It isn’t the border, it’s the sub-minimum wage seasonal jobs with no benefits

It isn’t the border, it’s the sub-minimum wage seasonal jobs with no benefits

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I love how conservatives blame immigrants for America's immigration "problems" and rail against President Obama as he attempts to nudge the country toward taking advantage of the desperation of immigrants in a slightly more transparent way. Conservatives hysterically claim that our porous southern border is the problem. It isn't. The problem is the greedy farmer. The problem is the unethical food processing company that doesn't want to pay a living wage or be bound by even the most minimal standards of workplace safety. That's what they found out in Alabama when they really cracked down on the people who employ illegal immigrant labor.

Thursday Open Thread [11.20.14]

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“Rising Republican hostility toward President Obama’s impending immigration plan is as intense as has ever existed between the White House and the GOP,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“But the strong reaction by Republican leaders has less to do with opposition to the nuts and bolts of the president’s immigration policy and more to do with fear and anger that the issue will derail the agenda of the new Republican majority before the next Congress even convenes. Republican leaders who had hoped to focus on corporate tax reform, fast-track trade pacts, repealing the president’s healthcare law and loosening environmental restrictions on coal are instead being dragged into an immigration skirmish that they’ve tried studiously to avoid for most of the last year.”
I imagine that was the plan. And Republicans are too bigoted and dumb enough to fall for it. Indeed, this whole fucking immigration mess is due to their unabashed racism on the part of the GOP. All they had to do is pass the Senate plan, which was a compromise with Senate Republicans that provide much increased (and wasteful) border security. And this issue would be over with and the GOP would be back to wooing the Latino vote. Instead, they are going to freak the fuck out and let the racist flag fly proudly, and they are going to lose Latinos for multiple centuries. For the President's part, it is always golden when the right thing to do syncs up with the politically right thing to do.
Tom Carper just heaped praise on this Republican – You will totally believe what happened next

Tom Carper just heaped praise on this Republican – You will totally believe what happened next

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Yesterday Tom Carper heaped praise on his GOP buddy Tom Coburm of Oklahoma. After praising Coburn, he handed over the gavel of an Ebola hearing to the nutbag:
“I don’t want to chair this hearing today. I want Tom Coburn to chair it,” Mr. Carper said from the dais on Wednesday. “So I’m going to pass tho gavel over to him and put him in charge, and I’m going to try to be a good wingman. All right, Thomas, it’s all yours.”
What did the grand gesture of bipartisanship get Carper? Well, LATER THE SAME DAY Coburn predicted "anarchy" and "violence" will be the result of any executive order on immigration.
Keystone XL the root of all DC dysfunction according to Carper

Keystone XL the root of all DC dysfunction according to Carper

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In an attempt to justify his execrable vote in favor of the environmental catastrophe known as the Keystone XL pipeline, Tom Carper's office released a statement which blames the Keystone pipeline for Congressional gridlock. That's right. It is the Keystone Pipeline, and not the whack-ass GOP that is fucking up everything in DC, according to Carper.

Wednesday Open Thread [11.19.14]

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From Politico:
“Republican leaders have intensified their planning to prevent a government funding showdown, weighing legislative options that would redirect GOP anger at Barack Obama’s expected action on immigration and stave off a political disaster. Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and their top aides and deputies are mulling several options that would give Capitol Hill Republicans the opportunity to vent their frustration with what they view as an unconstitutional power grab by the White House — without jeopardizing the government financing bill.”
These people sound like insane sociopaths. A need to vent? Really? Jonathan Chait: “That a shutdown gives Republicans any actual leverage, as opposed to imagined leverage, is another right-wing fantasy. It is now fairly well-established that the sole impact of a government shutdown is to make the public hate the party that controls Congress. The gun the conservatives are holding is pointed at their own head.”
UPDATED: “Coons still a no”

UPDATED: “Coons still a no”

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This from Reuters:
Senate staffers pressured Democrats including Chris Coons of Delaware to reverse their opposition to the pipeline. But Coons had used a similar line to King's in saying Congress should not issue permits when he said last week he would vote no. "He's still a no," a Coons aide said Tuesday afternoon.
Carper Changes His Reason For Voting in Favor of Keystone in the 11th Hour

Carper Changes His Reason For Voting in Favor of Keystone in the 11th Hour

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Because his prior pretext (that this show of bipartisanship will usher in a golden age of bipartisan peace and prosperity) was patently ludicrous and <a href="http://delawareliberal.net//2014/11/13/i-cant-let-it-go-somebody-talk-me-down/">every bit of it was a cynical lie,</a> Carper has updated his reason for voting in favor of the environment catastrophe known as the Keystone pipeline. Now he says he is voting for this flaming peice of toxic shit because Mary Landreiu begged him to. <blockquote> "Senator Landrieu has been cajoling, pleading with her colleagues—mostly Democrats—to provide an up or down vote on this," Carper said in a recent interview with Bloomberg Politics. "I think the time has come." </blockquote> That's some fucking bullshit. As late as yesterday, we was still trying to slide by on the cynical lie that Republicans would "reciprocate" and a golden age of bipartisan work on climate change would commence.
Tuesday Open Thread [11.18.14]

Tuesday Open Thread [11.18.14]

5 Comments
David Roberts, a writer for Grist, has succinctly encapsulates what has been and is wrong with our politics over the last thirty years. And to be clear, it is something that is wrong with our current brand of post-modern conservatives, and not something that is wrong with anyone else. You must read them all....
From the Department of Obvious Findings: More Guns = More Crime

From the Department of Obvious Findings: More Guns = More Crime

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Contrary to gun-nut dogma, "right-to-carry" laws don't reduce crime. They increase it.
"The totality of the evidence based on educated judgments about the best statistical models suggests that right-to-carry laws are associated with substantially higher rates" of aggravated assault, robbery, rape and murder, Donohue said in an interview with the Stanford Report. The evidence suggests that right-to-carry laws are associated with an 8 percent increase in the incidence of aggravated assault, according to Donohue. He says this number is likely a floor, and that some statistical methods show an increase of 33 percent in aggravated assaults involving a firearm after the passage of right-to-carry laws.
Makes sense. Guns make the weak feel strong.