Yesterday, I posted about Tom Russell’s song, Who’s Gonna Build Your Wall. (Scroll down to see that post, including a video and song lyrics.)

Today, someone wrote me about it, and included a note about some wall contractor actually hiring illegal immigrants. So I went looking and found the details.

Here is one news report about Golden State Fence Company:

December 15, 2006
Firm Contracted to Build Fence on US-Mexico Border is Fined for Hiring Illegal Workers

One of the firms working on the US-Mexico Border Fence has been fined $5 million for hiring illegal immigrants. This controversy was ironically predicted by comedians such as George Lopez, who jokingly says in his new act, “They want to build a fence along the border to keep out Mexicans, but who’s gonna build it?” Answer: Mexicans.

The Golden State Fence Company will not only pay a major fine, but two of its executives will have to serve jail time for the hirings.

Lou Dobbs also wrote about it:

U.S. Border Fence Built By Illegal Aliens

Comedy routines once again became reality today when a California company agreed to pay a $5 million fine for employing illegal aliens to build the border fence between San Diego and Tijuana.

About a third of Golden State Fence Company’s 750 workers are illegals and the company was repeatedly caught with lots of undocumented workers on the payroll, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

I don’t know if Tom Russell was thinking about Golden State Fence Company when he wrote his song . But maybe he was.

For information on how one Pittsburg law firm helps Corporate America scam the H-1B Visa system to avoid hiring Americans, and hire foreigners instead, see here http://www.myephemerae.com/scamming-the-h-1b-visa-system.

(Depending on your browser security you settings, may need to click twice to start the video. If you are receiving this via email, or want to open the YouTube page with the video, just click here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=LZkAoosVLkA)

I saw Tom Russell perform this song the other night on Letterman. It has been rattling around in my head every since. I don’t post it because I agree with it. I post it because it can stimulate discussion.

Who’s Gonna Build Your Wall
by Tom Russell

I got 800 miles of open border
Right outside my door
There’s minutemen in little pickup trucks
Who declared their own dang war

Now the government wants to build a barrier
Like old Berlin, 8 feet tall
But if Uncle Sam sends the illegals home
Who’s gonna build the wall

Who’s gonna build your wall, boys
Who’s gonna mow your lawn
Who’s gonna cook your Mexican food
When your Mexican maid is gone

Who’s gonna wax your floors tonight
Down at the local mall
Who’s gonna wash your baby’s face
Who’s gonna build your wall

Now I ain’t got no politics
So don’t lay that rap on me
Left-wing, right-wing, up-wing, down me [?]
I see strip malls from sea to shining sea

It’s the fat cat white developer
Who’s created this whole damn squall
It’s a pyramid scheme of dirty jobs
And who’s gonna build your wall

Who’s gonna build your wall, boys
Who’s gonna mow your lawn
Who’s gonna cook your Mexican food
When your Mexican maid is gone

Who’s gonna wax your floors tonight
Down at the local mall
Who’s gonna wash your baby’s face
Who’s gonna build your wall

We’ve got fundamentalist Muslims
We’ve got fundamentalist Jews
We’ve got fundamentalist Christians
That’ll blow the whole thing up for you

But as I travel around this big old world
There’s one thing that I most fear
It’s a white man in a golf shirt
With a cell phone in his ear

Who’s gonna build your wall, boys
Who’s gonna mow your lawn
Who’s gonna cook your Mexican food
When your Mexican maid is gone

Who’s gonna wax your floors tonight
Down at the local mall
Who’s gonna wash your baby’s face
Who’s gonna build your wall

Another version - Tom in Performance
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-HFhi7RSNm8 

For information on how one Pittsburg law firm helps Corporate America scam the H-1B Visa system to avoid hiring Americans, and hire foreigners instead, see here http://www.myephemerae.com/scamming-the-h-1b-visa-system.

Last night, ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson did a report on the U-2. This is the plane my brother, Lt. Col. Jon “Huggy” Huggins, flies.

The three-minute video is hosted on the ABC site. I’d include it here for you, but ABC doesn’t like that. So all I can do is link to it. You have to pretend to watch a 30-second commercial before the video starts.

For the video, news reporter Jonathan Karl is allowed to fly in one of the four 2-seat U-2 trainers.

(In the information below, I’ll note the “time stamps” of the video.)

The first section (0:10) shows the U-2 taking off. If you look closely you’ll see little “training wheels” under each wing. These keep the wings level because the U-2 only has the one main landing gear right in the center. Watch and you will see these fall off (about 0:16) as the plane begins to get lift and take off.

Also, as the plane takes off (about 0:18) you get a good side view to see the modifications made for the 2-seat trainer. That second “bubble” behind the main cockpit allows the training instructor to sit, while the student sits in the main cockpit up front. For these “courtesy rides”, they put the visitor in the back.

In addition, in this same sequence, you get a nice look at the landing gear … one set of two wheels smack dab in the middle of the plane, not under the wings like most planes. When the plane lands, the pilot has to keep “flying it” on the ground, using the wings to keep it level and to keep it from tipping over and having one wing drag. But, the wings have titanium skids on the end for those times the pilot doesn’t quite do that. The little tiny wheel in the tail, keeps the tail from dragging.

The video shows them putting one of the space suits on Jonathan Karl. For the pilots, these suits are custom fitted, down to measuring the lengths of each finger joint in each hand so that the gloves fit exactly. The helmets are also custom fitted by, in effect, making a mold of your head. (For Jonathan, they put him in one that fit “close”.)

The suit also has “air conditioning”. Without it, you overheat in seconds. The “air conditioning” is adjustable, even allowing you to adjust the air blowing over your face and over the palms of your hands.

In the video when Jonathan is in the plane and climbing (about 1:30) you can see the “new” cockpit of the U-2. You see that the old mechanical altimeter has been replaced by an electronic “glass” altimeter. The “glass cockpit” is relatively new in the U-2. On my personal/hobby site I have photos of the 2001 early version of the cockpit, and the first delivered version, from April 2002.

Note also the pictures of the Earth you begin to see at about 1:45.  How high is the plane? High enough to clearly see the Earth’s curvature!

At about 1:57 Jonathan talks about the ability to fly outside of a country’s boundaries, but still look inside the country. One way to think of this is to think about your neighbor’s back yard. If you want to look into his back yard, you don’t actually have to go into his back yard. Instead, you can stay in your back yard and get high enough to look over his fence.

If you are interested, I have lots more information on the U-2 on my personal/hobby website in the U-2 section.

Also, check out this other post about my brother getting his promotion to Lt. Colonel … four years late.