March For America: Over 100,000 gather in D.C. to demand immigration reform
It's been an insanely busy day here in Washington today. All the news folks have been focused on health care reform, and there are Tea Partiers up at the Capitol chanting, "Kill the Bill!" I'll have video from them tomorrow -- hell of a day for my laptop to up and die on me, isn't it? And I'll be trying to cover the vote from the House floor tonight too.
But all this was a tiny scene compared to what was really happening on the National Mall today: the massive crowd of over 100,000 people who showed up today to demand comprehensive immigration reform.
Let there be no doubt about this: Once health-care reform is accomplished, immigration reform is going to be the next big issue on the national plate. The huge crowd -- one estimate placed it at 500,000 -- sent a powerful signal that they will not be content to let Congress shuffle off this massive responsibility for yet another year, as we're already hearing that many of them want to do.
There was an impressive array of speakers -- I managed to catch snippets from Jesse Jackson and Geraldo Rivera here, and you can go to America's Voice for a fuller lineup (I spent a lot of time observing some of the nutcases who showed up; I'll have that video tomorrow too). You can see for yourself just how massive it was.
Indeed, this crowd was significantly larger than the much-promoted "9/12 March on Washington" last September, even though that event was endlessly promoted for over a month by Fox News (I know, I know; they like to claim they had 1.2 million people there, but the reality was that it was actually about 70,000).
Yet, strangely enough, there was only ONE Fox News crew on hand to cover the immigration march today. I spoke with the reporter for this crew, and he told me Fox News had several other crews on hand today -- but they were all up covering the Tea Partiers and the health-care vote.
And in case you're wondering, there were exactly ZERO stories on Fox News reporting on this march in advance. ZERO. I couldn't find any at CNN or MSNBC either.
But then, when people genuinely care about real issues that affect real lives, instead of imaginary descents into "socialism," they don't have to be ginned up by right-wing propaganda organs.
This is a no-go until they get the economy going.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
any immigration reform bill will not have the votes this go round
"But then, when people genuinely care about real issues that affect real lives, instead of imaginary descents into "socialism," they don't have to be ginned up by right-wing propaganda organs."
___________________________________________________________________
Isn't that what they use Viagra for?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Rethuglican heads explode, and she saw Greta Von Sustern with a picture of the Immigration protesters on a split screen and she was blathering on and on about the angry healthcare protesters at the Capitol.....wonder if she noticed a preponderance of brown faces in the crowd? Astute reporting.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
... from these "immigrants"... when you want shit done and your politicians don't listen... hit the street and riot if needed.
...with those bastards.
Between immigration and the lack of nationalized health care (and throw in education to boot), my wife has little good to say about living in America.
Were only a couple of trips to the dentist away from a trip back to Japan where we could get it all done for about $50 and see the grandparents for good measure.
We're SO ready to go back to Japan.
"Better." It's what we should ask of ourselves and of our leaders.
now i would like them to explain to me why those who are here illegally should have the right to jump the line over those who have gone through the legal process of gaining citizenship.
would also like to know how another round of amnesty will end the problem of illegal workers
picking apples, strawberries, lettuce....
and doing the cleaning...
are actually making America more healthy.
But really, more Americans could be bending over for their own health :)
picking apples, strawberries, lettuce, etc and dieing before the age of 50 due to pesticides they bring home...
If this thread gets any wilder
A siesta might break out...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
how is there NOT a thread here about the bill getting passed?
...and refresh/reload.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
What? More people than Glenn Beck's 9-12 nonsense? I'm stunned. Stunned I tell you.
Please, there is no need for immigration reform. The existing laws have worked fine for quite a long time, the only reason it became a real problem is because Bush, in his love of war, gutted the institutions and their funding. Restore the funding, restore the political will to enforce the law.
Restore the funding to make sure that those that actually want to become citizens can and the funding to make sure that those that shouldn't be here are shown the door. The political will to show those that enforce the law have the backing of those up the food chain that they are doing what is required by the law.
The "reform" that those marching are asking for is not reform, they are asking for blanket forgiveness so all illegals become de-facto legals. Basically saying "hey you got away with it, so here is reward!" The "reform" I want is real simple - enforce the law. No news laws are needed for that, no new loopholes or other noise. Just enforce the law.
And no, not a Republican. For HCR, for Wall Street reform, for Obama, against Lieberman and personally think that McCain should henceforth be referred to as The Whore of the Senate. But when it comes to immigration, the volume of illegals is much too high and the lack of enforcement of existing laws has gone on for way to long. Again, not asking for reform, I am simply asking the law be enforced. I don't think that is asking to much.
Stop hiring illegals. Hit businesses with hefty fines. There. Done.
is the 800 lb gorilla in the center of the room. Illegal immigration = profits.
The problem is the immigration reform people picked the wrong day because for Faux News, all those people on the Mall were there to protest health reform (facts to the otherwise be damned).
As long as the BS "official" U3 unemployment rate in this country hoovers at nearly 10%, with the "real" U6 unemployment rate at much closer to 20%, immigration reform is a non-starter as an issue. Especially not if amnesty is a large portion of that reform -- it has been tried before, and the level of illegal aliens has only gotten worse.
We already have two underfunded programs that have proven to be effective -- Real-ID to help guard against identity theft, and E-Verify to ascertain the legal status of employer new hires. We already have enough laws on the books. What we don't have is a vetting process for immigration and naturalization -- it is either far too slow, or not transparently uniform. Proper funding, as well as the political will to actually enforce the laws that are already on the books would be a major "reform" in and of itself.
There is a glut of undocumented workers here, many of whom entered on temporary agricultural visas. By law, ranchers and farmers using this labor pool are required to pay these workers $9.75 / hr., as well as furnish a certain minimum standard for housing them. Even if these employers complied with the law, which many do not, there are many of these workers who, because of slack enforcement against other industries such as meat packing plants, etcetera, go to work off-visa. The long term effect has been that meat packing plant jobs that were once union, paid a living wage, and offered benefits, now today only pay the agricultural visa equivalent of $9.75 / hr. And it's somewhat easier, non-seasonal work for the same pay scale.
The infamous raid of 6 Swift Meat Packing plants across the Mid-West and West resulted AFAIK no arrests, no convictions, and nominal fines against those employers. Plant managers were quoted in their local press stating that they could not find enough legal American workers to fill their labor needs. And yet, when hiring restarted to fill the jobs of those illegal aliens who were in the process of being deported, over 2,000 legal workers applied for the 600+ jobs at the Swift plant outside Colorado Springs. Enforcement, to my mind, means "throwing the book" at those employers -- and there is a civil legal mechanism to do so punitively called state RICO statutes, even if the Feds refuse to prosecute.
I am still waiting for that $50.00 / hr. lettuce picking job in Arizona that Senator John McCain promised me and hundreds of others, even though he stated that "we cannot do that kind of work". Really ?? For $50.00 / hr., I would certainly give that kind of work a try. What the fracking good does Healthcare (Insurance) Reform do for that 20%+ unemployed who cannot afford it ?? Who aren't already destitute enough to be sleeping in some farmer's orchard and actually qualify for state Medicaid, presuming the state isn't already bankrupt itself ??
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
Hey, I was there from about 9(before many were there), till 3(when it really got going). Over 90 percent of the protesters were unequivocally there for Immigration Reform.
The next big item is jobs!
But even before that, the huge elephant in the room that no one talks about is tax reform! Until the millionaires at the very top give back the 26% of total wealth they stole from the rest of us under the GOP and DLC, nothing is gonna change.
We can never ever get this country back, and have it working for most of the people, with a vulgar wealth distribution like the one we now have.
How can anyone possibly not support reinstating 90% marginal rates after $10,000,000 or so? And throw in a 1-3% wealth tax for good measure.
Everyday, we take thousands of working people to the woodshed, leaving them helpless, and their families destroyed.
But somehow it's not fair, or it's mean, to make billionaires and multi-millionaires live on $15,000,000 a year, and force them to downsize to 4 mansions instead of 10.
What the hell is wrong with this country?
It is going to get very ugly if all these 40 and 50 year old college educated folks continue to wallow in unemployment. It is amazing to me, that these people in the upper brackets could have 50% of their wealth confiscated, and still have some much money that they would never ever have to work a day in their lives, nor anyone in their immediate family.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
but unless we bring manufacturing back to our shores...we are still doomed
for the first time since before the war of northern aggression, if ever, my state has more gov employees than factory workers. And supposedly we are the state with the largest percentage of workers in manufacturing. How is that going to work?
Oh puhleeze...stop trying to fight 150 year old battles; it makes you look pathetic.
Who fire on who at Ft Sumter?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
So then...what I want to know is, when does pinche pendejo Limbaugh leave? Would today, right fucking now, be too soon? God damn, I feel great this morning!
What's up with the Rush bashing? I find him entertaining and informative.
Reichstag?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
i think i saw michele bachman in the front row
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLp63WBV-Ic
said he was going to Costa Rica if Health Care Reform passed. Now the pustular gasbag claims he meant he would be going to Costa Rica for his health care! What an asshole!
...What gives, Ihave seen nothing but negative comments from you, what hapenned, were you raped by a mexican or something? and by the way, that does not look like a riot, the naysayers just wish their demonstrations culd be as joyous.
comes from immigrants.....
some places call it the 'drawbridge mentality'.
"If" Faux were to report this story, they'd say there were only 5k people there.
I was at the Immigration Reform march yesterday. Want proof? Go here.
http://bryanjohnsonblog.com/2010/03/22/the-ra...
There is a disturbing pattern amongst the comments on this post; no one is taking into consideration that millions of people's lives are affected by the issue.
At the rally, there was a seemingly endless amount of Latinos with their whole family. To accentuate what is at stake, I will leave you with what I thought was the most poignant sign: A family brought their baby, who was in a stroller. Attached to the stroller was a sign that read: "I love my daddy. Please let him stay!".
I cannot in good faith, for unsubstantiated policy concerns, forcibly separate that baby and its father. Undocumented individuals are here to stay and as such, should be afforded a genuine opportunity to live as any human should be able to live: with rights.
in time to when the i.w.w., otherwise known as the wobblies, were still around, they had a motto "one big union". what does this have to do with immigration reform? could have a lot to do with trans-border migration, because of varying wages in different areas.
even union auto-workers in mexico make only $4.50 an hour, and that is under pressure, as auto manufacturers want new hires to work for half that much. when chinese factory workers are making $50 a week for 12 hour shifts, they are undercutting even mexican labor.
funny thing is, automakers still want $40,000 for a Lincoln, whether it is made in Canada, the U.S., or Mexico.
the question has to be asked, do americans want national borders? or do we want unrestricted cross border access?
it really boils dowm to that question. myself, i am an american, and i want a secure national border, and a distinct american identity.
now the question becomes, what is a distinct american identity?
where i live, that means lots of different kinds of people, white, black, brown, asian, and last but certainly not least, native americans. and oh yeah, i almost forgot, some middle eastern, indian, a person could really go on a long time. fact is, mexican, chicano, latino, you can hardly pick a name because there may be cental americans, south americans, lots of different kinds of people; but let's just talk about mexicans, because that seems to be the issue.
around here, you go to certain parts of town, it is the barrio; there has always been a barrio where i live, these days it is just larger, a lot larger, and that is just fine. anyone who has a problem with that is in for some real social adjustment, because it is a fact of life, plain and simple. i could say how most mexican/americans i deal with just don't want anybody treating them like they don't belong, it could sound patronizing, but who cares? where i live that is the way it is, you just go about your business.
back to the subject at hand, it is corporations that want cheap labor, the farms, packing houses, builders, etc. etc. they are corporations, big corporations. employers are after one thing, somebody to exploit, don't kid yourself. my definition of capitalism is the exploitation of labor by capital, someone else may have a different definition. what is pernicious about unrestricted immigration is that it allows the ruling class in both countries to play the working class of each country against each other.
there is an old movie "blue collar" which ends with a quote from the character smokey james (played most excellently by Yaphet Kotto)
"That's exactly what the company wants - to keep you on their line. They'll do anything to keep you on their line. They pit the lifers against the new boys, the old against the young, the black against the white - ANYTHING to keep us in our place."
so yeah, you can enforce the law all you want, you can pass all the immigration reform you want, but until labor laws are put in place that pay the worker in Mexico as much as the worker in the U.S., well, people are going to keep coming.
long and short of it, until something like the IWW gets going again; lets make the people who are here illegally, legal, just don't think it is going to solve any "problem".
Hello everyone
I do think the law needs to be changed...
The reason I give you all reason to think about it.
ever since the United states of America is playing world police
any soldiers have been around world fight for others who can't defend themselves
That is a great thing and a good thing to do .. but the good comes with the bad...
Many many soldiers just cant leave their little Pee pees in their pants and the results are a lot of babies without daddy's
here is one story
one American went to Vietnam after Vietnam he went to Germany for like 3 years were he met a nice German girl well and made her pregnant it was a little boy.
well his time in the U.S.Army was up and he had to go back to the USA and since they weren't married she was not able to follow him back in the days it was very differ cult.
long story short .. the contact between the German girl and the U.S soldier got due long distant cut of.
25 years later that little boy has found his dad and the family came back together and the father and son applied for U.S citizinship.
but the immigrations said ... NOOOOO you are not an American you are over 21 years of age....
NOW I am Asking everyone does this boy has all rights to be an American citizen even though he is over 21 years of age ..
I think if your parent is a U.S citizen so should be the kids
no matter how old some one is ..
but since the LAW says you must be under 21 or you cant be ..
thats how the law is now . and thats a BS law right there
Every American Should have ALL rights to come home
IceMan
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