For VP nominee Palin: An Alaskan Immigration question
08/30/2008
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So here we are with the Affirmative Action Presidential election. Both tickets feature someone in their 40s, each in their first terms of office in positions of any national significance. Neither would be where they are except for Affirmative Action.

No doubt the reflexive me-too McCainites are feeling smart. If they actually were smart, they would be aware that their core constituency—white men of Christian heritage—resents Affirmative Action. And yes, they do have an alternative: not voting.

But for the apparently small minority of us who think politics should be about policy rather than posturing, the elevation of Alaska's Governor Palin provides an opportunity to raise an important question.

As Ryan Kennedy pointed out here last May (The Salmon Symptom: Hillary And The Democratic Party Abandon American Workers May 07 2008) Alaska has long provided seasonal work involving long hours and very tough conditions: the fish cannery industry's slime- line

The slime-line is some of the most unpleasant work you could imagine. Basically, the job is to rip the guts out of a salmon as fast as you can in order to do another, and another, and another for 12+ hours, everyday, 7 days a week, all summer
Forty years ago, the pay in this activity was so high—almost $20 an hour in today's money—that it attracted Wellesley student Hillary Clinton.

Now the Cannery Industry has forced down real wages more than 60% of that by importing immigrants, many probably illegal. As Rob Sanchez reported here, it goes to almost comic lengths to avoid recruiting Americans.

So now we have an Immigration question for VP nominee Palin: does she approve of the elimination of Americans in this part of one of Alaska's crucial industries, by the wholesale import of low wage immigrants?

The nicely complements our question for McCain: does he approve his maximum contributor Mrs. Billy Howard's displacement of Mississippi workers in her plants by immigrants, many apparently illegal?

Any patriotic MSM Press Conference attendees out there?

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