The Dish

Tucson, Arizona, 3 pm.

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A reader writes:

I am a small town lawyer in a vital small town. As the building trades are extremely active here, Hispanics are the fasting growing minority by far. Large general contractors avoid the potential pitfalls of hiring illegal immigrants by hiring as many subcontractors (framing, plumbing, roofing, etc) as possible.  But the number of Hispanics here has reached critical mass.  In order to be competitive in the market, one must use Hispanic labor. Therefore, the subcontractors, who do only one thing, are the ones stuck with the potential risk of using illegal immigrants.

A recent event epitomizes some facets of the immigration problem you might find interesting. Client needs a substantial addition to his house.  The lowest bidder by far (40% lower) is 100% Mexican. They are paid in cash. They do an extremely fine job, probably better than any non-Mexican group. But they are not able to do all the work (plumbing for instance) and a sub is found.  This one does not hire immigrants. He comes on site, sees the Mexicans at work, gets back in his vehicle screaming about the G-D Mexicans, and drives away from the site, never to return.

This example is important for many reasons. First, from the consumer’s point of view, this is a no-brainer. The quality of the work is outstanding and cheap. Second, there is no big business ripping off the Mexicans in this example, as the group itself is Mexican and undercuts the market because it does not pay social security, medical insurance or worker’s compensation, and the workers live more cheaply than people who know they will be living here forever. Third, the level of hostility that is beginning to surface is palpable.

I am sure the problem has many more faces than we see here in the building trades, but I think it safe to say the problem defies simple analysis. It is multivariable.

"Many of the predictions that Chuck [Hagel] made about how the war might go have come true. A lot of us still believe that some of his early predictions – that this was going to be a very tough project – have proven to be accurate," – Senate Minority leader, Mitch McConnell, in Nebraska. It’s going to be an interesting September, isn’t it?

Unleashed against women in Tehran. Warning: very disturbing image.

Literally AWOL.

A British broadcaster slips up about a car. Not particularly charming, but I wouldn’t get too upset about it. The guy’s not advancing a homophobic political agenda; and the g-word has become drained of much of its homosexual bite. And now I know the cockney rhyming slang for "queer."

The Simpsons – on FNC. If this were a Republican primary debate, think of the guy on the right as Ron Paul. A classic:

A deep chill is about to set in.

Dinesh D’Souza’s new book is called ""What’s So Great About Christianity." Er: that it’s true?

Matt has some shrewd observations:

The conventional wisdom, in essence, holds that running stridently against the war spells political doom for the Democrats. It also holds, however, that running stridently against the war is unnecessary because the Republicans will end the war anyway. Meanwhile, the Republicans are supposed to be doing this for political purposes.

These things can’t, however, all be true.