“torture is a threat to US democracy is that there is no real, valid justification for it”
This is true, and much like other CIA activities, this is exemplary of their ‘ends justify the means’ misjudgment.

They do not realize that the ‘ends’ are not actually justifiable in their activities because self-empowering U.S. government is (though supportive) becoming a destruction of other governments.
In turn, this destruction becomes a self-destructive motion because it causes the other governments to disfavor the U.S. in times of failure such as Allen Dulles’s Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Gracias
Adios

What I would like to say here is that the environmental movement has not been effective when promoting the *bigger* issues, and as a result we’re hopelessly behind. One screw up is bio-fuel = cleaner planet, when in reality it means less food, and more environmentally unfriendly processing plants. Another screw up is the position on nuclear power.

Clean, noise free power = electric power. Plenty of electric cars out there = need to recharge them using mostly coal-fired power plants. Nuclear energy = nearly zero emissions. A near total decline in research (business needs a financial incentive to innovate, and it does not have it when they cannot build nuclear power plants). Improved (safe, with a reasonable by-products disposal policy) nuclear power can be the answer.

The Sierra club is quietly supporting more than 40 applications for nuclear power plants. The cost is 30+ years of pollution, decades-delay in the development of electric cars, and noise all around us.

Fossil fuels? all the power to those who produce them. Instead of cutting more trees, we can use nuclear-generated power to process fossil fuels into synthetic materials that replace (and outperform) wood (building products and other applications), and metals, and make them 100% recyclable. That way OPEC will remain in business, US oil interests will not be harmed and we can breathe easier with more trees around.

With the exception of mom and pop shops (cash business and ability to hide receipts from the IRS), a typical business requires a green card (or something similar) prior to hiring someone: plausible deniability. Illegal immigrants tend to falsify/borrow papers to get jobs. The real issue however is that *legal* workers are not flocking to fill job that illegal immigrants are more than happy to take. The claim (not yours) that immigrants are taking away our jobs is false. I don’t see hordes of white boys and girls descending on Yakima and Chelan demanding jobs picking grapes and apples.

For a business, it’s about supply and demand:there is no supply of local workers, and plenty of demand for apples and strawberries. The system works, and in general everyone is happy (from an economic perspective, as I don’t dare even begin addressing human factors: happiness, medical care, etc.). Instead of wasting taxpayer money on a raid netting some hundreds of illegal workers in a chicken processing plant (earlier this week), the INS should probably focus on terrorism related activities (until such time when teenagers are rioting in downtown Bellevue demanding to be bused to Wenatchee for the apple picking season).

As an aside, and while I agree that the solution is to improve conditions in Latin American countries (and elsewhere), I tend to think that the people of those countries are to blame when the final analysis is done. The real problem is local/tribal loyalties versus a strong commitment to a national/regional cause. US/International business interests will do what they do best: protect their share values, so it’s up to the people of these countries to step up to the plate and do the right thing. It’s the only way to force a change from the status quo.

http://www.lavanguardia.es/lv24h/20080429/53457994768.html

I personally have found it very easy to respect all the illegal immigrants I have come in contact with. They are very dedicated to making their lives better, very smart, very hard working. What’s not to respect? The main difference between me and them is that I was born here and they were born somewhere else, which usually means that they didn’t have the same opportunity I had to get a good education, learn English from when I was a baby, get a good job legally, and all the other benefits we often take for granted.

–Jennifer