I don't think you see the bigger picture Lugnut. If swift and the other crooks fold and there is a demand for the product, people will pay to get it without the slave labor working conditions involved in meat packing. Billy Bob the rancher will open his own meat packing plant along with his neighbor ranchers and find customers to sell the product too. They can't compete against the labor racketeers who invaded meat packing. many towns had american work forces in meat packing before the bean counters broke unions by building new plants and importing workers if i want steak, it is irrelavant if it costs .25 cents more a pound because the labor isn't being beat to death. We have places called meat markets that used to have a bunch of real butchers in them, they have mostly switched over to being deli's or gone out of business because they can't compete with the cheap boxed meat that grocery stores buy. They where nice neighborhood markets employing people at living wages. Type of people who would drop off groceries to old people who couldn't get out of the house anymore because after decades of knowing them as neighbors & customers they thought nothing of doing it.

But money alone will not draw the workers. Not many people interested in standing in one spot year after year doing totally mindless work. Doesn't justify importing illegals to do the work. i saw a guy on TV that had a mobile slaughter house, he went to hobby farms and did the dirty work for gentlemen ranchers and they stocked their freezers and maybe a few neighbors & relatives shared in the meat. Meat processing doesn't have to be done on a large scale, anyone could set up a shop and something like once a week round up some friends,neighbors and relatives to take out some of the herd and slaughter a truckload and find a meat distributor to buy the stuff. Joe rancher could slaughter his own and own his own truck employing somebody at decent wages and send sides of beef to market. They don't bother because they can't compete against the meat processing factories who shipped boxed meat to market.

Border Agent Gets 5 Years in Prison for Letting Illegal Immigrants Through Checkpoint for Cash Friday , February 16, 2007 Disassociated Depressed SAN DIEGO — A former border inspector was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison for guiding hundreds of illegal immigrants through his checkpoint booth in exchange for at least $70,000 from a smuggling ring. Michael Anthony Gilliland, a 44-year-old former Marine and 16-year border agent, pleaded guilty in September to letting illegal immigrants through San Diego's Otay Mesa port of entry in exchange for bribes. Gilliland and five others coordinated smuggling operations and deliberately failed to record vehicles that ferried immigrants through border lanes under his supervision, according to court documents. He was arrested in June. Four other co-conspirators have been sentenced to shorter prison terms for their roles in the ring. A fifth co-conspirator, Aurora Torres Lopez, is scheduled to be sentenced later this month. Gilliland was also fined $200,000. Wiretaps described in court documents recorded Gilliland, who worked the graveyard shift, speaking in code with Torres and another female accomplice about his schedule and how many immigrants would be coming through his lane. Prosecutors said he had taken between $70,000 and $120,000 from Torres and her group since 2004. The SOB should be tried for treason and hanged at Leavenworth...Along with Bush for non-compliance to his oath to protect the United States of America... :evil: -Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Immigration Center-

The SOB should be tried for treason and hanged at Leavenworth...Along with Bush for non-compliance to his oath to protect the United States of America... How abour starting with Ted Kennedy and his bunch for gutting the enforcement provisions against employers that where in the mid 1980's immigrantion reform bill and than comrade clinton who also did nothing about the issue. because of Kennedy prolonging the problem that Reagan wanted to correct, nobody wants to touch the problem and get labeled as anti hispanic.

Muslim Cabbie Charged With Running Over Students After Religious Dispute Tuesday , February 20, 2007 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Muslim cabdriver from Somalia ran over two college students near Vanderbilt University after getting into an argument with them about religion, police said. Ibrahim Ahmed, 37, a driver for United Cab,... ...picked up two men near the Vanderbilt campus early Sunday morning, Capt. Mike Alexander of the Nashville Police Department said, referring to the incident report. The two men, reportedly college students from Ohio who were visiting Nashville, were on their way back to the campus. A conversation about religion ensued between the driver and his two fares. The local FOX affiliate in Nashville confirmed from a friend and fellow co-worker that Ahmed is a Sunni Muslim from Somalia. At some point, according to the police, the two men exited the cab, and the cabbie also got out. They paid him his fare, and then they exchanged words. According to the incident report, Ahmed then returned to his cab as the students fled on foot. Ahmed then allegedly drove across a parking lot, jumped a curb and struck the two men. One of the students, identified as Jeremy Invus, was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with critical injuries. The other passenger, Andrew Nelson, avoided the cab. Hospital spokeswoman Kathy Rivers told FOX News that Invus is recuperating and does not want to talk to the media about the incident. Ahmed, charged with assault and attempted homicide, is being held on $300,000 bond. He also was also charged with theft because police said the license plate on his cab was listed as stolen. "We are working with the police to see what happened," United Cab manager Cherrie Machado said. "I don't believe he will be working here anymore, but that is up to the licensing cab board — whether they will pull his permit — and the owners of the company." Machado said she would not feel "comfortable" to have Ahmed back working at the company. She noted that he also teaches English as a second language next door to the cab company. FOX news' Sharon Fain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://rwor.org/a/v19/920-29/920/storm.htm Changes in the processing of meat have also affected the nature of the work meat packers do. In the past, animal carcasses were shipped whole to grocers in the cities. But over the last 20 years, meat-packing plants have been boxing and vacuum-packing more meat which means the workers have to slaughter, cut up, and trim the meat before it is transported to the cities. During the 1960s and early 1970s meat packers were highly unionized and, up to 1979, the average hourly earnings of workers in this industry was about 17 percent above the overall manufacturing rate. But from 1979 to 1984, technical changes, the relocation of plants, and a drop in consumer demand for meat, all led to a worsening situation for meat-packing workers. Butchering and processing plants require more, but less-skilled workers--who are paid low wages. And more plants have become non-union. The industry's hourly pay, including benefits--which peaked at $19 in 1980--fell to $12 an hour by 1992. As meat-packing jobs have become less skilled and lower paid, meat-packing companies have begun to rely on--and take advantage of--the working poor and poor immigrant labor. In the late 1970s and early '80s, big meat-packing firms like ConAgra, IBP and Cargill drastically changed their workforce--replacing high-paid workers with new employees who got only $6 an hour. In 1983 they bought 13 Armour plants and lowered 3,000 workers' pay from $10.69 an hour to about $6.

$19.00 pay & benefits in 1980 would be $46.49 in 2006 dollars. Once sparkling clean towns in the midwest now have ghetto's in them. Fine middle class families used to raise nice children and now we get gang bangers & meth labs.

Meat packing; it's not just a job, it's a lifestyle. :wink:

Border Agents Find 2 Tons of Pot in Camouflaged Trucks Tuesday February 20, 2007 Disassociated Depressed TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Border Patrol agents have found more than two tons of marijuana inside camouflaged trucks west of Casa Grande. The marijuana was discovered Sunday after a Bureau of Land Management ranger spotted two trucks near the town of Stanfield, said Rob Daniels, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. The Border Patrol joined the pursuit, and the drivers of the camouflaged trucks eventually bailed out and fled into the desert, Daniels said. The ranger wasn't injured. Inside the trucks, agents found 253 bundles of marijuana weighing 4,660 pounds and a loaded .45 pistol. The marijuana has an estimated value of $4.6 million. Through Jan. 31, the la-*test*-('") figures the agency releases, marijuana seizures were up 31 percent in the Tucson Sector for fiscal year 2007. Seizures in fiscal year 2006 broke all previous records. "It clearly has not slowed down, and we really don't expect any kind of a slow down whatsoever," Daniels said. "We're definitely still being -*test*-('")ed." Being -*test*-('")ed? :? For what? To see who is going with the program and who is not? Border Agents hesitate to run down the occupants of the trucks? Who was gettimg paid off this time...the Border Patrol or did King George II expect a kickback?

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Public Safety Commissioner Kerry Sleeper is planning to meet with a Mexican diplomat who ruffled feathers earlier this month when he said more Mexican farm workers were being detained in Vermont than in neighboring states. story click here They should have deported the diplomat after telling him they would step up enforcement so there wouldn't be any mexicans for him to represent in Vermont. MIDDLEBURY, Vt. --A dairy farm run by relatives of Gov. Jim Douglas employs four undocumented Mexican immigrants, a farm owner said. more bullshit,click here all thanks to ted kennedy and his bunch yanking the employer enforcemnet provisions from the mid 1980's immigrantion reform bill.

Soon after the arrests were made, a 23-count felony indictment was unsealed in Grand Rapids, Mich., the home base for Rosenbaum-Cunningham International, Inc., a cleaning and grounds-maintenance service that contracts with major theme restaurant chains and other hospitality venues around the country. The government is charging among other things that the company's three owners cheated the federal government out of $18 million in federal employment taxes from the wages they paid their employees. http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1588360.php

Beaners Do Their Business In the Fields
California Company Recalls Cantaloupes Due to Salmonella Contamination Friday , February 23, 2007 LOS ANGELES — A wholesale produce importer on Friday recalled several thousand cartons of cantaloupes after some -*test*-('")ed positive for salmonella. Castle Produce said the recall covered roughly 2,560 cartons of cantaloupes delivered on or after Feb. 16 to wholesalers in Los Angeles and San Francisco for distribution in the western states. The cantaloupes originated in Costa Rica. It wasn't clear if the cantaloupes had reached stores. The recall is the second involving the fruit this month. The Dole Fresh Fruit Co. has recalled about 6,100 cartons of cantaloupes distributed to wholesalers in the eastern United States and Quebec between Feb. 5 and Feb. 8. The cantaloupes also were imported from Costa Rica and -*test*-('")ed positive for salmonella. The source of the salmonella was a plastic basket used to hold the cantaloupes after they are harvested and washed, said Steven Reynolds, the company's chief financial officer. There have been no reports of illness due to the contaminated cantaloupes, Reynolds said. The cantaloupes were distributed for sale in bulk in cardboard cartons, with nine, 12 or 15 melons to a carton. Salmonella, which commonly originates from the feces of birds and animals, can cause diarrhea, fever, dehydration, abdominal pain and vomiting. Is this (USA) a Third World Country or not? ... :roll:

Arrest Warrant Issued for Suspect in Florida Teen's Kidnapping Sunday, February 25, 2007 PARRISH, Fla. — Florida police on Sunday issued a warrant for a man suspected of kidnapping a 13-year-old boy at gunpoint in an apparent ransom attempt, police said. The man, whom authorities identified as Vicente Ignacio Beltran Marina, is believed to be Mexican. He is wanted in connection with the Friday morning kidnapping of Clay Moore from a school bus stop in Parrish, Fla. Moore was able to escape several hours later. "This was an absolute kidnapping for ransom," Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells said at a press conference Sunday morning. "We have been able to positively conclude that this was an out-and-out kidnapping and that the person wanted money in exchange for Clay Moore." Authorities said Marina is a former migrant worker at the farm where Moore was ultimately found. Police believe Marina, most recently employed with an aluminum contractor, has fled Florida. "I think we do have a sporting chance to bring him back to Manatee County and have him stand trial for this crime," Wells said.