"Illegal" Immigration + English Our "Official Language" = Bait and Switch Number... Oh My God I've lost Count!

Last month ago I asked the question, "Immigration? Where the hell did this issue come from all of a sudden?" Now I can ask the question, "Legislation to make English our official language? Where the hell did that come from?" Answer:

The Senate on Thursday approved an immigration-bill amendment sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) that would declare English the national language. ~The Chicago Tribune

In other words, the same place: The Republican Party. Why?

Answer: The Democrats (God help them. Please.) are positioned to spank the Republicans in November, although there's more than enough time for the Demos to tangle their tongues in their feet.

...And by taking this foolishness seriously they are well on their way to doing just that.

Let's look at some defining Republican issues:

1) Fiscal conservatism. The only way the Bush Administration can make the federal deficit look halfway acceptable is to over-project then be pleased as punch at the lower increase. No one, however, is buying. Also, China has passed Japan in floating our national debt which Bush is pushing into numbers only astronomers use.

2) Smaller Government: This from the CATO Institute in 2003, "...we have mounting deficits because George W. Bush is the most gratuitous big spender to occupy the White House since Jimmy Carter. One could say that he has become the "Mother of All Big Spenders." LINK

3) Roe v. Wade: It's still there.

4) Marriage "Protection" Amendment: It's still not there.

5) School prayer: Not yet.

Now some Republican problems:

1) Iraq: No flowers. No WMD. No oil. Big mess.

2) Katrina and Rita: Big bumble. Big mess.

3) Jack Abramoff: So much for good, conservative Christian values.

4) Tom DeLay: See Jack Abramoff.

5) Lewis Libby (and maybe Karl Rove? Maybe... Big Dick "Shoot Before You Look" Cheney?): Indictments for perjury and obstruction in a case about outing a covert CIA agent working on WMD and Iran? Ouch!

6)Randy "Duke" Cunningham: See Jack Abramoff, but add one defense contractor named Brent Wilkes hosting weekly parties at the Watergate Hotel (oh delicious irony) with friendly poker games, hookers and bribes with one Kyle “Dusty” Foggo (number three man at the CIA) and you get one CIA Director, Porter Goss, suddenly deciding to spend more quality time with his family.

Did I leave anything out? Of course I did. I'd need staff to get it all down straight before the sun burns out.

So what does the Republican Party have left? Poor, Spanish speaking Mexicans crossing the border to do things like take care of rich Republican's children, manicure their lawns or pick fruits and vegetables.

Of course, these people carry "Spanish" like a disease that's likely to make even you speak with an accent any day now.

This is all, of course, called "changing the subject." It's all the Repubs have left while their beautiful world crumbles around them, and people, especially the all important independents, are buying it.

What no one is asking anywhere is why those who hire these people aren't being taken to task. No. The criminals are poor people trying to send some bucks home to their families.

Those are the kind of conservative, Christian values they can depend on every time.

But more important, the public discussion over all those other big mess issues has been diluted.

Come on, America. Stop being the idiot they take you for.

Cheers,
Clemsy

PS: Does this mean George is going to have to learn English now?


QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

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 the North American Free Trade Agreement and invest in Mexico.

Meanwhile, further proof that the GOP is cuckoo comes to us with the passage of another $70 billion tax cut for the rich. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the average middle-income household will get a $20 tax cut, while those making more than $1 million a year will get nearly $42,000. ~Molly Ivins from The Politics of Lunacy


QUOTES FROM THE HIVE MIND

The president has never supported making English the national language. ~Alberto Gonzales

As you know, there were actually a couple of amendments that came up yesterday, an Inhofe amendment and also a Salazar amendment. And what has come out of that is a description of English as the national language. And I think — and we have supported both of these. ~ White House Press Secretary Tony Snow


OCCUPATION: IRAQ

The state of Iraq now resembles Bosnia at the height of the fighting in the 1990s when each community fled to places where its members were a majority and were able to defend themselves. ~The Independent (Thank you Gertrude Bell.)


RELIGION

Evangelical Christians are not all white people living in the suburbs and only concerned with abortion and same-sex marriage. ~Jack Pannell, spokesman for Sojourners (Thank god.)