Where is the next worker going to come from?

Get a clue, America.

As our population ages healthier (and refuse to die), and birth rates continue to decline, who's going to provide the "service" in this "service" economy? We're scaring all the good labor out of the country and we'll be left with an aging population and no one to service them. Where's those illegals when you need them?

This article from Montana about a business owner who CAN'T FIND WORKERS provides shades of things to come:

"This is actually the biggest economic story of our time, and we don't quite grasp it because it is 15 years in the making," said economist Larry Swanson, director of the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana.

The owner of a fast food joint in Montana's booming oil patch found himself outsourcing the drive-thru window to a Texas telemarketing firm, not because it's cheaper but because he can't find workers.Record low unemployment across parts of the West has created tough working conditions for business owners, who in places are being forced to boost wages or be creative to fill their jobs.

John Francis, who owns the McDonald's in Sidney, Mont., said he tried advertising in the local newspaper and even offered up to $10 an hour to compete with higher-paying oil field jobs. Yet the only calls were from other business owners upset they would have to raise wages, too. Of course, Francis' current employees also wanted a pay hike. "I don't know what the answer is," Francis said. "There's just nobody around that wants to work."

Dow crashes, Immigration Fears

Get a clue.

The American economy is on the verge of laying a big fat goose egg....the housing bubble is really a bubble...and now the idiot GOP has riled everyone up so much that ICE is forced to play tough. Business - usually supported by the GOP -is quaking in its boots.

And so will you, the public, as your services and products are slower in coming because the people who make, do, provide, are swept out of the country. So when you have to wait 10 min for water in your favorite restaurant, or don't have childcare for your kids so you can work...pat yourselves on the back for driving out the "illegals" as you now have to do it for yourselves.

US businesses are bracing for a possible major crackdown on illegal foreign workers, as the government seeks to give immigration authorities more power to punish companies hiring undocumented workers.

President George W. Bush's administration has proposed a federal regulation that unions warn could lead to mass firings nationwide by companies seeking to avoid prosecution and fines. "It's going to put businesses all over the nation in a bind," said Tamar Jacoby, an immigration expert at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

"If the feds (federal authorities) really follow through with this, and I think they're going to, you're going to see lots of industries ... leave the US," Jacoby said. The rule under consideration in Washington relates directly to the potentially fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, which employees provide at the time of hiring. Fake Social Security cards are widely available on the black market, allowing many immigrants to work at major US corporations.

Border Fence built on wrong side - $3M to fix!

Get a clue.

Guess this shows how NOT serious the US really is about the fence nonsense....in New Mexico, the fence was built on Mexican soil, not American. Now they have to spend $3M to fix it.

COLUMBUS, N.M. (AP) - The 2 1/2-kilometre barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was designed to keep cars from illegally crossing into the United States. There's just one problem: It was accidentally built on Mexican soil.

Now embarrassed border officials say the mistake could cost the U.S. government more than $3 million to fix. The barrier was part of more than 24 kilometres of border fence built in 2000, stretching from the town of Columbus to an onion farm and cattle ranch.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said the vertical metal tubes were sunk into the ground and filled with cement along what officials firmly believed was the border. But a routine aerial survey in March revealed that the barrier protrudes into Mexico by as much as two metres

"Talk Radio is Running America"

Who's sorry now?

The GOP is none too happy with both talk radio and conservative bloggers. Turns out that when "the people" don't agree with what their lawmakers are proposing (read immigration reform), and they get noisy about it, said lawmakers get nervous. If you're a conservative, you should be hopping mad! You got these idiots elected and now they're not about to do your bidding.....

Trent Lott is the latest to lament about the "problem" of "talk radio" :
The Republican whip, Trent Lott of Mississippi, who supports the immigration bill, said: “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.

Post An Apology likes to ponder "what's the back story here?". Could it be that immigration is happening whether "the people" like it or not? Could it be that lawmakers view the talkers and the bloggers as irritating little bugs buzzing around their heads?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Different conservative blogs have different pet issues -- government transparency, federal judges, Fred Thompson, to name a few.

But no issue in recent memory has united conservative bloggers like the debate over immigration. Their frustration has culminated in a full-scale revolt against the Bush administration and a Senate bill that activists say does little to solve the country's border security problems.

President Bush's pledge to support $4.4 billion in additional border security funds has breathed new life into the bill, but the drumbeat against the legislation shows no signs of quieting.

Wanted: Illegal Immigrants. No, Seriously.

Get a clue.
The illegal immirgant idiocy will drone on and on...and most likely heat up again with the 08 race tsarting in early 07 (borrrrrring). But here's the reality. American needs workers. Specifically, the farmers need workers.

And, PS to the arrogant worker snobs out there....this is a global economy. It would be very easy to grow the food elsewhere and charge Mr and Mrs American consumer an arm and a leg for importing your oranges, eggs, lemons, lettuce....from CHINA. And don't think it couldn't happen.

LAT...The packing houses here in the heart of California's citrus belt are generally hopping the first week of February. In a normal year, the two LoBue Bros. plants would be open 50 to 60 hours a week, employing 230 workers and processing up to 7,000 bins of oranges. But after last month's freeze, the third since 1990, LoBue is operating at quarter speed. One plant is shut down, and the other is running just 20 hours a week. About 60% of the employees are off work....Seeking to avert an economic meltdown, officials have come up with an innovative plan to not only address joblessness but to keep the workforce from abandoning the town. Invoking the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Depression-era Works Projects Administration, the city's elected officials — all of whom are Republicans — are seeking federal aid to put the idle labor force to work on local improvement efforts. The fact that a large-yet-undetermined percentage of farm laborers — particularly pickers — are illegal immigrants does not deter local officials from seeking aid for them. Unlike other parts of the U.S. where undocumented immigration is a divisive issue, in Lindsay it is a matter of economic survival.

White power! KKK and Hate Groups unite

That's just great. The Klan is teaming up with other hate groups to form a huge alliance. The new American Terrorist is coming out of the woodwoork (or the backwoods, whichever is the case) and they're armed for bear and Mexicans. Remember, the KKK had 4 MILLION members back in the 1920's....hard to believe, but very true.

ADL via RS "Whenever you think the Klan is down and out, they find another way to reinvent themselves," he said of the recent resurgence....

Many Latinos are feeling the effects firsthand. Last September, a Kentucky family originally from El Salvador found a wooden cross burning on their front lawn just weeks after they moved in. Earlier last year, a Latino teenager in Houston was brutally beaten and sodomized while one attacker screamed "White Power!" The victim barely survived, and one attacker was sentenced to life in prison.

We've been wondering what happened to these guys. After all, the jails are filled with them, and they used to be #1 on the FBI's lists. Tim McVeigh, David Koresh, and those fat white guys in sheets. Now we know. Wonder what the Mexican mafia is doing about this?

Mitt Romney's landscaping and the illegal immigrants

Who's sorry now?

Any politician who takes up the illegal immigration issue is bound to be eventually sorry he or she ever walked down that path. The dirty little secret in America is that someone else has always done the dirty work. For the last 10+ years it's been Mexicans and South Americans, mostly. Before that blacks, Chinese, Polish, Irish, Italian, on and on.

So, why do politicians insist on running on this issue? Don't they realize, like Mitt Romney, they'll inevitably get tangled up in the fine print? Mitt's landscape company used illegals for 10 years! Ooops! Duh. BTW, who do you think is rebuilding New Orleans....but that's another post. We said it months ago...if you're a politcian, stay away from this issue. Not because it's not a problem, but because it will BURN you.

BG ...As Governor Mitt Romney explores a presidential bid, he has grown outspoken in his criticism of illegal immigration. But, for a decade, the governor has used a landscaping company that relies heavily on workers like these, illegal Guatemalan immigrants, to maintain the grounds surrounding his pink Colonial house on Marsh Street in Belmont. The Globe recently interviewed four current and former employees of Community Lawn Service with a Heart, the tiny Chelsea-based company that provides upkeep of Romney's property. All but one said they were in the United States illegally.

The employees told the Globe that company owner Ricardo Saenz never asked them to provide documents showing their immigration status and knew they were illegal immigrants. "He never asked for papers," said Rosales, who said he had paid smugglers about $5,000 to take him across the US-Mexican border and settled in Chelsea. The workers said they were paid in cash at $9 to $10 an hour and sometimes worked 11-hour days. Romney never inquired about their status, they said.

Tom Trancredo is not apologizing to Jeb Bush

Who's NOT apologizing now?

Congressman Tom Trancredo, who's still brand-building on illegal immigration (yawn). He dissed Miami and Jeb is throwing down the line....Dude, we love it here, it's diverse, get over yourself.

(TT) "You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country."
''The bottom line is Miami is a wonderful city filled with diversity and heritage that we choose to celebrate, not insult,'' Bush fired back in a letter addressed to Tancredo's Washington office. "Miami has been my home for years and I am looking forward to returning there in January.''

Last night, Tancredo responded to Bush via e-mail and was unapologetic for his remarks. "I certainly understand and appreciate your need and desire to try and create the illusion of Miami as a multiethnic 'All American' city. Indeed sir, one of us is naive," Tancredo's letter said.