Activist Paid Homeless People to Rally

[NVMojo]

Please excuse me while I :puke:

ATLANTA (AP) - An activist who opposes illegal immigration acknowledged he paid more than a dozen homeless people $10 each to hold signs during a rally earlier this week, but said they agreed with his message.

D.A. King, who spoke at the rally, said Wednesday that he paid "14 willing American workers to let their voices be heard about illegal immigration."

The people he hired are homeless and regularly congregate near the Capitol, King said.

"Trust me, they are angry," King said. "When the day comes when I cannot pay an American for an hour's worth of work for making their voices heard, it's a sad day," he said.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2005/oct/20/102005484.html

[TNOE]

1. Maybe I'm bad

but I'm not sure this is such a bad thing - $10 is two meals. AFter seeing Anderson Cooper the other night and seeing all the immigrants rushing in to take the jobs in New Orleans, it pissed me off.

[NVMojo]

3. I thought so at first but then "exploitation" came to mind too ...

[NorCalDem]

11. How are the immigrants getting into NOLA and who's hiring them?

I certainly don't blame the immigrants, do you?

[marmar]

2. How fucking pathetic!

How low can you sink?

[politicaholic]

4. You can smell the message before you can read it...

very clever of him.

[pinto]

5. File this one under "sleazy cheap shot". n/t

[sui generis]

6. nothing against homeless people eating BUT

if you're going to be an activist with a message that's supposed to have broad appeal, I would think that you don't need to PAY people to agree with you.

By all means, give them 10 dollars and get an honest quote from them on camera for participating, whether they support you or not.

But certainly make sure you have people who REALLY want to carry those signs or maybe reconsider your views as irrelevant and unpopular.

[TNOE]

7. Immigration is certainly

not irrelevant or unpopular - out of the hundred of dire things facing this country today (thanks to Bush & Co.) - its probably in the top 20. Its a means to make America a 3rd World Country and screw the working man. Its the one thing I think most Repubs & Liberals actually can agree on.

[CarinKaryn]

8. Which "working man" do you think is gettting screwed?

immigrants work also, don't they?
I'm betting you just want to protect what you think is "yours."

[TNOE]

10. Actually, immigration

doesn't affect me on a "personal" level - but it does effect pay for all blue collar workers - construction jobs, etc. The Anderson Cooper episode the other night shown a whole new light on things to me - the PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS should be rebuilding THEIR OWN CITY - they PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS should be making the wages. The construction faces they showed were all obviously immigrants and the company's are advertising in Latino newspapers, etc. This is a drain on our economy and like I said - makes us a third world country. The greed of the construction companies getting the work - so the millions go to the top and they only have to pay these people a couple of dollars an hour. Wrong is wrong.... Frankly I've wondered how bad other countries have to be for them to want to come here anyway given our current circumstance. They're looking here and I'm thinking Mexico if things don't change. But if they are to come - COME LEGALLY - we do have laws.

[Karmakaze]

13. Tell me...

What about a "face" makes one "obviously" an immigrant?

Is it possible that you are just being the slightest bit racist?

[sui generis]

9. was speaking in general terms

Another way of stating is that if it is popular or relevant you do the cause harm by having to pay people to protest (er, agree) with you.

I'm all for legal immigration, but I would change it considerably - I like the standard that Canada uses.

[sweetheart]

12. The guy helped the homeless, god bless him

I can't believe you guys. When you're homeless and HUNGRY, 10 dollars
is a mint. It is a filling meal, or sparingly 2, or some whiskey or
some grass. It is an opportunity to have a voice in our society, 10
dollars of voice, and then death, erased from existance, homeless and
disenfranchised.

Any man who would help the homeless is a wise man. I'm sure, were the
homeless persons he paid were to speak up on this board, there would be
a discovery, that it was free choice and free will involved, a cause
making good for people who are suffering the most in our world, and
i'm reading elitist rhetoric, not HUNGRY.

But the people who were HUNGRY were helped, and the good karma helped
his cause. Appearances are misleading, never discount the power of
goodwill. Liberals, progressives, defending the rights of the poorest
and all those who champion and assist them in all means, including
symbiosis. www...