For over a year now, our Congress has subjected this country to a grueling and often times heated debate on the status of legal immigration and the question of what to do in response to the millions of people who have streamed into this country over the years. After passing two versions of immigration-reform measures — one vehemently opposed by Latinos, which favored enforcement and implementation of felony status to undocumented immigrants, and another which imposed a series of fines and other steps that led to eventual citizenship — the extreme right wing of the Republican Party set out to stifle debate and gum up the conference committee process to a stand still, preventing the bill from coming up for consideration before the 2006 Congressional elections. Extreme right-wing Congressmen, who knew they would have to compromise with the more moderate Senate, even held useless public hearings in border cities across the country in a pointless attempt the further "research" the issue.

The country wisely through the Republican leadership out of power in November and once sensible leadership had returned, Democrats gave the conference committee process the proper attention it required and produced the compromise bill the country deserved. Certainly it had its issues. It wasn't a right-wing bill or a left-wing bill, but a measure which made concessions on all sides. It funded the border fence Congress approved last year and it provided an alternative to undocumented immigrants living in the shadows to come into the country legally by either paying the government fines or re-entering the country as part of a guest-worker program, which has been championed by President Bush.

Frankly, I don't really care that much about the bill. The debate is of no personally significance to me, though I do feel the answer to the country's immigration problem does not lie in aborting 12 million from this country. That's not possible. I do believe that this country deserves for this bill to receive a fair hearing in the Congress. The House and Senate should have every member on record because our country deserves a resolution to this debate. What happened today is an injustice to all Americans:

Immigrant Bill Dies in Senate; Defeat for Bush
By Robert Pear and Carl Hulse
New York Times

WASHINGTON, June 28 — President Bush’s effort to overhaul the nation’s immigration policy, a cornerstone of his domestic agenda, collapsed Thursday in the Senate, with little prospect that it can be revived before Mr. Bush leaves office in 19 months.

The bill called for the biggest changes to immigration law in more than 20 years, offering legal status to millions of illegal immigrants while trying to secure borders. But the Senate, forming blocs that defied party affiliation, could never unite on the main provisions.

Rejecting the president’s last-minute pleas, it voted, 53 to 46, to turn back a motion to end debate and move toward final passage. Supporters fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to close the debate.

Mr. Bush placed telephone calls to lawmakers throughout the morning. But members of his party abandoned him in droves, with just 12 of the 49 Senate Republicans sticking by him on the important procedural vote that determined the fate of the bill.

I have been reading with great interest many of the right-wing blogs that have gone to war over this bill. I find myself amazed at the effort expended all in the pursuit to snuff out a bill that may not serve the aims of the extreme right wing but instead serves the will of the center. Conservatives pride themselves on the myth that the majority of Americans are conservative and are likened to their agenda. While past elections (with the exception of the last one) have lended themselves to that opinion, I don't see why that should in any way give politicians the impression that the country will be best served caving into the extreme right wing on an issue like this.

This bill is a largely conservative bill. I think the whole reason it died a slow and painful death in the Senate is that the only vocal base willing to come to bat to axe this thing to death was right talk radio and the red blogs. Every other constituency felt largely indifferent to the bill because it was aimed to the center.

Thanks to conservative gas bags like Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and other right-wing nutjobs, the immigration bill was not defeated on its merits, it was bottled up by a mere cloture vote. How pathetic. This coming from the same idiots who cried bloody murder for any filibuster by Democrats when they were in the minority. It's ridiculous.

So where do we go from here? Liberals bask in Bush's defeat? Conservatives start shaking their empty tin cups for funding for their super fence? Meanwhile, ordinary Americans are left shafted by a political system that seems only to serve the fringe interests. Absolute garbage.

This is a documentary I have been waiting quite some time to see. There is something so horrific and alluring about this film, a documentary on one of the world's most-chosen suicide spots. Jumping from the crosswalk on the Golden Gate Bridge almost always results in death. Falling helpless into such a grim certainty was enough for 24 individuals during 2004, and this film captured 23 of those individuals' deaths.

I have been so fascinated by death since I graduated from college and started a life on my own. Growing up, there are so many things before you, death is rarely acknowledged or considered. It was only when I had embarked on that my career's empty road that I really began to consider the inevitability that I will one day pass. It's scary to think about. It's even scarier to imagine what it would be like for someone to face that inevitability in less than 5 seconds — the time it takes for your body to fall from the bridge and hit the bay.

The film was very good, but it was not "horrific" as I had expected. You get a lot of what you expect to see. The footage is amazing and what you'd expect. Nothing is very close-up, so its impossible to capture much of the person's emotion in their final moments. In the end, the film is horrific in its premise: How can a filmmaker set up a camera for one year with the intention of capturing suicides on film and not actively intercede on behalf of very these troubled individuals? According to the filmmaker, efforts were made when a person was observed making moves as if they were about to jump, but that creepy feeling is not fully shaken through the whole of the film.

What I found most disturbing about the film were the interviews with family members and friends of individuals who had jumped from the bridge. In many cases, they had anticipated the attempt and even tacitly encouraged it. They had given up any hope on re-affirming this person's hold on this world and instead wanted to let them go in peace. I suppose this elicits some understanding, but not much from me. One woman had not only given her friend the drugs that further pushed him to his wit's end, she brushed him off on what turned out to be his moment of need, hours before he gave it all up for glimpse beyond.

All in all, I'd say it is worth seeing. It doesn't demystify death for me in any way, however. The film is effective in tying together the varying lives of individuals who are desperate and troubled enough to consider ending their lives. It helps to shed a light on a world some walk in that is devoid of hope and meaning. This is thankfully a world I have never walked in, but hopefully, if anyone I know falls down this path, I might recognize it and intercede on their behalf.

According to filmmakers, one person attempted to throw themselves from the bridge once every 15 days.

Hold on, maybe I should make sure... What does TMZ.com say?

In The Zone: Paris prays for strength

Paris Hilton is turning to a higher power — no, not Lee Baca — to get through her prison ordeal. Heaven help us!

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ that while Paris' medical condition has stabilized, she is emotionally still extremely fragile and is holding on by a (100 count) thread. We're told she prays constantly in her cell, asking for strength.

According to sources, Paris says support from her family is the only thing that is sustaining her. That and the prison gruel.

God bless Paris!

I'm sorry to say my blog has been kaput for nearly a month now. I swear it only seemed like two weeks! I have been so busy with work and various other adventures. I've been to Santa Cruz, the coast and inside the den of cheetahs. (oh, you should check that out).

Anyways, I'll get to something soon. In the meantime, check this out: