News Item....


WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FIGHTING WIDLFIRES, WEST FACES A DILEMMA



Written by KIRK JOHNSON
Sunday, 28 May 2006

The debate over immigration, which has filtered into almost every corner of American life in recent months, is now sweeping through the woods, and the implications could be immense for the coming fire season in the West.
As many as half of the roughly 5,000 private firefighters based in the Pacific Northwest and contracted by state and federal governments to fight forest fires are immigrants, mostly from Mexico. And an untold number of them are working here illegally.
A recent report by the inspector general for the United States Forest Service said illegal immigrants had been fighting fires for several years. The Forest Service said in response that it would work with immigration and customs enforcement officers and the Social Security Administration to improve the process of identifying violators.
At the same time, the State of Oregon, which administers private fire contracts for the Forest Service, imposed tougher rules on companies that employ firefighters, including a requirement that firefighting crew leaders have a working command of English and a formal business location where crew members can assemble.

remainder of the story at: http://www.amhersttimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1691&Itemid=27


My take...

It's about time government got out of the business of hiring or winking at the hiring of illegals on government contracts. It's hard, demanding work, fighting fires, but if you need an American to do a job, he'll be there...all you have to do is PAY enough to make it attractive.

Yet Even More Redundant Ranting on Illegals...

Bush Requests $1.9B to Bolster Borders
By SUZANNE GAMBOA Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush sent Congress a $1.9 billion request Thursday to increase border security as supporters of sweeping immigration legislation reasserted control in Senate debate.
The White House said the money would pay for the "first 1,000 of 6,000 new Border Patrol agents that will be deployed in the next two years," as well as the temporary deployment of up to 6,000 National Guard troops to states along the Mexican border. The request includes funds for new fencing and other barriers as well as two new unmanned surveillance aircraft and five helicopters to curb illegal immigration...





Okay, that and the national guard should stop a few thousand per year...how about financing the program with bankruptcy-inducing fines and jail terms for employers that knowingly hire these folks? Who knows, maybe the budget could be brought back to surplus again? Gawd it sucks being nostalgic for Clinton....

Workers of the World Unite!

Living in a heavily Republican county, I am used to hearing the word "union" spoken with dirision or disgust, even by people that are busting their ass at a minimum-wage job. I'm sick of it.

I will grant that trade unions today do not do all they could and are even sometimes corrupt, however, I cannot imagine what conditions for ALL workers in this country would be like without them. No minimum wage. No health care benefits for anyone. No retirement benefits for working-class Americans. No Social Security. Working conditions from hell in many industries. Children working instead of attending school.

If business and government are going to collude in this post-Reagan era of labor relations by manipulating the inflation/deflation of the currency and the boom/recesssion business cycle in order to weaken worker's purchasing power; labor needs to collude to control the labor supply to some extent--employers are not by nature benevolent, and do not usually have the needs of the worker in mind. Their job is maximizing capital by making customers and stockholders happy, not workers. There are very few employers that actually realize that a happy worker is a productive one. Many make the noises, but few deliver.

Therefore, if the unions did not exist, it would be necessary to invent them to avert the crushing oppression of workers that existed before they came along. Be nice to the union guy--he and his predecessors are paying their dues for you, the American worker.

Repel the Reconquista!

So...millions of illegal immigrants want to take to the streets and protest for more equitable treatment and a path towards citizenship? They intend to boycott their jobs, their schools and American businesses to show their economic clout? Fine...fire them. Deport them.


Make Tyson and Gallo pay Americans to work in their packing plants, and take the extra money they will have to pay them out of the pay of the shameful executives and CEOs that put the policies in place to hire them. Stop financing our public expenditures and debts by manipulating and lowering the wages of American workers to keep inflation in check.

We need to stop and repel what amounts to no less than an economic invasion of our country by foreigners who are no longer simply content to sneak in, steal our jobs and ship the money back to their country of origin. Now they want recognition of their status.


I have a proposal...the next time they want to demonstrate in our major cities, offer them the use of the local football or baseball stadium. Then, when they are inside, surround the place with National Guard troops, bring in temporary American drivers to load them into every bus that can be commandeered to drive them back to the border. Let them demonstrate in Mexico, Guatamala, Haiti or whatever politically corrupt, economically bankrupt basket case of a country they came from. Then, maybe THEIR government will take action to fix their OWN economy, so they don't have to export poverty to us.