"If this speach wasn't good enough for some and they can't even say it's a good start, then frankly, they're impossible to please people who have no clue how our system works. You can't change something that big over night, you have to make a gradual course correction over the course of years. It took decades to get this screwed up, it will likely take decades to fix. That's a fact of life and all this b******g and moaning about it doesn't change that reality."
I don't want to argue with you, because I don't really care if the border is closed or not. But if I were representing the BorderBots, I'd say this:
Hooey.
Israel built a wall in two years that stopped a guerilla war against it.
The President could have ordered that construction begun NOW, even without Congress. But he didn't propose a wall, or a continuous fence. He proposed nebulous "high tech" fence.
That's not what the BorderBots said they wanted. And it sounds both a lot more expensive and a lot less effective than what they said they wanted.
So, WHY didn't the President just GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANTED? Even his disguised amnesty program (guest worker) probably would have been more palatable (though still not palatable) if he had just flat given them their simple Israeli wall at the border.
So, why DIDN'T he?
I think that it is because business interests do not want that border closed. So Bush knew he had to throw out a lot of proposals that sounded effective, but which, in the end, would not block that flow...and at very worst would be rejected by Congress and leave the status quo.
So he did.
Now, if I were a Border Conservative, I would be walking out the door right now, because it's transparent. There was not one good reason not to give them the wall, unless you don't really want that border closed.
But why would they care if the border is closed if there's going to be a "guest worker program?" /rhetorical question
Because when these illegals become citizens, and even in the case of legal temporary workers, the law will require that businesses pay their FICA, minimum wage, vacation bennies, health bennies, family leave, retirement packages and so on and so forth. Those businesses will cut them loose and look for new illegals and new ways to scam the system.
Must be why he didn't say word one about enforcing the law on employers who hire illegals.
Don't get me started on Israel, I have friends there and friends int he IDF and their wall is a 100% effective deterrant. But building walls to keep out homocide islamo-fascist bombers from the Gaza Strip and West Back to Israel is not anywhere near comperable to building a wall like that from San Diego to Brownsville. It's a drop in a bucket compared to the water in a water tower. Massive undertaking. I'd do it, but it's no easy task.
I've suggested the Minutemen taking it on running a nationwide fundraiser taking donations over the phone with CC's, in the mail with MO's and cashiers checks, on the net with Pay Pal and other net payment vehicles, and all that money being kept in a single account and used to pay for materials and labor to build an honest to God wall on the border. It's doable, and the American people would fork over tens of millions easy to people like the Minutemen who put their money where their mouth is and have proven where they stand. I haven't gotten any response to that yet but it's doable, and would work even though it would take years. That's just what I'd do. AS for border conservatives walking after this speach, then they're not really conservatives. Not voting because you don't get what you want letter for letter is childish and selfish and stupid. And it guarantees the democrats win if all the single issue border conservatives do that, and then they'll REALLY see the border not get fixed. I've never understood the whole "if it's not done how I want I just won't vote" thing. That's like a kid holding their breath till their parent gives in. I say, "let em' pass out". It's stupid and serves no purpose other than defeating what someone purports to support, the conservative ideal and agenda. I don't like all things Bush and the Republican party really angers me with their lack of agressiveness and inability to have a spine. But I'm sure not going to stop voting because of it. I'd rather stay engaged and try my best to fix them over time. Not hold my breath and thing "Boy, when they lose because I didn't vote, THEN they'll be sorry". Then I'D be sorry because then I'd have to look at a democray majority making policy. That's beyond stupid and childish. That's destructive and putting ones personal interests above the wellfare of the country, and no matter what Bush or any Republican does to piss me off, I'm not going to let my irritation at some pubs come before what I know is best for America; a Republican majority rather than a democrat majority. It's just that simple.