Short attention span politics

Remember the President's address in May about illegal immigration? About how the Feds were finally going to get serious about that little thing on the map called a border? Sounded impressive that night -- 6,000 Guardsmen on the border by the end of July.

'Course, the powers that be knew all along that all America really needed was that reassuring pat on the head. So that when a report like this comes out, nobody's paying attention:

The Bush administration has been unable to muster even half of the 2,500 National Guardsmen it planned to have on the Mexican border by the end of June. As of Thursday, the next-to-last day of the month, fewer than 1,000 troops were in place, according to military officials in the four border states of Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona. ... "It's not a combat priority. It is a volunteer mission," said Kristine Munn, spokeswoman for the National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon...

Not a priority. Remember that. Hiding behind problems mustering National Guard troops is a cop out. The president is commander in chief of over 1.2 million active duty troops. Despite the grind in Iraq and Afghanistan, you could probably quickly find 6,000 troops just in the D.C. area who would be better used watching the border.

It was a nice speech in May. But what the President's (in)action says is "I'll tell you what you want to hear, but I disagree with what you want. Since it would be political suicide to be honest about that difference of opinion, I'll just say things you like to hear, then continue to ignore the issue anyway."

OK, back to sleep citizens. Your benevolent public servants have everything under control.