I tell you what, it never bothered me when Pat Buchanan left the Republican Party. I guess he can claim he is back again, it is a volunteer organization. But at least an independent conservative like me can say he is not really a republican. He can be so unstable sometimes.

Buchanan is stomping his foot and pouting because Bush will not do what he wants regarding our borders. Like he is the only US citizen with a voice on this issue. So what does he do? Goes nutty:

Well, we are being invaded, and the president of the United States is not doing his duty to protect the states against that invasion. Some courageous Republican, to get the attention of this White House, should drop into the hopper a bill of impeachment, charging George W. Bush with a conscious refusal to uphold his oath and defend the states of the Union against “invasion.”

Pat, do you know the difference between a legal immigrant worker from the south and an illegal one? Their number in line. Once the quota is full, the rest become illegal. Roughly 2/3rds of the total immigrants here from the southern borders are legal, the other third are not. Therrefore every damn one of the ridiculous characteristics you site, in this mind numbingly bigoted piece, reflects the population as a whole. So if you take away those who came in after the quota was full you still have the same issues. In other words, you have not solved anything. Of course I think you have lots of issues to deal with, personally.

The raising of the quota to allow for more migrant workers to fill the job openings(recall, we have a very low unemployment rate) is a simple book keeping exercise.

And let’s be fair here. Not getting the proper paper work to allow you to make living and help your family (oh, the evil of these people!) is less a crime than reckless driving. And we do not up root people for reckless driving.

I have stated before my positions. As guests here in our country foreign workers should have clean backgrounds and stay out of trouble. Break this agreement and you will be leaving our country. If they have a job they can stay. 3 months without one and your gone – we are not here to support you. No more automatic US citizenship for being born here. We had that provision to grow our country as we expanded and settled it. It is not needed anymore. Everyone must be documented and registered with our government. And our government must provide private industry the services, free of charge, to validate a workers immigration status, and to report changes in the workers employment status.

I have a lot of friends who wish Bush would round up and throw out all illegals. I say fine, as long as we round up and throw out every tax payer who also did not fill out their paper work on time. Because folks, all ‘crimes’ are not all equal. And when you distill this down to its esssence, this is a crime of paperwork. Buchanan calls it ‘breaking in’, as if to steal, rape or worse. That is why he is a loon. The vast majority of temporary workers are decent people working low level jobs. They seem to be ‘breaking in’ to watch our kids, do our lawns, clean our houses. The nerve of these people.

I am not interested in a wasted effort trying to round up everyone who does not have their paper work in order. I am interested in finding any terrorists, or other bad apples, who may be in the midst of the large undocummented population we now have. But if we want to find the bad guys in their midst we will need their support, not their resistance.

To the Buchanans in this country I ask ‘what would you rather see every night on TV?’. Another poor family being pulled out of their house, Elian style, with all the protestors and anger and hatred raging in our country? Or another terrorist in his/her hide out surrounded by a SWAT Team being captured or neutralized?

Buchanan cannot see beyond his idea that breaking the law means deportation. It is a simple minded concept without much thought behind it.

He cannot see the context of being ‘undocumented’ as it relates to our broader set of laws and punishments. He cannot grasp what differentiates the legal, dedicated family-supporter making a living from the dedicated, family-supporter who does not have the proper paperwork. They could be twin brothers raising families, and yet to him one is an ‘evil’ that must be exorcised from our midst.

Buchanan cannot envision the ramifications of his ‘ideas’ if implemented. He cannot grasp what the images of tearing apart families would have on Americans – let alone foreign enemies looking for support against us. He cannot grasp how much his plan would divert law enforcement efforts from focusing on actual threats, instead being focused on his vision of how to punish improper behavior. Buchanan simply cannot see that most of the country would be repulsed and there is no political support for this action.

So his answer is equally myopic: let’s impeach Bush. If he has not proven, with these two ‘proposals’, that he does not have the intellectual heft, imagination or compassion to deal with these issues – what other evidence does one need?

We need to fix what is happening on our borders. But we do not need to sacrifice our humanity to do it. If conservatives are pro-life and pro-family, if they are against crime and terrorism, then ‘the number’ we select as the number of people who can legally come here each year to work should not be the excuse we use to throw away these beliefs.

I find it hard to believe America cannot come up with a solution that documents our guest workers, allows workers to stay who find work and add to our communities, and sifts out the terrorists and bad guys for deportation. Buchanan has given up on that vision of America – I have not.