"Give me your tired your poor"

Unless they are them there illegal Mexicans. Thanks to the threat of a republiklan filibuster the Dream Act failed.

The DREAM Act stalled and very likely died Thursday in the Senate, after Majority Leader Harry Reid was unable to persuade enough Republicans to give the measure the 60 votes it needed to avoid a GOP filibuster.

The measure, which passed the House Wednesday by a 216-198 vote, would create the citizenship path through college or military service. Reid, a Nevada Democrat who won a tough re-election in November, promised his constituents that he'd bring the measure to the Senate floor.

Has anyone but me noticed the republiklans always put Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions front and center as the face of bigotry? Now we know all white Alabamians aren't like Sessions, but when that's all you see representing the state it gives all of us a bad rep.

Psst Jeffy! More terror plots have been hatched by angry white men than them there Mexicans.

I thought republicans were pro military and pro business?

Who else besides the military supports the DREAM Act? Just in the business community alone, we see such weak-kneed, namby-pamby, liberal do-gooding luminaries as the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Microsoft, Pfizer, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, American Express, and Con Edison petitioning the Congress to do the smart thing.

Why? Because Big Business knows that immigrants who took the higher education route to citizenship would mean billions in additional tax revenue and greater national competitiveness in the global economy. They know that the US is now seeing a slight out-migration of educated talent headed for greener economic pastures in India, China and elsewhere. As New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg put it, if we can’t keep the best and the brightest in the United States, and attract more of them to the United States, all the next big business innovations will happen outside the United States.

A dream deferred?

Most students don't expect the Republican-dominated House in 2011 to take up immigration reform. They expect it will be at least two more years, which is a shame. In the meantime, we'll have nurses, biomedical engineers and business majors who can't work in their professions. Instead, they'll have to work under the table as waitresses or busboys. Before the bill was brought up in Congress, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reported passage of the DREAM Act would reduce the deficit by $2.2 billion over the next decade. The CBO said this would be due to the students working as professionals in their fields and paying more taxes.

Talk about bite off your nose to spite yourself. According to latest census figures, Hispanics are the fastest growing group in the South. What do you want to bet they won't be pulling the republican lever? *Snicker*

The latest figures from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey document this increasingly Hispanic flavor. Released last week, they show the metro area now has at least 52,178 Hispanic residents -- nearly double the 27,250 counted in the 2000 Census.

President Obama said he is persistent in fighting for the things he believes in, and he believes in the Dream Act.

Regarding an overhaul of immigration laws, particularly the Dream Act, Obama says, "I am persistent. If I believe in something strongly, I stay on it." He vowed to stay on top of rewriting immigration laws.

Updated at 4:40 p.m. ET : Obama says one of his biggest disappointments in the year-end session of Congress is that the Senate failed to pass the Dream Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for illegal immigrations who were brought to the U.S. by their parents. "They didn't break the law. They were kids...I am determined and this administration is determined to get immigration reform done."

Let's help him make sure the republicans don't turn the Dream Act into a Nightmare on Elm Street. We already know the drill, put Jeff Sessions out front to skeer low information white folks.