Archive for May, 2007

In a stunning development, the Republican National Committee fired all of its phone solicitors over waning contributions . The republicans deny this has anything to do with President Bush and his immigration policy but the fired solicitors disagree.

Can you imagine the nerve of President Bush and the rest of our elected officials? They are trying desperately to convince the American people that an Amnesty is the right thing to do and that the people of America want an amnesty. Clearly there is mass opposition to this bill because of the constant barrage of media attention that it is getting.

The Senate bill is lying unconscious on the floor, right now as we speak. That fucking drunken Kennedy and the modern day Barnebus (from an old soap opera called “Dark Shadows”) John McCain are giving the bill CPR, but it’s still dying. They are using their willing accomplices in the media to try to ram this amnesty shit down our throats. IT’S NOT WORKING!!!

Most of have been around long enough now to remember the 1986 amnesty bill that Ronald Reagan signed into law. Contained in that law are provisions and allocated funding to STOP illegal immigration that were NEVER realized. When push came to shove (and right after the next election) the democratically lead congress said that they simply didn’t have the money to enforce the provisions contained in the Amnesty bill.

Now for the big question to all of you dopey Republican congressman and senators. Exactly how many votes did you gain from the latino voters in America after the 1986 Amnesty? The answer is NONE!!! These people by and large vote democrat. They understand that the democrat party is really a socialist party in disguise. This means that as long as democrats rule the roost, there will be lots of freebies for latinos.

One would think that you assholes would have learned a lesson from the emancipation proclamation. Abraham Lincoln was a REPUBLICAN!!! But the way the national media revises history, you would never know it today . According to the current media history, you would think Lincoln was a homosexual Adolph Hitler. (The media actually tried to float the idea that Lincoln was a bi-sexual in yet another attempt to discredit President Lincoln.)

Be advised. It was the southern democrats, particularly the democrats from Missouri that started the civil war because they wanted to KEEP THEIR SLAVES!!! But you’d never know that today. Most blacks are democrats because the media portrays republicans as racists and bigots. And history will look back on these amnesty bills the same way.

Twenty five years from now the mainstream media will be saying things like “These amnesty bills were passed even though there was fierce resistance from the republicans in office at the time.” And the STUPID voter will lap that shit up corn and all without even so much as a second thought. Fucking morons.

When push comes to shove, I’ll be shoving. There will be more illegal immigrants and our government will do nothing to stop them. I can see a day in the not too distant future when we will all be speaking spanish and only the rich and political office holders will speak english. It will be then that we will have a two class society. The very rich and the very poor … JUST LIKE MEXICO! JD

Washington Times article below

RNC fires phone solicitors

May 31, 2007

The Republican National Committee, hit by a grass-roots donors’ rebellion over President Bush’s immigration policy, has fired all 65 of its telephone solicitors, Ralph Z. Hallow will report Friday in The Washington Times.

Faced with an estimated 40 percent fall-off in small-donor contributions and aging phone-bank equipment that the RNC said would cost too much to update, Anne Hathaway, the committee’s chief of staff, summoned the solicitations staff last week and told them they were out of work, effective immediately, the fired staffers told The Times.

The national committee yesterday confirmed the firings that took place more than a week ago, but denied that the move was motivated by declining donor response to phone solicitations.

“The phone-bank employees were terminated,” RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt wrote by e-mail in response to questions sent by The Times. “This was not an easy decision. The first and primary motivating factor was the state of the phone bank technology, which was outdated and difficult to maintain. The RNC was advised that we would soon need an entire new system to remain viable.”

Fired employees acknowledged that the committee’s phone equipment was outdated, but said a sharp drop-off in donations “probably” hastened the end of the RNC’s in-house phone-bank operation.
“Last year, my solicitations totaled $164,000, and this year the way they were running for the first four months, they would total $100,000 by the end of 2007,” said one fired phone bank solicitor who asked not to be identified.

There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, another fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call “amnesty” for illegal aliens.

“Everyone donor in 50 states we reached has been angry, especially in the last month and a half, and for 99 percent of them immigration is the No. 1 issue,” said the former employee.

The RNC spokeswoman denied that the committee has seen any drop-off in contributions.
“Any assertion that overall donations have gone down is patently false,” Miss Schmitt said. “We continue to out raise our Democrat counterpart by a substantive amount (nearly double).”

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Lindsay Lohan all hammered after being arrested alcoholic drunk pictures passed out Linsay Lohan. Yet another fine example being set by this dizzy bitch for our children. Her and that mental patient Britney Spears should be picking up garbage for CAL-TRANS as punishment. JD

LOS ANGELES – Lindsay Lohan’s estranged father says she suffers from multiple addictions, including alcohol and the painkiller OxyContin, the Web site E! Online reported Wednesday.

The 20-year-old actress checked into rehab Monday following a weekend that included crashing her Mercedes, being arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence and being photographed slumped in the passenger seat of a friend’s car. This is her second rehab stint this year.

“I’m satisfied they are doing the right thing for her, helping her detox from painkillers and things,” Michael Lohan told E! Online. “First she needs to get clean, then she needs to let God in her life.”

Lindsay Lohan’s publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnik, did not immediately return an after-hours call and e-mail from The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Michael Lohan was released from a New York state prison in March after serving almost two years for driving while intoxicated and other charges. He said he is studying to become a drug-rehab counselor with the faith-based organization Teen Challenge.

Before entering rehab, the actress was scheduled to start work this week on “Poor Things,” a comedy featuring Shirley MacLaine, who is also a producer on the movie. MacLaine and co-producer Rob Hickman said in a statement Wednesday that Lohan still wants to work on the project.

“We are trying to rearrange the shooting schedule to facilitate her working at the end of the shoot to coincide with the completion of her rehabilitation,” the statement said.

In other events swirling around Lohan, who turns 21 on July 2, authorities who have been conducting undercover operations at trendy celebrity watering holes in recent weeks are seeking to find out if she was served alcohol before her weekend car crash.

California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control investigators also want to know if Lohan or others were served after hours, agency spokesman John Carr said.

Videos show Lohan leaving Hollywood’s Les Deux club at 3:30 a.m.

Alcohol cannot be served in California after 2 a.m.

The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control told the Beverly Hills Police Department it wants to review witness reports and other evidence to determine if a formal investigation is warranted, Carr said.

Les Deux owner Lonnie Moore said in a statement that Lohan stayed late having dinner and waiting for friends, and wasn’t drinking.

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Check this out. I get maybe twenty of these a day, but I had to share this one with you all. This is a typical email I get from the dullards that seem to hit my blog and try to attack me with their name calling and rhetoric. The top part of the post will be his first comment on my site, which can also be seen under the latest “Lindsay Lohan” post a few clicks below this post. The next part of it will be my first response, and so on. Enjoy. JD

Here is his initial comment. Note the use of the word “Racist”. I love it when they call me racist.

E-mail : randomhorseshit@hotmail.com

URI :

Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=202.7.166.165

Comment:

fukn hell u fukn american rich cunts r fukd up go fuk ya 55yr old wife and groan from tha syphilis she gave ya 2incha cunt, go censa ya ass an thiz hole muthafukn sites fukn racist so i say get tha fuk outta tha us leave it 2 tha 25-1yr olds, blacks and latinos and make tha united states of amerikkka

bitch

Here is my first response. Short and sweet.

Learn how to spell, stupid. JD

Here is his next response. This tells me that he simply floats about the internet attacking people he disagrees with. Back in the day we called them “flamers”. I’m to old to know what to call them now. How about “dipshits”?

tha fuk r u cunt?

My last response

You mean “who the fuck am I, cunt?” Which by the way would be a rhetorical question. It would also be improperly phrased. Elliot (name similar to “Chester” ) Your grammar is deplorable and your spelling is an abomination. When you drop shit on a website, you should at least have the common decency to use the kings english lest everyone think your a blithering idiot.

Using fashionable words like “racist” and “bigot” should also be put into context. People like you so easily put that rubbish down on paper or email without even making any reasonable attempt to qualify it by putting it into context. Why am I a racist? Simply because I disagree with your views and opinions? Do you even know the definition of the word “racist”? I doubt it based on your complete inability to form a cognitive sentence.

I am a bigot, but as far as I’m concerned so are all minorities. As a man of Italian derivation, I will befriend or associate with anyone of any color, creed or religion, which is more than I can say for most of my minority friends. I have news for you Elliot. Most of my friends that are “minority” tend to only hang out with people that look and talk like them. In most instances I seem to be the exception to this rule. Blacks like to run with blacks. Asians like to run with asians. Hispanics … etc.

I find NOTHING wrong with this behavior. People are tend to like to befriend people that they have something in common with. You cannot simply call white people racist by “default” because they like to hang out with other white people or in my case, don’t share the same narrow minded, bigotted opinion as you. That sir makes you a bigot and your this case, an idiot as well.

My advise to you is to Think before you type. And use proper english. This way when you attack people on their own turf … er … website, you won’t look like a buffoon.

Do you see what I have to put up with? Geez. JD

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Dr. Laura Naked
Man you have to love stuff like this. Nothing amazes me more than people that are in the public eye being knocked off of their proverbial pedestal. As most of you may know by now, I post as many of these type of articles as I can. Linsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Alec Baldwin etc. These people walk through life being appeased and placated and speak as if their opinions are so lofty that they shit marble.

So when people like Dr. Laura(pictured at left) get knocked down a few rungs on the ladder I have to laugh. She sits on her radio program (carried on AM 640 here in Los Angeles) and attacks people, mostly women for the way they raise they children and the way they treat their husbands. Now, I believe that Dr. Laura’s message is spot on. She believes in the power of the family and spouses treating each other with respect.

But as we can clearly see, her own life is a mess! She is constantly in the news for running her mouth out of school and doing stupid things both on and off the air. I will reserve judgment in this case because I have not seen the so called offensive material contained on her son’s MySpace page. From what I have read he is merely talking like a well trained marine or army soldier. They are taught to hate the enemy by their superiors. It makes it a lot easier to live with the fact that you are killing human beings.

So lets see how this one plays out. With any luck this is simply a hit piece on Dr. Laura and nothing more. I will add that, as long as we have a country that gets offended with our military personnel enjoying their job, we are doomed as a society. JD

Laura Schlessinger asks for privacy as the Army investigates the postings attributed to Deryk.
By Robert W. Welkos, Times Staff Writer
May 25, 2007

Radio talk-show host Laura Schlessinger is appealing to news media outlets to respect her son’s privacy amid an Army investigation into whether he is behind a lurid personal Web page that featured cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation.

FOR THE RECORD:
Dr. Laura: An article in Business on Friday about an Army investigation involving the son of radio talk show host Laura Schlessinger over a lurid MySpace Web page identified the newspaper that broke the story as the Salt Lake City Tribune. It is the Salt Lake Tribune. —

The posting on MySpace.com drew the Army’s attention after the Salt Lake City Tribune reported this month that the Web page was credited to and included photos of Deryk, the 21-year-old son of the outspoken radio personality known to millions as “Dr. Laura.” She can be heard locally on KFI-AM (640).

According to the Tribune, the Web page, which has since been taken down, included a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee, accounts of illicit drug use and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets.

Laura Schlessinger’s publicist issued a statement Thursday stating that the Army “is investigating who is the actual author of the MySpace website.” Army spokesmen in Afghanistan, where Deryk reportedly is stationed, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Celebrated by many for her traditionalist views — and criticized by others for the same — the talk-show host is perhaps best known for her trademark chirp, “I’m my kid’s mom!” and her advice to mothers to stay at home with their young children. Deryk’s tour of duty is well known to listeners: Many callers seeking out Dr. Laura’s advice begin by thanking her for her son’s service.

The radio host has taken a break from writing her column in the Santa Barbara News-Press but not from her other work. “She just needed a break,” her spokesman, Mike Paul, wrote in an e-mail.

Matthew D. LaPlante, the Tribune reporter who broke the story about the Army investigation, had drawn a rebuke from Schlessinger for an earlier article in which he quoted her as saying Army wives should stop “whining.”

She posted a reply on her website stating that her position was taken out of context. As a “military mom,” she added, she whines to her husband about how scared she is for her son, but “I never whine to my son when he is able to call between missions” for fear of distracting him from his life-and-death duties.

The newspaper’s reader advocate said the Tribune was flooded with calls and e-mails complaining about the article.

LaPlante said he stood by the accuracy of his quotes.

The article about the MySpace page said one blog entry read: “Yes!!! I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it … and some that don’t.”

The website’s author indicates he is stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where, he writes, “godless crazy people like me” have become “a generation of apathetic killers.”

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Lindsay Lohan drunk driving cocaine naked tits jugs hottie nude big titties

Lindsay Lohan has been cited for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol today and was slightly injured when her convertible struck a kerb in California, police said.

Lohan, 20, and two other people were in her 2005 Mercedes SL-65 when it crashed on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, in the early hours of the morning, Sgt Mike Foxen said.

“She was cited and released because she has been admitted to a local hospital for minor injuries,” Foxen said.

No one else was hurt and no other cars were involved, Foxen said. He did not have other details.

Officers went to the scene after receiving an emergency call about the accident, Foxen said.

Lohan will have to appear in court to answer the citation, he said.

The arrest was first reported on the website of X17 Inc, a celebrity photo agency.

The crash was Lohan’s third accident in about two years. In October 2005, Lohan and a passenger received minor injuries when her convertible hit a van in West Hollywood. Authorities said the van driver, who also received minor injuries, was at fault.

Months earlier, Lohan collided with a minivan when she made a U-turn as the van, carrying paparazzi, followed her from a Los Angeles restaurant. The photographer was arrested for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon but prosecutors declined to charge him.

That crash was credited with prompting California Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign a law that set steep financial penalties for paparazzi who commit assaults while trying to obtain celebrity photos.

Lohan publicist Leslie Sloane Zelnik did not immediately return an email requesting comment.

Lohan said in January that she had checked into a rehabilitation centre for alcohol treatment. Her publicist confirmed in December that the actress was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Lohan told Allure Magazine during an interview for its May issue that she decided to enter the secluded Wonderland Centre, an addiction treatment facility, at the suggestion of her therapist.

“It’s so weird that I went to rehab. I always said I would die before I went to rehab,” Lohan told the publication.

Lohan’s latest movie, Georgia Rule, is in theatres now. The actress’ other screen credits include Mean Girls, Bobby, A Prairie Home Companion and Freaky Friday.

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The U.S. Senate has voted down proposals that could have derailed a broad immigration reform bill. The action came after President Bush urged lawmakers to back the legislation. VOA’s Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.

The Senate rejected challenges to the immigration bill from both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats.

Senators voted 66-29 late Thursday against a measure sponsored by Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana to strip the bill of a provision that would grant the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the United States legal status if they obtain a so-called ‘z visa’.

Vitter argued the provision rewards immigrants who crossed U.S. borders illegally.

“The ‘z visa’ amnesty provision absolutely rewards those who have broken the law,” said David Vitter.

But Senator Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, argued the plan is not amnesty because undocumented workers can only gain legal status after meeting certain conditions, including paying a fine, learning English and undergoing a background check.

“Legalization is important for our national security, we have to know who is in the United States of America,” said Ted Kennedy.

Earlier, the Senate voted 49 to 48 against a Democratic-sponsored proposal to phase out temporary worker provision after five years. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat was the sponsor:

“Why don’t we take a look in five years and see, were the claims that were made for the temporary worker provision, were they claims that turned out to be accurate,” he asked.

The guest worker proposal would allow temporary workers to come to the United States on two-year visas and renew them up to three times, but only after they return to the home countries for a year.

Many Democrats are critical of the plan, saying it would depress wages of U.S. workers and would deny temporary workers the opportunity to become American citizens.

It was Dorgan’s second unsuccessful challenge to the guest worker program. Earlier this week he proposed stripping the bill of the provision, but that, too, was rejected. A separate Democratic amendment to slash the number of temporary worker visas issued each year from 400,000 to 200,000 was approved on Wednesday.

The guest worker program and the provision that would grant legal status to undocumented workers are seen as the key underpinnings of the immigration reform bill, and supporters warned that removing either one of them would kill the overall legislation.

The Senate action came after President Bush urged lawmakers to approve the legislation, which also includes measures to boost border security.

“If you are serious about securing our borders and bringing millions of illegal immigrants in our country out of the shadows, this bipartisan bill is the best opportunity to move forward,” said President Bush.

Senators are expected to vote on the overall legislation when they return from a week-long recess in early June.

The House is scheduled to begin debating the issue later this year.

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Listen. There is no doubt that this fickle bitch broke her nose and toe in some sort of drunken stupor. Lets face it. she isn’t the most mentally stable human on the planet. What with the walk outs on the show, the dating of contestants and having a rather checkered past with alcohol, she was probably hammered and fell down. As for the contestant dating thing: Did she ever deny having sex with that contestant last year? Perhaps one of you can shoot me the story if she did. What a nut job. JD

Paula Abdul broke her nose and a toe last weekend.

The American Idol judge suffered the injuries while trying to avoid stepping on her pet chihuahua, Tulip.

Her publicist David Brokaw said Abdul was recovering and will appear on the May 23 finale of American Idol.

Speaking to the syndicated entertainment TV show Extra, Abdul said she tore cartilage in her nose and fractured a toe.

“I took a nasty fall…trying not to hurt my dog. I bruised myself on my arm..my chest, my waist all the way down to my hip. All from my little chubby Tulip,” Abdul said.

Brokaw reported that Tulip was uninjured.

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I have been watching this immigration debate in the senate and I would like to add yet another opinion to this mess. First of all, the reason the senate is back pedaling on this one is they have been encountering FIERCE resistance from their constituents. And I’m not talking about from “angry white men” As Hillary Asshole Clinton calls us. I’m talking about from people of ALL ethnicity’s including HISPANICS!!! That fucking drunkard Teddy Kennedy and John McCain as well as the liberal media all seem to have thought this thing was a slam dunk, but the American population has once again told these idiots that they do not want Amnesty.

On to one of California’s senators, Diane Feinstein. This mamaluke tried unsuccessfully to convince us Californians that “80%” of Americans are pro amnesty!!! I have been busy for the last week or so sending her emperical data to contradict that number roundly. I am sick and tired of these idiots pandering to the hispanic law breakers that have invaded our country.

Now for you lawbreaking illegal immigrants and your so called leaders …. FUCK YOU!!! How dare you tell my government how to write law. Just who do you people think you are? You are in our country only because of the politically correct nonsense that seems to permeate our society at the present time. If you don’t like our laws then I would be willing to buy you a new burro and help you pack up your knock off Levis and Wrangler’s as well as all the other knock off shit your own and send you back to Mexico.

Trust me when I say this my hispanic friend. There will be NO amnesty. Not now, not ever. Now come empty my garbage cans. JD

WASHINGTON — Less than a week after touting a breakthrough on a new immigration reform bill, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Tuesday started tearing apart the original proposal on how to handle the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

The bill’s future is unclear after the Senate test vote late Monday garnered the 60 votes needed for lawmakers to begin debating the 1,000-page document but Senate leaders agreed to postpone finishing the legislation until next month.

Opposition to the bill, which many senators complain has only just made it in final form into their inboxes, is coming from the right and left. Normal allies of comprehensive immigration reform, pro-immigrant groups and many business consortiums are looking askance at the legislation. Not one union group has voiced support for it.

Some Republicans call the bill amnesty with a renewable visa system while some Democrats oppose the proposal that makes skills and education more important than family ties.

In a nod to that opposition, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid conceded that the Senate won’t be able to complete the bill before a hoped-for Memorial Day deadline.

“It would be to the best interests of the Senate … that we not try to finish this bill this week. I think we could, but I’m afraid the conclusion wouldn’t be anything that anyone wanted,” Reid, D-Nev., said.

Negotiators who hammered out the deal behind closed doors after months of meetings with Bush administration officials said they will meet each morning the Senate is in session during the debate to review the slate of amendments for the day and decide a strategy for supporting or defeating those amendments.

The negotiating group has about a dozen members and could easily be thwarted if liberal Democratic critics join opposing Republicans to pass any given measure. A number of the original negotiators have already left the group in opposition, including Cornyn, Leahy and Menendez. Still others in the group are withholding their support for now, like Georgia Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson.

The bill beefs up border security and employer verification, sets up a temporary worker program, legalizes the vast majority of the approximately 12 million illegals currently in the United States and sets up a merit-focused point system that still heavily weighs family connections for earning a green card.

Currently, about two-thirds of legal permanent residency cards are family-based, while one third are employment-based. Legislative experts agree that current ratio would not substantially change, though family migration is drastically curtailed. Only minor children and spouses can accompany green card holders, with a limited number of visas granted to “grandparents.” Others would have to apply for their own green card.

Illegals, once they come out of the shadows and register, receive a temporary card and eventually a special “Z visa” to work indefinitely in the U.S, a process that takes a minimum of eight years. They are not required to return to their home country unless they wish to become U.S. citizens.

Conservatives call this “amnesty,” but supporters like Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a lead negotiator, denies that charge.

“It’s not amnesty. Amnesty is getting something for nothing. These workers have to pay a $5,000 fine. That’s a pretty substantial amount for many of them,” he said. Liberal critics say that the “touchback” provision, or home-country return, is not practical and would cause undo hardship on low-wage immigrants.

Conservatives also point out that the illegals, once legal, would automatically be eligible for Social Security and Medicare and would not be required to pay any back taxes, something bill supporters say is simply impossible to calculate.

Conservative Heritage Foundation President Robert Rector estimates the total cost of the bill to be in the trillions of dollars, warning, “This $2.5 trillion cost is going to come smashing into the Social Security and Medicare systems at exactly the point those systems are already going bankrupt. So the bottom line is that these individuals will make no net contribution in taxes while they are working. They will be a deficit. But when they hit retirement, they will be an astonishing cost on the taxpayer.”

Unions also oppose the temporary worker program, which Dorgan and Boxer hope to rectify by stripping the program from the bill.

In a conference with reporters, both members decried what they say will be a “downward pressure” on U.S. worker wages and benefits created by hundreds of thousands of additional immigrant workers entering the system.

“It’s not a compromise worthy of being called a solution to illegal immigration,” Dorgan said, adding that the whole program was merely a sop to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which wants “cheap labor.”

Boxer called the bill “unworkable” and charged that it is an “exploitation of the U.S. worker.”

Separately, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said he will support the Dorgan-Boxer amendment because he is “fundamentally opposed to this unworkable system” whereby temporary workers can enter the U.S. without family for three two-year stints, with one year of residency outside of the U.S. in between those stints.

Immigrants coming with nuclear families get one two-year stay only and can return for an additional two years without their families.

It is unclear if the Dorgan amendment can muster the 60 votes needed for passage, but what does seem certain is that the worker program will at least be cut in half very early on with an amendment that overwhelmingly passed last year, cutting the number of work visas in half, from 400,000 per year to 200,000 per year. Boxer said she may try to reduce that number to 100,000 if her amendment fails.

Reprising a highly controversial argument last year, Inhofe’s amendment to make English the official language will probably be challenged by a Democrats alternative that was supported last year that makes English merely the “common” language.

The compromise deal creates a controversial point system for earning green cards. Though the system is weighted toward families, as it is now, about 30 percent of the points will be allotted for “merit” like education level and advanced skills, something that was deemed essential by many Republicans.

Sessions said Monday the 30 percent is “not enough.” He praised Canada’s merit-based program and said he would work to change that in the bill.

The bill now seeks to clear the tremendous backlog of applications for citizenship within 18 months for those immigrants who applied before May 2005, a date that marks the introduction of the original Senate comprehensive immigration bill. Department of Homeland Security official say that should take care of some 567,000 applicants. Menendez said he will offer an amendment to take care of another 800,000 who applied between May 2005 and January 2007.

The price tag for this bill is expected to be extremely high, but sources told FOX News that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office will not have an estimate ready until after Memorial Day, something that could fracture the bill’s already fragile support.

The Heritage Foundation’s Rector warned that CBO will give only a 10-year estimate, “but on year 15, it starts to cost a fortune. On year 30, it will bankrupt the Social Security system. It is a disaster, it’s a sham, and it’s a deception.”

Supporters of the bill have said the compromise is like a three-legged stool with each of the provisions — guest worker program, more permanent plan for 12 million illegals already here and border security — each being an unmovable leg, if one goes, the stool falls. Dorgan called that argument “a loose thread on a cheap suit.” Boxer described the warnings as idle threats.”

Republican critics like Sessions are expected to filibuster the bill, and he could receive support from a number of Democrats, like freshman Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who on Monday, voted against allowing debate to start on the bill. The Senate permitted the beginning of a multi-week debate on a 69-23 vote to proceed with amendments.

It is very much unclear if supporters can muster the 60 votes needed for final passage, expected to come sometime around June 8, 2007. And yet another hurdle will come when the House attempts to pass a product that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has already signaled will look quite a bit different from the Senate product.

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KEY US legislators have clinched a deal with the White House on a sweeping immigration reform package that would bring 12 million illegal immigrants out of the shadows and bolster security along the US borders.

The pact, announced by a group of Democratic and Republican senators, would provide a path to permanent residency and citizenship for the vast majority of illegal workers, establish a merit-based points system for future immigrants, and set up a low-wage temporary worker program.

The bill would also provide 18,000 more Border Patrol agents, and scores of radar and camera towers on the US border with Mexico.

The measure, which emerged from exhaustive round-the-clock talks, is aimed at defusing a fiercely polarizing issue and fast-tracking reform before US political life is consumed by the 2008 congressional and presidential campaign cycle.

The bill still needs to be approved by the entire Senate, where debate is to begin Monday, and the House of Representatives.

Approval in either chamber is still uncertain, though it has strong support from President George W. Bush.

Some Democratic leaders in charge of pushing the deal through Congress have expressed reservations, even as they forged the legislation together with Republican legislators.

And Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney blasted the bill as an “amnesty,” raising one of the issues that blocked similar legislation last year.

Bush, whose staff was deeply involved in crafting the bill, lauded the deal they reached.

“I really am anxious to sign a comprehensive immigration bill as soon as I possibly can,” he said.

“Today we took a good step toward that direction.”

Earlier, Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy said the legislation was true to America’s “humanity and our tradition of a nation of immigrants.”

“Politics is the art of the possible and the agreement we just reached is the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders, bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America.”

But Senate Democratic majority leader Harry Reid expressed his reservations, saying he especially worried about “the structure of the temporary worker program and undue limitations on family immigration.”

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, echoed Reid’s sentiments.

“While the bipartisan Senate agreement starts the process, I have serious concerns about some elements of this proposal – the bill must be improved in the Senate,” she said.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton said she would scrutinize the pact to see if it honored America’s “proud immigrant heritage.”

Republican and Democratic aides said the compromise was aimed at moving US immigration rules to a merit-based system, rather than prioritizing claims for extended immigrant families.

“It is intended to reflect the labor needs of the United States in the 21st century, rather than the 19th century,” a senior Republican staffer said on condition of anonymity.

If approved, the bill would fund building 200 miles (321 kilometers) of barriers and 370 miles (595 kilometers) of fencing, and the construction of 70 ground-based radar and camera towers on the Mexican border.

Enforcement measures would have to be in place before the new temporary worker program and arrangements for those living in the United States illegally can begin.

Those illegally in the country before January 1, 2007 must pay a $5000 ($6081) fine to get a non-immigrant ‘Z’ visa which will allow them eventually to become eligible for a green card or permanent residency.

But the new rules would give more credit for earning a green card to those applicants with English proficiency, advanced education, science, technology and mathematics skills, and other special expertise.

In the past priority has gone to people with family members already in the United States legally.

Former Massachusetts governor Mr Romney, who is seeking the presidency in 2008, was quick to criticize the deal.

“It is the wrong approach,” he said in a statement. “Any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to stay in the country indefinitely … is a form of amnesty.”

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Hey Jerry! Is there any way that you can tell us from the grave what Satan actually looks like? I figure with all of the money you stole from them stupid crackers in the south, you pretty much assured us all that you had a one way ticket to hell.

Do like you used to do on TV Jerry. Only this time come back as a ghost and tell us whats really going on in the after life. I am quite pleased that this charlatan is off of the planet. I hope that Satan makes him a male prostitute.

JD

LYNCHBURG, Virginia: The Rev. Jerry Falwell, known both for his scathing comments linking the Sept. 11 attacks to abortion, homosexuality and liberals and for shaping the conservative Christian right into a major force in U.S. politics during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, has died. He was 73.

Falwell was discovered without a pulse in his office at Liberty University on Tuesday and pronounced dead at a hospital an hour later. Dr. Carl Moore, Falwell’s physician, said he had a heart condition and presumably died of a heart rhythm abnormality.

Driven into politics by the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established the right to an abortion, Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979. One of the conservative lobbying group’s greatest triumphs came just a year later, when Ronald Reagan was elected president.

Falwell credited the Moral Majority with getting millions of conservative voters registered, aiding in Reagan’s victory and giving Republicans control of the Senate.

“I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved,” he said when he stepped down as Moral Majority president in 1987.
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Fellow TV evangelist Pat Robertson, himself a one-time Republican candidate for president, declared Falwell “a tower of strength on many of the moral issues which have confronted our nation.”

The rise of Christian conservatism — and the Moral Majority’s full-throated condemnation of homosexuality, abortion and pornography — made Falwell perhaps the most recognizable figure on the evangelical right, and one of the most controversial ones, too.

Over the years, Falwell waged a landmark libel case against Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt over a raunchy parody ad, and created a furor in 1999 when one of his publications suggested that the purse-carrying “Teletubbies” character Tinky Winky was gay.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Falwell said that abortionists, feminists, gays and others “have tried to secularize America … helped this happen.” President George W. Bush, himself a conservative Protestant, rebuked Falwell, who soon admitted the comment was a mistake.

Matt Foreman, executive director of National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, extended condolences to those close to Falwell, but added: “Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America’s anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation’s appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation.”

The 1980s marked the religious conservative movement’s high-water mark. In more recent years, Falwell had become a problematic figure for the Republican. His remarks a few days after Sept. 11, 2001, essentially blaming feminists, gays and liberals for bringing on the terrorist attacks drew a rebuke from the White House, and he apologized.

Falwell’s declining political star seemed apparent when he quietly led in and out of the Republican Party’s 2004 national convention. Just four years earlier, he was invited to pray from the rostrum.

In a statement, Bush said he and First Lady Laura Bush were “deeply saddened” by the loss of a man who “cherished faith, family and freedom.”

The big, blue-eyed preacher with a booming voice started a fundamentalist church in an abandoned bottling plant in Lynchburg in 1956 with just 35 members. He built it into a religious empire that included the 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, the “Old Time Gospel Hour” carried on TV stations around the country and 7,700-student Liberty University, which Falwell founded in 1971 as Lynchburg Baptist College.

From his living room, he broadcast his message of salvation and raised the donations that helped his ministry grow.

“He was one of the first to come up with ways to use television to expand his ministry,” said Robert Alley, a retired University of Richmond religion professor who studied and criticized Falwell’s career.

Falwell had once opposed mixing preaching with politics, but changed his views. The Moral Majority grew to 6.5 million members and raised $69 million (€51 million) as it supported conservative politicians and railed against abortion, homosexuality, pornography and bans on school prayer.

Falwell became the face of the religious right, appearing on national magazine covers and on talk shows. In 1983, U.S. News & World Report named him one of 25 most influential people in America.

“Jerry’s passions and convictions changed the course of our country for the better over the last 20 years,” said James Dobson, founder of the conservative Christian Focus on the Family ministry. “It was Jerry who led an entire wing of Christianity, the fundamentalist wing, away from isolation and into a direct confrontation with the culture.”

“Dr. Falwell was a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country,” said Sen. John McCain, a Republican presidential contender who during the 2000 primaries referred to Falwell and Robertson as “agents of intolerance.” McCain has since distanced himself from those comments.

In 1984, Falwell sued Hustler for $45 million (€33 million), charging that he was libeled by an liquor-ad parody that quoted him as saying he lost his virginity to his mother in an outhouse. But a federal jury found he was not libeled and awarded him $200,000 (€147,732) for emotional distress.

The verdict was overturned in a landmark 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that even pornographic spoofs about a public figure enjoy constitutional protection.

With Falwell’s high profile came frequent criticism, even from fellow ministers. The Rev. Billy Graham once rebuked him for political sermonizing on “non-moral issues.”

Falwell quit the Moral Majority in 1987, saying he was tired of being “a lightning rod” and wanted to devote his time to his ministry and Liberty University. But he remained outspoken and continued to draw criticism for his remarks.

In 1999, he told an evangelical conference that the Antichrist was a male Jew who was probably already alive. Falwell later apologized for the remark but not for holding the belief.

Falwell was re-energized after family values proved important in the 2004 presidential election. He formed the Faith and Values Coalition as the “21st Century resurrection of the Moral Majority,” to seek anti-abortion judges, a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and more conservative elected officials.

In 1987, Falwell took over the PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry in South Carolina after the Rev. Jim Bakker got caught in a sex and money scandal. Falwell slid fully clothed down a theme park water slide after donors met his fundraising goal to help rescue the rival ministry. He gave it up seven months later after learning the depth of PTL’s financial problems.

Largely because of the sex scandals involving Bakker and fellow evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, donations to Falwell’s ministry dropped from $135 million (€100 million) in 1986 to less than $100 million (€74 million) the following year. Hundreds of workers were laid off and viewers of his television show dwindled.

Liberty University was $73 million (€54 million) in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, and his “Old Time Gospel Hour” was $16 million (€11.8 million) in debt. By the mid-1990s, two local businessmen with long ties to Falwell began overseeing the finances and helped get companies to forgive debts or write them off.

Falwell dreamed that Liberty would grow to 50,000 students and be to fundamentalist Christians what Notre Dame is to Roman Catholics and Brigham Young University is to Mormons.

Falwell’s father and his grandfather were militant atheists, he wrote in his autobiography. He said his father made a fortune off his businesses — including bootlegging during Prohibition.

As a student, Falwell was a star athlete and a prankster who was barred from giving his high school valedictorian’s speech after he was caught using counterfeit lunch tickets.

He ran with a gang of juvenile delinquents before becoming a born-again Christian at 19. He turned down an offer to play professional baseball and transferred from Lynchburg College to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri.

“My heart was burning to serve Christ,” he once said in an interview. “I knew nothing would ever be the same again.”

Falwell had made careful preparations for a transition of his leadership to his two sons, Jerry Falwell, Jr., now vice chancellor of Liberty University, and Jonathan Falwell, executive the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church.

Falwell’s survivors include his wife, Macel, his two sons and a daughter, Jeannie Falwell Savas. The funeral is set for 2 p.m. Monday at Thomas Road Baptist Church.

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Forget about the fact that the movie is about gay cowboys. This is an “R” raqted film being shown to students! The gay issue is simply to further the gay teacher’s agenda. I hope these people get ten million dollars. JD

(CBS/AP) A girl and her grandparents have sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging that a substitute teacher showed the R-rated film “Brokeback Mountain” in class.

The lawsuit claims that Jessica Turner, 12, suffered psychological distress after viewing the movie in her class at Ashburn Community Elementary School last year.

According to the lawsuit, the substitute teacher in Turner’s eighth-grade class last May was Mary Buford, the Chicago Tribune reported. Allegedly, Buford told the class, “What happens in Ms. Buford’s class stays in Ms. Buford’s class” and had a student close the door, the newspaper reported.

The film, which won three Oscars, depicts two cowboys who conceal their homosexual affair.

Turner and her grandparents, Kenneth and LaVerne Richardson, are seeking around $500,000 in damages.

“It is very important to me that my children not be exposed to this,” said Kenneth Richardson, Turner’s guardian. “The teacher knew she was not supposed to do this.”

According to the lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court, the video was shown without permission from the students’ parents and guardians. Richardson had previously complained to school officials about reading material he said contained curse words.

“This was the last straw,” he said. “I feel the lawsuit was necessary because of the warning I had already given them on the literature they were giving out to children to read.”

Richardson said his granddaughter was traumatized after watching the film, telling him that “They made me watch this bad movie.” He went to the school to speak to Buford, Richardson told the Tribune, but she refused to do so without her union representative.

Messages left over the weekend with school district officials were not immediately returned.

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Sorry, been rather busy. Will be posting regularly again. JD

SACRAMENTO – Three years ago, when state Sen. Alan Lowenthal first proposed that lawmakers give up the powerful job of drawing legislative and congressional districts, he couldn’t get his plan out of committee.

Last year, his proposal passed the Senate, only to die in the Assembly in the final days of the session. This year, Lowenthal thinks the third time could be the charm.

Many legislators are hoping voters will approve an initiative in February that would alter California’s term limits to allow more than 40 lame-duck lawmakers to run for re-election in 2008 or 2010, including Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu ez, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President pro tem Don Perata, D-Oakland.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also wants a measure on the same Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot to strip legislators of their redistricting powers, and he has signaled that he won’t campaign for the term limits change if the Legislature doesn’t approve redistricting reform.

“I think there is a great deal of motivation to move something forward,” said Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat. “If there is any major opponent for any of these issues – redistricting, term limits or any of them – that makes it much more difficult. These
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kinds of measures pass when everyone is together.”

Lowenthal’s legislation is a constitutional amendment that would go on the ballot if lawmakers approve it. It would create an 11-member redistricting commission from a pool of 55 candidates nominated by a panel of retired judges.

The Legislature’s top four leaders and members of the state Fair Political Practices Commission would select the redistricting commission from the candidate pool.

The commission would be made up of four Democrats, four Republicans and three independents.

It would take a simple majority of commissioners to approve new state and federal districts each decade after a new national census, but that majority would have to include at least one Democrat, one Republican and one independent party member.

The legislation faces its first test Wednesday, when it will be considered by the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Amendments Committee.

The committee will also take up a rival proposal by Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, that includes a similar redistricting plan – a term limit proposal modeled after the initiative now in circulation and some campaign fundraising restrictions.

Constitutional amendments by Nu ez and Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, that would also set up redistricting commissions are awaiting hearings in the Assembly.

Ashburn argues that the redistricting and term limits changes should be lumped into the same measure to prevent them from being picked off by lawmakers and interest groups that favor one part of the proposal but not the other.

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ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was drunk and talking on his cell phone at the time of his fatal accident, and marijuana was found in the sport utility vehicle he was driving.

Medical examiner Michael Graham said at a news conference Friday the 29-year-old reliever was dead “within seconds” from head injuries in the crash early Sunday on Interstate 64 in St. Louis. His vehicle hit the back of a tow truck parked on the highway to assist a driver from a previous accident.

“There is nothing at all that could have been done for him,” Graham said.

Hancock’s blood-alcohol level was 0.157, nearly twice Missouri’s legal limit of 0.08, Graham said.

Police Chief Joe Mokwa said 8.55 grams of marijuana and a glass pipe used to smoke marijuana were found in the rented Ford Explorer. Toxicology tests to determine if drugs were in his system had not been completed.

An accident reconstruction team determined Hancock was traveling 68 mph in a 55 mph zone when his SUV struck the back of a flatbed tow truck stopped in a driving lane.

Mokwa said there was no evidence Hancock tried to stop. He did swerve, but too late to avoid the collision.

Hancock was not wearing
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a seat belt, but Graham said the belt would not have prevented his death.

Mokwa said Hancock was speaking with a female acquaintance about baseball and baseball tickets and the conversation ended abruptly, apparently when the accident occurred. A police report said Hancock told the female acquaintance he was on his way to another bar, and he planned to meet her there.

Hancock, a member on the World Series championship team last season, was driving alone.

Cardinals officials expressed sadness at the news and said the team will re-examine what it can do to warn players of the dangers of drinking and driving.

“I think it’s probably a wake-up call to everybody,” general manager Walt Jocketty said at a news conference at Busch Stadium. “The one thing they have to understand is they’re not invincible. They have to conduct themselves and make better decisions.

“Unfortunately, Josh didn’t make very good decisions that night.”

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said before Friday night’s game the organization has banned alcohol in the clubhouse. He said he didn’t think alcohol in the clubhouse had been a problem and has diminished over the years, but team officials want to promote responsible drinking.

The organization was debating whether to ban alcohol on certain charter flights, but no decisions had been made.

La Russa was arrested on a drunken driving charge in Jupiter, Fla., in March, when police said they found him asleep at the wheel at a traffic light. His lawyer waived La Russa’s arraignment last month and requested a trial.

Graham said Hancock had severe chest injuries as well as the fatal head injuries.

An estimated 500 mourners turned out Thursday for a memorial service for Hancock in Tupelo, Miss. Among the mourners were Hancock’s teammates, coaches, La Russa and Jocketty. Hancock was buried Wednesday in rural Itawamba County, Miss.

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The lawyer for the ousted radio host Don Imus said yesterday that he would file a $40 million lawsuit against CBS next week, accusing it of breach of contract.

The lawyer, Martin Garbus of Manhattan, said CBS violated a clause in Mr. Imus’s contract that specifically encouraged him to engage in what the clause called “extraordinary,” “irreverent” and “controversial” topics on his program.

CBS said: “We terminated Mr. Imus for cause. Based on the comments in question and relevant contract terms, we believe that the termination was appropriate and CBS would expect to prevail in any attempt by Mr. Imus to recover money for his actions.”

Mr. Imus was taken off the air last month by CBS after he called members of the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos” during what was intended to be a comedy routine.

The comment stirred a storm of protest, with CBS under fire from national black leaders and groups for what they labeled an egregiously racist statement. Mr. Imus made several apologies in which he acknowledged that the comment was offensive.

Mr. Garbus said the language in the clause he cited proved “they were creating a shock jock.” He said Mr. Imus was doing “exactly what they wanted him to do.”

Mr. Garbus also said that CBS had agreed to give Mr. Imus an official warning after one incident of offensive language before taking action, and that “both CBS and MSNBC had a delay button and neither of them used them in this case.”

A delay button permits a producer to block offensive words before they are broadcast.

In a copy of some sections of the contract provided by a representative of radio management, a clause under reasons for “just cause” termination reads: “Any on-air use by artist of any distasteful or offensive words or phrases, the broadcast of which company believes would not be in the public interest or may jeopardize company’s federal license to operate station.”

Many issues in the case could turn on whether CBS had reason to worry that the Federal Communications Commission could punish the CBS stations for the use of such language.

David Fiske, a spokesman for the F.C.C., said yesterday that Congress had told the commission to levy fines for profane or indecent language, but purely offensive words might not come under that standard. But the stations must also uphold community standards or risk challenges to their broadcast licenses, he said.

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