AMNESTY BILL UPDATE

Senate action on the amnesty bill. Here's what they accomplished yesterday:

Members today voted down (31-62) an amendment sponsored by Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) that would have ensured that green card applicants who entered the country illegally were not given preference under a merit-based processing system over those who have waited outside the country for their immigration status to be approved. So ... we forgive the law breakers at the expense of the law-abiders. Sound like amnesty to you?

The Senate adopted an amendment (71-22) sponsored by Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that would eliminate provisions authorizing the Department of Labor to waive requirements that employers in "labor shortage areas" offer jobs to U.S. workers before seeking to import foreign workers. Well now ... there's something positive to celebrate.

Notice, please, the absence of amendments give priority to securing our borders. Politicians are more concerned about getting the Hispanic vote than securing America for its legal citizens.

In the meantime, Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions released an excellent report of 20 different loopholes he found in the bill.

• -Loophole 1 – Legal Status Before Enforcement
• -Loophole 2 – U.S. VISIT Exit Not In Trigger
• -Loophole 3 – Trigger Requires No More Agents, Beds, or Fencing Than Current Law
• -Loophole 4 -- Three Additional Years Worth of Illegal Aliens Granted Status, Treated Preferentially To Legal Filers
• -Loophole 5 – Completion of Background Checks Not Required For Probationary Legal Status
• -Loophole 6 – Some Child Molesters Are Still Eligible
• -Loophole 7 – Terrorism Connections Allowed, Good Moral Character Not Required
• -Loophole 8 – Gang Members Are Eligible
• -Loophole 9 – Absconders Are Eligible
• -Loophole 10 – Learning English Not Required For A Decade
• -Loophole 11 – Earned Income Tax Credit Will Cost Taxpayers Billions In Just 10 Years
• -Loophole 12 – Affidavits From Friends Accepted As Evidence
• -Loophole 13 – Taxpayer Funded Legal Counsel and Arbitration
• -Loophole 14 – In-State Tuition and Student Loans
• -Loophole 15 – Inadequacy of the Merit System
• -Loophole 16 – Visas For Individuals That Plan To Overstay
• -Loophole 17 – Chain Migration Tippled Before Being Eliminated
• -Loophole 18 – Back Taxes Not Required
• -Loophole 19 – Social Security Credits Allowed For Some Illegal Work Histories
• -Loophole 20 – Criminal Fines Not Proportional To Conduct

Are those not enough reasons for you? Can Bush still claim that criticism is nothing more than empty political rhetoric? No. The loopholes point to the fact that there is no middle-ground way to tackle immigration reform. There are too many holes in the bill that will only drag down the immigration process for those who come legally. And for those who are illegal ... they will only continue to benefit from the lack of enforcement and new reforms.

Oh ... and by the way ... as we discussed yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office has come out with its own study [pdf] which shows that if the current amnesty bill is made law it will only stem illegal immigration by about 25 percent. Now that's something to brag about, isn't it?

FOX NEWS ISN'T REAL NEWS?

Anyone who thinks that any news source out there is unbiased is fooling themselves. You have been brainwashed by liberal media outlets to believe that their news is the "right" news ... that it is balanced and lacking expression of political beliefs or opinions.

Sorry .. but that is flat out wrong. It is impossible to rid the media of political bias. Media is not just about how you say something but what you choose to talk about. The New York Times putting the Muslim JFK plot on the 37th page—liberal media bias. Not acknowledging the fact that the conspirators were Muslim in their on-line digest, liberal media bias.

I say every day on this radio show that if you believe everything that I say and don't check it out for yourself, then you are making a big mistake. You are relying on one, clearly opinionated, source for your news and that does not make someone educated. You might be interested ... heck, you might even find it entertaining! But to assume that any media news source is the be-all-end-all of the "truth" is just just not all that bright.

That brings us to Bernard Shaw, one of CNN's most well-known retired anchors, Shaw says that Fox News isn't really news. He says it's "commentary and personal analysis." Sorry .. but I think Shaw has it wrong. There have been non-partisan studies of the major news sources on television, and these studies have pretty much shown that most, if not all, of the major broadcast news organizations are very much liberal in their viewpoint, their choice of news stories and their presentation. I said most. There is an exception. These studies have shown that Fox News can't be defined as liberal. Nor can it be defined as conservative. That would be Fox News. Fox presents its news in what these studies have described as a centrist manner. The commentary? Well, that would be something else. Perhaps the problem here is that our government educated people can't really differentiate between commentary and news.

Shaw says, "Unfortunately, Fox News is the ratings leader . . . on the cable side of the business, and what Fox puts on the air is not news." I think what we're dealing with here is a bit of sour grapes. How dare Fox bring higher ratings than CNN! Who do they think they are?

Well there you have it. Anchors at CNN deliver the "right" news, while Fox News is simply discredited. This is a typical liberal tactic. Rather than refute arguments or ideas presented on Fox, liberals just slap a conservative label on it and call it a day. There is no point in arguing. Liberals know best, and nothing else it worth addressing.