THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† What Al Gore Hath Wrought (second item): The Washington Post is concerned that election officials will be ill prepared to handle the “record number” of voters expected to flock to the polls tomorrow and has launched Vote Monitor 2008 to collect real-time reports from voters of “any sign of irregularities that could tilt the election outcome” – including, “long lines to voting machine issues, registration errors to voter intimidation” – to “show potential voting problems as they arise across the country.” Starting 6 a.m., you can tweet them at: twitter.com/PostVoteMonitor.
† Obama’s Family Values: Part V (second item): It turns out that Barack Obama’s Kenyan aunt, Zeituni Onyango – who is living at taxpayer expense in a Boston public housing project instead of in her nephew’s commodious Chicago home – is not even in this country legally. An immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum and ordered her to leave the country four years ago, reports Reuters. Obama professes to be unaware that his late father’s half sister is an alien fugitive absconder, and instead of regretting the law-breaking and taxpayer abuse, his campaign questioned the “timing” of the revelation.
† Never Mind Marxism. Will An Obama Administration Be Totalitarian?: The Columbus Dispatch, which broke the story that OH state officials pried into Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher’s records, now reports that state employee Vanessa Niekamp said her supervisor, Carrie Brown, assistant deputy director for child support, ordered her to run a child-support check on “Joe the Plumber” on Oct. 16th because he had contacted Department of Job and Family Services about his case. When questioned about the computer check by the paper, the agency’s director, Helen Jones-Kelley, explained that people who are “thrust into the public spotlight” are routinely checked in case they have come into money that can be applied towards child support, should be cut off from public assistance or owe unemployment compensation taxes. Niekamp told The Dispatch she has “never done that before” and knows of no one else in her office who has. After Brown ordered Niekamp to write an E-mail to the agency's chief privacy officer stating she checked the case for child-support purposes, she became concerned about potential criminal charges and contacted Inspector General Thomas P. Charles. Because of the IG’s investigation, neither Gov. Ted Strickland (D) or Jones-Kelley - both of whom back Barack Obama – agreed to be interviewed further on the incident, though they deny political motives. For his part, Wurzelbacher says he is not involved in a child support case.
† Updates To Previous Posts (A Lie No One Should Be Repeating): Law enforcement in West Hollywood, CA, saw nothing wrong with an effigy of Sarah Palin and dismissed the depiction of a white woman who happens to be running for the second-highest office in the land dangling from a noose as “harmless.” In contrast, University of Kentucky students Joe Fischer, 22, and Hunter Bush, 21, were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, burglary and theft after they hanged an effigy of Barack Obama from a tree on campus. Their attorney, Fred Peters, told The Associated Press via E-mail that “this incident was an ill conceived political prank” and that “[t]he charges are very extreme for what they did and we will deal with them in the courts.” Both students pleaded not guilty to the charges.
† Updates To Previous Posts (MSM, Obama Campaign: Joe Don’t Know Jack): Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (AKA “Joe the Plumber”) has hired a publicity firm, reports The Associated Press: “The Press Office in Nashville, where clients include rockers Grand Funk Railroad and Eddie Money, will help him handle the flood of interview and appearance requests that have poured in since he was mentioned during a presidential debate and quickly became a household name.” Jim Della Croce, who owns the agency is already earning his paycheck, debunking a rumor that Joe is cutting a country music album, but suggesting that a book deal may be in the works.
† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, Illegal Immigrants Swamping Small Town America): Appealing U.S. District Judge James M. Munley’s July 2007 decision in Lozano v. City of Hazleton to strike down an ordinance enacted by Hazleton, PA, that barred employers and landlords from renting to or hiring illegal aliens, attorney Kris W. Kobach argued that the lower court incorrectly ruled that the ordinance conflicts with federal law, and urged U.S. Circuit Judge Theodore A. McKee to reinstate the ban, reports The Legal Intelligencer. Kobach, a professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law, pointed out that courts have consistently held that state and local municipalities may pass laws that are tantamount to “concurrent enforcement” of federal immigration law. But two ACLU lawyers warned that if the lower court ruling was overturned there would be a “patchwork” of illegal immigration laws nationwide. The Hazleton case represents the first major court challenge to the growing trend of local laws meant to curb illegal immigration, notes The Legal Intelligencer.
† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, Employers Hiring Forged Documented Aliens Are Lawbreakers In Other Ways, Too): Sholom Rubashkin, former CEO of IA kosher meatpacking plant Agriprocessors was arrested on federal conspiracy charges that included harboring illegal immigrants for financial gain and aiding and abetting document fraud and aggravated identity theft, reports The Washington Post:
Federal officials allege that intentionally helped illegal workers obtain false documentation. The new charges come one day after the Iowa labor commissioner fined the company $10 million for wage violations. …
[C]ompany officials were charged Sept. 9 with more than 9,000 misdemeanor violations of state child labor laws over an eight-month period ending with the May 12 raid. The charges involved 32 minors, some younger than 16, who allegedly were exposed to dangerous chemicals and were operating meat grinders, circular saws and other heavy machinery.
During the raid at the Postville plant, among the country's largest suppliers of kosher meat, agents detained 389 undocumented workers. About 300 have pleaded guilty to federal charges of identity theft. Most of those received five months in prison and were ordered deported.
The raid and ensuing group trials became a rallying point for immigrants' rights groups, who decried that no charges had been filed against company owners or top managers. This week, a human resources employee pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy charges, and two meatpacking supervisors and another human resources employee are facing criminal charges. Agriprocessors did not return calls.
Now that employers hiring forged documented aliens will face prosecution for breaking immigration and identity theft laws, perhaps Hispanic activists will understand that they are not doing illegals any favors by protesting workplace raids that identify corrupt company owners.
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