Somebody please explain two things to me: how in the hell did the

[Thtwudbeme]

Cynthia McKinney thing get blown so out of proportion....I mean really? There weren't any injuries...seriously, it couldn't have been more than a case of hurt pride...an ego blow more than anything.

And why is immigration such a big fucking issue NOW? I mean, come the hell on....I can't remember a time when Mexicans weren't coming over the border, and I am 42 years old. So why now?

America has gotten ridiculous.

There are old people starving...people can't afford to go to the Dr.....no one can find decent jobs....hell, it costs a fucking fortune to own a doggie now in the US with vet bills out the fucking wazzooo.

And we are worried about someone getting slapped, and people coming over the border like it just started.

What a bunch of ridiculous jackasses we have become. Our priorities are fucked up. It's sad too, with all the college educated people wandering around, with all the access to the internet...with all the public libraries, all the big assed bookstores.

What the HELL happened to us?

[adigal]

1. Quick - look over there!!

Loyal Republicans, don't look at Iraq imploding, don't look at that Censure hearing, look at that uppity black woman who actually thought she could go around security!! How dare she!!!

THAT is the how and why of this being blown out of proportion.

[Thtwudbeme]

3. But, why on DU? I thought "we" were better than this

I did. I thought DUers were the brightest bunch of internet folks ever.

I guess the party got too big...or the bouncers got tired, or something.

[adigal]

14. They get everyone riled up with their racism

and that is what we react to, whether we believe the Congresswoman was right or wrong.

[Thtwudbeme]

16. But nobody here knows if she was "right" or "wrong."

I mean, come on....trust the news reports? Please.

Besides, from everything I have read it just sounds like a stupid, stressful altercation to me, and nothing else. She is probably sorry; and I doubt the person who got "hit" or "slapped," has a bruise, cut, or is going to have to have treatment for PSTD from this.

[yy4me]

2. Its called "Diversion", takes our minds off the things you

have mentioned. We're going to hell in a hand-basket.

[eppur_se_muova]

40. "Hell in a Handbasket" by Tom Tomorrow!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585424587/qid=1143937276/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-3486182-3912736?s=books&v=glance&n=283155


(Couldn't pass up the opportunity for a TT plug!)

[liberal N proud]

4. I will side with diversion

[madokie]

5. smoke and mirrors

keep the masses confused as to what is really happening anyway.

[wtmusic]

6. The flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico

has increased exponentially in the last few years...I understand why that's an issue.

OTOH those who have their underwear in a knot over the McKinney "issue" have WAY too much time on their hands

[Thtwudbeme]

7. Did they? Or did our methods of tracking them just get better

Or were there so many unscrupulous construction firms that are owned by "conservatives" and the building boom cause this?

[wtmusic]

15. Whatever caused it

"tracking methods" has nothing to do with it. If you live in the Southwest it's obvious.

[Thtwudbeme]

18. I hate to ask...but, how is it "obvious?"

I was in the Southwest this summer, and other than explosive growth around the cities, I didn't see anything unusual.

[wtmusic]

23. A fair barometer

is the number of Latinos hanging around Home Depot waiting to get hired. I live in LA and today there were roughly 50 trying to get work, any work, to survive.

I talk to them. They're not just Mexicans--they're Salvadorans, Peruvians, Guatemalans. Home Depot, U-Haul, the moving companies are often the first stop to get food on the table.

This is not a one-time thing. Last year it was typically around 20 on a Saturday and before that 10 or less.

[Thtwudbeme]

27. Is that a "fair" barometer, or could it be because the housing market is

slowing, and the construction companies aren't hiring?

I would say that's more of an indication of how the job market is, more than the number of illegals coming over the border.

I grew up in one of the richest neighborhoods in NC. My friend, and fundie GOP Bush freak (yeah, we all have ONE in the closet) does work on upscale houses....(cabinetry and other stuff.) He usually has a couple of illegals working for him (of course)...now he has ONE because work orders have dropped substantially. The guys who used to work for him are probably begging for other jobs....and someone is going to drive by and say "look...there are MORE of them."

[wtmusic]

31. Could be

Probably a mix of both--while the housing market was rocking and rolling immigrants were getting hired as fast as they could come, particularly in Arizona and Texas--and they were coming. Wouldn't you?

I don't buy that this is a non-issue, I just think it's been way overhyped in an election year. But it is something that has to be addressed, and denying that more immigrants are crossing the border is not going to help.

[Thtwudbeme]

32. Well...that sounds like natural ebb and flow to me. If there aren't any

jobs, the word is going to get around, you know?

I mean, hell...intellectuals and scientists in Europe figured it out in one helluva hurry.

[wtmusic]

35. Again...could be

OTOH as bad as the job market is here it's worse in Mexico. Millions of Mexicans work here then send $50/wk back to relatives.

I speak fluent Spanish and I ask them. Although many are suspicious some will be fairly open about it.

[libnnc]

13. but why all the hub-ub this month?

Why this particular time? Hasn't Lou Dobbs been screaming every night on the tee-vee about immigration for the last 5 years? Why all this consternation and hand-wringing NOW?

'Cause Rove sets the agenda. That's why.

[wtmusic]

17. Or maybe because HR 4437 is in Senate committee now

and could soon become law? Just a guess...

[libnnc]

22. That was the point I was trying to make

Your post made it sound like everyone in the media and in DC have been bouncing this issue around for several years. Only Lou Dobbs has been talking about it consistently in the media.

Immigration is only "national news" now because the GOP on Capitol Hill ARE MAKING IT AN ISSUE RIGHT NOW. Karl Rove said '06 would be about immigration. Just like '04 was about gay marriage and "terra". He pulls the trigger and the rest of us scream like little banshees.

It's become so Pavlovian now, hasn't it?

[wtmusic]

24. ah, ok

I'm a little slow on the uptake today.

Absolutely right. Let's see, no terrorist attacks...how can we fearmonger this election?

[LSK]

21. prove that it has

I DOUBT it.

[wtmusic]

33. where do you live? nt

[LSK]

34. NW Chicago

There has ALWAYS been plenty of Mexican immigrants here. My father remembers lots of them EVEN IN THE 50S.

[Cleita]

8. Because it's an election year and the GOP is

trying to rally it's brainfucked electorate. Last election it was partial birth abortion and Terri Schiavo, or the pro-life emotional topic.

[MichiganVote]

9. Well we don't farm anymore so we don't keep decent bedtimes,

We don't manufacture anymore so we don't have decent unions that demand adequate working conditions, wages and everybody is doing 2 and 3 jobs for what used to be 1. We don't "church" anymore, or so they say, meaning that the communities that had a central focus have disoriented people. And we don't save anymore because of credit. We stick our old people in old age homes, we stick our kids in school and day cares. We hide nature or get rid of it altogether and call it progress. We eat out and buy a $5 cup of coffee with whipped cream and call it a meal. We spend more time in conversation with people we never see (email / internet) than we do with the neighbor next door.

So we sit around in our homes, if we have one, and we watch rich people on TV and call it reality.

And that's about it.

[Thtwudbeme]

11. I think that's it. Honestly I do.

We have become a sad, sad nation of fools.

[MichiganVote]

12. Oh something will happen eventually. It always does. But it usually hurts.

[sandnsea]

19. Cartoons and comedy express political views

Reality TV with human beings is far removed from anything real. That's how fucked up it is.

[Inland]

10. Bush made immigration an issue to make sure his successor

doesn't eliminate a huge pool of cheap labor that doesn't vote. He CHOSE this to be the issue, because in 2008 he will not be able to provide his big business constituency with de facto open borders simply by refusing to enforce the law. He needs to put something on the books.

Giveaways to big business and the rich that will tie the hands of his successors is key. Tax cuts, immigration, free mineral extraction from federal lands...you can't take those things back, at least not easily.

[LSK]

20. KARL ROVE - DISTRACT DISTRACT DISTRACT

DU STOP FALLING FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:grr:

[liberalhistorian]

25. Because she is a congressional representative

who should have been far more mature; slapping a police officer like that was uncalled for, arrogant and immature and it is NOT behavior befitting any congressional representative, especially a democrat. If a repub had done that, we'd be all over them and rightfully so. She shouldn't get a pass just because she's a dem.

[Thtwudbeme]

28. No, LH...she should get a pass because she is human.

Shit happens...and reps aren't Saints.

[libnnc]

29. and we still don't know the whole story

We weren't there.

[Thtwudbeme]

30. no...we weren't....but, you know what I do know?

I act like a complete shit sometimes...sometimes my family is so annoying, and the dog has pooped in the house...and the cat vomited on the carpet...and the husband says something smart assed about "my" pets...

And I've done badly on a Latin test...and my Latin prof. thinks nothing worth talking about happened since Rome fell...

You know what kind of day I mean: we ALL have them. Hell, the Queen of England has them.

McKinney MAY have had one.

The other thing I know is that I didn't hear about any injuries. No bruises...no stitches...no blood....Didn't hear about having to see a shrink because of PTSD---

IOW...nothing permanently bad happened here.

Nothing.

It just sounds like a bad damned day to me.

[liberalhistorian]

42. No, she should not get a pass;

hitting a law enforcement officer is totally unacceptable behavior from anyone, including congressional representatives. That is considered assault, and they are not above the law, regardless of party affiliation. If this had been a repub, we'd be all over him, and complaining about how they're not above the law, etc., etc.

[bpilgrim]

26. Corporate Controlled M$M makes it all so predictable & shallow

at least on DU we get a chance to make our voices heard.

thank Gore, he 'invented' the INTERNETs :bounce:

peace

[driver8]

36. It's all about politics, the spin, and how people perceive you.

Everything shrub does is related to how he is perceived. He doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone else in this country except for himself, his evil crime family, and a few select cronies. He spends all of his time (when not on vacation) flying around the country and spewing his bullshit to those who will listen. He has no foreign or domestic agenda other than "let's fuck everything up."

I am so sick of this bullshit I could scream!

[Boredtodeath]

37. I don't know

But it sure as hell makes me sick.

The republicans lead blogs and message boards like this around like lap dogs. They say "jump" and we ask "how high?"

[ldf]

38. simple, really. prejudice and hate.

they will never stop trying to smear cynthia mckinney.

immigration is THE wedge issue being pushed by the repubes. throw in a fag vs the holy christian family here and there, and you got the gist of the next election.

hate and prejudice, prejudice and hate. rinse and repeat.

they hate cynthia, they hate "illegal" immigrants, and they hate gays. their prejudice shows in all its glorious colors.

i, personally, have my own concerns about illegal immigration, but it is being whipped up right now for one purpose. to stir up hate. the gop can NOT win without the haters flocking to the polls VOTING their hate.

as i said, quite simple.

[radwriter0555]

39. You've been ROVED.

That's all there is to it.

[Hutzpa]

41. We lost the plot completely n/t

:shrug:

[Savannah Progressive]

43. I would like to address one point first

Posted by Thtwudbeme

Cynthia McKinney thing get blown so out of proportion....I mean really? There weren't any injuries...seriously, it couldn't have been more than a case of hurt pride...an ego blow more than anything.

I would like you to conduct an experiment for me, please walk up to the first cop you see, and just poke him or her in the chest. Now, I am going to suggest that you have two things, first Bail Money arrainged, and second, memorize the phone number to your attorney. You don't get to make a phone call until after you are booked, and during the booking, all your items, watches, wallets, phones, and anything else, are taken, and stored until your release.

You see, the rest of us who aren't Czarist Princes and Princesses, would have been arrested on the spot, not let go and the case considered for some time.

Additionally, why is the security procedure for everyone except the beltway elected holier than thou. I understand we should protect them, but who is to say what fool will look like whom? If some psychotic lunatic who resembled McKinney has breezed through security and shot someone, then the lax security would have been the issue wouldn't it?

Let me know how it goes with the experiement, you see, I need not conduct it, I have seen people arrested for that. The charge is always "Resisting Arrest, Assault on a Police Officer (felony even if no brusing or other injury is suffered) and disturbing the peace".