AN AMERICAN WORKING IN MEXICO

From the other side of the fence...
Received the following from Tom O'Malley, who was a Director with S.W.
BELL in Mexico City :

Experience of an American in Mexico

"I spent five years working in Mexico . I worked under a tourist Visa for three months and could legally renew it for three more months. After that you were working illegally. I was technically illegal for three weeks waiting on the FM3 approval.

"During that six months our Mexican and U.S. attorneys were working to secure a permanent work visa called a 'FM3'. It was in addition to my U.S. passport that I had to show each time I entered and left the country. Barbara's was the same, except hers did not permit her to work.

"To apply for the FM3, I needed to submit the following notarized originals (not copies):

1. Birth certificate for Barbara and me.
2. Marriage certificate.
3. High school transcripts and proof of graduation.
4. College transcripts for every college I attended and proof of graduation.
5. Two letters of recommendation from supervisors I had worked for at least one year.
6. A letter from the St. Louis Chief of Police indicating that I had no arrest record in the U.S. and no outstanding warrants and, was "a citizen in good standing".
7. "Finally, I had to write a letter about myself that clearly stated why there was no Mexican citizen with my skills and why my skills were important to Mexico . We called it our 'I am the greatest person on Earth' letter. It was fun to write."

"All of the above were in English that had to be translated into Spanish and be certified as legal translations, and our signatures notarized. It produced a folder about 1.5 inches thick with English on the left side & Spanish on the right."

"Once they were completed Barbara and I spent about five hours, accompanied by a Mexican attorney, touring Mexican government office locations and being photographed and fingerprinted at least three times at each location, and we remember at least four locations where we were instructed on Mexican tax, labor, housing, and criminal law and that we were required to obey their laws or face the consequences. We could not protest any of the government's actions or we would be committing a felony. We paid out four thousand dollars in fees and bribes to complete the process. When this was done we could legally bring in our household goods that were held by U.S. Customs in Laredo , Texas . This meant we had rented furniture in Mexico while awaiting our goods. There were extensive fees involved here that the company paid."

"We could not buy a home and were required to rent at very high rates and under contract and compliance with Mexican law."

"We were required to get a Mexican driver's license. This was an amazing process. The company arranged for the licensing agency to come to our headquarters location with their photography and fingerprint equipment and the laminating machine. We showed our U.S. license, were photographed and fingerprinted again and issued the license instantly after paying out a six dollar fee. We did not take a written or driving test and never received instructions on the rules of the road. Our only instruction was to never give a policeman your license if stopped and asked. We were instructed to hold it against the inside window away from his grasp. If he got his hands on it you would have to pay ransom to get it back. "

"We then had to pay and file Mexican income tax annually using the number of our FM3 as our ID number. The company's Mexican accountants did this for us and we just signed what they prepared. It was about twenty legal size pages annually."

"The FM3 was good for three years and renewable for two more after paying more fees."

"Leaving the country meant turning in the FM3 and certifying we were leaving no debts behind and no outstanding legal affairs (warrants, tickets or liens) before our household goods were released to customs."

"It was a real adventure and if any of our Senators or Congressmen went through it once they would have a different attitude toward Mexico ."

"The Mexican government uses its vast military and police forces to keep its citizens intimidated and compliant. They never protest at their capitol or government offices, but do protest daily in front of the United States Embassy. The U.S. Embassy looks like a strongly reinforced fortress and during most protests the Mexican military surrounds the block with their men standing shoulder to shoulder in full riot gear to protect the Embassy. These protests are never shown on U.S. or Mexican TV. There is a large public park across the street where they do their protesting. Anything can cause a protest such as proposed law changes in California or Texas ."


Please feel free to share this with everyone who thinks we are being hard on the illegals.

U3-X Personal Mobility Prototype

First off, this is really cool.
My second thought was that us overfed Americans would need an industrial strength version capable of withstanding several hundred pounds.
Round that off with a third thought: do we really need to sit more than we already do?

Personally, I'd love it for an office chair.

What?!? You've been screwed?!?

Real Immigrants

ORANGE COUNTY ( CALIFORNIA ) NEWSPAPER-New Immigrants This is a very good letter to the editor. This woman made some good points.. For some reason, people have difficulty structuring their arguments when arguing against supporting the currently proposed immigration revisions. This lady made the argument pretty simple. NOT printed in the Orange County Paper.

Newspapers simply won't publish letters to the editor which they either deem politically incorrect (read below) or which does not agree with the philosophy they're pushing on the public. This woman wrote a great letter to the editor that should have been published; but, with your help it will get published via cyberspace!

From: "David LaBonte" My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed.. So, I decided to "print" it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined. Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register:

Dear Editor: So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.

They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.

Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan . They were defending the United States of America as one people.

When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.

And here we are with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.

And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty , it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet..

(signed) Rosemary LaBonte

 

I will put a garage in the cheek of a caterpillar's bazooka

Dead on Right.
And you "True Believers" who accuse Bush of spreading evil around the globe, giving po' B.O. the divine right of kings to sweep aside all this corruption; just remember that it was the NeoCons who opposed Bush then. Call us Teabaggers, NeoCons, or whatever, we are conservatives who stand for things that protect hate spewing Liberals from themselves. You are this country's burden and you'd better pray that someone is there to clean up YOUR socialistic engineering mess. Again.

Ya' picked a fine time to lead US, Barak

Extremeists!

Freakin' Awesome!

Sick of Educational Excuses?

Photography

Kind of long, but worth the watch. All done in 3D.

Visually inspiring. Beautifully done.

Very Accurate

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn`t buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn`t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.
(Of course this only applies to Christian Religions.)

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for
it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

If a conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends because it's so true it's not funny.
A liberal will delete it because he's "offended".

My Waffle Wedded Wife...

Friday Fun: Procras.... tination

Procrastination from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

The Video that Cost Pat His Job

Andrew Klavan Presents: President Me! The Musical

32 Years Later . . . . .

 

Does anybody out there have any memory Of the reason given for the establishment Of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY During the Carter Administration?

We've spent several hundred billion dollars In support of an agency the reason for which not one person who reads This can remember.  Ready?
It was very simple at the time everybody thought it very appropriate... The 'Department of Energy' Was instituted on 8-04-1977

TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty efficient, huh?

AND NOW IT'S 2009, 32 YEARS LATER ...

AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS NECESSARY DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR

IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES

AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!

Ah, yes, good old bureaucracy and NOW we are going to turn The Banking System, Health Care & The Auto Industry over to government ALL IN THE NAME OF CHANGE?

Obama's Show and Teleprompter Presentation

You have got to be joking.
Funny. Sad. Completely narcissistic.




President Barack Obama speaks to 6th graders in Virginia Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010, using teleprompters.

Obama Hussein and the Seven Dorks

Sunday Thoughts

For some reason the words to the hymn, "Faith of Our Fathers" aka "The Recessional" by Kipling, have always generated a combination of melancholy, joy and hope; what Neil Maxwell would call, "Sweet Sorrow". I first came aware of this poem when reading, "Beware of Pride" by President Ezra Taft Benson.

To many, this poem seemed to foretell the fate of Brittan as less and less people seem to remember their God. Of course, this same warning was repeated throughout the Book of Mormon so explicitly that it can be considered a major underlying theme.

Regardless of where you kneel on whatever day you choose, the important thing is that the moral conduct generated by a loving God be placed firmly in your heart.

Recessional
June 22, 1897
Rudyard Kipling. b. 1865

GOD of our fathers, known of old—
Lord of our far-flung battle-line—
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies—
The captains and the kings depart—
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!

Far-call'd our navies melt away—
On dune and headland sinks the fire—
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe—
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget, lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard—
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard—
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!

Liberal Judge Hall of Shame

Judge Allows Child Molester to Live With Four-Year-Old Cousin