Michelle Malkin writes about what the President will likely be discussing tonight in his speech on immigration and describes it as “too little, too late.”
ST reader CavalierX says this is Bush’s “make-or-break border speech.”
The big news of the day on Bush and immigration is his apparent plan to send the National Guard to beef up security around our border.
My thought is: why haven’t we beefed up our security around the borders before now, not with National Guard troops, but with more Border Security patrolmen? I think putting National Guard troops on the border is like placing a band-aid on a broken leg. It won’t work and it won’t stay on long. As Malkin notes in her post, this is a temporary solution - not long term.
Sidenote: I wonder if this speech will be worth tuning out tonight’s episode of 24 (assuming Fox network is not going to pre-empt it with the President’s speech) for? Probably not 
Others blogging about this: Captain Ed, Sweetness and Light, Joe Gandelman, Ankle Biting Pundits, Blue Crab Boulevard
Related Toldjah So posts:
- House panel votes in support of bilingual voting
- Speechless re: the border patrol alerting the Mex. gov’t to the Minutemen’s whereabouts
- I’m sorry but … the Spanish version of the US national anthem sucks
- About those illegal immigrant rally organizers
- Not all Latinos are on the same page on the immigration issue
- SF Mayor once again vows to ignore the law
- Senate immigration bill stalls
- High school baseball coach: “We gots 2 show the U.S. that they aint (expletive) with out us”
- Figures - Howard Dean accuses Republicans of “scapegoating” Hispanics
- Victor Davis Hanson on illegal immigration
- Clearing up the myths on the immigration reform bill
- Hanging our flag upside down, underneath the Mexican flag
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I’m going to watch “Deal or No Deal” instead tonight. Bush lost me in Illegal Immigration. He won’t do the right thing because he’s fixated on “Guest Workers” and amnesty for the current law breakers.
Comment by PCD @ 5/15/2006 - 11:34 am
- Tonight may be Bush’s last chance to regain the initiative. One more “Whimp-out”, and I think the party faithful will see him as a lame duck, too far to the left to take seriously anymore, and more a liability than a help to those Conservatives up for Congressional elections in the fall.
- Of course this will just give that more impetous to the Guiliani/Condi express in 2008.
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 5/15/2006 - 11:38 am
- Oh, and according to press reports, El Presidente’ Fox contacted Bush by phone over the weekend, expressing “concern” that we might actually “match” the Mexican Federali’s along the border with our own military, and start enforcing our own laws for a change. Why we keep playing into that jackles hands, letting him dump his problems in our laps, is simply beyond belief, but at any rate the fact he is campaigning so hard against it gives us the best reason to do it, and soon.
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 5/15/2006 - 11:44 am
- To take direct action, a new idea is available called “send-a-brick”, which gives you a way to send a brick to your favorite Congressman, to get them started on building that wall, which they seem to be having trouble understanding on their own.
- So far over 3500 bricks have been purchased. Cost is a little less than $12 dollars a brick, and will ensure you can do your part if you’d like. URL here.
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 5/15/2006 - 12:02 pm
Unfortunately, they’re unlikely to really get the message until the bricks start coming thru their office windows and car windshields. The ability of congress critters to completely ignore their constituents is amazing.
Comment by Severian @ 5/15/2006 - 12:18 pm
- I hear you Sev… Fortunately for the Polito-dudes and dudess’s, the citizenry is prohibitd from a more “expressive” way of registering their desires… *snort*
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 5/15/2006 - 1:18 pm
You all don’t understand. If we fast track these people thru the immigration process, we can have new voters in as little as 3 years. If we cater to these people we might be re-elected by the extra votes.
/Sarcasm off
The short-sightedness, and stupidity of it all is overwhelming. I believe that those elected officials that vote for this legislation, will not reap a single benefit from this legislation. Especially the “Red State” elected officials. I hope that most of the “yes men” will be voted out of office the next time they run. Like I said earlier, we seriously need to get some real conservatives in these offices.
I hope that GW will put the National Guard on the border even temporarily if for no other reason than the saftey of the illegals. Then there will be medical attention for the illegals that are coming thru the border. Too many times I have read stories about illegals being left in the desert by the people they paid to get them thru. This is a sad state of affairs, and a strong border will deal with illegals coming over the border. Then we need to resolve the situation with the illegals that are already here. Also hopefully the Government will be able to increase the number of border agents during the time the NG is deployed. - Lorica
Comment by Lorica @ 5/15/2006 - 1:34 pm
Fox is showing ‘24′ at 9:20pm - I’ll have the munchin in bed, remote in on hand and a glass of wine in the other. No point in turning the tv on before then, no doubt the message the Pres. gives will be more of the same.
PS - Sorry I’ve been gone so long. Will post about my latest adventures later this week ST!
Comment by scmommy @ 5/15/2006 - 4:03 pm
Glad to see you scmommy.
We’ve been holding down the fort here….
Comment by Baklava @ 5/15/2006 - 5:00 pm
Well it Tony Snow has something to do with this speech it might be worth listening too. He was a speech writer for GW’s Dad. I have hope, but I can be an eternally foolish optimist too.
I have hope that the leadership on the left will come to their senses too. I guess I am saying if there is nothing else, there is always hope. - Lorica
Comment by Lorica @ 5/15/2006 - 6:00 pm
Obviously something needs to be done, before the situation gets even further out of hand…
Comment by camojack @ 5/15/2006 - 7:21 pm
The dems are already done writing thier rebuttal, and they haven’t even heard his speech.
Comment by G Monster @ 5/15/2006 - 7:52 pm
I just listened to the speech - more of the same, nothing is going to change. If the GOP base is feeling like I do right now, and the Republican reps and Senators don’t listen and come up with a strong border/immigrant policy fix, there will be some serious changes coming in the next two elections. I am so sick and tired of hearing the President say the illegals are doing jobs American aren’t. HELLO!!! If the wages weren’t driven down to the ground by cheap illegal labor, perhaps American citizens could afford to do them! Has he not seen the studies that show the illegal labor force is displacing American workers???!!!
About the only regurgitated phrase he left out this time was that he neglected to call the Minutemen ‘vigilantes’ as he has in the past.
I have always supported President Bush in just about every policy he has championed. This is one I cannot go along with. This is pandering politics, and Presidente Vincente is laughing in his palace right now, secure in the knowlege that the $26 Billion annual influx of US dollars from illegals into his coffers will not cease, and he can continue to export his problems without interruption.
Honestly, he is. I’m in Phoenix, and I can hear him from here…
Comment by mahwah @ 5/15/2006 - 8:48 pm
- First off, this majorly undestated number of 11 million is total BS for the masses. There are 18+ million in the LA basin alone. The direct result of the “guest worker program” of 20 years ago. More BS.
- 6000 unarmed NG. To do what. Run errands. Political fluff for an irate electorate.
- 2000 miles of mostly open border. thats what you’re dealing with. Keep putting it off and treating it like some sort of “annoyance”, and in a few years it will be 40+ million (Ilegals are streaming across now, frantic and desperate to get here before anything is done, now that the problem is being talked about openly), and it will spiral into armed conflict. Maybe thats what will need to happen before the block heads in Washington finally wake up.
- Measured influx of new citizens, assimilated as you go, is a mainstay of the American ideal. Uncontrolled mass influx, bankrupting states, overloading public services, and threatening the safety and well being of border state citizens, is a train wreck waiting to happen.
- The border needs to be secured now, and fast, because the flood is ramping up faster everyday. Once things are under control, the other things can be debated; guest worker programs, tamper-proof guest worker id cards, and paths to legal citizenship.
- As far as those of us in the middle of the problem are concerned, Bush kicked the can down the road again. We’ll see. But if the GOP or the Donkeys think this problem is going to go away, they’re all baying at the moon.
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 5/15/2006 - 11:20 pm
Infareekeensane, Mr. Bush. I guess that’s the difference between basketball and follytics, when they say to take it to the hole.
Comment by forest hunter @ 5/16/2006 - 3:18 am
I have to admit I got abit miffed with the “Doing jobs American’s won’t do” comment. There is a slaughter house close to this area, and 80 percent of the employees are Hispanic. A few years ago this company was in the middle of a slow down, and needed to deal with the extra employees, that they didn’t want to pay unemployment too. So and “Anonymous” phone call was made to the INS. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise….. Over 175 people were illegal and deported back to their native countries. Anyway, starting wage in this place is 8.00 an hour, that is extremely low for the work that is being done. Starting wage should be closer to 11.00 but definately higher than 10.00 per hour. - Lorica
Comment by Lorica @ 5/16/2006 - 1:05 pm
scmommy - please do update us when you get a chance! Really good to see you back posting
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 5/18/2006 - 9:10 pm