Are you ready for a Pepto Bismal day?
(Washington Times)Six months after approving a bill promising to build some 850 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Bush administration and Senate Republicans are now saying 370 miles is enough.
In his negotiations with Republican senators, Mr. Bush also appears to have rejected the key compromise in the Senate bill passed last year: allowing only longtime illegal aliens with "roots" to have a path to citizenship. He instead favors a more circuitous path that is open to almost all illegal aliens.
The presentation, first obtained and released by U.S. News & World Report, calls for 370 miles of fencing, 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 300 miles of electronic monitoring on the border. By that trigger, the guest-worker and legalization programs could begin with less than 900 miles of the 1,950-mile U.S.-Mexico border being monitored or blocked.
"I drafted that bill. It says 'shall.' That's the same language we put in the border fence in San Diego," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican. "Doggone it, this is the law. Follow the law."
At a time when the GOP should be taking on and being strong with one of the main issues for not only the Conservative base, but for moderate Republicans, independents, and moderate Democrats, they continue to show their weakness. Bush doesn't have to worry about it. He is a "temporary guest worker" in the White House. And this kind of, well, crap will not endear them to the voters, who may just say "ta hell wit it" and either not vote or vote for another party in 2008, as they did in 2006.
Will the remaining portion of the fence even last with the Democratic Congress?
Maybe it is time that Conservatives, who have not traditionally banded together to do things like petitions and protests (and, when we do, the response tends to be so so, usually) due to our independent natures, start doing just that. Constant petitions. Protests.
Then again, it hasn't worked out so well for the Liberals/progressives lately, eh?
There are other provisions mentioned in the article, but
"It's still amnesty," said Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Rep. Brian P. Bilbray, California Republican and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. "With all of the window-dressing provisions that are here, at the end of the day the end result is the same: You are giving specialized status and a mechanism for [illegal aliens] to stay here indefinitely, which is an amnesty."
Obviously, it is not easy to find 12-13 million illegal aliens and deport them. Doesn't mean we should not try. But, hell, when we find them, we allow them to sue law enforcement officers for violating their "civil rights," rather then taking them and sending them back where they came from.
Update: Interesting. Which group is responsible for the majority of identity theft in the USA? And what happens to them? Of course, if you are a legal US citizen who gets caught, you get 10 years in the pokey.
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