Border Song

Blog-City failed to connect after I typed a long entry and pressed "Save and Publish."  This isn’t the first time this has happened, but apparently I never learn.  Naturally, I lost everything I wrote when I got the “Cannot Find Server” message.  Not all weblog services work like this; some of them allow you to go ‘back’ in your browser and retrieve your entry.  But not Blog-City.  There goes 25 minutes of my life that I’m not getting back -- plus another 5 minutes bitching about it. 

Anyway, on to the point of my original intended post.  I fail to see how making English the national language has anything to do with the immigration issue, yet Congress has decided to link the two.  After all, the has chugged along for over 200 years without having an official national language, so why start now?  Obviously the measure still has to get through the house, but the House has a Republican majority too.  I must confess, the fact that the lacks an official language is one of those random bits of trivia that I love to bludgeon the ignorant with, and I’d miss that if the president signs this bill.  It always made me laugh when bitched about someone in this country not speaking ‘our language’, or complained about the national anthem being sung in a language other than English (FYI, Congress approved a Spanish-language National Anthem way back in 1919). This isn’t going to discourage people from crossing the country’s southern border illegally.

Charles Krauthammer, not exactly known as the most liberal of WashPost writers, put out a succinct editorial today blasting Bush’ s immigration plan as inadequate.  He’s right; nothing will change unless we actually put up a substantial physical barrier while at the same time offering a path to legal residence for the illegals here already.

Despite his reputation as an uncompromising tough guy, Bush is trying to have it both ways.  His stance on illegals attempts to cater to the huge Latino voting bloc, while his stance on border security and the absurdly short-sighted ‘guest worker’ program caters to big business, whose hiring practices will continue to drive down the wages of poor American citizens if the plan is adopted.  Does W really think a few National Guard troops will stem the flow?  Or that we will have the manpower necessary to enforce the guest worker programs?  Does he think these people aren’t going to overstay their visas once they get here?  And if they do, wont’ we be in the very same situation in another 11 years? 

None of these programs will work unless the actually stems the flow of illegals across the border.  A real barrier, as philosophically sketchy as it is, may be a necessary part of the solution.

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