Today's Fresh Meat

The Senate has unveiled a new immigration bill that creates a new visa for immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, allowing them to live and work in the US provided they pay a fine, pass a criminal background check, and obey the law.  The bill constitutes the biggest change in our national immigration policy in 20 years.  It's a move in the right direction, but Speaker Núñez and Speaker Pelosi (among others) have expressed concerns.  On the other side of the aisle, Republicans are attacking the bill for being "amnesty."  As for those actually affected by the bill, a 31-year-old working mother living in San Diego says, "The only thing I want are my papers, because in Mexico there isn't work and I don't want my children to be hungry there."

In the wake of Jerry Falwell's death, Mark Morford from the San Francisco Chronicle says we don't need to speak ill of the dead.  Let's just repeat their words and let history decide their legacy.  You can find many of the good reverend's comments from over the years, including this one:  "Someone must not be afraid to say, 'moral perversion is wrong.' If we do not act now, homosexuals will 'own' America! If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way ... and our nation will pay a terrible price!"  I'm not one for sliming the dead either, but I feel obliged to point out that Falwell did not understand the definition of the word "literally."

Governor Schwarzenegger defends his lottery privatization plan , but Dan Walters for the Sacramento Bee has his misgivings: "[V]irtually every study of lottery operations has concluded that devotees of the officially sanctioned numbers game are overwhelmingly lower-income, non-white urbanites, so expansion of the business would, more than likely, come out of the pockets of those least able to afford long shot wagering."

Rudy Giuliani might have a tough time convincing his conservative base that he's the right presidential candidate.  James Dobson , chairman of Focus on the Family, has stated publicly that he could not in good conscience vote for Giuliani.  You and me both, James.

Bill Richardson has released his energy plan, which would all but end reliance on oil and reduce greenhouse emissions by 80% by 2040.  Said Richardson: "I am issuing a call to action, for Congress, the energy industry and the public.  I am calling for a new American revolution — an energy and climate revolution."

One global carbon sink has become saturated, researchers have discovered.  The Southern Ocean next to Antartica normally absorbs CO2, but now is so full of carbon that it is losing its ability to remove the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.  "Since the beginning of the industrial revolution the world's oceans have absorbed about a quarter of the 500 gigatons (500 billion tons) of carbon emitted into the atmosphere by humans," said Chris Rapley of the British Antarctic Survey. "The possibility that in a warmer world, the Southern Ocean -- the strongest ocean sink -- is weakening is a cause for concern."

The White House will quickly find a replacement for Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank, announced White House spokesman Tony Fratto.  Here's an idea: pick someone who isn't closely tied to one of the biggest foreign policy disasters in our nation's history.

That's all for today's Fresh Meat!

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