NYT Select has a piece today that should be a must-read for Mad Tom, “Gov.” Owens–and Bill Winter, and everyone else in that benighted CD, for that matter.
Hector Ruiz is CEO of AMD, the chip maker that has become highly competitive with Intel. No time to go into specifics of AMD v. Intel, but the Times column by Joe Nocera has some interesting background on Ruiz:
“HECTOR RUIZ came, in fact, from Mexico. He grew up poor, the oldest of five children, in the small town of Piedras Negras, not far from Eagle Pass, Tex. As a child, he aspired to become an auto mechanic.
“When he was around 14, though, fate intervened. Mr. Ruiz got to know a neighbor, a Methodist missionary named Olive Given, who saw his raw intelligence and sensed his potential. She took a keen interest in him and maneuvered to have him accepted at the high school in Eagle Pass. Every day, he walked the 45 minutes to Eagle Pass to go to school. When he started, as a sophomore, he knew little English. When he graduated, he was the class valedictorian.”
This led in turn to Univ. of Texas and a Ph.D. from Rice, then a gig at Motorola.
“….Mr. [W.J.] Sanders [founder, former CEO of AMD] lured Mr. Ruiz to Advanced Micro Devices, where he began as the No. 2…. “‘When he walked in the door,’ Mr. McCoy [another AMD exec] said, ‘this flood of talent in the industry started banging on the windows. ‘Where is Hector? I want to come work for him.’”
Along the way, Ruiz was responsible for large-scale layoffs at both Motorola and AMD. His remark: “The role of the C.E.O. is to create opportunities for people. I believe that with a passion. When you don’t do that, it really is a terrible failure.”
Terrible failure. Good description of Mad Tom and Billy O. “Creating opportunities for people”–good goal for Bill Winter, Bill Ritter, Angie Paccione…every other Democrat.
None of this means Hector Ruiz glided down a smooth road paved with inherited wealth. But neither was he someone born on third who imagines he hit a triple, as has been said of a certain president.
Ruiz was given an opportunity and ran with it.
Too bad the story is behind the Times Select pay wall. It makes me all the more ashamed that CO Dems sank to plotting their success this fall by declaring “We can be bigger bas***ds toward immigrants than any ignoramus the Republicans can put up!”
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The battle over illegal immigration is not about immigration, it’s about enforcing our laws, securing our borders and being able to afford good health care, education and other government services for people who are in the country legally.
Obviously, the writer of the column has no intellectual integrity, if his column is meant as a salvo in the battle with Tom Tancredo,. Tom is defending our country against the money grubbing employers who want to continue to enslave illegals and depress the wages of America’s less educated—the class you probably want nothing to do with unless you’re selling them a bunch of junk. Or enslaving them.
First, the column was from the Business section and focused entirely on the CEO of AMD (who just happens to be from Mexico). It had nothing at all to do with Tom Tancredo, but it was of interest in light of recent remarks by our ex-governor and soon-to-be-ex governor.
Second, you seem to be saying that Mad Tom’s campaign is meant to protect immigrants… by barring them from entry (obviously they don’t know what’s best for them, economically), by encouraging their wholesale deportation, and by denying them (and their children) help from government programs. Tom Tancredo: Champion of Illegal Immigrants, Champion of the Working Class! Sorry I didn’t perceive what it’s all about.
I don’t doubt that you sincerely believe this line of reasoning, though you may have difficulty selling the notion that Tancredo is the immigrant’s best friend. I admit that I missed the publicity about Tancredo’s campaign to raise the minimum wage. Maybe you could enlighten me by citing chapter and verse? Thanks in advance.
The point is that those profiting from illegal immigration exploit the illegal immigrants and virtually enslave them, not that Tancredo cares about the minimum wage for illegals or about being their best friend. It’s hard for enemies to be best friends.
So breaking the law and illegal immigration are ok with you as long as you disagree with the law and YOU need cheap labor?
First, we don’t disagree on the issue of exploiting workers, whether they are from Mexico or the United States.
Second, Tancredo has emphasized issues like biculturalism, whether or not the United States can withstand having a large population of Spanish-speakers, etc. This strongly suggests to me a different emphasis than economic exploitation.
Third, is “enforcing the law” really the force behind the anti-illegal movement, in this state and elsewhere? Somehow, I doubt this.
Fourth, illegal immigration is clearly an economic issue when viewed from south of the border. It’s about finding a job, any job, to support families. This, in turn, is (at least in part) about Mexican farmers being undersold by American farmers thanks to federal subsidies of the Americanos. I think we can’t ignore the larger picture and merely concentrate on one narrow aspect, such as “enforcing the law.”
Fifth, no, I don’t need cheap labor. I don’t hire people off street corners to work on my lawn, or my construction project, or whatever. Many illegals have been in the United States for many years, work at ordinary jobs, and pay taxes. I don’t think they should summarily be rounded up and deported simply because doing so appeals to a certain, ah, shall we say “cultural perception” such as that recently expressed by Govs Lamm and Ownens, neither of whom actually used words like “lazy” or “dirty.” Mad Tom appears to me to hve picked up on an issue that propelled him to widespread publicity, not unlike Mad Marilyn and gay marriage.
And last, I strongly favor raising the minimum wage immediately…and enforcing that law without regard to where a worker was born.
Tom Tancredo is trying to help the nation solve its illegal immigration problem before it’s too late.
All Bush cares about is winning in November and extending the GOP’s hold on power. And that’s all that Owens cares about.
Tancredo andhis supporters care about our country. Bush and his Chamber of Commerce friends care only about political power and cheap labor.
Many of us care about the rule of law, institutional integrity and national security, and we think illegal immigration should first be stopped and second be reversed. Stopping illegal immigration would be relatively easy; reversing it would be nigh impossible.