Posted on 05/18/2006 5:29:51 PM PDT by RWR8189
What the president's immigration speech and "The DaVinci Code" have in common.
What was missing in the president's approach the other night was the expression, or suggestion, of context. The context was a crisis that had gone unanswered as it has built, the perceived detachment of the political elite from people on the ground, and a new distance between the president and his traditional supporters. The president would have done well to signal that he knew he was coming late to the party, as it were; that he'd come to rethink his previous stand, or lack of a stand, and had begun to consider whether there was not some justice in the views, and alarm, of others.
Without an established context the speech seemed free-floating: a statement issued into the ether, unanchored to any particular principle and eager to use, as opposed to appreciate, whatever human sentiment flows around the issue of immigration. It was a speech driven by an air of crisis, but not a public crisis, only a personal and political one.
To acknowledge what he apparently thinks are the biases of the base, he used loaded words like "sneak"--illegal immigrants "sneak across the border"--as if to establish his populist bona fides. This was, not to put too fancy a rhetorical term on it, creepy, and managed to be offensive to everyone.
What was needed was a definitive statement: As of this moment we will control our borders, I'm sending in the men, I'm giving this the attention I've given to the Mideast.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Can your font get any larger or more obnoxious?
Funny! :)
Oh well... I do agree with you that he keeps "surprising" me :), I never would have thought this whole episode with the border after 9/11... Especailly after he showed guts and went after Sadam i figured the border was a done deal!. HA!.. was I surprised... I mean really surprised :)...
I think is a "Globalista" more than an American, at least the way we interpret being an "American." Which means simply putting America first, above politics, above everthing else. That's all.
Stop playing around and tell us what you really think!!!
Maybe more obnoxious, but that's as large as I can get it.
and BTW, off subject, Reagan gave amnesty; Bush is not. :)
Oh Peggy...Oh Peggy... /slovering. I always knew you were so talented ever since I saw you in that TV show a while ago. You had a leather jacket and those cute sports slacks that accentuated well... you know... uhm.... yeah... :)
Finally everyone tired of her and would avoid her in the halls. She eventually married the greengrocer and went to live in Swansea.
Is that a good enough Miss Marple impersonation?
She didn't suspend writing her weekly column because of the lack of time but rather because it was a conflict of interest.
Never stopped Maureen Dowd!!!
Not to worry, you have to learn how to take it!... i builts character :) - so feel strongly about it and you said so. ok.
I love It!!!
Message to Moderator: Please remove my post #80. I let my anger and frustration cloud my judgment--as I have urged everyone else not to do. Thanks. ~SB
In 1986, they wee simply made legal and allowed to apply for citizenship.
Now, what you are disagreeing with is the punishment. You think the punishment isn't harsh enough, apparently. So, what degree of punishment would you recommend in order for this to be acceptable to you?
you summed up nicely what I think the driving force in american trade and foreign policy today, including the immigration issue - congress and the president are just doing the job their constituents want them do to. This is one of the few issues that the public is so adamantly opposed to them that it is making an impression even in the media. That is why I don't believe bush WANTS the southern border closed to illegal immigration/smugglers/etc, because if he did, it would have been done 4 years ago at the same time we (sheeple) were having to endure onerous lines and occasionally obtuse or incompenent TSA personnel to get on a domestic flight.
a fiscal motive for getting illegals in the system is to have them pay some (or more) taxes, whichever they would be liable for. Would they be required to pay income tax?
Off-topic but the globalist mentality is going to have to make some changes with relation to China, which in business still views itself as a national entity with ambitions as such.
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Message to Moderator: Please remove my post #80. I let my anger and frustration cloud my judgment-
No..Now...we can't go buring our mistakes that easy!!!What are we gona harp on if you do that!!!!
During the Miers controversy, I freely criticized the President. It was very painful to do so.
This is so much worse, I can't write anything that clears the threshold of respect for our host Jim Rob, and (many of) my fellow freepers.
Noonan sounds a bit detached, as usual; she is playing the remote, faineant Olympian who catches a whiff of something distasteful down here on earth, and registers her whiff of disapproval. And she does it so well, but...there's no wrath in her.
And that says she is "out of touch," herself.
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