John’s Blog-o-Rama

I’ve been following the illegal immigration debate for the last few weeks, and I can’t believe what I’m hearing and seeing. I can’t believe that I’m hearing Bush and people in Congress propose any kind of guest worker program. That has got to be the dumbest idea ever put forth by a politican. Why should the government reward people who have been breaking the law for years with the ability to stay and work here legally? What have they done to deserve such an honor? I don’t see how this is fair to anyone that has followed the rules, and I don’t see how this is fair to Americans who need jobs. Bush says we need this workforce because they do jobs that regular Americans won’t do. This isn’t true…they do the jobs Americans want for less money than the law allows. If a guest worker program passes, I predict it will be a total disaster, as illegal immigrants will choose not to sign up, and nothing will change.

What we need is a president that enforces the law and says the following:

1. Tells illegal immigrants that they are breaking the law and that it is time to leave, and then deports them if they do not leave. All of them
2. Enforces the laws against hiring illegal immigrants by throwing their employers in jail if they don’t comply
3. Enforces and improves border security to keep illegal immigrants out

I know this is easier than done, but I believe with some directed effort this can be accomplished. The president just needs to take a no tolerance policy stance, and then commit to enforcing that policy. I don’t think any other option will work. This needs to happen for ALL illegal immigrants, whether they’re Mexican, Canadian, Chinese, Indian, African, etc. It is not a racist policy, it is an anti-illegal immigrant policy.

Found a nice blog entry on the TR blog blog today which that asks if New Orleans should be rebuilt. I have been asking myself the same question for the last few days, and the conclusion I have come to is a resounding NO. It’s going to cost HUGE sums of money to pump out New Orleans, tear down all of the flooded buildings, rebuild all of the buildings, repair all of the levees, and try to make sure this doesn’t happen again. And the city will STILL be ten feet below sea level, and sinking 1 inch per year. I just don’t see the point of reconstruction when it’s likely the same thing will just happen again. Why not just use all that money to expand other Louisiana cities that won’t be destroyed by the next hurricane that comes by? I understand that New Orleans has a lot of history, but in the long term economically, I just don’t see a payoff.

I was reading Jeremy Zawodny’s blog entry about Dan Gillmor leaving his regular column for a new venture. Since I had no idea who Dan Gillmor was, I checked him out and started reading several of his columns. This column in particular stood out to me, as he has expressed my feelings exactly on how I feel about Bush and his trampling on Americans’ personal liberties during his term in office. I voted for him the first time around, but certainly not the second time. He always says that he loves freedom, but so many things that he does shows that he doesn’t understand what freedom is, and that he really doesn’t believe in it. If Bush really believes in the principles in the Constitution, how can he apply those principles only when it suits his agenda, and ignore them when they don’t? I can only hope that his new Cabinet will challenge his principles and decisions, and get us back on track protecting Americans’ personal liberties.