Sunday, June 18, 2006
In The Shallow End With The Mayor And An Imaginary Playmate
In The Shallow End With The Mayor And An Imaginary Playmate
Once again, our young jailer/mayor, Allan Mansoor, found his
way to the Forum page of the Daily Pilot yesterday. Once again
we saw his face smiling out at us from the page as he attempted
to impart some of his "wisdom" - this time in rebuttal to a
recent column by Pilot columnist Steve Smith. Once again, he
demonstrates for us the lack of depth in his thinking.
After taking a little shot at assumed council candidate Mirna Burciaga, he proceeds to complain that, to quote our erstwhile leader, "when people like me advocate securing our borders and upholding the law, we are called racists and bigots." Well, Mayor Mansoor needs to understand that he's not being criticized for advocating the tightening of our borders and upholding our laws. He's being criticized for advocating an ill-advised plan that usurps federal immigration law enforcement authority and, based on the opinion of real law enforcement leaders, will only make it more difficult for the Costa Mesa police personnel to actually do their jobs. His plan will require street officers to spend more time on administrative minutia with each apprehension of an assumed illegal felon. That will keep those highly trained, specialized officers and detectives off the streets. The laws we have and the procedures available will accomplish his avowed goal.
Mansoor states, "In Costa Mesa, I am advocating that if an illegal immigrant commits a major crime, he or she should be deported after doing time, and that if that person returns, we need to be able to clearly identify him or her before he or she commits another offense. There is no focus on victims or sweeps." Well, Mr. Mayor, how - precisely - would you go about identifying those returning criminals without sweeps? Do you have a plan to implant a locator beacon on each one before they are returned to their home country following release? Or maybe a tattoo on the forehead, so we can identify them wandering down the street? What's the plan?
In his commentary our young jailer/mayor lists his priorities for "a secure America." His number one step is "securing our border." You'll note it's singular - border, not borders. He's obviously only concerned about our southern border, not defending our country from ragin' Canadians. I agree, we need secure borders before we attempt to implement other measures involving illegal immigrants among us.
As he goes on to list his other steps he displays a naivetÈ that's extraordinary, even for him. At one point he says, "If there really is a demand for jobs, then let folk come here in a legally accountable manner..." Give me a break! What does he suppose those estimated 11-20 million illegal immigrants are doing? According to every, single credible estimate, they are performing jobs, many of which are foundational to the stability of our economy. Without the labor performed by many of those assumed to be here illegally our economy would halt.
Mansoor's steps two through five are: enforce employment laws; deport all illegal immigrants who are breaking the law; increase the number we allow to come here legally and, finally, have the president encourage Mexico to do it's part - whatever the heck that means.
Our young jailer/mayor continues to look for a simple solution to an issue that is anything but simple. He continues to display an amazing inability to understand the complexities of leadership in our city today. I'm sure he will provide us with many more reasons to consider not returning him to office in November as the campaign season moves on.
***
On a related note, our old pal, Your Neighbor, has provided us with some more fiction to consider. He tells us in his blog that there exists a Mystery Improvement Candidate (MIC) for the Costa Mesa City Council election in November. In his original announcement he called this person a "mystery improver candidate" - a little telling slip he amended with the word "improvement". In a recent posting he quotes this person in a lengthy get-tough statement. Well, I have to tell you that the quote sure sounds like Your Neighbor himself. So, I'm betting he's made this character up, just for fun and to provoke controversy and speculation. It might even be the alter ego he created for some of his racist essays - who knows.
I guess we'll now have to refer to this character's character as "Manufactured Imaginary Candidate" (mic) - the lower case letters in the acronym intended. It will be very interesting to see if anyone actually emerges from this fictional shroud. In any event, it's nice to know that Your Neighbor has a friend, even if it's one he created for himself.
We also wish to thank Your Neighbor for the helpful haberdashery hints in a posting last week. What would we do without him? I'm sure the link to those lovely, stylish aluminum foil chapeaux will come in handy.
7:14 pm pdt
After taking a little shot at assumed council candidate Mirna Burciaga, he proceeds to complain that, to quote our erstwhile leader, "when people like me advocate securing our borders and upholding the law, we are called racists and bigots." Well, Mayor Mansoor needs to understand that he's not being criticized for advocating the tightening of our borders and upholding our laws. He's being criticized for advocating an ill-advised plan that usurps federal immigration law enforcement authority and, based on the opinion of real law enforcement leaders, will only make it more difficult for the Costa Mesa police personnel to actually do their jobs. His plan will require street officers to spend more time on administrative minutia with each apprehension of an assumed illegal felon. That will keep those highly trained, specialized officers and detectives off the streets. The laws we have and the procedures available will accomplish his avowed goal.
Mansoor states, "In Costa Mesa, I am advocating that if an illegal immigrant commits a major crime, he or she should be deported after doing time, and that if that person returns, we need to be able to clearly identify him or her before he or she commits another offense. There is no focus on victims or sweeps." Well, Mr. Mayor, how - precisely - would you go about identifying those returning criminals without sweeps? Do you have a plan to implant a locator beacon on each one before they are returned to their home country following release? Or maybe a tattoo on the forehead, so we can identify them wandering down the street? What's the plan?
In his commentary our young jailer/mayor lists his priorities for "a secure America." His number one step is "securing our border." You'll note it's singular - border, not borders. He's obviously only concerned about our southern border, not defending our country from ragin' Canadians. I agree, we need secure borders before we attempt to implement other measures involving illegal immigrants among us.
As he goes on to list his other steps he displays a naivetÈ that's extraordinary, even for him. At one point he says, "If there really is a demand for jobs, then let folk come here in a legally accountable manner..." Give me a break! What does he suppose those estimated 11-20 million illegal immigrants are doing? According to every, single credible estimate, they are performing jobs, many of which are foundational to the stability of our economy. Without the labor performed by many of those assumed to be here illegally our economy would halt.
Mansoor's steps two through five are: enforce employment laws; deport all illegal immigrants who are breaking the law; increase the number we allow to come here legally and, finally, have the president encourage Mexico to do it's part - whatever the heck that means.
Our young jailer/mayor continues to look for a simple solution to an issue that is anything but simple. He continues to display an amazing inability to understand the complexities of leadership in our city today. I'm sure he will provide us with many more reasons to consider not returning him to office in November as the campaign season moves on.
***
On a related note, our old pal, Your Neighbor, has provided us with some more fiction to consider. He tells us in his blog that there exists a Mystery Improvement Candidate (MIC) for the Costa Mesa City Council election in November. In his original announcement he called this person a "mystery improver candidate" - a little telling slip he amended with the word "improvement". In a recent posting he quotes this person in a lengthy get-tough statement. Well, I have to tell you that the quote sure sounds like Your Neighbor himself. So, I'm betting he's made this character up, just for fun and to provoke controversy and speculation. It might even be the alter ego he created for some of his racist essays - who knows.
I guess we'll now have to refer to this character's character as "Manufactured Imaginary Candidate" (mic) - the lower case letters in the acronym intended. It will be very interesting to see if anyone actually emerges from this fictional shroud. In any event, it's nice to know that Your Neighbor has a friend, even if it's one he created for himself.
We also wish to thank Your Neighbor for the helpful haberdashery hints in a posting last week. What would we do without him? I'm sure the link to those lovely, stylish aluminum foil chapeaux will come in handy.
No comments:
Post a Comment