Today's complaints about Hispanic immigrants (whether illegal or legal) seem awfully similar to past complaints about Southern European and Irish immigrants. There's a nativist streak in this nation that demagogues have historically exploited. Get people riled up enough about immigration and they will be distracted from the terrible job our country's leaders are doing. Get people frightened enough about immigration and they will tend to fall into line behind authoritarian leaders.

High rates of illegal immigration are a sign that our legal immigration system is broken. People come to the United States illegally because the mechanism for immigrating legally isn't working. Increasing the number of temporary work visas and streamlining procedures -- coupled with border enforcement and penalties for employers -- would do a lot to resolve the problem.

Another issue is lack of economic opportunity in Mexico and many of the countries in Central America. Surely there is more that the United States can be doing to encourage economic development in this area! The United States and Mexico have one of the world's largest income differentials across a shared border. People with local opportunities to work and earn money are less likely to pour across our borders.

Dust off your resume and start looking for a new one.

I first picked up a Vonnegut book in third grade -- found in my dad's sock drawer, which is where he kept all his secret stuff and treasures. It was "Breakfast of Champions" and I remember overhearing my parents discussing in hushed voices whether they should let me continue reading it. I was surprised that a grown-up book would have pictures. Most of it went over my head, though I valiantly plowed through it. I wasn't going to let anyone stop me from reading something I wanted to read.

Fast forward to high school, where I read literally everything I could get my hands on in an effort to mentally escape suburbia. Vonnegut's sarcasm, perception, impatience with fools, and cranky faith in humanity helped me throughout and was a huge influence. One of the reasons why I am a liberal and progressive is Vonnegut, and one of the reasons why I am impatient with liberals and progressives is also Vonnegut.

Fast forward to 1988, when a college writing group to which I belonged invited Vonnegut to speak on campus. I was the only member with access to a car. Guess who got drafted as Vonnegut's minder? I picked him up from the airport, dropped him off at his hotel, took him from hotel to auditorium and back to the hotel bar with one of my professors (a former student of Vonnegut's from the Iowa Writer's Workshop) and his wife. My dad joined us for drinks and was so delighted to finally meet one of his literary heroes. I can't remember everything we talked about, although I think global warming came up at one point. Vonnegut was "on" and was charming and funny and a little sad. He inscribed my copy of "Deadeye Dick" (not my favorite, but the only one of his books I had in hard cover!) with "To Dear Nancy, who was my mother for 24 hours" and a little sketch of himself.

Fast forward to the mid-'90s, when my husband and I wandered into Pyramid Books in New Brunswick, one of those secret hole-in-the-wall bookshops with piles of used paperbacks overflowing the shelves and spilling over the floor; its logo was the pyramid topped with an eye. The owner took one look at me and said, "You look like a Vonnegut fan. I have some books you might be interested in." He handed me a bundle of Vonnegut paperbacks, none of which I had copies of. Of course I had to buy them. Later, when we went back to look for the store again, it was gone.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago, when my dad wrote a story for his creative writing class about how we went drinking with Vonnegut back in the day. It took me a few minutes to dredge up the names of my old professor and his wife, a poet now deceased. I hadn't thought about Vonnegut for a while, although I had read most of his recent essays and Internet columns, and an interview where he admitted to being exhausted by the Iraq war and the Bush administration had made me feel depressed. So we talked about the Vonnegut books we'd both read and he promised to give me a copy of one of the more recent ones I hadn't gotten around to yet.

Fast forward to this morning, when I saw the AP news story about Vonnegut's death, and gasped, and my office mate asked me what was wrong.

"... If Christ hadn’t delivered the Sermon on the Mount, with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn’t want to be a human being."

... am making a donation to Planned Parenthood specifically because of this decision.

I'm also going to write to my newly-elected democratic congresscritters to sponsor legislation that nullifies this decision. It's up to Congress to pass new laws that remove this restriction.

Rove can dish it out, but he can't take it.