Immigration is a big, big deal in agricultural communities. Fruit growers, who often vote Republican, know how important immigrant labor is to their industry, so they back common sense reform.
So it’s hilarious to read this about one of Yakima’s state rep’s [From The Other Side] moral quandary:
No part of American agriculture would benefit more from a temporary worker program than our bountiful Yakima Valley – rightfully known as the Fruit Bowl of the Nation.
But apparently Charles Ross, Yakima’s newly elected state representative and lifelong resident of these parts, is a picture of confusion on this vital national and regional issue.
Sunday’s Herald-Republic carried a full-page ad – in purple ink – that delivered this thunderous message: “WE SUPPORT COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM.”
The hundreds of names was a list of the pillars of agricuture in Central Washington: the decision-makers, major employers, orchardists, growers, packers and suppliers, many of them members of pioneer families who founded the state’s tree fruit industry.
This impressive group of industry leaders implored Congress to pass an immigration reform package that will strengthen Yakima Valley ag in particular and the American economy in general.
Fast forward to Tuesday’s Herald-Republic and read where Rep. Ross had committed to speak at a rally in downtown Yakima hosted by Grassroots on Fire – a racist organization viscerally opposed to immigration reform of any kind.
Ross canceled his appearance. But the very notion of this legislator playing footsie with the extreme right wing is disturbing to say the least. If he read Sunday’s paper, he probably saw the names of the very people who got him elected last fall – his voter base, solidly rooted in ag.
The GOP doesn’t know who to listen to- their business base or their crazy, racist/nativist base. All the while, the latino/hispanic vote, after flirting with the GOP in ’00 through ’04, is running away from the GOP.
Classic.
s/b “quandary”
Spike: That’s the ebonic pronunciation!
Speaking of a moral quandary, why does Harry Reid and his merry band of NEW Progressive Democrat Party military haters get so much press time?
Speaking of a moral quandary, why does Nancy Pelosi think children can fly free on congressional junkets?
Speaking of a moral quandary, why does donk led congressional approval stand at 23%?
Speaking of a moral quandary, Stupidman’s sister accused of prostituting her 2 daughters – Police say she passed out cards that offered the teen girls for sex
I attended junior and senior high school in Wenatchee. This state doesn’t get more reactionary Republican than Wenatchee, which is located in Chelan County, which is, of course, where Dino Rossi filed his election challenge. I worked in the orchards through my first couple years of college–pruning, thinning then propping apples, poisoning gophers, spraying insecticides, harvesting. My brothers took cushie jobs in the air-conditioned mall. I liked it outside. I worked with Mexicans, Guatemalans, etc. I hired them, and hid them from the INS as my status in the orchard rose. They’d give me beers at the end of the day and I learned to speak Spanish. My boss, a Republican, paid the immigrant labor fairly and acknowledged his need. He was a kind-hearted Christian who could not possibly still be a Republican. Northcentral Washington has had a love-hate relationship with undocumented labor since time immemorial. If you want to see the remaining agricultural interests of that region die on the vine, you fucking racist, anti-immigrant Republicans out there, oppose the legislation that McCain and Kennedy proposed.
Found a girlfriend for \’pimpin\’ my pre-teen, buy me a beer Fuckstein…
http://www.chron.com/disp/stor.....88575.html
7
Ah yes. Very well said. You remind me a lot of me. I was, and still am, a proud, life long liberal. We should go out and paint the town red (with pregnant jewish women’s blood that is). What do you say proud.
@ 1
Thanks, fixed it.
“The GOP doesn’t know who to listen to- their business base or their crazy, racist/nativist base”
This is like the 4th or 5th example of extremist, unhinged name-calling I have seen on some of the northwest-based ‘progressive’ blogs, just in this week. And yet you guys get all freaked out and whine when I call you unpatriotic for saying Bush is a war criminal like Saddam.
What absolute hypocrites you blue-wavers are.
– Orbusmax
9
I don’t know what the hell you are talking about. The problem with you rightwing fringefucks is that you don’t speak in English. You speak in some code language that only the mentally ill understand. Perhaps you might understand this: Haq, your idiocy is topped only by your lack of balls. Now, bite me, bastard.
Orbus,
We refer to unhinged extremists as, well, unhinged extremists. You, on the other hand, vote for them when they run for public office.
Why do we need a comprehensive bill now? We don’t.
Before we go ahead and make a bunch of new rules that won’t be enforced, I suggest we tweek what we already have in place, starting with securing the border.
Show the American people that our national borders are important and we might start to take what the beltway boys and girls squawk about “comprehensive reform” seriously…
11:
Extreme? Unhinged? What, are those your new code words for ‘reality’? Face it Orbie, what used to be a grand institution is now a festering pile of shit because of the racist fascist bastards YOU represent. And by the way, the Chimp-in-Chief IS a war criminal. That’s why he’s been thinking about buying a ranch in Paraguay.
It’s called fleeing the country to avoid prosecution.
To quote the title of one of my favorite Fishbone albums, “give a monkey a brain, and he’ll swear he’s the center of the universe”.
“All the while, the latino/hispanic vote, after flirting with the GOP in ‘00 through ‘04, is running away from the GOP.”
Well since the largest illegal immigrant population in WA is hispanic and a very large portion of that population is devoutly catholic, I wouldn’t count your abortion supporting, birth control providing to minors, chickens before they hatch….
@ 16
Are you suggesting that illegal immigrants should vote?
Love Fishbone
“the reality of my surroundings”
RightStuff
I never agree with you. On the other hand, you don’t seem as unhinged as the other rightwingers who post here, and occasionally even make sense–you know, disagreeing with people doesn’t mean they don’t make sense. We need comprehensive reform because nothing regarding immigration will otherwise happen. We need a bipartisan approach to an issue that makes almost everybody mad. Legislation, like sausage-making, isn’t pretty. Partisans have to give up some things they like to get something done. We need to get something done. I dislike the legislation proposed for the reasons you might like it. That’s the way it goes. You plug your nose and vote yes–I vote yes with George W. Bush on this one, and, trust me, that makes me want to shower.
@ 19
Read the diatribe at 16, then tell me how this guy has any chance of having a reasonable discussion.
None of these wingnuts here want to have a well-reasoned discussion, and the reason is plainly obvious. They can’t win an argument based on the issues, so they have to resort to inane crap like the post @ 16.
Don Joe @ 20
Yikes. I had not seen that before I posted. Maybe he’s drinking and posting tonight. The old idealist that I am, I try to see the best in everyone. I suppose that believing we can have a reasoned discussion with those on the other side has become a bit anachonistic.
@ 11
How is this “name calling”? Clearly, the GOP is fighting within itself over immigration, and the two sides, far as I can tell, are big business and the racist/nativist element within the party.
Will@22 I would submit that the “racist/nativist element” you refer to is an archaic artifact left over from a populist initiative that looks an awfully lot like the Nixon and Reagan “Southern Strategy”. To see them give the Republican leadership grief cheers me no end.
On a practical level, though, the first steps toward a true immigration reform, and not some smoke and mirrors initiative backed by the Chimpster, would include serious fines and some jail time for Corporate
Officers caught in a second offense of employing ‘illegals’.If you matched this to a ‘guest worker’ program, you would have the symmetry of both a carrot and stick for the economic end of the problem. A refusal to employ illegals lessens the pressure to come across poorly secured borders. Then back this up with a competently administered border security scheme (probably beyond our current regime, since I specified competent).
Boiled down: Discourage the ‘coyotes’ and their clients by not hiring them. Discourage the Multinational Corporatists by fining and jailing them. Satisfy the Agro-Republicans with a properly administered ‘guest worker’ program.
18:
Well, at least we can agree on something. Any band that can make 45,000 pogo simulataneously (@ the first Lollapalooza back in ’91) gets my vote.
Aw, fuck it. ANGELO MOORE 4 PRESIDENT!