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The Iraq War Supplemental Bill was up for consideration, as was the AgJobs amnesty amendment added to it by Senator Feinstein and Senator Craig.  Fortunately, the Senate never even had to put it to a vote, as Senator Menendez make a point of order that Senator Rule 16 prohibits legislating policy in an appropriations bills.

So while this amendment was basically ruled non-germane, it was for a completely different reason that one would think.  Either way amnesty was once again averted at the last minute.

Of course that doesn’t mean that many Senators earned a complete FAIL when it comes to immigration enforcement.  Ten Senators signed a letter to Senator Reid indicating they were opposed to the amnesty amendment and that if tried to go forward with it, there would be a rigorous debate on immigration.

This was a chance for Senators to go on record as being solid supporters of immigration enforcement.  Only ten Senators passed the test, those Senators are:

• John Barrasso
• Jim Bunning
• Saxby Chambliss
• Tom Coburn
• Elizabeth Dole
• James Inhofe
• Chuck Grassley
• Jeff Sessions
• David Vitter
• Some Senator who obviously failed penmanship

There are two senators who are definitely missing from that list…..both of Minnesota’s Senators, Coleman and Klobuchar.  While Coleman has claimed in the past that he takes immigration seriously he repeatedly skips every chance to prove it.

Since the second-generation iPhone is due to be released on June 9th, I figured this might be a nice ad to throw up.

The Number Four dose of your Daily STP….featuring it’s headlining song….

In the totalitarian world described in the novel 1984, by George Orwell, the ruling party controls the thought of people by controlling what they can say. This is accomplished by modifying the language so that certain concepts can no longer be expressed. Without a way to express them, certain ideas and events just die off.

In a way, Obama has made himself the true 1984 candidate. Since the start of his candidacy he has sought to control what can be discussed. Everything is repeatedly declared a distraction and therefore off limits for discussion.

It started off simply enough. Things like his family and his physical features were off limits. Fair enough. But it has long since progressed beyond the point of ridiculous.

Soon enough we couldn’t even talk about about issues HE talked about. Then we couldn’t talk about close personal friends/advisors/mentors of his. Now the truly ludicrous….when he sends his wife out to make campaign speeches, we’re not even allowed to talk about what she says.

By repeatedly declaring anything that might even remotely cast him in an unflattering light, he repeats the methods employed by the ruling party of Oceania. By controlling what people can say, he controls what people can think. Not exactly the methods normally employed by a democratic leader, nor is it emblematic of “hope”….although to his credit it is certainly “change”.

Of course all of this would merely be amusing and annoying, if not for the fact that the GOP seems to be playing along with this game. How letting you opponent control every variable of the debate benefits you or anyone, is beyond me. But it certainly does not give me any hope that the GOP has any chance of turning around their abysmal performance of late.

If this sort of spineless appeasement by the GOP continues, I have little doubt that we’ll be saddled with a Obama presidency. And if he’s willing to impose an Orwellian order upon us when he’s just a candidate, imagine what he’s likely to do when he’s President with a supporting Democrat controlled congress.

Just another example of the GOP insistence upon forcing itself into extinction as a majority party.

[Crossposted at True North]

Ok sure, you’ll snicker and laugh at it now, but months from now, when we’re well into the presidential race and you’re sick and tired of politics, you’ll WISH, you’ll BEG for politics as amusing as this.

I wonder what sort of protection Russian politicians use?? Full body condoms or what??

Ok Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor and the prognosis does not sound good. While I disagree with Kennedy on virtually every issue, politics is far too trivial of a matter to wish ill will upon another human being.

Much to the chagrin of my family and loved ones, I’ve long considered medicine to be “guesswork in a lab coat”. So let’s hope that as usual the doctors don’t know what the hell they are talking about and he pulls through.

Of course I would also hope that this experience changes him and he sees the fault in liberalism and that politics isn’t about creating an entire segment of society dependent on government, but rather allowing people to control their own destiny.

Perhaps both wishes are too much to ask for, but I wish them anyway.

This one is straight from the Vatican gift shop….Tripping On A Hole In A Paper Heart

Heh, time for some linky love from Kevin, along with the usual snide commentary that may or may not have anything to do with anything.

Oh look at that….they’re performing sex change operations on 7-year olds now.  Cue your standard rant about how the world is going to hell in an Amish woven hand basket.

Ted Kennedy is recovering from having two seizures this weekend. Doctors are doing tests to find out the reasons for the seizures. Both a heart attack and a stroke have been ruled out since Teddy does not have the required organs. Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment.

McCain gave a major speech last week on basically how he envisions his first term to go. I’m still waiting for someone to give the conservative rebuttal.

It appears rather hip lately to tell they GOP they are a bunch of incompetent morons, despite this being a little like explaining that the sky is blue and water is wet. Also popular is explaining how the GOP can change it. Of course, conservatives have been writing articles like this since 2006 and we all see how that’s gone.

Want to know how the American Conservative Union has rated your Representative or Senator?? Well they have their new ratings here.

Any doubt that the American people are still avidly opposed to amnesty or have changed their views on illegal immigration?? Consider those doubts disproven.

An excellent rundown of all the “benefits” of ethanol.

The best pron distribution system ever invented by Al Gore, is now threatening to collapse under the weight of it’s own success…..namely widespread sharing of videos. Anyone want to place a bet on what the most popular video topic is???

How NOT to build a Navy ship. Full Disclosure…I work for one of the defense contractors mentioned. But this type of situation is pretty common really. For some reason, defense contractors have an absolute hard-on for Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology, despite the fact that it’s seldom acceptable for military use. Part of this is a desire to reach private industry level efficiency, which is fairly unrealistic. It also doesn’t help that the government loves to re-design on the fly and change requirements well into the development process. This situation is the norm, not the exception.

Canada has lost track of over 41,000 illegal aliens. I suppose I probably should take some comfort in the fact that we’re apparently not the only incompetent boobs in this field, but I don’t.

McCain’s newest ad. Watch it and then explain to me how it’s not equally applicable to EVERY candidate for any federal office. Admirable goals sure, but as they say, the devil is always in the details. And with considering the schmucks McCain has as advisors, I’m not entirely certain the devil himself isn’t actually crafting those details.

I believe this may be the first electoral vote breakdown prediction of the season. My how the time goes by. Before you know it we’ll be reading the first post-mortem “How we fucked up….again” by conservative columnists.

With polar bears apparently now a threatened species, I think this is probably relevant. Polar ice is now the thickest it’s been for this time of year in 25 years.

Since the summer driving season is approaching, it will soon be considered fashionable to talk about oil company price gouging and record profits and blah blah blah. It’s probably worth remembering how an oil company’s finances match up against five different tech companies. I’m sure Bill Gates will be called before a congressional committee investigating price gouging any time now.

It’s another edition of Your Daily STP.  This time it’s one of their earlier songs, Vasoline.

It’d also like to add that 14 years later, I still have no clue what the hell this song is supposed to be about…

Back from the dead is the latest attempt at amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. As I wrote last week, Senator Dianne Feinsten (D-CA) has authored an amendment, that grants amnesty to “agricultural workers”.

Basically here’s what it boils down to:

• Grants “emergency worker status” (essentially equivalent to a green card) to 1.35 million illegal aliens for five years
• Also grants amnesty to their families (bringing the total to five million or so)
• Gives “work authorization” to illegal aliens
• Gives “travel authorization” to illegal aliens and their families
• Gives illegal aliens legal protection from prosecution for pretty much any crime they probably had to commit to get into the country and stay here as long as they have, including identity theft

In order to qualify an illegal alien must show he or she was employed for at least 150 days last year or earned at least $7000 in the 48 months before December 31st, 2007. The illegal alien pays a fee of $250.00 and then they receive an ID card demonstrating his/her legal status.

However, all is not lost. There are reports that Senator Vitter will offer an amendment to strike AgJobs from the Supplemental Funding Bill when it hits the floor. I’ve heard that it’s scheduled to hit the floor on Wednesday. We need to make sure all Senators hear from their constituents that they should be voting for Vitter’s amendment.

It’s time to let our Senators we don’t want ANY amnesty….give your Senator a call!

Senator Coleman - (202) 224-5641
Senator Klobuchar - (202) 224-3244

Otherwise the Senate Switchboard can be reached at (202) 224-3121.

[Crossposted at True North]