Dimitri the Douchebag strikes again and this time he's hungry.
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Welcome:
Stroudsburg is the county seat of Monroe County, located in the heart of the Poconos near the New Jersey border. The borough (as they are called in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is five miles from the Delaware Water Gap.
By the Numbers:
The borough's population in 2005 was estimated at 6,264, up about 500 people from the 2000 total. Stroudsburg is 87% white, 6% African-American, and 8% of the white population is of Hispanic or Latino descent. In 2000, the per capita income for the borough was $18,965.
Bush won Monroe County by four votes in 2004: 27,971 votes to Kerry's 27,967 votes. While Kerry won Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg that margin was surpassed by Bush votes in the surrounding townships. In the Democratic Primary, Clinton won 58% of the county vote, with Obama winning the remaining 42%. In the Republican Primary, McCain won 73% of the vote to Paul's 16%, with Huckabee winning 11%.
Fun Facts!
There is a wealth of natural beauty in Monroe County. Explore the Delaware Water Gap from the borough of the same name. Or visit the Poconos, Pennsylvania's most popular tourist attraction, and hike waterfalls, raft the Delaware, or visit a Jewish summer camp.
The county boasts The Crossings Factory Stores, named the number one outlet center in North America for 2000-01 by the Outlet Retail Merchants Association (ORMA). The area is also home to East Stroudsburg University (Goooo Warriors!), and the Pocono Raceway, which hosts two NASCAR events annually.
Your local news source: The Pocono Record
The following chart shows the six smallest vote margins among Monroe County precincts in the 2004 General Election.
Precincts
Vote Margin (in # of votes)
Stroud 7
Kerry +3
Stroud 5
Kerry +14
Middle Smithfield Eastern
Kerry +14
Paradise
Bush +17
Chestnuthill 1
Kerry +22
Pocono 4
Bush +22
Swingtown, USA is a regular feature on the Protocol where we introduce readers to a city or town from a swing county in a swing state.
Welcome:
Springfield, a.k.a. "The Rose City," is the county seat of Clark County in Southwestern Ohio. The city is located on the Mad River and Buck Creek and is named after the spring water that empties into Buck Creek. 
By the Numbers:
The city's population in 2006 was estimated at 62,844, down almost 4% from the 2000 total. Springfield is 78% white, and 18% African-American, while Clark County in total is 88% white, and 9% African-American. One percent of the county is of Hispanic or Latino descent.
Clark County broke narrowly for Bush in 2004 with the President winning 51% of the vote. While Kerry won Springfield City, that margin was surpassed by Bush votes in the surrounding townships. In the Democratic Primary, Clinton won 59% of the county vote, with Obama winning 39%, and Edwards winning 2%. In the Republican Primary, McCain won 57% of the vote to Huckabee's 36%, with Paul winning 3%.
Fun Facts!
Springfield is home to Wittenburg University (Goooo Tigers!), and in 2004 was named an "All-American City". In 1902 the first 4-H Club was founded in Springfield Township, and Clark County still hosts the largest county fair in Ohio.
If you're looking to do more than swing some voters when you are in the Springfield area, the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau wants you to discover life's simple pleasures, and perhaps have a championship moment.
Your local news source: Springfield News-Sun
The following chart shows the five smallest vote margins among Clark County precincts in the 2004 General Election.
Precincts
Vote Margin (in # of votes)
Moorefield Township Precinct 7
Bush +1
Springfield Township Precinct 10
Bush +2
Moorefield Township Precinct 11
Bush +3
Springfield Township Precinct 3
Bush +11
Springfield City Precinct 27
Bush +12
Swingtown, USA is a regular feature on the Protocol where we introduce readers to a city or town from a swing county in a swing state.
There's a fairly interesting article in today's NYTimes about employers' reactions to the recent spate of immigration raids.
The article, written by the Times' immigration beat reporter, Julia Preston, dances around an issue that I think has garnered much too little attention: that employers, not workers, bear most of the responsibility for the "problem" of illegal immigration, as they're the ones driving the market forces that make it happen.
One of the most revealing passages appears early in the article:
Though the pushback is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, in many places it is reopening the rift over immigration that troubled the Republican Party last year. Businesses, generally Republican stalwarts, are standing up to others within the party who accuse them of undercutting border enforcement and jeopardizing American jobs by hiring illegal immigrants as cheap labor.
Mike Gilsdorf, the owner of a 37-year-old landscaping nursery in Littleton, Colo., saw the need for action by businesses last winter when he advertised with the Labor Department, as he does every year, for 40 seasonal workers at market-rate wages to plant, prune and carry his shrubs in the summer heat. Only one local worker responded to the notice, he said, and then did not show up for the job.
“I can’t replace those people,” the executive said. She said that despite offering competitive wages from $9 to $17 an hour, the company had failed over the years in repeated efforts to attract non-immigrant workers because of the state’s tight technology labor market and because of the nature of the work, exacting and tedious. If the workers were fired or arrested, she said, she could fail to meet her contracts.
You can be a peace-loving freedom warrior, and, because you're a little bit of a lefty, you get thrown on the terror watch list. But support batshit crazy right-wing terrorist death squads and no one really cares. This shit is mind-boggling.
The October Protocol does not fund international terrorist organizations or support the purchase and consumption of conflict bananas.
Over the past couple days, I've been doing preliminary reporting on a couple stories relating to immigration that I'm hoping to write this summer, and I've already stumbled across some harrowing facts about our jalopy of a national immigration system.
Did you know, for instance, that citizens from any country that has seen over 50,000 people immigrate to the U.S. in the last 5 years are forbidden from taking part in our visa lottery? (There are other ways to get in, but the lottery is the only one available to people without family connections, a highly marketable skill, or a documented case for asylum).
Excluded countries include Mexico, Canada, India, China, the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Pakistan, Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, Haiti, Russia, the UK and Poland, i.e. the world's two largest countries, the entire northern hemisphere, and most of our closest allies.
WTF?
This also means that when people say Mexican construction and agricultural workers should "just get in line," they are asking them to do something that is, in many cases...impossible.
