Politics Blog

No organization was as instrumental in killing the Bush-Kennedy amnesty as NumbersUSA. Its over-400,000 members are now a lasting force on the political landscape. Why not join NumbersUSA this weekend? We’re going to need all the help we can get to make Presidente Jorge Arbusto’s gang build the border fence that’s already mandated by law…

-- PoliPundit

Another apparent failed car bomb attack at Glasgow airport.

These guys are so incompetent Bush will probably hire them to run TSA, ICE, or DHS.

-- W.C. Varones

Says Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC):

“This idea of ‘Just do the enforcement,’ there are no votes for that.”

Last year, the Secure Fence Act, which mandated 854 miles of border fencing, passed the US Senate 80-19, passed the US House 283-138, and was signed into law by the president. There did seem to be some votes for that, no?

All the president has to do is request whatever other enforcement measures he wants from Congress. We, the people, will DELIVER THE VOTES for new enforcement measures in the US Congress.

We could start with the $4.4 billion “emergency supplemental” funding that was tacked on to the Bush-Kennedy amnesty. And then move on to mandatory employer verification of SSNs. All the president has to do is ask.

-- PoliPundit

Here’s a video of Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) speaking on the Senate floor minutes before the cloture vote on Thursday: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pjt2-WdqMg4

Also, “What part of No don’t you understand?” http://youtube.com/watch?v=waoQekLKSGE

-- PoliPundit

For months now, Presidente Jorge Arbusto’s minion, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, has been busy pushing amnesty for illegal aliens in the US Congress, instead of building the fence that Congress mandated last year.

Now that his pet bill has died, Chertoff says he doesn’t have the tools to enforce the laws:

Chertoff said the administration will continue trying to enforce existing immigration laws, building border fences and beefing up border patrols. But, he said, without the additional resources in the bill and its much more stringent system to verify the legality of job applicants, the flood of illegal immigration is not likely to recede. Employers will still have no real way to unmask undocumented job applicants. Texas ranchers will continue to protest efforts to build fences on their land, and Arizonans will continue to try to block radar towers, he warned.

Chertoff angrily dismissed critics, especially conservatives, who said they could not support the bill until the administration shows it can enforce the laws on the books, accusing them of saying, “We need better weapons, but we’ll give you the weapons after you win the war.”

Virtually every enforcement measure in the Bush-Kennedy bill is already authorized or mandated by existing law. If there are any measures the Secretary needs, we will be glad to support them in every way possible, just like we supported passage of the Secure Fence Act through Congress last year.

For starters, the president should call for $4.4 billion in “emergency supplemental” funding from Congress. Arbusto attached the funding request to the Bush-Kennedy bill in the last couple of weeks in order to buy some Republican votes for amnesty. We will be glad to still support $4.4 billion in “emergency” funding, and to make sure that Democrats are held accountable in 2008 - a presidential election year - if they oppose it. All el Presidente has to do is ask.

And surely el Presidente and his henchmen could twist a few Congressional arms to get these new enforcement measures enacted; after all, they were certainly willing to go to the mat for amnesty…

-- PoliPundit

Way back during RatherGate™, as Dan Rather drove himself into increasingly tighter corners and self-destructed, Jonah Goldberg wrote:

I love the CBS News forged-document story. To paraphrase the abominable snowman from the Bugs Bunny cartoons, I want to hug it and squeeze it and name it George. Okay, I don’t want to name it George, but you get my drift. If this story were hot fudge, I would smear it all over my body and then roll around in nougat.

Reminds me very much of the Bush-Kennedy amnesty story.

-- PoliPundit

ALERT: 4:30am EST - It appears a suicide car bombing in Central London has beenaverted. A mercedes was driving erratically before crashing into some dust bins. Driver was seen fleeing the scene. Upon investigation, police discover car filled with gas canisters and nails. Explosive device has been defused.

More details to follow.

-- 'The Commish' A.J. Sparxx

Illegal Immigrants flooded the phones of Pro-Amnesty groups with calls of concern, disappointment and fear:

Phone calls flooded advocacy groups across the state yesterday as distraught illegal immigrants tried to come to terms with the implications of yesterday’s failure in the Senate of a bill that would have legalized some 12 million unlawful immigrants.

Some immigrant groups vowed to redouble efforts to lobby for immigration reform with protests and rallies. But with most observers saying that the prospects for another vote on the measure are effectively doomed this year, many who live in the netherworld of illegal status had to confront a cold reality that after having their hopes raised, they were plunged again into uncertainty.

Hey, how about wiretapping those phones and getting a lead on these illegal immigrants making the call. Other’s applauded the outcome:

Meanwhile, opponents of the bill applauded. Steve Kropper, cochairman of Massachusetts Citizens for Immigration Reform, said the bill’s plan to allow for the legalization of 12 million unlawful immigrants would have eroded wages for poor workers in Massachusetts.

“If you live in Boston and you clean hotel rooms or you’re a nurse in a hospital or a worker in food preparation, the death of this bill means you have a better chance to own a house, drive a car, or afford health insurance,” he said.

Maybe these people will be scared enough to go back to where they came from and try it again .. LEGALLY this time.

-- 'The Commish' A.J. Sparxx

Good analysis here on how the younger, more in-tune with America GOP Senators defeated the Old Guard - the older, crusty, been in Washington to long elitists from both parties:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy could establish a new civil rights legacy to rival his brothers’; Sen. John McCain could show leadership and accomplishment by standing up to his party’s base; and President Bush could secure a major domestic achievement for his second term.

Instead, the young guns — a small, wily group of junior Republican senators, most of them with less than a full term in the upper chamber — sent the bill into a tailspin, tying Democratic leaders into legislative knots and earning enough opposition among senators to block the Senate bill, culminating in yesterday’s vote to kill the measure.

“Those of us who have been on the campaign trail in the last couple of years have had to talk about immigration reform and we’ve campaigned — [Sen. David] Vitter made campaign promises, I made campaign promises — we should not reward those who came here illegally with a path to citizenship,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican.

DeMint, a true hero, recognizes the Kennedy - Bush relationship on major initiatives of the Adminstration:

“The president’s major initiatives — No Child Left Behind started withKennedy and a few Republicans; the prescription drug bill was Kennedy and a few Republicans. And so he was going back to his standby of Kennedy and a few Republicans,” Mr. DeMint said. “The idea was to marginalize the conservatives. And we would have been railroaded, run over, completely flat, if the American people hadn’t gotten so mad about this.”

Meet the GOP Young Guns:

Mr. DeMint, Mr. Vitter of Louisiana and Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, all of them in the class of 2004, spent hours camped on the Senate floor protecting their rights, objecting to Democratic requests and generally making life difficult for Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat.

They were often joined by Sen. Elizabeth Dole, North Carolina Republican from the class of 2002, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who completes his second term next year.

Sen. John Thune, South Dakota Republican and another member of the class of 2004 who fought the bill, said the first-termers are coming of age.

McConnell is still hiding:

Throughout the debate this week the Republicans were without the aid of their own leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky Republican ducked the fight, not speaking on the floor at all Wednesday and waiting until late afternoon yesterday, long after the debate had ended, to explain himself.

But he never explained his own vote yesterday to block the bill, after supporting it earlier this week, and after having said repeatedly it was a better bill than last year’s — a bill he voted for.

“I had hoped for a bipartisan accomplishment and what we got was a bipartisan defeat,” he said.

Rule of thumb - If it has Kennedy’s name on it, it CAN’T be good for America.

-- 'The Commish' A.J. Sparxx

The Senate GOP has issued a Missing Person’s alert for their ineffective Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Last seen trying to strong arm opponents of the Senate Amnesty bill in voting for cloture, then realizing it was a lost cause, ended up voting against cloture on a bill he thought was better then the one from last year, which he voted for!!

Concern started this week when the Republicans were without the aid of their own leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky Republican ducked the fight, not speaking on the floor at all Wednesday and waiting until late afternoon yesterday, long after the debate had ended, to explain himself.

When he is found, please tell him to resign his position as Senate Minority Leader and get someone who has some backbone and leadership skills to you know, be a LEADER.

-- 'The Commish' A.J. Sparxx