Saturday, May 27, 2006

The United States Senate (And A Little More)

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been feeling sick the last few days, but I'm better now, and ready to lash out at our Conservative leaders (when they deserve it).

The Senate's been very active the last few days:

General Michael Hayden, who has spent most of his life in the Air Force, is now head of the CIA. Hayden is leaving his job as head of the NSA, which he's held since 1999. Hayden was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 78-15. I don't know where the other 7 senators were. I assume he's qualified, since he was easily confirmed. But I'm proud to say that my senator, Ron Wyden, laid into Hayden over the wiretapping, which he [Hayden] oversaw.

Hayden now oversees the CIA, which I guess is good, because he won't be able to wiretap (the CIA operating in the U.S. is illegal.)

The whole "English as a National Language" OR "English as a Unifying and Common Language" issue. Take your pick. It really won't matter. Congress members admit that it's largely symbolic. I get the feeling, however, that it will cost $200M+ a year to uphold.

President Bush, during his recent joint press-conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, admitted that the U.S. had made some mistakes during the Iraq war. This follows up Secretary Rice's earlier admission that errors had been made. I didn't watch it, but I imagine that no large admissions of guilt were made.

Also, as you have may heard, ABC News reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert may be involved in the same scandal that Jack Abramoff was in. Rep. [Speaker] Hastert demanded a retraction of the story. ABC stands by the story. The White House declined they released the story in an effort to "punish" Speaker Hastert for criticizing the probe on Rep. William Jefferson (see above story.)

There's one more thing I'm forgetting...let me think...

...Oh! We're giving some of those who came here illegally citizenship. Even worse, we're giving others the chance to "gain" citizenship. The Congress is effectively making a 2nd class citizen. They had something like that about 250 years ago. They were called Indentured Servants.

[Note: Each House of Congress has passed a different version of this bill. Chances are something will be lost during negotiations.]

-Adam

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