Is that stamp worth something as a collector's item? I couldn't help but notice that they spelled the title word on top backwards. (That's the word on the top-left of the two vertical towers on the stamp.)
Posted on 05/25/2006 2:46:41 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Legislation offering millions of illegal immigrants a chance at U.S. citizenship moved to the brink of Senate passage Thursday, a rare reach across party lines and a triumph for President Bush.
Majority Leader Bill Frist called for swift talks with the House, which has passed its own version, in what loomed as an arduous search for compromise.
Underscoring bipartisan support in the Senate, Frist, R-Tenn., and Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada announced in advance they would support the measure. It was months in the drafting and narrowly survived several brushes with disaster across more than a week of debate.
The legislation calls for stronger border security, a new guest worker program and — most controversially — provisions giving many of the illegal immigrants in the country an eventual chance to become citizens. Another provision would establish a new system to verify the legal status of workers, and punish employers who knowingly hire illegal laborers.
Conservatives attacked the bill to the end after trying unsuccessfully to pick it apart with amendments.
"This bill will not secure our borders," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., one of the most persistent critics.
"This is amnesty," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who tried last week to strip out provisions relating to citizenship.
Together, Sessions and Vitter echoed the views of numerous House Republicans, many of whom have vigorously denounced the Senate bill as well as Bush's call for a "comprehensive approach" to the issue.
That portended difficult compromise talks in the shadow of midterm elections, at a time when Bush's poll ratings are low, congressional Republicans are concerned and Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances at the polls.
For now, supporters of the Senate bill said they intended to savor their victory. Peppered with questions about the compromise talks ahead, Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said, "I'm going to celebrate here."
The House bill, which passed on a largely party-line vote last year, is generally limited to border enforcement. It would make all illegal immigrants subject to felony charges and it contains no provision for either a new temporary worker program or citizenship for men, women and children in the country unlawfully.
Frist said compromise talks should begin swiftly.
"I think it is important on this issue with millions of people coming across our borders illegally, not knowing who they are, where they are going or why they are coming," he said.
In contrast to the House measure, the Senate bill would mark the most far-reaching changes in immigration law in two decades. Built on compromise after painstaking compromise, it was designed to appeal to conservatives and others seeking tougher border enforcement; business interests eager for a steady supply of legal, low-wage labor; unions seeking enhanced protections for migrants who often toil in seasonal work the fields and Hispanics who are on the cusp of greater political power and determined to win a change in legal status for millions of illegal immigrants.
That last group — Hispanics — comprises the fastest growing segment of the electorate, and millions made their feelings clear in street demonstrations denouncing the House measure and calling for passage of a broader measure.
Bush played a prominent role in the run-up to passage. An Oval Office speech last week made explicit his support for the Senate's overall approach. A later trip to Arizona was designed to reassure conservatives about his commitment to stanching illegal immigration.
In more than a week of debate, the Senate made a series of changes in the legislation. Still, the key pillars were preserved when opponents failed to knock out the guest worker program or the citizenship provisions. A new program for 1.5 million temporary agricultural workers also survived.
To secure the borders, the measure calls for the hiring of an additional 1,000 new Border Patrol agents this year and 14,000 by 2011, and backs Bush's plan for a short-term deployment of National Guard troops to states along the Mexican Border. The bill calls for new surveillance equipment as well as the construction of 370 miles of triple-layered fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers.
The new guest worker program would admit 200,000 individuals a year. Once here, they would be permitted for the first time to petition on their own for a green card that confers legal permanent residency, a provision designed to reduce the potential for exploitation by employers.
A separate new program, a compromise between growers and unions, envisions admission of an estimated 1.5 million immigrant farm workers who may also apply for permanent residency
Even supporters of the bill conceded the three-tiered program related to illegal immigrants was complicated.
Those in the country unlawfully for five years or more would be permitted to remain, continue working and eventually apply for citizenship. They would be required to pay at least $3,250 in fines and fees, settle any back taxes and learn English.
Illegal immigrants in the country for more than two years but less than five would be required to travel to a point of entry before re-entering the United States legally and beginning a lengthy process of seeking citizenship. They would be subject to the same fines, fees and other requirements as the longer-term immigrants.
An immigrant in the country illegally for less than two years would be required to leave with no guarantee of return.
A new electronic system for employee verification is designed to hold employers accountable for hiring decisions. It provides for maximum fines of $20,000 for each worker and possible jail time for repeat offenders.
A separate controversy erupted over a call to make English the national language. Supporters said it would leave all current rights in place. Detractors argued it could undermine an executive order that mandates assistance to individuals who receive services such as health care yet lack proficiency in English.
It feels to me like it did after the base was all geared up for the Nuclear Option and then the Gang of Fourteen agreed to let the filibuster rule stand as long as it was never used. I saw that as a cave by the Dems then, and I was in the minority, but I think it has been proven correct.
That is not to say that the gang, most notably McCain and Graham will not pay a price for their actions, but the logjam on judges was broken and the filibuster has not come into play since.
We are in a similar place today. As long as the House doesn't cave, we're ok. Since the House passed ANWR drilling today, that will be a great vote in the Senate to get the Rats obstructing energy policy when oil prices are high.
There is a lot of time left.
ping
Sounds right.
What happened? It was once the Demagogue Party that positioned itself as the party that stood to benefit by damaging the country. Now the same is true of the Republicans. Where do we turn?
And the Dems in the Senate will have to swallow drilling in Alaska [no leaks there] to lower fuel costs, as the House approved it. Good season of voting approaching.
and we'll post your bail for any punctuation additions to Chuckies appearance.
"The new guest worker program would admit 200,000 individuals a year."
I guess the 12 million+ here illegally aren't enought to do those jobs Americans supposedly do not want to do.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00157
See if your Senator sold you out.
AMEN to that! Time to send another Thank You email to both of them...
"Since the House passed ANWR drilling today, that will be a great vote in the Senate to get the Rats obstructing energy policy when oil prices are high."
I hope you include in "Rats" the Republican "Rats" who sold our Country out on illegal aliens today and will vote against drilling in ANWR,such as my Senator, Rat Coleman.
Is that stamp worth something as a collector's item? I couldn't help but notice that they spelled the title word on top backwards. (That's the word on the top-left of the two vertical towers on the stamp.)
I'm sorry, but your post is rational, and makes a sane argument. It is thus ruled pointless.
Consider the following gem, which arrived in my inbox today, courtesy of the local TV station's news department:
Well golly, it would make NON-citizens feel like SECOND-CLASS-citizens? I'd think that would be a major jump UP in rank for 'em!
LICENSE BILL
There's all kinds of information about us on our drivers licenses, and soon they might even tell whether or not we are U.S. citizens. There is now a bill pending in the state house that would put our citizenship status on our driver's licenses. Supporters say the bill would help with homeland security and other identification related issues. Critics of the bill say it could make people who are not U.S. citizens feel they are being treated like second-class citizens.
Good f'n GRIEF!
So now, we are supposed to make illegal aliens, who are getting licenses ILLEGALLY, "feel" like CITIZENS?
Do these morons even read what they write before they publish it?
"[It] could make people who are not U.S. citizens feel they are being treated like second-class citizens.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Many rank and file liberals, at least if they are union members or African American, are as anti-uncontrolled large scale immigration as are conservatives. It is no coincidence that the height of trade union power (1930-1970) took place at a period of low, controlled immigration. Likewise, the great advances of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s coincided with the low levels of foreign immigration of the period. During the periods of high immigration, labor union growth was thwarted by the ready availability of scab labor, often recent immigrants. As for the blacks, their share of the labor market was lost in the Northeast first to Irish and German immigrants and then to the 1880-1920 waves of Eastern and Southern Europeans. Not until the end of large scale immigration around 1920 did African Americans escape en masse from the rural poverty and harsh and vindictive white rule of the post-Reconstruction South. The economic expansion of the 1920s and the post-World War II era offered rural Southern blacks employment opportunities in the big cities of the Northeast and the Midwest.
However, union and black leadership have essentially sold out their constituencies for the liberal supported goal of large scale immigration.
There are only two possible reasons. They are either severely mentally ill, or, they have been TOLD how to vote, and are "only obeying orders."
Today, Sen. Jeff Sessions said that he's been approached by many Republican Senators, who confided in him that this is a BAD piece of work, yet, they are voting FOR it -- and, hoping that the House will save them from themselves!
Now, if anyone can come up with any third explanation for that kind of behavior -- something besides "mentally ill", or "just obeying orders" -- I'm all ears.
Frankly, my money's on the latter explanation. It's "how sausage is made" in that town.
We like to think of ourselves as "the base" -- but we kid ourselves. There are two bases -- us, the "voting base", and the other base -- the base comprised of those with political clout. The "money" base, if you will.
The "other base" -- the one with all the clout -- calls the shots. OUR "base" is given lots of rah-rah, and, if we get too uppity, we're told to "Shut up and VOTE!"
Other than that, we really do NOT count.
The Party figures it owns our votes -- and history has pretty much proven them correct on that score. Even Rove jokes about stuff like, "well where are they gonna go?" when asked about discontent among "the base".
The "other base" will continue to exercise its clout, and it's pretty obvious that they want this travesty to go through to completion, they intend to see it through, and they are NOT accustomed to NOT getting what they want.
And "our" Party is likewise not prone to denying the denizens of the "other base" that which they demand. After all, The Party can't very well boss them around like they intimidate us into "voting for the lesser of two evils", or "holding our nose and voting 'R'", or, the ace in the hole, "What are you gonna do, stay home, and let HILLARY get elected?"
Welcome to the gritty side of realpolitik. And yes, it sucks. Bigtime.
Ask Denny Hastert what it's like to "feel pressure" after taking a stand against this behemoth of an agenda.
It's gonna happen. You can make book on it. One way or another, this thing is gonna get hammered right up the national bung.
I would not count on the House defeating this amnesty bill. Remember how we were counting on the SCOTUS to overturn McCain's campaign finance bill? The media will be all over the repubs in the House and I would bet even money that they cave.
An inconvenience at best. It would take the remaining two years just to get the investigations under way. By that time, it would be moot.
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