Erata: Year End

So what is all this bullshit about immigration? You got the Republicans picking this up like it is an issue that America really cares about but it is just another one of those divisive issues that split our country rather then unite us. Seriously... Romney is almost foaming at the mouth when he talks about Huckabee wanting to give tuition assistants to illegals like he was butchering puppies.

We have a country that was literally built on immigration. As Bill Murray said in the movie “Meat Balls” “our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world”. True that. Then we let everyone in so that we could have the labor for our indutrial revolution. Then we started only letting in smart people... and now... we don’t want to let anyone in except throught the right channels which.... post 9-11 will not let anyone in. It is just so silly. “We cant reward these people for breaking the law”. “I just think we need to enforce the laws that are on the books”. “We cannot do this to the people who have gone through the process”. This is the kind of idiocy that comes out of epoples minds when prattling on about this. 12,000,000 people (and that is probably a low estimate) are already here and driving a portion of our economy. We collect tax dollars from them that they cannot legally enjoy the benefit of. they do all of our shit work for less then we are willing to pay people but we want to keep them out. the reason they are here is because our economy cannot run without them. We cannot pick fruit without them. We cannot run huge abominable chicken and cow farms without them. We cannot process anything with them. We need illegal aliens to run our economy and business wants and needs them not just to do the work but as 12,000,000 more consumers. They are NOT going anywhere.

Forgetting about the impossibility of the task of finding and removing 12,000,000 people lets assume they all just tturned themselves in, in a very orderly fashion at the post offices in their local communities. To house, process and transport home each of these folks would take...very conservatively 5k each. 6.6 Billion dollars to send them home. Granted it is not “peace in the middle east” type money but it is more money then we EVER like to spend on anything that does not roll or explode.
We still (despite the Bush administrations best efforts) still live in THE BEST, GREATEST country in the world. Everyone wants to live here. reagan let em all in when he was President and look where that got us? Oh a booming economy...blah blah blah. I am not saying the economy boomed because of that but seriously, they were here, they were not going home and Reagan did the only smart thing. It is still the only smart thing. Then we can work on tightening up our borders but once again... seriously... do we really want walls and razor wire on or borders? You know who had really good borders? The USSR. Where did that get them?

Lets let em in and assimilate the hell out of em and reap the benefits. Thats what I think.

****


So when did things deteriorate to this level? By that I specifically mean this year. Forget about the fact that our national intelligence estimate just told us that THEY (whoever they are but presumably the same people the President gets his info from) believe the Iranians stopped their nuclear weapon program in 2003... four years ago. Forget about the fact that our administration has been beating the drums to go to war with them... forget about that.
No... at year end we need to reflect on the year that was. Sure I was involved in a slight business reversal. Sure I am back to practicing law again full time... for people... for money... but lets set all that aside. Lets focus outside ourselves... for once and lets look at how our contry specifically got to this sorry state. Specifically... looking at the great theme phrase of the year when did we go from the brave strong country who put “Don’t tread on me” on their flags move to a country where the most important phrase of the years is, “Don’t tase me bro”.
Don’t tase me bro? How the hell could this happen here?
****
Romney was on Meet The Press this morning. It is a sign of my dotage that I so enjoy and look forward to watching that on Sunday morning. They have had almost all the cantidates on and this morning it was Romney’s turn. Fresh off of his attempt at being John Kennedy (failed) and explain why no one should worry about his faith. It did not go so well. He has spent tens of millions in Iowa and practically moved there for the last two years figuring he could use the momentum to roll on into Hillary’s New Hampshire. Looks like a failed strategy. Huckabee is leading but will perhaps fail when the hard questions start to be asked but who knows.

Faith of course should not make a difference. Our Constitution is clear that good men can serve whether Protestant’s, Muslims, Atheists, Hindus etc... But Romney has to worry because he has to pander to the radicalized Christian conservatives. That simply cannot work for him. He was on emphasizing the similarities but it just does not sell. What is worth is all the flip flopping he has done to appeal to this base. Gun control, abortion and immigration are three big 180s he has done. A man should be allowed to change his mind and position but all of his moves have been towards one thing and that is appealing to the base that Karl Rove and W put together. It is a failed strategy for 2008.

I know I already called Huckabee the winner of the nomination but these guys could still muddle it enough for a Mc Cain/Huckabee ticket. Stay tuned.

***

Dan Fogelberg died yesterday. Tragedy. He was my Sufjan Stevens. He died after a long losing battle with prostate cancer at his farm in Maine. I just assumed he still lived in Colorado where he made all his great music after fleeing middle Illinois but this guy... this guy from 1971 to 1976 released four brilliant solo CD’s produced by Irving Azoff and Joe Walsh and who had some of the best session players of the age on them. Pretty music with poetry and angst. But for his album Home Free and the song “Stars” I do not think I would have convinced my then 16 year old future wife to fall in love with me.
“Stood out in the rain
Let it soak me down
Before I called you...I called you.
Didn't see me there
Hidden by the rain
Beneath your
window...But I saw
you.
Putting on your face before the
Mirror on the wall
Dreaming that the looking glass
was me...
Catching your fondest gazes
Living through your fickle phases
I love you.
And it's getting easier each day
[ Lyrics found at www.mp3lyrics.org/GZs ]
To weep about you
Harder every night to
sleep without you
How many years must I be driven
By this dream
Of love with you?
Spend my dimes on phones
Trying just to talk but
You don't answer...you let it ring.
Spend my nights alone
Catching falling stars to
Give to you, love,
They're just for you.
For stars fall every time a
lover has to face the truth
And far too many stars have
fell on me.
And as they trail the skies
And burn their paths upon my eyes
I cry.”

Does not get much gayer then that but... I was 15. Cut me some slack.
It all fell apart around 79 when he became arty and pretentious with Jazz flutist Tim Wesiberg. By 81 he had sold out totally with the album “The Innocent Age” which included the sappy “Leader of the Band” and “Auld Lang Syne”. Awful stuff.
According to Wikipedia:
“In No Cure for Cancer, comedian Denis Leary suggests suing Fogelberg and James Taylor for turning him soft in the 70s, based on the legal precedent of the lawsuit filed by the parents of the two kids who killed themselves after listening to Judas Priest.”

Probably in poor taste considering cancer is what killed him on the 16th.

*****