Special delivery for Michael Chertoff
See update below
From Tom Tancredo’s website:
Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will send a head of lettuce and a fruit basket to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today. Tancredo made the move after Chertoff told reporters earlier this week that enforcing the law is causing produce shortages.
“The administration has taken hyperbole to a whole new level this time,” said Tancredo, “They are now trying to convince the public that without amnesty, the American people are going to starve?”
“The agriculture industry and the free market has managed to keep producing through floods, droughts, and $3.00 per gallon gas,” said Tancredo, “I doubt very seriously that a nominal increase in labor costs is going to be the end of lettuce as we know it.”
According to National Journal’s Hotline this morning, Chertoff said in a conference call on 6/27 with reporters that, “We’re living in a world in which lettuce and fruit is not being picked because we are enforcing the law.”
A staffer from Congressman Tancredo’s office will deliver a head of lettuce and a small fruit basket from a local grocery store to Secretary Chertoff’s office at 3 PM ET today located at 3801 Nebraska Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20528.
Congressman Tancredo wrote in the card, “Much, much more where this comes from.”
Google “Chertoff and lettuce.” He sure does seem to have a hang-up about it. He’s like Captain Queeg with the strawberries.
Wish he were as publicly worried about illegal alien drunk drivers, visa overstayers, and al Qaeda operatives slipping across the southern border.
The Lettuce War heats up. Sen. Ken Salazar and DHS are miffed. Really miffed:
A fruit and vegetable basket prompted blistering criticism Wednesday between two members of Colorado’s congressional delegation.
Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar accused anti-illegal-immigration firebrand Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Littleton Republican, of “playing political stunts” and “compromising the national security of this country and the economic security of our future.”
The comment came after Tancredo attempted to send a basket of lettuce, apples and other produce to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Tancredo said he wanted to protest Chertoff’s recent comment to reporters that crops are rotting in the fields because immigration agents are arresting workers.
Tancredo, told of Salazar’s comment, lobbed his own verbal bomb.
“It may be a political stunt,” Tancredo said of the basket delivery, “but his own comment about it is political idiocy.”
The Department of Homeland Security refused to accept the basket, citing security concerns.
This is the same DHS that allowed a man with a fake matricula card to get into its Washington headquarters.
***
Related: In case you missed it, check out George Borjas’s blog post on immigration, agricultural work, and technology.
***
Flashbacks:
The toilet brush campaign
Send a brick
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- Head of Lettuce, Anyone? : The American Pundit
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- The TIW Blog » Blog Archive » Chertoff and Lettuce: Too Funny!
- NoisyRoom.net » Blog Archive » Noisy News Around the Web - 6/28/07…
- Daily Pundit » Brain Salad
- Julie’s Fresh Air » American Food Production is Our National Security Trust
- Ace of Spades HQ
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- Bloggers and Journalists = Homeland security threat? « I’m Surrounded By Idiots
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Classic, and send him rubber gloves for the dishwashers, a scrub brush for the janitors.. etc etc
Geez Louise, what’s with Chertoff? Enforcing the law is a bad thing or am I just one of the loud people who don’t get it. I did see something on Fox (I believe a few days ago) about some farmers moving to Mexico because they can’t find people to pick fruit. We have people on welfare who can do this but I know it’s a mean statement to make so I will accept the brickbats that will be coming my way for that statement.
As for Tancredo, I think what he is doing is great & hope Chertoff enjoys his yummy basket.
It’s the end of salad as we know it!
That head of lettuce actually has more integrity and brainpower than Chertoff himself.
The facts are that only 25% of agricultural workers are illegal. The facts are that farmers are creating new ways, using robots, to pick agricultural products. The facts are that the illegals take the jobs Americans do want to do, in construction (which pays pretty well), restaurants, etc., not in agriculture. The facts are that two of the 1993 World Trade Center terrorists got amnesty in the 80s as AGRICULTURAL workers. But don’t let the facts get in the way of Chertoff and his ilk. I never liked this guy, he seemed so sneaky and untrusthworthy to me. Now I know why.
Does Chertoff realize he works in Homeland Security, not Agriculture?
All hail the sacred lettuce head.
Everyone bow your heads for a moment of silence.
Did you all know that our economy is build on lettuce?
Yes it is, and the best is yet to come.
A derivative extracted from lettuce will one day hold the cure for cancer.
Fermented lettuce will be able to replace oil to run our cars.
Lettuce powered accelerators will be able to produce all of our electricity.
One day our houses will be built from specially treated lettuce heads.
Lettuce extracts may even hold a cure for old age.
And only quest workers can pick the sacred lettuce head without it losing all of it’s magical properties.
If we don’t grant them amnesty and let them stay, we will rue our short sightedness.
One face of the Coyote-in-Chief is telling us we are “fighting a war on terror” while the other face tells us we need open borders. So we can fight them here instead of over there?
The arrogance and contempt of Washington for the people is unbelievable. Sadly since both the Reptilian and Demoniacal parties are totally corrupt on enforcing immigration law, the people are helpless.
I love it! Lettuce has a better head on it than Michael Chertoff. So does something else I’d call him if I thought it would get past your spam filter.
I don’t know where it is, but according to LA County Supervisor (?) Michael Antonovich, they audited the welfare and other roles and found that illegals cost LA county $35 million per month. This is looking at April, 2007.
I heard this on KRLA 870.
I am no fan of Paris Hilton, but I was upset about her jail sentence when she was treated so much worse than any illegal in LA, who consistently drive with no licenses and drive with alcohol in their hands. I guess the DA wanted to show no one was above the law, except for the illegals and, of course, his wife who did not receive a jail sentence recently for a simillar offence to Paris’.
I’d send that Bush servant -Homeland Insecurity Secretary Michael Bugoff- a banana and a cucumber, one for him and one for his boss, I think he’d like them better than lettuce because they know what to do with them.
Tancredo, you’re the man!
You have to hand it to Tancredo…he walks the walk. Pretty refreshing to see, actually.
Did anyone hear Chertoff late last week on EIB? His fumbling excuse for the delay in fence construction was attributed to the unique engineering problems associated with the fence. He basically blamed the contractor. When asked why Americans should believe the new bill would somehow provide swift enforcement considering the excuses being given for lax enforcement under current authorization, he basically got miffed and changed the subject.
Wasn’t nearly as bad as Voinovich’s ignorance, but it was fun to listen to nonetheless.
Maybe we all need to send Chertoff a head of lettuce.
It’s those Chinese walls between CIA and FBI again!
FBI: “We have credible information that there’s fruit rotting.”
CIA: “We have photos but we can’t tell you where. You need a warrant.”
FBI: “Common, you can tell us.”
NY Times: “FBI attempts to find rotten fruit without warrant - Karl Rove blamed by unnamed sources, emails sought!”
H. Clinton: “The Vast Right-Wing Rotten Fruit Conspiracy tried to blame my husband for weevils.”
Wash Times: “Sandy Berger was seen today leaving Whole Foods with a loaf of French Bread sticking out his trouser leg…”
I’ve been buying hydroponic lettuce. Is it picked by illegal aliens? There seems to be alot of it, even all the way out here in CT.
Rip Ford said - “Maybe we all need to send Chertoff a head of lettuce.
Lettuce is dandy, but a peso is cheaper.
AlohaGuy = “Wash Times: “Sandy Berger was seen today leaving Whole Foods with a loaf of French Bread sticking out his trouser leg…”
In a follow up story the Wash Times reported that latter in the day Sandy Burger was seen leaving Tysons Foods with a live chicken stuffed into his pants.
I think he should’ve sent Chertoff a cabbage then a head of lettuce
True, but mass quantities of lettuce, or any produce really, would be more of a hassle to deal with. Its not just the guesture but also the inconvenience it causes him and his staff.
I’ve been using lettuce picked by a legal citizen… me…. out of my garden… umm tasty.
Gotta love, Tancredo!
Chert-off….is that a euphemism for some other term?
I’m becoming concerned over the increasingly insipid commentary coming from My shirtisoff. Is he the head of doofus security or what?
Michael Jerkoff is a complete brain-dead idiot. He has the classic lib mindset- We know what’s best for the people and the people are too stupid to realize it.
I suppose that a head of lettuce is good enough, what else would you to a chucklehead Bush team clone?
George has gone to great lengths to install like minded migrant friendly administration team members.
Chertoff is the brain that that the unlucky Dr. Frankenstein put in the monster. You want to feel sorry for the guy, then you realize after a while, and reviewing the evidence, that this unlucky, stupid, creepy asshole is costing lives. Put him down.
I figure Chertoff’s got pictures of drunken Senators mating with orangutans at the DC Zoo or something, because the guy seems untouchable.
If the measure of the manager is the quality of his underlings, Chertoff is as much a failure as the fools and nonentities that he’s hand-picked to head his departments.
Yet he’s still there. Why?
When did lettuce become a matter of concern for the Department of Homeland Security? Wouldn’t Agriculture be sounding the alarm if there were a threat to the nation’s lettuce supply? Where’s a cop when you need one? Oh right, Johnny Sutton put them in jail.
Fiction doesn’t get this strange.
Ok, I admit, I really did not know much of what kind of person Tancredo is. Now I know.
All right!
I’ve always liked Tancredo but now I see that he is there for us where none of the other candidates apparently are afraid to tread. Why isn’t this man polling in the first tier among the candidates? As for right now Tancredo has won my vote.
When did we go from Bush’s Brain to Mr. Potato Head?
OK. One more.
Bill Clinton (finger waggling): “I did not have Salad with that woman!”
Message to Mikey Chertoff,
Shortages without slave labor, Mikey? Uh-uh. Here’s how it works, stupid:
1. You pay LEGAL AMERICAN workers a decent wage. Would probably drive prices up in the short-term, but no shortages. If you give amnsety to the legals, guess what? - ya gotta pay THEM minimum wage, too, dummy.
2. Since the workers in this hypothetical non-amnesty scenario are LEGAL AND NOT HIDING OR READY FOR DEPORTARTION, the more ambitious ones will want to rise to management.
3. A few of those start their own businesses and compete with the larger companies, offering superior product for less money, WHICH BOTH INCREASES OUTPUT AND LOWERS PRICES.
Now here is why we need strict immigration and need to deport the 12 million already here:
4. A few of the unscrupulous entrepenures described above will hire illegal immigrants at slave wages.
5. To support this method of operation, they give heavily to Democrats and push advertising supporting amnesty.
6. The gutless Republicans try to play “me-first” to the gowing power of an illegal political block.
7. McCain, Kennedy and Bush create a bill and frighten other three-day-a-week congressional payrole leeches into voting for it.
Strict immigration law wnforcement, Mikey, gets you 1 - 3. Your BS gets us 4 - 7.
There. Explained so that even an idiot on the hill can get it.
This long list of comments is PROOF that the best minds in America are not mired in DC desk jobs. Cool.
But while, Mini-Mike is fun to kick around, it is apparent to me that we are ignoring the elephant in the living room…the NAFTA superhighway that is being planned.
There is a land grab underway in Plains and Central states to make room for this monstrosity. Bush and Company have already given Mexican trucks carte blanche to travel US roads with virtual impunity (inspection exemptions etc.)
Is this Shamnesty fungus being pushed so hard in order to make sure there are enough laborers to build the service oases and pour the coffee?
And with all this hoopla over the “Fairness Doctrine” methinks this is a smokescreen to keep the elephant out of view.
I am a suspicious coot. But then again, I live in Berkeley, California. OY!
Shocker–Dept. of Homeland Security rejected the produce for “security reasons”.
Oh, I’d say somewhere between the time Mr. Potato Head started cozying up to the Cape Cod Orca and the time he started calling his conservative base sexist bigots over the Harriet Miers debacle…..
you make the call…
Near the end of the 1700’s, this guy named Eli Whitney created a cotton gin to improve his product (cotton without seeds) while cutting back on labor cost (slaves). This gin required less skill and training, and fewer people to operate.
Today, most of this produce is picked by hand (?!?). Seems to me that we could use another Whitney to make the lettuce/spinach/cabbage/corn/cucumber/etc gin.
It would probably help in reducing the rate of infection, too. Things like E Coli and Hepatitis need hosts to thrive, and methods to transmit. A more likely contaminate source that some cattle ranch 1/2 mile away is the worker in the field who took a “respite” while working (good fertilizer), wiped with his hands (no TP), and went back to harvesting spinach by hand.
But, you won’t hear of that on the “News at 6″. Too racist.
Is Chertoff so bored with the incompetence at TSA and our Border Guards (Both are DHS departments), that now he’s “Clinton Pimping” himself out for public speaking events? What’s next? Will he represent Darfur at the UN?
That’s my baby!
Bay Buchanan is advising Tancredo!
Go Bay Go
She has good instincts, and Tom has a good voting record.
I have my fingers crossed.
Wasn’t the devastation of the US economy supposed to be the result of 9/11? Katrina? Iraq?
Neither Chertoff nor a grand lot of scheming senators (along with crony corporations) have the slightest comprehension of the resilience and determination of REAL AMERICANS. Our market will withstand this storm as long as we don’t let the administration get in the way.
I really miss the pre-White House Tony Snow. :((
I believe there is one issue that Congress has failed to mention or even think about regarding agriculture.
It is a fact that many illegals have had no immunizations. When they manhandle the products we put into our mouths, uncooked, we are at risk.
We will see outbreaks of numerous diseases as a result. Some we had eradicated, will be on the rise very soon.
So keep those borders opened!
The fate of the agricultural industry is none of Mr. Chertoff’s concern as the head of the Department of Homeland Security. His job is to enforce the laws that are already on the books. A sheriff can’t use that kind of discretion. If a crime is being committed, he is required to enforce the law regardless of the economical impact of the arrest of the criminal. So, why is Mr. Chertoff any different?
Please lettuce have secure borders Mr. Chertoff, oh honey dew.
Um, there’s millions of illegal immigrants. If they are worried about the agricultural industry, then go after others. Duh!
Perhaps like “Captain Queeg with the strawberries”, Chertoff should be concern about a Second Key to the cabinet. There is a second illegal business being conducted across the boarder. In addition to illegal aliens, illegal drug trade also crosses the boarder. I would not rule out that some of the voices calling for free flow of people across the boarder are doing so for other reasons than the agricultural industry.
So the lettuce was refused, can we refuse Chertoff?
Amazing - I hop on this morning and the first thing I see is the head of our Homeland Security Department complaining that enforcing a law is hurting the country.
And he’s talking about produce!
The Attorney General gets vilified for allegedly acting for political interests - but our Homeland Security Chief get a pass for CLEARLY putting politics above the rule of law and the security of this Nation?
You were watching TMC this weekend, right?
Pickax411, you forgot the third illegal business, which occasionally hits page 30 of the Washington Post here. Many of the female “mules” are forced in to indentured sex slave servitude once they arrive and deposit their drug cargo. I know because there was an apartment in Lorton near where I used to live that was a “safe house” for this activity.
That MS13 knows how to run a business. Too bad that DHS doesn’t!
We need to push for a vote of no-confidence in this idiot.
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a striking resemblance between Chertoff and Mr. Potato Head? I mean, it’s uncanny!
OMG! Move away from the lettuce!
Tancredo summed up Salazar’s statement quite well:
Personally… I don’t care for lettuce
What I think is a riot is the part about Chertoff saying that the lettuce is rotting in the fields because they are doing their job…
When did they start doing their job?
Chertoff is just a puppet . They are just using his title to try to scare people into believing this nonsense .
Look I would have more respect for these Senators if they just said the big corporations who pay my campaign costs need slave labor so they told me to vote for this bill.
Salazar, is my senator. Just tried sending that clown an email to express my displeasure, and got this:
“Sorry, the http://Salazar.senate.gov web page you have requested is experiencing technical difficulties. The Webmaster has been alerted.”
What a stinking coward!!!!
Cat, very well put, but sadly, they probably still can’t understand it.
You know, I hear that there is a bunch of cocaine and marijuana going to waste because that damn DEA is enforcing laws. There is a crap load of junkies waiting to get their fix.
And what about all the pedophiles hiding in the shadows and on the internet? Why don’t we change the laws so they can rape children in the open? Damn laws are always getting in the way.
I hope DHS is inundated w/ lettuce.
If they could just concentrate their efforts on ice burg lettuce, and stop picking the fru fru stuff that passes for salad up here in trendy Sonoma and Napa…..it would be a step forward for America, and a way to mitigate the impending disaster! It is an administration gone wild…..or to seed, as it were.
Chertoff knows nothing. He is one that really should go away.
I can live without lettuce, but if this new “law enforcement” thing Chertoff is talking about has any effect on parsley, I’m afraid I’ll have to switch positions and support the amnesty bill…
So the lettuce and fruit basket was refused due to security concerns? I guess this is a secret video of DHS agents in training then.
It’s like football, or NASCAR.
Chertoff, having been bought and paid for by one producer, couldn’t be seen with products from another.
Mmmmmmm……..fruit salad! So is Colorado going to be next to join San Fransisco and succeed from the union?
But you got to give it up to Chertoff for not taking a bribe!
Salazar is the real villain. Tancredo is trying to PROTECT our borders and our country. Salazar is the compromising one.
How dare you, Ken, you are harming our security, not Mr. Tancredo.
Salazar disgusts me!
Shooter,
LITTLETON, CO.
We plan on succeeding in “no sanctuary cities”, and success in “no amnesty”.
Now SF and Minn, they can secede from this great country, but not Colorado.
You gotta love Tom!
Secede if you will, San Fran Sicko, but remember that your per capita federal pork quotient (second only to the state of Vermont’s) will go *POOF* like a fat fairy wearing Birkenstocks. ewww.
Well, I suppose I can understand Chertoff’s worry…
I mean, you know about the contamination scare with picked veggies…
If Chertoff actually cared about agriculture (versus security), then he’d just be a misguided man in the wrong job. But since it’s such a poorly thought out lie aimed at trying to justify his efforts (that actually undermine security), he’s revealed himself to be not only brainless, but soulless as well.
But the lettuce,
ah, that’s where I had them.
I proved with geometric logic that lettuce wasn’t being picked.
I could have shut down salad bars all across the country too before the vote but they were protecting some radio talk show hosts and bloggers and wouldn’t let me act…
Naturally, I can only cover
these things from memory.
If I’ve left anything out,
just ask me specific questions -
- and I’ll be glad to answer them
one by one.
- No further questions, sir.
- The court is closed.
Here’s to the real authors of the immigration mutiny - The American people and the radio talk show hosts, pundits and bloggers who give voice to their feelings - cheers!