Gotta say, it wasn't quite as abject a pander-fest as I was expecting. And from the sound of things, it looks like the Guard deployments are going to involve a relative handful of specialist units. As always with Bush, the actual implementation will be an afterthought, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if nothing more than a batallion ends up near the Rio Grande -- and their mission ends round about mid-November.

Posted by: sglover at May 16, 2006 01:49 AM | Permalink to this comment

"As Border Patrol Agents stand up, National Guard will stand down"--is that the familiar sound you had in mind?

Or "we have enough to balance the budget, reduce debt, and cut taxes"?

Which particular three-card-monte pitch do you mean?

Or just all the lies, stretching out over all the years?

Posted by: monte at May 16, 2006 02:05 AM | Permalink to this comment

I haven't listened to the whole speech, but the excerpts seem pretty reasonable to me. Yes, deploying the national guard is probably more of a symbolic gesture than anything else, but he needs to appease the anti-immigration right.

Posted by: erg at May 16, 2006 02:39 AM | Permalink to this comment

Yeah, symbolic - esp. considering that he "promised" 10,000 new border guards and then cut funding for all but a couple hundred.

Posted by: CaseyL at May 16, 2006 03:35 AM | Permalink to this comment

Once again the military is called upon to do what civilian agencies are unable to do. It's really getting old. He says they'll just be there a year, but that's a bunch of BS and everyone knows it. There is no way in hell enough border patrol will be stood up in a year's time to relieve the Guard. The military is stretched thin enough with military duties. Add in all the new DHS, FEMA and now border security and the military is stretched further.

The military seems to be the only arm of the federal government left that is effective and unpoliticized. Things must change with our government and change soon.

Posted by: Andy at May 16, 2006 04:04 AM | Permalink to this comment

The time to address a difficult issue on national television is probably before one's approval rating have sunk to the 30% area. I disagreed with some of the details of President Bush's speech, and wish he had addressed the enormous obstacle to successful implementation of any immigration reform -- the dismal state of the agencies that would have to implement it.

But with all that said, Bush's orientation toward the immigration issue is essentially the correct one. He recognizes that millions of illegals now in the country cannot all be sent home, and that there is little to lose and much to gain by offering them a fair chance at citizenship. He understands that continuing to hold the door open for millions more immigrants coming in outside the legal system would pose too great a strain on the American public to sustain. He is clear about the need for immigrants here for the long haul to learn English, and his guest worker proposal accepts the reality that many immigrants -- especially Mexicans -- come to this country and contribute to our economy without intending to stay here forever.

I wish this speech had been given three or four years ago; as it was, I'm not sure how many people watched it before the networks flashed back to the dopey Monday night sitcoms. This time, Bush's speech deserved a larger audience than it got.

Posted by: Zathras at May 16, 2006 05:16 AM | Permalink to this comment

In December Bush signed leglislation creating an additonal 10,000 new border patrol agents.

But in February when he submitted his budget he only funded 210 new border patrol agents.

Now, he wants to call up 6,000 National guard members to do what the original leglislation was suppose to do.

Sure looks like a flip=flop to me.

But how can you take anyone who plays games with the budget like this seriously?

Posted by: spencer at May 16, 2006 09:34 PM | Permalink to this comment