Red States, Blue States, Brown States
How about a topic that seems to be neither a Republican nor a Democratic issue? Illegal Immigration.
One reason there is not much debate over this issue is that Congress is apparently having trouble deciding where they stand on the issue, or do they? It seems that each party wants to tap into the new wave of illegals crossing our southern border to lure them into their political base, plus they want to appease the big business "fat cats" that want to exploit their labor. The policy for illegal immigration is that there is no policy. You know it's weird when you have John McCain and Ted Kennedy co-sponsoring a bill on illegal immigration.
I was recently in Southern California and I can tell you that the economy there really depends on Hispanic labor, much of it illegal immigrant. Also, the California state budget is in the tank, even the "Governator" has trouble finding his position on the issue.
The Federal Government is going to spend $1 Billion of your taxpayer money to fund hospitals for emergency care for illegal immigrants, think about that. We have about 45 million citizens that do not have health care. Illegal immigrants can attend state universities without paying out of state tuition. An illegal immigrant can work in this country for 18 months and draw a lifetime benefit from our Social Security. So, where is the debate in Congress? Well, the answer is apparently in the "True I.D." Act about to be passed with the appropriation bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. On which there is no debate and get this, it is another unfunded mandate to the state governments.
Don't you just love it dogs, you can drive to Indianola now with four forms of I.D. in hand to renew your driver's license, wait in line for 8 hours and you still won't get your driver's license renewed in that visit. What this bill does is make the DMV into an arm of the CIA, FBI, ICE and any other Federal agency that wants to get you in their data base. This is a "National Identification Card" process, all being passed Congress with no debate, no filibuster, just part of the "must pass" legislation. Of course this is the third emergency funding bill for the DOD for Afghanistan and Iraq, didn't we think we would be there for at least three years and shouldn't this have been included in the regular budget, where it could have been debated? Red Dog's logic is that if I am an illegal alien, I'm not going to get a driver's license, what do you think?
The "War on Terror" is a hoax. We can't or won't secure our borders and we continue to trample the freedoms of our own citizens. We don't know who is in our country or for what purpose unless they come through a port of entry. Well, 3 million cross our borders illegally each year and we don't know who they are. Hell, Bin Laden could be living in Memphis.
posted by Red Dog @ 8:53 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Sometimes, the comments won't show that you have comments - just the number zero.
What I can't figure out is if jobs are declining in the Delta why can't we find anyone to do a small job? Go to any time limited employer (ie carpenter, nusery, gin, feed mill) and they can't get locals to apply for jobs that will not last over 60 days. I realize this is out of context of the Dogs question on illegal immigration, but just a side bar.
On the subject of illegal immigrants: one employer that I know of is actively recruiting the local Mexican population to do the manual labor that the Delta-area blacks will no longer do. (Why work for a paycheck when you can get a handout?)They are lining up in droves, desperate for work, but many are turned away due to forged papers. Illegal or not, these people WANT to work. How do we teach our "locals" the value of a similar work ethic, before their jobs are permanently lost to folks slipping past Border Patrol?
So some anonymous soul just said one more racist thing when he (she?)indicated that the local "Mexicans" were willing to do the manual labor that our local "blacks" refused to do...why is this unsavory labor reserved for blacks by the way?...we have plenty of "po whites" who are apparently equally uninterested!
I am the "anonymous soul" who can't reveal my name for obvious reasons. But as for my perceived (by you) racist attitude, it's not an attitude; it's fact. Yes, there are plenty of good ole boys out there who need to get off the trailer porch and get busy. But most of them seem to have an Uncle Bubba or know somebody in a garage that will hire a fella with a year or two of GHS Vo-Tech (or, even some time spent at Moorhead) over the indigent black dude with no education or hankering for a paying job. Of course, these two groups often overlap on their way to the ammonia tanks as they cook up their next batch of crystal meth. Mmmm-mmmm.
And what's this whining about Red States and liberals? I thought I was saying exactly what you wanted to hear, Mr. Anonymous.
Not Politically Correct. But Honest. Oh....I think that's my new screen name.
It's interesting that the discussion of illegal immigration got to the side bar conversations on work ethic, education, and welfare entitlements and if anyone wants to label it as a "race issue", I suppose that's fine for now. I like the trend of this thought, because it will all play out in the future of the Delta.
If the future economy of the Delta is in the service industry, who will fill those jobs? My bet is that you will find more Hispanics moving into the area, some legal and some not. They will work for the minimum, or less, because where they came from, that is a lot of money. They can send it back home and improve the standard living of their relatives still in Mexico, or wherever. I can't fault them for that.
The problem is the drain on the local services. They are not working with benefits so when they have medical needs they go to the hospitals, with no insurance. Not unlike a lot of Walmart employees. So, they pull down the health care resources. They attend the local school and there is a drain on the educational resources,.......etc.
If the local agricultural commodities were strawberries, broccoli, avocados, and other grocery type vegetables instead of cotton, soybeans and rice, which are highly mechanized and subsidized, we would have a need for more farm laborers and consequently more immigrant workers here.
However, the question is should illegal immigrants get the same benefits as American Citizens? Red Dog says "No". But, what do we do about those that are already here? Well, we can't do anything until we close the border. Then we can talk about "Guest Worker" permits or some form of amnesty. The Federal Government has to take the initiative, but to date has not wanted to do anything about it. Doing nothing is making a policy statement.
Post a Comment
<< Home