http://tinyurl.com/m6f8y

Bush stumps for 'guest worker' program in Cancun

President Bush told Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox on Thursday he supports a temporary "guest worker" program, but said the final decision belongs to Congress - where many of Bush's fellow Republicans oppose the idea.

. . .

Step 1: Clear the airway

Step 2: Stop the bleeding

Step 3: Treat the wound

By the time Congress figures out how to deal with the current 11 million illegals, the number will be 3 times that many. That is, unless Al Qaeda gets in first.

We need to be concentrating our energies on sealing our borders (stopping the bleeding).

Quite a bit of the resentment here in the U.S. is the result of judicial rulings which grants full access to social welfare benefits to illegal aliens.

For example, major medical centers with Level 1 Trauma Centers that are closest to the Mexican border are under siege. You see, it is illegal to stop an ambulance from entering the U.S. Thus, when the all too frequent botched surgery in Mexico starts "going south," they simply stick the now very seriously ill patient in an ambulance and send him to "Gringoland."

Now, since you can not refuse admission to anyone who presents at a U.S. Emergency Medical Center, you now have an average of 3 months of critical care services per Mexican resident that must be provided – gratis.

"Gratis," that is, if you are not on the staff of the Medical Center. You see, by law the hospital and staff are required to provide this service without any provision for reimbursement. (Although the American Revolution was largely the result of "taxation without representation," our current policy of "appropriation without compensation" hardly raises an eyebrow! )

So, what happens to this "hidden cost"? It gets passed on eventually to the taxpayers as skyrocketing, uncontrollable medical costs.

"And the bleep goes on . . . And the bleep goes on."

[Just for the record, my own view is rather simplistic. Immigration is not a right. It is a privilege that a host country may choose to offer to citizens of other countries. Although the host country would be wise to employ intelligent and equitable policies in determining whom to extend this privilege, said host country has the both the legal mandate (the protection of it’s citizens) as well as the recognized legal right to exercise full discretionary regulatory control over this process.

This is not a negotiation. It is the right of national sovereignty. End of discussion.]

Your point is well taken, Lawrence. To underscore your point, several years ago several Orange County municipal governments came close to bankruptcy as a result of poor option trading using city pension funds. Then there was the energy trading fiascos that lead to the recall of Governor Davis. Just last year the Mayor of San Diego was forced to resign under the pressure of enormous corruption charges (to mention just a few highlights of fiscal incompetence.)

Please forgive me, but I wish to use this opportunity to advance your observation in the manner of my own perspective. “Is this a problem of illegal immigration or of incompetent governance?”

Having lived in Southern California for most of my life (while having a wife who worked as an Emergency Medicine Physician in a major Level 1 Trauma Center close to the Mexican border) I have witnessed the huge economic burden imposed not by illegal immigration, perse, but by the unrealistic and fiscally incompetent judicial rulings and political driven policy making which characterize the decades of extremist liberal/humanistic knee jerk reactionary thinking that has dominated policy making since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

While some of the motives for these policies/rulings may have originally had strong humanistic underpinnings, they have far exceeded the boundaries of prudence. This has lead to an "Era of Entitlement" in which our legal system and social welfare programs have become corrupt and ineffective in performing their legitimate and fiscally sound legislated mandate. It is no coincidence that the "epidemic of obesity" has ballooned during this same period.

While I personally applaud the efforts of anyone who is willing to work hard and take risks to improve the quality of their life, this is not the issue. The issue is the failure of the citizens of the United States to hold their elected officials responsible for the persistent poor policy decisions at all levels of government due to blatant political vote-pandering and “grease the press” cosmetic/sensationalistic journalism.

Thanks in part to your recommendation, Lawrence; it has become clear to me that our entire system of government was structurally built upon the assumption that the citizenry would use their right to vote to compel the representatives of all three branches of government to carry out the “will of the people.” If we as people do not perform our designated governmental function of casting an informed vote, the Founding Fathers (based upon sound historical analysis) made it perfectly clear that our system would collapse from the inevitable internal corruption that would rise to fill the void of voter apathy.

This is a well-established historical fact. It is not an opinion. We as citizens simply have no choice in the matter. Nor are there are any more excuses. In the “Era of the Internet” everyone is our next door neighbor. Our part in the perpetual struggle for a free and better way of life is to become informed and active voters. Americans are simply too [unconsciously] self-contemptuous and lazy to accept the responsibility that comes with performing our own legitimate role in government. It is the average American citizen who was intended by “intelligent design” to be the real policy makers in this country.

The current immigration problem did not just happen. Furthermore, it is only another symptom of a gradual and continuous system breakdown. This immigration problem was created by the complete failure of the United States government to deal with this widely known issue in a sound and legally mandated fashion many decades ago.

There are many situations in life that have really have no “good solution” simply because the only “good solution” was never to have allowed the situation to have arisen in the first place. The illegal alien issue is a very good illustration of this basic (but persistently ignored) fact of life.

However, the ultimate legal fact of life in this country is that it is the voters who must assume responsibility for this failure, not some abstract entity everyone refers to as "the government." We must get it through our heads: It is the voters who were granted the ultimate legal constitutionally designated decision making authority in our system of government – and not our elected representatives. Our entire system of government is predicated upon the 3 most powerful words ever written: “We the people.” And while our Founding Fathers may have had many disagreements, they were completely united regarding this one “all important” principle: The only legitimate and final authority in United States government is the popular vote.

As long as “we the people” continue to behave as though it is our elected representatives who possess the “real authority” in this country, then they will.

Essentially, Lawrence, we both realize that there are many complexities that must be taken into consideration when examining the true causes of the current immigration problem. Moreover, we both accept that a complete understanding of the “real issues” will only result from disciplined intellectual inquiry, clear vision and sound judgment.

Ultimately, this is all that really matters.

Now here is some real irony for you, bb.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4880328.stm

Air trends 'amplifying' warming

"Reduced air pollution and increased water evaporation appear to be adding to man-made global warming.

"Research presented at a major European science meeting adds to other evidence that cleaner air is letting more solar energy through to the Earth's surface."

. . .

Mankind certainly does seem to have a certain "creative flair" for wanton destructiveness.

Unfortunately, my friend, this claim can only be made from a myopic and spectacularly anthropomorphic point of view. Architectural monuments, works of art and so on are beautiful to man only because man is man.

Is there anything more incredible, beautiful, inspiring (and vital to our own survival) than nature in all of its pristine magnificence? From the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest to the harvesting of baby seals, the facts are apalling and irrefutable. We are literally a blight set loose upon planet Earth. This is not from some “tree-hugging-granola” (gag me with a spoon ). I am talking about clear-eyed reality testing unfettered by the stupidity of artificial value judgments and self serving rationalizations.

Until we accept the naked truth of whom and what we really are, we can not change what we are otherwise destined to become/do.

The first installment of the Reith lectures was surprisingly (to me) entertaining. Thank you for the suggestion. “The world without music would be a mistake” seemed closer to my own sentiments than is “sonorous air”. But then again, I have a soft-spot for the Existentialist Gestalt.