Just a short rant before I go get ready for work. And unfortunately, it needs to stay short. So our esteemed state Fearless Leader (as opposed to the national Fearless Leader, who I may get to if I have time) is all about helping the illegal immigrants, especially now because, according to the pundits, he feels that it will help him with the Hispanics in the polls for the recall. He's put a bill through that will allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, and he's criticized Arnold Schwarzenegger for supporting Proposition 187, which would cut off benefits to illegal immigrants and their families. Okay, what part of "illegal" does he not understand? Part of the state's responsibility is to make sure its residents are following the law, and part of following the law is being here legally. We spend so much money on the Border Patrol and trying to make sure everyone getting into this country is doing so legally, and we also spend a lot of cash catching people who are making their way into the country illegally. So why should he grant amnesty to people just because they've gotten here and gotten settled and allow them to get benefits like a driver's license? Hell, as one of the state representatives said when Prop 187 was up for a vote, if we're able to track these illegal immigrants to the point of licensing them, we should make them leave. My analogy is, if you're a shopowner, and there's someone who comes into your shop every day, spends some money but shoplifts an item and you know that this person does it, would you keep inviting them back, or would you ban this person from the store and even possibly call the police on them? Illegal immigrants, despite the fact that they do fill jobs and put some money back into the economy, are still here illegally and should be treated as if they broke the law -- because they did by coming here without going through proper channels. And given the paranoia that's ensued after 9/11, you can be damn well sure that if these people were Islamic instead of from another ethnic background and it was discovered they were living here illegally, there'd be a sweep to get them out of the country faster than you can say "human rights." And as for our national Fearless Leader, who's all about campaigning for more money to go make over Iraq into his own image, doesn't he remember that he's got a country full of people here who need his help? Doesn't he know that the unemployment rate is the highest it's been in decades and that he's got a national budget deficit the size of Saturn? Doesn't he realize how poor our school systems are and how bad our roads are and that national security is pretty damn porous? And yet he's still going to spend more billions of dollars -- that we will give to him through our taxes, make no mistake -- on Iraq. Is it just me, or should he be paying just a wee bit more attention to home before he goes paving roads abroad?