Immigration bill, make-up for Gitmo, unloved Republicans and who to buy in Congress.

The Senate hopped to it, in order to get an immigration bill cobbled together that the House isn't going to go along with anyway.

But in politics, the appearance of doing something, is usually as good as actually getting something done.

Remember the hunt for Osama?

A bipartisan majority seems to be working to give the President pretty much what he laid out in his speech. It's much simpler than actual fact finding and debate.

An amendment that I liked by Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) was soundly defeated after the Heritage Foundation weighed in and scared the Republicans off. They presented a supposed study, but I think it had more to do with a ready supply of cheap foreign labor for business.

A few hours later, the coalition voted 69 to 28 to kill an amendment by Sen.
Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) that would have eliminated the central plank of Bush's
immigration policy, a program to offer temporary guest-worker visas to 325,000
foreign workers a year. Dorgan and some union leaders said the program would
"in-source" a steady flow of cheap labor that would compete for low-skilled
jobs, lowering wages for everyone.

The Dorgan proposal appeared to be
gaining steam when conservatives received a Heritage Foundation study concluding
that the Senate's guest-worker program would allow an estimated 103 million
foreigners to legally immigrate to the United States over 20 years. A rush of
Senate Republicans first voted to support Dorgan but switched their votes under
pressure from Senate GOP leaders, who feared an embarrassing rebuke to the
president a day after his national address.

This is an important issue, these lawmakers need to take the time and put something together that will make a real impact. But like I said they're just trying to look like they're doing something. If they'd pay attention, they'd know there's no rush and the President can't apply any pressure because he only has favorable ratings in three states. But this isn't even close to being over, stay tuned.



In another example of how the government is wasting all this money we're borrowing against out kids and grandkids, the Pentagon is launching a PR blitz to clean up the image of Gitmo.

What's the point? Nothing's going to change as long as we have the current leadership. Face it, they think we're all as dumb as Bush.

The Pentagon has launched a public relations campaign to offset the negative
publicity about its terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The public's getting fed up with Congress. They're not particularly fond of the Democrats and they're getting to where they can't stand the Republicans. It's about time.

As I see it, the people are starting to see the GOP as a bunch of corrupt enablers for big business to suck the treasury dry, while at the same time being in thrall to the radical Religious Right. While they see the Democrats as a bunch of gutless wussies too afraid to take a stand for what's right. A fair assessment of both parties. But, I've got to admit that there are some good people in both parties, though not nearly enough.

Public confidence in GOP governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush
presidency, with Americans saying by wide margins that they now trust Democrats
more than Republicans to deal with Iraq, the economy, immigration and other
issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the GOP's
fragile grip on power six months before the midterm elections.

Democrats
are now favored to handle all 10 issues measured in the Post-ABC News poll. The
survey shows a majority of the public, 56 percent, saying they would prefer to
see Democrats in control of Congress after the elections.

Don't get too confident. Democrats have a way of screwing things up. I know, I'm one of them.


Part of the problem with Congress' approval ratings is that they are so obviously money oriented. And this isn't going to help.

"You won't know the players without a program". Now Congress has it's own program, so that the folks that want to latch on to your tax money, will know who to go to for the most bang for their buck. Sick but true.

Washington is a town where power is routinely won and lost, and where the
pursuit of it never goes out of style. Now political junkies have a new way to
track who has the most.

A company serving lobbyists published its "Power
Rankings" of Congress online yesterday after five months of combing through
legislative records, committee assignments, news articles and fundraising
documents.

Here's a comprehensive Washington Post-ABC News Poll that covers just about everything.

What I found odd, is that on the "would you rather have a Republican or Democrat in Congress" question, the Republicans only reached 50% once since 1981. How did these guys get in power?