Last month they voted to stop the bill from going any further in the Senate. No big deal for Mr. Bush, he came out swinging, "see you at the signing", a chilling reminder of how Bush and friends have operated in the past. Americans did not want legislation that would pardon fifteen million people, yet the "decider" was ready to go against the will of the people. His arrogance may have ensured his failure, the public had been flooding congress with negative feelings about the bill, legalizing illegals while many Americans struggle to survive hardly seemed fair. Nevertheless, he met with some Senators, putting pressure on them, making "deals", they drew up some amendments and ironed out some concerns regarding debate. On Tuesday they got the majority of votes 64y/36n and threw the bill on the Senate floor, the debate was back on. A disturbing turn of events, so confident they all became, this bill as many Americans understood it, would crush this nation, and our livelihoods, they all SEEMED so ready to turn a blind eye. But, the debate on Wednesday night went horribly wrong. They killed amendment after amendment, including the well publicized "track back" amendment, all the efforts to "compromise" had been a waste of time, Immigration bill opponents had been duped. Suddenly, it occurred to a select few, this could be a tactical move..hopefully, to kill the bill.
Call after call came into C-Span early Thursday morning opposed to this legislation, aside from a couple of self proclaimed illegal immigrants wanting the bills passage for selfish means, people wanted this bill to GO AWAY. It was clear if this bill passes, Americans would be outraged and in the streets, a revolution would surely begin. The calls kept coming, every member of the Senate received hundreds of phone calls, while congress received so many calls that it shut down their system. We over powered them, and at 9:30am, when they came to the floor, it was obvious.
The Senate was given over an hour to speak before the vote, unfortunately the time was split up unfairly. Democrats did not have anyone speaking against the bill, while the Republicans allowed four or five opponents of the bill, ten minutes to divide among themselves, and the rest of the Republican time was kept for bill supporters. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) didn't hold back as he glared at the bills creators, "we have ten minutes for the opposition while the Masters of the Universe get over 40 minutes to promote their side". If we had a group of admirable Senators, they would have insisted upon equal time, sadly we do not.
We had to listen to Arlen Specter(R) flatter himself for a bunch of wasted minutes, then Sen. Mel Martinez(R), back to Specter, back to Martinez, more time for him to tell his life story, all this, while ignoring the pile of Republicans who opposed the bill.
As if in perfect opposition, Sen. Sessions seemed like he was at a rally when it was time for those ten minutes to be implemented, calling on his "team" to speak the truth. Sen. Corcker called the bill "sinister", and made it clear that our force had claimed his vote, "The American people have lost faith and confidence...the American people feel that they are losing their country, not to people who speak differently, they are losing it to a government" . Sen DeMint reiterated Americas unity, "this bill has reengaged the American people".
Finally, we had the unpleasant misfortune of having to listen to a boring self absorbed Majority Loser (Leader) Harry Reid(D) babble about irrelevant stories in his attempt to do nothing more than to hold on to the bill for a few moments more. Sessions could barley take any more when he interrupted Reid, questioning whether his time had expired, Reid threw a tantrum, whining, "I'm using my leaders time", it got ugly, and Barak Obama, quieted Sen. Sessions, agreeing that Reid had indeed gone past his time, but let Senator Reid carry on.
Then they were done, and more importantly, the bill was done, 53 Senators shut it down, adhering to the voice of the people. While 46 Senators, lead by Ted Kennedy, wanted to kill America. Clearly they shot the wrong Kennedy, in 1963 (Pres. Kennedy was in favor of lower immigration numbers) . They know what passing this bill would have meant to this country, and it had very little to do with anything other than money, the North American Union, and corporate interests.
Americans awareness coupled with our actions against this piece of... legislation is what defeated it. We have proven that our power to stand united will be the key to their unraveling. We must continue to fight with this force, together, as Americans no matter how hard they try to divide us. We have to use the residual energy to power up the laws that are on the books but are not enforced. If we sleep through everything they propose we will lose this country, we came too damn close this time, and they will never stop, but watching them crumble was beautiful.
