With a wave his hand...

[rhyyss]

There are a lot of things that are wrong with the current administration (and the weak-willed, enabling Congress).  Very near the top of that long list is the idea that the president is above the law, above checks and balances, above the constitution - granted authority to rule at will.  All in the name of National Security, of course.

This is

Comments

[scottobear]

What? a line of bald eagles blocking the fence? Gun 'em down!

[graypumpkin]

While I agree with you, it's probably a little unfair to lay all the blame on the Administration and Congress, much of it lies with us, the people of this nation.
The administration is tromping all over constitution because sadly it seems that many people want him to, congress is afraid to act because they fear what their constituents would do back home if they do act. Sadly a good portion of this nation is so afraid of immigrants, so afraid of terrorists, that it's willing to give up freedom in the name of their twisted ideal of freedom or security or family values. I dare say that the main reason Bush is so unpopular right now has less to do with folks wising up to what is happening and more with the simple fact that the economy is bad and folks are getting hit in their pockets.

[rhyyss]

I couldn't agree more. Whatever happened in 2000, Bush won reelection in 2004 by a clear majority of the popular vote - something Bill Clinton never managed to do.

Much of Clinton's popularity was probably due to the tech boom, and people's perception of their increasing wealth. Similarly, now that the economy is tanking, everybody but the true-believers have turned on Bush.

[graypumpkin]

On a related note I was looking for some Sci-fi to read on Amazon the other day and I stumbled across this book. Take a gander at some of the fear and venom in those comments.

[rhyyss]

The other nasty side effect of a poor economy is that scapegoats are eagerly sought out.

The immigration hysteria baffles me. There's a neighborhood I can see from my office called "Swede Hill." It was built by Swedish immigrants, but then became a Hispanic neighborhood. Now it's trending back toward Anglo. Demographic change happens. What's the fear? The US is going to be less white, more Hispanic in the future.

1) I don't see why this is inherently good or bad.
2) Even assuming that you wanted to change this - it's way to big to be changed by a legislative fiat.

The editor of the Chronicle did a good column last week on immigration.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A608520