Labor unrest in China

According to IHT, there has been rioting at a China factory that supplies toys to four large American companies. The rioting of the Chinese workers, as you might guess, is the result of poor wages and living conditions.

Details:

Labor rights activists claim that pent-up frustrations over working conditions at the factory, which supplies plastic toys to several iconic American brands, including Disney, McDonald's, Mattel and Hasbro, erupted last Saturday and Sunday.

At the height of the protest, more than 1,000 workers at the factory clashed with security guards and police officers, resulting in many injuries, according to China Labor Watch, a New York-based worker rights group.

Although the violence is unfortunate, I hope it lights a fire that grows all across China and forces China to start paying fairer wages. US companies have been eagerly shutting down US factories and sending that work overseas while executive compensation at these greed-motivated companies has been growing by leaps and bounds.

While increased wages could result in higher prices for us on some items being imported from China, it could also help put the brakes on the red-hot Chinese economy and, in turn, slow down their demand for products like steel and oil. If this happened, the prices for those commodities on the world market would drop for us as well. Also, higher wages in China may discourage some US companies from setting up factories there. Of course, other slave-wage countries are out there that could try to fill the gap, but forcing China to raise its wages would be a good start on slowing the rapid erosion of American manufacturing jobs.

Braves get a closer - will it get them closer?

The Braves have traded for Bob Wickman. Wickman, 37, had been having a sub-par year with the Cleveland Indians. However, he has been an effective closer in the past and has 229 career saves.

The best news? The Braves only had to give up a Class A catcher, Max Ramirez, to get him. While Ramirez may have been a solid prospect, the Braves are catcher-rich right now. Brian McCann is an all-star who is in his early 20's. They also have two other great catching prospects in the minors in Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Brayan Pena. Yes, this looks like its another wise move by GM John Schuerholz.

Will Wickman be the answer to the Braves' woes this year? I don't know if he will be "the answer", but I know he will be much better than what they have right now. And I know that he is one piece of a puzzle that was unsolvable using the pre-Wickman roster.

The second half of the season just became a lot more interesting.

Weapons of mass dispersion

I thought this was funny. According to the AP, a Sydney (Australia) suburb has started blasting Barry Manilow music to disperse late-night loiterers. Apparently, it's working, but it's also angering local residents who can't easily escape this cruel and inhumane treatment.

"I don't know how I will cope," said Moya Dunn, describing how the songs have invaded her house. "I just can't sleep when it's on, and to think there's going to be another six months of this."

Who knew that Barry Manilow had such power to move people? Who needs missiles and guns? Unleash a heaping helping of Manilow and watch the enemy crumble. Have the Middle East power brokers considered this as part of their defense strategies? Just attach some king-sized speakers to a couple of drones and fly them around for hours on end. Such a relentless attack would bring any enemy to his knees.

I do know one thing. The Manilow weapon has not been employed at Gitmo as a means of "breaking" detainees. If so, word would've gotten out and the ACLU would've seized on such barbaric treatment.

The horror...the horror!

:o)

Lobbyist cartoons

"Dogbert the lobbyist":

July 13th

July 14th

Judd Gregg -- Pharma's loyal soldier

Today, the Senate passed a proposal that would make it easier for folks to bring small amounts of prescription drugs into the US from Canada. US Customs officials had been seizing some of these drugs since 2004, but they recently became more aggressive in preventing any of the cheaper Canadian drugs from being brought into the US. While this proposal still has an uphill battle before it becomes law, this was an encouraging development.

One of the representatives arguing most vehemently against this proposal was Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). According to the article:

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the proposal was an attempt to push the FDA into reversing itself while "creating a massive hole on our capacity to secure our borders and protect ourselves."

"If I were a creative terrorist, I would say to myself, 'Hey, listen, all I've got to do is produce a can here that says 'Lipitor' on it, make it look like the original Lipitor bottle, which isn't too hard to do, fill it with anthrax," Gregg said.

Lipitor is a cholesterol-lowering drug.

I began to wonder why Sen. Gregg would be so anxious to keep these senior citizen outlaws from smuggling a 30 or 60 day supply of heart pills or cholesterol pills into the country. Was it really because of a fear of terrorists infiltrating pill bottles in Canada? On a lark, I checked out the list of contributors to Sen. Gregg's campaign funds. Sure enough, "Pharmaceutical/Health Products" firms contributed $154,000 to his campaign funds in 2003-2004 (expand the "Health" section). That included a very generous $9000 donation from Pfizer (manufacturer of Lipitor, the drug used in his example on the Senate floor). Perhaps Gregg isn't truly as concerned about terrorist pill bottles as he is in doing the bidding of his corporate buddies. There's no way that big pharma has any interest in creating new competition for their overpriced products in the US marketplace. And Gregg has no interest in making big pharma angry. Got to keep the gravy train running!

Another little factoid makes me think that Gregg may be a bit hypocritical when he offers us his "Al Qaeda in a bottle" argument. He voted in favor of the Senate illegal immigration shamnesty bill that would add 50 million new strangers to our fine country. If Gregg is so worried about Al Qaeda's devious attempts at infiltration, shouldn't he start by tightening the screws down on movement of people into the country? Why would Al Qaeda sneak bad stuff over in a bottle when they can just walk across the border with a nuke?

I'm sorry, Senator. Your protestations just don't pass the sniff test.

So the answer seems simple for Grandma and Grandpa Q. Citizen. They would have to donate more than $154K to Gregg's campaign coffers every two years. It seems like that is his prevailing market-based rate. Once the check clears, they would probably find that they have a friendly ear and pliable ally in Senator Gregg. Of course, $154K would just be the tip of the iceberg. The Citizen family would also need to donate a similar amount to a number of other politicians to get enough of them to turn on their corporate donors and ultimately get this enacted into law. Yep, it would take several hundred wheelbarrows full of money to play this game. That just seems to be the price of admission.

Of course, if Grandma and Grandpa had that much money lying around, they probably wouldn't need to sneak drugs in from Canada, now would they?

The Senate and illegal immigration

The New York Daily News has published a must-read article about the current illegal immigration crisis. The author was Robert Rector, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation. If you'll recall, it was Robert Rector's research that shed light on just how awfully egregious the Senate's immigration bill was. Even though his research helped provide ammunition to shoot down some of the most mind-numbingly horrific amendments offered in the Senate "debate", the final bill that did pass the Senate was still a disgraceful shamnesty bill that could easily destroy our economy and our society.

Do you think I'm being unnecessarily alarmist? Consider the following comments from Mr. Rector's article:

Twenty years ago, Congress passed immigration reform granting amnesty and citizenship to 3 million illegal immigrants. In exchange, future illegal immigration was to be stopped and employers were to be prohibited from hiring illegal workers. The deal was a debacle; amnesty was granted, but the hiring ban was ignored and the border was not secured.

And this:

Giving some 10 million illegal aliens currently in the U.S. a path to citizenship is manifestly unfair to those who have waited to enter the country legally.

And this:

By 4-to-1, voters prefer less immigration, not more. But the Senate bill would more than double future legal immigration, bringing an unprecedented 50 million new immigrants into the U.S. over the next two decades.

And this:

The plan would be ruinous for taxpayers. The U.S. has already imported nearly 10 million high school dropouts from abroad in recent years. The Senate plan would bring in vastly more. They would pay little in taxes but would consume much in government services, imposing an average net cost to the taxpayers of nearly $100,000 apiece, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

This is a problem that will only continue to get worse unless it is addressed quickly. Enforce the borders first. Forget the comprehensive solution. Once the taxpayers are convinced that the government is willing and able to stem the ever-increasing flow of illegal immigration, we can talk about the rest. But we just cannot continue to go on like we are now.

As Lou Dobbs says, "A country without borders is not a country at all."

New York City and immigration

A Republican-led House committee started its field hearings on immigration this week. The first hearing was held in San Diego on Wednesday and the second hearing was held in Laredo (TX) on Friday. The House is holding its hearings to gather information about immigration and border security and, in part, to expose the disgraceful Senate bill that was passed by the Senate in May.

Not to be outdone, Arlen Specter, one of the chief proponents of the Senate bill, is holding hearings of his own. His first hearing was in Philadelphia on Wednesday. He is trying to build support for the Senate bill by having pro-business puppets harp on how desperately dependent we are on illegal immigrants.

One of Specter's star witnesses was New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

The economy of the country's largest city and the entire nation would collapse if illegal immigrants were deported en masse, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a Senate committee hearing Wednesday.

New York City is home to more than 3 million immigrants, and a half-million of them came to this country illegally, Bloomberg testified.

"Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders ... our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported," he said. "The same holds true for the nation."

First off, if Bloomberg is telling the truth, how did our country ever survive twenty or thirty years ago before we were inundated with illegals? Did grass not get cut then? Did Big Mac's not get served? Did leaves not get raked? Did pizzas not get cooked (or delivered)? Based on Bloomey's logic, our economy was that of a third-world nation just a couple of decades ago.

Also, Bloomberg admits that his city is awash in illegals and he has no interest in enforcing our nation's immigration laws -- even in a post-9/11 world. Are you kidding me? And he has the unmitigated gall to whine about cuts in Homeland Security grants? How are we supposed to trust this man and this city with tens of millions of tax dollars if he openly encourages a melting pot free-for-all where illegals are welcomed?

Perhaps we should seriously consider relocating our nation's financial center to a city that is not so helplessly dependent on illegal residents and an illegal workforce.

Finally, the numbers he's talking about here are staggering. New York City has more than 3 million immigrants? And more than 500,000 of them are illegal? Are you kidding me? Does it even qualify as an American city anymore?

New York is referred to as "the city that never sleeps". Now I can see why. It can't sleep because of the constant patter of feet as immigrants sneak in the front door, crawl through the windows, and shimmy down the chimney. It's time to stop being an international hostel. Lock your doors, close your windows, and get some sleep already, NYC. The noise from your house is keeping the whole neighborhood awake.

Washington paging Mr. Smith

I finally saw "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington". I always heard that it was a good movie and I finally saw it. It was truly a classic.

The movie itself was full of some well-formed Washington caricatures:

Long-term politician: Stodgy, out-of-touch, and corrupt
Staffer: Cynical and jaded
Press: Pessimistic and slanderous
Lone Idealist: Still believes in and loves his country

Even though the movie came out in 1939, it could've easily been written in 2006. The story revolves around a corrupt alliance between a politician and a powerful businessman. The businessman has this old-school politician in his hip pocket and pretty much runs the government according to his own selfish desires. In the movie, a construction project called the "Willet Dam" is spearheaded by the businessman and pushed through Congress by the sold-out politician.

Does that sound familiar? There are hundreds or even thousands of Willet Dam's approved by Congress each year that are either wasteful pork barrel spending or some favor to a politician's friend, family member, or campaign contributor. Just as in the movie, they are often hidden in bills or added at the last minute (e.g., earmarks) and the American people continue to get the short end of the stick.

In the movie, though, Jimmy Stewart gums up the works when he realizes what is happening. He takes on the old-school politician, the powerfully corrupt businessman, and the entire Washington establishment, and he exposes the corruption for all to see.

Where is our Jefferson Smith (played by Jimmy Stewart in the movie) today? How many more Willet Dam's must we endure before our REPRESENTATIVES stand up and REPRESENT us again? It's time to stop the wasteful spending. Stop the earmarks. Stop the freebies from lobbyists. Stop the favor-peddling. Contact your elected representatives. Demand action. If they still refuse to manage your tax dollars wisely, vote the clowns out of office. Tell your friends, family, and neighbors to vote them out. Campaign against them.

And I have a suggestion for Congress: They should show "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" on the Senate and House floors once per year and it should be mandatory for all representatives to be present. And after viewing it, they should be tested on it - the storyline, the lessons offered, the parallels to today. It doesn't have to reach all of them. If it could only reach one or two who still have a shred of integrity, it could serve its purpose and, perhaps, save our country.

As Jimmy Stewart might say, "Gee whiz - That doesn't seem like too much to ask."

Added new sites to blogroll

Just an administrative note, but I've added some websites to my blogroll. I already had a few conservative blogs listed. I've added a couple of new ones and added a section for Georgia news and politics. Feel free to check them out. I'm pretty picky and these are some of the blogs I regularly read.

Fighting against government spending

Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) are proposing a plan whereby government contracts and grants will be compiled and housed in a searchable database.

For example:

Type in "Halliburton," the military contractor, or "Sierra Club," the environmental group, for example, and a search engine would show all the federal money they receive. A search for the terms "Alaska" and "bridges" would expose a certain $223 million span to Gravina Island (population 50) that critics call the "Bridge to Nowhere."

Mr. Coburn's hope is that making this information easily and publicly accessible to the general public will provide some true checks on politicians and their freespending ways.

The article goes on to say:

While advocating for openness, Mr. Coburn is also placing a philosophical bet that the more the public learns about federal spending, the less it will want.

"Sunshine's the best thing we've got to control waste, fraud and abuse," he said. "It's also the best thing we've got to control stupidity. It'll be a force for the government we need."

While this is popular with TRUE conservatives and advocates of openness on the left, Mr. Coburn will face resistance:

But liberal critics see a revival of what they call old partisan efforts to "de-fund the left," by reducing grants to liberal groups or adding conditions that limit their activities.

and...

While the bill has few overt critics, it may encounter resistance from Congressional insiders who have used their influence to secure projects back home. When Mr. Coburn tried to attach the measure to a lobbying reform bill this spring, Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican known for his zeal in aiding his state, killed it on procedural grounds.

I can only hope that Mr. Coburn can succeed in this endeavor. It's ridiculous that something like this doesn't already exist and it's contemptible for any of the taxdollar-wasting politicians to oppose it.

Mr. Coburn, thank you and PLEASE keep up the good fight. You give me a little hope that Congress still has some folks who are interested in doing the right thing for the people.