Amnesty Insanity 

There is news today of an agreement that will improve the border security aspects of the Senate's quasi-amnesty bill. The deal supposedly involves doubling the Border Patrol by adding 20,000 new agents, hundreds of miles of border fencing and surveillance drones to track illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border. 

We will provide more details as we have them, but I'm skeptical. Security has been promised repeatedly for thirty years. It hasn't been done. 

For months the Gang of Eight has been promising that its bill would secure the border. Yet those senators have voted down every significant border security amendment, including one for additional fencing. Not surprisingly, the Congressional Budget Office determined that the Gang of Eight bill would not significantly improve border security. 

But suddenly today there is a breakthrough on security. We're just supposed to trust that they got it right this time. By the way, in 2006 Congress passed the Secure Fence Act calling for 700 miles of additional fencing along the border. Only 35 miles of it got built. 

When the initial draft of the legislation was released several weeks ago, liberals and their pro-amnesty allies were trying to conceal their glee. Politico reported that the bill was "far more generous to their constituencies than Democrats and Hispanic activists expected. … their side made off with more policy victories than it could've predicted." 

After healthcare reform, why would we trust this crowd with comprehensive anything? 

And who is going to decide that the border is secured? Don't forget that this administration is laying off hospital workers at Walter Reed and air traffic controllers rather than EPA bureaucrats. How long until the new Border Patrol agents are laid off? Obama's got that big African vacation to pay for. 

As Rush Limbaugh said today, no one is talking about how to stop illegal immigration, but how to get to 70 votes in the Senate. This latest "deal" is only meant provide cover for senators to vote for amnesty. Like the definition of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results -- we've been down this road before. Let's try something different. 

Drop the comprehensive part and focus on border security first. The border needs to be secured before any kind of legalization is even contemplated. Make members of Congress go on the record every year by voting to certify whether or not the border is secured. 

Once illegal immigration has been reasonably reduced and the border is under control, then we can start talking about what to do with the illegal immigrants "in the shadows." 

Obama Bashes Catholic Education 

During this week's trip to the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland, Barack Obama attempted to address the problem of sectarian violence, but seemed to suggest that religious education should be banned. Here's what he said: 
 

That statement is absolutely stunning! Whatever point the president was trying to make about sectarian violence in Northern Ireland was completely lost by his absurd example. As Fr. John Zuhlsdorf put it: 
 

Sadly, Obama's dismissive remark of religious education is illustrative of his administration's hostility to Judeo-Christian values. For example: 
 

• The Obama Administration tried to kill the voucher program for low-income students in the District of Columbia. The most of the beneficiaries were minority students. 
   
• While Obama is demanding amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, he has decided that there is no room in America for one religious homeschooling family that legally applied for asylum. The Obama Administration wants to send the Romeike family back to Germany, even though their children will likely be taken away from them because they refuse to bend to Germany's Nazi-era state education laws. 
   
• Under Obama, there has been growing hostility toward Christianity in the military.
   
• The administration is using Obamacare to browbeat Catholic institutions and other religious organizations and businesses to accept practices that violate their religious beliefs.

From bowing to radical Islamic groups on the FBI's surveillance of mosques and bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia and sending private letters to the ayatollah, the only faith Obama seems to have any genuine tolerance for, in domestic and foreign policy, is Islam. 

Big Government's Assault On The First Amendment 

Gary Pruitt, president of the Associated Press, blasted the Obama Administration yesterday during a speech to the National Press Club. He accused the Justice Department of acting as "judge, jury and executioner" in the massive seizure of the AP's phone records. Worse, he said that sources are no longer talking to his reporters out of fear of government prosecution. Here are some of his remarks: 
 

I am not in the habit of defending the liberal media. But Pruitt's point is especially valid coming at a time when the administration is facing so many investigations for corruption and abuse. 

Now more than ever, we need whistleblowers to come forward. We need people inside the government to report wrongdoing and we need journalists willing to expose it.