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Did I miss a WWII memorial event in town this weekend???

This week I took Friday off to get a head start on a very over-due landscaping project in my backyard (it was hot by the way). While hauling what felt like the 4000th wheelbarrel of dirt, a noise made me look up. Now air traffic is not uncommon over my house. Several airstrips nearby plus traffic from MSP goes over my house, although that is usually high enough that I barely notice. This time it was different. Multiple very loud engines.

I looked up just in time to catch a tail view of a formation of four WWII-era planes….I believe F6F Hellcats, but they disappeared behind my trees almost as soon as I looked up. Certainly didn’t have the distinctive wings of the Corsairs.
I’m a bit puzzled what four WWII carrier fighters were doing flying around Minnesota on a Friday morning. I can only assume there was some sort of memorial event happening. Or else some local veterans club has restored four of these beautiful planes and was doing a test flight for July 4th celebrations. In which case, where are they normally stored, as I would love to see them up close??

UPDATE : Wow, do I feel like an ass. Those fighters were part of a fly-over for the funeral of Chuck Lindberg, who is the last surviving member of the group that raised the first flag on Iwo Jima (the one before the famous photograph). His funeral was at Fort Snelling that day and I had forgotten all about it. Foot. Mouth. Dumbass. Yup, that’s me!

Thank you to Sue for pointing out my mental error in a very gentle manner.

Cloture fails 46-53!! Ted Kennedy on suicide watch as the Senate returns to it’s important business of dedicating monuments and renaming courthouses.

Roll call coming soon. Although it should be noted that Webb made his decision last night and informed both the White House and McConnell. Plenty of time from lots of other Republicans to find out and realize they would be clinging to the ship just before it goes below the waves. No surprise that EIGHTEEN Senators jumped ship….saving their political asses.

UPDATE : Roll call is up.

President Bush’s legacy goes down the crapper, which is exactly where this political legacy belonged. Now how about you go back to doing your jobs. You know…enforcing the current laws?? The ones you’ve been ignoring for 7 years.

UPDATE : All no votes held from the last cloture, the following senators changed their vote from Yea to Nay on cloture this time around.

Bingaman
Bond
Brown
Brownback
Burr
Coleman
Collins
Domenici
Ensign
Harkin
McConnell
Murkowski
Nelson (NE)
Pryor
Stevens
Voinovich
Warner
Webb

Alot of those names were rumored to be switching last night already, the rest are political opportunists.

UPDATE : Commenter J Ewing offers

If Coleman (or any Republican) was smart, they would Carpe Diem and put forward a bill to build the fence, fix the visa problems, expel the 600,000 already ordered to leave, and put the 9 MILLION we already know about on notice.

Amen. In fact, Hutchinson is on the Senate floor right now saying that they should move forward with that 4.4 billion that Bush agreed to to fund the border barriers. However, I’ve followed this issue enough to know it’s probably not gonna happen. Bush and his pro-amnesty cronies have never been interested in enforcement….just cheap labor.

Hutchinson is also talking about needing to also work on a guest worker program. I don’t think ANYONE has made a valid case for us needing one.

UPDATE : Kennedy is on the floor declaring “we’ll be back”. To that I answer, “we’ll be here”. He also adds that America always finds a way to solve it’s problems…..well, we haven’t gotten rid of you yet have we?

“Undocuments aliens will soon be millions more” and “we’ll have the kind of open border that is unacceptable in a post 9/11 world”….true, but this bill wasn’t going to fix that, only help it. And neither of those would be true if our President and our Congress cared about border security.

UPDATE : Considering the lopsidedness of this cloture vote, it would very interesting to go back and see the order in which people voted. Who held their votes until it was decided, and therefore who was a pitiful weasel like Brownback who originally voted yes and then switched to no when it was clear it would fail. Unfortunately I was originally watching the vote on my non-DVR TV so I can’t go back through it….anyone else have it recorded somewhere??

UPDATE : Speaking of disgraceful actions, Senator McConnell should not escape criticism here. Our precious Minority Leader went AWOL as soon as things got tough. Rather than stand up and defending his Republican caucus against Reid’s procedural bully tactics, McConnell never said a word. Just hunkered down behind Kennedy bloviating jowls and sought to ride it out relatively unharmed.

UPDATE : Brownback attack ads have already started…..

Wow, you want me to sum today’s Senate action for you??

“Clusterfuck”

Want me to spell it out more???

“I’ve seen Boy Scout troops run more orderly than this Senate….although admittedly the Boy Scouts have adult supervision.”

I don’t think today could have been more disorderly if every member of Congress was drunk. Right out of the gate they hit a roadblock. Remember that massive clay pigeon amendment that was released yesterday?? Well turns out they don’t make clay like they used to. Errors and omissions abounded and Reid had to have his staff rewrite the thing.

So most of the day, Senators were debating a bill that didn’t even exist yet. And it didn’t exist until almost 2 pm, when Senator Sessions was literally handed the bill while he was complaining at the podium that they didn’t even have copies of the bill yet. In the meantime, Senator Reid is basically telling everyone “trust me” there are only “minor changes” to the amendment, just “trust me”. Yeah, we’re all just supposed to take Reid at his word regarding one of the biggest pieces of legislation they’ve touched so far.

Finally Senators get the damn thing, so we have a 300+ page document that they are supposed to end debate on tomorrow and nobody gets it until 2 pm?? Yup, that’s our Senate.

While waiting for the clay pigeon amendment, Senators kept trying to offer amendments, but Senator Reid basically used the procedural equivalent of “LALALALLALALALALALALAL, I CAN’T HEAR YOU WHILE I’M SINGING, LALALALALALA“. Yup, this is our Senate.

All of you who thought it was okay to vote for cloture yesterday because “the only way this bill can be improved is if it comes up for a vote again”. Really?? Is that what we got today??? Sounds like we got a full day of temper tantrums, rule changes, and out right abuse of power. Which is what people like me expected.

Some amendments made it to the floor though, although most GOPers weren’t allowed to. Webb brought up one to only give amnesty to those who’ve been here 4+ years. Shot down. Hutchinson brought up any amendment requiring illegals to go home first. Shot down. Bond amendment brought up that would prevent illegals from getting a green card. Shot down. Dodd offered an amendment to provide more green cards for parents of citizens. Shot down. Menendez-Obama-Feingold offer an amendment to adjust the point system in favor of relatives. Shot down. Grassley is allowed an amendment but no time to debate it, then…..Shot down. A few others in there too. But basically the jist of it is, is that unless the pro-amnesty “Masters of the Universe” decided it was going to be in the clay pigeon amendment, it wasn’t going nowhere.

Finally an amendment was offered by Baucus, and it was not shot down, basically forcing a stalemate and now the Senate can’t move forward without everyone’s agreement. So it sounds like we’re moving to a cloture vote early Thursday morning, probably around 10:30 AM ET.

Cloture

So cloture passed 64 - 35 last time, so we only need 5 votes to change hands, and basically here are some of the people we’re counting on for those votes.

Yeah, so from the sounds of it all of them are on the fence, some more than others.

Some that do sound like they’re definitely switching sides include Burr, Nelson, Bond and Domenici. That brings the total voting for cloture down to 60. If just one more decides to, this thing is dead. Coleman I’m looking at you!!!

But from the sounds of it, Coleman is convinced that his precious sanctuary cities amendment is enough to make this piece of shit smell better. Guess what Norm, it’s not, get over yourself. However, if Norm does get the scent that this thing is gonna fail anyway, he’ll switch to save his political hide. Basically he’s looking out for himself and himself only here.

Several of the other Senators listed above had expressed reservations on it as well. Brownback has talked against it. Ever since people stopped donating to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, it’s head Senator Ensign has been feeling a little exposed…although word is there have been some political bribery attempts behind the scenes. Webb has waffled but it sounds like he’s leaning towards cloture.

Basically the big hitch here is alot of Senators have said they’ve vote for it only if a few amendments get voted on. Well since they couldn’t kill Baucus’ amendment, Reid got scared and they’re not going to consider any more amendments until after the cloture vote. Which means those Senators have to make a choice. Amnesty or No Amnesty.

Prediction

If I had to make a prediction, I’d say this thing is failing tomorrow. I’m not exactly alone in this prediction, but my gut tells me it’s gonna fall. Right now we’re sitting where one vote makes a difference and there are half a dozen Senators waffling.

Plus if this thing passes cloture with 60 votes, every single Senator that voted for cloture will get hit with ads claiming they were the deciding vote and decided not to kill the bill.

And if any of them get the sense that this thing is failing they aren’t gonna want to get stuck with the check and will probably vote against it as well. So it won’t just fail by one. It’ll either pass by a slim margin, or fail by several votes. But I’m sticking with that it’ll fail by several….hopefully that’s not just wishful thinking.

UPDATE : Webb just indicated he’s “definitely a probably no” on cloture. What the hell does that mean??

UPDATE : Hawkins just talked to his Senate source again, and got more info on Webb

From there, he noted that James Webb has told multiple senators that he voted in favor of the first cloture vote because he had his arm twisted, but he didn’t like how he was treated, and had no intention of voting for the second one. Still, he said don’t count Webb as a definite vote against cloture because he might get his arm twisted again.

Anyone got a spare spine they can send to him via next-day mail?? Check out the rest of Hawkins post of information he got from his source, lots of good information in there. Plus this source has generally been pretty reliable, and whoever it is I owe them at least a beer.

Real life interceded.

More specifically I couldn’t babysit what the federal governmental folks where doing in Washington, because I was meeting with my own group of federal governmental folk here.  Or more generally I was in meetings with our customer all day.  Trying to get caught up with what I’ve missed and will try to put together a summary of todays events later on.

However, it sounds like quite a few Senators who voted for cloture but weren’t real enthusiastic on it, may be switching sides now.  Or more specifically they’ve been feeling the pressure from you.  Keep it up.  Sounds like there is a very real chance that cloture tomorrow is already a dead toss-up.  Reportedly Coleman is somewhat wavering but still appears likely to vote for cloture.  Figures….apparently he doesn’t like his job very much.

Despite losing the cloture vote today, the day was not a complete loss.  Cloture was only lost by five votes and according to numerous sources there are at least that many Senators privately saying that while they voted for cloture, they don’t like the bill and probably will not vote for the next cloture on Thursday.

Now obviously today’s vote was our first and best chance to defeat the bill, but focus must now be directed towards the next hurdle.  Which means we need to switch some of those that voted yes, to vote no.  Realisitically this should not be hard to do if some of them are already having reservations.

If nothing else, today has mobilized voters to an even greater extent.  Many people, conservatives especially, are pissed off and letting their Senators know.  The reaction has been huge by all accounts, and it is my hope that the Senators who voted for cloture are hearing all of this and realizing that by voting for cloture they just invited a primary challenge for them the next time around.

I sincerely believe that the anti-amnesty crowd still has the momentum, it just wasn’t quite enough to get us over the hurdle today.  But hopefully this groundswell today’s cloture caused will help us build enough that on Thursday we will have enough.

Certainly our cause was given a huge boost today by the Republicans of the US House of Representatives.  In a meeting today, despite fevered attempts by a few to prevent it, House Republicans  voted 114 to 23 for a non-binding motion to express their disapproval of the Senate bill.  Now admittedly it is non-binding, but it certainly paints the picture that the House is going to be even harder than the Senate.    And it might finally convince some of the wavering Senators that this rickety gallows of a bill is not the place they should hang their political futures from.  And keep in mind this was a secret ballot…meaning that almost certainly some of those 23 would vote otherwise if they had to answer to the public and other legislators.

HOWEVER, there are also reasons to be in a more somber mood, if you’re not already there.  Quite a few pundits have noted that bill pretty much destroys any faith the public had in Congress.  A Congress they already had no confidence in ignored their wishes and forced through a bill that not only did they not want, but also hurt them tremendously.  Both Stanley Kurtz at NRO and Bryan at HotAir, amongst others I can’t remember, wrote excellent pieces on exactly that.

There are some that are almost naively optimistic that if we just wait long enough, we can improve this with amendments.  What they don’t understand is that this bill will NOT be improved.  The only amendments being allowed are those agreed upon in backroom negotiations amongst the pro-amnesty crowd.  Rather than honest debate, we’re starting a staged mock debate.  Pro-Amnesty senators are attempting to sell this bill to the masses by pretending they are participating in a democratic process, and it’s said to see that some people are believing them.  And despite optimistic beliefs, none of the approved amendments are going to even come close to making this bill palatable.

So while this bill will almost certainly die in the House, I would like it to die in the Senate so I can at least pretend I’m not completely disgusted at the actions of my wayward Senator.   And if in fact, he is the guy up for election for Senate in MN in 08, I can swallow my vomit long enough to mark his name rather than just leave it blank.

I am not holding my breath.

Throughout my life, during conversations I’ve often find myself drawn to small, seemingly insignificant, comments that are casually stated and I’m sure to most forgotten about. But often enough, they are keys to the internal dialogue that happens in everyone’s head, before the intellectual and societal filters happen.

Often times these comments you consider off-handed and insignificant are also considered so by their speaker and as such pay less attention to what and how they say something. If you pay attention to them, they can serve as road signs to what an individual is really thinking, regardless of what they are actually saying.

It should be of no surprise that this is particularly useful in politics and wow, I came across a doozy today.

In a statement, where Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is trying to convince us of the laughable notion that the federal government really is trying to enforce current immigration laws, he made the following statement:

“We’re living in a world in which lettuce and fruit are not being picked because we are enforcing the law.”

Catch it?

While the rest of us are worried about national security, jobs, wages, crime, our health and educational systems, social ills, etc, the White House is worried if lettuce and fruit is spoiling in the fields.

It is more important that the price of lettuce does not go up 2 cents, than if we just legalized the next Mohammad Atta. It’s more important that some fruit farmer be able to cheat the system and hire cheap labor than it is if uneducated native workers have to go on welfare because they can’t get a decent paying job. It’s more important to just ignore the crime than it is to enforce it.

With governments like this, who needs to worry about Al Qaeda?

NOTE: And yes, it’s probably also worth noting Bush’s freudian slip from earlier today…

“You know, I’ve heard all the rhetoric — you’ve heard it, too — about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you’ve got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that.”

I know I know, it’s not what he meant to say, although I hope to have more on that later today.  And I’m sure in HIS mind, this isn’t amnesty, but it does serve as an amusing quote for everyone else that knows that this IS amnesty.  And like I said, I hope to write on that more later….for now, real life intercedes.

The Senate actually had to go into hiding recess to finish this monstrosity up. Certainly they couldn’t allow anyone to criticize their precious bill…after all that would be free speech and a symptom of a representative democracy. And we certainly can’t have that in Washington DC!!!

Instead, they retreated back into hiding to write up this 373 page amendment. Which will be voted on in less than 48 hours. Considering the amount of bullshit politicians are legally obligated to spew in a given day, anyone think any of the Senators will actually have time to read it all within 48 hours?? If so, I have ski resort in Arizona to sell you. Great deal, just think of all the cheap labor just a couple miles away.

Anyone I have a copy of the amendment and have uploaded it to my servers. You can get a copy here.

UPDATE : I had hoped to be able to start reading through this amendment later tonite and point out some of the critical points, and I still hope to do that. However, for the time being it looks like Capt. Ed has already started doing that and at the time of this posting has already found three “items of interest“. So check em out, and hopefully later today I’ll have my own list.

UPDATE : The clay pigeon amendment is now searchable and linkable thanks to NZ Bear, who does so much and receives so little credit. Ultimately what we need now is hundreds of internet skeet shooters to pick this thing apart. If you spot something interesting, leave a note in the comments or email me.

Amnesty Cloture Passed 64 - 35 - 1.  Here’s how everyone voteed

Our “favorite” senator Coleman voted for amnesty.  So keep that in mind next time you hear him make the laughable claim that he is against amnesty.  Basically what he is saying is he thinks you’re stupid to believe anything he says despite the fact that his voting record states otherwise.

Unreal.  Guys, when you are writing press releases you might want to take into account what the hell else is going on in the world when you choose your wording.

For example, the MN GOP just released the following press release:

Senator Coleman Stands Up For Workers

St. Paul- Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Ron Carey today issued
the following statement regarding Senator Norm Coleman’s vote against
the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act.”

“Senator Coleman deserves great praise for protecting the fundamental
right of workers to cast a ballot in secret.  While the big union bosses
won’t like it, hard working Americans shouldn’t be punished for Democrat
political paybacks.”

Stood up for the worker??? And that promptly abandoned them (and the rest of America) by voting for cloture on Amnesty.

Congrats Coleman, you just fucked up good.  According to your own press secretary,  calls to your office have been 95% against amnesty yet you are still voting for it.  And yes, a vote for cloture is a vote for amnesty as you well know.  I know you think we’re idiots and don’t understand the difference.

Was the 2008 really going to be that easy for you??? Running against Franken/Ciresi was going to be so easy that you decided to piss off anyone and everyone that might support you??  You decided to encourage primary challengers?? You decided you didn’t need campaign donations??

Coleman, as a conservative, I can easily say you’ll never see another dollar, or minute of my time come your way.  As a GOP delegate, I can easily say you’ll never get a vote for me in any primary I attend.  And as a Minnesota voter, I have to admit, even my vote in a general election is in jeopardy.  I understand the theory that voting for a conservative is always better, but to betray us on an issue this critical to our future trumps that.

Good freaking luck Coleman….you’re gonna need it.  I’m not the only one pissed off, just one of the most vocal ones.

Here are the amendments that will be included in the clay pigeon amendment later today

Democratic Amendments

• Dodd-Menendez S.A. 1199: would increase the annual cap on green cards for parents and extend the parent visitor visa.
• Webb S.A. 1313: Community ties for [amnesty]
• Baucus-Tester S.A. 1236: would strike all reference[s] to REAL ID.
• Sanders-Grassley S.A. 1332 : prohibits companies that have announced mass lay-offs from receiving any new visas, unless these companies could prove that overall employment at their companies would not be reduced by these lay-offs.
• Byrd-Gregg-Cochran S.A. 1344: adds a $500 fee to obtain [amnesty] and sets aside the revenues collected in order to fund border and interior enforcement.
• Menendez-Obama-Feingold S.A. 1317: increases family points in merit system
• Brown S.A. 1340: requires that before employers can be approved to employ Y-1 workers, they must have listed the specific job opportunity with the state employment service agency.
• McCaskill S.A. 1468: increases ban on federal contracts, grants or cooperative agreements to employers who are repeat violators of hiring immigrants who are not authorized to work
• Levin-Brownback S.A.1486: gives access to Iraqis to apply for refugee status under existing U.S. law.
• Leahy S.A. 1386: protect scholars who have been persecuted in their home countries on account of their beliefs, scholarship, or identity.
• Schumer: provides for tamper-proof biometric social security cards
• Boxer S.A. 1198: reduces Y visa cap by number of Y workers who overstay

Republican Amendments

• Alexander S.A. 1161: requires DHS and the Department of State to notify a foreign embassy when one of their nationals has become a U.S. citizen
• Bond S.A. 1255: prohibits green cards for [illegal aliens granted amnesty]
• Coleman S.A. 1473: outlaws state and local policies that prevent public officials ­ including police and health and safety workers (except for emergency medical assistance)­from inquiring about the immigration status of those they serve if there is “probable cause” to believe the individual being questioned is undocumented.
• Domenici S.A. 1335/1258: increases Federal judgeships
• Ensign S.A. 1490: redetermines work history for current beneficiaries of social security depending on their citizenship status
• Graham S.A. 1465: enforcement.  Still being drafted.
• Grassley-Baucus-Obama S.A. 1441: strikes and replaces Title III on employer enforcement
• Hutchinson S.A. 1440: changes the “touchback” requirement from the time of applying for adjustment of status, as it currently stands in the Senate proposed bill, to the time of applying for the Z visa.  Increases the number of individuals required to touchback
• Thune S.A. 1174: prevents [illegal aliens] from [being granted amnesty] until all triggers have been met.
• Chambliss S.A. 1318: Totalization agreements
• Isakson S.A. 1282: Preemption/Home Depot
• Graham: Criminal penalties/mandatory minimums for overstays

Courtesy of NumbersUSA.

Sure some of these are improvements, but none of them remove Section 601 of the bill, which is the section that grants amnesty to illegals so they don’t fix one of the biggest flaws of the bill.

Plus as Senator Sessions has pointed out, there are multiple other very major loopholes in this legislation.  I don’t see an amendment above that would realistically address any of them.

This bill happens today!! Make your calls now!!