See Desk For Jimmies

This sign was actually seen at a buffet restaurant by one of the Trogettes. The intent of the restaurant was, "Not only don't we trust you to put sprinkles on your own ice cream correctly, but we think you'll take far more than you're entitled to, so come to us for your jimmy allotment. " So now, at Casa Trog, "See Desk For Jimmies" equals "dumb-ass public policy."

And now, I'd like to catch you up on what's been happening in el mundo de immigracion.

There's a lot happening. Just today, in fact, the Senate narrowly defeated the idiocy known as the Ensign Amendment. This gem attacked illegal aliens who work and pay taxes b/c they do so by using fake Social Security numbers. It would have prevented said aliens from receiving credit for any taxes paid into the system while working as an illegal resident. It lost, but it was a 50-49 loss.

As many of you know, PUS was on TV Monday night, talking up the value of a big fence. In reality, the point of this chat was to shore up a large part of his ever-fading fan base. What's interesting is if your fanbase consists of conservatives and corporate America, it doesn't seem like there would be very many times in which these two groups wouldn't be one and the same. Yet here we have such a case.

A closer examination of PUS's big idea: The fence in question will stretch all the way across the Mexican border so that no one can get in here. In reality, there will be places determined to be so dangerous that they won't be fenced, and those will become the points of entree for many. That is to say that what's already a very dangerous trek will become more so. More foreseeable death, courtesy the Administration Pals.

Next: we're going to do a much better job, per PUS, of guarding the border, b/c we're now going to arm the border with 6,000 National Guard. 6,000? The entire border is 700 miles. That's more than 8 Guards for every mile. Not to put too fine a point on it, if you were to run your high-school track, you'd run into two Guards by the time you ran one lap. Is that necessary? Are we planning to hire only really fat, out-of-shape Guards who can run a total of 1/8 of a mile or less?

And it's not like the National Guard has been slacking lately. The days of a few weekends a year are gone. They've been quite busy. They've been in Iraq, they've been helping with Katrina. I don't know how many extra Guards we actually have for border protection. (And of those, how many are fat and out-of-shape?)

Another point is that PUS said it would cost $1.9 b-b-billion dollars to fund this whole thing. In case you're wondering how PUS came to be sitting on such a huge wad, he's not. It will come out of the emergency request he made for funds for the Department of Defense.

So, let's review. We put National Guardspeople in Iraq b/c we didn't have enough regular troops. And there are a whole bunch of other servicepeople, in addition to the Guard, in Iraq who are going without appropriately armored cars, etc. In other words, our lack of budget is making them as unsafe as they can be in one of the most dangerous places in the world. Now, when we have an emergency request to get them the funding they desperately need, it's being taken away so a bunch of fat guys can stand so close to each other they're practically holding hands under the hot Texas sun. With me?

Have you wondered where Congress is getting all that money it's dispensing? Don't look to the rich folk--I watched Uncle PUS sign another big old tax cut for them just yesterday.

See Desk For Jimmies.

Sources: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/washington/18cnd-immig.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=a1054fb2fa46ad96&hp&ex=1148011200&partner=homepage