I was watching my DVR of yesterday’s “Special Report,” and I saw them post this startling statistic:

Civilian Deaths
Juarez, Mexico 1 in 889 residents
Baghdad, Iraq 1 in 3040 residents

So, that means a resident of Juarez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, TX, is almost 3.5 times as likely as a resident of that terrible war-torn city of Baghdad, Iraq.  These are 2008 statistics, so the numbers are probably much worse now with the increase in violence in Juarez this year.

Now let me get this straight — peacenicks are mad at Obama for his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq, which extended his promised timeline by three months.  But they fight the border fence tooth and nail when American civilians are increasingly unsafe in our own country?

One of the main arguments for allowing illegal immigration to become legalized is because they will do jobs that Americans refuse to do.  Well, here’s a woman trying to find employment to help her family out, and she’s mislead and turned down.

Sabrina Steele applied for a farming job in Tennessee, and the owner told her it would be a bad idea to apply because she would have to work 80 hours, she’d be one of the very few women, and she’d be one of the few who spoke English.  The problem is Mike Pope, of Pope’s Plant Farm was basically lying to her because these jobs were H-2A visa jobs that he applied for in Nov. 2007.  In his application, these jobs were for 40 hours a week at $8.65 per hour.

Steele filed a lawsuit with the help of a migrant worker organization.  Kudos go to this organization, Southern Migrant Legal Services, for being even-handed on this.  She was considered a potential migrant worker because the nature of the job, not her status.  And the organization is going to fight for her because they want the visa program to continue, but its purpose is to supplement US workers, not replace them.

I have no problem with supplementing our workforce with migrant / foreign workers when necessary.  But we can’t have companies using illegal labor.  And, we can’t have them bringing in foreign workers to replace US workers.  Don’t think this only happens on farms — I’ve seen it in the high tech industry as well.  High tech companies can bring in highly skilled, highly educated, and very diligent workers from overseas and pay them about 10%-20% less than an American worker.  Plus, foreign workers tend not to leave the company or cause too much trouble for fear of losing their visas and being sent home.   I saw Michael Dell asking for more visas from Congress arguing a lack of qualified American workers while several local companies were laying off workers with the desired skillset.

Visas are just the new outsourcing.  We have to watch how they are used.

For those of you following this case, the AP is reporting that Border Agent Jose Compean was resentenced to prison for 10 years despite several of the charges being dropped earlier this year.  One of the charges remaining, using a weapon during a felony, carries a mandatory 10 year sentence.  Compean’s fellow agent, Ignacio Ramos, is being resentenced tomorrow.  Compean’s lawyer vows to take the case to the Supreme Court.

I hope these two agents are pardoned by President Bush in his last few days in office, as Sen. Cornyn has urged.

Last night on a special “Hannity and Colmes,” they were discussing Obama’s aunt.  Dick Morris was the guest, and Colmes stated that if they were discussing Obama’s treatment of his aunt, then they should discuss how McCain treated his first wife. 

Let’s do that, shall we?  About 35 years ago, McCain came back from Vietnam broken both mentally and physically.  He fought back on both fronts, and he won.  However, he cheated on his wife during the process.  He’s not proud of it, and he made sure that everyone knew that it was HIS fault, and it was not to be blamed on Vietnam or anything but himself.  When they divorced, he agreed to pay his wife’s medical bills for the rest of her life (she was severely injured in a car accident while he was a POW). 

His ex-wife supports him to this day.  His children with his first wife support him.  The family is together in this quest, which says a lot about the man.  When his wife Cindy was addicted to painkillers, he admitted that he could have done more to help her.  They fought through it, and she successfully overcame the addiction.  They have been married close to thirty years. 

I mean, c’mon, his wife brought home a BABY who was in severe need of medical attention to adopt, and he lovingly accepted her without question.  That is not an easy thing to do.

Obama says he didn’t know his aunt, whom he wrote about so lovingly in his book, was living in America.  When she became a liability because of her legal status, he threw her under the bus and said all laws should be followed.  He’s a LAWYER, and he could certainly find a friend to help fight for her case.  Instead, she’s suddenly disappered from her public housing unit, and he says she needs to get outta Dodge.  So much for “my brother’s keeper.”

The Treasury department formally announced today the plan to buy up preferred stock in nine banks, one of which is Bank of America.  It will only cost $250 B.  Obama and McCain have both proposed rules under which these banks should operate since they will partially be owned by US, including limiting executive pay and moratoriums on foreclosures.

I only have one question: Will they finally be forced to follow federal laws?