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Race underlies transit strike (Barf Alert)
Newsday ^ | December 21, 2005 | Jimmy Breslin

Posted on 12/25/2005 11:03:21 PM PST by indcons

Patricia and Santana Bonilla live a half-block from the staircase to an el that had no trains Tuesday.

The el stop is at Knickerbocker Avenue and Myrtle Avenue. Without the life of the city on its rails, the el was desolate at a place that is usually throbbing.

In this strike, you follow the silent tracks into places where most are without money and find so many being strangled by landlords.

The Bonillas are on the first floor of an old frame house on Himrod Street in Bushwick, in Brooklyn.

The husband and wife are both 48, from Mexico and speak almost no English. They are short and smiling and stood in their apartment yesterday with their hands in zipper jackets.

He couldn't go to work Tuesday.

"No train," he said. "No nothing."

"Oh, it is impossible to go to anywhere," Juana Castro, the young woman in the next apartment, said.

She was translating for him. "I am Dominican," she cried.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; US: New York
KEYWORDS: illegals; nycstrike; transitstrike; twu
An 4-day old article....don't believe we have seen an article on the bizarre links between race and the transit strike as yet!! The author manages to write 2 pages (online) without mentioning the word "illegal" even once!! Quite a feat.

Didn't see this article posted either.

1 posted on 12/25/2005 11:03:22 PM PST by indcons
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To: indcons

Like him or don't like him, Breslin is a NYC treasure.

As for illegals, it's virtually impossible to be an illegal and in the union.


2 posted on 12/25/2005 11:06:28 PM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell

"As for illegals, it's virtually impossible to be an illegal and in the union."

I was referring to Senors Bonilla and Castro. Wasn't clear enough in my posting.


3 posted on 12/25/2005 11:10:11 PM PST by indcons (FReepmail indcons to get on/off the Military History ping list)
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To: indcons

Oh, the Breslin piece didn't come up. So I wasn't able to read it.

Dominicans tend to be legal, though I'm not sure what the immigration laws are regarding the D.R.

One of the things about unionized NYC is that there are relatively few jobs for illegals in the construction trades. They exist, but not in the numbers you'd think. That's one reason why there is a heavy influx of illegals in the surrounding 'burbs, like Long Island.


4 posted on 12/25/2005 11:14:39 PM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell
Like him or don't like him, Breslin is a NYC treasure

No he isn't.

5 posted on 12/25/2005 11:26:55 PM PST by presidio9 (Islam Is As Islam Does)
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To: presidio9

You never saw him at Costello's


6 posted on 12/25/2005 11:32:29 PM PST by durasell (!)
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To: durasell

What'd I miss?


7 posted on 12/25/2005 11:41:18 PM PST by presidio9 (Islam Is As Islam Does)
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To: indcons

Without reading the aricle I can only state for the record that most of the striking workers are member of "minorities" themselves, as is their immigrant leader, M. Toussaint (sp?). Like most lefties they claim they are for the poor man, the working man (or woman), and like most lefties they screw these poor workers every chance they get.

What ended the strike? I don't know what the MSM pundits like Mr. Breslin (and yes, he is a wee Irish treasure, he is) are saying, but the fact of the matter is that the Union realized that about 7 million people hated their guts and would have been happy to see the workers fired, a la Reagan, and their blow hard leaders put in jail.

And race had nothing to do with that.


8 posted on 12/26/2005 12:22:51 AM PST by jocon307 (Still mourning the loss of CBS FM)
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To: indcons
If this article was about something in particular, it escapes me.

The guy pays $636 a moth for a house with a hole in the ceiling, and a mouse (or rat) once came out of that hole. Seems cheap for New York, even with a hole and a mouse. They should get a cat.

He makes $80 a day doing construction work. That'd have to be both non union and unskilled. At 48 years old he should have learned a skill by now (not to mention English). Those skills could help him figure out a way to get to work too.

The union boss is an evil landlord. Go figure, a rich union boss holds investment property. Now he's got something I tell ya, there oughta be a law.

The rich union boss wants to continue to get a piece of the action from the transit union workers (presumably, to hand over to Democrats running for political office). No news there, it is their reason to be.

But only from persons "of color"? Don't know what to say to that, except I think the idea is preposterous. The Breslin dude neglects to mention any fact or detail (like how it is President Bush's fault, for example) to make that assertion even one tiny bit believable. And that casts doubt on the rest of it in my mind.

So does this Breslin dude just make stuff up, I mean, is that his usual schtick? Is the rest of NY Newsday as complete a waste of trees and ink as this was? Why are we bothering to spend bandwidth discussing it?

(Too many questions, too little time)
9 posted on 12/26/2005 12:25:20 AM PST by Clinging Bitterly (Oregon - a pro-militia and firearms state that looks just like Afghanistan .)
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To: indcons

Breslin ... it figures! Finding controversay where none existed before ..... /chuckle


10 posted on 12/26/2005 12:33:19 AM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: Dave in Eugene of all places
Is the rest of NY Newsday as complete a waste of trees and ink as this was? Yes, and Yes ....... from a Long Islander who knows
11 posted on 12/26/2005 12:36:35 AM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: presidio9

What'd I miss?




NYC the way it was meant to be.


12 posted on 12/26/2005 12:43:11 AM PST by durasell (!)
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To: indcons

Send their asses back. End of story.


13 posted on 12/26/2005 5:45:46 AM PST by GodfearingTexan
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To: jocon307
Without reading the article I can only state for the record that most of the striking workers are member of "minorities" themselves, as is their immigrant leader

That's the amusing thing about leftists. Eventually they run out of politically incorrect groups to blame for the problems they create, and so they start eating their own.

14 posted on 12/26/2005 7:45:06 AM PST by Dan Evans
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To: Dave in Eugene of all places
But only from persons "of color"? Don't know what to say to that, except I think the idea is preposterous.

Preposterous? You are much too charitable. Breslin is a race-mongering blowhard. He has been getting away with it for too damn long and it's time someone gave him a good, hard slap.

Regarding the 6%:

"Under a transit authority proposal, new employees would contribute 6 percent of their salaries to their pension funds, instead of the current 2 percent. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority withdrew a proposal to increase the retirement age from 55 to 62."

If they want to retire when they are 55, someone has to pay for it.

15 posted on 12/26/2005 8:06:43 AM PST by Dan Evans
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To: durasell
One of the things about unionized NYC is that there are relatively few jobs for illegals in the construction trades.

Pretty much.

Hispanics, the majority of, are usually either dominican (and mostly legal) or Puerto Rican (always legal) in NYC.

There is no such thing as an "Illegal Puerto Rican immigrant".

That said, unions in NYC (like their counterparts in Boston) do tend to discriminate against minorities.

But because of the money they put in politicians pockets, its often overlooked.

I know guys in constructions unions who tell horror stories about it.

NYC Public unions are a different story altogether though from private unions.

16 posted on 12/26/2005 5:54:09 PM PST by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: durasell
Like him or don't like him, Breslin is a NYC treasure.

No, he is not.

He is a nasty drunk who thinks we should ban dogs as pets and have them shot.

Granted, when he said that, he was drunk, but he is a nasty piece of work, hostile to everyone, liberal to the core, and a race baiter to boot.

His writing style has some kind of name for it when you write journalistic articles in the style of fiction (he considers himself a literary journalistic pioneer).

If you ever have the sad luck of meeting him, avoid talking to him, he is spitefull and bitter, and drunk off his rear end.

The guy needs to visit AA one of these days.

17 posted on 12/26/2005 5:59:57 PM PST by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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