Misplaced Security Concerns?
Steve Verdon
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Tuesday, July 3, 2007
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13 comments
About Steve Verdon
Steve has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and attended graduate school at The George Washington University, leaving school shortly before staring work on his dissertation when his first child was born. He works in the energy industry and prior to that worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Division of Price Index and Number Research. He joined the staff at OTB in November 2004.
It’s sad to think we can only be concerned about one threat at a time. In WWII, I guess we only looked in the Pacific theater when things were calm in Europe, eh?
Arky,
The point is hardly that we should only focus on one thing at a time, but rather the rank-order of the actual threat of the items on the agenda.
The threat posed by Mexicans illegally crossing the border to pick vegetables, clean houses, mow lawns and work at the local fast food establishment is not the dramatic ill that some in the GOP have made it out to be in recent weeks. Certainly the security threat posed (both short and long term) posed by the policies in Iraq and Afghanistan are more serious than illegal immigration.
The cartoon gets it right: many on the GOP have been nigh apoplectic on this issue to a degree that is not warranted. If the entry into the US of millions of illegal immigrants is going to destroy us, we should already be destroyed, yes?
I think you my be misrepresenting the argument, Steven. The GOP/Republicans didn’t bring immigration to the forefront recently, President Bush did (let’s make a distinction between the two for a minute).
He and a bi-partisan group of moron Senators got with him and attempted to cram horrible legislation through Congress. They failed, thank goodness. Do you really think had this crap never been tried that immigration would have gotten the mileage it has over the past few weeks?
If you want to drop all immigration talk and talk about Iran, I doubt you’ll get much resistance from the GOP. But good luck getting the left to rationally discuss what to do about irrational terror regimes.
Steven,
President Bush commuting Libby’s jail term is wrong, but 12+million lawbreakers coming to the US to pick lettuce, mow lawns and work at the local fast food outlet is okay?
I disagree with Cox and Forkum rarely, but certainly do so here. The masses, both parties, let their displeasure known, not the GOP leadership.
My apologies Steve. I mistook the post to be by Steven Taylor. Please don’t flame me.
This cartoon another lame liberal attempt to poke some fun at the adminstration’s policy. What would they have us do- Nuke Iran or welcome illegals with open arms and a personal check. (The latter I’m sure- more liberal votes!)
The threat may not be from Mexicans, but absolutely from Mexico, and Canada. Walk-through borders are no way to keep easily concealed nuclear and biological weapons, and those intent on mayhem, out of our country.
The current state of the borders is sad, not an amusing joke. The stupid immigration bill spent all too much focus on workers, and not nearly enough on solving the actual problem- porous borders. Now nothing will be done, and I’m afraid it is just a matter of time before another attack.
LJD, I believe that you are mistaken if you think that CoxandForkum is liberal. Without putting words in their mouths, I’d say that they were conservative with a very wide libertarian streak, definitely anti-idiotarian.
I agree with the cartoon. I think that many in the GOP have a strange fixation on immigration and how dangerous it is.
Now, I’m not going to say that nothing should be done, and I’m not even going to argue that the immigration bill that they were trying to get through was good legislation (indeed, the consensus was that it was not). However, there are those in the GOP who think that immigration is the TOP ISSUE, and that we must build a 30 foot wall around this country immediately or suffer the consequences of ILLEGAL MEXICANS!!!!!!!
I’m sorry, I’m not buying it. We’re not going to stop them from coming in the country – it may be time to change the immigration laws around. I think we should do allow illegal immigrants to register as workers – this would solve the problem of not knowing who is in the country, and help us see who is avoiding the authorities for reasons of economics (if they find me, I’ll have to go home and earn less money), and who is doing it for more sinister reasons (if they find me, they’ll foil my plot!).
Fersboo,
Well we agree on the basic political philosophy of Cox and Forkum.
I agree with Steven Taylor’s comment in that the really issue is the rank ordering of concerns here. Do I consider 12 million people coming here illegally on par with other crimes? No. Should Libby go to jail? Frankly I don’t know, but I’d hazard a guess that 2.5 years is a bit much. Should Bush have commuted his sentence? Not without looking at some other rather egregious instances of injustice that I touched on in the post noting the commutation of Libby’s sentence.
That cartoon is insulting to the intelligence. I know the 1st amendment guarantees free speech,but couldn’t it have been put to better use by acknowledging that Scooter Libby had a right to be wrong about an innocuous conversation he may or may not have had years ago ?
The above is what you’d call “reaching” folks. Couldn’t help it, I just can’t stand whining and that “cartoonist” is a whiner.
Completely agree with this. Instead of trying to pass amnesty for illegal aliens, the Pres and Senate should be figuring out how to invade Iran.
“”Misplaced Security Concerns?””
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Maybe the cartoon is right and the fourth frame really is the larger threat!
What, elephants in suits with misguided ideas about security threats setting government policy? You’re right, that may just be the larger threat here.