Good for Medved
I didn't hear the show so I can't comment specifically. However, most calls like that usually sound like Buchananite nutters.
I'm gonna guess that Medved sees some sort of disconnect between "close the borders" and fighting terrorism, if you take it in a very literal sense.
Would "closing the borders" have stopped any of the Sept. 11th terrorists? Well, literally it wouldn't have, but that's not what you meant when you said it. You also meant enforce all of our immigration laws and eject everyone who has over stayed their Visas.
I'll wager that Medved heard "close the borders" and thought first and foremost about stopping Mexicans, which wouldn't have done anything.
Of course, that's all conjecture.
I like Medved, too, but he's out of touch on this issue. Congressman Kolbe's (AZ) own brother found a diary written in arabic at the AZ/Mexico border.
Its irrelevant because anyone bent on destructing us will find their way in.
Medved says that (a) our presednt immigration policy is a failure, (b) it is a fantasy to believe that all present illegals can be rounded up and deported, (c) it is unrealistic to believe we can keep illegals out of the country and (d) the only workable solution is some sort of work permit program to register present illegals and get them out of the underground economy.
Medved is sane, and gets tired of 'put them all on a bus' approaches.
That's all thats up with him.
Medved = Neocon
IMHO this caller was symbolic of so many FReepers, Losertarians and other folk who blast Bush or others before him and would rather have Clinton, Gore or Kerry in office than give way an inch on their pet issues. There is a similar effort underway on a related thread regarding the Honorable Clinton Impeachment Manager Chris Cannon who wackos have targeted on similar grounds.
Nobody has the political balls to do the right thing, the oh so obvious thing: seal the borders & develop technology to allow for the necessary cross-border movement.
Nobody gets in w/o passport or a vetted visa for legitimate reason, then require periodic contact with the appropriate security agency.
Oops, sorry, NAFTA & fruit pickers, grass cutters & chicken gutters are more important, right?
There is no question in my mind that it would encourage radical Islam and add to their view that the U.S. government has no will to fight. Some callers simply suggested that having troops on the borders would help and were slow in answering, what about keeping the war "over there," isn't that much better than having the war here? Besides, ILLEGALs entering by sneaking across the border did not hijack those planes.
Now, I disagree with Medved, et al. that ILLEGAL immigration is not a problem and I do not welcome those who come here to "wash dishes for six dollars an hour" as Medved stated a few days ago. He thinks it's great apparently.
There is that pesky matter that we are suppose to be a nation of laws not men. Men (greedy traitors to our borders and sovereignty) laugh at our laws to get "cheap" labor that ain't so cheap for everybody else.
Look, I'm a fan of Michael Medved. But it's frustrating how -- in my opinion -- he dances away from illegal immigration issues. Today, for example, he was asking callers who disagree with Iraq policy to suggest alternative ways to fighting terrorism. One guy called in and said, "close the borders" or "police the borders," or something like that. Medved became very agitated and impatient, and essentially said this would be an irrelevant response to the terror threat.
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I heard it in the background and turned it off because it got so contentious. The caller was evading the topic.
Medved's question was: What would you have done to prevent 9/11?
The caller's response was to talk about the need to police the borders.
Medved said he did not disagree with that need. But how would it have prevented 9/11? The majority of the hijackers were here legally. He repeated his opening question.
The caller repeated his first response. Like he was reading from a script.
Medved got on him then. Medved likes a conversation, even with people who disagree with him. The caller was like a robot. He repeated his statements a third time and I turned it off.
I don’t know if we are talking about the same caller, I heard one caller who seemed to be saying we should take all the troops out of Iraq and use them to close the boarder; the implication being that would solve all the problems. “Closing” our Southern boarder would be difficult if not imposable – add to that the Northern border, and the East and West coast and the idea of “controlling our boarders” that is, stopping all, or even a significant percentage, of people determined to get in is simply imposable. This is not to suggest that we should not be more concerned about boarder security.
Most of the people who I hear Medved going off on seem to view it (controlling the boarders) as 1.) easy, and 2.) a panacea; it is neither.
You're missing the point. None of the terrorists entered the United States illegally. The borders could have been land mined with sci-fi laser turrets every 20 feet, and it wouldn't have made a difference.
I think Medved just frustrates easily when answers are off topic, but he definitely has a "the borders are not an issue-at-all" attitude; that, and "there are too many illegals here now, so let's give up on that as a problem and things will sort themselves out".
Realistically, the entire war on terror would come to a screeching halt if we were to redirect all of the GNP to locating, arresting, and deporting every undocumented dishwasher and landscaper in the nation.
Medved sucks on the issue. His position has long been "give up, you can't do anything about it." He's the role model for Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings.
Of course, he did something for himself about illegal aliens. He fled southern California for Washington State.