Here We Go 'Round The Amnesty Bush

Magic City Morning Star ^ | 12/29/2004 | Jan Herron

[nanak]

Soon we will be approaching a time when "We the People" must be heard because of government inaction with regard to immigration enforcement. And when "We the People" voice our opinion, the government of course, will not approve.

It would seem that our elected politicians should be outraged by the apparent willingness of a federal government that allows illegal aliens to roam free in this country. I know I'm frustrated, and every citizen should be.

Sadly, with the exception of Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner, Tom Tancredo, Dana Rohrabacher, Virgil Good, to mention "a few good men" serving in Congress, who have stepped up to the plate to show concern and to demand action from this Administration to stop the massive invasion of lawbreakers, our concerns are not represented in Congress. Are we to conclude that those who have not spoken up approve of our country being invaded with illegal aliens, or are they just "chicken little cowards?" Either way these cowards shouldn't be in office pretending to represent us, because they do not. And these same cowards shouldn't take for granted the tenacity of "We the People" or underestimate our willingness to do what needs to be accomplished to preserve the sovereignty of this country.

It's very clear that there are devious and vigorous forces that want to continue the flow of illegal aliens into this country. The race is on and this administration is gearing up to push through yet another amnesty against the will of the people. Our "Here We Go 'Round the Amnesty Bush" President, needs a wake-up call and it may just have to come from Senator Hillary Clinton.

[Missouri]

"I'm surprised you didn't have your own crew of illegals to pick and pack them for you. "

They were too busy building my roads, repairing my cars, replacing my roofs, collecting my garbage, printing my junk mail, cleaning my public bathrooms and all the other jobs that Americans don't want to do.

No, I said that Hispanic immigrant laborers are a significant reason for our prosperity. They work in all facets of our economy, including Dell computers.

The topic was illegals. Nothing about Hispanic immigrants.

[Joe Hadenuf]

The topic was illegals. Nothing about Hispanic immigrants.

[Missouri]

So what do the citizens of Texas do?

The impression I get from bayourod and some other Texas freepers is that they do very little except count the money they've made of these hard-working souls called illegal aliens.

BTW bayourod, whose building them F-16's down there ?

[bayourod]

"BTW bayourod, whose building them F-16's down there ? "

I would guess Texans, but we did have an wave of Michigan-American immigrants in the 1970s that seemed better bred for assembly line work than construction work.

[af_vet_1981]

There is no job an American won't do if you offer him an American paycheck.

Patently false

Some of the union thugs would not even serve their passengers during the Christmas holiday. They staged a sick out.

[af_vet_1981]

Hillary is smart enough

You could ask the moderator to change your ID to ShillForHill ...

[WilliamofCarmichael]

We the People demand action from this Administration to stop the massive invasion of lawbreakers

I'd be happy with a "demand action from this Administration to start enforcing our immmigration laws" -- across the board not just the PC, narrowly focused "national security" threat enforcement.

There was a spike in the late 1980s and there was an explosion of ILLEGAL immigration in the late 1990s that is continuing.

The ILLEGAL immigrants were virtually invited here with the promise that they would be safe, we do not enforce our immigration laws.

Let's blast the message to the world: WE NOW ENFORCE OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS - THE INVITATION TO ALL TO COME HERE IS CANCELLED! SORRY.

Let's accept the worthy ILLEGAL immigrants as something similar to the established, Permanently Residing Under the Color of Law, PRUCOL. Thanks to our government and business folks, they were virtually invited to come here. IMO.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Good post William

[Missouri]

bred for assembly line work

Hmmm. I'll remember you said that.

BTW. I wouldn't consider assembly of any jet fighter 'assembly line work'. You make it sound like their putting together a car.

[bayourod]

"Hmmm. I'll remember you said that"

Why, do you represent the Michigan-American anti-defamation society?

[c-b 1]

actually when was the last time Sensenbrenner picked lettuce? Unfortunately we rely on these folks to do the work American citizens don't want to do.

So, we are creating 5,000 new jobs per month that American citizens won't do?

I know for a fact that there are not 5,000 new lettuce picking jobs a month.

[holyscroller]

"WE should not equate picking lettuce with our soveringty that is stupid, the job will get done and we might even start to truly mechanise this problem, a lot of the growers want to keep things the way they are, because if they have to pay for the machines to do this, the price will rise, and dont forget whether its machines or humans they dont pay for social services."

There aren't many crops that can't be harvested mechanically. That's really the answer. The machines could be bought collectively by several farmers in an area, and you don't have to pay benefits, Social Security, health benefits, retirement plans, etc. for your machine. No pregnancy leaves, sick time, labor disputes either. And machines gladly do the work Americans don't want to do.

I work with several farmers who mechanize every chance they get (and they aren't big farmers either.)

[Aetius]

Well as I said, I don't think for one moment that Hillary is at all serious about fighting illegal immigration. I think she is smart enough to know that she can talk tough on the matter (while the GOP leadership's rhetoric rarely strays from the nauseating PC platitudes that have somehow come to substitute for real debate), which will improve her standing with more moderate-conservative white voters who otherwise can't stand her. And she knows she can do this w/o fear of being tarnished and slandered as a racist/xenophobe/anti-immigrant bigot by the radical ethnic interest groups and the media because these groups will be on her side.

So she will get to have her cake and eat it too -- talk tough on illegal immigration like the people want w/o any downside that people like Tancredo suffer when they say the same things. Then if, God forbid, she gets elected she'll do nothing.

[Missouri]

Why, do you represent the Michigan-American anti-defamation society?

That was kind of funny. You do have a little sense of humor. There is hope after all.

[dagnabbit]

Either way these cowards shouldn't be in office pretending to represent us, because they do not. And these same cowards shouldn't take for granted the tenacity of "We the People" or underestimate our willingness to do what needs to be accomplished to preserve the sovereignty of this country.

Bush will fight for U.S. borders language and culture about as hard as he fought in the Vietnam War.

[FBD]

"Question...will you pick lettuce, or your kids??? Who will???"

Ya ever hear of "mechanization"???

Welcome to 2005.
I'll bet you would have been one of those characters back in the slavery era; saying: "Who will pick our cotton???"

Cotton Pickers of the 1800’s:


The modern day cotton picker; (not ONE illegal immigrant required to run this machine!):

Machines…“doing the jobs that Americans refuse to do.”
Harvesting grapes:

Harvesting Coffee:


Harvesting blueberries?


Who will pick our berries?

[Little Ray]

Why shouldn't kids pick lettuce during the summer?

[FBD]

-B4 Ranch had the correct answer to who will pick our lettuce, and the politics behind old school farming, vs mechanization in post#24:

>"Just so you don't lose sleep over who will pick the lettuce, allow me to explain some facts to you.

When Cesar Chavez decided that he would organize the crop workers into not picking tomatoes, a couple of brothers decided that since tomatoes are a row crop, they could design a machine to harvest them.

What happened? In three years all tomatoes were being picked by machines, the farmers planted more acreage of tomatoes and the the price of tomatoes dropped.
Lettuce is a row crop. Get ready for a price drop"<

---

Here is an article by an agricultural engineer, Harold Brewer, on the subject of mechanization of farming, and the politics that stifle mechanical innovation:


"My favorite season on the farm during the 1930s was summer, when we harvested wheat, oats, and alfalfa. Harvest started when we rolled out a binder and thresher, stored since last summer. The binder cut stalks, tied them into bundles, and dumped them into rows. The thresher separated grain from straw and chaff. At threshing time, several neighbors and many itinerant workers assembled at our farm. With luck, no rain fell and the grain was safely stored in the granary within a few days.

Now, a combine rolls into a field. In a matter of hours, one or two workers harvest and store the grain. Labor is reduced at least tenfold.
Similarly, for harvesting alfalfa. What took many days and people is now accomplished in a few days with one or two people.

Childhood ended. I left the farm, completed military service, then enrolled at the University of California at Davis in the Agricultural Engineering Department.

Its researchers were world-renowned for developing machines for field production. Field production machines are important because each replaces ten or more workers. Nations with the lowest percentage of workers on farms are the wealthiest.

For example, the U.S.A. has 2% of its population working on farms, while Ethiopia has 84%. More? Japan 5% and China 68%.
My major at UCD, power and machinery, brought me into contact with people developing harvesters for crops such as grapes, peaches, and tomatoes.

The tomato project was particularly interesting. Several people contributed in various ways, such as developing a variety that could withstand mechanical handling. But the key element of the harvester proved elusive. This finally fell into place when Steven Sluka, a refugee from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution - (some immigrants can be useful!)
-
conceived the idea of cutting vines loose from the ground, lifting them, then shaking the tomatoes off the vines. His technique was the basis for the first successful mechanical tomato harvesters.

Growers in California were faced with the loss of workers who were hand-harvesting their crops. Politicians and Labor had teamed up to discontinue the bracero program, so that wages paid domestic laborers could be driven up. However, UCD researchers, with grower funding, had just successively tested the mechanical tomato harvester. When braceros walked out of the fields, mechanical harvesters rolled in.


Several years later, the mechanization program at UCD was shut down and dismantled. Politicians did not intend to have their labor-friendly policies thwarted again. Just to make sure, they and their allies reached out to the Agricultural Research Service in the U. S. Department of Agriculture and dismantled all field mechanization programs there, too.

Mechanical lettuce harvesters were under development in the 1960s. That work was stopped. Today, lettuce is still harvested by hand in the field.

The dismantling occurred over a period of years starting in the 1960s. Nothing overt, just not renewing any mechanization projects or starting any new ones. The mechanical tomato harvester had rankled a lot of labor-friendly people. When we say "labor," we might as well say Mexican workers, legal or illegal.

But the precipitating event - I am relying on memory - was when a Secretary of Agriculture was due for a photo op in Northern California with UCD researchers, spotlighting a fruit-catching frame used in mechanization. Word got out and the next thing we knew the event was called off.

Cesar Chavez, head of the agricultural workers union, pulled the right strings and stopped it cold. He didn't want any more mechanization, which would put his union members out of work.

That big hole in the Mexican border started in earnest when politicians and their labor allies stopped the development of any new agricultural field machines. The stopper on mechanization went all the way through the 1980's and extended into the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA.

Finally, around 1990, it was all right to "quietly" do mechanization research again, but it had to be labeled as being for the environment, or for food quality, or whatever. Field mechanization to save labor was still not allowed.

Meanwhile, across the Pacific at an Institute outside Tokyo, the mechanization work continued without interruption.

And rural America fills up with foreigners.

---

About the author- Harold Brewer:

(Harold Brewer was born in Wichita and raised on a farm in central Kansas. He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Berlin Airlift and the Korean War.

After leaving military service, he attended the University of California and received degrees in agricultural engineering from Berkeley and Davis. He has done research at the university and federal government levels on advanced agricultural systems."

This article is adapted from his recent book Fig Leaves And Masks; available at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0967545501/vdare)

---

.

[Ginifer]

It all boils down to cheap labor and votes. We have the technology to harvest the crops, but big business, special interests, and our Congress would rather propagate the "We need illegal immigrants".

I've written to my senators and told them not to expect my vote when they come up for re-election. They were put in by the people and the people can vote them out. Bet they start listening to us then after their job security is on the line.

[PRND21]

If TANCREDO is GOP nominee in 2008, he will crush Hitlery Bin-Rotten Al-Clintooooooooon.

False.