Glad to see him visiting his constituents and getting input....hope he has ears to hear and a willingness to represent those citizen views.

Maybe someday he'll make it out here to the really rural parts of the state, like Wallowa County, and see how the other part of his district lives and feels about the issues.

air shox
air max

Maybe someday he'll make it out here to the really rural parts of the state, like Wallowa County, and see how the other part of his district lives and feels about the issues.

Given the fact that he got in a car accident on Hwy 20 in the mtns making sure he got to every county in the state, I'm quite sure he'll be back to your area more than once. But of course you can also contact his staff who are very accommodating.

Kari; Your first statement I can agree with. I would assume that in just about every country in the world if you stumbled into a hospital in the midst of a heart attack they would do the humane and decent thing and treat you, whether you could pay or not. The next statement about we should providing preventative health care to an illegal immigrant....I can not agree with.

First, there is this one little word we have to crawl over..."illegal". Definition: Illegal: prohibited by law or by official accepted rules, obtained by improper means, taken for your own use in violation of a trust, contrary to or forbiden by law, not sanctioned by official rules.

If we as a country ignore our own laws regarding immigration, or just every so often give "amnesty" to those that have broken the public's trust (that you have completed the proper immigration procedures and have thus EARNED the right to access the rights and privileges citizenship in this country affords), then we might as well drop our borders, throw out our form of government and the documents its founded on, and become...... something else.

It is those borders, and the immigration laws that protect them, that allow you the privilege to cross them and join our way of life. Those laws have protected those foundational documents and beliefs that have sustained what those that desire to immigrate here want. Without the observance of those laws, what we have will disappear.

Did anyone happen to ask this jackass joke of a senator how the FEC investigation he is facing is going or whether or not he's managed to actually pay his property taxes this year? God...it's hard to keep the vomit down just looking at this guy....the fact that Oregonians ousted Gordon Smith for this sack of sh#t is beyond belief...what a joke.

Did Chuckie Riley say anything or just look stupid? Oh, weren't there any elections issues raised? IE: Illegal alien voting?

Carla; Please excuse my rural naivety, but what exactly is meant by "tinfoil hat" and what constitutes a "tinfoil hat type illegal alien question"? Thanks for clarifying that for me. ---Marc

Carla, Still calling people that want a secure border, Anti-immigrant? How intelligent, not.

FYI, to anyone else here that can actually use their Brain, OFIR did NOT send out any notice of this meeting. These were just every day, mostly Democrats too see their D leader, concerned folks and rightly so on the impact of Illegal immigration.

You not really Journalists and pandering not for U.S. Citizens Politicians can keep ignoring the reality of the issue but the legal Voters will not, apparently.

Regarding the old parrotted line Merkley (stolen from Pres. W Bush) said, jobs we won't do... Pew Research (the respected by the Media claimers that only 12 million illegal's are here, reported over 4 years ago) says that over 25% of illegals work in Construction, soooo Americans do not want to build homes now either?

The issue of illegal immigration, including supposed costs and benefits, is not something that will go away for politicians. We have more than 300 million inhabitants now, shrinking oil reserves, and rising global shortages of several natural resources. I do agree that "some jobs are such that many/most Americans don't want to do them." Most of the jobs I see are like that. People usually take jobs because they need the money, not because they want to work. Pay more, and workers can be found for nearly any legal work and some that is illegal.

Carla; I had never seen that metaphor used before and was just humbly asking what it meant. I don't watch a lot of T.V. and have been called a bit naive before by those that "are on top" of all the new media slang.

I guess some folks feel like because they are for "secure borders", that you feel they are "anti-immigrant"? Am I correct in that assumption?

For my part, I look at the words written on the Statue of Liberty, from the poem "The New Colossus"; "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door".

I feel that those words mean what they say. So just to clarify where I am coming from, I am not "anti-immigrant". I do feel that if you want to share in the privileges of our society, such as the conversation we are having, you need to go through the same process my ancestors from Bern, Switzerland, my daughter-in-laws family from Mexico, and my daughters friend from Sudan did. As a result, they truly understand, earned, and can legally enjoy the freedoms our forefathers fought and died for.

Carla,

Is it just another dishonest, partisan political stunt, your using "anti-immigration folks" when talking about opponents of the illegal immigration problem? Or do you not know the difference?

I know many anti-illegal immigration folks. They recognize the severe problem with illegal immigration and are not opposed to legal immigration.

Legal immigration works. Is has for many decades.
It sets quotas for numbers entering the country, screens for health and criminal risks and could easily be increased to offset any needs from halting the tide of illegal immigration.

So who exactly are the anti-immigration folks you are talking about?

Republicans?

No wonder you are not "especially interested in devolving this discussion into one of what to do about illegal immigration".
You're too busy deliberately misrepresenting the issue as anti-immigration.

Then you "suspect we won't agree"?

On what?

You have demonstrated clearly why there's been little progress on dealing with illegal immigration. Sleazy politics gets in the way. l

Carla; Thanks for the reply. No apology needed. I grew up in Central Point and lived in Junction City, Baker, Bend(before it became what it is now), Elgin and now in Enterprise. I have deep rural roots and philosophies.

My Father used that term and I use "rural naivety" as a "humble question breaker"; as I have been patted on the head a number of times and told you just don't understand the "modern thought process". I do understand, but I just don't always agree with it. It shows folks my willingness to listen and learn and helps mitigate the stereotypical feelings about rural folks.

I understand your desire to not devolve this into immigration so I'll leave you with this thought. If, we as diversified (the giant melting pot) Americans will respect and try to find the wisdom in each others experiences, take that wisdom and meld it together to find common solutions for common problems, there is not a problem this world can throw at us we can not solve together.

Respectfully; Marc W. Stauffer

Off-topic comment deleted--Editor

OK Carla,

I get it. It's "substance" that has you referring to the illegal immigration problem as "anti-immigration"?

And you suggest I need babysitting?

I'll just conclude you can't point to or name any "anti-immigration folks" you mentioned above and my earlier take was spot on.

And frankly, I don't have the patience to babysit you. If/when you decide you're interested in substance, I'll reconsider.

ROTFLMAO

Finally Torrid gets it.

Yes, legal immigration works.

That's why there are no "anti-immigration folks" as Carla's "substance" claimed.

What took you so long, and why is Carla not getting this?

Once we get enough of you progressives to grasp the issue and the difference between successful legal immigration and the severe problem of illegal immigration we can progress towards a remedy of the problem side while respecting all those people who have and are waiting to enter the country legally.

Unless there's some political reason to keep the issue obscured in perpetual demagoguery?

Then there's the worst case scenario that many progressives advocate. An open borders policy whereby we get rid of legal immigration and have all of them enter illegally.

Now there's some substance.

Oh torrid, you're in regression.

I'll simplify. But you must stop leaving out the most germane components while muddling up legal and illegal.

Legal immigration is a success. It allows a limited level of immigration with controlls that screen for criminal, health and other issues. Law bidding applicants wait, are qualified and enter the country legally. The fact that millions cheat, brake laws and sneak into the country illegally does not diminish the legal immigration process.

Illegal immigration diminishes the border enforcement policies.

So doon't play games like Carla.

You're living in fantasy land if you think illegal immigration is not a severe problem.

The fact that there is illegal immigration does not mean legal immigration is a failure. It means enforcement is a failure. It's enforcement that prevents immigrating without documentation.

Your cockamamie BS, if applied to drivers licences or any other legal requirement, would mean noncompliance is proof compliance is a failure.

Therefore you would argue this.

"If there is illegal driving -then by its very nature, licensed driving is a failure, since the whole point of "licensed driving" is to prevent or make moot the entire concept of driving without testing and documentation."

You're nuts. It makes it very clear that the immigration and border enforcement system is both insufficient to handle illegal entry traffic and makes it easier for what you call "demand" to avoid the legal system of entry.

Your shell game logic avoids the reality of the our porous boarders and sanctuary enabling of illegal entry.

That lax enforcement and weak border approach does not demonstrate the lack of capacity of our legal immigration system to accommodate whatever level of legal immigration our country needs or demands. Your BS is excuse making that perpetuates the problem. The legal immigration quota could be ratcheted up without much trouble and provide as many screened and approved immigrants, from many parts of the world, as we need and can accommodate. Efforts to increase and improve legal immigration have been stifled by the lack of effort and of a simultaneous or corresponding progress in curbing illegal immigration.

The chaos of millions of unscreened illegal entries from primarily third world nations from the south, represents a whole spectrum of problems not associated with legal immigration from diverse origins.

Your misinformation and biases leave you with blinders on and unaware of your wrongness.

Apparently you one of the many progressives who's idea for immigration illegality is to get rid of legal immigration and have all of them enter illegally. Unscreened, unhealthy, non-law bidding, by the millions, come on in.

Torrid, Are you dumb or what.

I was talking about those who would be screened by the legal immigration process. And the lesser amounts that wopuld be allowed from one region while others from around the world would gain opportunity to emigrate.

And you can't even read.

I never said or suggested progressives wanted to "shut down the immigration process entirely and make it illegal for ANYONE to emigrate to the US"

I said you are one of the many progressives who's idea for immigration illegality is to get rid of legal immigration and have all of them enter illegally.

You're obviously in favor of open borders and ANYONE emigrating here.

So I named you.

As for the unscreened, unhealthy, non-law bidding, by the millions, come on in?

That's what we get with illegal immigration and your open borders approach.

Richard, thanks for the vitriol and bigotry, but we don't care what you think of torridjoe. Can you keep that to yourself?

No way could we find proof of DHS helping illegal aliens... have you tried google lately?

"Health Equities Committee Policy Recommendations on Citizenship As consistent with current practices in the private marketplace, no citizenship documentation requirements will be in place to participate in the Oregon Health Fund program."

And there is the email I got from a state worker...

Daniel,

Yes, absolutely. If he is in Washington County, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center should be able to see him. If he shows up as a walk in, however, he should be prepared to wait a couple of hours to be seen.

Here is a list of those clinics that he can go to. It does not matter whether or not he is documented. My emphasis

Sorry for the delay but I was out on vacation and only back today.

Alberto Moreno, MSW Migrant Health Coordinator Health Systems Planning Department of Human Services

And the memo that the head of DHS sent out...

Date: June 21, 2006 To: All DHS staff From: Bruce Goldberg, Director Re: Medicaid Eligibility and Proof of Citizenship

Although the new federal regulations require more documentation, there remains some flexibility for handling situations where clients cannot provide such items as birth certificates, photo I.D.s or other identification materials. Because good health and access to health care is important to everyone, my goal is to implement these new requirements in a manner that meets the law without harming needy individuals.

And DHS put out a newsletter in Jan of 2004 teaching the "food stamp loophole"

Example: Mom comes in to apply for food stamps for self and her three children. Mom lists the three children on the application as the people she is applying to receive benefits for. She lists herself as another person in the HH, and does not want benefits for herself. There are a few reasons Mom might not want benefits for herself; one might be that she is an ineligible non-citizen, and does not want to disclose her status, and does not have a valid SSN.

I could go on and on if you are actually concerned with illegal aliens getting taxpayer funded goodies but I don't think that you really are.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend, but this discussion is just too much fun to sit out. Rick Hicky wrote: "FYI, to anyone else here that can actually use their Brain, OFIR did NOT send out any notice of this meeting. These were just every day, mostly Democrats too see their D leader, concerned folks and rightly so on the impact of Illegal immigration." Rick, why did you capitalize "brain" and "illegal"? I found OFIR's website, true no notice there (in fact the last Town Hall update is for David Wu events in August of 08 - he still won!) but there was a splash on the Washington County republican's site for Senator Merkley's event. They even had an online registration form to see how many of their troops planned to attend, and I suspect they supplied talking points to them.

I wonder if any of the immigration questions were concerned with

"You not really Journalists and pandering not for U.S. Citizens Politicians can keep ignoring the reality of the issue but the legal Voters will not, apparently." First of all, bloggers don't claim to be journalists. And secondly, did you ever take English in school? Learn to write clearly, or at least try reading your own stuff out loud a few times before hitting the send button. Use your Brain.

Last of all, Senator Merkley is not "our D leader", he (along with Senator Wyden) is our elected Statewide representation in Washington D.C. If you read the Constitution you will learn how it all works.

My bad! Karma is a bitch! The fragment sentence should have read: "I wonder if any of the immigration questions were concerned with what to do about employers who knowingly hire undocumented foreigners, or fail to perform due diligence to verify a person's right to work in the U.S." I'll bet if the fine was $5000 for the first offense, and doubled with each violation, the problem would dry up pretty quickly.

Norm D. Plume(cute): No need to wonder. When I lived in Arizona, we worked hard to get this enacted,despite the many protestations of the business community and Smurfs, and it took effect 01/01/2008.

The Legal Arizona Workers Act requires Arizona employers to use E-Verify. A.R.S. § 23-214. The law provides that an employer that uses E-Verify to verify that an employee is authorized to work in the United States is entitled to a rebuttable presumption that the employer did not knowingly or intentionally employ an unauthorized alien. A.R.S. § 23-212(I)

It doesn't matter if you're sitting front-row-center. It's a nice view, but that's where the advantage seems to end. But I did get to fly up to the good Senator immediately after his extemporaneous jaw-boning to ask him a very important question that needs to be asked. Here's my letter to the good Senator:

Dear Senator Merkley,

Thanks for meeting with us at the Hillsboro Civic Center on Sunday morning May 2, 2009. I asked you a question which you were not able to fully answer when we spoke directly . I want to know exactly "how much of the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment act will go to big oil and gas and/or their subsidiaries. Your assistant asked me to contact you for further clarification on whether or not any of the economic stimulus monies will go to big oil and gas. At that time you were not able to reassure me that "none" of the economic stimulus money will go to big oil and gas. These industries are quite capable of generating all the funds needed for the survival of themselves and their subsidiaries. In addition, I do not believe that they need one red cent of the stimulus money for research and development either. Due to the extreme world demand for oil and gas, big oil and gas, along with their subsidiaries will do fine without our help.

Increasing numbers of Oregonians are totally convinced that, with good political leadership, the cheap, clean cornucopia of "energy from the vacuum" can replace all other alternatives so fast that the civilized world would breath a sigh of relief. Your counterpart, Senator Wyden has stubbornly ignored our pleas for answers. Why is there no real political leadership nor open public debates or discussions on this particular matter? Why have so many earth-friendly energy innovations been sequestered by our military based solely on fear and mistrust? In his inaugural speech, President Obama said, "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." I believe that President Obama's remark was directed to leaders around the world, including US government and corporate leaders "and" those who control them.

Senator Merkley, Oregonians are very friendly to industry and ethical capitalism. But we are not friendly to lies and cover-ups intending to oppress us and keep us divided. It is time for the truth and we are unveiling it even as this email is reaches you. We intend to fight for a new American society which is firmly based on truth, prosperity and abundance for all, not just for the privileged. [Google "New Energy Movement"] Please know that we will prevail and that our leaders will be well advised to embrace changes to the status quo. This is no longer fringe science nor is the subject a "red herring." Please allow us to advise you of the facts ASAP!

May you be blessed in your journey representing us to the best of your abilities. We will support you as long as we feel that your heart is in the right place. We need your help uncovering the truth and revealing it to Oregonians and we are patiently awaiting your response.

Signed.

We need to hold these guys accountable. Thanks for the opportunity to throw in my 2-cents.

John

You can find an informative report about Merkley's visit to Columbia County at the preceding link.

Also, it wasn't written by someone who was paid to get him elected.

http://www.spotlightnews.net/news/story.php?story_id=124156086651635100

Like most proud parents, Merkley lights up like a Christmas tree when he talks about his family. In fact, in the photo above he happened to be relating something about his father--which put this smile on his face.

Thank you for again reminding us that genuflecting to the family is the sine qua non of contemporary, American politics. I have lived in several countries where a public rep. would be embarrassed, considering it unprofessional. I guess they just don't love their children as much. Is that it? If not, why is his lighting up like a jezustree so great?

You've had people on here detailing DHS abuses for the life of the blog and it has never gotten even a casual notice. What makes this so special? The fact that the right is banging on about it? Who's driving this car?

Carla:

I find it interesting that Mr Merkley and you forgot to mention the story that one of those "tin hats" related...

REMEMBER?--the one about the chicken farm that lost all of their illegal alien CHEAP LABOR to an INS raid...they raised the pay level by $1 per hour and replace all of their workers with American citizens within a weeks time!...AMAZING!!!

This is one of those jobs that according to Merkley "most Americans don't want to do"...Only because the employers is not willing to pay a fair living wages...AND maybe you are not willing to pay the price at the market either...

The point to the story was that those of you that are fighting to allow illegal aliens to stay here...are actually hurting those folks and our American citizens and economy!!!...

Illegal aliens are being exploited and they are damaging our economy in the process!!!...

That is why legislator are being lobbied (paid) to turn their eyes away from that issue...

Farmers, chicken plant operator, bio-fuel plants operators and other low paying employers that exploit illegal aliens are paying lobbists to convince our elected officials to look the other way...Lobbists, legislators and unscruplous employers are the people making money on these poor illegal aliens...

In turn the illegal aliens are a drag on our economy - using services(hospitals, welfare, housing, etc.) and not paying for them and taking jobs from Americans...

We need to secure our borders and require employers to use e-verify and be accountable for hiring and paying Americans a fair wage. Remove all illegal aliens to their home country and then allow them to apply for entry into the USA LEGALLY!!!

This is not a partisan issue...or it shouldn't be...after all it is the CAPITALISTS that are exploiting this situation...THIS IS A LEGAL ISSUE!!!!

Illegal is still ILLEGAL!!!

One more thing--let me tell a little story of tragedy that just happened to escalate FOR ME this week.

My friend Amy's father was murdered 2 years ago by an illegal alien that worked in a bio-fuel plant in Nebraska as CHEAP LABOR ...Amy's father was trying to help this illegal alien but he decided he needed more than Amy's dad was willing to give...so he killed Amy's dad and stole his money and ran back to Mexico...

Well Amy has had a very hard time coping with her father's murder and last week it got too much for her and she shot herself in the head to end the pain...This has been devastating for a lot of her friends and family... we are very sad!

This is a true story. Just one of many about crime perpetrated on American citizens by people that have no right to be in our country...

This is nothing about racism or hate...This is all about the law and protecting our American citizens and our American economy...Right and WRONG!!!

Illegal is still ILLEGAL!!!!!

It is estimated that Obama's plan could benefit 8 to 9 million homeowners from the new modification procedures. So how do you know you qualify for the Mortgage Modification? Check the website http://obamamortgage2009.blogspot.com/ to see if you qualify. I was also in trouble and I am glad I did check it before I talk to my mortgage company and it helped - John Mayer, California

It is estimated that Obama's plan could benefit 8 to 9 million homeowners from the new modification procedures. So how do you know you qualify for the Mortgage Modification? Check the website http://obamamortgage2009.blogspot.com/ to see if you qualify. I was also in trouble and I am glad I did check it before I talk to my mortgage company and it helped - John Mayer, California

It is estimated that Obama's plan could benefit 8 to 9 million homeowners from the new modification procedures. So how do you know you qualify for the Mortgage Modification? Check the website http://obamamortgage2009.blogspot.com/ to see if you qualify. I was also in trouble and I am glad I did check it before I talk to my mortgage company and it helped - John Mayer, California

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