Virginia faces many challenges. Transportation, of course, is the biggest at the moment, but there are numerous others. Let's list a few that actually matter to peoples' lives: education, health care, the cost of living, pollution, taxes, the Chesapeake Bay...Now, let's list a few issues that basically are of little or no importance in 99% of peoples' lives, but which the Republicans are obsessed about: gay marriage, anything gay, did I mention gay?, sex, sexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, any other sexuality not aforementioned. Yeah, I think you get the picture.
Oh, and let's not forget the most important issue of all: those damn illegal immigrants mowing our lawns, cooking our food, processing our food, cleaning our homes, and generally working their asses off for low salaries and no benefits. Evil bastards!
Luckily, that's where the brave, heroic Republicans come in, protecting us from those horrible immigrant hordes wanting nothing more than to keep our grass trimmed, our crops picked, and our toilets cleaned. Nope, can't have any of that. So, thank GOD for people like Dave Albo (R-Planet Albo) and Mark Cole (R-Fredericksburg), defending the American way (well, at least if you don't believe in all that "give us your tired, poor and hungry" gar-bage).
In sum, thank you brave Republicans. With you guys around, I feel so much safer, happier, and more prosperous than I would without you all. Sure, it kind of sucks that it takes me three hours to travel 10 miles to Tysons Corner on a good day. Sure, it kind of sucks that I have to weed my own yard now and can't use that awesome landscaper and his merry band of hardworking El Salvadorans. But still, life is good with you guys around. God bless America, and God bless the Republican Party!
Whenever I see a pink sombrero or Jerry Kilgore eating at Taco Bell I just want to cry.
Show how you are really NO better than the GOP in your intellectual reasoning. Maybe this is why we have such close elections. After all, its better to mock anything those on the other side of the fence say, instead of even remotely attempting understand how such flakes actually manage to capture almost 50% of the vote is it?
People commit suicide in Virginia because their job is outsourced after 25 years of service in the factory, and all the other jobs they could fill with their skill package have been taken by un skilled illegals. They lose their home, their healthcare, their ability to support their children.
Your response? To call them a 'faggot' hater and bigot while dampening the earth on their grave with tears for the 'victims' who committed the fraud to take their job, and rewarding the employer by hiring them to make an addition on your house.
You are as guilty as the GOP for keeping this divide going.
I guess that's why we stood by for years while Germany stormed through Europe. Our motto was, "30 Million Nazis Can't Be Wrong!" I mean Hitler was so popular, he must really be on to something. Let's hear him out....
What bothers me the most about the immigration debate is where the attention is focused. Of course illegal immigration puts burdens on our infrastructure (prisons, hospitals, schools, etc) and that should be reported. But under-reported are the companies who have for almost a generation ignored the laws and created an underclass in our society. The real shame and blame should belong to them, not poor people escaping poverty (which happens to be partially a result of NAFTA).
As for Lou Dobbs, um...I am sorry, but he is the ONLY person who has shown a willingness to actually address anything about the realities and truth of illegal immigration. He isn't showing 'one side' at all, he is showing the reality of it.
Everyone else is showing the other 'side' to it, and those sides happen to be false propaganda. The ivy tower liberal are every bit as guilty as the elitist GOPers in this case.
To have an open real discussion means that a lot of people are going to have to give up their quest for political power.
I have no problems running a ferry across the river to prosperity. But if too many get on at any given moment, the ferry will capsize, and we ALL drown. Thats simply not logical.
To date, my family haven't seen anything that demonstrate a 'wonderful' glorious side at all to what is going on in these numbers. They have had to live it. My sister had her car burned and had to move 3 times in 2 years becuase of these 'beautiful' communities illegal immigrants are building.
Of course, those communities DID have nice Hispanic communities before they were over run, full of nice Hispanic business and Hacienda style eateries that had been there for 100 years, and were still owned by the original family.....
Now they are gone. Thats the reality.
So, if you and others are willing to actually discuss that as well as whatever you think is positive, by all means, I am ready to talk. But so far, only Lou Dobbs has shown even a remote interest in looking at it.
To date the immigrants I have come to DEEPLY respect and admire for the work ethic, hard core drive, and community contribution have actually been LEGAL. In my book, any one willing to jump through the hoops has shown a realy commitment and drive to being in an organized society. Those only interested in cheating and lying to get a job aren't go getters.
Same with their employers.
But we won;t have a real solution until we come to an honest discussion that looks at some hard facts. About the employers and the immigrants themselves. Lowell's comments indicate he is NOT ready to have that discussion.
Even members of the new Isreali state were horrified by what was going on. Of course, they were rolled over by their more 'militaristic' colleagues.
Thanks for showing how much the truth matters to you after all.
And don't pretend you are the only one with ME experience....
So, what WAS that supposed to mean Lowell?
And wouldn't you consider such a statement a GRAND over simplification?
If you wanted it taken seriously, then you should have treated it as such.
Maybe if I weren't one of the disenfranchised middle class US citizens, I would have enough money to hire some LEGAL immigrant to get them some extra income getting started in this country.
Be as sarcastic as you want, BUT...
illegal immigrants work in EVERY facet of our society, including computer programming and civil engineering. Those individuals are usually from the E Europe or 'Asia', and offer their services using false documents, such as fake degrees, fake certifications, etc, etc. Would you like these people building the bridge you drive on?
I am SURE you would, and when it collapses and you end up in the hospital, I am sure you'll be glad to know that you can't receive any credit to help pay your bills because it was tapped out by one those helpless toilette cleaning victims. [ The firm that built the bridge of course will have reincorporated five times since they built it due to 'frivolous lawsuits.']
Like it or not, illegal immigration is nothing more than a part of, and a symbol of, the growing culture of corruption in the US. The people who participate, including the immigrants, demonstrate that they believe lying and stealing are the correct way to run a civil society. BY the way, this is exactly how we ended up with the mob in this country....
And it DOES have a great social cost. Just look at the neighborhoods they have massed into. Watch the gang wars, see the drugs, and everything else. Now imagine you are one of those poor whites or blacks who lost his job at the chicken packing plants to one of these illegal immigrants, but is too poor to move away. The value on your small home is now nothing because no one is going to buy it because no one wants to live next to a 3 bedroom house with 30 people living in it. Unless its a coyote who might give you half its value cash. And then where will you go?
The primary reason why illegal immigration has been a more of a Republican issue is because until recently,the majority of the impact has been felt in Red States. Those are the communities being swamped, primarily by the illegal immigrants of latino background. Illegal immigrants of Asian or E Euro background blend in more easily in big cities, and try and work on different occupations.They are of a far smaller number due to the distances they have travel to get in, and..oh yeah...passing through immigration in the airports is pretty obvious.
I don't know Lowell, maybe if all the evangelicals weren't being unemployed by illegal labour, they wouldn't have as much time to get excited over sex and homosexuals. Idle hands are the devil's work?
Personally, I have never advocated stopping immigration, and I am not going to do that today. The US has always been the most generous in this respect, and I would like us to continue. BUT...the numbers today FAR outpace what society can absorb. More importantly, immigration, especially illegal immigration is being used with one purpose- to lower wages and break unions. Well, its working, especially in these numbers. This is NOT new by the way. To say that somehow immigrants all magically adapt is to ignore the fact that the numbers were lowered to deal with just the sorts of social problems we see today. If the flow of immigration is kept at that moderate pace, those immigrants working at low wages for no benefits would have a much better chance of moving forward and living the American dream.
So you know what? Get off your self-righteous high horse and get real about illegal immigration. People like you are rarely the individuals that have had to live through what illegal immigration REALLY does. When they do, they change their tune.
Some of my educated family members have, they speak Spanish fluently, and at least had the financial ability to get away. By the way, my mother was born in Cuba, speaks perfect English, and we all grew up speaking Spanish and English. So don't even go there.
Why is that everyone thinks that by going back to the labour market of 1890 we are somehow getting wealthier as a society?
If you look at the times in which Democracy was at its strongest, and middle class was sure growing with those nice high wages?
Look at what people could afford when the meat packing plants paid 20$/hr Lowell. Were our shelves empty then? Nope, and beef was a lot healthier too.
Do we still reap wheat by hand Lowell? Are illegal immmigrants gathering sheaves of grain for us to have bread? Nope.
When labour becomes scarce, you bring in technology. You become more productive, and real wealth grows. There will be some things that never translate that way, but many industries most certainly can and should be far ahead of where they are. And they would be.
As for cost?
Whether I pay for it in declining services, higher tax rates, and lower income, or I pay for it at the shelves, I am STILL paying for it. The difference is we don;t become more productive, and that has LONG term consequences.
Thats economics.
This country is not being saved by illegal immigration.
And my point is, if you intend for us to get rid of some of these flakey GOP pundits, you had better start having some regard for the poor whites and blacks who vote GOP because they are losing their jobs over it.
Count yourself lucky Casesonia, your family's educated and had financial ability to get away from Cuba. Have a little, just a little, sympathy for those not as lucky as yourself and your family.
From Politics 101
http://www.politry.c...
Conservatives want to make life
better for people who have it easy.
Liberals want to make life less hard
for people who just can’t get by.
Republicans say Democrats want to
give everything away. So did Jesus.
LOL, I guess that my cousins are all married to Chileans and Argentinians and Brazilians means we NEVER know the other side of the story, do we?
"Liberals want to make life less hard
for people who just can’t get by."
When you make life impossible to get by for everyone by constantly tapping into those whoa re just 'getting by', everyone loses, except the 'compassionate conservatives.'
I NEVER said I wanted to stop immigration. Not once. I said I wanted to create a society whererin the poor immigrants who do come CAN succeed. Well, statistics show the reality right now, and it ain't pretty. As long as you keep flooding the labour market with tons and tons of unskilled labour, you'll send them all into the toilette.
And the rest of the middle class along with it becuase they are subsidizing it.
Thats not a reality you want to entertain, is it?
One extreme says "deport 12 million illegals". The other extreme says "give them amnesty - and stop calling them illegals". Yet another extreme says "keep the same levels coming". And another extreme says "no more immigration".
My position is somewhere in the middle. I say deport the criminal elements who's crimes include more than crossing the border; we don't need or want them.
Some sort of earned path to citizenship seems like the best path as opposed to mass deportations. I think that "earning" citizenship involves more than just holding a job. I think that giving back to the community, learning our American culture and values, and learning English should be a part of earning citizenship.
Beyond that, the question becomes how do we prevent history from repeating itself. I believe that knowingly hiring an illegal (and sorry, I won't change that part of my vocabulary) should be a felony - punishable by at least one year in prison.
Unless we get serious with employers, this problem will continue. Workplace enforcement, as opposed to border enforcement, will be the most effective approach. That is not to say that border enforcement isn't important - I just don't think it is as important.
I think that the majority of the funding for immigration enforcement should be dedicated to interior enforcement - as that is where the largest part of the problem lies. I also believe that the USCIS should be given the authority to arrest and charge American citizens with crimes involving the employment or smuggling of illegal aliens.
We played the amnesty game already, and because we didn't include enforcement we are right back where we started. We can't make that mistake again.