In his public address to the nation on immigration Monday night, President Bush unveiled a five-point plan for 'securing the border' and sorting out the whole illegal immigration thing. The speech was terrifically unremarkable, except for the disingenuous assertion that somehow all of the sudden the situation has reached 'a time of decision' and we must act 'urg
ently'. Something about terrorists and national security. Bush proposed deploying six thousands National Guard troops to the border for a year, a 'interim' measure to assist the Border Patrol until they get it together.
But Patrick Yoest in Congressional Quarterly demonstrates once again that the Bush administration is pretty much completely dysfunctional. Folks, newsflash: the government isn't being run well.
Yoest recalls an exchange between Bill O'Reilly, that consummate professional, and Michael Chertoff, you know, the guy who'll get blamed in the event of another terrorist attack, in which O'Reilly, revealing once again how ahead of the curve is his genius, asked about using the Guard to secure the border. Chertoff did not mince words. Such an action would be 'horribly over-expensive and very difficult way to manage this problem'. The National Guard is 'not trained' for the mission. That was five months ago. Really, go read the article.
–mpd
Technorati Tags: Immigration, National, Guard, Border, George, Bush, Michael, Chertoff, Bill, O'Reilly, Secure, Border, Militarize
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