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More on that insane provision in the Immigration Bill that would quite literally put the Director of Homeland Security above the law.

Number one: It's working its way through Congress as we speak. In fact, in the last 24 hours it passed the House, including the insane language.

Number two: The amendment proposed to remove the language was voted down 243-172. To reiterate, this means we are well on our way to a day when, "notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws" he determines necessary to construct barriers and fences anywhere, any place, and any time, all at his sole discretion, unreviewable by any court of law. In other words, the rule of law and the Constitution will no longer apply should the Secretary decide that they impede the construction of a road or fence. And should anyone disagree, there is no recourse to challenge either his decision or its basis. As The DCCC's The Stakeholder points out... this sounds suspiciously like the powers of a dictator. All in a law pushed by a party that likes to claim it is the party of small government.

But that's not all! The fun is just beginning!

As you might recall, there was also quite a bit of debate yesterday over portions of the law that began the process of creating a National ID Card. Civil liberties groups are quite predictably up in arms, with the ACLU leading the charge. But in the last 24 hours something striking has happened. 2nd Amendment groups have joined the fray - on the SAME side as the ACLU. How utterly insane does a law have to be to bring these two together? Again from The Stakeholder:

The immigration bill also creates a new drivers license system which combs together 50 state data bases into a single national ID registry. Because of obvious privacy issues raised by such a system, Rep Silvester Reyes (D-TX) offered an amendment to stop this new registry from turning into a de facto registry of gun owners, or persons who have registered complaints against the government, or members of the Muslim or other religious faiths, or other things protected by the Constitution. This is why the bill is so strongly opposed by groups and the left and the right who care about privacy, such as the ACLU and the Gun Owners of America (who have written a strong letter opposing the GOP immigration bill). Reyes amendment was simple and straightforward. It specified that a "state motor vehicle database may not include any information about a person's exercise of rights guaranteed under the first, second, or 14th amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The second amendment of course, protects the right to bear arms, something Republicans used to be associated with. But now apparently, they are more interested in creating a big brother government than respecting the privacy rights of our citizens. The Reyes amendment failed by a vote of 195-229, with only two Republicans voting for it. When the Reyes amendment was offered, the best argument Judiciary Chairman Sensenbrenner could come up with was that it would be an unfunded mandate for Congress to tell the states not to create this directory. This is incredible. First off, it doesn't cost anything for the states not to create the gun directory. Secondly, these are the same Republicans who just yesterday voted to waive the unfunded mandate point of order against this very same bill even though it would cost some 760 millions dollars for the states to fund for the new ID requirements. If they really cared about unfunded mandates, they wouldn't have voted by 229-191 to waive the rule!!

Erm... How does NOT doing something cost money? I know they like to play with language over there on the right, but this really is like calling "up" "down" and, by changing the names, thinking that you've changed the laws of physics!

This fight, however, is not over. It's not too late for the right thing to be done here. But gosh... every time I think its not possible for the GOP to surprise me with their insanity, they somehow manage to pull it off.

Oh.. and in case you think I'm blowing this out of proportion, two things:

One: Even the pros are up in arms about this.

Two: To quote a line that was often a favorite among Republicans in the 1980's,

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness." - Justice William O. Douglas

I don't claim to understand how it has happened, but somewhere along the way the GOP moved so far to the right that it is now to the LEFT of the Democratic Party, at least in the way those terms were used back in the Cold War days Think about it:

In the interest of national security, the Republican Congress has proposed the creation of a national database designed to track citizens' information, including actions explicitly protected by the Bill of Rights. At the same time, they have moved to place an appointed government official above the rule of law and unanswerable to the sovereign people!

How on Earth has the party of rabid anti-Communism become the party that looks to Stalin for its model of the state? If those two ideas aren't ones that wignuts would traditionally label as "commie," I don't know what are!

What in the hell is going on in this country?

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