The Immigration Bill is Dead!

CNSNews.com reports on how grassroots organizations are claiming the credit for influencing 18 senators to switch and vote against cloture on the Senate's immigration bill.

"The days of shoving legislation down the throats of the American people are over," Jessica Echard, executive director of the conservative Eagle Forum, said in a release. "Grassroots America, talk radio and a handful of senators stood toe to toe with our nation's elite power class, and we won!

"It's time for our elected officials to drop this push for amnesty, once and for all," Echard said. "America would be better served if senators used their August recess to travel down to the border and help build the fence they passed last year."

In the nearly 48 hours between the Tuesday cloture vote and the vote Thursday morning, opponents of the bill inundated Senate offices with phone calls, faxes and email encouraging senators to vote against cloture. The Senate's chief information officer announced that the "moderate increase in call volume" caused the office phone system to fail.

Michael Yon--Drilling for Justice

Michael Yon gives a great update on the progress of Arrowhead Ripper, the operation to free Baquba of the presence of Al Qaeda of Iraq (AQI).

For security reasons, the Iraqi Army (IA) was not included in the initial planning of Arrowhead Ripper, yet with each succeeding day the IA has taken a larger role in the unfolding attack. The Fifth Iraqi Army Division is considered an increasingly competent group of fighters, and from the limited scope of 5th IA that I personally witnessed, that judgment seems correct. The 5th is committed to battle. Whereas the Iraqi Army is coming into the fight, and playing increasingly critical roles, the local police force is less impressive.

Yon provides a great example of why AQI is failing in Iraq.

Other AQI edicts included beatings for men who refused to grow beards, and corporal punishments for obscene sexual suggestiveness, defined by such “loose” behavior as carrying tomatoes and cucumbers in the same bag. These fatwas were not eagerly embraced by most Iraqis, and the taint traveled back to the Muftis who sat in supreme judgment. Locals, who are increasingly helpful in pointing out and celebrating the downfall of AQI here, said that during the initial Arrowhead Ripper attack the morning of the 19th, AQI murdered five men. Townsend’s men found the buried corpses behind an AQI prison, exactly where they’d been told to look for the group grave. Locals also directed Townsend’s men to a torture house. Peering through a window, American soldiers saw knives, swords, bindings and drills. AQI is well-known for its macabre eagerness to drill into kneecaps, elbows, ribs, skulls, and other parts of victims.