Ok, so...the illegal immigration thing/ruse/crock was poof relatively-out-of-nowhere put at the front of the national agenda a few weeks ago by Bush. I don't mean to suggest that the issue is a crock, but it is so huge and so complex that no plan I've heard even remotely addresses the issues intelligently. As I see it, there's not even consensus about what the real issue is--and I have not heard one faction even articulating that in itself as being part of the "problem." But I digress (and more so at the asterisk).*

I realize the McCain-Kennedy proposal has been floating around for a while, but I didn't otherwise have any indication that spring 2006 was the time for it to heat up all by its lonesome. Without the admin push, it would not be on the front burner. And Bush appears to be a proponent of a position that "gut" Rs--the xenophobic, angry, ignorant ones--are vehemently opposed to but that business Rs likely support. But the GOP needs both.

Lord have mercy. I know that by now it's become a cliche that one's sense of outrage and speechlessness is almost daily outdone by these jackasses in power. But, dammit! Rumsfeld has raised the bar again. This man has had the audacity today to compare Hugo Chavez to ... (you're actually not going to believe this)... yes, Adolph Hitler.

I posted this in response to a question last night, and since I have not seen other updates on this story, I thought perhaps others might be interested.

Short Story
March 19 is the new deadline for the gov to produce the goods and/or for either the gov or the ACLU to appeal any and all orders issued thus far.

Long Story
As you may recall, the judge, Alvin Hellerstein, had given the gov additional time, through Nov 22, to either release the material requested by the ACLU or to file an appeal.

I was keeping a close eye on this case and kept looking at the filings everyday after Nov 22. Nothing showed up until Dec 19, when Hellerstein issued another order, not in response to anything that DOD had filed, but rather in response to a motion that the ACLU had filed.

Presiding Judge Alvin Hellerstein has issued a new order, dated today, that extends the government's time allowed to release the additional torture video and photographs to the ACLU until November 22, 2005.

The order notes that the government's request for time is to allow "consideration by the Solicitor General" (presumably of the government's response to the order--which suggests to me that they are appealing rather than complying with the order to release the material).  It further states that no additional extensions of time will be allowed.