From an AP article this morning Martinez announces bill, attacks restrictions on immigrant rights

Senators Barack Obama (D-Ill) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla) are drafting a new immigration reform bill.

By “reform” they of course mean “not reform.”

Speaking to a crowd of Hispanics, Martinez said

“First and foremost, we’ve got to do border enforcement. … Then we got to have a worker program. There are people that are here that this economy absolutely needs there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Hmm…doesn’t sound like reform.

Martinez also addressed the issue of in-state tuition for illegal alien students at American universities.

“I don’t know if I could have finished college if I had paid out-of-state tuition”

Click here for the whole story.

The Internet Archive I mentioned yesterday also has a large video archive of downloadable public domain films.

Most of them are pretty bad, but there are some good ones: (Beat the Devil, Royal Wedding, Charade,) and also, of course, some politically incorrect ones. Buster Keaton’s silent classic , The General, has a Confederate hero, a thing that nowadays produces wailing and gnashing of teeth among movie critics.

You can also see newsreel footage of Operation Wetback. and you can see Henry Steele Commager’s 1946 Brittannica film on immigration.

But those are just excuses for posting this on highly serious website, the Film Archive is fun to play with, enjoy!

Congratulations to our blogroll member A Certain Slant of Light. Last Saturday’s spoof about President Bush appointing an underqualified crony to be Federal Reserve Chairman was linked to on Thursday by the ultra serious (and expensive) “News Clips” service offered by high- end Wall Street intelligence supplier Bianco Research. This is the first time I can remember any blog appearing in this wide-ranging survey of generally MSM sources of sophisticated financial commentary.

Even warmer congratulations are due to ACSoL for an immediate puncturing assessment of Senate Majority leader Frist’s trial balloon attempt to float around the immigration reform issue issue by mouthing some border enforcement platitudes - reported Friday in The Washington Times [Frist to take on border bill first - Stephen Dinan October 14 2005]

Brushing aside an attempt by a naive Republican cheer-leading blog to declare victory, A Certain Slant
acidly remarks

The foot-dragging on border security and immigration reform has been unconscionable, both by the GOP-controlled Congress and by the president…The Republican-controlled Senate has in many ways disappointed more than the Republican-controlled House…Meanwhile, and pertinent in weighing Frist’s and the GOP’s responsiveness, 11+ million illegal aliens are in the United States already, 10,000 more per day are breaching our borders…and our educational and healthcare systems throughout the country (and particularly in the border states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) have been overwhelmed by illegals seeking free this and free that and a social safety net that American citizens do not even enjoy…

It’s an invasion, Folks, and hardly anyone in Washington seems to care!

Responsive? More like derelict, if you ask me.

Way to go, A Certain Shaft of Light!

The Washington Times article did have one encouraging nugget. Reporting that new House Majority Leader Roy Blunt was also favoring enforcement over a guest-worker plan (a.k.a. amnesty) it quoted Blunt’s spokeswoman:

“Mr. Blunt’s focus with respect to the immigration question is securing the border and enforcing the immigration laws we have on the books,” she said, adding that it’s the top issue on Republican constituents’ minds. “Mr. Blunt was in 10 districts in August, and whether it was in Michigan or Georgia or his own district in Missouri, it is the number one issue.”

(my emphasis).