Chip McLean -- Mr. Bush Falls Through the Looking Glass

As the President contemplates sending more troops to Iraq, our own border continues to be invaded � the most recent incident occurring on the Arizona border with Mexico, where Mexican invaders forced our own, unarmed National Guardsmen to retreat. The �main stream media� has virtually ignored this astounding event, but fortunately, the blogosphere has been quite active in reporting it.

The guardsmen had been sent to a post near Sasabe to assist US Border Patrol agents. The area has been a hotbed of illegal drug activity in recent months. It is presumed by many within the Border Patrol, that these invaders were indeed part of a drug cartel. As is the usual case with Washington, the �solution� was as effective as a toothless watchdog, as the National Guardsmen, in addition to being unarmed, were not allowed to apprehend illegal aliens nor directly confront them.

The Minutemen, a volunteer organization of concerned citizens that has been helping to observe our border for a couple of years now, is now sending dozens of armed members to the area to assist the National Guard. The Minutemen, you may recall, were derisively referred to by Mr. Bush, as �vigilantes� a couple of years ago. Chris Simcox, founder and president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, had this to say about the recent episode:

�I am not at all shocked by this incursion; our President and federal government have sent these lawbreakers a message of immunity if caught, and a helping hand to accomplish their criminal goals.�

�The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has taken notice of this incursion and will no longer tolerate our federal government�s refusal to secure our borders. The deployment of more National Guard is not only mandatory, it is the duty of our elected officials to enforce immigration laws and guarantee our public safety, but the Minutemen will gladly volunteer their time until our government gets its priorities straight.�

For entirely too long, the White House and an alarming number of congress critters have chosen to do nothing about this most basic aspect of �Homeland Security� � the securing of our own border. Mr. Bush gave the issue some �lip service� back last May when he spoke of the �immigration problem� and announced he was sending 6,000 National Guardsmen to assist the US Border Patrol. Other than the obvious problem of sending the guardsmen unarmed, there are two other problems with Bush�s idea � one is that 6000 isn�t nearly enough, and the second (and far more significant), is that the President�s idea of an �immigration problem� is that it�s currently too tough for illegal aliens to become citizens. In other words, Bush�s �solution� to the immigration problem is to make it easier for them to cross the border illegally to begin with, and once here, make it easier for them to attain citizenship.

As if the costs of illegal aliens on our resources aren�t enough already, it has been discovered that there are plans to make most of these folks eligible for social security benefits as well. After a three and a half year battle, the TREA Senior Citizen�s League has managed (through the Freedom of Information Act) to force the Social Security Administration to make available publicly, a copy of the U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. This agreement would effectively raid the Social Security Trust Fund of billions of dollars, in order to award illegal Mexican aliens who came here to work. Great - first the illegals come here to steal jobs from Americans, and now with this �plan�, they will get to steal more from the millions of legal hard-working Americans who are already compelled through taxation to contribute to a program that is going broke -- and will do so all the much faster with millions more new �eligible� recipients.

The agreement was reached in 2004, and only needs Bush�s signature. Once signed, unless either branch of Congress rejects the agreement within 60 days, it will become law. Given the current make-up of the House and the Senate, a rejection of this agreement is doubtful. The only thing that can stop this travesty is pressure on the White House and our elected leaders. White House press secretary Tony Snow was caught off-guard when WorldNetDaily�s Les Kinsolving asked Snow about the agreement:

"I don't know anything about it. � For the last 25 hours, I've been dealing with who is going to take what position in Washington at which department. And so if I am preparing for a news conference, probably the last thing I'm going to be doing is something which, while it may be of vital interest, it may not be top of mind. So if you wish � if you want to ask me a question like this and you really want a good answer, call me beforehand so I can be prepared," Snow said.

I�m certain that if Snow ever actually does answer the question, it will be explained that it�s all a part of Mr. Bush�s policy of creating a �Pathway to Citizenship� (a more accurate description would be �Pathway to Amnesty�).

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The entire �illegal immigration� issue is as surreal as a Lewis Carroll story � and Mr. Bush has seemingly fallen through the looking glass. After nearly four years, at a cost of billions, not to mention the loss of about 3000 of our men and women in uniform, the President is proposing a �surge� of additional thousands of our troops in Iraq. Bush says he is spreading �democracy� (not our own form of government and one that was abhorred by our founders, but that is the subject for another column), This is being done to �protect us� in the �War on Terror.� In the meantime, our southern border is being overrun as our unarmed National Guardsmen are forced to retreat. Mr. Bush needs to buy a clue � protecting our people doesn�t mean protecting Baghdad�s border � it begins at home, on our own border.

His interest in politics began at the age of eight, when his parents took him to a Barry Goldwater rally during the 1964 presidential election. In addition to his work at CHCH, Chip's columns have appeared in a number of online conservative publications.