Junior has a photo op planned for Thursday at the Arizona border

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

In a move designed to win support for immigration reform from get-tough conservatives, President Bush plans to send thousands of National Guard troops to help secure the Mexican border. Bush, in a speech to the nation Monday, will propose using the troops as a stopgap measure while the Border Patrol builds up its resources to more effectively secure the 2,000-mile line between the U.S. and Mexico, said two White House officials speaking on a condition of anonymity before the president is scheduled to speak at 8 p.m. EDT.

In a signal of the high stakes on the issue, Bush was to make his case in a rare prime-time address from the Oval Office. He planned to follow up the address with a visit Thursday to the border in Arizona.

Bush was to call for the troops to play a supportive role to Border Patrol agents, who would maintain primary responsibility for physically guarding the border. Bush also will mention the need for immigrants to learn English and assimilate into American culture if they are to become citizens.

But lawmakers have expressed concern about overextending a National Guard force that is already tied up in Iraq. And Mexican President Vicente Fox called Bush Sunday to express concern about what he called the possibility of a "militarized" border between the two nations.

http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Fs%2Fap%2F20060515%2Fap_on_go_co%2Fimmigration%26printer%3D1%3B_ylt%3DAkXD.NRkz4Yle1PEPbkMjySMwfIE%3B_ylu%3DX3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

[Rose Siding]

1. Now wouldn't that be a great day for an indictment?

[Avalux]

2. Transparent attempt to keep his base happy.

And you know what? It isn't going to work. Think about a person you've know that you trusted and then you find out they've lied to you. How difficult is it for you to trust them again, and do you ever, really?

Those who have 'turned' and are now enlightened about Bush won't go back no matter what he does at this point. I think he's stuck with 29% (or even less) regardless of what he does.

[babylonsister]

3. I think you are right! The majority of Americans won't believe

anything he has to say from here on in; not only is he a liar, but he's boring as hell, repeating the tired old talking points we are all so weary of.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

4. Newt Gingrich was on MSNBC this morning...

...and was saying that the hard-line conservatives don't care for Bush's proposal at all, that it basically is amnesty, and they're not going to stand for it.

That was Gingrich's spin, and he'll take any time before the cameras that the media's willing to give, so caveat emptor on that one...but...

On FreepCentral, there is no support whatsoever for Bush's "reform" package. A few fringe freepers have even gone so far as to call for Junior's impeachment. They do not, in any way shape or form, support the concept of a "guest worker program." They see it as a reward, as amnesty. They question why Bush "didn't learn a lesson" with the Harriet Meiers nomination. He's not giving them what they want...there is a growing (and sort of sad) vocal protest on F.R. that sounds something like "Why doesn't he understand us anymore?" It's not that he doesn't understand, it's that he's not willing to cater exclusively to his base, and in doing so, he's losing the base. He's not picking up moderates or Democrats with these "gestures," and he's chipping away at the people who voted for him. Pure and simple.

...but the National Guard move is nothing more than tossing a bone to his base, to get the GOP's ass safely through the November elections. My prediction is that if his proposal passes and the National Guard goes to the borders, for whatever period of time, one move will cancel out the other and he'll have a big, buzzing hornet's nest that he whacked with a stick...also known as "his base."

:patriot:

[Avalux]

7. Yeah, troops on the border (temporarily) and a guest worker program

The two are contradictory and as you say, will probably cancel each other out. I am curious to see how the spectacle, actually. as it is an act of desperation. :hi:

[reichstag911]

5. "...the need for immigrants to learn English...?

:wtf: Just as soon as you do, Georgie, just as soon as you do.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. The "English and assimilation" demand is more pandering to the base.

The people who want to learn English and assimilate WILL, those who don't want to WON'T.

That's why the U.S. is made up of neighborhoods, many of them HUGE, called "Chinatown," "Japantown," "Little Italy"...and even though the immigration reform proposal is not supposed to be exclusively about Hispanic immigrants, media coverage of the story has been almost exclusively focused on them...one of the tightest communities in the country, not based on English-speaking "assimilators"...

Some people assimilate by seeking out these communities. They assimilate into a community where the native tongue is spoken, the foods, clothing, sights, sounds, smells aren't hot dogs, waving American flags and that great American pastime, baseball.

If everyone who came to the United States "assimilated" and "learned the language," EVERY man, woman and child in the United States would walk, talk, eat, dress, and look like a NATIVE AMERICAN because THEY WERE HERE FIRST.

But we didn't do that. We held onto our ethnicity, and for some, the slow passage of time led to a metamorphosis. Sometimes it was assimilation. Other times it was a blend of many influences. The average American man or woman DOES NOT WANT a serial number stamped on their forehead so they can be instantly categorized and recognized.

And neither do the immigrants who come to the United States. They're looking for a better life.

Don't get me wrong...just as you CANNOT issue a blanket NEGATIVE statement about immigrants coming to the U.S., you can't issue a blanket POSITIVE one either. You'll find rapists, murderers, and drug dealers mixed in with the dreamers and hard workers. EVERY person crossing our borders isn't a Norman Rockwell painting, a John Steinbeck "Grapes of Wrath" sketch of goodness in a bad world. We need to knock off the "Kumbaya" bullshit and take EACH and EVERY person on their OWN merits...it's the only FAIR thing to do.

That's the world. As Charlie Sexton once sang in the Arc Angels song "Too Many Ways To Fall"...

"There's good and evil, love and greed, and they're all inside of you...
And just as sure as gravity, no one escapes this law
'Cause there's just one way that we can stand, too many ways to fall..."

...and John Mellencamp put it a little differently:

Oh but ain’t that America for you and me
Ain’t that America we’re something to see baby
Ain’t that America, home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me...

My take on this is that the U.S. needs to deal with the illegal aspect of illegal immigration. I don't have the answer for that. But when the issue is raised, the issue for ME is the people who come here illegally. Others stood in line, others waited, others became citizens through proper channels. Do the "proper channels" need to be re-defined? Maybe. But I can't get my arms around re-defining them by making them optional for anyone who simply doesn't wish to follow them.

And, as always, this is my opinion on the issue...I'm not seeking agreement or approval. To each his own.

:patriot:

[reichstag911]

9. I'm just lovin'...

...the stupidity of the Repubs' strategy on this: they're pitting their two constituencies against each other, the racist/homophobic/xenophobic knuckle-draggers and the moneyed interests who loooooooooove their cheap Messican labor!

Ride that two-headed horse of the Republican apocalypse, Georgie boy, ride!

[lonestarnot]

6. Damn I wish I had some time off!

[kentuck]

10. He would eat shit if he thought that would keep the Repubs in power...

He's starting to realize what life would be like with a Democratic House...