The Sane Way to Prevent AZ Illegals

As a follow-up to my last entry, I'll clarify the proper way to check for illegal workers. When somebody applies for a job, by law they would go to a certified ID verification service, similar to a drug-testing lab (which is common for employment these days). The employer itself would not do the ID check. Any employer that does not have a worker go to a certified station before work (or within a given time-limit) would be given stiff penalties.

The employee's Social Security Number (SSN) would be used to check their name, residence, and any current work locations. If there is an overlap with somebody else's work or tax record, a different name or address, or it's a non-existent SSN, then further investigation is done and the hiring is delayed until the investigation is finished.

Thus, even the best fake ID would produce suspicious overlaps in the tax records. Either the number is invalid or will produce conflicting information against the valid tax-payer with the stolen SSN number. Sure, there are ways to get around this, but the cost of working around such checks for an illegal migrant worker is generally prohibitive relative to their expected earnings.

As far as under-the-table work, larger rewards could be given for tips leading to arrests, including possible credits toward citizenship.

The Most Interesting Frisk

Stay out of Arizona, my friends. Arizona could have chosen to reduce the illegal immigrant population of their state by requiring stronger employer screening and random audits by state authorities. Instead, they chose the Nazi-like approach (did I use the "N" word?) of stopping "suspicious" people on the street, which is essentially racial profiling. But that's okay, it's a dry hate.

Right-Wing, Nazis, and Emotional Gimmickry

The right wing are masters of jingoism and simplistic but emotional "political marketing". Their repeated use of the symbolism of Nazi Germany is a case in point.

Last summer I forced myself to listen to Rush Limbaugh again, perhaps as some form of political rubber-necking. He was complaining about the left's criticism of his associating the Obama administration with Hitler's Nazi party.

Here's a general paraphrase of Rush's statement:

"I didn't mean that Obama's administration was involved in killing of Jewish people and invading neighboring countries, but rather that their excessive government services, such as health-care, were like that of the Nazi's." [paraphrased]

Rush could have compared the healthcare proposal to several dozen other country's government services, many an equal or better fit, let alone more recent. Instead, he chooses to compare it to 1940's Germany. While it may be technically true that the Nazi government provided what the right may call "socialized medicine", to use them as the comparison subject instead of say modern day Norway, is obviously emotion-based symbolic manipulation.

Comparing to Norway or Canada won't pack the same emotionally-stirring punch as Nazi Germany. Although Rush's statement is not an outright lie, it's certainly an offensive and misleading comparison. It can almost be compared to the fallacy, "You have a mustache, and so did Hitler. Therefore, you are evil like Hitler." It's cheap political marketing that borders on "evil", if you will.

Glenn Beck has topped this kind of sick manipulation when he talked about Nazi's eugenics program and cried on Fox News because one of the Nazi eugenics poster subjects reminded him of his daughter, who has cerebral palsy.

His argument was basically that socialized healthcare leads to a slippery slope down into Nazi-like eugenics. But, almost the entire industrial world has socialized healthcare. Yet they are not turning into mad Nazi's. (Letting people die in the streets for the crime of "being poor" is arguable fairly close to that, however.) Glenn is using child-like "playground logic". Using his daughter's illness as a tool for such sick public manipulation is, however, more than just a play-ground prank.

I don't know whether such forced associations are due to ignorance, self-deception, drama addiction, or some other pathology; but it is disturbing and the right-wind media keep doing it in excess. There are many poorly-educated and willfully-ignorant people in America who are susceptible to poor logic delivered with powerful acting.

Fox News should fire the bastard if they had any real standards. But, unfortunately, they don't. Rupert Murdoch appears to believe that the ends justify the means. If he has to destroy the left using misleading manipulation and emotional gimmicks, he will.

And, I hope Glenn's daughter gets well enough to slap her stupid, drama-queen father.

Johny Come Lately Tea Partiers

The most common theme of the Tea Party protests is taxes; they are angry over the government's stimulus and bailout spending. However, there was very little public anger expressed by the same groups when Bush was spending like a drunken sailor during a time when we were not in a recession. At least the current spending is an attempt to get us out of a recession. It has a real purpose, regardless of whether you believe in stimulus plans or not. Bush's was merely sloth and political gimmicky. Remember that tax refund check you got from ol' Dubya when he was giving Clinton's surplus "back to the people"? I'm sure the Tea Party crowd happily spent that sucker. The word "hypocrite" comes to mind. And then there's Reagan's spending.

Profile This!

Right-wingers generally want to bring back profiling in order to stop the big bad terrorists. The same way we didn't need torture for every war since Washington's time, we now suddenly "need" it. With the likes of the Cessna anti-IRS terrorist and Tim McVeigh's posse still in existence; are the wingers still interested in profiling? If so, I'd suggest that each grumpy white Tea Party member get the best anal exam an airport security team has to offer.

Mass Disease?

The more verbal right-wingers like to quote Michael Savage (whose real name is Michael Weiner) who claims in a book that "liberalism is a mental disease". But the vast majority of the industrial world is progressive. Does this mean the vast majority of the world is mentally ill??? If you think 90% of the world is mentally ill but you are fine, Occam's Razor would suggest that YOU are the one missing some bolts instead.

Free Speech is for People, Not Things

The recent Supreme Court ruling giving corporations the right to bribe....I mean donate to political campaigns is very disappointing. The constitution starts out, "We the People...", not "We the corporations" or "We the robots". Big corporations already have enough influence over politics. People should control politics, not things. Next thing you know, that cyst on Rush Limbaugh's caboose will have the right to vote.