QOTD

[randy_byers]

'Akers said the United States should make its legal-immigration process less cumbersome by setting up new Ellis Island-type facilities in places like El Paso and San Diego. The job of tracking immigrants, should be turned over to FedEx and UPS, he said: "They track 25 million packages a day. They'll do an infinitely better job of solving the problem."'

-- "GOP candidates Rossi, Didier, Akers face off in debate" (Paul Akers is running for the US Senate in Washington State, but he pretty much has no chance to win the Republican nomination, let alone the Senate seat.)

Comments

[scream4noreason.livejournal.com]

This issue breaks my heart. I was deeply affected by what I observed there and have watched whats going on in Arizona closely.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

It's pretty ugly. My best hope is that what's going on in Arizona will cause such a backlash that we'll finally get some momentum for reform. I didn't quote one of the other candidates, ex-football player Clint Didier, who wants to bring all the troops home from Afghanistan ... so we can put them on the border with Mexico.

[wrdnrd]

Tracked by FedEx or UPS. HA!! That right there is tact, that's what it is.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I'm sure DHL feels totally dissed.

[(Anonymous)]

I wonder if the bar-codes will be permanent or wash-off tattoos.

-- Denys

[janetl.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't these marks be a stepping stone to getting the Rapture sooner? Maybe the Rapture would dramatically reduce the number of people immigrating illegally to the States. It's a win-win!

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

"...he pretty much has no chance to win the Republican nomination..."

There isn't any such critter, any more. Remember we have a "top two" primary; two candidates of the same party can get those top two positions, so two Democrats and zero Republicans is a potential outcome. Or, one could vote for the weakest perceived candidate of the opposition party, to make life easier for the "major" candidate one prefers -- assuming you believe the major candidate can get enough votes to qualify for top two on their own.

So,as The Stranger says: "If Didier beats the other big-name Republican in this race—two-time gubernatorial loser Dino Rossi—then we'll never have to look at Rossi's smarmy, full-of-shit grin ever again and Democratic incumbent Patty Murray wouldn't have to break a sweat in the general."

OTOH, they then go and endorse Patty Murray anyway, because a) they're not that confident of Murray's margins in a race this tight (Rossi/Didier as a top two would suck), and b) voting for Didier is too unclean, even for them.

[janetl.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the exact details, but there were two keep-more-people-in-jail-longer ballot initiatives in Oregon awhile ago. The first was going to cost a fortune. The second was created by people who opposed the first one, but feared that it would pass. The second was a watered-down version of the first (it hit the same hot buttons of keeping people safer), but also had some kind of language that meant that both couldn't be enacted.

The polling numbers looked like the really tough one might pass, and so people were urged to vote for the second as a "less worst case scenario". The first one didn't get enough votes to pass. The second one did. I suppose the first one might have passed if the second one wasn't also on the ballot, but it still hurts to have that second one around our necks. We really can't afford it.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

You're right, of course, and the sad thing is that I just filled out my ballot a couple of days ago and still didn't really notice the Republicans on the list. I knew I was going to vote for Murray, and that's the only name I saw. There are none so blind as those who only see what they came to see.

[terryminer.livejournal.com]

truth in politics begins at home, ya gotta vote for who/what you really want, too much strategy messes up the results...as for immigration, i'm for open borders and consensual peace-keeping. barring that, what about just annexing mexico? worked once,...and while we're at it, we can move Jerusalem stone by stone to Utah in the middle of a moonless night, and the world will be the safer for it....

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Apparently one of the paranoid theories in certain sectors of the Right is that we're headed toward a North American Union modeled on the European Union, with a currency called the amero modeled on the euro. Rand Paul supposedly talks about the amero sometimes. Maybe we should make their nightmare come true!

[terryminer.livejournal.com]

i'm up for it! a bigger union to secede from! tons o' political fun...