Postcards - and video - from the edge

http://forthecause.us/

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CNN Lou Dobbs -

video:Border Patrol in Disarray, No Confidence in Chief David Aguilar

Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar is the target of an unfair labor practices claim filed by the union representing more than 11,000 agents responsible for securing the nation's borders. Last month, the National Border Patrol Council disclosed the union leadership unanimously approved a no confidence in Chief Aguilar. After the vote, the union says Border Patrol officials visited field offices ostensibly to improve communication between headquarters and the field. During those visits, they asked individual agents if they had confidence in Aguilar's leadership abilities. A tactic the union says was clearly designed to intimidate employees. T. J. Bonner of the National Border Patrol Council said: "Border Patrol management is going around the country at taxpayers' expense intimidating employees, going around essentially saying, here's a can of gas, here's a box of matches, anyone interested in committing career suicide?" Border Patrol agents say every time White House officials speak of guest workers or amnesty, the flow of illegal traffic across the border surges. Michael Cutler, a former INS official, said: "These men and women who are all that stands between us and the lawlessness that we're seeing increasing in Mexico don't believe that they're being supported by their own bosses."

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CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight:

Proposal to Limit H1-B Visas to be Offered as Part of Senate Amnesty Bill

Corporation continually abuse H1-B visas that allow so-called high technology foreign workers into the country to meet a strong demand. Sixty-five thousand of those visas are issued a year. But the jobs are far from temporary. They displace American workers. They pay less than the prevailing wage. And most of them aren't in high technology. Now two senators are demanding several corporations explain just how they're using those visas. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, Republican Senator Charles Grassley are investigating claims made by Lou Dobbs that foreign companies are abusing the temporary visa system. Those companies include Indian companies Infosys, Wipro and Tata. A measure aimed at limiting their use of H1-B visas will be offered as an amendment to the immigration legislation that is being pushed in the Senate if the White House and the Democratic leadership have their way on that issue.

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CNN Lou Dobbs -

video: Why the Amnesty Agenda Has So Many Opponents on Capitol Hill

Last May, the Senate passed an immigration bill 62-36. But that legislation was branded "amnesty" and went nowhere in the House. That's not stopping Senate leader Harry Reid from using it as the starting point for this year's debate. Critics say it was a bad bill then and it's a bad bill now. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said: "Last year's bill was a fatally flawed piece of legislation. It had no mention, no movement whatsoever to a skill-based immigration system. It paid Social security benefits out for people with illegal work histories. It would have tripled the current legal immigration rate in America." Twenty-three Republicans sided with Democrats to pass the bill last year. But times have changed. Some supporters like Senator Bill Frist have since left Congress. Others like Arlen Specter are now threatening to filibuster the bill if it comes up again. Roy Beck of NumbersUSA said: "I think there definitely will be a filibuster attempt, and I think there's a better chance than even that the filibuster will hold, that this bill will not be brought to the floor for debate." Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) says he learned amnesty does not work. He voted against last year's Senate bill, but he did vote for amnesty in 1986, when there were only three million illegal aliens in the United States. "You know what I found out? If you rewarding illegality, you get more of it. And now we have a 20 million illegal alien problem." A mistake he and some of his Senate colleagues don't want to repeat.

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CNN Lou Dobbs -

video: Meet the New Axis of Evil: Democratic Leadership, White House, Corporate America, Special Interest Groups

Democrats rode into power in Congress last November on promises they would stand up to the White House's conduct of the war in Iraq and stand up to the White House in the war against the middle class. But now the Democratic leadership is backing down on the very issues that helped get them elected. A secret deal with House leadership and the Bush administration advances trade deals with Peru and Panama, and may set the stage for an extension of the president's so-called Fast Track Trade Authority. Never mind that Democrats campaigned against the president's trade agenda. Last week, six House Democrats reminded their party that, "Many of the newly elected freshmen campaigned on a platform of ensuring a significant change of course on the past Bush trade policy." Congressman Mike Michaud (R-ME), who worked in a paper mill for 28 years, said: "For leadership to cut a deal with the White House is very concerning, because those of us who have been involved in the trade issue, who have been dramatically affected by trade, were not part of that so-called deal." Six million union members opposed that deal cut between the White House and the House leadership.
[More information: See related video clip featuring an interview with David Sirota, author of the new book "Hostile Takeover: Big Money Conquering Our Government and How We Can Take It Back."]

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Bloomberg:

Daimler Hands Chrysler to Cerberus, Ends Nine-Year Investment

DaimlerChrysler AG ended a nine-year investment in money-losing Chrysler, handing control of the carmaker to private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP and getting out from under $19 billion of retirement benefits. Cerberus will put up $7.4 billion with most of the money invested in Chrysler, while DaimlerChrysler will pay out a net amount of $650 million, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said today in a statement. The agreement gives Cerberus 80.1 percent of Chrysler, while the Germans, who paid $36 billion for the automaker in 1998, will retain 19.9 percent. Chrysler lost $680 million last year and ceded market share to Toyota Motor Corp. while relying too much on the stagnant North American market. DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche failed to keep the U.S. carmaker profitable after completing a reorganization he began as head of the business. Cerberus has a record of slashing costs at operations it acquires, and some analysts say a Cerberus-owned Chrysler could move much more aggressively to cut labor costs, prune Chrysler's crowded dealer network in the U.S. and shift investment to developing markets overseas.
[Our take: The new owners of Chrysler think the automaker can survive if they bust the union, layoff employees, scale down operations in the U.S. and outsource manufacturering to overseas labor markets -- all to reach equalibrium with foreign car companies. Competition through quality and innovation? Evidently, these are not on the roadmap.]

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CNN Lou Dobbs -

video: Democrats Cave in to Special Interests on Trade Deal - All the Talk About 'Fair Trade' Was Just Campaign Rhetoric to Fool Voters

House Democratic leaders are facing rising criticism over their approval of a compromise fair trade deal that will hurst the middle class. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced what she called call a breakthrough, a new baseline for labor and environmental standards. She said: "Free trade must be fair trade. For that reason, we could only go forward because of the inclusion of basic internationally-recognized labor and environmental standards in our trade agreements that have been a long-standing Democratic priority." The compromise paves the way for trade agreements with Peru and Panama. The congressional deal is being praised by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and the National Retail Federation. But trade watchdog groups believe key Democrats, including Ways and Means chair Charlie Rangel, rolled over. Lori Wallach of Public Citizens said: "The standards are great. But it's frosting on a rotten cake that's going to lead to more job loss and downward pressure on our wages. It's totally unacceptable for our working Americans." Critics say the new labor and environmental concessions are unenforceable. Alan Tonelson of the U.S. Business & Industry Council said: They won't change U.S. trade flows one iota, and therefore won't create a single new job in this country and won't reduce the U.S. trade deficit by a single cent." The underlying problems with the trade agreements still exist. The deals are still structured to give companies a powerful incentive to move offshore, even with the new labor standards.
[Our take: Before last year's mid-term elections, we stated that the Democrats really didn't care about reforming anything. They just wanted to brush Republicans aside for their turn to feed at the public trough. So far, the Democratic majority has talked a good game, but not delivered on a single reform; not even the hike in the mininum wage, which was high on their list of priorities for the first 100 days. Again, we call for constant churn in the House and Senate to break the stranglehold special interests have on the legislative process. By continually voting out incumbents, their longstanding relationships with special interests will be broken and, with constant churn, there will be little time to solidify new relationships. The alternative is that we will continue to get the government we deserve.]