[oceanview]

I say again: LOU DOBBS MUST RUN IN A PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY AGAINST BUSH. He is the most prominent american who understands what immigration and offshroing of jobs is doing to this country.

[sweetliberty]

" I think it is possible, not immediate, but possible, and probable to come. It’s all a matter of which party gets on this wave first – the Republicans or the Democrats. I predict, that will be the Party that will sweep America."

You are thinking of the America that used to be. There is a great shadow of evil passing over our once fair land and the political will, be it Republican or Democrat is to do only that which will secure its own power. It cares not for the people other than that we produce to satisfy their greed and feed their lust for power. Daily we are required to relinquish more of our freedoms and never is it enough. If we raise a challenge, we are beaten down by judicial despots who wield with impunity our beloved Constitution, fashioned by their perverse interpretation and dark desires as a weapon against those it was designed to protect.

To our government we are but producers and eaters, no longer individuals with dignity and power of independent will beyond nice words which may only be spoken as long they have no meaning. I am heartsick and grienve the loss of the country I loved and the sacrifice of those who even now fight to defend a mythical land of liberty that was once a shining beacon bringing hope to all who looked upon her, whose glory is past, now fading into the mist of legend as the armies of darkness besiege the land and savage that which was once sacred. Our spirit grows dim and our hopes for the future dwindle. Our strength is swallowed in sorrow. May God have mercy upon us in spite of ourselves and restore to us the will to do what is right and the courage to go on, to continue to fight for that noble vision from which we came forth.

[Hildy]

Please don't call it the Bush Amnesty. It's not fair to do that. There's enough you can pick at without lying.

[Missouri]

Ping.

[zook]

And I say, God bless President Bush for taking a reasonable, humane, and American spirited response to a problem that both parties have ignored for too long. There is no sustainable support in this country for rounding up and deporting all illegal immigrants, especially those from our own hemisphere.

This is the first president since Ronald Reagan to seriously confront the great issues and the great threats that face this nation. I trust his judgment on this policy and stand behind him 100 percent.

[DustyMoment]

Might as well put my $1 dollar's worth in on this.

Bush is dead wrong on this issue, just as Reagan was when he proposed and got the first amnesty bill passed. He later lived to regret it.

Let's start with the fundamental position that we are a nation of laws, not men. When we take something such as citizenship in America and give it away to people whose first act in coming to America was to display their contempt for our laws, what does that say about them AND about us as a nation? What should we expect in the future from people to whom we GIVE citizenship when their first act was to disregard our laws and system of justice? And, what does it say about our President and his advisors that they would make a proposition such as this?

Citizenship in America is something to be prized; not something to be given away in every 4th box of Cracker Jack. Illegal immigrants are not deserving of the honor of American citizenship and would only accept it because they can live and work without fear of being caught and deported. We have immigration laws for a reason; Bush and Co. should read them sometime.

Let me ask a rhetorical question: if ignoring/violating the law is beneficial for one segment of our country, how spectacular will it be if we ALL ignore/violate the law?

Secondly, the stereotype of several illegal Mexican peasants living in fear in the same house/apt. and working at crappy jobs to earn enough money to support their families in Mexico is outdated. Many of the illegals today live in upscale neighborhoods, have college degrees and work at white collar jobs and drive SUVs. Where, in that description, is a job that "Americans won't take"?

The fact is that the "immigration policy" that Bush proposed today is one that Vicente Fox has been pushing. IOW, Fox is deciding what America's immigration policy towards Mexicans should be. That doesn't make Bush sound like much of a leader.

And, for those of you holding your breath for the Congress to kill this bill, let me remind you that this is the same Congress that passed McCain-Feingold that erodes your 1st Amendment rights. This is the same Congress that KNEW McCain-Feingold contained unConstitutional provisions and passed it anyway; to a President who knew it contained unConstitutional provisions and initially said he would veto the bill, then signed it into law. These are the same people you are expecting to kill this new immigration policy!!??

Folks - take a cold shower, drink a large pot of coffee, do whatever it takes to WAKE UP!!! WE do not benefit from this new immigration reform policy if it passes. According to a recent article, in the 10 years since Reagan passed the first illegal alien amnesty for 3 million illegals, it has cost us $79 BILLION in social service and safety net program costs. Multiply that by 4 to get a baseline estimate of the cost for an additional 12 million illegals - people whom, if we believe the stereotype, will remain below the income tax threshhold and will not, as a result, pay ANY taxes to help pay for their drain on our social services and safety net programs. Doesn't sound like a win-win deal to me.

For those who think Bush has a great idea with his new immigration reform program, turn to your left and say "Hola!" to the new Mexican family you just adopted but can't deduct on your taxes.

[Torie]

Think of it this way. There is an illegal worker market, and a legal worker market. The higher the wage differential between the going rate of the illegal market, and the rate in Mexico and some other places in the third world, but mostly Mexico, the more pressure there is against any dam that the feds might build to keep out the illegal would be workers from coming in. The trick is to narrow the wage differential through a guest worker program, and create incentives for the guest workers to return to their homeland, and/or seek to become legal through regulated channels that are rational, ie through channels that reward those that have worked with a clean record, pay their taxes, and play by the rules.

Putting too much pressure on the dam by creating too large a differential will cause it to collapse. There is no technology available to make a superman dam, other than putting employers who hire illegals in jail in large numbers. None, nada, nothing. Unless employers go to jail, the idea that somehow wage levels will rise high enough to induce legal workers to take the illegal jobs, and that illegals will not be hired off balance sheet is ludicrous, no matter what the rules.

The logical place for debate are the details concerning how the guest worker program will be constructed, so that it does not reward those who are not, and will not in the future play by the rules.

[First_Salute]

Hillary was hanging out in the area yesterday; book signing followed by $500 a plate elbow-rub with Gov. Richardson & Co.

He says that he gets calls almost daily from the other four Democrat contenders.

The ABQ newspaper glowed all over her.

[JustPiper]

Dobbs kicks butt evey night!

[hershey]

Dobbs has been right on the money for weeks now.