I don’t know maybe it is that what we have is what people want. If it is---then we are neither a republic nor a democracy---we have and maybe are an oligarchy. At first blush, those crazy rich oligarchs would seem to have not much sense and then you realize it really is all “about the money” eh, or control.
Public Citizen:
Stunning Statistics of the Week:
• Amount the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent on lobbying in 2009: $120 million
• Amount Chamber spent daily to defeat health care reform in the weeks before its passage: $800,000
• Amount Chamber plans to spend to influence the fall congressional elections: $50 million
http://us.mg2.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.gx=1&.rand=bd6mumra8q3d3
Billions to Afghanistan and Pakistan---hey it’s only money and someone has to create the next boogey-man besides why should Halliburton, KBR and Blackwater suffer just because we do?
As one White House official put it bluntly, 'Since just telling us to f--k off seemed to do the trick,' why should the Pakistanis change their strategy?" The CIA, in tracking Bin Laden, had desperately—and foolishly—turned to its old ally the ISI, which had been so useful during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
A Brief Refresher on the Taliban's Worst-Kept Secret
The "most damning collection of data" in Wikileaks' massive trove of secret documents from Afghanistan are 180 files that show the Pakistani intelligence service helping Taliban insurgents in their fight against US forces. The documents are dark reading indeed: They describe Pakistani agents meeting directly with the Taliban, supporting commanders of the insurgency, and even training suicide bombers. But for anyone versed in the contemporary history of Afghanistan, they are hardly news. The Wikileaks data dump is just the tip of the iceberg; ISI black ops and double-crosses date back at least three decades. Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, is merely feeding a monster it helped create back in the 1990s—with the full knowledge of the United States. Indeed, in concert with the CIA, the Pakistani spy agency also helped create Al Qaeda, and continued to support it long after it had gone astray of US interests.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/wikileaks-taliban-afghanistan
…and all Israel has done is occupy, terrorize, kill and destroy in Gaza, the West Bank and Golan Heights?
Israeli air strike kills Hamas commander in Gaza
Israel carried out the air strikes after militants in Gaza fired a rocket into Ashkelon on Israel's Mediterranean coast, blowing out the windows of an apartment block and damaging parked cars in a residential area.
http://www.globalpost.com/breaking-news/global/israeli-air-strike-kills-hamas-commander-gaza
While Six Flags has been holding these events since 2000 for the 42-year-old Muslim nonprofit, apparently this year, it's getting more attention, both because it falls on the weekend of Sept. 11 and also because of the ongoing controversy about the Muslim center planned a few blocks away from Ground Zero in New York.
Tea Partiers Freak Over Six Flags "Muslim Day"
The Six Flags amusement park chain has had its share of bad press lately, what with kids getting decapitated or having their feet chopped off on roller coaster rides, filing for bankruptcy and other Dan Snyder-related disasters. But the latest flap is more political. Tea partiers and other anti-Islam activists are freaking out about a Muslim Family Day planned for several Six Flags parks around the country on Sept. 12, the day after the World Trade Center attacks. The event, sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), offers Muslim families a chance to hang at the amusement park and be catered to by modestly dressed employees and halal food vendors.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/07/muslim-day-six-flags
Texas Red
McCall quotes longtime Texas Monthly political writer Paul Burka’s description of Connally as “the greatest Texas governor of the century” because, Burka said, Connally “saw the dark side of the Texas stereotype—a self-satisfaction, a narrowness, a confusion of size with greatness, and an obsession with myth that kept the State from realizing its full potential. What’s more, he said so. He made Texans see that they weren’t as good as they thought they were.”
Who Runs Texas?
A LONG STANDING ARGUMENT IS that the lieutenant governor of Texas is more powerful than the governor. It’s that way by design. During the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, Texas had to endure the concentration of power in the governor: who removed local, elected officials that had been part of the Confederacy; appointed district judges, district attorneys, county treasurers, mayors and aldermen; and imposed martial law on counties. After Reconstruction, writers of the new Texas Constitution vowed to disperse power among the lieutenant governor, the speaker and the governor. The revised constitution also made numerous other positions elected instead of appointed by the governor. Several other former Confederate states did likewise.
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/who-runs-texas
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
The authors argue that the execution rate in Texas is a symptom of the "cultural tradition of exclusion" in the Southern United States. They found there was an inverse relationship between the number of executions and lynchings. When the number of lynchings declined, the execution rate went up. Executions, they argue, are a way to continue to "dehumanize" and "exclude" certain groups from normal society
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
Crack cocaine and powder cocaine disparity in sentences 100 to 1 now 18 to 1 what a joke. One more example of the rampant discrimination in this country.
Obama Expected To Ease Crack-Cocaine Sentencing Disparities (Maybe not)
ROBERTS: Well, there was someone who did speak against the law, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas. He's the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee. He said the 1986 law, the one that brought in this very low threshold for crack possession, was enacted to prevent violence.
He said: Why do we want to risk another surge of addiction and violence by reducing penalties? Why are we coddling some of the most dangerous drug traffickers in America? What's your response?
Mr. NACHMANOFF: Well, this is about as far from coddling as you could possibly imagine. People who are prosecuted in federal court for drug trafficking, whether it's crack cocaine, powder cocaine or other drugs are still facing serious and substantial penalties. The idea that crack offenders are more dangerous than other kinds of drug offenders simply has not been borne out.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128872762
Howard Zinn's FBI Files Reveal A Boston University Official's Efforts To Oust Him
In perusing the 423-page FBI file that the FBI kept on Howard Zinn, who was a life-long activist and political science professor at Boston University from 1964-1988, we discovered something interesting: someone in the upper echelons of the university's management was an FBI informer who reportedly plotted to oust Zinn in 1970.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/howard_zinns_fbi_files_reveal_a_boston_university.php?ref=fpb
But as local reports suggested and TPM confirmed, law enforcement in the area had no idea where the bogus story came from.
Right-Wingers Stand By Their Fabricated Mexican Drug Cartel Raid Story
But as local reports suggested and TPM confirmed, law enforcement in the area had no idea where the bogus story came from.
According to anonymously-sourced reports pushed by right-wing blogs last weekend, members of Mexico's notorious Zetas drug gang crossed the border into Texas and, "in what could be deemed an act of war," seized two ranches near the border town of Laredo. The situation was dire, wingers warned, but a government enforced media blackout kept knowledge of the raid from the general public.
Really?
No, not really.
Here's the thing: the "raid" never happened.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/right-wingers_stand_by_their_fabricated_mexican_dr.php?ref=fpb
Such is the state of the oligarchy presently.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Mexicans and Mexicans the U.S. Palestinians or the new N---gers?
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m5d15-MexicanAmericans-and-Mexicans-the-US-Palestinians-or-the-new-Ngers
Public Policy: Bill of Rights repealed by the “mainstream” led by Arizona’s Joe Arpaio
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d30-Public-Policy-Bill-of-Rights-repealed-by-the-mainstream-led-by-Arizonas-Joe-Arpaio
Any connection to reality is coincidental---wait---there are no coincidences….
Public Policy: America the Beautiful, “…give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” & the neocons
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=WFhjRXNraUxnRUwwa0Y1aWZKSjl6c1ZETjlEa3ZmbStGanFxT2NXVyt3QT0%3D&CFID=112284633&CFTOKEN=76112656#
There are so many issues in so many places at once. The tentacles of the nihilistic oligarchy reach out much as they always have encircling the entire globe. Its death grip tightens in an effort to sate its voracious, seemingly unlimited appetite. It doesn’t seem to understand that once it’s done, it’s done.
DEPT. OF HOMOPHOBIA
IT'S BEEN JUST OVER A YEAR SINCE FORT WORTH POLICE, with Texas Alcohol and Beverage Control agents in tow, stormed into the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar. They arrested seven patrons for public intoxication, sent one to the hospital with a head injury and caused a national firestorm. The timing couldn’t have been worse: The raid fell on the 40th anniversary of the anti-police harassment uprising at the Stonewall bar in New York, which touched off the modern gay-rights movement
http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/rainbow-raid-revisited
America the Oligarchy -You are free to do what they tell you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK7DRPyNAHA
'Open Veins of Latin America' author Eduardo Galeano on Democracy NOW! 2006 (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shTJosdsM_0&feature=PlayList&p=42140946F0DB2A02&playnext=1&index=24
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Immigration? (Part Four)
There are real, scary analogies between what is happening in this nation in terms of “immigration” between mostly those of Mexican descent and European-Anglo (Israeli-Jew?) and the events and the Israeli-Palestinian enmity.
Jimmy Carter discussed the conditions in his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." The Israeli apartheid foreign and domestic policy of bullying, occupying and intimidating is made possible by U.S.taxpayer dollars to the tune of $2B annually in foreign aid the largest amount to any nation even while colluding with apartheid racists in South Africa.
The question is whether what we have is a question of “security” or out and out racism and a growing trend toward the expansion of a U.S. apartheid public policy.
Oppression of a people in their own lands
There are real issues between two peoples. Those of Mexican descent have over the course of the history of this nation moved back and forth across el Rio Grande. It is after all only a river. It is a river that ran through the nation of Mejico as rivers run through most nations when those seeking one more slave state migrated to Mejico (present day Tejas) with the intent of creating one more slave state. That is one thing in which those heroes appear to have succeeded.
During the second world war, when Nazi Germany invaded France, French government officials surrendered to the Nazis to the chagrin of many of the average French people.
Mejico’s government officials did the same thing to their people, for all we know it may well have been a deal cut with fellow European-Anglos.
The people of Mejico have always had at the very least the tacit approval of this nation to migrate back and forth across el Rio Grande since its leaders surrendered the last time in 1848. Note that it’s not the European-Anlgo occupiers of Mejico who migrate here to find work. The European-Anglo class system in Mejico is notorious.
On this side of el Rio Grande the cheap, ready availability of labor has always been seen by this nation’s European-Anglos as an economic boon.
Even today, 2010 C.E., this state draws people and companies to it by selling the fact that the state has no state income tax, enforces an anti-union philosophy and a ready labor pool---especially the hard physical labor type. This anti-union philosophy is euphemistically referred to as making the state “a right to work” state.This is ludicrous in a state where employers need no reason to fire someone and in which employees with only two exceptions have no rights at all.
An Occupying Force
As is the case with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza European-Anglos have become essentially an occupying force in Tejas and other Western states.
The Wall
Israel’s Wall is an egregious form of discrimination and oppression. It’s partyline is that it exists for the “security of Israel.” Security from what? Israel controls the entire region, routinely plows into the surrounding areas, Lebanon, Gaza in its army tanks at will, its air force drops bombs with impunity and is the only power in the region with the nuclear bomb.
Racists in this country likewise state that the Wall is necessary for our “security.” It is a barrier every bit as oppressive as the Wall being constructed between Israelis and Palestinians cutting off Palestinians from one another including from other family members---just as the one in Tejas.
The United States shares a 3000 mile long border with Canada and at some locations there is no checkpoint at all. But to the South, it can’t get enough of them.
Now the nation adds the Israeli-like wall, keeping those who have throughout the history of both Mejico and Tejas relied on what was tantamount to an open border; certainly a porous one.
Just as the public policy of Israelis is becoming a public policy of division with apartheid features so the Wall between those of Mexican-descent and European-Anglos.
More to follow.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Obama Administration Considers Bypassing Congress on Immigration Reform
The Obama administration, anticipating that Congress might not pass comprehensive immigration reform this year, is considering ways it could act without congressional approval to achieve many of the objectives of the initiative, including giving permanent resident status, or green cards, to large numbers of people in the country illegally.
http://www.propublica.org/article/obama-administration-considers-bypassing-congress-on-immigration-reform
Immigration? (Part Four)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d30-Immigration-Part-Four
Mexicans and Mexicans the U.S. Palestinians or the new N---gers?
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m5d15-MexicanAmericans-and-Mexicans-the-US-Palestinians-or-the-new-Ngers
Netanyahu: US easily manipulated
A recently-revealed tape has shown Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, discussing ways to undermine the Oslo Accords and calling the United States "easy" to manipulate.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/201071834019513292.html
Heaping insult (and waste water) on injury
Israel dumps waste on Palestinians
Israeli settlements have been dumping untreated waste directly into a sewage canal that runs through the occupied West Bank, affecting Palestinian villages along its banks.
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2010/07/201071731516628999.html
JStreet
J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans to advocate for vigorous U.S. leadership to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to broaden debate around Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community.
http://jstreet.org/
Center for New Community
The Center for New Community is a national organization committed to building community, justice, and equality. The Center is grounded in many faith traditions, and builds community where the dignity and value of all humanity is manifest.
http://www.newcomm.org/
Solipsism
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/solipsism
Arizona's Immigrant Death Spiral
NEW YORK – The controversial immigration law may have been sidelined by a judge, but the state's epidemic of bodies piling up in the desert is just beginning. http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/9215_arizonasrealimmigrationproblemmigrantdeaths
Veterans Affairs to Investigate Fallen Soldiers’ Death Benefits
http://topics.npr.org/article/00Ey55ueNy55t?q=Business
Vichy France
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy_France
White Navy officers are more likely to be promoted than blacks or Hispanics, study finds
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/29/AR2010072905737.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Israeli West Bank barrier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier
'Stupid' law or 'soul' of the US?
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/05/20105275016497244.html
Ariz. files appeal as sheriff launches new sweep
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_arizona_immigration
Portrait of an occupied country
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/201072811155152491.html
From globalisation to migration
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010720102258382730.html
US court blocks Arizona migrant law
Key parts of a controversial new immigration law in the US state of Arizona have been blocked by the federal court….
One-third of the roughly 6.6 million people living in Arizona are foreign-born, and more than five per cent of the population is estimated to be illegal immigrants.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/2010728172113657349.html
Arizona helped deport thousands without new law
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_immigration_local_enforcement
3 NJ teens charged with videotaped immigrant death
SUMMIT, N.J. – Dusk fell around Salvadoran immigrant Abelino Mazaniego as he sat on a bench on a promenade in an upscale New York suburb after finishing his restaurant shift. As night encroached, so did a group of teenagers, including one with a cell phone videocamera at the ready.
Then, authorities say, they beat him unconscious, with the camera rolling.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_re_us/us_beating_death
Neo-Con zeal, racist, (oh and he probably self-describes as a compassionate conservative Christian)
Police, Activists Prepare Days Ahead Of Ariz. Law
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128807286
The gopers---always the gopers who consider themselves on the main compassionate conservative Christians. There is nothing remotely “Christian” about their conduct.
Could Florida Be the Next Immigration Law Hot Spot?
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (July 27) -- If some Republican state lawmakers here get their way, Florida and Arizona may soon have more in common than just baseball's spring training.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/could-florida-be-the-next-immigration-law-hot-spot/19555295
States Tackle Immigration Legislation
Arizona's immigration law has gotten a lot of flack, but some analysts say other states are considering measures as well. Anne Morse, policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures, offers her insight
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3
Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010726112724506988.html
Obama Administration Considers Bypassing Congress on Immigration Reform
The Obama administration, anticipating that Congress might not pass comprehensive immigration reform this year, is considering ways it could act without congressional approval to achieve many of the objectives of the initiative, including giving permanent resident status, or green cards, to large numbers of people in the country illegally.
http://www.propublica.org/article/obama-administration-considers-bypassing-congress-on-immigration-reform
Jimmy Carter discussed the conditions in his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." The Israeli apartheid foreign and domestic policy of bullying, occupying and intimidating is made possible by U.S.taxpayer dollars to the tune of $2B annually in foreign aid the largest amount to any nation even while colluding with apartheid racists in South Africa.
The question is whether what we have is a question of “security” or out and out racism and a growing trend toward the expansion of a U.S. apartheid public policy.
Oppression of a people in their own lands
There are real issues between two peoples. Those of Mexican descent have over the course of the history of this nation moved back and forth across el Rio Grande. It is after all only a river. It is a river that ran through the nation of Mejico as rivers run through most nations when those seeking one more slave state migrated to Mejico (present day Tejas) with the intent of creating one more slave state. That is one thing in which those heroes appear to have succeeded.
During the second world war, when Nazi Germany invaded France, French government officials surrendered to the Nazis to the chagrin of many of the average French people.
Mejico’s government officials did the same thing to their people, for all we know it may well have been a deal cut with fellow European-Anglos.
The people of Mejico have always had at the very least the tacit approval of this nation to migrate back and forth across el Rio Grande since its leaders surrendered the last time in 1848. Note that it’s not the European-Anlgo occupiers of Mejico who migrate here to find work. The European-Anglo class system in Mejico is notorious.
On this side of el Rio Grande the cheap, ready availability of labor has always been seen by this nation’s European-Anglos as an economic boon.
Even today, 2010 C.E., this state draws people and companies to it by selling the fact that the state has no state income tax, enforces an anti-union philosophy and a ready labor pool---especially the hard physical labor type. This anti-union philosophy is euphemistically referred to as making the state “a right to work” state.This is ludicrous in a state where employers need no reason to fire someone and in which employees with only two exceptions have no rights at all.
An Occupying Force
As is the case with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza European-Anglos have become essentially an occupying force in Tejas and other Western states.
The Wall
Israel’s Wall is an egregious form of discrimination and oppression. It’s partyline is that it exists for the “security of Israel.” Security from what? Israel controls the entire region, routinely plows into the surrounding areas, Lebanon, Gaza in its army tanks at will, its air force drops bombs with impunity and is the only power in the region with the nuclear bomb.
Racists in this country likewise state that the Wall is necessary for our “security.” It is a barrier every bit as oppressive as the Wall being constructed between Israelis and Palestinians cutting off Palestinians from one another including from other family members---just as the one in Tejas.
The United States shares a 3000 mile long border with Canada and at some locations there is no checkpoint at all. But to the South, it can’t get enough of them.
Now the nation adds the Israeli-like wall, keeping those who have throughout the history of both Mejico and Tejas relied on what was tantamount to an open border; certainly a porous one.
Just as the public policy of Israelis is becoming a public policy of division with apartheid features so the Wall between those of Mexican-descent and European-Anglos.
More to follow.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Obama Administration Considers Bypassing Congress on Immigration Reform
The Obama administration, anticipating that Congress might not pass comprehensive immigration reform this year, is considering ways it could act without congressional approval to achieve many of the objectives of the initiative, including giving permanent resident status, or green cards, to large numbers of people in the country illegally.
http://www.propublica.org/article/obama-administration-considers-bypassing-congress-on-immigration-reform
Immigration? (Part Four)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d30-Immigration-Part-Four
Mexicans and Mexicans the U.S. Palestinians or the new N---gers?
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m5d15-MexicanAmericans-and-Mexicans-the-US-Palestinians-or-the-new-Ngers
Netanyahu: US easily manipulated
A recently-revealed tape has shown Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, discussing ways to undermine the Oslo Accords and calling the United States "easy" to manipulate.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/201071834019513292.html
Heaping insult (and waste water) on injury
Israel dumps waste on Palestinians
Israeli settlements have been dumping untreated waste directly into a sewage canal that runs through the occupied West Bank, affecting Palestinian villages along its banks.
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2010/07/201071731516628999.html
JStreet
J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans to advocate for vigorous U.S. leadership to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to broaden debate around Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community.
http://jstreet.org/
Center for New Community
The Center for New Community is a national organization committed to building community, justice, and equality. The Center is grounded in many faith traditions, and builds community where the dignity and value of all humanity is manifest.
http://www.newcomm.org/
Solipsism
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/solipsism
Arizona's Immigrant Death Spiral
NEW YORK – The controversial immigration law may have been sidelined by a judge, but the state's epidemic of bodies piling up in the desert is just beginning. http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/9215_arizonasrealimmigrationproblemmigrantdeaths
Veterans Affairs to Investigate Fallen Soldiers’ Death Benefits
http://topics.npr.org/article/00Ey55ueNy55t?q=Business
Vichy France
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy_France
White Navy officers are more likely to be promoted than blacks or Hispanics, study finds
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/29/AR2010072905737.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Israeli West Bank barrier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier
'Stupid' law or 'soul' of the US?
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/05/20105275016497244.html
Ariz. files appeal as sheriff launches new sweep
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_arizona_immigration
Portrait of an occupied country
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/201072811155152491.html
From globalisation to migration
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010720102258382730.html
US court blocks Arizona migrant law
Key parts of a controversial new immigration law in the US state of Arizona have been blocked by the federal court….
One-third of the roughly 6.6 million people living in Arizona are foreign-born, and more than five per cent of the population is estimated to be illegal immigrants.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/2010728172113657349.html
Arizona helped deport thousands without new law
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_immigration_local_enforcement
3 NJ teens charged with videotaped immigrant death
SUMMIT, N.J. – Dusk fell around Salvadoran immigrant Abelino Mazaniego as he sat on a bench on a promenade in an upscale New York suburb after finishing his restaurant shift. As night encroached, so did a group of teenagers, including one with a cell phone videocamera at the ready.
Then, authorities say, they beat him unconscious, with the camera rolling.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_re_us/us_beating_death
Neo-Con zeal, racist, (oh and he probably self-describes as a compassionate conservative Christian)
Police, Activists Prepare Days Ahead Of Ariz. Law
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128807286
The gopers---always the gopers who consider themselves on the main compassionate conservative Christians. There is nothing remotely “Christian” about their conduct.
Could Florida Be the Next Immigration Law Hot Spot?
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (July 27) -- If some Republican state lawmakers here get their way, Florida and Arizona may soon have more in common than just baseball's spring training.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/could-florida-be-the-next-immigration-law-hot-spot/19555295
States Tackle Immigration Legislation
Arizona's immigration law has gotten a lot of flack, but some analysts say other states are considering measures as well. Anne Morse, policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures, offers her insight
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3
Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010726112724506988.html
Obama Administration Considers Bypassing Congress on Immigration Reform
The Obama administration, anticipating that Congress might not pass comprehensive immigration reform this year, is considering ways it could act without congressional approval to achieve many of the objectives of the initiative, including giving permanent resident status, or green cards, to large numbers of people in the country illegally.
http://www.propublica.org/article/obama-administration-considers-bypassing-congress-on-immigration-reform
Public Policy: Bill of Rights repealed by the “mainstream” led by Arizona’s Joe Arpaio
Any connection to reality is coincidental---wait---there are no coincidences….
Often there are few “truths” in public policy that have any connection to reality for those most affected by it. The exception is the separate reality that the blustering, pontificating and bombastic mainstream finds itself embracing---but only after realizing there’s no other viable choice.
One example is the integration of our military. Public policy, the mainstream, long advanced the notion of equal protection of the law---lynchings, burnings and discrimination not withstanding. Then beginning in the 1960’s a generation after Eleanor Roosevelt made efforts to force the “mainstream” to do the right thing and gosh only a century after it was “proclaimed” it started. Today with rare exception it is the rule---except for homosexuals. That is yet another example of the tortured, twisted, tormented sense of reality of the “mainstream.”
Another example is the conflict in Arizona. It is the vortex in the conflict between racist European-Anglos and the ghost of the Hispanic that rattles, annoys and unhinges the European-Anglo. Hell, this is occurring 234 years after it was first declared! In writing!! That “All men are created equal….” (guess women didn’t count even to the founders---and today they still earn only 75 cents for every dollar men earn---another example of the “mainstrearm”)
We often read or hear about the “mainstream.” But what exactly is that? Dictionary.com defines it as: “the principal or dominant course, tendency, or trend: the mainstream of American culture.”
If it is the “principal or dominant course” it is the majority-view. Please don’t lose sight of the fact that once it was acceptable---“mainstream” to force into slavery those of African descent. Just a few short years ago it was still acceptable at Denny’s not to serve African-American secret service agents. Today it is acceptable for U.S. based transnational corporations to rape, pillage and plunder defenseless countries. As repugnant as it sounds today it is acceptable for the finance industry to rape, pillage and plunder citizens of this republic with impunity.
The mainstream is a euphemism for majority i.e. bully rule. The majority foists its worldview on the rest of us regardless of its propriety, correctness or connectedness to any form of reality---separate or not. The founders understood this and thus did not stand-up a “democracy.”
What does racism have to do with immigration? Glad you asked.
If put to a vote today, Friday 30 July 2010 the majority would never approve the Bill of Rights.. The only vote the Bill of Rights would be put to today would be a referendum to repeal it! That is a promise.
I’ve provided a few links as citations of the assertions of this blog----as usual.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Frontiers of Racism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H0W97tLFHY
Public Policy: Bill of Rights repealed by the “mainstream” led by Arizona’s Joe Arpaio
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d30-Public-Policy-Bill-of-Rights-repealed-by-the-mainstream-led-by-Arizonas-Joe-Arpaio
Is Israel a liability for the US? (is that a trick question?)
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/imperium/2010/07/28/israel-liability-us
Bric: The new world order (BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China)
Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) are booming whilst many other countries are struggling economically, or even crashing.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2010/04/2010428124457451637.html
The New Normal: Americans Cutting Back — Even If They Don’t Have To (But we do)
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-new-normal-americans-cutting-back-%E2%80%94-even-if-they-don%E2%80%99t-have-to-535276.html?tickers=SVU,XRT,RTH,WMT,^DJI,^GSPC
DEPT. OF HOMOPHOBIA
IT'S BEEN JUST OVER A YEAR SINCE FORT WORTH POLICE, with Texas Alcohol and Beverage Control agents in tow, stormed into the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar. They arrested seven patrons for public intoxication, sent one to the hospital with a head injury and caused a national firestorm. The timing couldn’t have been worse: The raid fell on the 40th anniversary of the anti-police harassment uprising at the Stonewall bar in New York, which touched off the modern gay-rights movement.
http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/rainbow-raid-revisited
Joseph Campbell/the power of myth
http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php
Dictionary.com/mainstreamhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mainstream
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mainstream
Superclass
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2010/07/201072412511420297.html
Running on empty?
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2010/06/201062991625581394.html
U.S. takes tougher stance with China
The Obama administration has adopted a tougher tone with China in recent weeks as part of a diplomatic balancing act in which the United States welcomes China's rise in some areas but also confronts Beijing when it butts up against American interests.
(By John Pomfret, The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/29/AR2010072906416.html
Denny's Restaurants to Pay $54 Million in Race Bias Suits
Published: May 25, 1994
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/25/us/denny-s-restaurants-to-pay-54-million-in-race-bias-suits.html?pagewanted=all
Toxic legacy of the Vietnam war
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia-pacific/2010/07/201072251513743646.html
Chevron's "Crude" Attempt to Suppress Free Speech
In New York last Thursday, Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered documentary producer and director Joe Berlinger to turn over to Chevron more than 600 hours of raw footage used to create a film titled Crude: The Real Price of Oil.
Released last year, it's the story of how 30,000 Ecuadorians rose up to challenge the pollution of their bodies, livestock, rivers and wells from Texaco's drilling for oil there, a rainforest disaster that has been described as the Amazon's Chernobyl. When Chevron acquired Texaco in 2001 and attempted to dismiss claims that it was now responsible, the indigenous people and their lawyers fought back in court.
http://www.truth-out.org/chevrons-crude-attempt-suppress-free-speech59512
Often there are few “truths” in public policy that have any connection to reality for those most affected by it. The exception is the separate reality that the blustering, pontificating and bombastic mainstream finds itself embracing---but only after realizing there’s no other viable choice.
One example is the integration of our military. Public policy, the mainstream, long advanced the notion of equal protection of the law---lynchings, burnings and discrimination not withstanding. Then beginning in the 1960’s a generation after Eleanor Roosevelt made efforts to force the “mainstream” to do the right thing and gosh only a century after it was “proclaimed” it started. Today with rare exception it is the rule---except for homosexuals. That is yet another example of the tortured, twisted, tormented sense of reality of the “mainstream.”
Another example is the conflict in Arizona. It is the vortex in the conflict between racist European-Anglos and the ghost of the Hispanic that rattles, annoys and unhinges the European-Anglo. Hell, this is occurring 234 years after it was first declared! In writing!! That “All men are created equal….” (guess women didn’t count even to the founders---and today they still earn only 75 cents for every dollar men earn---another example of the “mainstrearm”)
We often read or hear about the “mainstream.” But what exactly is that? Dictionary.com defines it as: “the principal or dominant course, tendency, or trend: the mainstream of American culture.”
If it is the “principal or dominant course” it is the majority-view. Please don’t lose sight of the fact that once it was acceptable---“mainstream” to force into slavery those of African descent. Just a few short years ago it was still acceptable at Denny’s not to serve African-American secret service agents. Today it is acceptable for U.S. based transnational corporations to rape, pillage and plunder defenseless countries. As repugnant as it sounds today it is acceptable for the finance industry to rape, pillage and plunder citizens of this republic with impunity.
The mainstream is a euphemism for majority i.e. bully rule. The majority foists its worldview on the rest of us regardless of its propriety, correctness or connectedness to any form of reality---separate or not. The founders understood this and thus did not stand-up a “democracy.”
What does racism have to do with immigration? Glad you asked.
If put to a vote today, Friday 30 July 2010 the majority would never approve the Bill of Rights.. The only vote the Bill of Rights would be put to today would be a referendum to repeal it! That is a promise.
I’ve provided a few links as citations of the assertions of this blog----as usual.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Frontiers of Racism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H0W97tLFHY
Public Policy: Bill of Rights repealed by the “mainstream” led by Arizona’s Joe Arpaio
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d30-Public-Policy-Bill-of-Rights-repealed-by-the-mainstream-led-by-Arizonas-Joe-Arpaio
Is Israel a liability for the US? (is that a trick question?)
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/imperium/2010/07/28/israel-liability-us
Bric: The new world order (BRIC: Brazil, Russia, India and China)
Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric) are booming whilst many other countries are struggling economically, or even crashing.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2010/04/2010428124457451637.html
The New Normal: Americans Cutting Back — Even If They Don’t Have To (But we do)
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-new-normal-americans-cutting-back-%E2%80%94-even-if-they-don%E2%80%99t-have-to-535276.html?tickers=SVU,XRT,RTH,WMT,^DJI,^GSPC
DEPT. OF HOMOPHOBIA
IT'S BEEN JUST OVER A YEAR SINCE FORT WORTH POLICE, with Texas Alcohol and Beverage Control agents in tow, stormed into the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar. They arrested seven patrons for public intoxication, sent one to the hospital with a head injury and caused a national firestorm. The timing couldn’t have been worse: The raid fell on the 40th anniversary of the anti-police harassment uprising at the Stonewall bar in New York, which touched off the modern gay-rights movement.
http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/rainbow-raid-revisited
Joseph Campbell/the power of myth
http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php
Dictionary.com/mainstreamhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mainstream
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mainstream
Superclass
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2010/07/201072412511420297.html
Running on empty?
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2010/06/201062991625581394.html
U.S. takes tougher stance with China
The Obama administration has adopted a tougher tone with China in recent weeks as part of a diplomatic balancing act in which the United States welcomes China's rise in some areas but also confronts Beijing when it butts up against American interests.
(By John Pomfret, The Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/29/AR2010072906416.html
Denny's Restaurants to Pay $54 Million in Race Bias Suits
Published: May 25, 1994
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/25/us/denny-s-restaurants-to-pay-54-million-in-race-bias-suits.html?pagewanted=all
Toxic legacy of the Vietnam war
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia-pacific/2010/07/201072251513743646.html
Chevron's "Crude" Attempt to Suppress Free Speech
In New York last Thursday, Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered documentary producer and director Joe Berlinger to turn over to Chevron more than 600 hours of raw footage used to create a film titled Crude: The Real Price of Oil.
Released last year, it's the story of how 30,000 Ecuadorians rose up to challenge the pollution of their bodies, livestock, rivers and wells from Texaco's drilling for oil there, a rainforest disaster that has been described as the Amazon's Chernobyl. When Chevron acquired Texaco in 2001 and attempted to dismiss claims that it was now responsible, the indigenous people and their lawyers fought back in court.
http://www.truth-out.org/chevrons-crude-attempt-suppress-free-speech59512
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Bexar County Elections 2010: Federal judge blocks key part of Arizona Immigration law
Elections are an integral part of politics. Politics more than any other single factor determine what is put in place as “public policy.”
It is widely accepted that there are three components to public policy making; “problems, players and the policy.”
Elections are the pivotal point at which the electorate decide on a candidate and party hence a political platform which becomes the underpinning for public policy.
This further puts in place “majority rule.” It is what the founders called “tyranny by majority.” Public policy is put in place by the majority. This explains what most people accept as reality. It gives the impression that things are in place because they are the natural order. That is not necessarily so.
What is public policy? "The problem is the issue that needs to be addressed. The player is the individual or group that is influential in forming a plan to address the problem in question. Policy is the finalized course of action decided upon by the government. In most cases, policies are widely open to interpretation by non-governmental players, including those in the private sector. Public policy is also made by leaders of religious and cultural institutions".
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-public-policy.htm
This brings us to Arizona, our immigration laws and the pandering and demagoguery associated with it. The history of our “immigration laws” is deep and not quite what the majority and definitely not what FAIR would have you believe.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
AZ appeals order blocking parts of immigration law
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_arizona_immigration
Federal judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law SB 1070
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072801794.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
Petition to All U.S. Governors: What Happens in Arizona Stops in Arizona
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageNavigator/100728_Arizona?s_src=UNW100001ACT
Arizona to appeal block on immigration law: governor
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100728/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticsimmigrationcourtbrewer
Federal judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law SB 1070
http://walkerreport.blogspot.com/2010/07/federal-judge-blocks-parts-of-arizona.html
Protecting our borders
Who’s behind Arizona’s SB 1070? (John Tanton)
http://www.youtube.com/user/NativismWatchTV?feature=pyv&ad=5506706371&kw=laws%20immigration#p/u/0/XvBwuAtetl4
Public Policy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_policy
School district under investigation for breaking election law
SAN ANTONIO - The Texas Ethics Commission is currently investigating one of our local school districts. News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooter Brian Collister has discovered the commission is about to decide whether the Northside Independant School District broke the law when they sent out thousands of flyers to voters in the district.
http://www.woai.com/mostpopular/story/School-district-under-investigation-for-breaking/PI09odaHKESB2EQYGGd7Gg.cspx
County plans to file suit against Bexar Dems
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/county_plans_to_file_suit_against_bexar_dems_98652639.html
With Texas budget crisis, odds may in slots' favor
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-gamblebucks_28tex.ART.State.Edition2.4d607dd.html
Man who helped put Green Party on Texas ballot was on Perry payroll at same time
The Texas Democratic Party has sued the Green Party to identify the source of $532,000 that bankrolled the petition drive.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-green_28tex.ART.State.Edition2.4d62398.html
Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010726112724506988.html
Walker Report: Updated local calendar
• July 29th-Judge Laura Salinas re-election kickoff, @ Mary Lou's Cafe in Olmos Park from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
• July 29th-Open House & Ribbon cutting from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. @ Mensan Studios Fine Art Photography, 13469 Wetmore Road.
• July 31st-Lamar Smith for Congress District 21 Annual Barbecue, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at home of AnaPaula & Mark Watson. Contact: Kyle Jackson or Susan Lilly at 866-789-9223 or kyle@lillyandcompany.com
• July 31st-Meet & Greet judicial nominee Dinorah Diaz @ the Oak Meadow Neighborhood Swimming Pool, 14330 Vantage Hill from 5-8 p.m. Free hamburgers & hot dogs. RSVP: 857-3373.
• August 1st-Sunday Public Tour: Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art since the 1960s from 2-3 p.m. @ SAMA, 200 West Jones. Meet at the Front Desk. Free with Museum admission. Exhibition closing day. Join SAMA docents for a tour on the closing day of the exhibition. Photography by Greg Harrison.
• August 3rd-@ SAMA, 200 West Jones, Curator's Choice Gallery Talk: Constructing Narrative: Contemporary Works by Arnold Mesches and Faith Ringgold @ 6 p.m.
• August 3rd-Northwest Demomcrats cordially invite you to join us in honoring Joyce Dorrycott @ the Pat Maloney Sr. Public Awards Dinner from 6-9 p.m. @ the Omni Hotel in the Colonnade, 821 Colonnade Boulevard. Cocktail Hour @ 6 p.m. Tickets: $50.
• August 7th-Women for the People's Court (Judical nominee Barbie Scharf-Zeldes) presents "You've Come a Long Way Baby," a fashion review of the 20th Century Women, Saturday, August 7th from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. @ Biga on the Banks, 203 S. St. Mary's.
• August 7th-Bihl Haus Arts and Kaveri Natya Yoga are pleased to present Shakthi: Manifest of the Feminine Principle, an original classical Indian dance production presented at The Carver Theater, 226 Hackberry, from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
• August 14th-Henry Brun and The Latin Playerz: 20-Year Anniversary, 7:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. @ Charline McCombs Empire Theatre,Grammy - Award - Winning Percussionist, Henry Brun and the 11 member Latin Playerz: 20th Year Anniversary with vocalist Judi Deleon is on our mind! http://artssa.org/IndividualPrograms/HenryBrun/
It is widely accepted that there are three components to public policy making; “problems, players and the policy.”
Elections are the pivotal point at which the electorate decide on a candidate and party hence a political platform which becomes the underpinning for public policy.
This further puts in place “majority rule.” It is what the founders called “tyranny by majority.” Public policy is put in place by the majority. This explains what most people accept as reality. It gives the impression that things are in place because they are the natural order. That is not necessarily so.
What is public policy? "The problem is the issue that needs to be addressed. The player is the individual or group that is influential in forming a plan to address the problem in question. Policy is the finalized course of action decided upon by the government. In most cases, policies are widely open to interpretation by non-governmental players, including those in the private sector. Public policy is also made by leaders of religious and cultural institutions".
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-public-policy.htm
This brings us to Arizona, our immigration laws and the pandering and demagoguery associated with it. The history of our “immigration laws” is deep and not quite what the majority and definitely not what FAIR would have you believe.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
AZ appeals order blocking parts of immigration law
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_arizona_immigration
Federal judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law SB 1070
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072801794.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
Petition to All U.S. Governors: What Happens in Arizona Stops in Arizona
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageNavigator/100728_Arizona?s_src=UNW100001ACT
Arizona to appeal block on immigration law: governor
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100728/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticsimmigrationcourtbrewer
Federal judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law SB 1070
http://walkerreport.blogspot.com/2010/07/federal-judge-blocks-parts-of-arizona.html
Protecting our borders
Who’s behind Arizona’s SB 1070? (John Tanton)
http://www.youtube.com/user/NativismWatchTV?feature=pyv&ad=5506706371&kw=laws%20immigration#p/u/0/XvBwuAtetl4
Public Policy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_policy
School district under investigation for breaking election law
SAN ANTONIO - The Texas Ethics Commission is currently investigating one of our local school districts. News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooter Brian Collister has discovered the commission is about to decide whether the Northside Independant School District broke the law when they sent out thousands of flyers to voters in the district.
http://www.woai.com/mostpopular/story/School-district-under-investigation-for-breaking/PI09odaHKESB2EQYGGd7Gg.cspx
County plans to file suit against Bexar Dems
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/county_plans_to_file_suit_against_bexar_dems_98652639.html
With Texas budget crisis, odds may in slots' favor
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-gamblebucks_28tex.ART.State.Edition2.4d607dd.html
Man who helped put Green Party on Texas ballot was on Perry payroll at same time
The Texas Democratic Party has sued the Green Party to identify the source of $532,000 that bankrolled the petition drive.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-green_28tex.ART.State.Edition2.4d62398.html
Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010726112724506988.html
Walker Report: Updated local calendar
• July 29th-Judge Laura Salinas re-election kickoff, @ Mary Lou's Cafe in Olmos Park from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
• July 29th-Open House & Ribbon cutting from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. @ Mensan Studios Fine Art Photography, 13469 Wetmore Road.
• July 31st-Lamar Smith for Congress District 21 Annual Barbecue, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at home of AnaPaula & Mark Watson. Contact: Kyle Jackson or Susan Lilly at 866-789-9223 or kyle@lillyandcompany.com
• July 31st-Meet & Greet judicial nominee Dinorah Diaz @ the Oak Meadow Neighborhood Swimming Pool, 14330 Vantage Hill from 5-8 p.m. Free hamburgers & hot dogs. RSVP: 857-3373.
• August 1st-Sunday Public Tour: Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art since the 1960s from 2-3 p.m. @ SAMA, 200 West Jones. Meet at the Front Desk. Free with Museum admission. Exhibition closing day. Join SAMA docents for a tour on the closing day of the exhibition. Photography by Greg Harrison.
• August 3rd-@ SAMA, 200 West Jones, Curator's Choice Gallery Talk: Constructing Narrative: Contemporary Works by Arnold Mesches and Faith Ringgold @ 6 p.m.
• August 3rd-Northwest Demomcrats cordially invite you to join us in honoring Joyce Dorrycott @ the Pat Maloney Sr. Public Awards Dinner from 6-9 p.m. @ the Omni Hotel in the Colonnade, 821 Colonnade Boulevard. Cocktail Hour @ 6 p.m. Tickets: $50.
• August 7th-Women for the People's Court (Judical nominee Barbie Scharf-Zeldes) presents "You've Come a Long Way Baby," a fashion review of the 20th Century Women, Saturday, August 7th from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. @ Biga on the Banks, 203 S. St. Mary's.
• August 7th-Bihl Haus Arts and Kaveri Natya Yoga are pleased to present Shakthi: Manifest of the Feminine Principle, an original classical Indian dance production presented at The Carver Theater, 226 Hackberry, from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
• August 14th-Henry Brun and The Latin Playerz: 20-Year Anniversary, 7:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. @ Charline McCombs Empire Theatre,Grammy - Award - Winning Percussionist, Henry Brun and the 11 member Latin Playerz: 20th Year Anniversary with vocalist Judi Deleon is on our mind! http://artssa.org/IndividualPrograms/HenryBrun/
Public Policy: America the Beautiful, “…give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” & the neocons
There are so many issues in so many places at once. The tentacles of the nihilistic oligarchy reach out much as they always have encircling the entire globe. Its death grip tightens in an effort to sate its voracious, seemingly unlimited appetite. It doesn’t seem to understand that once it’s done, it’s done.
At the end of this blog are links to issues that should matter including serious violations of human and civil rights occurring around the globe not at the hands of some third world thug but at the hands of America’s oligarcy in the form of its transnational corporations with the support of its most ardent compassionate conservative Christians.
But before we go there; it’s important to put first things first.
Without civil rights only the brutal law of survival of the fittest remains. Put another way, the oligarchs and their lapdogs in congress and around the nation seem to believe that might makes right. “If might is right...then love has no place in the world. It may be so.” But what then of "providing for the general welfare?"
In the nascent days of the founders there were only colonies. Yes colonies made to sound so quaint. It wasn’t and isn’t. A colony is the property of a colonizer. A colonizer is an occupier and exploiter of natural resources and people. Occupation of other peoples’ lands for the purpose of exploitation is what colonizers do.
At that time only one-third of the population of what were then “colonies” wanted independence. Another one-third was opposed and the remaining one-third were the forebears of today’s “reality tv show” fans. They were they ones who in today’s polls consistently respond that they are “undecided” on the topic de jour. When it comes to independence how is it possible for anyone to be undecided?
The founders realized they were about to take on the then mightiest land and sea forces on the planet. The founders had no standing army. They had what we call guardsmen and reservists, no navy to speak of and almost no war funds. They had everything to lose. But they chose to focus not on what they had to lose but on what all had to gain, freedom from oppression.
The fledgling nation was as vulnerable as any nation can be. So you would think that the founders might have required a pledge of allegiance from all. They didn’t.
Some think with all the different peoples here no wonder they decided to make English the official language---to make communication easier. They didn’t.
You might think no wonder they decided to place “In God We Trust” on currency. They didn’t.
So I guess they decided to secure their borders and stop those immigrants! They didn’t.
Well no wonder they gave up civil liberties for the duration of the war. They didn’t.
In fact one of my favorite quotes of the founders is Benjamin Franklin’s.
“Those who willingly give up civil liberty for security---deserve neither.” Benjamin Franklin
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Federal judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law SB 1070
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072801794.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
Public Policy: America the Beautiful, “…give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” & the neocons
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=WFhjRXNraUxnRUwwa0Y1aWZKSjl6c1ZETjlEa3ZmbStGanFxT2NXVyt3QT0%3D&CFID=112284633&CFTOKEN=76112656#
Political News Alert: DISCLOSE Act fails to clear Senate filibuster, but may return
Senate Democrats failed Tuesday in their initial attempt to move ahead with campaign-finance legislation backed by President Obama, but vowed to try again to overcome a GOP-led filibuster in coming days.
The Disclose Act would force corporations, unions and other groups to reveal political donations to the public and would bar major federal contractors, bailout recipients and foreign-controlled corporations from participating in U.S. elections.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/JDFA9Q/V1U0J2/BYWN7M/EPLFRP/6YBR1/GX/t
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/JDFA9Q/V1U0J2/BYWN7M/EPLFRP/6YBR1/GX/t
US court blocks Arizona migrant law
Key parts of a controversial new immigration law in the US state of Arizona have been blocked by the federal court….
One-third of the roughly 6.6 million people living in Arizona are foreign-born, and more than five per cent of the population is estimated to be illegal immigrants.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/2010728172113657349.html
Arizona helped deport thousands without new law
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_immigration_local_enforcement
3 NJ teens charged with videotaped immigrant death
SUMMIT, N.J. – Dusk fell around Salvadoran immigrant Abelino Mazaniego as he sat on a bench on a promenade in an upscale New York suburb after finishing his restaurant shift. As night encroached, so did a group of teenagers, including one with a cell phone videocamera at the ready.
Then, authorities say, they beat him unconscious, with the camera rolling.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_re_us/us_beating_death
Neo-Con zeal, racist, (oh and he probably self-describes as a compassionate conservative Christian)
Police, Activists Prepare Days Ahead Of Ariz. Law
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128807286
The gopers---always the gopers who consider themselves on the main compassionate conservative Christians. There is nothing remotely “Christian” about their conduct.
Could Florida Be the Next Immigration Law Hot Spot?
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (July 27) -- If some Republican state lawmakers here get their way, Florida and Arizona may soon have more in common than just baseball's spring training.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/could-florida-be-the-next-immigration-law-hot-spot/19555295
States Tackle Immigration Legislation
Arizona's immigration law has gotten a lot of flack, but some analysts say other states are considering measures as well. Anne Morse, policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures, offers her insight
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3
Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010726112724506988.html
White House proposal would ease FBI access to records of Internet activity
To critics, the move is another example of an administration retreating from campaign pledges to enhance civil liberties in relation to national security. The proposal is "incredibly bold, given the amount of electronic data the government is already getting," said Michelle Richardson, American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072806141.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
The Mission Script - Dialogue Transcript
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/mission-script-transcript-jeremy-irons.html
The New Colossus
http://www.libertystatepark.com/emma.htm
When Summer Is Torture
Gitmo facilities are air-conditioned. Why aren't prisons in Texas and Florida?
— Jean Casella and James Ridgeway
When purposefully used against prisoners in the so-called War on Terror, "extreme temperatures"—including high temperatures reaching 100 degrees—have been widely decried as torture, or at least as cruel and inhumane treatment.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/07/heat-wave-kills-prison-inmates
Rainbow Raid Revisited
Dept. of Homophobia It's been just over a year since Fort Worth police, with Texas Alcohol and Beverage Control agents in tow, stormed into the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar. They arrested seven patrons for
http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/rainbow-raid-revisited
PBS Bill Moyers and Mitch McConnell
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04162010/transcript1.html
Profiles in Courage
Profiles in Courage is a 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography written by John F. Kennedy, describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators throughout the Senate's history. The book profiles senators who crossed party lines and/or defied the public opinion of their constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of their actions. The book was widely celebrated and became a best seller, but there are credible allegations that most of it was the work of his speechwriter, Theodore Sorensen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profiles_in_Courage
Profiles in Courage
http://books.google.com/books?id=sk1Hr9ny46gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=profiles+in+courage&source=bl&ots=SkqexgVV4v&sig=tOOJPFo9i6TIDTH4bvpFWeq4GiQ&hl=en&ei=pBFQTJKXMoL78AbD0JjDAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Just what do mcconnell and the gopers want to hide?
Bill on political ad disclosures falls a little short in Senate
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation requiring fuller disclosure of the money behind political advertising, derailing a major White House initiative and virtually ensuring an onslaught of attack ads during this year's midterm election season.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072704656.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Census data reveal broad differences among states in rates of uninsured
The disparities are even greater at the county level, where Henry County, Iowa, and Plymouth County, Mass., tied for the lowest rate of uninsured in the country, about 6.6 percent of people under 65, with a margin of error of about 1 percent. By comparison, the 14 counties with the highest rates of uninsured were in Texas, with a nearly 50 percent uninsured rate in Kenedy County.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072705835.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Federal judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law SB 1070
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072801794.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
Petition to All U.S. Governors: What Happens in Arizona Stops in Arizona
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageNavigator/100728_Arizona?s_src=UNW100001ACT
Arizona to appeal block on immigration law: governor
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100728/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticsimmigrationcourtbrewer
Crazy Right Wing Reaction To Arizona Immigration Law
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEl501ZzzW4
Israel demolishes Bedouin village
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/2010/07/201072302826665260.html
Mainstream Media Helps BP Pretend There's No Oil
http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/07/mainstream-media-helps-bp-pretend-theres-no-oil
With everybody selling out your rights, is the republic as established by the founders in its 11th hour?
In 11th Hour, Judge Partially Blocks AZ Immigration Law
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/07/judge-blocks-arizona-immigration-law
When Summer Is Torture
Gitmo facilities are air-conditioned. Why aren't prisons in Texas and Florida?
— Jean Casella and James Ridgeway
When purposefully used against prisoners in the so-called War on Terror, "extreme temperatures"—including high temperatures reaching 100 degrees—have been widely decried as torture, or at least as cruel and inhumane treatment.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/07/heat-wave-kills-prison-inmates
Rainbow Raid Revisited
Dept. of Homophobia It's been just over a year since Fort Worth police, with Texas Alcohol and Beverage Control agents in tow, stormed into the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar. They arrested seven patrons for
http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/rainbow-raid-revisited
Man who helped put Green Party on Texas ballot was on Perry payroll at same time
The Texas Democratic Party has sued the Green Party to identify the source of $532,000 that bankrolled the petition drive.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-green_28tex.ART.State.Edition2.4d62398.html
Corporate profits before patients? (part two)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d17-Corporate-profits-before-patients-part-two
At the end of this blog are links to issues that should matter including serious violations of human and civil rights occurring around the globe not at the hands of some third world thug but at the hands of America’s oligarcy in the form of its transnational corporations with the support of its most ardent compassionate conservative Christians.
But before we go there; it’s important to put first things first.
Without civil rights only the brutal law of survival of the fittest remains. Put another way, the oligarchs and their lapdogs in congress and around the nation seem to believe that might makes right. “If might is right...then love has no place in the world. It may be so.” But what then of "providing for the general welfare?"
In the nascent days of the founders there were only colonies. Yes colonies made to sound so quaint. It wasn’t and isn’t. A colony is the property of a colonizer. A colonizer is an occupier and exploiter of natural resources and people. Occupation of other peoples’ lands for the purpose of exploitation is what colonizers do.
At that time only one-third of the population of what were then “colonies” wanted independence. Another one-third was opposed and the remaining one-third were the forebears of today’s “reality tv show” fans. They were they ones who in today’s polls consistently respond that they are “undecided” on the topic de jour. When it comes to independence how is it possible for anyone to be undecided?
The founders realized they were about to take on the then mightiest land and sea forces on the planet. The founders had no standing army. They had what we call guardsmen and reservists, no navy to speak of and almost no war funds. They had everything to lose. But they chose to focus not on what they had to lose but on what all had to gain, freedom from oppression.
The fledgling nation was as vulnerable as any nation can be. So you would think that the founders might have required a pledge of allegiance from all. They didn’t.
Some think with all the different peoples here no wonder they decided to make English the official language---to make communication easier. They didn’t.
You might think no wonder they decided to place “In God We Trust” on currency. They didn’t.
So I guess they decided to secure their borders and stop those immigrants! They didn’t.
Well no wonder they gave up civil liberties for the duration of the war. They didn’t.
In fact one of my favorite quotes of the founders is Benjamin Franklin’s.
“Those who willingly give up civil liberty for security---deserve neither.” Benjamin Franklin
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Federal judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law SB 1070
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072801794.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
Public Policy: America the Beautiful, “…give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” & the neocons
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=WFhjRXNraUxnRUwwa0Y1aWZKSjl6c1ZETjlEa3ZmbStGanFxT2NXVyt3QT0%3D&CFID=112284633&CFTOKEN=76112656#
Political News Alert: DISCLOSE Act fails to clear Senate filibuster, but may return
Senate Democrats failed Tuesday in their initial attempt to move ahead with campaign-finance legislation backed by President Obama, but vowed to try again to overcome a GOP-led filibuster in coming days.
The Disclose Act would force corporations, unions and other groups to reveal political donations to the public and would bar major federal contractors, bailout recipients and foreign-controlled corporations from participating in U.S. elections.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/JDFA9Q/V1U0J2/BYWN7M/EPLFRP/6YBR1/GX/t
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/JDFA9Q/V1U0J2/BYWN7M/EPLFRP/6YBR1/GX/t
US court blocks Arizona migrant law
Key parts of a controversial new immigration law in the US state of Arizona have been blocked by the federal court….
One-third of the roughly 6.6 million people living in Arizona are foreign-born, and more than five per cent of the population is estimated to be illegal immigrants.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/2010728172113657349.html
Arizona helped deport thousands without new law
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_immigration_local_enforcement
3 NJ teens charged with videotaped immigrant death
SUMMIT, N.J. – Dusk fell around Salvadoran immigrant Abelino Mazaniego as he sat on a bench on a promenade in an upscale New York suburb after finishing his restaurant shift. As night encroached, so did a group of teenagers, including one with a cell phone videocamera at the ready.
Then, authorities say, they beat him unconscious, with the camera rolling.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_re_us/us_beating_death
Neo-Con zeal, racist, (oh and he probably self-describes as a compassionate conservative Christian)
Police, Activists Prepare Days Ahead Of Ariz. Law
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128807286
The gopers---always the gopers who consider themselves on the main compassionate conservative Christians. There is nothing remotely “Christian” about their conduct.
Could Florida Be the Next Immigration Law Hot Spot?
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (July 27) -- If some Republican state lawmakers here get their way, Florida and Arizona may soon have more in common than just baseball's spring training.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/could-florida-be-the-next-immigration-law-hot-spot/19555295
States Tackle Immigration Legislation
Arizona's immigration law has gotten a lot of flack, but some analysts say other states are considering measures as well. Anne Morse, policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures, offers her insight
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3
Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010726112724506988.html
White House proposal would ease FBI access to records of Internet activity
To critics, the move is another example of an administration retreating from campaign pledges to enhance civil liberties in relation to national security. The proposal is "incredibly bold, given the amount of electronic data the government is already getting," said Michelle Richardson, American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072806141.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
The Mission Script - Dialogue Transcript
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/mission-script-transcript-jeremy-irons.html
The New Colossus
http://www.libertystatepark.com/emma.htm
When Summer Is Torture
Gitmo facilities are air-conditioned. Why aren't prisons in Texas and Florida?
— Jean Casella and James Ridgeway
When purposefully used against prisoners in the so-called War on Terror, "extreme temperatures"—including high temperatures reaching 100 degrees—have been widely decried as torture, or at least as cruel and inhumane treatment.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/07/heat-wave-kills-prison-inmates
Rainbow Raid Revisited
Dept. of Homophobia It's been just over a year since Fort Worth police, with Texas Alcohol and Beverage Control agents in tow, stormed into the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar. They arrested seven patrons for
http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/rainbow-raid-revisited
PBS Bill Moyers and Mitch McConnell
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04162010/transcript1.html
Profiles in Courage
Profiles in Courage is a 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography written by John F. Kennedy, describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators throughout the Senate's history. The book profiles senators who crossed party lines and/or defied the public opinion of their constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of their actions. The book was widely celebrated and became a best seller, but there are credible allegations that most of it was the work of his speechwriter, Theodore Sorensen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profiles_in_Courage
Profiles in Courage
http://books.google.com/books?id=sk1Hr9ny46gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=profiles+in+courage&source=bl&ots=SkqexgVV4v&sig=tOOJPFo9i6TIDTH4bvpFWeq4GiQ&hl=en&ei=pBFQTJKXMoL78AbD0JjDAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Just what do mcconnell and the gopers want to hide?
Bill on political ad disclosures falls a little short in Senate
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation requiring fuller disclosure of the money behind political advertising, derailing a major White House initiative and virtually ensuring an onslaught of attack ads during this year's midterm election season.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072704656.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Census data reveal broad differences among states in rates of uninsured
The disparities are even greater at the county level, where Henry County, Iowa, and Plymouth County, Mass., tied for the lowest rate of uninsured in the country, about 6.6 percent of people under 65, with a margin of error of about 1 percent. By comparison, the 14 counties with the highest rates of uninsured were in Texas, with a nearly 50 percent uninsured rate in Kenedy County.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072705835.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Federal judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law SB 1070
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072801794.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
Petition to All U.S. Governors: What Happens in Arizona Stops in Arizona
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageNavigator/100728_Arizona?s_src=UNW100001ACT
Arizona to appeal block on immigration law: governor
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100728/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticsimmigrationcourtbrewer
Crazy Right Wing Reaction To Arizona Immigration Law
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEl501ZzzW4
Israel demolishes Bedouin village
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/2010/07/201072302826665260.html
Mainstream Media Helps BP Pretend There's No Oil
http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/07/mainstream-media-helps-bp-pretend-theres-no-oil
With everybody selling out your rights, is the republic as established by the founders in its 11th hour?
In 11th Hour, Judge Partially Blocks AZ Immigration Law
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/07/judge-blocks-arizona-immigration-law
When Summer Is Torture
Gitmo facilities are air-conditioned. Why aren't prisons in Texas and Florida?
— Jean Casella and James Ridgeway
When purposefully used against prisoners in the so-called War on Terror, "extreme temperatures"—including high temperatures reaching 100 degrees—have been widely decried as torture, or at least as cruel and inhumane treatment.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/07/heat-wave-kills-prison-inmates
Rainbow Raid Revisited
Dept. of Homophobia It's been just over a year since Fort Worth police, with Texas Alcohol and Beverage Control agents in tow, stormed into the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar. They arrested seven patrons for
http://www.texasobserver.org/pi/rainbow-raid-revisited
Man who helped put Green Party on Texas ballot was on Perry payroll at same time
The Texas Democratic Party has sued the Green Party to identify the source of $532,000 that bankrolled the petition drive.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-green_28tex.ART.State.Edition2.4d62398.html
Corporate profits before patients? (part two)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d17-Corporate-profits-before-patients-part-two
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Public Policy: Immigration? (Part Three)
The high and mighty pontificators (elected officials aka the bootlicking, rockstar wannabe, steppin’ fetchit lapdogs of the oligarchs---think Texas and Kentucky, and etc are scared to death they might have to get a real job if they don’t get re-elected) relish finding what are termed “wedge” issues. These “wedge” issues are more at exploiting conditions that rile, misinform, misguide, prejudice and bias the folk and otherwise get the folk all worked up (usually because they are told someone else is getting something they are not).
Filling the air and their respective constituencies with disinformation is as old a “tradition” as any in America. (See: Profiles in Courage) Those most willing to do the bidding of the oligarchs are the first to participate in this “tradition.”
Truth be told many of those who rail against “illegals” (how can anyone be illegal?) themselves have benefitted from them and or exploited them or both.
Those migrating here are usually from nations long exploited by the foreign policy of this nation and its American- based transnational corporations. These transnational corporations have (in league with our governmental agencies and oligarchs) raped, pillaged and plundered “third world” countries almost from day one. This was often facilitated by the exploited nation’s opportunistic sell-outs. The result has been that as a direct result of our foreign policy there are large numbers of able-bodied young men who cannot feed their families in these exploited nations. They come here looking for what was taken from them by our own. That surprises you?
Those young men who are here looking for what was taken from them pay taxes all day long. It is almost impossible to buy, use or rent anything in this country without paying taxes.
Some people foolishly, ludicrously believe that renters, for example, don’t pay the same taxes “home-owners” pay. Do you really think the amount of rent paid on a condo or apartment doesn’t factor or take into account what the property owner has to pay in taxes? Or do you simply think these landlords are that philanthropic or altrustic? Spare me.
What should annoy supporters of immigration (by any means) is that---that ready supply of labor keeps prices for almost everything (especially salaries for everyone documented or not) artificially low even as the top one percent pads its accounts exponentially by doing so.
Then again consider that one in four doctors in this country today is foreign born.
Foreign Doctors—A Question of Equity
http://www.healthbeatblog.org/2007/10/foreign-doctors.html
From Farmhand to Brain Surgeon
Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa's first step towards becoming a renowned brain surgeon was more like a leap—at 19 years old, he hopped the border fence from Mexico to become a migrant farmworker in southern California.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/brain-surgeon.html
Wedge issues also distract from important matters. For example:
Texas ranks 48th in teen birth rate.
In Texas girls 14 to 19 gave birth to 54,000 children in 2007 this is third highest in the nation.
Texas ranks 34 over all wellbeing of children. Yes, I can see there’s lots for our “elected representatives” have to be proud of. Where are our “elected representatives?”
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/072810/tex_686877707.shtml
Texas ranks 48th in teen birth rate
The report, conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, found that 64 babies are born for every 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in Texas, earning the state a ranking of 48. The national rate is 43 births per 1,000 teens. Overall, the study...
http://topics.npr.org/article/04ZK6M97LB57Z?q=Texas
Texas ranks 34 over all wellbeing of children. Yes, I can see there’s lots for our “elected representatives” have to be proud of. Where are our “elected representatives?”
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/072810/tex_686877707.shtml
Not coincidentally of the 50 states Texas ranks second worst in health care coverage behind number one New Mexico. Additionally six of the 10 counties providing the lowest health coverage for “all age groups” in the entire nation are also located in Texas. Bexar County — where about one in five people go without health insurance — is doing somewhat better, but still rates 231st in uninsured children and 433rd overall out of 3,140 U.S. counties. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA072305_1B_census_uninsured_f9d178_html32409.html
Texans sorely lacking health care insurance
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA072305_1B_census_uninsured_f9d178_html32409.html
More than 1 in 4 in Texas lack health insurance
http://www.kens5.com/latestnews/stories/KENS20090910_dns_tx_uninsured-cb.1684433cc.html
It is a sad commentary on the immigration issue that our well paid “elected representatives” are more concerned with making certain the Disclose Act doesn’t see the light of day than in providing for the “general welfare.”
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Public Policy: Immigration? (Part Three)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d28-Public-Policy-Immigration-Part-Three
Profits before patients (Healthcare insurance reform)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m9d2-Profits-before-patients-Healthcare-insurance-reform
Political News Alert: DISCLOSE Act fails to clear Senate filibuster, but may return
Senate Democrats failed Tuesday in their initial attempt to move ahead with campaign-finance legislation backed by President Obama, but vowed to try again to overcome a GOP-led filibuster in coming days.
The Disclose Act would force corporations, unions and other groups to reveal political donations to the public and would bar major federal contractors, bailout recipients and foreign-controlled corporations from participating in U.S. elections.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/JDFA9Q/V1U0J2/BYWN7M/EPLFRP/6YBR1/GX/t
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/JDFA9Q/V1U0J2/BYWN7M/EPLFRP/6YBR1/GX/t
Corporate profits before patients? (part two)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d17-Corporate-profits-before-patients-part-two
PBS Bill Moyers and Mitch McConnell
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04162010/transcript1.html
Profiles in Courage
Profiles in Courage is a 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography written by John F. Kennedy, describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators throughout the Senate's history. The book profiles senators who crossed party lines and/or defied the public opinion of their constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of their actions. The book was widely celebrated and became a best seller, but there are credible allegations that most of it was the work of his speechwriter, Theodore Sorensen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profiles_in_Courage
Profiles in Courage
http://books.google.com/books?id=sk1Hr9ny46gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=profiles+in+courage&source=bl&ots=SkqexgVV4v&sig=tOOJPFo9i6TIDTH4bvpFWeq4GiQ&hl=en&ei=pBFQTJKXMoL78AbD0JjDAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Just what do mcconnell and the gopers want to hide?
Bill on political ad disclosures falls a little short in Senate
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation requiring fuller disclosure of the money behind political advertising, derailing a major White House initiative and virtually ensuring an onslaught of attack ads during this year's midterm election season.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072704656.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Census data reveal broad differences among states in rates of uninsured
The disparities are even greater at the county level, where Henry County, Iowa, and Plymouth County, Mass., tied for the lowest rate of uninsured in the country, about 6.6 percent of people under 65, with a margin of error of about 1 percent. By comparison, the 14 counties with the highest rates of uninsured were in Texas, with a nearly 50 percent uninsured rate in Kenedy County.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072705835.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Crazy Right Wing Reaction To Arizona Immigration Law
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEl501ZzzW4
Filling the air and their respective constituencies with disinformation is as old a “tradition” as any in America. (See: Profiles in Courage) Those most willing to do the bidding of the oligarchs are the first to participate in this “tradition.”
Truth be told many of those who rail against “illegals” (how can anyone be illegal?) themselves have benefitted from them and or exploited them or both.
Those migrating here are usually from nations long exploited by the foreign policy of this nation and its American- based transnational corporations. These transnational corporations have (in league with our governmental agencies and oligarchs) raped, pillaged and plundered “third world” countries almost from day one. This was often facilitated by the exploited nation’s opportunistic sell-outs. The result has been that as a direct result of our foreign policy there are large numbers of able-bodied young men who cannot feed their families in these exploited nations. They come here looking for what was taken from them by our own. That surprises you?
Those young men who are here looking for what was taken from them pay taxes all day long. It is almost impossible to buy, use or rent anything in this country without paying taxes.
Some people foolishly, ludicrously believe that renters, for example, don’t pay the same taxes “home-owners” pay. Do you really think the amount of rent paid on a condo or apartment doesn’t factor or take into account what the property owner has to pay in taxes? Or do you simply think these landlords are that philanthropic or altrustic? Spare me.
What should annoy supporters of immigration (by any means) is that---that ready supply of labor keeps prices for almost everything (especially salaries for everyone documented or not) artificially low even as the top one percent pads its accounts exponentially by doing so.
Then again consider that one in four doctors in this country today is foreign born.
Foreign Doctors—A Question of Equity
http://www.healthbeatblog.org/2007/10/foreign-doctors.html
From Farmhand to Brain Surgeon
Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa's first step towards becoming a renowned brain surgeon was more like a leap—at 19 years old, he hopped the border fence from Mexico to become a migrant farmworker in southern California.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/brain-surgeon.html
Wedge issues also distract from important matters. For example:
Texas ranks 48th in teen birth rate.
In Texas girls 14 to 19 gave birth to 54,000 children in 2007 this is third highest in the nation.
Texas ranks 34 over all wellbeing of children. Yes, I can see there’s lots for our “elected representatives” have to be proud of. Where are our “elected representatives?”
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/072810/tex_686877707.shtml
Texas ranks 48th in teen birth rate
The report, conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, found that 64 babies are born for every 1,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in Texas, earning the state a ranking of 48. The national rate is 43 births per 1,000 teens. Overall, the study...
http://topics.npr.org/article/04ZK6M97LB57Z?q=Texas
Texas ranks 34 over all wellbeing of children. Yes, I can see there’s lots for our “elected representatives” have to be proud of. Where are our “elected representatives?”
http://lubbockonline.com/stories/072810/tex_686877707.shtml
Not coincidentally of the 50 states Texas ranks second worst in health care coverage behind number one New Mexico. Additionally six of the 10 counties providing the lowest health coverage for “all age groups” in the entire nation are also located in Texas. Bexar County — where about one in five people go without health insurance — is doing somewhat better, but still rates 231st in uninsured children and 433rd overall out of 3,140 U.S. counties. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA072305_1B_census_uninsured_f9d178_html32409.html
Texans sorely lacking health care insurance
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA072305_1B_census_uninsured_f9d178_html32409.html
More than 1 in 4 in Texas lack health insurance
http://www.kens5.com/latestnews/stories/KENS20090910_dns_tx_uninsured-cb.1684433cc.html
It is a sad commentary on the immigration issue that our well paid “elected representatives” are more concerned with making certain the Disclose Act doesn’t see the light of day than in providing for the “general welfare.”
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Public Policy: Immigration? (Part Three)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d28-Public-Policy-Immigration-Part-Three
Profits before patients (Healthcare insurance reform)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m9d2-Profits-before-patients-Healthcare-insurance-reform
Political News Alert: DISCLOSE Act fails to clear Senate filibuster, but may return
Senate Democrats failed Tuesday in their initial attempt to move ahead with campaign-finance legislation backed by President Obama, but vowed to try again to overcome a GOP-led filibuster in coming days.
The Disclose Act would force corporations, unions and other groups to reveal political donations to the public and would bar major federal contractors, bailout recipients and foreign-controlled corporations from participating in U.S. elections.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/JDFA9Q/V1U0J2/BYWN7M/EPLFRP/6YBR1/GX/t
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/JDFA9Q/V1U0J2/BYWN7M/EPLFRP/6YBR1/GX/t
Corporate profits before patients? (part two)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d17-Corporate-profits-before-patients-part-two
PBS Bill Moyers and Mitch McConnell
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04162010/transcript1.html
Profiles in Courage
Profiles in Courage is a 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography written by John F. Kennedy, describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators throughout the Senate's history. The book profiles senators who crossed party lines and/or defied the public opinion of their constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of their actions. The book was widely celebrated and became a best seller, but there are credible allegations that most of it was the work of his speechwriter, Theodore Sorensen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profiles_in_Courage
Profiles in Courage
http://books.google.com/books?id=sk1Hr9ny46gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=profiles+in+courage&source=bl&ots=SkqexgVV4v&sig=tOOJPFo9i6TIDTH4bvpFWeq4GiQ&hl=en&ei=pBFQTJKXMoL78AbD0JjDAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Just what do mcconnell and the gopers want to hide?
Bill on political ad disclosures falls a little short in Senate
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation requiring fuller disclosure of the money behind political advertising, derailing a major White House initiative and virtually ensuring an onslaught of attack ads during this year's midterm election season.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072704656.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Census data reveal broad differences among states in rates of uninsured
The disparities are even greater at the county level, where Henry County, Iowa, and Plymouth County, Mass., tied for the lowest rate of uninsured in the country, about 6.6 percent of people under 65, with a margin of error of about 1 percent. By comparison, the 14 counties with the highest rates of uninsured were in Texas, with a nearly 50 percent uninsured rate in Kenedy County.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/27/AR2010072705835.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Crazy Right Wing Reaction To Arizona Immigration Law
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEl501ZzzW4
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Public Policy: Petty, tunnel-visioned, narrow-minded: American the Beautiful, Texas Red…
Arrogantly brutal and brutish abroad and at home---the tyrannical majority have the temerity to ask with a single white, whiny voice, “why do they hate us?” Really? I can’t imagine.
I’ll say this of Obama the man did say he would bring change. It just hasn’t turned out to be the strong, idealistic, iconic embrace of those sentiments that made and make the founders great. It’s turning out more “w” writ large.
To all my friends, family and people I know and don’t, I did try to tell you. No, not that it would have done any good to vote for anyone else just to temper your “audacity of hope.” In America today and since at least the time of the Civil War it is just not possible to be elected to office and hold that office without also being the finger-puppet of the oligarchs. It’s just not going to happen.
The oligarchy is in charge; foisting its aristocratic-like rapacious indolence and contempt for us all. I will say this, the original concept for our republic as conceived by the founders was brilliant, inspired and about as good as it gets. It’s just that carrying out the plan has proven to be, well so difficult. There are so many monied, powerful forces working against “we the people.” There’s even a fair amount of “we the people” working against some of the “we the people.”
Think about it, the richest, most powerful nation on Earth and yet until at least 2014 approximately 40 million Americans will continue to go without healthcare because they lack healthcare insurance. At least 32 million Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Since the economic meltdown two years ago, somewhere between 18 million and 25 million Americans have lost jobs and it is clear at least 8 million of those jobs won’t be back.
The richest nation on Earth refuses to pay a living wage to its workers. Even allowing the last minimum wage increase cost billions in tax credits to the tobacco industry. That’s rich, no?
On the eve of the great contrived meltdown, January 2008 each of the CEO’s of the great five brokerage houses received a $1billion dollar bonus. That’s really rich, no?
There is just so much pettiness to be indulged, so much profit to make. What is an oligarch to do?
Meanwhile, the mean-spirited compassionate conservative religiosities would break down in an apoplectic fit if they didn’t get their way. Don’t believe me? Check out a Tea Party Rally. They make the gopers seem almost liberal. I mean really.
Keeping things interesting are the folk who are pushing back. No, none of the usual suspects (Moveon.org, Credo, The Lone Star Project and etc). Those usual suspects are telling us about the people who are pushing back. It almost makes me hopeful and nostalgic for the 1960’s.
Pushing back against bullies, (e.g. the compassionate conservative religiosities, the oligarcy and special interests) is in the American DNA.
This push back is in response to the less than 48 hours away Arizona SB 1070.
Make no mistake there are protests planned if Arizona illegal immigration law takes effect.
Rallies, vigils, marches and protests are slated to occur if Arizona's controversial illegal immigration law takes effect on July 29, The Christian Science Monitor reported.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynewspoint/20100726/ts_ynewspoint/ynewspoint_ts3228
Protests of Arizona immigration law promised as deadline looms
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0723/Protests-of-Arizona-immigration-law-promised-as-deadline-looms
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Public Policy: Petty, tunnel-visioned, narrow-minded: American the Beautiful, Texas Red…
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=Ym5mVmMrcWIyZ1NvTkR0WFpsMWJNb2xZT0J6TVhTTWNSOVVSdG5uVTJiND0%3D&CFID=112284633&CFTOKEN=76112656#
Immigrant groups criticize fingerprint initiative
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_immigration_fingerprints
Public Policy: Immigration?
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=MjdKcGJ1TG1zVllZcDE5ZWxINjdoNlNuN0FFaXpidWNHeE5SaHZvQ3hUTT0%3D&CFID=110550834&CFTOKEN=84219291#
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
Eyes on the Prize
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/
Anti-Mexican American violence (1840's to 1920's)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Mexican Immigration in the 20th Century
When the U.S. entered World War II, it turned to Mexico to address wartime labor shortages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Deportation Madness
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/deportation-madness
Deportation of illegal immigrants increases under Obama administration
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072501790.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
The Immigration Dilemma
http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
More 'Eyes in the Skies' but Not on Accountability
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/more-eyes-in-the-skies-but-not-on-accountability
A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
A People's History (The 20th Century) - Howard Zinn [1/53]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwq_jiTjAuY
Simon Johnson on Bill Moyers - Wall Street Declares Victory Against America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uq4YxkCRNw
I’ll say this of Obama the man did say he would bring change. It just hasn’t turned out to be the strong, idealistic, iconic embrace of those sentiments that made and make the founders great. It’s turning out more “w” writ large.
To all my friends, family and people I know and don’t, I did try to tell you. No, not that it would have done any good to vote for anyone else just to temper your “audacity of hope.” In America today and since at least the time of the Civil War it is just not possible to be elected to office and hold that office without also being the finger-puppet of the oligarchs. It’s just not going to happen.
The oligarchy is in charge; foisting its aristocratic-like rapacious indolence and contempt for us all. I will say this, the original concept for our republic as conceived by the founders was brilliant, inspired and about as good as it gets. It’s just that carrying out the plan has proven to be, well so difficult. There are so many monied, powerful forces working against “we the people.” There’s even a fair amount of “we the people” working against some of the “we the people.”
Think about it, the richest, most powerful nation on Earth and yet until at least 2014 approximately 40 million Americans will continue to go without healthcare because they lack healthcare insurance. At least 32 million Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Since the economic meltdown two years ago, somewhere between 18 million and 25 million Americans have lost jobs and it is clear at least 8 million of those jobs won’t be back.
The richest nation on Earth refuses to pay a living wage to its workers. Even allowing the last minimum wage increase cost billions in tax credits to the tobacco industry. That’s rich, no?
On the eve of the great contrived meltdown, January 2008 each of the CEO’s of the great five brokerage houses received a $1billion dollar bonus. That’s really rich, no?
There is just so much pettiness to be indulged, so much profit to make. What is an oligarch to do?
Meanwhile, the mean-spirited compassionate conservative religiosities would break down in an apoplectic fit if they didn’t get their way. Don’t believe me? Check out a Tea Party Rally. They make the gopers seem almost liberal. I mean really.
Keeping things interesting are the folk who are pushing back. No, none of the usual suspects (Moveon.org, Credo, The Lone Star Project and etc). Those usual suspects are telling us about the people who are pushing back. It almost makes me hopeful and nostalgic for the 1960’s.
Pushing back against bullies, (e.g. the compassionate conservative religiosities, the oligarcy and special interests) is in the American DNA.
This push back is in response to the less than 48 hours away Arizona SB 1070.
Make no mistake there are protests planned if Arizona illegal immigration law takes effect.
Rallies, vigils, marches and protests are slated to occur if Arizona's controversial illegal immigration law takes effect on July 29, The Christian Science Monitor reported.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynewspoint/20100726/ts_ynewspoint/ynewspoint_ts3228
Protests of Arizona immigration law promised as deadline looms
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0723/Protests-of-Arizona-immigration-law-promised-as-deadline-looms
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Public Policy: Petty, tunnel-visioned, narrow-minded: American the Beautiful, Texas Red…
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=Ym5mVmMrcWIyZ1NvTkR0WFpsMWJNb2xZT0J6TVhTTWNSOVVSdG5uVTJiND0%3D&CFID=112284633&CFTOKEN=76112656#
Immigrant groups criticize fingerprint initiative
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_immigration_fingerprints
Public Policy: Immigration?
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=MjdKcGJ1TG1zVllZcDE5ZWxINjdoNlNuN0FFaXpidWNHeE5SaHZvQ3hUTT0%3D&CFID=110550834&CFTOKEN=84219291#
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
Eyes on the Prize
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/
Anti-Mexican American violence (1840's to 1920's)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Mexican Immigration in the 20th Century
When the U.S. entered World War II, it turned to Mexico to address wartime labor shortages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Deportation Madness
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/deportation-madness
Deportation of illegal immigrants increases under Obama administration
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072501790.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
The Immigration Dilemma
http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
More 'Eyes in the Skies' but Not on Accountability
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/more-eyes-in-the-skies-but-not-on-accountability
A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
A People's History (The 20th Century) - Howard Zinn [1/53]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwq_jiTjAuY
Simon Johnson on Bill Moyers - Wall Street Declares Victory Against America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uq4YxkCRNw
District Attorney Race Nico Lahood vs Susan Reed, campaign finance, gopers & the death penalty
The death penalty is and has always been unequally and unevenly applied in Texas Red just as has incarceration. The state is no stranger to wrongful convictions---and the state has more than it’s share of them, some of the executed may even have been guilty. (See: Texas Red )
Meanwhile the other necessary factor in a political race is money. That is probably the single most unmendable misfortune in our political process. Some say it is a necessary evil. I say it’s just plain evil.
It’s obvious to see that those with money and those with agendas will always oppose public funding of our elections. As long as that is a fact we as a people will continue to lose more and more of our say in the political process. The supremes have made certain.
District attorney race pits Spur vs. Spur
Nico gets Spurs legends Tim Duncan and Sean Elliot.
Susan gets the NBA team's millionaire owner, Peter Holt.
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courts/2010/07/district-attorney-race-pits-sp.html
“It might sound at first blush like a fantasy sports league, but in actually this a much more brutal contact sport: campaign finance.
With less than four months left before voters choose who will serve as Bexar County's top prosecutor, Democrat Nico LaHood has established a viable war chest in his attempt to oust longtime Republican incumbent Susan Reed. The two were required to submit campaign finance reports last week, and the numbers show he clearly won this round.
Reed raised $160,931 in the first six months of 2010. She has a total of $205,679 in the bank.
LaHood raised $190,204 and has $229,685 on hand.”
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courts/2010/07/district-attorney-race-pits-sp.html
The citizens of Bexar County have a vested interest in knowing who they are voting for to be their District Attorney. This state disproportionately condemns to death more citizens than any other state and guilt isn’t necessarily a requirement. (See: Texas Governor Fires Commissioners Probing Arson)
The Fall 2010 general election is only four months away. That’s plenty of time to get smart on the candidates.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
District Attorney Race Nico Lahood vs Susan Reed, the Ruben Cantu Case, Death & Doubt
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=QUdDL2lJamdOUFFTVWkwd0YvQkN3RHRaRlQ0Rm9Ib2Q2VFB6QlBjVUlDND0%3D&CFID=112284633&CFTOKEN=76112656#
Gubernatorial Candidates Debate
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-34693-Bexar-County-Elections-2010-Examiner~y2010m2d9-Democratic-Gubernatorial-candidates-postdebate
Bexar County: Elections 2010 Not exactly a nail-biting spellbinder
http://prop-w-a-dtc02.evip.aol.com/story/2010/07/22/bexar-county-elections-2010-not-exactly-a-nail-biting-spellbinder/
Lawsuit against Farmers Branch seeks single-member districts for City Council elections
http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-fbsingle_21met.ART.State.Edition1.38b706b.html
Is a GOP judicial comeback in the cards for Bexar? (Gosh let’s hope not. See the following links)
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/is_a_gop_judicial_comeback_in_the_cards_for_bexar_99136429.html
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
The authors argue that the execution rate in Texas is a symptom of the "cultural tradition of exclusion" in the Southern United States. They found there was an inverse relationship between the number of executions and lynchings. When the number of lynchings declined, the execution rate went up. Executions, they argue, are a way to continue to "dehumanize" and "exclude" certain groups from normal society
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
Innocent People have been executed
http://innocentsexecuted.com/
Texas Legislature taking small steps to the right (Small?)
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/07/26/2361962/texas-legislature-taking-small.html
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/07/26/2361962/texas-legislature-taking-small.html#ixzz0uq1NcIaI
Texas Governor Fires Commissioners Probing Arson
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113405213
Trial by Fire
Did Texas execute an innocent man?
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann
Meanwhile the other necessary factor in a political race is money. That is probably the single most unmendable misfortune in our political process. Some say it is a necessary evil. I say it’s just plain evil.
It’s obvious to see that those with money and those with agendas will always oppose public funding of our elections. As long as that is a fact we as a people will continue to lose more and more of our say in the political process. The supremes have made certain.
District attorney race pits Spur vs. Spur
Nico gets Spurs legends Tim Duncan and Sean Elliot.
Susan gets the NBA team's millionaire owner, Peter Holt.
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courts/2010/07/district-attorney-race-pits-sp.html
“It might sound at first blush like a fantasy sports league, but in actually this a much more brutal contact sport: campaign finance.
With less than four months left before voters choose who will serve as Bexar County's top prosecutor, Democrat Nico LaHood has established a viable war chest in his attempt to oust longtime Republican incumbent Susan Reed. The two were required to submit campaign finance reports last week, and the numbers show he clearly won this round.
Reed raised $160,931 in the first six months of 2010. She has a total of $205,679 in the bank.
LaHood raised $190,204 and has $229,685 on hand.”
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courts/2010/07/district-attorney-race-pits-sp.html
The citizens of Bexar County have a vested interest in knowing who they are voting for to be their District Attorney. This state disproportionately condemns to death more citizens than any other state and guilt isn’t necessarily a requirement. (See: Texas Governor Fires Commissioners Probing Arson)
The Fall 2010 general election is only four months away. That’s plenty of time to get smart on the candidates.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
District Attorney Race Nico Lahood vs Susan Reed, the Ruben Cantu Case, Death & Doubt
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=QUdDL2lJamdOUFFTVWkwd0YvQkN3RHRaRlQ0Rm9Ib2Q2VFB6QlBjVUlDND0%3D&CFID=112284633&CFTOKEN=76112656#
Gubernatorial Candidates Debate
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-34693-Bexar-County-Elections-2010-Examiner~y2010m2d9-Democratic-Gubernatorial-candidates-postdebate
Bexar County: Elections 2010 Not exactly a nail-biting spellbinder
http://prop-w-a-dtc02.evip.aol.com/story/2010/07/22/bexar-county-elections-2010-not-exactly-a-nail-biting-spellbinder/
Lawsuit against Farmers Branch seeks single-member districts for City Council elections
http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-fbsingle_21met.ART.State.Edition1.38b706b.html
Is a GOP judicial comeback in the cards for Bexar? (Gosh let’s hope not. See the following links)
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/is_a_gop_judicial_comeback_in_the_cards_for_bexar_99136429.html
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
The authors argue that the execution rate in Texas is a symptom of the "cultural tradition of exclusion" in the Southern United States. They found there was an inverse relationship between the number of executions and lynchings. When the number of lynchings declined, the execution rate went up. Executions, they argue, are a way to continue to "dehumanize" and "exclude" certain groups from normal society
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
Innocent People have been executed
http://innocentsexecuted.com/
Texas Legislature taking small steps to the right (Small?)
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/07/26/2361962/texas-legislature-taking-small.html
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/07/26/2361962/texas-legislature-taking-small.html#ixzz0uq1NcIaI
Texas Governor Fires Commissioners Probing Arson
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113405213
Trial by Fire
Did Texas execute an innocent man?
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann
Monday, July 26, 2010
Public Policy: Immigration? (part two)
Short of simultaneous evolution world wide, a notion I have championed from a very early age, everyone in this nation came from somewhere else. It’s just that Mesoamericans and other indigenous peoples were here thousands of years earlier. So shouldn’t that count for something? I mean the people calling Mesoamericans, “illegal aliens” are relative newcomers. Many only just arrived with the flood of the real wetbacks--- the millions of immigrants who crossed the Atlantic Ocean between 1890 and 1910.
How can anyone be “illegal?” Besides being poor use of the language, it’s just plain wrong. An “alien” maybe---illegal? Please, spare me. That’s just the racist, xenophobic segment of white people’s new way of saying “n—gers” and applying it to a new group---plain and simple. Don’t believe me? Check out whose using the word. You don’t need a degree in sociology, or history for that matter, to figure it out.
Don’t forget that just last year (2009) a high school in the state of Mississippi held its first integrated prom and then only because someone from outside the system paid for it. Earlier this year a long time civil servant justice of the peace in Louisiana resigned his post rather than perform an interracial marriage ceremony. African-Americans were bought, sold and traded until after WWII. In case you don’t recall that war ended in 1945. Many African-American servicemen returning from the war were treated to the same brutal treatment they would have received a century earlier. Really, do I need to continue?
Okay. And in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas Mexican-Americans were not served at the lunch counter at a popular department store in the early 1970’s. Until then that same group were not allowed into the city’s “public swimming pools.” Don’t forget the episode involving African-Americans and swimming pools recently either.
Post racial? That has to be a joke.
The idea of “immigration reform” or “securing our borders” is racist and xenophobic. White people, those of European-Anglo ancestry realize their “majority rule” days are numbered. They realize they have a lot of “equality-debt”---centuries worth.
Thus since the mid-1990’s made worse by the “w” administration and still worse by the present one we’ve had an aggressive and violent backlash toward immigrants approaching the good old days of South African apartheid.
“Daniel Kanstroom, a law professor who founded Boston College’s Post-Deportation Human Rights Project, calls it a “radical policy experiment with devastating effects. Deportation was a relatively small-scale operation until the last 15 years or so. Since 1996, though, we have seen a tsunami of deportation because of harsh new laws that, in my view, overreacted to the problem. They removed discretion and mercy, and reduced judicial oversight.
The results are clear. In 2009, a record 387,000 immigrants were deported. The feds do not report how many were legal immigrants like Roybal, or how many were kicked out of the country for minor drug possession. Immigration attorneys and scholars say the number has skyrocketed. For 2010, ICE set a goal of 400,000 deportations, according to an internal memo unearthed by The Washington Post.”
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/deportation-madness
“If we could secure the border against Mexican workers, it would still have no effect on the drug cartels. They are too powerful and too sinister to be stopped by fences or by National Guard patrols. Why? Because their influence stretches deep into the U.S. One need only think about the failures of Prohibition to understand that this is a war we will lose. There is a solution here as well, but this is a topic for another time.
We must acknowledge that the U.S.-Mexico border cannot be secured. The reality is that we simply cannot secure thousands of miles of border – even if it was in our interest to do so, and it is not. In economic terms, the more vigorously enforced the border is, the higher the price of drugs becomes and the greater the violence. And according to the Congressional Research Service, the cost of trying to secure an unsecurable border is costing us a fortune: “Appropriations for the Border Patrol have grown steadily from $1.06 billion in FY2000 to $3.58 billion requested in FY2011—an increase of 238%.” Also, “The cost of building and maintaining a double set of steel fences along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border could be five to 25 times greater than congressional leaders forecast last year, or as much as $49 billion over the expected 25-year life span of the fence.”http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
“If we could secure the border against Mexican workers, it would still have no effect on the drug cartels. They are too powerful and too sinister to be stopped by fences or by National Guard patrols. Why? Because their influence stretches deep into the U.S. One need only think about the failures of Prohibition to understand that this is a war we will lose. There is a solution here as well, but this is a topic for another time.
We must acknowledge that the U.S.-Mexico border cannot be secured. The reality is that we simply cannot secure thousands of miles of border – even if it was in our interest to do so, and it is not. In economic terms, the more vigorously enforced the border is, the higher the price of drugs becomes and the greater the violence. And according to the Congressional Research Service, the cost of trying to secure an unsecurable border is costing us a fortune: “Appropriations for the Border Patrol have grown steadily from $1.06 billion in FY2000 to $3.58 billion requested in FY2011—an increase of 238%.” Also, “The cost of building and maintaining a double set of steel fences along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border could be five to 25 times greater than congressional leaders forecast last year, or as much as $49 billion over the expected 25-year life span of the fence.” http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
“Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?”
There is no such thing as coincidence.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Public Policy: Immigration?
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=MjdKcGJ1TG1zVllZcDE5ZWxINjdoNlNuN0FFaXpidWNHeE5SaHZvQ3hUTT0%3D&CFID=110550834&CFTOKEN=84219291#
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
Eyes on the Prize
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/
Anti-Mexican American violence (1840's to 1920's)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Mexican Immigration in the 20th Century
When the U.S. entered World War II, it turned to Mexico to address wartime labor shortages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Deportation Madness
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/deportation-madness
Deportation of illegal immigrants increases under Obama administration
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072501790.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
The Immigration Dilemma
http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
More 'Eyes in the Skies' but Not on Accountability
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/more-eyes-in-the-skies-but-not-on-accountability
A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
A People's History (The 20th Century) - Howard Zinn [1/53]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwq_jiTjAuY
How can anyone be “illegal?” Besides being poor use of the language, it’s just plain wrong. An “alien” maybe---illegal? Please, spare me. That’s just the racist, xenophobic segment of white people’s new way of saying “n—gers” and applying it to a new group---plain and simple. Don’t believe me? Check out whose using the word. You don’t need a degree in sociology, or history for that matter, to figure it out.
Don’t forget that just last year (2009) a high school in the state of Mississippi held its first integrated prom and then only because someone from outside the system paid for it. Earlier this year a long time civil servant justice of the peace in Louisiana resigned his post rather than perform an interracial marriage ceremony. African-Americans were bought, sold and traded until after WWII. In case you don’t recall that war ended in 1945. Many African-American servicemen returning from the war were treated to the same brutal treatment they would have received a century earlier. Really, do I need to continue?
Okay. And in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas Mexican-Americans were not served at the lunch counter at a popular department store in the early 1970’s. Until then that same group were not allowed into the city’s “public swimming pools.” Don’t forget the episode involving African-Americans and swimming pools recently either.
Post racial? That has to be a joke.
The idea of “immigration reform” or “securing our borders” is racist and xenophobic. White people, those of European-Anglo ancestry realize their “majority rule” days are numbered. They realize they have a lot of “equality-debt”---centuries worth.
Thus since the mid-1990’s made worse by the “w” administration and still worse by the present one we’ve had an aggressive and violent backlash toward immigrants approaching the good old days of South African apartheid.
“Daniel Kanstroom, a law professor who founded Boston College’s Post-Deportation Human Rights Project, calls it a “radical policy experiment with devastating effects. Deportation was a relatively small-scale operation until the last 15 years or so. Since 1996, though, we have seen a tsunami of deportation because of harsh new laws that, in my view, overreacted to the problem. They removed discretion and mercy, and reduced judicial oversight.
The results are clear. In 2009, a record 387,000 immigrants were deported. The feds do not report how many were legal immigrants like Roybal, or how many were kicked out of the country for minor drug possession. Immigration attorneys and scholars say the number has skyrocketed. For 2010, ICE set a goal of 400,000 deportations, according to an internal memo unearthed by The Washington Post.”
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/deportation-madness
“If we could secure the border against Mexican workers, it would still have no effect on the drug cartels. They are too powerful and too sinister to be stopped by fences or by National Guard patrols. Why? Because their influence stretches deep into the U.S. One need only think about the failures of Prohibition to understand that this is a war we will lose. There is a solution here as well, but this is a topic for another time.
We must acknowledge that the U.S.-Mexico border cannot be secured. The reality is that we simply cannot secure thousands of miles of border – even if it was in our interest to do so, and it is not. In economic terms, the more vigorously enforced the border is, the higher the price of drugs becomes and the greater the violence. And according to the Congressional Research Service, the cost of trying to secure an unsecurable border is costing us a fortune: “Appropriations for the Border Patrol have grown steadily from $1.06 billion in FY2000 to $3.58 billion requested in FY2011—an increase of 238%.” Also, “The cost of building and maintaining a double set of steel fences along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border could be five to 25 times greater than congressional leaders forecast last year, or as much as $49 billion over the expected 25-year life span of the fence.”http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
“If we could secure the border against Mexican workers, it would still have no effect on the drug cartels. They are too powerful and too sinister to be stopped by fences or by National Guard patrols. Why? Because their influence stretches deep into the U.S. One need only think about the failures of Prohibition to understand that this is a war we will lose. There is a solution here as well, but this is a topic for another time.
We must acknowledge that the U.S.-Mexico border cannot be secured. The reality is that we simply cannot secure thousands of miles of border – even if it was in our interest to do so, and it is not. In economic terms, the more vigorously enforced the border is, the higher the price of drugs becomes and the greater the violence. And according to the Congressional Research Service, the cost of trying to secure an unsecurable border is costing us a fortune: “Appropriations for the Border Patrol have grown steadily from $1.06 billion in FY2000 to $3.58 billion requested in FY2011—an increase of 238%.” Also, “The cost of building and maintaining a double set of steel fences along 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border could be five to 25 times greater than congressional leaders forecast last year, or as much as $49 billion over the expected 25-year life span of the fence.” http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
“Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?”
There is no such thing as coincidence.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Public Policy: Immigration?
https://feed.examiner.com/examiner/admin/EntryController.cfm?data=MjdKcGJ1TG1zVllZcDE5ZWxINjdoNlNuN0FFaXpidWNHeE5SaHZvQ3hUTT0%3D&CFID=110550834&CFTOKEN=84219291#
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
Eyes on the Prize
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/
Anti-Mexican American violence (1840's to 1920's)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Mexican Immigration in the 20th Century
When the U.S. entered World War II, it turned to Mexico to address wartime labor shortages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexican_Americans
Deportation Madness
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/deportation-madness
Deportation of illegal immigrants increases under Obama administration
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072501790.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
The Immigration Dilemma
http://www.texasobserver.org/thewholestar/item/16781-the-immigration-dilemma
Texas Joins in Political Circus to Support Arizona Immigration Law
Could there be any coincidence that the eight states supporting Arizona’s immigration law are all run by Republican governors or that each state is in the midst of a contentious gubernatorial race?http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/texas-joins-in-political-circus-to-support-arizona-immigration-law
More 'Eyes in the Skies' but Not on Accountability
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/more-eyes-in-the-skies-but-not-on-accountability
A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
A People's History (The 20th Century) - Howard Zinn [1/53]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwq_jiTjAuY
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