memeorandum @ 6:05 PM ET, March 29, 2006

6:05 PM ET, March 29, 2006

RELATED ITEMS:

Arnold Schwarzenegger / Los Angeles Times:

Next step for immigration — THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS ago, I first arrived in America owning nothing but a dream. — I had few friends, little money and knew even less English. But of this I was certain: Here was a land where I could go as far and as fast as my dreams and my desire would take me.

Discussion: California Conservative, Bill Bradley's NEW WEST NOTES and BrothersJudd Blog

Thomas Sowell / Townhall.com:

Guests or gate crashers — Immigration is yet another issue which we seem unable to discuss rationally — in part because words have been twisted beyond recognition in political rhetoric. — We can't even call illegal immigrants "illegal immigrants." The politically correct evasion is "undocumented workers."

Discussion: PoliPundit.com, QandO, Booker Rising and Freedom Folks

Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Illegals To Americans: We Hate America

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and TBogg - "

Val Prieto / Babalu Blog:
Why I abhor the terms "latino" and "hispanic"

Discussion: Shot In The Dark

Tony Blankley / Washington Times:
Mexican illegals vs. American voters

Discussion: A Blog For All and EconoPundit

Washington Post:

Abramoff Gets Minimum Sentence — Former Lobbyist to Spend 5 Years, 10 Months in Prison — MIAMI, March 29 — Jack A. Abramoff, the once-powerful Republican lobbyist at the center of a major corruption scandal, was sentenced Wednesday to five years and 10 months in prison for his role …

Discussion: TalkLeft, TPM Muckraker, Balloon Juice, Why Are We Back In Iraq?, The Mahablog, Demagogue, The Carpetbagger Report and Sentencing Law and Policy

RELATED ITEMS:

New York Times:

Abramoff Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison in Fraud Case — MIAMI — Disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a business partner were sentenced Wednesday to five years and 10 months in federal prison, the minimum they faced for fraud related to their 2000 purchase of the SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet.

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Left Coaster, Air America Radio and Wonkette

Jim Loney / Reuters:

Abramoff gets 6 years for fraud — MIAMI (Reuters) - Jack Abramoff, a disgraced lobbyist at the heart of a Washington influence-peddling scandal that has rattled top Republicans, was sentenced to nearly six years in prison on Wednesday for fraud in the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line.

Discussion: TPM Muckraker and DownWithTyranny!

Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:

Judges on Secretive Panel Speak Out on Spy Program — WASHINGTON, March 28 — Five former judges on the nation's most secretive court, including one who resigned in apparent protest over President Bush's domestic eavesdropping, urged Congress on Tuesday to give the court a formal role in overseeing the surveillance program.

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere, Power Line, Charging RINO, protein wisdom, The Carpetbagger Report, The Heretik, Slate, The American Street, Decision '08, The Washington Monthly and AMERICAblog

RELATED ITEMS:

Brian DeBose / Washington Times:

FISA judges say Bush within law — A panel of former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges yesterday told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that President Bush did not act illegally when he created by executive order a wiretapping program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Discussion: Jeff Gannon and Don Surber

Liz Sidoti / Associated Press:

Democrats Pledge to 'Eliminate' Osama — WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats promise to "eliminate" Osama bin Laden and ensure a "responsible redeployment of U.S. forces" from Iraq in 2006 in an election-year national security policy statement. — In the position paper to be announced Wednesday …

RELATED ITEMS:

Bill Nienhuis / PunditGuy:
Making Promises You Can't Keep

Discussion: protein wisdom, JunkYardBlog, Wizbang and Blogs for Bush

Mary Curtius / Los Angeles Times:

Senators End Right to Derail Votes Secretly — Nearing a vote on ethics and lobbying rules that many say are too weak, they also defeat a bid to create an independent public integrity office. — WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday voted to strip its members of the power to secretly place a …

RELATED ITEMS:

Jeffrey H. Birnbaum / Washington Post:
Senate Votes Down Outside Ethics Office

Discussion: TPM Muckraker

Amir Taheri / Opinion Journal:

'The Last Helicopter' — Mideast dictators try to "wait Bush out." They may be miscalculating. — Hassan Abbasi has a dream—a helicopter doing an arabesque in cloudy skies to avoid being shot at from the ground. On board are the last of the "fleeing Americans," forced out of the Dar al-Islam …

Discussion: Penraker, TigerHawk, The Anchoress, Solomonia, The Claremont Institute, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Ed Driscoll.com and Cold Fury

Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:

Rubber Stamp Republican Congress: Citizen Action Update — Morning everyone — happy Jack Abramoff Sentencing in Florida Day. Looks like Jack still has a few friends on the Hill. But today, it's all about the sentencing judge — and the proffer as to what cooperation Jackie Boy has been giving the Feds.

Discussion: Democrat Taylor Marsh …

RELATED ITEMS:

Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:
House Dems on the Rubber Stamp Republican Congress

Discussion: Democrat Taylor Marsh … and The Left Coaster

Mark Kleiman / The Reality-Based Community:

Six theses on immigration policy — Some random thoughts as the nativist campaign builds up a head of steam: — 1. For any given amount of total immigration, it's obviously better to have a larger fraction of that total be legal. That's especially true if we're worried about terrorism.

Discussion: Body and Soul, Asymmetrical Information, The American Street, EconLog, Damn Foreigner, TAPPED and Marginal Revolution

radioblogger.com:

Time Magazine's Michael Ware from Baghdad. — HH: Joining me now live from Baghdad is Michael Ware, bureau chief for Time Magazine. Michael, welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show. — MW: Thanks, Hugh. — HH: Michael, we met each other courtesy of CNN on a couple of editions of Anderson Cooper's program last week.

Discussion: News Blog, Hugh Hewitt, Democracy Project, Unfogged, Tim Blair and Kesher Talk

Agence France Presse:

Saudis, with Pakistani help, working on nuclear programme — BERLIN (AFP) - Saudi Arabia is working secretly on a nuclear programme, with help from Pakistani experts, a German magazine reports in its latest edition, citing Western security sources. — The German magazine Cicero says that during …

Discussion: protein wisdom, AMERICAN FUTURE, In the Bullpen, Gina Cobb, A Blog For All and The American Street

Alan Cooperman / Washington Post:

'War' on Christians Is Alleged — Conference Depicts a Culture Hostile to Evangelical Beliefs — The "War on Christmas" has morphed into a "War on Christians." — Last December, some evangelical Christian groups declared that the religious celebration of Christmas — and even the phrase …

Discussion: Street Prophets, Preemptive Karma, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Just a Bump in the Beltway and Shakespeare's Sister

Associated Press:

Bush blames Iraq's instability on Hussein — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush said Wednesday that Saddam Hussein, not continued U.S. involvement in Iraq, is responsible for ongoing sectarian violence that is threatening the formation of a democratic government.

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister

Atrios / Eschaton:

Victory — Attempts to seriously regulate the internets are finally dead for the moment. HR 1606 will provide a weapon to use against zombie reform efforts which will keep coming back to life. — To make something clear I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea that some day we might …

Discussion: RedState, Daily Kos, Beltway Blogroll and skippy the bush kangaroo

Ellen Knickmeyer / Washington Post:

Thousands of Iraqis Flee to Avoid Spread Of Violence — BAGHDAD, March 28 — Sectarian violence has displaced more than 25,000 Iraqis since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine, a U.N.-affiliated agency said Tuesday, and shelters and tent cities are springing up across central …

Discussion: Air America Radio, The Mahablog, Amygdala and Booman Tribune