When the F.B.I. seized files, documents and hardrive from Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) because the New Orleans Democrat took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using his congressional influence to promote business ventures in Africa. President Bush in his own words says “Those who violate the law — including a Member of Congress — should and will be held to account,” Bush said. “This investigation will go forward, and justice will be served.” So President Bush should be held accoutable for all the illegal immigrants he has let into our country, He broke the laws and should be held accountable. Why is it ok for him and the vice President to brake the laws on the 12 million illegal’s he has let into our country, and what about the businesses that hired illegals. Preident Bush has broken laws and for that he should be impeached.
And then when Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; his deputy, Paul J. McNulty; and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III threatened to resign or face firing rather than return documents seized from a Democratic congressman’s office in a bribery investigation. DOJ officials floated the idea that Gonzales and Mueller might even resign over the issue. That put Bush in a bind—either to back up his old friend Gonzales or placate a speaker the White House badly needs on immigration reform and other matters. So President Bush needs these men to help pass the immigration reform without them he wont get the votes needed to pass the Bill?? And then Dennis Hastert, speaker of the House. Mr Hastert on Thursday accused the justice department of leaking information that appeared to link him to an unrelated lobbying scandal, suggesting it was an attempt to intimidate him because of his criticism of the search. In a rare joint statement Mr Hastert and Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, said, “No person is above the law, neither the one being investigated nor those conducting the investigation”.
Yet every damn one of them think they are above the law, They all have let the illegal’s come here and work, not pay taxes, bringing drugs into our country, breaking our laws and Bush and his house and congress are all accomplices. They have broken all the laws and have the nerve to say those who violate the law should be held accountable. Well Mr. Bush You are the biggest law breaker of them all. And I think your days in the White House are numbered.

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Many Republicans say a softened immigration stand is unthinkable. Others fear the political fallout if there’s no deal after a long debate.
By Janet Hook, Times Staff Writer
May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON — Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) just got a wake-up call about the political risks of Congress’ immigration debate. Having been hammered by constituents for his moderate stand on illegal immigration, Souder this month got 7,100 fewer votes in the GOP primary than in 2004, when he ran against the same challenger.

His experience helps explain why so many House Republicans adamantly oppose any compromise that would allow illegal immigrants to earn legal status. They have concluded it could be political suicide to give ground to the Senate immigration bill, expected to pass today, which would do just that.

“The mood is so angry, we can’t hold the House with any bill” like that, Souder said. “The Senate bill would be worse than nothing.”

But other Republicans fear a different political risk — that the party would suffer if it came up empty-handed after the long, emotional debate on immigration that has spilled from Capitol Hill into the streets of major cities.

“At the end of the day, ‘no deal’ doesn’t work,” said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.). “This will be a test for voters: Are Republicans capable of governing?”

House leaders have to navigate those crosscurrents as they prepare to iron out the vast differences between the House and Senate bills in conference committee.

It will be especially challenging because concern about illegal immigration is linked to broader economic anxiety that persists even in regions where the economy is running strong.

“In our state, as economically strong as any state of the union, there is an overwhelming feeling that this country no longer controls its own destiny,” said Steve Bell, chief of staff to New Mexico’s Republican Sen. Pete V. Domenici. “The war in Iraq. Other challenges from China and India for jobs. Another symbol of things being out of control is gas prices.”

Minnesota Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht said, “We’re 900 miles from the Mexican border, and it’s still a hot topic.”

He added, “One thing that’s fueling economic angst is the influx of foreign labor.”

Responding to a growing outcry over illegal immigration, the House late last year passed a bill that focused solely on tightening border security and cracking down on employers. The Senate bill, which President Bush supports, contains enforcement provisions as well, but it also would establish a program of temporary work visas and open a route to citizenship for most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

With details of the final legislation expected to be resolved in conference, White House political advisor Karl Rove met Wednesday with House Republicans behind closed doors in an attempt to soften their opposition to the Senate bill. Although House members indicated some willingness to consider a guest worker program, they remained steadfastly opposed to any process for allowing illegal immigrants already here to become citizens — which some consider amnesty.

The clash between House and Senate Republicans’ approaches partly reflects their institutional differences. Because most House members come from small, homogeneous districts, pleasing their partisan base is paramount. Senators, who represent larger and more diverse populations, have a political incentive to be more sensitive to growing Latino populations.

The House-Senate conflict also pits the GOP’s long-term political calculations against its short-term interests.

For Bush, a more welcoming approach to immigrants may further his goal of luring Latinos to the Republican Party. Senators are in a better position to take that long view, because they serve six-year terms and only a third of them are up for reelection this year.

But with all House Republican seats up for grabs in November — and with their majority considered more at risk than the Senate’s — GOP representatives worry that Bush’s approach will undercut their short-term objective: getting reelected by voters clamoring for action to better secure the borders.

“It is the hottest issue out there,” said Davis, who for years led the House GOP campaign committee. “Everybody’s talking about it. This isn’t just conservatives.”

Souder got a glimpse of that this month when he visited a large retirement center on what was deadline day for seniors to sign up for the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Souder got only one question about Medicare. The rest of the hour he fielded questions about immigration.

“There is a pot boiling out there,” Souder said. “We’ve got to secure the border first.”

Souder, one of 17 Republicans to vote against the House bill last year, is not the only GOP lawmaker who has seen political backlash over the issue.

In Utah, Rep. Chris Cannon faces a serious primary challenge from a political novice because of Cannon’s support for a guest worker program. At the state GOP’s nominating convention this month, Cannon suffered an embarrassing upset when he was outpolled, 52% to 48%, by businessman John Jacob. Because neither candidate won 60% of the vote, they will face off in June.

In Nebraska, Rep. Tom Osborne — a well-known former college football coach — lost a promising bid to wrest the GOP gubernatorial nomination from incumbent Gov. Dave Heineman. Their differences over immigration played a big part: Osborne supported a state measure to allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities; Heineman vetoed the bill.

In Idaho’s primary Tuesday, Republicans choosing from a crowded field for an open House seat rejected one candidate — Robert Vasquez, a county commissioner —who had made his name with aggressive efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants. But his presence in the race put pressure on all the other candidates to take a hard line against illegal immigration.

Some House Republicans think the best political course may be to put off final action on immigration until after the November election. Another strategy would be to craft a compromise that is as strict as the House wants — even if it causes the bill to lose Democratic support in the Senate. If it died, the thinking goes, Republicans could blame the Democrats for blocking border protections.

It may, however, be hard for Republicans to pass blame, since they are perceived as being in charge of the federal government. And many are eager to counter the view, expressed in public opinion polls showing voters’ approval of Congress at a nadir, that lawmakers are not doing enough to solve the nation’s most urgent problems.

“People are looking for a result,” said Republican pollster David Winston. “It may take a few weeks, and tempers may wear thin, but there’s an understanding that something needs to be produced.”

Inaction, some Republicans warn, also could deal a blow to an already weakened Bush — who saw another big domestic initiative, his Social Security overhaul, run aground on Capitol Hill.

“If we walk away from this, we will do to Bush on immigration what Democrats did to him on Social Security,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “It would be a signal to the country at large that we as Republicans, who own the whole government, can’t solve hard problems.”

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I never thought those words would come out of my mouth. G.W. Bush is a horrible leader for this country and his war on terror is a fine example of how NOT to run a country. The United States had no business going to Iraq. The Weapons of Mass Destruction was a ploy to get us into that mess.

Now to add insult to injury, that stammering retard we call a president has just forced us to except 20 million law breaking wetbacks as fellow citizens. This sweeping immigration law also doubles the amount of H-1-B visas granted annually and it forces the United Ststes to consult with mexico on how we are to build the wall along the border. What do you want to bet that the wall will have doors in it? It also is allowing 1.1 million more aliens to come into the country in the next two years!

How many people know what the H1B visa program is? Well allow me to explain it to you. Lets say a company like Boeing is looking for some engineers to design a new airplane. The going rate for an American engineer is roughly $100,000.00 a year. Well the H1B visa program requires Boeing to look for engineers in the United States. BUT, if they can’t find one here, then they can use the H1B visa program to import an engineer from any foreign nation it wants.

So heres what Boeing does. They run ads looking for engineers. They get a ton of responses to their ads, but not of the engineers that show up quite fit what Boeing is looking for. After sixty days of looking, they can claim that they can’t find any qualified people here, so the import people from abroad. Why does Boeing do this? Because they can pay these foreign engineers half of what they have to pay an domestic engineer. This has been going on for so long now that there are more H1B visa engineers working for Boeing then there are domestics. The base salary for ALL college degree employment has been decimated. Entry level domestic engineers starting at Boeing used to make $65,000.00 to start, now they get $40,000.00 if they’re lucky.

Now to ad insult to injury, or President and his willing accomplices in the Senate are going to cause further erosion of the middle class by allowing a bunch of fucking peons from south of the border to fuck us out of more income by working for slave wages. What a joke.

For those of you that don’t know, I just folded up my business after 15 years because I can’t compete with people that have no overhead. What do I mean by “have no overhead?” Let me explain what goes on out here in California. Hispanics run businesses and pay no taxes. They will come to my house and tell me that they will build me a pool or make me a patio, but I have to pay them in cash. This goes on all fucking day out here. When they finally do get caught, they run back to Mexico, buy new fake ID and come back and start all over again. I’m willing to bet that a lot of these people don’t want to become U.S. citizens because then the government will know what they’re up to. They pay no workers compensation insurance, no local tax, carry no insurance and don’t pay income tax. How can I compete with that?

So lets review. We elected a fucking retard to run the country, we get attacked, we start a war with a country that had nothing to do with the attack on 9-11, we let our retarded leader cut really bad deals with OPEC forcing gas prices above three dollars a gallon, and then the dullard president makes us except 20 million peons as neighbors. WTF?? I feel like I’ve been living in a really bad Mel Brooks comedy that never ends. George W. Bush is the worst president in the last 100 years! JD

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But legislation still faces tough battle involving House conservatives

Well it has happened, Bush has screwed us again! This is a JOKE! This man and his brown nosers are missing something upstairs!

The Associated Press 6:03 p.m. central
Updated: 30 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – Legislation to secure U.S. borders and offer millions of illegal immigrants access to the American dream cleared the Senate on Thursday, a rare election-year reach across party lines and a triumph for President Bush.

The 62-36 vote cleared the way for arduous summertime compromise talks with the House and its more conservative measure — with no guarantee of success.

“Why not say to those undocumented workers who are working the jobs that the rest of us refuse, come out from the shadows,” said Arizona Republican John McCain, a key architect of the bill.

The legislation includes money to better secure the borders, provide a new guest worker program and give an eventual shot at citizenship to many of the estimated 11 million to 12 million immigrants in the country illegally.

The bill “strengthens our security and reflects our humanity,” said Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., McCain’s partner in Senate compromise. “It is intended to keep out those who would harm us and welcome those who contribute to our country.”

Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and the Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, both sided with supporters, a reflection of the bipartisan backing for a bill that was months in the drafting and survived several near-death experiences.

No confidence from conservatives

Conservative critics attacked the legislation to the end after trying unsuccessfully to pull it apart with amendments.

“This bill will not secure our borders,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., one of the most persistent critics.

“This is amnesty,” added David Vitter, R-La., who tried last week to strip out provisions relating to citizenship.

Not so, said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, in a rebuttal to weeks of debate. “They have to pay a fine. They have to undergo a criminal background check. They have to pay back taxes, they have to learn English and they have to go to the back of the line,” he said, referring to illegal immigrants who would apply for citizenship.

Still, Sessions, Vitter, John Cornyn of Texas and others echoed a view widely held among House Republicans, many of whom have vigorously denounced the Senate bill as well as Bush’s call for a “comprehensive approach” to the issue.

That portended difficult compromise talks in the shadow of midterm elections, at a time when Bush’s poll ratings are low, congressional Republicans are concerned and Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances in November.

For now, supporters of the Senate bill said they intended to savor their victory. Peppered with questions about the compromise talks ahead, Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said, “I’m going to celebrate here.”

The House bill, which passed on a largely party-line vote last year, is generally limited to border enforcement. It would make all illegal immigrants subject to felony charges and it contains no provision for either a new temporary worker program or citizenship for men, women and children in the country unlawfully.

The result of compromises
In contrast, the Senate bill marks the most far-reaching changes in immigration law in two decades. Built on compromise after painstaking compromise, it was designed to appeal to conservatives and others seeking tougher border enforcement; business interests eager for a steady supply of legal, low-wage labor; unions seeking enhanced protections for migrants who often toil in seasonal work the fields and Hispanics who are on the cusp of greater political power and determined to win a change in legal status for millions of illegal immigrants.

That last group — Hispanics — comprises the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, and millions made their feelings clear in street demonstrations denouncing the House measure and calling for passage of a broader measure.

Bush played a prominent role in the run-up to passage. An Oval Office speech last week made explicit his support for the Senate’s overall approach. A later trip to Arizona was designed to reassure conservatives about his commitment to stanching illegal immigration.

In more than a week of debate, the Senate made a series of changes in the legislation. Still, the key pillars were preserved when opponents failed to knock out the guest worker program or the citizenship provisions. A new program for 1.5 million temporary agricultural workers also survived.

Securing borders with National Guard
To secure the borders, the measure calls for the hiring of an additional 1,000 new Border Patrol agents this year and 14,000 by 2011, and backs Bush’s plan for a short-term deployment of National Guard troops to states along the Mexican Border. The bill calls for new surveillance equipment as well as the construction of 370 miles of triple-layered fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers.

The new guest worker program would admit 200,000 individuals a year. Once here, they would be permitted for the first time to petition on their own for a green card that confers legal permanent residency, a provision designed to reduce the potential for exploitation by employers.

A separate new program, a compromise between growers and unions, envisions admission of an estimated 1.5 million immigrant farm workers who may also apply for permanent residency

Even supporters of the bill conceded the three-tiered program related to illegal immigrants was complicated.

Learning English a requirement
Those in the country unlawfully for five years or more would be permitted to remain, continue working and eventually apply for citizenship. They would be required to pay at least $3,250 in fines and fees, settle any back taxes and learn English.

Illegal immigrants in the country for more than two years but less than five would be required to travel to a point of entry before re-entering the United States legally and beginning a lengthy process of seeking citizenship. They would be subject to the same fines, fees and other requirements as the longer-term immigrants.

An immigrant in the country illegally for less than two years would be required to leave with no guarantee of return.

A new electronic system for employee verification is designed to hold employers accountable for hiring decisions. It provides for maximum fines of $20,000 for each worker and possible jail time for repeat offenders.

A separate controversy erupted over a call to make English the national language. Supporters said it would leave all current rights in place. Detractors argued it could undermine an executive order that mandates assistance to individuals who receive services such as health care yet lack proficiency in English.

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As you all know, our elected officials that we elect to represent the will of the people, have set an alarming precedent in the last couple of decades. They believe that they are no longer expected to represent the very people that put them in office, they are simply expected to run roughshod over the citizens of the United States and the U.S. Constitution that was designed to protect us from a tyrannical government in the first place.

We have several fundamental problems facing us at this point and time in U.S. history. One of the biggest is Illegal immigration. As we all well know, illegal immigrants are having a detrimental effect on our own culture and wage base. It has been proven that they cost the U.S. taxpayer more than they save us. Yet the United States Senate is determined to pass legislation aimed at making more than 20 million of these scofflaws LEGAL citizens. I would like for a moment to talk about the ramifications of such actions.

First, as soon as we make these people citizens, we open the door for all of their family members to immigrate to this country and jump on Social Security and other government programs. This happens routinely right now as people from all over the world immigrate to the United States. If you don’t believe me I would invite you to head down to your local Social Security office and see just whose standing in line and all of the different languages they speak. Most of these people are gaining access to a system that they will NEVER contribute a penny into. You can copy and paste the next line and set a reminder on your computer to pop up six months after this next election. “SOCIAL SECURITY IS INSOLVENT AND NEEDS TO BE FIXED.” This will be the direct result of making these illegal immigrants U.S. citizens.

The cost of educating these low income people that will never pay any taxes into the system is colossal. We spend sixty percent of our the California state budget on education but the kids coming out of school are as dumb as a sack of hammers. Why? Because we have to teach in so many languages. There are a whole host of reasons for this but the simple fact is that these people refuse to speak english. We must also not forget that in the hispanic culture, you are considered an old maid if you don’t have kids by the age of sixteen. The California Educational System spends more than SIX BILLION dollars a year building and maintaining facilities on the very same campuses that the children of American citizens attend to maintain and staff classrooms that accommodate pregnant girls or girls that already have children so they can come to school and get an education that they will probably never use. There are no official numbers, but estimates range from eighty to ninety two percent of these kids that are enrolled in this program are hispanic. KIDS HAVING KIDS!!!

There’s also the tremendous cost of illegal drugs that are being brought up from Mexico and Mexican drug cartels that the U.S. Senate refuses to address. Right now as we speak, there are Mexican Mafia members in America bringing in tons of marijuana and cocaine and methamphetimine into the United States with the full knowledge of the U.S. government. The mexican mafia has more than a million operatives here in America selling these dangerous drugs to our children. The Senate would NOT EVEN CONSIDER adding language to their “bring in the wetback” legislation that would help stop this flood of illicit drugs and contraband.

What you can do. This is a call to arms. The United States is under attack from within. The people we elect to REPRESENT us in Washington D.C. are no longer working for the very people that they claim to represent. Our calls and letters have obviously fallen on deaf ears. So here’s what we do. We start a concerted effort to remove these shit bags from office. I am working diligently here in the 26th district of California to remove David Dreier from office. You can see my handy work at www.dojak.net. Perhaps get some ideas on how to run these assholes out of office once and for all. Your action needs to be swift and just. No screwing around. Put up a website and spread the word. They believe that they are no longer expected to represent the will of you the taxpayer. So you bend them over and you stick a red hot fire poker right up their ass and run them out of town on a rail.

Forget about party affiliation
This is not about right and left, democrat versus republican. THEY ARE ALL CORRUPT!!! Stop with the “Rush Limbaugh” mentality of attacking each others principals. This is about stopping the wholesale takeover of America and the elimination of our culture and language. Stop with the insolent infighting and come together with a common goal of returning this country to the great nation it once was before our elected officials sold us down the river ….. THE RIO GRANDE RIVER RIGHT INTO MEXICO! JD

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Amnesty Will Hurt All Americans and Blacks the Most, Contends New Coalition Choose Black America

WASHINGTON, May 22 /PRNewswire/ — As the U.S. Senate, with the backing of President Bush, rushes to complete work on a bill that grants amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens and opens the doors to millions more “guest workers,” a new coalition of African American leaders is calling the proposal a “disaster for all Americans that will hit black citizens the hardest.” The newly formed coalition of business, academic and community leaders, known as Choose Black America, will be holding their inaugural press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 23, to express the concerns of the vast majority of American blacks who believe that amnesty for illegal aliens would be devastating to their communities.

Choose Black America argues that black Americans have already been severely damaged by decades of uncontrolled illegal immigration and stand to lose even more if 12 million, or more, illegal aliens are granted amnesty. The coalition also formed in response to the failure of black elected officials to represent the interests of African Americans.

“Mass illegal immigration has been a major impediment to black advancement in this country over the past 25 years,” declared Dr. Frank Morris Sr., chairman of Choose Black America “All Americans are harmed by rampant illegal immigration, but it is blacks, in particular, who have lost economic opportunities, watched their kids’ schools flood with non-English speaking students, and felt the direct impact in countless ways. Our government has failed us, our elected officials have failed us, and now they are prepared to compound the damage with an amnesty and guest worker program that will set black Americans back a hundred years.”

Choose Black America is calling on the Senate to enact an immigration enforcement bill that does not include amnesty for those here illegally and which does not flood the American labor market with guest workers who in reality will become permanent residents of this country. The group also seeks to make it clear that black members of Congress who are backing amnesty for illegal aliens do not represent the views and interests of their constituents back home.

“Black politicians in this country are quick to point out that African Americans — especially young black men — are far more likely to be unemployed, to live in poverty, lack access to basic health care, and to attend dysfunctional schools than the rest of the population,” Morris observed. “The politicians use these realities to demand new government programs paid for with money the government is borrowing, when the most effective black empowerment program would be enforcement of our immigration laws. A comprehensive strategy to enforce our nation’s immigration laws would do more to improve conditions for American blacks than all the anti-poverty programs Washington can dream up.

“An illegal alien amnesty would not only reward tens of millions of lawbreakers, but would result in tens of millions, perhaps even a hundred million, new mostly low-wage workers and their families entering this country over the next 20 years,” said Morris. “The first to lose from such a program would be African Americans, but, ultimately, all Americans who work for a living would suffer a devastating blow.”

Choose Black America will hold a news conference at the National Press Club’s Holeman Lounge on Tuesday, May 23 at 12:00 pm.

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MAYBE it was the speech.

In January 2004, President Bush spoke at the White House on the nation’s ragged quilt of immigration laws. “The system,” he said, stating the obvious, “is not working.”

Although he never mentioned amnesty for illegal immigrants, that’s what critics heard when he said some temporary workers would be allowed to apply for citizenship. In their minds, that speech was enough — why should illegals be given a free pass? — and they exploded.

Immigration has always polarized America, and has been a simmering issue for years. But the debate has reached a screaming pitch, fueled by talk-radio invective, mass protests by immigrants and sometimes ugly debate over who deserves to be an American.

Tensions were so high last week that President Bush unsuccessfully tried to calm the waters in a prime-time address.

How did things get so bad? It’s hard to define the turning point on any issue, but in this case, everything leads back to the 2004 speech.

The president proposed what is in essence a compromise: a set of principles to guide the remaking of the system, including tighter control of the Mexican border and a limited form of amnesty for some illegal immigrants who have been in the country for years.

President Bush didn’t waiver much from that stance last week. But the outraged reaction suggests that immigration is an issue like abortion — one where both sides are deeply entrenched, believing in their principles absolutely. And as with abortion, nothing seems to galvanize one side of the immigration debate more than the actions of the other side.

Before the president’s speech two years ago, talk-radio hosts across the Southwest had periodically railed at the real or imagined “invasion” of illegal workers across the border. John Kobylt of “The John and Ken Show” on KFI-AM in Los Angeles said illegal immigration had been an occasional topic of his popular drive-time program.

“But that speech, where the president announced he was for amnesty, really set us off,” he said. “Our listeners savaged their congressmen with calls and e-mails, and it was running 1,000 to 1 against Bush’s proposal.”

Though Mr. Bush’s re-election campaign quickly focused on war, terrorism and gay marriage, the immigration issue continued to boil, kept alive on talk radio and by politicians in the border states that were struggling with the costs of schools, clinics and jails for the millions of undocumented workers in their states.

Toward the end of 2004, a citizen army known as the Minutemen arose to patrol a border its organizers said had been surrendered to illegal immigrants. The Minutemen staged their first border “action” near Tucson in April 2005, drawing a few hundred volunteers in pickups and R.V.’s, armed chiefly with lawn chairs and binoculars. They were trailed by hundreds of reporters from around the globe who could not resist the tale of Wild West vigilantes. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California governor, praised their movement, and Lou Dobbs of CNN began devoting hours on his evening program to what he calls broken borders.

The Minutemen then faded from view, but others kept the issue alive. Representative Duncan Hunter, a Republican from San Diego, declared that the country was under siege and demanded money for a 15-foot-high wall to separate the two countries.

In the summer of 2005, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency along the border, complaining that their repeated pleas for additional Border Patrol officers and federal money to pay the costs of illegal immigration had been ignored by Washington.

Bill Richardson, the Democratic governor of New Mexico and a supporter of immigrant rights, said that border state governors do not have the luxury of talking about immigration once every couple of years, when it seems politically advantageous.

“This is a fundamental issue for us,” he said in a telephone interview last week. “The states are bearing the brunt of the costs of this problem.”

Meanwhile, immigrants and their supporters in the labor movement, civil rights groups and churches were on the defensive, but quietly planning. They supported some elements of the president’s plan, but there was little momentum in Congress for comprehensive legislation on immigration.

Working at first behind the scenes, and without the megaphone of the media, these forces created a coalition in favor of broader immigrant rights, including eventual citizenship and access to schools, driver’s licenses and health care. The Service Employees Union International and Unite Here, representing garment, hotel and restaurant workers, signed up workers and lobbied the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to join the movement.

They had an ally in the business community, which for years had advocated a relatively free flow of immigration to provide a steady source of low-wage workers.

Their interests came together in a proposal last year by a bipartisan group of senators led by Senators John McCain, the Arizona Republican, and Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat. It adopted some of Mr. Bush’s principles, including a guest-worker program and legalization of some illegal workers and their families.

ALL seemed ready to go. Then Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired; Chief Justice William Rehnquist died. The Senate plan stalled as the Judiciary Committee turned to the Supreme Court nominations.

Action shifted to the House in December, where a proposal by Representative James Sensenbrenner, a longtime advocate for stricter immigration controls, inflamed the pro-immigrant base in a way the Senate plan had not.

Mr. Sensenbrenner engineered the House passage of a clumsily drafted bill, known as HR 4437, that would turn all illegal immigrants into felons and criminalize aid to them by welfare or church workers. His name became a Spanish curse.

Mr. Sensenbrenner claims that his bill has been miscast, used to inflame Latinos and their allies. He said the felony provision was a mistake and vowed to correct it. He also said that Roman Catholic nuns did not have to demand a green card before dishing out soup to a hungry immigrant.

“Sister Mary Margaret and Brother Rafael have nothing to worry about,” Mr. Sensenbrenner said in an interview. “That’s ridiculous and it’s a red herring used by people with an agenda.”

For immigrant-rights advocates, the Sensenbrenner measure was a gift. Spanish-language disc jockeys took a page from right-wing radio and rallied their audiences.

In Los Angeles, Eduardo Sotelo, who goes by the name El Piolín (Tweety Bird), and Ricardo Sánchez, known as El Mandril (the Baboon), met with other disc jockeys to turn out hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters at a Los Angeles rally in March and at a work and school boycott on May 1.

Other large pro-immigrant rallies took place across the country, spurred by radio messages, union organizers and support from Catholic clergy.

Cecilia Muñoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, a civil rights group, said her organization and others had been trying for years to win passage of an immigration bill including some elements of President Bush’s 2004 proposals.

What provided the spark for the giant rallies this spring that finally captured the attention of the public? The Minutemen, the conservative talk-show hosts and the Sensenbrenner bill, she said.

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English: “National language” or “common language” in US?
(AP)
Updated: 2006-05-19 14:08

Whether English is America’s “national language” or its national “common and unifying language” was a question that dominated the Senate immigration debate.

The Senate first voted 63-34 on Thursday to make English the national language after lawmakers who led the effort said it would promote national unity.

But critics argued the move would prevent limited English speakers from getting language assistance required by an executive order enacted under former President Bill Clinton. So the Senate also voted 58-39 to make English the nation’s “common and unifying language.”

“We are trying to make an assimilation statement,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of two dozen senators who voted for both English proposals.

Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma disputed charges that making English the national language was racist or aimed at Spanish speakers. Eleven Democrats voted for his measure.

Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado offered the alternative. The only Republican to vote solely for Salazar’s “common and unifying” language option was Sen. Pete Domenici of Arizona, whose home state’s constitution prohibits discrimination on basis of inability to speak, read or write English or Spanish.

Both provisions will be included in an immigration bill the Senate is expected to pass and send to conference with the House, where differences will be resolved.

President George W. Bush, who often peppers his speeches with Spanish words and phrases, had little to say about the Senate votes while visiting the Arizona-Mexico border. “The Senate needs to get the bill out,” the president said.

Bush toured an unfortified section of the border in the Arizona desert Thursday, where he endorsed using fences and other barriers to cut down on illegal crossings. The Senate on Wednesday voted to put 370 miles (595 kilometers) of fences on the border.

Bush’s border visit was part of his efforts to win over conservatives balking at his support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and a new guest worker program.

Bush asked Congress for $1.9 billion (euro1.5 billion) Thursday to pay for 1,000 Border Patrol agents and the temporary deployment of up to 6,000 National Guard troops to states along the Mexican border.

His request was not warmly welcomed by some key senators.

Sen. Judd Gregg, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, delayed a vote on Bush’s promotion of U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman to White House budget director to show his displeasure. He said Bush’s request calls for using money for proposed for border security equipment to pay for operational exercises.

Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat, complained that he had offered amendments providing for border security nine times since 2002, only to have the Bush administration reject them as extraneous spending or expanding the size of government.

“If we had spent that money beginning in 2002, we would not be calling on the National Guard today,” Byrd said.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers supporting the immigration measure continued to hold through the week. The group was able to reverse an amendment that denied temporary workers the ability to petition on their own for legal permanent residency, a step to citizenship.

Bill supporters restored the self-petitioning with the condition the federal government certifies American workers were unavailable to fill the jobs held or sought by the temporary workers.

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Listen to how the media tries to explain the sudden change of heart in the Senate as “reflects the will of the American people that however we treat people who are here illegally, there are some limits,”. Bull shit!!! This is happening because of the fierce resistance from people like you and me that are calling these assholes and telling them that they better not pass this bull shit amnesty plan. I can’t stress this enough. KEEP CALLING AND WRITING YOUR SENATORS AND TELL THEM YOU WILL NOT STAND FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF LAWLESSNESS WHEN IT COMES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!!! JD

The US Senate voted on Wednesday to deny any possibility of citizenship to as many as 500,000 illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes in the US, and to finance construction of a 370-mile fence along the border with Mexico

The easy passage of both amendments to the Senate bill marked a continued scaling back of some of the more generous elements of the legislation, which has been supported by immigrant-rights activists.

“I think it reflects the will of the American people that however we treat people who are here illegally, there are some limits,” said Jon Kyl, an Arizona senator who sponsored the amendment denying citizenship to those convicted of a felony or three misdemeanours.

Senator Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who sponsored the fence amendment, said: “We need to send a message to the world that our border is not open – our border is closed.”

In votes on Tuesday the Senate also scaled back a proposed guest worker programme that would allow more immigrants to come to the US on a temporary basis, from 325,000 visas annually to 200,000.

The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.

The Senate is trying to find what President George W. Bush, in a televised speech on Monday night, called “a middle ground” between those who want to secure the border and crack down on illegal immigrants, and those who say the bill must address US labour demands by offering new legal paths to US residence and citizenship.

If the Senate passes a bill, it must still be reconciled with House legislation that focuses solely on improving security at the border and acting against employers who hire illegal immigrant workers.

Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser, met with House Republicans on Wednesday to urge a compromise, and said afterwards he was “hopeful, optimistic and positive.” Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said that Mr Bush’s tough stand on border security, including the deployment of National Guard troops, “is going to answer a lot of the complaints we have heard from some of the Republican caucus”.

The crime amendment approved on Wednesday would bar any chance of citizenship for illegal immigrants who have remained in the US in violation of a deportation order, estimated to be some 400,000 people.

The fence amendment calls for 500 miles of vehicle barriers in addition to the 370 miles of new fence. The House bill calls for the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the border.

Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said construction of such a barrier “would create an image of America that I’m not sure we’ll be proud of in the years to come”.

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How many of you remember this patsy? His name is Richard Hatch, the winner of the first “Survivor” TV show. Remember how horribly he behaved? How he walked around proclaiming his greatness because he is homosexual? How he refused to wear clothes and the women on Survivor used to goof on his “quarter inch killer?”
Well he’s going right to where he belongs; PRISON!!! You see, in all of his brilliance, he decided he didn’t need to pay taxes on his million dollar winnings as well as money earned from the speaking circuit. So they send him to prison? Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t prison like a “Club Med” vacation to bone smugglers and butt pirates? They are going to put him in a place where homosexuality reigns supreme ….. Only in America. JD

Richard Hatch, the original $1 million Survivor winner, was sentenced on Tuesday to 51 months in prison for failing to pay income taxes on his TV prize and other earnings.

Rhode Island U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres said he issued a harsher than expected sentence because Hatch, 45, had committed perjury repeatedly during his trial. The charges carried a maximum of 13 years behind bars. When Hatch was convicted in January, the jurist said he expected to sentence him to 33 to 41 months.

“It seems unfortunately very clear to me that Mr. Hatch lied,” Torres said, the Associated Press reports.

“I believe I’ve been completely truthful and completely forthcoming throughout the entire process,” Hatch told the judge before he was sentenced. Throughout his trial he claimed he thought the show’s producers would handle his taxes, pleaded ignorance about money matters, and said he forgot to tell his accountants about some income.

Earlier in the proceedings, he abruptly walked away from a plea deal with prosecutors and pleaded his innocence to Katie Couric on the Today show.

Already others have heeded lessons from Hatch’s plight. On Sunday’s latest Survivor finale, show host Jeff Probst advised new winner, 24-year-old yoga instructor Aras Baskauskas, right after his victory: “Pay your taxes!”

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Lest anyone miss my past post on this issue, I will say it again. SMOKE AND MIRRORS!!!! This is nothing more than a cheap two bit carnie trick to make you all think that his A-M-N-E-S-T-Y bill is okay as long as he is going to put the Guard at the border. Next I expect him to put up a sign that reads “This way to the egress” with an arrow pointing to the Welfare office! Don’t you people buy this ploy to gain your confidance. Once the bill has passed the complaints will start about how much the guard is costing and they will be told to stand down!!! DJ

May 14, 2006 – President Bush is ready to step into the fire of the immigration debate with a controversial proposal to use national guard troops to help patrol the border.
The U.S.-Mexico border stretches over nearly 2,000 miles and more than 1.2 million people were caught trying to cross it last year. But the president’s plan to enlist the national guard is already facing opposition, even from within his own party.

Immigration activists in the Valley are also questioning the president’s new idea.

“I am concerned that we have so over-stretched our military, over-stretched especially our national guard. I’m not sure what capacity they would have. That’s not the role of the national guard,” said Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) Nebraska.

The president will talk about his plan Monday. He’s considering calling up 5,000 national guard troops to help secure the border.

A day before he addresses the nation to talk immigration, debate is heating up over whether 5,000 thousand troops would help the problem. Among those against the idea—Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I think the Bush administration and the federal government should put up the money to create the kind of protection that the federal government is responsible to provide. Not to use our national guard soldiers that are coming back from Iraq,” said Gov. Schwarzenegger.

If guard troops are used, they would not be directly involved in law enforcement but would serve as support, doing jobs like manning surveillance cameras in border towns and performing office duties to free up border agents.

But many local immigration activists believe guard troops are not the answer to slowing immigrant traffic.

“Sometimes they don’t know the difference between a Latino citizen or a Latino undocumented coming to the United States, so they are not ready to attend this kind of issue,” said immigration activist Leonel Flores.

Guard troops would likely be called from all over the United States to serve, but would 5,000 troops really make a difference?

“Five-thousand national guardsmen at the border is a substantial increase in our capability overall, which is about 10,000 total agents right now, so you’re looking at a 50% increase,” said Mike O’Hanlon of The Brookings Institute.

Some lawmakers already fighting the plan say the national guard is stretched too thin now, and the troops are needed for other jobs.

“Our guardsmen are tired, they’ve been in Afghanistan and Iraq. I need our national guard for forest fires,” said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

Others question whether the move would amount to a militarization of the border.

Right now, about 100 guard troops serve on the border, assisting with counter drug operations and heavy equipment support.

President Bush will address the nation about immigration reform Monday night. He’s expected to speak at 5:00pm.

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By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer
Fri May 12, 9:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON – Reflecting the American divide over immigration, protesters on both sides stood a few feet from each other near the Capitol shouting chants and exchanging accusations of racism.
The protesters were kept apart Friday by helmeted police officers who stood inside a ring of yellow police tape.

A Minuteman Project rally marked the end of a cross-country caravan by the anti-immigration group, whose members patrol the U.S.-Mexican border in search of illegal border crossers. The caravan began in Los Angeles.

Minuteman demonstrators, who numbered less than 100, castigated an immigration bill before the Senate next week that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance at American citizenship.

“They are literally going to shove an amnesty down our throats,” said Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist.

As the group held its hourlong rally, about 20 pro-immigrant demonstrators shouted, “No Minutemen. No KKK. No Fascist USA!” Gilchrist responded by telling the counter protesters to “Get out of my face.”

The Minuteman rally was tiny compared with the pro-immigrant marches and protests held across the country in the past month.

Bud Peters, 40, of Kingman, Ariz., said it was the size of those protests that motivated him to ride his motorcycle from Kingman for Friday’s rally.

“I knew (illegal immigration) was big in my state, but I didn’t realize it was that bad here. It woke a lot of people up,” said Peters, a general contractor who says he does not hire illegal immigrants.

On the other side, David Benzaquen, 22, who immigrated from Morocco with his parents and is now a U.S. citizen, said, “It’s absolutely imperative to get amnesty for immigrants who come here. Without it, we wouldn’t have the industries and economy the way we have.”

A contentious debate is expected next week in the Senate, and President Bush plans to address the nation Monday night on the issue. Bush has called for a comprehensive bill that would allow some illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. as guest workers

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This is just a temporary ploy to get support for passage of his amnesty deal. Nothing more. Don’t buy it. as soon as people stop paying attention, he will pull the Guard off the border. JD

President to address nation on immigration Monday as Senate nears deal

NBC News and news services
Updated: 3:02 p.m. ET May 12, 2006

WASHINGTON – As the White House prepared for President Bush to address the nation on immigration, sources told NBC News on Friday that the Pentagon could deploy as many as 5,000 National Guard troops to the country’s southwest borders to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

The White House said it was seeking time from television networks for the president’s remarks on Monday at 8 p.m. ET. Bush, trying to build momentum for legislation that could provide millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens, is to speak from the Oval Office.

“This is crunch time,” Tony Snow, the new White House press secretary, told reporters.

Senate passage of the legislation appears assured, but many House Republicans oppose allowing illegal immigrants now in the country a chance at citizenship. The deployment of military troops to stem the flow of more illegal immigrants could be a way to ease that opposition.

The legislation includes provisions for additional border security, a new guest worker program and eventual citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.

Compromise in the Senate
The measure was bogged down by opposition for weeks before Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed on a procedural compromise that gives the bill’s critics ample opportunity to offer amendments. It also offers assurances to Democrats that Senate negotiators will not simply capitulate to demands of House conservatives in talks on compromise legislation later in the year.

Nearly everyone except House Republicans seemed pleased.

“We congratulate the Senate on reaching agreement and we look forward to passage of a bill prior to Memorial Day,” said Dana Perino, deputy White House press secretary, said on Thursday. Reid and Frist exchanged compliments on the Senate floor, and Mexico’s foreign secretary said in a statement that the deal was a “positive step toward the approval of a migration accord.”

But many House Republicans criticized the Senate’s bill as an amnesty measure. Putting National Guard troops on the border could serve as a way to appease conservatives.

White House strategist Karl Rove met with lawmakers earlier in the week, and at least one session included a discussion about this. Some lawmakers said at the time that they expected Bush to announce border security improvements next week, possibly in a speech in Arizona or another border states.

Gov. Janet Napilitano, D-Ariz., has asked Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld in the past to provide guard assistance. Rumsfeld earlier this week ordered Assistant Secretary of Defense of Homeland Security Paul McHale to review options for the National Guard and Reserve, as well as active duty forces, NBC News reported.

Agreement about ‘the money’
One Pentagon official told NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski that federal involvement is primarily about money: State governors can deploy their National Guard forces whenever they see fit, but without direct involvement from the Pentagon, the states would have to pick up the tab.

The National Guard forces, if deployed to border states, would still remain under the command of the state governments.

The differences between Bush and House Republicans flared dramatically when the Senate appeared on the verge of agreement on a comprehensive immigration bill several weeks ago. Several GOP conservatives denounced the bill as an amnesty measure and Rep. Steve King of Iowa said anyone who voted for it should be “branded with a scarlet letter A.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., offered his view of the importance of immigrant labor: “I say let the prisoners pick the fruits.”

In political terms, Rep. J.D. Hayworth of Arizona and others said Republicans would pay a price in the midterm elections if they vote for anything like the Senate legislation. “Many of those who have stood for the Republican Party for the last decade are not only angry. They will be absent in November,” Hayworth said.

Given Bush’s recent erosion of support among conservatives, as measured in polls, there’s been no evident change in sentiment among his congressional critics.

The political calculations are different at the White House. Hispanics comprise the nation’s fastest growing minority, according to this line of reasoning, and no political party can afford to be seen as blind or even hostile to their concerns and the desire of their relatives to join them in the United States.

Bush and top House Republicans reviewed the issue last week at a private White House meeting, according to several officials, and the president urged the GOP congressional leadership to embrace his call for comprehensive legislation. That means provisions to strengthen border security, coupled with a guest worker program that — while the president doesn’t say so in public — provides a chance at citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. and other leaders stressed that would be a hard sell with their rank and file. Bush restated his desire for a comprehensive bill, and the leadership responded by noting the sentiment of the rank and file, according to officials familiar with the conversation. They spoke on condition of anonymity, given the private nature of the meetings.
NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski, NBC’s Tim Russert and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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So here’s how it went down. The Internet was a text based way of colleges and Universities to share information with each other. Along comes a few companies like Compuserve and Prodigy. I used Compuserve and college Bulletin Boards, or BBS’s. Compuserve was really cool. There were no graphics with the exception of ASCII text and shit like that.

Along comes Prodigy and a few other small start up companies that my friend Martin could probably tell you more about, but needless to say these companies had developed a crude sort of Graphical interface for the internet.

Along come Windows 3.1. This lump of shit that Microsoft calls a GUI, or Graphical User Interface introduces the world to the notion of “Point and Click” computing. This in my humble opinion was the downfall of he computer industry and the beginning of making companies like Geek Squad a necessity because after this event people could no longer do the most mundane computer tasks without using the GUI.

In 1995 at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Bill Gates is trying to explain why an operating system named Windows 95 wasn’t going to be rolled out until the middle end of 1996, Some in the press wanted to know why Microsoft wasn’t investing heavily in this new technology called the World Wide Web. Bill Gates pontificated for a bit, then roundly rejected the Internet as a “passing fad.”

Well the next year as online use of the internet grew by millions, Bill Gates and his tribe of idiots at Microsoft realized how huge an oversight it was to let this new technology pass them by. They invest heavily in the internet technology companies, but more importantly, they slap together this piece of shit internet browser called INTERNET EXPLORER.

Internet Explorer had virtually no safety features and no security whatsoever. This “browser,” like all Microsoft products was a piece of shit. They couldn’t sell it so they tried to give it away at Egghead and Comp USA. People at that time were still computer literate and they used Netscape and other browsers and they simply refused to change to IE.

So Bill Gates does something profoundly stupid. First, he releases WIndows 95 SE, or Second Edition which was designed to fix all the fuck ups in Windows 95. Amazingly enough he charges $100.00 for it and people buy it. But more importantly, He bundles Internet Explorer with it and has Windows 95 SE make IE the default browser when Windows SE is installed.

Now Bill understands that most people can’t even figure out how to make Netscape their default browser again because he has dumbed them down with his point and click operating systems. Sun Microsystems, makers of Netscape and dominators of the browser market with a 65 % share of the market, sue Microsoft and win a huge settlement.

Here’s where our internet security is completely compromised. Along comes Windows 98. The fundamental difference of Windows 98 is that Bill Gates and his tribe of idiots decide to integrate Internet Explorer, the most insecure internet browser in the world, right into the source code of Windows 98. They are immediately sued by the Justice Department for Anti-trust, or creating a Monopoly!

The widespread ramifications of this bone head move wouldn’t be realized for about two years after it happened. Internet Explorer made a huge whole right into the heart of the operating system, giving hackers a door into your computer big enough to fly the space shuttle through. Viruses spread like wild fire. Computers were brought down all over the globe. Identity theft grew by 80%. Peoples personal information was being spread all over the place.

Then hackers decided to turn it into a money making venture. Along comes what are commonly known as “pop up ads.” Our lives become saturated with pop ups and our computers are brought once again crashing down by the exploitation of our wonderful operating system because of Internet Explorer and the whole that leads right to our system registry and allows other people to install their ad software on our computers. we are now completely at the mercy of the hackers. Netscape now has less than 2% of the browser market.

What does this all mean? Well if you listen to Microsoft, they will explain it away by issuing security alerts and updates all the time, but the best way to make your computer more secure is to NOT USE INTERNET EXPLORER. Use Netscape, Firefox, Mozilla, whatever… because they are not as prone to being hacked and they are NOT INTEGRATED INTO YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM!!!! This is the critical element.

Now you have all the information you need to drop IE and use something else for an Internet Browser. JD

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My pal Fred from Admit one found this and put it up on his site ….. ADMIT-ONE.NET I thought it should be here as well….

JD

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