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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (263518)	5/6/2008 7:24:20 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 281500

Immigrants Feel Less Welcome in Frederick We've made some updates to washingtonpost.com's Groups, MyPost and comment pages. We need you to verify your MyPost ID by logging in before you can post to the new pages. We apologize for the inconvenience. Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 6, 2008; Page A01 In just over a decade, Frederick County has been transformed from a bucolic, timeless community of dairy farms and strawberry festivals to a fast-paced mosaic of high-tech firms and housing developments, Pilates classes and exotic eateries, mega-stores and McDonald's. The changes have also brought thousands of Hispanics, some legal immigrants and others not, who have migrated up Interstate 270 to meet the demand for construction and service jobs. Until now, the county has handled the influx with outreach classes in schools and community policing programs. Chic Hispanic restaurants flourish in downtown Frederick, and working-class Latinos have remained relatively invisible. Suddenly, however, their presence is igniting a controversy that some fear could escalate into the kind of war over illegal immigration that has torn apart Prince William County. In the past month, the Frederick County sheriff has joined with federal authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants, and county commissioners have proposed legislation to ban free translation of county business and require public schools to track down students who are in the United States illegally. "The single biggest threat to our country is the immigration problem. We cannot continue to absorb this population or we will end up in collapse like a Third World country," said Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, whose officers have identified 18 illegal immigrants in the past two weeks after traffic stops or other incidents. "We are not going out in a white van with a big net, but we are getting the criminal element of the illegal population out of Frederick County." Local opponents of the measures, including black, white and Hispanic residents, say the crackdown and other proposed actions smack of racism and political grandstanding. They say Latinos have been welcomed by Frederick's businesses as a source of cheap labor. Since 1990, the county's Hispanic population has more than tripled, from fewer than 5,000 to more than 15,000, growing to about 5 percent of the county's inhabitants. "This is nothing but scapegoating," said Lydia Espinoza, a community mediator of Mexican American descent. "The immigrant community has been growing here for years, but now people are seeing more Latinos in public, speaking Spanish in stores. They hear about overcrowded houses or issues that can be resolved by the community. Instead, some people are stoking these emotional fires to create group feelings against immigrants." Regional organizations on each side have joined the fray. CASA of Maryland, a nonprofit group that lobbies for immigrant rights, plans to present a report today that accuses Jenkins and his department of racial profiling, imprisoning "alarmingly high" numbers of Latinos and using crime fighting as a "subterfuge to deport immigrants." Help Save Maryland, a rapidly growing citizens group that opposes illegal immigration, has supported the crackdown in group e-mails, radio interviews and newspaper columns. The coordinator of the Frederick chapter has accused opponents of "playing the race card." In the Hillcrest neighborhood, where many of Frederick's Latinos live (often in households that include legal and illegal immigrants), residents describe growing anxiety. Priests say parishioners have stopped driving to church for fear of run-ins with the police. Check-cashing stores say people are closing their bank accounts. And everyone is asking whether Frederick will become the next Prince William. "I used to love Frederick, but now I don't feel comfortable here anymore," said Concepcion Ramirez, 20, a Mexican-born waitress. "I went to high school here, and everyone was so caring and nice. But people are scared of the police now. Every time you get in your car, you are thinking every single moment of what to do if they stop you." Despite the contretemps, residents say there is little chance that Frederick will become as bitterly divided as Prince William, where officials approved a number of policies last year to drive out illegal immigrants. In Frederick, the recent proposals to halt public translation services and count illegal pupils are unlikely to become law, in part because they may conflict with state and federal statutes. One reason for the difference is Frederick's diverse character, a blend of rural courtliness and urban worldliness. The county's economic mainstays include military research, dairy farms, high-tech industry and tourism. Its populace includes seventh-generation German Americans, a black middle class and young professionals who commute to Rockville or Washington. It has an active NAACP chapter and an annual Latino Festival.

To: TimF who wrote (263518)	5/6/2008 8:40:32 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

But it wasn't just about replacing cassettes with CD players, was it? It was also about how government systematically gives greater weight to lower priced poorer items. That much should have been clear from the example of how ground meat was the substitute for steak so as to keep the inflation numbers down. It was also about "Imputed income" and other shenanigans. The bottom line is that the government has a vested interest in not reporting bad numbers so as not to upset the people with its performance. Now if you want to just trust the government despite this conflict of interest, go right ahead; it is still a free country, albeit a lot less so than it used to be. ST

To: TimF who wrote (263518)	5/13/2008 8:26:14 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 281500

Those funny guys at BLS: ...But the new unemployment numbers came out, and right off the bat I see that the civil labor force went up by 173,000 and the number of employed went up by 360,000, but non-farm payrolls went down by 20,000 and goods producing payrolls went down by 110,000! Huh? Of course, nobody is surprised that government employment went up by 9,000 employees to 22,385,000, which is up 224,000 over the last year. In fact, there are now more people on government payrolls (22,385,000) than goods producing payrolls (21,618,000)! Hahaha! We are so freaking doomed! What makes it So Damned Funny (SDF) is that a conceited, self-absorbed nation like America, that boasts how smart we are, cannot possibly realize the utter, utter stupidity of this! Hahaha! And yet, here it is! Dare I repeat myself that we are freaking doomed? Sure! We're freaking doomed! Hahaha! ... Maybe this "recession" thing is why the Labor Department reported that the US lost another 20,000 jobs in April. In fact, the economy has shed 260,000 jobs since New Year's Day! I admire the way that John Williams restrains himself from busting out laughing as he says in his review of the government's Payroll Survey that the "Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported a seasonally-adjusted jobs loss of 20,000 (loss of 28,000 net of revisions) +/- 129,000 for April 2008." Hahahaha! Plus or minus more than 600% of the estimate? Hahahaha! I instantly see how I can use this to my advantage the next time my stupid boss calls me into her stupid little office to get "on my case" about something. Like yesterday, for example, I could have used this fascinating and powerful technique when she called me in to ask me about losing the stupid Lindsey contract, which was because old man Lindsey had a "Hillary Clinton for President" campaign bumper sticker on his car, and so I politely told him that he was "stupid, commie-rat Marxist pinko collectivist low-IQ trash", which he apparently took some exception to, and now it's suddenly important to know how many OTHER contracts we lost because of me merely giving people what they deserve. My first thought, of course, was to politely say, "None of your business, you stupid old cow, so shut up!", but I realized it WAS her business, and, even worse, six other instances of this same thing instantly ran through my mind. Today, now that it is too late to do me any good, I realize that I could have said, "How many others? None! Give or take six, which should be good enough for you because your own Leftist trash government says it is good enough when calculating employment!" Saving this for another day, I now turn to the Birth/Death Model, which plays such a prominent role in the government's calculation of employment, and which showed a surprising gain of 267,000 jobs, which is the biggest increase in the last 12 months! Wow! Before you go off shouting "The recession is over! They're hiring again!", the model showed that 45,000 jobs were added in construction, which makes me laugh my Big Fat Mogambo Butt (BFMB) off, but not laughing in merriment and joy, but a dark and scornful laugh of contempt, because this would be the most jobs created in the construction category in the entire last freaking year, which makes me laugh even harder and with more scorn! And LOTS more contempt! ...