hayoob

Yep. Carter actually worked towards that goal, which was later balked at by his Republican successors.

I really is a shame that we haven't progressed much on this in 37 years. Big Oil has too much influence and deep pockets. I'm happy to the Chevy Volt launching this year. It's a start, as is the Prius and other hybrids. To really make an impact, the technology has to get cheaper so it becomes affordable to the mainstream buyers.

We should have begun ending our addiction to foreign oil in 1973 with the first oil crisis. In the 37 years since then, we would have been damn close to energy independent.

Oh but that came from a liberal, so therefore it must be wrong.

A good idea is a good idea, no matter if it's a conservative or a liberal that comes up with it. I really don't understand the mindset, or lack thereof, of someone who thinks otherwise. Neither party has all the answers and never will. It takes participation by both parties to do what is best for America. We saw what 8 years of Bush did, now were're seeing less than 2 years of Obama. It didn't work at either extreme.

Okay Okay, I know its tough but heres what I love about my country. Its not about what you can TAKE! Its about what YOU EARN! ** the FREE shite. I

No, it's about what you can do for your country.

Obama smokes on Federal parklands.

WASHINGTON — National Guard troops will head to the U.S.-Mexican border Aug. 1 for a yearlong deployment to keep a lookout for illegal border crossers and smugglers and help in criminal investigations, federal officials said Monday.

The troops will be armed but can use their weapons only to protect themselves, Gen. Craig McKinley, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told a Pentagon news conference. The troops will undergo initial training and be fully deployed along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border by September.

The announcement provides details on how the government will implement President Barack Obama's May decision to bolster border security and comes as drug-related violence has escalated in Mexico, where several people died over the weekend in a car bombing and in a separate massacre at a private party. It also comes as the U.S. debate over illegal immigration has intensified in an election year.

"The border is more secure and more resourced than it has ever been, but there is more to be done," said Alan Bersin, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, part of the Homeland Security Department.

The 1,200 troops will be distributed among four border states, with Arizona getting 524; Texas, 250; California, 224 and New Mexico, 72. Another 130 would be assigned to a national liaison office.

Bersin also said the Homeland Security Department will provide six more aircraft, including helicopters, to the border effort. He said at least 300 Customs and Border Protection agents and inspection officers would be sent to the Tucson, Arizona, area, along with mobile surveillance vans and additional technology.

"It will help," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, a Democrat, said Monday in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he was attending the annual meeting of the Conference of Western Attorneys General. "Manpower clearly has been deficient. Technology has been somewhat deficient, and they're bolstering that."

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, said the deployment is not enough "nor tied to a strategy to comprehensively defeat the increasingly violent drug- and alien-smuggling cartels that operate in Arizona on a daily basis."

U.S. Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick and Gabrielle Giffords, both Arizona Democrats, separately called the announced actions welcome but insufficient.

"This is the kind of action we want from the administration, not suing the state," Kirkpatrick said, referring to the Department of Justice's challenge to the new Arizona immigration enforcement law. "However, we should continue to move forward with a much larger commitment of National Guard troops right away and with an expansion of the Border Patrol to strengthen security for the long run."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also criticized the troops as "grossly insufficient" for the Texas border in a letter to the administration last week.

President George W. Bush deployed 6,000 National Guard troops to the border in June 2006, also a midterm election year. The troops were part of his effort to persuade the Republican-led Congress to pass his immigration reform proposals that included a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The troops' deployment ended in July 2008.

McKinley said even though the four border states are contributing 54,000 troops to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they still have a sizable number available for other deployments or disaster response. More can be deployed at state cost if governors wish, but the 1,200 are being paid for by the federal government, he said.

"Right now I cannot see a case where we would be overextending the National Guard for this effort," he said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement also is reinforcing its presence in Arizona, said John Morton, the Homeland Security Department assistant secretary overseeing the agency.

Morton said ICE is opening a new office in Ajo, Arizona, to focus exclusively on cross-border crime and to deploy a specialized investigative team in Douglas.

Also, the agency will send ICE lawyers to U.S. attorneys offices to help prosecute felons who illegally re-enter the country after deportation. It also will increase the number of ICE agents in Mexico to 40, making it the largest of ICE's 63 offices in 44 countries.

"We are placing a particular emphasis on the Tucson sector in Arizona, an area favored by smugglers and the principal point of illegal entry into the United States along the southwest border," Morton said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38310914/ns/us_news-security/

Mexicans are lovely ! I live among them. Sonja does my hair and she is la muy muy !

You must must have me confuscioused with some other gringo

I want to give em visas to stay - I have posted that many many many times.

But ONLY that and only to people who work and are not committing crime

NO path to Citizenship. No GC .

If they want a GC then they must do it like a VeeJayer and no their US born kids cannot sponsor them.

That is a great program and better than all other proposals including the status quo

I should be made El Presidente and big Dadda for life for proposing that coz it's the answer

You prior comment a few days back had nothing to do with illegal Mexicans.

nice brand of banter you have there

I would rather have 20 Mexicans living next door than have a neighbour who used expressions like that.

So you reckon Osama would get bail then ?

Look that up in your little constitution booklet

I thought you didn't like Mexicans? Did you forget your comment from a few days ago?

Choo choo

Wasn't the water pipe the inspiration for the bong?

Don't tell saywhat.

Choo Choo