Posted on 06/23/2007 3:39:30 PM PDT by Baladas
Washington, D.C. (AHN)-President George Bush called on Congress to muster the "political courage" to pass an immigration overhaul that has foundered for weeks in the U.S. Senate.
"We have an obligation to solve problems that have been piling up for decades," President Bush said in his weekly radio address. "The status quo is unacceptable."
The proposed legislation, drafted by a small group of senators and White House negotiators, would create a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million immigrants in the United States illegally.
The proposal has been derided by opponents as an amnesty program. Among the sticking points is a provision that would allow illegal immigrants who entered the country before Jan. 1 to apply for Z visas, which would enable them to live and work in the United States legally.
Critics have also charged that the bill does not do enough to secure the nation's borders.
"I understand that many Americans have concerns about immigration reform - especially about the federal government's ability to secure the border," President Bush said. "So this bill puts the enforcement tools in place first."
On June 26, to move the bill forward, 60 senators will have to vote to resume debate on the politically contentious issue.
To attract the 15 additional votes needed to advance the bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has suggested that the Democratic and Republican caucuses would each be able to put forth 12 amendments.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, speaking to Bloomberg Television on Friday, said Republican support of the proposal is waning, despite it being one of the President's top domestic priorities.
"We're beginning to see some of the people that would have ordinarily voted to proceed with the bill to say, `hey, this process is not fair, it's not transparent,''' Senator Cornyn said.
Among those Republicans who Senator Cornyn cited: Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson of Georgia.
All the pieces of the puzzle are becoming more prominent with each passing day of debate on this immigration shamnesty. The SPP , signed by President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005 spells out the general framework in language that skirts around the whole issue of sovereignty. Bush has been working from the very beginning of his administration to implement this in stealthy piecemeal fashion, starting with his profound dereliction of duty at the border. The mass migration of illegals was Step One of his fait accomplis approach. Truly, does anyone really believe his pathetic excuses for why he can't do what even Mexico can and does do on its southern border?
His excuses are like a child's. Laughable and contradictory: "We can't figger out how to keep them out, and they're doing good work that Americans won't do. Plus, we can't seem to find them. They go home from work everyday and we don't know where they live. And when they come in to get their driver's licenses, we don't know where they then drive off to. Their kids at our schools won't tell us where their parents live, and gee...some of these poor unfortunate immigrants don't have their kids, or parents, or sisters and brothers with them here...and that's just terrible. Yeah, we need to fix all that...and the answer is Comprehensive Immigration Reform."
Step Two is this Bill, whereby in ratcheting form, this massive batch of illegals gets legalized - along with the right to bring up every Tomas, Ricardo, y Jorge in their family to share in the spoils. This was supposed to be snuck in by his fellow elitist backslappers, perfectly epitomized in this photo of RNC chairmen Martinez, Graham and Kennedy as they yukked it up after closed door sessions to sell out the US:
Well, Step Two didn't go as planned. It got stopped..slammed cold. So, did Bush accept that and wait for a perhaps more opportune time? No. Instead, he called from Europe to tell them to re-submit it, and now he is desperately trying to get it re-genned up, even in the face of waning support from the GOP and adamant opposition from the people of the US. Why now? What's the emergency, any more than there's been an emergency for the last 6.5 years? In order to understand that, we need to take a look at what Step Three is.
The next SPP summit will take place this August 21-22nd in Montebello, Quebec, and Bush wants to have this bill signed, sealed and delivered to present to this group as a huge step towards integration. After all, when half of Mexico is already here, what do we care if Mexico and the US merge? Plus, if Canada gets thrown in as part of the deal, it gives us all a place to run to when the US goes to absolute caca.
The larger question is why does Bush want to do this. I think he may be looking at several factors:
1. Rising and latently hostile powers all throughout the greater continent of Asia. Critical resources around the world are under the control of unstable and in many cases, hostile powers.
2. The US is running out of younger citizens, since they were being aborted or not being conceived at all.
3. To the North, there is Canada, chock full of resources, but no grunt labor to take advantage of it. To the South, a lot of oil and a basket case of cheap labor and draft age material, but all the industrial infrastructure is in the US.
I think Bush also knows that US citizens would never choose to give up sovereignty, so democracy?.. shme'mock'racy. He knows best, and he's gonna make it happen regardless of what we poor schlubs want. It's all for the best anyway, notwithstanding all the cultural destruction it entails, but none of his crowd will suffer any of those nasty but "necessary" consequences in any case.
Gotta love our own homegrown royalty.
CLAP CLAP CLAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And they will ALL vote democratic as well.
What can the Republicans be thinking ..A 7 year old kid knows that immigrants vote democratic ..The Dems give away the store to get votes ..
Well gentlemen , what are we going to do about this? This is THE BIG ONE..This bill passes and it’s over? I say we need drastic measures. Ideas?
There is some deal being made with Bush, and Mexico. We, the peasantry, are not privy to this.
If the bill is passed, we impeach Bush!
Excellent, must read for anyone paying attention.
“Is it January of 2009 yet? Has this fool been sent packing yet? I am totally sick and tired and fed up with GWB. He is a loser, a failure and a fake. He has lied to us regarding his stance on so much. He lied about being a conservative. He is a total waste of 8 years. He has done more damange to conservatism by himself than the Marxists dims have done. Time to GO RINO!!!”
I’ll tell you what irritates the heck out of me. A fair amount of years ago, some of us Freepers started to figure out that Bush wasn’t at all what he was cracked up to be. To be honest, I had reservations from the very beginning, but due to a lack of another viable candidate, voted for Bush, twice. The alternative both times was just too horrifying (Gore and Kerry). Bush was and has been mostly compassion and very little conservative. I won’t enumerate all of the examples of this, but just a few to remind: no child left behind”; campaign finance reform; Harriet Miers almost a Supreme Court Justice; tons of money sunk down a rathole in Africa for the Aids cause; Medicare Drug Plan, allowing our soldiers and border agents to be prosecuted for trumped up reasons while they were just doing their jobs; fighting a PC war; support for illegal immigration, need I go on?
For this, initially on FR, we were ostracized when we voiced our reservations or outright dislike of what Jorge Bush was doing, and the Bushbots reigned supreme on most of the threads. I can’t tell you how many spats (and some bans) I and others who first saw the light had to endure because we saw more clearly that which finally many are coming to see themselves. We (those of like mind to myself) had to suffer the slings and arrows of assorted alleged conservatives who couldn’t seem to see what was developing right in front of their very noses.
I suppose vindication is now mine and those who saw what was coming like I did a long time ago. Now I worry that, just like before, everyone is going to jump on the Fred Thompson bandwagon just like everyone did on the Bush bandwagon, before really getting a better grasp on the candidate (or potential candidate in Fred’s case). Now, Fred might turn out to be the best of the lot, but I hope everyone doesn’t just jump in here with Fred as their knight in shining armor, without waiting to hear what he says and how he acts on the campaign trail once he jumps in. Please, Freepers, make an informed choice this time, as the last one sure didn’t pan out, did he? I, for one, am going to hold back this time, until late in the game, so that I can make the best choice possible amongst the field of candidates. I don’t want to be burned again, if possible. What worries me about Fred Thompson is that he was an admirer of John McInsane, whom I’d rather be dead than vote for. He supported the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. I know, now he says it had flaws; does that make him a flip flopper like Romney is accused of being? And, I believe Thompson is most likely also a free trade globalist. Well, we’ve got one of those right now, and he’s made treaties with tons of countries, but somehow we are the country whose deficit keeps going up exponentially, and Bush’s globalist policies has led to his open borders stance, and his so what if we export all our manufacturing jobs overseas, and his one big happy American continent, all united, and thus all of us achieving third world status together somewhere down the line (I hope I’m dead before it happens).
I don’t trust that Thompson will be that different than Bush on illegal immigration, as he is for a guest worker program; I want to hear the details of how he would perceive such a guest worker program working. It’s all in the details, isn’t it. So please, Freepers, take it slow here, before making a decision that could impact us for the next 4-8 years. I don’t want another Bush, nor do I want to have to read through a bunch of Bushbot-like threads by people wearing blinders to the truth on FR. Makes my eyes and brain hurt.
Ironic, isn’t it, that another King George spawned a revolution from which a new nation was born?
In theory this sounds like it could benefit our long term future, but in practice...well that’s another matter. So what is Mexico’s contribution to all this..gotta be more than just sending us their poor and getting a ton of $ sent back. Also, why would Canada be interested in this....they seem to be staying out of the fray - what would their incentive be? I hear the EU had various negative effects ...but the countries still have their individual governments...so far.....
And maybe this is a rhetorical question but why wouldn't’t they just tell us that this is the goal? At least it would be easier to take than the crappy explanations we’ve been fed so far.
Also, we need to stop imprisoning enforcement officers for enforcing the laws.
IMHO
You wrote a more detailed message concerning the same issue about Bush for which I had been flamed here (and banned) years ago.
There should have been no celebration when Bush was re-elected. Freepers should have immediately responded with a grim and determined attitude to hold him accountable for the next four years. I was “shouted” down here when I made such a suggestion. Will people ever get a clue about politicians.
Unfortunately, I find that most people don’t learn from their mistakes.
Still hang in there and keep fighting.
So those who oppose him on this lack courage? And we don’t want whats best for America. How many times will he poke us in the eye. He is trying to be the least popular President in history and already is the Republican Jimmy Carter.
Of that I have no doubt at all. Today, there is less turnover in our Senate than in the old Soviet Politburo. Free private jet travel courtesy of "friends" is very seductive. Our senators certainly are selling themselves, to become permanent members of that power club.
Great essay at 141.
Esp. the mention of the SPP meeting in Quebec this summer.
That was the lowest estimate. The next proposal will cost more.
I wish term limits could get passed. That could erase so much corruption.
It’s impossible to move money from one line item to another in FedGov. This fact of life means that if they want to deport 20 million illegals they have to hire 100,000 and budget for it.
Feel free to disagree. I am used to it and don’t take offense. I am right anyway.
Hey, Bush...we’re right...
You’re left.
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