Politic

Ms. Condee has been in the middle east in the last week or so, trying to work with the Israelis and the Palestinians on a peace deal. I have this to say to the Idiot Administration about that. Too little, too late, boyos.

When President Idiot took the helm of the country after not being elected in free and fair elections in 2000, he abandoned utterly the efforts that the Clinton administration had been working on, and consequently, the progress that had been made under the democratic president regressed to the stage that we're stalled at now.

There were such high hopes at the end of the Clinton administration; remember the photo of Clinton beaming in the background as Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn? This one?

We're more than 10 years past that point, it grieves me to note. A child born on the day that photo was taken would be 14 years old now.

When W walked away from any negotiations between Israel and Palestine shortly after taking office, I personally saw it as a betrayal, a betrayal of the hopes of many who uneasily share the lands surrounding Jerusalem. A betrayal of the promise of peace that this country is supposed to stand for. And a betrayal of the memory of Rabin, killed by a sniper's bullet.

The questions about who is right and who is wrong in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict don't interest me much. Ask either side about why they both want the city of Jerusalem, and both will answer, "Because we were there first." There is no way to solve such a disagreement. We can't go back in time and discover who first began building a city there, and I don't think we're ever going to have a substantive answer anyway. The ultimate question, as far as I'm concerned, is how long do all of them, Muslims, Christians, and Jews, want to fight about it? It is beyond my ability to comprehend that anyone would WANT to live under the conditions that they do, no matter which side of the debate you sit on. The Israelis fear for their lives when they leave their homes. So do the Palestinians. Arabic Christians don't have it any easier.

Of course, there are extremists on all sides, and unfortunately not everyone does want peace. That's why these negotiations are so important; it is too bad that the Idiot administration hasn't been able to see that until now. And they even admit it! Here's a direct quote from the woman herself..."This is the most serious effort to try to end this conflict in many, many years," says Rice.

If I felt betrayed by the administration walking away from peace negotiations, can you imagine how I felt when they began banging the drums of war? The reasons that part of the Islamic world hates the west are many and varied, but our involvement or lack thereof in Israel is part of it.

At least they're doing something, no matter how late and how little. Finally.

Condelezza Rice AND Immigration, but not together.

I've refrained from commenting about politics for a while, and there's so much fodder now that I can't help it. Yesterday, I was listening to my local NPR affiliate, which streams The World Today from the BBC, and I heard Condelezza Rice make the following statement about Iran's nuclear ambitions. "They are using salami slicing tactics." WTF?!? What does that even mean? I called a friend who works in public relations and told her about it and she had the appropriate reaction, which was, of course, WTF?!? You know that someone writes speeches and snippets that she says in public...what the hell were they thinking, let alone her, when that came out of her mouth? I wish I had found the link to that specific sound byte, but I didn't. You'll just have to take my word for it, pfthht.

And then there's the immigration battle. I find it unfortunately necessary to remind everyone that the United States of America IS A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS. On St. Patrick's Day I wrote about my Anglo European roots. Not to repeat myself, but here's the thing. I am descended from 8 people who came to this county in the early 1900s from 7 different countries. I do not know my own family history nearly as well as I should, but I do know this tidbit. My great-grandfather, to be specific, my mother’s father’s father, came to Chicago (The way that we all ended up in Ohio is another story for another day. Stay with me here, people.) from Denmark in the early part of the last century as an indentured servant (look it up) with a contract spelled out according to the laws in the Bible (that’s probably the first and last time I will mention that book ever on this site) and after doing some independent research, I think he probably crossed the border into this country illegally. I defy nearly anyone to look into their own genealogical background and show me an entire family that settled here fully legally.

My husband and I had a discussion the other day where he told me that there is a clear difference between my great-grandfather and those who have crossed the US/Mexico border illegally. I disagree, whole-heartedly. Crossing a border illegally is crossing a border illegally. Breaking a law in 1906 is the same as breaking the law in 2006. That said, I do not agree with those who intend to make being an illegal immigrant a felony. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Criminalization is always the wrong answer. I don’t know what the right answer is. I like the idea of a guest worker program. I like the idea of an amnesty program. Guest worker programs in Germany and Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s were somewhat successful. Take a lesson from what didn’t work in Germany and what did work in Sweden and go from there.

I do not buy the idea that everyone who crosses the border illegally is looking for a welfare handout. The migrant worker community is full of people who are breaking their backs doing jobs that Americans don’t want. So I also don’t buy the idea that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from tax-paying Americans. People who tell me that get laughed at. Loudly. Another post that I wrote a while back mentioned that when you think that you haven’t anything in common with someone, start by acknowledging to yourself that people all over the world want the same things. Food, clothes, shelter, a better life for their kids than what they’ve got. Maslow's hierarchy y’all. People who come to the United States from third world countries are doing so in the hope that they will be able to make a better life for themselves and their families. They have my unwavering support in that endeavor.