Rats Abandoning Ship? CNN reports this AM: White House chief of staff Andrew Card has resigned.

Do demonstrations matter anymore? Do they make a difference? The Associated Press reports that they do and can:

”WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee approved sweeping election-year legislation Monday that clears the way for 11 million illegal aliens to seek U.S. citizenship, a victory for demonstrators who had spilled into the streets by the hundreds of thousands demanding better treatment for immigrants.

“With a bipartisan coalition in control, the committee also voted down proposed criminal penalties on immigrants found to be in the country illegally. It approved a new temporary program allowing entry for 1.5 million workers seeking jobs in the agriculture industry.

“All Americans wanted fairness and they got it this evening,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy D-Mass., who played a pivotal role in drafting the legislation….”

But now the bill moves to the full Senate where hardliners will try to reverse what the Committee did This fight is just beginning. The New York Times reports, “Republicans are divided over the legislation to legalize undocumented immigrants and create a temporary worker program.”

THE SCENE IN THE STREETS:

Leslie Radford reported for IndyMedia in LA:

LOS ANGELES, March 26, 2006– What happened yesterday? The Los Angeles Times estimates 500,000 people turned out; Univision estimates 2,000,000. You can read about it anywhere–a Gran Marcha against the Sensenbrenner immigration reform bill. The pictures are spectacular. Doves were released, a horn blared, a marching band played.

“Those of us who couldn’t get close to the speakers’ platform joined semi-organized mini-marches of several thousand people, led by the SEIU, LA-ANSWER, and UNO. Waves of people standing in the streets broke into spontaneous chants of “¡Aqui estamos y no nos vamos!” And always there was, “¡Sí, Se Puede!” Outpacing the masses or going the other direction, against the tide, meant squeezing along building walls and non-stop “con permiso.”

“After the March, thousands of people stood in line after line along the overpasses along the 101, waving flags and celebrating. The resounding honks of car horns rising up from below us was near-deafening….

http://la.indymedia.org/print.php?id=151685

BAD MOON RISING

US policy has tilted towards the Shia community in Iraq, and now their leaders are attacking yesterday’s US military attack that killed 37. Reuters reported:

‘Iraq minister says US, Iraqi troops killed 37’

“They were all unarmed. Nobody fired a single shot at them (the troops). They went in, tied up the people and shot them all. They did not leave any wounded behind,” he told Reuters.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12515.htm

Iraqi Shiites Accuse US of “Organized Crime”

“While the American Army denies any involvement in a raid that left 20 Shiites dead yesterday, the Governor of Baghdad announces the suspension of his cooperation with the United States and the Shiite alliance in power demands a transfer of responsibility for maintenance of order in Iraq.”

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032706A.shtml

AP: “BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite politicians raged at the United States and halted negotiations on a new government Monday after a military assault killed at least 16 people in what Iraqis claim was a mosque”

AS PREDICTED: US PRESSURE FREES AFGHAN CONVERT

CNN: Afghanistan’s Justice Ministry has released Abdul Rahman who faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity, a spokesman said

KARL ROVE IS NOW “COOPERATING”

Larisa Alexandrovna reports on Raw Story:

”Karl Rove, Deputy White House Chief of Staff and special adviser to President George W. Bush, has recently been providing information to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the ongoing CIA leak investigation, sources close to the investigation say.

“According to several Pentagon sources close to Rove and others familiar with the inquiry, Bush’s senior adviser tipped off Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to information that led to the recent “discovery of 250 pages of missing email from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.”

”

MAD COW DISEASE UP AS FUNDING CUT

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00189

AP: FEC Won’t Regulate Internet Politics

“The Federal Election Commission decided Monday that the nation’s new campaign finance law will not apply to most political activity on the Internet. In a 6-0 vote, the commission decided to regulate only paid political ads placed on another person’s Web site.”

JUDGE NOT

”BOSTON, March 27 (UPI) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics.

“A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state.

“You know what I say to those people?” Scalia replied, making the obscene gesture and explaining “That’s Sicilian.”

“The 20-year veteran of the high court was caught making the gesture by a photographer with The Pilot, the Archdiocese of Boston’s newspaper. “Don’t publish that,” Scalia told the photographer, the Herald said.

“He was attending a special mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross.”

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060327-100356-7854r

HE DESERVES THE FINGER FOR THIS

Scalia: ‘US Detainees Have no Rights’
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032606X.shtml