The Senate has voted 39-60 against cloture on the Judiciary Committee’s (McCain-Kennedy) Immigration Bill. This opens up a path to alternatives, including the ‘compromise’ Martinez-Hagel bill.
Senate Democrats last night said they had not seen the compromise, much less approved it.
“We don’t even know what’s in it,” said Reid spokesman James Patrick Manley.
You can get caught up with the intricacies of the politics over these bills here, here, and here.
Much more importantly, Bloomberg is reporting:
President George W. Bush authorized disclosure of classified information on Iraq’s weapons program to rebut war critics, a former top administration aide told a grand jury, according to documents filed in federal court.
The documents don’t allege the president approved the identification of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, although they were filed in connection with the investigation into who leaked the operative’s name to reporters in 2003. The court filing by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald also doesn’t suggest Bush violated any rule or law governing the handling of classified material.
Wow… I wonder why CNN is blabbing loudly that Bush approved the leak of Valerie Plame’s name? OOOooo that will be hard to take back. (snort)
CNN is taking it back and falling over themselves to explain how Bush declassified papers and how Democrats do it, and how it isn’t a crime, and how they are so sorry. Heh.
This goes straight to the heart of the matter, regardless of spin or the rule of law.
Bush knew and said he knew “nothing”.
Libby ratted him out to save his own skin (as boo loosely quoted the fox spinster).
This still has to break the back of these motherfuckers. Even if bush (et al) was claiming it was declasified, it killed the entire network of Brewster Jennings and NOW everyone knows that bush did it.
They just can’t spin around that fact anymore.
You know, I’m still not quite sure why Libby disclosed this. He’s not accused of leaking classified material, he’s accused of perjury. You’re right, everyone now knows that Bush was heavily involved in this PR fight that ended up with the illegal disclosure of an undercover CIA agent. Even there is no direct proof, it is now obvious that Bush was involved with outing Plame from the get go.
Now they say that because of this, it’s a pretty sure thing that Bush and Cheney will be called as witnesses at Libby’s trial, that is conveniently scheduled for after the ’06 elections. Maybe this will guarantee that Bush will issue a pardon to avoid the trial. Perhaps that is Libby’s plan… to force a pardon.
The anchor on FoxNews just asked the GOP spinster, “Let me get this straight, you’re saying Libby ratted out the President to save his own hide?”
(awkward laughter)
GOP spinster: you have a way of getting right to the point.
loathsome of my cubicle today. Thx for the roundup, this is my only window to the rest of the world at the moment.
they are working on the Hagel-Martinez compromise bill off the Senate floor at the moment. I still don’t know exactly what it contains.
But it will probably involve a three tiered classification of illegal immigrants, and may involve a requirement that immigrants learn English. How they will enforce that should be interesting.
that Duke1676 has found, it looks like they are setting up three different groups:
Looks like I bought that Kettle Korn just in time to watch some fun ensue.
Two questions:
How do they go about proving which of those groups they belong to, if they are illegal immigrants?
And where the heck would the people in the first 2 groups get the money to pay those back taxes and fines? Would they be required to leave the coutnry if they didn’t have the money?
are sketchy on the backtaxes payback, but everything I’ve read so far on any guest-worker plan involves some form of payment of fine, payment of backtaxes (how do they determine past wages, when most of them are paid cash? = usually no W2 or 1099), a requirement to learn english, and a full criminal background check.
The english provision is important, but that gets to the heart of the “starve the beast” tactics of the conservative moment who are cutting taxes and programs. They are destroying educational systems at all levels, for children and adults by underfunding them.
Leave it to Republicans to find a way to squeeze money out of the poor illegals instead of going after the businesses that hire them. What a stupid plan, with the categories. Who is going to enforce that? This will still require the government to round up millions of people. It stinks. I knew it was going to be a stinker when I saw Frist supporting it.
How do they go about proving which of those groups they belong to, if they are illegal immigrants?
From what I’ve read they will be looking for pay stubs, billing records (utility bill, rent etc)or “other” documentation.
My bet “other” would end up to be some sort of signed employer affidavate that states the employee worked from when to when.. That would seem to be the only way to document a work history.
And is the employer then responsible for the employer share of back taxes, making signing such an affidavit unappealing? (Not expecting an answer, just wondering how these things might play out IRL).
Thanks for the info, Manee and Duke.
should pass, immediately will spring up two cottage industries: One to sell letters from “employers” with the desired date, as we saw in the 1986 “amnesty,” and one to figure, without the benefit of 1099 forms, the Schedule C tax deductions for the five years of an absurdly low independent contractor wage, which will hopefully result in the individuals receiving a substantial enough refund with which to attend a trade school, and build sturdy cement block homes and pay school fees for family back in Mexico.
Individuals who have pay stubs and worked as employees will have almost to a man overpaid their taxes as they could never file for a refund, and few know how to manipulate W-4 forms to have taken out only what they owe, thus those folks will be getting five years worth of refunds also.
The rumor emanating from Fort Rucker which is mother and heart beat of Army Aviation is that everybody who is anybody from the Department of Evaluation and Standardization is out of here heading to Iraq!!! This includes both of the Generals in DES. I have no idea what the hell is going on! Are they going to do a bust down on Iraq of everything that is wrong from an the Military Avaiation perspective and point fingers and hand out the blame that only they can hand out and is straight from hell? Or are they all there planning a major major major fucking attack of some kind? My stomach isn’t feeling so good right now! Keep an eye peeled on the news everybody!
DId that just happen this morning?
errands. This is very scary. Having the entire department unload including the two Generals just is not done. When we had a spate of helicopter crashes at Fort Carson of course they all loaded up and showed up to start throwing the book at people not following the book but two Generals hitting the combat zone along with people who have done nothing other than fly helicopters their entire lives and are retired civilian contractors and considered to be GOD by many pilots isn’t anything ever heard of since I don’t really know when. I can guess and say maybe Vietnam or Bosnia or something along those lines. Something is happening though!!!!
Preparing for bombing of Iran???
but the flipside is if someone wanted to write an essay about total incompentency you would send these guys too to do it with total credibility and full evidence hell bent to fry asses! These guys have fried the biggest asses until they were tender and juicy and then invited the neighborhood over for a picnic. I wish I knew for sure Joe!
Thanks for the heads up, Tracy. Something’s up big time. Common wisdom is that Iran isn’t on the schedule until after this years elections. But who the hell knows? This is scary.
We’ll keep our eyes peeled.
decoverticized well before the elections will actually make it easier for the politicians.
Instead of relying on sometimes dicey polls, guesswork and voodoo to determine the sentiments of constituents, it will simplify matters if all candidates and their opponents can keep their remarks solidly on their “support for the troops” with some quibbling about how Operation Iranian Freedom is run, on the part of the Democrats.
Just getting back from week in Puerto Rico. It really is the land of enchantment. And while I’m gone, Delay frog-marched himself.
And now this about Bush.
Just so I’ve got this straight: Bill Clinton wagged his finger and lied to the American people about having sex with Monica, and I got two straight years of hearing about it on every news network known to humankind. Now, there is evidence that Bush told us that he had nothing to do with the Plame leak, when he actually did, and we are going to hear about this how often? (Granted, there is a link in the chain of evidence in the Bush story — where one must assume that Cheney actually had Bush’s word when he told Libby to leak, but come on.)
I expect the administration will be back in the business of ruining America tomorrow without this unneccesary press harassment. Unbelieveable world.
Manny — what do you think of the new Republican bill. Is that something that will be supported by the scores of thousands of protestors?
The protests will continue, Monday the 10th is the big day. Keep in mind that they/we have been marching against the House bill (HR4437), which was approved back in December. This latest “compromise” bill in the Senate is still too new to discern a response, but my guess is it’ll be met with guffaws of laughter. If they think it’s unrealistic to deport 11+ million people from the country, imagine having to go a step further and determining who has been here for a set amount of time?
They’ll pat themselves on the back up on the Capitol, but I doubt this will be met with any praise from either end of the debate.
from political cortex:
and another From Josh Marshall:
I can’t help but be reminded of this Bogey/Casablanca quote:
Link
I’m shocked, shocked to find the Bush was involved here. </snark>