Bush's border security press conference tonight

[Spence]

This is the official thread for discussing what Bush will say/did say in his Monday night press conference about border security. [Could be almost as exciting as one of those December Monday night football games between two 4-10 teams.] Anyway, yak away...

[RedskinsDave]

He's going to send the National Guard to watch the border. This is like locking the front door after the burglars are already in your house. Why don't we use these troops to put illegals in army trucks and ship them back home.

[Spence]

He's going to send the National Guard to watch the border. This is like locking the front door after the burglars are already in your house. Why don't we use these troops to put illegals in army trucks and ship them back home.Yeah, I got a blast fax/e-mail from Bartlett at the White House that they send out to the media. Discusses what he'll say. I don't really see the point of it, but maybe he'll say something unexpected. I can't help but think that the White House sees their numbers dropping among the GOP base because of this issue so they decided to hold a press conference to talk about it. The point being to shore up the base with a press conference to demonstrate that Bush is interested in this issue. Yeah, I guess I suspect they came up with the idea of holding a press conference before they even decided on a policy.

I wonder how much of the National Guard we can send to the Mexican border. We've already got a lot of them in Iraq. And if this policy is, as Bush told Mexican President Vicente Fox, temporary, then what's the point? Do we think if we send a few thousand National Guardsmen to the border for six months that Mexicans will just decide to never cross the border again?

Like I wrote, maybe Bush wil surprise us with something that hasn't been leaked by the White House yet. Right now, though, this looks like a desperate attempt to shore up the base before the mid-terms.

Since you're part of the GOP base, Dave, it'd be good if you popped in during and after the speech [if you have the time] to give us your thoughts on what the conference did or did not do for you.

[CNYSkinFan]

Only fox & nbc are scheduled to cover it tonight as part of the major news networks. I wonder how many NSA phone call questions will come.

[Spence]

Only fox & nbc are scheduled to cover it tonight as part of the major news networks. I wonder how many NSA phone call questions will come.My understanding is that Bush will not be taking questions. We'll see if that changes.

[Keino]

A press conference with no questiones being taken?

I believe that is called a speech.

[Spence]

A press conference with no questiones being taken?

I believe that is called a speech.Yeah, you're right. I should have put it that way. I think he'll be speaking from the Oval Office.

[Ibleedburgundy]

Let me guess it will start like this:

"My administration, as Americans, are so concerned with the border issue that we decided to do something about it for the first time in year 6..."

[Fathead]

I thought he was going to declare all liberals "enemy combatants".

[CNYSkinFan]

10 bucks says he will tie in terrorism with illegal immigration but say nothing of value on cracking down on businesses that harbor those illegals

[RedskinsDave]

10 bucks says he will tie in terrorism with illegal immigration but say nothing of value on cracking down on businesses that harbor those illegals

Dude, they tie in terrorism with agriculture speeches. You're not getting any odds from Vegas in favor of your bet on this one.

[CNYSkinFan]

Dude, they tie in terrorism with agriculture speeches. You're not getting any odds from Vegas in favor of your bet on this one.
lol ok your right that was a sucker bet.

[akhhorus]

If you want a laugh, turn on CNN right now and you'll Lou Dobbs redlining. My bet: he's going to explode in the next segment and take out Tony Blankley and Charlie Black.

[CNYSkinFan]

lou dobbs is always good for a laugh on immigration. My wife and I are wondering if his family was slaughtered by a migrant farm worker or something like that.

[akhhorus]

lou dobbs is always good for a laugh on immigration. My wife and I are wondering if his family was slaughtered by a migrant farm worker or something like that.

I have August 12th in the pool on when Lou Dobbs brings an illegal immigrant on the show and he clubs him to death with a tire iron.

[Spence]

I have August 12th in the pool on when Lou Dobbs brings an illegal immigrant on the show and he clubs him to death with a tire iron.I understand he's got 10 or 12 of them tied up in his root cellar so Dobbs could do that at any time.

[CNYSkinFan]

I have August 12th in the pool on when Lou Dobbs brings an illegal immigrant on the show and he clubs him to death with a tire iron.
Oh I SOOOOOOOO want in on that pool. I think it might be Labor Day, the symolism would be great.

[lakewinola]

He's going to send the National Guard to watch the border. This is like locking the front door after the burglars are already in your house. Why don't we use these troops to put illegals in army trucks and ship them back home.

Because that is against the law.

[akhhorus]

I understand he's got 10 or 12 of them tied up in his root cellar so Dobbs could do that at any time.

Now, I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to get the mental picture of Lou Dobbs as Jaime Gumb out of my head........

It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again...

[Spence]

After a quick whip-a-round the right-wing blogosphere I can tell you that Bush's speech went over like a lead balloon among his blogging base. Just about every single prominent right-wing blog absolutely panned the speech and thinks Bush isn't serious about the immigration issue and border security in general. Many have pointed out that this is not the first time Mr Bush has promised to secure the border and not the first time he promised to send the National Guard to do it. One blog actually found a speech Mr Bush delivered in early 2004 that was eerily similar to what he said last night.

Here's a question I have: Why is this issue only on the front-burner now? Shouldn't border security [and our ports and coasts] have been Job 1 immediately after the 9/11/01 attacks? It's been more than 4.5 years since the 9/11/01 attacks. Has Bush been doing anything during that time aside from invading Iraq and reducing Paris Hilton's tax burden? And speaking of Iraq, one has to wonder if the National Guard might do a better job securing the border if most of them were, you know, actually in this country instead of Iraq. Just a thought.

[Axegrinder]

On the brightside,the Texas Air National Guard might have something to do.:)

[Spence]

The Bush administration was against using the National Guard for border enforcement before they were for it.
In December of 2005, Fox News talking head Bill O’Reilly floated an unlikely — even brash — idea to the Homeland Security secretary to seal off the porous southwest border.

“Why don’t you put the National Guard on the border to back up the border patrol and stop the bleeding, and then start to increase the Border Patrol, the high-tech and all of that?” O’Reilly asked.

Michael Chertoff, in those relatively calmer days before mass pro-immigration rallies, heated immigration reform politics in the Senate and cellar-dwelling opinion polls for President Bush, dismissed the idea out of hand.

“Well, the National Guard is really, first of all, not trained for that mission,” Chertoff told O’Reilly. “I mean, the fact of the matter is the border is a special place. There are special challenges that are faced there.”

Chertoff added that that it would take a huge amount of National Guard troops, that they would need new training. But couldn’t the National Guard pull it off, O’Reilly asked?

“I think it would be a horribly over-expensive and very difficult way to manage this problem,” Chertoff said. “Unless you would be prepared to leave those people in the National Guard day and night for month after month after month, you would eventually have to come to grips with the challenge in a more comprehensive way.”Source (http://public.cq.com/public/20060515_homeland_15nationalguard.html)
:)

[CNYSkinFan]

After a quick whip-a-round the right-wing blogosphere I can tell you that Bush's speech went over like a lead balloon among his blogging base. Just about every single prominent right-wing blog absolutely panned the speech and thinks Bush isn't serious about the immigration issue and border security in general. Many have pointed out that this is not the first time Mr Bush has promised to secure the border and not the first time he promised to send the National Guard to do it. One blog actually found a speech Mr Bush delivered in early 2004 that was eerily similar to what he said last night.

Here's a question I have: Why is this issue only on the front-burner now? Shouldn't border security [and our ports and coasts] have been Job 1 immediately after the 9/11/01 attacks? It's been more than 4.5 years since the 9/11/01 attacks. Has Bush been doing anything during that time aside from invading Iraq and reducing Paris Hilton's tax burden? And speaking of Iraq, one has to wonder if the National Guard might do a better job securing the border if most of them were, you know, actually in this country instead of Iraq. Just a thought.

Yeah I am seeing that too. This isn't "Mission to Mars" bad, but it is up there. He looked desperate to change tactics, even Chris Mathews admitted that and he is FOR the NSA wiretappings. This could be Rove's last hurrah, as far as big bold sweeping moves in an attempt to buttress the President's sagging approval numbers.

[akhhorus]

This could be Rove's last hurrah, as far as big bold sweeping moves in an attempt to buttress the President's sagging approval numbers.

I would like to take a second here to point out once again, that Rove is behind all these ridiculous ideas like "The Mission to Mars" and "Dubya will cure AIDS" and all the political ideas that completely bombed since February 2005(Social Security, Immigration, Miers, let the Dems breath Helium, etc etc etc). He's not this Machivellian genius who has a large office in the crypt of the White House along with the Phantom of Jimmy Carter. This is a political advisor who, despite having massive advantages in 2004, still could barely pull off a victory against a terrible dem candidate. He's Bob Shrum with more luck. And that might be way too complimentary to him.

[CNYSkinFan]

I would like to take a second here to point out once again, that Rove is behind all these ridiculous ideas like "The Mission to Mars" and "Dubya will cure AIDS" and all the political ideas that completely bombed since February 2005(Social Security, Immigration, Miers, let the Dems breath Helium, etc etc etc). He's not this Machivellian genius who has a large office in the crypt of the White House along with the Phantom of Jimmy Carter. This is a political advisor who, despite having massive advantages in 2004, still could barely pull off a victory against a terrible dem candidate. He's Bob Shrum with more luck. And that might be way too complimentary to him.
The only thing that worked was the Gay marriage initiatives. His hope for 3 million+ evangelical voters worked to a tee in 2004. The thing is NOTHING ELSE did. However that was enough because of the reasons Akh pointed out, a terrible dem candidate, the threat of terror, and the spoils of incumbency and a GOP House and Governors.

[Ibleedburgundy]

I was driving on my lunch break and Glenn Beck of all people was ripping Bush a new one. He sounded like me, basically calling Bush a liar and saying that Bush is insulting our intelligence with his obvious manipulative tactics. Funny to hear people complain about the guy they campaigned for.

[akhhorus]

The only thing that worked was the Gay marriage initiatives. His hope for 3 million+ evangelical voters worked to a tee in 2004. The thing is NOTHING ELSE did. However that was enough because of the reasons Akh pointed out, a terrible dem candidate, the threat of terror, and the spoils of incumbency and a GOP House and Governors.

Those Evangelicals-the Counterreformation Evangelicals-would have voted for Bush no matter what. Maybe, if Bush was caught on video making out with Satan they wouldn't vote for him. But thats 50/50. I think the Gay Marriage impact has been overstated. What wasn't was that Kerry and Edwards didn't vote on it either way I believe. Thats what hurt them on the issue(and seems to hurts the dems across the board).

[Spence]

There was an interesting moment in Laura Bush's interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday where she made what seemed like a dismissive remark about Rove. I can't tell if she was just trying to distance her husband from Rove's bad image or if she was really giving Rove a TV version of a smack across the cheek. It could be that Mrs Bush thinks it is Rove who got her husband into all this trouble and resents him for it. [Or I could be reading too much into that one statement.] We all know what happened to Don Regan when Nancy Reagan concluded that he was no longer serving her husband well.

[CNYSkinFan]

Those Evangelicals-the Counterreformation Evangelicals-would have voted for Bush no matter what. Maybe, if Bush was caught on video making out with Satan they wouldn't vote for him. But thats 50/50. I think the Gay Marriage impact has been overstated. What wasn't was that Kerry and Edwards didn't vote on it either way I believe. Thats what hurt them on the issue(and seems to hurts the dems across the board).
I don't know, turnout among evangelicals was higher in 2004 then 2000 and that is what Rove wanted. He had a much trumpeted theory that 3 million evangelicals stayed home in 2000 that otherwise would vote and that is why all of a sudden Bush got ultra religious in 2004 culmintating with talking from a subliminal cross at the Republican convention.

I t may not have worked to Rove's grand design but it didd work. Evangelical churchs were one of the cornerstones to the GOP GOTV machine and resulted in a majority this time instead of electoral majority only.

[Spence]

Another interesting thing to come out of that Laura Bush interview on Fox was her statement that opposition to gay marriage should not be made a campaign issue by Republicans in 2006. [Did she tell her husband that in 2004?] Frist has already blown off Mrs Bush, telling her gay marriage WILL be a big issue for Republicans this year. Rove is the architect of that anti-gay campaign. What's Laura trying to say there?

[CNYSkinFan]

He's not this Machivellian genius who has a large office in the crypt of the White House along with the Phantom of Jimmy Carter. .

to be fair...he is probably a Machivellian idiot....still Machivellian, just not very smart about it.

[akhhorus]

There was an interesting moment in Laura Bush's interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday where she made what seemed like a dismissive remark about Rove. I can't tell if she was just trying to distance her husband from Rove's bad image or if she was really giving Rove a TV version of a smack across the cheek. It could be that Mrs Bush thinks it is Rove who got her husband into all this trouble and resents him for it. [Or I could be reading too much into that one statement.] We all know what happened to Don Regan when Nancy Reagan concluded that he was no longer serving her husband well.

Thats interesting considering that Laura also said that she doesn't believe the poll numbers at all and that all the people she talks to support the President. So, if George isn't any trouble, whats she's blaming Rove for?

I don't know, turnout among evangelicals was higher in 2004 then 2000 and that is what Rove wanted. He had a much trumpeted theory that 3 million evangelicals stayed home in 2000 that otherwise would vote and that is why all of a sudden Bush got ultra religious in 2004 culmintating with talking from a subliminal cross at the Republican convention.

I t may not have worked to Rove's grand design but it didd work. Evangelical churchs were one of the cornerstones to the GOP GOTV machine and resulted in a majority this time instead of electoral majority only.

The constant figure of 3 million for getting the evangelicals out, I think was a campaign tool and not substantial. Bush went to BJ University to make sure they came out for him, and he wouldn't have won the nomination if they didn't come out. And Gore wasn't too religious. I think that Rove saw that they needed to create a myth to counter the whole "illegitimacy" angle the Dems could play. And getting the evangelicals scared and the religious organizations raising more money and building the GOTV efforts were critical to this effort.

[Spence]

Well, Laura has to say that she doesn't believe the polls. What else can she say? "Yeah, the polls are terrible right now. People really hate my husband. And you know what: I hate the people. That's right: I said it!"

She was full of crap when she said the papers didn't put it on page one when Bush was riding high in the polls. They put it on page one every damn time. Which is only correct.

[CNYSkinFan]

Another interesting thing to come out of that Laura Bush interview on Fox was her statement that opposition to gay marriage should not be made a campaign issue by Republicans in 2006. [Did she tell her husband that in 2004?] Frist has already blown off Mrs Bush, telling her gay marriage WILL be a big issue for Republicans this year. Rove is the architect of that anti-gay campaign. What's Laura trying to say there?

Which is why I really like the Dems strategy (not message wise just logistically) of trying to make the blue states uhm....more blue. The gay marriage issue will play inn the South still but not in the northeast and Pacific North west. In the south 2 guys kissing can be used to blunt the Anti-Bush sentiments but outside the south and midwest there is nothing saving republicans from being overshadowed by the president's approval ratings.

[CNYSkinFan]

Well, Laura has to say that she doesn't believe the polls. What else can she say? "Yeah, the polls are terrible right now. People really hate my husband. And you know what: I hate the people. That's right: I said it!"

She was full of crap when she said the papers didn't put it on page one when Bush was riding high in the polls. They put it on page one every damn time. Which is only correct.
I heard the 90% poll for like 5 months after it was done. It was front page because it was also a patriotic FU to the terrorists (supposedly). My daad an avid Republican sent me a headline with it in te mail.....I wish I still havd it I would send it back.

[Spence]

Bush cut 9,790 border guards out of the budget.

A little stroll down memory lane:Officially approved by Bush on Dec. 17 after extensive bickering in Congress, the National Intelligence Reform Act included the requirement to add 10,000 border patrol agents in the five years beginning with 2006. Roughly 80 percent of the agents were to patrol the southern U.S. border from Texas to California, along which thousands of people cross into the United States illegally every year.

But Bush's proposed 2006 budget, revealed Monday, funds only 210 new border agents.

The shrunken increase reflects the lack of money for an army of border guards and the capacity to train them, officials said.

Retired Adm. James Loy, acting head of the Department of Homeland Security until nominee Michael Chertoff takes over, said funding only 210 new agents was a "recognition that we need to balance those things as we go on down the road with other priorities."

The White House referred questions about the border agents to the Homeland Security Department.
...
Democrats were unhappy that the proposed budget used the escape clause so soon after the president approved the huge boost in border agents.

"We know we must do more to shore up security along our borders," said Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, top Democrat on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. "The president's budget does not even attempt to meet this challenge."

Some Republicans also were displeased.

"This is an area of homeland security that needs to be ramped up in order to increase surveillance and patrols of our nation's vast and often remote borders," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.Source (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/09/MNGOKB837T1.DTL&type=printable)

[lakewinola]

Bush cut 9,790 border guards out of the budget.

A little stroll down memory lane:Source (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/09/MNGOKB837T1.DTL&type=printable)

Doesn't suprise one bit. Sums up W's presidential record perfectly = make a promise, pass a law, then give it no funding. In essence all a big lie.