House Republicans endorse slavery. Have prisoners pick lettuce.

[TayTay]

From the AP newsbrief for 03/31/06 at 12:41 pm

House Conservatives Blast Immigration Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) _ House conservatives criticized President Bush, accused the
Senate of fouling the air, said prisoners rather than illegal farm workers
should pick America's crops and denounced the use of Mexican flags by protesters
Thursday in a vehement attack on legislation to liberalize U.S. immigration
laws. "I say let the prisoners pick the fruits," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of
California, one of more than a dozen Republicans who took turns condemning a
Senate bill that offers an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants an
opportunity for citizenship.

******************************

Rep. Rohrabacher thinks that the immigrants gets paid too much and that we should just use forced labor to help private industry. Isn't that slavery?

[tatertop]

1. How well they beat and bully the powerless

[Virginia Dare]

2. O...M....F...G!!!!!

Just when I think it can't get any worse--I'm proven wrong.

:wow:

[wisteria]

3. Yeah, I would say so. Can you imagine this? Big Business would

have a vested interest in people remaining poor and desperate- so that they commit crimes and Business has a continuing cheap labor pool.

[TayTay]

6. And business doesn't have to pay any expenses.

The people of the individual states pay the medical expenses of the slaves. Big agriculture gets cheap, cheap labor. About 12 cents an hour to the prisoners, not much more than that to the State which 'owns' the laborers, and labor and unions and so forth are unnecessary. The Republican wet dream, all laid out.

[NNN0LHI]

11. And most importantly they can keep the males and the females...

...segragated so they can't multiply. Thats the idea here.

Don

[wisteria]

13. I would like to believe that people wouldn't allow this and

Big Business would not be so greedy as to allow this type of exploitation. Unfortunately, I no longer have any illusions about many Republicans.

[happyslug]

4. Not under the 13th Amendment ot the Constitution

There is a big EXEMPTION for prisoners:

Amendment XIII

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxiii.html

[TayTay]

9. What does the State get back from big Agri-business for this

cheap labor supply. Any laws on the books that make the Agri-business concerns re-imburse the states for expenses, medical costs and so forth.

And does anyone doubt that this is an end run around both labor unions and the whole debate on 'illegal immigration.'

[wisteria]

10. Maybe I am wrong, but I read this to say, it is OK if it is done as a

form of punishment. For example, in my state, prisoners are seen frequently picking up and bagging the trash along the highway. They do this in groups and are carefully monitored. I do not know however, if they receive any compensation for this work.

[happyslug]

28. I was responding to the comment on what was Slavery

And technically Criminal forced to do work IS not Slavery Under the 13th Amendment (Nor is it involuntary Servitude which was added to outlaw peonage that still existed in New Mexico in 1866).

[Rocknrule]

5. This proves Republicans would bring back slavery if they could

[DBoon]

7. I know what they can call the places prisoners do forced labor

they can call them "Gulags"

[Virginia Dare]

25. Or "Laogai"

that's what they call them in China

:shrug:

[NNN0LHI]

8. Turn the Mexicans into criminals and after they get arrested put them...

...out in the fields to pick lettuce. And how exactly does this create more jobs for all of the Americans who want to go pick lettuce for a living? Rohrabacher is one of Lou Dobbs favorite guests. Has him on all the time. But Dobbs ain't racist?

Don

[RB TexLa]

12. ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!

[yellowcanine]

14. I believe the U.S. has criticized China for using prison labor in

factories. How is this materially different?

[mom cat]

27. It isn't. But hypocricy works like that.

[FloridaPat]

15. They get paid for work. Not much but something. They make

license plates. In some prisions he are telemarketers.

Maybe we should just make every ag place a u-pick-it. Want lettuce? Go get it yourself. Stores want lettuce? Send their employees or hire someone to pick it. Get Americans off their butts.

how about school kids? That would be their phys ed for the day. Learn how to grow and pick crops. Handy lesson the way this country is going right now.

[countryjake]

16. I knew it...as soon as the bill about turning 11 million into criminals..

passed the House, I figured that was what all those detention camps would be for. Forced labor camps! Capitalism at its most profitable!

The conservatives are pickin' up steam now!

[glitch]

17. That is the end game for the prison industrial sector.

Long time in the works, finally coming to full fruition.

[C_U_L8R]

18. Let me get this straight..... this dipshit republican

wants prison labor camps.... can you say Gulag ???
Does this turdball know what a concentration camp is ???

These asswipe fascist republican creeps need to be ridiculed right out of government.
Geeez. I mean WTF !!!! WTF !!!!

[dogday]

19. Since Prison Industries has been the number one

growing industry in this country, I could see that coming a mile away.... Working on the chain-gang......

[ismnotwasm]

22. I agree with you there

I had a friend who spent quite a bit of time in prison (made a great jailhouse lawyer)who tried explained the prison industry to me. As best he could anyway, because it involved interesting corporate set ups and is so wide spread (think not just lawyers, police, guards and judges, but who supplies and delivers prison food and does prison maintenence, prison equipment etc.)it becomes convuluted quickly. Multi-billion dollar industry.
Most of us don't pay any attention to prisons other that who is going, and for how long. But from what I understand, the whole system is at the least, borderline corrupt. I've talked to people who say it's completely corrupt, within the federal government anyway-- using illegal corporations to maintain prisons, but I don't have enough information. Maybe I'll do a little research....

[skids]

24. "see it coming"?

Not a flame, just pointing out -- it's been going on for decades now already.

Google "unicor"

http://www.bop.gov/inmate_programs/unicor.jsp

[Rainscents]

20. Why do you think, they been building mess detention center through-out?

Republicans had this on their agenda.

[Hubert Flottz]

21. That's the way Nazis operate!

Forced labor! Slavery!

[Hubert Flottz]

26. The Bush Family's past is tied to slave labor in Poland...

Silesian-American Corporation

Snip...

Polish Invasion

With the invasion of Poland in September, 1939 by the Nazis, the taxation and labour dispute between the Polish government and the German-American ownership of "Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation" was resolved. The major coal mining operations of "Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation" were located near the Polish town of Oswiecim. When the plan to use Soviet prisoners as forced labor in the mines failed to materialize, the Nazis began shipping Jews, communists, Romanche (gypsies) and other minority populations to the camp they had set up. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany's largest concentration and extermination camp facility, was established by order of Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler on 27 April 1940. I.G. Farben soon built a plant nearby to take advantage, not only of the nearby coal deposits but also of available slave labour. According to a Dutch intelligence agent, Prescott Bush managed a portion of the slave labor force in Poland. Nazi seizure of American assets was handled with the utmost care in the hope that America could be placated from joining the war. Control of American interests in CSSC and SAC between the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 and the investigations and seizure by the US government under the Trading With The Enemy Act in the autumn of 1942 is a murky picture at best and Bush's role in management of labour at Auschwitz has never been officially confirmed or denied. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030214.html by Cecil Adamsaddresses these claims with a great deal of skepticism. MORE...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian-American_Corporation



Heir to the Holocaust


snip...

By 1934, Hindenberg was dead and Hitler completely controlled Germany. In March, Hitler announced his plans for a vast new highway system. He wanted to connect the entire Reich with an unprecedented wide road design, especially around major ports. Hitler wanted to bring down unemployment but, more importantly, needed the new roads for speedy military maneuvers. Hitler also wanted to seriously upgrade Germany's military machine. Hitler ordered a'"rebirth of the German army" and contracted Thyssen and United Steel Works for the overhaul. Thyssen's steel empire was the cold steel heart of the new Nazi war machine that led the way to World War II, killing millions across Europe.

Thyssen's and Flick's profits soared into the hundreds of millions in 1934
and the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart and UBC in New York were overflowingwith money. Prescott Bush became managing director of UBC and handled the day-to-day operations of the new German economic plan. Bush's shares in UBC peaked with Hitler's new German order. But while production rose, cronyism did as well.

On March 19, 1934, Prescott Bush handed Averell Harriman a copy of that
day's New York Times. The Polish government was applying to take over Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation and Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Company from'"German and American interests" because of rampant "mismanagement, excessive borrowing, fictitious bookkeeping and gambling in securities." The Polish government required the owners of the company, which accounted for over 45% of Poland's steel production, to pay at least its full share of back taxes. Bush and Harriman would eventually hire attorney John Foster Dulles to help cover up any improprieties that might arise under investigative scrutiny.

Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939 ended the debate about Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation and Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Company. The Nazis knocked the Polish Government off Thyssen, Flick and Harriman's steel company and were planning to replace the paid workers. Originally Hitler promised Stalin they would share Poland and use Soviet prisoners as slaves in Polish factories. Hitler's promise never actually materialized and he eventually invaded Russia. More...

http://www.john-loftus.com/Thyssen.asp

[maveric]

23. I've heard this"Kick illegals out and make welfare people work the fields"

That'll teach them to be poor.