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03/21/2010: "Postville"

"http://state29.blogspot.com/2008/05/todd-dorman-on-postville.html"
"http://24hourdorman.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/thursdays-column-postville/":

The sprawling Agriprocessors packing plant on the outskirts of town is imposing and intimidating even if you don’t know about the jaw-dropping lawlessness our government says went on inside these fences. Knowing sends a chill up your back.

So it’s probably lucky you can’t stay long. Tuesday, a stern, but polite, woman told Gazette video journalist Mike Barnes and myself to leave, pronto.

Fair enough. Nothing to see. No one’s talking. But there was plenty to see elsewhere.

There was St. Bridget’s Catholic parish near downtown, where dozens of plant workers and their families milled around inside the church and outside in the courtyard. Many here have family members among the 390 plant workers detained by federal immigration officials at Monday’s historic raid.

I know workers broke the law in coming here and working here and must deal with the consequences. Fine.

But you’d have to be one hard-bitten, coldhearted Minuteman to look into the anxious, dazed faces of these people, as their children played around their feet, and not feel some sort of sympathy.

“They’re lost,” said Sister Mary McCauley, pastoral administrator at the church.

McCauley wishes Iowa’s congressmen could be here to see this. So do I.

But I’m less forgiving.

This would have been a great spot for a congressional junket. Time for our so-called leaders to see what dereliction of leadership and government malpractice look like, close up.

This is what it looks like when you do next to nothing to rein in a meat packing industry that’s mutated into a monolithic monopoly of misery fattened by illegal immigration. Could it be that the folks who run this industry line political pockets with campaign donations? Campaign finance records show that members of the Rubashkin family, which owns the Postville plant, donated tens of thousands of dollars, mostly to Republicans, over the last decade. Say it ain’t so.

I think we’ll all be watching to see if top Agriprocessors executives take one of those famous federal perp walks. Justice demands it.

Add congressional inaction on big ag’s excesses to its inability to control the nation’s southern border or come up with a realistic plan for dealing with illegal immigrants already here, some for years, and you understand why Congress gets the kind of dismal approval ratings it so richly deserves.

This is the same bunch of political clowns who think they can manage the health care industry, the price of gas, the price of food, etc etc etc.

Think about that.

Congress can't secure our borders, much less control the flow of illegals into this country, or even shut down companies whose Mission Statement appears to be: We Will Break Laws In Order To Profit From Slave Labor.

This is an excellent column, of course. The only thing that would make it better would be to point out that scumsuckers like Iowa republicans and Iowa lt governor Patty Judge took money from the Rubashkins and the rest of the organized crime group that is Agriprocesssors Inc, but that's what you've got blogs for, I guess.

I don't know why everybody in the media always ends up running over to that church and interviewing Sister Mary McCauley. As far as I'm concerned, the Catholic Church is part of the conspiracy. Follow the money. The Catholic collection plate is down, and these idiots in the Davenport Diocese have the nerve to get all political in our faces while never having to pay any taxes.

Another story that isn't being followed: how come all the local officials in Postville knew what was going on but didn't do anything about it? Talk about the modern-day manifestation of a Company Town. All of them were corrupt and, frankly, all of them should be in prison. That mayor and police chief have a lot of chutzpah to come out and act like they're above the law.