100,000 Protestors... Angry mobs of students...

[Motorboat Cruiser]

My god, I actually agree with scaeagles and Alex on this topic and disagree with iSm. Perhaps this would be a good time to take a shower.

Seriously though, there was a report today that I found pretty disturbing.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two teams of government investigators using fake documents were able to enter the United States with enough radioactive sources to make two dirty bombs, according to a federal report made available Monday.

The investigators purchased a "small quantity" of radioactive materials from a commercial source, according to a Government Accountability Office report prepared for Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican.

The investigators posed as employees of a fictitious company and brought the materials into the United States through checkpoints on the northern and southern borders, the report stated.

I think that is good enough evidence that our borders are nowhere near the level of security that they need to be at. Nor do I think that any amount of "taking it to the terrorists before they strike here" negates the fact that just about anyone who wishes to harm us can easily sneak across our border.

[Gemini Cricket]

Interesting. Are we all certain that all of us have ancestors who came here legally? If not, we shouldn't be telling people they shouldn't come here illegally but hire them cheaply to harvest our crops for us.

[scaeagles]

There was no such thing as illegal immigration until around 1880. It started with bans on Chinese immigrant labor, primarily to stop exploitation of them as cheap and abused labor. Wow....that sure sounds familar.

Ellis Island was the first real attempt to document incoming aliens from Europe, and that didn't open until 1892, and it was a rubber stamp operation. Everyone got in. It was just an attempt to keep track of who was.

Shortly after that the same thing was done along the southern borders of the US territories.

It was not until a series of laws passed starting in 1917 that there was any such thing a illegal immigration. That's only 90 years.

Based on that, I would suspect that most - certainly not all - of those who oppose illegal immigration are here legally.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

There was no such thing as illegal immigration until around 1880. It started with bans on Chinese immigrant labor, primarily to stop exploitation of them as cheap and abused labor. Wow....that sure sounds familar.

Sounds like Wal*Mart to me. Instead of bringing them here, we set up sweatshops over there.

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Based on that, I would suspect that most - certainly not all - of those who oppose illegal immigration are here legally.

A majority of us here from somewhere else. (Well, I'm Hawaiian and a bit of Cherokee but that's a different story.) Now that we're here, we're telling everyone else how to come over here. How does that work? Does anyone making/voting for these laws think back and say, 'Hmmm, sounds kinda hypocritical doesn't it?'

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Also, I hate people who pronounce "illegal" as "e-legal." I'm pretty sure e-legal is a lawyer referral Web site. This linguistic intolerance is unusual for me since I don't care about "nukular" or "febuary" or "libary" but it makes me want to kick a reporter every time I hear "elegal." Even if it wasn't said by a reporter.

If I hear someone say "nukular," "febuary," or "libary," I automatically assume they have the IQ of a small red onion and begin to speak more slowly to suit their needs. Elegal is just annoying to me. The others actually make me angry. Jagwire also grates on me.

My dad has his own special accent that includes, pitcher (for picture), ambliance (ambulance), antanna, waint (wait). I could go on. Annoys the living crap out of me if he uses a sentence that combines any two of those words.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

A majority of us here from somewhere else. (Well, I'm Hawaiian and a bit of Cherokee but that's a different story.) Now that we're here, we're telling everyone else how to come over here. How does that work? Does anyone making/voting for these laws think back and say, 'Hmmm, sounds kinda hypocritical doesn't it?'

Wow - we're just disagreeing about everything this morning, aren't we?

Most certainly we are mostly here from somewhere else. But historically, why did we not even think about restricting immigration until the late 1800s? Because we had a vast amount of land to populate. Of course we are making different rules. Rules change all the time depending on the current situation. It is not hypocritical in the least.

If we wish to talk about hypocrisy, as I mentioned before, let's talk about the root of the problem, being the Mexican government, who demands open borders with the US and full access to social services, yet brutalizes Guatemalans who who cross their border with Mexico.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

...let's talk about the root of the problem, being the Mexican government, who demands open borders with the US and full access to social services, yet brutalizes Guatemalans who who cross their border with Mexico.

That's an interesting subject. Hmm. Of course, now that you've brought that up I can't say anything about the hypocrisy of sons of immigrants telling new immigrants not to come in. I'm so distracted now. Oy.

That's why we're tough on immigration? We're running out of land? I just drove across country. We still have lots of land. We're not running out.

This whole thing is a guise by the government to make everyone feel that they are doing something about our country's security. That's all it is. Rumsfeld just announced that gov't investigators smuggled dirty bomb material in at the Texas border and Washington border. Both borders failed the test. If it were real, there would be two dirty bombs in our country right now. Since 2001, Bush has done squat to protect us. It's all for show and all for not.

Two teams of government investigators using fake documents were able to enter the United States with enough radioactive sources to make two dirty bombs, according to a federal report made available Monday.

Source

[SacTown Chronic]

Originally Posted by tracilicious

If I hear someone say "nukular," "febuary," or "libary," I automatically assume they have the IQ of a small red onion and begin to speak more slowly to suit their needs.

When my kids say "library" I correct them by loudly saying "libary". A lame little joke that cracks me up.

It's from the Simpsons episode where Homer had a crayon removed from his brain which resulted in him being smarter. Homer sez, "Lisa, want to go to the library tomorrow? You'll notice I didn't say "libary" or tomorrey."

Libary. Libary. LIBARY.

[scaeagles]

I guess the anger thread is a good place for you today, GC.

So, you are critical of Bush for not doing more to secure the borders - and I'm with you 100% on that - but in the same breath you are basically saying it is not right to control the borders to stop the flow of illegals coming across.

I see an inconsistency here, unless I am misreading what you are saying.

You brought up the hypocrisy of those that are here not wanting anyone else to have a piece. I don't know anyone that opposes legal immigration. I know of them, like Pat Buchanen, but none personally. It's illegal immigration. So it isn't that we're trying to keep people out. We're trying to keep track of those getting in. Anyway, bringing up what you consider to be hyposritical made me want to point out the biggest hypocrisy out there.

You are falling for what the organizers of the protests want you to fall for, which is to confuse legal with illegal immigration. You mock my "land to populate" argument, but it is true. The growing US needed to have enough people to spread out across the new territories. Once that had been met and we were populated coast to coast, restrictions went into effect.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by tracilicious

If I hear someone say "nukular," "febuary," or "libary," I automatically assume they have the IQ of a small red onion and begin to speak more slowly to suit their needs.

I am curious....would you think the same thing of Jesse Jackson when he says "ax" instead of "ask". To suggest something would make you a racist, you know.

I'm not saying I disagree with you, but there are certain words that fall into regional dialect issues.