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Colbert! Congress!

FSM said:
"We ask them to come and work.

Then we ask them to leave again.

These people suffer.

They have no rights."


Insight from one day of farm work.
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Is that a quote from Colbert's testimony?

Did you do a day of farm work to come up with that insight?
 
Yep, Colbert quote.


And no, my insight is very very unimpressive. But I'm not an elected official. I'm just a schmuck on an internet forum.
 
Phrost said:
I enjoy Colbert's schtick, but is anyone else unsettled by the fact that he's allowed to testify in front of Congress, in character? Doesn't that just seem a bit like a tiny step towards the eventual election of President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho?
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I think Elmo was in character the whole time, too. :)
 
FSM said:
Yep, Colbert quote.


And no, my insight is very very unimpressive. But I'm not an elected official. I'm just a schmuck on an internet forum.
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I would say Colbert's insight based on that quote is very very unimpressive as well.

We ask them to come and work.
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Who asks illegal immigrants to come and work?

Then we ask them to leave again.
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Who asks them to leave?

These people suffer.
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How is their suffering different or unique from other suffering?

They have no rights.
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What rights are they denied?

Again, responding to criticism that a program is superficial and designed for sound bites and political stunts by responding with stunts and soundbites is a very poor response indeed.
 
AlBell said:
Er, one day more insight than any congressman will ever have?
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I think I would prefer a congressman with no experience working on a farm and aware of that lack of experience than one with a false sense of insight and experience based on one day of slumming.
 
Colbert continues to deliver.

Do we know that they wanted him to testify in character, or did he just decide to?
 
Augustine said:
The hearing is with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. What insight does working one day on a farm with illegal immigrants provide to the issues at hand?
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You do realize that Colbert is mocking those people, right?

No one understands the absurdity of inviting him to give testimony on this issue more than Colbert. Read his remarks.
 
Who asks them to come?

But farmers across the country have a different view. As Americans have moved away from agriculture, farm employers say they have come to rely on illegal immigrants to harvest the fresh fruits and vegetables on the nation's dinner tables.

http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/2010/08/us-farmers-depend-on-illegal-immigrants.html


Who asks them to leave?

Really. Really.

Nationality Act Section 237 (a)(1)(B) which says:
"Any alien who is present in the United States in violation of this Act or any other law of the United States is deportable."


Suffering is suffering, I think and need not be spectacularly unique and crushing to still be, ah, suffering. So:

http://nelp.3cdn.net/11ad955ec15097c766_6em6b9ehq.pdf

Immigrant workers toil in some of the most hazardous employment in this country. Injuries and deaths of Latino workers engaged in hazardous employment are extremely high and increasing. The numbers of fatal work injuries among white and black workers were lower in the year 2000, but in that year, there was a 24% jump in construction fatalities involving Latino workers. Total Latino employment was up only six percent in 2000. In California in 2001, 49 agricultural workers were killed on the job. A recent death of a farm worker in California resulted in a manslaughter charge against the farm owner for an egregious violation of the health and safety code. Agriculture is second only to construction and mining in accident rates. Construction is also an industry
hiring large numbers of immigrant workers.


Rights denied:

Agricultural workers are a distinctive group and
have experienced the consequences of “agricultural
exceptionalism.” By deliberate actions of Congress,
they were excluded from the protections of the Fair
Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and from the National
Labor Relations Act, laws that were intended to provide
at least minimal standards of employment and
collective bargaining rights for all other U.S. workers.
Today, although FLSA requires overtime pay for
all hours worked in excess of forty, agricultural employers
are completely exempted from this provision.
 
Augustine said:
I think I would prefer a congressman with no experience working on a farm and aware of that lack of experience than one with a false sense of insight and experience based on one day of slumming.
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AH. Then we disagree on the fundamentals. I don't think working with someone to understand what problems they face is 'slumming'...

But even if I did, I prefer the slummer over someone who would admit they know jackall and simply don't care.
 
TraneWreck said:
You do realize that Colbert is mocking those people, right?

No one understands the absurdity of inviting him to give testimony on this issue more than Colbert. Read his remarks.
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So, Colbert is mocking Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), "longtime advocate for farm workers' rights"? This is satire of the absurdity of her request for his testimony?
 
Phrost said:
I enjoy Colbert's schtick, but is anyone else unsettled by the fact that he's allowed to testify in front of Congress, in character? Doesn't that just seem a bit like a tiny step towards the eventual election of President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho?
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I like money
 
Augustine said:
So, Colbert is mocking Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), "longtime advocate for farm workers' rights"? This is satire of the absurdity of her request for his testimony?
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He's there to publicize a good cause, which is why he showed up with the head of the program, and he's overtly mocking the ridiculousness of them inviting him.

I don't know if Zoe Lofgren wanted Colbert there or not, but it's a really goofy idea, and Colbert is well aware of that.

Colbert says he is happy and honored to be there, to share his "vast experience" of working on a farm for one day, and hopes his fame will get this show bumped up to "C-SPAN ONE."
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The entire hearing is a farce. I recommend that everyone watch it. This is an important issue and Congressmen are bitching at each other about procedural issues as a comedian ridicules them.

It has gone beyond satire into farce.
 
FSM said:
Truncated
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Of course, in your response, you acknowledge that the "we" in the sentences "We ask them to come and work. Then we ask them to leave again." is two totally separate groups. So I guess you concede that the concept of a "we" doing these two things is fictional. (Not to mention the vast simplification in the two concepts. No one is "asked" to come and work, or to leave.)

Suffering is suffering, as you say. So there is nothing unique about it, correct? No more unique than the suffering of American citizens?

So they have all other rights except the labor rights you mention? That is hardly "no rights". Also, are the labor rights denied specifically to illegal immigrants only, or to all farm workers? If so, why is it a plight unique to illegal immigrants?
 
TraneWreck said:
He's there to publicize a good cause, which is why he showed up with the head of the program, and he's overtly mocking the ridiculousness of them inviting him.

I don't know if Zoe Lofgren wanted Colbert there or not, but it's a really goofy idea, and Colbert is well aware of that.



The entire hearing is a farce. I recommend that everyone watch it. This is an important issue and Congressmen are bitching at each other about procedural issues as a comedian ridicules them.

It has gone beyond satire into farce.
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Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren invited Colbert to testify before her subcommittee which she chairs, so if he is mocking the ridiculousness of "them" inviting him, then he is mocking HER and HER INVITATION.
 
Augustine said:
Of course, in your response, you acknowledge that the "we" in the sentences "We ask them to come and work. Then we ask them to leave again." is two totally separate groups. So I guess you concede that the concept of a "we" doing these two things is fictional. (Not to mention the vast simplification in the two concepts. No one is "asked" to come and work, or to leave.)

Suffering is suffering, as you say. So there is nothing unique about it, correct? No more unique than the suffering of American citizens?

So they have all other rights except the labor rights you mention? That is hardly "no rights". Also, are the labor rights denied specifically to illegal immigrants only, or to all farm workers? If so, why is it a plight unique to illegal immigrants?
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Um, I think I answered all of your questions. It seems as if you want me to say something that I didn't say.

This might go faster if you just tell me what you want me to argue then you can write some really cool stuff and then my eyes will be opened and I will see everything completely differently.
 
Augustine said:
Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren invited Colbert to testify before her subcommittee which she chairs, so if he is mocking the ridiculousness of "them" inviting him, then he is mocking HER and HER INVITATION.
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Then that's what he's doing, and she was foolish if she thought he'd do anything different.

Maybe she wanted him there to make a mockery of the proceedings, I don't know, but all you have to do is watch what happened.

I don't know what they thought would happen when they invited him to the Correspondent's Dinner, but that was epic as well.

ETA: having watched his opening statement, the more charitable interpretation of Lofgren's invite is that she wanted him to use his satire to highlight the issue:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/24/stephen-colbert-hearing-v_n_737813.html

The second video with his serious reply should explain why he was invited as well. I was wrong in thinking he participated for the absurdity. I think he's very serious about this issue and wanted to bring attention to it.
 
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