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WASHINGTON - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to limit debate on election-year immigration legislation, clearing the way for final passage later this week of a bill that calls for tougher border security as well as an eventual chance at citizenship for millions of men and women in the country illegally. The vote to advance the measure was 73-25, 13 more than the 60 needed. Despite the controversy surrounding the bill, the outcome was not a surprise. Even some of the bill's opponents said they were satisfied they had been given ample opportunity over past week to try and give the...

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Tuesday to fine employers who hire illegal immigrants up to $20,000 for each unauthorized worker, providing teeth to a broad immigration bill before sending it to a final vote later this week. Employers would have to check Social Security numbers and the immigration status of all new hires within 18 months after money is provided to the Homeland Security Department to expand the electronic system for screening workers. "This is probably the single most important thing we can do in terms of reducing the inflow of undocumented workers, making sure we can enforce in a...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - With rising oil prices and record oil company profits serving as a backdrop, the Senate moved one step closer on Thursday to allow companies to drill for oil and gas in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Senate beat back an amendment offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to strike language from a pending budget reconciliation bill that would open the region to producers. The amendment failed in a vote of 48-51. Cantwell said the budget bill provided a "sweetheart deal" for the oil industry, which has long sought access to the oil and natural gas supplies...

Why Jews Must Vote for President Bush Joan Swirsky Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004 American Jews are overwhelmingly Democrats and liberals, as their voting record over the past 60-plus years demonstrates. The simple explanation is that upon arriving in the land of the brave and the free after their near annihilation in the Holocaust, the values they held dearest, the values that Moses handed the first monotheists in human history through God – of life, family, education, social responsibility, equality in the eyes of the law, and peace – finally seemed realizable. So it is no wonder that their arrival at...

Since February I have been ranting that the Veteran community would eventually, inevitably, become the prime contributor to the destruction of the John Kerry campaign. For months, I have been the Lone Ranger and viewed as a moderately amusing gadfly. Guess what? I was right in February, and March, and April, and May. I was right in June, July, and August…and despite what smarter, more insightful and ‘connected’ pundits maintain, Kerry is TOAST! In March I wrote, “ Friends and foes in the punditry class have been pontificating ad nauseam, manipulating a kaleidoscope of factoids and data to support whatever...

"John Kerry ran out of credibility when he voted against funds to support the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with critical supplies like body armor and ammunition. His indecision, vacillation and lack of leadership on the War on Terror are troubling to veterans and to all voters. It's no wonder the Democratic leader in the Senate is running ads showing him embracing the President's leadership in the War on Terror." Steve Schmidt, Bush-Cheney '04 Spokesman John Kerry's Own Party Is Criticizing His Approach To The War On Terror In An Effort To Distance Himself From John Kerry, Senate Minority...

The Kerry campaign is misleading Americans and distorting the facts of his intelligence record. Their flailing attacks and efforts to distract from his record do not change the facts. John Kerry missed 76 percent of Senate Intelligence meetings during his time on the Committee (1993-2000). John Kerry also proposed $6 billion in across the board intelligence cuts in 1994, the year after the first bombing of the World Trade Center. Kerry's Poor Attendance John Kerry skipped 38 of 49 public intelligence hearings during his time on the Senate Intelligence Committee. This count is based on records where Kerry's name was...

Today's Remarks By John Kerry It is interesting to note that John Kerry's delivered remarks today differed in an important way from his prepared remarks. As Delivered:"Our plan will cut the deficit in half by four years – the same thing that we set out to do in 1993, and I was there and I voted for it, I know how we did it. And we're going to end the tax giveaways that are nothing more than corporate welfare." As Prepared:"Our plan will cut the deficit in half in four years by ending tax giveaways that are nothing more than...

"John Kerry first ran for the Senate on a platform that included canceling the B-2 bomber, and he has repeatedly voted against it in Congress. His assertion that Missouri "won't have to worry" about the B-2 bombers at Whiteman Air Force Base has no credibility, given his votes against the B-2 and his vote against funding for troops at war." -Danny Diaz, Bush-Cheney '04 Spokesman Kerry Proposed The Cancellation Of The B-2 Bomber In 1984 And Voted Against Funding The B-2 Bomber At Least 17 Times, In 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996. Whiteman AFB, Home Of B-2...

"John Kerry's campaign trail amnesia is either a disconcerting departure from his record and votes or a willful effort to deceive the voters of America's heartland. When the Senator ranked most liberal in Congress says he represents 'conservative values,' when someone who supports the death tax says he's looking out for family farmers, when someone who gets an F from the NRA says he supports hunters, and when someone who votes against medical liability reform says he's going to lower health care costs, the American people need to think twice about whether they can trust a candidate who changes...