W's Live Speech Thread

Fox News | 1-7-04 | my favorite headache

[My Favorite Headache]

Press conference starts at 2:45 EST....get the prilosec out...we are going to need it.

[B Knotts]

While I don't support this horrible proposal, one problem that is the native U.S. birthrate is too low. We are contracepting and aborting ourselves out of existence.

[B Knotts]

Please note that his post is still there. I think the claims of even-handedness by the mods are insincere.

[firebrand]

This is the strangest live thread I have ever seen. End of speech, and I have no idea what he said.

[thoughtomator]

After reading the speech, I have come to the conclusion that Bush's proposed immigration reform is another brilliant masterstroke of strategery. Every interest gets something:

1) foreign nationals get:
(a) to stay for a reasonable amount of time, on reasonable terms;
(b) a way to keep their Social Security investment;
(c) some financial security for their work investment; and
(d) to live inside the law

2) US citizens concerned about the erosion of their citizenship are guaranteed two important points:
(a) the visas are temporary;
(b) border security (although we may very well get stiffed on this one, if history is any guide);
(c) a strong financial incentive for aliens to go home after they are done working in the US; and
(d) a major decrease in the level of lawlessness

3) US employers get:
(a) off the hook for breaking the law; and
(b) a way to maintain their workers

4) Politicians, especially the GOP, get to have an actual accomplishment to point to with regards to the immigration problem. It also is insurance just in case we get another 9/11 from people being smuggled through the southern border.

In conclusion, this is another piece of brilliant Bush strategery (which I have not yet decided I like, but nevertheless recognize that) that cuts a broad middle ground between the combatants in the political sphere. I am reminded much of the attempt to get UN support for the war in Iraq - it offers a deal that, while not perfect, it would be good faith to offer, and unreasonable to refuse. (On the other hand, it also gives nobody everything they want.)

I don't see how anybody in the legislature can oppose this. The Democrats might oppose it solely on the ground that it would be a Bush accomplishment and helps him in the 2004 election - that's not beyond the depths they have long since plumbed - but they could not win.

I really don't see how conservatives could oppose it, either. If you do want to get rid of as many aliens as possible, as soon as possible, this is the best thing you have seen yet. How many aliens would we have leave, otherwise, by the end of three years? The policy is very discriminatory against indigents as well, which any conservative has to agree with.(Agreed, we may have an issue with temporary workers coming for the purpose of having US citizen children here being protected by the Constitution.)

[Revel]

And I disagree with you that the Bush solution appears to be capitulation and appeasement. It is middle of the road, which is why many like you hate it so much.

What part of "Illegal" don't you understand ?

[thoughtomator]

see the post immediately following your last

[ArneFufkin]

The truthful outcome of the successive hyperbolic "purist" anti-Bush meltdowns here over the years (Chinese Spyplane, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Klamath, Highway Logging Rules, CFR, AWB, Illegal Amnesty etc. etc.) is that when you see the same malcontented and fradulent Brigaders, Keyesters and Lefty Agent Provocateurs withdraw their 2004 votes from Dubya for the FIFTH or SIXTH time, each new extortion tends to carry less dramatic import.

[riri]

Funny thing is I never even made the comment he quoted to me. I just commended her on her honesty for saying what most people think regarding the issue.

[kabar]

Agree on the birthrate. If I recall correctly, legal immigration accounts for almost half of our population growth now. I have no problem with legal immigration based on our national needs. We are no longer a nation expanding its frontiers and operating with a nineteenth century economy. We need to limit the numbers and identify the skills we need as a nation. The H1B visa system tried to do this. Corporate pressue continued to increase the quotas. Now it appears that there are no limits.

[Hostage]

Well it does raise the question of how to reduce their numbers. Of course the Hitler comparisonis a stretch.

But putting them on trains? Think of the imagery. AmTrak Trains? Boxcars?

Not practical. It would take years to round up 12 million people and it would take just as long to convince their great leader Fox to take them back.

All in the meanwhile it would be grist for the mill for the Dan Rather's of the world.

A better solution would be to cut social service budgets, implement a one-strike and you're out (deported), grant and validate driver's licenses and voter id cards only to those that hold a passport or SSN, and a resolution in Congress and backed by the Supreme Court of a stricter interpretation of the 14th Amendment.

The result would be illegal farmworkers subsisting off the land and under the table pay but whose families would return home for want of an easier life. No free housing, no food stamps, no free diapers, no educational opportunities, no driver's license and no power from illegal voting.

Then the numbers would start to drop.

America would become again a great place for legal immigrants but a bad place for illegal border crossers.

[VU4G10]

This is cultural suicide!!!


si!

[Neets]

I always feel it's like DEJAVU all over again with the extortionists....

[StarFan]

No guilt trip attempted. I asked you a simple question. Because of your education you won't do migrant work. Soooo, those w/o your standard of education should be the ones, right? Okay, who?

Who? How about the millions of prospective immigrants who have filled out their papers and are WAITING to enter legally?

[ArneFufkin]

I'm okay with any reform of the SSI system. It's a Ponzi scheme. The "third rail" is no politician having the guts to tell Grammy she's been jobbed.

I contacted Jeff Harrison, Karin Hope and Lani Kuwamura - the LDs for my Congressional reps Coleman, Ramstad and Dayton - to communicate my support for this thing. This proposal is a solid start to getting the Illegal Immigration mess fixed now and going forward.

[Chuzzlewit]

Psstopok wrote: Too much effort to actually do something about it yourself. (if you did do something and were blown away by the authorities, my apologies for being flip - if you didn't, then think about it)

that was your reply to my earlier post, that I came to CA trying to get work as a house painter, and the good ones really do make good money back east....and I couldn't find work since illegals had bottomed out the hourly wage payable in CA..

My answer: I was way to busy trying to find work. So,no I did not tell the authorities... They probably would have laughed anyway..

[EagleMamaMT]

Excellent post!

[kabar]

After reading the speech, I have come to the conclusion that Bush's proposed immigration reform is another brilliant masterstroke of strategery

Too clever by half. Most of the illegals will not sign on to the program fearing that they will be identified and deported. The others will sign up and disappear after three years if they can't renew. The program will be welcomed by many of those outside the US who will be offered jobs (some by unscrupulous employers who will be using the system as an Underground Railroad to get people in including a "processing fee"). Workers will now bring in their families. Those without jobs will still enter the US illegally. The net result will be a dramatic increase in immigrants.

It is sort of like what the Austrailians tried to do to control their rabbit population by building a fence to pen them in. Soon there were as many rabbits on one side of the fence as the other. This stratergy is a scam that does nothing to control our borders. Sacrificing the country on the altar of political expediency is not something I expected from Dubya.

[Hostage]

Exactly, the imbalance in the economies is the historical culprit. Further, the disparity in political cultures creates the economic imbalance.

We ran with the idea under George I to improve Mexico's economy in hopes of mitigating this imbalance thereby achieving a reduction in illegal border crossings. We created the Maquilladora industry which succeeded in sending established American jobs to Mexico.

We have tried most everything else short of ending our socialist system of government services, a system the helps to maintain the illegal influx.

[Laura Earl]

Thankfully mine has stayed here in the states. It is not IT technical, but very technical in a proprietary sense.

[firebrand]

I am going to just read the speech and then come back to this thread. Thank you for your analysis.