Bush Takes On Opponents of Immigration Deal — New York Times

President Bush used the harshest language he has used since becoming President to defend his immigration plan, only he lambasted conservatives in doing so.

“If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill,” Mr. Bush said this afternoon at a training center for border enforcement agents located in this town in Georgia’s southeastern corner. “That’s empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens.”

[…]

The bill, the product of a compromise struck by Republican and Democratic leaders two weeks ago, has encountered stiff resistance from the left and right. Liberal opposition taking aim at the proposal for shifting the system for awarding permanent residence status to give more weight to education and skills and less to family reunification, while conservatives have derided the plan for allowing illegal aliens to legalize their status.

I don’t understand our President. He certainly is no conservative when it comes to domestic policies, and because of that, we are now faced with a Democrat-controlled House and Senate. My good money is also on a Democrat President in 2008. The fundamental reason for this is because conservatism — that method of government with which we were all so hopeful for in 2000 — seems to have been taken out and shot.

Why it is that we want to “allow a path to citizenship” or grant total amnesty to 12 million people whose first act on our soil is thumbing their collective noses at our laws is beyond me. And while I’ll admit I haven’t pored over every detail of the immigration plan, any “path to citizenship” available for such people better be long and arduous.

My wife is from Canada, and we slogged through this inefficient system for over five years before she was granted citizenship. But that’s the way the system works in a nation that is rooted in the rule of law. Do Americans really want more people who have no respect for our nation and its laws? That question reminds me of something else.

Mexicans Boo Miss USA, Showing Discord — AP

Many here south of the border reveled in her disastrous evening: First Miss USA Rachel Smith slipped and fell on her bottom during the Miss Universe evening gown competition. Then she was booed by hundreds in the Mexican audience.

The treatment of the Tennessee beauty queen was nothing personal. It had more to do with Mexico’s sometimes tense relationship with its powerful northern neighbor.

U.S. athletes have sparked a similar response. In 2005, when the U.S. played Mexico during a World Cup soccer qualifier, the crowd booed the U.S. national anthem and a smattering of fans chanted “Osama! Osama!” during the game.

The “immigrant traditions of the United States” that President Bush speaks of in the first article are certainly traditions to be celebrated and nurtured in the future; however, our history is not filled with granting amnesty to immigrants that flout our laws and disrespect our country. I have no qualms with severing that history if it means that we should open our doors to such people.