Geraldo Rivera In Fantasy Land

Geraldo Rivera displayed a fantasy understanding when he proclaimed the cause of the defeat of the Amnesty Legislation to be racial fear and prejudice. His claim exudes a gross ingorance of the real reasons for the justifiable concern and outrage of the American people toward the the defeated legislation. Geraldo is out of touch, just as the President and many legislators are.

Speaking for myself, and I believe millions share these views, my reasons for opposition include:

• Anger with the federal government for ignoring enforcement of our existing laws. This entire problem brings to light how little the feds care about the laws that are created to protect the economy, character, and stability of this nation.
• The feds pretending to take meaningful enforcment measures which end up being token gestures
• Righteous indignation that my grandparents had to obey the laws of the land to gain citizenship and the 12 to 18 million who are here ILLEGALLY don't - and many of our elected officials vehmently argued to reward them for their purposeful lawbreaking!
• Lack of desire on the part of many or most illegals to assimilate.
• Granting billions of dollars in government services to illegal, law-breaking non-citizens when many Americans are stuggling with taxes, health care, education.
• We don't buy the "no Americans will do the work" red herring. The clear motive of business is to reduce labor costs at the expense of American citizens.
• Increasing crime rates generated by the illegals out of proportion to that of the native population.
• A second language being forced upon virtually every business and institution in the nation.
• The lack of concern about national security at our borders.

A legitimate concern which is dwarfed by the concerns described above is the overrrunning of our population by one race and one language group which has never before occurred in this nation's history, and which will create disruption and change in the social fabric of this nation much more quickly than most people can tolerate without a sense of being invaded. But to suggest this is the major issue is ludicrous and demonstrates Geraldo's ignorance of all the other issues.

The capper was his statement on Brian and the Judge radio show on June 29 when he named Michelle Malkin among the racist Americans who want to keep the nation from getting darker. What kind of dumb remark was THAT! She's already darker than average!

What "Support the War" Meant to Me - in retrospect

Two years ago, this, in a few words, is what "Support the War" meant to me: go in - eliminate Saddam and his command and control apparatus - check everywhere for purported WMDs - get out. If WMD's are later interpreted as al-Qaeda, then our current level of effort and strategy have failed and will fail. The undeniable "civil war" between Sunni and Shia was going on since well before the US arrived. Saddam merely suppressed it. We don't have the will or insight to effectively suppress the fighting rabid dogs that Saddam had. We have no business being there anymore. We need to learn tons more about our enemy before we commit continuing and increasingly misdirected resources toward the fight. The worn belief that we will have left a nation in tatters and "someone else" will fill the vacuum as an excuse to remain is unhelpful and irrelevant. That attitude is just part of our unhealthy national "bleeding heart" syndrome - our liberal and ego-centric belief that we are responsible for all the worlds ills.

When we feel our national security is threatened, we need to do what we do best: Go in, get it done, and get out. Lingering around to patch up the mess, most of it what we did NOT create, is just feeling too guilty for our own good.

Barack Inciting the Corrupt and Incompetent?

Why is the Federal Government in general, or George Bush in particular, being blamed by Barack Obama for the results of irresponsibility and corruption in New Orleans?

In the article, "Obama Warns of 'Quiet Riot' Among Blacks", is Barack just grasping at straws to further his political agenda? Yes. While he's grasping, he is pouring gasoline on that straw by dismissing the concept of personal responsibility by the complainers of New Orleans. It is true that New Orleans, almost two years after Katrina, is still in bad shape. It is equally true that there are many thousands of irresponsible, corrupt, ignorant people in New Orleans (and in many other places) who want to continue to be irresponsible, who want to continue to request handouts from others, and who want to continue blaming others for their own lack of motivation to do what needs to be done.

Barack finds this a great opportunity to blame others as well, and play to the ignorant and lazy among us to foment discontent. He would make a great al Qaeda spokesman: Promise violence and mayhem unless "the man", the evil voters in this country, dole out federal tax dollars to help fix the results of their failed behavior.

I much prefer a presidential candidate who recognizes the limitations of federal government and recognizes and promotes the concept of building up an attitude of self sufficiency, self-control, and personal initiative. Bill Cosby is a great example of calling an end to an attitude of helplessness. Why can't Barack do that? That's what makes him a liberal. To do otherwise is not in him.

National Priorities - We've Got It Backwards...

OK...I think I've had enough. I finally realize that Bush and much of Congress have our national priorities backwards.

Priority One: We need to learn how to protect our own borders (seaports, coastline, airports, Canadian and Mexican border) before we can even pretend to do Priority Two: Protect Iraq borders.

Our borders are simple and straightforward to defend compared to Iraqi borders. The distinction? - US citizens or non-US citizens. Clear cut. Process those who want to come in according to our existing laws. Enforce the process.

Iraq on the other hand is 1,000 times more complex. They have porous borders with Iran, Syria, Suadi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and Kuwait. They have borders within and between neighborhoods of 100 cities between Sunni and Shia. They have roaming bands of thugs and outlaws who don't have a concept of civilized human life – each of whom has no border. They have an antithetical variety of extreme religious beliefs amidst a culture antithetical to ours. And we think we’re going to control those borders? Wow! Talk about unrealistic. Critics of enforcement of our immigration laws say it is impossible to track or round up illegals in this country? And we're trying to do WHAT in Iraq?

I have a wonderful and logical idea...I don't know why I, or someone, hadn’t thought of this months ago.

If there is any legislative funding rider concerning our continuing and increasingly wasteful war in Iraq, it should be this:

Pull back our troops to outside the borders of Iraq. Reposition three quarters of our troops along our own borders (including seaports and coastlines). First priority: Demonstrate to the American people that we are capable of and have an indisputably strong will to enforce our own borders. Demonstrate that we are serious in dealing with illegal alien lawbreakers in our own country first. Use our border patrol agents to establish an accurate census of illegal aliens who are here and implement an effective tracking system. Immediately deport whatever percent of these illegal aliens who have broken laws in addition to our immigration laws. Give the balance of the illegal aliens a “reasonable time” to make arrangements to leave and seek citizenship through existing, appropriate means. Enforce employer violations of our immigration laws.

Once we have demonstrated our effectiveness at these tasks, then we might have more credibility in pursuing the Second priority, a border enforcement effort in a place like Iraq...if there are any Iraqis left.

But, for reasons that elude me, our leaders will demonstrate they are NOT serious about defending our own borders, and will continue to demonstrate our own lack of will, and thus lack of competence, elsewhere.