Democratic Diva

Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have finally sung their Kumbayas. Here are some of the political-strategy clichés of Unity Day uncensored and for your enjoyment.

Somehow though, even with all of the made-for-TV moments I was moved. Unity is something both candidates needed, and while the news networks were still airing the warm and fuzzies to prove it, this message landed in my inbox from the Clinton campaign:

“On February 8, in Unity, New Hampshire, 107 people voted for me, and 107 people voted for Senator Barack Obama.

Today, Barack and I were in Unity to celebrate a unified Democratic Party focused on electing him the next president. I was proud to stand with him today, and I will do whatever I can to help his campaign between now and November.

Senator McCain and the Republicans may have hoped that we wouldn’t join forces like this. They may have wished that we wouldn’t stand united to fight this battle with everything we’ve got.

But I’ve got news for them: We are one party; we are one America; and we are not going to rest until we take back our country and put it once again on the path to peace, prosperity, and progress in the 21st century.”

I think we should have Unity Day every year.

No silly, not the kind he practices.  Rest assured that the hassling of poor brown people by his thugs will continue unabated.  

I’m talking about the story that’s had our local news and the sports world abuzz.

PHOENIX (AP)—Shaquille O’Neal will lose his special deputy’s badge in Maricopa County because of language he used in a rap video that mocks former teammate Kobe Bryant.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the Phoenix Suns center’s use of a racially derogatory word and other foul language left him no choice. Arpaio made Shaq a special deputy in 2006 and promoted him to colonel of his largely ceremonial posse later that year.

“I want his two badges back,” Arpaio told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Because if any one of my deputies did something like this, they’re fired. I don’t condone this type of racial conduct.”

I find so many jaw-dropping things in those paragraphs that, well, my jaw is dropped. He had two badges? You can be a Colonel in the Posse? Are there Generals? Is Joe the 5 star General?

But the salient point of the whole thing is that Joe Arpaio does not tolerate racism in the people who work for him. However, it’s a very narrow definition of the term that pertains to a specific form of racism: Wealthy African American athlete on Wealthy African American athlete. Joe recognized what a virulent, and growing problem this is and took swift steps to nip it in the bud before it swept the nation. Whew. Catastrophe averted.

What this latest example does for me is reinforce my firm belief that Joe’s grasp of public relations is inversely proportional to his actual law enforcement ability. This particular instance is breathtaking in it’s sheer genius-ness. Joe has now innoculated himself against future charges of racism because he can point to the Shaq incident. He will use it to shut down reporters from this day forward. His legions of fans, many of whom are the kind of people for whom the epitome of racism is black people being able to say n****r while they can’t, must be swelling with satisfaction.   

Oy.

I had a long drive in the Valley this afternoon so I was able to listen to most of Desert Politics on KPHX 1480.    Todd Landfried is the host.  Immigration is Todd’s pet project so he made that the topic today, as he does quite often lately.  I’m okay with that, because everyone should have a pet project, and Todd is a sharp guy who does his homework and he offers a much-needed alternate view to the ubiquitous chatter from the Joe Arpaio Appreciation Society and He-Man Brown People Haters Club that pollutes the Phoenician airwaves 24-7.  

That said, there’s something about the way Todd approaches the issue that seems at odds with what I’ve come to believe are fundamental, and non-negotiable, progressive values.  He seems to have unquestioningly accepted certain premises that come straight out of the corporate cheap labor lobby.   He’s definitely not alone in it.   The gentleman he was interviewing, an academic from Princeton who heads a study group on immigration seems to have drunk the same koolaid as well.  

They were doing fine when they were debunking myths about undocumented immigrants committing crimes and bringing diseases and all that other silly stuff that the xenophobes fixate on obsessively.   Also, I’m in agreement with amnesty (yeah, I said it) for people who have been here for years,  particularly those who were brought here as children.   If someone has a problem with that, then we are at an impasse and will have to agree to disagree.

Where they lost me is when they essentially justified the continuation of an underclass of cheap, exploitable slave labor.   Using the stock phrases like “jobs Americans won’t do”, “labor shortage”, “not taking jobs from Americans”,  “it’s just work that needs to be done”, Todd and the good Dr. from Princeton (perhaps unwittingly) advanced the cause of the rich people who would be delighted to turn the entire globe into their personal sweatshop.   Concerns over entire factories being staffed by migrants were brushed away by Todd and his guest with the insistence that Americans were getting jobs supervising and managing those workforces.   I’m not sure how that works out since those jobs only go to a handful of people.   (In a previous show, Todd made the same claim about construction crews, which used to employ native-born workers at good wages in mostly unionized jobs, but are now mostly low-wage, low-skill migrant workers.)   I was waiting for the claim that American workers are being so busy retrained for better jobs or getting college degrees (demonstrably false, as higher education is rapidly becoming less affordable and accessible) that they wouldn’t be wanting those jobs anyway. 

Yeah, they probably wouldn’t.  Especially since many of the jobs that undocumented workers are doing are so poorly paid, unsafe, and wretched that no one in their right mind would want to do them.   Unless, of course, they were poor and desperate and had their economy decimated by trade policies.  Policies designed by and for the cheap labor lobby. 

What really got to me, as Todd and the researcher matter-of-factly and in modulated tones, discussed the need for comprehensive immigration reform, complete with a guest-worker program to legalize and codify quasi-slavery, was their blithe indifference to what it really was they were talking about.  The researcher guy described how difficult it was for large meatpacking plants to retain employees and how most of these facilities have a 100% annual turnover rate, despite paying higher than minimum wage. 

Now, the first thing that popped into my mind was what kind of an unmitigated hellhole must a workplace BE to lose 100% of it’s workers every year?!  

This was not a question that Todd or his guest seemed inclined to pose (the “repetitive” nature of the work was mentioned), as the researcher went on to explain how this miserable industry would need to continue to have quasi-slaves fed to it in the US or else they’d *gasp!* move their operations offshore.

The same is true for agriculture, apparently, with researcher guy reporting that some farms are moving south of the border because of anti-immigration sentiment to the more exploitation-friendly fields of Mexico.  But actually, there’s still exploitation aplenty on our fruited plains.  Farming has long been a mainstay of migrant workers here in the US, but the percentage of undocumented immigrants doing unskilled work has exploded over the past 2 decades.  In 1989, 7% of farm workers were illegal immigrants.  By 2000 the number was estimated to be over 50%.  What happened?   Farming has always been tough work, but work and living conditions for the people who toil to bring us our produce have become unspeakably bad in the past 2 decades, according to numerous immigrant and labor advocacy groups.   They’re “jobs Americans won’t do” because the people that hire for them have made damn sure of it. 

So why aren’t people like Todd, the gentleman from Princeton, and other progressives screaming about this?   Why are we ceding the moral high ground on the rights and dignity of workers to the Russell Pearces and Joe Arpaios?   Because that’s what we’re doing when we dismiss the Americans at the bottom of the pay scale, who have seen their wages stagnate, and who are competing with illegal immigrants for jobs whether Todd wants to believe it or not.   When you have reports of hotels in California replacing African-American workers for Hispanic immigrants (while unemployment for African-American males is double that of any other group), it’s time to acknowledge that something is awry, without the accusation that you must be about to join the Minutemen.  

It’s also what we do when we spout corporate talking points about the “need” for exploitable slave labor, rather than denouncing the fact that it exists, anywhere.   There is simply no excuse for slave wages, unsafe working conditions, extortion, child labor, union-busting, and people going without adequate housing, sanitation, and health care.   I don’t care if the workers are in Mexico, Guatemala, China, Indonesia, or Chandler, Arizona.    It is not okay.   Not.  Okay.    And if you think for one minute that any “comprehensive immigration policy” courtesy of Big Business is going to change those working conditions, as they exist here in the US, in any significant way I’ve got serious news for you. 

Obviously, the answer lies in dramatically transforming the global economic system so I don’t pretend to offer any solutions as to how we’re going to do that.  But I think we, as progressives, need to remember just who it is we fight for and what principles we hold.   A truly progressive immigration policy is the one that places the interests of workers first and the corporatocracy second.    

You have to keep reminding yourself it’s satire because it’s so true.

http://www.imvotingrepublican.com/

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I will still be visiting and commenting but I am taking my words back to where I started!

Dana

It’s like whoever created this was reading my mind.   For some reason, that monotonous dance jam from the mid-90s “Short D*ck Man” has been known to enter the soundtrack of my mind whenever I’ve seen Sheriff Joke on TV or in person.

He’s using the clean version, “Short Short Man” but it still works.    Enjoy.   Share it with a friend or twelve. 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GdysMiysXLw

Hi Divas!

So, with all the discussion and rehashing of the primary, a lot has been said recently about the sexism that has been directed at Hillary by the media.  It’s certainly justified.  It was evident in everything from those disgusting Hillary nutcrackers to unflattering charicatures to the commentary of dickwad male cable pundits.   Hey, attention smarmy male newscasters of America:  Hillary Clinton was not auditioning to be your girlfriend, mommy, or Hooter’s waitress.   She was a US Senator running for President and your issues with her voice, laugh, or how she reminded you of your ex-wife or made your balls shrink up are YOUR personal problem and had nothing to do with her qualifications. 

However, there is a running theme in the reactions of some women I’ve encountered, both on the blogosphere and in real life, that I find kind of troubling.  I’ve heard and read many comments from women along the lines of “I’m just so shocked by how sexist and demeaning the media is toward Hillary Clinton!  As a woman, I find this really appalling!  We should really do something about all this sexism and misogyny in the media!!”  I know this sentiment is heartfelt and that these women are genuinely shocked and dismayed.   Good for them for wanting to take action.  (more…)