George W. Bush's administration has been responsible for this issue rising to the top of our political discourse. I've read elsewhere that instead of recognizing that the federal Border Patrol needed shoring up in the 9/11 aftermath, there was actually no attempt to do this because they were "union" and since the Republican-controlled congress doesn't like "unions," the president had no intention of adding to that force.

Apparently, the federal government (prior to 2006) practically ceased to monitor companies for immigrant violations. I've seen charts that show the decline from 2000 - 2005. So, instead of having a "manageable" issue, we have one that a lot of people just didn't pay much attention to until Lou Dobbs started talking about it as it related to jobs and then the US House started talking about it. And then there were the marches last year.

It all snowballed in ways that George W. Bush (aka Dick Cheney and Karl Rove) probably didn't imagine. It also shows how all his rhetoric about homeland security, was just that.

Living here in Texas, I cringe when I hear the racist remarks flying all over the place. It's sickening. And it didn't have to be this way.

It's amazing to me that people are now so openly racist, when really, they should be mad as hell at our current George W. Bush-led government. The anger is so displaced.

It just goes to show how effective this group of characters has been at framing a deceitful and confusing message for the American people about many issues.

I perused Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason, in the bookstore the other day. He does a real good job of laying out the way that all of this happened ~ how this administration has taken advantage of communication methods utilized by totalitarian, fascist and Nazi regimes to "control" people in the early part of the 20th century. And radio is a big part of how it was done, then and now.

The Fairness Doctrine was created to counteract anything close to what the Nazis and other fascist regimes had accomplished utilizing the radio. And then it was overturned in 1987. And then Rush Limbaugh arrived on-the-air that same year.

It has worked out very nicely for the Republican Party. Unfortunately, Frankenstein just can't control his monster anymore.

If the public square is so controlled by talk radio ~ and talk radio is so controlled by conservative, entertaining guys (who fancy themselves as "experts" on politics) that many people trust ~ then many people (who get all their news while driving home from work) are only getting a tiny fraction of the story.

It's past time that we brought back the Fairness Doctrine.

Great post. I agree.

The President allowed his political bias to interfere with adding border patrol agents. I am not surprised at this, just outraged. I am also aware that the ferderal government ceased to monitor companies for immigration violations. This is particualrly a problem because many more of the people here illegally have overstayed their visas and not come over the southern border.

It is worse to be on the ground in Texas and live day-to-day with the racist remarks. However, I have accesss to these through natioanlly yndicated talk shows like Neal Boortz who chhoses to call the immigration problem an invasion. I have seen many of these clips mentioned in the aricle. A particular ad I saw on YouTube recently definitely is racist becaue it only talks about the mexican aliens and stereotypes them all as gang members.

The talk show hosts blame their listenership for bringing the issue to the fore because they allegedly weren't going to talk about it. The issue has also led to much incivility an ddownright unaceptable behavior toward our elected officials. These same people who say "Senator X won't tell us why he supports the bill and what's good about it" also wouldn't listen if Senator X did explain his position. They just attack and expect thier solution to be implemented no matter how unrrealistic. We all know that there was a racist undercurrent in the debate and Sen. Graham shouldn't have been attacked for saying what was a truth.

Judy, thank you. Darn good post yourself. I'm sorry that Senator Graham was attacked by the radio schlock jocks ~ I heard them use very derogatory remarks. It's the bullying technique that makes me furious since they demean our entire political process with their defamatory remarks.

What do you think about bringing back the Fairness Doctrine? The way I've heard Sean talking about it most recently is by saying that "they" are just trying to do away with him. So, it's basically him rallying his listeners to prevent bringing it back.

They certainly seem desperate when they talk about it.

These guys are doing a lot of harm to our democracy. They are lowering the bar of political discourse and putting us all into the gutter. And it should alarm us, I think.

I also think that they (meaning Bush and his cadre) are quite happy with the immigration distraction. It keeps the "focus" off of the war ~ the war that Bush believes is "hard work." (He said so at least 5 times today in the press conference).

Thanks. Those shock jocks are the ones that have some apologizing to do. It makes me angry that they can defame another human being and get away with it.

I am not sure about the fairness doctrine I would have to do more research to actually learn how it was applied when it was in effect before. The conservative talkers don't like it because it would cut into their time to spew hate and call names that create a very uncivil environment. Sean doesn't want anyone to interfere with his radio show. The other one that is taking over the airwaves that needs to go is Mark Levin because he is so hateful toward our elected officials on both sides.

They are desperate to talk about anything and grasp at straws to avoid the real issues.

They are doing great harm to our democracy because their shows attack elected officials so viciously that the only ones who will run in the future are those who do not care about these things or corrupt individuals. It also corrupts our discourse and lowers the bar for how we treat others period. This does alarm me.

Yes the immigration distraction does keep us from talking about the war. However, where as the war divides us along party and class lines the immigration issue cuts across all cleavages and there is no common descriptor for either the opposition or the supporters.

In reference to to Mr. Bush's 5 references to the war being "hard work" in the press conference and that is just a way of implanting a new talking point and spreading more propaganda.