Hello all. Welcome to the Backchannel Blog. It’s Friday. As Brian said on Monday we are mostly comprised of Obama supporters that met over at Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix Blog. There will be different posters everyday and I thought I would take my first shot at telling you who I am.
I am a Yellow Dog Democrat. Been one since 1964. Reckon I will die one. My record for backing a winner is pretty dismal over the long haul. That’s all right I can sleep at night.
One of my big issues that I will develop is Immigration and that damned fence. Suffice to say that the fence is a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem. I look forward to the next administration not only stopping the fence building but tearing the damned thing down.
Hey, it’s Friday. Catholics used to be required to eat fish on Friday. Did I mention that I love fish? So, let’s go fishing. Outta here.
Adios para ahora, mis amigos
Yo soy un demócrata amarillo del perro.
¡yo soy Horsedooty!
31 Comments
June 27, 2008 at 10:30 am
Hola Sr. Doots. Agree the fence is a woefully inadequate strategy; better to have tamper proof ID, a workable database of those legally eligible to work in the US, and MORE realistic work and residence permits, so that agriculture and tourism and other industries that rely on immigrant labor (folks, unemployed Detroiters are not going to be picking apples in Washington state or lettuce in California’s inland empire).
Immigration is a great good, when handled properly. Flooding the market with desperate people who have no stake in their own country is not so good. It also leads to scapegoating.
We should welcome those immigrants who will contribute and flourish here AND help Mexico and other countries develop opportunities for their own citizens.
June 27, 2008 at 10:30 am
Amen brother. Not only won’t the fence work, it’s damn expensive and ugly too! If people think the price of food is expensive now wait till they see what would happen if we didn’t have immigrant workers to pick it for us. It’s time we started treating these poor people as criminals and start bring some logic to our immigration “problem”
June 27, 2008 at 10:38 am
Off topic, but here was an interesting story from CNN (posting and then fleeing to beach) — about a UPS pilot who aids US farmers in his spare time.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/06/25/heroes.gross/index.html
Looking forward to reading more comments and will be back to discuss later today. Immigration is a big topic; we can look at it on several different threads.
June 27, 2008 at 10:48 am
Brian: think it ate a second comment. We can deal with that later.
June 27, 2008 at 11:02 am
I think you posted two posts too quickly and the spam filter caught your second post, I recovered it.
June 27, 2008 at 11:13 am
Doots, Great piece. Seems to me for the price of the fence we could hire a lot of ICE agents who could track down the employers who hire illegals and bring the employers to justice.
Anybody that’s concerned about the decline of the middle class has to be concerned about illegal immigration. Dog’s right. The solution is to help Mexico revive their economy.
June 27, 2008 at 11:25 am
This is why the US can do nada about the fence in Israel.
June 27, 2008 at 11:39 am
This has got to be seen as bad news in the McCain camp, his lead in Mississippi is only 6 points. Even more troubling for the McCain camp is that he is only leading in the state with white men. The fact that at this point in the campaign Obama is holding a solid lead (5 points) among the state’s woman is a real warning signal for McCain.
“The topline numbers in the race between John McCain and Barack Obama in Mississippi remain unchanged over the past month. The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state since Hillary Clinton’s exit from the race finds McCain leading Obama 50% to 44%, just as he did in May.
While McCain has a solid 57% to 38% lead among men, Obama leads 49% to 44% among women. Obama also dominates among the youngest set of voters (age 18-29), 75% to 22%. McCain holds the advantage in voters of all other age groups. ”
http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/mississippi/election_2008_mississippi_presidential_election
June 27, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Barack and Hillary: it’s show time.
June 27, 2008 at 12:13 pm
And away we go!
June 27, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Dr. Dobson Has Just Handed Obama Victory
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/dr-dobson-has-just-handed_b_108989.html
This is an interesting piece, a good read as a follow up to Sheila’s piece of the other day.
June 27, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Well, my respect for Hillary has gone up by an order of magnitude. Probably the best speech she has given during this campaign. Certainly one of the most difficult.
We all fail. Those who are successful get up, dust themselves off, and show some grace. If she keeps this up, she’ll insure a great political legacy.
June 27, 2008 at 12:47 pm
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hOiOWSOUpWY
June 27, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Just got an email from Bill Richardson, and as this is a bee in my bonnet, thought I’d post it here:
You and I both know that no matter how we feel about this war we’re 100% behind our men and women in uniform. We need to stand with them when it counts – especially when they come home. Unfortunately, George W. Bush and John McCain are actively fighting AGAINST the New G.I. Bill introduced in the Senate by Senator Jim Webb and co-sponsored in the House by my good friend, Congressman Tom Udall.
Join Tom and me by signing Tom’s letter calling on George W. Bush to support our troops. Help ensure that when they come home they can afford a four-year college education.
This New G.I. Bill will modernize the Montgomery G.I. Bill so that our troops who today so bravely and honorably serve our country in Afghanistan and Iraq will have access to benefits on par with veterans of World War II. And yet, George W. Bush doesn’t want to sign it. Tom has the integrity to very publicly call on the President to sign the bill – and you can too.
Click here to add your name, and send a message to George W. Bush telling him to SUPPORT our troops – and not play politics with their future.
This bill provides important educational and health benefits to our troops and it is far too important to leave unsigned.
Sign Tom’s letter and make Bush put his money where his mouth is.
All the best,
Governor Bill Richardson
Here’s the url to Tom Udall on the bill:
http://tomudall.com/GI_Bill_Letter?tag=gbremailcoreg
June 27, 2008 at 1:17 pm
I had a “disccussion” with flatus over this very issue last night over on Craig’s. Support our troops, vote Democratic!
June 27, 2008 at 1:22 pm
And before I forget, great to see Mad Mustard. I see the move to OK hasn’t changed that great commentary.
June 27, 2008 at 2:14 pm
beach dog said this, “Flooding the market with desperate people who have no stake in their own country is not so good. It also leads to scapegoating.”
I am not so sure that we flood the market with desperate people. I am also not particularly in favor of making the workers be on the path to citizenship. I think I would support a guest worker plan that would allow the workers to send or take money back to Mexico. I mean the reason they are here is to support the family in Mexico.
¡yo soy Horsedooty!
June 27, 2008 at 2:30 pm
It’s no one’s business what people do with the money they make.
June 27, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I agree. once the person has been paid it is their money and not yours. You have no say how they spend it.
¡yo soy Horsedooty!
June 27, 2008 at 3:51 pm
New ServeyUSA Ohio poll out today, Obama ahead by 2
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=b379f604-b136-4483-b19f-7f38a1a85f81
June 27, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Doots,
As to the fence, I heard of a viable alternative on the Stephanie Miller show this morning. Vicki Lawrence was on promoting her book “Mama for President”
http://www.amazon.com/Mama-President-Good-Lord-Why/dp/1401604099
and she proposed building senior citizen housing all along the border, the reasoning being that nobody sees more in the neighborhood than nosey old women peaking through their blinds.
Pee yer pants funny.
http://stephaniemiller.com/home.php?PageId=85&PageSubId=
June 27, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Another article pointing out how the Dobson attack is helping Obama:
Is Dobson’s Obama Hit Backfiring?
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1818313,00.html
June 27, 2008 at 6:47 pm
“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.”
Robert Frost
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/frost-mending.html
June 27, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Grover Norquist….John Kerry with a “Tan”….very unfortunate statement….
June 27, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Yes I saw that earlier and posted it on Craig’s. Not unfortunate at all, that’s the way they feel, let the truth ring out loud and clear!
June 27, 2008 at 7:12 pm
What I “Feel” is unfortunate is that the thinking is there are all…..Our generation is full of hypocrates.
June 27, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Keith is going to be talking about it in a moment or two.
June 27, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Running in>>>>>>Running Out>>>>>
June 27, 2008 at 9:34 pm
NEW THREAD
June 28, 2008 at 12:14 am
Don’t you all know that fences work?
Why in Baghdad there building fences of concrete to wall groups of different ethnicities in.
“I wonder how many people would see our having turned Baghdad into a series of enclaves that are de facto prison camps as a sign of “success?” Baghdad was once a city where people of different ethnicities and sects lived side-by -side, intermarried, and worked together. The Baghdad that exists today is a very different place. Baghdad is Berlin on steroids; there are literally dozens of enclaves walled off inside the city, with newer and smaller enclaves being created almost daily. Concrete walls (some well over 10 feet high) and security checkpoints makes the entrance to many Baghdad neighborhoods the “sally ports” of a new prison system, with all the headaches that such a system entails.”
http://reconstitution.us/rcnew/?p=1282
The question you really have too ask yourselves is are the fences being built to keep people out or are they being built to keep American Citizens in?
We should all be telling our representatives what Reagan told Russia. Tear down that wall!!
Horsedooty is right though. We don’t need no stinkin fences, what we need is immigration reform that actually works.
God Bless.
November 11, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Wow, you guys are all living on fantasy island.
Do any of you live in town of more than 12 people? Because if you do then what the heck are you talking about? Immigration reform is part of the solution, its not the solution itself.
I live in Southern California. I can tell you dozens of places I know personally where illegal immigrants are working right now. A fancy card or new computer system is not going to prevent these people from sneaking across the border.
Granted, most of these people came to live a better life, they’re hardworking, and providing for their family, but let’s forget, illegal.
And almost all of these people snuck in through the Mexico/US border (whether they’re Mexican or not). Having a border where people can walk right on in is absurd, especially living in a post 911 America.
Who cares if the fence is ugly or cost money? As long it makes it that much more difficult for those wishing harm on us and out children to enter our country unchecked.
How many of you have children? Could you imagine your daughter being raped or your son being killed by someone who snuck across the border?
God forbid any of that happen, but it does happen, and I would like to see how you feel about the ugly fence when it happens to you.
We all thought we were safe on this soil until September 11th changed that.
I could just see Al Qaeda now… “Well guys, we’re going to have to put a halt to our plan of destroying America, put the bombs away, they’ve got immigration reform.”
Comments are closed.