[Previous entry: "Rachel was bulldozed to death, but her words are a spur to action"] [Next entry: "11 Hurt in Plastics Plant Explosion: "Unreasonable Woman" Isn't Surprised"]

10/08/2005:

"Big Easy cleanup a foreign affair"

NEW ORLEANS -- They clear rotten seafood from stinking restaurant freezers, wash excrement from the floors of the Superdome, rip out wads of soaked insulation. The work is hot, nasty and critical to the recovery of New Orleans.

And yet, many of the workers are not actually from New Orleans. Many of those engaged in the huge cleanup and reconstruction effort here -- nobody has an exact count -- are immigrants, both legal and illegal, from Mexico and Central America.

Meanwhile, as many as 80,000 New Orleanians sit idle in shelters around the country. They are out of work, homeless and destitute. That irks some civic and union leaders.

"I've got nothing against our Hispanic brothers, but we have a whole lot of skilled laborers in shelters that could be doing this work," said Oliver Thomas, president of the City Council. "We could put a whole lot of money in the pockets of New Orleanians by doing this reconstruction work."
washtimes.com

Crazy ain't it? What are they making, 5 bucks an hour?

Republicans in Congress Propose Budget Cuts to Fund Storm Relief
...“As usual, the prime targets are the poor and others who rely on federal programs for their health, education, disability, agriculture, and veterans’ benefits,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the senior Democrat on the Agriculture Committee.