Arkansas Blog

Chingate y callate, Max.

What's the matter with Womack signing up for a program El Clinton signed into law?

ARK. BLOG: 1) He clearly aims to misuse it. But 2) and this really prompted the item, his rude treatment of the consul is inexcusable. He MIGHT be able to work in 15 minutes with a representative of a foreign government on a matter of great concern at a golf tournament, if the consul can cool his heels until Womack can tear himself away to give him a few minutes? Ugly American is an understatement for this clown.

Here's the truth:

ANY number of Hispanics, legal or illegal, would be considered too many in the Caucasian enclave of bond daddies and immigrant Wal-Mart vendors who consider Rogers/Benton County their equivalent of the West Bank and a reward from God for being Republican white men and living a clean and god-fearing life.

"The mood of this region and the mood of this country right now is that it's time that somebody did something about a problem in our country that is getting out of hand," Womack said. "Illegal immigration is out of hand."

Just about everybody I know up there sees it as Womack describes it. What is Consul Chao's criticism of the training program based upon? Does the fact that he said "They're going to close the door" make it so? In what way does Womack "clearly" aim to misuse the training program?

Rogers can't get streets built in time. They knew that mall was coming for five years and they're still behind on the construction. I was at the intersection of New Hope and 540 and for five straight sunny days, I saw no work being done at all.

Steve Womack's ability as a mayor does not impress me. He can't build and upkeep roads. How is going to be the immigration enforcer?

Actually, the project @ New Hope & 540 is an AHTD project, not the city of Rogers. New Hope is a state highway. The city of Rogers made the agreement w/ AHTD that if they would handle the expansion project, the city would take over the intersection and maintain it.

The REAL problem is that the city set no completion date in its negotiations with AHTD. So, when AHTD has better things to do, they pull their guys off the New Hope/540 project. That's why it's been dragging on for so long.

Of course, this stuff isn't exactly public knowledge. Being a former city employee of Rogers, and working in the right department, is the only way I know this info for fact.

Senor Chao had better hope the U.S. doesn't crack down on its immigrants the way Mexico does.
Talk about border security. Try to get into Mexico from Guatemala or Honduras. Those illegalies must take a boat around the border.

I haven't much mercy for the Mexican government. In the 60s a few buddies climbed into one of those famous VW vans, headed for a week in Mexico. A couple guys has shoulder length hair and what we got at the border was "No ippy, No ippy, go back."

If this works for Boss Womack , if he gets lots of headlines for this he's likely just a few months away from running for Pryor's seat, just in case some of you guys think Pryor is no good. Boss Womack is a colonel in the Reserves too.
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Dudes. Maybe I'm voicing an unpopular opinion here, but from what I've seen from my Springdale perspective is that Wommack is doing a "helluva job" for Rogers. As far a progress goes, it seems to be blowing away the rest of Northwest Arkansas - which appears to be blowing away the rest of the state in general. Benton County has the largest influx of south-of-the-border immigrants of any place in the entire nation. So, respectfully, I don't think that "caucasian enclave" comment is an entirely accurate representation of what's goin' on up here. Nobody, anywhere, is happy with being overrun with illegals from any country. Its human nature, I s'pose, and I understand it. But, being an insurance adjuster here in NWA, and meeting a lot of these people while working claims, I may be more concerned with the way they are being used & abused by the bidnissmen than I am with the jobs they are taking away from long time residents who also need to feed their families. It ain't their fault, because they're only looking for a paycheck - but it's happening. One guy was a WELDER and got $10 an hour. A welder! Who do you s'pose is making big bux off that guy's skills? Another one left his wife and 6 kids at home in El Salvador, for 4 years now, to come here and work an unskilled labor gig for $300 a week. I got to meet him because he cut off some of his fingers trying to do that job. I don't blame any of the illegals for doing what they have to in order to feed their families. But I do blame the profiteers who are pushing this argument all the way to the bank every day. What I'm trying to say (in so many thousand words) is that many of the people who argue against immigration control are not doing so because they're enlightened do-gooders with the welfare of the immigrants in mind. Quite the opposite.

Every mayor, council person, police officer, state representative and dog catcher in NWA knows who is employing illegal immigrants. If they are actually serious about the problem, why don't they start raiding the employers looking for paperwork to prove the employers are following all the rules? You cannot tell me that HALF the immigrants are here illegally without every elected state and local official knowing what is going on, who is doing it, and in many cases profiting from it as well.

Oh, and the incident that resulted in an illegal immigrant shooting an undercover Roger's officer? No chargers were ever filed.

"However, Womack said race would not be a factor in deciding who to run through the immigration database."

What then? Tit size? Isn't it strange that while LR gears up to pat the state on the back for finally giving a fair shake to black people, Boss Womack and the City Directors of Fort Baptist are whipping up on Hispanics. We've Come a Long FK'ing Way , Baby!

Claude Bahls left out something, the tighty whities of Rogers/Benton counties are freaking delighted to hire every Mexican they can find to do their shit work. They just want them to go poof like a ghost and not be seen any other time of the day. And they don't want them to live around the town they slave in.

Here's a little test. Say you were driving down the street in your nice air-conditioned car or truck with nice soft leather seats. You have your 8 Bose speakers blasting out Michael Bolton and life is good. You notice it's 97 degrees outside in your fancy mirror thermometer and you turn the cold air up another notch. At the stop sign you see a Mexican woman walking down the hot pavement holding one kid and leading another on their way to the store 9 blocks away. Got it?

Do you think "look at those damn Mexicans, what are they doing in my neighborhood?" Or do you think, "Man, she must be burning up walking down that hot road, holding on to them kids so tight on a hot day like this." If you feel sorry for her and real lucky about yourself....you're alright. If you think the other thing or if the Mexican family is invisible to you.....you're one sorry sorry son of a bitch and ain't no way you can call yourself a Christian.

Human being are all alike. They all want the same things. Everyone but criminals deserve our respect and a chance to better themselves. I saw that family today....about 20 minutes ago. How can you hate a mother so obviously caring of her kids to not leave them home alone while she did her shopping? Having to walk on pavement hot enough to fry an egg to get something to cook for her family tonight. Who could be so heartless not to have sympathy for people willing to do anything to better themselves and their families?

I remember my mother walking me to the store in the hot sun because Dad had the only car at work. She'd grab enough to make dinner and then trudge back holding my hand with one hand and trying not to drop the sack of groceries with the other. Back we'd go to a house trailer with a water cooler stuck in one end. I thought it was a fun trip because I was a little kid, but I'm sure there was nothing fun about it for my Mom. I thought of Mom and those walks to the store when I passed the Mexican mother a little while ago. I do that every time.

It was a different time back then. There was a whole lot less rich folks and more people walking. It was about the same time there was a sign on 71 just outside the Bentonville city limits that said Black Man Don't Let the Sun Go Down On You in this Town. Looks to me nearly 50 years have passed yet the people of Rogers and Bentonville are still the same racist bunch, only worse now with 50 years of enlightenment gone to waste and a whole lot more money.

It's not clear what the City of Fort Smith is up to with their English only law they're considering, but you can bet it's not good. And you can bet it's going to bring a lot of ill will and shame to my city if passed.

You haters are missing the point. While you can't sleep at night because Mexicans are in your town, gutting your chickens, mowing your lawns, roofing your houses, mopping the floors at Wal-Mart at night, yet it doesn't upset you at all that NAFTA is shipping all the good jobs off American soil.

In a year or 2 when Whirlpool and Rheem are gone, lots of nice Fort Smith white people currently zooming past little Mexican mothers walking in the hot streets are going to be out mowing lawns, roofing houses, and mopping the floors at Wal-Mart just to survive because there won't be any good jobs and no one will be able to blame that on the Mexicans. Your enemy doesn't have brown skin.......they look just like you, live better than you and are in the process of selling this country down the drain to profit themselves.

We'll all be living like Mexicans in 10 years......don't fight em.....learn from them.....you're gonna need that info later on. A pox on Boss Womack! Hope he doesn't get hit in the teeth with a 9 iron.....more than 8 or 9 times.

Not to derail this too much, but something DBI said made me want to comment on this.

I'm about sick of the Democratic myth that NAFTA, and free trade in general, cost the US jobs. It's been a theme of several candidates and prevalent in many debates (especially the AFL-CIO one), and is said without any basis in economic theory, rational thought, or, quite frankly, factual basis.

Long story short, according to research done by the International Institute of Economics, Americans are $7,000 to $13,000 richer because of trade, and removing all trade barriers would permanently increase our wealth by $4,000 to $13,000 per household. In addition, NAFTA took effect in 1994, America has added nearly 30 million net new jobs.

So DBI..."...NAFTA is shipping all the good jobs off American soil." Not hardly. I appreciate your vigor, but all I ask is a bit of research to back up what you're saying instead of baseless, sweeping rhetorical generalizations.

>>>America has added nearly 30 million net new jobs<<<<

I wonder how many of them are those fab low-paying service type jobs?

As for Hispanics, legal or illegal, I'd rather have a group of them living next door to me then fundi Christians with guns.

As opposed to those fab, low-paying, danger-ridden factory jobs, mouse?

Which, I'll add, are going to become obsolete in the next 20 years due to producers increasing the amount of work done by machine. They're simply more efficient, work faster, don't strike or unionize, and don't demand benefits.

I hate to break to many of you, but outsourcing isn't a policy idea, it's a fact of life and will happen no matter what you do. nstead of pissing and moaning about it taking away jobs, why don't we do something proactive (no, not pass legislation trying to stop it - might as well try pass legislation to try to stop the rain), such as helping communities which will be hit by outsourcing train their citizens to transition to jobs which will be more desirable as the marketplace changes.

RazorbackDem, I don't claim to be a specialist but the formula you claim has raised the bar is true in the sense of financial services and the like.. but the vast majority of that wealth stays at the top... there has been no trickle down, virtually none. It is not working for the country as a whole. WTO and NAFTA need to be abolished, imo. What we need is fair trade first with free trade sprinkled on the side like a garnish..

Why should we ask our labor pool to compete with chinese, and others, who don't care if their people eat shit and work for a buck a day? If China wont treat their own any better and send us products which will kill our kids and animals then I think we ought to look out for ourselves and treat each other with a bit more dignity while we do it.,, including those who come here to work in the US from other countries..

ironfortified is right on the mark!

We don't need police riots led by Boss Warwickhog.. If the people and the politicians want folks to leave then by god...put an ad in the paper and every company billboard and a the local mexican radio station...Announcing: Attention illegals! Save your money and pack your bags...in one month you are going to be cut off, it's time to go... all employers will be monitored etc.. you wont be getting paid for your work around here anymore.. That will take care of the vast majority of the problem peacefully... We don't need this door to knocking down door police state here like we treat em in Iraq.. thank you very much!

I'm with DBI, I want these folks around.. my grocery dollar value is shrinking faster than my hairline ever could. I need to learn how to make tortillas from scratch before we ship them off.. Just what are we going to do, start filling up more detention camps full of Mexicans ( that is expensive you know oh yeah, it's evil too).. We have been doing it already.. DHS and Haliburton KBR are building more right now (a few in secret)...and lots of folks down in TX just live in them damn near permanently..separated from their families and all kinds of nightmarish scenarios.. They don't call Chertoff El Diablo for his good looks... and the womacks and chertoffs of this world really don't care about your skin color...they care if you are poor or not.

If this old fellow Warwick is doing this kind of Tommy Robinson stunt for political purposes... someone ought to check and see if old Mark Pryor or his friends are paying him to do it... because it's about the best way possible that anti habeas corpus torturing senator has got to keep his seat.

Heck I would rather shut down Wal Mart for good, which would send most illegals packing due to lost work from all of wal marts suppliers. than cheer on a Col. Mayor who is ready to send in the bozo cops in order to run out decent folks.. Some of these decent folks would turn around and start a garden and start selling fresh good foods on every corner for a good price if we would just let them... and half of them would sing you a fine song while you shop. you would never buy a Tysons chicken again.

As a side note: Just Edwards and Kucinich will be live online together discussing these issues and more tomorrow night.. It is going to be one of those rare opportunities to see Democrats talk like Democrats without a DLC thorn in their side.

Tue. Aug. 28, 7:30 pm: John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich "will take part in discussions of key domestic issues before representatives of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)"

"The event will be streamed, live, from the www.GOIAM.org web site.
Streaming provided by ustream.tv."

"As opposed to those fab, low-paying, danger-ridden factory jobs, mouse?"

RazorbackDem, read this and let's discuss. (link at my name). It's from the New York Times.

NEWTON, IOWA--
THE last of the Maytag factories that lifted so many people into the middle class here will close on Oct. 26. Guy Winchell and his wife, Lisa, will lose their jobs that day. Their combined income of $43 an hour will disappear and, soon after, so will their health insurance. Most of the pensions they would have received will also be gone.

[...]Absent Maytag, a good wage in central Iowa is $12 or $13 an hour. The trick is to get that much as well as health insurance - and if not the wage, then at least the health insurance, even if that means commuting 40 to 50 miles, as more than a few ex-Maytag workers are now doing.

The downshift is reflected in the Labor Department's national data. Median family income has risen at an average annual rate of only six-tenths of a percent, adjusted for inflation, since the mid-1970s - in sharp contrast to the 2.8 percent growth rate in the preceding 26 years. (end clip)

Those "dangerous, low-paying factory jobs" have been the sustenance of many lives. They'd have been better if they'd been more fully unionized but of course, that ship has sailed. It won't make any difference if corporations screw workers in Mexico, Hispanic workers in NWA or long-time Arkansas residents. Letting down trade barriers has also let down labor rights in countries on both sides of the border. I don't see machines taking over manufacturing jobs as quickly as I see exploited workers doing them.

As for Rogers, all I know is that at my child's Fort Smith high school band parent meeting tonight, the band director openly discussed that the band is considering NOT traveling to football games in Rogers because of the derogatory and abusive behavior of Rogers fans towards our students. The word he didn't have to say out loud is "racist."

According to an article in todays ADG Springdale plans to use their new quasi immigration cops thusly:
"Officers would "disrupt the criminal activity committed by illegal immigrants" by "immobilizing" gangs and other criminal groups."

""We have moved away from original detention model and now hope to be operating under a pure task force model," Springdale Police Chief Kathy O'Kelley said Wednesday."

Chief O'Kelley implies their new immigration authority and training will be used to combat crime not just to detain any and all illegals. The locals don't like it because Springdale police-immigrations officers will go "undercover."

It's a good, thorough article written by Ginny LaRoe. Copy and paste required:

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/199303/

So what you're saying, RazorbackDem, is that our good jobs are falling out of America like crap out of a toddler's diaper.... just by accident? That there is nothing to be done but get ready to work for 10 bucks a day and sleep on a grass mat like your average Chinese or Taiwanese worker?

Makes me wonder if some kind of big magnet was switched off after 200 years and without that magnetic field, all of a sudden nothing can be manufactured in the US. How'd we keep good jobs all those years? I swear if Fort Baptist sprouts another thrift shop it'll explode. So far what we've got to replace Whirlpool and Rheem is a proposed Injun casino and a Marshals Museum that might take 10 years to build. Our Chamber raised over a million bucks to come up with new ideas on how to re-employ a bunch of people used to making big bucks and so far zip-pity do dah.

We recently gained a couple of hundred low paying telemarketer jobs...so good luck trying to enjoy your dinner next week. I love Fort Smith, but according to the head guy of the group that bought Beverly Enterprises, Fort Smith is a backwoods town without culture, manners or much brain power. Thanks you sir....may I have another! Call me crazy, but I think we'd be better off keeping the jobs we have than risk betting on what might be in Box Number 3.

Something fishy is going on. It must be that damn Google maps, millions of immigrants suddenly show up at the same time old time US companies pull up stakes and move off. I know I'm not bright, but I don't see a winning hand there. This trade you're so proud of doesn't seem to be doing jack squat for Fort Smith.....ain't no Toyota plant dropped in the Delta either. I see lots of trading going on every time I visit Wal-Mart....we trade green American money for cheap lead covered Chinese crap. I like buying shaving creme for 88 cents....but I could pay a $1.29 if it would help the country and keep some jobs on this side of the border.

The investor class is doing just fine. And when America turns into a total shit hole with riots and mass starvation, they'll just pick up and move to the south of France or Dubai or some other wonderful place and we'll be stuck here up to our necks. I loved Zenith TVs.....I got a 1977 model upstairs I paid $1080 bucks for on the installment plan at Woolco. Every couple of years I fire that sucker up and it still works like a charm.

But Zenith moved off....and apparently died. But I'd think it was fair to slap a big import tax on their TVs when they started shipping them back to us from some foreign land. Same should be going on with Stanley tools, the same should happen to Whirlpool. Cause it's not fair to dump your dumpy fat wife and trade her in for a sexy young Asian unless you pay some big alimony.

So let's keep NAFTA and start taxing the bejesus out of products made by American companies in foreign countries. We'll either get rich off the taxes and give everyone free health care and great Social Security or it will cause these profiteers to come back home like the prodigal son. If you're gonna hug globalization, Boss Wormackerel should start hugging every Mexican he sees.....cause they're just a part of the new world order and it's not their fault.....think of it this way....we're trading good jobs for new Mexican neighbors. Love they neighbor as thyself.......didn't Allah say that?

Thanks for that link, Lwood.

Edwards Goes After the 'Corporate Democrats' -- Is This a Turning Point for His Campaign?
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on August 26, 2007, Printed on August 27, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/60748/

Last week, John Edwards fired a broadside against corporate America and, more significantly, "corporate Democrats," the likes of which hasn't been heard from a viable candidate with national appeal in decades.

Edwards is en fuego right now, and if he keeps up the heat, his candidacy will either be widely embraced by the emerging progressive movement or utterly annihilated by an entrenched establishment that fears few things more than a telegenic populist with enough money to mount a credible campaign.

Is This a Turning Point for His Campaign?<<

Yes it is. Edwards appears to be isolating him self. If elected Hillary may offer up some surprises to corporate America. She may parade out the stuff that Bill says will get her elected but she's got some old fires simmering down there which haven't been extinguished.

The first candidate that steps out, like Bill did in 92, and says " I have a plan" then spends all of his subsequent debates explaining that plan will take a lead. So far, I don't know what Hillary represents. Do any of you? I'm not sure what Edwards wants to accomplish either. Kucinich is about the only one on D side to say anything you could really wrap your mind around regarding policy. Obama and Hillary are about style, little substance. Every time Obama attempts policy statements he does a FuBAR. Of course Hillary has that "first time for a woman" thing going but what will that do for job losses in Ft. Republican?

Frankly, as it stands I could vote for Ron Paul because I would know I'm getting a constitutional libertarian. There's likely very few Republicans who could survive if Paul were elected.

Much of this lack of knowledge is not all the candidates' fault. I assign blame to MSM for failing to set up different formats which would allow candidates to engage in meaningful policy debate or discussion. 20 sec here or 2 minutes on something, if it were a Mafia show then it would be understandable since they are skilled at remaining vague.

Razordamn,

>>Americans are $7,000 to $13,000 richer because of trade...<<

Which Americans? As the chasm between the rich and the median income families rapidly widens, I have to question your statistics. If you figure in the atrocious earnings of the top 1%, of course the "average" income seems to be rising.

That same International Institute of Economics, was the author of one of the major studies that called for NAFTA in the early 1990s. They predicted that the US trade surplus with Mexico would be $12 billion per year (that is, Mexico would be buying $12 billion dollars more from us than us from them). In reality, our annual trade deficit with Mexico is over $50 billion.

So, I would expect that any report by the International Institute of Economics about NAFTA will be an effort to put lipstick on a razorback and call it a sex symbol.

Quick, somebody let Chasv know this thread is alive. He'll blow a gasket for sure on this one.