"Throw me the idol, I'll give you the whip." That's the gist of President Bush's speech on illegal immigration. He wants Americans fed up with illegal immigration to look the other way as he looks the other way at the law-breaking of several million immigrants. He wants amnesty--by whatever name he calls it--and in exchange, he says he will attempt to secure the border through a temporary deployment of the National Guard.

Why should anyone believe that he'll make good on his end of the deal? Why should anyone believe that his proposal will significantly impede illegal immigration?

He's been president for more than five years and he hasn't enforced the immigration laws already on the books. The National Guard, as he admits in his speech, cannot (and should not) be involved in enforcing the laws. The Guard is not a police agency, after all. The Guard will be assisting the Border Patrol, and that won't hurt. But sending them seems an act more concerned with fooling the public than alleviating the problem. To borrow a phrase many Guard members are undoubtedly familiar with, it's a big dog and pony show.

More substantive is the plan to add 6,000 actual Border Patrol agents. Hopefully, this will clog up many of the pores in the border. But why should President Bush get a temporary guest worker program for current law breakers in exchange for a promise to try to stop future lawbreakers. Trading an actuality for a hope is not a fair trade.

It seems to me, and maybe I am wrong in this, that securing the borders of a nation against foreign incursion is the first and foremost duty of the military. So, while I agree with much of what you say, I would not be so quick to condemn the concept of the Guard on the border.

GW has good speech writers. But, even when prefaced with rhetoric of what he and his handlers know the po'ed public want to hear with regards to enforcement and how grave the problem is, his addresss still ends up being packaged as an amnesty program.

This is a fight he didn't anticipate. But the more he highlighted the fact that he would continue to allow an unlimited flow of illegals while supporting the ones that are here and would not enforce our laws, the hotter the issue of ILLEGAL immigration became.

Now, he sees the light? Bull. Government (especially Bush) needs to keep being hammered on this or they will turn over.

We're not so think as you dumb we are.

Dan, you know as well as I do that the "amnesty" ptogram serves two purposes: one is cheap labor for many Republican donors and our economy (who wants to pay $4 per pound for tomatoes?) and the other is that there is an election in November.

As I grow older I realize that the politicians spend more time struggling to maintain power than they do exercising that power. Remember the brouhaha about the Supreme Court filibuster? That was about who would be in power, not using it. Remember the great deal seniors got on their medicine right before the last Presidential election? That was the purchasing of the White House.

I am sorry I don't post here that often any more Dan. I do read your blog every day, for you are one rare conservative who calls conservatives on the carpet (Demosthenes). Politics used to be a hobby, but any more I get ill (okay, more so) just watching the "dog and pony show" that so many buy into.

Today is the Primary day here in Kentucky. SInce I am an Independent, I cannot choose any of the partisan candidates. This is sad, since in this state many local elections are decided in the primaries. Oh well, at least today they can't serve booze until after 6 pm.

Dan, keep blogging, I enjoy your writings.

Be well,

Sponge

If the House Republicans had any "cojones", they'd start impeachment proceedings immediately. Dereliction of duty in a time of war is tantamount to treason.

send in B Co, 4th LAR

I know the deployment of the Nasty Guard on the border will all just be a dog and pony show, or as we called it the Army, "Stand around with our dick's in our hands". But let me guess what they will actually be doing. They will be doing all the dirty work like taking out trash, just driving around aimlessly wasting gas (since we are not allowed to apprehend any aliens), and standing around on so-called "guard duty" with no magazines in our M16s trying to look "tough".
Hell when I was in Kuwait several years ago and I was on guard duty about 2 clicks from the Iraq border they gave us empty M16s and 2 ammo cans with RR ties locking them up, and if we spotted a homicide bomber coming over the berm we had to call the SOG and he had to call the Commander just to get confirmation to lock and load. If you think thats bad, I just cant wait to see what kind of Laurel & Hardy act they're going to do at the border.

This is my first election cycle as a Republican and I intend to contribute to a favorable outcome for November. But I am pissed. Republicans tend to maintain more party loyalty than Dems, but this will indeed be a test. Maybe the Tancredo camp will bring the faithful to the polls. This speech won't.

The Senate is actively pursuing to increase immigration many times over (something like 100 million new mostly poor and unskilled immigrants in the next 20 years), so this will be a total disaster for the nation.

The only thing the deployed guardsmen are going to do is stop the Minutemen, they will not at all be used to apprehend and return Mexicans, or build the needed wall.

Also, the Guard shouldn't be on the border, if anyone the Army should. We have over 700 bases on foreign soil, we have been guarding the South Korean border (fence and all) for a half century and are now guarding the Pakistani and Iraqi borders. All this in order to (what?) protect "Democracy" while our ruling class completely disregards the clear majority will of the American people, and worse, actively pursues policies completely contrary to the common good.