Nov 02 2005
Fly By 11/02/05
Big Day Today! Can’t wait.
It looks like Alito has scared the pants off the liberals.
Senate Democrats pushed on Tuesday for a 2006 date for hearings on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, challenging President Bush’s call for confirmation by year’s end.
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Liberals, pointing to rulings on abortion, gun control, the death penalty and other issues, have already raised the threat of a filibuster, an attempt to deny Alito a yes-or-no vote by the Senate.Republicans have responded to the threat by saying they would seek a vote to abolish the filibuster in cases of Supreme Court and federal appeals court nominations.
I hope the country is in the mood for this battle of ideology. If the conservatives can stay cool and professional it should be OK. The liberals are becoming unhinged and there is the danger the public will be repulsed by both sides if it gets out of control. And we still have to understand what kind of jurist Alito is. I am still seeing someone who allows too much weight to precendent.
Drudge has this interesting tidbit about Saddam having accepted exile right before the invasion – but was barred by his Arab brethren from finalizing the deal:
Deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein accepted an 11th-hour offer to flee into exile weeks ahead of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion but Arab League officials scuttled the proposal, officials in Dubai said.
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A top U.A.E. government official confirmed the offer Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.Saddam allegedly accepted the offer to try and halt the invasion and bring elections to Iraq within six months, said the official and Sheik Zayed’s son.
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At the time, Arab League leaders said the summit decided not to take up the idea, citing league rules barring interference in members’ domestic affairs.
I wonder if the left is going to create another conspiracy theory about the UK and US infiltrating the Arab League to stop the exile offer! Not that Saddam had nothing but loving friends and neighbors in the League who would hate to seem him go.
I think this country could really do something about illegal immigration if the far right in this country would accept the fact that people working here to make a living are not so bad they need to be carted off away from home and job. For example is this piece I found at Real Clear Politics. It has a good summary and a good proposal – but is laced with language that is just ridiculous.
Thanks to the Harriet Miers debacle, and the fact that Republicans are finally getting a good look at the “compassionate conservative” they supported in two elections, Bush’s support from the hard right is, well, soft.
That’s because he represents more than the hard right – duh!
That’s where immigration reform comes in. President Bush has been promising to fix the nation’s immigration system for more than four years. It was back in September 2001 — just days before the 9/11 attacks — that Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox first talked about pairing U.S. employers with Mexican workers.
A few weeks ago, the administration unveiled the finished product. I admit, my first thought was: “I waited four years for this?”
Well, we could go a lot faster if the hard right wasn’t so stubborn not to deal with the issue reasonably.
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described the administration’s immigration reform plan as a three-legged stool. One leg is a request for 1,000 new border patrol agents. Another leg is a call for 100 additional worksite investigators to ensure that businesses comply with existing laws. The third leg allows millions of temporary guest workers that are now in the country illegally to apply for a three-year work visa (with a one-time three-year extension) before returning to their native country.
That amounts to amnesty, even if you’ll never get the White House to invoke the phrase.
And he was doing so well, up until the end. It’s Amnesty? For trying to make a living? This is why we get no where. There are all levels of crimes and punishments in this country. And the punishment meets the crime. If your paperwork is not in order – typically this is a small fine. If you drive recklessly and endanger other people needlessly, for your own convenience, then you get a big fine. Repeat it and you can lose your license to drive. Drive drunk and endanger other people needlessly, for your own selfish pleasure, and you can go to jail for up to a week first time. So why does someone working and raising a family without the paperwork lead some people to call for them to be removed from home and job, and dumped homeless and jobless over our border? Check out the rest of this and see how reasonable the suggestions are
Legalizing their status won’t affect the control we have over our borders, or the number of immigrants who come to the United States. Nor are these workers really temporary. Six years is enough time for them to get married and have children — children who will then be U.S. citizens. What do we do then? Deport parent and child?
Here’s where the administration fell short. It needs a fourth leg on that stool — namely, tougher and more enforceable employer sanctions.
Agreed, we need to change the law that says if you are born here you have automatic citizenship. We are becoming an international hub and we cannot let that law stay. And we do need further sanctions on companies to comply. But the harsh language surrounding these proposals is where the mistake is being made. Treat the problem as if human lives are involved – because they are.
If you enjoy a good Wilson bashing, Max Boot at the LA Times provides one today.
An interesting note on a previous post I made here about how ex-CIA agent and Val pal Larry Johnson and his cohorts were trying to blame the Niger Forgeries on the Pentagon. Well, for some reason stories I referenced are down off the site! As one of our readers asked – did I hit a nerve?
AJ. This was posted over at CQ this morning….
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, July 29, 2003
Niger-Iraq Uranium Reports Involve Ongoing Libyan Deception Ops
http://128.121.186.47/ISSA/reports/Iraq/Sep0804.htm
Highly-reliable sources within the Italian intelligence community have confirmed to this Service that the documents — subsequently demonstrated to have been forgeries — introduced by the US and UK governments showing a contact between the Nigerien and the Iraqi governments for the export of uranium were, in fact, produced by the Libyan Government. The documents were used in the State of the Union Address by US Pres. George W. Bush on January 28, 2003, and were widely interpreted as part of the casus belli underwhich the US-led Coalition attacked Iraq in March-April 2003…….
Loftus: “I was told about this amazing wiretap where British Intelligence overheard a call from North Korea to Libya saying, ‘My god, if the Americans ever go into Iraq, they’re going to find out about our nuclear program. And who’s going to pay all the Iraqi nuclear scientists in Libya if Saddam falls?’â€
Shawn: “You’re saying before the war there were Iraqi nuclear scientists working on a potential bomb in Libya before we launched this [war in Iraq]?â€
Loftus:”Yeah. This was a treaty signed by a man called Ali Sobree. He was the Foreign Minister of Iraq. And he went to [Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-] Qadhafi and they worked out a whole protocol. Qadhafi would donate a hollowed out mountain in Libya; Iraq would provide the nuclear scientists, and North Korea would provide the uranium……..
Lucky – great job! Thanks. I updated the Wilson Cover up post
Lucky – Great JOB! You just proved, once again, we invaded the wrong country. BTW, we do need to invade the United States. After all, it’s just amazing how many terrorists were either trained by US Agencies, got their degrees at US Colleges, or have received support from US organizations.
Ah, Observer with the old canard that yes, we were once friends with Despots and murdering infidels.
Guess what Observer, you haven’t observed that once GWB took office, we are now dealing with our enemies instead of appeasing them. It is no longer a case of the lesser of two evils, but the Axis of Evil.
Do a little reading regarding the Cold War and Ronald Reagan. It should be an eye opener for an Observer such as you.
I agree with Burbank Ernie. Because of Bush, our gas money is not going to vicious dictators who use our money to repress their people, attack their neighbors and threaten the US. We were colluding in slavery too long. Bush changed all that.
Opps! Did the bad ole’ Bush bump your rice bowl, Observer??
This article Lucky Bogey has posted claims the Libyan ESO (intelligence service) were the culprits in the Niger forgeries and that they had help from some criminal organization with the codename of “Giacomo” that provides “a host of end-user certificates and export licenses and technology transfer permits, and the like, in order to expedite the Libyan (and allied) acquisition of forbidden technologies, matériel and specialty production goods.” http://128.121.186.47/ISSA/reports/Iraq/Sep0804.htm
Wow! A criminal organization with its Octopus-like tentacles penetrating government intelligence and customs services like the Russian mafia does it.
Hmmmm…
I sometimes think that Wilson must suspect he is in trouble to be such a flamboyant loudmouth when his wife is supposedly a clandestine CIA officer.
Wilson is pounding his sartorial chest like he is Tarzan of the jungle.
Perhaps he is setting up his defense: conscience-driven, free-speech patriot “framed” by the evil Bush regime. Maybe that’s what all Wilson’s sound and fury is really about.
But Saddam is going on trial soon, and maybe Libby. Perhaps we will hear more about Saddam’s weapons procurement program.
And then there’s that relentless oil for food investigation plodding along. I wonder where all that money went?
Observer–GREAT JOB!
You are confirming my suspicions that some of these terrorists networks might involve trecherous Americans who are willing to betray the American and Iraqi people while screaming sanctimoniously about free speech and about how our CIA sources and methods have been compromised.
Whose sources? Whose methods?
As the man who celebrated 9-11 and called the victims “Little Eichmanns,” Professor Ward Churchill, would say, “Gimme a break!”
Come to think of it, one of the posters today mentioned on another thread that the secret program for identifying Al Qaeda, Able Danger, might have something to do with Plamegate and Chinese weapons procurement. I didn’t understand that.
But I read that Ward Churchill was at that McKinney 9-11 conference that was making really stupid anti-Bush propaganda about Able Danger. (link)
That struck me as funny because MCKinney thinks that Bush was complicit in 9-11 while Ward Churchill thinks that 9-11 was payback for the sanctions against Iraq. He never even mentioned Al Qaeda in “Some People Push Back.”
And I read that those retired CIA officials, the VIPS that are chummy with Ambassador Wilson, also speak at some of McKinney’s periodic 9-11 conspiracy theory conferences. At these conferences the theme is that Bush knew about and was complicit in the 9-11 attacks.
Here are some folks who spoke at McKinney’s 9-11 conference on July 22, 2005. I think most of these guys are VIPS–“Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.”
Ray McGovern
http://www.counterpunch.org/mckinney08102005.html
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=634
Melvin Goodman
http://ajbenjaminjr.blogspot.com/2005/07/cynthia-mckinney-911-coverup.html
http://www.wanttoknow.info/050908insidejob911
David MacMicchaels and Extensive Bios
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=634