the immigration bill, corruption chicago-style, public suicide, and forcing democracy...

the senate judiciary committee pulled out the shocker (and not the index/pinkie) when it bonged the recent form of an immigration bill which passed the house with flying colors that would have criminalized to a ridiculous extent undocumented workers and apparently even jesus (as hillary let us know - but pimpin is already against the law, so jesus would have problems as it is). instead the committee put it's weight behind a bill that would allow undocumented folks to stay in the country. the way i see it, this is a brilliant political move designed to eventually settle on a plan much like that proposed by gw...and say what you want about the man, he has a sensible approach to illegal immigration. there is no way the country will go for amnesty to illegal immigrants, not in this "us against them" age, but at the same time, nobody wants to pay a couple more bucks for dinner, or for housekeeping, or for produce (you get my point)...so they do not want to just get rid of illegal immigrants all together. with the house wanting capital punishment for folks swimming the rio grande, and the senate wanting a free-for-all, it makes sense that the compromise will end up looking a lot like bush's plan...5 year worker visas, and then you have to go back and apply again.

i like the idea, not only because i think undocumented workers are a vital piece of our economy, but because allowing them to become legal means the government can regulate their treatment, wages, etc. of course this will piss of folks when they realize that they have to pay their "help" enough money to survive, but it could also provide a basis for keeping an eye on these folks, for our benefit and for theirs. undocumented workers have been shit on long enough, it's time to give them a break. and maybe if we make employers pay them what a citizen would get, more under-educated americans will be able to find sorely needed work.

former gov. ryan of illinois may get a walk today. seems after over a week of deliberations, a couple jurors were found to have criminal pasts they hid during voir dire...although there are alternates, this far into deliberations a mistrial might not be a bad bet. i love illinois politics, perfected on the streets of chicago...corruption as it once was, corruption as it should be...open, willing, productive and unapologetic. i for one am rooting for a mistrial and one more crooked politician enjoying retirement from the peace of his own home.

moussaoui wants notoriety. granted i haven't heard exactly what he said at his sentencing trial, what i have heard doesn't make any sense whatsoever. from what i can gather, if i am sitting in that jury box, it is pretty clear that this guy really wants to be important...but he really wasn't. either way...is it really necessary to spend millions of tax dollars trying to put him to death when it is already a given that he will never get out of prison? and why? because he didn't cooperate with the fuzz? because he held to his right to remain silent? all seems a little unamerican to me...or maybe that's the problem, it is all too american.

afghanistan was going to kill a man for converting to christianity from islam. the world went nuts...and now he has been released (and hopefully flown out of the country before mobs tore him apart) but american leaders had an explanation. this stuff takes time, afterall, it took the united states a century to end slavery, and we're still working on equal rights. my initial reaction was "sure, i mean, it took our hodge podge of folks two tries and about 15 years to finally get a federal government together that could last. how can we expect them to get their act together sooner?" but now i wonder...i mean, look what we did in japan after world war ii...let's be serious, if we want to impose a government on people...we've gotten pretty damn good at it over the years. hell, we've had practice all over the world for decades.

now we speak with ruined tongues, and the words we say aren't meant for anyone, it's just a mumbled sentence to a passing acquaintance...but there was once you...