Democrats aren't necessarily my friends

A couple weeks ago the Senate took a look at an amendment to the immigration bill that would include gay couples. And the Democrats caved. Something about not wanting to hold up the whole bill. With friends like these… Gay advocacy groups are, naturally, furious. A big gay donor has said he will withhold money until gays are included in immigration and employment non-discrimination. Other gays aren't so harsh. There are other things in the big bill that benefit gays -- it will be easier to ask for asylum if a gay person would be persecuted at home.

This (wimpy) battle happened in committee. And the amendment was withdrawn instead of rejected. That means it can be introduced when the bill comes to the full Senate. Though I don't see how the Dems will be less wimpy then.

A page called Mimeographs says it quite well.

David Frum, in Newsweek doesn't like a different section immigration bill, the part that nobody -- neither Dems or GOP -- are talking about. That's the part that is there to correct a "skills shortage" or "skills mismatch". In a market economy (the kind the GOP wants us to have) that should never happen. Which means those words are code for "here's a way to reduce the cost of labor." The working man takes it on the chin again.

I'm sensitive to that right now. I was out today for another protest. Another Detroiter caught up in the Fannie Mae mess. So we met at a park in southwest Detroit (the Springwells neighborhood) and marched to a nearby Chase Bank branch. There were at least 50 protesters who picketed for about a half hour. In spite of the thunderstorms that have been rolling through here the last several days it actually was a beautiful day for a protest.