Ga.’s farm-labor crisis going exactly as planned
Gov. Nathan Deal signs a tough illegal-immigration bill on May 13, with House Speaker David Ralston, left, and bill sponsor Rep. Matt Ramsey, right, looking on.
After enactment of House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, state officials appear shocked to discover that HB 87 is, well, driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia.
It might almost be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
The resulting manpower shortage has forced state farmers to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.
Barely a month ago, you might recall, Gov. Nathan Deal welcomed the TV cameras into his office as he proudly signed HB 87 into law. Two weeks later, with farmers howling, a scrambling Deal was forced to order a hasty investigation into the impact of the law he had just signed, as if all this had come as quite a surprise to him.
The results of that investigation have now been released. According to survey of 230 Georgia farmers conducted by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, farmers expect to need more than 11,000 workers at some point over the rest of the season, a number that probably underestimates the real need, since not every farmer in the state responded to the survey.
“The agriculture industry is the number one economic engine in Georgia and it is my sincere hope to find viable and law-abiding solutions to the current problem our farmers face,” Deal said in announcing the findings. In the meantime, Deal proposes that farmers try to hire the 2,000 unemployed criminal probationers estimated to live in southwest Georgia.
Somehow, I suspect that would not be a partnership made in heaven for either party.
According to the survey, more than 6,300 of the unclaimed jobs pay an hourly wage of $7.25 to $8.99, or an average of roughly $8 an hour. Over a 40-hour work week in the South Georgia sun, that’s $320 a week, before taxes, although most workers probably put in considerably longer hours. Another 3,200 jobs pay $9 to $11 an hour. And while our agriculture commissioner has been quoted as saying Georgia farms provide “$12, $13, $14, $16, $18-an-hour jobs,” the survey reported just 169 openings out of more than 11,000 that pay $16 or more.
In addition, few of the jobs include benefits — only 7.7 percent offer health insurance, and barely a third are even covered by workers compensation. And the truth is that even if all 2,000 probationers in the region agreed to work at those rates and stuck it out — a highly unlikely event, to put it mildly — it wouldn’t fix the problem.
Given all that, Deal’s pledge to find “viable and law-abiding solutions” to the problem that he helped create seems naively far-fetched. Again, if such solutions existed, they should have been put in place before the bill ever became law, because this impact was entirely predictable and in fact intended.
It’s hard to envision a way out of this. Georgia farmers could try to solve the manpower shortage by offering higher wages, but that would create an entirely different set of problems. If they raise wages by a third to a half, which is probably what it would take, they would drive up their operating costs and put themselves at a severe price disadvantage against competitors in states without such tough immigration laws. That’s one of the major disadvantages of trying to implement immigration reform state by state, rather than all at once.
The pain this is causing is real. People are going to lose their crops, and in some cases their farms. The small-town businesses that supply those farms with goods and services are going to suffer as well. For economically embattled rural Georgia, this could be a major blow.
In fact, with a federal court challenge filed last week, you have to wonder whether state officials aren’t secretly hoping to be rescued from this mess by the intervention of a judge. But given how the Georgia law is drafted and how the Supreme Court ruled in a recent case out of Arizona, I don’t think that’s likely.
We’re going to reap what we have sown, even if the farmers can’t.
– Jay Bookman
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619 comments Add your comment
josef
June 14th, 2011
7:06 pm
louis
Pretty much in your corner there…carpetbag scalawags of Yankee corporate imperialism,,,
Leg lamp…
I prefer the Chilean, New Zealand, and South African Granny Smiths…and I feel ever so good about keeping the Bolivian and Peruvian, Maori, and Zimbabwean migrant laborers at work…
The Leg Lamp is a "major award"......
June 14th, 2011
7:07 pm
Good little liberal
June 14th, 2011
7:03 pm
Well, you DID quote the source to end all sources…Wiki. Perhaps an ancestor of JB Stoner was a journalist?
Real Scooter
June 14th, 2011
7:08 pm
AmVet
June 14th, 2011
6:47 pm
AS usual,your music choices are awesome! I mean :killer”
The Leg Lamp is a "major award"......
June 14th, 2011
7:08 pm
josef
June 14th, 2011
7:06 pm
LOL! Great way to end the day. Have a good one, all.
AmVet
June 14th, 2011
7:09 pm
Lamp, LOL.
Not sure about the prettier women. There were a ton of them up north too.
And hands down, the nirvana of babedom is California.
I’ve never seen anything even close…
“And the liberal media told everyone…”
Oh you mean the corporate owned media? Those bastions of far left liberalism like General Electric and News Corp?
Gawd, you crack me up…
Keep Up the Good Fight!
June 14th, 2011
7:10 pm
josef… Al Smith was the national Dem presidential candidate in 1928. Smith rejected the Klan along with Underwood who ran in 1924. Underwood proposed that the Dems adopt an anti-Klan plan in its official platform. The measure lost by 1 vote after a wild brawl. All 24 Alabama delegates voted to condemn the Klan. http://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec46det.html
The Leg Lamp is a "major award"......
June 14th, 2011
7:11 pm
Truth Squad
June 14th, 2011
7:05 pm
Okay, I can’t resist. Just one more post.
“it’ll be another generation before we see a Republican in the White House.”
I believe that’s what the Dems were crowing back in 1976. Then again, maybe it’s true if your definition of a generation is 4 years.
josef
June 14th, 2011
7:11 pm
GLL
And that very same Forrest begged the Feds to quash the Klan, called for the establishment of professional schools for freedmen to train doctors, lawyers, etc, and fought tirelessly (and successfully) to stop the disenfranchisement of Memphis’ black voters, and made the point to hire at equal wage and in all positions freedmen in his railroads…an intriguing fellow, he, when you break the trivial pursuit, bubble-in, Yankee Sharia version and take a closer look at who he was and especially in time and place…
Good little liberal
June 14th, 2011
7:12 pm
Truth Squad
Minorities usually vote FOR something. They are getting the worst of this economy. You said that Obama wasn’t screwing them. Well, who is? There’s not a Republican with the ability to pass a law in the entire city of Washington.
Republicans want our country back. We want the economy to be a priority. We DO NOT want high gas prices to hold down consumption of gas. We DO NOT want our military supporting Islamic mobs in the Northern Africa. We are motivated while minorities are not. What would they be motivated about? the worst economy for them in history? More minorities in abject, generational poverty than ever before?
I’ll never under estimate the most powerful political machine in the world, but getting the vote out is going to be a huge uphill climb for Democrats this time.
md
June 14th, 2011
7:12 pm
“Not sure about the prettier women. There were a ton of them up north too”
But they talk funny…….a la Palin and Bachman
I couldn’t listen to that 24/7………….
Mighty Righty
June 14th, 2011
7:12 pm
Truth Squad
June 14th, 2011
7:05 pm
As of today, Republicans out register Democrats including all of the minorities you mention. Listen to Obama, his confidence is gone. Yesterday, he said, his family didn’t care whether or not he was president, and the thought there was still a “chance” that he could get his programs aproved. Those are the words of a man no longer sure.
Mighty Righty
June 14th, 2011
7:14 pm
Enter your comments here
Uncle Jed
June 14th, 2011
7:14 pm
Lest we forget the fuel cost factor when discussing the price of food. And who came up with the plan to grow, harvest, and then burn food to fuel gasoline engines? Damn, that seems stupid.
pogo
June 14th, 2011
7:14 pm
And Jay, when I talk about the South Georgia barons I am speaking of one of the local pinestraw barons who is a state representative who has made a fortune off of the cheap labour provided by illegal immigration. And he is a supposed Republican. Of course he isn’t alone. Just as he has done, there many farmers and hispanic employers who have made fortunes based upon the slave labor wages given to illegals. And they (the employers) do not have to foot the bill for their illegal employees social needs such as healthcare, WIC and foodstamps. Their workers live 10 or more in a house trailer meanwhile their employers live in mansions. So before you speak of the downtrodden illegals remember, they are being abused not only by our greedy farmers and business owners but also by their own. The only answer is to control illegal immigration because if we don’t, those that come here illegally will be taken advantage of and we taxpayers will pay one hell of a cost that we cannot afford and those that employ them will get off easy. If squash or onnions or watermelons cost 0.50 cents more a pound, then so be it. That is small change compared to the social costs that these people present to our society. We would actually be doing them a favour in enforcing our own immigration laws.
md
June 14th, 2011
7:14 pm
“it’ll be another generation before we see a Republican in the White House.”
I always get a chuckle for those from either side predicting doom and gloom for the other…..been going on for hundreds of years and neither side ever seems to run out of followers…………
Same for the rest of the planet too………..
Good little liberal
June 14th, 2011
7:15 pm
AmVet
“And hands down, the nirvana of babedom is California.”
That’s one point I definitely agree with. Waffle house waitresses in Cal. are stunning.
But oddly enough, Southern Alabama, like Gulf Shores is pretty close.
josef
June 14th, 2011
7:17 pm
Good fight…
I know who Al Smith was and he was Catholic…the first to be nominated by a national party…and I find it very interesting that the Deep Southern states I mentioned went so heavily for him…Alabama was the exception in the Deep South…look at those stats from Mississippi and South Carolina…higher Smith vote than even heavily Catholic Louisiana…I just find it intriguing to point this out…thass all…
Mighty Righty
June 14th, 2011
7:19 pm
pogo
June 14th, 2011
7:14 pm
You are exactly right.
josef
June 14th, 2011
7:20 pm
Uncle Jed
@ 7:14
I’m in your corner on that one. It don’t make no sense to me in a world constantly teetering on the brink of mass starvation…
Real Scooter
June 14th, 2011
7:20 pm
Thanks josef!! I know I can be a pain sometimes.
Mighty Righty
June 14th, 2011
7:21 pm
Enough for today.
Dusty
June 14th, 2011
7:21 pm
The only thing that stinks here are some of the comments. We all know this is an opinion blog and not the Supreme Court. It is an opinion blog led by a dedicated Democrat who judges every issue on whether it will appeal or not and make Republicans look bad. That is what he is paid to do.
The rest of you are just blowing hot air into the universe. This is not a crisis. The tsunami has not overtaken us. The nuclear plant has not blown apart. That’s a crisis.
This is nothing but a tempest in a liberal teapot. Lemon? Sugar? Take your pick but no pusillanimosity, please. There. Take a deep breath.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
June 14th, 2011
7:22 pm
josef…looks like Alabama gov says it was because of KKK. it is interesting. The history of the KKK is convulted in both parties.
Good little liberal
June 14th, 2011
7:22 pm
josef
I’ve never heard that. I know that a small street off Northside is named for him.
josef
June 14th, 2011
7:22 pm
Scooter
Pain? I’m complimented you’d give enough of a sh*t about what I put so inarticulately as to want it put in proper form…I usually figure I’m just talking to myself here and I know what it was I was yammering about…
md
June 14th, 2011
7:24 pm
“It don’t make no sense to me in a world constantly teetering on the brink of mass starvation…”
That’s one of the hidden conspiracy theories…..the world power brokers know the population is getting out of hand and something must be done about it………..in the old days, we had plenty of big wars and lots of disease to whack a good number on a regular basis…….now technology has cut down on the deaths from war and disease…….
……..and the planet’s resources are still finite.
chuck
June 14th, 2011
7:25 pm
Sounds like it’s time to shut off those unemployment benefits so that some of these lazy people will HAVE to get off their butts and go to work. If that doesn’t work we can always bring back the ever-popular convict lease system.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
June 14th, 2011
7:25 pm
josef…the history of the 1920s KKK is extremely interesting including the impact of Stephensen on the entire midwest KKK.
AmVet
June 14th, 2011
7:25 pm
md, funny.
Not all of them have that awful nasally accent though! Some of the Italian girls and JAPs in Buffalo were Grade A prime.
Before my girlfriend moved up from Florida, I even sublimated my enormous disgust for disco and cheesy three piece suits to go Club 747, where the babe factor was insane. Ah, for the good old days, before we ruined everything!
http://tinyurl.com/3ggo5bj
soloman73
June 14th, 2011
7:26 pm
So what exactly is the unemployment rate in that area? I know where I am at in GA it is over 10%. And what about college kids? I bet their unemployment rate is even higher? And I am pretty sure I read in this newspaper about farmers who were doing just fine with local labor help.
getalife
June 14th, 2011
7:28 pm
Don’t tell us what to do cons.
No workers is anti business.
Good little liberal
June 14th, 2011
7:28 pm
I’m outta here. I hate to see the kid make such a fool of himself.
Time for dinner and good company.
Real Scooter
June 14th, 2011
7:29 pm
pusillanimosity
Dangit Dusty,now i got to go googleing! Thanks a lot.
Keith
June 14th, 2011
7:29 pm
So the complaint this season is “no (cheap) labor”.
Real Scooter
June 14th, 2011
7:32 pm
josef
June 14th, 2011
7:22 pm
You’re welcome! LMAO
louis
June 14th, 2011
7:33 pm
Highly doubtful…….if it gets that high, demand will go down….as will the price or production……..that is called the free market”.
Oh really? So now that gasoline, which you can’t eat, is almost 4 dollars a gallon, are you now walking? Or riding a horse to work promoting your “free market”? Demand hasn’t gone down for that special commodity now has it…anywhere?
Go into town and look it up.
Folks need fruits & veggies….Period. What makes 1 think FOOD would react any differently? Are you going to switch to cardboard salads?
“As for Conagra and illegals……..if so, I have no problem with them suffering the consequences of such action……….”
R U kidding me? The right guy at ConAgra makes the right phone call and 10,000 non citizens are brought in under the guise of “national security” or get a “tax incentive” for 1 time labor charges or “special” legislation is quietly written into some obscure bill allowing it to happen just for ConAgra.
That’s actually the way it works; pay attention.
The US needs immigration reform that helps us keep out the “illegals” but at the same time allows for non citizens like these migrant farmers to come in and do their work in the fields.
Tommy Maddox
June 14th, 2011
7:33 pm
Hate to refer to a democratic ad, but Roy Barnes’s ad talking about the re-institution of the chain gangs comes back to mind…
josef
June 14th, 2011
7:33 pm
Good fight…
Alabama is interesting in this aspect…it has always had large pockets of pro-Union Republicans since the time of the Wah-uh and Reconstruction and they have always had the strongest adherence to such organizations as the 20th Century Klan, not to be confused with the 19th or 21st Century ones…the former was overwhelmingly centered in the North and the latter is pretty much a lunatic fringe bunch discredited by one and all, North and South…
GLL
The main street in Rome is Forrest…has to do with his liberation of the town during the Wah-uh…his 400 some odd raiders captured some 2000 blue coats and had to have a place to put them, so they liberated Rome for the purpose… and BTW among his 400 were 43 of his former slaves he had freed to fight (he called for the freeing of those slaves and their families who would fight) and there are graves of blacks killed in that battle in the Confederate Cemetery in Rome… but shhh, we’ll have the imam in with a new thread, so let’s drop that for now!
md
June 14th, 2011
7:36 pm
“Oh really? So now that gasoline, which you can’t eat, is almost 4 dollars a gallon, are you now walking? Or riding a horse to work promoting your “free market”? Demand hasn’t gone down for that special commodity now has it…anywhere?”
Actually, it has……..and has every time the price goes up.
Look it up…………
jewcowboy
June 14th, 2011
7:36 pm
“For economically embattled rural Georgia, this could be a major blow.”
Left unsaid is metro Atlanta footing a greater proportion of the state’s revenue while getting less service in return as these farms fail. All the while the newly impoverished farmers will become wards of the state, increasing state cost, which in turn will be born on the shoulders of metro Atlanta.
Even as this happens, rural legislator’s and their constituents will continue to rail against metro Atlanta, and insist on their myth that Atlanta is a ward of the state instead of the economic engine, pulling even more money that should stay in metro Atlanta for infrastructure and transportation projects that would keep Atlantan’s moving and thereby attracting more companies that would contribute to the state coffers. Instead these companies will locate to places like North Carolina, hurting revenue in Atlanta, which will in turn hurt services in rural GA, which will demand more from Atlanta…I know it’s not Friday but this seems apt: http://youtu.be/jk63Psr3wzY
Peadawg
June 14th, 2011
7:37 pm
Flip flop much, Jay? First you said we need to punish businesses that hire illegals. Now that this bill does that…you piss and moan like a little girl.
Make up your mind!
Mongo
June 14th, 2011
7:37 pm
Who cares what happens to these law breaking farmers anyway? Why should we feel sorry for these farmers (many of whom probably get thousands in farmer welfare out of our tax money every year) whose business model can’t work without illegal labor?
They need to either suck it up and pay a free market wage to attract workers or get into another line of work. I hear McDonald’s is hiring.
md
June 14th, 2011
7:37 pm
“R U kidding me? The right guy at ConAgra makes the right phone call and 10,000 non citizens are brought in under the guise of “national security” or get a “tax incentive” for 1 time labor charges or “special” legislation is quietly written into some obscure bill allowing it to happen just for ConAgra.
That’s actually the way it works; pay attention.”
Got a link?
If not, you can put your conspiracy theory in line with all the others…………
The Leg Lamp is a "major award"......
June 14th, 2011
7:38 pm
Off topic here, but…..BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds union law…
Dusty
June 14th, 2011
7:38 pm
Real Scooter, 7:29
“Pusillanimous ” was so weak I added the “osity” to help it out. But you are welcome. Anytime! I’ll try and think of something better and more delicious next time.
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
June 14th, 2011
7:39 pm
Joe Mama @ 5:39 pm
Well if the farm workers work more than 40 hours they get paid for it ! Probably time and a half.
No “time and a half” or “night differntial” or “Sunday Pay” or “Holiday Pay” for the grunts !!
Real Scooter
June 14th, 2011
7:41 pm
AmVet
June 14th, 2011
7:25 pm
I am trying to imagine you in a liesure suit and platform shoes!
Dusty
June 14th, 2011
7:45 pm
Scooter,
Now you know what “pusillanimosity” means. Josef just explained it. Next new word” Pomposity! I’ll give you a clue. Acting like a big shot in a small game of pool..
jewcowboy
June 14th, 2011
7:46 pm
“Off topic here, but…..BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”
Speaking of that:
“Prop. 8 ruling: gay judge didn’t need to recuse himself”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2011/0614/Prop.-8-ruling-gay-judge-didn-t-need-to-recuse-himself
I guess it really sucks when your case is so incredibly weak you have to resort to insulting every single judge and lawyer in America thinking by some slim chance that will help you win.
AmVet
June 14th, 2011
7:49 pm
Now hold on there cowboy Scooter!
I didn’t get into the Travolta garb liek the Italian Stallions did. I’d just wear a nice shirt and some slacks.
(Though the truth be told, when I was in the service, I did have some outrageous purple bell bottoms!)
OK, gotta run and make some money. But like Ahnuld, I’ll be back…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LzlJe9_AxM
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
June 14th, 2011
7:50 pm
Well, I’m so disgusted I feel like tweeting my junk. But since I don’t know how to tweet, I’ll just blog my junk:
http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7nIb8_dNsEUA_nZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1NGNpZGI4BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDOQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA0FDQlkwN18xNTA-/SIG=11vjsahqr/EXP=1308116859/**http%3a//www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/mufflers.htm
Keep Up the Good Fight!
June 14th, 2011
7:50 pm
Yes Lump, the WI court ruled on a single constitutional issue. Other legal challenges including two pending lawsuits remain. Those challenges are on other grounds other than open meeting violations.
Real Scooter
June 14th, 2011
7:50 pm
Dusty
June 14th, 2011
7:38 pm
Thanks Dusty! I’ll love you when nobody else does!
Dusty
June 14th, 2011
7:51 pm
Well,
Before another “crisis” arises I must check on the BRAVES. Please try & solve all the greater crises and keep the sky from falling before I return. Thank you.
Real Scooter
June 14th, 2011
7:53 pm
Redneck Convert (R–and proud of it)
June 14th, 2011
7:50 pm
Was I supposed to click on “dogpile”?
Dusty
June 14th, 2011
7:54 pm
Don’t worry, Scooter. I get plenty of loving. But yours is nice. You must be a BRAVES fan.
jewcowboy
June 14th, 2011
7:54 pm
Keep Up the Good Fight!,
“Other legal challenges including two pending lawsuits remain. ”
As well as recall campaigns…
Keep Up the Good Fight!
June 14th, 2011
8:00 pm
JCB…definitely the recalls even with the dirty tricks of the fake “Dems”. I imagine we’ll see Walker recalled as soon as that can be done.
godless heathen
June 14th, 2011
8:02 pm
Stop endless unemployment benefits and food stamps and the veggies will get picked.
There. GH solved just another impossible problem between naps.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
June 14th, 2011
8:05 pm
Bosch. if you are around, GPB has a great show on now filmed mostly in Alpharetta with some great dogs!
Real Scooter
June 14th, 2011
8:07 pm
Dusty
June 14th, 2011
7:54 pm
Yep! I know a Brave personally but you are probably too young to remember him.
mick
June 14th, 2011
8:12 pm
If you are surprised by this, you are an idiot. And yes that means we have a bunch of idiots running this state.
Doggone/GA
June 14th, 2011
8:12 pm
I’m listening to some snippets from last night’s debate. Romney is going to “repeal” Obamacare if he’s elected President. Has anyone tried telling him he won’t have that power, if he’s elected President?
GaGirl
June 14th, 2011
8:16 pm
Now we have some jobs for these teenagers with nothing to do.
Been there done that
June 14th, 2011
8:18 pm
As a young man I have picked those crops and was paid slave labor. We would pick peaches in mddle GA and was paid 10 cents per bucket. Do you know how many buckets of peaches you had to pick to make $10.00 for and 8 or 9 hour day. While we worked our tails off the farmers were getting rich. This was in the 1970’s. People do not realize how hard this type of work is. Many people posting to this site would not last 15 minutes doing this type of work. When I visit Middle Georgia now the only people I see picking peaches are illegals. They are doing the same jobs we Black people once did. You know what? They can have those darn jobs.
midtownguy
June 14th, 2011
8:19 pm
If Roy Barnes were Governor this wouldn’t be happening. I wonder how many of those South Georgia farmers voted for him?
Real Scooter
June 14th, 2011
8:20 pm
Doggone/GA
June 14th, 2011
8:12 pm
In my opine,he is lying anyway. I know I would not vote for him.
Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)
June 14th, 2011
8:29 pm
Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds the law. The lib’s keep a stiff upper lip and console each other whining that there are additional pending law suits and that Walker will be recalled. Can’t get it through your thick heads that the people spoke and you’ve lost. Get used to it you’re going to see many more losses.
Finn McCool
June 14th, 2011
8:30 pm
Grover Norquist Rebuked By GOP
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/14/grover-norquist-ethanol_n_876887.html
About time the repubs showed backbone.
Brosephus
June 14th, 2011
8:34 pm
Make entering the country illegally a felony offense and then those farmers having trouble finding workers can get them back.
That would take a re-write of the Immigration and Nationality Act on the federal level. I don’t think there’s legal grounds to make that charge a felony, but I’m not how they determine the severity of the crime. Right now, it’s not even a misdemeanor. It’s a civil violation, with no jail time unless there are mitigating criminal circumstances beyond just entering the country without inspection..
Brosephus
June 14th, 2011
8:36 pm
“I’m not *sure* how”…..
darn it!!!
Keep Up the Good Fight!
June 14th, 2011
8:38 pm
Well Del, if the people “spoke” then I guess you dont have a worry in any recall election….. of course, if there were constitutional violations or other legal challenges, I guess they dont matter…… of course, the people “spoke” too when the ACA was passed by elected represenatives, I am sure you dont support the legal challenges there.
Get used to it you’ll see many more losses.
Doggone/GA
June 14th, 2011
8:38 pm
“In my opine,he is lying anyway”
Of course he’s lying. It’s not something he would have the power to do and he knows it. It’s what I call an “ignore this” promise. No matter who might say it, I simply wouldn’t pay any attention to it.
Some day, before I die, I’d like to see a Presidential candidate – of ANY party – who campaigns for what a President really needs: Congressional majorities in both houses. Any time a candidate makes that kind of promise, without mentioning that they need their party to also have a majority in both houses of Congres…they know, and we should ALL know it’s nothing be hot air.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
June 14th, 2011
8:43 pm
Well Doggone…actually you likely need more than a majority. You need a supermajority to overcome the 60 vote nonsense and then a few more to cover those in your own party who may oppose…unless you have the lockstep moves by a Party of No.
Doggone/GA
June 14th, 2011
8:48 pm
“actually you likely need more than a majority”
Oh sure, it’s not really the “majority/super majority” that’s the issue…it’s the speaking as if the President can actually repeal a law without Congress.
Mick
June 14th, 2011
8:49 pm
I’d like to report a name hijacking @ 8:12. Obamneycare? Voodoo economics anyone?
Joke of an article
June 14th, 2011
8:51 pm
There is definitely not a labor shortage in these areas. Go around and look for your self and you will constintaly see unemployment over 20%. Why work for a wage when you can sit and collect welfare checks all day for the rest of your life. You also choose to completely ignore the costs with illiegal immigration. There is a huge financial burden on the health care systems in these rural areas as a result of illiegal immigration. I could go on and on about the issues at hand because I live there and see it everyday.
Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)
June 14th, 2011
8:51 pm
Two considerations, One: As far as I know there’s nothing in the Constitution that affords rights to illegal immigrants, and Two: I have no reason to believe that the Democrats will control the Senate and Obama will get a second term.I believe there’s a good possibility that Republicans could very well control the White House and both chambers of Congress. I think there could be a very strong conservative message sent in 012 that’s far stronger than the one sent this past November. Strap yourselves in lib’s you’re in for a rough ride.
Brosephus
June 14th, 2011
8:55 pm
As far as I know there’s nothing in the Constitution that affords rights to illegal immigrants
According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, they have a right to appear before an Immigration Judge. We are a nation of laws. Those laws extend to those who enter without inspection/authority, and they also give those same people some rights.
Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)
June 14th, 2011
8:57 pm
Joke of an article, you’re not alone, many see it as you do.
reporter1
June 14th, 2011
9:00 pm
You can’t beat right-wing lunacy in action. We, small farmers and everyone else included, get the government we deserve–and since a majority voted for him (including, I’m sure, many small farmers) we richly deserve the consequences of Gov. Deal’s pet legislation.
AmVet
June 14th, 2011
9:02 pm
There is nothing in the US Constitution that affords right to corporations, but look how that has turned out.
They essentially own our representatives and run our republic now…
Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)
June 14th, 2011
9:04 pm
“According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, they have a right to appear before an Immigration Judge. We are a nation of laws. Those laws extend to those who enter without inspection/authority, and they also give those same people some rights.”
Please, that doesn’t mean anything. There is nothing that says illegal immigrants have a right to come into the USA and have all the benefits of citizenship as the left pretends. “We are a nation of laws.” We don’t enforce those laws but I have faith that’s going to drastically change in the not too distant future.
Brosephus
June 14th, 2011
9:05 pm
AmVet
Right about the corporations and rights. However, with the concept of corporate personhood, that point is moot. Can’t put the genie back in the bottle. That dog don’t hunt!!
AmVet
June 14th, 2011
9:09 pm
I know Bro,
Friggin’ activist judges!
But I for one, ain’t going quietly into that good night.
I will fiercely advocate to the day that I die that our sacred sovereignty be taken back from them. (It’s good to have a dream!)
Jackie
June 14th, 2011
9:12 pm
More evidence that the administration of Pres. George W. Bush was and continues to be an absolute disaster for the workers in the USA.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110614/bs_yblog_thelookout/workers-share-of-national-income-plummets-to-record-low
Brosephus
June 14th, 2011
9:13 pm
Recon
If that doesn’t mean anything, then you may as well scrap every law we have. There is a difference in your two statements:
“As far as I know there’s nothing in the Constitution that affords rights to illegal immigrants”
and
“There is nothing that says illegal immigrants have a right to come into the USA and have all the benefits of citizenship as the left pretends.”
To try to twist your first statement into your second one is a bit of contortion I would not expect from you. I never said they had a right to come here and have all the benefits of citizenship. I only pointed out one specific right they do have that would counter your first statement. If you want to talk benefits, then you’re wrong again. Medicaid will accept ANY pregnant female whether she’s a citizen or regardless of alien status. It’s the way the program is set up.
You have to remember that I deal with this stuff on a daily basis. I’ve looked through all laws and statutes on this stuff. If it’s secure borders that people really want, it can be done. I just don’t think the citizens nor the economy wants to see that happen. Our economy depends on people, goods, and services being able to move across the border with as little delay as possible. If we were to lock down the border and secure it as people clamor for, you’re looking at something like East Germany. Businesses would starve to death because we don’t manufacture or warehouse enough goods in country to avoid delays that would happen with a locked-down border. Companies would not be able to move people about as easily as they do now. On top of that, you’d probably have to increase the size of the Border Patrol and CBP about five-fold to have the manpower to accomplish that.
oldguy
June 14th, 2011
9:14 pm
AH Jay is now a farm expert, labor expert and a soothsayer!!
“The resulting manpower shortage has forced state farmers to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields.” Based on what Jay??? Where are the rotting fields, show us pictures. The onion and blueberry crops are basically in and harvested!! THE LAW WAS JUST PASSED! HOW CAN IT HAVE CAUSED WIDESPREAD DEVISTATION??!!?? Surely the ace libs at the AJC can show us the widespread devistation?
“farmers expect to need more than 11,000 workers at some point over the rest of the season, a number that probably underestimates the real need, ” again a “crystal ball” reading???
For many many years itinerate labor has moved from Florida north as the seasonal crops matured harvesting. They were poor blacks, then Cubans , then Hatians, then Mexicans, then central americans. You are saying that all that is left is illegal migrants? Prove it!!
Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)
June 14th, 2011
9:19 pm
Hey Jackie, how are you doing? I trust well.
Say, George Bush is in retirement back down in Texas, so if he was an “absolute disaster” it’s impossible for him to continue being one now. There’s a guy named Obama whose occupied the White House for the last 2 and 1/2 years. Just saying.
Jackie
June 14th, 2011
9:24 pm
@Recon
SALUTE!
Please check the link and see how the numbers work and the timeline associated with those numbers.
It will give you some insight into why Pres. Obama is having a difficult time in making up for the 4 million jobs lost during 2008, even though Pres. Obama has made up 1.5 million new jobs.
Give it a review and come back with your rebuttal.
Bruno
June 14th, 2011
9:26 pm
The path that I have chosen has now led me to a Wall……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHk_Emakefg
eatmotacos
June 14th, 2011
9:28 pm
There is a reason for the rules associated with the H2-A visa. It is to keep the farmers from saddling the rest of us with expenses they are obligated to pay. They only save money by shifting their cost to us. It is the same for every other business that employees illegals.
Why should we care if they go out of business? If you do the math, the vast majority of Georgia’s citizens will come ahead if they do. Let their crops rot.
BADA BING
June 14th, 2011
9:29 pm
For generations, rural populations have moved to the cities, and started working in the manufacturing and service industries. Now, we need a new trend to return urban populations back to the agrigcultural sector. The jobs have moved, the people will follow.
Bruno
June 14th, 2011
9:30 pm
Brosephus–In case you are interested, MIT is offering some free course lectures online. Here’s the link:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses
Bruno
June 14th, 2011
9:32 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60A1yKc2hi4&feature=related
Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)
June 14th, 2011
9:34 pm
Brosephus, you’re making some pretty convoluted statements that don’t tie your points together. You say that I should know “that you deal with this stuff on a daily basis.” Frankly I don’t know what you do functionally. If you interview and screen immigrants coming into this country, I’m concerned because it sounds as though you’re sympathetic to those who enter this country illegally. I don’t know if you sit behind a desk, check baggage or check people as they come through the check in process. Sometimes you sound as though you carry a weapon and protect our borders. I don’t know.
Brosephus
June 14th, 2011
9:35 pm
Bruno
You’re tryin’ to kill my last 5 brain cells??? LOL!!!
I’ll check it out and see what they have to offer.
Doggone/GA
June 14th, 2011
9:35 pm
“As far as I know there’s nothing in the Constitution that affords rights to illegal immigrants”
But on the other hand, there’s nothing in the Consitution that limits those rights only to citizens either – except as regards elected officials.
Bruno
June 14th, 2011
9:35 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BsBoOQA9pc&feature=fvst
Rickey Jay
June 14th, 2011
9:38 pm
You got to be kidding, you are crying for business owners who made it their business and practice to not legally hire their workers. STUNNING!
HB87 was a job creator. Understanding how to connect with the people hiring WILL become more public, as the owners learn how to hire legally.. All that hiring “in the dark”, and underground economy, was hurting the average taxpayer, local government and federal government (when all the full cost of this law breaking are added up)