This is an amazingly beautiful/consequential/scary/lovely article Nancy.

It's starting to get ugly now:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2540260

Oops! Forgot my manners. Yes, a very nice article indeed. Many thanks.

Shy,

these students are being told what to chant and say = " Your economy would collapse if we didn't do the work". Bull. THEIR economy in Mexico would collapse. The illegal immigrants send betweeen 17 and 20 billion dollars back to Mexico every year-mney NOT circulating in this economy - and more than Vicente Fox garners from oil export.
Why do you think he's pushing the illegal immigration!

This eclipse of March 29 is at 8 Aries opposite
"Vindemiatrix", the Star of Widowhood.

Beautiful and menacing, dark and brilliant. Superb writing, Nancy!
karen

beautiful writing indeed. Thank you Nancy.

Nancy, what an alarming article. It will be interesting to see what this eclipse brings to the world. It raises my concerns even more.

A Chance to Strike While the Irony Is Hot
by Steve Bhaerman

SI think we have a great opportunity to create a breakthrough in press coverage of the notorious Downing Street Memo, the “smoking gun” which proves the President purposely misled Americans into believing Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. This story has been largely ignored by the mainstream media, and is an issue that goes right to the core of the legitimacy of the war we seek to end -- and the legitimacy of this Administration.

A Chance to Be Effectively Proactive

For the past several months, I’ve watched progressives responding -- and all too often, merely reacting -- to the offensive onslaught of outrages on the part of an Administration that represents fewer than one third of Americans yet insists it has a “mandate.” (Swami says the only man these guys have a date with is Machiavelli.) The continuing war-without-end, the assault on social security, the draconian judicial appointees, the “nuclear option,” Revoltin’ Bolton, etc., etc. ... the more they play offense, the more progressives seem to be put on defense.

http://www.themetaarts.com/pages/oped.html

Pallas, along with the money that flows from our country and into Mexico's unchecked, it irks the hell out of me that the race card has been thrown into the mix.

How can we PATRIOTIC AMERICANS be racist for wanting our borders secured? Race plays no part in this debacle and I am insulted that it is being played out this way. It's not just white people who feel this way about illegals. Many hispanics I know including my sister in law and her family, who live in McAllen on the Tex-Mex border, want our borders secured. Also, my Hispanic friends in San Antonio and Dallas feel the same way. Not to mention the Hispanics in my neighborhod here in Houston.

Everyone here, regardless of race is being effected by the flow of illegal aliens into this country. All of us on the border states are seeing the problems first hand and something has got to stem the flow.

Maybe this will be the tip of the iceberg that brings along the race and class riots I have been "seeing" for the last few years. I thought Katrina would bring it, but this is adding gasoline to an already raging fire that is spreading rapidly.

Money is not free speech, and corporations are not people. Can we correct the laws that created this atrocity?

DILLINGHAM, Alaska — From Anchorage it takes 90 minutes on a propeller plane to reach this fishing village on the state's southwestern edge, a place where some people still make raincoats out of walrus intestine.

This is the Alaskan bush at its most remote. Here, tundra meets sea, and sea turns to ice for half the year. Scattered, almost hidden, in the terrain are some of the most isolated communities on American soil. People choose to live in outposts like Dillingham (pop. 2,400) for that reason: to be left alone.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-secure28mar28,0,2758659,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

What you said, Pat C.

Cy bear,

I'm in complete agreement - it seems when all else fails "throw race at them". they don't seem to know the difference or the necessity of LEGAL
IMMIGRATION as opposed to ILLEGAL immigration.
Dobbs' guests have been calling him a racist too.

He probably wouldn't make a bad president. Maybe he could be talked into starting a third party - FAST! At least he understands economics!

PAt,

" corporations are not people. Can we correct the laws that created this atrocity?"

Absolutely. I'm in complete agreement with that too. And have thought of it on and off. Howver, with the corporate supremes on the court now, I wonder what chance a challenge to the old law would have?

Junior was just on television and he looks terrible. Deep shadows under his eyes. The eclipse is in his 9th house opposing the midpoint
of his 3rd house Natal Neptune/Chiron.

Money is pouring out of the US towards its illegal occupation of, at the very least, Aftghanistan & Iraq... at the same time, money is pouring out of the US into Fox's Mexico thru the illegals that are occupying here. It's an abusive cycle of violence with the pluties/olies making out like bandits. Ohps. They ARE bandits.

Our old rules n' regs of functioning is probably over & will force "us" to find creative new ways to function... ones, which we have already! that don't require the tiresome old-time victimization of The Other. The Other is Us... literally... whether we enjoy it or not. There is one world & Gaia flows underneath fences & walls as if they don't exist except in the mentations of men's minds. ;O)

I want to be part of a country that is thoughtful and caring of all of it's people and all of it's neighbors. Many of my younger images are illusions that have been magnified by the takeover by the neocon/corporate hegemony. It's frightening and I worry for our older people and our young.

If the United States really cares, it would live by the standard that we all are our brother's keeper, both here and abroad. The people for the most part are coming here because they are desperate to feed themselves and their families, but coming here in huge numbers harms everyone. Each country must be held accountable for the devastation they do to their population, and be required to change that to a situation of health and promise. Promotion of everyone bonds people who in turn do all they can to change the row boat into a yacht.

It is the greed of a few that is creating this problem. This focus on racism on those people who are not, is a distraction from the real issue.

Once again, money is not free speech, and corporations are not people. Can we correct the laws that created this atrocity?

* Imperial overreach is accelerating the global decline of America - The disastrous foreign policies of the US have left it more isolated than ever, & China is standing by to take over

'Our power, then, has the grave liability of rendering our theories about the world immune from failure. But by becoming deaf to easily discerned warning signs, we may ignore long-term costs that result from our actions & dismiss reverses that shld lead to a re-exam of our goals & means."

These are the words of Henry Hyde, chairman of the Hse internatl relations committee & a [necroporn] congressman, in a recent speech. Hyde argues that such is the overweening power of the US that it may not hear or recognise the signals when its policy goes badly wrong, a thinly veiled reference to Iraq. He then takes issue with the idea that the US can export democracy around the world as deeply misguided & potentially dangerous.

He argues: "A broad & energetic promotion of democracy in other countries that will not enjoy our long-term & guiding presence may equate not to peace & stability but to revolution ... There is no evidence that we or anyone can guide from afar revolutions we have set in motion. We can more easily destabilise friends & others & give life to chaos & to avowed enemies than ensure outcomes in service of our interests & security."

It is clear that the US occupation of Iraq has been a disaster from almost every angle one can think of, most of all for the Iraqi people, not least for American foreign policy. The unpicking of the imperial logic that led to it has already commenced: Hyde's speech is an example, & so is Francis Fukuyama's new book "After the Neocons," a merciless critique of bush's foreign policy & the school of thot that lay behind it.

The war was a delayed product of the end of the cold war & the triumphalist mentality that imbued the neocons & eventually seduced the US. But triumphalism is a dangerous brew, more suited to intoxication than hard-headed analysis. And so it has proved. The US still has to reap the whirlwind for its stunning feat of imperial overreach. ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1741148,00.html

a MUST READ connecting the immigration debate and M3 secrecy....once again, no guarantee of validity, but certainly plausible with this gang of thugs....

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_21569.shtml

* 'If you start looking at them as humans, then how are you gonna kill them?'

They are a publicity nightmare for the US military: an ever-growing number of vets of the Iraq conflict who are campaigning against the war. To mark the 3rd anniversary of the invasion this mo, a grp of them marched on Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. Inigo Gilmore & Teresa Smith joined them.

At a press conf in a cavernous AL warehse, banners/posters are rolled out: "Abandon Iraq, not the Gulf coast!" A tall, white soldier steps forward in desert fatigues. "I was in Iraq when Katrina happened & I watched US citizens being washed ashore in New Orleans," he says. "War is oppression: we c/b setting up hosps right here. America is war-addicted. America is neglecting its poor." A black reporter from a Fox TV news affiliate, visibly stunned, whispers: "Wow! That guy's pretty opinionated." Clearly such talk, even 3 yrs after the Iraq invasion, is still rare. This, after all, is the Deep South & this soldier less than a year ago was proudly serving his nation in Iraq.

The soldier was engaged in no ordinary protest. Over 5 dys earlier this mo, around 200 vets, military families & survivors of hurricane Katrina walked 130 mi from Mobile AL to NOLA to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Iraq war. At its vanguard, Iraq Vets Against the War, a grp formed less than 2 yrs ago, whose very name has aroused intense hostility at the highest levels of the US military. ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1741942,00.html

Here is a nice summary of how one judge with one utterance "made" law that now seems to be carved in granite.
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html

Both Abramoff and his pahdnah, Kidan, got five years and 10 months. Plus, a huge ($21.5M, I think) fine. Wonder if the latter will be paid. Wonder why we don't have stiff penalties for people who rip-off other people in the magnitude that these creeps did.

No wonder Jr. was giddy this morning. Jackass didn't sing like he said he would. Another bullet dodged.

* Mercury Direct Debriefing

With Mercury direct as of yesterday, it’s time to play Sunday morning quarterback.

I predicted in an earlier posting that during Mercury’s retro thru Pisces, some embarrassing truths would come out about past [rez regime] dealings, particularly in regard to who our real enemies are. That turned out to be the case, & then some.

The most sensational revelation came during the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who faces the death penalty for his alleged connection to 9/11. FBI Agent Harry Samit told the court that he repeatedly notified his superiors in the mo prior to 9/11 that he suspected Moussaoui was part of a terrorist plot to fly an plane into a bldg, but that no one wld approve his request to get a warrant to search Moussaoui’s apt.

A growing number of people believe that [rez regime] knew about 9/11 & let it happen. (Some go further, saying that the powers behind the throne engineered the attack, ostensibly to get Americans to back a war in the Mid East, the real objective of which is oil.) It’s hard to know whether Samit’s superiors ignored him in response to higher orders, or whether they truly were ignorant. Either way, it’s not Osama bin Laden we need to be worrying about. We now have hard evidence that someone in the govt knew that an attack was imminent & didn’t act. This c/b just the tip of the iceberg.

A close 2nd for “best secret” came out of another criminal proceeding. Court papers filed by lawyers for I Lewis “Scooter” Libby, dick cheney’s former chief of staff, indicate that his trial on perjury charges cld become a major embarrassment for the WH. The documents themselves aired plenty of dirty laundry, incl evidence that high-level officials manipulated intelligence on WMDs to justifying invading Iraq. (Ironically, Libby might be telling the truth about not being the one who revealed the ID of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson to journalists.)

Speaking of Iraq, a report released by the Pentagon on Fri asserts that Russian spies in Baghdad obtained info from the [ameriCO] military command about the impending US invasion & relayed it to Saddam Hussein. Not only is this embarrassing to the WH, but it cld affect US relations with Russia. There definitely is going to be more to this story. ...
http://pisces-chronicles.blogspot.com/

Yup Shy. . .i'm dumbfounded. Abramoff received the minimum sentence: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5309501

Our psyches have become twisted by these profound injustices. There is not one good reason why someone of Abramoff's conduct and character should skate so easily. Yet Abramoff isn't the first and won't be the last. Most will pay little attention (except those involved) and yet how many so-called people of faith will pound their fists on the table about a hyped "immoral" preversity (take your pick: being gay, being liberal, being whatever). It doesn't make any damn sense at all. None.

I would say that abramoff getting the minimum sentence is no reason for the WH or congress to be rejoicing. Prosecutors must be ok with the info they are getting from him not to hold out for more time. Please remember that abramoff's sentencing today was for the wire fraud case in his purchase of gambling boats in Florida. He lied to a bank to get a loan for the purchase of SunCruz lines. This is not the big federal corruption case where he pleaded guilty to 3 charges and where numerous politicos may be implicated by info he is giving to prosecutors. Sentencing hasnt even been scheduled on those counts. And he is STILL cooperating with federal prosecutors in connection with those matters. Today's sentence could be reduced depending on the quality of his cooperation.

I do hope you're correct anonymous-poster (at 7:52 above).

Somebody tell me this ain't true:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002619.htm

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

keep in mind too, shylurker, that from the beginning the prosecutors on the fla case and the prosecutors on the corruption case have been in collaboration. The fat lady is still in the wings waiting to sing ;)

Cybear: No wonder Jr. was giddy this morning. Jackass didn't sing like he said he would. Another bullet dodged.

Cy: I'm sure Abramoff was using that to advantage to get a lighter sentence. besides Abramoff is a partisan first and con-artist second. If I recall correctly he changed his mind about selling those photos of him and Bush because he didn't want to give the Democrats any political ammunition.

Interesting tidbit from stevejudd.uk.co:
". . . the eclipse does resonate strongly with the US chart, and I would not be at all surprised to see radical change there, both financially and politically, in six or seven months time. I will comment further on the US chart at my next posting, there’s a lot coming up for that country in the near future."

From Oceanus:

For those interested in voicing an opinion over the direction of future research:

Guiding National Ocean Research Investment:

The Development of the Ocean Research Priorities Plan

The public comment period on the development of the Ocean Research Priorities Plan (ORPP) is now OPEN. We encourage all interested parties to review the planning document and provide input. http://ocean.ceq.gov/about/sup_jsost_public_comment.html

In addition to the public comment period, the National Science and Technology Council Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology is holding a public workshop on April 18-20, 2006 in Denver, CO, to solicit input and guidance from the ocean science communities on the development of the ORPP. http://ocean.ceq.gov/about/jsost_workshop/welcome.html

Called for in the U.S. Ocean Action Plan, the ORPP, in conjunction with a follow-on Implementation Strategy, will describe a vision for U.S. ocean science and technology, describe the challenges to be addressed, identify key themes, specify goals for each theme and a time frame for their achievement, and address implications for the use or prioritization of resources. The draft Ocean Research Priorities Plan will be formulated using the input from both the workshop and the public comment period,

Members from the research community, ocean educators, government representatives (federal, state, tribal, and local), industry groups, international representatives, non-governmental organizations, and any individuals interested in helping guide national ocean research are invited to attend the workshop and contribute to the public comment.

Contact: Shelby E. Walker, USGCRP/CCSP Office, 1717 Pennsylvania Ave., Suite 250, Washington, DC 20006. (T:202-419-3464; F:202-223-3064; e-mail:swalker@usgcrp.gov).

Exceptional writing and analysis Nancy. Thank you.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002273782

Gallup: In Shift, More Americans Now Call Themselves Democrats

Editor and Publisher

NEW YORK In a (perhaps) historic shift, more Americans now consider themselves Democrats than Republicans, the Gallup organization revealed today.

Republicans had gained the upper hand in recent years, but 33% of Americans, in the latest Gallup poll, now call themselves Democrats, with those favoring the GOP one point behind. But Gallup says this widens a bit more "once the leanings of Independents are taken into account."

Independents now make up 34% of the population. When asked if they lean in a certain direction, their answers pushed the Democrat numbers to 49% with Republicans at 42%. One year ago, the parties were dead even at 46% each.

This shift indicates, Gallup says, why its polls show Democrats leading in this year's congressional races.

The latest poll was taken from January to March 2006, with a national sample of about 1,000 adults.

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,70507-0.html?tw=wn_politics_1

America's Most Polluted Cities

U.S. cities continue to pollute at a great rate. Still, to put this in perspective, they are all better than Chinese cities that hold the title of the world's worst. The Chinese wrested that title from Mexico City -- since all 10 in China are more polluted than Mexico's capital.
China's dilemma is that it is caught between its response to outsourcing needs by Western nations (and their own industrial expansion) and its inability to contain the harmful emissions all this activity generates -- from smokestacks to trucks, buses, construction equipment and, now, an increasing number of automobiles.

There is no way to disassociate the state of air quality and the efficiency of transportation and its infrastructure. Trucks, buses and, most particularly, off-road vehicles contribute a large portion of the harmful pollutants. Their diesel emissions are a major source of both ozone and particle pollution. By 2010, in the U.S. these vehicles must by Environmental Protection Agency standards produce 95 percent less pollution than they do today. Smog reduces visibility and adds significantly to driving hazards and delay. Logistics costs as a measure against GDP are more than three times higher in China than in the United States.

More...

Hurry. Go Vote
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

"Do you believe that the illegal employers of the 11 million to 20 million illegal aliens in the United States also should be granted amnesty? "

Cybear
you said

"No wonder Jr. was giddy this morning. Jackass didn't sing like he said he would. Another bullet dodged."

Don't bet on that Cybear. Fitzgerald has readied a new grandjury and has prepared more indictments - I seem to remember the name Stephen Hadley being bandied about as one of the next and there are more.

Maybe, just maybe, Fitzgerald understands that he's the only special prosecutor to be named and the thugs are blocking all others - and that it is up to him to do what must be done for this country. For sure he's thought about it. A lot.

The Left Coaster

Tuesday :: Mar 28, 2006

Is The GOP Stepping Back From The Political Abyss On Immigration?

by Steve Soto

After seeing signs that the Catholic Church and young Latino voters would turn against the GOP this November if the party attempted to criminalize immigrants and those who help them, some of the most strident voices for a tough immigration bill are getting religion. The Washington Post reports in tomorrow’s edition that possibly 12 GOP senators will vote with Senate Democrats to pass the Judiciary Committee bill that cleared Arlen Specter’s committee yesterday, which is largely built upon the McCain-Kennedy proposal. McCain is now of the impression that Bush will go along with his bill, and even House Republicans, after seeing the last two days of activity around the country and talking with border state experts about the downside to their extreme ideas, are signaling that they are willing to go along as well.

The only person who may still commit political suicide over this is Bill Frist, who apparently feels that he cannot allow Specter to substitute his bill for Frist's more extreme proposal if the GOP caucus isn’t with Specter. What Frist and the GOP caucus miss however is that they will lose huge politically this November if they let Specter, McCain, and the entire Democratic caucus beat their brains out over this for a couple of days. And the only person who will look like the imbecile that he is will be Frist himself.

It’s amazing what a couple million pissed-off Latinos, a united Democratic caucus, and the American Catholic Church can do to slap some reality into the GOP. And any issue where Grover Norquist paints Tom Tancredo as an extremist is good theater for the Democrats. Bush is at least smart enough to know when to accept soemthing that he may not totally like in order to stave off something worse this fall. Frist isn't even that smart.

Here's a related question: if Specter beats Frist on this issue, what happens when Specter confronts a weakened Frist on the NSA issue later?

More http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/007225.php

Talk Left

Sen. Durbin on Immigration Reform

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) made some great comments yesterday in the Senate on immigration reform and Sensenbrenner's bill. It's at page S2402 of The Congressional record, available on Thomas. Here's some of what he said:

It is an interesting story, as we watch the news reports, of the people who are gathering across the United States. Over 110,000, some say close to 200,000, came out in Chicago a few days ago; 500,000 in the city of Los Angeles. There is hardly a major city in America where people have not stepped forward because of their concern about this immigration bill.

Who are these people? They are people we always see but seldom come to know. They are our neighbors. They sit next to us in church; they send their kids to the same school as our kids. They probably cooked your breakfast this morning. They probably washed your dishes and cleaned your hotel room. They are watching your children at daycare and they are changing your aging mother's soiled bed in the nursing home. They make sure your putting green is perfect, and they stand for hours every day in a damp and cold place, watching a production line of chicken carcasses come by, so you can invite friends for a barbecue this weekend.

MORE... http://talkleft.com/new_archives/014408.html

Let Molly set your hair on fire:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0310-20.htm

Molly always sets my hair on fire!!!

Can this man be impeached?

http://www.observer.com/20060403/20060403_Joe_Conason_politics_joeconason.asp

Now this is different:
http://www.ericblumrich.com/ihr.html

Do you have BITS?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x789268

...but satisfying.

So that's what it's called.
I have it.

Well now don't THIS take everybody's plum pudding?!?

* Abramoff free, despite sentence

FORSAKING his trademark fedora for a baseball cap, lobbyist extraordinaire Jack Abramoff walked out of a FL courtroom, despite having just been sentenced to 5 yrs' jail for conspiracy/fraud.

Wearing a double-breasted suit & the cap, with his wife on his arm, the 1-time King of K St — Wash's lobbying centre — was allowed to stay free for the next few mos because of his co-operation with an investigation into the buying of congressmen. [And it's very apparently still doing it!!!!]

Abramoff told the court: "I am much chastened & profoundly remorseful. I can only hope that the Almighty & those whom I have wronged will forgive me my trespasses." [16-bucket gag...]

Walking free was not the only leniency granted Abramoff. His sentence of 5 yrs & 10 mos was the min permitted under sentencing guidelines. His co-conspirator Adam Kidan also got the min. They were, however, ordered to pay restitution of $US21.7 million ($A30.8 million).

[The bloated pink supremacist infantile males] were found guilty for a scam in which they faked a $US23 mn transaction that was made to look as if they were putting their own money into a venture to buy a series of floating casinos based off FL in order to obtain a $US60 million loan. Part of their sentencing deal is to co-operate with an investigation into the murder of the man [from which] they bot the casinos, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis. They have denied any involvement in the murder, for which 3 ["men"], incl one with connections to the NY Mafia, have been charged. ... http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/abramoff-free-despite-sentence/2006/03/30/1143441279604.html

* Frist hints strongly at WH run - Leaving 'terrible' post in Senate will help bid

Sen Majority Leader Bill Frist [whines] his high-profile job is a "terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible" post for seeking the 2008 [necroporn] prez nomination. Making it clear that a WH bid is all but certain, [Shaivo psychic] Frist [blubbered] that remaining in the Senate wld make a prez run impossible. Frist plans to step down when his 2nd term ends this yr. ... http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060330/NEWS0206/603300391/1016/NEWS02

Jo, I know you'd like to think your comment is true and get excited about the possibilities (see post below) ... I just see it as "the powers that be want to enslave us through weakening even more our citizenship and lower our living standards by flooding the market with cheap, and soon to be, legal cheap labor". Most Americans today don't know what the Bill of Rights are, so what do you think the Mexicans will think once they become citizens - they're used to following party bosses and the feudal system". Cubans love Bush (I'm here in Miami) because they don't have a clue about our democracy and how it works. And we're going to absorb 12-20M of them overnight? Give them the right to vote?????? And then those 12-20 million then have the right to bring their families over? Forget the border, they're all going to be living here! (Disclaimer, I am not anti-immigration - but the same way I couldn't have 10 people move into my house and just decide to stay without creating huge chaos in my life - I don't see how the U.S., with all the social problems we already have and the cutting and gutting of our social services can afford to do this. Legal immigration is fine to a limit and within what the country can absorb, illegals are not.

In the end it's all a show. Both the ruthugs and the demoliars want the same thing and they're just playing "good cop - bad cop" to achieve it. Notice that the real issue of whether they should be deported is swept under the rug and suddenly it's a done deal. Welcome to 12-20 million new citizens. Viola!

What's amazing, again, is that these "protests" were allowed and flags handed out - nobody got arrested or sent to jail - unlike anti-war protestors like Cindy Sheehan. So that in itself makes them (these "spontaneous" protests) very suspect. Mind you, I firmly believe in the right of citizens to protest their government, something which we citizens are no longer allowed to do as witnessed during the Republican convention in NYC in 2004 and since. Make no mistake. The gubmint wants this to happen so they create the illusion that it's spontaneous and lo and behold! A bill is passed. The People Spoke (only we haven't). Nothing is by chance or accident. It's ALL ORGANIZED. And they're all in COLLUSION! Nobody has had any reality slapped into them. It's all gone according to plan. What is amazing is just how fast they do all of this stuff. Snap the fingers and it's done! No real discussion, nothing. Smoke and mirrors and actors on a stage.

-------
Jo posted:

It’s amazing what a couple million pissed-off Latinos, a united Democratic caucus, and the American Catholic Church can do to slap some reality into the GOP. And any issue where Grover Norquist paints Tom Tancredo as an extremist is good theater for the Democrats. Bush is at least smart enough to know when to accept soemthing that he may not totally like in order to stave off something worse this fall. Frist isn't even that smart.

Joanna Oregon, the sort of fine Jack Abramoff got has been compared to finding a thief guilty of stealing a car, fining him the amount of change in the glove compartment, and allowing him to keep the car.

Oh, and the catholic church (I was raised catholic) altruistically helping immigrants? They NEED those latinos since their churches are emptying out. Let's not forget that the pastors handed out FLYERS IN CORAL GABLES AND THROUGHOUT SOUTH FLORIDA IN ALL THE PARISHES PRIOR TO THE LAST ELECTIONS WITH A CHECKLIST AND BASICALLY SAID ANYBODY WHO DIDN'T VOTE FOR BUSH WAS UNCATHOLIC! A FEW PEOPLE WALKED OUT. MOST DIDN'T. Put them in the same trash bin as the rethugs and demoliars. Sorry if I've offended.

After grilling Bush, Helen Thomas gets thousands of flowers
By Albert Eisele
The roses kept coming - and coming - and coming - to the Hearst Newspapers office in downtown Washington on Thursday, until they filled a large conference room to overflowing.

By the time the Federal Express delivery was complete, there were 108 dozen roses, nearly 1,300 in every color. They were the result of an e-mail campaign to show support for Hearst columnist Helen Thomas after she grilled President Bush about his Iraq policy at last week's White House news conference.

http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/033006/thomas.html

Just a reminder--The DEMOCRATS voted FOR the war--not one of these cowards had the cojones to back Feingold's censure--If they take back the house or the senate or both or even if Hillaryous Walmart Clinton wins the presidency their party will still be owned by the same corporate masters that own the republicans--at no other time in our history has this country needed a new Party more than now--Join the fight--welcome the struggle--it's only your future

w

Once actually years ago, my son was too young to work. So he and a buddy found that if they went out in the fields with the illigals,etc. they could work and make some spending money.

So I or my older daughter drove them out at dawn and dumpted them out to fend for themselves. We live where they work the fields in the winter. And it was quite plesent at dawn, but in the morning it rained and the temp. dropped about 20 degrees.

My daughter could not stand it and made some hot soup in a themous and took some warm clothes out to the field. She was horified. Here where all these people wet, cold, working as hard as they could at back breaking labor. We picked him up at dusk and I had to give him credit that he made it thru the day. But they paid by the rows of planting that they did, which was putting bulbs in the ground. Kind of a green side up job.

And this great spending money ended up in a bit of pocket change. Now if he had made any money, then I fear he would have gone back. But an illigal would have worked a bit faster and ended up with enought to buy a bag of rice and bag of beans and a bunk in some dirty cold company store type lodging. And had a buck left over to send back to his family and would have eagerly been back the next day.

Now something that people are missing in all this imigration thing is that these illigals are treated little more than slaves. If they don't jump when told to jump then some one will see that they are picked up by immigration.

Now the big thing is that the dollar compared to the peso means that that dollar, that would buy my son a cold drink, might feed a large family in peso's.

The second thing is that Mexico is not run by Fox, a US puppet. An oil rich country where the profet goes to the Texas oil men and those in the country that support them. An election is coming up and a socialist is leading the polls against Fox. AS most of the other countries in S. America the tide is turning from US puppet to independence and social reform.

In the mean time the value of the dollar is going down and the bottom may very well fall out.

So in 10 years or so those who are so anti imigration may be begging for the illigals, who find it does no longer pay to be a slave to the big US farm community. They will especially miss the illigals as they plunk down $5 or so for a small tomatoe. Times are a changing.