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Monday, May 19, 2008
A solution to illegal immigration?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
D.A. King writes that the U.S. has a simple, effective solution to illegal immigration at its fingertips, if only employers would use it. It is called e-verify and it allows employers to run electronic checks on employees to find illegals.
Writes King, “E-Verify is presently a voluntary system that should be expanded, better funded and mandatory, with the goal of eliminating the magnet that draws illegals to our nation. Few will be surprised to learn that it was a coalition of the business community and the far-left ethnic lobby that was successful in making use of the system voluntary.
“That relatively few employers have chosen to use the no-cost tool provides alarming, but unsurprising, insight into the intent of those who have not enrolled in the program.
“When used to verify work eligibility of newly hired employees, a false negative response does not result in termination of the employee until completion of a lengthy and thorough appeal process. Using scare tactics about Americans losing jobs because of E-Verify is, at best, unproductive.” Read full column here.
An AJC editorial, however, recently pointed out reliability problems with E-verify and urged caution in using it.
“There’s nothing wrong with requiring employers to use a government database to verify job applicants’ legal status. But E-Verify just isn’t reliable enough to perform that task, and the Social Security Administration isn’t the agency to handle it,” the editorial said. Read full editorial here.
Is E-verify the solution, and if so, why aren’t we mandating it?
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Who profits from Iraq war? We all do
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Columnist Nick Turse writes that it is no longer just defense contractors who profit heavily from the Iraq war- a wide variety of consumer companies rake in hundreds of millions from Pepsi to Krispy Kreme - and thus we all profit.
“In 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his famous farewell address as president, warned of the “acquisition of unwarranted influence” by what he called the “military-industrial complex” in the United States,” writes Turse. “Today, however, the “large arms industry” of Eisenhower’s day is only part of a complex equation. Civilian companies such as PepsiCo and IBM form the backbone of what more accurately can be described as a “military-corporate complex.” These businesses allow the Pentagon to function, to make war and to carry out foreign occupations.” Read full column here.
Does widespread profit contribute to the public acceptance of war - and does that prolong the war?
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Forum
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