Bush Says Something Semi-Intelligent!

I am always quick to point out when our President is an idiot - which is just about every day - so it's only fair that I should also take a moment now and again to point out those rare occasions when I might actually agree with him.

Speaking in Irvine, California, this afternoon about the current immigration debate, Bush said, "Massive deportation of the people here is not going to work... It's just not going to work." You know times are really scary when Gee Dubya is actually the one voice of reason coming from Washington.

Of course, this wouldn't be my blog if I didn't still find a way to criticize Bush, even when praising his rare display of common sense.

While I'm pleased that the President is against massive deportation as a practical matter, I'd really like somebody to speak out against such tactics on a more principled basis.

I'm against massive deportations because it's simply immoral and un-American to turn away those who come here for the better life that we advertise to the world, as we have for the past couple of centuries.

For me, the words that guide my thinking on the issue were written by Martin Niemoller over half a century ago:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out-
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out-
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out-
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me-
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

This is way I was taught to be a citizen, a human being, a member of a community, and a Jew.

It's nice to oppose bad ideas because they are impracticle. It's better to oppose bad ideas because they are evil.