Thread: Gov't can change things overnight

The status of Operation Minutemen

Just about every self-identified smart person in this country - college professors, New Yorker subscribers, everyone who lives in my neighborhood - disapproves of the Minutemen, those citizen volunteers who two weeks ago began patrolling the Mexican border in Arizona. Liberals promptly and predictably attacked the Minutemen as racists. President Bush himself called them "vigilantes."

Maybe so. But here's something you may not know: The Minutemen have been remarkably effective. The number of would-be illegal aliens attempting to cross the border in areas where they are patrolling has dropped by half in recent days.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. The biggest lie told about illegal immigration is, we can't control it. But of course we can. Tomorrow morning, we could militarize the border, replacing the Minutemen with armed federal agents. Tomorrow afternoon, the government could begin forcing businesses to stop hiring illegal immigrants. By this time next week, the immigration problem would look a lot different. Not solved, but much closer.

So the question isn't, can we do it? The question is, do we want to? Do we care enough about the effects of illegal immigration - the threat of terrorism, the assaults on our common culture - to do something about it? On that question, the Minutemen speak for most of us.

--- Tucker Carlson Unfiltered, PBS, April 15, 2005

Originally Posted by culion

The status of Operation Minutemen

Just about every self-identified smart person in this country - college professors, New Yorker subscribers, everyone who lives in my neighborhood - disapproves of the Minutemen, those citizen volunteers who two weeks ago began patrolling the Mexican border in Arizona. Liberals promptly and predictably attacked the Minutemen as racists. President Bush himself called them "vigilantes."

Maybe so. But here's something you may not know: The Minutemen have been remarkably effective. The number of would-be illegal aliens attempting to cross the border in areas where they are patrolling has dropped by half in recent days.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. The biggest lie told about illegal immigration is, we can't control it. But of course we can. Tomorrow morning, we could militarize the border, replacing the Minutemen with armed federal agents. Tomorrow afternoon, the government could begin forcing businesses to stop hiring illegal immigrants. By this time next week, the immigration problem would look a lot different. Not solved, but much closer.

So the question isn't, can we do it? The question is, do we want to? Do we care enough about the effects of illegal immigration - the threat of terrorism, the assaults on our common culture - to do something about it? On that question, the Minutemen speak for most of us.

--- Tucker Carlson Unfiltered, PBS, April 15, 2005

This is very unusual, if I am reading it correctly. First off, I take offense at little Tucker Carlson and his arrogant attitude and his little "fussy" bow-tie. He set himself up for rotten tomatoes being thrown at him by his "self-escalating" putdown of the rest of us in his statement...."just about every self-identified smart person in this country .."

Who the heck does little Tucker think he is? I guess the rest of us are dumb or don't rise to his level of intellectualism because we support the MinuteMen???

Of course, with a name like "Tucker Carlson," let me fathom a guess that he's lived a very protected and sheltered life that his parents $$$ could afford him.

Tucker .. time to get down in the trenches and see where the rest of us live and you won't make yourself look like such a bloviating fool!

Finally, little bow-tied Tucker opines...."On that question, the Minutemen speak for most of us....."

Tucker, you started out maligning the MinuteMen and classed yourself as one of the "smart" people ... sorry, but with those kinds of incendiary insults, you have lost me... and probably lots of others ... as your audience.

Come live in the real world, Tucky-boy ... and see what it's like to have your city taken over by the hordes of illegal immigrants who use parking lots as their dumping grounds for used baby diapers, who invade once nice middle-class neighborhoods and eventually drive the original residents out with the hordes living in one house, the all-night blasting Latino music...the illicit stares from the sex-crazed illegal immigrants males. Live in the real world, Tucky, and then you can bloviate and opine ... until then you just sound like a blovating fool who would not know reality if it hit him squarely in the face.

In my view, you are reading Carlson "upside down and backwards." Self-identifying is a put down for a group that he notes is not the majority of the country and is not a group that he considers himself to be part of. The majority also does not include those that call the Minutemen racists or vigilantes but rather is a group for whom the Minutemen speak. I presume as a Minutemen supporter that you also identify with "Carlson types," notwithstanding your dislike for him personally. Arguably, he could have expressed himself in a less subtle, more direct manner, but he does say the right things. Save your tomatoes for your salad.

Originally Posted by culion

In my view, you are reading Carlson "upside down and backwards." Self-identifying is a put down for a group that he notes is not the majority of the country and is not a group that he considers himself to be part of. The majority also does not include those that call the Minutemen racists or vigilantes but rather is a group for whom the Minutemen speak. I presume as a Minutemen supporter that you also identify with "Carlson types," notwithstanding your dislike for him personally. Arguably, he could have expressed himself in a less subtle, more direct manner, but he does say the right things. Save your tomatoes for your salad.

Oh .. okay. Was my rant in vain?

I'm not a follower of Carlson... I see him on one of the cable channels .. perhaps I don't know enough about him to know from which side he is speaking ... but he ought to make that clear rather than tongue-in-cheek... for dumbos like me who don't have the time to research a "talking head" to know which side he talks on. His comments were taken at face value. Me bad .. and I stand corrected.