Will you help Senator Sanders expose the Koch Echo Chamber?

I can only hope that more people will understand the extent of the Koch Brothers (and many other multi-millionaire and billionaires) reach into changing laws, influence peddling, and disinformation... all to help their long run profitability at the expense of the working class.

Designed to Kill

An outstanding "essay" on so called "border security." Please read the whole article.

Border Policy & How to Change It For a number of years now I’ve worked in the desert on the Mexican-American border with a group that provides humanitarian aid to migrants who are attempting to enter the United States—a journey that claims hundreds of lives every year. We’ve spent years mapping the trails that cross this desert. We walk the trails, find places to leave food and water along them, look for people in distress, and provide medical care when we run into someone who needs it. If the situation is bad enough, we can get an ambulance or helicopter to bring people to the hospital. We strive to act in accordance with the migrants’ wishes at all times, and we never call the Border Patrol on people who don’t want to turn themselves in. During this time I’ve been a part of many extraordinary situations and I’ve heard about many more. Some of the things I’ve seen have been truly heartwarming, and some of them have been deeply sad and wrong. I’ve seen people who were too weak to stand, too sick to hold down water, hurt too badly to continue, too scared to sleep, too sad for words, hopelessly lost, desperately hungry, literally dying of thirst, never going to be able to see their children again, vomiting blood, penniless in torn shoes two thousand miles from home, suffering from heat stroke, kidney damage, terrible blisters, wounds, hypothermia, post-traumatic stress, and just about every other tribulation you could possibly think of. I’ve been to places where people were robbed and raped and murdered; my friends have found bodies. In addition to bearing witness to others’ suffering, I myself have fallen off of cliffs, torn my face open on barbed wire, run out of water, had guns pointed at me, been charged by bulls and circled by vultures, jumped over rattlesnakes, pulled pieces of cactus out of many different parts of my body with pliers, had to tear off my pants because they were full of fire ants, gotten gray hairs, and in general poured no small amount of my own sweat, blood, and tears into the thirsty desert. There is nowhere on earth like the place where we work. It is beautiful beyond telling: harsh, vast, mountainous, remote, rugged, unforgiving, every cliché you can think of and more. I have been humbled countless times by the incredible selflessness and courage of the people that I have met there, and I have been driven nearly out of my head with rage at the utterly heartless economic and political system that drives people to such lengths in order to provide for their families. Doing this work has given me a great deal of opportunity to observe how the border is managed on a day-to-day basis, and hopefully some insight into the functions that it performs within global capitalism—the real objectives that it serves. I offer this essay as ammunition to anyone who still cares enough about anything to intervene when people around them are being treated like pieces of meat. The first thing that I want to make clear is that the atrocious suffering that happens on the border every day is not an accident. It is not a mistake and it is not the result of a misunderstanding. It is the predictable and intentional result of policies implemented at every level of government on both sides of the border. These policies have rational objectives and directly benefit identifiable sectors of the population of both countries. It may be evil, but it’s not stupid. If this sounds a little shrill, let me tell you how I’ve seen this play out on the ground. When I started working in the desert I began to notice some very peculiar things about the Border Patrol’s operations there. They would do a lot of enforcement in some areas and very little in others, and this would not necessarily correspond to which areas were busy and which areas were slow. In fact, very often the enforcement would clearly be done in such a way that it would push traffic into rather than out of the busiest areas, where Border Patrol would keep a low profile until the very northern end of the route. At that point there would be a moderate amount of enforcement again, but not really what you would expect given the numbers of people that were moving through. Then they started building lots of surveillance towers. But once again, the towers were not really built in the places where the traffic was heaviest—they were built on the edges of them. If anything, they seemed to be intent on forcing traffic into the busiest routes rather than out of them. What was happening? Meanwhile, I was constantly meeting migrants whose groups had been split up by helicopters. The Border Patrol would fly over them a few feet off the ground, everybody would run in different directions, and soon there would be thirty people wandering lost across the desert in groups of two or three. What seemed particularly odd was that the Border Patrol often made no effort to actually apprehend these groups after breaking them up—they just flew away. Why? And then there’s this. Over the last few years, the organization I work for has developed a pretty comprehensive understanding of the area we cover, which at times has been one of the most heavily traveled sections of the entire border. We’ve formed a fairly clear picture of where traffic starts, where it goes, how it gets there, where it’s busy and where it’s slow at any given time, where the pinch points are, and so on. I honestly believe that if I worked for the Border Patrol I could basically point at a map and tell them how to shut down the whole sector. It’s really not rocket science. Keep in mind that all of our work has been done by untrained civilian volunteers, armed with low-end GPS units, a few old trucks, run-of-the-mill mapping software, cheap cell phones with spotty service, and a very limited budget. Does it seem logical that we could figure this stuff out while the government of the United States of America cannot, despite access to helicopters, unmanned drones, electronic sensors, fleets of well-maintained trucks, night vision systems, state-of-the-art communications and surveillance and mapping technology, tens of thousands of paid employees, and a limitless supply of money to shovel down the hole at every possible opportunity? I don’t think it does. So what’s going on? If you accept the stated objectives of the border at face value, then none of this makes any sense at all. If you accept that the actual objectives may not be the stated ones, things start to come together fast. The task of the Border Patrol—and the actual objective of the policies it is there to enforce—is not in any sense to STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. It is to manage and control that migration. Trust me on this. But to what end? To whose benefit? Settle in, because it’s complicated.

The Real Traitors to America

Goons in Gucci's So where does this sudden, multi-state offensive against the hard-won rights, protections, and democratic power of America's wage earners come from? From the top--from a relative handful of arrogantly rich, right-wing families and corporate chieftains who have long been dedicated to disarming labor, repealing the New Deal, and returning America to the glory days when robber barons ruled. These particular moneyed elites have not idly dreamed of going back to the future, they've been investing hundreds of millions of dollars during the past four decades to assemble a shadowy network of hired political thugs to get them there. [HISTORICAL FLASHBACK: In the fierce labor wars of the last century, industrial barons employed Pinkertons and other goons to bloody the heads of laborers or simply gun down those struggling for a share of economic and political power. It was brutal, but organized workers persevered and eventually gained a share of economic and political power. From their sweat and blood, America's middle class flowered.] Today, the bands of nouveau corporate royalists (with coats of arms bearing such names as Coors, DeVos, Koch, Scaife, and Walton) are determined to take back those middle-class gains of yesteryear. They are working to achieve this through a coordinated, long-term campaign to (1) crush the ability of working people to unionize, (2) bust America's middle-class wage structure, (3) eliminate job security, and (4) emasculate government as a force capable of controlling corporate avarice and arrogance. These latter-day royalists are employing a more sophisticated thuggery than brute force (though don't think they wouldn't resort to it). Instead, their goons are more likely to be in Gucci's than brogans, using dollars and computers rather than clubs and guns. They have been recruiting, financing, training, deploying, and coordinating thousands of political operatives to work through hundreds of front groups, law firms, think tanks, PACs, lobbying offices, media and PR consortiums, faux academic centers, astroturf campaigns, and--of course--compliant politicians. Among the compliant is our covey of hyperactive governors, all carrying basically the same anti-worker, anti-democratic policy ideas. Their unified agenda wasn't produced by telepathy or freakish happenstance, but by AFC, ALEC, IFL, SPN,* and other obscure organizational acronyms unknown to 99 percent of Americans. But Daniels of Indiana, Walker of Wisconsin, Kasich of Ohio, Scott of Florida, and the rest of the covey have these organizations on speed dial. Behind the non-descript acronyms are aggressive and insidious right-wing wonk shops that have been set up and richly financed by the corporatists to prepare and hand-deliver pro-corporate programs to compliant governors and key legislators. Once delivered, the organizations work (usually clandestinely) to get the programs enacted. Let's peek inside a couple of these acronyms. 2. AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL. "With nearly 2,000 members" explains a brochure of this secretive organization, "ALEC is the nation's largest nonpartisan, individual membership association of state legislators." Maybe your very own local lawmaker is one of them--but you won't get that information from ALEC, which hides its list of legislators from public view. Nonpartisan? Its website lists 22 legislators from around the country who serve as board members and officers of this tax-exempt legislative service organization. All are Republican. In fact, only token numbers of Democrats are allowed in the club, and all inductees are individually vetted to make sure they will adhere to ALEC's corporate dogma. Which brings us to the organization's pose as an association of legislators. The "exchange" in ALEC's name is not between lawmakers, but between lawmakers and such behind-the-scenes powers as Altria, AT&T, Bayer, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Koch Industries, Kraft Foods, Peabody Energy, Pfizer, Reynolds American, State Farm Insurance, UPS, and Walmart. These giants form ALEC's "private enterprise board," and they are among the self-interested corporations that put up its money and shape its agenda. State reps pay only a token $50 a year to be members of ALEC, while at least 82 percent of the $6 million yearly budget comes from corporations (ALEC demurely refuses to name its donors, much less report how much each gives, nor will it disclose how it spends the money). What do corporations get for their tax-deductible donations? A greased skid for sliding their wish list into the laws of multiple states. ALEC is something of a speed dating service. It holds three national conferences a year, plus convening issue-specific policy sessions in 20 to 30 state capitols annually. These are cozy sessions that conveniently gather groups of legislators to meet in private with corporate executives. The two groups schmooze together and develop bills to help extend corporate power over workers, consumers, environmentalists, and others--then the lawmakers go back home to pass the corporations' bills. ALEC is the ultimate back room for corporate-legislative collusion. Its promotional brochure describes it as a dynamic partnership "that will define the American political landscape of the 21st century." That's no empty threat. ALEC's tête-à-têtes result in about 1,000 bills being introduced across America every legislative session, and an ALEC official proudly adds, "We usually pass about 200 bills a year." And what pieces of work they are! For example: Even before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took office this January, ALEC agents were handing him model bills for clubbing teachers and other public employees. Pushing ALEC's attack from inside the legislature were Wisconsin state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the rancorous, union-busting majority leader who was ALEC's state chairman last year, and state Rep. Robin Vos, the house budget slasher who heads ALEC's state organization this year. Likewise, governors in Indiana, Maine, Michigan, and Ohio have backed anti-union legislation this year that closely resembles ALEC's 'model' bills. In 2009, ALEC drew up the Voter ID Act to ban university students from using their college-issued ID's as proof of residency for voting. Seven states have adopted this model law, which is intended to bar eligible students from the voting booth. These kids must be disenfranchised, New Hampshire's house speaker bluntly said in February, because they're "voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience." This model bill has been introduced in 18 other states this year in a rather obvious ploy to hold down the student vote in the 2012 presidential election. Arizona's infamous anti-Latino immigration law was crafted at an ALEC conference. The state senate leader who sponsored the bill was in the meeting, as was an eager executive from Corrections Corporation of America, the private prison operation that stands to get a nice business boost from Arizona's law. Numerous state bills have been filed to kill, dilute, or withdraw from Obama's universal healthcare reform. Many bear remarkably similar wording, perhaps because they were drawn from a special report churned out by the 'nonpartisan' ALEC, entitled "The State Legislators Guide to Repealing ObamaCare." One of ALEC's specialties is developing state laws to stop citizens from interfering with corporate whim. For example, when various communities began outlawing the use of genetically altered seeds in their area, ALEC rushed out a model bill to remove local control of seeds--11 states have passed it. Also with such climate-change deniers as Koch and Exxon funding ALEC and sitting on its board, you can guess why this corporate policy front has produced more than 800 draft measures against regulating global warming emissions--and, at least six states are considering bills nearly identical to ALEC's draft resolution for "state withdrawal from regional climate initiatives." The big lie Something unconscionable is at work here, something that is shameful, unworthy of our people, and directly contradictory to our country's founding ideals. The richest, most powerful, most privileged people in our land--in cahoots with a horde of the least principled, most venal political opportunists in civic life-- are intentionally savaging the well-being of America's majority and aggressively suppressing the democratic rights that make America America. And for what? Solely for themselves, for the aggrandizement of their own wealth and power. To pull off this grand political larceny, the narcissistic right has manufactured a huge lie that has largely been accepted as truth not only by the GOP and tea partiers, but also by the mass media, nearly all of the mainline pundit class, and too many fraidy-cat Democratic leaders, including the one in the oval office. The lie is that extreme budgetary measures (they call them "coura- geous") simply must be imposed now, this instant, in order to slay the looming deficit monster that is gorging itself on government spending at all levels. "In the name of your grandbabies," they cry, "teachers must be fired, rights smothered, pensions abrogated, Medicare tossed aside, little kids cut off from Head Start, and the bright promise of America's shared prosperity dimmed. We have no choice but to slash and burn." No choice? One hedge fund hustler pocketed $2.4 million last year. Not for the year--$2.4 million AN HOUR. Yet he and his ilk pay a much lower tax rate than you and I do. In recent years, huge corporations like GE, ExxonMobil, and Bank of America have pocketed billions of dollars in profit, yet paid not a dime in federal income taxes. Indeed, far from paying taxes, these three have even been handed millions of dollars in "refunds" from our public treasury in some of their profitable years. Sliding through loopholes created by their lobbyists, two-thirds of corporations in the US pay no income taxes to help cover the priceless benefits they get from our national government. America does not face a deficit crisis--we face a multi-billion dollar annual tax dodge by the most elite of moneyed elites. The money our society needs is right there--in the coffers of flagrantly rich Fortune 500 corporations and Wall Street banks, in the personal accounts of absurdly wealthy CEOs and fast-buck speculators. America is hardly a poor country. It's the richest in the history of the world, and it ought to have the very best public education program in the world, the most advanced infrastructure network, and the finest system of health care for all. Yet our 'leaders' only talk of what they can't do, of what must be cut, of how the middle class and the poor must sacrifice, of how Americans must adapt to the new normal of diminished expectations and shriveled democratic power. The ugly truth is that these despicable governors and lawmakers are willingly trashing teachers and butchering our public budgets simply to spare the privileged and plutocratic few from paying what they owe to sustain a just, democratic, and truly prosperous society. This is ridiculous. Let's tax the super-rich! We the People must join together, stand up, push back, and shift the focus in this fight from hardworking teachers to these disgusting deadbeats and their political puppets. - Jim Hightower

Union is the measure

There's a word in the very first line of the Constitution of the United States that describes the instrument through which freedom is held. It's a term for people acting in concert to secure their liberty and hold those rights against any opponent. That word is union. From its founding, the story of this nation has been the story of union. It is the story of two centuries spent in building up the ability of ordinary citizens to treat with wealthy, powerful, politically connected entities. That story contains instances of tragedy. Thousands died in the struggle, many thousands more suffered poverty or were outcast from communities. But the story of union also contains far-reaching triumphs. Every paid vacation, every weekend, every overtime dollar, every protection from arbitrary dismissal and unfair treatment, everything that makes your working life tolerable, came because people stood together in union at risk to their own livelihoods and often their own lives. Some of those laws exist only because workers stood in union when not only corporations but their own government attacked them not just with guns, but with bombers. They paid the price. You reap the benefits. When we talk about "the greatest generation" that brought the nation through World War II and built America into a post-war powerhouse, we're speaking of a population where nearly a third of workers were union members. It's no coincidence that the peak period of growth and progress coincides with the peak period of union membership. When people act in union, there's nothing they can't accomplish. When people cannot join in union, when everyone must face the powerful alone, all rights are nothing more than words. Whether in a union of states and nations or a union of workers and citizens, only by working in concert can rights be wrested from oppressors and held against despots. That's why tyrants quake at the sound of union. That's why the right to act in union is the ability that the downtrodden most desire and authorities first attack. Union is the measure of freedom. The outlawing of independent unions is the clearest and most consistent marker of despotism around the world. When Gaddafi seized control of Libya in 1969, his first speech proclaimed the end of labor unions. No sooner had he secured control of Cuba than Fidel Castro banned the ability of unions to strike or to bargain over salary and benefits, saying such demands were detrimental to "the national economy." In Colombia today, right-wing militias work together with corporations to keep down costs and demands for decent working conditions in the most effective way they know–they execute union leaders. There's a good reason why governments and corporations alike show trepidation when people are able to organize. Union is effective. For all the pretty speeches and all the ham-handed threats, the signal that the Iron Curtain was finally rising didn't come in Berlin or Washington, D.C., it came in the shipyards of Gdańsk, when men dared to wave the flag of an independent union. Want to determine where governments are actually concerned about the rights of their people? You only have to look at how free people are to organize for a cause. Without that, no other rights matter. With it, all other rights will follow. The First Amendment to the Constitution enshrines a number of freedoms including religion, speech and the press, but this amendment should not be read as a random list of disconnected items. Everything in it directly depends on the liberties held out in the closing words: the ability of the people to peacefully assemble and to petition for redress. When the Constitution extends the right of assembly, it's not just giving us the right to gather together for no purpose. What's protected is the right to join together in common cause, and to seek as a group to move institutions that would not respond to individuals acting alone. The American dream—the dream that an average citizen can enjoy a decent life, raise a family, and hope for the future—was created in union, sustained by union, and is dependent on union. That dream stands on a knife edge. Already the forces that oppose union have torn away the hopes of many Americans. As union membership has fallen, decent pensions have disappeared. As union membership has fallen, health care costs have increased. As union membership has fallen, pay for workers has stagnated. As union membership has fallen corporate profits—and executive pay—have soared. The decline of union is the birthplace of inequity. At this moment, the same forces that have ripped union away from most workers are acting against those few who still share the ability to speak with a collective voice. They want to wreck this last bastion, burn it down, stomp it, bury it, extinguish it forever, so that they can sleep safe knowing their power will not be challenged. They want to erase the work of two centuries, turn the American dream into a subject for nostalgia, and make the Bill of Rights into a sheet of paper. That is what's on the line in Wisconsin. Nothing has changed since the time that first line of the Constitution was written. Union is not just a means to oppose tyranny, it is the only means. - Mark Sumner for Daily Kos

Job Opening

BITS

Most people will sign anything.

Wal-Mart strikes again. Will always be disappointed, but will never be surprised, at Wal-Mart's mistreatment of its employees. I have NEVER purchased anything from this nefarious company, and I never will.

What do These Senate Republi-con Fools Have in Common?

Besides being male, Christian, white (sorry Martinez, you're about as Hispanic as Alberto Gonzales), right wing tools... they all voted against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

A bill to amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and to modify the operation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to clarify that a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice that is unlawful under such Acts occurs each time compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, and for other purposes.

Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hatch (R-UT) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) Lugar (R-IN) Martinez (R-FL) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Wicker (R-MS)

May your re-election loss come down to the women you refused to give equal pay too!

A case against racism:

Here's a trailer to a movie I just saw. A testament to the grotesque inequality of farming wages around the world and why we need strong fair trade laws:

There's Just a Slight Difference...

Pentagon: Colleges must hand over names The Defense Department has announced a new get-tough policy with colleges and universities that interfere with the work of military recruiters and Reserve Officer Training Corps programs. Under rules that will take effect April 28, defense officials said they want the exact same access to student directories that is provided to all other prospective employers. Students can opt out of having their information turned over to the military only if they opt out of having their information provided to all other recruiters, but schools cannot have policies that exclude only the military, defense officials said in a March 28 notice of the new policy in the Federal Register. The Defense Department “will honor only those student ‘opt-outs’ from the disclosure of directory information that are even-handedly applied to all prospective employers seeking information for recruiting purposes,” the notice says. Directories are an important recruiting tool because they include the names, birthdates, phone numbers and academic pursuits of college students that can be used to identify people with knowledge and interests that are particularly useful to the military. The new policy also no longer lets schools ban military recruiters from working on campuses solely because a school determines that no students have expressed interest in joining the military. If other employers are invited, the military has to have the same access. Federal funding can be cut off if colleges and universities do not give recruiters and ROTC programs campus access. While student financial assistance is not at risk, other federal aid, especially research funding, can disappear if a school does not cooperate. The Pentagon can declare colleges or universities anti-ROTC if they prohibit or prevent a Senior ROTC program from being established, maintained or efficiently operated. The new policy is, in part, the result of a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the federal government’s ability to use funding as a means of forcing equal access for military recruiters and ROTC units on campuses.

There's just a slight difference between going to work for a civilian job and joining the military: One doesn't pressure you into possibly making the ultimate sacrifice!

"The Crash is past. Comes now Inflation."

Please, read the entire article, these are the first 2 paragraphs:

Seems to me a lot of people don’t realize the worst financial crash since 1929 has already occurred. I suppose they are waiting for a big explosive fireball and a lot of noise like in a Hollywood movie, or for the nightly news on their wide-screen televisions to show pictures of desperate bankers and brokers splattered on the sidewalks in front of 60-story temples of finance. This diary is my humble little attempt to let these people know that the crash has already happened. It began in August. I guess they didn’t notice, but a number of financial markets have already collapsed. First, of course, there was the derivatives based on sub-prime mortgages. That seems to be about where the common consciousness stops. But before U.S. Secretary Treasury Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (a.k.a., Captain Carnage) even lifted a finger to try and sort out the sub-prime mortgage mess, they first had to deal with the collapse of the market for Structured Investment Vehicles. Since these two crises began last summer many other financial markets have also collapsed: corporate junk bonds, asset-backed commercial paper, municipal bonds. This last was saved just last week by New York State Insurance Commissioner Dinallo basically forcing Moodys, S&P and Fitch to give AAA ratings to the monolines insurers. All these markets have pretty much ceased functioning, with not even the banks that created some of this stuff willing to buy their own product. Financial institutions have also been disappearing, especially a number of hedge funds, the most recent being this past week: Peloton, a London-based hedge fund specializing in asset-backed bonds.

"The Leagacy of bu$h"

Full size view, from Think Progress.

Racism: Alive and Well in Arizona

It's the same old hate here in Phoenix: Racist whites and the nauseatingly humorous, few, long-time resident, wait until it happens to them, misguided Hispanics: Against realistic-thinking Whites, Hispanics and the impoverished, persecuted illegal immigrants who will do any job for minimum wage yet are accused of every crime known to man.

No one understands how much this will cripple the local economy here if the scumbag, sheriff Joe, and (new stance on immigration because he was on Lou Dobbs for 10 minutes) Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon get their way on enforcing this new, racial profiling, immigration law. Basically what the new law means is they can hold anyone who looks Hispanic for an unspecified period of time until they can prove they are a citizen or here legally! Welcome to the police state of Arizona.

I pity the racist idiots who don't relize how much the underground Hispanics pump into the local economy. Who do these 'uppity white folk' think washes their cars, cleans their offices, serves them fast food, mows their lawns, buys their products and helps to pay the taxes of this state? Seems like it's back to the late 1800's and Chinese immigrant labor and laws all over again.

As far as local crime goes, we had a policeman killed by an illegal immigrant this year. So now, every crime that happens, it's illegals.

Two other local officers were killed by white men. The Baseline Serial Rapist and Murderer was a black man. The Phoenix Serial Shooter: two white guys.

In the last 3 years there has been an upswing in the theft of copper from new home construction and installed construction sites. News media outlets claimed illegals were suspect. Turns out, a man was found to be electrocuted with his hands still on a live line; yep, (toasted) white guy. Two more theives got caught when they took their copper to a recycle center; yep, two (dumb) white guys. I guess those illegals are so smart, they don't get caught with copper.

Why don't these racists admit: Crime crosses all ethnic barriers. We don't even need to talk about who commits corporate white collar crime: The most profitable and least prosecuted of all crimes.

In my honest opinion, I think U.S. Customs and Border Protection should be investigating more human smuggling operations (coyotes) and big businesses who profit from cheap labor.

Please people, start treating all human beings with respect for one another and follow "The Golden Rule". And if you're the religous sort, the ever popular saying, "What would Jesus do?", applies most wholeheartedly.

"We will cross Mountains, Deserts, and yes... even Borders to feed our families! Wouldn't you?"

"A Lambasted Landscaper's Lament"

From E.J. Montini's blog at the Arizona Repulic:

He's been a Valley landscape contractor for years; he pays decent wages and provides health benefits; he considers himself a loyal, patriotic American. But he asks that I keep his name out of the paper because some of his employees are illegal immigrants and because, he says, “People are nuts. They don't want to talk about this. They just want to yell at you and string you up.” Arizona's employer sanctions law will not kick in until next month, assuming it doesn't get tied up in court. The landscaper says that he'll comply with the new rules. For now, however, he wonders if he could make a few points without getting shouted down. Only if there were no one around to hear you, I say. He begins by discussing the notion that illegal immigrants fill jobs that Americans don't want. “When I put ads in the paper that we have openings, there is not one white guy busting down my door asking to push a lawnmower,” he says. “It does not happen. Same with the guys I know who do roofs. Same with other contractors. Why does Arizona have to be a cowboy and go after the businessmen here?” Some would say that it's because the federal government isn't doing anything, I tell him, and that someone has to take the lead. “That's a joke,” he says. “This is going to hurt Arizona. I have painting contractor friends. Framers. Roofers. When this law takes effect and they have to fire people – like I will – do you think those employees will go away? No. They'll start working for themselves and everything we put into them, all of the training, will be used against us. Only they'll be working for cash and paying no taxes.” He pauses and then adds, “And what happens then to Social Security?” The landscaper says that his average employee makes about $400 a week. From that, each pays the federal government over $30 in taxes. He matches that amount. “When the government gets the money and finds that it can't match an employee's name with a Social Security number, does it send me back a check saying, ‘Sorry, we don't know what to do with this money?' No,” he says. “They keep it. Why? Because they need it.” The Social Security system has received billions from illegal immigrants who will never collect benefits. Some suggest that without that money, the system would collapse. “We need a program where people can be identified and can work here,” the landscaper says. “Maybe a system that says if you don't have a job you have to leave. But as it is, I might have to fire a guy who has worked for me for 10 years. He is married to a U.S. citizen. He has never been in trouble. Owns a house. A truck. Has two kids who are citizens. He's been paying a lawyer 10 years to get citizenship and still hasn't got it. Now I'm supposed to fire him because (Gov.) Janet (Napolitano) and some others got on a bandwagon and are mad at Mexicans? That's not right. Why not punish everybody else who deals with illegals or makes money from them?” He includes those who might sell supplies to such people. And groceries. And clothes. As well as individuals who use their services. And everyone who benefits, directly or indirectly, from illegal immigrants. Every business with a “se habla español” signs in its window, for instance. Or those who own Spanish language newspapers, TV stations and radio stations. “What would happen if we punished everyone who has benefited from illegals?” he asks. “What would it be like then?” For one thing, I say, there'd be no one left to shout down a frustrated landscaper.

You really should read some of the vitrolic comments in this thread. Everyone will understand how touchy a subject illegal immigration is in Arizona.

But... but... what would Jesus do?

UDATE: Phoenix Officials Feel Heat Over Migration as Protests Continue

As protests and arrests of undocumented workers continued near a Phoenix furniture store over the weekend, a Washington-based think tank is researching whether to sue Phoenix over its immigration policies. Judicial Watch, a 13-year-old conservative think tank best known for its lawsuits against the Clinton administration, sent its chief investigator to Phoenix on Friday to review public documents related to immigration...

Happy Labor Day

The Rolling Stones - Salt of the Earth

Salt of the Earth Lets drink to the hard working people Lets drink to the lowly of birth Raise your glass to the good and the evil Lets drink to the salt of the earth Say a prayer for the common foot soldier Spare a thought for his back breaking work Say a prayer for his wife and his children Who burn the fires and who still till the earth And when I search a faceless crowd A swirling mass of gray and Black and white They dont look real to me In fact, they look so strange Raise your glass to the hard working people Lets drink to the uncounted heads Lets think of the wavering millions Who need leaders but get gamblers instead Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows And a parade of the gray suited grafters A choice of cancer or polio And when I look in the faceless crowd A swirling mass of grays and Black and white They dont look real to me Or dont they look so strange Lets drink to the hard working people Lets think of the lowly of birth Spare a thought for the rag taggy people Lets drink to the salt of the earth Lets drink to the hard working people Lets drink to the salt of the earth Lets drink to the two thousand million Lets think of the humble of birth (M. Jagger/K. Richards)

Ever since Circuit City reduced their salary expenses by eliminating over 3,000 senior sales positions, I've shopped there twice and the changes are glaring. What a difference a bad corporate decision makes! Not only are there many fewer salespeople available now, but their general product knowledge is astonishingly anemic compared to just a few months ago. Now when I ask for simple information, like comparing the features between different brands of a product that I'm interested in purchasing, I receive mostly mumbling and blank stares. When I ask for the location of a product, unless I happen to be standing right next to it (which we all do on occasion, right?), they just point me to the some vague area of the store and wish me luck.

I'm sad about this. Over the years our family has purchased more electronic products and appliances from this company than all other companies combined because of their reasonable return policies, their product selection and their knowledgeable staff. I'm also sad that the company put the profit line above the importance of their staff, but that's nothing new in these days of corporate greed and immorality. I must now look for another source of electronics products while bad-mouthing a company with which I always felt comfortable.

I guess I'm searching for the "Trader Joe's" of electronic retailers. Anyone have any suggestions?

Do you shop at Ralphs, Albertson's or Vons? If so, watch this: (Mike)

Continued Republican Obstruction

Let's be perfectly clear: Who sides with bu$h on all issues detrimental to Middle Class Americans? Republi-cons!

The Employee Free Act, passed by the House, was killed by Republican filibuster. This legislation is dead. Reid could've switched his vote to the "no" side in order to preserve his ability to revisit the issue. But... It was a great way for unions to demonstrate to their memebers (who vote and volunteer for Democrats higher than just about any other group), without ambiguity, which party stands for workers, and which party doesn't. And with the near-party line vote, with zero Democratic defectors, that distinction was clear as day. Republican obstructionism in Congress -- on Iraq, on stem cells, on union organizing -- is building a solid electoral case against the GOP in 2008. The electorate will have a chance to vote for this stymied agenda or for its continued obstruction. If nothing else, congressional Democrats are drawing clear distinctions between them and the guys on the other side of the aisle. And as we've seen, the clearer the distinctions, the better Democrats perform. -- Kos

This "Continued Republi-con Obstruction" message that Kos has so politely pointed out is what the Democrats need to have blasted over the Main Stream Media.

It's the only way for the people to get the message. How about, a commercial during the Paris interview with Larry King?

UPDATE: 239. Number of bills the House of Representatives has passed and sent to the Senate only to be held up, with conservatives "objecting to just about every major piece of legislation that [Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)] has tried to bring up."