Quotes of the Morning: Don't Stand So Close to Me (Mexico)

“Dubya is concerned with border security. Very, very concerned. I mean, every day Mexicans just walk into this country to break their backs doing sub-minimum wage work. They are obviously a threat, so the other day Dubya decided to send out the National Guard and ask for additional funds to deal with this Menace from the South.”
-Skippy

“In a prime time address to the nation Monday night, President Bush will acknowledge that U.S. Border Patrol does ‘not yet have full control of the border’ and call on Congress to provide the funding to do so.
‘Since I became president, we have increased funding for border security by 66 percent, and expanded the Border Patrol from about 9,000 to 12,000 agents. ... We have apprehended and sent home about 6 million people entering America illegally,’ the president will say, according to excerpts released late Monday.
‘Despite this progress, we do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that. Tonight I am calling on Congress to provide funding for dramatic improvements in manpower and technology at the border,’ the president will say.”
-Fox News, May 15, 2006

“Oddly enough there should be a little room for funding here.. If only to make up for cuts Dubya made previously.”
-Skippy

“A preliminary analysis of the President's fiscal year 2004 budget request reveals that, when compared with the fiscal year 2003 budget request, the President has cut $253 million from budgets of the agencies that make up the Department of Homeland Security's new Border and Transportation Security Directorate, a 1.5% reduction. The President's 2004 budget request for the Border and Transportation Security Directorate's is $16.653 billion.”
-Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, February 3, 2003

“But is adding the National Guard to the border really effective? Let’s ask the Secretary of Homeland Security…”
-Skippy

“CHERTOFF: Well, the National Guard is really, first of all, not trained for that mission. I mean, the fact of the matter is the border is a special place. There are special challenges that are faced there.
[...]
CHERTOFF: But to really deploy across the border, you'd have to deploy an enormous number of people. You'd have to supply them at the border, and you'd have to give them the kind of training to deal with people who are crossing the border. You don't necessarily want to put --
O'REILLY: You don't think you can do that? I think the Guard could do that.
CHERTOFF: I think it would be a horribly over-expensive and very difficult way to manage this problem.”
-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, on putting the National Guard on the Mexican Border, the O’Reilly Factor, December 15, 2005

“So this may be over-expensive and very difficult, but that has never stopped Dubya before. At least the border patrol will have a bunch of extra people available for enforcement, right?”
-Skippy

“Bush's plan is for Guard units to primarily tackle surveillance and intelligence duties along the border, so the 10,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents now there can concentrate on law enforcement work, such as patrols and arrests.
Bush made clear the Guard units would not be involved in law enforcement, which the law prohibits.”
-Gannett News Service, May 17, 2006

"Hmmm… And Dubya has always had such a firm respect for the law. Ok Dubya, say something to clear this matter up…”
-Skippy

“And the objective is, on the one hand, protect our borders, and on the other hand, never lose sight of the thing that makes America unique, which is we're a land of immigrants, and that we -- we're not going to discriminate against people, that we don't think there ought to be an automatic path to citizenship. That's called amnesty. Amnesty would be wrong. Amnesty wouldn't say that somebody that stood in line legally is -- is mistreated, as far as I'm concerned.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, May 16, 2006

“Better luck next time.”
-Skippy