Will Obama Change the Rules Bush Left Behind?

The Bush Administration made a mockery of humanitarianism.  The U.S. is now seen as a country that tortures and expels people.  Obama has made his statement about torture.  Will he make an effort to control the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)?  In the past few years, ICE has turned into something like the wild bunch gang...  entering houses without warrants, deporting nursing mothers, not letting detainees contact family after they are arrested. 

see dreamacttexas post "Sacrifice and Immigration," September 9, 2007

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Haitians Look for Shift in Immigration Policy
By GINGER THOMPSON
Published: February 27, 2009

MIAMI — Vialine Jean Paul has noticed a change when she drops her 7-year-old daughter off at school each morning in recent weeks. Her daughter, Angela, is not sure that her mother will be back to pick her up.

“She tells me, ‘Mommy, good luck,’ ” Mrs. Jean Paul said, choking back tears. “She asks me, ‘Mommy, if you go to Haiti, what will happen to me?’ ”

Though Angela does not know it, the hopes of tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants and their relatives have become fixed on her mother’s fate. Mrs. Jean Paul is one of more than 30,000 Haitian citizens who have been ordered deported from the United States. Her case could be an early test of whether the Obama administration will break with the strict immigration enforcement policies of the Bush administration.

After an estimated 1,000 people were killed in mudslides in Haiti last year, the government asked the United States to grant temporary protected status to Haitian immigrants — relief that was extended when Honduras and El Salvador were hit by similar disasters. The designation is intended for countries in such dire trouble that receiving deportees would undermine their stability.

Deportations of Haitians were temporarily suspended last September, while the Bush administration considered the request. In December, the request was denied and the deportations resumed.

Lawyers say hundreds of people were detained, pushing detention centers across Florida beyond capacity. Hundreds of other immigrants were forced to wear electronic monitoring devices.  more

When a Joke is not a Joke

Sigmund Freud

link to image

A few days ago, a well liked relative of mine received a text message while we were having a conversation.  She showed it to me while she was laughing.  I couldn't believe what I read.  It was a nasty joke about the Obamas and a Coon dog.  She said it came from a white friend of hers who often sent nasty jokes about Mexicans too.  I asked her if she every sent any nasty white jokes back, but she said she didn't know any.  She didn't think the jokes were racist...they were just jokes.  

I guess Dean Grose, the mayor of Los Alamitos, California felt the same way when he sent an email about a watermelon patch at the White House.  He must have not known that elected officials aren't supposed to do that.  

How many thousands of these jokes going around these days in text messages and emails?  There were just as many when Bush was president, but these were because of his incompetence.  Seems like a big difference this time.  These jokes are not about incompetence, they refer to a brutal history and ideology that apparently many people still believe in.  What a shame.

Just in case you hadn't heard about Freud's theory about jokes.  He thought that people often used jokes to say what they were really thinking - a nice way to conceal an insult.

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Editorial Observer
The Ape in American Bigotry, From Thomas Jefferson to 2009
New York Times

By BRENT STAPLES
Published: February 27, 2009

Hitler found quite a bit to admire about this country during its apartheid period. Writing in the early 1930s, he attributed white domination of North America to the fact that the “Germanic” peoples here had resisted intermarriage with — and held themselves apart from — “inferior” peoples, including the Negroes, whom he described as “half-apes.”

He was not alone in these sentiments. The effort to dehumanize black people by characterizing them as apes is central to our national history. Thomas Jefferson made the connection in his notorious book “Notes on the State of Virginia,” in which he asserted fantastically that male orangutans were sexually drawn to Negro women.  more

See dreamacttexas post:  Race and the U.S.: New Attorney General Tells It Like It Is, February 26, 2009

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Top Officials Expand The Dialogue on Race
Month's Celebrations Evoke a Mix of Views
By Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 28, 2009; Page A01

When the country's racial chasms seemed to threaten President Obama's election, his team had to tread carefully. A month into his administration, the tone has changed. Top officials are engaging the subject of race more freely, with a boldness and confidence they once shunned.

With the federal government's annual African American History Month celebrations as a backdrop, the attorney general, the first lady and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency spoke more frankly about race recently than any of Obama's surrogates did during the hard-fought campaign. more

Race in the U.S.: New Attorney General Tells It Like It Is

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What Holder says is true. We need to face it.

Mexico: State of the Country

link to map

It is ironic that considering until recently the U.S. approved torture, that the State Department would criticize other countries... 

Either way.  As the report shows.  Mexico is in trouble.

From 2008 US Department of State Human Rights Report:

"World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators and other indices reflected that corruption remained a problem at all levels of government, as some public officials continued to perpetrate bureaucratic abuses and some criminal acts with impunity."

2008 Human Rights Report_ Mexico

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Obesity at 18 increases risk of early death by 1/3

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Obese teenagers carry same risk as smoking 10 cigarettes a day

Chance of early death from preventable diseases high for overweight adolescents

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
London Independent

Overweight teenagers run the same risk of an early death as people who smoke regularly – and the risk increases substantially with very fat adolescents.

Teenagers who are clinically obese have the same risk of premature death as someone who smokes more than 10 cigarettes a day. An investigation of 45,000 men whose health was monitored for 38 years has found that being overweight at the age of 18 is equivalent to being a regular smoker in terms of the overall risk of dying relatively early in life from preventable diseases.

Men who both smoked and were overweight as teenagers were likely to die even earlier than those who fell into just one or other of the risk groups. But the study did not find any evidence to suggest that smoking and obesity combined to produce even greater risks when found together.

Martin Neovius of the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm, who carried out the study published in the British Medical Journal, said: "It shows the importance of measures to reduce obesity in adolescents. A lot of people are dying from preventable deaths. more

Gov. Perry's Plan to Save the Border

Perry is said to have stated that he didn't care who went to protect the border, police or soldiers, as long as there were boots at the border... His people thought up a plan to save us from the violence of the cartels - and gave it a "great" name: "Operation Border Star Contingency Plan."

It is true that Mexico is in bad shape. We (as Americans) will continue to help its demise with all the illegal drugs we buy. Remember, they come from the cartels that are steadily blowing up Mexico.

Oh, one more thing.  Who thinks up these ridiculous names?

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Recent border violence tests spillover plan
February 21, 2009 - 11:15 PM
Jeremy Roebuck

As protests and gunfire erupted last week across Reynosa, Hidalgo County authorities stood prepared at the international bridges, ready for any possibility.

With mobile command units connected to statewide intelligence centers and dozens of officers armed to confront potential threats, law enforcement officials responded to Tuesday's violence like they never have before.

The incident prompted state officials to enact for the first time a border-wide emergency plan developed to address threats from Mexico's ongoing war against its entrenched drug cartels.

Dubbed the "Operation Border Star Contingency Plan," Gov. Rick Perry's office drafted the policy with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies last year to prepare for the possibility of violence spilling over into the United States.

"The most significant threat Texas faces is spillover violence from Mexico's drug cartels," Perry's homeland security director, Steve McCraw, told state senators at a hearing Wednesday. "You can never be too prepared."  more

ICE Raid in Washington State - While Napolitano Speaks in Washington D.C.

Janet Napolitano, new director of DHS says she did not know about the raid in advance. It is not surprising... since ICE seems to have a mind of its own.  See "Napolitano orders review of WA Raid" -- Seattle Times, February 25, 2009

There was a hearing today of the House Committee on Homeland Security.  A few hours before the hearing, 9 people were detained by ICE in Houston.  See Houston Chronicle article "Immigration Agents arrest 9 at Ship Channel,"  February 25, 2009*

2 25 09

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just in case you can't get the link to the Houston Chronicle article on the Ship Channel raid:

"Immigration officials arrested nine suspected illegal immigrants on Wednesday at a sweep at the Greens Port Terminal, a cargo loading and unloading facility on the Houston Ship Channel.

Yolanda Choates, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the joint operation with local authorities also led to the arrest of a U.S. citizen with four outstanding criminal warrants.

Choates said she was unsure which company or companies employed the nine illegal immigration suspects found during the morning raid." Houston Chronicle, February 25, 2009

Obama's Speech to Congress - February 24

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Empathy for Gaza

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There is a billboard on Houston's Southwest Freeway that says only 3 words accompanied by a photo of a small child.  It says "Pray for Gaza."

see Washington Post article,  "Whose Israel Should it Be?" February 24, 2009

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The Daily Cougar
University of Houston
Gaza in need of humanitarian aid

Lihue Rearte
Published: Tuesday, February 24, 2009



Reuters estimated Jan. 17 that there have been 5,300 Palestinian casualties, including 1,300 deaths, in comparison to 500 Israeli casualties, including 13 deaths.

Students around the world and across the U.S. are standing in solidarity with Gaza to support the Palestinian victims of violence.

“Their demands are reasonable and very, and I should emphasize, very humble,” pre-med junior Bissan Rafe Qasawari said. “What has been done to Gaza is a violation of human rights and basic integrity measures.”

Recent sit-ins and occupations in New York, organized by student groups such as Take Back NYU! and Students for a Democratic Society, demand their universities give scholarships to Palestinian students.

The student protesters also request the institutions donate “excess supplies and materials” to help restore the education in Gaza. Included in the list of recipients are institutions such as the Islamic University of Gaza, one of the targets of Israeli air raids in December.

As a symbol of solidarity with the people of Gaza, events and protests were held in Europe last month. Students from 16 different universities across the U.K. occupied facilities, condemning “atrocities perpetrated by Israel in the Gaza Strip” and asking their universities to end their investments in “companies complicit in human rights abuses,” according to the Associated Press.

“The Palestinian people are viewed as stateless citizens. They have less rights in other countries, which makes it very hard to cope with life anywhere,” Qasawari said.

Similar actions against injustice took place in front of the M.D. Anderson Library. The UH Muslim Student Association and the Houston Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine gathered Monday to raise awareness of the massive numbers of civilian deaths. They plan to gather again from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today

“We are here to honor the people that were killed in Gaza,” chemistry graduate student Kellie Abou-awad said. “Any time something like this happens, people need to know what’s going on.”

We should all stand with those whose schools have been completely destroyed and whose friends and professors have been murdered. Why aren’t we demanding our University for scholarships and more aid to the Palestinians?

The least we could do is raise awareness by protesting against U.S. companies that manufacture weapons and profit from it. This is not the kind of help people in Israel or Afghanistan need. The situation in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis that needs peaceful investing initiatives.

Our tuition, the money that all of us pay to fund our “public” universities, could partially be provided by the billions of dollars that the U.S. government gives to the Israeli violence in the Middle East.

In an effort to end an arms embargo on Israel, the human rights group Amnesty International demands the UN to stop this “aid” from abroad. Also, Amnesty researchers found proof of Israeli munitions, which were made by Americans.

“To a large extent, Israel’s military offensive in Gaza was carried out with weapons, munitions and military equipment supplied by the U.S.A. and paid for with U.S. taxpayers’ money,” Malcolm Smart, Amnesty’s Middle East director, said in a report.

In addition, the U.S. is to provide $30 billion in military aid to Israel under a 10-year agreement that runs until 2017, Amnesty said.

Perhaps this is a good time to ask ourselves if the University of Houston is, like many others, investing in corporations who could potentially profit from the war.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is an ongoing war dominated by military atrocities. Hundreds of militants and civilians are being murdered and the numbers keep increasing. Surely we can and should do something to ease their suffering.

link to Daily Cougar article

Diabetes Epidemic: You Could Be Next

From Vegetarian Diet and Diabetes:  "Studies show that vegetarian diet which emphasis on low fat, high carbohydrate and high fibre foods has a beneficial effect on carbohydrate metabolism, lowering blood sugar levels. Therefore can substantially lower risk of type II diabetes and other health problems like obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer than non-vegetarians."

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NHS resources threatened as diabetes cases soar 70 per cent

British rise in disease linked to obesity and bad diet exceeds Europe and US

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
London Independent
Tuesday, 24 February 2009

A dramatic increase in the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in middle age has been documented by a study exposing the scale of the epidemic that threatens to overwhelm the NHS in the coming decades.

New cases of diabetes in Britain soared by 74 per cent between 1997 and 2003, according to the study, suggesting that poor diet and rising levels of obesity are behind the increase in the hormonal illness, which almost doubles the risk of premature death.

Latest figures suggest that the number of people in Britain developing obesity-related diabetes is rising at a faster rate than in America, where the disease has become one of the biggest killers.

The findings from the study, published last night, support figures published last year suggesting that the number of people newly diagnosed with diabetes has more than doubled from 83,000 in 2006 to 167,000 in 2008. There are now more than 2.2 million people in Britain suffering from the type-2 version of the disease, which is related to sedentary lifestyles and the explosive growth in obesity.

An analysis of figures based on new diagnoses of type-1 and type-2 diabetes found that the type-2 version accounts for almost all of the observed increase in diabetes over the past decade. Type-1 disease is commonly diagnosed in childhood, and is caused by the loss of cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, the hormone that controls levels of sugar in the bloodstream. Type 2, or late-onset diabetes is mainly caused by a growing insensitivity to insulin, and is linked to obesity.

Type-2 disease is usually diagnosed in people over the age of 40, although there are increasing reports of it being diagnosed in younger patients.

In the latest study, scientists analysed the records of a representative group of nearly 93,000 people with diabetes. Nearly 50,000 of the patients already had diabetes, and 42,600 were newly diagnosed with it between 1996 and 2005. Over the 10-year period of the study, there was a 69 per cent increase in the number of cases of type-2 diabetes, with a 74 per cent increase between 1997 and 2003, the scientists said.

Elvira Masso Gonzalez of the Spanish Centre for Pharmacoepidemiological Research in Madrid, who led the study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, said that Britain has one of the fastest-growing diabetes epidemics in the world. “Our results suggest that, although the incidence of diabetes remains lower in the UK than in the United States or Canada, it appears to be increasing at a faster pace. I think that the UK is one of the countries where diabetes is increasing faster in comparison to other countries in Europe,” she said.

In 1996, 38 per cent of people newly diagnosed with type-2 diabetes were overweight, and 46 per cent were obese. In 2005, the corresponding figures were 32 per cent and 56 per cent respectively.

Luis Alberto Garcia Rodriguez, one of the co-authors of the Madrid study, said: “Our study confirms that the prevalence and incidence of diabetes have increased in the UK over the past decade. This can be mainly explained by the increase in type-2 diabetes and its probable association with obesity.”

Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of the charity Diabetes UK, said: “This research is a sad indictment of the state of the UK’s health. Sadly, the statistics are not surprising as we know that the soaring rates of type-2 diabetes are strongly linked to the country’s expanding waistline.

“Research shows that losing weight can reduce the risk of developing type-2 diabetes by 58 per cent. It is imperative that we raise awareness of the importance of eating a healthy, balanced diet and doing at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day if we want to make any headway in defusing the diabetes time-bomb.”

Long-term complications of diabetes include foot and leg ulcers, stroke, blindness, kidney problems, heart disease and damage to the peripheral blood vessels. The disease is treated by changes to lifestyle, medication to lower sugar levels in the blood, or by insulin injections in extreme cases.
link to Independent article

8pm Central Time, PBS - "A Class Apart"

PBS American Experience is showing a documentary on the Mexican American Civil Rights struggle in Texas.  In Houston, the program will be at 8 pm Central Time on Channel 8 - KUHT.

Most of my younger students don't know anything about this part of Texas history.

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PBS looks at Mexican-Americans’ struggle
By DAVID BARRON Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 22, 2009, 11:41PM


February is Black History Month, and it seems each February offers a supplement to the vast record of civil rights documentaries that reached its peak with Eyes on the Prize, the landmark 14-hour film that traced the movement from the Montgomery bus boycott into the mid-1980s.

By comparison, films about Mexican-Americans and other Latinos who struggled and prevailed against segregation and discrimination are few and far between. That scarcity emphasizes the significance of documentaries such as A Class Apart, which premieres at 8 p.m. Monday on KUHT (Channel 8) as part of PBS’ American Experience series.

Produced by New York filmmakers Carlos Sandoval and Peter Miller, A Class Apart concerns the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Hernandez v. Texas, which established Mexican-Americans as a protected class under the 14th Amendment.

It’s only one hour in a saga that deserves a multi-part vehicle to rival Eyes on the Prize in scope. But, especially for Texans, it is a critical starting point.

“Eyes on the Prize was a huge landmark achievement, the product of a generation of dedicated filmmakers and activists,” Miller said. “We’re fortunate now to be at a moment where PBS is showing more programs about the Latino civil rights struggle. This is one story among many, and it would be nice if someday down the line there could be a series devoted to these stories.”

Hernandez v. Texas stemmed from the case of Pete Hernandez, a farmworker accused of killing a man in a bar fight in the Jackson County town of Edna in 1951. His case drew the attention of a group of San Antonio and Houston attorneys, who saw the case as a vehicle to break down the Jim Crow-style laws and customs that oppressed Mexican-Americans in the same fashion as African-Americans.

The attorneys argued that Hernandez could not receive a fair trial because Jackson County had systematically eliminated Mexican-Americans from juries. The state countered that Mexican-Americans were lumped in with Anglos under the law and thus were not entitled to special treatment under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

The case, the first to be argued by Mexican-American lawyers before the Supreme Court, was heard during the same term as the Brown v. Board of Education case seeking to outlaw segregation in public schools. In a decision that was overshadowed nationwide by the Brown decision a week later, the court ruled that Mexican-Americans were a distinct group entitled to the same constitutional protection as other minority groups.  more

The American Guns in Israel

According to Phyllis Bennis, a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C., the U.S. provides the following yearly aid to Israel:

military aid:  $1.8 billion

economic aid:  $1.2 billion

miscellaneous grants, military supplies:  app. $1 billion

from the book Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

The situation is very complicated.  Israel is the U.S. de facto military base in the Middle East.  This is something the U.S. did not have in Southeast Asia during the the Vietnam Conflict.  Obama is back up against a wall in this situation.  According to Bennis, the U.S. has to support whatever Israel does in order to maintain the alliance.

You Tube:  Bennis interview begins after 2 minutes

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Amnesty [International] calls on US to suspend arms sales to Israel

Hellfire missiles and white phosphorus artillery shells among weapons used in 'indiscriminate' attacks on civilians, says human rights group

* Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem

* guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 February 2009 09.14 GMT

London Guardian

Detailed evidence has emerged of Israel's extensive use of US-made weaponry during its war in Gaza last month, including white phosphorus artillery shells, 500lb bombs and Hellfire missiles.

In a report released today, Amnesty International listed the weapons used and called for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian armed groups. It called on the US president, Barack Obama, to suspend military aid to Israel.

The human rights group said those arming both sides in the conflict "will have been well aware of a pattern of repeated misuse of weapons by both parties and must therefore take responsibility for the violations perpetrated".

The US has long been the largest arms supplier to Israel; under a 10-year agreement negotiated by the Bush administration the US will provide $30bn (£21bn) in military aid to Israel.

"As the major supplier of weapons to Israel, the USA has a particular obligation to stop any supply that contributes to gross violations of the laws of war and of human rights," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme director. "To a large extent, Israel's military offensive in Gaza was carried out with weapons, munitions and military equipment supplied by the USA and paid for with US taxpayers' money."

For their part, Palestinian militants in Gaza were arming themselves with "unsophisticated weapons" including rockets made in Russia, Iran and China and bought from "clandestine sources", it said. About 1,300 Palestinians were killed and more than 4,000 injured during the three-week conflict. On the Israeli side 13 were killed, including three civilians. Amnesty said Israel's armed forces carried out "direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects in Gaza, and attacks which were disproportionate or indiscriminate". more

Amnesty International Report on Military Aid to Israel:
Gaza

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Milenio.com reports: Israel Bombing in South Lebanon

The Mexican news agency Milenio.com reports that Israel bombed the region of "El Qlaile" in southern Lebanon, in response to rocket fire.

*Represalia por disparos
Israel bombardea el sur del Líbano

2009-02-22•Fronteras
milenio.com

Mexico

Israel bombardeó ayer la región de El Qlailé, en el sur del Líbano, en represalia por disparos de cohetes contra el Estado hebreo desde territorio libanés, reavivando así la tensión en esa zona fronteriza. El gobierno israelí advirtió que consideraría responsables de los ataques a su territorio a Hezbolá como a los dirigentes libaneses.

Aw Shucks, Texas isn't important anymore

Painting, The Battle of the Alamo

From reading the article below, it seems that the WaPo might suggest that dreamacttexas change its name.  Being from Texas has lost its clout now that W. left D.C.  I guess I shouldn't tell people that I'm a 7 generation Texas, it could cause me problems.

On the other hand, dreamacttexas just wants to remind everyone that people in Texas are NOT all the same.  Not everyone is a die-hard xenophobic conservative.  Not everyone hates people of color; thinks all Mexicans are stupid; or that all Black men are criminals; or likes Sarah Palin.  Not everyone is anti-intellectual.  

There are actually many of us who keep up with what is going on outside out kingdom.  There are many of us that realize that there is a big world out there that doesn't give a flip about Texas.

The big boys that the WaPo is talking about may be gone.  But there are plenty of us nice guys still around.

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Washington Post

By Bryan Burrough
Death and Texas


Sunday, February 22, 2009; Page B01

In 1845, the second-largest independent country in North America, the Republic of Texas, held its nose, took a deep breath and merged with its upstart eastern neighbor, the United States. (As a Texan myself, I understand the occasional regret that we took y'all's name instead of the other way around.) For the next century, Texas didn't give America much trouble. By and large, it was known for cattle with large horns, men with large hats and its citizenry's penchant for orneriness, braggadocio and shooting one another.

All that began to change in the late 1940s, when America suddenly discovered that an awful lot of Texans had somehow become very, very rich -- and very, very interested in national politics. The East Coast establishment's dismay at this news was captured in a six-part series of front-page stories in this newspaper that began 55 years ago this month. Authored by the Pulitzer Prize-winning White House correspondent Edward T. Folliard, the package promised what an editor's note called a first-ever look at "The Big Dealers, the fabulous money men of Texas who have been pouring part of their millions into American politics. . . . The unique thing about them is public ignorance of their motives, purposes and ideas."

Thus began more than half a century of Texas political power that would see the first Texan, Lyndon B. Johnson, take a seat in the Oval Office; a second, George H.W. Bush, 25 years later; and in short order a third, George W. Bush. Along the way, the Texas "Big Dealers," a class of rightwing oilmen more commonly known as the Big Rich, would thrust upon the nation a series of princelings, beginning with their in-house attorney, John Connally, and leading through men such as Tom DeLay, Dick Armey and Phil Gramm. Never let it be said that The Post doesn't give you plenty of warning... more

Monterrey de mis amores

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The article below taken from the WSJ provides detailed information about Mexico's (and Monterrey's) current narco probems.  What it doesn't say is that in Mexico, it is common knowledge that the problem goes all the way to the top.

For those who can read Spanish, Millenio.com has published a very informative article about the Monterrey protests:  "El ataque del narcolumpen" February 22, 2009

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Wall Street Journal

FEBRUARY 21, 2009

The Perilous State of Mexico
With drug-fueled violence and corruption escalating sharply, many fear drug cartels have grown too powerful for Mexico to control. Why things are getting worse, and what it means for the United States.


By DAVID LUHNOW and JOSé DE CORDOBA

Mexican marines stand guard next to about 7 tons of confiscated cocaine on Feb. 16.

Monterrey, Mexico

Detective Ramon Jasso was heading to work in this bustling city a few days ago when an SUV pulled alongside and slowed ominously. Within seconds, gunmen fired 97 bullets at the 37-year-old policeman, killing him instantly.

Mr. Jasso had been warned. The day before, someone called his cellphone and said he would be killed if he didn't immediately release a young man who had been arrested for organizing a violent protest in support of the city's drug gangs. The demonstrators were demanding that the Mexican army withdraw from the drug war. The protests have since spread from Monterrey -- once a model of order and industry -- to five other cities.

Much as Pakistan is fighting for survival against Islamic radicals, Mexico is waging a do-or-die battle with the world's most powerful drug cartels. Last year, some 6,000 people died in drug-related violence here, more than twice the number killed the previous year. The dead included several dozen who were beheaded, a chilling echo of the scare tactics used by Islamic radicals. Mexican drug gangs even have an unofficial religion: They worship La Santa Muerte, a Mexican version of the Grim Reaper.

In growing parts of the country, drug gangs now extort businesses, setting up a parallel tax system that threatens the government monopoly on raising tax money. In Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, handwritten signs pasted on schools warned teachers to hand over their Christmas bonuses or die. A General Motors distributorship at a midsize Mexican city was extorted for months at a time, according to a high-ranking Mexican official. A GM spokeswoman in Mexico had no comment.

"We are at war," says Aldo Fasci, a good-looking lawyer who is the top police official for Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is the capital. "The gangs have taken over the border, our highways and our cops. And now, with these protests, they are trying to take over our cities

The parallels between Pakistan and Mexico are strong enough that the U.S. military singled them out recently as the two countries where there is a risk the government could suffer a swift and catastrophic collapse, becoming a failed state.

Pakistan is the greater worry because the risk of collapse is higher and because it has nuclear weapons. But Mexico is also scary: It has 100 million people on the southern doorstep of the U.S., meaning any serious instability would flood the U.S. with refugees. Mexico is also the U.S.'s second biggest trading partner.

Mexico's cartels already have tentacles that stretch across the border. The U.S. Justice Department said recently that Mexican gangs are the "biggest organized crime threat to the United States," operating in at least 230 cities and towns. Crimes connected to Mexican cartels are spreading across the Southwest. Phoenix had more than 370 kidnapping cases last year, turning it into the kidnapping capital of the U.S. Most of the victims were illegal aliens or linked to the drugs trade.

Former U.S. antidrug czar Barry McCaffrey said Mexico risks becoming a "narco-state" within five years if things don't improve. Outgoing CIA director Michael Hayden listed Mexico alongside Iran as a possible top challenge for President Obama. Other analysts say the risk is not that the Mexican state collapses, but rather becomes like Russia, a state heavily influenced by mafias.

Such comparisons are probably a stretch -- for now anyway. Beyond the headline-grabbing violence, Mexico is stable. It has a thriving democracy, the world's 13th-largest economy and a growing middle class. And as many as 90% of those killed are believed to be linked to the trade in some way, say officials.

"We have a serious problem. The drug gangs have penetrated many institutions. But we're not talking about an institutional collapse. That is wrong," says Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.

Officials in both Washington and Mexico City also say the rising violence has a silver lining: It means that after decades of complicity or ignoring the problem, the Mexican government is finally cracking down on the drug cartels and forcing them to fight back or fight with one another for turf. One telling statistic: In the first three years of President Felipe Calderon's six-year term, Mexico's army has had 153 clashes with drug gangs. In the six years of his predecessor Vicente Fox's term, there were only 16."

If Mexico isn't a failed state, though, it is a country with a weak state -- one the narcos seem to be weakening further.

"The Mexican state is in danger," says Gerardo Priego, a deputy from Mr. Calderon's ruling center-right party, known as the PAN. "We are not yet a failed state, but if we don't take action soon, we will become one very soon."

Mexican academic Edgardo Buscaglia estimates there are 200 counties in Mexico -- some 8% of the total -- where drug gangs wield more influence behind the scenes than the authorities. With fearsome arsenals of rocket-propelled grenades, bazookas and automatic weapons, cartels are often better armed than the police and even the soldiers they fight. The number of weapons confiscated last year from drug gangs in Mexico could arm the entire army of El Salvador, by one estimate. Where do most of the weapons come from? The U.S.

Last year alone, gunmen fired shots and threw a grenade, which didn't explode, at the U.S. consulate in Monterrey. The head of Mexico's federal police was murdered in a hit ordered by one of his own men, whom officials say was working for the drug cartels. Mexico's top antidrug prosecutor was arrested and charged with being on a cartel payroll, along with several other senior officials. One man in Tijuana admitted to dissolving some 300 bodies in vats of acid on behalf of a drug gang.

The publisher of Mexico's most influential newspaper chain moved his family from Monterrey to Texas after he was threatened and gunmen paid a visit to his ranch. Other businessmen from cities across Mexico have done the same.

"I have never seen such a difficult situation" in Mexico, says Alejandro Junco, who publishes Reforma in Mexico City and El Norte in Monterrey. Mr. Junco now commutes every week to Mexico from Texas.

A few weeks ago, a recently retired army general hired to help the resort city of Cancun crack down on drug gangs was tortured and killed. His wrists and ankles were broken during the torture. Federal officials' main suspect: the Cancun police chief, who has been stripped of his duties and put under house arrest during the investigation.

Every day brings a new horror. In Ciudad Juarez on Friday, gunmen killed a police officer and a prison guard, and left a sign on their bodies saying they would kill one officer every two days until the city police chief resigns. He quit late Friday.

Analysts and diplomats worry that drug traffickers may increase their hold on Mexico's political process during midterm congressional elections scheduled for July.

Mauricio Fernandez Garza, the scion of a wealthy Monterrey family, says he was approached by a cartel when he was a gubernatorial candidate in 2003 and told the cartel would foot the bill for the campaign if he promised to "look the other way" on the drugs trade. He says he declined the offer. He lost the election.

Mexico has long been in the crosshairs of the drug war. In the 1980s, the drug of choice for local traffickers was marijuana, and much like today, accusations of high-level Mexican corruption were common. In 1985, DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena was tortured to death by local traffickers, with the aid of a former president's brother-in-law. In 1997, the country's antidrug czar Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo was jailed after it emerged he was in the employ of a powerful trafficker.

Drawn by the opportunity to supply the U.S. drug market, powerful trafficking groups have emerged on Mexico's Pacific coast, its Gulf coast, in the northern desert state of Chihuahua and in the wild-west state of Sinaloa, home to most of Mexico's original trafficking families. These groups, notorious for their shifting alliances and backstabbing ways, have fought for years for control of trafficking routes. Personal hatreds have marked fights over market share with barbaric violence.

Several new factors in the past few years added to the violence, however. In 2000, Mexicans voted out the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which had ruled for 71 years. The end of a one-party state loosened authoritarian control and broke the old alliances cemented through corruption that kept a check on drug-related violence.

Another factor was 9/11. After the attacks, tighter border security prompted some gangs to sell cocaine in Mexico instead, breaking an unspoken agreement with the government that gangs would be tolerated as long as they didn't sell the drugs in Mexico but passed them on instead to the gringos. Since 2001, local demand for cocaine has grown an estimated 20% per year. The creation of a local market only encouraged infighting over the spoils.

Things started getting really nasty in 2004, when Osiel Cardenas, then leader of the Gulf Cartel, killed Arturo "the Chicken" Guzman, the brother of Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, a leader of the Sinaloa cartel. Mr. Guzman soon tried to take over Nuevo Laredo, the border city controlled by Mr. Cardenas with the help of the Zetas, former elite Mexican soldiers who defected to the drug traffickers, as well as most of the Nuevo Laredo police, who in fact worked for the Zetas. The struggle for Nuevo Laredo culminated in a pitched battle when gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to attack a safe house belonging to the other cartel. The all-out battle led the U.S. to close its consulate for a week. The violence soon spread as the two groups fought for dominance all over Mexico's northern border.

Monterrey, just a hundred miles to the south, seemed unperturbed. Can-do, confident and modern, Monterrey likes to think of itself as more American than Mexican. It's the home of Mexico's best university, Tecnologico de Monterrey, modeled on MIT, as well as the country's most prosperous suburb, San Pedro Garza Garcia, and local units of 1,500 U.S. companies. Its police are considered among Mexico's best. In the 1990s, the San Diego Padres came to play a few regular season games here and there was heady talk of Monterrey landing a pro baseball team.

As violence engulfed Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey business leaders, police chiefs and government officials were of one mind: It wouldn't happen here. "We have drawn a line in the sand and told the drug lords they cross it at their peril," state governor Natividad Gonzalez said in a 2005 interview.

What the governor apparently didn't know is that, for years, Monterrey's relative calm was due to an unspoken agreement between rival drug lords whose families lived quietly in the wealthy San Pedro enclave, a place where their wealth would not be conspicuous, say local police. But Monterrey was too big a local drug market to ignore for both sides, and soon fighting broke out.

By 2006, the murder rate spiked and cops were getting shot at point-blank on the streets. San Pedro Police Chief Hector Ayala was gunned down. Months later, Marcelo Garza y Garza, the chief of state police investigations, a well-known San Pedro resident and the DEA's main contact in the city, was murdered outside the town's largest Roman Catholic church. U.S. law-enforcement officials believe he was betrayed to the Zetas by a corrupt cop.

Today, the warring gangs still vie for control, though the Zetas have the upper hand. In much of the city, the gang is branching out into new types of criminal enterprise, especially extorting street vendors, nightclubs and other shops that operate on the margin of the law. These places used to be preyed upon by local cops, but no longer. The owner of a billiards hall says the Zetas told him they wanted a cut of the profits every month, a bill he ponies up. They also ordered him to allow someone to sell drugs at the hall, he says. "What can I do," he shrugs.

In the street market along the city's busy Reforma Ave, the Zetas sell pirated CDs, and have their own label: "Los Unicos," or "The Only Ones," with a logo of a black horse surrounded by four Zs. In Spanish, "Zeta" is how you pronounce the letter "Z." One vendor says some Zetas came to the stalls last year and ordered several vendors to start peddling the Zeta label CDs.

Many Monterrey residents are convinced that even a cut from bribes they pay local cops for traffic violations goes to the Zetas through corrupt cops. That kind of extra money to fund the drug gangs only worsens the balance of power between the state and the traffickers. The drugs trade in Mexico generates at least $10 billion in yearly revenues, Mexican officials say. The government's annual budget for federal law enforcement, not including the army: roughly $1.2 billion.

Both the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartels are believed to field as many as 10,000 gunmen each -- the size of a small army. The Zetas, for instance, can find fresh recruits easily in Monterrey's tough barrios, where the unemployment rate is high.

In Monterrey's Independencia neighborhood, one of the city's oldest, it is not the city government that controls the streets but the local pandillas, or gangs. During a recent workday, the streets were filled with young gangsters, sitting around playing marbles, chatting, and looking tough. At the entrance to a local primary school, a group of four men sat and smoked what appeared to be crack cocaine, what locals call "piedra" or rock.

Outsiders are clearly unwelcome. A reporter visiting in an unmarked SUV along with a state policeman wearing civilian clothes was enough to get plenty of hostile stares and a few mouthed expletives. One or two gang members pulled out their cell phones and began placing a call. "They're unsure whether we're cops or another drug gang," said Jorge, the state policeman, who did not want his full name used for fear of retaliation by the drug lords. "Either way, we move on or we're in trouble."

Jorge, clean cut and with an infectious smile, has been a state cop for more than 20 years. He earns 6,000 pesos -- $450 -- a month. It's an old saw in Mexico that police here don't make enough money to either resist being corrupted by the criminals or care enough to risk their lives going after them. In fact, corruption extends throughout the police forces. A senior state official said privately that he doesn't trust a single local police commander.

The state's former head of public security resigned amid allegations that he was in league with the Sinaloa cartel. The man who took his place is Mr. Fasci, a former top prosecutor. Mr. Fasci says officials are trying to improve coordination among Mexico's alphabet soup of different law enforcement bodies. In Monterrey's metropolitan area, there are 11 different municipal police forces, a state police, three branches of the federal police, and the army. Statewide, there are 70 different emergency numbers for the police. Making matters worse, narcotics smuggling is a federal crime, so local cops aren't supposed to prosecute it.

Mr. Fasci says the protests are organized by drug gangs, who go to barrios like Independencia and pay $30 to each person to block traffic, hold up signs like "no military repression." Mr. Fasci thinks the gangs are trying to goad the police into a crackdown that would generate antipathy for the authorities and the army. "We're not going to fall for it," he says.

Neither will the Mexican government call off the soldiers. Mexico has no choice but to deploy the army to do what corrupt and inefficient state and local police forces can't, says Mr. Fasci. And the protests are likely a sign the military is having success pressuring the drug gangs, say officials. Meanwhile, Mexico has passed a law that calls for an ambitious reform of all its state and municipal police forces. The problem: It could take 15 years or longer to complete, says Mr. Medina Mora, the attorney general.

The U.S., which is providing Mexico with some $400 million a year for equipment and training to combat drug traffickers, backs Mexico's stand. U.S. law enforcement officials are ecstatic about Mr. Calderon's get-tough approach. A U.S. law enforcement official says the Mexican military is trying to break down powerful drug cartels into smaller and more manageable drug gangs, like "breaking down boulders into pebbles." He adds: "It might be bloody, it might be ugly, but it has to be done."

Demand in the U.S., of course, is the motor for the drugs trade. Three former respected heads of state in Latin America, including Mexico's former president Ernesto Zedillo, issued a joint report recently saying the drug war was too costly for countries like Mexico, and urged the U.S. to explore alternatives like decriminalizing marijuana.

Indeed, Mexican officials long ago gave up on thinking they might one day eliminate the drugs trade altogether. Victory now sounds a lot like what victory in Iraq might be for the U.S.: lower violence just enough so that people won't talk about it anymore.

Jorge Tello, an adviser to President Calderon on the drugs war, defines it like this: "It's like a rat-control problem. The rats are always down there in the sewers, you can't really get rid of them. But what you don't want are rats on people's front doors."

Write to David Luhnow at david.luhnow@wsj.com and José de Cordoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page W1
Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

link to WSJ article

Labels, Stereotypes, and Crime

If the newspaper placed in its top headlines every time a Jew allegedly committed a crime and used "A Jew" first, I wonder how long it would be before people would start hating and fearing all Jews.

When someone kidnaps a child, does the newspaper start with "A Jew kidnaps child"?  Of course not.  But is seems to be acceptable to say "An illegal immigrant kidnaps a child." It is unfortunate that the Houston Chronicle pushed the xenophobic button a little more in today's paper by stating "Illegal Immigrant Kidnaps a Child."  Of course this is a terrible crime.  If guilty, it is necessary the man be incarcerated.  But why start the headline with "illegal immigrant?"  Now, every person who reads that may cringe every time they walk by a male they think is an "illegal immigrant."

just a thought:

"Jew embezzles millions"  (Madoff)

or

"Texan embezzles millions" (Stanford)

isn't very nice is it?  I can see the Anti- defammation League getting all upset about this, even if Madoff is a crook.  Well, this guy who kidnapped the child may be a criminal, but it is still wrong that the paper published "Illegal Immigrant kidnaps child."

llegal immigrant charged in girl's abduction, Houston Chronicle, February 21, 2009

Fisk on Obama and Netanyahu

Fisk: "Mr Netanyahu, it should be remembered, said the Gaza war ended too soon"

Robert Fisk: Obama was unconvinced by Bibi’s desire for peace

London Independent
Saturday, 21 February 2009
arack Obama, they say, did not get on well with Bibi Netanyahu when he met him in Jerusalem before the American elections.

Mr Obama, who figured out the Middle East pretty quickly, apparently found Bibi arrogant and unconvincing in his professed desire for peace with the Palestinians. What Mr Netanyahu thought of Mr Obama is not known, but he could scarcely have tried to hide his election line: security for Israel, but no Palestinian state.

Much depends, of course, on whether Tzipi Livni will consent to join a Netanyahu government. For if Avigdor Lieberman slips into a ministerial position, Obama is in trouble. Does he congratulate a new Israeli prime minister who has introduced into his government a man who is prepared to demand loyalty signatures from his own country’s Arab minority? How would that go down in the United States, where a similar proposal – for a loyalty pledge by American minorities, for example – would be a scandal?

But those Palestinians who believe that Lieberman should be in a Netanyahu administration – on the grounds that the “true” face of Israel would then be clear to all Americans – are being a little premature. Obama is not going to change the US relationship with Israel. American foreign policy – like that of most states – is based not on justice but on power.

And with America enduring the worst economic crisis since the Depression, Mr Obama is not going to take on the Israelis. Those Arabs who still fondly hope that the new US administration will at last “stand up” to Israel are mistaken. And the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who would like to be the next Democrat president, is certainly not going to anger Israel or its supporters in Washington.

If Mr Netanyahu does form a government, however, it will prove that the slaughter in Gaza did not help Ms Livni’s efforts to form her own cabinet. Ehud Barak and Livni, the authors of the whole bloody offensive (with the active help of Hamas’ own provocations), will simply put Gaza behind them – until Mr Netanyahu decides on a second round of the battle against “world terror”.

Yet it’s interesting to note how easily the connections between Gaza and the Israeli election have faded away. Indeed, when The Economist was surveying the Middle East earlier this month, it suggested that the outrage over the Gaza killings expressed by the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to Israel’s President Shimon Peres at Davos was a “temper tantrum” which may have been “a ploy to please voters” before Turkish municipal elections next month. Yet the magazine merely noted that “the unconcluded Gaza war and the [Israeli] elections are intertwined in voters’ minds…”

Mr Netanyahu, it should be remembered, said the Gaza war ended too soon. So are we waiting for Part Two? Or the next round in Israel’s war with the Hizbollah? Israelis must sometimes curse the proportional electoral system that brings them the most ungovernable government coalitions. But the Americans will find it hard to dress up a new Netanyahu government as further “progress” in the Middle East “peace process”.

This ghost has never gone away

From Harpers Magazine, February 19, 1868

link to image

Photojournalist Anthony Karen has published recent KKK photographs he took for the London Independent.  It makes me wonder if things ever really change.  Click here for link to Anthony Karen's photo essay on the KKK.

Also see dream act texas post "The Reality of the KKK in Virginia," September 16, 2007

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America unmasked: The images that reveal the Ku Klux Klan is alive and kicking in 2009
The USA has a new president but an old problem - and nothing typifies it like today’s Ku Klux Klan. The photographer Anthony Karen gained unprecedented access to the ‘Invisible Empire’

Words by Leonard Doyle
London Independent
Saturday, 21 February 2009

These images show members of the Ku Klux Klan as they want to be seen, scary and secretive and waiting in the wings for Barack and his colour-blind vision for America to fail. Anthony Karen, a former Marine and self-taught photojournalist was granted access to the innermost sanctum of the Klan. He doesn’t tell us how he did it but he was considered trustworthy enough to be invited into their homes and allowed to photograph their most secretive ceremonies, such as the infamous cross burnings.

When he talks about the Klan members he has encountered he tends not to dwell on the fate of their victims. Karen’s feat is that he takes us to places few photojournalists have been before, into the belly of the beast. The scenes he presents portray a kinder, gentler Klan. The mute photographs present an organisation that is far less threatening than the hate group of our popular imagination. Consciously or otherwise, his photographs hold our imagination in their grip while doing double duty as propaganda for the extremist right, much as Leni Riefenstahl’s work did for the Nazis. more

Waiting for the DREAM Act at Georgetown University

DREAMer Juan Sebastian Gomez' parents left for Colombia over a year ago.  He finished high school and is now attending Georgetown University.  Since the DREAM Act has been stalled for so long, Juan is still in limbo.  He is doing very well at Georgetown.  But the best grades won't protect him until Congress decides to do the right thing and pass the DREAM Act.

see dream act post "Juan Sebastian Gomez' Parents Deported," October 31, 2007

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The Outsider

Though he's lived in this country since he was 2, Juan Gomez has no permanent legal right to stay in the United States, let alone a guarantee of a chance to graduate from Georgetown University

By Phuong Ly
Sunday, February 22, 2009; Page W10
Washington Post Magazine

For several minutes, Juan, who'd only seen photographs of the campus before, simply stared. A friend's mother who accompanied him on that late-August day last summer recalls that the brown-haired 19-year-old looked just like any other student in his jeans and polo shirt. But Juan felt as if he had landed in another universe -- a place light years away from the deportation letters, detention center jumpsuits and painful goodbyes of the previous year.

"Wow," he told his friend's mother, bounding up the steps to his new dorm. "This is so beautiful."

Juan was still beaming as he examined the sterile, white-walled space in Copley Hall that he would share with another student. "This room," he said, gazing at the two twin beds, two wooden desks and two dressers squeezed together, "is just great." He meant it. Juan felt lucky to be at Georgetown, even though, in terms of academic accomplishment, he clearly belonged there.

His record is a litany of overachievement: a 1410 out of 1600 on the SAT; high scores on 13 Advanced Placement exams, which earned him close to two years of college credit; and a top-20 class rank at a competitive Miami high school. But Juan doesn't have a clear right to be in the United States, much less at Georgetown. In 1990, when he was 2 years old, his family came to this country from Colombia on a tourist visa and never left. Once they were here, they applied for political asylum and spent almost 17 years building a modest life before their legal status finally caught up with them. In October 2007, after they were repeatedly denied political asylum, Juan's parents and grandmother were deported to Colombia, a country that Juan can't even remember. more

Its Time to Bring Geronimo Home

Geronimo’s Heirs Sue Secret Yale Society Over His Skull

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

New York Times
Published: February 19, 2009

HOUSTON — The descendants of Geronimo have sued Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale University with ties to the Bush family, charging that its members robbed his grave in 1918 and have kept his skull in a glass case ever since.

Legend has it that Prescott S. Bush stole Geronimo’s skull.

The claim is part of a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday, the 100th anniversary of Geronimo’s death. The Apache warrior’s heirs are seeking to recover all his remains, wherever they may be, and have them transferred to a new grave at the headwaters of the Gila River in New Mexico, where Geronimo was born and wished to be interred.

“I believe strongly from my heart that his spirit was never released,” Geronimo’s great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo, 61, told reporters Tuesday at the National Press Club.

Geronimo died a prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Okla., in 1909. A longstanding tradition among members of Skull and Bones holds that Prescott S. Bush — father of President George Bush and grandfather of President George W. Bush — broke into the grave with some classmates during World War I and made off with the skull, two bones, a bridle and some stirrups, all of which were put on display at the group’s clubhouse in New Haven, known as the Tomb.

The story gained some validity in 2005, when a historian discovered a letter written in 1918 from one Skull and Bones member to another saying the skull had been taken from a grave at Fort Sill along with several pieces of tack for a horse.

Ramsey Clark, a former United States attorney general who is representing Geronimo’s family, acknowledged he had no hard proof that the story was true. Yet he said he hoped the court would clear up the matter.

Tom Conroy, a spokesman for Yale, declined to comment on the lawsuit but was quick to note that the Tomb was not on university property.

Members of the Skull and Bones, who guard their organization’s secrecy, could not be reached for comment. Though the society is not officially affiliated with the university, many of Yale’s most powerful alumni are members, among them both Bush presidents and Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts. more

Pupils study 7/7 attacks from bombers' viewpoint

By Richard Garner, Education Editor
London Independent
Friday, 20 February 2009


...A new teaching pack for schools asks pupils to look at the terror attacks on London in July 2005 from the point of view of the bombers.

The pack, devised by Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire, where some of the terrorists lived, is supported by several education authorities and looks at life in multicultural Britain. One module focuses on the bombings and their impact on different communities, asking students to write a presentation on the 7/7 bombings "from the perspective of the bombers".

It also urges pupils to look at the attacks from the perspective of Muslims, Asian non-Muslims and other people. The resource, entitled "Things Do Change", was at first endorsed by the Government and included on a website for teachers, but it was withdrawn on the orders of education ministers. link to article

DREAMer Detained While at Church

Juan Jose Hernandez has been in the U.S. since he was six years old.  

It seems that the idea of church sanctuary doesn't count anymore.

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Sacred worship, duty to law pitted
ICE agent removes man, 31, during church service
By SUSAN CARROLL Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 18, 2009, 10:43PM


On a Sunday morning, in a church sanctuary near Conroe, an off-duty immigration agent tapped Jose Juan Hernandez on the shoulder and asked him to step outside.

A 31-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico with three prior deportations, Hernandez quietly followed the agent and promptly was detained on suspicion of illegal re-entry after deportation, said Gregory Palmore, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman in Houston.

The case would be unremarkable, except for the setting. The fact that Hernandez was detained in church has sparked controversy locally. Hernandez was arrested Oct. 26, pleaded guilty to the re-entry charge this month and is scheduled for sentencing in April. He remains in federal detention in Conroe. Hernandez’s attorney, Rick Soliz, said he plans to file a complaint against the ICE agent in connection with the arrest.

“I wonder what the agent was thinking, if he was thinking at all,” Soliz said. “How do you decide to do that in the middle of a religious service?” more

Racial Profiling in New York City

CCR Reports_ Racial Disparity in NYPD Stop and Frisks | Center for Constitutional Rights

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European Diplomats Meeting Secretly with Hamas?

Europe opens covert talks with ‘blacklisted’ Hamas
London Independent
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
Thursday, 19 February 2009

European nations have opened a direct dialogue with Hamas as the US intensifies the search for Middle East peace under Barack Obama.

In the first meeting of its kind, two French senators travelled to Damascus two weeks ago to meet the leader of the Palestinian Islamist faction, Khaled Meshal, The Independent has learned. Two British MPs met three weeks ago in Beirut with the Hamas representative in Lebanon, Usamah Hamdan. “Far more people are talking to Hamas than anyone might think,” said a senior European diplomat. “It is the beginning of something new – although we are not negotiating.” more

More on Arpaio

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Arizona Sheriff Faces Civil Rights Probe, Allegations of Undermining Law Enforcement with Controversial Focus on Immigration

Democracy Now

February 18, 2009

excerpts:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County has forced prisoners to march through the streets of Phoenix dressed in just pink underwear, housed prisoners in tents in the searing heat, and appears on a Fox reality-TV show. Now he could be facing a federal investigation for civil rights abuses and a trial on charges of racially profiling Latinos. He’s also been accused of focusing on immigration enforcement at the expense of other law enforcement duties.

Guests:

Ryan Gabrielson, reporter with the East Valley Tribune. He’s just won the 2008 George Polk Award for Justice Reporting along with Paul Giblin for their five-part series on Sheriff Arpaio called “Reasonable Doubt.”

Salvador Reza, member of the Puente movement in Phoenix that grew out the spate of arrests and deportations under Sheriff Arpaio in 2007. He is part of a large group of organizations calling for a national demonstration in Phoenix next Saturday against 287(g) agreements.

AMY GOODMAN: The man who calls himself “America’s toughest sheriff” could be facing a federal investigation for possible civil rights abuses and a trial on charges of racially profiling Latinos. The chairpersons of four House committees called on Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last Friday to investigate allegations of misconduct against Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona.

Earlier this month, in a move the New York Times called a “degrading spectacle,” Sheriff Arpaio forced 200 shackled prisoners to march through the streets of Phoenix from a local jail to his infamous tent city that’s surrounded by an electric fence. Many accused the sheriff of pulling a publicity stunt to promote his new reality television show on Fox, Smile, You’re Under Arrest!...

...SALVADOR REZA: Yes. In 2007, Sheriff Arpaio said for ICE-trained sheriffs to basically patrol an area under control of a Roger Sensing, which is a private individual. So this private individual was utilizing them to actually scour the neighborhoods. He would call in the license plates of people that were picked up for day labor. And basically the sheriffs would go and stop them and then start interrogating everybody. He deported over a hundred people like that. So, out of that, we started a series of demonstrations against Pruitt. But now, since then, he has done a series of sweeps every so often, like every two months or so, where he goes into the Latino neighborhoods and basically intimidates, terrorizes and basically destroys business in the area while he’s there.

Well, the latest stunt, media stunt, by Sheriff Arpaio was parading 240 or so prisoners from one facility to the other, which is now the tent city. It’s not that far, but he called all the media to make a spectacle of the situation, and basically segregating by alienation, by national origin, and by color, a whole set of inmates, which is actually a violation of the Constitution. But on top of that, he said it was to facilitate visit by the lawyers and by the Mexican consulate or the consulate of other country. But what happened, in essence, he actually took away days. Now they only can visit them three days.

So, you know, he’s constantly lying and basically putting himself on the public eye and basically dividing the whole community into pro- and anti-Arpaio forces. And he’s utilizing the 287(g) agreements so that he can basically go after gardeners, after corn vendors, after, you know, maids, and basically intimidating. Now he’s interrogating the whole board of supervisors, county board of supervisors, and accusing them of violating employer sanctions. So he’s out of control. And I think investigation is due. Not only investigation, they should freeze the 287(g) agreements with Sheriff Arpaio until, you know, this gets resolved. Janet Napolitano doesn’t seem to want to do that so far. I hope she changes her mind...more

link to ICE info on 287 g

link to prize winning series on Arpaio in the Phoenix East Valley Tribune

Letter from Judiciary Committee Regarding Arpaio

Judiciary Committee Members Call for Investigation of Sheriff Arpaio’s Disregard for Rights of Hispanic Res...

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Mixed Stories about ICE Raid in Maryland

The Washington Post has published an excellent article regarding a misguided ICE raid in Maryland.  This incident is an example of how DHS was losing control of itself near the end of the Bush reign.  Below the WaPo article is a report published by the Migration Policy Institute (pro-migrant if you want to call it that) regarding DHS search for criminal aliens that don't exist.

Conflicting Accounts of an ICE Raid in Md.
Officers Portray Detention of 24 Latinos Differently in Internal Probe and in Court


On Jan. 23, 2007 officers of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 24 Latino men in the vicinity of a 7-Eleven in Baltimore, Md. The agency said the officers were seeking to detain men in an initial group that approached them and who, when asked, admitted to being in the country illegally. This clip shows the arrest of Ernesto Guillen--one of eight men who appear to have had no previous visible contact with the officers before they were detained.

By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 18, 2009; Page A01

The boss was not happy. His elite team of immigration officers had been raiding targets across Prince George's and Montgomery counties all night long in search of fugitive and criminal immigrants but had netted only a handful.


As the unit regrouped in its Baltimore office that frigid January morning two years ago, the supervisor warned members that they were well behind a Washington-mandated annual quota of 1,000 arrests per team and ordered them back out to boost their tally.

"I don't care where you get more arrests, we need more numbers," he said, according to one account in a summary of an internal investigation. The boss then added that the agents could go to any street corner and find a group of illegal immigrants, according to the summary, not previously made public...more

NFOP_Feb09

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How hard it is to say something negative to Israel

Howard Jacobson: Let’s see the 'criticism' of Israel for what it really is
London Independent

Emotions have run high over recent events in Gaza. And in this impassioned and searching essay, our writer argues that just below the surface runs a vicious strain of ancient prejudice

Wednesday, 18 February 2009


I was once in Melbourne when bush fires were raging 20 or 30 miles north of the city. Even from that distance you could smell the burning. Fine fragments of ash, like slivers of charcoal confetti, covered the pavements. The very air was charred. It has been the same here these past couple of months with the fighting in Gaza. Only the air has been charred not with devastation but with hatred. And I don’t mean the hatred of the warring parties for each other. I mean the hatred of Israel expressed in our streets, on our campuses, in our newspapers, on our radios and televisions, and now in our theatres.

A discriminatory, over-and-above hatred, inexplicable in its hysteria and virulence whatever justification is adduced for it; an unreasoning, deranged and as far as I can see irreversible revulsion that is poisoning everything we are supposed to believe in here – the free exchange of opinions, the clear-headedness of thinkers and teachers, the fine tracery of social interdependence we call community relations, modernity of outlook, tolerance, truth. You can taste the toxins on your tongue.

But I am not allowed to ascribe any of this to anti-Semitism. It is, I am assured, “criticism” of Israel, pure and simple. In the matter of Israel and the Palestinians this country has been heading towards a dictatorship of the one-minded for a long time; we seem now to have attained it. Deviate a fraction of a moral millimetre from the prevailing othodoxy and you are either not listened to or you are jeered at and abused, your reading of history trashed, your humanity itself called into question. I don’t say that self-pityingly. As always with dictatorships of the mind, the worst harmed are not the ones not listened to, but the ones not listening. So leave them to it, has essentially been my philosophy. A life spent singing anti-Zionist carols in the company of Ken Livingstone and George Galloway is its own punishment.

But responses to the fighting in Gaza have been such as to drive even the most quiescent of English Jews – whether quiescent because we have learnt to expect nothing else, or because we are desperate to avoid trouble, or because we have our own frustrations with Israel to deal with – out of our usual stoical reserve. Some things cannot any longer go unchallenged.. Link to London Independent article.

The Mission of George Mitchell - Palestine and Israel

Out of Gaza's rubble, new dialogue is emerging between Hamas and Israel – for any hope of peace, the US needs to pay attention


* Geoffrey Aronson
*
o Geoffrey Aronson
o guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 February 2009 11.00 GMT


Israel's assault on Gaza has opened a new chapter in the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It is yet another signal that the focus of the Israel‑Palestine conflict is now urgently focused on the Gaza Strip and, more broadly, on relations between Israel and Hamas.

The election of Barack Obama offers the international community the opportunity for some new thinking about how to re-energise its commitment to end the occupation and create a sovereign, independent Palestine at peace with Israel. The selection of former senator George Mitchell, a mediator of international standing, as President Barack Obama's special envoy is widely viewed as an inspired choice.

As Mitchell begins a much-needed reassessment of the US-led effort to strengthen Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas and weaken Hamas, he inherits a US policy based upon the following principles. The first denies Hamas's role in Palestinian affairs, demands its adherence to the Quartet principles (recognition of Israel, foreswearing the use of force and accepting the Oslo-Annapolis agreements); and refuses to accept its rule in Gaza.

The second involves acquiescing to Israel's diplomatic and security agenda on the West Bank, while offering only rhetorical objection to the system of checkpoints and settlement construction. The third supports Israel's security agenda in Gaza and the draconian Israeli-Egyptian restriction of imports sufficient only to meet minimal humanitarian needs – reconstruction aid is only offered on condition that it strengthens Mahmoud Abbas and weakens Hamas. And the final principle involves continuing the West Bank effort to strengthen Mahmoud Abbas by acting as paymaster for the Palestinian Authority (PA), while supporting a "counter-insurgency" strategy against Hamas, and prodding Israel to make marginal concessions to PA security services as part of a "performance-based" effort aimed at moving toward Palestinian independence and an end to occupation... more

The Economy, War, Immigration, and Obama

It is a common story that the economic stimulus plan for the Great Depression was World War II.  Is that why Obama is intensifying our involvement in Afghanistan?  

This all fits with the U.S. Military announcing that immigrant soldiers will be able to get a fast track to citizenship.  For those that didn't read the fine print of the article -- this opportunity is only for those who already have green cards based on their employment.  THIS IS NOT FOR DREAMers - at least not at this time.

The bright side of this is that maybe this ruling will help the nation ease into the DREAM Act.  But we won't know that until the DREAM Act bill comes up in Congress.  I'm sure there is lots going on at this time, but us everyday people generally don't know what happens in the secret negotiations among our Representatives and Senators.

Either way, it seems that our immigrant soldiers will be paying the cost of our military stimilus program by going to Afghanistan and fighting a war against a group (or groups) of people that have never been defeated.  Just ask the Russians and the British.  The place is a disaster for war.  The U.S. didn't help this by the involvement of previous administrations who assisted the Taliban in developing its poppy fields (see the book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim)

The money the country can make from going to war might have been enough to salvage the economy.  But the situation is so bad now, its hard to say what will work. 

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More Fraud: This Time in Houston

How many mortgages could be saved with the money Stanford Financial probably stole?

New York Times:

"Shortly after 10 a.m. Central time, about 40 police officers and other law enforcement officials simultaneously entered Stanford Group’s two office buildings in Houston. Many of the law enforcement personnel carried large black briefcases."
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U.S. Accuses Texas Financial Firm of $8 Billion Fraud
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS, PHILLIP L. ZWEIG and JULIE CRESWELL
Published: February 17, 2009

HOUSTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission accused Robert Allen Stanford, the chief of the Stanford Financial Group, on Tuesday of conducting “a massive ongoing fraud” in the sale of about $8 billion of high-yielding certificates of deposit held in the firm’s bank in Antigua. Also named in the suit were two other executives and some affiliates of the financial group.

In the complaint, filed in Federal District Court in Dallas, the S.E.C. accused Mr. Stanford and two associates — James M. Davis, a director and chief financial officer of Stanford Group and the Antigua-based bank affiliate, and Laura Pendergest-Holt, the chief investment officer of both organizations — with misrepresenting the safety and liquidity of the uninsured C.D.’s.

The C.D.’s were sold by Stanford International Bank through the firm’s registered broker-dealer and investment adviser, which are in Houston. Both the bank, which claims $8.5 billion in assets and 30,000 clients in 131 countries, and the brokerage unit, which operates about 30 offices in the United States, were named in the S.E.C. suit. Stanford Financial asserts that it advises about $50 billion in assets.

Shortly after 10 a.m. Central time, about 40 police officers and other law enforcement officials simultaneously entered Stanford Group’s two office buildings in Houston. Many of the law enforcement personnel carried large black briefcases. Stanford group’s headquarters are in two offices in Houston, one within a tower of the Houston Galleria shopping mall, and the other across the street...more

What will the Stimulus Package do for Your State?

Click here for a breakdown of how the economic stimulus pkg will relate to your state.  You will find much more information regarding the stimulus bill on  ProPublica.com

Vaccine for Cervical Cancer and Jade Goody

Jade Goody 

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A good friend of mine has a young daughter in high school.  I urged her to have the girl vaccinated.  She is debating the issue.  In Texas there was a firestorm about this a couple of years ago when the Governor started to mandate vaccinations for all adolescent girls.  

The people objecting said that getting the vaccine meant the girls would be ready to get involved in risky sexual behavior.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Maybe many people don't know that a woman with only one sexual partner is at risk for cervical cancer if her partner already has the virus (or gets it with other partners).  In countries like Mexico, where it is not only the norm but expected that the husband is not monogamous, women are at extremely high risk.

Protect your daughters.  That is what Jade Goody would want you to do.  If the vaccine would have been available to her when she was an adolescent she wouldn't be dying now.

Cervical Cancer Vaccine Information from the Mayo Clinic

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NHS row brews over the Jade Goody effect

Charity calls for lowering of age for first smear tests
By Jeremy Laurance, Health editor
London Independent
Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Defending the reality TV star Jade Goody's decision to "die in the public eye" of cervical cancer, the publicist Max Clifford said she had given three reasons. First, she wanted to make as much money as possible for her children. Second, it kept her busy and, third, the number of women having cervical smears had gone up by more than 20 per cent as a result of the publicity around her case and that was something she was "very happy about".

The first two of her objectives has attracted broad public sympathy but yesterday her third wish divided the medical community and set a leading sexual health charity on a collision course with the NHS cancer screening service over the age at which screening should start. Marie Stopes International used Goody's case to bring pressure on the NHS cervical screening programme in England to lower the age of the first smear test from 25 to 20, to bring it into line with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

"The high-profile case of Jade Goody shows this disease is a potential threat. Certain lifestyle choices which are increasingly common among younger women and teenage girls, such as smoking and having unprotected sex at an earlier age can increase the risk of developing cervical abnormalities. Bringing screening for English women into line with the rest of the UK can only be beneficial," said Liz Davies, Marie Stopes director for UK and Europe. A spokesman for Marie Stopes said most other countries with screening programmes, within and outside the UK, started at 20 or even earlier. "Our main point is that England sits alone in terms of the developed world. To fly in the face of what everyone else does is arrogant and odd. It suggests there is an economic reason here – cost is always an issue with the NHS."...more

Criticizing the Pope

Today's New York Times published an article criticizing several decisions made by Pope Benedict.  You could say that the NYT is a Jewish newspaper - so you can't expect it to be fair to a Catholic Pope.  But looking back over time, the paper hasn't usually been so negative - expect when discussing Pope Pius XII, who publicly refused to help Jews trying to escape the Holocaust.

Some of my colleagues are telling me that Benedict is only trying to get the Church to adapt to a new reality - not take it back a few centuries (as it may seem).  Perhaps I should be more forgiving, but I am wary of just about anyone who was in the Hitler youth movement, who in later life was the the director of what used to be called the Holy Office of the Inquisition.

The election of Benedict is a reflection of the growing conservatism throughout the western world - Maybe the next Pope will be more like Obama (not that Obama is perfect, but at least he doesn't have such a shady past).

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Amid Scandals, Questions of Where the Pope’s Focus Lies

New York Times
By RACHEL DONADIO and NICHOLAS KULISH
Published: February 16, 2009

ROME — Close on the heels of the pope’s rehabilitation of a group of schismatic bishops, including one who denied the Holocaust, a second scandal has compounded a debate within the church over whether Pope Benedict XVI’s focus on doctrine and his perceived insensitivity to political tone are alienating mainstream Catholics and undermining the church’s moral authority.

Pope Benedict XVI drew criticism when he appointed a priest known for provocative statements for a post in Austria.

On Sunday, a priest known for such provocative statements as blaming the sins of New Orleanians for Hurricane Katrina asked the pope to rescind his appointment as an auxiliary bishop in Austria.

The affairs have engendered a storm of criticism of the church hierarchy and led to frantic efforts to mollify angry and confused parishioners around the globe, while the latest controversy has raised concerns that the actions could be part of a disturbing pattern.

The Vatican expert George Weigel, in a recent essay in First Things, an American religion journal, criticized the Vatican for its “chaos, confusion and incompetence.”

In Vienna on Monday, 10 Austrian bishops convened a crisis session to deal with the fallout. Erich Leitenberger, a spokesman for the Vienna Archdiocese, said church officials around the country had been inundated with letters, phone calls and e-mail messages, including from parishioners saying they were leaving the church.

Austria, a majority-Catholic country with a complicated Nazi past, had been reeling from the pope’s revocation of the excommunication of four schismatic bishops from the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X, including Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied the existence of the Nazi gas chambers as well as the scale and genocidal intent of the Holocaust.

While that firestorm was still raging, Benedict ignited another by appointing the Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner, known for his Katrina comment and for saying that homosexuality was curable, as the auxiliary bishop of Linz...more

The Crooks in the U.S. Army

Robert J. Stein

While the Republicans are complaining that we are wasting too much money on the economic stimulus package, more news is coming out about how billions of dollars were embezzled by our own U.S. military officers.

Why isn't House Republican Leader John Boehner screaming about how this money was wasted?  All the more reason to think the Republican stink over the recent bill is only partisan game playing.

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A 'fraud' bigger than Madoff
Senior US soldiers investigated over missing Iraq reconstruction billions

By Patrick Cockburn in Sulaimaniyah, Northern Iraq
Monday, 16 February 2009

In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme.

"I believe the real looting of Iraq after the invasion was by US officials and contractors, and not by people from the slums of Baghdad," said one US businessman active in Iraq since 2003.

In one case, auditors working for SIGIR discovered that $57.8m was sent in "pallet upon pallet of hundred-dollar bills" to the US comptroller for south-central Iraq, Robert J Stein Jr, who had himself photographed standing with the mound of money. He is among the few US officials who were in Iraq to be convicted of fraud and money-laundering....more

see "Former U.S. Official in Iraq to Plead Guilty to Corruption," New York Times, February 1, 2009

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Some DREAMers are Lucky - What about the rest?

There is talk that the DREAM Act will come up sometime this year.  I remember that Obama said it would happen in the first 100 days of his administration.  I guess he is otherwise occupied now.  

There is lots of movement behind the scenes.  DREAMers all over the country are meeting and planning.  Unfortunately, you wouldn't know there is much immigration work being done from reading American newspapers.  It seems to have become an invisible cause, except in the New York Times.  While the NYT is not my favorite newspaper, I have to say, they have been at it almost daily.  Today they published an article on a DREAMer who got his green card, and another on day workers in New Orleans.

I can't say that the NYT is more progressive than the rest.  Maybe at the moment they see that the bigger economic picture has to include immigrant workers.  The rest of the country seems to be shrinking back (not just the U.S., but in the U.K. as well).  We are so worried about ourselves we haven't been able to look past the payment we just missed.  

Truly it is a disastrous situation.  So many thousands of people losing their jobs and homes has become the national tragedy of the 21st century.  But if we really want to make things better we need to give the same attention to the Ponzi schemes; the huge fraud concerning the Iraq rebuilding mission, and the lax way we deal with white-collar criminals.  This may sound like retribution to some.  It may be.  But it would also bring in some reality to our world, where everyday people lose everything for making the mistake of signing on to the wrong mortgage, but a guy that bilks his own sister for millions of dollars gets to stay under house arrest with his own friendly guards.

Beyond this, we need to focus on DREAMers again.  We have to try and convince those who don't understand that a DREAMer with a green card brings prosperity and a great work ethic to America's professional labor force.  If only DREAMers could be provided the same chance that Madoff was so easily given.

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Facing Graduation, Not Deportation
New York Times
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: February 15, 2009

Three years ago, Amadou Ly was a shy East Harlem high school student with a secret. He quickly became front-page news when his robotics team unexpectedly won a spot in the national finals in Atlanta, but he could not board a plane because he lacked government identification.

Amadou Ly, 21, his legal residency secured, is embarking on a career in show business.

Born in Senegal, Amadou had been abandoned in New York at 14 by his mother, who wanted him to try to finish an American education. At 18, he was facing deportation as an illegal immigrant, with no way to attend the college where he had been admitted.

But by the time he arrived at the robotics competition by train, the response to an article in The New York Times had unleashed a news media whirlwind that brought members of Congress, Hollywood stars and volunteer lawyers to his side. They persuaded immigration authorities to drop deportation proceedings and grant him a foreign student visa to stay and study in the United States.

Now that happy ending has been eclipsed by another: Mr. Ly secured a juvenile green card just before his 21st birthday this month, thanks to his legal helpers and obscure changes in New York State law that extended the age of eligibility.

He is on track to graduate in June from Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, after struggling to pay tuition because as a foreign student he could not work more than 20 hours a week...more

A biography of Jim Crow

Jim Crow was actually a set of rules that kept segregation in place in different parts of the United States. A solid explanation of this unfortunate period in U.S. history is given in the book The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C.Van Woodward.

While I was working on my book Cemeteries of Ambivalent Desire, I found a University of Texas PhD dissertation from 1932 that describes an incident from the times of Reconstruction.  The wife of Black Texas Legislator Walter Burton attempted to ride in the "white" section of a train.  She was literally kicked off of the train while it was moving.  The author of the dissertation agreed this was a good thing, even though she was writing about it over fifty years later.

The dissertation was written by Abigail Curlee in 1932.  It was titled "A Study of Texas Plantations, 1822-1865."

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The enemies of Jim Crow
By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist / February 15, 2009

SOMETHING to ponder during Black History Month: In the long night that followed Reconstruction, what was the engine that drove Jim Crow? Did segregationist laws codify existing social practice, or was it the laws themselves that segregated the South?

Many people might intuitively assume that Southern racism had led to entrenched public segregation long before Southern legislatures made it mandatory. Not so. Separate facilities for blacks and whites were not routine in the South until the early 20th century. Racism there surely was, but as C. Vann Woodward observed in "The Strange Career of Jim Crow," the idea of separating the races in places of public accommodation initially struck many white Southerners as daft. In 1898, the editor of South Carolina's oldest and most conservative newspaper, the Charleston News and Courier, responded to a proposal for segregated railroad cars with what was meant to be scathing ridicule:

"If we must have Jim Crow cars on the railroads, there should be Jim Crow . . . passenger boats," he wrote. "Moreover, there should be Jim Crow waiting saloons at all stations, and Jim Crow eating houses . . . There should be Jim Crow sections of the jury box, and a separate Jim Crow dock and witness stand in every court - and a Jim Crow Bible for colored witnesses to kiss."

Tragically, what the Charleston editor intended as mockery would soon become reality across the South - "down to and including the Jim Crow Bible," as Woodward noted. But it wasn't an overwhelming grassroots demand for segregation that institutionalized Jim Crow. It was government, often riding roughshod over the objection of private-sector entrepreneurs... more

Arpaio and the pink underwear

U.S. Reps. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Jerrold Nadler of New York, Zoe Lofgren of California and Robert Scott of Virginia have requested an (long needed) investigation of Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.  They sent letters which included a request for DHS Director Janet Napolitano to investigate Arpaio for racial profiling.  

New York Times:

"The letters came more than a week after Sheriff Arpaio, who has attracted widespread publicity for requiring inmates to wear pink underwear and by starring in a new reality television show, provoked an outcry when he marched 200 illegal immigrant inmates in the streets from one jail to another “tent city” facility."

see dreamacttexas post "The Chain Gang of the 21st Century," February 6, 2009

see "4 in Congress request probe of Arpaio's policies," azfamily.com, AP, February 13, 2009

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Lawmakers Want Look at Sheriff in Arizona
New York Times
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: February 13, 2009

Members of Congress asked the Justice and Homeland Security Departments on Friday to investigate accusations that the sheriff who presides over the Phoenix metropolitan area has engaged in a pattern of racial profiling and other abuses against Latino residents.

The members of Congress also asked the Homeland Security Department, now headed by Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor, to reassess its agreement with the sheriff that allows deputies trained by the department to check the immigration status of detainees.

Four members of the House Judiciary Committee, including the chairman, John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, raised of concerns about the sheriff, Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County...

Sean Smith, a spokesman for Ms. Napolitano, who has been friendly with the sheriff but as governor had also expressed concerns about some of his tactics, said she had already ordered a review of the program, known as 287(g), which allows immigration officials to train and work with dozens of local law enforcement agencies.

“Because of the questions about how 287(g) agreements are administered, and if uniform standards are being applied, Secretary Napolitano has asked for a review of the entire program,” Mr. Smith said in a statement. He would not to respond to the lawmakers’ other concerns.

The review, ordered Jan. 30, is due Feb. 20. In addition, the Government Accountability Office is investigating the program and plans to release a report in early March, a spokesman said...more

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The Tragedy of Jean Charles de Menezes

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It reminds me of the trial in Simi Valley California, when the officers who savagely beat Rodney King were exonerated.  Now, it has happened in the U.K.  The two officers who shot Menezes at a London subway station will not be prosecuted.

The officers thought Menezes was a terrorist - it wasn't long after the subway bombings of July 7 -  But there are many conflicting accounts.  The Washington Post states:

...passengers who witnessed the shooting testified that the police did not identify themselves and that de Menezes did nothing suspicious.

"Although there were some inconsistencies in what the officers said at the inquest, there were also inconsistencies in what passengers had said," O'Doherty said. "A jury could not be sure that any officer had deliberately given a false account of events."

The de Menezes family, which has waged a public campaign to hold the police to account for the shooting, reacted angrily to Friday's decision.

"We are all in shock and simply cannot understand how the deliberate killing of an innocent man and an attempt by the Metropolitan police to cover it up does not result in a criminal offence," said a statement issued by Vivian Figuierdo, a cousin of de Menezes.

"The inquest put the truth out there for all the public to see, but the authorities want us to forget the truth to stop us getting justice," Figuierdo said in the statement. "But we will never forget."..more

Bush Leftovers

The NYT today published an article and an editorial on immigration policy from the Bush administration.

Did you know that 100,000 who have been deported have children who are American citizens?  Think about it, if each person has at least 2 - that adds up to 200,000 children.  As the NYT notes, anti-immigrationist Mike Krikorian thinks that is just tough (I give the paper credit for at least saying who this guy is -  other papers don't do that).

If you worry about crime, and delinquency, and high school drop outs, then worry about those 200,000 kids.  

See "100,000 parents of citizens deported over 10 years," New York Times, February 14, 2009

Then there is our nasty Attorney General Michael Mukasey- who (I'm sure under orders) ruled that "immigrants have no constitutional right to effective legal representation in deportation hearings"

"Deportation and Due Process," New York Times, February 14, 2009, see dreamacttexas post  "Last Kick in the face by Bush - Immigration, January 13, 2009 

report by Department of Homeland Security on deported parents of U.S. citizens:

100,000 Deportations

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Think before you criticize

In typical form, we are finding so many faults with Barack Obama.  He hasn't doesn't it well enough, should have had more control over the economic stimulus bill.  We are also saying that Michelle Obama doesn't have enough fashion taste (she looks ok to me, but then I'm not a fashion designer).  Please!  Why is it so important to look at what we think are the defects?

Is it part of the old "we hate the boss" syndrome?  Obama is not perfect, but my goodness, what a difference from his predecessor.  We should be thankful that W's reign of terror is over.

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Rupert Cornwell: Don't believe the critics – Obama is off to a good start

For once a US politician is treating his electorate as grown-ups
London Independent
Friday, 13 February 2009


He hasn't waved a magic wand and solved the economic crisis. Since his inauguration barely three weeks ago – an interval that already feels in some ways like three years – Wall Street has tumbled further. The right accuses him of being a socialist, the left complains he's too centrist. Elements of both say he's ill-prepared and naïve. "Amateur Hour", blared a headline in The Washington Post, summing up a widespread first impression of the 44th president at work.

The truth is rather different. Mercifully, the giddy euphoria of victory is no more. Inevitably, in febrile hyperventilating Washington, DC, the pendulum has now swung towards disappointment. In truth however Barack Obama has got off to a good start. Events may yet derail him, but the promise of his presidency is no less now than it was on that 4 November night in Chicago's Grant Park, when all things seemed possible.

Inside his first fortnight, he signed two important pieces of legislation, one establishing equality of pay for men and women, the other expanding health care to 4 million uninsured children. And now the amateur president has secured Congressional approval for an $800bn economic stimulus bill, the largest such measure in American history.

The process wasn't pretty. But such things rarely are – least of all when the Republican opposition is out to test him. But Obama got more or less what he wanted, as even the most diehard Republicans realised that the party could only ignore 4 November's message at its peril.

Thus far, Obama in government has almost exactly resembled the Obama on display during the general election campaign. His decisions have been those of a pragmatist who rejects the extremes, convinced of the power of reason and common sense to prevail. Thus, to the anger of the left, he has rejected any witchhunt into the transgressions of the Bush administration, believing it is more important to confront the future than to rake over the past...more

The Price of Recruiting

This is a very serious situation.  If the recruiters are committing suicide, what does that mean for the recruited in Iraq and Afghanistan? 

Lets hope that this will be another Rumsfeld leftover that Obama can address.  

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Army recruiters describe nightmare of job
By LINDSAY WISE Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Feb. 12, 2009, 11:46PM


Staff Sgt. Daren Stewart remembers driving down a rural road in Arkansas and thinking how easy it would be to jerk the wheel and flip his car into a ditch.

The 27-year-old Iraq war veteran says he wasn’t suicidal. He just figured that injuring himself was the only way he could get any time off from his job as an Army recruiter.

“I would rather spend three years straight in Iraq, without coming home, without a break, than ever be a recruiter again,” said Stewart, who recruited in Hot Springs, Ark., from 2005 to 2008.

Five-hundred miles away in Houston, the suicides of four Army recruiters from a single battalion have focused lawmakers and veterans advocates on the enormous stress endured by soldiers tasked with refilling the ranks of the all-volunteer military during wartime.

In response to the deaths, the Army will suspend all recruiting nationwide Friday to focus on leadership training, suicide prevention and the health of its 8,900 recruiters. The Army Inspector General also is examining working conditions throughout U.S. Army Recruiting Command.

In interviews with the Houston Chronicle, current and former recruiters and their relatives from 10 of the Army’s 38 recruiting battalions detailed their own experiences in a job long considered one of the military’s toughest. They said the exhausting hours, degrading treatment and toxic command climate reported in Houston were not isolated incidents, but deep-rooted, widespread problems that have affected recruiters across the country for years.

Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley of U.S. Army Accessions Command said soldiers have a right to complain, but in visits to recruiting stations, he has encountered a very positive, sensitive command climate.

“I’m not going to ask for anecdotal information because I’ve been in the Army 33 years and if I walk into a unit and ask what is wrong, I get an earful, but when I ask what is good, I get balance,” said Freakley, whose command oversees USAREC.

At the strip mall in Hot Springs where Daren Stewart worked, however, most of the recruiters were on antidepressants or antianxiety medication.

They worked 12- to 14-hour shifts, six or seven days a week, Stewart said. Commanders cursed, humiliated and screamed at soldiers who fell short of monthly quotas, threatening to ruin their careers or withhold time off with loved ones, he said...more

Fraud vs Terrorism -

Can you imagine how much sooner Bernie Madoff would have been caught if the FBI focused on fraud more than terrorism? We have spent so much time trying to catch the phantom terrorist that we have let our financial system run wild.

It looks like the FBI may have finally caught on. If they would have looked for guys like Madoff as hard as they shake the rest of us down at airports, maybe the mortgage debacle wouldn't have happened.

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FBI may shift counterterror agents to anti-fraud


By DEVLIN BARRETT
The Associated Press/Washington Post
Wednesday, February 11, 2009; 6:05 PM

WASHINGTON -- With thousands of fraud investigations under way, the FBI is considering shifting agents away from counterterrorism work to help sort through the wreckage of the financial meltdown.

FBI Deputy Director John Pistole told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the bureau may reassign some of the positions that were reallocated to anti-terrorism work after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks...more

The Streets of Monterrey

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon

"Cerro de la Silla"

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It started Monday night (Feb. 9). Groups of young people, some with small children tagging along took over the main streets of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. The main thoroughfares of the city were completely stopped for over 3 hours. The police did little the first night. The second night they arrested one person. The third night there were a few arrests but they were immediately let go and showed up at another thoroughfare. They started early in the the day this morning - this is the fourth day.

The media says its the ZETAs organizing to confront abuses by the Mexican Army. One person was arrested, said to have lots of guns. They say that the protestors are being paid 200-500 pesos for taking part.

The U.S. newspapers haven't covered it yet. They are more concerned with the multiple multiple murders throughout the country. Today, a high official with the Monterrey police department was murdered. Yesterday, twenty one people were killed in a shoot out in the city of Chihuahua in northwest Mexico.

Since I was in Monterrey this week I chanced being caught in the fray. But I was lucky. The only night I was out, my friend suggested we take an alternate route when we saw that Constitution was backed up. Thank goodness I listened to her. We were home in no time. Other family members took almost 2 hours.

The police say they haven't taken an aggressive stance because there children are taking part in the blockades. As of yesterday afternoon, the only city official making public statements was the Director of Transportation.

There seems to be concern, but the rest of Mexico must think this is small stuff. There are so many executions and (literally) heads rolling around that this must seem like nothing. Road blockages have happened before, by teachers demanded (justly needed) raises, or protests about economic issues. This time its different, a road blockage that is sponsored and encouraged by a narco group is a loud statement that is going out to Monterrey and Nuevo Leon-- the Zetas have power. Its may be an unofficial power, but it is very present.

Mexico is not ready to produce an Elliot Ness. I wish it would. I used to go to Monterrey several times per year. I just can't do that anymore.

I have a special feeling for the city.  My first book,  Delirio: the Fantastic the Demonic and the Reel.  The Buried History of Nuevo Leon, is about Monterrey.

see "Confirma Nati que grupos del crimen estan detras de bloqueos," Milenio.com, February 12, 2009

100,000 Visits for Dream Act Texas!!!

dreamacttexas reached 100,000 visits shortly after midnight last night. From July 12, 2007 to February 11, 2009 -- 100,000 people have check out our blog. Its amazing how things happen sometimes. Never in our wildest dreams did we think the blog would be so successful.

Thanks again, and keep reading!

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Obama's first press conference

It is refreshing to see our national leader so confident and precise as he speaks to us. He can't solve all our problems, but at least he will make a sincere effort to avoid destroying us.

For those that think the stimulus package will pull us too far into debt... what about the debt caused by the Iraq War? Few were worried about the debt when Congress kept authorizing more and more money.

link to video of entire Obama press conference

Al Capone and Monterrey

I am in Mexico today. In the city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. I used to live here for a while, in the late 1990s. It was a great three years that I was here so often it felt more like home than Houston. I used to get excited as I was driving into the city, when I saw the famed "Cerro de la Silla" -- Saddleback Mountain. I think being here changed my life. I think that any Mexican American who is truly curious about themselves should live in Mexico for a while. There is no experience that compares.

This time I didn't come for research or for fun. The patriarch of the family I lived with is gravely ill. I needed to come see him while he could still talk to me.

For a few years after I completed my research I used to come every few months. Then the trips were not as often. I started a new project. I had family obligations.

A few days ago I received the phone call that Abuelito was gravely ill (that is what my daughter calls him. She was in high school while we stayed at his house).

I couldn't think straight after I heard he was doing so badly. Sunday I took the earliest Continental flight. I no longer drive the car here. The 10 hours is just getting too hard. As I was packing I realized that when an academic does her research she initiates life long relationships. You don't spend so much time with a family and then say bye-bye when your book is published. Even so, the book wasn't about the family per se. It was about Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and the stories the family used to tell me.

One of the reasons I had not been here in years was crime. The family lived in another apartment the last time I was here in 2007. A policeman was murdered a few blocks away a few weeks after I left. Now that I am here, I read the newspaper and find article after article about Mexico's violence. This is not the moment for me to analyze why there are so many killings. I just wish there was something that could be done.

From what my friends tell me, it sounds like Chicago during the years of Al Capone. There are protection rackets, accusations of high level government involvement and the ongoing (and true) accusation that U.S. drug consumers are feeding this frenzy.

You can say the Zetas and other narco groups are real monsters, and it is true that much of what they do is horrible. But I can't believe they are individuals that have always been so unfeeling. There are too many to imagine this whole world was so murderous. I believe much of this is related to the dire economic conditions in Mexico. There is not much many people can to do survive. Since so many can no longer go to the U.S., they have to stay here and find another way. It is unfortunate the solution has been so bloody.

Arlen Specter and the Stimulus Package

A respected Republican saying why he is for the stimulus package. Things are desperate. We need to act soon.

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Why I Support the Stimulus Package
By Arlen Specter
Washington Post
Monday, February 9, 2009; Page A17

I am supporting the economic stimulus package for one simple reason: The country cannot afford not to take action.

The unemployment figures announced Friday, the latest earnings reports and the continuing crisis in banking make it clear that failure to act will leave the United States facing a far deeper crisis in three or six months. By then the cost of action will be much greater -- or it may be too late.

Wave after wave of bad economic news has created its own psychology of fear and lowered expectations. As in the old Movietone News, the eyes and ears of the world are upon the United States. Failure to act would be devastating not just for Wall Street and Main Street but for much of the rest of the world, which is looking to our country for leadership in this crisis.

The legislation known as the "moderates" bill, hammered out over two days by Sens. Susan Collins, Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman and myself, preserves the job-creating and tax relief goals of President Obama's stimulus plan while cutting less-essential provisions -- many of them worthy in themselves -- that are better left to the regular appropriations process.
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Our $780 billion bill would save or create up to 4 million jobs, helping to offset the loss of 3.6 million jobs since December 2007. The bill cuts some $110 billion from the $890 billion Senate version, which would actually be $940 billion if floor amendments for tax credits on home and car purchases and money for the National Institutes of Health are retained.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the proposed cuts "do violence to what we are trying to do for the future," especially on education. Her objections are a warning to conservatives that more cuts would be unlikely to win House approval. They are also an admission of the high price that moderates have been able to extract for their support of stimulus legislation.

If a stimulus bill doesn't pass, there won't be any money for Title I education programs. The moderates' bill provides marginally less money for Title I than the House and Senate bills. But while it's less than supporters want, this proverbial half a loaf beats no loaf by a mile...more

Dream Act Texas Blog at 99,000 Visits

We are almost at 100,000.  Amazing.  Thank you again for your support.

Bushies have no room to talk, especially Gonzalez

The Bush team has been disparaging Obama's new administration.  This however is no surprise.  The Bush administration was not known for being nice (although they surprised us with how "polite" they were during the transition).  The transition is over now and its time to take out their claws.  With all the problems the Bushies caused, and how incompetent many of them looked (especially Alberto Gonzalez) they really should stay quiet.

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Bush White House Cast Assails Obama
But Ex-President Has Held His Tongue

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 7, 2009; Page A04

Richard B. Cheney says President Obama's policies will make it easier for terrorists to kill Americans. Alberto R. Gonzales says the new attorney general could be undermining the morale of U.S. intelligence officials.

And Andrew H. Card Jr., George W. Bush's first chief of staff, took Obama to task for allowing shirtsleeves and loose collars in the Oval Office -- arguing that they are a clear departure from Bush's sterner sartorial rules...more

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The Eyes of Pope Benedict

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Who would believe Richard Williamson, if he, a Holocaust denier, recants his views on the holocaust, after having professed for years that it didn't happen.  Could Williamson really change his mind just because the Pope says so?  Probably not.

A recent newspaper article described a Pope that doesn't think much of public relations.  I disagree.  This man is very intelligent.  He knew what was going to happen, as he did when he said Muslims were evil.  With this type of rhetoric he is seeking to isolate the church and build up the boundaries around it, protecting it from "heathen" religions that do not believe in the primacy of Christ.  In this global society where religion no longer knows national boundaries, this may not be the best way to go.

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see "Vatican in crises over bishop who denies the holocaust," London Guardian, February 5, 2009.

The pope must heal this wound
London Guardian
For SSPX, suspicion of the Jews remains a collective commitment rather than the rantings of a rogue individual

o Francis Davis
o guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 February 2009 17.00 GMT

The Pope has today ordered the ultra-conservative "Bishop" Williamson of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), to publicly recant his holocaust denials.

However, the questions now raised over the pope's own views and authenticity are so intense that such an act will not be adequate. For the Society of St Pius X, from which Williamson comes, suspicion of the Jews remains a collective commitment rather than the rantings of a rogue individual.

The pope "acted alone" in rehabilitation SSPX, said one of his top cardinals. The "Vatican bureaucracy is not up to the job" said another. The German Catholic bishops, who often do not see eye to eye, were scandalised. Globally, some bishops' conferences have twisted, turned and trimmed to defend his stand but in private there has been a furious flurry of complaints running back to Rome.

If the pope did not, as his spokesman has said, know that these issues were still outstanding, then there should not be a problem with him issuing a full condemnation, not only of holocaust denial but also of all varieties of Catholicism which continue to give succour to antisemitic principles and movements. In this sense, the debate is not simply about whether SSPX accepts the Second Vatican Council – I'm too young to even worry about that one – but whether a pope who has brought Catholic tensions to the surface with such style is now willing to affirm that the spectre of racism is a sin to be routed out wherever it is found.

A pilgrimage of penance, arm in arm with "Bishop" Williamson and his brother "bishops" would be in order – perhaps to Jerusalem, which all the great faiths judge to be holy. Maybe then a pastoral visit to the US where many legitimate pro-life concerns have been turned by some Catholics into a muted code for abhorrence of the idea of a black president. Then, perhaps, a journey to Herzegovina to finally bring to account the rogue province of Franciscans that peddle an extremist nationalism as spirituality...more

Racial Profiling in the Los Angeles Police Dept

LAPD has for years been reputed to practice racial profiling (as many other police departments).  Today the LA Times is saying a list of officers accused of racial profiling was "mistakenly" posted on the web. It was quickly taken down, but here is an official report from the ACLU.

Remember Rodney King? A video of how he was beaten by LAPD is post below the ACLU report.
LAPD Racial Profiling Report - ACLU

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Rodney King video - caution graphic images of violence on this video

Should you paint your room Blue today?

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A study has come out that tells us if we work in a BLUE room, we are more creative; if we work in a RED room, we are more precise and remember things better.  

Today I have to work on an essay I plan to publish.  I wonder if hanging blue fabric on the wall will be enough

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Scientific study reveals the different effects that colours have on the brain
By Steve Connor
London Independent
Friday, 6 February 2009


Blue, associated with a clear sky or an open ocean, is the colour of calmness, and peace. It encourages us to think outside the box

Paint it red if you want attention to detail, paint it blue to prompt creative thinking. This is the conclusion of a study into how colour is likely to spark the various passions and sensibilities of the human mind.

Scientists who monitored the performance of more than 600 people as they underwent a battery of psychological tests found that red stimulated a person's attentiveness, whereas blue fertilised the imagination and inspired a more risk-taking attitude.

The researchers found that the study's subjects were unaware of the effect that colour had on their thinking, and suggest that the findings could be used for anything from designing the interior decoration of a school or university to the marketing of products and services...more

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A New Direction for the U.S. Dept. of Interior

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Photo from the Denver Post

Sheriff Arpaio may be doing things the same (or worse) in Phoenix (see dream act post "The Chain Gang of the 21st Century") but our new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has taken the U.S. Department of Interior to an ethical and respectable place.  According to the NYT he cancelled "oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of public land in Utah."

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New York Times
Editorial
Ken Salazar’s New Deal

Published: February 5, 2009

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s first major decision — to cancel oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of public land in Utah — could not have sent a clearer signal that his department is under new management. It also was a strong indication that the Obama administration intends to take a more measured approach to energy exploration on the public lands and that its predecessor’s drill-now, drill-anywhere policies are a thing of the past...more

The Chain Gang of the 21st Century

We've found it in Arizona.  Yes, folks, there are men who think we need to go back in time -those  who think certain people do not deserve to be treated with dignity -  Our friendly Sheriff in Phoenix, Joe Arpaio has decided to do a remake of the film "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" minus the comedy.  He is recreating Parchman Farm, this time with undocumented immigrants.

film clip from "Oh Brother Where Art There"

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New York Times
Editorial
Arpaio’s America
Published: February 5, 2009

It has come to this: In Phoenix on Wednesday, more than 200 men in shackles and prison stripes were marched under armed guard past a gantlet of TV cameras to a tent prison encircled by an electric fence. They were inmates being sent to await deportation in a new immigrant detention camp minutes from the center of America’s fifth-largest city.
Skip to next paragraph

The judge, jury and exhibitioner of this degrading spectacle was the Maricopa County sheriff, Joe Arpaio, the publicity-obsessed star of a Fox reality show and the self-appointed scourge of illegal immigrants. Though he frequently and proudly insists that he answers to no one, except at election time, the sheriff is not an isolated rogue. As a participant in the federal policing program called 287(g), he is an official partner of the United States government in its warped crackdown on illegal immigration.

The immigration enforcement regime left by the Bush Administration is out of control. It is up to President Obama and the new secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, to rein it in and clean it up. This applies not just to off-the-rails deputies like Sheriff Arpaio, but to the federal enforcement agencies themselves.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol have been shown in recent news accounts to be botching their jobs. Border Patrol agents in California have accused supervisors of setting arrest quotas for undocumented immigrants, and a recent Migration Policy Institute study showed that a much-touted campaign of raids against criminal fugitives was a failure. It netted mostly the maids and laborers who are no reasonable person’s idea of a national threat...more

Houston Conference: Promoting Healthy Kids - Less diabetes and obesity

This is an upcoming conference that is very important. Just look around and see how many kids are overweight these days (don't look at yourselves, you might get depressed). I went to a store a few days ago (an outlet for an upscale retailer) and the biggest size for women was a 14. I thought to myself, most women over 30 won't fit into these clothes.

This is serious stuff. I have mentioned before in the blog that my colleague, and MD/PhD (from Harvard no less) that works at a lab in Cambridge UK told me that this generation will have a shorter lifespan than their parents. WHY? McDonalds, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Transfats -- that equal to diabetes, heart disease and an number of other problems.

If you go to the conference, try to talk the sponsors into diversifying into the production of soy milk (cow's milk is a big culprit when it comes to many diseases, believe it or not - later I'll post some scientific studies that prove this)

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Great Ideas Sought for Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools Summit





District asking for input to improve nutrition and physical-activity opportunities for HISD students
February 03, 2009
Healthy Kids Healthy
Schools Summit

Date: February 20 and 21, 2009

Time: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday; 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday

Location: Houston Club, 811 Rusk Ave., 77002

Detail: a meeting of hundreds of district stakeholders designed to generate ideas on how to improve nutrition and physical-activity opportunities for all HISD students



Questions: For more information, contact Summit Co-Chair Rose Haggerty at 713-556-6823 or rhaggert@houstonisd.org.

The Houston Independent School District, in partnership with almost two dozen other organizations, will be hosting its first ever Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools Summit (HKHS) on February 20 and 21, 2009.

Subtitled “Leveraging the Power of Our Community,” this invitation-only event is designed to gather ideas and feedback from the community about how to best improve nutrition and physical-activity opportunities for every child in HISD.

How can I help?

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TEACHERS (of middle- and high-school health and P.E. classes) are asked to encourage their students to participate by contributing to the online idea exchange.
*
STUDENTS are asked to share their experiences through the “Your Voices” section of the HKHS Web site through February 20. See flyer here (PDF ) for details.
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COMMUNITY MEMBERS are asked to contribute their best thinking here about what could make HISD schools the healthiest in the nation.

“We know there is a strong positive link between nutrition, physical activity, and academic success,” said Superintendent of Schools Abelardo Saavedra. “This summit is a ground-breaking opportunity for HISD to serve as a national model for leveraging the creativity, passion, and power of the total community in accelerating improvements in nutrition, physical education, and physical activity. This initiative provides the potential for a win-win-win scenario—for our students, schools, and the community.”

The Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools Summit is being generously underwritten by the National Dairy Council and Dairy MAX. Other partners are: Action for Healthy Kids, Baylor College of Medicine, CAN DO Houston, Children’s Defense Fund, City of Houston, Familias Latinas, Families Under Urban and Social Attack, Greater Houston Partnership, Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services, H-E-B Grocery, Houston Style Magazine, Houston Texans, Houston Wellness Association, Oliver Foundation, Steps to a Healthier Houston-Harris County Consortium, Texas Action for Healthy Kids, Texas Department of Agriculture, The Methodist Hospital, University of Texas Health Science Center, and YMCA of Greater Houston.

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DREAM Act Texas has passed 98,000

The 100,000 mark is almost here.  When I tell people how well the blog has done they are shocked.  How did it happen?  I wonder about that myself.

Was it the topic or topics?  Sitemeter tells us that lots of the people who visit are looking for information on DREAMers.  The posts on public health also seem to attract lots of attention.

Please let us know what type of posts would be more helpful to you.  The main purpose of this blog is to spread information about DREAMers, immigration, politics, and public health.  We all know that the media shapes what we think - lets use this form of communication for something that will really make a difference.

Homeland Security Gone Astray

Today's NYT reported that the Department of Homeland Security has gone out of control.  Maybe Napolitano can reign it in.  In the meantime, Sheriff Joe, back home in Arizona has come to believe that he lives in the Antebellum South (see Arapaio Moving Immigrants to Tent Cityhttp://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2009/02/03/20090203abrk-tentcity0203.html. The NYT obtained the information through the freedom of information act.  See the document posted below Nina Bernstein's article.

Also see dreamact post "What is DHS defining as criminal?" January 29, 2009

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Target of Immigrant Raids Shifted


By NINA BERNSTEIN

New York Times
Published: February 3, 2009

The raids on homes around the country were billed as carefully planned hunts for dangerous immigrant fugitives, and given catchy names like Operation Return to Sender.

And they garnered bigger increases in money and staff from Congress than any other program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even as complaints grew that teams of armed agents were entering homes indiscriminately.

But in fact, beginning in 2006, the program was no longer what was being advertised. Federal immigration officials had repeatedly told Congress that among more than half a million immigrants with outstanding deportation orders, they would concentrate on rounding up the most threatening — criminals and terrorism suspects.

Instead, newly available documents show, the agency changed the rules, and the program increasingly went after easier targets. A vast majority of those arrested had no criminal record, and many had no deportation orders against them, either.

Internal directives by immigration officials in 2006 raised arrest quotas for each team in the National Fugitive Operations Program, eliminated a requirement that 75 percent of those arrested be criminals, and then allowed the teams to include nonfugitives in their count.

In the next year, fugitives with criminal records dropped to 9 percent of those arrested, and nonfugitives picked up by chance — without a deportation order — rose to 40 percent. Many were sent to detention centers far from their homes, and deported...more

20090205_RAID_FINAL

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The BAD Three: FAIR, CIS, NumbersUSA

The Houston Chronicle and other newspapers from time to time quote what they designate as an "expert group" on immigration.  Groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA - are at times not revealed as anti-immigration, when in actually FAIR is in fact designated as a hate group.

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New SPLC Report: Three Leading Anti-Immigration Groups Share Extremist Roots

Southern Poverty Law Center

February 3, 2009

Three Washington, D.C., organizations most responsible for blocking comprehensive immigration reform in 2007 are part of a network of groups created by a man who has been at the heart of the white nationalist movement for decades, according to a report issued today by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Nativist Lobby: Three Faces of Intolerance describes how the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA were founded and funded by John Tanton, a retired Michigan ophthalmologist who operates a racist publishing company and has written that to maintain American culture, "a European-American majority" is required.

"These groups have infiltrated the mainstream by presenting themselves as legitimate commentators, when, in reality, they were all conceived by a man who is convinced that non-white immigrants threaten America," said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project. "They have never strayed far from their roots."

The report examines how Tanton, who still sits on FAIR's board of directors, founded the racist Social Contract Press and has corresponded with Holocaust deniers, white nationalist intellectuals and Klan lawyers for decades — correspondence documented by his own writings stored at a University of Michigan library.

It also shows that FAIR has been aware of his views and activities for years.

FAIR, whose members have testified frequently before Congress, has hired as key officials men who also joined white supremacist groups. It has promoted racist conspiracy theories. And it has even accepted more than $1 million from the Pioneer Fund, a racist foundation devoted to proving a connection between race and intelligence, the report found.

FAIR has been designated as a hate group by the SPLC.

The report also examines how the Center for Immigration Studies — which bills itself as a scholarly think tank — began its life as a FAIR program and continues to produce dubious studies furthering FAIR's anti-immigration agenda. It's a vision described by Tanton in a 1985 letter in which he wrote that CIS would produce reports "for later passage to FAIR, the activist organization, to remedy."

Similarly, NumbersUSA, a group that has achieved dramatic policy successes, began its life as a Tanton foundation program, the report found. NumbersUSA Executive Director Roy Beck has even been described by Tanton as his "heir apparent." He also edited The Immigration Invasion, a book by Tanton and a colleague that was so raw in its immigrant bashing that Canadian border authorities have banned it as hate literature.

complete report:

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splc_nativistlobby_022009

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The malleable face of Senator Gillibrand

New York's New Senator was a Tancredo clone when she was appointed a few days ago; by the next morning she was sounding like Ted Kennedy. Is she a good politician or just slippery?

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Political Lessons Taken on the Fly by Gillibrand

New York Times, by Michael Powell, February 2, 2009

... A Latina New York City councilwoman describes the senator’s views on immigration as insensitive, not to mention Paleolithic? Ms. Gillibrand gently holds her hand, peers up into her eyes and thanks her so much for sharing.

And so often now, Ms. Gillibrand stands ready to “evolve” — that decorous political verb of choice — on policy questions. At present, the senator is evolving at a particularly rapid rate on immigration, an issue on which she had favored tough enforcement. She now inclines to the view that “cowboy” tactics in immigration raids are uncivilized.

“These stories are terrible,” she said Monday morning at a meeting in Lower Manhattan with the Hispanic Federation, which represents major social service agencies. “It’s disturbing to who we are as Americans.”...more

Karl Rove: Will he tell, or not?

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Rove Will Cooperate With Federal Probe Into US Attorney Firings

Huffington Post

February 1, 2009

Karl Rove will cooperate with a federal criminal inquiry underway into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and has already spoken to investigators in a separate, internal DOJ investigation into the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, his attorney said in an interview...more

A couple of days before, in the Washington Post, Dan Froomkin wrote that President Bush had written letters saying that Rove should not testify. These letters were dated just before Obama took office:

"On Jan. 16, 2009, then White House Counsel Fred Fielding sent a letter to Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin. The message: should his client receive any future subpoenas, Rove 'should not appear before Congress' or turn over any documents relating to his time in the White House. The letter told Rove that President Bush was continuing to assert executive privilege over any testimony by Rove—even after he leaves office." (see article)

According to Froomkin, Peter Shane, a law professor at Ohio State University stated: 

"'To my knowledge, these [letters] are unprecedented,' said Peter Shane, an Ohio State University law professor who specializes in executive-privilege issues. 'I'm aware of no sitting president that has tried to give an insurance policy to a former employee in regard to post-administration testimony.' Shane likened the letter to Rove as an attempt to give his former aide a 'get-out-of-contempt-free card'."

It will be interesting to see how this pans out as Bush continues to surprise us, even after he's hiding away somewhere in Dallas.

Gracias: DREAM Act Texas is getting close to having 100,000 visits

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We have just hit over 97, 700 visits --- All this in only 18 months!   We want to thank you for visiting our site.

This blog is not affiliated with any commercial enterprise.  We do not advertise; we do not take donations.  We are particularly proud that we have done so well without the usual consumer ploys.  Our main goal is to distribute information about the DREAM Act, immigration in the United States and around the world, and other political and public health issues.

The next few days we will be writing about our upcoming 100, 000 mark. Thank you again.

Greeley CO: Undocumented Immigrants, Pay your taxes and get deported

The numerous people I know that have recently regularized are telling me that as they process their residency applications they have to show they have paid their taxes over the years.  This is a very important part of the process and can trip up someone's regularization.

In Greeley Colorado, the D.A. is using this information to deport people.  The Sheriff's office in Greeley is actually listing on its web site the names of the people arrested and detained. 

What can they do when their tax returns are being used to deport them? Where is our compassionate president?  I realized he is otherwise occupied by our economic crisis, but intensified pressure on immigration is often considered a central part of an economic downturn.  It's part of the same problem.

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Paying Taxes and Fearing Deportation

New York Times

February 2, 2009

by Dan Frosch

...Oct. 17... investigators with the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, armed with a search warrant, seized thousands of confidential tax returns from Ms. Cerrillo’s business. They told her they were looking for people with fraudulent Social Security numbers, commonly used by illegal immigrants to get work.

The seizure of the tax returns was the first step in a broad, continuing investigation, called Operation Number Games by local law enforcement officials. Sheriff John Cooke said his investigators had identified about 1,300 illegal immigrants who had filed tax returns bearing fake or stolen Social Security numbers. Many will face deportation proceedings.

Since October, 40 people have been arrested on identity theft or criminal impersonation charges. Sixty-five additional arrest warrants have been issued, and District Attorney Ken Buck said many more would be coming.

“I don’t care whether they are meth addicts or petty thieves or illegal immigrants,” Mr. Buck said. “What matters most to me is that they are committing felonies through identify theft.”

The campaign is causing concern at the I.R.S., which says illegal immigrants paid almost $50 billion in taxes from 1996 to 2003, and among immigrants’ rights groups, which call the operation a thinly disguised attempt to root out illegal immigrants.

Late last Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed a lawsuit in State District Court here arguing that by seizing and retaining confidential tax information, the Weld County authorities had violated privacy rights of thousands of taxpayers...more

Loving "Big Love" -- You've Got to Be Kidding

The New York Times' intellectual who tells us how we are supposed to think may have lost his marbles.  In today's paper he tells his readers that he really enjoys the TV show  --

“Big Love” is one of the few TV programs I look forward to watching. There are people to like. Likability is not highly prized on the small (or not so small) screen these days."

Why in the world would someone endorse a program about a polygamous family?  It is demeaning to women and gives the idea that it is ok that men have more than one wife.  He must not care that women in many countries have to deal with this (formally and informally - it is common knowledge that in Mexico, wealthy men are involved in unofficial poligamy) -  

Would a woman have written this column?

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Looking for Someone to Like by Stanley Fish, New York Times, February 2, 1009

Bill Clinton is Still a Star

Watching Bill Clinton work his magic at Davos

His rock-star status among world leaders, at a time when America's reputation is in tatters, shows the former president is a major asset to Barack Obama.

By Joe Conason

Salon.com  -  February 1, 2009

Putin greeted Clinton cordially as "our good friend" as they raised glasses of vodka and then listened to a few musical selections by a pianist and a violinist. But after the entertainment ended, the two former presidents moved to a table in a separate room, with their interpreter, behind a phalanx of Secret Service and Russian security agents. They talked intensely for nearly 90 minutes before rising and walking out together for a few pictures with partygoers.

Neither would comment on the substance of their discussion. But it was obvious that Clinton would not have participated in such a public encounter, witnessed by scores of people at the Putin party, unless the White House and the State Department had approved in advance. Perhaps encouraged by Putin's keynote address, in which he signaled a desire for better ties with the West, the Obama administration hopes to obtain greater Russian cooperation on issues such as the Iranian nuclear program.

For his part, Clinton will ignore the critics who denigrate him and continue to exercise his diplomatic skills on behalf of his country -- as he has done informally ever since he left the Oval Office. The warm reception in Davos suggested that he can help a new and popular president rebuild the prestige squandered so recklessly by his predecessor...

for complete article

Who is James Pinkerton?

James Pinkerton writes for the Houston Chronicle and other newspapers.  He also works for Fox news.  He worked in the Bush I and Reagan Administrations and was one of the main architects of the Willie Horton calamity that pushed Dukakis to lose the presidential election of  1988 - he also brought racism to the front of our national politics - by demonizing Dukakis who had instituted a furlough program  for prison inmates.  Horton, who actually went by William (Pinkerton and his colleagues changed his name to Willie to make him look more "lowdown") was furloughed and committed a violent crime soon after his release.  This of course was a tragedy, but a worse tragedy was how Pinkerton and other Republican minions blew the Horton case into a national story - pushing racial politics back a few decades or more (see "Willie Horton & Me" - link is below).

Today's NYT editorial on nativists and immigration mentions Pinkerton as one of the players.  Although some people had been telling me that the Houston Chronicle is not as right wing as it used to be, finding out who Pinkerton really is, makes me think that the Chronicle may still be in the 1950s.  It makes sense that the Houston suburbs are so strongly Republican.  What do you  expect if they are reading the work of someone like Pinkerton?

I write about Pinkerton because I see his articles from time to time, and have noted their slant to the right.  Lately he has written with Susan Carroll who also is writing such anti-immigrant fluff that some of my colleagues will no longer speak to her.  

Maybe Houston's newspaper thinks that it will continue to be solvent in these bad times by pandering to hate.  They need to be careful.  Remember what happened to so many of the Republicans in Congress.  

see "Willie Horton & Me," by Antony Walton, New York Times, August 20, 1989

see "Anti-Immigrant Electoral Campaign "The New Willie Horton" Rooted in Old Racism," -  by Roberto Novato, Huffington Post, November 7, 2007

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Editorial
The Nativists are Restless
New York Times
February 1, 2009

...Last week at the National Press Club in Washington, a group seeking to speak for the future of the Republican Party declared that its November defeats in Congressional races stemmed not from having been too hard on foreigners, but too soft.

The group, the American Cause, released a report arguing that anti-immigration absolutism was still the solution for the party’s deep electoral woes, actual voting results notwithstanding. Rather than “pander to pro-amnesty Hispanics and swing voters,” as President Bush and Karl Rove once tried to do, the report’s author, Marcus Epstein, urged Republicans to double down on their efforts to run on schemes to seal the border and drive immigrants out...

...What was perhaps more notable than the report itself was the team that delivered it. It included Bay Buchanan, former adviser to Representative Tom Tancredo and sister of Pat, who founded the American Cause and wrote “State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America.” She was joined by James Pinkerton, an essayist and Fox News contributor who, as an aide to the first President Bush, took credit for the racist Willie Horton ads run against Michael Dukakis...more