Steven Colbert to Congress

[wt510151]

Parents give too many conflicting statements. We don't like intellectual elitists, however we want our children to be intelligent enough to compete with other nations in the future. We don't like to pay taxes, but we sure enjoy the paved roads, prisons, and fire departments. Can't forget the free daycare for 9 months of the year. Many will pay for xboxes or cable TV as substitute babysitters, but complain that the boy or girl won't behave. Should kids not act the same as their parents if that is their only model? There simply needs to be more positive models that encourage personal responsibility in every child's environment. Where are the rewards? Right now apathy and status quo are receiving them. How much will this change going to cost each and every one of us? I don't know, but it the current trend is putting us in the world's poorhouse.

[BA Deere]

Back in the 70`s if a kid didn`t do well in school, but had a strong back he could go to a packing plant and make the equivalent to $30/hr today, enough to feed a family and buy a house. Not every kid is college material, there has to be jobs for those who slacked off with C`s and D`s. I do have a bit of a soft spot for those kids today, they are only able to get just above min wage jobs with zero chance of improvement in the future. So if they can get some kind of welfare and play XBox, it is sort of understandable...sad  but understandable. These ###-####   ######-#######  greedy companies saw they could drag in Mexicans to work for $5/hr instead of $30, a living wage, then send us the taxpayers the bill in the form of extra police, welfare, food stamps, if the Mexis even file taxes they get earned income credit, ect ect. So these greedy companies are breaking our country with their "cheap labour". If that frigging Colbert wants the 15, 20, 30 or whatever million illegals made into citizens. What`s he gonna do in 5 years when another 15 million want amnesty???

[smokeyjay]

I appreciate your concern, Kay and even agree with you on the labor issue.  Farm subsidies are another matter.  The longterm purpose of farm programs is to provide a safety net with direct payments and payments that are triggered by low prices.  Without this, producers would experience greater financial difficulty, not to mention even wider swings in market prices as the local farm economy would swing from one high to a very low, low.  Imagine the impact to livestock producers, especially swine units if the extremes were greater than they are today.  Take a look at what the pork powerhouses said in this web site....they were within three weeks of imploding. 

• Having said that, Colbert is not a credible witness for Congress.  I watched part of his testimony and concluded it was more a publicity stunt for his image than for serious work.  However, I sympathize with those struggling with labor issues.  It's a very real challenge.

• Again, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, the most credible witnesses for not only congress and the urban public is the everyday farmer that is willing to speak up.

[k-289]

One thing that happened in our area--closed one of the two packing plants in Madison county---crime went down @40%??  This is not a good reflection on imported labor & if you look in our paper's this 40% is still probably an accurate stat. Put's a bad label on this group ---a few screw it up for many but the packing companies never discuss the trade off of CHEAP labor verse's hidden social and taxpayer cost's. The EGG bunch in Iowa are a prime example of this---tax break's ---equip $$$---environmental carelessness --horrible example for US ag- then the elder DeCoster said he was praying several times a day--the only part of his statement I probably say was accurate----then again for" himself" or maybe it was for his buddy there that took the 5th. Maybe we could figure the "CHEAP" food equation on this one.  -  "GREED" + to" BIG to fail" have produced a economic and political nightmare in the USA;;;;  out of touch politic's  may be our "greatest threat"----- on either side of the isle--- spend million's of $$$ to be governer of a bankrupt state----could someone really believe these people-- another hidden agenda--oh ya that's right "Arnold" is a "conservative" !!!!!!!

[nwobcw]

   We had the same problem around here with migrants and crime.  This used to be a big vegetable growing area.  Everybody knew to lock things up when the tomato season was over and the migrants would be heading back to mexico.  We got out of the vegetable crops in the 50's.  Aftter 2 of them pulled knives on him he said it wasn't worth it anymore.

[Kay/NC]

Please do not construe my comments as anti-program for stabilization of farm income, just as a representation of the general public's view of it. 

Your perspective that Colbert is "not credible" as a witness to our Congress makes me want to parry back that our legislators perhaps only deserve "incredible" ones...or, more on point, only listen to them.  At least this stunt focused a lot of eyes on the issue, which I doubt would have happened if you or I had shown up to testify instead. 

[Kay/NC]

The same or quite similar observations about certain social ills as crime could be made in mill towns here in the South.  Social workers in old railroad towns could point to crops of illegitimate children who were fathered by transient trainmen or maintenance crews.  Soldiers in occupied countries typically leave behind walking, talking evidence of their stay, too. 

While this is not to deny your point, it is simply to say that there have always been (especially poor) people with passing presences in places where they were needed, at least temporarily or periodically, but not necessarily welcome.  This is not really ny different, as such situations go....

[wt510151]

There are social ills everywhere in the world where some people are valued more than others. Even the enforcers of justice turn a blind eye, for their own gain. It may be to keep their own side deals silent or less paperwork for what they consider "misdemeanors." There is yet another new book written by a woman about some of these moral troubles. http://journalstar.com/news/local/article_c45044c2-c91b-11df-9e5c-001cc4c002e0.html

[Kay/NC]

The classic, mythic character of Justice IS blind.  The inability to see who is being judged ought to guarantee that all are treated equal.  This is far different from "turning a blind eye" towards tehe misdeeds of a select few or chosen one. 

I think that the main problem with immigration out of control rigth now is hte hard times we find ourselves in.  It is easier to absorb the costs of the undocumented and under-the-radar eleven million estimated illegals when everyone is flush with cash - even if most of it is borrowed and running up interest - than it is to accept the needs of the remaining ten million who have stayed behind here in harder times. 

Most sources are estimating that a million or more have left the country in the past two years.  This ought to give you some idea of how many were working in construction for starters.  It speaks volumes about how bad things really are in the last analysis.  If a million (mostly) Mexicans cannot regard American as better than where they were back home, it's a lot tougher than we thought here. 

There are a lot of moral dilemmas in our faces today that had slid to back burners in times past.  I sometimes wonder if this isn't the reason we have to keep re-visiting this lesson of recession.  BTW, that is over now, according to all news sources. 

[smokeyjay]

Perhaps you are right, that they deserve someone less credible.  I can think of a few politicians that deserve even less.  However, my experience has been that they give more attention to grassroots people than a stunt like Colbert.  According to news reports at Centurylink.net, the politicians dismissed him outright.