Update: GOP Rep. Steve King delivers a scathing rebuke to Dems/Colbert — defending American workers who do the dirty jobs the Dems/Colbert say they don’t do. Lambastes illegal immigration’s effects on depressed wages, displacement.

Update: Democrat John Conyers wants Colbert to submit written testimony and then leave because he attracted enough attention. Lofgren says no. Dan Lungren takes mic.

Update 10:41am Eastern: Stephen Colbert delivers his comedic routine, mocking law-abiding American workers, cracking jokes about submitting a colonoscopy. Ends his testimony with “USA #1!”

Conyers observes that Colbert’s written testimony differed considerably from the “testimony” he delivered.

This is probably the only time you'll ever see these words at this blog, so feel free to write them down and pass them along: good for John Conyers.

Colbert was there to do one thing: mock American citizens for their very real concerns about the prevalence of illegal immigration (Americans don't object to "regular" legal immigration), despite the efforts of the political and business elite to reorder American labor markets and society through a combination of willful neglect and smug speechifying about this being a "nation of immigrants." Well, liberals and their Republican enablers need to do better than that because the available evidence shows that Americans have every right to be concerned without being labled racists and know-nothings.

One thing Colbert was there to do was repeat the demagogic claim that increased immigration is necessary to do the "jobs Americans won't do." Here's a reality check

• Of the 465 civilian occupations, only four are majority immigrant. These four occupations account for less than 1 percent of the total U.S. workforce. Moreover, native-born Americans comprise 47 percent of workers in these occupations.
  
  
• Many jobs often thought to be overwhelmingly immigrant are in fact majority native-born:
  • Maids and housekeepers: 55 percent native-born
  • Taxi drivers and chauffeurs: 58 percent native-born
  • Butchers and meat processors: 63 percent native-born
  • Grounds maintenance workers: 65 percent native-born
  • Construction laborers: 65 percent native-born
  • Porters, bellhops, and concierges: 71 percent native-born
  • Janitors: 75 percent native-born
  
  
• There are 93 occupations in which 20 percent or more of workers are immigrants. These high-immigrant occupations are primarily, but not exclusively, lower-wage jobs that require relatively little formal education.
  
  
• There are 23.6 million natives in these high-immigrant occupations (20 percent or more immigrant). These occupations include 19 percent of all native workers.
  
  
• Most natives do not face significant job competition from immigrants; however, those who do tend to be less-educated and poorer than those who face relatively little competition from immigrants.

The varied crew, featuring actors Kerry Washington, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane and Benjamin Bratt; hip-hop artist Boots Riley; activist Clarence Thomas; civil rights attorney Renee Maria Saucedo; musicians the Stairwell Sisters; and historian Anthony Arnove, read and sang selections from "Voices of a People's History," the companion volume of first-person accounts plucked from Zinn's 1980 best-seller "A People's History of the United States."

Others professed to be die-hard "People's History" fans, like Mike van Dierdonck from Orinda, who teaches it in his classroom. "You try to get kids to a read a book these days," he said, resplendent in a pink tie-dyed shirt. (emphasis added-Ps)

The play, which begins previews on Tuesday at the Public Theater, imagines a troubled moment in the American civil rights movement, when an act of intolerance leads to riots and hate crimes in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. Three black leaders try to rally their community, but their efforts are hampered not only by the K.K.K. and the F.B.I., but also by their own classism, infighting and vice.

“We had some people who had been interested in the play say that it wasn’t relevant anymore because Obama was doing well,” Ms. Wilson said.

At that, Ms. Tommy chuckled, threw up her hands and said: “We were like: ‘What? Because Obama’s doing well, there’s no more racism?’ ”

Leaning forward, Ms. Wilson began, “The idea of ‘postracial’ to me is —— ”

“—— a fantasy," Ms. Tommy interjected.

Ms. Wilson added: “An insane fantasy. Like a ‘Star Wars’ fantasy. Racism is not going to end just because we have a black president. Real equality will come when black people can mess up just like white people and still succeed, and when a flaw in a black leader is not looked at as a flaw in the black race."

The dolls in Phillis' new play are the means through which the viewer learns about their owner, an older gay man named Frank. Some of the dolls have been with Frank since his childhood; others are newer. They take on Frank's character traits - including a love of "CSI" and unhealthy snack foods - and they're all a little bit gay.

But while the dolls come to resemble their owner, and also follow the four doll rules - including "never let them see you move" and "even if you don't like the game, you still have to play" - they also have their own identities, independent of Frank. There's a caste system among them, and they deal with real-world issues like politics, war and civil liberties infringements.

"Once the idea had really (taken shape) ... it was almost like, wow, I can do anything with this idea," Phillis says. "And then right after that great realization, there was the, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do?"

James (David Harbour) is a principled war correspondent recovering from a breakdown occasioned by an overexposure to the misery and gore of armed conflict. Sarah (Anna Gunn), his injured lover, begins to question the ethics of her profession as she recuperates from the explosion that killed the Iraqi driver with whom she happened to be having an affair.

“The camera’s there to record life,” Sarah says. “Not change it.”