(no subject)

[which_chick]

Does anyone besides me think that Vincente Fox (the president of Mexico) cut a deal with Bush here lately? Fox, as I'm sure we all recall, was GONNA sign to legalize all kindsa drugs to make Mexico la mejor destinacion para la rotura del resorte but pulled out of that broadly expected move at the last minute quicker than a Catholic emulating Onan, no explanation given. Meanwhile, immigration has blown up in W's face here lately and y'know, a lot of the illegals we get speak Spanish. I don't think they come from Spain.



It's my guess, given Bush's speech on immigration here today (The NYT has the text for you in case you missed the speech or couldn't tolerate listening to the Shrub), that he cut a deal with Fox, to wit, that Fox gave up drugs and a lock on the spring break trade in order to get some motherfucking amnesty for the illegals in this country. (Why would Fox want there to be Mexican peoples in the United States? Two reasons. First, the dissidents are the ones who fucking leave Mexico. Second, most of those who leave send home huge amounts of money that support the economy down there. Money coming into Mexico from immigrants (legal or otherwise) in el norte was about 11 billion in 2003. Mexico has no reason at all to want the immigration thing to stop. Interestingly, on the SOUTHERN border of Mexico, they have the same problem with illegals that we do along the bottom of Texas. Compared to their southerly neighbors, Mexico doesn't suck and it's flooded with illegals looking for a better life and willing to take shit-ass jobs to get it. Seeing as how that's the case for Mexico, you'd think they'd be a little more fucking sympathetic to our issue with THEIR damn people coming here, but apparently that's totally different. Totally.)

Bush says There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program of mass deportation. That middle ground recognizes that there are differences between an illegal immigrant who crossed the border recently -- and someone who has worked here for many years, and has a home, a family, and an otherwise clean record. I believe that illegal immigrants who have roots in our country and want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law, to pay their taxes, to learn English, and to work in a job for a number of years. People who meet these conditions should be able to apply for citizenship -- but approval would not be automatic, and they will have to wait in line behind those who played by the rules and followed the law. What I have just described is not amnesty -- it is a way for those who have broken the law to pay their debt to society, and demonstrate the character that makes a good citizen.

Note the bolded text (my emphasis).

If you've moved here illegally and held a job and worked here and bought a home and so forth, we're going to let you naturalize even though, y'know, you broke the fucking law in the first place. It's OKAY if it was a long time ago, see. The fuck it's not amnesty.

Comments

[electroweak.livejournal.com]

There's no way those are concentration camps. If someone decided to start rounding up Americans, you would see the first - and only - confluence of interest between the Black Helicopter Crazies and the Hippies. The resulting bloodbath would make Antietam look like a flower show, and would end with the horrible deaths of whoever had suggested and implemented the program.

Don't think the Bush Admin doesn't know this. They understand that they can push just so far, and no further. I would grab my shotgun and march on Washington before letting you - or anyone else - be shoved into a cattle car.

[teflon-tim.livejournal.com]

Actually, the term "concentration camp" refers to the literal use of the word, i.e. a camp where lots of people are concentrated. Auschwitz and Treblinka and the like were death camps. They tainted the "concentration" term by association. The camps we used to intern the Japanese in WWII were technically concentration camps. It is in that sense that I use the word. I suppose the better term would be "internment camps." And I dare you to tell me that that's not what we're seeing there.

Oh, and you can see if you scroll down from the link, it was Ashcroft who came up with the idea.

[electroweak.livejournal.com]

You'll find that "concentration camp" in its older sense has been unused in colloquial English since around 1945. :)