The Nation has no alternative. Bush must GO!

Each month we find out about another illegal surveillance program that our government is running in complete disregard of our constitutional system. First they admit to tapping international calls and now we find out they are recording called numbers for nearly every domestic phone call in the nation. What comes next month, surfing all the calls for key words?

We know our government is kidnapping people and shipping them to secret black prisons for torture. We also know that both US citizens and others have been locked up without any charges or anything even resembling due process.

These actions are just not what America is. We never used to believe that Might Makes Right. We used to be a nation that had moral standards. We used to be a nation where the government and especially the president obeyed the law. Now anything the "decider" says is needed for his vision of the War on Terror is OK. That is not who we are.

Now if all that illegal activity was not enough, the administration is planning another pre-emptive and pointless war against Iran. Our government is already responsible for over 100,000 deaths and several hundred billion dollars wasted in Iraq with no end in sight. It was started under obvious false pretenses. How can we sit here and let this happen again in Iran?

To use the quote the president could not get right, Fool me once, you’re a fool. Fool me twice, I’m a fool. If congress and the people let ourselves get fooled again, at the expense of tens of thousands of more deaths, the rest of the world will rightly consider us a dangerous rogue nation with no moral standards at all.

If we let this continue without opposition, we lose our heritage and our freedom together with our moral compass. This generation simply does not have the right to sell our children’s birthright for anything, let alone a series of nonsensical scare tactics. We need to remember the advice we got from Benjamin Franklin, "If a people give up their freedom for temporary security, they deserve neither" and will have neither.

To recover that moral compass and the reputation that goes with it, we can do no less than impeach the president. If we do not force him to suffer the supreme penalty that a president can suffer, we will never get our proud nation back. Letting him get away with all this criminal activity will set the precedent for future presidents. They will just start at today’s level of moral depravity and push the envelope even further.

Immigration, legal or otherwise

The entire body politic has gotten wrapped around the axle discussing illegal immigration from Mexico. This has taken over the media and has completely obscured the run up to a new, pointless, deadly and expensive war with Iran.

Cynics might just conclude that is the purpose of the sudden interest in immigration. There surely is no crisis, since people have been sneaking over the border for decades.

I would ask those of you who favor mass deportation, fences or similar measures, just what is bothering you:

1. Are you worried the Mexicans might benefit from our welfare state policies?
2. Are you worried that they might take your job by working cheaper than you are willing to?
3. Are you worried that terrorists might sneak across our poorly patrolled border?

I am upset that they might benefit from our welfare state but I am just as upset that native born Americans benefit from the welfare state. Taking money at the point of a government gun (the only way that taxes are collected) to hand out to anyone is just theft. The existence of such a system is our shame and no reason to deny immigrants entry.

BTW, the stress on the adjective, illegal, is pretty silly. Congress passes foolish and immoral laws all the time. Treating those laws as holy gospel is stupid. The only reason for Mexicans to sneak in is a quota system that limits immigration by country of origin. Many Europeon quotas go unused while the Mexican quota has a 16 year waiting list.

If we eliminate that quota limitation, people who want to work can come in legally, get all the proper paperwork to work and pay taxes and be treated the same as everyone else. We can then have a meaningful approval system checking for communicable diseases, criminal records and such. You might remember, this was how the grandparents of much of today's population came here after each War.

They will produce and consume just like everyone else and grow our economy to everyone's benefit. If we get rid of that immoral welfare state, there will be no cost, only benefit. The immigrants will self select. Only those wanting to work will come. With no welfare available, others will not come.

Building a fence is truly idiotic. Just look at a map and note the two huge borders and the two ocean seaboards. Do you really want barbed wire traps across every beach on both oceans? Closing our border is just not doable and you wouldn't want to live in a nation that tried.

The national security argument is pretty silly as well. The terrorists that might actually do some damage have money. They have enough money to buy whatever documents they need to come in through the front door. They do not need to risk their lives walking across the desert.

Individual people are free agents, no matter where they were born. That means they are free to come and go as they please, do business with whomever will do business with them and live free as long as they do not impose themselves by force. We commit a grave offense when we interfere at the point of a government gun.