Existential Ennui

~ Searching for Meaning Amid the Chaos

Existential Ennui

Tag Archives: border security

Raunchy Reactions of Republican Rectitude

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by Sherry in Crap I Learned, Humor, Immigration, Satire, teabaggers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

border security, GOP, Humor, immigration reform, satire, teabaggers

no-amnestyYou must have a strong constitution and a note from your psychiatrist that you have a iron-clad brain case before you can read further here.

We are entering the wacky world of the GOP, where the general laws of the universe don’t apply. The tail wags the dog here, and nobody means anything close to what they say.

We are about to reach the high point of hilarity on this immigration bill that is working its way through the erected fences and high deserts of the Senate, all to land finally and with a resounding guacamole splat in the laps of the House of Representatives.

Everyone is getting ready to put on their best two-faced persona.

Let us set the scene.

The Senate led by the gawd-awful gauchos times eight, is about to vote on the bill. Just a few days ago it was in dire trouble because as Senate Republicans lamented, it didn’t do enough to “protect our border.” Note I said BORDER, NOT BORDERS, since nary a Senator has mentioned the northern one. (HINT TO TERRORISTS). This fun phrase has been used ad infinitum to justify a refusal to do anything on immigration reform, something that EVERYONE agrees needs to be fixed, but opinions  as to how, are as plentiful as crabgrass.

The GOP made it clear that there would be no movement on what to do with the 11 million already here, until the “border” issue was resolved. In pops Senator Cornyn, with his amendment which was defeated last week. That amendment would have required a “certified” statement of something like 95% security at the border before any step could be taken regarding the 11 million. It was widely considered a “poison pill” given that such a figure is unlikely to ever be met unless border patrol agents stand shoulder to shoulder along the 1,954 miles we share with Mexico.

Along comes the Hoevan-Corker amendment, provided by Senators from North Dakota and Tennessee, who obviously know more about the southern border than anyone else. These fine GOPers have a solution. Their plan is to double the number of border patrol agents, and build some 700 miles of new fence, and turn all the policy decisions on compliance over to the Congress and away from Homeland Security, where as we all know, must faster and efficient decisions are sure to be made.

And the price tag? Oh, somewhere along the lines of 38 BILLION. And no Republican OFFSET cuts in spending either.

Now this would all be fine, since apparently the amendment doesn’t tie some “proof” of success to the start of the “pathway to citizenship”, and all the new security measures could get bogged down in the usual unhappiness of bickering in the Congress that seems its reason d’ etre at this point, but hey, we have been down this road before.

Back in 2006, Bush pushed through a jump of 6000 more border agents and over 600 miles of new fence. That was thought to “solve the problem”.  And guess what? It was done. But of course, our GOP is never one to remember the past when it conflicts with the agenda of today. So, the gold posts are moved, and we have new goals of something like 20,000 new agents and another 700 miles of fence.

Which is really all to hide the fact that it ain’t and never was about this border security thing at all.

illegalIf you are confounded by all this, well, it has to do with being an omnivore.

Yes, you heard me right. According to Jonathan Haidt, my BFF, (he has no idea), when we evolved to being such, we had all kinds of choices. The downside was that not all of those shiny brightly colored things were good. Some were poisonous. So we are conflicted.

Some of us more conflicted than others.

Liberals tend to embrace new stuff which Conservatives tend to stay with the tried and true. Well that works for food, but it also seeps over into all kinds of other stuff.

Like how we feel about a “new” demographic.

See Liberals are fine with the changing demographics of the USA. But Conservatives? Not so much. It’s a matter of degree, but they like things they way they are were, least how they envision how things were. And their idea is that white people = right government is, well gooder than brown/black people = right government.

In other words, to a lesser or greater degree ( we all vary somewhat on the new/traditional scale), they’d rather stay in charge.

And that in a nut shell is what this bill faces when it crosses the border into the territory of the Tea Party brigades in the House. Border security may be used as the flag round which to rally but when that problem is essentially eradicated by the Senate version, well, we gotta face the music.

The House while under GOP leadership was very successful in gerrymandering itself so that a huge number of its seats are now owned by solid Republican majorities. However, that doesn’t mean that any individual GOPer is safe. Iffin’ he or she ain’t drunk enough tea, well, they will be primaried by someone who has.

And the one voice of the Tea Party goes something like this: SHIP THEM BACK. ALL OF THEM, WITH THEIR ANCHOR BABIES WHO AREN’T REAL CITIZENS. As Phyllis Schlafly points out, these Hispanics are different. Unlike the second generation of all the other ethnic groups, these South of the border types don’t embrace American values in the next generation but are prone to drugs, violence and gangs. (Why do we have that St. Paddy’s day parade?)

Soooo, the upshot of all that is that enough House Republicans ain’t voting for any immigration bill no matter what it says, unless it says the above. And Boehner has been warned that should he bring a bill to the floor that does not have majority support of the GOP caucus, he can bend over and attempt to kiss his own ass, since it will be flying out of the speaker’s chair faster than dust lands on my deck from the desert.

So Boehner is F**KED and so are all the Republican Senators who KNOW that they can’t win a dang national election and probably not a state one with that kind of “we aren’t partial to brown” attitude.

And that means we continue our shitty, unfair, unequal, immoral immigration rules for God knows how much longer.

But, at least we have the satisfaction of watching the Tea Party throw a major hissy fit in front of the whole world to see. I mean they are more fun that a barrel of KKK taking a wrong turn and ending up at the South end of Woodward Avenue at noon during the Freedom Festival in Detroit.

Can I get a witness?

Related articles
  • ‘Border Surge’ – Amendment Would Not Hire Border Security Agents For Years (patdollard.com)
  • ‘Border Surge’ Amendment: No New Border Agents for Four Years (redflagnews.com)
  • With amendment killed, Rand Paul won’t support immigration bill (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
  • Breaking – Senators unveil breakthrough border plan to give Republicans cover to vote for amnesty (legalinsurrection.com)
  • ‘Gang’ warfare over Senate immigration bill (politico.com)
  • New border security deal is ‘a bitter pill to swallow’ (voxxi.com)

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Republican Chairs Scream: WE WANT NO MORE STUPID BUTTS IN OUR SEATS

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by Sherry in 2nd Amendment, An Island in the Storm, GOP, Humor, Immigration, Individual Rights, Lindsay Graham, Satire, teabaggers

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

2nd Amendment, anecdotal evidence, border security, damnable lieHagel, GOP, lies, NRA

republicans-articleLargeWell they are still going to put up a hissy-fit over Chuck Hagel. I’m not sure how successful they will be. Inhofe says it’s not a filibuster, just a 60-vote margin. He’s a fool lost in the 18th century. No, he can’t even get that far, make it the 17th.

Lindsey is still flipping his lacy underwear, demanding more answers, about what we know not, probably Benghazi, which he loves to spout about. Since when did Hagel have a thing to do with that?

Marsha Blackburn has one of the most annoying voices I’ve heard lately, but that’s not the real reason I can’t stand her. She’s an idiot. From Tennessee. She talks about how her wonderful party, the GOP is having a “wonderful conversation, showing our big tent appeal”. Translation: we’re having a dirty internal fight about who are real Republicans and we are trying to help our corporate masters all the while appearing to welcome all those “other” people, because we want power.

The GOP is of course back to dragging out their tired argument that we can’t raise the minimum wage because it will hurt all the “lil black children who are trying to get some job experience.” The fact of the matter is, this tired excuse has been used since time immemorial by business. The truth is that once a new minimum wage is passed, fast food joints and a few others lay off some folks, until. . . . they can’t get the job done with the remaining staff, and they rehire back to the same levels again. The dips in employment are always temporary. You see, in the end, they know they need a certain staff level if they are to keep customers happy and coming back, and guess what? They still make a nice little profit in the end. It’s always about numbers in the end, and they always follow the money.

I’ve been plagued lately in Facebook conversations with people who insist that they can make a case for A by alluding to some situation they know of. It goes something like this:

  • Inflation is about to explode and destroy the economy!
  • Evidence?
  • The case of chicken stock I bought at Cosco last year has gone up from $8 bucks a case to $10 bucks a case.
  • But the CPI average for 2012 was 2.07% wherein 2.0% price increase is deemed normal and acceptable.
  • Well plane fares are up dramatically!
  • Well yes, but fuel costs have gone up rather dramatically haven’t they?
  • Well gas prices are skyrocketing again, up ten cents in just a week!
  • Yes, gas prices fluctuate a good deal, mostly due to energy giants speculating in gas futures, so they can buy low and sell high.
  • Inflation is about to explode and destroy the economy!

You can’t get through the fog of personal experience. Anecdotal events are not evidence for a very good reason. Virtually anything you can dream up has happened to somebody. There is no necessary statistical correlation of your perception to your perceived conclusion.

The American Spectator, a fairly raggish Right-Wing group, says this:

“One of the favorite delusions of anti-gun hysterics is that a gun in the home is more dangerous to the folks who live in the house than to would-be home invaders. The theory, which makes sense in progressive circles and to some who’ve stopped taking their psychotropic drugs, is that if a bad guy tries to invade my home in the middle of the night I’m more likely to shoot myself than the invader.

This is transparent nonsense. Plenty of news stories of citizens defending their homes and person with legally owned guns confirm this as nonsense,. . . “

You note the “evidence” that the progressives are  delusional? “Plenty of stories”. How many is plenty of stories? Where is the study that shows that people defending themselves in their homes more often stop the bad guy than the gun being used in some other destructive way?

Of course this fails to elicit a nod of recognition from such people because they basically have no clue what you mean when you explain to them about critical reading and thinking. The event proves what they WANT to prove, or they read an explanation which they WANT to hear, so it all makes perfect sense.

Wayne La Pee Pee Pierre, continues to spew his blatant lies about border security in this country:

The president flagrantly defies the 2006 federal law ordering the construction of a secure border fence along the entire Mexican border. So the border today remains porous not only to people seeking jobs in the U.S., but to criminals whose jobs are murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping. Ominously, the border also remains open to agents of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

The truth of the matter is that the borders have never been more secure.  Border Patrol personnel has doubled to 20,000 since 2004. There are vastly more “returns” under Obama than under Bush. In some locations along the border there has been a 50% drop in those attempting to enter without papers.   Secretary of Homeland Security, Napolitano suggests that we may actually be in a negative loop, where there are more undocumented workers RETURNING to their native homes because they cannot find work.

Business as usual. Say whatever will appeal to the preconceived beliefs of your base. Truth is just old-school.

Ya know what I mean?

Related articles
  • Senate Dems to GOP: Forget your stupid games on Hagel (capitolhillblue.com)
  • Blunt: We Have the Votes to Delay Hagel Nomination (breitbart.com)
  • The Hagel flail (dailykos.com)
  • Republicans begin filibuster against Hagel (sacbee.com)

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