You've been reading all about Congress making English our offical language and you're wondering where this fits into the immigration issue. You can find a few hints in Wikipedia's entry on Language and Nationalism:

Language and Nationalism
A common language has been a defining characteristic of the nation, and an ideal for nationalists...The formation of nation-states, and their consolidation after independence, is generally accompanied by policies to restrict, replace, or abandon minority languages. This accelerates the tendency noted in sociolinguistic research that high-status languages displace low-status languages.
<...>
The United States, a country which historically welcomed immigrants of varying nationality, has what can be seen as a pattern of discrimination against languages other than English. Prominent examples are the German language, which was nearly eradicated during World War I, and French and Italian, which have nearly disappeared from everyday life. Today Spanish is a second language across large portion of the country. Some politicians, such as Pat Buchanan have consciously opposed the rise of Spanish as a second American language, for fear that it would undermine unity in the American national character.

Illegals granted Social Security

How gratifying that the Senate voted down the Ensign Amendment. You'd almost think they've been listening to Woody Guthrie:

Deportee
by Woody Guthrie

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are stuck in their creosote dumps
They’re flying’em back to that Mexico border
To pay all their wages to wade back again

Goodbye to Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios, mi amigo, Jesus an’ Maria
You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane
And all they will call you will be deportee

My father’s own father, he waded that river
They took all the money he made in his life
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees
An’ they rode on the trucks till they took down and died

Well, some are illegal and some are not wanted
Our work contract’s out and we’ve got to move on
Six hundred miles to that Mexico border
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves

We died in your hills and we died on your deserts
We died in your valleys, we died on your plains
We died ‘neath your trees and we died in your bushes
Both sides of that river, we died just the same

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos canyon
Like a fireball of lightnin’ and shook all our hills
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves
The radio says they are just deportees

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit
To fall like dry leaves and rot on my topsoil
An’ be known by no name except deportee




But oh, yes! There's more good news in Dem land:

Lieberman's Support for War Leaves Him Embattled on Left

Another small group of dedicated people making a difference! You go, Dems! All over the nation, people are plugging in. There's a better day acomin'.

So the minority voice in the Senate may be silenced. So mayhem rages in Iraq. So we lose battles to save our most precious natural resources. So our country is being sold to the highest bidder...or at least to close friends of the reigning party. So the new pope is an arch conservative. Yet, you may console yourself with this: Bush has not yet achieved the destruction of Social Security, his most ardently pursued agenda for this term. Some would even maintain that his plummeting poll numbers are directly related to his efforts to dismantle Social Security. I have more faith in my fellows: I think they evaluate the total picture. All the above mentioned are Bush's doing, except maybe, and I do mean maybe, the pope.

The latest from the Washington Post:

Private-Account Concept Grew From Obscure Roots

And from the New York Times:

Senate Committee Takes Up Bid to Overhaul Social Security

Can you say "Scare Tactics?" Here's the mushroom cloud of the Social Security debate:

Social Security tax hike feared
Bush official predicts 50% jump with no revamp
Alan Fram - Associated Press
Saturday, January 15, 2005

Washington --- Social Security taxes will have to rise by half if lawmakers don't revamp the giant program, President Bush's budget chief said Friday as the administration sought support for its overhaul plans.

Get the whole story before you rush into battle. Seems there's a crisis missing in Social Security.

URGENT

Next week's Senate confirmation hearings are our only chance to hold Condoleezza Rice accountable. We deserve the truth. Sign the petition. Let's stop rolling over for these Neocons!

So today there are reports that the search for WMD in Iraq is officially over, with no weapons found, much of Iraq destroyed and many dead. How long it will be before we hear reports that THERE WAS NO CRISIS in Social Security - and how much of that program will be destroyed?

What's the news from Iraq?

Deadliest attacks on Iraqi security forces since Saddam fell

January elections? How?

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And here's an item sure to inspire hope for the Middle East:

Peace plan summit

GEORGE W. Bush and Tony Blair will try to thrash out a new Middle East peace plan as Yasser Arafat's health hangs in the balance.

They've done such a fine job in Iraq...

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A little talked about consequence of Bush's election:

US ready to put weapons in space


Oil wells in Alaska, weapons in space, democracy in Iraq, clean skies in America, religion in schools (and government): what further delights lay in store for us!

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Gay community fears new era of intolerance

Because, after all, Bush's clear mandate is also a license for hate and bigotry to his constituents. Bush isn't likely to call out the National Guard to protect them.

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Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked

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U.S. Marines in Iraq break pre-battle tension with chariot race

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San Francisco: No Mood for Tolerance After Bush Win

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US unrepentant for Macedonia name recognition, warns citizens in Greece of animosity

How to win friends and influence allies, or in other words, Ride'em, Cowboy! Where's our horse whisperer?

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More pre-emptive strikes on the table

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Inoffensive, ineffective

"Democrats lose because they are unwilling to embrace the principles of their own party. Poverty is a moral issue, too. So is the right to basic medical care, a job, decent housing, safe streets, and a clean environment. If Kerry had projected half the passion about those issues that Bush did about abortion and homosexuality, this race might have been about big ideas, instead of a protracted series of skirmishes in a culture war that Democrats cannot win."

While I lament the impulse to blame Kerry, as I've said elsewhere on this blog, I do think more attention should be given to Democratic values.

So we have Bush for another four years. Fortunately many of us enjoy a good fight. Assuming we are a free nation then, 2008 will reflect a backlash that is sure to follow four years of Bush's bungled public policy.

We've got a firm start toward a liberal base that we can build on. Of course we will have to purge our party of the Zell Miller wannabes first, but if we keep in mind that almost half of the electorate voted for the "most liberal senator in history," we should do well.

Meanwhile, wouldn't it be funny if - after all the soul searching by wavering Democrats who buy into the Republican spin that we need to embrace God to win an election - it turned out that the election was rigged? (Call me paranoid, but I think it quite plausible.)

So, we are beaten but not down. We can afford to take a bit of time now and again to snicker at Bush. It's fine spectator sport. If he continues in the same vein of courting the religous radicals, his own party may beat us to the task of tearing him down.

So don't forget our mantra for the next few years: backlash, backlash, backlash. If I've learned anything in a lifetime of watching American politics, it's that every extreme movement produces an extreme backlash. Get on its tail, donkeys!