Bush's Approval Rating Drops Sharply (Bush approval: 59%)

Public support for President Bush has dropped sharply amid growing concerns about U.S. military casualties and doubts whether the war with Iraq was worth fighting, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Bush's overall job approval rating dropped to 59 percent, down nine points in the past 18 days. That decline exactly mirrored the slide in public support for Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, which now stands at 58 percent.

And for the first time, slightly more than half the country -- 52 percent -- believes there has been an "unacceptable" level of U.S. casualties in Iraq, up eight points in less than three weeks.

Still, only 26 percent said there had been more casualties than they had expected. Three in four say they expect "significantly more" American dead and wounded.

It's his base sending him a message: It'll take more than tax cuts and a quick conventional war to please conservatives. Giving the SCOTUS tacit approval to affirm the bulk of the left's agenda doesn't help. Lack of meaningful medicare reform, a new huge entitlement program, and signaling that Gonzales is his SCJ in the wings isn't helping.

He's indeed also signaling granting amnesty to illegal aliens too.

Right now I'd say we are at square one - we have a trifecta and Kennedy is getting two huge agenda items in this administration - The school bill and prescription drugs.

He couldn't have been more fortunate if a train carrying Jim Beam derailed in his backyard.

In 1910, the U.S. population was 15% foreign-born. In 1990, the foreign-born percentage of the population was 8%.

I think you got your freedom and everyone else can go screw themselves. Sorry Dagnabbit, that is not what America is about. America is the land of the Free. America is not about a huge 15 foot reinforced fence around our borders... that is what Berlin was about. Those communists sure knew a thing about immigration and closing the borders.

I see nothing wrong with opening the borders completely as long as the freebies some AMERICANS take for granted are eliminated.

I'm very sad to say it but, most people sucking at the teat of government are AMERICANS who get SS, unemployment, welfare, Medicare/Medicaid, grants, government home and business loans at ridiculous rates, etcetera etcetera ad nuseum. I don’t want to argue the relative advantages or disadvantages of these programs. I’m just making a point. Illegals get very little of this. Your arguments about illegals are not new to me. I just find them wrong. One mexican hating Freeper shockingly told me Illegals cost Medicare $2 billion. I am shocked that Americans will pay $159 billion to the federal government and $71 billion dollars to the States this year for Medicaid alone. I’m really less worried about the $2 billion and more worried about the other $278 billion. Add in SS, unemployment, government grants, childcare tax credits, farm subsidies, etcetera…we are all getting a slice of everybody else’s tax dollars. Americans are a huge drain on our economy, and as history shows, illegals make for a great scapegoat in hard economic times. We have a $2.2 trillion federal budget, and a $10 trillion economy. $2 billion looks like a booger in comparison.

I know you believe that Dubya, Jorge, and myself are somehow making a buck off the illegal immigrants, but in fact, we just have hearts and souls. I will admit the Dubya may be thinking about the political consequences of gunning down Mexican families as they cross the border. I know if the TV stations air footage of that you will vote for Dubya but most humans will not.

Those impoverished Mexicans do the jobs Americans refuse to do like clean cars and toilets, all while smiling and happy for the chance to live in a country where their wife won't be raped and killed by a crooked cop. Pedro can’t speak English he isn’t asking for a government bailout of Chrysler. They aren’t taking my job and I don’t employ illegals. If you are a disaffected janitor you have my sympathies.

There were no INS agents at Plymouth Rock.

The wave of immigration that gave us the figures of 1910 ended with the outbreak of WWI and the adoption of immigration control laws. The country then entered a period of assimilation and "Americanization".

So when's this current "wave", started by Ted Kennedy's 1965 Immigration Act, going to end? When will our foreign-born and their progeny assimilate to the point where the English language spreads here instead of retreats? When will we be able to expect to find more, not fewer, areas with first-world American levels of public safety, schooling, and healthcare? When will we no longer "need" racial preferences for our largest immigrant group?

The answer, we both know, is "never", because this immigration wave will never end, at least not as long as we have self-interested leaders like Clinton and Bush, who ignore the problem, or even accelerate it by encouraging violations of the few laws we have. So this first ever endless wave, will in all likelihood, be the country's last and final immigration wave - because with no brake on the process, we face an inevitable de-facto merger, first with Mexico, and then with the world (If you think your Pedro didn't like living in a society of crooked cops and raped wives -just wait until we all have to).

So, it's more than just a fiscal issue (which btw, is worse than your figures, because of immigrated poverty's concentrated & devastating effects in certain regions). It's about language, culture and sovereignty - and not recreating third world miseries in our only home, just so certain business can pay world wages, and certain politicians can pander to voting blocks (that will kill their party in the long run).

Oh - and last I checked, the communists were keeping people in, while free countries and peoples have always used the means at their disposal to keep hostile invasions out.

When will our foreign-born and their progeny assimilate to the point where the English language spreads here instead of retreats?

America has always had immigration and it always will. I shouldn't have to tell an America this, but evedently the schools no longer teach history. You are having a problem because you have no understanding of American history. You forget the Pollacks, Chinks, Hebs, and Wops who couldn't speak english yet came to America. The first generation rarely speaks English the second generation learns it in American schools. That is the way it always happens. That is the way it happens for Mexican families. You probably do not know this because you don't like Mexicans and you don't know any Mexican families.

I am glad I do not live in the cold cynical little world you live in. In my America things are getting better and better. Certainly it is often 2 steps forward and one step back, but it is getting better.

In 2001 for the first time in a long time my government confiscated less taxes from the American people then the year before. With 2 tax cut since then, the government will continue to take less and less from me. AFDC is no longer an entitlement and children are growing up in families where they can see that their parents actually work. Certainly unemployment is higher today than a few years ago but in the 1970's it was double digit. Dubya and the pubbies are attacking the problem of schools with choice programs. Sadly, the damage is already done for people like yourself, but fortunately the internet is informing people better than schools ever did. There is hope for you dagnabitt, but you have to take the first step and open your eyes and ears, so you can gather the information necessary to start thinking for yourself.

You want to talk about an attack on American culture? How about gangster rap ebonics. That's not coming from Mexico or Africa. It's coming from AMERICANS in AMERICA's inner cities and from liberal AMERICAN university professors who teach it. The gang-bangers in our inner cities are not fresh off the boat. They were born here. Almost all our problems are homegrown and not imported.

Most conservatives believe in self reliance not pointing fingers at others. Hate does not equal conservatism

America has always had immigration and it always will. I shouldn't have to tell an America this, but evedently (sic) the schools no longer teach history. You are having a problem because you have no understanding of American history.

Ask for your money back from that community college. We have not always had massive or even significant immigration. In fact America used to have waves of immigration. Waves with a start, middle and end. Between the waves, as I mentioned in that post you couldn’t understand, we used to have periods of assimilation (In the 30’s we even had net emigration).

You forget the Pollacks, Chinks, Hebs, and Wops

Ah “racist”, the go-to argument for liberals and the PC crowd.

You probably do not know this because you don't like Mexicans and you don't know any Mexican families.

It’s probable that I’ve forgotten more about Mexico and Mexicans than you know. I grew up in Southern California (back when English would get you by everywhere) I will be in Mexico on Tuesday for business, I’ve been an exchange student in Mexico, I have/have had Hispanic friends, girlfriends, etc, etc. The fact that I may like much of what is Mexico and Mexican, however, has nothing to do with whether I believe, as you do, that it’s good public policy for the United States to merge itself with that country and society.

What can I say Once-ler? - other than I guess I’m sorry I don’t buy into your various emotion-driven arguments or your emotion-driven ideology, liberalism.

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