The Talking Dog

May 18, 2006, It's ALWAYS about this

I was kind of wondering what the new initiative by Karl Rove the President on "immigration reform" was about... Ginning up a new wedge issue to hold Congress? Something to do with Mexican domestic politics? A sudden bout of concern for a real issue? And why do it at a time when approval ratings appeared to be plummetting, and the little support the President had left, to wit, among his own base, might be eroded by being "soft on Mexicans"?

This morning's New York Times gets right to it, of course: it's about the contracts. That's right: billions in contracts for a "virtual fence" (as opposed to an Israeli style fence fence, or perhaps to "supplement" it) involving lots of high tech gadgets that will cost a fortune, enabling much cash which can make its way into brown paper bags and numbered Swiss bank accounts to be generated. And the usual suspects (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman... can Halliburton and Bechtel be far behind?) are lining up at the trough.

Why did anyone think it could be anything else? I must say, in all the May sunshine, it even had me confused for a while. With this gang, it's always "follow the money"... until the eventual rathole... which is always somewhere.


Comments

How can you focus on the cost of the fence when I have cancer?
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Tony Snow at May 18, 2006 10:26 AM

It's really about keeping the sub-minimum wage (slave) labor pool for his agro business cronies.

Posted by tommo at May 18, 2006 10:36 AM

Isn't it ALWAYS about the money. I'm not Marxist, but economic determinism is the best way to predict this administration. I also think it's funny how now part of border security is to protect us from terrorists, but before 9-11, immigration reform and border security was a big issue for Bush. Sorry, I don't have any links... guess I'm just lazy.

Posted by Ben at May 18, 2006 10:56 PM