Frist is an ass

I pray to all gods, metaphoric, and otherwise, that Bill Frist is not good friends with Diebold (some good images here). If Frist becomes President-select in 2008, I am taking to the fucking streets. Or something equally as drastic. Frist is a confirmed, proud cat killer. The man is a menace, a fancy-pants menace, even more so than the Dauphin.

Don't let your cat be turned over to the evil Dr. Frist for experiments!!

People For the American Way - Comprehensive Immigration Reform Is within Reach, but Obstacles Remain

...But a number of obstacles still stand in the way of comprehensive reform. The first is Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who is desperately seeking a base going into the Republican presidential primary. Senator Frist, looking to cash in on the anti-immigration fervor on the far right...has been using his power as majority leader to obstruct the committee's work by short-circuiting the legislative process. He took the unusual and drastic step of bypassing the committee, introducing a reactionary, "enforcement-only" bill, and immediately filing cloture on a motion to proceed to his bill.

The problem with "enforcement-only" immigration reform

We've been down the "enforcement-only" path before. In fact, it's the path we've been on for the past 20 years, and it has taken us to where we are today. During the past decade alone, as the nation's immigration problems mounted, we tripled the number of agents on the border, quintupled their budget, toughened enforcement strategies, and built fences and other fortifications around urban entry points. It's a profound understatement to say that this strategy has done little to yield any positive change.

The mean-spirited legislation offered by Frist in the Senate and Sensenbrenner in the House promises more of the same, but with a higher price tag and yet more draconian tactics. The legislation would limit due process and legal rights for immigrants, criminalize individuals and organizations that provide aid to undocumented immigrants (including churches that offer food and shelter), make criminals out of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants who already live and work in and contribute to communities across our nation, and make citizenship more difficult to obtain for deserving immigrants. But even the most ruthless and effective tactics cannot compensate for a flawed strategy.

Enforcement is only feasible under a system of sensible laws that recognizes economic, security, and family needs. Laws that facilitate legal immigration cause a reduction in the flow of illegal immigration, narrowing the scope of the problem. The resources used for enforcement could then be focused on those offenders who pose a serious threat to the nation's security, rather than on family members seeking to reunite or workers seeking to fill gaps in our labor market, thereby returning order and stability to our chaotic immigration system.

and via an email alert:

After a remarkable marathon session, the Senate Judiciary Committee came to an agreement on a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a path to earned citizenship, an accelerated family reunification program, and a guest worker program. This bill complicates Senator Frist's attempts to ram through an enforcement-only measure intended to bolster his 2008 presidential bid.

The Judiciary Committee's action comes after an incredible groundswell of grassroots support for fair and realistic immigration reform, including the almost 30,000 messages sent by PFAW activists. Yesterday, students walked out of classes in states from Michigan to Texas to Virginia in protest of Senator Frist's approach. Massive protests have erupted from coast to coast in recent days: Over 500,000 people surrounded Los Angeles' City Hall this weekend; 100,000 marched in Denver; and more than 50,000 turned out for a rally last weekend in Chicago. Milwaukee, Phoenix, Trenton, and many other cities have seen some of the largest rallies in recent memory.

previous discussion here

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