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Title: Pivotal Vote Looms on Immigration
Source:
AP
URL Source: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070626/D8Q0HN6G1.html
Published: Jun 26, 2007
Author: JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
Post Date: 2007-06-26 10:46:56 by Horse
Keywords: None
Views: 175
Comments: 12
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush encouraged the Senate on Tuesday to put aside bitter differences and pass a bill that would legalize millions of illegal immigrants. Bush appeared optimistic about winning a test vote Tuesday and the Senate's passage of the bill by week's end. "We'll be moving our attention to the House after the Senate passes this comprehensive piece of legislation," Bush told business leaders and representatives of religious, Hispanic and agricultural communities. "I think this is an historic opportunity for Congress to act." Joel Kaplan, Bush's deputy chief of staff, also was optimistic. "Our intelligence suggests that there will be the votes there," he said. Conservative critics who paint the measure as amnesty for lawbreakers, however, said their efforts to stop the legislation were gaining momentum. Bush's team is predicting victory Tuesday on the effort to allow the bill - among the president's top domestic priorities - to go forward. With GOP conservatives determined to block the legislation, backers need 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles and resurrect it Tuesday. Just 45 senators - only seven of them Republicans - supported such a move two weeks ago. Bush has mounted an unusually personal effort to diffuse bitter Republican opposition to the bill, appearing at a Senate party lunch earlier this month and dispatching two Cabinet secretaries to take up near-constant residence on Capitol Hill to push the compromise. Still, after a chaotic several weeks in which the measure survived several near-death experiences, it remains buffeted by intraparty divisions. Bush's aides say they are lobbying hard to persuade Republicans that the measure deserves support. "We're in the phase now, as (senators) head into the final tally of the votes, of making the case and explaining why we think the status quo is unacceptable," Kaplan said. Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Senate's top Democrat is hopeful that there will be enough converts to push the bill forward. Those against the plan to provide a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants were undeterred. "The enthusiasm for this bill, even the votes for this bill, have been eroding," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a leading critic. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said proponents are engaging in "arm-twisting" to corral support, and he appealed to a skeptical public to ratchet up pressure on their senators to kill it. "We do still have a shot to stop it, but it's only going to be if the American people raise the level of their voices in the next 24 hours," DeMint said. Bush called the measure a compromise. "In a good piece of legislation like this, and a difficult piece of legislation like this, one side doesn't get everything they want," he said. "It's a careful compromise." The legislation faces still more trials even if it scales its initial obstacle, with votes looming on amendments that could alter key parts of the measure. Another make-or-break test vote could come as early as Thursday. Several of the Republican amendments slated for votes would make the bill tougher on unlawful immigrants, while those by Democrats would make it easier on those seeking to immigrate legally based solely on family ties. Particularly worrisome to supporters, including the Bush administration, is a bipartisan amendment by Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., that would change the bill's new program for weeding out illegal employees from U.S. workplaces. The amendment would free employers from a mandate to check the identities of all their employees and require them to verify only new workers and those the government has a reason to believe are illegal immigrants. It would allow employees to present any state-issued drivers license as proof of identity, rather than requiring the nationally standardized "REAL ID," which some states have not adopted. Kaplan said the amendment is the only one the administration is actively lobbying against. "We've got our work cut out for us," he said. --- A text of the bill, S 1639, may be found at http://thomas.loc.gov
Poster Comment: Particularly worrisome to supporters, including the Bush administration, is a bipartisan amendment by Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., that would change the bill's new program for weeding out illegal employees from U.S. workplaces. The amendment would free employers from a mandate to check the identities of all their employees and require them to verify only new workers and those the government has a reason to believe are illegal immigrants. It would allow employees to present any state-issued drivers license as proof of identity, rather than requiring the nationally standardized "REAL ID," which some states have not adopted. This will not fly.
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#1. To: Horse (#0)
"Just keep running that play until you get it right!"
If this passes, it just might wake up the sheeple.
Congress will commence hearings on improving the retirement benefits of National Football League Players today. WTF?
Yeah, part of the new retirement program for former NFL players will be a guarenteed berth on "Dancing With the Stars."
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)
It's so good for biznezz too. I remember Larry Ellison of Oracle touting the national ID card (because obviously he's expecting Oracle to be the database), and he said Americans only have the illusion of privacy right now anyway. That was his argument. http://www.templetons.com/brad/oracard.html More ironic than funny: Ellison's family took its name (not that long ago) from Ellis Island. He wants his card to be "optional" for citizens who don't mind being interrogated and searched when they travel, but mandatory for immigrants.
Scott McNealy of Sun Micro said some years ago that people have no privacy due to technology anyhow. If the tech CEOs are saying this, you can bet it has been true for a while.
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.
And because they want it to be true, Ka-ch$ing! Ka-ch$ing!
1999. Watched him say it on TV. "Privacy is dead, get over it".
"I think this is an historic opportunity for Congress to act ... as treasonous as I do."
Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, plough, sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#2. To: Horse, *The Border* (#0)
"We'll be moving our attention to the House after the Senate passes this comprehensive piece of legislation," Bush told business leaders and representatives of religious, Hispanic and agricultural communities. "I think this is an historic opportunity for Congress to act."
Ron Paul for President
#3. To: who knows what evil, Horse (#1)
Ron Paul for President
#4. To: Horse (#0)
just say NO bump
#5. To: All (#4)
#6. To: lodwick (#5)
Congress will commence hearings on improving the retirement benefits of National Football League Players today.
#7. To: Horse (#0)
#8. To: ghostdogtxn (#7)
why not go whole hog?
Ron Paul for President
#9. To: robin (#8)
#10. To: mirage (#9)
Ron Paul for President
#11. To: mirage (#9)
#12. To: robin (#2)
"I think this is an historic opportunity for Congress to act."
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