For being obstructionist when it comes to re-opening the North American slave trade:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush blamed Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Saturday for the potentially fatal blow dealt to compromise immigration legislation…
[I]n a nod to business leaders who support temporary worker programs that would ensure an easy supply of low-cost labor, he spoke passionately about the need to put out the welcome mat for those from other countries.
"Immigration is an emotional issue and a vitally important one," Bush said. "At its core, immigration is the sign of a confident and successful nation."
How funny is this? How completely confused can Americans be at the helpful hands of the Guardians of their democracy, the free press? Any bill proposed by the Bush administration, any bill which contains anything about "guest workers" is not about immigration.
If these people are really concerned about border security, about social costs, about eleven million people here illegally, then pass an amnesty bill with provisions for checking the backgrounds of these people.
Oh, that's right! We already did that! And it sucked.
You know why it sucked? Because American employers don't want to hire citizens. If they hire citizens, they have to withhold tax, they have to make Social Security contributions, they have to pay unemployment tax, they have to pay for Workers Compensation, they have to follow all those rules and regulations regarding breaks and safety, and working hours.
American employers don't want legal immigrants working for them. American workers are a pain in the ass. American employers want illegal aliens. They're cheap! They're easy! And if they don't do what you tell them to do, what are they going to do about it? Call the cops?
Is this all American employers?
Hell, no! Mostly, it's employers in all those red states. Mostly, it's agriculture and Walmart, and fast food restaurants--you know, mostly it's Republican supporting employers. Huge ones.
Bush could give a flying fuck about immigration or poor people, or social costs--Christ, Bush doesn't care about costs at all. He sure as hell doesn't care about "border security". All Bush is trying to do is legalize the hiring of illegal aliens. That's it.
That's all it is.
Republicans have a huge problem. They've had it for years. But your "liberal" media absolutely refuses to explain it to you, The People. Republican politicians get their jobs from the racism and xenophobia, and paranoia the Gee Oh Pee actively creates when talking about all the darkies who are flooding across our borders, taking our jobs, fucking our pure white, Christian daughters, and sucking up our tax dollars without contributing a single thing!
What's the Republican problem with this? The Republican problem is that Republicans are hiring these people--eleven million of them. And they'd like to hire more. Why would they like to hire more? So they can fire your Constitutionally protected, OSHA pampered, union organizing, vacation mongering, minimum wage insisting ass.
That's the ugly hilarity of Republicans proposing an immigration bill. It's that simple. These are people who make careers out of encouraging you to hate wetbacks for stealing your jobs, when what they'd really like to do is legislate you out of your jobs. These are people who get their jobs from scaring the bejesus out of you about open borders, when what they really want to do is pave a giant highway across the border. And these are people who earn a living by whipping up your ugliest emotions at people who are getting something on your dime, when really, you're getting something on their dime--cheap food, cheap service, cheap whatever.
And the cost is spread out to all of us.
Who's really fucking the American People?
The mostly Republican employers who hire these people.
Eleven million people wouldn't risk rape, robbery and death crossing the border if there weren't a ton of jobs just waiting for them in America. Or if that fact weren't well, well known in their home countries. These companies, these industries--meat packing, agriculture, food service, Walmart--they rely on cheap, illegal labor to "pass" their savings on to you.
And keep their shareholders happy and their management ridiculously wealthy.
It isn't Mexicans who are costing states and localities billions of dollars in services--it's Republican corporations and bidnesses. They're hiring them. They want more. And they don't want to compensate society--American society--the cost of having their workers.
And Bush is trying to figure out a way to legally let them do that.
That's it.
It ain't going to help Americans. And it ain't going to help the illegal aliens. It's just going to make a very few powdered and pampered super rich billionaires ever more billionary and it's going to cost you and me even more money.
I like Ted Kennedy. I think, for the most part, he's been a terrific Senator. His personal life has been a shambles, but, then again, I don't pay him to be a good person. I pay him to be a good Senator.
Republicans can never grasp that simple idea.
Ted got totally hosed on his "bipartisan" support for the stupid "No Child Left Behind". You'd think Ted would be totally clear that this administration can not be trusted to pass legislation which which is actually intended to address the issues it's concerned with.
I have no idea how he could be so crazy as to even work with the Bush administration on this one.
Six years. And every single thing the Bush administration has done has been a disaster. Every. Single. Thing. And the reason why is because every single Bush initiative is not designed to address the problem the Bush administration claims.
Every single thing the Bush administration does has an ulterior motive. Everything. Tax cuts because we have a surplus turn into tax cuts because we have a recession. Invading Iraq because Saddam has an awesome stockpile of WMDs turns into invading Iraq because we're democratizing the mid-east. And on and on.
None of the reasons make sense. And the reasons for nearly everything change from week to week. And the reason is: because none of the reasons we're being told for anything are the actual reasons anything is being done.
None of them. About anything. About everything. I don't know what the real reasons are. For anything. And I don't care. I just know that if you can't tell me and the rest of the American people the real reason why you're doing something, you shouldn't be doing it. At all.
And Bush, once again, for the thousandth time, is not telling the American people the real reason why immigration is soooooo important. And your "liberal" media is, again, for the thousandth time, not telling you that Bush is, again, not telling you, what your government wants to do and why it wants to it.
And what it's going to cost you.
Harry Reid is being "obstructionist"? God bless him! Good! Because, dear "liberal" media, I don't know anyone who understands the reality of illegal immigrants in this country.
Eleven million people. All around us. Working all kinds of jobs. For our entire lives. And we know nothing about it.
And the Bush administration, the administration that hasn't done one single thing competently or honestly is going to tackle this incredibly complex problem???
And your "liberal" media is telling you--without telling you anything useful at all--that Harry Reid is standing in the way of "progress"???
You, go, Harry.
Great post. Thanks!
Posted by: wtf | April 08, 2006 at 11:33 PM
Boy do I agree with you. As small business owners who have to deal with all those regulations (Workman's Comp, Unemployment, various taxes) and start untrained workers at $8.50/hour, my husband and I have sometimes joked that we'd like to hire Mexicans. But since we aren't rich enough for the Government to care about, we'll just follow the rules, and continue to provide jobs that Americans WILL do.
Posted by: KyCole | April 09, 2006 at 09:57 AM
You know whatis so amazing about these guys? They have been planning on destroying the power of labor and all social programs for over 30 years and they have managed to stay on target and on message for that long! What kind of deeply psychotic resentment does it take to maintain that level of hate and purpose for so long? Oh that's right, the same level of psychosis that is now making plans to bomb Iran. Well, at least they are consistent...
Posted by: Kit E | April 09, 2006 at 12:07 PM
Goddamn, you're good at smelling the bullshit. That is EXACTLY what it's about, just like Iraq is about oil, oil and oil, in that order. And Bush is just sitting back and laughing on this one. And so lovely that EVERY REPUBLICAN voted against their own bill and then blamed its failure on Harry Reid. Jesus Christ, man! We're livin' in a fuckin' nuthouse! "Hey, Straw Boss! We got a bunch of nitwits down here!"
Posted by: Neil Shakespeare | April 09, 2006 at 12:13 PM
Well done. Bushco is so terribly horrid that they make me dizzy just reading about them. You are right on target again. Ever think of being a political bomber pilot?
Posted by: Peacechick Mary | April 09, 2006 at 01:49 PM