Thread: Important: The case against (Senator) Mike Johanns(NE)

Listen up Nebraskans, former U.S. Agriculture Secretary and Nebraskan Governor Mike Johanns is running for the republican senatorial primary, against Attorney General Jon Bruning (www.jonbruning.com). If you are still undecided read this:

Unfortunately, the Bush administration and most of Congress put the interests of cherry growers ahead of the interests of everyone else. A case in point:

Speaking to family farmers and farm leaders [on June 9] at the California Farm Bureau Federation, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said he is encouraged by the positive steps made toward national immigration reform and believes a comprehensive, bipartisan bill will emerge from a House-Senate negotiations process.

Johanns' visit to the Farm Bureau was the last stop during a two-day swing through California to rouse support for comprehensive immigration reform, an approach favored by the president. Earlier that day, he toured a cherry-packing facility in Stockton. He also spoke to a group of farm leaders in Fresno the previous day.

...Johanns said a comprehensive approach will assure border security.

"How are you going to have effective border control if you don't have a comprehensive plan?" he asked. "How are you to have effective border control if you say to California farmers, 'We know if you don't get labor, you're not going to get your crops in, but so what?' Is that effective?

Our elected leaders enforcing our laws is the only way we could have border security. Johanns' statement is essentially blackmail: the Bush administration will only enforce laws if the laws are changed to suit it. And, of course, there's absolutely no guarantee that Bush would enforce the changed laws. People like Johanns would be trotted out to explain why the changed laws would have to be changed again before they would be enforced.

[there's a "growing labor crisis"; pimps AgJOBS; Johanns explains how the amnesty scheme isn't amnesty: amnesty must involve "someone waving a magic wand"...]

At OG Packing in Stockton, Johanns got a firsthand look at some of the challenges California producers face during their height of production. Tom Gotelli, whose family farms cherries and operates the packing facility, led the secretary through the plant where workers were washing, sorting and packaging the very labor-intensive crop.

"There's no better example of the need for immigration reform than right here at this facility," Johanns said to a group of reporters after touring the packinghouse. "This plant is here because of labor. You take the labor out of the equation, and you've got a very serious problem. But that could be said about anybody who is in this business."

I have little doubt that a good portion of that cheap labor could be automated away. Instead of importing a foreign serf class, we could build and export cherry machines. Or, we could just leave the cherry "industry" out to twist in the wind, letting them know that there are things that are much more important.

He noted that while immigration reform is a big issue to California, "it's not an issue unique to California." As former governor of Nebraska, Johanns said he saw how the immigration issue affected beef producers in a state that does not border another country.

Mike Johanns may be as bad as Hagel, almost. He comprehensive immigration reform- amnesty for illegals and selective immigration enforcement, doesn't think amnesty is amnesty, and is against the American worker and enforcing current immigration law.

Johanns must not be elected as senator. Attorney General Jon Bruning would be an excellent addition to the fight against illegal immigration.

I'm bringing this forum back up because only a few people even read it and the words needs to get out. This article is relevant and worrisome because Johanns is the current front runner in that race, and this seat has a great chance of improvement for our cause:

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns held a 9-point lead over Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning in a new poll of the Republican Senate primary in the Cornhusker State.

In the poll conducted for Bruning’s campaign, Johanns, the former governor who is the favorite of many national GOP leaders, was favored by 39 percent of those surveyed, while Bruning was the choice of 30 percent.

The poll of 400 likely Republican primary voters, conducted Sept. 10-12 by Dresner, Wickers and Associates, had a 4-point margin of error.


And here is where Attorney General Jon Bruning stands on illegal immigration:

The flood of illegal immigrants into this country has burdened our public schools, hospitals, prisons, and social programs, costing taxpayers billions of dollars. America’s porous borders are also targets for terrorists and drug smugglers who present a great risk to our national security. Unfortunately, the recent Senate proposal to address this problem would have granted amnesty to those here illegally and done nothing to deter continued illegal immigration. Those who break the civil and criminal laws of this country do not deserve a path to citizenship or amnesty. The American people understand this and have summarily rejected the Senate amnesty bill.

The first step toward real immigration reform must focus exclusively on border security and empowering federal and local law enforcement agencies to enforce our current criminal and immigration laws. Congress should immediately utilize the already appropriated funds to continue building the security fence along our southern border. We should also provide our border patrol, immigration, and customs officials with the resources they need to identify and immediately deport those who’ve committed crimes while here illegally. In the long-term, we must create a system that values documented, lawful, highly skilled labor over illegal migrant workers, while rewarding businesses that mandate the assimilation of their migrant workforce

When Osborne was defeated there were emails going around educating people about his pro illegal stance. The same thing will happen with Johanns. He will be going down, down, down just like Osborne and Hagel is.

Why do you think Hagel isn't running for senate again? Answer: It's because of his pandering to illegals and he knows very few Nebraskans would vote for him again!

Originally Posted by Mayday

When Osborne was defeated there were emails going around educating people about his pro illegal stance. The same thing will happen with Johanns. He will be going down, down, down just like Osborne and Hagel is.

Why do you think Hagel isn't running for senate again? Answer: It's because of his pandering to illegals and he knows very few Nebraskans would vote for him again!

That may be true personally, but if he is a person who cares about his political party, he may have to be rethink that if the NE citizens are fed up with it.