Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (249474)	4/20/2002 1:15:06 AM
From: calgal	Respond to of 769670

White House Seeks to Reassure Arabs Friday, April 19, 2002 WASHINGTON — The Bush administration assured the Arab world on Friday that it would keep working with Yasser Arafat toward peace, effectively sidetracking the view of some senior U.S. officials that an alternative Palestinian leader should be pursued. The White House also expressed support for an international investigation of Israel's incursion into the Palestinian-held town of Jenin in search of terrorists. The Palestinians claim wholesale humanitarian abuses by the Israeli forces there. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president "wants the facts." Still, anti-American and anti-Israel sentiment remained strong in the Middle East. In Bahrain, more than 3,000 marched from a mosque in the capital, Manama, to the U.N. office chanting, "Death to the U.S. and Israel!" They burned an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and called on the government to close the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. base on the island. Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. In Jordan, more than 2,000 protesters marched through the streets of a Palestinian refugee camp outside Amman, calling for Palestinians to wage war. The State Department responded with assurances that the United States would not waver in its Mideast policy, which calls for establishment of a Palestinian state and Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. "We have not only the pathway forward, but we have ways of working to make sure we go down that path," department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "So what we are hearing from friends in the Arab world is they want to see the U.S. commitments sustained, and we can tell them the U.S. commitment is there. It will be sustained. We'll continue to meet with and work with our friends in the Arab world. We'll continue to work with the Israelis. We'll continue to meet with the Palestinian Authority and its leadership, Chairman Arafat, to try to move forward down this path that we laid out," he said. Secretary of State Colin Powell gave these assurances to Tunisian Foreign Minister Habib ben Yahia in a meeting Friday, and President Bush will meet next week with King Mohammed VI of Morocco and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The Tunisian minister informed Powell, meanwhile, that investigators looking into a fatal fire at a synagogue on the island of Jerba were focused "on a terrorist attack with international implications," a senior U.S. official said. Tunisian authorities initially reported the fire was accidental. A group connected with the al-Qaida terror network has claimed responsibility, though, according to Arab newspapers. Fifteen people died in the fire, 10 of them Germans. Powell also met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who called Powell's recent trip an important first step. "We cannot permit a lull in the situation," Peres said. The dovish Israeli official said he was concerned about the plight of the Palestinians and said Israel must make "painful compromises" to achieve peace. "We are convinced in Israel there is no alternative to peace," Peres said in a news conference. Powell met twice with Arafat on his 10-day Mideast trip, and declared the United States and Israel would have to deal with him as the representative of the Palestinian people. U.S. criticism of Arafat has subsided, although President Bush on Thursday renewed the U.S. call that the Palestinian leader do more to curb violence. And while Bush praised Sharon repeatedly Thursday as "a man of peace," the president was more evenhanded Friday while touring a secretary service training facility in Greenbelt, Md. "A peaceful situation requires that there be opportunity for the Palestinians, peace for the Israelis," he said. Bush said he was concerned about the living conditions of people throughout the region. "I think it's very important for all of us as we work toward a vision of peace to understand that we must provide hope where there is no hope, provide an opportunity where there seems to be no opportunity," he said. foxnews.com

To: calgal who wrote (249474)	4/26/2002 1:25:57 PM
From: craig crawford	Respond to of 769670

the author has it backwards. it is the pro-immigration fervor in recent years that is un-american. the united states is a country, not a corporation. you do not govern a country purely by economics, which the author clearly fails to understand. Anti-Immigration Fervor Is Un-American While Europe is rising in anger against foreigners, the U.S. should remember that they're vital contributors to the economy businessweek.com Certainly, the numbers are stunning. From 1981 to 2000, more than 16.4 million people legally poured into the U.S. (at least 7 million to 8 million more illegal aliens managed to get in), a figure exceeding the great immigration wave of 1900 to 1914 (see table). The foreign-born now make up 11% of the U.S. population, twice the share of the 1970s. In the nation's fastest-growing cities, the overall populations of Hispanics and Asians grew by 72% and 69%, respectively. Almost all of the gain was driven by immigration. ............................................................................................................................. ON THE MARGINS. The demand for less-skilled immigrants is also strong in an economy facing a long-term labor shortage. Those with less education are filling in the kinds of low-wage jobs that make a modern service economy run, such as in the hotel and restaurant industries. Over 15% of construction workers nationwide are immigrants. Of course, this economic vitality does come with a price tag. Many immigrants barely survive on society's margins. Immigrants and their U.S.-born children account for some 22% of all people living in poverty. About a third of workers without a high school diploma are immigrants. Getting fired and not getting paid are constant threats, and racial discrimination does make immigrants' lot harder. The federal government is a net winner in the balance of immigrant costs and taxes, while many state and local governments bear a disproportionate share of the costs, largely in the areas of education and health care.