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SAUNDERS: Bush talks big on the border
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 5/16/6 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 05/16/2006 8:06:19 AM PDT by SmithL

PRESIDENT BUSH is making a big mistake in announcing that he wants to send up to 6,000 National Guard troops to the southern border. What a shoddy way to say thank you to troops who have seen plenty of action in Iraq and after Hurricane Katrina. It is also an insult to conservative and moderate voters, whom he apparently thinks this feckless gesture will appease.

The whole focus on the border shows that Bush is not serious about curbing illegal immigration. Washington already has increased the ranks of the Border Patrol, which is good. Meanwhile, as many as one third of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in America are visa violators. They didn't sneak over the border.

Want to find them? Want to discourage more people from coming to America so they can work here illegally? Squeeze employers.

In the private sector, Chicago attorney Howard Foster has masterminded class-action lawsuits on behalf of legal workers against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers with dubious documents and no English skills. Zirkle Fruit, a Washington-based apple-packing company, recently agreed to a settlement that will require it to compensate legal workers around $1.3 million for the wages they would have earned in a marketplace not depressed by illegal immigrants.

Why put Guardsmen at the border when the government doesn't even require that employers check with authorities to see if workers are legal? In 1997, Washington began work on the Basic Pilot program, which allows employers to check new hires' Social Security numbers. Problem is, Foster noted, Basic Pilot is "only voluntary. It's not mandatory. Congress doesn't want to make it mandatory, they don't want to burden employers with it."

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: debrasaunders; didntwatchspeech; presidentbush; prewrittenhitpiece
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1 posted on 05/16/2006 8:06:20 AM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL

Good article.


2 posted on 05/16/2006 8:09:10 AM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: SmithL

It is also an insult to conservative and moderate voters, whom he apparently thinks this feckless gesture will appease.



When the Guard are basically down there to watch our nation get raped and not allowed to d squat about it, that equates to a political move. One design to placate while he gets his "it's not amnesty" amnesty program going.


3 posted on 05/16/2006 8:09:44 AM PDT by trubluolyguy (If its such a great idea, lets see how well the capital and white house do with a virtual fence.)
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To: SmithL
What a shoddy way to say thank you to troops who have seen plenty of action in Iraq and after Hurricane Katrina.

Oh come ON, now we're pulling the "Support Our Troops Bring Them Home" trick?

4 posted on 05/16/2006 8:10:39 AM PDT by Darkwolf377 (Stay home in November if the sacrifices that protect your right to vote mean that little to you.)
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To: SmithL

One thing I noticed about that speech was the "up to" 6000 troops. I have a feeling this is the same as those walkie-talkies I have that operate "up to" 2 miles apart. I'm lucky if they go a fourth of that.


5 posted on 05/16/2006 8:11:42 AM PDT by John Jorsett (scam never sleeps)
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To: SmithL
Squeeze employers.

Yes.

This can be done on the local level by pressuring local politicians to do so.

We won't, though. Easier to call Bush names than to make phone calls or actually (horrors!) go down to City Hall, take names, make follow-up calls, call reps, call BACK, show up again, etc.

6 posted on 05/16/2006 8:12:01 AM PDT by Darkwolf377 (Stay home in November if the sacrifices that protect your right to vote mean that little to you.)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Amazingly good given the source. Bush has lost me forever on this. The NG on the borders is just an illusion to get what he really wants 13 million new American citizens who will sponsor an additional 13 million new American citizens. There ain't going to be room to breathe in this country in 20 years.


7 posted on 05/16/2006 8:12:01 AM PDT by piceapungens
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To: trubluolyguy

When the Guard are basically down there to watch our nation get raped and not allowed to d squat about it, that equates to a political move. One design to placate while he gets his "it's not amnesty" amnesty program going.
------
And we can bet that is what is reassured Vincente about. Such a total sham and major pandering, and the continued support of a utopian, NWO agenda at the total expense of the American citizen and our country. Sick.


8 posted on 05/16/2006 8:12:14 AM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: SmithL

By 2004, the annual inflow of foreign-born persons was down 24% from its all-time high in 2000, according to the Pew Hispanic Center analysis of multiple datasets collected by the Census Bureau and other government agencies.

http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=53

And contrary to claims the administration's investigation and arrests of employers hiring illegals is down from the Clinton administration, this table tells a different story. Credit RedBloodedAmerican for finding this:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1632888/posts?page=187#187

Note that I don't think anyone is claiming that nothing should be done, but the hysterics claiming that nothing is being done couldn't be more wrong.


9 posted on 05/16/2006 8:12:38 AM PDT by Peach (DICC's - doing the work for the DNC)
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To: trubluolyguy

So should he declare martial law and suspend posse commitatus?


10 posted on 05/16/2006 8:13:03 AM PDT by misterrob (Jack Bauer has Elliott Yamin on his MP3 player)
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To: SmithL

It's a sloppy attempt to distract the public from the coming surrender of our borders. And it shows poor understanding of the base--conservatives will never be bamboozled by such a transparent ploy.


11 posted on 05/16/2006 8:13:05 AM PDT by blitzgig
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To: piceapungens

The 6000 guards can be removed rather quickly after legislation granting amnesty is enacted. I'd prefer something a bit more concrete.


12 posted on 05/16/2006 8:13:51 AM PDT by Barney Gumble (A liberal is someone too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel - Robert Frost)
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To: SmithL
Federal troops on the border can be scaled back at anytime, especially after an election. This fence will NOT discriminate.
13 posted on 05/16/2006 8:15:06 AM PDT by Buffettfan (VIVA LA MIGRA! - LONG LIVE THE MINUTEMEN!)
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To: Darkwolf377

Pathetic attempt to use conservatives own word against them. Transparent and disingenuous.


14 posted on 05/16/2006 8:15:28 AM PDT by traderrob6
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To: Barney Gumble
I'd prefer something a bit more concrete.

I agree, like a wall 25 feet high, topped with razor wire. But then that wouldn't be compassionate would it.

15 posted on 05/16/2006 8:15:28 AM PDT by piceapungens
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To: piceapungens
Debra Saunders has been great on the immigration issue for some time. Click on her archives and you will see.

I am not worried about space. First concern is that we are making fools of ourselves by setting up laws and then changing them to accomdate law breakers. I have great sympathy for law abiding immigrants who will get no reward for being good. Mostly I don't like being forced to fund the great Nanny of the World, the USA. Bush should first turn over his entire fortune before he uses the force of government to take my money from me and give it to lawbreakers. He sees himself as compassionate but he is only deceiving himself. He may have given us tax cuts but there is no way they can last when he cares so little about the cost of things. He may be robbing us less right now, but he is just transferring the debt to people who can't even vote yet. It's all so embarrassing.

16 posted on 05/16/2006 8:22:03 AM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: SmithL
As for the National Guard at the border, that's "just cosmetic silliness. It's an expression of contempt for people who are concerned about immigration. In the White House they think that anybody who is concerned about immigration must be a yahoo. You send in the National Guard if there's a hurricane," Krikorian added. "What's the emergency now? The emergency now is they're trying to get an amnesty bill and it's dying."

Well stated.

If the administration thinks so little of me, that is fine. They have chosen Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, John McCain and inhumane business desires that would create a market of government sanctioned slave labor. That is their choice. Let them justify it to their own conscience. My choice is to declare that they have cheated on me one too many times. THEY left me, I'm just making it official now.

17 posted on 05/16/2006 8:22:30 AM PDT by Soul Seeker (Self Admitted BorderBot: Be Heard: Send a Brick: http://www.send-a-brick.com/brick.htm)
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To: John Jorsett

And that 6000 is only promised by 2008. Pitiful.


18 posted on 05/16/2006 8:24:56 AM PDT by Soul Seeker (Self Admitted BorderBot: Be Heard: Send a Brick: http://www.send-a-brick.com/brick.htm)
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To: misterrob

So should he declare martial law and suspend posse commitatus?



Build the wall. Man it. Stop the invasion.


19 posted on 05/16/2006 8:26:58 AM PDT by trubluolyguy (If its such a great idea, lets see how well the capital and white house do with a virtual fence.)
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To: SmithL

the pubbies have a problem. their choices like those of the people on flight
93 are between certain death and near certain death.

If they allow the illegals citizenship--the illegal/legals will do what they did after 1986: vote democratic and tip the country to a democratic majority as they have done in california and that because after 1993 in California many mexicans began voting in california to preserve gov bennies--for which the dems excel. There won't be social security benefit for Americans of retirement age from the illegals/legals because they will suck up what ever they put into the economy--as they are now. They won't yield a net gain. ie they won't pay for anyone's social security.

Everyone but everyone who has ever been to any government building that dispenses anything from health care to drivers lisences can't help but notice that the place is swamped with foreigners. Basically the welfare state system set up in the 1960's is being totally gamed by foreigners.

If the president gets his way he will demoralize the republicans bringing on the effects of the 1992 & 1996 elections. There may not even be a third party but when W builds in a reversal of the fortunes of the war of 1848--it creates a kind of passivity in people when they see their leaders commit them to the status of world historical losers.

If Bush decides to put up a wall and expel the illegals then there is a chance to preserve Republican majorities. It would be helpful to promise that the USA will kill the cost of water desalination and transport so as to make it economically possible to turn the deserts 1000 miles from any desert seacoast -- green. (this would increase the habitable size of the USA by a third and double the habitable size of Mexico.)This work is already ongoing and will be accomplished in five years or so--or in about the same time frame that GM promises to have a cost effective fuel cell car. For GM as it is for the GOP its do or die time.

The chief difference between the pubbies current predicament and flight 93 is that they are currently in the cockpit. (if you presume that bush is a republican or at least more of a republican than a bilderburger.)

The point here is that if these guys cannot act like loyal americans at least they can act like republicans. ie people who have a stake in the continuity of the republican party.

Since they are not doing this the republicans in the white house and senate all need to be smacked on both sides of the face and kicked in the but.


20 posted on 05/16/2006 8:29:04 AM PDT by ckilmer
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