U.S. House, sensing population squeeze, votes for southern wall

By: PM
Published On: 9/14/2006 6:31:13 PM

The House just voted for the second time in a year to erect a fence along a third of the U.S.-Mexican border, part of a Republican effort to keep illegal immigration an issue before voters.
http://news.yahoo.co...  (Hey, the AP writer said that, noit me.)

Clearly the U.S. is facing a serious overpopulation problem.  According to inconvenient statistics, http://en.wikipedia.... the U.S. is, uh,

172nd in population density, or 31 people per square kms, whatever the hell they are.
For sake of comparison, wildly overpopulated Afghanistan is 150th, and 50% more densely populated.  Iraq is 125th, at 66 people per square km.  (However, due to our current bungled invasion, Iraq may be falling a few places in the list.  And, it should be noted, many Republicans do not consider a lot of Iraqis to be human beings, so Iraq's actual standing may be much lower).

Well.  I've always thought the United Kingdom was a very habitable place.  Cities, but also lush green countryside, and really remote areas in Ireland and Scotland.  The UK has a population density of 246 per square km.

So, now, to achieve that density, which is eight times ours, we'd have to have about 2.4 billion people in the U.S.

Is this the same country where a president once said, to universal acclaim, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall"?

Comments



Show me the money (VA Breeze - 9/14/2006 9:50:03 PM)
Voted for the wall-where's the money to pay for it?


Yep (PM - 9/15/2006 8:37:05 AM)
That's where a lot of these things die

Very astute



Who cares, as long as it gets GOPs safely past this election? ha (RayH - 9/15/2006 4:58:02 PM)


And who (Kathy Gerber - 9/15/2006 6:57:30 PM)
will get even more wealthy building it?


Bechtel, Halliburton, Brown & Root (loboforestal - 9/15/2006 7:47:48 PM)
Check out Bush's political contributors.

We need a foolproof national ID card.

A border wall is not going to stop identity theft or criminals using fake driver's licences. It won't keep child molesters out of day care centers, or stop terrorists.

Bush's Maginot Line in the Sonoran desert won't do anything.



Immigration reform cuts across ideological lines (loboforestal - 9/15/2006 5:45:36 PM)
Regardless of their political convictions, Americans have serious concerns about immigration and favor a cautious approach to immigration policy.  There is NO CONSENSUS to open the borders and expand immigration programs as you advocate.  Some want none but there's no consensus for that either.  If you average it out, though, the average person wants to throttle back the current levels and have front door immigration only.

While I favor a reduced number of immigrants, I feel that they should be treated fairly.  I do not beleive our government should pick labor sectors for special competition from foreign guest workers who are on what's called "non-immigrant" visas.  Immigrants should have a clear, easy shot at citizenship an not have to pay a lawyer's fee and the company they work for should not hold the visa.  Skilled and unskilled people should have a fair shot.  Deciding that say, nurses get paid to much , and thus we need to import more non-voting, non-labor union forming guest worker nurses so that hospitals can make more money is not good or fair government policy, though George Allen seems to thinks so and sponors several bills to uncap number of guest workers.  Odd for a so-called "free market" person, he seems bent on picking winners and losers and providing subsides for his rich political sponsors.

As for your plan to pack 'em in like sardines.  Well, I don't want to see America turn into Hong Kong or the Netherlands or Calcutta.  Sorry.

The wall on the border is a joke.  Most people want National ID cards.  It would solve a lot of problems : pretexting id crime, illegal labor, identity theft, etc.  Joe Average American basicly has one : his state driver's license.  Terrorists, con artists and illegal immigrants shouldn't have them. 

Don't pin this on those "racist Republicans" or whatever.  Guys like Democrat Harold Ford of Tennessee support fixing the problem.  Go down to a local union hall and see what their feelings are.