The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Pro-Illegal Agenda

Anti-illegal immigration activists need to be able to see the big picture to understand the lay of the illegal immigration battle ground. By the way, that battle ground is spelled “Globalization.” The translation of “Globalization” is spelled “North American Union.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of the major power brokers behind the pro-amnesty Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act.

Here’s what Source Watch said about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a powerful business lobbying group in the United States. Since its current CEO Thomas J. Donohue came to power in 1997 the Chamber has increasingly supported Republican candidates and is now a driving force supporting the policies of the George W. Bush administration.

According to the Chamber's website, the group's mission is to "advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility

Lobbying Spending
Political Money Line highlighted in February 2005 the Chamber and its Institute for Legal Reform reported combined spending of $53.38 million for lobbying the Executive and Legislative branches during 2004. According to the watchdog website, "This is the largest twelve-month amount reported spent by any group."

Here’s part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce agenda:
Amnesty for millions of illegal aliens!
Privatization of Social Security!
Privatization of US Public schools!
Legal Tort Reform: Diminishing the clout of trial lawyers and reducing the impact on class action lawsuits on businesses!
Pro Senator John McCain??? (see last blog cited below)

Amnesty for millions of illegal aliens

Here’s the U.S. Chamber of Commerce view:

Throughout our history, the dreams and hard work of immigrants have been a driving force behind America's success as a strong, prosperous nation. We need the continued contributions of these immigrants to grow and remain competitive.

See also the pro-amnesty Americans for Better Borders ( U.S. Chamber of Commerce “grassroots” coalition)

The goal of the Americans for Better Borders (ABB) coalition is to unite regional business organizations and a wide array of companies and national trade associations representing manufacturing, hospitality, tourism, transportation, recreation, and other industry sectors to work to ensure the efficient flow of goods and people across our borders while addressing national security concerns.

The ABB was originally founded in 1998 and was successful in achieving a workable compromise on Section 110 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

Be sure to checkout the membership of Americans for Better Borders

Others blogging about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Diggers Realm

Currently groups like the Chamber of Commerce try to spin the statistics and claim that things like the increase in crime and taxpayer costs can't be traced back to illegal aliens because they aren't tracked (thanks to clever laws put in place by proponents of illegal immigration not allowing prisons, law enforcement, schools and hospitals to ask for immigration status). . . .
The US Chamber of Commerce is for expedited immigration and was fully behind last year's and this year's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act that would give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

Freedom Folks

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has sided with plaintiffs in the suit against Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act.The federal chamber filed a brief on behalf of plaintiffs in the case in U.S. Middle District Court in Scranton Monday afternoon.

Immigration Watchdog

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has sided with plaintiffs in the suit against Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act.The federal chamber filed a brief on behalf of plaintiffs in the case in U.S. Middle District Court in Scranton Monday afternoon.

Is your state a leader or laggard?
The U.S. business community came out with their take last week on how states compare in educating our nation’s youth. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Center for American Progress and the American Enterprise Institute released their Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Effectiveness report that graded each state (including D.C.) on nine separate indicators of achievement, effectiveness, and management.

The report in many ways reflects the Chamber’s view that schools need to be run more like businesses, for example, by including a “flexibility” indicator based partially on how many charter schools state law allows and the amount of autonomy principals have. But it can be a useful resource to determine where your state compares to other states in other areas, too. Most of the grades will not be new to many BoardBuzz readers since they just incorporated rankings from previous report cards by Achieve, Inc, Education Next, Education Week, the Fordham Foundation, and NAEP into this one report. However, they did have one new and quite interesting indicator called “return on investment.”

Ex-NATO Commander Trades Military Power for Lobbying Power
General James L. Jone, who retired last month as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO forces in Europe, has joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a lobbyist," reports O'Dwyer's. He "will head the Institute for Energy, which is to present itself as a grassroots organization ." The new energy group will be similar to the Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform, which "seeks to diminish the clout of trial lawyers and reduce the impact on class action lawsuits on businesses." Jones will focus on global warming and try to "unify energy stakeholders behind a common strategy" for affordable and secure power, according to Chamber president Tom Donohue. Jones previously "served as military liaison to Congress and worked closely with" Senator John McCain. At NATO, Jones played a leading role in such "out-of-area missions" as Afghanistan.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email stiknstein-at-gmail-dot-com and let us know at what level you would like to participate.

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Walter Reed and Privatization: The Conservative Achilles’ heel

A few years ago I discovered that I was not a pure “conservative” through and through in the modern sense of the word. I have come to believe that the Libertarian type of free market mentality is not the cure all for every problem. I have come to believe that our founding fathers understood that government does have its proper place, and that unions have been necessary to protect workers from corporate abuses, and that rampant unchecked capitalism can produce as much evil as pure Marxism.

It all began when I started looking into the loss of homeowner rights through “voluntary” membership in corporate-ruled private Homeowner Associations. When over 90% of new housing developments in the USA now have HOAs, is membership still voluntary? Do most Americans even realize what civil rights and property rights they “voluntarily” give up under corporate rule? Then I began looking into the growing phenomena of the privatization of many of our governmental functions and services. The more I looked, the more red flags I saw.

The conservative view is that less government is the best government, but when government starts contracting out functions to private enterprise it really isn’t less government. It becomes a hellish labyrinth of public-private partnership legal entanglements where the legal boundaries of, rights, duties, and responsibilities, becomes confused, enmeshed, and oversight is often lost!

Now we must deal with the horrible debacle of the criminal treatment of our wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center – a case study in privatization gone horribly bad. Liberals are absolutely giddy over the fact that most conservatives are ignoring the story. If we conservatives have been ignoring this story it should be to our eternal shame!

The following is a sampling of liberal blogger articles about Walter Reed. Try to ignore the overblown hyperbolizing and focus on the real problem – privatization gone horribly bad! This is one area where liberals and conservatives should be able to agree – something must be done to curb this tendency towards privatization without proper oversight!!!

This is from The Liberal Avenger

When the Washington Post exposed the disgraceful conditions endured by maimed veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Washington Post coverage) (Military Times coverage), most conservative commentators ignored the story. A few went so far as to say that the soldiers were just a bunch of whiners. And some tried to use the story as a club to beat up on liberals who favor universal access to health care: . . .

Also, let’s be clear about what’s to blame for the current debacle. It wasn’t overzealous regulation that led to soldier’s rooms being filled with mold and infested with mice and cockroaches. It was lack of oversight that led to those conditions. And it wasn’t government bureaucracy that led to the deterioration of the hospital staff. It was privatization.
The Pentagon gave the contract to handle operations at Walter Reed to a company called IAP Worldwide Services, and conditions at Walter Reed immediately began to go downhill. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recently found that the decision to privatize Walter Reed led to an exodus of skilled personnel from the facility, and that IAP failed to replace these professionals: . . .

OK, make sure you’re sitting down, because this last bit of information is going to shock you: the president and CEO of IAP Worldwide Services are both former executives of KBR, which was a subsidiary of Halliburton. . .

This is from Allen L. Rolland’s Radio Web Log

" Everyone should pay attention especially to this paragraph in the Washington Post Walter Reed expose report:

The committee also released an internal Army memorandum reportedly written in September in which the Walter Reed garrison commander, Col. Peter Garibaldi, warned Weightman that "patient care services are at risk of mission failure" because of staff shortages brought on by privatization of the support work force at the hospital. '

The privatization of patient care services is responsible for a lot of the problem here. And so is the privatization of services for US troops in Iraq punishing them. Indeed, the privatization of guard duties through the hiring of firms like Blackwater caused all that trouble at Falluja in the first place.

KRB never delivered services to US troops with the speed and efficiency they deserved. The Bush-Cheney regime rewarded civilian firms with billions while they paid US GIs a pittance to risk their lives for their country. And then when they were wounded they were sent someplace with black mold on the walls. A full investigation into the full meaning of 'privatization' at the Pentagon for our troops would uncover epochal scandals. " . . .

This is from Shelly Lewis of The Huffington Post

A key issue to be resolved is how much Rumsfeld's obsession with privatizing the military contributed to the Walter Reed scandal. Fortunately both the House and Senate are conducting hearings, beginning Monday at Walter Reed.

General Weightman is scheduled to testify before Rep. Henry Waxman's Oversight committee. It took the threat of a subpoena to make it happen, since the Army initially tried to block him from appearing, but now he will show up.

The Army Times reports the committee wants to question Weightman about the impact of the Army's decision to award a five year, 120 million dollar contract to IAP World Services, which is run by Al Neffgen, former COO of Halliburton's KBR, and David Swindle (that's really his name), also formerly of KBR. The decision to bring in private contractors at Walter Reed led to a virtual mass exodus of experienced career staffers.

Waxman's committee released a memo from Garrison commander Peter Garibaldi to Weightman which:

"describes how the Army's decision to privatize support services at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center was causing an exodus of 'highly skilled and
experienced personnel.' ... According to multiple sources, the decision to
privatize support services at Walter Reed led to a precipitous drop in support
personnel at Walter Reed."

IAP was awarded the contract under questionable circumstances in the first place, involving the Army intervening on their behalf during the bidding process. The Bush war machine, led by Rumsfeld, was determined to replace skilled government employees with less experienced, but cheaper, private workers.

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"Walter Reed"

Targeting Illegal Immigration: It’s Just the Biggest Market

We traditionalists seem to be preaching to the choir while we practice more hand-wringing over our constantly unanswered question: Why is it that our government seems so unconcerned about this massive invasion of illegal immigrants?

Here’s the simple answer. It’s all about numbers: money, power, and population growth!!! The Hispanics have it and they are taking control. The business sector knows it, the political parties know it, and the rest of us are just waking up to these facts of life.

Note: The word “Hispanic” is a term denoting a derivation from Spain, its people and culture. It follows the same style of use as Anglo, which indicates a derivation of England and the English. . . . It is therefore not a racial term, although as used in the United States it often carries racial connotations. The term was first adopted in the United States by the administration of Richard Nixon[1] and has since been used as a broad form of classification in the U.S. census, local and federal employment, mass media, and business market research.

The problem with Hispanic market research is that there is no ethical concern as to whether the Hispanic populations they are targeting are U.S. citizens, legal immigrants, or illegal aliens, as long as they are spending disposable income. And the Hispanic population as a whole has plenty to spend. Additionally, much of the Hispanic population is in sympathy with the “plight” of the illegal immigrants.

If it wasn’t so sad it would be amusing to watch the antics of both the Democratic and Republican parties in their feeble attempts to pander to the growing Hispanic clout. It’s obvious that both parties are playing the appeasement game – a game always played by the weak and defeated. Democrats, the most obvious of the panderers, expect to substantially enlarge their base with the “undying loyalty” of the high birth rate low income new immigrants. The legal status of these immigrants matters little to the Democrats. They foresee an open-border sort of non-nation multicultural America of the future where every culture will prosper in their balkanized socialistic utopia. Utopia for the left means destroying every last vestige of nationhood and keeping divisive racial fires burning.

The Republicans, the more pragmatic of the two parties, are literally banking on capitalism through globalization and privatization as a way to ensure America’s economic growth by focusing on Hispanic economic clout. Once most of our government has been successfully globalized and privatized, it really won’t matter what we call this piece of ground, or what language we speak. Basically, this once proud nation will be just another multicultural market place that the Republicans intend to control. Republicans know that Utopia is a myth and they don’t care a hoot about race as long as disposable income remains the only unifying force of the land.

But what about the great majority of American citizens who have expressed their grave concerns about illegal immigration to their legislators and to congress, don’t we matter? Isn’t it important that our laws be obeyed instead of rewarding law-breakers who have violated our borders? Isn’t our language worth protecting? Isn’t our American history and culture worth saving from hordes of illegal immigrants who have no intention of assimilation, and who have demonstrated that our laws only apply to us “Nationalistic” suckers who call ourselves “U.S. Citizens”?

The answer is pretty clear. No, friends, we don’t matter much any more. If what we think about this great nation did matter, we would have plenty of voices in congress and in our state legislatures echoing what We The People are demanding. Our law-abiding voices have fallen upon deaf ears.

It’s really all up to us now – each of us acting individually. It’s not enough to blog every day and to feel oh so self-satisfied that we have reached a few like-minded people that actually did bother to read our entire post. We’ve got to make our demands known to our elected officials every day. We’ve got to contact the media every day and demand that our voices be heard. We’ve got to be out there talking to people every day. We’ve go to make a lot of noise every single day.

For those of us who are too timid or too complacent to bother, here are a few facts that spell out how this nation’s demographics are changing and will drastically change in the next few years:

Hispanics: Minority group with most disposable income
The Selig Center for Economic Growth recently released its annual report, "The Multicultural Economy," that showed Hispanic spending power in 2007 is $863 billion in 2007, the most of any other minority group and up 300 percent since 1990 -- according to an article on RTO.com. . .

Undocumented immigrant labor currently accounts for an estimated 5-8 percent of the total U.S. workforce. One million of the 2.5 million new jobs created in the U.S. in 2004 went to immigrants. Over 56 percent of all immigrant workers in the U.S. are Hispanic (37 percent of these workers are Mexican). . .

Read THE BUSINESS CASE FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM (Talking Points)

This is from Hispanic Trending (A Latino Marketing & Advertising Blog)

ATHENS, Ga. - Disposable income controlled by minorities will continue growing at a faster rate than that of white households at least through 2009, according to a study released by the University of Georgia . . .

There is some good news to report.
Second- and third-generation Hispanics tend to favor English

Advertisers' efforts to reach Hispanic consumers are becoming more targeted, and language is a major factor, according to a new U.S. Hispanic Media Market: Projections to 2010 report issued by HispanTelligence®, the research division of Hispanic Business Inc.

· Advertisers spent more than $3.3 billion to market products to U.S. Hispanics in 2005, a 6.8 percent increase from 2004.
· While traditionally Spanish-language advertising was used to reach Hispanics, new data indicate second- and third-generation Hispanics tend to favor English.
· As a result, ad spending growth in some sectors of the U.S. Hispanic market is slowing as advertisers debate which Hispanic demographic to target.

"The shift in language preference is forcing advertisers to look beyond the monolinguistic and homogeneous stereotypes of Hispanic consumers," states Juan Solana, Chief Economist at HispanTelligence®. "Advertisers are becoming more aware of the complexity of this demographic and are refining their messaging to ensure relevance."

The U.S. Hispanic Media Market: Projections to 2010 report highlights the latest research on the top Hispanic DMAs, the top advertisers in the Hispanic market, purchasing power by language preference, and top Hispanic ad agencies, as well as trends in radio, television, print, and Internet advertising to reach Hispanics. The report can be purchased online at U.S. Hispanic Media Market: Projections to 2010

As a result, the media landscape has begun to change, with new publications and television networks, like Sí TV, aimed at the English-speaking and bilingual Hispanic consumer. FOX and ABC, today, the third and fourth most-watched television networks, are in front of Univision's sister Spanish-language station, TeleFutura. Future growth will come from the acculturating segments within the Hispanic population, not just from the recent arrivals, who tend to be Spanish-language dominant, and who have characterized the paradigm for so long.

If this is the case, it's worth noting that businesses and corporations that continue to force Spanish as a primary means of communication can only be targeting the new and mostly illegal arrivals.

The Latino Small-Business Boom
Hispanics in the United States are opening businesses at a rate that is three times as fast as the national average, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau. . .

A June 2002 Zogby poll of Mexicans found that a substantial majority of Mexican citizens believe that southwestern America is rightfully the territory of Mexico and that Mexicans do not need the permission of the U.S. to enter. The poll found that 58 percent of Mexicans agree with the statement, "The territory of the United States' southwest rightfully belongs to Mexico." Zogby said 28 percent disagreed, while another 14 percent said they weren't sure.percent said they weren't sure.

Read Chicano Nationalism, Revanchism and the Aztlan Myth

Note: Revanchism (from French revanche, "revenge") is a term used since the 1870s to describe a political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war. Revanchism draws its strength from patriotic and retributionist thought and is often motivated by economic or geo-political factors. Extreme revanchist ideologues often represent a hawkish stance, suggesting that desired objectives can be reclaimed in the positive outcome of another war. . . .
Modern revanchist politics often center around certain areas of historic competition and claims of ownership, as in the case of Carpathian Ruthenia and Israel/Palestine. As part of the recurring immigration debates in the United States, anti-illegal immigration groups have raised the specter of a "reconquista" (reconquest) of the American Southwest by Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. Much of the Southwest was originally part of Mexico, prior to being annexed by the United States in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. There has never been a significant movement among Mexicans or Mexican-Americans to return the conquered lands to Mexico, although anti-illegal immigration groups have argued that there is an erasure of the borders between these two countries due to massive immigration and separatist sentiments allegedly held by new immigrants. Statements made by the National Council of La Raza about "resettling" the mythical kingdom of Aztlan have helped to make the immigration debate more tense still.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revanchism

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