Abraham Lincoln liked to place this hypothetical before audiences: if you call a dog's tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have. "Five," his listeners would invariably respond. No. Calling a dog's tail a leg doesn't make it so, Lincoln would retort. A dog has four legs. President 43 would be wise to brush up on President 16. No matter how many times President Bush says his amnesty program isn't amnesty, it's still amnesty. Rewarding lawbreakers with citizenship is actually worse than amnesty. Not only does it absolve the criminal of the crime, but it awards a bonus--citizenship--to the criminal that he would not have received had he obeyed the law and waited in line.

The Lincoln quote fits well at the end of IMs, and it works well for this post, too. Nice, Dan.

Dan, What would you call what Reagan did in 1986? Amnesty++. We are a magnet because of our best attributes. So they all come. That is on them. We do not prevent them from getting in. That is on us. Rounding them all up would be almost an impossible task. Some have really integrated themselves into our society. We have an underground system (ID's vs. SS's) that allow this to happen. That is on business. A tough pathway seems the ONLY answer...what a mess!

You correctly label what Reagan did in '86. I wish Bush would correctly label what he's attempting to do in '06. One could argue that Reagan's actions in '86 led us to Bush's actions in '06, which will lead us to some other president, probably a Republican (Democrats don't have the political cover to pull off such a move), offering amnesty again. In other words, the first amnesty put illegal immigrants on notice that they would be rewarded for breaking the law eventually. You can't universally enforce any law, from double-parking to murder. But that's no reason to abolish a law, particularly to abolish a law by executive fiat. Laws are representations of the popular will. When one man, in this case the president, discards laws he doesn't like, he undermines our republican form of government.

Chris,

There are plenty of ways to effectively force all (or most) of the illegals to go home. For example, the executive branch is already supposed to be aggressively fining and going after companies that employ illegals. But of course: "Under the Bush Administration worksite arrests of illegal aliens fell some 97 percent, from 2,859 in 1999 to 159 in 2004."

Anyway, you are sorta pointing out the heart of the matter, which isn't whether or not they are "citizens" but the fact of residency, which is what they desire. The largest portion of illegals couldn't care less about voting, they just want to retain residency.

I am actually asking honestly; am I off the mark here? If we give these people citizenship, then they will be in a better position to pay taxes. The employers they work for will have to stop breaking the law and pay them decent wages. I understand the "amnesty is not amnesty" argument, but aren't we being short sited with that? Might the long term gains outweigh the short time forgivness for breaking our immigration laws? Educate me if I am way off the mark.

Dan, by they way, Bravo 4th LAR is deploying again to Iraq I believe in Sept. 06.

Wow. Thanks for letting me know. That's news to me. Swetz and Smith, and an occasional sighting of Sgt. Elliot at the gym, are the only ones I've come in contact with the last couple of years. When Sgt. Warner came back, I went to his party (Allen and Velkey also attended). I was really proud of him, and it was great to see so many others that were too. I'm pretty oblivious to who is still in and who got out. I know you made a switch to the shiny insignia side. What's your rank now?

Wow! Where is a voter to turn!? Back in November 05', the Republican candidate for Governor from the Socialist Republic of Massachusetts stated that all illegal aliens should be deported. They interviewed her this week and, when asked the same question, she changes her position about deportation and says we need to tighten our borders.

I am so f'ing sick of these people. And they are all the same!! Third party sounds real good. Unfortunately, we'll never see another Teddy Roosevelt.