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May 15, 2006Text & Reax: Bush’s address on immigrationYou can read it all here. I was out during the speech, chauffering Buster and many friends, so I’m only just reading it, myself. My reaction? I think the President struck the right tone and found middle ground, talking fence, but also talking sensibly about the people who are already here. He did not slavishly bow to the base but approached the problem as the president of the whole nation, and as a man who is interested in how human beings treat other human beings. I like this part: There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program of mass deportation. That middle ground recognizes that there are differences between an illegal immigrant who crossed the border recently and someone who has worked here for many years, and has a home, a family, and an otherwise clean record. I believe that illegal immigrants who have roots in our country and want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law to pay their taxes to learn English and to work in a job for a number of years. People who meet these conditions should be able to apply for citizenship but approval would not be automatic, and they will have to wait in line behind those who played by the rules and followed the law. What I have just described is not amnesty it is a way for those who have broken the law to pay their debt to society, and demonstrate the character that makes a good citizen. See Alexander at Polipundit for some thoughts on this excerpt. and this: America needs to conduct this debate on immigration in a reasoned and respectful tone. Feelings run deep on this issue and as we work it out, all of us need to keep some things in mind. We cannot build a unified country by inciting people to anger, or playing on anyone’s fears, or exploiting the issue of immigration for political gain. We must always remember that real lives will be affected by our debates and decisions, and that every human being has dignity and value no matter what their citizenship papers say. and this: Laura and I met a wounded Marine named Guadalupe Denogean. Master Gunnery Sergeant Denogean came to the United States from Mexico when he was a boy. He spent his summers picking crops with his family, and then he volunteered for the United States Marine Corps as soon as he was able. During the liberation of Iraq, Master Gunnery Sergeant Denogean was seriously injured. When asked if he had any requests, he made two a promotion for the corporal who helped rescue him and the chance to become an American citizen. And when this brave Marine raised his right hand, and swore an oath to become a citizen of the country he had defended for more than 26 years, I was honored to stand at his side. I have absolutely no doubt that the hard-liners, the “do it our way or your suck” extremists will not be shaken from their rage, but I am becoming convinced that they don’t want to be shaken from it, for a variety of reasons that I may (or may not) get into tomorrow. For people who are willing to understand that perfect “solutions” will never be enacted in a nation where politicians freeze in the face of the tiniest outcry and presspeople willfully distort, I think the speech represents a good start. The president has told congress the ball is now in their court. We’ll see what our spineless and opportunistic “leaders” can come up with. Related: A quick turn about the ’sphere: An interview with the hapless Julie Myers has turned Hugh Hewitt from a speech-admirer to a speech distruster. Betsy Newmark observes it and remarks that the Administration had better get ahead of this if they can, they can’t afford to tick off Hugh. I agree with her. I was a little surprised to see Scott Johnson refer to the president as a wimp. We’ve never seen any evidence of that, and to my way of thinking, it takes a measure of cojones for the president to hold on to his own view while his numbers tumble and his “base” is preparing to put him on a spit and begin roasting him over a fire. Pajamas Media has a running update on immigration posts. Wretchard says the devil is in the details (didn’t Perot used to say that?) Ed Morrissey is shrugging and expecting that Bush will continue to take heat from the usual parties. He writes: He’s not Clinton. At one time, conservatives appreciated that. Will they still when his tenacity denies them the policies they seek? Aside from Hugh’s piece, the rest of the sphere is basically predictable. Michelle Malkin says Same Old, Same Old. Rick says too little, too late, but still wants to have hope. Flopping Aces has an excellent overview of post speech blogging from the left and the right. Stop the ACLU liveblogged it. Siggy has a sort of smackdown roundup. Decision ‘08 was very pleased and felt the speech struck just the right note and said what he wanted to hear. Harold Hutchinson is ripe for a fight and so is Rob at Say Anything. They’re angry about this deplorable piece in World Net Daily and well they should be. It reads in part: If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it couldn’t possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many of whom don’t speak English and are not integrated into American society. How do you like that? Is that what you want speaking for you? Sadly, I’ve read similar sentiments on conservative forums all day. That’s where this unhinged, over-emotional rage-train is headed, folks. If this is representative of the current conservative fever-swamp, then I guess I will have to say pardon me, I guess I’m not a conservative, after all, and take one step leftward. The President made an honorable speech tonight. He is clearly trying to find what he believes will be the imperfect-but-best solution for THE WHOLE COUNTRY. He has tried to appeal to reason and patience on a complicated (yes, even if you think it’s as “simple as enforcing the law” or as “simple as stacking them up as cordwood” (!) the issue is still complex) problem which has not exactly popped up overnight. He is TRYING to do something where nothing has been done for 30 years. If people can spit on that, well…he still made the honorable and right speech. And I may have to change my registration to Independant, again. I am coming dangerously close to breaking my promise and getting wholly political again, so I will stop there. AJ Strat is taking a moment to thank President Bush for the good stuff he’s done. Point Five Blog has a satirical idea on how to win in ‘08 by losing in ‘06 complete with a graph that is funny but all too true. You’ll have to click on it to read it all. Varifrank liked the speech and is tired of the screaming: To my total surprise, it seemed that most of the audience was incensed that the President didn’t call for a wide reaching pogrom on the illegal immigrants and that anything short of that was a clear sign that he was just a “limpwristed flop who was just caving in to political pressure” and in the end “not much better than a damn democrat”. The loudmouths were crying out for blood and utterly furious that the president didn’t give it to them. They didn’t just want a border fence anymore because that just wasn’t good enough; now they wanted a border fence with immigrant heads impaled on it. Damn. Straight. http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/05/15/text-of-bushs-address-on-immigration/trackback/ 29 Responses to “Text & Reax: Bush’s address on immigration” |
May 15th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
[...] The Anchoress has a great rundown of reactions to the speech but what I really want to highlight is this she found at WorldNetDaily, something I missed: If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it couldn’t possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many of whom don’t speak English and are not integrated into American society. [...]
May 15th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Atypically I happened to see the speech and was really pleased with it. I especially liked President Bush’s reminder of the commonalities that make us all Americans together … history, love of freedom, a common language (English) … as my husband commented, “It’s about time someone came out and said that.”
May 15th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
The far right has always been the far right…I think they’re just more vocal now. Extremes to any side shut off all reasonable discussion, IMHO. From what little I read, which would be your subset, I thought it sounded like a solid, middle of the road approach, one I could get behind.
May 15th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Oh and Anchoress? If you do wind up stepping leftward, we’d be happy to welcom you back!
May 15th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Anchoress, everyone [even Hugh] is over reacting. He does not need to be distrustful, he just needs to listen to what Bush actually said.
I am reminded of something someone said to me years ago “Every time Republicans win the right wingers start thinking they run everything and then they ruin for the whole party.” I am beginning to think that was true.
May 15th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
Reprehensible
Unfortunately, while Bush underwhelmed the conservative movement on immigration tonight, certain conservatives busied themselves by embarrassing us much more than Bush could ever have. Vox Day, whose provocative writing I normally enjoy, has lost all s…
May 15th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Anchoress, I hear ya. Now that I know exactly what he thinks on the matter, I feel much better now. Too bad too many among conservatives have not taken a chill pill yet. They need it… bad.
May 15th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
The Numbers Game (UPDATED)
UPDATE II: The Lame Address. It is quite obvious that the Administration is not committed to border control, and are just giving us lip service. This was a lame speech with some sort of an apologist center solution where 6000 National Guard officers wi…
May 16th, 2006 at 2:06 am
[...] Anchoress: Text of Bush’s address on immigration Social Networking:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
May 16th, 2006 at 2:46 am
Bush Beefing Up Border Security
President Bush announced plans to send up to 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border to he
May 16th, 2006 at 3:31 am
Anchoress, if I may add to your list, I also simul-blogged the speech — so you all can see my reactions real-time, without the benefit of being influenced by the talking-heads, post-speech.
LiveBlogging the Presidential Speech on Immigration
My thoughts on it are two-fold:
Whilst I thought that the speech was “perfunctory” (I think that’s the only word which comes to mind, other than “unsatisfying”), and didn’t bring anything to the table, which hadn’t been hinted at, discussed, or proposed bt all sides, at length before, I thought it was, as you say, a middle-ground type of speech.
And I noted at the end of my blogpost, that this moderate position and tone by the President, does have the benefit of slightly diffusing the situation.
Instead of it being something the President should do, now that he’s weighed in officially on the topic, the hot potato is transferred to the legislators — as soon as Tuesday, in fact.
(Though Michelle Malkin was absolutely livid, on the B’OR show — saying these proposals amounts to amnesty for illegals…something which is hard to argue with)
Cheers,
Victoria
May 16th, 2006 at 3:35 am
Erm, this is the link on the Live-Blogging.
(The only thing I don’t like about this comments section is that, TTBOMK, one can’t erase or edit commentaries, especially after booboos like mine above…)
Cheers,
Victoria
May 16th, 2006 at 7:10 am
Paris Hilton And Others React To Bush’s Immigration Speech
In an attempt to give our readers a balanced sense of the reactions to President Bush’s big immigration speech from last night, we spoke with a wide range of people including politicians, celebrities and everyday citizens to get their thoughts.
May 16th, 2006 at 7:35 am
The lesson I’m taking from this is there are crazies on both ends of the spectrum. It took something like this to bring the crazies out on the right side of the ’sphere.
I remain a conservative. I prefer to redeem the name by being a quiet, reasonable man and in doing so hopefully counteract the crazies.
But it does go to show what happens when one simply assumes that one side of a debate is crazy simply because it has lots of crazies. There are sane liberals. And kooky conservatives.
Guess the thing to do is to pray for sanity to prevail.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
May 16th, 2006 at 7:43 am
Live Blog Reading Last Night
I watched the President’s speech last night while refreshing StoptheACLU.com. It was interesting, to see Jay’s comments while the President…
May 16th, 2006 at 7:58 am
Some reactions are saddening, but not unexpected. Granted, the speech did get as tough as I would’ve liked, but I am willing to suspend my ‘disbelief’ and my cynicism for quite some time. I want to see how this comes about, how the bureaucrats handle things, how the Left attacks when the actual enforcement begins.
Who will decide how long is long enough to not be deported? Who will decide who to allow in as a ‘temporary worker‘? What will the ACLU have to say about any of this? And how many idiotic lawsuits will the taxpayers have to fund before the taxpayers say, “Enough!” Interesting times ahead of us!
I support, but I worry.
May 16th, 2006 at 8:30 am
Having just read Vox Day’s piece, the one that’s caused so much revulsion, I have to report: it ain’t that bad, Folks. No, the use of analogies to Nazi Germany as a proof that efficient deportation can occur is poorly chosen and bound to upset folks. But the gist of his argumaent had nothing to do with the Nazis. It is not a call to deport illegals to Concentration Camps. It is not a call to exterminate the illegals. It is nothing of the kind.
I think people read the first few paragraphs, and had a fainting spell. And maybe it’s fear that the Liberals can use just that quote as a way to tar all conservatives, once again. What, Liberals can’t lie about us? They can’t make things up? I’m getting awfully tired of apologising, or being expected to, for things I did not do, or say, or think.
Tsk, tsk! Get a grip! The response to his thoughts is as out-of-the-ballpark as so many of the reactions to GW’s speech. Calm down! Take a breath!
Sheesh!
May 16th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Remarkable Rhetoric on Immigration
Normally I avoid World Net Daily, as I have been underwhelmed, shall we say, by the accuracy of their often breathless “news” coverage.
However, in surfing around to read reactions to Bush’s immigration speech I noted the following …
May 16th, 2006 at 9:25 am
Anchoress, stop! You’re slaying me! So you’re not going to talk politics anymore,eh? You remind me of that song in Gilbert & Sullivan where the hero promises not to kiss the girl: “this (kisses her), this (kisses her) and this(kisses her), this (kisses her)I promise not to do…”
Was it you who linked to a piece by Peggy Noonan a little while back, who was in Cassandra mode? She put it all so much better than this paraphrase, but the gist was that our elites, political, intellectual, financial, cultural know that the country is heading for the reefs, and that they have all taken to the lifeboats.
Now, I can’t speak for the other rabid foaming dogs on the right, as you view us, but when I look at our so-called leaders racing neck and neck to kowtow to the mob in the streets barking and howling their orders, Peggy Noonan’s words come back to haunt.
Please accept my continued respect and admiration, but on this point I guess it’s coming down to “do you want to play the McCoys or the Hatfields?”
May 16th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Damn! Still don’t have those HTML commands down right. Sorry.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Igout, funny post, and don’t sweat the HTML. Do I want to play Hatfield or McCoy? I don’t want to play either. I am a blogger…doesn’t that make me a little goddess?
And I never considered you a mouthfoamer…the mouthfoamers are the extreme folk, the ones refering to Bush as “El Presidente” and screaming that he has set conservatism back 50 years. No…Bush has not done that. The reactionary right might do it, though!
May 16th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Anchoress - Hugh Hewitt has this today:
I have confirmed with a senior White House source this morning that the president is for robust fencing in urban areas –as exists in El Paso and San Diego– and for vehicle barriers in rural areas. Perhaps Assistant Secretary Myers didn’t get the memo.
He’s still on the reservation.
Re the WND thing: I don’t know why anyone’s really surprised by it. Vox Day is the worst. Total jackboot, racist, woman-hating, waste of oxygen. Just looking at that mugshot makes me want to put my fist through the monitor. He makes Pat Buchanan look like Lincoln Chafee. He’s about the last person I know of who should be making Nazi analogies. WND sucks for keeping him around–I never go there as long as they keep jackbooted thugs like him around.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:51 am
I linked to this post, Ma’am. Momma raised a polite teeth-gnasher! LOL
May 16th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
For the love of God, please don’t tread to the Left. All you have to do is keep your feet planted firmly and all those ~foam-mouth, rabid Hatfields (or McCoys
)~ can take the giant step Right.
It all has to start SOMEWHERE and now that it is, as you have said- ball’s in the court of the ball-less. Our Presidient has to be the most patient as we are the most tempermental folk I’ve ever seen. We all want it our way, eh?
I’m proud t be an American and very proud for the cataclysmic effects of W. HE is a gentleman, too (like benning and pendell). Hey- where’s Darrell?
May 16th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
[...] An Army of Davids or an Army of (Intellectual) Deadweights? I leave it up to you, intrepid reader. Glenn Reynolds thinks of the blogosphere as an army of swashbuckling Davids taking down the establishment. That’s really nice in theory, really warms the populist heart to think that we’re talking down The Mantm. Making the Internet safe for democracy, even while the blogosphere continues its downward spiral into complacency and asininity. I’m cynical about bloggers because of what people like Captain Ed, The Anchoress, The Moderate Voice and a host of others have written about Vox’s non-controversial article. Actually, that’s not true. I’ve long regarded blogging as nothing more than a quaint commoditization of technology packaged in a neat, accessible form. However, my cynical meter jumped through the roof today. I’ll be up front, I like Vox even though I think he’s a hot-headed ass half of the time. It’s part of his appeal. It’s that je ne sais qua that makes him readable when other pundits act like pre-packaged finite state automata. Most pundits are so predictable that you could mathematically calculate their mental states and articles for the life of their career. Predicting Vox is like predicting the aftermath of a tornado in the junkyard that is the political blogosphere. I keep hearing about how the masses are bloodhounds for truth. Oh, really? When Michelle Malkin was strutting around like a peacock with her In Defense of Internment, and Vox ripped it to shreds with actual historical evidence (Some more evidence and examples). Where were the bloggers who attacked Dan Rather like a wolf pack? I’m not defending Rather. In fact I think he got about what he deserved, plus or minus a few pitchforks. Michelle Malkin ran like a scalded yorkie away from the fight with Vox and Eric Muller. She tacitly admitted that half of the argument for her book was pure rubbish, and based on the evidence that Vox organized (do a google search with this query:site:voxday.blogspot.com internment michelle malkin for more of his posts) she tried desparately to escape the inevitable conclusion that her book was a few hundred pages of dead thesis. Now, I am about to give you a litmus test. If you find the following paragraphs at all morally reprehensible or highly offensive, congradulations. The mainstream media has a job for you. Quit blogging and start typing up a portfolio to submit to the editor. And he will be lying, again, just as he lied when he said: “Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic - it’s just not going to work.” Not only will it work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6 million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society, it couldn’t possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many of whom don’t speak English and are not integrated into American society. [...]
May 17th, 2006 at 11:26 am
How Do We Legalize Illegality?
“Blog meltdowns, egos and echo chambers” penned beautifully by the ever graceful Anchoress, God bless you for pointing me towards the way to resolving the issue, rather than simply flying off the handle and screaming “lame”.
May 17th, 2006 at 11:29 am
I agree with the Anchoress wholeheartedly. If I disagree with 30% of what Bush is doing, it still beats the 97% I disagree with John Kerry. Life if a matter of choices and compromise. Your choices were Gore or Bush, or Kerry or Bush–period. Al Gore’s eyes should spin like pinwheeels to give evveryone fair warning. John Kerry also keeps me saying “There but for the Grace of God go we!”
The polls? Once the pollsters were caught ‘cooking the books’ by manipulating their samples, they were rendered meaningless. Besides, how can you have accurate polls if you don’t have accurate information going out in the media? How many false anti-Bush “assaults” have we had this year alone? Dozens? Bush “caught lying” about not be warned about the levees collapsing?(He is shown being warned about “overtopping”–akin to a warning of a leaky faucet in your home versus your pipes bursting. Libby saying that Bush told him to disclose Plame’s name(when the actual story concerned the release of the threat assessment after it had been authorized to be released, but before it had been printed and disseminated-Bush told hime to discuss what had been found in non-specifics. Etc., etc. The polls are only showing that the media disinformation campaign is having an effect.
**
If somebody thinks the solution for not getting everything you want is voting for someone who will give you nothing,or not voting at all, then heaven help us all. And you don’t wound your bodyguard to teach him a lesson.
November 17th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
[...] Related: Living the Creed Harriet, Bring the Cannoli! FT, Buster on the Dubai question Can we say “Ellis Island West” Illegals hysteria and the place I can’t go Because REAL Americans never do this stuff! Immigration: Solomon asked for an understanding heart Text & Reax: Bush’s address on immigration Blog Meltdowns and Echo Chambers The Essential President Bush [...]
June 5th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
[...] when President Bush had a congress and senate on his side and started talking about fixing the immigration problem, what did you do? You started screaming “no amnesty! Ship them all back! They’re [...]