Ring--

What I should have said is that politicians rarely lead away from bigotry and fear.

Bush actually had decent instincts--for a change--on the immigration issue. But didn't have the guts to actually propose a bill that made sense. Even though he will never run again--for which we can be eternally grateful. And even though he supposedly is concerned about his precious "legacy"--and since he's blown Iraq so badly and as a result may not have the strength to salvage Afghanistan, foreign policy is a total loss--while immigration reform is supposed to be something he actually accomplished. Fat chance.


He should have pointed out that a fence is totally worthless--and come out against "touch-back"--which as I said earlier is just a tease--any sensible person is not about to leave his home and family--on the off-chance that the brand new government program to let him back in the country will work flawlessly--when there are strong forces in the US trying to keep him out. Anybody who says they like immigrants but is in favor of "touch-back" is just not honest enough to admit he or she wants the illegal immigrants gone.

And, as I said earlier, should be careful what they wish for.

The $5,000 fine should have been cut down to something workable--maybe $500.

The people who predict the demographic "brown peril", amazingly like the "yellow peril", and the "Irish peril" etc. should start thinking. As I also pointed out, by and large, families go down in size with education. It's been that way with every group of immigrants so far--and there's no reason to think it will be different this time.

Also, Spanish is not about to displace English in the US. I've recently read that 94% of 3rd generation Mexicans in the US prefer to speak English--and many can't even speak Spanish.

This is a completely solvable issue--or it was before giant intellects like Dobbs and Tancredo started whipping the fearful into a frenzy.