Mayor Mike Went To Washington

And did what he does every day back in in New York.

Whine.

July 7, 2006 -- "Mayor Bloomberg stood before a U.S. Senate panel studying immigration Wednesday and unloaded testimony larded with contradictions and, to be kind, half-truths.

But he did it with passion, so nobody seemed to notice - or care - that he pulled his "facts" from thin air.

Like his claim that "the city's economy would be a shell of itself" if it weren't for illegal immigrants. And that "it would collapse if they were deported."

More than 24 hours later, his aides still couldn't produce any solid evidence to support such dramatic claims.

True, they did claim that illegals make up 12 percent of the city's labor force and that their spending and presence helps the city grow.

Maybe.

And if someone was to wave a wand and make them all disappear, doubtless it would have an impact.

But a "collapsed" economy?

Please.

The fact is that the city's financial-services and tourism sectors are the engines that drive New York City's economy - and neither is dependent on illegal-immigrant labor.

And Bloomberg knows it."

The need for Emergency Services workers WOULD lessen, so perhaps that's what NY's Loon Extraordinairre was thinking of. When the illegals had their ill advised national snitfit, people the country over marveled at how WELL things ran, and how PLEASANT it was to be out and about sans panhandlers and illiterates. In the future, it would be downright polite were the illegals to give us advanced notice of their stay-at-home days, so that people might plan such things as vacations accordingly. Towns could feature "Illegals-Striking-Today" calendars of events and the tourist trade would skyrocket everywhere. Folks would eventually begin migrating to parts of the country without illegals...but wait...

They'd follow. They always follow. Doing the jobs only college kids want. Never mind.