Tom Kovach
President's speech: more immigration dancing
"Electronic slide" instead of "Texas side-step"
By Tom Kovach
In a column this past weekend, I predicted that President Bush would dance the "Texas side-step" in his recent speech about illegal aliens. On the optimistic side, he didn't do that. On the down side, he instead danced the "electronic slide."
The speech reminded me of the old saying that "half a loaf is better than none." But, when the speaker is the sitting President of the United States, and the topic is the security of our national borders, half a loaf is simply not acceptable. As I've said and written many times in recent months, "No border equals no country."
Trying to be optimistic, I will credit the president for finally giving in to public pressure to put military troops on the border. But, even that measure is "too little, too late, and too bad." President Bush proposes sending "as many as" 6,000 National Guard troops to the border. He should have said "as few as," because that number is woefully inadequate. And, he immediately disclaimed the program by emphasizing that the troops would be in a "support" role, "assisting" the Border Patrol, and that the troops would not have any enforcement duty or authority. Oh, really?
Border security is the number one priority of the government. If we cannot secure our borders, then we lack both a consistent national identity and international respect. Let's shrink that concept down. If a boy goes to school every day, and drops his books all along the sidewalk, and then keeps walking as though nothing had happened, then that boy lacks a consistent identity as a student. It becomes obvious that he doesn't care. He loses self-respect, and regards himself as a loser. Soon, so do the people around him. They begin to regard him as a fool. Then, the bullies will begin to swarm around him. If he comes to school, but doesn't care about his books, then perhaps he doesn't care about his lunch money, either. It won't take the bullies long to find out. The poor student has failed to secure his borders, and then he suffers invasion.
the "electronic slide"
President Bush proclaimed that a large part of his border security "plan" is to deploy the latest electronic surveillance measures along the border. He "hopes" to have a working high-tech program in place by 2008. But, illegal aliens plan to cross our borders today, tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night, et cetera. We don't have time to wait for Predator aircraft over our borders. We need boots and rifles along our borders — now!
Trojan horse
But, wait, there's more! There are a couple of old sayings that apply here. One is: "When nothing is happening, something is happening!" Another is: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." For those voters that graduated from a public school any time in the past decade, a history lesson is probably needed at this point. The ancient Greeks attempted to siege the city of Troy, but they failed. Ostensibly, they offered a gift in tribute to the superior Trojans. But, the giant wooden horse was hollow inside. Greek soldiers hid inside the statue, which was wheeled up to the gates of Troy. After the Trojans accepted the gift, the Greek soldiers snuck out at night, let in their compatriots, and destroyed Troy. The proposal to issue "smart ID cards" to foreign workers is a Trojan horse, which will eventually ensnare American citizens. (By the way, recent public school graduates, the words "ostensibly," "compatriots," and "ensnare" may be found in a good dictionary.)
William Casey, who was Director of Central Intelligence under President Ronald Reagan, had a memorable quote during the Iran-Contra affair. Casey said, as quoted in Oliver North's book Under Fire, "The best covert operation is one that you get your enemies to pay for." If someone has a globalist agenda, what better way to implement it than to get sovereign American citizens to back a program that will eventually be their own undoing? President Bush proposed requiring smart ID cards to every foreign worker. Once the program is funded by Congress, then R&D money becomes available to "the usual suspects" — the companies that hire "graybeard" lobbyists to gain lucrative, high-tech defense contracts. Once those companies have developed the cards for foreigners, it will be that much easier for our own government to require Americans to carry such cards. Thus, our country begins the "electronic slide" toward totalitarianism.
There is another step in this "electronic slide." The surveillance technology that can be implemented along our borders can also be deployed inside our borders. In like manner as the ID cards, money used to develop a "limited" program makes possible an expanded program later. We already have radar-triggered cameras that issue traffic tickets automatically. We already have a variety of surveillance cameras in cities across America. But, if we focus on technology along our borders, it will become easier to deploy that same technology in our cities. Just as C. Everett Koop and Frank Schaffer warned against the "slippery slope," I'm warning against the "electronic slide."
In a recent news interview, I told a reporter that the cost of a single unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, such as a Predator) could instead pay for a lot of wall or fence. President Bush is focusing too much on technology, and seems intent on ignoring basic physical security. Perhaps it's true that a Predator can find a lot of people, but a wall can stop a lot of people. We don't need to round up more people to clog our courts. We need to deter more people from entering the border in the first place. Taking several years to put costly, high-tech devices along our borders is not an acceptable security plan. Building a wall, and stationing troops along that wall, is a security plan that will simply work.
Whether by means of the "Texas side-step" or the "electronic slide," President Bush is dancing around his Constitutional duty to secure the borders of the United States. This almost seems designed to hand the Democrats victory in the 2006 congressional elections, and perhaps even the 2008 presidential election. Voters should closely check out this year's slate of candidates, and reject any that have danced around the problem of the illegal alien invasion.
© Tom Kovach
In a column this past weekend, I predicted that President Bush would dance the "Texas side-step" in his recent speech about illegal aliens. On the optimistic side, he didn't do that. On the down side, he instead danced the "electronic slide."
The speech reminded me of the old saying that "half a loaf is better than none." But, when the speaker is the sitting President of the United States, and the topic is the security of our national borders, half a loaf is simply not acceptable. As I've said and written many times in recent months, "No border equals no country."
Trying to be optimistic, I will credit the president for finally giving in to public pressure to put military troops on the border. But, even that measure is "too little, too late, and too bad." President Bush proposes sending "as many as" 6,000 National Guard troops to the border. He should have said "as few as," because that number is woefully inadequate. And, he immediately disclaimed the program by emphasizing that the troops would be in a "support" role, "assisting" the Border Patrol, and that the troops would not have any enforcement duty or authority. Oh, really?
Border security is the number one priority of the government. If we cannot secure our borders, then we lack both a consistent national identity and international respect. Let's shrink that concept down. If a boy goes to school every day, and drops his books all along the sidewalk, and then keeps walking as though nothing had happened, then that boy lacks a consistent identity as a student. It becomes obvious that he doesn't care. He loses self-respect, and regards himself as a loser. Soon, so do the people around him. They begin to regard him as a fool. Then, the bullies will begin to swarm around him. If he comes to school, but doesn't care about his books, then perhaps he doesn't care about his lunch money, either. It won't take the bullies long to find out. The poor student has failed to secure his borders, and then he suffers invasion.
the "electronic slide"
President Bush proclaimed that a large part of his border security "plan" is to deploy the latest electronic surveillance measures along the border. He "hopes" to have a working high-tech program in place by 2008. But, illegal aliens plan to cross our borders today, tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night, et cetera. We don't have time to wait for Predator aircraft over our borders. We need boots and rifles along our borders — now!
Trojan horse
But, wait, there's more! There are a couple of old sayings that apply here. One is: "When nothing is happening, something is happening!" Another is: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." For those voters that graduated from a public school any time in the past decade, a history lesson is probably needed at this point. The ancient Greeks attempted to siege the city of Troy, but they failed. Ostensibly, they offered a gift in tribute to the superior Trojans. But, the giant wooden horse was hollow inside. Greek soldiers hid inside the statue, which was wheeled up to the gates of Troy. After the Trojans accepted the gift, the Greek soldiers snuck out at night, let in their compatriots, and destroyed Troy. The proposal to issue "smart ID cards" to foreign workers is a Trojan horse, which will eventually ensnare American citizens. (By the way, recent public school graduates, the words "ostensibly," "compatriots," and "ensnare" may be found in a good dictionary.)
William Casey, who was Director of Central Intelligence under President Ronald Reagan, had a memorable quote during the Iran-Contra affair. Casey said, as quoted in Oliver North's book Under Fire, "The best covert operation is one that you get your enemies to pay for." If someone has a globalist agenda, what better way to implement it than to get sovereign American citizens to back a program that will eventually be their own undoing? President Bush proposed requiring smart ID cards to every foreign worker. Once the program is funded by Congress, then R&D money becomes available to "the usual suspects" — the companies that hire "graybeard" lobbyists to gain lucrative, high-tech defense contracts. Once those companies have developed the cards for foreigners, it will be that much easier for our own government to require Americans to carry such cards. Thus, our country begins the "electronic slide" toward totalitarianism.
There is another step in this "electronic slide." The surveillance technology that can be implemented along our borders can also be deployed inside our borders. In like manner as the ID cards, money used to develop a "limited" program makes possible an expanded program later. We already have radar-triggered cameras that issue traffic tickets automatically. We already have a variety of surveillance cameras in cities across America. But, if we focus on technology along our borders, it will become easier to deploy that same technology in our cities. Just as C. Everett Koop and Frank Schaffer warned against the "slippery slope," I'm warning against the "electronic slide."
In a recent news interview, I told a reporter that the cost of a single unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, such as a Predator) could instead pay for a lot of wall or fence. President Bush is focusing too much on technology, and seems intent on ignoring basic physical security. Perhaps it's true that a Predator can find a lot of people, but a wall can stop a lot of people. We don't need to round up more people to clog our courts. We need to deter more people from entering the border in the first place. Taking several years to put costly, high-tech devices along our borders is not an acceptable security plan. Building a wall, and stationing troops along that wall, is a security plan that will simply work.
Whether by means of the "Texas side-step" or the "electronic slide," President Bush is dancing around his Constitutional duty to secure the borders of the United States. This almost seems designed to hand the Democrats victory in the 2006 congressional elections, and perhaps even the 2008 presidential election. Voters should closely check out this year's slate of candidates, and reject any that have danced around the problem of the illegal alien invasion.
© Tom Kovach
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