Twelve of the 46 Republican Senators voted for cloture on S.1639 today. That is, in support of a bill which would very likely have set the seal on America’s transformation into a Third World Spanish-speaking slum. They deserve to be remembered. Most have been noticed by VDARE.com in the past.

Robert Bennett Utah

Larry Craig Idaho

Lindsey Graham South Carolina

Judd Gregg New Hampshire

Chuck Hagel Nebraska

Jon Kyl Arizona

Trent Lott Mississippi

Richard Lugar Indiana

Mel Martinez Florida

John McCain Arizona

Olympia Snowe Maine

Arlen Specter Pennsylvania

Special mention should be made of Sam Brownback, of Kansas, who first voted for cloture and then changed his mind on seeing it was losing. (Hat tip, A Certain Slant of Light)

In time it will become clear how the very considerable credit due to those patriots who defeated this measure should be apportioned. Alabama’s Jeff Sessions was clearly a hero. So, refreshingly, was South Carolina’s Jim DeMint, barely featured here in the past.

By their fruits ye shall know them

It was a great success! A big one, with a vote of 53-46 against cloture (see how individual Senators voted). Roy Beck sent around an email that said “This is one of the biggest victories I’ve ever seen for grassroots activism.”

Absolutely. The whole thing switched overnight. As noted in a 6/27 New York Times article (Doubts Emerge About Passage of Immigration Bill), the vote was too close to call just yesterday. Bush and other ruling elites were twisting arms and handing out pork to convince Senators to get in line. It was only the impassioned voice of the American people that made the crucial difference, insisting that a terrible bill was not acceptable. Sen. Jeff Sessions said this morning just before the vote that the Senate phone system had closed down because of the huge number of calls.

Senator Jim DeMint was a leader against the amnesty bill and issued a statement, “The American People Won Today”.

“When the U.S. Senate brought the Amnesty bill back up this week, they declared war on the American people. This act created a crisis of confidence in their government. Thankfully, the American people won today,” said Senator DeMint. “This is remarkable because it shows that Americans are engaged and they care deeply about their country. They care enough for their country to get mad and to fight for it, and that’s the most important thing of all. Americans made phone calls and sent letters, and convinced the Senate to stop this bill.” [...]

“There is a better way forward without this bill. The President has said that the border security measures can be implemented over the next 18 months, and they can be done under current law. Now the Administration needs to prove it and stop holding border security hostage for amnesty.”

Photo: Senate anti-amnesty point man Jeff Sessions and Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) enjoy a victory handshake.

Incidentally, Senator Sessions was magnanimous in victory, suggesting a way that the President could still recoup some legacy chips:

I am pleased to work with President Bush as we move forward with a renewed focus on making our borders secure. It would be an enduring legacy for him if he were to be the first President in nearly 40 years to truly secure our nation’s borders.
[ Sessions: Senate Vote on Immigration a Victory for the American People 6/28/07]

We can be sure the open-border hacks will be back with piecemeal amnesty. Sen Feinstein has already promised to bring up Ag-Jobs next month. But for now, do the happy dance, enjoy a cold one and smell the roses. Hooray!

Cloture fails to get 60 votes, in fact it fails to get a majority, and loses 46-53

Senator Ted Kennedy showed true class in defeat, saying opponents of his bill were in favor of a “Gestapo.”

Now all we need, as the Turks say, is three more horseshoes, and a horse

So, who should be punished? How about Senator Lindsey Lohan Graham (R-SC) for demonizing his fellow Republicans as racists? Suggestions, please.

We here at VDARE.com have been calling the revenant bill a monstrosity, and comparing it to Dracula and similar creatures–Steve Sailer wrote:

The Axis of Amnesty’s revival of the Senate immigration bill has inspired a lot of zombie, vampire, mummy, and Frankenstein references, but I think I like best Dennis Dale’s citation of the climax of The Eagles’ song “Hotel California:”

They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can’t kill the beast

Still, it’s surprising to see mainstream media types like ABC and the Associated Press going with this headline:

ABC News: Senate Drives Stake Through Immigration
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Associated Press
Jun 28, 2007

They also include a picture of some Axis of Amnesty types including an unusually vampiric looking Ted Kennedy. Has anyone checked to see if he reflects in a mirror?

I’ve been explaining for over a half dozen years that the Bush-Rove immigration offensive was politically nuts for the Republican Party. Of course, I’m not a genius like Karl Rove, but, I do feel in the mood today, June 28, 2007 to get something off my chest:

I told you so.

Thank you. I feel a lot better now.

Brandon Keim writes at Wired:

Nearly one in twenty patients carry drug-resistant staph bacteria, a number ten times higher than previous estimates, say researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is a rather nasty disease that can result in amputations even if treated. It is spreading in the kinds of places where Americans most impacted by immigration are likely to wind up.

The US has a neighbor, where antibiotic abuse is quite common: Mexico.

USA Today has a story about how, in spite of all the pandering Bush can do, and the fact that he has a Mexican-American nephew who may seek the Presidency at some point, Hispanics are still Democrats.

Hispanics turning back to Democrats for 2008
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
SAN ANTONIO — Like no Republican before him, George W. Bush drew Hispanics to the GOP.
In the 2004 election, at least 40% of the voters in the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority group backed Bush, double the share of Hispanics who had supported Republican Bob Dole eight years earlier. But the inroads Bush made are vanishing.

The chief beneficiary for 2008 so far is Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.

A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll indicates that Hispanics, by nearly 3 to 1, say they’re Democrats or lean that way. Of those, 59% support the New York senator over her presidential rivals — her strongest showing among any major demographic group and a huge potential asset for early contests in Nevada, Florida, California and other states with large Hispanic populations.

40 percent, or even the imaginary 44 percent of the vote that various Hispanic vote enthusiasts, (including National Review) thought Bush had achieve, is still a landslide the other way.

USA Today said much the same thing, with slightly different numbers, at the time of the 2006 election that cost the Republicans the House.

Republicans lose ground among Hispanic voters - USATODAY.com

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY, November 9, 2006

WASHINGTON — Republican gains among Hispanic voters evaporated in Tuesday’s election, and some party leaders are blaming harsh rhetoric on immigration for the reversal.
Cutting into the Democrats’ traditional advantage among Hispanic voters was a key to both of President Bush’s election victories. In 2004, when the president was at the top of the ticket, 44% of Hispanics surveyed after they cast their ballots said they voted Republican.

This year, the figure dropped to 29%.

In Alien Nation, Peter Brimelow wrote that “Race is destiny in American politics.”[p 264, p . 277 of the PDF version.] What that means is that minority groups tend to vote as blocs, while the majority tends to be divided on principles. And the bloc voting tends to go Democratic.

It was folly for GOP strategists to think otherwise.

Confirming that the 1989 comedy “Major League,” with Dennis Haysbert as Pedro Cerrano, the slugger who keeps a Santeria shrine in his locker, was ahead of its time, the LA Times reports:

Religion under wraps
Santeria finds a following among baseball’s Latin American players, who’d rather not discuss it for fear of misperceptions.
By Kevin Baxter Times Staff Writer

CHICAGO — On a shelf in the office of Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen, mixed in among the family photos, the Roberto Clemente bobblehead and the Napoleon Dynamite figurine, are four small but intimidating religious icons.

“If you see my saints, you’ll be like ‘Golly, they’re ugly,’ ” Guillen had said before inviting a visitor to come in. “They’ve got blood. They’ve got feathers. You go to the Catholic church, the [saints] have got real nice clothes.

“My religion, you see a lot of different things you never see.”

Guillen’s religion is Santeria, a largely misunderstood Afro-Cuba spiritual tradition that incorporates the worship of orisha — multidimensional beings who represent the forces of nature — with beliefs of the Yoruba and Bantu people of Africa and elements of Roman Catholicism. And Guillen, born in Venezuela, is one of a growing number of Latin American players, managers and coaches who are followers of the faith.

How many major leaguers have converted to Santeria is impossible to say because most, aware of the stigma the religion has in the United States, refuse to talk about their faith.

“It’s like the forbidden fruit,” said one player. “It’s something personal. It’s something you don’t talk about.”

But among those who have acknowledged their devotion are Angels pitcher Francisco Rodriguez and Florida Marlins third baseman Miguel Cabrera — both Venezuelan — and the White Sox’s Cuban-born pitcher Jose Contreras, all of whom have been All-Stars and won World Series rings. Others, such as Cincinnati Reds shortstop Alex Gonzalez and Chicago Cubs infielder Ronny Cedeno, have experimented with it.

With all that spiritual power on his side, you’d think Ozzie Guillen could have gotten a few more walks during his playing career. (Guillen’s name has become a by-word for a player who will not take a base-on-balls no matter how much the team needs it.)

Anyway, it’s all just part of the vibrant future we Americans have to look forward to.

[Crossposted at Isteve.com]

Once upon a time, not so long ago, a senator from Arizona named John McCain was a frontrunner among GOP contenders for the 2008 Presidential elections. Today he’s polling somewhere near the bottom of the pack. (Rasmussen Reports)

While the Senate tried to hammer out an immigration reform bill this week, McCain did manage one memorable moment on the floor when explaining why we could not simply deport all the illegal aliens already here. He said,

“We don’t have 12 million pairs of handcuffs.”

Wow…that’s a good one. People (voters) will undoubtedly see and follow the logic in that zinger!

Personally, if I were McCain I would give my writing staff a raise at this point. By “raise” I mean sneak up behind them, place a sack over their heads, drive them to the local pack-and-ship store, have them boxed up (yes, with bubble wrap) and have them mailed some place nice like…Darfur.

Good grief, it’s not that horrifying–I’d send water with them.

Oh yeah, then I would drop out of the race and try to get a real job. Again, this is the scenario as played by John McCain…so my new job would likely be with the government of Mexico…oh wait, he kind of already works there I think.

Moving on…

It has been mentioned that the Secretary of Homeland Security himself–Michael Chertoff–was making the rounds this morning trying to persuade Republican senators to back the Bush immigration bill.

Lobbying with him was Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. Now I’m not suggesting that President Bush sent a virtually unknown man with absolutely no influence as some sort of Hispanic “token” to influence certain legislators but…well, yes actually I am suggesting that is what he did.

Either way, the bill is officially gone. No amnesty this year. No reform this year.

BUT THIS IS A GOOD THING!! It would take a miracle for Congress to get anything passed before the 2008 election and that is the best we in the reform movement can hope for.

Ever since the Dems took control of Congress, VDARE.com has been saying that the best thing we can hope for (other than the passage of a bill that does round-up and deport every illegal alien in the country while simultaneously shutting off the immigration faucet across the board) is for Congress to do nothing.

We need to be patient for now and in 2008 elect politicians who are serious about immigration reform.

(As you know, VDARE.com does not endorse candidates and other such political nonsense but regarding the aforementioned folk we should elect in 2008, I don’t think he hails from Arizona.)

This same exact amnesty bill was drafted by the Bush administration and literally slaughtered in the GOP-led House last year only to be resurrected and killed again in the Dem-controlled Senate this year.

A new day is coming with a new leader (possibly a new Congress?) and who knows what that will bring but one thing is certain:

It won’t be another stupid Bush Amnesty Bill.

Charles Babington writes at Associated Press:

The Senate drove a stake Thursday through President Bush’s plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.

The bill’s supporters fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate and clear the way for final passage of the legislation, which critics assailed as offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. The vote was 46 to 53 in favor of limiting the debate.

Senators in both parties said the issue is so volatile that Congress is highly unlikely to revisit it this fall or next year, when the presidential election will increasingly dominate American politics.

I think the pro-immigration forces are literally fighting for their lives. Machiavelli said that once a prince has oppressed a people, he must expect a huge reaction if he ever lets up-even a little.

I think the real reaction we are seeing here is from H-1b visa expansion. The H-1b visa quota was allowed to drop signficantly a few years ago. There are a whole lot of well-educated activists now that understand from personal experience the ramifications of the Senate guest worker expansion far better than any Senator. When the quotas dropped a little and increasingly H-1b intensive companies are having financial problems, that crew got just a little relief-and now they are angry and able to act. It is still hard to get any serious legislative traction on really setting the H-1b situation right for US tech workers-but illegal immigration is a visible issue. Thus we see a lot of these activists working on the illegal immigration issue.

It is important to remember what immigration expansion leader Kennedy is. He’s a murderous, cheat who got into a position of authority riding his more talented brother’s coattails and leveraging his father’s considerable financial resources. In 1957 Joe Kennedy was listed in Fortune as one of the 16 richest Americans with net worth of $200-400 Million. That would be equivalent to over $2.86 billion in today’s money just adjusting for inflation. However, in recent years, the fortunes of the 16 richest Americans start at $9.6 Billion. Kennedy’s own net worth was recently reported at a bit under $10 Million.

I don’t think the Kennedy clan squandered their fortune, lost it all via taxation or that Joe largely disinherited Ted. An endowment of $10 Million is adequate to live very comfortably. I expect the rest of the money is scattered across various family members, loyal retainers and various foundations-that are largely under the effective control of Kennedy loyalists and family members.

The Kennedy family rose to political prominence bankrolling FDR. The left leaning populism of the time was largely led by folks like Huey Long focused on redistribution of wealth-that would have hit the Kennedy family quite squarely. When the depression go so bad that something “had” to be done, FDR adopted every element of the Socialist platform, except the key items of a tax on landed property and direct taxation of concentrated assets.

If immigration restriction is accomplished, I predict we will see a huge movement of the US back to traditional core values of left populism. Containment of immigration will give working Americans just enough relief that they can start to realize how bad things have gotten for them since the 1965 immigration expansion. The end result would be containment of concentrations of wealth that make what happened in the 30’s-early 60’s seem utterly mild

The worse nightmare of Ted Kennedy is an American left that utterly repudiates his legacy and a right where his friends like the Bush family are discredited. This just may be what he lives to see as he nears death.