Contradiction

I admit I'm late on this one but something just occured to me today.

How is it that last year when Democrats were trying to pass the stimulus bill Republicans kept saying that the government can't create jobs and then when Democrats were trying to pass the health care reform bill Republicans kept saying they should be focused on trying to create jobs instead and nobody ever called them out on this contradiction?

Might be something to remember going forward when Democrats try to pass more jobs bills through Congress to bring down the unemployment rate.

Charlie Crist Shafted The American Worker With The Help Of George LeMeiux

Watch this video about how a company by the name of CYVSA in South Florida abused the H-2B visa program in order to bring Mexican workers to Florida to work on the St Regis construction project for less pay that unemployed sheet metal workers here were eminently qualified to do. And keep in mind that this all happened in the middle of one of the worst recessions in our country's history.



Now what was left out of that video? Well for one thing they left out which law firm represented CYVSA in applying for the H-2B visas.

The law firm led by newly appointed U.S. Senator George LeMieux was responsible for securing dozens of visas for foreign workers to enter the country and help construct the St. Regis hotel and condominiums in Bal Harbour – a move that left American sheet metal workers out of a job.

LeMieux is chairman of Gunster Yoakley, a Florida-based law firm which specializes in helping companies hire foreigners to replace American workers inside the United States.

In the case of the St. Regis project, Gunster Yoakley represented CYVSA International, a Mexican sheet metal firm which wanted to bring its own workforce into the country.

That's right, Charlie Crist's puppet, George LeMeiux, just so happened to be the chairman of a law firm that applied for and received H-2B visas for these workers from Mexico. But was it really a coincidence? I mean after all, one of the people who had to sign off on the visa requests was Crist's hand picked director of the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

What we have here ladies and gentleman looks like a lot of back scratching if you ask me. I don't really believe in coincidences, and the fact that the man who spear headed this travesty against unemployed construction workers here in Florida is now a member of that US Senate, chosen by the man who helped push this through should give every Floridian pause. You really have to look no further than the Republican Congresswoman that represents that district to get to the heart of the matter.

Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen – whose district includes the St. Regis construction site – blasted the use of foreign workers on the project.

"How can you bring folks from another country – no dis on Mexico – to do this construction project when you have so many folks here who could use the work," she said back in March. "It leads me to think that something is happening below the surface and were not being told the truth. Something happened along the way that this company has a cozy relationship with certain bureaucrats who give out these visas."

Told this week that it was LeMieux's law firm that was lurking below the surface, engineering the visas for the foreign workers, the Republican Congresswoman grew defensive.

"I don't know George LeMieux," she said. "I'm not defending George LeMieux. I'm not attacking him. Law firms have lots of clients. I don't criticize law firms for the clients they have."

But she added: "Shame on anyone who was involved in scamming the system."

Yes Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, shame indeed!

Jobs Numbers Better Than Expected

It looks like the economy is starting to turn around. We still aren't out of the woods yet but at least we are seeing postive signs. It is also key because good economic news helps to justify President Obama's stimulus bill and takes away some of the criticism that is muddying the waters in the fight for health care reform.

From the NYTimes:

The American economy lost 247,000 jobs in July, and in a reversal, the unemployment rate fell slightly, to 9.4 percent, the government reported Friday.

Although businesses are expected to keep cutting jobs through the rest of the year, the Labor Department’s latest figures offered some faint signs that the sinking job market was approaching bottom.

The length of the workweek increased, albeit slightly, for the first time since August, a sign that businesses were not scaling back hours to cut their payroll costs. The government said fewer jobs were lost this spring than it had initially estimated, revising June’s lob losses to 443,000 from 467,000.

snip

Friday’s employment picture was better- than forecasters had been expecting. Economists had estimated that 325,000 jobs were lost in July and that the unemployment rate would rise to 9.6 percent.

The report offers a measure of relief to the Obama administration, which weathered intense criticism when the pace of job losses accelerated in June after leveling off a month earlier. Conservative critics have cited the monthly jobs report, which has rapidly become a political football, as evidence that the $787 billion stimulus was not working, while liberals have previously maintained that it showed that the economy needed another jolt of stimulus.

But the president and his economic advisers have said the stimulus put the brakes on the economy’s swift decline, and was instrumental in reducing the rate of economic contraction to 1 percent during the second quarter. The White House has said there is no immediate need for an additional package, and has urged Americans to be patient as stimulus spending percolates through the economy. But for unemployed Americans scouring want-ads and tacking their résumés up onto online job boards, patience — and money — are wearing thin.