicity of stopping this illegal alien problem.  They are not from here, so they are aliens.  If they were immigrants, they would file for citizenship, and become immigrants for five years.  Make any employer who hires them without a work permit a felon.  Authorize the department of agriculture to issue 2 year work permits as needed, cancelled when a worker has not actively worked or checked in with immigration.  Do not let them take over every trade in America because we are all competing with the free world while paying for it.  Do not let them buy property or hold licenses in America.  Set up a web site to let them apply for immigration, and hold the strict limits on how many.  Macdonalds and all the other cheap wage outfits can go back to hiring teen agers and old people who cant live on socail security

Molly, Molly, Molly.
I would have thought you had spent enough time around Karl Rove by now to see beyond the obvious.  Xenophobia is the second most popular hot button after Abortion.  What better way for Republicans to distance themselves from an unpopular president and stand tough and proud protecting the citizens of Crackerstan.  Also a great way to pull democrats and associate them with an unpopular president.  Get everybody running around in circles about a non issue and they will forget about how badly these pigs have screwed our country.

Speaking of NAFTA - in 1994 the ratio of the average manufacturing wage in the US to that in Mexico, before NAFTA took effect was 6:1.  The ratio today is 8:1.  Is there any red-blooded American who would not do whatever it took to turn off the tears of his wife, feed his children and head for el norte?  Do I stay here and toil for $1.00 an hour or do I go north and get payed $8.00 an hour.  It is a no-brainer.  Aside from that justifiable reason, a guest-worker program is a form of serfdom.

Molly has nailed it again with her deft voice (use of the language) and her insights to reality. Even Chris Matthews agrees with her this time around:

IVINS: “You want to shut down illegal immigration? You want to use the military as police? Make it illegal to hire undocumented workers and put the National Guard into enforcing that. Then rewrite NAFTA and invest in Mexico.”

Well, Chris agrees with the crackdown on employers at least ... from Hardball with Chris Matthews for Monday, May 15, 2006:

MATTHEWS: “Do you know what my critique is, one observation.  When the average American is convinced that someone can‘t be hired here illegally, they‘ll believe we‘re protecting the border.  All the gendarmes at the border, all the national defense people, all the border patrol in the world are not going to stop a person from getting here if they note in Los Angeles, there‘s a job that pays well.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12817615/

I agree. Start by busting the employers, then secure the borders as best we can, and THEN deal with the humanitarian issues of the folks already here illegally ... which does NOT mean letting them cut in line ahead of the folks who have been waiting patiently ... or we will have the same problem all over again with even MORE folks crossing the border illegally. Didn’t we learn anything from 1986?

You know, there is an old saying ... if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

Molly, I’ve been wondering for years why Bush, Cheney et al haven’t been tested for abuse of Halcion, Haldol or other such “tranquilizers” that are historically the choice of high-office officials. Their disconnection, addlepatedness and constant recasting of “reality” makes more sense when viewed as the behaviour of drug addicts.

A few things, Chris.  Taxes are supposed to be paid by everybody but only the rich have the loopholes and accountants to skeeze out of paying their fair share. As a percentage of income, counting payroll taxes, the working poor and the middle class have a far higher tax bill than multi-millionaires, yet Bush offers them $20 relief. None of that is fair.
When my ancestors and yours came to this country, it wasn’t like they waited in line, either.  You didn’t need a passport back then, just someone to vouch for you.  Wonder how many of us would be here if documentation had be required?
We have just as many home-grown terrorists and criminals as immigrant ones and I think they all should be tracked down and locked up, not just the brown ones. 
And finally, what is it you’re so afraid of about law-abiding immigrants?  That they broke the law and snuck in here to work backbreaking jobs at minimum wage? Right.  That should be a death penalty offense.  Wait, I forgot—sometimes it is.

It seems to me that true “patriotisim” involves paying your dues to the society that allows you the success you have. cutting and axing taxes just to cut and slash is not a responsible method of dealing with taxing. Surely, I think to myself, this crazieness will be seen for what it is and sanity will prevail. But then I awake for another day of Bushits fantasy land. Wow. When will we wake up as a people? Maybe about the time our comfort level is upset I suppose.

How many undocumented people should be allowed into the country?  None.  I hope we all realize this.

For you who believe that your leaders are Christians and that the U.S. has some sort of ‘moral’ upper hand in the world, read this and see how ‘Christian’ you feel.

http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20060501003040487
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20060430225908335

Chris:
As Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, “(t)axes are the price we pay for civilization.”  If you are not a top 1-percenter, why do you care that they should pay their share?  If not, what you and most cut-taxes-more geniuses never seem to recognize is that the country is being bankrupted by the chimp-in-chief.  He simultaneously hands out billions upon billions to his corporate contributors and cronies while cutting taxes on those at the very top of the American economic hierarchy.  You want to talk about giving someone’s money away, worry about corporate welfare and worry about regressive payroll and sales taxes.  Until you get a clue, though, you really should STFU.

Chris:
As Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, “(t)axes are the price we pay for civilization.”  If you are not a top 1-percenter, why do you care that they should pay their share?  If not, what you and most cut taxes geniuses never seem to recognize that the country is being bankrupted by the chimp-in-chief.  He simultaneously hands out billions upon billions to his corporate contributors and cronies while cutting taxes on those at the very top of the American economic hierarchy.  You want to talk about giving someone’s money away, worry about corporate welfare and worry about regressive payroll and sales taxes.  Until you get a clue, though, you really should STFU.

Oh give me a break, Molly.

I love how you like to castigate republicans as motivated purely by oil, and then you turn around and use it as your first reason why we shouldn’t have sovereign borders.

What a hypocritical joke you are.

Bush I should have sealed the border back in 1990.  Bill Clinton should have sealed the border back in 1994.  GW Bush should have sealed the border on September 12, 2001.  Bush is an idiot and should be removed from office for taking 5 years to enforce the law.  But you Molly Ivins, you are a lonney-left hack who offers nothing but obfuscation and misrepresentation.  You offer only criticism and extremely high taxes. 
OOOH TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!!

Can it.
Go tolerate someone.

Thank you for this pungent article.

BUT, it again raises rather than begins to answers the question that has been asked so frequently about this administration:
WHY? Why all these relentlessly destructive and self-destructive policies?

Iraq benefits no one; abrogating our foreign treaties and flouting international law does not produce security;  tax cuts, even for the rich, do not produce significant benefits; educational standization is not functional, etc, etc.

No one seems to be able to get a handle on the ‘why’ of this, and so we’re left with explanations such as: craziness, the rapture, neocons, big oil, electoral pandering to Fox News watchers and so forth.

Is it possible that our frustration here comes from expecting a certain ideological coherence when in fact the decisions in this administrations derive solely from ad-hoc applications of Rovisms and pork?

About the comment from #9575. I assume that you went to the Bob Roberts University School of Economics. The one that says that if you pray enough, 1 loaf of bread will turn into 100.

Actually it doesn’t work that way. The tax receipts support activities/projects that all people benefit from, including the corporations/individuals that benefit from these tax cuts and gifts.

And the one about immigrants is also wrong. Big corps and little corps contract the services of smaller corps for many reasons. One of these reasons is the low cost services they provide. Do you remember the case against Walmart, and the maint subs it had?

Chris:  the distribution of wealth is extremely important for a Republic; a strong, robust and affluent middle class is essential for a democracy to thrive. 

What we are seeing here in this country right now is the sytematic elimination of the middle class, via no tax relief, no raising of the minimum wage, increasing college tuition amounts while grants and loans are being eliminated… get the picture? 

We will be faced with a plutocracy if this continues, much like what you see in Mexico for instance.  You have a wealthy, elite ruling class which colludes with the government and corporations, and a huge underclass of working poor.  They do all the work and and the elite reap the rewards. 

In terms of taxes, we are calling for fairness in taxation.  NOT income RE-distribution.  We are all in this together, and Americans have a duty to pay their fair share of taxes; to give back to the country that provides them the means of living a peaceful secure life.  To shirk taxes, or give the wealthy tax cuts, during a time of war, when millions of people have joined the ranks of poverty in the last 6 years, is a travesty and an insult to everyone who has served this country, or who cares about our democracy.

There IS a role for government in our society, and it needs revenue to provide for its citizenry.  otherwise, what you saw after Katrina will be the norm.  No amount of privitization can take the place of essential governmental functions.

Distribution of wealth? This is an issue of paying bills today, so we don’t screw up the next seven generations of Americans. Oh, and it means protecting civil liberties so following generations can enjoy American life as much as we have. But everytime someone says Bush is at best incompetent and at worst deluded, out come those who say the tax cuts are working and it’s socialist to raise taxes. Bush has screwed up everything he has touched. He’s the anti-Midas: he touches something of value—think any one of our great traditions and institions—and it becomes worthless.

“marching proudly backwards to the future” http://www.homelanddecency.com

Molly,

When you have people who cross the border with 50 caliber full automatics and others as equally armed, threatening the life of the ranchers and farmers as well as their families, it is past the time to put the military on the border.

What part of sovereignty do you not understand?  When the past 20 years of diplomacy have failed, the last and late resort is to put the military on the border to seal it from allowing illegals and you never know what else from getting through.

If you don’t like it or think it is wrong, move to Mexico and see how they do it.  I do believe it would open you eyes that they are hypocrates of the highest degree.

A Christian who is does not have a mental disorder but believes in prophecy and the Bible as the Final WORD!

bush & his team know what they’re doing—by looking at the results we can see that they’ve sold us out to foreign interests—everything they do harms america but lines their pockets

americans only have themselves to blame because they keep voting for politicians who put america second: watch leading democrats cheer when bush attacks iran & syria

as to immigration, americans want to have it both ways: they devote part of their taxes toward subsidizing agriculture, thus ensuring that mexicans can’t survive by farming their land—then americans, especially frightened white folks, get excited when those same mexicans come here to take the jobs that await them

finally, americans whine about the price of energy but are delighted to waste energy

as much as i dislike bush, he’s only playing to the frightened white folks who put him in office & who can’t face the reality that america’s bankrupt

No, there is no one to stand up to George W. Bush.  He will do as he pleases no matter what the outcome for the American people.  Congress WON’T stop him, the courts WON’T stop him, and the people CAN’T stop him.  If we are very, very lucky, the United States of America will revert back to a democracy after we rid ourselves of him.  Looking at the cast of characters in line for the nomination in both partys, I don’t feel very lucky.  Why don’t we invade Mexico?  If Mexico was part of the U.S. then the immigration would be legal, right?  Just asking.

Is Bush and the Rabid Right secretly planning to invade Mexico?

Of course not, that’s an insane notion.

Problem is, Mexicans fear it might be possible. What if they massed their troops to protect their side of the border? Might someone get trigger-happy? Never mind that their guys and our guys have already been taking pot-shots at each other. Don’t worry about things getting out of hand, if worst came to worst we could kick their ass in about a week.

Just because Mexico has quite a bit of oil, they shouldn’t get paranoid that we intend to steal it.

That’s insane.

Sorry Molly you have it exactly wrong. 

Being shot by a Marine on drug enforcement patrol is a disaster for the family and unfortunate for the country it is not lunacy.  Lunacy is expecting different results with the same inputs.  You expect doing nothing to improve the situation, it will not work.  That is lunacy

It is true that most of the Illegal immigrants are here to work and help their families.  It is also true that some, not insignificant number, are here as criminals.  We must find a way if tell them apart.  Control of the borders is an important portion of this requirement. 

Put it this way.  If someone breaks into your house, it doesn’t matter why, they are breaking and entering committing a crime.  If you let them in through the front door they are guests.  How they behave as guests allows you to chose how long they stay.  Some one who comes in through an open window isn’t a guest.  You call the cops.

Tell me again how it is wrong to militarize the border.  Mexico has made several armed incursions into the US to support drug smuggeling.  They have militarized the border (look at Neuvo Laredo) we are simply responding in a like manner.

Get off your liberal horse and use your God given intellect to see and think about what is going on, this is not a freebe touchy feeley world we live in.  Real people are getting hurt by these incursions.

Yes it is a republic. That is why the $42,000 should not be TAKEN from one person and GIVEN to another. Talk about insanity, regardless of tax receipts, telling people we are going to confiscate more income and ditribute it to those who don’t earn it is a sure recipe for failure long term everytime. I just need to know how anyone can justify increasing the redictribution of wealth any more then it already is…
Also, the immigrants are not hired by CEO’s, they are hired by owners of small businesses. I know it plays well to picture the fat cat walkin the plank, but he is your neighborhood restaurant owner.

Anyone taking biblical prophecy seriously has a severe mental disorder.

“...We do live in a republic, right?  Or, did that become a fantasy after March 2003? ...”

No, I think it was after December 2000; remember when the Supremely corrupt Court installed the moron?

No Republicans have done anything for ordinary Americans since Lincoln freed the slaves, and our voting society seems to let them keep on cheating their way into power with lies about their opponents or about their plans or with outright vote fraud. The insanity isn’t in the Bushitter government; it’s in the electorate.

Yep, Molly Bush and Cheyney are giving insanity a bad name.

Loved the article.  But, at this point, I do not think I can stomach any more of this nonsense.  M. Ivins is absolutely right in the questions she raises and the solutions she suggests.  Is there anyone we have elected-anyone-out there who is willing to stand up for us people?  We do live in a republic, right?  Or, did that become a fantasy after March 2003?