Can We Replace DHS Secretary Napolitano with Fox News Legal Expert Napolitano?

Nick Gillespie | April 20, 2009

On the one hand, you've got the former governor of Arizona who manages to keep talking no matter how many of her own feet she's got stuck in her mouth. Janet Napolitano's agency released a report implying that if you think Ron Paul is onto something or that state governments should ever challenge federal ones, you're a terrorist (really. Take Reason's handy-dandy terrorist quiz and get a free certificate testifying to your status). Even more recently, she fretted and then apologized for worrying that some of our boys coming home from Iraq might be anti-government. Imagine.

On the other hand, she's starting an Obama-sanctioned jihad against illegal immigrants who work in America and the "evil-doers" who hire undocumented workers to cut your grass and clean your sheets. From an appearance on State of Our Union:

What we have to do is target the real evil-doers in this business, the employers who consistently hire illegal labor, the human traffickers who are exploiting human misery.

In what alternate universe is the secretary living where it's evil (E-VIL!) to hire immigrants who are willing to work? Napolitano is also in favor of the idiotic border wall and "boots on the ground," meaning an unending harassment of all residents within Fortress America (after all, if you aggressively pursue illegals and their employers, it means you have to check everybody's papers and payrolls.) Hat tip: Veronique de Rugy.

Is this the hope and change we were looking for? Declaiming limited government devotees as potential terrorists and raiding businesses for hiring people during an economic downturn?

If we have to have a Napolitano in the president's cabinet (as someone whose mother's maiden name was Guida and whose relatives hailed from Campania, I got a-nothin' against dat) I'd like to nominate Fox News Channel's chief legal expert, Judge Andrew Napolitano. The author of several books documenting the demise of constitutional authority in these United States—and the author of a forthcoming legal history of race in America, Dred Scott's Revenge—the judge not only knows the history of this country, he's a stalwart defender of the best aspects of it. A critic of civil liberties violations under the Bush administration, he would also bring an unstinting honesty to the grim world of politics.

Take a gander at the good Napolitano talking at Reason in DC, an October 2007 event hosted by the nonprofit Reason Foundation, publisher of this site.

Comments

Kyle Jordan|4.20.09 @ 7:54AM|#

"Is this the hope and change we were looking for?"

Nope. It is however the Hope and Change that anyone with an IQ above 6 expected for The One and his Gaggle of Mental Defectives.

Kyle Jordan|4.20.09 @ 7:55AM|#

*from instead of for

economist|4.20.09 @ 8:11AM|#

STOP THE HOPE AND CHANGE! I WANT TO GET OFF!

Evil Dewers|4.20.09 @ 8:33AM|#

Stop blaming me for everything. Please

|4.20.09 @ 8:34AM|#

Not change but CHAINS we'll soon believe in.

Never could understand how the Judge ever got to the bench in the peoples' socialist collective of NJ.

Kyle Jordan|4.20.09 @ 8:41AM|#

"Never could understand how the Judge ever got to the bench in the peoples' socialist collective of NJ."

Liberals view it as their version of hiring the Mentally Handicapped. Only instead of retard strength, Judge Napolitano hold Intellectual Superiority over them.

jtuf|4.20.09 @ 8:43AM|#

The Bush administration's response to illegal immigration: trying to spearhead compreshensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship.

The Obama administration's response to illegal immigration: Craking down.

Let's just tripple the immigration quotas to releave some of the demand for US citizenship. Then we can hash out the details of a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants currently in the US.

|4.20.09 @ 8:44AM|#

So are rich boomers who hire illegals to mow their yards and remodel their houses now considered evil doers?

My guess is no. An evil doer is someone not from a priveliged class, entrapaneurs, small business people, corporations who hire an illegal. Everyone else, mostly the politically connected, are just trying to give a person a break.

High Every Body|4.20.09 @ 9:00AM|#

Isn't this the same woman who says crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor(sp?) and should only be a fine?

Thought I would be waking up to Nick cheering that news as the first thing Team Obama did right.

Telly|4.20.09 @ 9:05AM|#

My friend in Austin, TX (whom I haven't been able to stand talking to much lately) voted and campaigned for Obama, and loves her illegal nanny, gardener, and housekeeper. She thinks we've all lost our minds over what she calls "this small government obsession". I wonder how she likes being this week's evil doer?

I suspect that with the Obama admin there will be a new evil doer labeled every week, one that distracts us from what is really going on with the little man behind the curtain.

Abdul|4.20.09 @ 9:11AM|#

What we have to do is target the real evil-doers in this business, the employers who consistently hire illegal labor, the human traffickers who are exploiting human misery.

This may be my last post: I needed help moving and hired one of the guys standing outside the rental truck place. Now I'm an eeeevil human trafficker!

|4.20.09 @ 9:13AM|#

I would imagine Nick Gillespie and Jacob Sullum and the rest of the Reason staff are now on "watch lists" --
It'd be interesting to request a FOIA from the FBI and see. Perhaps in a future issue?

creech|4.20.09 @ 9:18AM|#

Time to peel off the RP sticker and put on "Don't Blame Me. I voted Libertarian."

Xeones|4.20.09 @ 9:24AM|#

Yo, fuck Janet Napolitano.

The Angry Optimist|4.20.09 @ 9:28AM|#

Xeones for President in 20??.

How old are you, Xeones? We need a year for the sign.

Xeones|4.20.09 @ 9:39AM|#

I ain't need to abide by no youthist electoral policy, AO. Fuck 35, yo.

But if we HAVE to play by the rules, i can run in '16.

Guess i better start campaigning now.

kinnath|4.20.09 @ 9:44AM|#

Thread jack:

Glenn Greenwald over at Salon writes about how the illegal NSA wiretapping program succeeds in catching Democratic Rep. Jane Harman committing a real-life ciminal conspiracy. The Bush DoJ then squashed the criminal investigation so that Rep. Harmon could blanket the airwaves with a defense of the illegal NSA wiretapping program.

My head hurts.

Cabeza De Vaca|4.20.09 @ 9:47AM|#

Xeones,

Your campaign signs would be great.

Yo, F*@k Candidate Smith!!

|4.20.09 @ 9:47AM|#

loves her illegal nanny, gardener, and housekeeper.

It would serve her right to get hauled in for that, but the nanny, gardener and housekeeper don't deserve it.

Someday, we'll have a law on the books establishing severe penalties for hypocrisy.

-jcr

Spoonman|4.20.09 @ 9:49AM|#

JCR, that will be the day when the only law is DBAD.

|4.20.09 @ 9:52AM|#

What could be a more effective exploitation of human misery than telling ambitious people they cannot better themselves?

Xeones|4.20.09 @ 9:53AM|#

Cabeza, campaign signs? That's going to be me in the debates.

"Yo, fuck my opponent. He's a douchebag who voted for TARP IV and should eat a bag of dicks."

|4.20.09 @ 9:57AM|#

Kinneth,

You have your facts wrong. It was a legal wiretap.

"The CQ Politics story said NSA taped the multi-millionaire Harman making the offer more than two years ago - a court-approved wiretap."


I can tell you from experience, Harmon is a first class bitch.

|4.20.09 @ 9:58AM|#

Janet Napolitano is a huge waste of life.

|4.20.09 @ 9:58AM|#

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2009/04/20/secret-agent-congresswoman/

Here is the link to the quote about the wiretap being court approved.

JP|4.20.09 @ 9:58AM|#

as someone whose mother's maiden name was Guida and whose relatives hailed from Campania, I got a-nothin' against dat

Worst. Italian-American. Impression. Ever. :o)

|4.20.09 @ 10:14AM|#

"Is this the hope and change we were looking for? Declaiming limited government devotees as potential terrorists and raiding businesses for hiring people during an economic downturn?"

You left off blanket immunity from prosecution for war crimes.

Fluffy|4.20.09 @ 10:18AM|#

kinnath,

The other interesting thing about that Harman thing is that apparently the entire quid pro quo was brokered by AIPAC lobbyists acting on behalf of accused Israeli spies.

But anyone who claims that AIPAC has any influence on our government at all is an anti-Semite! Burn the witch!

|4.20.09 @ 10:27AM|#

Can I still use

Yo, Fuck Chuck
Nick for Senate

as my campaign sign against Schumer next year?

|4.20.09 @ 10:28AM|#

What if we were to execute Israeli spies, and cut our foreign aid to the Israelis to zero?

Warty|4.20.09 @ 10:32AM|#

JP,

Aaaaaaaaah, what's-a da matta? You a-pizza gotta too many a-spicy meatballas? Come-a to my pizza place-a. I make-a you-a da greasiest a-pizza inna city. A.

Xeones|4.20.09 @ 10:33AM|#

Sure, Nick. I'm just gonna need a little somethin' kicked my way when you win, nah mean?

|4.20.09 @ 10:34AM|#

Article I Section 8's grant of power to Congress regarding "immigration" ("an uniform rule of naturalization") does not authorize the Congress to establish a permanent bureaucracy staffed by public sector lifers at an annual cost of tens of billions of dollars. Obviously, the text of the grant of power does not support the far flung totalitarian features of this bureaucratic behometh.

Neither does the so called necessary and proper clause of Article 1 section 8 support the proposition that Congress has the power to establish a permanent bureaucracy staffed by public sector lifers at an annual cost of tens of billions of dollars. The text just does not support such a reading.

Establishing a uniform rule of naturalization does not mean the creation of a permanent bureaucracy staffed by public sector lifers at a cost of tens of billions of dollars per year. Notice that congress was given the power to establish a unifrom "rule." Singular, not plural. The grant of power does not include the right to establish administrative agencies with their own courts. The grant of power does not include the right of these administrative agenices being able to make rules and regulations and to deprive people of the right of trial by jury.

That Congress has the power to coerce billions of dollars per year in order to fund a communist structure like ICE is undoubted because the state has the guns and has shown that it is ready, willing and able to murder in order to get what it wants. This actual power should not be confused with the power granted in the constitution.

kinnath|4.20.09 @ 10:40AM|#

"The CQ Politics story said NSA taped the multi-millionaire Harman making the offer more than two years ago - a court-approved wiretap."

Missed that, my apologies.

Kyle Jordan|4.20.09 @ 10:42AM|#

[Doucheweezle Fed]

libertymike,

You're on the list, buddy!

[/Doucheweezle Fed]

ed|4.20.09 @ 10:44AM|#

the judge not only knows the history of this country,
he's a stalwart defender of the best aspects of it

And he has great hair!

|4.20.09 @ 11:15AM|#

GO BACK TO ITALY GILLESPI!!!!!1111

Subject:

I just saw you debate on O'Reilly. If you don't like it here why don't you go back to Italy and take all your friends with you who don't want to speak english in AMERICA.

Michele

Warty|4.20.09 @ 11:24AM|#

Oh man, I forgot how great Fox News hate mail is. I wish Radley would post some of his greatest hits from his old Fox gig.

OO===D|4.20.09 @ 11:26AM|#

""Yo, fuck my opponent. He's a douchebag who voted for TARP IV and should eat a bag of dicks.""

Ouch!

BakedPenguin|4.20.09 @ 11:31AM|#

In what alternate universe is the secretary living where it's evil (E-VIL!) to hire immigrants who are willing to work?

One where all the inhabitants should shut the fuck up.

...I'd like to nominate Fox News Channel's chief legal expert, Judge Andrew Napolitano [to the president's cabinet].

The SCOTUS would be a better place for him, but the fact that he work(ed) for Fox would be reason enough for all the (D)'s to blackball him.

Stretch|4.20.09 @ 11:38AM|#

I'd love to watch it but, like all reason.com video, it stops loading part of the way through.

radar|4.20.09 @ 12:01PM|#

Ripping Janet Napolitano - good

Praising Andrew Napolitano - bad. Yes, he says some wonderful things. He also recently had "the great" Alex Jones on his internet show. Pathetic. Legitimizing a loony-toon black helicopters type like Jones is disgraceful.

hmm|4.20.09 @ 12:01PM|#

Those evil bastards are arming the evil immigrants as well. Just yesterday I saw an evil immigrant with a weedwhacker and an assault mower. We, as Americans, can't stand by and let this happen.

I saw one this morning viciously wielding a hammer in violent manner. He appeared to be make an attempt at destroying the infrastructure of a home like he would destroy the infrastructure of the US!!!

|4.20.09 @ 12:03PM|#

Hammering? Is there no end to their depraved work ethic?

cmoney|4.20.09 @ 1:28PM|#

she's also the douchenozzle largely responsible for the horrible, dangerous speed cameras in AZ.

Paul|4.20.09 @ 2:45PM|#

It's a Union payoff. Nothing more. Unions have been badgering the government for sometime to crack down on illegal immigration, and now they have a sympathetic ear in the white house.

|4.20.09 @ 2:48PM|#

Where's Lee Harvey when you need him?

Joel|4.20.09 @ 3:46PM|#

I confess to having been an evil human trafficker many times, though before this morning I wasn't aware of how very bad the practice was. The humans in (with?) whom I trafficked (by giving them money in exchange for service) seemed quite happy about it at the time.

Excuse me, I'll have to get back to this post. Someone's pounding on th

Adderall Apocalypse|4.20.09 @ 4:05PM|#

Legitimizing a loony-toon black helicopters type like Jones is disgraceful.

hey. Don't knock Alex Jones! He's never lied to me before! And if I'm wrong, I'll eat my tin-foil hat!

|4.20.09 @ 4:47PM|#

I hate to say this but We are stuck with and that guy Obama for at least three more years..God help us all :(

|4.22.09 @ 11:49AM|#

this reminds me of the saying,"those who can do,those who can't teach" where does the judge fit in????????????jm