Every Monday morning we participate in a coalition of weblogs devoted to raising awareness about the effects of illegal immigration. The severe negative impact on the American way of life permeates many aspects of our society, ranging from the erosion of our moral and political values to the draining of our social services resources. Our health, education, justice, and homeland security systems are severely burdened, among others.

We were especially mindful of this yesterday afternoon, when we attended a Sunday matinee performance of Washington’s premier annual political revue. In a tradition that dates back fifty-one years, a very large group of dedicated volunteers summarizes the political events of the preceding year in a music-and-dance performance to benefit local charities. With a personnel base liberally sprinkled with capitol hill staffers, the Hexagon theater company offers the definitive synopsis of capitol conversation.

This year’s performance, You Only Run Twice, includes a sequence on illegal immigration. The illegal immigrants sneak onto the scene from Mexico (stage right) clad in black and wearing large sombreros. They are singing

This land is your land
This isn’t my land
But what the heck
I’ve crossed the line…

as they make their way across the full width of the stage. They arrive safely at the “Herndon City Limits” (stage left) where they regroup, become entrenched, and multiply. The number ends with the illegals taking over the country, and putting all of the previous citizens, or “gringos,” on a bus for Mexico.

Is this skit, offered in jest, a grim prognostication of our country’s future?

Billed as “Washington’s only original, political, satirical, musical, comedy revue,” Hexagon tells us that the problem of illegal immigration has risen to the level of insider Washington discourse. Now will our congress take some effective action?

On Thursday, March 16, the Senate Judiciary Committee told their staff to meet behind closed doors to construct an immigration bill that would include provisions from the Kennedy-McCain bill. Known as S. 1033, the McCain-Kennedy bill includes an amnesty for illegal aliens, a massive “guest” worker program that leads to citizenship, and an estimated one million additional permanent immigrants each year.

Millions of illegals to become citizens?
Kennedy-McCain immigration reform bill likely to pass Senate committee after recess

A bill that would give millions of illegal aliens in the United States the opportunity to earn citizenship is closer to becoming law today as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee signaled likely passage of a proposal by Sens. Edward Kenney, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz.

Though a committee vote will not be held until after a week-long congressional recess, likely March 27, committee members appeared ready to back the Kennedy-McCain bill.

“The votes are there,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Congress is working to pass a reform bill that includes enforcement, a policy on dealing with illegals already in the country and a guest-worker program pushed by President Bush.

Under the legislation, illegal aliens in the United States would obtain six-year nonimmigrant visas under which they could work in the country and travel outside the country. The aliens would have to pay a $1,000 fine and undergo background checks.

After six years, the aliens would be able to meet certain requirements and then apply for a green card, or permanent residency.

Besides voting on the bill after the recess, committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said the panel also would vote on a bill by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., that would give illegal aliens up to five years to leave the U.S. After returning home, they could then apply to return, either as temporary workers or for permanent residency.

“Our intention is not to strand anyone outside the country,” Kyl said, according to an AP report. But he asserted the McCain-Kennedy plan would give an illegal alien allowed to stay and work in the country a “huge advantage” over a person having to wait for years in his or her own country for a green card.

The McCain-Kennedy bill would start off with offering 400,000 of the new visas.

To compare the various bills please click here to view a .pdf chart created by NumbersUSA.org. You will be able to see for yourself that what the spin-meisters are telling us about the various bills clearly does NOT match the actual provisions of the bills themselves.

Although Sens. McCain and Kennedy adamantly deny that S. 1033 is an amnesty for illegal aliens, it clearly spells out a path to jobs and residency for illegal aliens. Among the significant immigration-increase provisions of the bill are: a new visa category (H-5A) for 400,000 low-skill foreign workers (this cap can be adjusted upwards); a new temporary 6-year visa category (H-5B) for illegal aliens (and their spouses and children) already in the country; an amnesty for illegal aliens who apply for an H-5B visa and pay a $2,000 fine; a provision for the H-5A temporary workers to apply for permanent resident status after four years; and an exemption of immediate relatives (spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens) from the annual level of 480,000 family-sponsored immigrant visas thereby providing additional visas to the family preference categories.

Supporters claim S. 1033 contains measures to increase border security, yet it contains virtually no such provisions. Aside from creating a Border Security Committee and requiring a few reports, the main “enforcement” provisions are aimed at helping Mexico control its borders!! S. 1033 does, however, require machine-readable immigration documents, and create a new electronic work authorization system that would eventually replace the current “I-9″ system. S. 1033 would require the federal government to reimburse states for the cost of providing emergency health care to H-5A and H-5B workers.

Aside from the fact that any guest worker plan would be nothing more than a disastrous amnesty deal tied with a big red bow for lawbreakers, there is another reason to reject it: Our government can’t handle it!

Our government is not capable of handling roughly 13-20 million temporary worker applications when our illegal alien population suddenly becomes eligible through guest worker legislation – USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service) simply cannot handle the administration overload it already has. The only solution would be to massively increase the government. The link above outlines a report from the GAO that shows how the USCIS is already irrevocably buried under a backlog of immigration adjudication. It’s a whole other perspective on the various administrative amnesties proposed by the Senate. Mundane? Perhaps. Crucial to the overall scope and size of our bloated and sprawling federal government? Absolutely.

1. If you care about the careless increases in immigration as proposed by our Senate, please send a fax – today. It’s fast, it’s easy – and it’s free. NumbersUSA has an amazing way to help us stay involved, and helps us get our voices heard. Their basic faxes are pre-written, and will take less than one minute to send. But, even better, once you register, the faxes are fully customizable to say what you specifically find important to say, if you so choose. The site is an incredible free resource for immigration issues. You can also opt-in for timely updates on issues coming before Congress, and take action on every single on, if you desire.

2. Email the permalink from this article to others you know who care about the impact of illegal immigration. Together, we can all have a voice. The more Americans that respond – the bigger the impact.

Please take a moment, and send a fax today. The Senate Judiciary Committe is behind closed doors as we speak. The McCain-Kennedy bill will come to a vote by next Monday. They and their staffs are smugly confident that they have the votes — let’s convince our Senators otherwise.

Take action! We can still be heard!

Here’s an example of Democratic Party “Treason” using brainwashing & ignorance to try to return to power.

ANTI-WAR IGNORANCE
by Arnold Ahlert

March 20, 2006 — ANTI-WAR protesters, like those marching yesterday, have three common traits.
Historically ignorant: “War is not the answer”? Ask the millions liberated from the evils of Nazism, fascism and communism.

Clueless about human nature: “Give peace a chance”? The marchers may ignore 9/11, Madrid, Bali, London, etc., and believe that if we lay down our arms, the Islamo-fascist thugs will, too. The rest of us have to live in the real world.

Ungrateful: The freedom to demonstrate against war has been secured by those willing to fight and die for it. Familiarity breeds contempt; perhaps it is being “familiar” with freedom for their entire lives that makes these demonstrators so “contemptuous” of it.

From the New York Post.

And here’s the Democrat MEDIA at work & it’s having more effect than Conservatives want to acknowledge since all you have to do is look at the Bush Administration’s poll numbers.

V for vendetta, T for terrorist, and A for “that’s a-okay”
Mar 20, 2006
Review by Megan Basham

I have seen the terrorist, and he is me. And you. And all of us. So says Evey (Natalie Portman), an acolyte of V (Hugh Weaving), the swashbuckling savior of future England who disguises himself as Guy Fawkes.

But don’t worry, because being a terrorist is now a good thing. As we’ve been told by the media, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter…or masked superhero as the case may be….

… the script takes glee in constantly referring to the “former United States of America” and “their war” that left them “the world’s leper colony?” …. The fact the film’s release had to be postponed when V’s final heroic act of loading explosives onto a subway car in the London underground proved too realistic illustrates how in-sync the Wachowski’s are with actual terrorists. Forget not being worth the price of admission, this ode to Al Zarqawi and his ilk certainly wasn’t worth the price of pretty Miss Portman’s flowing mane of chestnut hair….

The fact the film’s release had to be postponed when V’s final heroic act of loading explosives onto a subway car in the London underground proved too realistic illustrates how in-sync the Wachowski’s are with actual terrorists. Forget not being worth the price of admission, this ode to Al Zarqawi and his ilk certainly wasn’t worth the price of pretty Miss Portman’s flowing mane of chestnut hair.

Thankfully, cartoonish acting and a juvenilely self-reverential plot means no one except teenage boys (the ones in the row in front of me kept muttering, “Yeah, anarchy!” as London blazed) and crazed George Clooney disciples will take this movie’s “important ideas” seriously.

Those are the people who are this very moment wailing, “Free speech! Free speech! The Wachowskis have every right to promote their beliefs!” To them I say, yep, they sure do.

And I have the right to unmask them for the ignorant, irresponsible, paranoid filmmakers that they are.

You can read the entire article at Townhall.

Eleven days ago, we posted an article about the death-penalty trial of Mohammed Al-Asadi, the editor of the leading Yemeni English-language newspaper. In case you missed the background information, you can read our original report:

One weblog that continues to provide excellent coverage of this affair is Agora. We urge our readers to remain current by reading all of their recent article

A lengthy interview with Al-Asadi was published in Danish-language Information. The good folk at Agora have kindly provided a translation into English. Here’s an excerpt:

Mohammed al-Asadi had become a known face in Yemen: He had been presented as a criminal on national TV and in government-friendly newspapers. He was also a known face outside of Yemen: Newsweek did a telephone interview with him in prison where they called him a “martyr for the free press” and BBC World has told his story. This Friday Mohammed al-Asadi didn’t wish to be recognised. All he wanted to do was to go to Friday Prayers, so he walked towards a Mosque in a part of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where he doesn’t usually go:

“When I entered, I bowed my head and listened. The preacher warned against a terrible sinner among us, against one in Yemen who has dishonored our religion and our prophet. He talked of how disgraceful this man was. I realised that I was who he was talking about. I was their sinner. I dared not lift my head. I covered my head with my scarf and looked down. There and then I realised how bad things are. If the others in the Mosque had recognised me, they would have killed me. With their shoes if they had nothing else to do it with.”

It’s Monday, and our [WordSmith] has posted another one of his fine articles on the Editorial Page. Visit and read