Thursday, October 05, 2006

The Two Faces of F. Jim

His votes may say "stay home", but his investments call out "ya'll come on over."

Talk about hedging your bets. Congressman Sensenbrenner may be sending bills to the floor of the House to block illegal immigration, but he pays his bills with investments that use illegals according to an analysis by Roberto Lovato of New American Media.

A rummage of his portfolio reveals:

(T)he congressman has invested in companies that have directly hired or subcontracted with employers who hire undocumented workers" and "stands to benefit from investments in companies contracted by the federal government to provide services he has proposed as part of his immigration reform legislation.


Oh yes, Halliburton is in there too:

Drawing especially strong criticism are the $86,500 in stocks Sensenbrenner holds in the construction and infrastructure colossus Halliburton. The Texas-based giant has been the subject of Senate hearings into its labor practices in the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. News reports and several panelists at Senate hearings have stated that Halliburton used subcontractors hiring hundreds, perhaps thousands of undocumented workers as part of no-bid federal contracts to cleanup Belle Chasse Naval base and other military facilities in the devastated region. Halliburton has also secured a $385 million Department of Homeland Security contract to build gigantic immigrant detention centers near the U.S.-Mexico border and stands to secure further contracts from proposals to reopen closed military bases to house deportees and detainees.


He may claim he has no illegals in his immediate employ at his real home in the Washington DC area, but as Deepthroat put it, "follow the money."

Sunday, October 01, 2006

NRA calls the shots for Sensenbrenner

Gregory Stanford's op ed column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner coddles gun dealers who coddle criminals.

The suburban-Milwaukee Republican played a pivotal role in last week's passage by the House of a bill that law enforcement officials across the land warn would keep federal agents from shutting down rogue dealers.

Sensenbrenner, who has bashed Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett for the city's murder rate, is shirking his own responsibility to reduce that rate. He is thwarting law enforcement efforts to disarm outlaws.
Read the rest.