Joe Lieberman spearheads 'Don't Ask' repeal, DREAM act dies

Students Look to 2012 After Immigration Bill Fails in Senate
Monday, December 20, 2010 By Amy Taxin, Associated Press Undocumented UCLA Student Leslie Perez, 22, weeps while watching a televised debate of the DREAM Act in the Senate at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center in Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. The DREAM Act would give provisional legal status to Illegal Immigrants who were brought to the country as Children. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond) Los Angeles (AP) - Emboldened by months of phone calls to lawmakers, Hunger Strikes and sit-ins, a group...

John McCain and Civil Rights.
With his hardened opposition to the DREAM Act and Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal, John McCain has all but lost any goodwill he had among Democrats, moderates, and the press. For example, here is Joe Klein on his old friend: I used to know a different John McCain, the guy who proposed comprehensive Immigration Reform with Ted Kennedy, the guy--a conservative, to be sure, but an honorable one--who refused to indulge in the hateful strictures of his party's Extremists. His public fall has been spectac...

What now for the DREAM Act?
It may take awhile, but the DREAM Act will be back, and it will pass. The Senate vote Saturday to toss the proposal that would have granted young Illegal Immigrants a route to legal status dealt a harsh blow to Student Activists who will face an even steeper uphill battle in the next Congress. Immigrants see rough times ahead in the next two years, with many Republicans vowing to push for tougher Immigration enforcement, but they also say Latino voters are getting fed up with lawmakers at a t...

Republicans Block DREAM Act, Another Old Media Lie
The Old Media is up to its old tricks again, this time making the GOP the fall guy for the failure of the latest Immigration Bill. Nearly every news outlet is reporting that the Republicans have blocked the DREAM Act, many of these reports even say so right in the headline. The truth, however, is not that the GOP blocked it, but that the Democrats didn’t get all its own members to vote for it. In fact, if the Democrats could have gotten five more of their own members to vote “yea&#...

Militarys Ban on Homosexuals Repealed, But Restrictions Remain for the Time Being
Monday, December 20, 2010 A sign outside ABC Television's Times Square studio in New York announces that the U.S. Senate approved the Repeal of the law banning Homosexuals from Military service on Saturday Dec. 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg) Washington (AP) - While President Barack Obama this week is expected to clear the way for gays to serve openly in the military, the new law won't go into effect immediately and unanswered questions remain: How soon will the new policy be implemen...

4 Winners From 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
The Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" allowing gays to serve openly in the Military is a landmark Legislation - a historic Civil Rights bill that will be remembered in the history books for generations to come. But the political implications of its passage are also very significant, for both the White House and several leading senators whose fortunes changed overnight. Here are the four big political winners in the wake of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal: MORE FROM NATIONAL JOURNAL: Stage Se...

Penlope Cruz Controversy Reveals Duplicity in Immigration Debate
Providing us with another convenient excuse to share an image of the radiant Penélope Cruz, some readers responded with indignation to last week’s post regarding the actress and her unborn child. The source of their angst was a position taken in defense of the term “Anchor Baby.” A conservative Hispanic group, Somos Republicans, took a hard stance against Fox News Latino for using the term in reference to Cruz’s unborn child, equating it to epithets like “wetback...

Post-DREAM Act: Is Real Immigration Reform Dead?
The failure of the Senate to achieve Cloture on the DREAM Act has not ended the Immigration debate. Politically, both sides will attempt to capitalize on this vote.  Democrats will argue that they are the only ones who care about the Hispanic community, while Republicans will claim that they are the only ones serious about enforcement.  But from a policy perspective, where might the debate go during the next Congress with Republicans running the House and a stronger GOP presence in the Senat...

A 'thank you' on DADT repeal and an appeal on DREAM to NC Senators Burr and Hagan
It was a complete surprise to see that 0% HRC-rated Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) actually voted to Repeal DADT yesterday, and I just wanted to concur with this statement from Faith in America: Sens. Hagan, Burr thanked for courageous votes Faith in America in a statement Saturday thanked North Carolina's U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr for their vote to Repeal the U.S. Military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. "Today's vote in the U.S. Senate is a monumental achievement in the...

Dems up in 2012 largely united on DREAM Act, "Don't ask, don't tell" repeal
The vast majority of Senate Democrats facing Reelection in 2012 voted in favor of the DREAM Act and the Repeal of the Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy over the weekend.  Just two Senate Democrats who will likely face tough Reelection contests in 2012 voted against the DREAM Act--a measure which is derided as Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants by many Republican critics and fell short of the votes needed in the Senate Saturday.  Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), both to...

DADT repeal passes, DREAM Act fails
Some history was made yesterday. The Senate took a big step toward ending the Military’s ban on Openly Gay servicemembers today. By a vote of 63 to 33, the Senate voted to end debate on a bill repealing the Military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, opening the door for a final Senate vote on the standalone Repeal bill passed by the House Tuesday. That means a simple majority of 51 Senators can now bring the legislative fight on repealing DADT to an end. [...] Voting wit...

No More Mister Nice Blog
MONTANA UNDER SIEGE! One win, one loss today: the Senate passed Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal today -- and, much as it kills me to say it, thank you, Joe Lieberman, for whatever you did to expedite this, even I know you're going to betray your party's presidential nominee again in 2012 (you'll probably ditch the GOP this time in favor of whoever Mike Bloomberg's sock puppet is, because Bloomie campaigned for you in 2006), then come crawling back to the Dems when -- given your inexplicable surviv...

John McCain's viciousness on DADT, phoniness on DREAM Act secure an unpleasant legacy
I dunno about you, but my initial instinctive sense of John McCain, even when he was giving George W. Bush heartburn on the Campaign Trail back in 2000, was that he really was a world-class phony. That whole "maverick" schtick was so transparently a cover for opportunism that he always had me counting my spoons, if you know what it mean. This past week, he put his utter phoniness -- and the really vicious streak that it has always hid -- out there for the whole world to see, leading the Republic...

Bitter, Party Of One
Joe Klein: McCain distinguished himself doubly this weekend, opposing the DREAM Act and leading the opposition to "Don't Ask," despite the very public positions of his wife and daughter on the other side of the issue. I used to know a different John McCain, the guy who proposed comprehensive Immigration Reform with Ted Kennedy, the guy--a conservative, to be sure, but an honorable one--who refused to indulge in the hateful strictures of his party's Extremists. His public fall...

Equality Wins While A Dream Dies
Earlier today, the Senate finally managed to get its act together and repealed the Controversial Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.  About time too, it’s not like the policy was in effect for 18 years, after all.  Seriously, though, it seems like the Senate’s true colors were laid bare for the entire world during the run-up to today’s votes; we heard various Senators giving the most ridiculous reasons to oppose it, but more on that in a minute. Not only was pub...

Michele Bachmann for Senate?
1. Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann isn't ruling out a run for Senate, and the state Republican Party chairman is building her up as a potential Candidate. Bachmann's office, in a statement released to The Hill, said Bachmann has no designs on a challenge to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), but that she's not ruling anything out either. Most of the Bachmann-for-Senate talk has emanated from her extremely strong Fundraising during her 2010 House campaign. She was the top Fundraiser among H...

Jewish Groups Praise Senate's Move To Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
JTA — Jewish groups praised the U.S. Senate’s passage of a law allowing gays to serve openly in the Military and lamented its failure to legalize undocumented migrants who arrived as minors. “With today’s vote, Americans may serve without being forced to choose between their commitment to our country and their integrity,” said Rabbi Steve Gutow, the president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella Public Policy group, after the Senate lifted “don’t

Reason Morning Links: Ask and Tell, But Don't DREAM
The Senate votes to Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell... ...does not pass the DREAM Act... ...and revives a food Regulation bill that looked dead. The new Congress isn't in office yet, but its first potential Scandal may be here. A big Protest is followed by a big crackdown in Belarus. The Bank of America cuts off Wikileaks. Syracuse struggles to distinguish satire from harassment. Officials in the U.K. have plans to regulate online Speech. So do officials in Venezuela. ...

What the DREAM Act's failure means for Philadelphia
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act - or DREAM Act - failed in the US Senate on Saturday and those of us who hang out in Conservative camps couldn't be happier. The DREAM Act was a nightmare to begin with as it allowed for backdoor Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants under the guise of giving Tuition benefits to the Children of illegals dragged over the border. Now some in Libertarian camps are pro-illegal immigrants (but, hey, they're also 9/11 Truthers and think that the Worl...

U.S. Congressman Gutierrez Wants to Hijack the Civil Rights Movement
United States Congressman Luis Gutierrez has threatened Civil Disobedience if the DREAM Act, which would have offered a pathway to American Citizenship to millions of Illegal Immigrants, is not passed into law. "We're going to make it uncomfortable for the Democratic Party," Gutierrez said, adding that Immigration advocates would step up the pressure by drawing lessons from the movements for Civil Rights and women's Suffrage. "There'll probably be civil disobedience. There will p...

DREAM OVER: Senate Blocks Bill for Illegal Immigrants...
The vote by the Senate on Saturday to block a bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of Illegal Immigrant Students was a painful setback to an emerging movement of immigrants and also appeared to leave the Immigration policy of the Obama Administration, which has supported the bill and the movement, in disarray. The bill, known as the DREAM Act, gained 55 votes in favor with 41 against, a tally short of the 60 votes needed to bring it to the floor for debate. Five Democrats broke r...

The Politics of Voting Down DREAM (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – Just hours before the Senate voted on Sunday to Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Democrats lost a major piece of Legislation: the DREAM Act, which failed to overcome the threat of a Republican Filibuster. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would have provided a path to legal Citizenship for some Illegal Immigrants who had arrived in the U.S. as minors but went on to graduate from U.S. colleges or serve in the Military. Democrats pushed the bill as a ...

The Bitter Fall of John McCain
Joe Klein: "I used to know a different John McCain, the guy who proposed comprehensive Immigration Reform with Ted Kennedy, the guy -- a conservative, to be sure, but an honorable one -- who refused to indulge in the hateful strictures of his party's Extremists. His public fall has been spectacular, a consequence of politics -- he 'needed' to be reelected -- and personal pique. He's a bitter man now, who can barely tolerate the fact that he lost to Barack Obama." ...

How Undocumented Youth Nearly Made Their DREAMs Real in 2010
By the time Felipe Matos got to North Carolina, his 1,500-mile march was nearly over. It was April and he, Gaby Pacheco, Carlos Roa and Juan Rodriguez were set to arrive in D.C. on May 1. They’d walked from Miami, on what they called the Trail of Dreams, to raise awareness about their plight as undocumented Students and demand the passage of the DREAM Act. They’d been walking since the first day of the year, and had already passed through north Florida’s backwater towns and bi...

ABC Finds Dream Dies for Illegal Immigrants Because of Conservatives
Larry King to Streisand: Why Do 'Right-Winger Radio Hosts' Pick on You? ...