ACLU and Immigrant Rights

The following is a direct quote from the ACLU page at http://www.aclu.com/immigrants/gen/11663res20040806.html

The Immigrants' Rights Project (IRP) of the American Civil Liberties Union works to defend the civil and constitutional rights of immigrants through a comprehensive program of impact litigation and public education. The IRP files constitutional and class action lawsuits protecting the historic guarantee to judicial review, enforcing fair employment practices and maintaining constitutional safeguards against detention practices and biased asylum adjudication. For ten years, the IRP has been at the forefront of every major legal struggle securing immigrants' rights; this role has become particularly crucial since the passage of two 1996 congressional acts implementing the most radical and draconian cutbacks to immigrants' rights ever.

Excuse me, but what the h*ll are “immigrant rights”?  The Constitution is for American Citizens!  Check the preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 

 

Why Not Vote for Generic Republicans?

I don't know about you, but I get numerous requests for campaign contributions. Even John McCain wants my support (translation: dollars). I get phone calls from the Republican National Committee, the College Republicans, The Republican Senatorial Alliance (or something like that), all asking me to contribute because the Republicans are better than Hillary.

That strikes me as the same type argument that the Democrats used in 2004: "We're not George Bush". The recent cloture vote on gave me at least seven reasons to not support generic Republicans and ten possible reasons to like the Democrats. Of course, one might argue that some of the Democrat votes were for other reasons, but I think Boxer knows that her constituents will really be upset if amnesty carries. Maybe "Sheets" Byrd is just a bigot. That still leaves eight good Democrats.

In case you missed the link above, here are the Republicans who favor amnesty:

Graham (R-SC)
Hagel (R-NE)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
Specter (R-PA)
Voinovich (R-OH)

Here are the Democrats who helped keep the amendment from coming to a vote:

Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Landrieu (D-LA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)

Call or write and thank them.

Amnesty

am·nes·ty /am-nuh-stee/ noun, plural -ties, verb, -tied, -ty·ing.
–noun

1. a general pardon for offenses, esp. political offenses, against a government, often granted before any trial or conviction.
2. Law. an act of forgiveness for past offenses, esp. to a class of persons as a whole.
3. a forgetting or overlooking of any past offense.

–verb (used with object)

4. to grant amnesty to; pardon.

The way I see it, people who are here illegally should have one of two options: pay for the crime or leave. Anything short of that seems to me to perfectly fit the definition of amnesty. So, whatever else the President may think this bill is, it is amnesty. This is not a difficult concept.

See, when people come to America, we expect it to be in order to become Americans. If they are only here for a visit, that is fine, too -- as long as they are here legally. If people are here illegally, then they might need amnesty. Unfortunately, that also involves jumping ahead of other people who are trying to do the right thing. Apparently our politicians could not care less about those who are trying to come into the country legally. This whole measure is drafted to cater to the 12 million illegal aliens that it is impossible to round up.

I'm done with the lot of them, except for my two Senators and my representative.