UPDATE: Obama Sends Jobs to China but Brings Terrorist Prisoners to U.S. Soil

What a dichotomy!  Some Obama's stimulus money is apparently going to create a ton of green jobs in China ... but, his administration is pushing to have the Guantanamo Bay prisoners moved to the mainland and held in an Illinois prison.

Here's what GatewayPundit is reporting on the green jobs:

Obama Stimulus Bill ‘Saves or Creates” Thousands of Green Manufacturing Jobs… In China

Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 11:54 AM

Jim Hoft

When the Obama White House is not “saving or creating” fantasy jobs here at home they’re “saving or creating” manufacturing jobs in China.

The Obama Stimulus Plan will help pay for a $1.5 billion wind farm in Texas. The project will mean thousands of new jobs for wind turbine manufacturers… in China.
The Dallas News reported:

Two weeks ago, U.S. Renewable Energy Group, led by Dallas investor Cappy McGarr, announced plans to build a $1.5 billion wind energy farm in West Texas. About a third of the money would come from federal stimulus funds. All of the wind turbines (and much of the remaining investment capital) would come from China.

“We believe that this project will greatly contribute to job creation, the goals of the Obama administration and our desire to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and increase our energy independence,” McGarr said in announcing the deal.

There would be perhaps 330 jobs created in Texas. Most would be temporary construction jobs. Meanwhile, thousands of Chinese workers in the northeastern industrial city Shenyang would build the labor-intensive turbines.

Most of the wind energy projects seeking money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act rely on foreign-made turbines. Even the industry we have here at home, led by GE, is looking abroad. GE’s technology will power the gearboxes of the turbines for the U.S. Renewable Energy Group. The gearboxes will be made in China.

U.S. companies emerging from the financial shocks of the last year haven’t started investing in American factory jobs. Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told an Austin audience last week that the company CEOs he speaks with are more interested in investing abroad.

That doesn’t fit with the administration’s plans. To fix the big economic imbalances of the U.S. economy, administration economists say, Americans must save more, import less and sell more U.S. goods to the world. This is particularly important in the U.S. relationship with China, which is America’s biggest creditor.

Democrats, with union support, included a “Buy America” provision in the stimulus bill. This hasn’t proved to be an obstacle to moving ahead with wind projects that rely on foreign-made turbines.

When the wind is right, the U.S. Renewable project would generate more than 600 megawatts of electricity, or enough for 180,000 homes. Texas has long recognized such energy projects as a public good and provides incentives to support them.

Only 30 of the 330 jobs created in Texas will be fulltime jobs after the project is complete.

Related… “Stop lying about those stimulus jobs.”

Now, compare this to the jobs the GITMO prisoners might create for Illinois.  The Chicago Sun-Times today happily announces the "good shot" the state has at getting the prisoners:

State has good shot at Gitmo inmates: officials

Up to 100 terrorism suspects could go to underused prison 

A nearly empty Illinois prison may be a leading candidate to house transferred Guantanamo Bay terror suspects, some local leaders said Monday after federal officials inspected the Thomson Correctional Center.

Federal prison officials visited the maximum security prison in northwestern Illinois after a proposal by President Obama to transfer Guantanamo detainees to prisons in the United States.

Federal prison officials visited Thomson Correctional Center for possible use to hold terrorism detainees.

A nearly empty Illinois prison may be a leading candidate to house transferred Guantanamo Bay terror suspects, some local leaders said Monday after federal officials inspected the Thomson Correctional Center.

Federal prison officials visited the maximum security prison in northwestern Illinois after a proposal by President Obama to transfer Guantanamo detainees to prisons in the United States.

Those officials were tight-lipped Monday about the prospect of moving terror suspects to Thomson, but local leaders briefed by the feds said the prison seems to be a front-runner. "My impression is this is probably their No. 1 choice," said Dixon Mayor Jim Burke, one of dozens of local officials briefed Monday about federal interest in the prison.

The prison, near Thomson in northwestern Illinois, has fewer than 200 state inmates -- but was built to house about 1,600 prisoners. It was never fully opened because of state budget problems.

If Thomson is chosen as a site, state officials have indicated, as many as 100 Guantanamo inmates could be sent there, although some local officials said the number could be considerably less.

There may be as few as 35 inmates transferred to Thomson, said state Rep. Patrick Verschoore, (D-Rock Island), another official briefed Monday by federal officials.

After examining the prison, the head of federal prisons was non-committal about Thomson as a site for Guantanamo prisoners.

"This is a very preliminary assessment," said Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Other existing prisons also will be reviewed, Lappin and other leaders said, without specifying which facilities might be inspected.

State officials likewise downplayed the inspection, even as they praised the prison as a lockup that could safely secure terror suspects.

State and local officials have said the transfer of inmates could spur an economic boost that could pump as much as $1 billion into the local economy over a four-year span.

Lapin said transferring prisoners could result in 400 to 500 new jobs at the prison, helping generate an $85 million annual payroll. Other experienced federal prison workers would be transferred to the site, part of which likely would be leased to the Defense Department to hold the terror suspects, Lapin said. Spinoff jobs also could be created. A source said the purchase of Thomson by the federal government could yield the state $200 million.

Some area residents aren't sure the economic benefits would be worth importing terror suspects.
"It's the worst of the worst. Nobody wants these people in their backyard," said Mark Pessman, 35, of nearby Fulton.

Others, though, said it may be time to step up use of the prison, particularly because it could bring an economic lift to the region and the state. Political leaders, meanwhile, continued sparring over the possible transfer of prisoners to Illinois.

Why don't we send the prisoners to China and create the green jobs HERE?  This would create thousands of jobs here building wind turbines for the American green energy company in Texas.  I fail to see how transferring 35 inmates to the Illinois prison would generate 300 to 400 jobs for the Thomson community, but ... why not have those 35 prisoners and the resulting 300 to 400 jobs go to China?  That would be a much better plan for the U.S. economy ... and security.

UPDATE: I caught this today ...

Lawmaker Ron Stephens posts petition against bringing Guantanamo detainess to Illinois

KSDK --  Republican representative Ron Stephens of Highland, Illinois is asking everyone who disagrees with the recently unveiled plan to bring terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Illinois to sign a new petition on his website, www.RepStephens.com.

"This past weekend, Governor Quinn, Senator Durbin and President Obama's Administration unveiled a plan they had concocted to bring terrorist detainees to the prison in Thompson," Stephens said. "I am completely against this idea. These dangerous individuals need to be kept in Cuba and not brought into our state."

Stephens has created a petition Illinois residents can sign electronically on his website, telling the Governor they oppose his plan.

Those in favor of the move say the terror suspects will not bring the danger Stephens and other opponents claim they will.

Convicted terrorists already are held in U.S. prisons.  Federal Bureau of Prisons director Harley Lappin said that more than 340 international and domestic terrorists are currently incarcerated on American soil.

Opponents have also claimed that the terror suspects would influence other inmates in the jails to turn to a life of terrorism.  The Bureau of Prisons told the Associated Press that the Guantanamo detainees would not be allowed to mingle with the general population.