Arizona Border Patrol ordered to stand down

It's no secret who that influential person is, Jetstorm. It's the President of the United States of America.

A quick Googlesearch show that even conservative websites are critical of the administration's unpopular and inexplicable Mexican border policies.

Bush Amnesty Sparks Surge in Border Crossings
Matt Hayes, Fox News -- "On Jan. 27, the Copley News Service reported that shortly after President Bush announced his plans to amnesty millions of illegal aliens in the U.S., more than half of the Mexicans trying to sneak into the U.S. through San Ysidro told authorities they were doing so to position themselves for the amnesty.

As one member of the U.S. Border Patrol told me, “They believe that they are only responding to an invitation.”

The percentage suggested by Copley probably does not come close to the actual number of people who are running for the American border as word of Bush’s immigration plan spreads through Mexico -- and indeed throughout the world. Mexico, it seems, is now regarded the world over as the doorway to the United States.

In the last several weeks, a staggering 90 percent of all illegal aliens intercepted in one sector in southern Texas claim they’ve come for the amnesty."
Link

Bush budget scraps 9,790 Border Patrol agents
"Michael Hedges, Houston Chronical, Washington -- The law signed by President Bush less than two months ago to add thousands of border patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border has crashed into the reality of Bush's austere federal budget proposal, officials said Tuesday.

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."
Link

Bush Questions Border I.D. Rules
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Plans requiring passports from people entering the United States don't pass muster with President Bush, who has ordered a review of this border security effort amid fears it would impede legal travel from Canada, Mexico and other U.S. neighbors.

The president said Thursday he was surprised by the proposed rules announced last week by the State and Homeland Security departments.

"When I first read that in the newspaper about the need to have passports, particularly today's crossings that take place, about a million for instance in the state of Texas, I said, 'What's going on here?"' Bush said.
Link

Bush Decries Minuteman Border Project
James G. Lakely, The Washington Times
WACO, Texas -- President Bush yesterday said he opposes a civilian project to monitor illegal aliens crossing the border, characterizing them as "vigilantes."

He said he would pressure Congress to further loosen immigration law.

More than 1,000 people - including 30 pilots and their private planes ó have volunteered for the Minuteman Project, beginning next month along the Arizona-Mexico border. Civilians will monitor the movement of illegal aliens for the month of April and report them to the Border Patrol.

Mr. Bush said after yesterday's continental summit, with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin at Baylor University, that he finds such actions unacceptable."

Mexico's Act of War
WorldNetDaily.com -- "What would you call it if a neighboring country used its military forces to escort illegal border crossers, including drug-runners, to border areas known to be less secure?

I'd call it an act of war.

And that's what the Mexican government stands accused of doing this week – not just by the Minuteman Project President Bush derides as a "vigilante" movement, but by Border Patrol officers and elected U.S. officials."
Link

 

You haven't been looking. Hillary, at least, is all over this one. Other democrats are following suit. 80% of Americans are against illegal immigration and the Dems know it. Business wants cheap illegal labor and that's who the republicans are courting.

Hillary Goes Conservative on Illegal Immigration
By Charles Hurt, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is staking out a position on illegal immigration that is more conservative than President Bush, a strategy that supporters and detractors alike see as a way for the New York Democrat to shake the "liberal" label and appeal to traditionally Republican states.

Mrs. Clinton — who is tagged as a liberal because of her plan for nationalized health care and various remarks during her husband's presidency — is taking an increasingly vocal and hard-line stance on an issue that ranks among the highest concerns for voters, particularly Republicans."


Hillary and Illegal Immigration
By Froma Harrop, The New Republic

"Hillary gets it. Hillary Clinton says she's against illegal immigration. And she would fine employers who hire illegal aliens.

Pundits say the New York Democrat is using this hot-button issue to position herself for the 2008 presidential election. It's a way to hit Republicans from the right. Polls show huge majorities of both Republicans and Democrats oppose illegal immigration -- and are frustrated that President Bush won't do a thing to stop it."

 

I don't support Hillary for other reasons, but her role in Bill Clinton's 1993 national heath care plan is history. She learned from that experience and her modern health care proposals as Senator Clinton make a lot more sense.

Senator Clinton Offers Proposal to improve Health CAre for All Americans
Senator Clinton's legislation puts forth a five-point plan to achieve this goal:

1) Increase research on quality of care. Approximately 80% of the care delivered today is not backed by clinical research, and instead represents health professionals doing their best in the absence of solid data. Senator Clinton's plan would assure that we fund research to reduce this knowledge gap, that we research the effectiveness of care delivery systems in addition to the effectiveness of individual procedures, and that we do more comparative, or head-to-head trials of drugs and other therapies, so patients know which drugs are the most effective, not just most advertised.

2) Provide the public with a standardized reporting system that allows consumers to reliably compare performance. Some states, including New York, have started to issue hospital and other report cards. But the lack of standard performance measures and lack of readily available data means the public, even if they have access to one of the newer state report cards, can rarely compare the quality of health facilities across the country. Senator Clinton's bill supports standardized measures that allow for quality comparisons. It also calls for a move to electronic health records, which will make data available at lower cost than paper reporting.

3) Build an information technology infrastructure that enables information sharing. American health providers lag behind other countries in adopting electronic health records because of barriers including lack of funding, fear of wasting money on systems that won't "talk" to other systems, and fear of regulation. Senator Clinton's plan addresses these concerns through steps including the establishment of voluntary "interoperability standards" to ensure that different hospital and physician systems can talk to each other, exchange electronic health records, and reduce paperwork.

4) Give patients and providers information in real time. Senator Clinton not only supports health information technology (IT) infrastructure, but health information technology developed in a way that provides information in real time to patients, providers, and purchasers so they can make decisions more effectively. This includes giving providers the latest research, clinical guidelines, reminders, and information, right at their fingertips through hand-held computers and other tools, and giving patients access to their health record as well as personal health tools to involve them more in their own health care.

5) Pay for performance. The current Medicare payment structure can sometimes penalize quality. Senator Clinton's legislation funds further studies and demonstrations to identify promising payment structures that incentivize and reward performance.

Amen.

 

Aw, I just quoted Hillary to pull your chain Sourdough. The point is that the Democrats are making hay on the illegal immigration issues and Dub is out of touch. Hillary is unelectable and she knows it. On the other hand she has an opportunity to influence another democratic administration and that is what she is up to. She plans to replace Kennedy as the bull democratic senator.

Unlike the brush she's being painted with, Hillary, (like Bill) is a political moderate and her senate record is a moderate one. She's trying to take advantage of the swing back to the middle that always happens after a couple of extreme administrations. It got Bill elected in '92. Hillary wants to be in position to choose and influence the next democratic candidate . . . and it ain't going to be another northeasterner who will lose (Dukakis, Kerry, Kennedy). It's going to be another southerner who can win (Clinton, Carter, Johnson).

Well, you are half right. There are more central people out there (moderates) than conservatives and liberals combined. The winner in 2008 will be the party that moves to the middle. The democrats are already doing so as you see liberals like Kennedy further marginalized by democratic moderates. The democrats will try to capture the moderate vote first and the republicans will lag as long as Bush is in office and the Iraq occupation continues. McCain is the only Republican that gets it and will likely be the only moderate GOP candidate in 2008.