More news found in between watching NCAA hoops...

There's an important new report out from the Center for Immigration Studies:
"On December 12, 2006, Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel raided six meatpacking plants owned by Swift & Co. in the largest immigration enforcement action in U.S. history. The plants are located in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, and Utah. [This new report, authored by Jerry Kammen], examines the raids and their aftermath....[The report found, among other things]:

• Like the rest of the industry, workers at these facilities have seen a steady decline in their standard of living. Government data show that the average wages of meatpackers in 2007 were 45 percent lower than in 1980, adjusted for inflation.

• We estimate that 23 percent of Swift’s production workers were illegal immigrants.

• All facilities resumed production on the same day as the raids. All returned to full production within five months. This is an indication that the plants could operate at full capacity without the presence of illegal workers."

Gosh, whatever happened to the notion that illegals take jobs that American workers won't do, etc? Looks like that's not as true as many claim.

Some good news in the sports department yesterday. The University of Michigan men's hoops team beat Clemson in the NCAA Tournament, 62-59 (as I predicted!). They almost gave away a big lead. But they made big plays late against a good ACC team, and held their poise. Michigan basketball has come a long way this year...

And Notre Dame's men's hoops team had to rally from 6 points down with 2 minutes to go to edge New Mexico, 70-68. But do so they did, and they won it on a last-second shot from Tory Jackson. Good for him--he came from a very poor background in Saginaw, Michigan, and has done his best to make the most of his time at ND. One more win for the Irish and they'll head to New York City for the NIT semi-finals and finals...

By the way, last night President Obama dissed the disabled.
I'm sure he didn't mean to do so, but imagine the outrage in the usual quarters if President Bush had said something similar.

Even more importantly, remember President Obama's loud rhetoric concerning lobbyists? He said none of them would have jobs in HIS administration. And yet--turns of 11% of his top appointments served as lobbyists in the past 5 years.