Dear Sean Hannity... welcome to the party...

Dear Mr. Hannity, I try not to be overly political. Yes I supported and even worked to elect Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008, but I try to see the other side of the equation. Some days I am better at that than others and believe it or not, I have voted for, and even worked for Republican candidates in the past. Like many, I believe issues are important and disdain politicians when they are fungible on their views simply for political gain. Which brings me to my subject today, immigration. Mr Hannity, you are a well known FOX News personality and popular conservative radio host.  Apart from Rush Limbaugh, you are the best known media figure in conservative circles and have been front and center in the conservative wars against Barack Obama, the liberal media and the progressive agenda. Which makes what happened yesterday all the more remarkable. You sir, the darling of the right-wing of the Republican Party, the man Dems love to hate for what they see as his extreme views, have "evolved" on immigration. What's perhaps most amazing is that you have embraced a pathway to legalization that you have always derided as amnesty and a reward to lawbreakers. I'm stunned. Stunned, because for years you have been dismissive of any attempts to realistically deal with the millions of undocumented people living in our country.  Short of building a wall and deportations, you, and your network have had no constructive ideas on the subject and have frequently, along with the guests you have had on your shows, fanned the worst flames of anti-immigrant xenophobia. Yet for some reason, you've evolved. Well welcome to the party Sean. Pardon me while I wipe the sarcastic look off my face. You see, it would not be so bad, I mean after all, us realists knew for years that the GOP was going to have to get to this point, except that you and your guests are so often spiteful of President Obama when he changes his views, or evolves.  You were especially disdainful when he in fact used the term "evolved" for his position on gay marriage. So let me ask you a question Mr. Hannity... when did this evolution take place?  And what changed for you? Is there any possibility at all that this evolution, announced 2 days after the GOP lost a winnable election for the presidency and gave up seats in the Senate, had anything to do with those results? Is it possible that you came to this need to evolve after looking at the demographics of the election results and, like some of the other ilk in the GOP, concluded that without some "evolution" you guys would soon be about as relevant as the old Whig Party? Or is it the product of a long process of reflection, prayer and study? Seriously, I'd like to know. Because like you, I wonder whether people who change their positions overnight are just doing so for political expediency.  The type of political expediency that represents all that is bad about politics here in the United States and which you frequently decry as unprincipled on your shows. In all seriousness Sean, we're glad to have you on board.  Even if it was solely for naked political ambition, it's the right thing to do. Sincerely, Dave

Life as a Member of the Jet Set...

It used to be you were part of the Jet Set when you traveled. Flight attendants were stewardesses, beautiful, had cool uniforms and you got some great meals. Not anymore. Now you are part of some vast herd that must be corralled by the least amount of staff the airlines can legally put on the plane. But the fun usually begins before you even board as you are pushed into lines, given no real instructions, poked, prodded, and felt up, all in the name of national security. These days with flight attendants freaking out and pilots going nuts, you wonder if you're even going to survive the flight. I was thinking about this all day yesterday as I was sardined into my 18 inch wide seat for my flights home from Oaxaca, Mexico... 1. When you arrive at the airport and they have a scale waiting for you before you get in line, you know the airlines have decided to take baggage weight limits seriously. 2. US Airlines seem less willing to change your seat than the Mexican Airlines. At least that is true for whatever we are calling United/Continental airline these days. So yes, I was sitting in row 648, seat Q on my trip home. 3. I noticed that one of the benefits of flying United is that they give you complementary seat choice. Seriously, that's a benefit? 4. I left Oaxaca and went through security. I arrived in Houston, passed through security, customs, immigration, and then security again. Can anyone explain to me why, after I was allowed to fly to the states, I have to pass through security again after Immigration allowed me in, even though I stayed in a controlled area? 5. It is never a good sign when the guy across the aisle from you tells his wife he needs the barf bag. 6. More and more people are dressing like they should be part of a Walmart customer photo exhibit. As a general rule, I don't want to see your underwear, ugly feet, or your gut and belly button when I travel, and I'm betting, no one else does, so get dressed before you fly. 7. They've taken almost all of the free snacks away. Now they don't even offer you that bag of 6 pretzels. Of course you can buy it, but it costs $6.99, credit card only. 8. The government has decided that on international flights, you can no longer use the bathroom when you are within an hour of the United States. Supposedly, this cuts down on the possibility of a terrorist doing something untoward in the last hour of a flight. I wonder why no one seems to think he won't just do what ever it is in the last hour and a half? 9. Is all the security really necessary? I mean, could someone explain to me what kind of dumb terrorist is really going to try and pass through security with a bomb these days? Why would they not just blow themselves up in the line of 5000 people waiting to take off their shoes and belts and get X-rayed? And finally, when I left Oaxaca in the morning, food in a tortilla was called a taco, or burrito, depending on where you were. Somewhere over the US, the same food in a tortilla became a wrap. Travel can be so confusing... Want a bonus? Check out Brian Regan's hilarious take on flying...

A Story About Corn, Mexico, and Arturo

Arturo and his family did not come to Mexico. They are natives, having descended from one of the many indigenous people groups that populate the country. Arturo is a farmer. His father was a farmer, as was his grandfather. In fact, if you sit and talk to Arturo, you will hear that his family has been farming in Mexico since before it was Mexico. They have farmed corn for centuries on the family lands. Some years the land yielded a bountiful harvest, and other years, no so much, but always there was enough to feed the family. Until recently. Arturo and his family have a large plot of land comprising almost 100 hectares, or almost 250 acres. To put that into a practical perspective, the original footprint of Disneyland was just 160 acres. With this much land, the family was able to not only grow corn for their own consumption, but also sell to some of the commercial buyers in Mexico. As the economy in Mexico grew, so did Arturo’s ability to acquire additional land and expand his business. Soon Arturo was one of the largest corn growers in his area with almost 150 hectares of corn planted each year. He was living his dream. Working hard, supporting his family and helping friends. At one point he had over 100 employees working for him. But then something happened. His buyers approached and asked him to lower the price he was charging for his corn. He was given no reason, except to say that they wanted a better price. At first he agreed, after all, it was a small sacrifice to make to keep his main customers happy. But it did not end there. His buyers soon returned explaining that if he wanted to continue to sell to them, he would have to cut his sales price in half. Arturo tried to explain that there was no way he could possibly sell his corn at half price and be able to pay for the costs of production. They told him he had no choice. Their companies were demanding higher profits and they had found a source in the United States that could supply corn at half the cost of Arturo’s. Arturo soon learned how a corn producer in the United States, paying higher wages, could possibly sell corn cheaper than a Mexican farmer. Subsidies. He learned that the American government would step in and guarantee a certain rate of return on corn for US farmers, regardless of sales price. These subsidies allowed American farmers to undercut the price of Mexican farmers in their own country and effectively wipeout thousands of good paying jobs across the country. But Arturo was not easily discouraged. Rather than let his land go fallow, he changed his crop and began to grow sugar cane. It was not long before he was once again moving forward. He sold his cane to one of the large sugar plants in Ameca, Jalisco where it was processed and sold to corporations as a food ingredient. Just like when he grew corn, the days were long and hot as he had to keep his arms covered to avoid being cut by the sharp leaves of the cane. But just as he was thinking that he might be able to soon retire and turn the farm over to his son, sugar prices in Mexico collapsed. Mexican soft drink manufacturers began to cut back on sugar and started using cheaper high fructose corn syrup imported from the US. The North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] had recently been signed and approved between the US, Canada, and Mexico. One of the conditions forced Mexico to abandon tariffs on imported sugar, put in place to insure the continued employment of 2.5 million sugar farmers across the country. Under NAFTA, Mexico was assured that they would have full access to US markets once the tariffs were removed. What they were not told, or did not understand was that the US market was dominated by low cost government subsidized sugar in the form of corn syrup. Mexican sugar cane had no way to compete in the international market because of US government intervention and was left sitting in silos rotting for a lack of buyers. Arturo was crushed. Unable to sustain the business, his land became useless. There was nothing he could farm and his land was not an attractive parcel for development, a route many of his friends took. With help from the state government of Jalisco, he tried a few other crops, but was unable to make any progress. Nothing he tried offered any real promise of being able to move ahead. At best he was just able to break even and provide his family with the corn necessary to eke out a meager existence. It was not long before Arturo, once a proud farmer of more than 150 hectares of corn and sugar made his decision. Despite the fact that his family lived on and worked the same land for centuries, Arturo knew he had to go north. Unable to get immigration papers, Arturo used the last of his savings, $4000.00, to hire a coyote to take him north. Today he works for one of the largest corn farmers in the United States. He does the same thing he did for years in Mexico. Except now, instead of helping employ Mexican farmers in his own country, the very company he is working for, effectively is disemploying thousands of Mexican farmers a year. Instead of coming home each night to see his family, he lives in small crowded house with 10 other men just like him who also came north after their jobs were eliminated in much the same fashion. And like most of them, he sends as much money back home every week from his weekly earnings to help support his family as he possibly can. He makes $9.00 an hour, works ten hours a day and prays every night that “La Migra” does not show up at the little house he now calls home.

Maíz, Corn, and Immigration

I was talking to friend awhile back and he asked me about immigration. His question was along the lines of why people from Mexico come to the states looking for work, as opposed to staying in their own country and finding a job. Let me answer that as best I can. In Mexico, Maria needs to buy corn to grind into masa to make tortillas and any other number of incredible Mexican culinary delights. Increasingly over the last few years, the cost of buying that corn locally has climbed. It has not climbed because the growers are making more money, it has climbed because the raw costs associated with corn growing, things like water, seed, and fertilizer have all gone up. Now what is interesting in this is that the cost of buying corn in Mexico that is grown in the United States has actually gone down. Now the savvy folks out there are probably saying “Well of course Dave, we are more productive growers up here.” And you know what, we may be. But that is only half of the reason. The other half has to do with the fact that the US government subsidizes US corn growers, guaranteeing a non level playing field between us, and the Mexican farmer. In essence, what we do for our corn farmers is this. We guarantee them a stable price for their corn, and even sometimes pay them to not farm, just so we can manipulate the price of corn. There is no free market in the US corn industry. Because of this, international corn dealers can dump cheap US corn on the Mexican market, essentially creaming the local village farmer. So what does Juan do if he cannot farm corn profitably on his ancestral land anymore? He comes to the US to seek work in beef and chicken slaughterhouses where the animals we stuff full of good old US feed corn are processed. As I talked with my friend, he began to see why this was a problem. And then he asked me why Mexico just didn’t support and protect the price of corn in their country like the US does. Interesting isn’t it? Instead of becoming indignant that the US government is subsidizing prices in a supposed free market system, my friend asks why Mexico doesn’t do the same thing our government is doing. Do you know what the answer is? It is because when the Mexican government tried to impose tariffs on the importation of cheap US corn [syrup] to protect their sugar cane growers, we took them to court, charging illegal trade practices. To quote Sidney Weintraub, a political economist with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC., “The Mexicans never had a chance because their argument was based on fair play, and the US [argument was] on law." Now the sugar industry in Mexico is struggling to stay afloat, sending even more potential immigrants towards el norte looking for work. I wonder why Mexico just can’t get this system fixed.