dream.jpgAnd you all thought you were burning up the phone lines lately.

That high, keening wail you hear is the sound of millions of right-wingers’ fears of the Scary Brown Ones being stoked by eliminationist radio and blogger personalities to a fever pitch — all because of S. 2205, the DREAM Act of 2007, a bill which comes up for a vote today and which has broad and genuinely bipartisan support.

What does it do? Stuff like this:

S.2205
Title: A bill to authorize the cancellation of removal and adjustment of status of certain alien students who are long-term United States residents and who entered the United States as children, and for other purposes.

Pretty innocuous, eh? We’re talking about kids who’ve grown up here and who see themselves as Americans, and want to be Americans. Shouldn’t this make all the “learn to speak English” crowd happy?

Of course not, as Michelle “Little Lulu” Malkin shows:

Well, it’s baaaaaaaack. Reader E.M. e-mails about the return of the DREAM Act, which gives illegal alien students special in-state college tuition discounts not available to native-born American students and legal immigrant students:

Did you actually read the bill, Michelle? Because if you did, you’d know that what you typed is a lie. Here’s the pertinent part:

SEC. 10. HIGHER EDUCATION ASSISTANCE.

    Notwithstanding any provision of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.), with respect to assistance provided under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.), an alien who adjusts status to that of a lawful permanent resident under this Act shall be eligible only for the following assistance under such title:
    • (1) Student loans under parts B, D, and E of such title IV, subject to the requirements of such parts.
    • (2) Federal work-study programs under part C of such title IV, subject to the requirements of such part.
    • (3) Services under such title IV, subject to the requirements for such services.

That’s emblematic of the nonsense being spewed by the righties about this bill. If you’re seeing something about it on a right-wing blog or hearing about it on right-wing radio, it’s either totally bogus or has a grain of truth in it that’s been so tortured and twisted around that it’s worse than a lie made up out of whole cloth.

There’s nineteen fence-sitting votes on this issue. If you’re not all called out this morning, you might want to give these folks a jingle.