This should probably be posted to 3sadsemesters

[quidditchgrrl]

Immigration? Let us consult the Constitution.

So long as profit prevails over decent wages and lazy-ass Americans refuse to do the "dirty jobs", there has to be a steady stream of SOMEONE to clean toilets and pick strawberries. (Some blowhard on NPR claimed that immigration hurts low-skilled American workers, especially those without high school diplomas. Hello! Lazy, not low-skilled!)

So long as they aren't criminals, and they pay taxes (and if the company they work for isn't breaking the law, they DO pay taxes), I'll take that over paying $10 a quart for strawberries.

I caught a little bit from Mind of Mencia that sums it up pretty nicely: Carlos Mencia said, "yeah, let's kick ALL the immigrants out. Everybody out. Because nothing would be sweeter to my ears in the morning than hearing [knocking] [Texas accent] 'Hey, housekeeping, y'all.'"

Also, Wal-Mart to offer organic produce? Isn't the whole point of organic the small, replenishable, profitable domestic farm? That article is scary. If there was ever a reason for us to buy a home, it's the advantage of growing our own vegetables. Eek.

This is why I should not listen to NPR. I hate fair and balanced asshattery. :|

Last night's The Colbert Report totally rocked. He totally pwned Mike Brown. What a whiny, blame-deflecting asshat (Mike Brown, not Stephen).

So what do you all think?

Comments

[slappytanker.livejournal.com]

So long as profit prevails over decent wages and lazy-ass Americans refuse to do the "dirty jobs", there has to be a steady stream of SOMEONE to clean toilets and pick strawberries.

Right along the lines of what I think as well. We've got cleaning people in our building too, and I talk to them about all sorts of shit (thank God I still speak Spanish well enough to converse). It's great to hear that people our age (and older) still have aspirations, because it's rare to find that in the average, everyday American. No one wants to scrub toilets, especially since there's a ton of people who don't even know *how* to clean a toilet.

This is why I should not listen to NPR. I hate fair and balanced asshattery. :|

::snerk:: You're too adorable :P

[sarahkitty.livejournal.com]

The Mike Brown on Colbert snippet from "The Motherload" was hillarious. It was obvious that Brown wouldn't take any blame, and he should be man enough to do so. The Margharita bit was especially funny.

[didi75.livejournal.com]

I missed the last part of Colbert last night, so I didn't catch the Mike Brown bit. Who was that "big liberal radio guy" Stephen interviewed at the beginning? I forgot his name, but he was trying a little too hard to be funny.

I've been listening to the NPR series on immigration for the past week. I heard that guy this afternoon, the economist that said immigration is destroying our economy. I'm not an expert, but I don't see how our economy can survive without it. Personally, I'm glad the issue is taking front stage in politics right now. I think it's interesting and important, and I'm really eager to see what the Senate comes up with. I'm also pretty excited that young people and normally uninterested members of society are starting to take an interest in politics. It's history in the making!

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

The 'big liberal radio guy' is a parody of one of the Air America DJs - played by David Cross. So, he is deliberately trying too hard to be funny and doing 'liberal overkill' (which is one of the things that annoys me about Air America Radio, and therefore cracks me up).

You heard that too? Andy and I were like, 'oookay, so who is going to do all of this work, who else is willing to work at McDonalds?' Because around here, those kinds of jobs are going unfilled because there just aren't enough people willing to work really hard for not a lot.

I did appreciate Bill Richardson's insight on NM's policies and why it's a good idea to issue IDs and such. Not living in a border state, people are pretty meh about immigration issues here. So it's nice to know that other people care. :)

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

Here, I've never seen anyone do yard work or lawn care or road work that wasn't Hispanic. They work their asses off doing the work that needs to be done, but wouldn't be if they weren't here to do it. They don't drive down the economy in any way, but, at least in Texas, illegals are a problem when it comes to health care. The county hospital in Dallas is nearly bankrupt because of all the births with undocumented mothers. There has to be a solution. Everyone in this country should have access to health care and until we can offer health care to our own citizens, we shouldn't be offering it to those here illegally.

[oli-essenziali.livejournal.com]

The concerns that WalMart might drive down the standards of organic foods and that it might force farmers into lower profits are legitimate, but it would great if WalMart did lower prices on organic produce and make them more affordable to a larger percent of the population. Healthy food shouldn't just be for the elite.

The move into organic produce seems to have already happened in the major supermarket retailors in England, where the requirements for organic food are much higher. Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsburys - they all have their own store brands of organic produce, making organics widely available and more competitively priced. Sainsburys is actually looking to buy an island in the Carribean to devote to organic growing. If WalMart didn't go into organics, some other major retailor would.

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

We, as Americans, have been very spoiled by low, low Wal-Mart prices. We expect that fruits and veggies will be low cost, plentiful, and available year-round. (There was a comic in our local paper showing a woman shopping for fruit, which had a sign reading, "Oranges picked by American workers, 3 for $20" LOL)

Wal-Mart has a long and storied history of bullying their suppliers into bottom-barrel prices. There is no such thing as "fair-market price" when you deal with Wal-Mart. Farmers who deal with Wal-Mart will have to scrabble to make ends meet, which could force them into illegal activities (like hiring undocumented workers) or force them to sell their farms to commerical growers. And wouldn't THAT be convenient?!

The article highlights the disturbing new lobbying by larger organic firms (Kraft and General Mills have organic branches) to change some of the requirements for the label "organic" to include foods made with certain "natural" ingredients (like dyes and preservatives, things I am allergic to). That will probably happen in the next year or so. Yech.

I don't think non-organic food is necessarily more healthy, just grown in better conditions. It's the difference between quality and price, you know? Better quality, higher price. Wal-Mart has kind of destroyed that universal truth.

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

I have no problem with someone wanting to make a better life for themselves and were it not for immigrants, we'd be in trouble because they do indeed do the work no one else will.

But I have do have a problem when someone in this country illegally gets better health care than I, a tax-paying citizen without insurance, get (which would be none).