POSTVILLE, IOWA

Can you get over this “hometown to the world”?

50% of the children being educated at the expense of citizen taxpayers are ILLEGAL ALIENS.

The town’s employer Agriprocessors is f*cking the nation.

This employer has a long history of violating every law that’s out there — labor laws, environmental laws, now immigration laws,” said Mark Lauritsen, international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has waged a bitter battle to organize the Postville plant. The union charged that the immigration raid disrupted a separate U.S. Labor Department investigation into alleged child labor law violations and other infractions.

ICE may be “deporting 390 witnesses” to the labor investigation, Lauritsen said, adding, “This administration seems to place a larger value on big, splashy shows in this immigration raid than in vigorously enforcing other labor laws.”

At St. Bridget’s Catholic Church ["seeking sanctuary site"], Eduardo Santos, 27, who came from Guatemala and lost two of his fingers working at the factory, said the raid was “fair . . . but it’s bad for everybody. There’s no work.” He plans to go home.

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 18, 2008; A01

Ew, ground human fingers in the beef. How difficult can it be for Americans to boycott products of AGRIPROCESSORS?

Meanwhile, note well that the Bush presidency waited 8 years to make moves against employers of illegal aliens. Then in the show, they also cover their tracks of having neglected to prosecute employers violating child labor laws. So 18 juveniles were arrested amongst the illegal alien employees at this plant, being deported so that the Bush record on “no child left behind” looks clean. This is disappointing!

How Iowa goes, goes the nation. The Rust Belt has its share of carpetbagger employers of illegals as does the Sun Belt, the Bible Belt, or any other belt Americans wear. The stupid argument that prosecution is futile needs a good belt whoopin’ across the ass.

Saves alot of cash

In a typical election you would have a point. Unfortunately, this will not be a typical election.

The economy has not yet cratered completely, but should just in time for the general election. Obama, unfortunately, will be the next President.

Whether or not the GOP becomes irrelevant for the next 40 years depends upon someone with integrity and gonads standing up and saying enough.

See here:

Note that he really is prescribing a free market solution – letting the markets resolve the situation in lieu of more government intervention.

It just means that some lobbyists are going to have to be ignored for awhile.

How hard could that be?

Not a chance – heavy tax rates, high property taxes, labor laws are skewed towards unions, wages are high, etc.

That says it all.

bayam on May 17, 2008 at 6:05 PM

You missed the key words entirely. It was standard of living not GDP and I think you meant GSP anyway by the looks of your link.

you the standard of living is not lower in Texas, Nevada, or Arizona, or the deep south, but in fact is higher

GDP by state:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_GDP_per_capita_%28nominal%29
If any of these states were highly dependent on the US auto industry, jobs would be moving out as well- unions or not.

Anyway, the list of states with higher taxes and strong union laws is highly selective: New York and Massachusetts aren’t exactly bad places to live or work.

It’s like the question I often ask as to why black folks are such a strong voting bloc for democrats. If black folks are so distrusting of the government (and they should be), then why do they vote for the party that thrusts MORE government upon all of us? IT.MAKES.NO.SENSE.

SouthernGent on May 17, 2008 at 12:54 PM

I have invested a good amount of mental energy examining that question. Another that perplexed me was why so many black people are socialists?

Here is my preliminary analysis.

Black people do not trust the “government” but the government does not mean Democrats. Democrats “look out” for black people, i.e. pander relentlessly and that is what matters, results do not. And “governmnet” is a generic catchall for racist white people in the black lexicon. The concepts of Federalism have almost no place in black political thought. And understanably so. The President ended slavery the federal government gauranteed civil rights, etc. So the government is a legitimate body to “help” black people. And as long as Democrats can wear the cloak of “helping” black people with the power of government they are seen as natural allies. And what alot of black people hate to admit is that the identify black people (and themselves) with welfare. So welfare reform is anti-black, and those evil Republicans just want to “hurt” black people instead of Democrats that want to “help” black people.

But I have hope for the future. I spend a great amount of time communicating conservative policy positions, to as many people as I can. I give them a choice between two policy choices and they choose 9 out of 10 conservative position. I then welcome them to the GOP. Sometimes the light goes on, sometimes they are disgusted that they were tricked into being conservative. I also know alot of conservative black people, too many of us have acquired a college degree or specialized knowledge and are now miccle class. We want lower taxes, we want a better economy because we are investing in the stock market more. Then I articulate the argument against illegal immigration. That bubble has yet to burst but when it does… I can tell you the black representatives in LA are looking over thire shoulders. Should Hispanics brea ka little to hard for McCain you just might see a large shift in voting habits.

Enough rambling.

And bayam, suggest you visit Tennessee-you know, the one with fairly low property taxes and no income tax. The Williamson County suburb of Metro Nashville is the 4th highest per capita income county in the nation. Major manufacturers are moving plants into Tennessee and keeping other facilities that were once scheduled for closing. In Nashville, the new Whole Foods Market was recognized as the 2nd highest contributer in the nation to the Whole Foods charity drive.

The Metro unemployment rate dipped for the past two months, and housing prices have increased even in a slow market.

Surely something is wrong there.

Property taxes are a huge issue here and slow job growth. But the unions still have sway in some industries and they just blame the foreigners.

Up at Bloomington GE finally closed. The state waived their taxes for a decade. The local government built and maintained their road. And still they closed. Most of the work force will go on pension right away, the rest will receive benefits until they are retrained and have new jobs.

Now if I lose my job, I am just SOL.

No, this place needs to change.

If it weren’t for the public sector and agriculture, you wouldn’t know what a union was in California. How is this union-friendly?

Can you imagine $9000 in property taxes for a small bungalow in a suburb of Milwaukee? That’s why people think twice about moving there. Of course, the media always say it’s the sun that draws people to places like Las Vegas and Arizona–because they don’t want to disparage the concept of a high tax socialist paradise.

These policies aren’t killing Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.
.
Captain, not sure that your analysis is entirely on target. You’re comparing different types of economies- ones based on manufacturing (Michigan, Pennsylvania) to those that are more service or tech driven (Texas, Nevada, Arizona) and with much lower standards of living (deep south).

One thing we know about Detroit is that breaking unions and/or other reforms won’t save the auto industry from the incredible stupidity of its executives. So you may be right that government policies could be improved, there’s no reason to think it would turn the situation around anytime soon. Not as long as China continues to kill off American manufacturing jobs at a brisk rate.

bayam on May 17, 2008 at 1:59 PM

.
bayam, having lived or worked in most of these states, I can tell you the standard of living is not lower in Texas, Nevada, or Arizona, or the deep south, but in fact is higher. Also, manufacturing is alive and well (and kicking the midwest’s butt) in the states you mentioned, mainly due to low or no union activity.

He wants to roll out even more government intrusion and redistributionism, which non-urban voters in these states rightly see as the source of their problems and not the solution to them.

Those gutter balls he rolled were no accidents.

These policies aren’t killing Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.

Captain, not sure that your analysis is entirely on target. You’re comparing different types of economies- ones based on manufacturing (Michigan, Pennsylvania) to those that are more service or tech driven (Texas, Nevada, Arizona) and with much lower standards of living (deep south).

One thing we know about Detroit is that breaking unions and/or other reforms won’t save the auto industry from the incredible stupidity of its executives. So you may be right that government policies could be improved, there’s no reason to think it would turn the situation around anytime soon. Not as long as China continues to kill off American manufacturing jobs at a brisk rate.

hair of the dog

..Son of a B?

Obama is an extemporaneous disaster…blaming his pending loss in Kentucky on Fox News, emails, and the fact that Kentuckians don’t know him, since Hillary is from the “nearby” state of Arkansas. Last time I checked the map, Illinois was close to Kentucky.

God, please, don’t punish us with this fellow.

eaglesdontflock on May 17, 2008 at 11:16 AM

Is that what they’re saying? That’s kind of funny. They blamed Obama’s loss in Pa. on the fact that Hillary was “from” Pennsylvania (because her grandfather apparently owned a cabin in Scranton at some point in time). Hillary is not “from” Pennsylvania . . . or Kentucky . . . or Arkansas . . . or even New York. She was born and raised in the Chicago area. (Thanks a lot, Illinois).

Michigan all have state governments that overtax and over regulate, and protect unions at the expense of workers and jobs:

. . . and run by the democrat party.

Everyone in Michigan complains bitterly about how bad everything is and yet they keep voting democrat.