Play misty for me
 

When I hear stories like this, I'm just glad we passed the "No Child Left Behind" act. Obviously, the Republicans have long acknowledged that education and hard work are the way out of poverty, and have prioritized education the way no prior administration has.

Play misty for me
 

It. Was. A. Joke.

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

Brian Bilbray is your candidate? The guy whose website front page says:

• "Over the past several years I have served as a Co-Chair of the Federation for American Immigration reform (FAIR), working to convince Congress to toughen our laws against illegal immigration. We cannot wait one day longer to protect ourselves from illegal immigration and in Congress that issue will be my number one priority."

Doesn't seem like he'd be your guy, but hey.

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

We're on our fourth day in a row of protests. I'm pretty impressed, though no one's sure what to do about all these kids who are walking out of school to march on city halls.

The Agenda
 

One out of two ain't bad.

Like thinking that Mexican busboys should learn to speak goddamned English!
 

Exactly.

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

I haven't kept up on this bill, but I'm curious to hear your objections. I take it you are not in favor of completely open borders, correct?

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

Objections to what? There are a lot of bills floating around.

I'm most in favor of something similar to what happened in 1986.

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

To the concept of border security in general. I'm under the impression that 1986 was just amnesty for people already here but did little for border security.

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

"Border Security?" That's what they're calling it?

Ok...

Last I checked, the border that has historically let terrorists through is the northern one, but that really didn't seem to be the focus in Congress last week, and it certainly wasn't why high school students all over my city are protesting.

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

Why not? I mean, have them come through metal detectors on the way, but why not let a couple million more Mexicans in? Why do you assume no one could be in favor of open borders?

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

That's what I'm calling it. I'm not focused on just our southern border - I'm concerned about both, plus the ports on the coasts. I don't think the bills only pertain to our southern border, but I do think it's rational for people to focus there because it is my understanding that more people cross the southern border illegally than the northern one.

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

Boarders with metal detectors are not open.

There also has to be some order to the way our country is organized. How else do we determine who gets to vote, who pays taxes, who is entitled to government assistance, etc.

And stop playing devil's advocate.

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

I note that if we would just annex Canada and Mexico already, we would have a much smaller border to monitor. So it turns out Spanky was correct on the Mexico annexation argument. Maybe his politician of choice in San Diego County (Riverside County?) is only on stage 2 of the larger Annex Mexico agenda.

I'd support that. Hell, no more birth certificate/passport requirement for my somewhat regular Cabo trips. Sign me up.

Interesting campaign tactic.......
 

Well, in my state, the two main sources of revenue are property taxes and sales taxes. Everyone, legal, illegal and otherwise, pays them. Lots and lots of citizens get the benefit of undocumented aliens tax dollars here, and they have ever since the border changed from the Red River to the Rio Grande.

Seems to me that most everyone came from somewhere else, and we didn't have too much of a problem before.

My grandmother's family sort of just moved from Mexico to Galveston without papers or documents or anything. No one swam across any rivers. No one hired a coyote to sneak them across. They just picked up an moved. Eventually someone suggested that my grandmother'd been married to my grandfather long enough that she could get her citizenship. I suspect that there was a country or two in the 20s whose citizenry hated us.

I'm not the best person to ask. I'm a Texan first and whatever country we happen to be in second. The border sort of moves around me, but I stay in the same place.