FYI..... Congress just killed a measure to keep felons out of our ports!?

[truthpusher]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110009027

On the Waterfront--Still
Why did Congress kill a measure to keep felons out of U.S. ports?

Monday, October 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

Congress is patting itself on the back for passing the Port Security Act last Saturday. But the day before, a House-Senate conference committee stripped out a provision that would have barred serious felons from working in sensitive dock security jobs. Port security isn't just about checking the contents of cargo containers, it also means checking the background of the 400,000 workers on our docks.

U.S. harbors are filled with workers convicted of serious crimes. Just last year the Justice Department filed a RICO suit charging that the 65,000-member East Coast-based International Longshoremen's Association is a "vehicle for organized crime."

But the House-Senate conference drastically watered down a Senate-passed requirement that aligned the standards for hiring dock workers with those used at airports and nuclear plants. The statute still bans workers who have been convicted of treason, espionage and terror-related offenses--a mere handful at most. But a seven-year time-out period on hiring those who've committed crimes such as murder, bribery, identity fraud and the illegal use of firearms was dropped in the dead of night at the behest of unions fearful that too many of their members could lose their jobs.

"The security stakes are too high to trust serious felons who could be manipulated or bribed by people trying to smuggle a nuclear device or chemical weapon into our ports," says Sen. Jim DeMint, sponsor of the dropped provision. Security analysts echo his fears. They say terrorists working with truck drivers could plant a bomb aboard a cruise ship or pack a 40-foot cargo container with explosives. Stephen Flynn, a former U.S. Customs official now with the Council on Foreign Relations, told ABC News that "if a bomb went off in a seaport, we would likely see a closing of the seaports, bringing the global trade system to a halt and potentially putting our economy into recession."

Officials at several ports echo these concerns. "There is a gaping hole in port security," Byron Miller of the Charleston, S.C., port, the nation's sixth largest, told me. "Right now, by law we cannot do background checks on 8,000 people who work at this port." He noted that a state bill to provide for background checks was killed last year after unions applied a full-court press against it.

(snip)

link: http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110009027

[robinlynne]

1. This sounds mighty important to me.

[TexasProgresive]

2. They want to make sure they don't close

any job opportunites for when the get paroled.

[truthpusher]

3. kick for grave reality check!!

[Double T]

4. Probably so that rethug members of congress would still be able.........

to visit ports.

[valerief]

They are soulless mental midgets. n/t

[valerief]

5. They are soulless mental midgets. n/t

[shadowknows69]

6. Reason number 373

why I should have myself committed to a nice safe padded room.

[oldboy101]

7. Ex-convicts do need employment opportunities.

One major reason so many ex-cons return to prison is that it is so difficult for many of them to find honest work. It seems to me that if an ex-convict has kept out of trouble for seven years following his incarceration, he should have such an opportunity to work.