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Politics : Bush-The Mastermind behind 9/11? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (11633)	9/3/2005 9:06:02 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20039

Minutemen picked the wrong target Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr. President Bush calls the Minutemen vigilantes. Supporters call them patriots. Opponents call them zealots. I call them wrong. Tombstone and Cochise County became ground zero Friday in the illegal immigration debate. Less than 200 self-proclaimed border watchers, some of them armed, headed into the hills and no-man's land this week to create a political carnival show. The Minutemen project, a California import, insists its sole purpose is to report illegal border entrants and to embarrass the federal government for not militarizing the border. What the Minutemen really got was a media show. Reporters, about equal the number of Minutemen, parachuted into Cochise County to report on the Minutemen's political statement - the U.S. government has failed to stop illegal immigration. But what the creators of the dog and pony show don't get is that they picked the wrong place to make their media-manipulated tirade. If the Minutemen really wanted to bring public awareness to the causes of illegal immigration, they would have flocked to different places, far away from the border towns of Naco and Douglas and the desert in between. They should have taken their weapons and self-serving protest to the Arkansas headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The world's largest retailer, which influences marketing and labor practices wherever it operates, paid a record $11 million fine last month to settle a civil immigration case. The federal government charged the global behemoth and 12 contractors with hiring illegal workers to clean 60 stores in 21 states. The contractors that did the hiring pleaded guilty to criminal charges and paid an additional $4 million. Wal-Mart, of course, can afford the record fine. It amounts to less than one-half of 1 percent of Wal-Mart's $3.16 billion in 2004 profit, according to The Associated Press. If Bentonville, Ark., Wal-Mart's home, weren't sexy enough for the Minutemen, they should have kicked off their April Fool's Day rant in the heart of media and money - Wall Street. There is no better place to protest America's failed immigration policy than amid the enriched banks, investment houses and lawyers' inner sanctums that profit from the low wages paid to illegal workers lured here by jobs. The vast majority of people who illegally cross the border come to work in American stores, factories, fields, homes. Another target for the Minutemen protests should be the American heartland. Take corn growers, for example. American corn producers can grow, harvest and ship corn to Mexico and sell it more cheaply than Mexico's corn growers. American growers are more efficient, possess better technology and enjoy taxpayer subsidies. We dump cheap corn in Mexico, where corn has grown for 5,000 years and is considered more than food - it's part of the Mexican patrimony. So guess what happens? The displaced Mexican growers and pickers give up and head north. They're not alone. Agricultural and factory workers in Latin America are losing jobs because of international trade agreements. Low-paying jobs in Latin America are moving to Asia, where labor is cheaper. International economics, American trade polices and employment practices are too difficult for the Minutemen to grasp. Instead they grab their guns and head in the wrong direction. azstarnet.com

To: steve harris who wrote (11633)	9/5/2005 2:44:31 PM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 20039

no doubt you were down there ready to blast a poor soul trying to work here and to protect your 'way of life'

To: steve harris who wrote (11633)	9/5/2005 2:47:02 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20039

MORE REASONS why BUSH SHOULD RESIGN.... Why FEMA Was Missing in Action Most of the agency's preparedness budget and focus are related to terrorism, not disasters. By Peter G. Gosselin and Alan C. Miller, Times Staff Writers WASHINGTON — While the federal government has spent much of the last quarter-century trimming the safety nets it provides Americans, it has dramatically expanded its promise of protection in one area — disaster. Since the 1970s, Washington has emerged as the insurer of last resort against floods, fires, earthquakes and — after 2001 — terrorist attacks. But the government's stumbling response to the storm that devastated the nation's Gulf Coast reveals that the federal agency singularly most responsible for making good on Washington's expanded promise has been hobbled by cutbacks and a bureaucratic downgrading. The Federal Emergency Management Agency once speedily delivered food, water, shelter and medical care to disaster areas, and paid to quickly rebuild damaged roads and schools and get businesses and people back on their feet. Like a commercial insurance firm setting safety standards to prevent future problems, it also underwrote efforts to get cities and states to reduce risks ahead of time and plan for what they would do if calamity struck. But in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, FEMA lost its Cabinet-level status as it was folded into the giant new Department of Homeland Security. And in recent years it has suffered budget cuts, the elimination or reduction of key programs and an exodus of experienced staffers. The agency's core budget, which includes disaster preparedness and mitigation, has been cut each year since it was absorbed by the Homeland Security Department in 2003. Depending on what the final numbers end up being for next fiscal year, the cuts will have been between about 2% and 18%. The agency's staff has been reduced by 500 positions to 4,735. Among the results, FEMA has had to cut one of its three emergency management teams, which are charged with overseeing relief efforts in a disaster. Where it once had "red," "white" and "blue" teams, it now has only red and white. Three out of every four dollars the agency provides in local preparedness and first-responder grants go to terrorism-related activities, even though a recent Government Accountability Office report quotes local officials as saying what they really need is money to prepare for natural disasters and accidents. "They've taken emergency management away from the emergency managers," complained Morrie Goodman, who was FEMA's chief spokesman during the Clinton administration. "These operations are being run by people who are amateurs at what they are doing." Richard W. Krimm, a former senior FEMA official for several administrations, agreed. "It was a terrible mistake to take disaster response and recovery … and disaster preparedness and mitigation, and put them in Homeland Security," he said. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged in interviews Sunday that Washington was insufficiently prepared for the hurricane that laid waste to New Orleans and surrounding areas. But he defended its performance by arguing that the size of the storm was beyond anything his department could have anticipated and that primary responsibility for handling emergencies rested with state and local, not federal, officials. "Before this happened, I said … we need to build a preparedness capacity going forward," Chertoff told NBC's "Meet the Press." He added that that was something "we have not yet succeeded in doing." Under the law, Chertoff said, state and local officials must direct initial emergency operations. "The federal government comes in and supports those officials," he said. RESIGN YOU CLOWN!!!! Chertoff's remarks, which echoed earlier statements by President Bush, prompted withering rebukes both from former senior FEMA staffers and outside experts. "They can't do that," former agency chief of staff Jane Bullock said of Bush administration efforts to shift responsibility away from Washington. "The moment the president declared a federal disaster, it became a federal responsibility…. The federal government took ownership over the response," she said. Bush declared a disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi when the storm hit a week ago. "What's awe-inspiring here is how many federal officials didn't issue any orders," said Paul C. Light, an authority on government operations at New York University. Evidence of confusion extended beyond FEMA and the Homeland Security Department on Sunday. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said that conditions in New Orleans and elsewhere could quickly escalate into a major public health crisis. But asked whether his agency had dispatched teams in advance of the storm and flooding, Leavitt answered, "No." "None of these teams were pre-positioned," he told CNN's "Late Edition." "We're having to organize them … as we go." Such an ad hoc approach might not have surprised Americans until recent decades because the federal government was thought to have few responsibilities for disaster relief, and what duties it did have were mostly delegated to the American Red Cross.