Well, don't expect courage from Gabrielle Giffords, Repug in Dem clothing ...

Arizona continues to embarrass: Now we have death threats against Raul Grijalva, one of the few Democratic Reps who usually appears to actually be a Democrat.

Pueblo Politics: Grijalva closes office because of death threats

Unlike Gabrielle Giffords who just pretends to be a Dem like most of the critters calling themselves Dems who infest the US House and Senate.

Pueblo Politics: Giffords says no to boycott

So which is it, Gabrielle? Lack of courage or lack of convictions?

Is the Obama Presidency stuck in campaign mode? ...

This article at the Feathered Bastard (White House Staffer Disappoints Phoenix Latino Leaders in Meeting at El Portal) shows an administration that is either not quite aware of the environment Latinos are stuck in here in Arizona or one that is remarkably insensitive to their plight as it appears they sent a representative to meet with "about 70 to 80 activists, politicians, and business people" but who was completely unprepared to answer questions about the out-of-control 'law enforcement' as well as immigration issues in general. A philosophy of

... accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

just does not work with such issues as people's rights no matter how much the 'pragmatic' Obama would like it to.

The article also leaves the impression that the Obama administration and Janet Napolitano may not be doing anything about the discriminatory practices because they are afraid. [Afraid of Sheriff Joe but nevertheless they propose to keep us safe by refusing to let us see pictures of past crimes.]

An update to the article follows:

UPDATE: A White House aide called me this morning, asking that I point out that the White House has a meeting scheduled on June 17 with congressional leaders of both parties to discuss immigration. Originally, the meeting was scheduled for June 8. The aide, who did not wish to be identified, could not explain the discrepancy between what Odio told Latino leaders last week, or with Abrams' statement to me quoted above. Nor could the aide tell me if the meeting will be held in public or private. The following is what the aide would say on the record:

"The president is inviting a small group of bipartisan Senate and House leaders on the immigration issue to the White House for a meeting to have an honest discussion of the issues, identify areas of agreement, and areas where we still have work to do." [emphasis added]

Get that, a 'White House aide' who one would assume is following someone's instructions in making this call does not want to be identified? And why not? And WHY did Stephen Lemons accept this type of information under those conditions? There is no reason whatsoever for the bearer of this information to be incognito.

Now here are some scary stories of US immigration gone mad ...

ICE locked up citizen, threw away key — unions say enough is enough!

U.S. citizens like Hector Veloz, a 37-year-old Los Angeles resident, are among tens of thousands languishing in immigration detention facilities without having received a hearing to determine whether their detention is warranted.

“My case was so ironic,” said Veloz. “I am a U.S. citizen, but was held for 13 months and placed on deportation procedure. Because the prison is in Arizona and my family lives in California, I didn’t see my son Geronimo even once in those 13 months.”

The horrible details of his story are included in a report issued last month by Amnesty International.

Even Veloz’s father is a U.S. citizen, a Vietnam veteran who won a Purple Heart. His mother, an immigrant from Mexico, met his dad in the U.S. before he shipped out to war.

Veloz was picked up in Los Angeles by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and flown straight to the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, where he remained from June 2007 to July 2008. The private detention center is one of several operated by the profitable Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private corrections company in the U.S.

“I showed them my birth certificate and that of my father and my parents’ marriage certificate. But they wanted more proof and kept processing me for deportation, even if none of my documentation was ever contested,” said Veloz.

Really, we have to stop thinking of the 'illegal alien' explosion ...

... as a criminal matter. We have to stop viewing ourselves (the US) as the center of the universe. Something worse is going on here. The US, has in the past, at times, thought of itself as a solver of problems. Well, there are big problems going on in the world and US and foreign corporations are at the heart of them. That's the only manner in which we, the US Citizens are the center of anything. We are allowing, aiding and abetting, the corporate empires to collect all power into their greedy and bloody grasp.

Mexico’s Ghost Towns --The other side of the immigration debate by John Gibler

Cerrito del Agua, population 3,000, has no paved roads — either leading to it or within it. No restaurants, no movie theaters, no shopping malls. In fact, the small town located in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas has no middle schools, high schools or colleges; no cell phone service, no hospital. Its surrounding fields are dry and untended. The streets are empty.

The explosion of emigration to the United States over the past 15 years has emptied much of central Mexico, even reaching into southernmost states like Chiapas and Yucatan. But it has simply devastated Zacatecas, a dry, rolling agricultural region located about 400 miles northwest of Mexico City.

...

How we approach this problem can make a difference. Rounding up, jailing, abusing those who have come to this country is not only cruel and barbaric, it is not in our own best interests.

We are not helping anyone when we abuse others and we have a sorry set of politicians who either are corrupt or weak. We all are playing into the overseers' [greedy corporate] hands.

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

Indeed. But this is what happens when we do what the right-wingers want us to do, to "enforce the laws that are on the books." The problem is that, as we've explained previously, these laws are so misbegotten and unworkable in the first place that travesties like this -- installing a virtual police state in small-town America, terrorizing and suppressing workers in a way that lets employers exploit them without consequence -- are inevitable.

... I long for the day that a man like Bill O’Reilly takes a break from judging the values of the black community and turns that same self-righteous eye toward the Ivy League and private university thugs-in-training who think it’s ok to begin the quest toward alcoholism right after freshman orientation. ...

... Carter's remarks represent a welcome crossing of lines by a prominent Establishment figure. Too bad that no one in America will ever hear them.

Is Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio surrounded yet? ...

A mayor of a small town in Arizona tells Sheriff Joe to get out of town:

Last night was a night of high drama as Sheriff Joe brought his illegal immigrant dragnet to the small town of Guadalupe, and the citizens and the mayor of that city demanded Joe leave. Last night around 10:30, Guadalupe Mayor Rebecca Jimenez personally presented Joe a statement to this effect in the parking lot of the Family Dollar where the MCSO was stationed. According to Jimenez, Joe accused her of inciting a riot and informed her she had 90 days to cancel Guadalupe's contract with the MCSO to provide law enforcement to the town. Jimenez and other town council members present said they would be reviewing the MCSO's contract.

This is a brave thing for a small town mayor to do given the increasingly gestapo tactics in use in the US (by police, sheriffs, Federal Agents and specially Federal Prosecutors) in the Age of Bush.

Bravo Mayor Jimenez!

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

I’m getting seriously impatient with the execrable excuses for this appallingly weenie political behavior. One could guess—one has to, you know, since neither candidate can lead on it—that Clinton doesn’t want to offend New York money and that Obama won’t take on the fight, calling out these crooks and defining elements that must be combated for societal success just doesn’t fit in with an optimistic campaign.


US Guest Worker program in action? ... ... Nearly 100 Indian workers say they were enticed to come to work at the company’s shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., where they say they were held in modern-day slavery.



A most unpleasant reading of current events ... However, even if Bush does hold off for some reason, the processes that Polk describes will almost certainly lead the next president into war with Iran, especially as the three remaining major candidates have forcefully pledged to keep "all options, and I mean, all options on the table"


... The vast majority of remote-sensing algorithms are based on vision, he says, so if the sonar algorithm can be perfected, one of its advantages will be the ability to function in low light or darkness. ... Bat-like!


Shifting sands ... Unfortunately for our candidates their macro strategy was hatched 18-24 months ago, while present political and environment reality has drastically altered underneath their feet in two critical facets since then: current economic problems are demanding far more change than their current careful approaches, and the nomination process didn’t produce a winner.

From Arizona's governor ...

Watching, these past 7 plus years, how Republicans work one can just imagine the 'feds' working to cause Arizona's crops to fail. The state may lean Republican, but its still rational enough to elect a Democratic Governor.

We've learned that Republicans deal solely in dirty, corrupt and criminal politics. The Republican Authoritarian State uber alles.

Governor, don't trust the Bush appointed gangsters. But I'm sure you know that already ...

Friday, February 29, 2008

Dear Friends,

While the federal government continues to kick the can down the road on comprehensive immigration reform, we all know that Arizona is paying a high price. For instance, about 90 percent of the lettuce served and eaten in the entire country during the winter is grown and picked in Yuma County – but growers there continually report that they can’t find workers for the harvest because of a dysfunctional guest worker system.

The federal H-2A visa system is supposed to allow seasonal workers from other countries to enter the U.S. temporarily to fill these kinds of jobs. But the program is riddled with bureaucratic inefficiencies, and is so unsuccessful that it accounts for only two percent of farm jobs in our country.

It’s essential that even while the federal government fails to make needed reforms in immigration policy, we do what we can to address the challenges of the border in Arizona. That’s why I am proposing that Arizona become a pilot state to test out a revamped temporary guest worker program, so that a broken system doesn’t cause our crops to rot in the fields.

Earlier this month, the federal Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor began a long-overdue process to update the H-2A system and rewrite its regulations to make it work better. This week, in Washington, D.C., I met with Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to talk about needed changes to the H-2A system, and to extend Arizona’s offer to lead in reform efforts and to pilot a new and improved guest worker program. States, particularly border states, are best suited to help develop a sensible program that will help our agricultural communities thrive. I will continue to push this idea forward in Washington, so that Arizona leads on an issue so important to our state.

We must find an interim approach that resolves these agricultural labor woes, creates a more efficient system, and protects the rights of workers. When the federal bureaucracy continues to block real reform, states like Arizona must step up to lead and get things done.

As always, feel free to call my office at 602-542-1318 if you have questions or thoughts. Or, please visit our Web site at www.azgovernor.gov for information and news in state government.

Yours very truly,

Janet Napolitano
Governor

Success ...

The responsible people with jobs and kids who pay taxes and pay their bills are leaving. Just like the Arizona Legislature and, evidently, Governor Napolitano wanted. I feel so secure now ...

Crackdown has illegal immigrants leaving Arizona

Phoenix has a Police Chief with a brain ...

Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris doesn't think the job of the city's police should be hunting down people who have entered this country illegally.

"Do you want me to take the people that were working the Goudeau case and have them chase corn vendors? Don't think so," Harris said, referring to Mark Goudeau, the Baseline Killer suspect who was arrested in September 2006 in connection with nine murders.

"If you were in my position, would you take those very limited resources and divert them to go after landscapers and dishwashers because they're in the country illegally? Sorry. I've been a cop for 36 years. I disagree with that concept."

Immigration, migration and mankind's borders ...

Couple comments to Michael Tomasky's post in the Guardian:

Scare tactics on the border --Most Americans back citizenship for illegal migrants, but are eclipsed by a fevered minority

Only a few of the 'fevered' sorts have found the site yet but give them time. For now there's a reasonably polite and rational debated going on.

COMMENT POSTED BY amities
December 3, 2007 12:08 PM

My parents emigrated illegally to the United States back in the '80s and took up some of those jobs that WASP America seems not very keen on. I understand the argument that if they are legalized, it's saying it's OK to break the law (I don't hear opponents of the move to legalize illegals moaning and groaning about all the numerous times the current administration has violated our sacrosanct Constitution). However, I suspect that this is a superficial and vacuous rationalization; the true reason is xenophobia, pure and unadulterated racism.

I currently live in the UK (legally :P) and find myself constantly reading and hearing about the Polish blitzkrieg. They are flooding the country, driving wages down, sending their Polish-speaking children to already overcrowded schools, causing house prices to go up (how someone who is working for peanuts can afford the ludicrously expensive homes is beyond my comprehension!) and living off the dole, etc. Of course they are here legally yet these are the same things that are said about the illegals, i.e., Hispanics, in the United States.

Human beings are historically a species on the move. People have always emigrated in order to improve their lot. The Europeans that went to the Americas were doing just this. Can you imagine what America would be like had the Natives had stringent border control! ;)

COMMENT POSTED BY Ishouldapologise
December 3, 2007 11:34 AM

Isn't it strange that in an epoch where international corporations stroll around the world seting up branches of their companies at will. In an age where money flows electronically in waves from country to country unimpeded. In a time when for every gap year student the world is their oyster. In a time when Americans retire to Baja and British to Spain and France and Italy. In a time when everything is opening up.

Some people are blocked from bravely crossing one single frontier to fill an empty job vacancy, to find badly paid work and to geerously send money home to their needy family.

Talk about double standards.

"Talk about double standards." I think more manipulation than standards are involved. All 'standards' tend to dissolved in front of the neo-con (at one time called by the now almost outlawed word neo-fascist) wave that is transforming our country.

More of the Red Mind ...

This red-minded guy is talking about Representative Raul Grijalva:

Now, this congress critter involves himself in every little Mexican cause that comes down the pike, whether it's a legitimate issue or not. Illegals are his favorite--as long as they play the downtrodden victim card. He's involved himself in the Catalina protests. When he campaigns, he forgets he has white constituents in his district and panders solely to the illegals. He is truly the Mexican version of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. If it involves illegals, you can rest assured he's there to fan the flames--whether it's a legitimate issue or not, whether he has all the facts or not. He's there, facts be damned.

Certainly a sizable portion of Grijalva's constituency are of Mexican descent (because Republicans engineered this district so it would be so). As of the 2000 census 50.6% of Grijalva's district (Arizona Congressional District 7) describe themselves as Hispanic.

However what the red-minded don't appear to understand, or deliberately ignore, is that

1. only US citizens can vote for him, and
2. US citizens of Mexican descent do not all agree on the solutions to US immigration problems (same as those of us who are not of Mexican descent).

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

Richard Leakey's response to Bishop 'i am not descended from an ape' Adoyo ... "Science is at the very foundation of our ability to deal with the new century, so if we bring it down to the idea that science may be un-Christian -- well, how stupid can you get?" he said of the bishop's comments.
... actually, ignorant humans can get pretty darn stupid.

Giggle ...

Women with small waists and big hips also have big IQs, a new U.S. study has found.

The conventions for locating the genes that encode proteins are pretty well established. The lingering problem for genomics biologists is locating genes whose parts are interrupted repeatedly, as well as locating genes that do not code for proteins.
Our nation is sick, and current "immigration crisis" is not the cause of this national illness, but just another symptom of it.
Oh, goodie ... "the results imply that current robot technology is surprisingly close to achieving [sustained] autonomous bonding and socialization with human toddlers."
Medicare "premiums have jumped 93 percent since 2001, when premiums were just $50 per month." ... Medicare is no longer the bargain public health program it is supposed to be, and most of the cost increases and new regulations that have weakened the program happened since the Bush administration took office in 2001.
To constantly deride her on the basis of gender is ridiculous. She's the front runner and there's plenty to criticize her for. (Her support for the Peru free trade agreement, for one.)That these guys are obsessing on the gender stuff is very, very revealing.
al-Libi is an important case to discuss, because as Stephen Grey reported in that Frontline piece, the "evidence" that was extracted from al-Libi under torture was not used to save the lives of thousands of people, but rather was responsible for causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

al-Libi is famous because his confessions were used by the Bush administration to make the connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. And the reason that the al-Libi story is so controversial is because it is so apparent that the only reason he came up with such bad information was because he was being tortured and was trying (desperately) to come up with things that his interrogators wanted to hear.

And the beat goes on ...

The fall out of the Catalina High School calling the police in who then invited the immigration authorities in continues. (For my previous post with links to articles and posts on this subject go here.)

Az Daily Star reports that "law enforcement access to students ... will be up for discussion at the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board meeting tonight."

Last Monday, about 100 students marched from Catalina Magnet High School, 3645 E. Pima St., to the federal building Downtown and eventually to Tucson Police Department headquarters. They demanded an end to the policy that allowed Border Patrol officials on their campus, which led to the deportation of a family of four.

Pfeuffer and administrators met with police officials and agreed to a policy that afternoon that says police will not summon immigration authorities to schools but instead will follow up somewhere else.

The newspaper also has an online poll asking "Should Tucson Police help enforce immigration law?" At the time I am writing this the unscientific results show 78% want Tucson Police officers to enforce federal immigration laws and 21% do not.

Another RED mind ...

The Red minded and chauvinistic Dwight Leister at 'American Chauvinist' appears to think that most of our taxes are paying for illegal immigrants and wants that stopped.

TAXPAYER REVOLT:NO MORE PROPERTY TAX INCREASES TO PAY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS IN OUR SCHOOLS,HOSPITALS OR USING SOCIAL SERVICES FORCING THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER OUT OF THERE HOMES! (Note: I've not seen all the details listed about the deported family reported in the news as yet so some of what Leister writes may be his assumptions and not facts.)

Leister is just ecstatic that a Tucson school outed, with the help of a police officer, a family that had been living illegally in this country for some time (and undoubtedly paying all kinds of taxes and fees in the process). The family was deported. But Leister, who does not want a cent of his taxes to go to services that might by chance be used to help an illegal immigrant, does want his taxes used to incarcerate the family rather than deporting them.

Info and opinions about deported student and his family:

Family deported after boy's arrest at school --Immigrant rights concerns raised; police say action was appropriate by Brady McCombs, 11.06.2007

Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr. : Deportation stirs backlash --100 march in protest of Border Patrol going on Catalina High campus: Students were right to march, and we can expect to see more like it Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr., 11.07.2007

Letters to the Editor at the Arizona Daily Star (note: most letters were against the family)
Deportation is not justified

The suspension of the Catalina High student was justified; however, the student and his family's deportation was not. The Tucson Police Department works for Tucson, not Nogales, not Phoenix and not the Border Patrol.

Suggesting that Tucson police should start identifying possible illegal immigrants for deportation is ridiculous. Enforcing immigration law is a distraction to the police goal of keeping its jurisdiction safe and productive. It also downplays the huge job the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement perform.

The Tucson police should continue to enforce our local and state laws and leave immigration to the proper federal agencies.

Casey Stone

College student, Tucson

Integral Options Cafe

Southern Arizona is a hotspot for illegal immigration. Perhaps more than anywhere else, the battle over illegal aliens has been in the news nearly constantly for years.

Today, the Arizona Daily Star covered a story about a family that was deported last Thursday after their teen son was discovered to have a small amount of marijuana at school. The family had been in Tucson for six years, had a house, and had two kids in the school system.

Border Reporter on same

Accountability along the border ...

A US Border Patrol agent, Nicholas Corbett, who shot and killed Dominguez River, an illegal border crosser, in January has been ordered to stand trial for second-degree murder.

Just think, a few days ago Jon Kyl was a GOoPer 'fair-haired' boy ...

Now Jon Kyl is the target of the ire of some of the GOP's most rabid (according to Scarpy Scarpinato). Go figure ...

GOP says backlash in party due to Kyl by Daniel Scarpinato

"We have people coming in every day, tearing up their registration cards and throwing them on the floor, or coming in and changing their registration from Republican to independent," said party Chairman Randy Pullen during a press conference at the state headquarters in Phoenix.

Proposed immigration legislation and Jon Kyl ...

The proposed legislation is hardly liberal. It barely qualifies as human. But Kyl's kreepy kampers are really, really upset with him. Go figure ...

Morlock : Did Kyl forget 2006 stance on amnesty?

Other links on this subject are here: Jon Kyl ...

ADDED: It's an irony, is it not, that at a time when the Congress seems poised to institute more repressive immigration practices BushCo's agent, DynCorp, is setting out to hire away a good number of the Border Patrol agents we currently have guarding our porous border. (Company recruiting border agents for Iraq by Matthew Benson, The Arizona Republic)

Jon Kyl ...

It's interesting to see Arizona Senator Jon Kyl get attacked by some of his more weirdo supporters for doing his job (...for a change). The more rational ones are coming to his defense:

When lawmakers attack: Pearce bashes Kyl

Sen. Jon Kyl: Hero or traitor

Immigration compromise sound, but politics probably won't change

At least he's trying. That's new for him. Reasonable immigration legislation is critical. But it's questionable whether such legislation is attainable as there are few rational Republicans left (and no, I don't include Kyl in the rational category, but neither do I think he's a moron like the creature living in the White House).

Having a Democratic Governor helps ...

Arizona's Governor, Janet Napolitano, vetoed another idiotic piece of legislation concocted by our moronic GOoPer legislators.