The Blamers

Greetings, Blamers and fan. It’s Kyle here from the Chicago headquarters of our NGBLO (Non-Governmental Blamers Organization). Just finishing up some undergraduate final papers on the Moroccan economy at the old biblio. And when I’m finished with this tomorrow I will proceed straight to Pat’s room to record as many songs as I can before I get on that plane to the Middle East, insha’a Allah.

But I am writing today about something different, oh my brothers and only friends. I perchanced to notice this article in one of its various forms yesterday. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29574.html

As we all know, the Obama administration has been working to close Gitmo, one of the great hate-fueling symbols of American imperialism. And the great state of Illinois, brothers, has offered to the federal government a noble proposition. Governor Quinn and Senators Durbin and Burris have shown their approval for the small town of Thompson to open their cell doors to up to a hundred Gitmo inmates.

According to the Tribune, imprisoning these people in Illinois would bring thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to the ruined-forever economy. However, since this is a matter of national security, every Republican in the state has been up in arms about this proposal.

“As home to America's tallest building and her busiest airport, this is not a risk we should impose on Illinois families,” Representative Mark Kirk said.

Kirk, who has taught Advanced Fear Mongering at Peoria Community College should be ashamed of himself for probably thousands of political reasons. But let’s give him props for not spouting the old “but the terrorists will definitely break out of our prisons and rape your mothers and daughters” argument. This argument has been used by countless politicians on both sides of the aisle. It is also a hollow threat because anyone with half a brain knows that our prison system has been pretty air tight since they implemented the 1935 law that says you can’t leave laundry carts unattended.

Representative Kirk chose the “evoke another 9/11” route. And he added the extra flair of having us all imagine the Sears Tower (or Willis Tower now? Big Willie?) attacked by an airplane. Thanks, douche. That probably just bought you about ten thousand fear-votes for 2010. Let’s examine this tautological argument briefly: We can’t jail terror suspects in Illinois because they’ll just attack Chicago. So let’s leave them at Guantanamo, a symbol for the USA, at which point Chicago gets bumped down to third on the hit list.

You’ll notice that Kirk, or any other Illinois GOP rep, never mentions the economy in any of this. See, the economy, to Republicans, is always a separate entity from anything besides tax cuts or privatization. And national security is not something to be taken seriously, it’s just something else that can be used to scare your constituency into voting for you.