It's been a while since I've done one of these threads, mostly because of the off time Real Time has had, but also because none of them seemed diary worthy lately until last night's. So, here comes Real Time once again!
This week's panel was author Erica Jong, Seth Green of Robot Chicken, and a real robot chicken, Rep. Dana Rorbacher of California, with guests Robert Wuhl and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos.
For analysis...well, check below the cut.
The show started off with Jorge Ramos and the immigration issue, which laid out some interesting comments, one of which is the idea of 'illegal immigrants', which Jorge Ramos said can be seen as objectable, since it paints them as violent criminals or terrorists. While it IS criminal under the strictest of senses, I do think a good of the fear somes from people thinking the 'scary Mexicans' are violent invaders along with the job fears.
So, onto the panel. Immediately, Rep. Rorbacher makes himself known with several rather near offensive claims. One thing is the idea that the illegal immigrant workforce here is pulling down the wages in this country. So it's their fault for wanting work, and not the corporations that give them less than minimum wage, and executives giving themselves massive bonuses and salaries. ANd of course, it's this the Representative says is putting pressure on the health care system and education system under near collapse. Again...what about the cutting of funds to said systems, the near overt contempt for education lately, and the sheer inefficiency of the healthcare system.
Further on, Bill makes a comment on how a lot of the debate seems to take the border for granted, considering most of the NW used to be Mexico. Again, Mr. Rorbacher makes the claim that it's illegal immigration that sets the burden on the middle class. Ms. Jong makes the note that 'we're all immigrants'. Something I thing that could bear to be repeated more often. She also counters the scary thought of having so many more Hispanics in the country in 10 years time with the caveat that Most of them will be AMERICANS. They won't be Mexicans, they'll be citizens. Then Bill sets in on the table that 'we want it both ways' as far as illegal workers go. "We'll call you when we need ya, but then go back, don't stand around speaking spanish." Mr. Rorbacher repeates the same talking points. He then tries to counter with the idea that there are 50 Million Americans between 20-50 who are unemployed, and then uses that idea to try and counter the claim of 'they do jobs Americans won't do'. While it's a scary figure, one I'm unsure of, it's still a crappy point to counter illegal immigration with. Considering how many illegal workers there are supposed to be, that leaves how many of those 50 mil still unemployed?
The topic shifts to the war planning and the recent memos (the one that . Green finally gets a decent comment in, stating how it's 'indicative' of the administration, how everyone in it 'operates with a sense of lawlessness...it's a big business mentality.' Of course, Rep. Rorbacher had to say he disagreed with all of it. Then he brings up the 'Saddam was an evil dictator' argument, stating that Saddam had a 'blood grudge'. Bill made the obvious note that there are so many evil dictators out there, why just focus on Saddam? Rorbacher fillibustered quite a bit, focusing singlemindedly on the 'blood fued' notion. He also followed with 'we know he had WMDs, because he used them on his own people!" "The world is safter without Saddam". He keeps the talking points running with 'we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here'. Bill makes the obvious retort that 'how come they couldn't still pull off something here'?
They go on to gender issue stuff later, which really flies over my head, before moving on to Robert Wuhl. While the interview was fairly funny fluff, it brought up a scary thought: what if history ends up written by someone with a vested interest in making Bush out to be a hero? Winners write the history after all, and who writes history affects what history tells us. Something that scares the shit out of me is the idea that if we keep losing and let the Republicans keep writing the history, all of the evils and atrocities that were committed by the administration will be glossed over, or worse, glorified.
I'll write up more at a later date, but for those without the wonders of DVR, if you want to watch Real Time, reruns play at 7:00p and 12:35a on HBO, and if you're lucky enough to have HBO2, you can catch it again even earlier tonight at 11:00p