... so said John McCain about the the immigration bill during the presidential debate. McCain may not be hearing from the American people, but the others who were on stage with him have. Amnesty ended McCain's political career. That much is obvious from the tone of the debate, but the others, who want to lead on the Republican side, have heard the American people. That is great news.Caution!
Do not give up the fight to stop this foolish and defeatist bill. When it is stopped, it will be time to deal with the fools and knaves that tried to foist it onto to us. It will be time to give a lesson on representative democracy. It will be long past time to let politicians know that party loyalty follows principle, not the obverse.
And speaking of principle, will the knave in the oval office pardon his loyal jester, Scooter Libby?
Fate of Senate immigration bill in doubt
Tue Jun 5, 2007 9:53PM EDT
By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday accused Democrats of trying to rush a vote on immigration reform, casting doubt on the fate of the White House-backed bill that would tighten border security and legalize millions of illegal immigrants.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he wanted to close debate on the bill by this week's end despite Republicans' objections, which could doom the fragile compromise legislation that backers say would help fix a broken immigration system through which millions of illegal immigrants have slipped into the United States.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said his fellow Republicans had a number of amendments they wanted considered before voting on the bill.
But Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said Republicans were stalling.
"What we have heard today are buzzwords for 'this bill is going nowhere,'" Reid said in a Senate floor exchange with McConnell.
Reid said he planned to set a Senate vote for Thursday on his motion to limit debate, and it was unclear with Republican objections that it would garner the 60 votes needed in the 100-member chamber to advance the bill toward passage.
Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican who helped broker the bill, said cutting off debate "would be a big mistake" that could "risk the bill not passing at all."
The bill, worked out by a bipartisan group of senators and the White House, ties tough border security and workplace enforcement measures to a guest-worker program and a plan to legalize the millions of immigrants.
It has come under attack from the right and left, with conservatives arguing it will give amnesty to people who broke U.S. laws and unions saying the temporary worker program will create an underclass of cheap laborers.
As Senate leaders argued over timing, the bill's backers sought to hold the bill together after senators returned from a week-long break having heard concerns from constituents and armed with amendments that could shatter the compromise.
Senators on Tuesday overwhelmingly accepted an amendment that would require employers to try to recruit American workers before employing someone from another country under the guest worker program.
But they rejected a measure that would have made it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain permanent resident status.
The bill faces other challenges, including an amendment by Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, that would bar immigrants who ignored deportation orders and other felons from taking advantage of the legalization program. Democrats argued the proposal would exclude many farm workers and other immigrants whose only crime was to enter the United States seeking jobs.
Proposed Democratic amendments to change limits on family-based immigration could undermine Republican support for the bill, senators said.
The Senate debate is being closely watched by members of the House of Representatives, which will take up its own version of immigration legislation if the bill passes the Senate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, has said she wants significant Republican support, but that could be difficult.
The Washington Times on who is selling you out:
ReplyDelete" The Open Society Institute, run by Mr. Soros, has given $825,000 from 2002 to 2004 to the National Immigration Forum.
Mr. Soros, who donated large sums of money in a failed effort to defeat President Bush's bid for re-election in 2004, also has donated $525,000 to NCLR and $325,000 to MALDEF during the same period.
The Ford Foundation, with assets of more than $9 billion, is known to favor liberal causes. The foundation was significantly criticized in 2003 after it gave millions of dollars worth of grants to Palestinian nonprofit groups that later were accused of conducting terrorist activities.
The Carnegie Corporation has contributed almost $7 million collectively to the National Immigration Forum, MALDEF and NCLR since 1994.
NCLR also collected almost $2.2 million from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 2003 to 2005 and $425,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation since 2004.
The Rockefeller Foundation since 2004 also have given more than $1 million to MALDEF and $300,000 to the National Immigration Law Center."
"We Are Not Going To Build Fences And Barriers"
ReplyDeletePosted by Hugh Hewitt
When a frustrated John McCain threw in the above declaration, he took a desperate political position and made it unredeemable.
It was an afterthought, but one which telegraphed a confirming message to the Republican electorate:
The Senate bill's sponsors aren't serious about the border fence or border security.
The good news is that both Romney and Giuliani looked and sounded great tonight and are going to prove to be formidable candidates throughout the summer and fall and into '08. The party is in excellent shape with either of them, and Fred may make that three.
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McCain for "Amnesty" in 2003
Supporters of McCain-Kennedy don't like it when the word "amnesty" is used against them. But that's how John McCain described his plan in 2003 (via Power Line):
“Amnesty” now is a political dirty word – the favorite slur of the bill’s opponents. But it was not always thus. The Googling monkeys discovered that McCain himself embraced the term during a news conference a few years ago in his office in Tucson, Ariz. “McCain Pushes Amnesty, Guest-Worker Program,” reported the Tucson Citizen of May 29, 2003. The senator is quoted as saying: “Amnesty has to be an important part because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it.” The newspaper also quoted McCain as saying: “I think we can set up a program where amnesty is extended to a certain number of people who are eligible and at the same time make sure that we have some control over people who come in and out of this country.”