Where is our humanity?

Browing of the West: A Republican nightmare

"Last week, Senator Trent Lott, the Republican whip, blamed talk radio for the possibly fatal collapse of the immigration reform bill.

“Talk radio is running America,” he told The Times. “We have to deal with that problem.”

Just a few years out of probation for praising the Old Confederacy vision of a Paleolithic senator, Mr. Lott knows what it’s like to be burned by free speech friction. But he is wrong to confuse the medium with the electorate.

The front lines of this problem are in the fast-growing states of the American West. And the closer you get to the border, the more voters back politicians who are looking for middle ground — and punish those who follow the rant-for-ratings route."


Funny how quickly Lott turns on the very people who help salvage his career, after he longed for the "good old days."

Brooks: Next Cultural War?

"As the sociologist Manuel Castells generalized, “Elites are cosmopolitan, people are local.” People with university values favor intermingling. People with neighborhood values favor assimilation.

What’s made the clashes so poisonous is that many members of the educated class don’t even recognize that they are facing a rival philosophy. Many of them assume that anybody who disagrees with them on immigration and such must be driven by racism, insecurity or some primitive atavism. This smug attitude sends members of the communal, nationalistic side into fits of alienation and prickly defensiveness. It’s what makes many of them, in turn, so unpleasant.

The bottom line is that the immigration debate is part of a newer culture war that has succeeded the familiar and fading culture war. This longer culture war is not within the educated class. It’s not the ’60s versus the ’80s. It’s — to mimic Mark Lilla — between the people who have absorbed both the ’60s and the ’80s, and everyone else.

It’s between open, individualistic cosmopolitans and rooted nationalists. It’s between those who ride the tides of the cultural mainstream and those so driven by marginalization that they’re destroying the best compromise they will get."

Krugman, Immigration and Politics

As usual Krugman makes a good point...

Immigration insanity

The immigration issue has been a problem since our government declared our "Manifest Destiny." This country was built on the backs of slave and immigrant labor.

The US is the only country that turns a blind eye to the exploitation of NON-WASP labor. We have outsourced working class manufacturing jobs. Furthermore, businesses have outsourced internally service jobs. The gentlemen who repaired the roof in my complex spoke very little English. Businesses do not pay these guys US living wages. They do not have health coverage and I doubt they are listed as employees for purposes of workers compensation or taxes. What happens when they get sick or hurt?
They are replaced by a healthier substitute. Maybe if these employers provided a living wage, they would not to take advantage of these desperate people.

On the other hand, I am equally appalled by the arrogance of these folks who are here illegally to demand anything. I doubt that I could cross a border in France, take a low paying job, and make such demands. Please don't even compare yourselves to my ancestors who came here involuntarily.

I have zero problem with the immigrants who entered our country legally. Let's streamline the process for immigrants. Employers need to provide a safe environment for all of their employees.

There is a immigration bill in the works. Congress and Shrub will screw this up too.

Farmers new labor pool: Inmates

Face it, farming is hard work. Most people raised on a farm, grow up and away from this type of labor. Our farmers for years have relied on immigrant labor using the played out argument, Americans refuse to do this work. What is not said, is that Americans refuse to work in terrible conditions for no money.

Now these poor farmers are using prisoners because the immigrants are fleeing Colorado. The enforcement of immigration laws are sending shock waves through this exploited community.

Solution? These farmers are paying non-violent inmates 60 cents an hour.

I have a novel idea. Why not pay these inmates at least minimum wage. When they are released from prison, they will have acquired marketable skills. The money could be used to pay fines or get them started on their new life.

Or the farmers could employ these newly trained workers and pay them a LIVING WAGE.

Family Values behind bars

Illegal immigration is a problem. The problem is created by the employers who chose to pay these folks indentured servitude wages. T

When they round up the illegals, do they round up the employers who employ these people? Until the employers are held criminally responsible this problem will continue. There are existing statues on the books that need to be enforced.

How many of these yahoos are paying accurate workers compensation premiums? Or how many don't have coverage? This is a crime punishable by prison in most states.

Economic discrimination strikes again!