My Confined Space – Professional Worktime Distraction, Inc » Pelosi Is In Teh Hizouse
Heh. OK, so she probably won’t really impeach them, but I just love saying “Speaker Pelosi”! “Speaker Pelosi” … mmmmm…. impeach Bush and Cheney…. mmmm… “President Pelosi”…. oh, that has a nice ring to it….
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Bush and Pelosi Sell-Out Middle Class
By Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Immigrant workers are sending more money than ever to their families in Latin America, but two new studies show that only a small portion of the billions of dollars directed there has gone to economic development.
A report released yesterday by the Inter-American Development Bank estimates that immigrants living in the United States will send $45 billion to family members this year, representing a steady increase from about $2 billion in 1980.
Are we not draining our economy with illegal immigrants and work visa programs that promote the sucking sound of U.S. dollars to Mexico and Latin America? Are we not enabling the ruling class of Countries like Mexico to abuse their people by promoting unregulated cheap labor to flow in our Country, while they send the money back home?
When Congress and the President talk about Immigration reform, what about the trade deals that destroy working class people in all the Countries and create this race to the bottom? If we merely legalize cheap labor ( work visa program) through Immigration reform that Bush and Pelosi are working on together, this will be one more nail in the coffin for workers and small business.
I don’t think that’s accurate. Yes, we have many immigrants in this country sending money home, but if we lived as they have to do in order to afford to send their money away, I don’t think most of us would do it. I’ve seen the canyon shacks and camps they are forced to live in, the hillside homes of Tijuana not 30 miles south of me with the cardboard and tar paper shacks of the poorer people there. Legitimizing worker visa programs would be a big improvement for so many of these people, and treating workers with respect instead of harrassing them in parking lots as the “Minutemen” do right now would go a long way towards getting all of us to treat all workers with greater respect.
Who says only Americans get to live well? And even in America, the rich cry for their tax cuts and breaks and the top 1% are earning more than ever before. The poor aren’t screwing our middle class, the rich are. And Pelosi has already stated she will fight to raise the minimum wage and help our poorest workers and middle class.
I have no worries about Pelosi. I only hope she can help put some brakes on these last six disastrous years of folly in Iraq and the theft of so many billions by defense contractors in Iraq.
If you want to worry about an enabled ruling class, there is plenty of that to worry about in this country. Mexico has its own problems it must deal with as well, and economic reform is a huge issue there. But I don’t see Pelosi as a demon in this battle. She’s working to try and create better solutions. And with Bush still in office for two more years, of course there will be some compromises. But any step forward is progress at this point, after six years of stagnation for most workers in this country.
If the Democrats don’t start issuing subpoenas and digging out the remaining corruption (the surface has barely been scratched by booting out 7 of CREW’s 20 most corrupt Congressmen), then they aren’t doing their job.
Damn straight!
Also see this Kos diary:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/8/21054/7249
So do not be disappointed in Pelosi’s House and Reid’s Senate. Hold their feet to the fire and don’t allow them to triangulate, of course; but be PATIENT.
Remember that, in the overall scheme of things, it is THEIR job to be “moderate” and push no-brainer policies that the American people will approve of: raising the minimum wage, doing something coherent about immigration, giving tuition tax credits to the middle class, funding stem cell research, etc.
And it is OUR job to push the envelope for more progressive policies and shift the very terms of debate in the country–but without stabbing our own guys in the back. We’re the vanguard, and they’re the rearguard–intentionally. That’s how it works.
So take heart–and do not be overly disappointed in our Leadership. The job of MOVING that Overton Window is up to US. The job of the Leadership is to make sure that they stand squarely in the CENTER of that Window by turning the “Popular” and the “Sensible” into “Policy”, as we shift it left by turning the “Radical” and “Unthinkable” into the “Acceptable” and the “Sensible.”
Yay!
sez it all doesnt it?
peace donna