Blue Texan!

Mornin’.

Hi all
My head is having trouble getting around this sell out of our country. Most people where I live are Repug, but they are clueless. Would they care if they knew their country, they have always known, has been dissolved.

‘67 percent of Republicans still support Bush.’ This is a ratio. The numerator is falling only slightly faster than the denominator; both are falling fast. When there are two republics left and one of them still supports Bush, he will probably have bottomed out.

More than any other question, Republican presidential candidates are asking voters to consider a single issue in the weeks before primary voting begins: Who detests illegal immigration the most?

and yet the solution is so clear, so easy and cost nothing, and whether or not I’d support it I don’t know yet but the simple solution is to jail anyone that hires an undocumented laborer

bing

and then we could address as a separate issue how to document and give citizenship to productive members of society

Here is the best explanation of Republican thinking I have seen so far:
http://action.credomobile.com/…..arall.html

Ugg, ugh!

What about hatin’ teh gaii???

I must admit, I’m increasingly puzzled by the GOP and their candidate’s bizarre fixation on keeping the brown people out.

Easy. Republicans hate everyone who is not just. like. them. Gotta be – same color, same income class, same religion, same sexual orientation (or at least ‘claimed’ sexual orientation), etc.

It’s just a matter of whose ‘day in the barrel’ (or election cycle) it happens to be…

Television. That’s why we are the way we are.

How about the GOP that wants Government out of our lives, but also wants warrantless wiretapping? Could there be a bigger intrusion in our lives by the Gov’t?

The GOP wants smaller Government, but Bush and the Republicans created the biggest, most expensive Government ever. How can they support that?

Here is the best explanation of Republican thinking I have seen so far:

A first for me – I quote Tweety:

As far as political candidates go, Democrats fall in love – Republicans fall in line.”

My bet is that he stole the line… but I liked it.

Television. That’s why we are the way we are.

I thought it was video games. Gettin’ hard to keep up…

Being a Republican means never having to make sense.

Garbage in. Garbage out.

Republicans are stupid.

Well, considering that most agribusiness models depend upon, not just immigration but illegal immigration, I don’t see how there will ever be a political answer to this. Plus, the fact that NAFTA decimated the Mexican agricultural sector before abandoning the maquiladoras, it seems worse than fatuous to talk about who hates immigrants worse. There will be no change as long as the corporations who hire them depend for their profits upon indentured servants.

Saying people who think illegal immigration should be dealt with as a legal, rule of law, and national security issue are simply fixated on keeping the brown people out is intellectually dishonest and a kind of race-baiting nastiness that harms rather than helps the progressive cause. This sort of speech looks exactly like the kind of crap spewed by the wingnuts that you are so quick to rightly pounce upon.

Great posting, BT!

My take is they pound the fear drums about immigration so that Americans won’t protest that the best jobs are not being taken here by illegal aliens, they are being outsourced there to remote workers halfway around the globe.

Bushonomics = vampire economics. Sucking the lifeblood from the middle class and America’s children.

Being a Republican means never having to make sense.

And there is that, Blue, great quote. Kinda like Chris Matthews’ line: Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line.

I must admit, I’m increasingly puzzled by the GOP and their candidate’s bizarre fixation on keeping the brown people out.

Plus, ya gotta remember – they don’t have any successes to run on; so they have to create an issue.

just went back to comments and found your Matthews h/t. That was a splendid line he used.

I am sure there is a complicate explanation to the convoluted thinking of Republicans but why expose ourselves to it. Sometimes simple is better so as Old Coastie puts it: Republicans are stupid.

Immigration, Baseball Steroids, the “Christmas” Proclamation.

Does anyone really give a f**k ?

That was a splendid line he used.

Don’t give Tweety too much credit. Truman said it first.

See, there’s your mistake. You assume that what the ‘Pubs say they want is what they really want. Judge them by their actions, not their words.

They want an enormous authoritarian government. They want lots of mechanisms to transfer wealth from the middle class to the pockets of the rich and the corporations. The military is the best of those, because they can always get more money, painlessly, by use of state terror.

And they want lots of illegal immigrants, for two purposes: 1) to work for low wages, and 2) to provide a focus for hyper-nationalistic fervor.

It makes perfect sense. They talk obsessively about it
to attract blue collar votes, but once elected do nothing about it so as not to offend the people who finance the party.

“won’t you be my neighbor?” a few of you hit it on the head (which you know they will never admit) They simply don’t have anything else they can do but create something to keep your eyes off the man behind the curtain

Immigration, Baseball Steroids, the “Christmas” Proclamation.

Does anyone really give a f**k ?

I actually do think the steroid case matters, shades of the Soviets and East Germans.

They talk obsessively about it to attract blue collar votes, but once elected do nothing about it so as not to offend the people who finance the party.

You’d think that — but that strategy failed miserably in ‘06.

OT in yet another example [see HuffPo] of the rampant cynicism and corruption of Bush appointees and the grand tradition of abuse of power we’ve already been given by Team BushCo’s DOJ, Kevin Martin, FCC chair, is planning to steamroll through his plan to further consolidate media power in a few corporate hands.

Who is this guy? And why can’t he be stopped?

Steroids is a nice metaphor for the mass corruption this country is hopped up on…

Thank you for the proper attribution…needless to say, Tweety didn’t attribute.

You need to talk to the UT DEmocrats who think that Cornyn is easy pickin’s and explain that when GWB rides into town to campaign for COrnyn he will win. Texas is one of the last bastions of Bush support. They can not act like Cornyn is defeated already and they are.

I don’t think that strategy backfired in in ‘06.
That election was decided on other grounds.

My lady and me are brown. And we don’t mind. ;0)

If it’s Friday, it must be another scripted Bush Rose Garden statement poking a stick in Harry and Nancy’s eyes.

A wag on the the Philly AM sports station quipped that considering most of the names named, it shoots to hell the idea that steroids enhance performance.

The immigration issue and the Iraq war sunk McCain’s candidacy.

Yep, now for the T-ball questions….

The whole Repug prez candidate field is on steroids.

I guess drooling bullies appealing to their mob always works for the Republican clan. Oh, and I guess they plan to steal the next election too.

Texas is one of the last bastions of Bush support.

His approval rating is in the 40s statewide. But I agree with you about Cornyn. He’ll be fine. State is still firmly GOP, and not anti-Bush enough to kick Cornyn out.

rube: “Ah still love Bush cuz he talks just lahk me.”

power elites: “I still support him because if he goes down, so do we. *do not want* Prague.”

jeezus GOD gimme an edit function! “the HAGUE”, god dammit. not “PRAGUE”. oy. brain dying before your very eyes.

Old Coastie puts it: Republicans are stupid.

Cuomo puts it: Republicans are not very fucking nice people.

luuuurve it!
;~p

Here in Oklahoma we are getting bluer. We have a Demo governor and an elected Lt. Guv. Jeri Askins. And she’s a woman and a former judge to boot. The Lt. Governor was born and raised not very far from here. We are proud of Lieuten

I thought it was selling out on the torture bill. That’s where the decline started. When he sold out to Bush and Cheney and started supporting them on everything, even though what made him popular up to that point was that he didn’t support them.

Mexicans should be allowed to work here the same way the Polish work in England as part of the EEU. It completely benefits the economy.

Again, McCain’s stand on immigration and the Iraq war has sunk his campaign:

PHOENIX — A new Arizona law against employing illegal immigrants has shaken businesses, scared workers, delighted advocates of stricter immigration controls and added to tensions in a state split over who belongs here and who does not.

And that is even before the law’s scheduled effective date, Jan. 1.

State officials are seeking to curb illegal immigration by choking the supply of jobs with the law, which threatens to pull the business license of any employer that knowingly hires an illegal immigrant.

My # 44 last sentence should read: ‘we are proud of Lieutenant Governor Askins’.

Some lab:

Arizona makes for a striking laboratory. Its estimated population of 500,000 illegal immigrants is among the highest and fastest growing in the country, and illegal workers make up an estimated 9 percent to 12 percent of the work force, mostly in low-skill jobs in the service, construction and landscaping industries, according to research at Arizona State University.

(Same link as my 46.)

Most of the folks in Iraq are brown.

OT: Things are looking grim on the FISA front: http://firedoglake.com/2007/12…..nt-1147263

Most of the folks in the Middle East (including Israel) are brown.

If the United States would stop ripping off so called third world countries, and supporting dictatorships and corrupt regimes in other countries, we wouldn’t have an “immigration problem”. Of course I realize we are entitled to the natural resources of developing nations.

Kiddo, you’re too young to be this cynical.

All goopers love immigration because it is a great organizing tool.
Hate is great for the goopers and there is a lot of support for racial hatred on the right.

That’s true. But Israel fulfills a vital function for us. As “good brown people” they assist our government in oppressing other Middle Eastern ‘browns’.

Another possible explanation — remember that in 2004, Republicans were much more likely to incorrectly believe that Bush’s stances on a variety of issues were in agreement with theirs.

It doesn’t matter what he’s actually doing, it’s what they’re being told that informs their beliefs. So as long as he doesn’t get in their faces about immigration, they’ll assume that he believes the “right” things, because he is The True Leader, so he must be doing right.

Try this:

1. I support Republicans because of their strong stance against illegal immigration.
2. Republicans have had control of both houses of congress and the presidency for six of the the last seven years.
3. In spite of this total control, no immigration bill was passed.
4. Republican representatives, to placate the racist loon wing of the party, claim no immigration bill has been passed because none has been restrictive enough to vote for.
5. The real reason is that no immigration bill has passed is that none has been weak enough to continue the business wing of the party’s supply of cheap labor.
6. Unregulated immigration continues.
7. Republicans once again run on a campaign of restrictive immigration.
9. I support Republicans because of their strong stance against illegal immigration.

Not as succinct, but I love the schizophrenia.

Horrors inflicted on brown people:

Khalaf recounted the events of that day to a hushed room of lawyers with laptops. He watched, he said, as the Blackwater convoy made the U-turn toward the street where he stood directing traffic. As the convoy stopped, Khalaf watched as a large man with a mustache standing atop the third car fired several shots in the air. Khalaf turned back toward the Yarmouk road to see what might have spurred the shooting and heard a woman yell, “My son! My son!” He ran three cars back to a white sedan to find a woman holding a young man slumped over and covered with blood.

The man was Ahmed, a 20-year-old medical student at the top of his class, and the woman his mother, Mohasin, a successful dermatologist and mother of three.

“I tried to help the young man, but his mother was holding him so tight,” said Khalaf. “I raised my left arm high in the air to try to signal to the convoy to stop the shooting,” he said, thinking that it would respond to such a gesture by a police officer. He described how he crouched by the car, his right arm reaching inside, his head out and left arm up in the air, signaling to the convoy, his gun secure in its holster. Then the mother was shot dead before his eyes.

Great Post, BT.

I really enjoy your writing. Where were you prior to FDL? Keep up the great work.

Goopers looks at Israelies and see Miami Beach tans

Saying people who think illegal immigration should be dealt with as a legal, rule of law, and national security issue are simply fixated on keeping the brown people out is intellectually dishonest and a kind of race-baiting nastiness that harms rather than helps the progressive cause. This sort of speech looks exactly like the kind of crap spewed by the wingnuts that you are so quick to rightly pounce upon.

This might be a very thought-provoking comment if it reflected anything at all of what was actually written.

And about McCain:

Nearly 60 percent of John McCain’s supporters say they have at least some reservations about supporting a candidate who is over 70, according to an AP-Yahoo News survey. The Republican presidential hopeful is 71.

I also was wondering where Blue Texan came from. A great (and fresh) addition to FDL for sure.

Gee, thanks IrishJim and Biodun.

I founded Instaputz and still post there. My talented partner TS is carrying the load lately.

Great to be here in the Lake.

Nearly 60 percent of John McCain’s supporters say they have at least some reservations about supporting a candidate who is over 70, according to an AP-Yahoo News survey. The Republican presidential hopeful is 71.

Good news: they have very little to worry about. McCain is already politically irrelevant; he just hasn’t noticed yet.

I also was wondering where Blue Texan came from. A great (and fresh) addition to FDL for sure.

Well duh, Texas. And piling on to the kudos for Blue Texan. So glad you are writing for us!

Yeah, I don’t say it often enough. Thanks BT.
Sometimes (most of the time) my temper gets in my way.

Don’t count out Newt. He said if the Repug field sucked, he might throw his hat in.

Just another instance of Republicans voting against their own self-interest and personal preferences. For over a century now (at least) the Republcan party has been the party of ‘big business’, and cagey rhetoric and the force of overwhelming propaganda (beginning just after the Ludlow massacre and other labor/strike related atrocities) has created the false impression of a party which ‘defends personal freedom’, etc. The initial premise of the post(that GOP rank and file both hate current immigration policy yet still support Bush) is simply another instance of this propaganda victory: the GOP base doesn’t ’support’ Bush, (they also dislike his current policies). It’s just that they rabidly hate Democrats, who, in their view are socialist-nanny-staters intent on destroying a culture of individualism. The irony, of course, is that a political identity based on preserving a loose concept of individualism is even more likely to be undermined by the very interests which promote that idea as a value.

Jane’s upstairs…

That’s exactly right, OK. Pretending to be ouraged by illegals while reaping the benefits of a workforce who can make no demands – that’s the worst kind of hypocrisy. Corporations will do anything to keep illegals – don’t believe the hype!

We just loot and pillage the resources of the rest of the world, then get all indignant when they come here looking for work because we ruined it for them at home…

I like the blog name (the Putz part, as someone who grew up in NYC) and the blog roll at Instaputz.

It costs nothing to prosecute and jail employers, perhaps even putting their businesses out of commission in the process? I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but I don’t believe there’s a quick, easy fix to immigration, either.

The Republicans’ policy is to lead through fear. What better way to wage fear than to beat the drum of war on terror and expelling the brown man from our country.

http://13martyrs.blogspot.com/

Tex, I don’t think the repubs really want to keep the brown bodies out; I think they just want to turn them into red-herrings to use to try get voters minds off the clusterfuck.

What a coup they will have pulled, if they can create more worries about illegal immigrants, than already exists about the terrible costs of the GOP’s bloody chaos-theory petrie dish, on our economy, and on our standing in the world.

You need to talk to the UT DEmocrats who think that Cornyn is easy pickin’s and explain that when GWB rides into town to campaign for COrnyn he will win. Texas is one of the last bastions of Bush support. They can not act like Cornyn is defeated already and they are.

Yes, chances are Cornyn will survive with the “help” of Dubya. However, part of the 50-state campaign strategy is to push Republicans to the breaking point by pushing them everywhere. We have more campaign money this year and many supposedly safe Republican-held seats will be much weaker than expected and many will lose. Democrats can take it to the rim and stuff ‘em almost anywhere this time around.

Yeah, Cornyn will probably survive, but I wouldn’t dismiss the chance to challenge him and see if there’s a Macacca moment. Remember, Allen (R-Va) was expected to win re-election, right up to the moment when he wasn’t re-elected.

The same might be said about several (supposedly) safe Repub seats. Collins in Maine is another one. Sununu in New Hampshire is another. There are quite a few. There may be many fewer a year from now.

“nanny stateism and Socialism”

As far as I can see it is helpful to have a nanny (else there wouldn’t be such a thing) to keep the little monsters in line. Perhaps with a better nanny Dubya wouldn’t have turned out to be a sociopathic killer.

As for socialism: I don’t think you’ll find many Democrats who believe in socialistic policies. Most believe the government should restrain destructive forces in Society and provide a helping hand to the weakest amongst us. And, since FDR there has been a bit more belief (accepted by Republicans I might add) that government should do a bit to spur economic growth. Specific policies may vary from president to president and the degree to which one will push this or that policy vary.

Individualism is great. We Dems support Civil Rights and promote individual growth with education, the arts, public service (such as the Americorp and Peace Corps), protection of equal opportunity and civil rights and the like. It’s Republicans who stifle us with their racism, religiosity in government and all-consuming focus on wealth (whether it’s taxes or NAFTA or whatever). If you don’t fit their mold they reject you utterly. Democrats say ‘welcome’.

This year Democrats are saying ‘welcome’ to moderate Republicans who are sick to death of George W. and want a return to common sense, middle-America values and rebuilding the middle class.