Come On In, The Water's Fine

I know it's been a long time since I've written anything, but I wasn't aware that in my absence, some laws just aren't relevant any longer. After all, Democratic Senators can ignore the Constitution and filibuster judicial nominees, ostensibly forcing an unconstitutional 60 votes for confirmation, as opposed to the 50 required as "advice and consent". As it was called in the late 1800's in the House of Representatives, this is simply "The Tyranny of the Minority". As bad as that is, that's not even what I'm talking about. My question on laws is simple. Since when does illegal mean legal?

Despite what many of you think, I am not a blind follower of President Bush and support everything he says or does. On balance, I do, but there have been examples such as the Education Bill (written by Ted Kennedy, in case you forgot) and the Farm Bill. But even more than those has to do with Illegal Immigration. The President, and others, support the notion of illegal immigrants staying in the county, and the granting them of driver's licenses, and allowing them to come in all the time. If I go to Canada and go curling (a truly awesome time), if I don't have proper ID, I won't be allowed back into my country. But these people enter illegally, and it's no problem. Hell, I'm surprised there isn't a guy standing on our side of the border with a sign that says "Welcome to America. Don't worry about those pesky things like identification, or proper channels for application. Busses to the welfare office and the DMV leave every 15 minutes."

I just don't get it. They're entering the country ILLEGALLY! Seriously, if they enter the country illegally, what's to stop them from committing other crimes here? After all, the first lesson taught to them by our judicial system is that violating law is ok. It's even expected. Maybe there should be a government pamphlet on violating the laws and accessing our social systems. Oh wait, one already exists.......

I am trying to understand why President Bush and some Republicans support this politically. I think it's because they think it'll win over Hispanic votes. If so, it's a huge miscalculation as it it'll drive away 2 constituency groups. The first are true conservatives such as myself who believe in LEGAL immigration, application for visas, etc. The second are LEGAL immigrants of Mexican descent. How pleased are they going to be, knowing that they took the proper time and went through all the proper channels to immigrate here, just to see others just waltz in and have the same benefits, but not have to worry about paying taxes and the like since they don't have to get a social security/Tax ID number?

There's even an economic lesson here. Privatization works! (Social Security anyone?) Since the U.S government isn't too interested in actually enforcing the law, the Minutemen down in Arizona and New Mexico have taken it upon themselves to patrol the border and report illegals. Imagine that. Law being enforced by law-abiding citizens. God Bless Them! They are doing amazing work!

I have an idea that could save millions of taxpayer dollars and reduce the Federal budget. Since the Immigration and Naturalization Service does not seem to be interested in tracking down and deporting illegal immigrants, why not abolish the department? It's becoming useless and a huge drain on the budget.