What a surprise. It's the felon's list that Jebbie used to steal election 2000 for his brother all over again, isn't it? But at least Republcicans have something to be really, really thankful for:

The Department of Homeland Security failed to prepare for a massive influx of applications for U.S. citizenship and other immigration benefits this summer, prompting complaints from Hispanic leaders and voter-mobilization groups that several hundred thousand people likely will not be granted citizenship in time to cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election.

Bush administration officials said yesterday that they had anticipated applicants would rush to file their paperwork to beat a widely publicized fee increase that took effect July 30, but did not expect the scale of the response. The backlog comes just months after U.S. officials failed to prepare for tougher border security requirements that triggered months-long delays for millions of Americans seeking passports.

Before the fee hike, citizenship cases typically took about seven months to complete. Now, immigration officials can take five months or more just to acknowledge receipt of applications from parts of the country and will take 16 to 18 months on average to process applications filed after June 1, according to officials from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of DHS. Such a timeline would push many prospective citizens well past voter-registration deadlines for the 2008 primaries and the general elections.

What a shame. I bet Bush is really upset.

Of course, these new citizens are mostly brown. And they will be mostly Democrats, since Republican strategy--as demonstrated anew by this story--is based on racism.

Frankly, I'd call them "second class."

So what rights should they have? I'll tell you:

The right to mow lawns, the right to work in sweatshops, the right to get stopped for driving while unwhite....

Funny how competent Republicans are at stealing and lying and torturing and taking a wide stance, isn't it? Yet when it comes to basic issues of fairness and running a government, they suddenly go all flaky and can't seem to get anything right.

Republicans are so disgusting.

NOTE * And nice work, WaPo, publishing this on Thanksgiving morning, for gawdsake.