Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Phony Behavior: Hilary Clinton Returns to Fraudulent Form - The Political Game

So after days, even weeks at this point, of remaining silent Hilary Clinton has finally weighed in on her adversary, Barack Obama and his relationship with the polemical Rev. Jeremiah Wright . Expectedly, she criticized Obama for not abandoning his pastor after several of his "controversial" remarks, made famous via YouTube and news outlets everywhere last week. The timing of such is incredibly suspicious, as Clinton was under fire today for her romanticized, or simply fabricated, portrayal of her visit to Bosnia in 1996. At a campaign appearance last week, Clinton described arriving in Bosnia under fire from snipers. Funny enough, a video today shows Clinton being greeted by a young girl, and a crowd full of smiles. Not a sniper in site and certainly nothing close to being on the front line. And she certainly did not run with her head down, dodging bullets, as she claimed. So, Senator Clinton, please for the sake of our intelligence, next time you have comments to make about Senator Obama or any subject, for that matter, why don't you do it with relevant timing rather than to deflect attention from your own misfortune. As-salaamu Alaikum my brothers.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Some Opinions On Immigration

Undocumented immigrants to the United States are not harmful to the socioeconomic American infrastructure. On the economic end, all of the recent data and statistics in the news prove that undocumented laborers have been unrightfully used as a scapegoat for the problems in the American labor force for years now. Perhaps, it is time to stop pointing the finger at the laborers and time to start pointing the finger at the American consumers and large businesses that outsource jobs in order to create cheaper products for an economical base which does not support domestic products. In fact, one could argue, that if not for the undocumented workers many manufacturing plants, agricultural jobs, and other forms of “low-brow work” still in the United States would be outsourced to Latin America with the rest of the companies. As far as the social impact on undocumented immigrants, the sharp opinions held by many Americans are cruel, racist, and often without the support of any evidence or basis of truth. Undocumented immigrants are thought of as criminals in the same breath as thieves, murderers, and other heinous crime offenders, simply because they want to provide for their families. In fact, I would argue that immigrating across the border is a very noble thing for a person to do, as they are trying to find a better life for themselves and often, more importantly, for their children. Political pundits such as Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News and Lou Dobbs of CNN are only perpetuating the myths and stereotypical falsities against undocumented workers by painting images of them as unlawful criminals. America is obviously unready to embrace a change in the physical makeup of the country, which truly saddens me as an American. Though it would seem the country has come a long way as far as racial beliefs, my Ethnic Studies class proved me wrong, as I was horrified to find that, on average, the members of my own class would not want a Black or Arab as their roommate. Why, you ask? The answer is based in the same truth that is found in the reason why people are so vehemently against undocumented workers entering the country, despite the overwhelming evidence that it is not taking away jobs from Americans and the economy is not suffering from their impact, the answer is clear, racism. That is the only way to justify building a fence across the U.S./Mexico border, but not around the U.S./Canadian border when all data insists that more terrorists, who actually pose a threat to the nation, have entered the country via the Northern border than the Southern.