Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Additional evidence for my belief that the tough stance being made by House Repubs on immigration is an attempt to appeal to conservative-base voters without interferring with the pro-business implications of illegal aliens remaining in the country is evidenced by the fact that the House is requiring employers to submit worker info in 3-6 years from passage of their bill while the less severe Senate bill would require same info in no more than 18 months. See through the smoke and mirrors.
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Sunday, May 21, 2006
La Lucha Follow-Up
My hope the Repubs will self-implode confirmed by BBC.
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Friday, May 19, 2006
La Lucha (The Fight)
If the House is the most representative body of the Federal Gov't, in that it represents the 'choices' and 'voices' of small districts the country over, we have lots to fear. Although, with mid-term elections approaching, confidence in Bush eroding, and the Republican camp mired in scandal, perhaps what we have is lots to hope. Whatever next term will look like, how frightening is it that Bush is scolding the House Repubs to think and act more compassionately when creating legislation around immigration policy, border control and the fate of millions of undocumented? His recent White House address on the issue was a political tight-rope in which he sought to mollify the arch-conservatives in the House and around the country on one side while calling again for a guest-worker program with the possibillity of citizenship for the currently undocumented to appeal to the center and center-left. (The Left-Left and the immigrants I know, of course, are not entirely happy with his proposals, either. They want full citizenship, no strings attached, because they feel they've paid for it by their labor and law-abiding, family-centered communal ways.) Does Bush actually have a sense of empathy and respect for these hard-working, death-braving migrants from the resource-looted and democracy-interrupted oppressed-half of our hemisphere? I almost want to believe that somewhere deep down in the tarry-depths of his oil-slick soul, there is a tiny vestigial piece of humanity that is taking light around this issue. However, it is probably more likely that, once again, he is simply doing Karl Rove's bidding by staving off the arch-con xenophobes in order to build a long-term constituency for the Repub party among the ever-growing, ever-Catholic Hispanic community. Remember, Bush-Rove won 40% of the Hispanic vote last time around. That's a powerful number looking down the road. But if the GOP is a friend of businesses big and small first and foremost, which I believe they are, then I imagine that the legislation we will see passed will be largely rhetorical and symbolic and that the situation on the ground will change little. Illegal immigrants will continue to pour into this country in droves. (People like to say it was the 1984 Amnesty granted by Reagan which gave thousands of undocumented people instant citizenship that is responsible for encouraging the huge numbers that have crossed over since. I think it has more to do with Ecuadoran men being paid 5 American dollars for a 10 hour day working the fields only to find that one whole chicken costs 5 American dollars and a family of 4-12 can't live off one chicken alone.) Big businesses like the Ag-firms and the meat processors and multitudinous factories will continue to hire them under the board and against the law so as to be able to pay their labor without all the costly benefits and protections a citizen is entitled to. Small businesses, like contractors who have seen a huge boom in building in synch with the real-estate bubble and restaurants from here to Timbuktu, will continue to use undocumented labor to increase their hard-earned, entreprenual, American profits growing. It is to no Americans advantage to have illegal immigrants granted citizenship. Sure they'll throw some taxes into the system, probably alleviating the crushing Social Security debt a bit, but the overall American economy will slouch because right now there are 11 million plus employees out there not collecting on government handouts or filing insurance claims or even getting paid for their overtime in some cases. If and when they do, the end-of-quarter numbers for the nation's businesses would not look as good as they could if half their payroll is invisible. No. Wouldn't be good for any American. Unless, of course, you consider the immigrants themselves Americans. In which case it would be very good for them. They might even get to save some of their hard-earned money for a return visit to their country of origin to say hello to wives, husbands, children, parents, granparents, friends and communities they haven't seen in a long, long time.
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Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Colbert reporting
I know you have something to post soon, John, but wait and read this first. Stephen Colbert as the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Brilliant.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0501-30.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0501-30.htm
