Parrot Cage

The Jobs Americans Aren't Allowed To Do

A little article in Fortune Magazine caught our attention in regards to the whole immigration debate.  They warn that the housing market may collapse since contractors have relied on illegal labor to drive prices down.  Fortune estimates that illegal labor comprises about 40% of employed home builders.

Now, the complexity of our position on the immigration issue can be summarized in a two part solution: 

1. Embrace immigrants, naturalize them ASAP
2. Jail and fine the pants off of employers who violate labor laws

If 40% of all home builders are actually illegally employed laborers, this fact absolutely demolishes the argument that immigrants are performing jobs that Americans won't do.

Carpentry and construction are respectable professions which have brought millions of Americans without a higher education into the middle class.  These well paying jobs didn't just happen, they were fought for by unions.

And how do you bust a union?  Scabs.  We don't like to tar illegal immigrants with such an ugly name, but clearly many corporations in this country are using them as such.  We understand that immigrants are just looking for a better life for their families--leave them alone.  The guilty parties are these sleazy contractors who have built their businesses on the piss-poor wages they pay these replacement workers.

We suspect that Fortune Magazine, which only exists to protect its class interest, is merely reflecting the scare stories which their kind has peddled to politicians who fear that a crackdown on illegal employers will sink the economy.

Just a reminder to so-called liberals and radicals: in this immigration debate, if you ignore how corporate America is using immigrants to crush the working class you have no business calling yourself a lefty.  We know many lefties who look at how the working class has consistently voted against their own interests in the last few years and say 'fuck 'em.'   But if Democrats are unwilling to defend their interests in these very obvious ways, why should the working class vote for them anyway?  Might as well vote on gay marriage. If you can't earn a living wage and Democrats are willing to create "guest worker" atrocities, voting on your squeamishness over two dudes kissing is at least voting for something with real results.

If Democrats could abandon their absurd "guest worker" solutions--which benefit nobody but the corporations--and actually concentrate on how to create good jobs and good lives for Americans, they might someday have the opportunity to govern and orchestrate a progressive society.

Immigration Bill Awakens Sleeping Giant Neither Jolly Nor Green

With crowds estimated around half a million, the streets of Los Angeles filled with protesters of an insane immigration bill proposed by Congressional Republicans.  Although estimating crowd size is less a science than an art, most accounts suggest that this protest dwarfs anti-war demonstrations of both the Iraq and Vietnam era.

The subject of the protest is a bill proposed by bat-shit insane Republican James Sensenbrenner which would make illegal immigrants felons, and then punishes anyone who assists illegal immigrants in the process of living their lives.  Oh, and they also want to build a fucking Berlin Wall on the Mexican border!

With an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in this country, the politicians may feel that the huge protests only represent non-voters.  They are wrong.  The stupidity of this bill has even outraged otherwise fascist-leaning Catholics.

We'd actually love to see a general strike, a'la A Day Without a Mexican to drive home the presence and contribution of "illegals" in this country.

Sensenbrenner achieved his lot in life as the heir to the Kleenex fortune, makers of Huggies as well as Kotex.  As one whose money is literally soaked in snot, shit, and menstrual blood, we'd expect nothing less than for him to conduct his life as a douchebag.  His is a stain that can never be wiped clean.