Hotair-I want to believe, but despite their claim of support among legions of women nationwide, I find myself … skeptical. There’s hardly anything on Google about the group and I’m unclear on what exactly their grievance is against Obama or the party itself, aside from their willingness to stand by and let Hillary be smeared misogynistically by “progressives” various and sundry even though she and her campaign haven’t raised much of a ruckus about it themselves. Note to self: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. The Democrats hate you, ladies; there can be but one solution.

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Amnesty in Iraq war funding bill?

THEHILL-The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday added to an Iraq spending bill a controversial provision to help pave the way for undocumented agriculture workers to win legal status, a move that may reopen the divisive immigration debate on the Senate floor.

The so-called Ag-Jobs amendment, sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho), would create a process that allows undocumented workers to continue to work on farms. Without the amendment, Feinstein warned that the U.S. would lose $5-9 billion to foreign competition, tens of thousands of farms would shut down and 80,000 workers would be transferred to Mexico. The bill would sunset in five years.

“Agriculture needs a consistent workforce,” Feinstein said. “Without it, they can’t plant, they can’t prune, they can’t pick and they can’t pack.

“This is an emergency situation,” she added.

The amendment was approved by a 17-12 vote with defections from both parties. Critics say the amendment amounts to amnesty for people who entered the country illegally. A broader comprehensive immigration overhaul, with a path for citizenship for the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, failed in a divisive Senate vote last year.

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What do you think?

NPR-There are about 1,300 chaplains in the U.S. Army, and of those, only five are Muslim. One of them, Maj. Khalid Shabazz, serves at Fort Hood in Texas and is getting ready to retire from his post to study ethics.

For three years, Shabazz has been the Muslim chaplain for the 1-227 Aviation Attack Battalion at Fort Hood. He’s a big part of the religious life of the Muslim soldiers on base, and he offers them a very American brand of Islam.

His office is full of citations and awards thanking him for his service. But it was a different story when he first discovered Islam as an artilleryman 16 years ago.

For Shabazz, it hasn’t always been easy to be a Muslim in the U.S. Army.

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WSJ/Peggy Noonan: What happens to the Republicans in 2008 will likely be dictated by what didn’t happen in 2005, and ‘06, and ‘07. The moment when the party could have broken, on principle, with the administration – over the thinking behind and the carrying out of the war, over immigration, spending and the size of government – has passed. What two years ago would have been honorable and wise will now look craven. They’re stuck.

Mr. Bush has squandered the hard-built paternity of 40 years. But so has the party, and so have its leaders. If they had pushed away for serious reasons, they could have separated the party’s fortunes from the president’s. This would have left a painfully broken party, but they wouldn’t be left with a ruined “brand,” as they all say, speaking the language of marketing. And they speak that language because they are marketers, not thinkers. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.

This is and will be the great challenge for John McCain: The Democratic argument, now being market tested by Obama Inc., that a McCain victory will yield nothing more or less than George Bush’s third term.

That is going to be powerful, and it is going to get out the vote. And not for Republicans.

WOW!

ABC News’ Kevin Chupka Reports: Former GOP hopeful and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is back in the news this week, making a splash when he took a hit at Senator Barack Obama during the annual National Rifle Association meeting.

Huckabee made an off-color joke during his speech in Louisville, Kentucky, when a loud bang was heard off-stage.

“That was Barack Obama,” Huckabee quipped, “He Just tripped off a chair. He was getting ready to speak. Somebody aimed a gun at him and he…he dove for the floor.”

Oil companies and the Middle East kings win, consumers get killed. Is this the Bush plan for energy?

USATODAY-Saudi Arabian leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until their customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices.

During Bush’s second personal appeal this year to King Abdullah, Saudi officials stuck to their position that they are already meeting demand, the president’s national security adviser told reporters.

“What they’re saying to us is … Saudi Arabia does not have customers that are making requests for oil that they are not able to satisfy,” Stephen Hadley said on a day when oil prices topped $127 a barrel, a record high.

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Either “The Body” or his former campaign manager will run for US senate. This is the seat that SNL comedian Al Franken is the Democratic candidate for. Jesse’s former campaign manager is currently a bus driver and gardner.

KARE11: Former Gov. Jesse Ventura said he “may” file the necessary papers to run for the U.S. Senate in the November election. If he doesn’t, his former campaign manager will.

Both are hinting at a run against Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and likely Democratic candidate Al Franken this fall. The only question seems to be: Will it be Ventura, or the man who helped him become governor? Ventura’s former campaign manager, Dean Barkley, now works as a bus driver and gardens as a hobby. “Ear to the dirt, listening to the pulse of the people,” he joked Thursday.

Is Rove going down?

Politico-Just off the House floor today, the Crypt overheard House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers tell two other people: “We’re closing in on Rove. Someone’s got to kick his ass.”

Asked a few minutes later for a more official explanation, Conyers told us that Rove has a week to appear before his committee. If he doesn’t, said Conyers, “We’ll do what any self-respecting committee would do. We’d hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested.”

Conyers said the committee wants Rove to testify about his role in the imprisonment of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, among other things.

“We want him for so many things, it’s hard to keep track,” Conyers said.

How many seats will the Dems gain?

Politico-For the past 18 months, ever since the 2006 elections, congressional Republicans have been like a hospital patient trying to convince visitors that he is not really all that sick: a bit under the weather; actually feel better than I sound; should be up and about any day; thanks for asking.

Suddenly — belatedly — all pretense is gone.

The Republican defeat in Tuesday’s special election in Mississippi, in a deeply conservative district where, in an average year, Democrats cannot even compete, was a clear sign that the GOP has the political equivalent of cancer that has spread throughout the body. Many House GOP operatives are privately predicting that the party could easily lose up to 20 seats this fall.

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Will this be a big issue?

CNN) — In a preview of the political onslaught Michelle Obama may face in the fall, the Tennessee Republican Party unveiled a Web video Thursday highlighting her comment that she was proud of America “for the first time in my adult life.”

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Proud

Michelle Obama Clears Up ‘Proud of My Country’ Response

Was President Regan wrong to talk with Russia during the cold war?

McCain to Obama: What is it, precisely, that you want to talk to Iran about?

McCain Was For Talking To Hamas Before He Was Against It…

WATCH

RUBIN: “Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?”

McCAIN: “They’re the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it’s a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not

Big issue in 08?

HP-Gay Marriage Ban Overturned: “In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation’s biggest state to tie the knot,” AP reports.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in striking down the ban.

Outside the courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as the news spread.

Jeanie Rizzo, one of the plaintiffs, called Pali Cooper, her partner of 19 years, and asked, “Pali, will you marry me?”

“This is a very historic day. This is just such freedom for us,” Rizzo said. “This is a message that says all of us are entitled to human dignity.”

In the Castro, historically a center of the gay community in San Francisco, Tim Oviatt started crying while watching the news on TV.

“I’ve been waiting for this all my life,” he said. “This is a life-affirming moment.”

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The Independent Institute

Charles Peña

More than four years after the decision to invade Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein and impose democracy, nearly 160,000 U.S. soldiers remain there.

Despite the war’s growing unpopularity with Americans, President Bush is adamant about not setting an “artificial deadline” for withdrawing troops.

Last week’s anniversary of the fall of Saigon, April 30, 1975, and the final U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, ending the longest war of the last century, prompts some historical reflection—for example, the poignant photograph of people being plucked off that famous Saigon rooftop in April 1975, juxtaposed against the completion in Baghdad of the largest U.S. embassy ever.

In January 1973, the Paris agreement on Vietnam was concluded, providing for the withdrawal of American troops, and soon a cease-fire agreement was signed. Although the war’s end was imminent—this is not clear today with Iraq—the CIA’s Air America operation continued, and actually had its greatest losses in the two years following the decision to terminate the company.

So, just how long will the U.S. remain in Iraq? The answer appears to be “indefinitely.” The declaration of principles signed by Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in November commits the U.S. to a “long-term relationship” with Iraq, including “security assurances and commitments.”

Iraqi officials foresee a continued presence of 50,000 U.S. troops as a security guarantee.

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Following a veto proof vote in the House, the Senate today passed the so-called Farm, Nutrition and Bio-Energy Act with plenty of votes to override a veto.  $307 Billion (equivalent to funds needed for two years to fight terrorists)!!

So all you food stamp moochers get in line, more moolah being redistributed (taken) from the ‘evil rich’ to feed your illegitimate families.

Without seeing the roll call vote, my bet is Georgia’s own Saxby Chambliss (up for re-election this year) was a key supporter of the bloated legislation.  Too bad a real conservative did not challenge the big spending senator who never opposes more money for agriculture.

Farm bill sails through senate 

POLITICO — A $307 billion Farm Bill cleared Congress Thursday by a lopsided 5-to-1 margin in the Senate, more than enough to overcome a threatened veto by President Bush.

Thirty-five Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) broke with Bush on the 81-15 roll call vote, which followed Wednesday’s House vote approving the same five-year bill 318-106.

The wide margins contrast with the months of often tortured negotiations over a massive bill which promises record funding for nutrition programs but has faced a steady drumbeat of criticism for its failure to impose tougher reforms on the current subsidy system.

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