Becuase Everything Else Sucks

The Daily Connect: 03/05/07

By Manila Ryce
Published Monday, March 5th, 2007, 2:52 pm
Filed under: The Daily Connect, Personal Posts

  • Colorado, facing a shortage of migrant workers after passing tough laws against immigration, is now using inmate slave labor to fill the demand. With the highest rate of incarceration in the world, and a higher percentage of blacks in US jails than South Africa at the height of apartheid, America is once again relying on slave labor to float its economy. As Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington said, “If they can’t get slaves from Mexico, they want them from the jails.” Of course, “tough on crime” patriots are fully supportive of this program. Afterall, what’s more American than slavery?
  • Venezuela has inaugurated a flight from Caracas to Tehran which will also travel to Damascus, Syria. Chavez seeks to counter US sanctions on Iran and Syria by strengthening economic and military cooperation between the nations. Abdullah Zifan, Iran’s ambassador to Venezuela, said Chavez “is much loved in our country, and our people want to come here to get to know this land.” To further counter American policies, all White Anglo-Saxon Protestant passengers will be frisked, probed, and harassed by airport security.
  • The former Defense Minister of Canada is demanding that world governments disclose secret alien technology from UFO crashes to stop global warming. He reasons that such advanced propulsion would eliminate the need for burning fossil fuels. According to the Drake equation, there are between 1,000 and 1 million advanced civilizations in our galaxy. Guess how many of them still use diesel powered blenders.
  • James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, and two dozen other co-signers have sent a letter to the National Association of Evangelicals, demanding they silence or fire Rev. Richard Cizik for urging evangelicals to take global warming seriously. No, seriously.
  • A follow-up to this story from January, the White House had approved the firing of 7 US attorneys who were not doing enough to implement the administration’s policies on immigration, firearms, and other issues. At least five of the prosecutors were presiding over public corruption investigations when they were fired by the Justice Department for no reason.
  • Last week I joked about a connection between the incompetence of Walter Reed and FEMA. Evan Derkacz over at AlterNet has removed any doubt of my psychic abilities with a video from The Situation Room establishing the connection. My skills still need to be honed, but I see the honing occurring in the near future. I also feel a Jamaican accent coming on.

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4 Responses to “The Daily Connect: 03/05/07”

  1. I hardly consider prison work as slavery. They’re working off their debt to society, in both money (as we have to pay for their incarceration) and as a punishment for their wrongs.

    kaziglubey
    03/6/07 at 1:53 pm

  2. @kaziglubey
    With the argument that most people in prison don’t belong there aside, I would argue that being separated from the rest of society is already punishment. Community service and prison time are two different punishments. If a prisoner works to fill someone else’s pockets, that labor ought to take time off of his sentence. When you force someone to work against their will for the financial benefit of a corporation it’s called slave labor, not justice.

    Manila Ryce
    03/6/07 at 4:32 pm

  3. Since the article requires a registration, I can’t read it. However, I’d like to know where their labor money is going. Is it lining some corporate pockets? If so, I’d agree with you. If, however, it’s going to pay for the costs required to house and feed them, then I have nothing against it.

    Also, are they forced to work in these camps? Or is it voluntary? I had a friend who was serving a prison sentence and had the opportunity to do work as a forest fire fighter, although he got paid about $1 per hour. He said it was better than sitting around in his cell all day.

    kaziglubey
    03/6/07 at 11:31 pm

  4. @kaziglubey
    I don’t really see how any inmate labor could go towards the cost of prison. In this case, the inmates are working for the agricultural industry for 60 cents a day. Immigration advocates on both sides of the issue seem to be against this plan.

    Manila Ryce
    03/7/07 at 1:31 am

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