Posts with the tag immigration

a young americans letter to barrack obama

Kristian from Longmont, CO — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:30:38 EDT

may be in run on mode.. but w/e

From: Kristian Hemker

Longmont, Co.

To: Barack Obama

From: A concerned youth in America

Dear Mr. Obama,

I have recently heard of your Nobel peace prize and I have one thing to say. The humble thing to do regarding the prize would be to turn it down and not be the publicity whore you have been all through your campaign. What we need from you isn’t uselessly accepting baseless award and accolades, but rather a Man, people will be able to look back on and say “he said he was going to change America, and he did.” As a 21 year old American I have seen all of the games and ploys of the political politicians and the rise and dashing of many hopes. I’m for the war in Iraq and I wish the people knew what good we were actually bringing those people. I have asked many “Democrats” “what is a democrat?” to which no one could answer. I have also asked people if they think Iraq is in better or worse shape since we have been there… and I have e yet to find a satisfactory answer from your party. I currently think we live in a one party system where private interests run the show behind the scenes and the political “debates” (if you can even call them that) are just a giant farce. I am a Libertarian and I know that capitalism isn’t all good and socialism isn’t all bad. Capitalism is the only form of economy that provides actual opportunity to gain wealth on your own merit, and individualism like that isn’t possible in a society that gives everyone everything they need. Americans are far too comfortable and stupid to understand the complex systems which control our economy. and schooling is almost impossible to afford in such hard economic times when you barely make middle class wages. The invisible inflation of costs in the housing markets is over rampant. I live in Colorado where those who have no skills lose jobs and those without jobs can’t afford the education for themselves let alone their families. I would like to also note the famous phrase “a government that can give you everything you need can take it all away.” So I think we need a drastic overhaul of Education and Welfare services. As far as the immigration issue is concerned I don’t think we need a second language but if they are willing to enter the “cultural melting pot” then I think amnesty isn’t a horrible idea. I think that Americans are far too comfortable and the low class can make more off of welfare then they can working at a local business. I would urge you to take these things into consideration because its my future and your children’s future not the ruling elite. I didn’t vote for you because I wanted to vote for Ron Paul but he didn’t get the nomination so I voted for Bob Barr, Because I believe that having too much control in both the house and senate doesn’t lead to rational discussion, but rather a comfortable arena to cater to private interests.. And I would also say that the billions of dollars of tax revenue you printed are going to destroy the middle class. I think we need a national minimum wage with a maximum housing limit. I don’t think that the government can solve all my problems so i am going to apply for government aid to start college in January for a “structural engineering and technology of applied science”, and try to get as many certifications as possible. What the country needs is not hand outs or government aid but Oportunity. And I think what they need you of you now is not the politician but the Man, Father, Husband, and intellectually honest person, I know you can be. This whole letter might fall on deaf ears but at least I had my say. I really hope you actually read this all the way through and took it into consideration despite my age. I am off to get my brother from a correctional facility because some of your “peace officers” arrested him while he was helping my grandmother out the front door with some dirty water because our sink is clogged and we cant afford to fix it. I would hope you take each of my statements as if your daughters were asking you. Why the police arrest more blacks and convict them than of any other color? And I hope you don’t disgrace the memory of Dr. Martin King who said “do not judge a man by the color of his skin but the content of his character.” One last thing I have to ask. Why it is in a country that obviously has a drug problem are we arresting these criminals the government, Has made for itself and using my tax dollars, (Which I haven’t earned much of) to house these criminals for upwards of 20,000 dollars a year, Per person. Not that we should let people out of prison because of the high recidivism rate. One final thing that I have learned from my Hispanic forbearers is “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees”

Sincerely,

Kristian Hemker (concerned 21 years old)

Remembering the Service of the Honorable. Senator Edward M. Kennedy

"Voice for Humanity" — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:50:07 EDT

By Padmini Arhant

The passing away of Senator Edward Kennedy, one of the longest serving public officials in the United States Senate has created a vacuum in the battlefield for humanitarian cause. Senator Kennedy’s representation on many issues remembered nationwide. Among them, the Senator’s relentless effort to bring equality and justice to the poor and underprivileged in the hallmark healthcare, education and immigration was commendable. There is more reason to pass the public option health care reform as a tribute to the deceased Senator.

Senator Kennedy fought for millions in not only his constituency but also the entire nation with passion and power. The Senator extended his service beyond shorelines in ways to resolve the international conflict such as the Northern Ireland peace process. Senator Kennedy was committed and dedicated in helping citizens of stars and stripes achieve their American dream.

The national recognition of Senator Kennedy as ‘The Lion of the Senate’ personified in the Senator’s role in every legislative matter of great value and importance to all people regardless of socio-economic status.

Senator Ted Kennedy lived up to the reputation of the Kennedy legacy in national service. As a true patriot, the Senator deeply cared and carried out the legislative duties and responsibilities diligently and frequently in a bipartisan manner, a monumental achievement in contemporary politics.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy will be truly missed by the nation, while his service commemorated now and in the future as the member of the iconic Kennedy family and the esteemed United States Senate.

No words can possibly heal the moment of sorrow except time.

Time is the best healer and trusting in the brighter tomorrow ease the pain experienced during the natural events in life.

I convey my heartfelt condolences to the Kennedy family, friends and the entire nation.

Thank you.
Padmini Arhant

P.S. Due to technical difficulty at the personal end, the delay occurred in posting the message earlier on. Please accept my apologies for the time lapse.

Immigration and social justice

MariaXimena — Sun, 31 May 2009 12:31:47 EDT

Many latin and hispanic people have their hopes up for a change in social justice and fairness for families who have immmigrated to the US and have blended families, what is your view point?

A Permanent Solution to the U.S.-Mexico Border in Sight

TL from Denver, CO — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:11:56 EDT

Hi,

The age-old pesky U.S.-Mexico border problem will never be solved. Why? Because the border is the problem! Yet a satisfying permanent solution has always been in sight, namely, dissolve the border and megamerge the two countries, with mass 2-way migration equalizing development and opportunities, and making the bigger better U.S. more able to cope with global economic competition, terrorism, possible world wars, etc.

Yes, I have thought it all out, and published a report on my Web page

http://tlwinslow.weebly.com/megamerge-the-dissolution-solution.html

So, am I nuts? Whadya all think?

Ciao,

T.L. Winslow

Denver, Colo.

Synopsis of the real story of the SILVA/MARQUEZ family : Book available online on www.scandale-france.org : "Les Piliers de la Traîtrise" from Elisabeth SILVA published in 2005 - Editions La Lanterne Paris - FRANCE

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:04:33 EDT

From : Elisabeth SILVA Date : February, 2007

Subject :

“Demand of translation into English and publishing of the Book “LES PILIERS DE LA TRAITRISE” published on March, 2005 in FRANCE.

TRUE STORY Autobiography : Les Piliers de la TraîtriseFrench Author : Elisabeth SILVA320 P., 20 €Date of publishing : 04th march 2005 ISBN 295220941-3 Editions La Lanterne28, rue de la Seine 95100 ARGENTEUILFRANCE Tel.: 01.30.76.06.22 È06.11.10.35.00 Fax : 01.30.76.90.28info@la-lanterne.net THE WORD OF THE AUTHOR Dear Sir, I am pleased to send you hereby, a copy of my book titled “Les Piliers de la Traîtrise” published in France by Les Editions La Lanterne Paris. Part of this TRUE STORY told in this book took place in England.This autobiographical work is a poignant testimony given birth in the pain, which describes the tragic story of a French family forced to go into exile on August 31st, 2003.This true story depicts above all the inmost depths of the soul of the French author, who, will learn in this chaotic road, with her companions of galley to surpass trials, affronts, sufferings and traumas.Behind this paradoxical title, with a whiff of scandal, which enlightens upon the illusion of justice and the spirit of laws, the writer brings out some humanist connotations, the apology of self-sacrifice, the defence of a noble cause, that of the missing children.This book, which crossed the borders was approved by a large majority of French and foreign political personalities as well as sovereigns.Nevertheless, the French government still puts the veto over this shameful political and judicial scandal.Three years later, back from exile, we still fight alone injustice in France, our country of residence and danger is still topical. That’s an understatement.Therefore, I would be very happy to discuss with you the possibility of having my real terrifying story translated into English and would be grateful if you published it in your country, where I will remain, until we might meet. For a better understanding, please find herewith a synopsis of the story entitled “Forced exile within the XXI century”.I would really appreciate your opinion upon this real story.Please find enclosed my Press book, which includes various files certifying our story. All these information, as well as the reporting relevant declaration corroborating evidence about both, French State crime, as well as the denunciation of violation of our Human rights committed by the I.N.S. (Immigration and Naturalization Service) and the executioners of the prison of York in the U.S.A., against a whole honest French family, innocent of any offence or crime, nevertheless, illegally and arbitrarily imprisoned in January 2004, while applying for political asylum, should interest a publisher willing to raise public consciousness, and enlighten him upon stages of our endless fight for survival in dignity from 2003 till now.Please find herewith the up-to-date letter of HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN, who takes a stand in favour of our French family following my request entitled “ News Bulletin upon The necessity of the duty of interference against the state of exception ” imposed by French high officials affected by political smallness. This courageous and hopeful reply from Her Majesty The Queen, that sounds like a shining light in darkness, fortunately help us to stand fast. Besides, the enclosed reply from Prime Minister, Tony BLAIR should also be of great interest for you.I hope you will pay attention, at your turn, to this shameful and terrible scandal so that the truth should finally bursts in broad daylight. If you still require information we could easily arrange for an appointment at your headquarters if this would help. Waiting forward to hearing from you in the near future, Yours faithfully, The Author, Elisabeth SILVA
SYNOPSIS OF THE TRUE STORY “Forced exile within the XXI century” Extracts from the book “Les Piliers de la Traîtrise” page 7- 9.(Translated into English by the Author.) THE WORD OF THE AUTHOR Does a contract matched by a licence to kill innocent targets introduced into the vicious circle of a secret defence exist except literature? “By handling the strange disappearance of the child Leo Balley, which occurred on July 19th, 1996 in Grenoble, I deciphered a Secret Defence. Involuntarily, I put in broad daylight a mystery of the French political scene and Marc, the only official of the family became at this beginning of the summer, 2003, a pursued policeman … in August, 2003, a convoy of five persons was going to get organized in the urgency to thwart a devilish machination. Three women and a man will leave to the forehead and will learn the rules of survival, under the leadership of an elite policeman steering with address operations of paramilitary camouflage, hidden in the scrub of London, carrying the torch of bravery, honour and loyalty. His mother, his sister and my boyfriend came good will, bad will with his mother will be immerse into this merciless universe of the State plot, confronted with incredible but real events, hostile pursuits and tracking, which will lead them in a crazy escalation. Besides the rescue of his family, in perilous conditions exceeding understanding, the Sergeant of Criminal Investigation Department, (O.C.R.B) Marc SILVA, will hold up to date a Logbook. These alive and handwritten memories redraw in a linear chronology the thread of the tragic events, which led our family to the borders of extreme, from August 04th, 2003 till February 11th, 2004, since France, in passing in transit by England to the hell, in the United States. Entered into this logical war, plethora of reports and correspondences were sent to the politico-judicial Authorities and world organizations, to the global scale. For these six months of exile abroad, this highly skilled policeman was going to deliver battle, without rifle, to a troop of destroying commando groups. A colossal reporter’s work without borders and without flag, patriotic soldier attached to the values of a citizen democracy … They will set the numerical superiority of their armed troops in our defenseless, numerus clausus supposed to make us sound the retreat. This picture sounding like Guernica’s war tarnishes their reputation and makes them unpopular. They are not soldiers, should have doubtless thought the General de Gaulle, because those who do not fulfil their duty dishonour the homeland.Without respite and mercilessly, they will lead us to exile, throw us to the lions, the mediocre journalists, exposing us to misery and ruin.The shell of indifference will protect us forever of the cowardice shown by a majority of people. A scene, which will remind me how much, THE RACE OF JUDAS IS FERTILE.We lost a battle but not the war, My General. My deepest respect, for great men, the grateful Nation. Marc will defend the side of our troop up to the cessation of hostilities. We shall have victory, it is inscribed into tables of stone of the divine law, triumph waits for us, but it will be necessary to go up on the cross to Calvary, to break the neck to the enemy.The remembrance of our noble fight will be engraved forever in the public consciousness, the fatal weapon of Internet will shoot the polymorphic perverses, on their own ground. In front of their long time maintained opaqueness, we would set the transparency. But the road, which will lead to the freedom and to the justice will be long and we shall carry the cross up to the mountain of Golgotha, in the prison of Pennsylvania in U.S.A., to obtain immunity and protection across the Atlantic.Vain illusion, the saviour of Humanity is no more than a mirage. This barbaric America of George W. Bush, without, faith, nor law inhabited by uneducated cowboys of the Immigration and naturalization Service, executioners of Humanity, and losers, sinks into a dying civilization. American hegemony will not reborn for a long time, from its ashes. Humanists could not tolerate acts of torture imposed on prisoners of ABOU-GHRAÏB, GUANTANAMO or still of YORKThis apocalyptic vision of the American executioners was useful, while I was prisoner in their cell, I read again the bible predictions, which calmed my moral sufferings and pointed me that God had not abandoned us, that He was a lamp in our feet and a light on our path. His omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence would release us from their chains coming from another age and soon, I knew that God, the Almighty would open us the door of the penitentiary. " I hope now that the nib of a skilful journalist will break the “omerta”, the guilty silence, and the voice of a subtle speaker will thunder here and there the chronic of an announced psychic murder, the denial of justice, the sacrifice of a family and her rights always and still abused, in the name of the not very glorious State Reason. I wish that the truth burst upon Marion WAGON, Leo BALLEY and Estelle MOUZIN, the missing angels.To willing people, I call out for a general mobilization, and shout a solemn message, a cry from the heart, at this time from London, to Mr President Jacques Chirac inspired by his own words," It's high time to find the road of Humanism ". Yours faithfully, The Author,Elisabeth SILVA

Biography of the Author(English version)

Author of French nationality, Elisabeth SILVA was born on April 30th, 1968 in Casablanca.

Already, at the age to play with dolls, she has her first premonitory dreams. Later, she discovers that she has " a sixth developed sense ". This oddity will become in the course of time a hobby. The paradise of her cherished childhood darkens, at the age of adolescence, when her parents divorce. After this painful experience, she writes her first collection of poems titled "Migrations Intérieures". Later, at the secondary school, she shows a passion for philosophy. She gets her high school degree, in literary section, and obtains the most praiseworthy note for her philosophy test, which one is published in the annals of the " Bonnes copies du Baccalauréat " by HATIER Editions. This stylistic composition will give her later some zeal and wings for writing. She persues, postgraduate studies, in foreign languages. Afterwards, she obtains engineer's diploma in a Business School, specialized in International Marketing, and enters directly the world of work. In the course of the years, she weaves a deep relationship with Marc, her elder brother and her tender and pious mother near whom, she will spent her " thirty glorious " years mainly in the Southwest of France. In 2001, she successfully passes the nursing examination, but unfortunately she renounces to her late vocation after a delicate surgical operation of slipped disc. Fate does not exist, she discovers the benefits of hypnosis, achieves the creation of a CD Rom titled "Les Pouvoirs de l’Hypnose " before becoming hypnotherapist. Elisabeth has above all a sensitive soul. She defends a noble cause, that of the childhood in danger. Since 2000, encouraged by her brother, Marc, who is a Police officer, Elisabeth gracefully proposes her faculties, namely, Extra Sensorial Perceptions (E.S.P.) to the missing children cells. So, they unify their efforts and respective skill and try to lead informal inquiries upon missing children cases, yet unresolved, such as the tragic disappearance of the girl, Marion WAGON, occured on November 14th, 1996. Afterwards, in 2002, they undertake to investigate upon the Leo Balley missing child case occurred in July 19th, 1996 in Grenoble. After a detailed examination of the E.S.P.’s folder, beforehand sent to the Brigade of Local Research located in Grenoble, the Warrant officer OMER, convinced of the relevance of her revelations, hurries to reopen the Léo Balley’s file, namely, six years after his disappearance. On February 26th 2002, the aforesaid warrant officer hears officially Elisabeth and her brother upon rogatory commission. Curiously, the investigator seems to mainly focus on Elisabeth's fragmentary discoveries upon the existence of a military base, a nuclear rocket, and on Mister Lionel Jospin's ministerial coming within a given date, revealed in her E.S.P folder, rather than by details concerning the tragic disappearance of the child. The audition takes a new form, the affair gets more complicated and slides on another ground …Nuclear. Hence, the case is classified TOP SECRET DEFENCE. At the request of this last one, Elisabeth commits herself not to reveal anything to the media, otherwise she would expose her life to danger. The warning is without ambiguity. Time passes slowly, the enigma Léo BALLEY remains complete and the undertaking of new excavations, on the site is postponed. In the course of the month of June 2003, they try again to clear up the mystery of Estelle Mouzin, a tragical case of missing child, which has stayed at a standstill, since six months. At that moment, they are far from to imagine, that they entered into an infernal gear, till August 4th 2003, fateful day, if it is there, in the tragic story that is going to live this family. Doubtless, the simple reference to the Léo Balley’s file classified Secret Defence, supposed to accredit their steps with competent authorities, in the statement of this new affair, opens Pandora’s box and all the troubles of the earth spread on them. At this turning point, their life is turning into an endless nightmare. Elisabeth becomes a target and Marc, the only official of the family is becoming, at this beginning of the summer 2003, a pursued policeman. To escape from hostile pursuits and tracking, Elisabeth accompanied by her mother and her brother, Marc SILVA, Police Sergeant appointed to the Central Bureau for Repression of Banditism, go into a forced exile and live hidden in England, during nearly five months. Snubbed by the French chancellery and as a last resort, the SILVA-MARQUEZ family apply for political asylum in the U.S.A, on January16th, 2004. There, they are illegally detained by the I.N.S (Immigration and Naturalization Service) at New-York JFK Airport, as well as, illegally and arbitrarily imprisoned, at York, in Pennsylvania. Such barbaric images have dominated her life over the last three years and those painful memories of torture will never leave her. On 11th February, 2004, when she gets back from exile, she writes of a sharpened nib, her life story, titled “LES PILIERS DE LA TRAITRISE” namely “Pillars of treason” a poignant testimony, which mainly tells this descent into the Hells, published on march 2005, by Les Editions La Lanterne Paris, in France. In 2007, as injustice is still topical in France, future uncertain, the rehabilitation of the rights of her family, which are still abused, is and will remain her main fight, until the truth on this STATE CRIME will burst finally in broad daylight.

NEWS BULLETIN OF OCTOBER 1st, 2006, Editor Elisabeth SILVA

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:58:41 EDT

News bulletin of October 1st, 2006

Addressees : French and foreign Authorities

Subject : Follow-up of the management of the SILVA-MARQUEZ family file heard on rogatory commission in the Léo BALLEY Affair classified SECRET DEFENCE by the French Authorities. REF.: " Les Piliers de la Traîtrise" from Miss Elisabeth SILVA, published by Les Editions La Lanterne- Paris in March, 2005. " Open letter to the French and foreign Authorities " from Mr. Marc SILVA of April 15th, 2006 (174 pages)

P.J. :

- Copy of the mail of the Home Office sent in June 22nd, 2006 to Miss Elisabeth SILVA.- Copy of the mail of the order of the Lawyers of Paris of September 06th, 2006 sent to Mr. Marc SILVA. (copies available on www.scandale-france.org)

EDITORIAL - THE NECESSITY OF THE DUTY OF INTERFERENCE AGAINST THE STATE OF EXCEPTION-

Dear Sir, Dear Madam,

Instar of the Dreyfus affair, we became victims of an unprecedented situation within the History of the French Vth Republic. Wall of Omerta set up by the builders of the current French Government against the SILVA-MARQUEZ family should collapse at the end of three long years of Resistance. The spirit of Emile ZOLA, author of the famous open letter to the President of the Republic “I ACCUSE” published in the “Aurore” Newspaper, at the end of the XIXth century, unfortunately died and buried. Consequently, to reach this noble objective and to howl our pain, we need the support of the national and international community. If only a large number of voices rose to scream their indignation then and then only, our family would regain her rights, her freedom and peace of mind. The current events, of French politics, as everyone, knows, emphasizes a quite particular conception of the functioning of the Institutions of the Vth Republic. Regrettably, we obviously notice, that French Institutions are taken hostage by the shock of the personal ambitions of individuals' nucleus, which prevail over quite other consideration, including over application of law. These Manichean methods are at least disturbing. Obviously, an oligarchical regime has been established. This one seems to hold the rudder of a Republic, entangled in the Affairs, if we refer to the successive crises of the unprecedented riots of districts of 2005 in the History of France, to the intestine quarrels of the Clearstream affair or better still the sulphurous SILVA-MARQUEZ affair of State, for a long time hush up by lax ruling classes. On both sides, a monolithic right is being outlined whereas the diffuse outlines of an alliance of the left beats the reminder, ready to defend all lost causes, exception made by a dramatic affair of State into which, we had been plundged, in spite of us. Let us not lose sight that, the brain and the decision-making organs of this Machiavellian machine undertook to crush our existence. But nobody seems to be moved or to take adapted protective measures. In front of this scandalous affair, the politics any merged cleavages, and the press so-called free, keep silent, instead of acting, preferring evasion and blindness to the demonstration of the truth. In this horrifying affair, where obscurantism always of current events reigns in boss, please allow me to use the questioning, to make the light on darkness into which, our family is still plunged. What does the dumbness of the public Authorities hide? Doesn’t courage consist in fighting on all the fronts, to look for the truth, to say it loud and clear and to close this Pandora’s box, before all the troubles threaten to spread? Does it means the cowardice have become a contemporary virtue? Is it normal to hush up deliberately a politico-judicial scandal brooding a State Crime? Is it conceivable in a democratic country, to prefer the dictatorship of silence to the transparency among miscellaneous politico-judicial-military-police and media interpenetrations? Is it acceptable to put obstacle to the Justice upon the SILVA-MARQUEZ’ affair, by reducing three isolated humans beings in the state of exception, hostages in their own country, because of an unavowable REASON OF STATE? May both models of Democracy as well France as the United States of America longer order the world, and especially mine, the choice of silence, by taking refuge behind their inviolable sovereignty while these two States already dig our grave, with complete impunity and in the most perfect indifference? The necessity of the duty of interference has to apply urgently, in response to the decreed state of exception. Extraordinarily, as far as we are concerned, no voice rises to denounce the inadmissible. I do not hear and neither do you, you do not hear, the expression of the indignation of the Prime Minister, Mister Dominique De Villepin, so usually grandiloquent or even the howls pushed by The Home secretary, Nicolas SARKOZY, nevertheless so quick to catch a microphone, in any occasion. So thus, as you are powerful or miserable, in Justice, two weights and two measures make tilt the balance either on one side or on the other one to serve the interests of a cause, which we ignore. I bring the following proof: For instance, the journalist Xavier TERNISIEN of “Le Monde” titled, to my big bewilderment, in his article of September 29th, 2006, without even using the conditional " A professor of philosophy threatened with death for a column".In introduction, the reader learns that: " Robert REDEKER, professor of philosophy and essayist is the target of threats of death since the publishing of a column in the Figaro of September 19th, in which he criticized Islam and the seer MAHOMET … He receives daily hostile messages on his e-mail box. The Direction of the surveillance of the territory (DST) tracked down pages of Islamist jihadists forums, in English, on which are his photo, address and a street plan to go to his place of residence. He is there qualified as pig. " Immediately, Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin rises to the crenel and judges, I quote "unacceptable" this "fatwa" whereas the Minister of National Education, Gilles de Robien declares himself "to stand by" the professor of philosophy. In fine: " Mr Redeker, who teaches philosophy at the secondary school of Saint-Orens-de-Gameville ( Haute-Garonne), was placed under police protection. He had to leave his place of residence and does not teach any more, since September 20th. Paradoxically, if we hold the main part of the papers of Piotr SMOLAR in the newspaper “Le Monde” of November 04th, 2003, which at the appropriate time raised a real indictment against a policeman by titling " A policeman and his sister medium shout in the plot and run away in London ", it emerges from this sensational article an evident will to damage the honour and the reputation of a Servant of the State, a police officer in exercise, within an operational group of a specialized service of Criminal Investigation Department, the Central Bureau for Repression of Banditism, not to quote it. But let us return upon arrows poisoned, shot by this mediocre journalist, of whom my brother, Marc SILVA had been the quite appointed target, to better restore the climate of this State affair classified SECRET DEFENCE. I quote: " … It has been nine months since the girl Estelle Mouzin disappeared … This summer, just before the scorching heat, he finds himself a mission, a cause: identify the kidnapper of Estelle. How? Thanks to his sister, Elisabeth … The sister of the Sergeant is proud of possessing extra-sensory perceptions. They are threatened. Marc S. had to return to work at the beginning of September; nobody saw him again at the OCRB. " The hostile and threatening pursuits obliged us to leave the French territory to gain England in perilous conditions ", as he explains it on the web site that he specially created to deal with the "scandal" of the missing child Estelle Mouzin … On August 7th, Hervé Lafranque, boss of the OCRB, is informed about the behavior of his civil servant. He had never had to complain about the work of Marc S., which even participated in two big successes of the Office in 2003: the arrests of the escapees Joseph Menconi and Antonio Ferrara. On August 9th, Elisabeth S. sends a mail to Nicolas Sarkozy and to Dominique Perben to transmit them the result of her investigations, either 71 pages … Marc S., for his part, believes that he is trailed. He imagines policemen behind every passer-by … Repeatedly, he asks for a protection moved closer to his hierarchy which worries about his mental balance and removes him his weapon … In the last resort, he sends a long narrative of his investigations to Roger Marion, the prefect delegated to the Security in Marseille, former leader mayor of the Criminal Investigation Department. He develops the thesis of a plot implying senior officials executives of the State and the outside intervenes, who by means of physical and technical surveillances, try to harm–them-.” Piotr Smolar Also, please note that the clairvoyance and so-called depression or paranoia of a policeman served as smoke screen, in others lenient newspaper articles (Le Parisien of 17/10/2003 "A runaway policeman"; Le Nouveau Détective of 22/10/2003 "The Strange disappearance of a policeman"). Every reader can learn, among other things, that a policeman of the Central Bureau for Repression of Banditism, under the cover of anonymity, quoted name, first name, rank of the police officer, Marc SILVA to make reference to the very famous arrests of two also named criminals, Antonio Ferrara and Joseph Menconi, violating, by this mean, the texts of law by revealing the identity of a police officer, - without any necessity. - Extracted from N °1101 of the sensational Magazine – Le Nouveau détective - " The Strange disappearance of a policeman " signed by the big reporter, Michel Mary, and analyzed in my book " Les Piliers de la Traîtrise " pages 202 - 203: " he is the object of mysterious threats of death, we are in the heart of the summer, what doubtless explains the slowness of both concerned Ministers. But next Monday, August 18th, the Police Sergeant, Silva spends borders. Stating of these repeated " threats of death " against his person, he asks downright " a moved closer protection " to his superior of the OCRB. But the conclusion is imperative: the Police Sergeant Marc Silva became crazy. Nevertheless, the young policeman had until now good service records. And recently even, he had distinguished himself by participating to the arrest of Joseph Menconi and Antonio Ferrara, two dangerous hooligans, who had escaped from prison. He cracked lead, summarizes one of his colleagues of the OCRB which prefers to remain anonymous … Embarrassed, the central Direction of the Criminal Investigation Department (DCPJ) eventually spread a research index card in the name of " Marc Silva, police officer, roll 343180 ". All the border posts and the airports are on the alert … ". Keep back mostly, that these silent weapons used, as a last resort, were only a supplementary stratagem to mask better the true reason of a real killing, with for motive a hazy SECRET DEFENCE linked to the Léo Balley’ Affair conducted in Grenoble. Nevertheless Piotr SMOLAR and others will not breathe a word on the child Léo BALLEY, eternal forgotten, nor a word on the Secret Defence, to kill better in the egg any embryo of reflection. On the other hand, the evocation of the participation of my brother Mr. Marc SILVA, in the arrest of two figures of the organized crime duly named, appears at the right place in the columns of press. In this affair, the non-compliance with the anonymity of a police officer seems to be the order to be followed by editorial staffs. The puppeteer of this cabal remains to be unmasked. If I refer to the comparative study of the cases REDEKER and SILVA, I can only yell my indignation in front of the execrable treatment of the SILVA-MARQUEZ Affair and wonder about the moral and political justification of such a disparity of the rights in front of the law. Why Mister Marc SILVA, and the members of his family were not fulfilled in the official demand of police protection in spite of all elements of proofs brought to the knowledge of the French police and political authorities? From August 20th, 2003 till this day, we are always exposed to a denial of justice and to a continuous moral harassment, (cf Page 65 of the " Open letter to the French and foreign Authorities “ of Marc SILVA of April 15th, 2006.). The denial of justice is proved in the SILVA-MARQUEZ affair and the legal system persists with stubbornness in blocking it, even intend to bury it. If Emile Zola could hear us, no doubt that this high man would turn around in its grave and would vituperate, as he made it, so splendidly in 1898, in the same terms, which have taken really, no wrinkle: " I denounce to the consciousness of fair people this pressure of authorities on the justice of the country. There are abominable political customs which dishonour a free Nation ". Peace to his greatness of soul. This STATE OF EXCEPTION not only has to hold attention of French and foreign Authorities called to the rescue but also to incite them to intervene because, obviously we were the epicenter of a real earthquake. Although, I am careful not to make any judgment upon the affair of the professor of philosophy, above mentioned, I rebel against the so cruel fate, that black sheep of the police Institution imposed on us, despite legal rules and in defiance of our lives. A fringe of the Home Office, made up the truth to deceive Justice by pushing aside a rigorous and honourable policeman, who put himself across the reason of State, to protect the life of his family. Is not it the essence of policeman's profession to protect the persons against dangers of all kinds? The police hierarchy had rather sacrifice a healthy member instead of attacking the gangrene, which eats away at the Institution. Here is the reward of the sacrificial consecration of a Man of honour, dedicated body and soul to his Homeland, insuring, during 17 years the protection of his fellow countrymen, 17 years of good and loyal services swept by a lapel of sleeve, only because he has thought, one day, to defend a noble cause, that of miscellaneous affairs of unresolved missing chidren cases, among which, one remains classified Secret Defence: Léo Balley affair in Grenoble. Thus, I deduct a lesson of life, from this unspeakable event, this affair will remain a hammered splinter for ever into the depths of my flesh. Ungratefulness is so striking in the questions of interest. That is why, the cowardly policy of three monkeys " NOT TO SEE ANYTHING, NOT TO SAY ANYTHING, NOT TO HEAR ANYTHING " unworthy of the human race has to stop immediately. I shall never enough emphasize it. As far as we are concerned, we, SILVA-MARQUEZ family, French citizens, have for our part, chosen the participative consultation, by placing in the heart of our fight for the survival, the Sovereign States, solemnly called to exercise their duty of interference. The cheaters of any edges will be put defeat and checkmate, my family commits to it. It is still time to act, and we count upon the reach of the universal voice, guarantor for the respect of the human rights as well as those of the Citizen to press on arbitrary power and raise the veto on this classified Secret Defence Affair.

NEWS It is so in a constant concern of transparency and stimulated by the same spirit of Resistance, strengths of the fight of the SILVA-MARQUEZ family for the protection of her life in the dignity, that the undersigned applies to inform the French and foreign Authorities, of the follow-up of this file transmitted, as a last resort for the second time, to the President of the French Republic, Mr Jacques Chirac. Because the communication remains our only antidote against the oversight, and the French and foreign Powers, our best rampart to resist against havoc, we send to you enclosed, in addition to documents put on-line on our website www.scandale-france.org, on one hand, ® The mail of Home secretary, represented by Nicolas SARKOZY, dated June 22nd, 2006, in answer to my personal letter of last May 18th, sent to the President of the French Republic, Mr Jacques Chirac. And on the other hand, the answer of last September 06th from the order of the Lawyers of Paris (Mr Bernard BOUSSAGEON, in his quality of Former member of council of the Order), following Mr. Marc SILVA's appeal against the professional misconduct of the lawyer automatically appointed, Mr Guy PECHEU. (Marc SILVA affair, against the Home Office in front of the Administrative Court of Paris). Thus, we want to make sure of the loyal execution of the commitments taken by the required authorities. After reading the mail sent by the Home Office, we were delighted of the wholesome ability to react of the Head of State, aware of his kingly responsibilities, towards three of his irreproachable fellow countrymen, and nevertheless victims of the diversion of the French state Government (as well as American), as widely testified in my book "Les Piliers de la Traîtrise " completed by the " Open letter to the French and foreign Authorities " written by my brother, Mr. Marc SILVA on April 15th, 2006, and sent to your attention. We hope that the detailed examination of this official referral by the aforementioned services, concerning a denunciation of a STATE CRIME against the SILVA-MARQUEZ family, will mean the end of a merciless hunting and will put a definitive term in the obvious denial of Justice, which continues now for three long years. I renew my trust to the President of the Republic and expect that " the appropriate examination of the concerned service " will be diligently executed by the Home Office managed by Nicolas SARKOZY, according to the requirements of the first Magistrate of France, Mister Jacques Chirac and his attachment to the constitutional principles of the strict observation of the separation of powers. In the near future, I shall not miss to inform all the French and foreign Authorities of suites reserved to this complex criminal affair. At the conclusion, each one will be able to judge, according to his inmost conviction, if the orders ordered by the services of the Presidency of the French Republic will have been executed, within the strict respect of the laws and settlements. In any logic, the common sense should want that Truth and Efficiency remain the essential concerns of the seized services of inquiry. Besides, it is not a luxury to remind, that by virtue of the principles expressed in the Charter of the United Nations, States linked to the international Pact concerning the civil and political rights, have bond to contribute to the universal and actual respect of the equals and inalienable rights to all of the members of the human family, which constitute the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. The international protection of the rights of the Man must mobilize the attention of every member of the human family, every nation and in particular the supranational Authority of the Security Council of the United Nations, so as to prevent the execution of a State crime, insidiously prepared, since three years. If, despite my exhortations, the French and foreign Authorities chose to keep silent, because of principles, how much odd, such as the neutrality or still the duty of non-interference, it would, ipso facto, mean signing the death sentence of three defenseless French citizens. So, I call of my wishes the sovereign States to follow, not only the good progress of this classified SECRET DEFENCE affair, but also and especially to weigh of all their weight, which is far from being unimportant, with the same attentiveness as the President of the French Republic, Mister Jacques Chirac. We invite you to note the official referral of Mister Jacques Chirac, ordering to the Home secretary, Nicolas SARKOZY the opening of inquiries sought by Mister Marc SILVA, crossed off, as everyone knows, wrongly, from the National police force executives, by decision of the same administration, because of post desertion. This decision is always unacceptable, in the sense of a fair justice given that the public Authorities had duly been informed, in due course, about the case of major force, which manifestly blocked the road to a normal resumption of his professional activities. Very fortunately, the post desertion of the professor of philosophy, Mr REDEKER was not taken into account, by the Ministry of Education, the honour is saved. The Ministry of Education has not fallen into the trap of turpitude, contrary to the Home Office which one rejected, arbitrarily the case of major force. The lowness sublimates and marries all the forms even the most insidious. Thus, you will agree and I weigh my words on the fact that the zero degree of Democracy is reached. Finally, I shall remind the dominating role of the chancellery which owes to fill its kingly functions with strength, plenitude and independence. An absence of condemnation would be dangerous in a Democracy, in so far as, it would let think that criminals are not answerable, nor even to the President of the French Republic, in person. The flame of the Resistance must not and shall not die. That is why, I am counting on your mediation and cooperation, within the strict respect of the national and international law, to knock down the state of exception, imposed on us, with conceitedly and contempt, by High political representatives, apparently affected by political smallness. Yours faithfully,

Mrs Marie-José MARQUEZ "Read and approved" M Marc SILVA "Read and approved" Mle Elisabeth SILVA Editor

www.scandale-france.org e-mail : elisa_silva@hotmail.fr

Contact : Mle Elisabeth SILVA Maison Oyhanburu - 700 chemin oihanbehere 64122 URRUGNE

FRANCE

Haiti, Prez Obama, and I

Haitiana4Obama — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:53:30 EDT

Now I know many Haitian people are exceedingly becoming more encouraged as President Obama rolls out his foreign policy as well as immigration plans. Especially those who have family or friends in this country illegally and pray that God continues to fill this American President with a compassionate and intelligent (yes) heart. While I think there's a lot that the Obama Administration can do to help Haitians as well as Haitian Americans succeed in this new century, we need to ask ourselves when is enough...enough? When will the Haitian people become tired of being Orphans to the Western Hemisphere? That is what we've become in a sense, hands out, ready to receive donations. Now a recent article came out saying America was ready to invest in Haiti once more, and a HuffingtonPost blogger wrote a piece, this blog was in part inspired by some of the statistics in the aforementioned blog, now allow me to opine:

Illegal Immigration

Thomas D from Ferdinand, IN — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:08:48 EDT

I have a question: Would it not be better to let illegals work and provide for them selves than to keep them locked up in personal hell at our tax expense for wanting a better life? They are locked up at our expense for months or even years at our expense. If they are working they are buying. There needs to be a better alternative. Our deportation system is jammed at our tax expense. Maybe if they can pass a test they could be elligitable for Amnesty.

Immigration

Christopher — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:58:46 EDT

I have to first repeat what was first said by the President and Vice-President: Fix the Bureaucracy: Obama joined Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) to introduce the Citizenship Promotion Act to ensure that immigration application fees are both reasonable and fair. Obama also introduced legislation that passed the Senate to improve the speed and accuracy of FBI background checks.
Respect Families: Obama introduced amendments to put greater emphasis on keeping immigrant families together. Reduce the Immigration Fees back to where they were, I have been married for over 2 years and recently filed a I-130 for my wife to come here. She was refused visitation because she might not return to the Philippines. So now jsut to see where her husband lives we have to go through the waiting period, and expenses of paperwork. She is now 6 months pregnant and it has been expensive to go back and forth. If someone can show that they are married, before coming to the USA after for 2 years or more it should be approved after the I-130 is approved. Also the I-130 and the I-864 and G-325a could all be file simutaneously since a VISA number is automatic for husband/wife if approved. All paperwork could be handled at the same office instead of being sent to 3 different states as not allowing the paperwork to become lost and allow more typo errors. To much emphasis is being placed on hispanic visas and the rest of the world is forgotten about and put on the back burner. Not that this will ever be noticed but I love my wife and would like us to be a family.
Originally the Philippines was a colony of the USA and did not require a VISA. After which mostly europeans were immigrating to the US. Later it was changed again for the benefit to fit others agenda at the time. Immigration reform acts have only gotten to be confusing and double talk between people that really don't know what they are doing.

Libertarian Ideals that Obama is committed to

Libertarians for Obama — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:21:17 EDT

Granted, President Barack Obama is not completely "Libertarian" but who really is? Yet if you look at the Obama Agenda at: www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/ and look at Libertarian Party motto: Smaller Government, Less Taxes, More Freedom and LP issues at: www.lp.org/issues there are many areas of common interest. Below are some of the top Libertarian Party issues that Obama has some agreement with.

Libertarian Party motto: "Smaller Government, Less Taxes, More Freedom"

"Lower Taxes"
..."working families struggle to pay their taxes" www.lp.org/issues/taxes

PRESIDENT OBAMA: "I'll Cut Taxes for 95% of "Working Families"

Obama’s Comprehensive Tax Policy Plan for America will:
Cut taxes for 95 percent of "workers" and their "families" with a tax cut of $500 for workers or $1,000 for working couples.
Provide generous tax cuts for low- and middle-income seniors, homeowners, the uninsured, and families sending a child to college or looking to save and accumulate wealth.
Eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses, cut corporate taxes for firms that invest and create jobs in the United States, and provide tax credits to reduce the cost of healthcare and to reward investments in innovation.
Eliminating the need for millions of senior citizens to file tax forms

Libertarian Party: How Can We Cut Taxes?

... politicians spend millions to subsidize tobacco farmers...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Goes After Farm Subsidies President-elect Obama gave an example of one piece of wasteful government spending: farm subsidies.
Obama cited a GAO report that said from 2003 to 2006, "millionaire farmers" got $49 million in farm subsidies despite earning more than the $2.5 million cutoff in annual income. "If it's true," Obama said, "it's a prime example of waste."

"More Freedom"

Libertarian Party: Freedom of Speech, Against Censorship"We defend the rights of individuals to unrestricted freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right of individuals to dissent from government itself....
We oppose any abridgment of the freedom of speech through government censorship, regulation or control of communications media."

http://www.lp.org/issues/freedom-of-speech

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Freedom of Speech, Against Censorship

President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history. To send questions, comments, concerns, or well-wishes to the President or his staff, please go to website: http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/Contact/

Change the Culture of Secrecy: Obama will institute a National Declassification Center to make declassification secure but routine, efficient, and cost-effective.
Everyone can participate and inform the work of the President through the online front door of the White House at the Office of Public Liaison & Intergovernmental Affairs (OPL-IGA). OPL-IGA will bring new voices to the table, build relationships with constituents and seeks to embody the essence of the President's movement for change through the meaningful engagement of citizens and their elected officials by the federal government.
Engaging the American People on Foreign Policy: Obama and Biden will bring foreign policy decisions directly to the people by requiring their national security officials to have periodic national broadband town hall meetings to discuss foreign policy. Obama will personally deliver Your Weekly Address via webcast.

"Removing the troops from Iraq"

Libertarian Party: We established years ago that the war in Iraq had little to do with national security, if it ever did. Even those that initially supported the war in Iraq have come around to recognize that the longer we keep our troops in the region, the more lives we lose and the more money is wasted. It is time to bring the troops home. http://www.lp.org/issues/current-issues
"We support the maintenance of a sufficient military to defend the United States against aggression." - Libertarian Party Platform, Section 3.1 (adopted: May 2008)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: to remove all of our troops from Iraq.

"Immigration" http://www.lp.org/issues/immigration

Libertarian Party: "For those workers already in the United States illegally, we can avoid "amnesty" and still offer a pathway out of the underground economy. Newly legalized workers can be assessed fines and back taxes and serve probation befitting the misdemeanor they've committed. They can be required to take their place at the back of the line should they eventually apply for permanent residency."

President Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/immigration/

Bring People Out of the Shadows: Support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

"Astronomics"

Charles — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:53:41 EST

Astronomics$!

"No term exists to describe the current spiraling fiscal situation..."

The phenomenon of a 789 billion dollar stimulus package has quite simply exceeded the necessary vocabulary to be in any way adequately understood and encompassed.

So I hope you'll forgive this writer coining the term "Astronomics$."

No, it hadn't yet existed in modern parlance, but I, like most Americans, am dwarfed by the idea of it all, with its unparalleled price tag.

It's way out there, out in the Milky Way somewhere. And were it not from a great distance mentally, we couldn't possibly conceive of it at all.

I sat, stunned, with my mother watching the news, as CEO Vikram Pandit of Citigroup - which in the form of CitiMortgage owns the lien on my home - testified before testy Senators. They gnawed at him as if they were the old lady in the familiar Wendy's hamburger commercial in search of the patty of beef on the proverbial bun. So, "Where's the beef?"

And there's a beef all right, carnivorous in its intensity, angrily pervasive in this country of ours. Folks are hungry for help, but, politically and psychologically, and where their wallet is concerned, they're looking at accumulating lint. If they are nourished at all, it is with sarcasm, because they're all fed up!

And this sandwich, however, comes in the huge form of a sum hitherto unheard and even not thought of.

A stimulus package. It boggles the mind of any who try to wrap themselves around it.

It actually approaches a zillion dollars! Frankly, I'm surprised the spell-check let that one by me. But, apparently the word does legitimately exist.

If you, like I, am used to rounding cents upward to dollars in your checkbook in the best of times when the budget allows, then you cannot fathom this ridiculously high amount of money.

My research took me to multiple sites, all with the information below a matter of public record.

Just take a look of the summation below to see how the Treasury has thus far disseminated our tax, and as yet unearned, dollars:

TARP AID - Participants in Troubled Assets Relief Program

How Treasury has spend/committed the $350 Billion so far.
1)$168 billion in varying amounts to 116 banks
2)Committed another $82 billion to capitalize more banks
3)Bought $40 billion in preferred shares of American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500) so the troubled insurer could pay off an earlier loan from the Federal Reserve
4)Committed $20 billion to back any losses that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York might incur in a new program to lend money to owners of securities backed by credit card debt, student loans, auto loans and small business loans
5)Committed to invest $20 billion in Citigroup on top of $25 billion the bank had already received
6)Committed $5 billion as a loan loss backstop to Citigroup
7)Agreed to loan $13.4 billion to GM and Chrysler to get them through the next few months.
8)Invested $5 billion in GMAC
9)BofA to Get $20B More From TARP, Plus Backstop on $118B

Below, see a list of participating companies.
Last updated: 1/16/2009 using Treasury announcements.
Click the headers of the columns to sort by company, state and amount.

Date Announced*

Company

Headquarters

Capital, in millions

Status**

10/28/2008

Citigroup Inc***

New York

$25,000

Completed

10/28/2008

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co

New York

$25,000

Completed

10/28/2008

Wells Fargo & Co

California

$25,000

Completed

10/28/2008

Bank of America Corp

North Carolina

$15,000

Completed

1/9/2009

Bank of America Corporation**

North Carolina

$10,000

Completed

10/28/2008

Goldman Sachs Group Inc

New York

$10,000

Completed

10/28/2008

Morgan Stanley

New York

$10,000

Completed

That boils down to just six mega-banks when the vrous names are combined: Citigroup, Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group, and Morgan Stanley.

They've already gotten our money once, and are looking for more. Bucks we haven't yet earned, and yet have still invested in them.

In the first round of payouts, executives blatantly thumbed their noses at the American public, taking ridiculously high bonuses - many millions of dollars apiece. But none of this so far has caused them to loosen their grip on loan resources for John and Sally Q. Public.

Now it remains to be seen if the current astronomically high amount of investment infusion will produce the desired results: more jobs, a revived economy, and the salvation of American home owners in danger of foreclosure.

One Corporate bank CEO told Barney Frank's congressional committee that his bank had so far saved 60,000 debtors from foreclosure.

But thousands of homes have already been lost.

My dear old bungalow house is among those remaining, badly in need of repairs and a lower interest rate should I wish to survive.

My credit? I recently sent for a "free" credit report, but it didn't include sufficient detail to completely review my status and rating, so I ended up purchasing the reports in their entirety from Experian, Transunion, and Equifax.

Turns out I haven't incurred any registered reports of late payments, because my bills have always been paid within 90 days.

But as to the status of my credit, I have watched as my open to buy was downgraded by the ever cautious and conservative American Express, and then upgraded by Discover and Chase. It has been a teeter-tottering experience, if not a mad merry-go-round,

Still, from day to day and week to week, the figures of my credit worthiness on charge cards have varied wildly between $10,000 to $30,000.

In a conversation with a Wells Fargo customer service representative, I was told that I should refinance my bill payer mortgage loan with them, and that they were "the most solvent bank in the country."

I responded to this pomposity by saying, "fine, send me the application in the mail, and I'll take a look at it." But the information has yet to appear.

It's the same old story. Major banks have yet to put their money where their mouths are.

I've grown all too weary of just scraping along. The irony of it all was brought home, as I was completing this article, by comedian Bill Maher this evening on the Larry King show. He offered the same analogy as I have in my past writings: "The foxes," in effect the Republicans, "have been in charge of the chicken coop too long!" He went on to observe that the disparity between the very few wealthy two percent of Americans and the increasing debt of the middle and lower classes has worsened the situation. He spoke of stagflation, but also observed that the living wages of American workers have hardly changed at all in the past thirty years. But the continued to charge on their cards, and buy homes with ever more inflated property values.

Now the boom, or balloon seems to have burst.

Today, adding the most historical of ironies to our national and world situation, is the two hundredth anniversary of the births of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. When one considers the politically divided United States and the status of a world torn by war, famine, and disease, it isn't at all a very secure situation. Survival sis not something for which mankind has ever been able to purchase a guarantee.

One wonders in this crisis what such a president as Abraham Lincoln would do. President Obama has been stumping the country for his policies, speaking to the common people, just as Lincoln once was the first to do - drawing crowds numbering in the tens of thousands, city by city traveling by train..

Lincoln has come to be seen in refreshed, detailed, and more balanced terms these days, with the observations of historians on two National Public Broadcasting shows which on February 11, 2009 cast new light on the great emancipator.

It turns out that he was a white supremacist, and that he had, according to latest research, mostly had economic factors in mind in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.

Lincoln's personality is now in retrospect thought to have been flawed by deep depression and the common white prejudices of his day. But he was a person who struggled against poverty early in life. He remarked that his early years could be summed up in one phrase: "The short and simple annals of the poor."

Could today's CEOs survive on even a hundred times the per diem expense of 75 cents, as did Lincoln and his 300 pound, lawyer partner when making the rounds of Illinois circuit courts?

I doubt it.

Atop his horse, Old Tom, Lincoln rode through prairie grasses that grew as high as his head all about him.

A brilliant litigator, he urged townspeople to, if at all possible, avoid the expenses of the legal system.

Still, he had to earn a living, and took cases both for an escaped slave and later for a Kentucky slave owner in the affirmative.

He never truly new financial prosperity, despite rising to the highest executive office in the land. He felt fortunate enough just to manage, and had difficulty keeping his wife, southern belle Mary Todd, happy.

But he successfully traversed troubled times, determined to keep the American Union intact. That also reminds me of the sea of growing debt we are now attempting to navigate.

Having a temper just like you and I, he even became involved in a sword duel which was narrowly averted by the two people who acted as seconds negotiating a settlement. Well, if he were around now, I firmly feel he'd be angry as hell, and cursing. Yes, Lincoln did curse, and also visited a prostitute, as well as indulging in "blacky" jokes.

Struggling as a young lawyer, when he finally won a big Illinois Supreme Court case, he had to sue merely to recover his fee.

Would he be chasing an economic ambulance these days? Perhaps. Or maybe he would be among the senators or their aids who are peppering Bankers and corporations with questions as to how they are using and misusing public stimulus and TARP funds.

He agonized over the Civil War and its consequent cost in human lives.

We are now at war upon fronts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And surely the most major cause of our national debt has been the horrendous military expenditures, as well as corporate greed by civil contracts acquired support without benefit of bidding and oversight. That has left former Vice President Cheney and his Halliburton far more wealthy than before.

Nothing is free. Everything innately in this life has its cost, whether in money, in patience, in labor, or in stress.

Which brings us back to the present day stress of bail outs and their price tags.

In our times adults responsible in the economic crisis have come to resemble children in a war of words.

Recall how, as kids we would try to outdo our playmates?

"You have a million of them? Well, I've got a billion!: Then the retort would be "a trillon" and following that a ba-zillion" and a "ga-zillion!" So went all the lofty taunts.

If money were humor, one could do a Jimmy Durante impersonation: "I've got a million of 'em, folks - a million of 'em!"

But it's greenbacks were talking about here.

Not jokes. Not astronomy either.

Yet we've had to put the subject of fiscal peril in terms that can only be viewed at such a great distance as to be cosmic in astrological euphemisms. And financial slavery has taken on the face of debt, rather than color.

Even the traditional national pass-time, baseball has been tainted. The Yankees will soon be playing in a stadium which replaces the "house that Ruth built," and its new name: Citibank! This sponsorship will benefit the team annually with its top heavy all-star payroll, to the tune of twenty billion dollars a year.

So one cannot help but draw the inevitable conclusion that poverty, with its attendant long term debt, is an equal opportunity mortgage banker - a present day Shylock - fixing the books, and embezzling the tax dollar. It's now a racetrack full of economically careless drivers. Just an accident, looking for a place to happen, it may soon resemble a veritable multi-vehicle auto accident resulting from veering around, and finally disastrously crashing. Or perhaps this has already occurred in terms beyond our wildest nightmares - and we are only just starting to realize it!

We've substituted dollar signs for stars in the process. Or are they planets - all of them red as Mars like the ink with which accounts note, penny by penny, our burgeoning budget?!

So, to quote the song from "My Fair Lady," "Are the stars out tonight? I don't care if it's cloudy or bright, 'cause I've only got eyes for you."

Unfortunately, it's not a love affair at all - if it ever was one - and it seems as though in point of fact our bankers only have unashamed lies for you.

They're at the top of the world, or out in the firmament, and they're looking down on us now.

But we've reached an impasse, and can no longer hold them in such high, starry eyed respect.

Maybe educators will one day thank them for introducing a new area of study. After all, they've introduced us to a possible whole area of research to be taught soon in our schools and colleges: "Astronomics$!."

The road of Immigration

Sjoerd — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:55:56 EST

My girlfriend lives in the US and I live in the Netherlands. Now you might think, get together. Except that there are a number of problems, that I want to explain below.

See, my girlfriend is not an US citizen but an US resident, a Green Card holder. This means that she is not even allowed to file a so called K-1 petition. In short, a petition that allows your future partner to get into the US.

So you would think, do it the other way around. Unfortunately, after an experiment of 4 weeks, our fears became true. My girlfriend suffered from depression attacks. First, noone knew what it was about, but because of us trying to find out what was going wrong, she now realizes that she needs professional help. Since I could not give that to here in The Netherlands, where she was trying to start a bachelor's degree, she had to go back to the US.

As you can see, she now has to go through therapy and do a bachelor's degree in the US. All by all, this means that we need to wait for 3-4 years and that could, if things go wrong one way or the other, be 5 or even more years. As you can understand, such a reality is harsh and to most, would be unbearable.

My question to the President, to the Senate and the Congress would be to review this situation. I'm not the only one struggling. I've got ideas about how to make things easier. I'm a computer scientist and can help. That is what I can offer.

I believe things can be changed for the good. Not only for the US but also for Europe and a good number of other countries that are allies of the US. Remember, many people make light work. That is, with many allies, life gets easier.

Please think of this situation

in response to....

temberowa — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:28:57 EST

We all have news for everyone: "EVERYBODY is an immigrant" in this country, BUT natives.
I think there is too much rumors and noise about who said what and was the person consistent with information....
Sure, it's an ethical obligation to provide as much actual and truthful "evidence" of who the person like Obama is, but I guess at this point, after all compaign tricks etc. we need to concentrate more on "is he bringing required representation of a man who is not gonna fail people living in this country" I guess all these discussions over regulations, laws, credentials take over what we call common sense.
Digging in someone's past and presence will ALWAYS bring surprising conclusions and will be subject of controversy. Maybe people should finally open their minds and not be so particular of following the rules, checking backgrounds etc. more likely do it with emphasis on what type of a man does leader represents, because in ultimate test this will take us to either good ending or total collapse...regardless of is he a "true" defined citizen or not.

New group formed in Chonburi Thailand

Pattayamale — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:40:45 EST

When Barack Obama was elected President a group of expat friends living in Thailand thought it would be a good idea to try and find away to raise issues and suggest solutions that affect expats. Since there are over 7 million expats living abroad we feel we are a large enough group to have some impact if we organize.

We realize that there are other really good organizations such as Americans Abroad and Democrats Abroad. It seems to us that these groups are only active during election cycles. Since President Obama wants to hear from all Americans, we thought this blog maybe away to let our voices be heard.

At our first meeting we discussed some issues that we thought were important to us:

Supporting Medicare, Medicade extension to expats. Requesting the "Fairness Doctrine" by initated to cover all news media. Suggesting that Washington DC have elected senators and House representatives. Asking how expats and their foreign partners could be better served by changes to the visa and immigration laws: are some of the things we thought we could persue.

In the next few days we will post these suggestions. We will be interested to hear what others think of the posted ideas and other ideas they have to help President Obama's administration solve problems of the expat community.

Minimum Wage: The Key to an Economic Stimulus

Tom Awtry — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:49:56 EST

Everyone has developed there own sure-fired economic stimulus package, even the ordinary man on the street, all with some degree of merit, with only a few good enough to be considered of ever beginning to work. We have some countrymen say, “No stimulus package at all” basically let the banks, home owners, auto workers (plus the auto companies) along with the state and city governments – “go broke”; meaning America starts over with a new economic system.

Others support the GOP package of reduced taxes and/or federal check in the mail, while the Administration and DNC support a “job stimulus package” with “checks” in the mail; from there every politician and hopeful presidential candidate for 1212 has their conceived answer to our economic burden.

I’ve heard a lot from my own friends and family, again, some sound good, and others come from people who would have a difficult time balancing a “check book.” Of course, I’m no exception; I have my own, which of course I feel has merit!

Here’s the Stimulus Package we should consider!

My package would require about the same amount of money (900 billion) as President Obama’s, since I feel a job creation package is needed for our highways, schools, linking of the health care via the Internet and energy independence. The aforementioned job creation would also benefit our returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Proponents feel there is no way of knowing if this aforementioned package is going to work or not, which I agree – who dose know? But, every package I‘ve heard of only encompasses our immediate economic concern along by updating past problems that should have been addressed years ago; what about today’s additional concerns that require attention, such as:

Enhancing our current immigration laws
Outsourcing American Jobs
Limit exporting our technology
Dollar acceleration into the economy
Decreasing our foreign trade imbalance
Affordable health care the economically underprivileged

Basically stating my stimulus package is simple English, it would be almost identical to President Obama’s with the exception of “Raising the Minimum Wage to $8.00 an Hour.”

Revise Immigration Laws

America’s become fat and Lazy! We allow illegal immigrates across our borders to take jobs we don’t want because the pay is to low and the work to hard; also we provide employment visas to foreign educated individuals in the eastern hemisphere to come and take jobs away from our own recently graduated college graduates. Our Fortune 500 companies must stop this practice of hiring lower priced labor (in both outlined example) to replace the American laborer.

Our Immigration laws need to be revised, of course, but again here’s an issue congress has avoided. In essence let’s make it more difficult for illegal immigrates to work in our country, but let’s make it worthwhile for American wide bottoms to stop living on welfare if that’s how they’re surviving, and get back to work or in many cases start working for the first time in their dismal lives.

The revising of laws pertaining to foreign student work visas would also aid our college students by allowing them the opportunity to pay back their tuition loans, hence a side benefit of aiding the banking community by decreasing the number of student delinquent loans.

Halt Outsourcing American jobs

Again, I have to call upon our Fortune 500 companies to use prudence and suffer somewhat higher taxes for shipping our jobs overseas where, as I see it, the American citizens and government receives very little as far as a reduced price of goods exported back into the US. These corporations, I believe, who subscribe to the notion of shipping our jobs abroad receive a very profitable bottom line in their profit and lose balance sheets while we receive increased taxes to pay for State Unemployment Compensation for those whose livelihood is overseas.

One aspect of the outsourcing issue, which remains unclear and introduced during the Clinton Administration is the “North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).” What remains unclear is most of the top ten Fortune 500 companies have smaller sized facilities in both Mexico and Canada than they do in Asia – why? For me, I feel NAFTA was a smoke screen so the GM’s, Fords, Motorolas and the like could obtain certain loopholes in our government’s taxing structure knowing all along they were going to Asia.

Enough, I’ve made my point, bring our jobs home!

Limit exporting our technology

In many ways this goes hand-in-hand with outsourcing with the difference being, by selling foreign countries or allowing foreign countries to develop and manufacture products sold back into the United States, which in mostly all cases generates a sizable profit for the in the US company while giving the foreign country the ability to use the sold technology for other purposes that usually turn out to hurt our economy (trade imbalance).

In a self authored posting earlier, entitled: “We’re Going to be Trading Microchips for Toasters”, describing how our American steel industry, TV manufacturing and Intergraded microchip foundries have been exported and how we have came to suffer from our exporting these specialized technologies, please consider giving this rendered posting a read.

In other words let’s get back to “Made in America by Americans.”

Increasing the dollar acceleration into the economy

As you can certainly ascertain by now I’m not an economist, but I try to follow what stimulus packages are being presented and attempt to play the devil’s advocate on each of them. They all have one item in common, which is; “get the American public spending again”, which I agree with, but disagree with how this should be accomplished.

President Obama wants to place $1,000 into the hands of the lower middle class, as I understand it, which is, to my way of thinking is to short sighted. I feel most Americans will take the one thousand and use it to pay off credit cards or back mortgage payments. This means the money goes directly back to the banks that created the economic problem in the first place.

If the minimum wage was increased to $8.00 an hour, more people would benefit from the increased salary and it would go directly to the people who probably need it most. This would also be an incentive for people start back to work and remove themselves from the welfare list(s).

The big benefit, the low wage earners would spend their increased salary quicker while spreading it out over a number places, instead of giving it all back to our failed banking system.

Decreasing our foreign trade imbalance

We as a nation have to get back to exporting more than we import, since I feel this has caused us, both as a country and has citizens to spend more than we make, thus generating and adding to the massive trade imbalance we have.

With all the economic problems we have accumulated this could be the most serious and most difficult to solve, since we have to completely retool the way we think and manufacture goods and perform services. We can’t be beaten when it comes to innovation, but bad when it comes to implementing it; meaning making our products affordable, reproducible and our biggest problem with a higher degree of quality.

What ever country, America’s products are exported to, we end up paying an extremely high tariff tax, while we allow foreign products to enter the US with a modest tariff tax – Why? Furthermore, our products are usually copied and bootlegged without hardly any repercussions from us regarding our trading partners. This is true for clothing, software, DVD movies and of course music.

The trade imbalance must be shifted into our favor and then tightly controlled if we are ever to become the nation we once were back in the 50’s to 80’s.

Affordable Health Care

Even if President Obama’s Economic Stimulus package is passed by the Senate; how many Americans would be able to afford it?

Increasing the minimum wage would be the answer for many; this couple with the recent passage of the “Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act” would assure must Americans would be covered with medical insurance protection.

Summary

Should congress pass President Obama’s Stimulus package and the minimum wage be increased to a minimum of $8.00 per hour, the price of doing business in America would increase dramatically, along with the costs of consumer goods and services, but it would put more Americans back to work and off welfare.

This would also increase the standard of living for many, which we have seen America’s middle and lower classes living standard decay over the past twenty years. This can be witnessed by the number of homeless individuals filling our inner cities and our increased prison population (one out a hundred Americans currently serving time in prison).

Just increasing of the minimum wage is not enough and will not work by itself; we must revise and author new laws pertaining to immigration, outsourcing and flow of technology from our shores. Again, I echo we must return to the proverbial “Made in America by Americans.”

It is my very strong feeling; increasing the minimum wage will hurt many in business while helping our most needed citizenry segment within our society of troubled Americans, kick start the economy back on track as a strong economically sound nation.

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: THE STATE OF OUR UNION?

Patricia from Torrance, CA — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:36:42 EST

Dear Mr. President:

Greetings to you in your new office of the 44th President of these United States. I welcome you and your cabinet wholeheartedly, and know that you will serve the people well.

Mr. President, I am - along with many others like me - much distressed over the current economic situations. I am happy to see and to know that you stand firmly committed to correcting and alleviating these vast problems. As your website offers the chance for a citizen as myself to come forward with ideas in regards to the many problems which beset our great country, I would like, herewith, to offer my own comments:

In regards to the economy, which is uppermost in everyone's minds, I feel that the current bail-out package can best be applied in helping everyone get back on track by dispersing some of the funds to the many businesses which are in danger of going under, along with the usual stimulus packages for renters and homeowners. Likewise, new business start-ups will do much to lighten the economic darkness that threatens to envelop us all, as it will give many people the financial support they are direly in need of, as well as help our country to recover its financial strength and viability. Of course, we must be careful not to 'spread the wealth' to those who will only abuse it for their own purposes; corporate heads will be waiting, eager to snatch away monies that others desperately need so that they can continue to finance their high-living lifestyle; I have no doubt you will prevent this from occurring.

It is true that 'we' can all claim responsibility in some part for our present situation; however, as someone who is 'out there in the trenches' among the people, seeing and experiencing 'real-life' encounters, I can strongly state that a good deal of this problem is worsened by the explosion of the illegal alien component within our cities. As a female with a mixed African-American heritage (Portugese, Native American x3, Irish, Scottish, Jewish (and perhaps even Chinese - from the name FOY), and African, I am one who does not like to think in terms of 'ethnicity'. However, I have noticed vast problems with the Latino, and other, illegal immigration from everything to the loss of jobs, to the overwhelming taxing of our government programs - put in place as a TEMPORARY assistance for those who need it, but now being rapidly drained by illegals who have descended on these programs with a vengence and are rapidly exhausting available funds and help.

I realize my most may be unpopular - and I do not wish to single out any particuler person or group - and my post may perhaps, likewise, be observed by some as ascerbic; however, I feel I must express my feelings and thoughts on this matter. Which is, that many illegals come here (illegally) and obtain jobs in the private sectors - some by the theft of others' ID/Social Security numbers - and then bring in their other relatives to these same jobs, low-paying or otherwise, which then become housed with latinos and no other ethnic group, excepting Asians or their white employers and supervisors. This is rapidly happening all over California -- the major work force here is Latino. This is not because no other ethnic group wants to work in these jobs, but because job forces, inspired by paying low wages to unqualified workers so that their 'bottom line' can be sustained, or so that they can make 1000% profit, prefer hiring illegals over paying real wages for qualified workers. I, myself, have experienced this problem since 2003, and even lost several temporary assignments which were slated to become permanent jobs when, due to the maliciousness of Latinos - illegals or otherwise - who were working there in the same office I worked at, found myself ousted out of a good job just so that my Latino 'brethern' could bring in their own people. Although I can type up to 95 words per minute and have substantial employment history, I was not able to secure a job for quite some time, even as a File Clerk! Yet, everywhere I looked there were throngs of latino men and women, many placed in jobs that they were not qualified or suited for -- some of whom could barely speak English! This practice is unfair on BOTH sides of the coin, to illegals and natives, but still continues to this day.

Another rank problem that is sinking our economy and country faster then the Titanic is the practice of private industry outsourcing good jobs overseas and out of the country. Once upon a time, Mr. President, all U.S. products proudly bore the tag MADE IN AMERICA; now, due to private sector interests and politics, that can rarely be said. We must put our wonderful country back on track, Mr. President, and quicklyl halt the practice of outsourcing jobs out of our country; thereafter we must refinance our country in the manner of support for business, which has built this country into a once-great state. I firmly believe that it can begin its return to greatness, but immediate actions must be taken.

not all illegal immigrants are the same

sam — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:02:14 EST

i believe that it is unfair to just lump all illegal immigrants into one group. lets not forget that when illegal immigrants cross the border they somtimes bring with them their children. is it right to punish these children who had no choice, and is it really fair to simply say theyre breaking the law because once they turned 18 they didnt go back to mexico? a place that really they have never been.

Incentives to Detain: How Immigrants Drive Prison Profits

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:32:37 EST

Incentives to Detain How Immigrants Drive Prison Profits

By TOM BARRY @ counterpunch.org

Mining, railroads, agribusiness, and, recently, construction have been among the many U.S. industries that historically been driven by an abundant supply of immigrants. But now, when the economy is imploding, most industries are shedding immigrants. The private prison industry, however, is booming, largely because of the ever-increasing supply of immigrants supplied by the federal government.

In the past, when the government detained immigrants—legal or illegal—they were placed in one of a handful of official processing centers where they awaited a hearing or deportation. The Department of Homeland Security still runs seven immigrant detention centers.

Since the early 1980s, sparked by the Reagan administration's new enthusiasm for privatization and the free market, the Justice Department and now also DHS have been outsourcing most of the immigrant detainees to private firms that own or manage scores of prisons that annually hold hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

At a time when most other industries are reporting slackening consumer demand and plunging revenues, the executives of the major private companies providing prison services attribute their fortunes to the sorry fate of America's immigrant population. They routinely tell investors that their major "customers"—Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals Service, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—keep "bed occupancy" near capacity............

ENTIRE ARTICLE - http://www.counterpunch.org/barry12122008.html

Cleaning Firm Used Illegal Workers at Chertoff Home

John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:54:52 EST

Cleaning Firm Used Illegal Workers at Chertoff Home

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 11, 2008; Page A01

Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation's top immigration official.

The company's owner says the workers sailed through the checks -- although some of them turned out to be illegal immigrants.

Now, owner James D. Reid finds himself in a predicament that he considers especially confounding. In October, he was fined $22,880 after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators said he failed to check identification and work documents and fill out required I-9 verification forms for employees, five of whom he said were part of crews sent to Chertoff's home and whom ICE told him to fire because they were undocumented.......

ENTIRE ARTICLE-http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003524.html?hpid=topnews

Immigaration

Aasi Tahir Siddique — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:52:48 EST

Usually, there are many road blocks in our life to reach our goals. Lets imagine that you are the best qualified person for the next job or promotion and you have been denied the opportunity, because of your color, religion, race, or an affiliation. It is not only disappointing but fundamentally wrong under any standard.

Immigration means change in some one’s life, a new opportunity, new dawn, and a chance to live their dreams. I understand that the immigration is sensitive issue and ignoring it all together is not an answer. Opportunity for change and hope shall not be denied for any human. Humans have the fundamental right to live and grow any part of the world and should not be denied, as long they are willing to be part of the solutions.

To make change work, we must respect all human rights and make future immigration policies with free & clear minds and without any prejudice & hate.

Rhetoric or Real?

Nervie — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 22:49:11 EST

Rhetoric or real?

Rumor has it that Arizona Governor Napolitano is being tapped to become the head of Homeland Security and the new American Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement (ICE) officer. Senator John McCain has even turned in his endorsement letter to this effect. In the meantime we are hearing Amy Goodman interviewing Aarti Shahani, on DemocracyNow! Shahani works for Justice Strategies out of New York University and is warning that she doesn’t believe that Obama has the full vitae of Napolitano. . .

Yes, “Annie Oakley” Napolitano was the Attorney General for the Clinton Administration but Napolitano has also been known to play both sides against the middle by slamming White Supremacists who were willing to police the Arizona border, negating the rise of Proposition 200 in November 4, 2004 to gain political stature by calling it “hateful and wrong”. In a seeming contradiction to this stance she asked for the assistance of Joe Arpaioto, the toughest sheriff in America, who was showcased on MSNBC for feeding prisoners “green baloney” and requiring men (as a form of emasculation) to wear pink underwear. She asked Sheriff Arpaioto to open up his jails to accommodate illegal aliens caught crossing the border. Some civil rights activists believed this to be too harsh. If he was treating American citizens badly, what in the blazes would he do to illegal aliens? Civil right activists didn’t want to allow Arpaioto’s methodology to prevail. Even though the sheriff has incurred more than $11 million dollars in civil rights law suits, Napolitano says she is simply responding to frustrated American citizens who don’t want to see illegal aliens benefitting from their tax dollars. Visit the following site for more background: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24314764/

In addition to this, Border protection laws have been openly discussed by the CNN media giant, Lou Dobbs, in his “Broken Borders” series: http://loudobbs.tv.cnn.com/category/broken-borders/ and also by Governor Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado) http://tancredo.house.gov/issue_details.aspx?IID=7

They both asked what happened to the illegal immigration issue in the 2008 election campaign. Some of us are still waiting to see what becomes of Obama’s special drivers’ license for illegal aliens, investigation of mass detention centers where aliens have died in gang fights, review resources allocated to immigration services paid for by American tax dollars, and the questionable constitutional rights being applied to immigration enforcement. Also discussed is the apparent increase of human trafficking, drug smuggling and gang warfare at the borders with law enforcement. I believe we have a right to keep illegal drugs out of our country also.

I agree that crimes perpetrated against any victim in the United States need to be reported to law enforcement. Whether the victim is legal or illegal should not be in question. Do we deport the victim who is an illegal alien after they have reported a crime? Well this is where the policies and mandates of the Homeland Security come in. All efforts should lead to a serious policy that state and federal law officials need to provide Obama. Guest workers’ rights definitely need to be reviewed and policies need to reflect the real factors that bring “guests” to the United States in the first place.

The Bush administration has always turned a blind eye towards these immigration issues, so hopefully Obama’s administration will be able to turn this around to arrive at a more humane and just policy.

NO GRIJALVA TO CABINET

Danny S — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:37:33 EST

I was originally pessimistic about the Obama Biden Ticket. But after all was said and done i made the decision to come on board with change, and I have been very optimistic over the past month,. But Seeing Raul Grijalva as a possible choice for a cabinet Position is HORRIFYING! That man has made a mess of his district and has made so many biased and poor decision in Arizona. He is an embarrassment to Arizona, I don't know how he continually gets voted in. PRESIDENT OBAMA PLease Reconsider this Decision, the man is not the right choice for the change you are seeking. He is poor decision maker that looks out for his own. Do your research for what people in Arizona think of him.

America - Together (post election)

Alex Karoub — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:44:40 EST

..... Contact: http://Alex.Karoub@gmail.com

WHO IS THAT GUY BARACK OBAMA? HE IS US.

We have made historic headway by together pointing our nation in the right directions. After decades, we have America focused on the issues of fundamental importance. Now, each of us acting in concert can together move our country to lead the world to the fruitfulness of moral goodness. I have no doubts about my abilities and the abilities of fellow Americans to work smart and hard to achieve these goals.

Barack Obama has the visions, leadership, and integrity for us to correct and redirect our country to once again lead the world for the fruitions of good. Let's closely listen, learn, and move forward based on that which we know deep inside is good and which we can validate with our hearts.

I hope that those who had but a few reasons to support Obama, look further into the other issues more deeply. I found the more I explored, studied, and listened to Obama the more I found us in agreement. The couple of issues that I did not have depth of knowledge of, quickly became obvious in need. This was unusual for me since I have always refused to be any kind of a follower, and still am not. I find Obama to be a deep thinker who is articulate and inspirational; and, of most fundamental importance, Obama makes excellent moral sense.

Hopefully, our country has learned lessons from the past of mistakenly following leadership blindly, as was done with Nixon and Bush. There are leaders who are simply in it for themselves and will cater to individuals or groups in order to grab for their own benefit. Corrupt and bad leaders hide at all levels. This is especially true in city government as well as county and state government. The corrupt deals of politicians need to be exposed, and those responsible need to be weeded out in the coming local elections. Others need to be investigated by law enforcement and be prosecuted for illegal dealings; for deals they often make for their hidden personal agendas. Let’s look at the bad experiences of the past as bitter medicines, let’s eliminate the need for such bad medicine in the future. Let us use what we know is good to go forward.

I believe we have chosen wisely, not by greed and not by misguided retaliatory anger. I believe this time our country has chosen with open eyes, with each of us listening and examining our choice of leadership closely, driven and validated by our hearts.

I hope we can continue to make our efforts even more inclusive (in many more ways than I touch on here). Far right republicans will be stubborn to change, but we will need to include them to change if we are to succeed. Sure a few more will leave our country, but that is not the American way. No, we really don't need their false fronts of power, money, insider knowledge, or other trappings that they have taught many to 'respect?'. Let's recruit as many as we can, that's the American way, evolving and changing together as one nation. Try to be understanding as we move forward; by better understanding each as individuals and people with various desires and needs we will find ways to reach out with friendship and have them join our causes of good.

Be on the lookout, and root out bad leadership in government and business. Do not be intimidated by those who use the false fronts of power and give a false sense of security in order to lead. Be extra leery of those who say or imply ‘Trust me’; those who give a sense that they somehow omnipotently know better. No longer will Americans be dazzled by phony displays of brilliance or baffled by baloney. There are government aristocrats and business leaders who still believe in the old adage of: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle em with bullshit”. We can embrace complexity by demanding true, fundamental, and understandable explanations. We can root out falsehoods by not accepting double speak. We as Americans know how to grow ourselves by first believing in ourselves. Don’t be a follower. Don’t be a follower of followers.

However, when we find leaders who are good; a leader that thinks, speaks, and acts from their heart; one that is honest, has integrity, and leads by sincere examples; then we need to in a big way, join them, support them, and promote their causes of good. From much research, investigation, and scrutiny, I believe Barack Obama is such a person. I hope we search for and find many more who are similar, who we can add to service at all levels of government. We need to add/replace leaders in business with ones that have honesty, integrity, and show quality in leadership. We need more people in leadership roles who are moral, like Barack Obama.

Remember, we are not fighting a battle, we are the artisans and sculptors of the future for ourselves and generations to come. Rarely do societies have opportunities to make such dramatic moves forward as we now have in this opportunity of today. Take pride and practice in being inclusive as we stride forward. In moving forward, create opportunity not only for yourself, but also for all. Hope is a wonderful thing to behold; but without opportunity, hope can become but a dream never achievable. We can, will, and must, create opportunity.

In the coming year I hope that we do not lose our spiritedness, but instead continue to build and make headway. I hope we all continue our campaign for change in government and business. We will succeed in moving forward once again, it will take much effort and good oversight on the part of each of us. We will make great strides in the months and years ahead in order to achieve the fruitions of good. Let's keep our enthusiasm progressing through these coming toughest of times. Let us use the light of goodness and love to motivate us with historic momentum.

I have chosen Barack Obama because he best represents my deepest beliefs in America. Please take time to read the issues that Barack Obama has published on this website. Also, give your attention to see how he leads us to move our nation forward in the time ahead. Most importantly, be part of America's great future, participate in the greatness that together we will make. Participate!

We will each and all flourish, if we think, speak, and act, by using the love in our hearts.

Your reply is welcome. Contact: Alex.Karoub@gmail.com

EchodHaiti.com Endorses Barack Obama

Ginau from Olney, MD — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:01:52 EDT

      As America decides whether to elect its first Black president in its more than two hundred year history, we as Haitians, in our more than two hundred year history, are no strangers to Black presidents, Black Prime Ministers or Black Emperors for that matter. Our history of democracy is much shorter, but the decisions have not been made based on race.
       EchodHaiti.com and HaitianDiaspora.com endorse Barack Hussein Obama for President of the United States of America in the 2008 elections. For, as Haitian-Americans, we believe he is the better man to lead the U.S. in its Time for Change.

Support the work of Filipinos for Obama!

FilAm Dems Network — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:32:08 EDT

Kababayan,

We are at this historic moment of our political empowerment agenda that we need to rally together to elect Senator Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Under his AAPI platform, Senator Barack Obama supports the justice struggle of our Filipino WWII veterans and our quest for more humane immigration legislation.

Let's connect our local activities to the national effort of Filipinos For Obama to elect Senator Barack Obama as the next president of the United States of America.

Jerry Clarito

Skokie, IL

Republicans Recycle Smear to Change Subject of Failing Economy

Amy Corron Power - Delegate Capt. — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:54:52 EDT

Republicans are sending around another "scare" e-mail that starts out like this....:

"Fw: Fw: Social Security Changes--IMPORTANT

S OCIAL SECURITY CHANGES
It does not matter if you personally like or dislike Bush. You need to sign
this petition and flood his e-mail box=2 0with e-mails that tell him that,
even if the House passes this bill, he needs to veto it. It is already
impossible to live on Social Security alone. If the government gives
benefits to 'illegal' aliens who have never contributed, where does that
leave those of us who have paid into Social Security all our working lives?"

They're sending this out to pull the discussion in American away from the failed policies of Geroge W. Bush and John McCain. They are asking people to sign a "petition." to send to George W. Bush.

If you get one of these e-mails I would suggest a "reply all" with something along the lines of this response:

Social Security Changes and the Keating 5

Don't fall for this partisan trick to keep you from talking about the economy in shambles after 8 years of Republican rule!

Do we have a House or Senate Bill number for this story?

I don't see one here:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_110_2.htm

Because it's the BS distraction and FALSE STORY that was debunked in 2006.

http://www.factcheck.org/article447.html

The Republicans don't want anyone talking about the ECONOMY. They will say anything to distract from the fact that the economy is tanking under the Republican policy that has pushed deregulation for the banking industry. McCain's push for deregulation is what has CAUSED the Savings & Loan meltdown of the 1990s now repeating with the current financial crisis:

http://www.keatingeconomics.com/

The only issue regarding Social Security that should be concern to all Americans is John McCain's promotion of the idea that we should PRIVATIZE Social Security, and allow the FREE MARKET to take care of it. Jack Cafferty on CNN asked of McCain last month: Is privatizing Social Security really a good idea?

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/18/cafferty-mocks-mccain-is-privatizing-social-security-really-a-good-idea/

Here are some other analyses of John McCain's plan to privatize Social Security

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/mccain_retirement.cfm

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/17/mccain-social-security/

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-10-26-mccain-huckabee_N.htm

Privitization of financial markets and the housing industry seems to be working quite well, doesn't it.

If you must talk about John McCain and "illegal aliens" why not read an analysis of his past voting records:

Supporting mass amnesty. The May 29, 2003, Tucson Citizen quoted Mr. McCain as stating that "Amnesty has to be an important part of" any immigration solution. He was part of the bipartisan coalition that tried to pass amnesty legislation in 2006 and 2007. In 2006 he voted in favor of S. 2611, legislation that would reward between 10 and 11 million illegals with amnesty if they apply for legal status and pay a $2,000 fine.

Supporting in-state tuition for illegal aliens. Mr. McCain was a cosponsor of S. 774, the Dream Act, providing in-state tuition for illegal aliens. The legislation would have enabled illegal aliens who entered the United States before age 16 to obtain a green card and then use their newly acquired status to obtain green cards for the millions of parents who illegally brought their children with them into the United States. Mr. McCain missed a Senate vote on the issue in October. He said that he would have opposed it on the Senate floor had he been there to vote.

Voted to kill border fence. In 2006, Mr. McCain voted for an amendment to S. 2611 offered by Sen. Arlen Specter to require consultation with the Mexican government concerning the construction of fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border. According to Numbers USA, an organization that lobbies against illegal immigration, this amendment would have effectively guaranteed that the border fence was never built.

Voted against permanently barring gang members and terrorists from the United States. Last year, Mr. McCain voted against an amendment (Senate Amendment 1184) introduced by Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, that would have permanently barred gang members, terrorists, sex offenders, alien absconders, aliens convicted of domestic violence and aliens convicted of at least three DUIs from the United States. The Cornyn Amendment was rejected on a 51-46 vote.

Voted in favor of Social Security benefits to illegal aliens who commit identity fraud. In 2006. Mr. McCain joined with Mr. Kennedy in working to defeat an amendment by Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, that would have barred Social Security credits for work being done prior to their receiving amnesty — in other words, while working under a false Social Security number. The Ensign Amendment, (Senate Amendment 3985) was defeated on a 50-49 vote.

Don't fall for this partisan trick to keep you from talking about the economy!

Read about Barack Obama's plan here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/mollyclaflinblog/gGxVyf

I can't go to jail, I have to vote today

MendozaHB — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:41:57 EDT

Published Wednesday, September 13, 2006 10:47 PM PDT THE BELL CURVE:
Family is a far cry from criminal

By JOSEPH N. BELL

When Margarita Mendoza first appeared on the doorstep of the home of Jim and Kathryn Helfrich in Newport Beach almost 30 years ago, she was 19 years old, spoke only Spanish and was — although she didn't know it — pregnant. Margarita was introduced to the Helfrichs by her aunt who cleaned their 4,000-square-foot house, filled to overflowing by six active children. A few weeks later, Margarita was doing the job alone. It took 10 hours a day, once a week. She missed only one cleaning day that year, the week of Thanksgiving, when she gave birth to Laura, her first-born.

"We needed the money," she explained, because her husband, Mauro, was losing too many working days as a gardener because of heavy rains.

When the Helfrich kids were raised and gone and the parents moved to smaller quarters in Bayshore, Margarita came along. She's been a fixture in the extended Helfrich family for three decades, along with the households of many of her other original customers. During that time, she and Mauro have bought a house and put three kids through college — and next year, their youngest, Elizabeth, will be going.

So, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor, I'd like you to meet once illegal immigrants Margarita and Mauro Mendoza.

In March of 1977, they — just married — paid a coyote $350 apiece to lead them, along with 16 other illegal immigrants, into the United States to seek work and a chance for the children they wanted to have. They crossed the border on foot and walked for two days in four-hour spurts, sandwiched between sleep. They spent many hours holed up in a trash dump and walking without shoes so they wouldn't disturb listening dogs. They were able to connect with a van that took them to Los Angeles. A bus brought them to Costa Mesa and Margarita's aunt.

Almost from the day they arrived, Margarita and Mauro have been working long hours. They have groomed the yards and gardens and cleaned and polished the houses of Newport-Mesa, with, as Jim Helfrich said "ethics, hard work and elegance. They have always demonstrated the highest level as a family."

On Aug, 1, 1989, the Mendozas were granted amnesty under a new law passed by Congress. They had no trouble getting letters from sponsors, and each of them proudly came away with a green card and a driver's license. By that time, both had attended night school to learn English (Margarita was proficient, Mauro was struggling), and Mauro — with the help of Jim Helfrich, who speaks fluent Spanish — had started his own gardening business. And they had settled down to a process of putting aside earnings to allow their four children to have the option of college.

"I wish I could have done the same," says Margarita. "I didn't have the opportunity for college, but I wanted it to be possible for all of my kids. But I also never asked for special help for them. I figured if I want to have kids, then I have to pay for them."

The two oldest, Laura and Martha, have graduated from Cal State Long Beach and UC Santa Barbara, respectively, and are gainfully employed. Martha was recently married with a send-off party from the Helfrichs. The only Mendoza son, Alberto, is a senior at San Francisco State University and will, says Jim Helfrich, "have an impact one day."

And their youngest daughter, Elizabeth, is a high school senior thinking about a college for next year.

The Mendozas have repaid the opportunities they have found in this country in many ways. One of the more creative has been their Christmas celebration. Twice they have rented community rooms in a local hotel to hold a party for their friends and customers (Margarita says they're thinking about doing it again this year), and regularly they brew up an enormous supply of tamales and drive about on Christmas Eve passing them out. But the primary way they have offered thanks has been their service and loyalty to the clients who have admired and embraced them over the years.

This is the other side of the illegal immigration question, the enormous counter balance to the draconian picture we are offered by the people — including the mayor of Costa Mesa and his clique — who would portray them as criminals who should be punished by throwing them out of the country. This is an incredibly complex matter that requires balanced thinking and action. The Mendozas are legal and safe, but there are hundreds of thousands of hard-working people like them who aren't and who came here in desperation and were warmly received by local employers. Dealing with them with fairness while we prevent further encroachment requires statesmanship, not thinly veiled racist rhetoric.

Margarita has been giving loving care to our house for several years, and I find it embarrassing that someone else had to call my attention to her history and her remarkable achievements in this country. I had never before taken the time to stop and talk with her beyond the minutiae of her chores. That was my loss, and I'm grateful to have had that pointed out to me.

As Margarita told me simply, "Not all immigrants are bad."

Indeed they aren't.

Why is immigration so hard?

Frustrated Independent — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:36:40 EDT

I don't get the immigration debate. More specifically: I don't understand why it is so complicated to figure out!!

The solution is simple: if you're here illegally, you should be prosecuted and deported. Simple as that. I follow the laws, and I don't have a get-out-of-jail-free card, and I'm a citizen. There are hundreds of thousands of highly skilled individuals who have abided by the process and waited in line to enter this country and lawfully become citizens. Fifty of those people are members of my family. My father and mother waited in line back in the 60's and 70's. The point is that they followed the law! Proximity to our borders and gambling ones life to trek across the sierra nevada should not be an on-ramp to legal work status and certainly not to citizenship. If that becomes the norm, any argument for helping the poor, which is fundamental democratic thinking, immediately becomes "helping the poor and the people that broke the law to be poor but within our borders", which is an idea I (and I expect many independents) will not subscribe to. I'm not a charity. I don't mind helping people out from time to time, but I'm not going to provide free support to anybody that had the guts to cross the border.

I graduated from a highly reputable university. I have *many* friends that are brilliant, law-biding individuals. They could have easy overstayed their visa's and scrounged for some type of job. Instead, they followed the law, left the country, and waited for a corporation to sponsor their H1B visa. By giving amnesty, you are telling foreigners, particularly foreign students, that instead of adhering to the laws and policies of the US, they instead should ignore them and expect amnesty. "Intelligent immigration" is about providing incentives to those with skills and the capabilities of significantly contributing to society (which in part implies assimilation too), should be the objective. Not "charitable immigration".

Amnesty in any form is unacceptable. We need to encourage individuals to follow the law, not give them a way out because we as a government were too stupid to understand how to enforce the laws. More over, we should encourage those who have studied at our universities, graduated with good gpa's, and have quite a bit of promise to stay, work, and contribute to society. The whole mantra of "give us your weak, your poor, ..." made sense pre-depression, but now that we have social services, where our tax money is used in-part to support those that can't support themselves, that ideology no longer is ideal. I refuse to have any of my tax dollars spent caring for those that broke the law and are getting away with. If that's the case, why should I adhere to any law?? I'll walk into best buy and walk off with a playstation and a new plasma tv. Anybody that stops me is two-faced.

To me, amnesty => democrats. But at the same time, anti-immigration => republican. Both are dumb positions. We as a country need to enforce our laws and encourage intelligent immigration policies, where we encourage highly educated people and their families to immigrate to the US and establish their roots. By the way, we need to "import" highly educated people (particularly in math and science) because well, quite frankly, those educated in the US high school system (as well as most of people that graduated from the weaker 50-500 ranked universities) simply don't cut it in the marketplace, but this is for another blog post.

Finally, any candidate that panders to illegal immigrants and their supporters automatically loses my vote. Additionally, anybody that argues the people here illegally are fleeing repression, should go visit India, China, and other countries because my relatives are represessed too, but they are abiding by the law and are waiting (for $50k I could have them snuck over the border tomorrow, but it is *ILLEGAL*). If the candidates for both major parties pander, I simply wont vote at all, and I will encourage as many people as possible to not vote too. It's a matter of pride and being right. I expect this to be a sentiment held by *many* of the first and second generation immigrants in this country, because they are the ones whose family are following the legal process and waiting for US visa's in their home country. Breaking the law is breaking the law. Nothing anybody says can change that fact. Any law breakers should be prosecuted. People that follow the law should be afforded priveledges. Period.

What about Latin America & the immigration crisis?

Lawrence from Saint Simons Island, GA — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:17:29 EDT

One, two and three years ago the country was feverishly concerned about and debated the "immigration crisis". John McCain actually came down on roughly the right side of this issue - as has Barack Obama. Today, with the campaign nearing its home stretch, nobody is talking about this issue, though the problem has not gone away.

The reason: McCain and his advisors have succesfully distracted attention from this (and other) issue by bombarding the country with false and misleading messages about taxes, spending, "family values", and other similar attacks.

In the meantime, Latin America and the looming problems in a region closer and realistically more important to the US than the middle east, continue to fester, and risk getting completely out of control. A few facts:

In Mexico this year, over 3,000 people have died in a growing war between organized crime, police and the Federal Government. An unknown, but not insignificant number have been innocent bystanders: citizens from children in arms, to the elderly. The Federal Government under the corageous leadership of the country's President, Felip Calderon, have demonstrated a commitment to fight what many believe is a losing battle.

Worse yet, a criminal element in the country holds ordinary citizens hostage, under a constant threat of kidnapping and blackmail. These crimes are largely unchecked, and are the direct result of the corruption of law enforcement by the drug trade.

The root cause of much of this fratricidal murder? The principal cause is the huge and unchecked US appetite for illegal drugs; of every kind under the sun. Multiple gangs, armed with US purchased armament, fight for the right to "export" their product to the insatiable US consumer.

The question is; where is the US government in this battle; where is the leadership in a silent but real war that threatens to affect the fabric of our own society? As these problems escalate, so will the inevitable exodus of people to the land of their only hope: our US.

The answer to the above question is; nowhere - the US government is nowhere; nowhere to be seen. And, sadly, as goes Mexico; so goes the rest of Latin America. Chavez in Venezuela and Morales in Bolivia are succesfully disenfranchising much of the sub-continent with their virulent attacks on our country, and its failed policies. Our diplomacy in the region under the current administration is not dead; just brain dead. And; yet we wonder.

If Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan loom large (let's leave Russia, China and No. Korea out of the discussion); they will look like blips on the radar screen of major storms, when social unrest in Mexico and the rest of Latin America "unravel". "The Perfect Storm", writ large.

Will we discuss and/or debate these issues in the remaining 50 or so days? No; of course not, because John McCain would rather run around the country crying "tax and spend"; and his running mate thinks that Latin America is Cancun, where they all speak English, drink margaritas, and deal in (devalued) dollars!

We need help!

Sick of Fox news And talk radio, and so many other things!

GJ — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:37:49 EDT

I used to listen to the talk radio news stations here in Dallas. But recently, they are so pro-Mccain that I just cannot stand it. Even one host said that Obama hates women because he said lipstick on a pig. But Mccain made the same comment 2 times about Hillary when she ran, noone seemed to care.

What a dummy. I really hope that the only people who listen are people who already made their mind up to vote Mccain. And that the others see right through the propoganda.

Fox news, and other sources, seem to be entirley unfair. Where in the world can a person get unbiased news in this country? Freedom of speech should be titled clearly as opinion versus fact. Fact should be only a relay of what actually happened.

If you're a fan of Barack Obama- You'll love this video

Arturo Perez — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:02:41 EDT

This video is dedicated to the movement that has taken place in this country. We couldn't have done it without Barack Obama and the millions of people who work for change everyday...

This year for the first time since the 1960’s many young people have become engaged in politics and now comes a new documentary film that compares today’s youth movement to the one of forty years ago.

The Bay Area’s own Arturo Perez showcases WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE? You'll journey with him as he takes you down a hilarious and emotional roller coaster as he and his two friends search for the voices of the future. WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE? premiered at the Wine Country Film Festival, and is being showcased online at www.FlowersTheMovie.com

Like Michael Moore's SLACKER UPRISING Arturo is streaming the entire film online for all to see for FREE with the hopes that even more people will become energized about voting for Obama this November!

Watch the entire film for FREE now at: www.FlowersThemovie.com

Educating the Voters

Salvatore from San Jose, CA — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:25:36 EDT

I have a growing concern as I watch the back and forth with this election. Voters are being swayed by things they see in ads and see in e-mails and not on the facts about the candidates. This is no news flash to anyone, I'm sure, but my question that I'm posing to the general public is "How do we get accurate information to the voters?". My gut feeling is the majority of people out there vote on a candidate based on their perception rather than based on the issues, and it scares the hell out of me.

We've seen the McCain campaign say things like "Obama is going to raise your taxes." , a true statement for individuals making more than $250,000, but not the whole truth. I just saw an article on CNN about a McCain campaign ad on immigration which slams Obama even though McCain had the exact same voting record on the immigration issue last year.

Let's be fair, this is not specifically an issue with the McCain campaign. I've seen Obama ads that do not necessarily tell the whole truth either (I know it's just politics). For instance, I've heard Barack Obama say repeatedly that John McCain is going to give a tax break to the oil companies, again, a true statement, but not the whole truth. McCain's policy is to give all corporations a tax break, not just the oil companies. It has a different ring when said specifically about oil companies.

So, back to my question. How do we get the right information to the voters? We can't rely on all of them to do their research on the web, and ads aren't long enough to get the message across. If we let the general public be swayed by the ads of this campaign, McCain will have an advantage.

Immigration disaster 1

Harold from Iowa City, IA — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:50:33 EDT

The immigration system is as rotten as can be. Being in the USA for over three years now in a legal status, but still not allowed to do any work for me, my wife and my son, is not making life easier on us. I do have a job offer, but need a Labor Certification first. This takes for ever!

After the Labor certification my employer can apply for a greencard (EB2). Can you imagine what it means for the economy if you are searching for a job to fill for four long years, having found the person to fullfil this and than you need to wait for several years to be able to hire him? It is distroying your company.

I have sned letters and made phonecalls to senators, congressmen and even the gouvernor, but they can not do a thing. The answer I receive is: "You are the victim of 9/11!" Well, to all politicians, this was 8 YEARS AGO! You ask the US citizen to keep working and keep paying taxes and chew on the negative effects. GROW UP AND START DOING YOUR JOB!

For over three years we are living on our savings account, but we are about to get broke.

As far as John McCain is concerned about this, he is living in the past, but I do not see a lot of future in his visions. Therefore I would like to support senator Obama in his quest to become the FIRST PRESIDENT WITH DECENCY in a long... long time!

Please Senator Obama and Senator Biden, please do not let me and the millions of US citizens down. WE NEED YOU TO MAKE THE CHANGE.

AMERICANS, try to understand the immigration policy for the legal immigrants and how they are treated as criminals and scum.

Barack's latest ad

Judith from New York, NY — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:31:04 EDT

Your ads need to be stronger! Not only did Palin originally support the bridge to nowhere SHE KEPT THE MONEY EVEN AFTER SHE OPPOSED IT. People need to know about that. She's also against the 1st amendment as evidenced by her trying to get several mainstream (and often classic) books banned in the Wasilla library. Also, if I were a woman planning to have a family, I would be terrified by her influence on maternity leave benefits ... 3 days whether you need them or not.

It would appear that the Republicans have come up with a solution to the immigration problem. They want to run America so far into the ground that no immigrant would want to come here. Their own countries would have better education, health care, scientific advancements, and economic opportunities than the U.S.

Not A Georgian

Marilyn K — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:05:26 EDT

Were you one of the ones that applauded when at the RNC the crowd were on their feet applauding the statement "We are all Georgians"? I don't recall giving McCan't permission to call me or any other American a Georgian, or a person from any other county.

I support the citizens of any country who are oppressed -- including those in the U.S. Because I may support citizens of other countries does not make me proclaim I am a citizen of that country. I have friends among many countries -- the U.K., Japan, Costa Rica, Canada, Germany.... do we expect people of other countries to proclaim they "are Americans"? Of course not. It is silly rhetoric.

And while I'm on a rant and roll...

Will Karl Rove ever get arrested?

Why are there no recriminations when politicians lie over and over with inpunity?

What happened to he original top issues of this campaign -- healthcare for all Americans, and the Iraq war?

Why do Americans keep falling for the red herrings thrown out there - the Russians, Georgia, Iran, fear, fear, fear.

What happened to the immigration issue and the wall (virtual or otherwise). Wasn't that a big issue?

Why did Sandra Palin wear a "Pat Buchanan for President" button when he visited in Alaska, but deny supporting him because she worked on Forbe's campaign? Is that what people do now? Just wear political buttons in front of candidates and remove them and their allegiance as soon as they're back on the plane? If I see someone wearing a campaign button, I believe that is their conviction. Is this naive? If I wear a button or put up a yard sign, you can't bet I'm a solid supporter. I guess values have changed. Don't believe what you see. Don't listen to what you hear. Don't be what you aren't.

What ever happened to that road to the bridge to Nowhere? Why did they keep and spend all that money in Alaska and use it on something not specified by Congress?

Were you as appalled when the RNC played the 9-11 memorial for political purposes?

Would you rather have a president and VP with IQ's and ethics equal to "W" or ones with actual intelligence?

If you're a woman, would you feel more comfortable and more supported by, say, the personable and intelligent, charming Michele Obama, or the pill-stealing Barbie doll Cindy McCain? Who best represents the Oval office?

Do you want the charismatic president Obama and a respected Biden, or another "war" president (or his likely successor, the college-hopping shrill-voiced hockey mom?)

Who will be most effective in leading our country and the world?

That is, after all, the bottom line, for all Americans.

McCain’s 10 Worst Ideas | Foreign Policy

Curtis — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:39:09 EDT

http://www.foreignpolicy.com

The List: McCain’s 10 Worst Ideas
Posted September 2008

Creating a League of Democracies

What he said:“We have to strengthen our global alliances as the core of a new global compact—a League of Democracies—that can harness the vast influence of the more than one hundred democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests.” —Speech at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, March 26, 2008

Why it’s a bad idea: As Thomas Carothers argues in the July/August issue of FP, “[T]he idea that democracies naturally align is only half right and risks being a dangerous oversimplification.” Carothers and other critics have noted that such a league might further weaken the United Nations. For the most part, world leaders have been cool to the idea, and rightfully so. A previous iteration, the little-known Community of Democracies, founded in 2000, has stumbled into irrelevance.

Calling for a Gas-Tax Holiday

What he said: “I propose that the federal government suspend all taxes on gasoline now paid by the American people—from Memorial Day to Labor Day of this year. The effect will be an immediate economic stimulus—taking a few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time a family, a farmer, or trucker stops to fill up.” —Speech at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa., April 15, 2008

Why it’s a bad idea: Pick your poison. Many (including Dick Cheney) predict that such a “holiday” would have little effect, as oil companies would just pocket the difference. Ditching the 18.4-cents-a-gallon gas tax and 24.4-cents-a-gallon diesel tax would deprive the already-strapped Highway Trust Fund, which relies on gas-tax revenues to fund transportation projects, of cash. Economists and environmentalists also widely deride the proposal, which would boost demand and therefore quickly drive prices back up. When you’re in a hole, it’s best to stop digging.

Requiring a Three-Fifths Majority to Raise Taxes

What he said: “John McCain believes it should require a 3/5 majority vote in Congress to raise taxes.” —Press release, Dec. 18, 2007

Why it’s a bad idea: States that have enacted supermajority requirements for tax increases haven’t exactly entered the pantheon of budgetary glory. Take California, which requires approval from two thirds of the state legislature to raise taxes. The Golden State has recently struggled to raise revenues—and has witnessed an increase in taxes disguised as “fees” as a result. Raising taxes should be like the use of force in foreign policy—the last resort, yes, but you never want to take any option off the table.

Flip-flopping on Immigration

What he said: “I understand why you would call it a, quote, shift. I say it is a lesson learned about what the American people’s priorities are. And their priority is to secure the borders.” —Remarks to reporters in Simpsonville, S.C., Nov. 3, 2007

Why it’s a bad idea: Immigration was once an issue where McCain could justifiably claim to be a “maverick,” unafraid to buck party orthodoxy and popular opinion. The Arizona senator even partnered with Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2005 to craft a bipartisan bill that would both give illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship and boost security at the U.S.-Mexico border. But with his poll numbers plummeting during the Republican primary, McCain began trumpeting the party line of “securing the borders first.” The problem is, without providing more opportunities for legal immigration or taking steps to build up the Mexican economy, taller fences and more guards will only address the symptoms, not the ultimate causes of illegal immigration.

Drilling Our Way Out of the Oil Crisis

What he said: “Gas prices are through the roof. Energy costs have seeped into our grocery bills, making it more expensive to feed our families. ... It is time for America to get serious about energy independence, and that means we need to start drilling offshore at advanced oil rigs like this.” —Press conference on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Aug. 19, 2008

Why it’s a bad idea: Even ignoring potential environmental impacts, lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling would make little difference for consumers. According to the government’s own Energy Information Administration, production of the new supplies would not even begin until 2017 and would have little effect on what Americans pay at the pump anyway—just a few cents a gallon by 2030 under the best-case scenario. More to the point, it’s a strategy of yesteryear. As columnist Thomas Friedman put it in a recent interview with FP, “When I hear McCain pounding the table for ‘drill, drill, drill,’ it reminds me of someone pounding the table for IBM Selectric typewriters on the eve of the IT revolution.”

Balancing the Budget through Victory in the War on Terror

What he said: “The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.” —Jobs for America: The McCain Economic Plan, released July 7, 2008

Why it’s a bad idea: The yearly bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is certainly enormous. Yet it still covers less than half of the United States’ projected $490 billion deficit for 2009. Given the massive tax cuts that McCain also supports, it’s unclear how his debt-reduction math adds up. McCain opposes a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, yet he feels confident enough to budget for victory by the end of his first term. Afghanistan is getting worse, not better. And as for “the fight against Islamic extremists,” how does one even define victory? Don’t try asking McCain: He doesn’t have an answer.

Making the Bush Tax Cuts Permanent

What he said: “We’ve got to make these tax cuts permanent. We have to, otherwise I think it’ll have a negative impact on our economy.” —NBC’s Meet the Press, Jan. 27, 2008

Why it’s a bad idea: You might say McCain was against the $1.35 trillion Bush tax cuts before he was for them. In 2004, he said he opposed them “because of the disproportional amount that went to the wealthiest Americans.” Now, he says he supports them because the economy is weakening. Yet “the tax cuts are more likely to reduce long-term growth than to increase it,” according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. McCain insists he will restrain spending and eliminate the budget deficit. But McCain’s budget numbers simply don’t add up, and the senator’s constant hammering on congressional earmarks misses the big picture: Defense and entitlement programs are where most of the fat lies, not in relatively small pork projects such as Alaska’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere.”

Supporting Abstinence-Only Education and the Global Gag Rule

What he said: Asked on the campaign trail if he thought grants for sex education should include instruction on contraception, McCain turned to an aide for help, saying, “Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception—I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.” The reporter asked, “Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?” After a long pause, McCain replied, “You’ve stumped me.” —Town hall meeting, Iowa, Mar. 16, 2007

Why it’s a bad idea: A landmark, 10-year study sponsored by Congress found in 2007 that students in sexual-abstinence programs “were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, reported having similar numbers of sexual partners, and first had sex at about the same age,” the Chicago Tribune reported. Abstinence-only education is one of the core principles guiding the so-called global gag rule, an executive order passed by President George W. Bush in 2001 that prohibits giving foreign aid to NGOs that offer any kind of counseling on abortion as family planning. McCain voted against repealing the measure in 2005. Critics of the gag rule point to reports showing a shortage of contraceptives, clinic closings, loss of funds for HIV/AIDS education, and a rise in unsafe abortions since it was instituted.

Calling for 45 Nuclear Power Plants

What he said: “If I am elected president, I will set this nation on a course to building 45 new reactors by the year 2030, with the ultimate goal of 100 new plants to power the homes and factories and cities of America.” —Speech in Springfield, Mo., June 18, 2008

Why it’s a bad idea: There are many good reasons to be skeptical of the widespread new enthusiasm for nuclear power, including its high-and-rising costs, but perhaps the best one is that, as experts Charles Ferguson and Sharon Squassoni explained in 2007, “a nuclear renaissance will take too long to have a significant effect” on climate change. Moreover, how do we know that 45 is the right number? A drop in the price of alternative fuels could “make nuclear plants look like white elephants,” the Wall Street Journal noted in May. For someone who likes to extol the virtues of the free market, McCain’s target sure smacks of socialist planning.

Backing Cap-and-Trade Without a 100 Percent Auction

What he said: “We will cap emissions according to specific goals, measuring progress by reference to past carbon emissions. … Over time, an increasing fraction of permits for emissions could be supplied by auction, yielding federal revenues that can be put to good use.” —Speech in Portland, Ore., May 12, 2008

Why it’s a bad idea: McCain’s gotten credit for supporting a cap-and-trade system, but his specific proposal is pretty weak. Cap-and-trade systems work by putting a ceiling on carbon emissions, and then allocating permits that give companies the right to pollute a given amount. From an environmental standpoint, it doesn’t much matter how you initially distribute the permits, as long as the cap is stringent enough. But most economists think that, unless you first auction these off in a transparent process, you’re basically enabling a massive corporate giveaway, raising the likelihood that well-connected corporations or industries will get sweetheart deals, and failing to capture revenue that can pay for other priorities.

Emails: why do people believe the lies?

Opal — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:09:46 EDT

My uncle Buck, a good ol boy from Alabama with a big heart and an even bigger gun rack, sent me an email today that drove me to respond. It was about Immigration Bill 1348 and called anyone voting against that bill a traitor - including Obama, Biden, Clinton, and Dodd. I'll list my response here, the original text on the next page. (Feel free to copy any part of this to use if you're faced with the same email):

Whoa! -- This is a blatant twist to the facts of that vote. This bill was defeated by a bipartisan vote of 54 to 42. It was all part of the "build a fence" program that closed the border but did nothing to deal with the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens still in the country.

It was not rejected based upon an "official language" issue - it was rejected for many other reasons as being an incomplete solution to the problem. An amended bill was presented that would require aliens already in this country to be identified, fined, made to learn english, eliminated from public service funding, etc. and it was fully supported by many of the congressional members that voted against 1348. Including Obama.

Obama has also stated that he believes that we could use a higher-tech method of border surveillance that would be cheaper to build and maintain than a gigantic wall. See the text of the original (defeated) bill here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/amendment.xpd?session=110&amdt=s1311

The political machinery of this country should be based upon a clear presentation of fact. This email is not fact. Please do not take any unverified email as a statement of any candidate's fitness for office.

Despite the Republican Convention, here is what was truly remarkable about this week…

jamey — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:53:39 EDT

This week the illegal immigrant that I was unable to hire for a job that few others wanted, handed me my fast food through the window at the local big business food chain.

This week 600 employees of a nonprofit healthcare organization received an 8.5% increase on health insurance premiums. The insurance companies told me the rate was a steal from the original quotes of more than 13%. As the Human Resources Director, I have outwitted, begged and bartered to hold increases over three years below 20%. National Medical trend on insurance renewals is more than 13% annually. “What will we do three years from now?”

Healthcare in the U.S. is suffering from a severe nurse shortage. This week Nursing Assistants in every corner of our country, earning an average of $13.00 per hour worked overtime to make ends meet while waiting for an opportunity to pursue a college degree. “How will they pay for their education and make ends meet while they pursue it?” The health of an aging generation is dependent upon their success.

This week a war continues to be fought for reasons that are far from concrete. Today I pray that two presidential terms from now my eleven year old son will not be on the verge of being drafted to prevent a civil war that may be inevitable, in a country where we are no longer welcome.

I was born in the year of our countries bicentennial on the day Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. My grandfather fought under General Patton in the Battle of the Bulge. I love our country and I am proud of our military. I want to see changes that allow us to build on everything that is already great about the US. It is clear that the issues we see in our communities’ everyday provide a perspective that cannot be seen from Capital Hill or the “governor’s mansion” in Alaska. It is a perspective that is earned and internalized in the "trenches" and while it is not often seen from Washington, I believe that it can and should be taken there; that is why I am voting for Barack Obama.

Post GOP Convention notes

Gordon — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:50:19 EDT

So much to say following the Repub convention...but let's start here:

Interesting that the most popular refrain at the convention was "Drill, baby, drill!" It's the perfect bumper sticker for the Republican energy policy, because the entire policy is summed up in those three (two?) words.
To borrow from Mother Jones magazine's Kevin Drum, Guiliani "brought the crazy" - see http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2008/09/drill_baby_drill.html . Of course, prior to that, Mitt Romney brought the crazy, too.
Initially, I thought several of the GOP speakers had hit us Obama-ites with a good shot in noting that the Dem convention speakers were essentially afraid to talk about terrorism/violent extremism. However, a fascinating visual on the words actually used in the conventions shows otherwise -- see this link below, courtesy of the New York Times; it shows that both parties discussed terror -ism/ -ists the exact same number of times...and that Dems focused more than the Republicans on the following matters: jobs, Iran, Iraq, the war, energy, immigration, and the economy: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/us/politics/20080905_WORDS_GRAPHIC.html

Lets see more specifics on immigration reform!

Matthew Held — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:13:52 EDT

Dear Mr. Obama,

The issue of immigration is very important to me in this 2008 election as my partner of 5 years, Alexis is a central American immigrant/refuge who's legal status is in complete limbo. After waiting 15 years for a verdict on receiving asylum in America under a special act of congress, NACARA, he was denied his green card dew to confusion in how he answered questions at the green card interview about specific details regarding his entry into the US that took place when he was only 12 years old. A smuggler his mother hired to bring her sons across Mexico and into the US brought Alexis and his brother here. His family had been running away from war and death squads in El Salvador in the late 80's and early 90's. Sadly his mother perhaps jaded from the hell of the war and the execution of her husband and family has been left with mental illness and took very little interest in her children's well being and education once they arrived in the US. The abandonment by his mother left Alexis fending for himself on the streets of Washington D.C. where he lived as a boy prostitute and was actually bought and sold and lived with several wealthy men associated with the government and law enforcement who used him for there pleasure in exchange for a place to live. Alexis now 29 lives with me in West Virginia. He is trying to catch up with his education by studying with literacy volunteers and other friends of ours associated with the local university and church. He is learning English very fast and is excelling in math and science skills. To occupy the rest of his time he assists me in an apprenticeship where I am training him in historic renovation and design as he works beside me. In an effort to resolve his immigration status we have hired a lawyer from Pittsburg PA an hours drive from home. This legal aid doesn’t come cheep. It may cost us $10,000.00 and a lot of stress and time before all is said and done and there is no guarantee things will work out. We are staunch Obama supporters, but today I was reviewing the standings of each candidate on immigration and found one detail in John McCain’s reading on immigration that may make me wonder from the Obama camp. On McCain’s web sight the section on immigration has a point that reads as follows. “Address in an expedited manner the status of individuals brought here illegally as minors through no will or intention of their own.” This point could not apply more specifically to Alexis and his situation. I need to know if Obama’s plan includes in any way people like Alexis. This issue we have can only be solved at the national level and with the right policy changes. I am terribly upset to find the very first statement by something related to the government that so directly addresses our situation in the rhetoric of a republican not to mention from John McCain. I hope perhaps on the Obama website all the details are just not there and Obama is indeed aware of people like Alexis, because if McCain is surly Obama must be.

Thank you,

Matthew Held

Humane border issues

Helene B — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 23:06:30 EDT

Barack Obama is the one to lead America into sanity and humanity. Here in Southern Arizona we have an issue that is so un-American and un-christian that is largely swept under the rug and no one wants to look at it or address it. All politics aside, all arguments about right and wrong aside, all arguments about fault and harm aside, human beings are being treated worse than animals at our borders - yes on the American side.

If we treated our animals like we are treating the illegal migrants being returned to Mexico, we would certainly be in jail. An average of 20 human beings (yes women and children as well as men) die in our desert per month. Those that are apprehended go to a detention center - a cold inhumane place in itself. No first aid is given - the migrants are stripped of everything except the clothes on their back (in some cases even their shoe laces and belts are taken) and are dropped off at the border in terrible condition, physically and spiritually. I have seen for myself a woman carried across by other migrants, passed out from the heat. Most are hobbling with extreme foot distress, I have seen a man dumped with a dislocated knee, many sprains, terrible infections. The people have no money for a phone card or bus ticket and are dropped as far away from where they crossed as possible. Families are separated. Four humanitarian groups work to try to relieve the suffering, It is a drop in the bucket.

People who have lived in the US for years and since they were little children are dumped - I have seen a man 30 years in the US dropped without a means to get his medicine - he is diabetic. A grandmother with empty heart medication bottles. Young people who grew up in American schools are being dumped who have not a clue on how to live in Mexico. Those Americans who volunteer on the Mexican side of the border used their own funds to help these people. Mexican volunteers are few.

Until a solution is worked out by Mexico and the US to solve the migration problem, people will continue suffering like deep in a third world country. We need to change our policies in the meanwhile to those of true humanitarian, caring Americans and put in place a humane process of transitioning these people - most of whom are from deep in Mexico and many do not even speak Spanish. I invite people to go to the web sites: Green Valley Samaritans, No More Deaths, Humane Borders, or Border links to find out more and/or volunteer!!

Radical Idea for Immigration

Scott from Kirkland, WA — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:26:33 EDT

Many people fear that welcoming new immigrants will result in job losses for many Americans. In response to these fears, our focus has been on routing out all illegal aliens and putting up obstacles for businesses hiring skilled workers from aboard when they cannot find qualified local hires through ridiculously low caps on H1-B visas. Many companies are compensating for these difficulties by moving jobs overseas. Microsoft, for example, has recently opened a major development centers in Canada, China, and India because they cannot obtain H1-B visas in a timely manner. The result is that salaries and taxes form these workers are going to bloster other economies rather than ours.

It is time we change our outlook on immigration. Rather than focusing on keeping people out at all costs, causing many jobs to move overseas. We should focus on providing business with solid incentives to create jobs in the US and hire US citizens / residents when there are qualified candidates. But give them the option to hire overseas and bring people to the US where they can contribute to our economy and tax base.

Here is a proposal on how to do this. Eliminate caps on all types of Visas. Allow anyone who passes background checks to confirm they aren't criminals or terrorists to obtain US visas as long as they have a job offer. But place fees on the issuances of these visas that must be paid by the employer for a substantial portion of the employee's first year salary - say 25%. Use the proceeds from these fees to fund training for US workers to insure that they have the skills to qualify for great jobs.

The removal of caps gives employers the option to bring in people to meet their needs. However, the fees paid by the employers associated with obtaining the visa's gives them a strong incentive to find and hire US workers before they bring in new immigrants. They make it much cheaper to hire US residents for when qualified US residents can be found. And provides them a means to easily and quickly fill their positions from overseas when qualified US residents cannot be found. And the funds from the fees helps fund training to increase the supply of qualified US residents for the best jobs.

Latin America Needs Better Than a Wall

John Cavanaugh — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:45:23 EDT

By Óscar Arias Sánchez

The designation this summer of $465 million in U.S. aid to combat drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America -- along with the valuable cross-border dialogue that helped bring about this Merida Initiative -- is a step in the right direction. With certain notable exceptions, the United States has largely ignored its southern neighbors, and signs of new cooperation are welcome.

But given the urgency of the problems we face, this step is disappointingly small. A long road lies ahead. We in the Americas have an unprecedented opportunity to create a better, safer hemisphere, but only if each country contributes all that it can. It is high time for the United States to redefine its approach to regional aid, not merely in the name of friendship but also in its own interest.

The Merida Initiative is stingy by any standard but especially by U.S. standards. Central America, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are allocated only $65 million -- one-sixth the amount that legislators initially deemed necessary. Mexico receives $400 million a year, a comparatively princely sum but the same amount that the United States spends in Iraq in a single day. With such expensive enemies, there is apparently little room for friends.

A government, of course, is free to allocate its funds as it sees fit, especially where foreign aid is concerned. Yet support for the war on drugs is an investment in a shared problem, one that is largely fed by the enormous demand for drugs in the United States. Fighting drug traffickers is not only a Latin American responsibility, it is also an American responsibility, in the hemispheric sense, and the Merida package only begins to fulfill the United States' share.

The amount of money is part of the issue. The choice of areas to fund is more important. The foremost responsibility of national leaders is to protect their citizens. To this end, the United States must broaden its definition of national security. Like all developed nations, it must confront the fact that no country can be safe while poverty, illiteracy, violence, preventable diseases and environmental destruction wreak havoc on others. Any foreign policy that views these issues as someone else's problems is doomed.

The primary U.S. concerns regarding Latin America are drugs and illegal immigration. Yet these are symptoms, not diseases. The disease itself, the cause of these visible effects, is poverty in the Western Hemisphere's developing nations. It is poverty that creates fertile ground for drug trafficking. It is poverty that sends so many legal and illegal immigrants over U.S. borders. Poverty needs no passport to travel and cannot be detained by walls.

This disease could be countered by investing in education, the only tool that can lift Latin Americans out of poverty for good. The United States could make a tremendous difference by making education a priority. According to recent estimates, the country is spending $3 million per mile to build a fence along its border with Mexico designed to keep out illegal immigrants seeking opportunities they cannot find at home. But for every mile of that fence, 2,500 young Latin Americans could receive monthly $100 grants to cover the costs of staying in school so they can get good jobs. For every mile of that fence, 15,000 children could receive Internet-capable laptop computers from MIT's Media Lab, enabling them to join the globalized world rather than falling behind. The possibilities go on and on.

These are the investments that could keep Latin Americans from risking their lives to enter the United States anyway they can. These investments would be good for all our countries.

These are exciting times in the Americas. The United States has new leadership on the horizon and a chance to reexamine its foreign policy. Latin America has never been more democratic or better equipped to spend aid money effectively and transparently. If the United States were to extend its generosity to us, I am confident that the results would be extraordinary. After all, a more prosperous Latin America benefits not only its own people but the United States' as well.

The writer, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, is serving his second term as president of Costa Rica.

Motivational Note

Friends of President Barack Obama — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:19:02 EDT

Even though it may not look like it or feel like it, you are making progress.

Continue working towards progress instead of perfection.

Nothing or no no one is perfect.

Just keep taking steps.

Keep making those phone calls.

Continue following your plan.

Remain focused on your goal.

Do what you have to do right now to get to the next level.

Complete every task.

Keep every promise and commitment.

Don't look back.

Stay on track.

Let no one weaken your walk of faith and determination.

Remain teachable.

Place yourself in a blessing position by associating with people on-the-grow.

Talk with teachers.

Walk with winners.

Climb with champions.

Study successful people.

Something great is about to happen for you!

Start giving thanks right now before you can even see the outward manisfestation of your prayers and desires.

Everything you do from this day forward will take you further away or closer to your potential for successful living.

-by Dr. Jewel Diamond Taylor, Motivational Speaker & Author

Hispanic Dems warn Obama he risks losing Latinos

Stephen Fox, Contributing Editor New Mexico Sun News — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:21:42 EDT

Contributed by Jared Allen, THE HILL

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) must commit to helping illegal immigrants achieve citizenship or else risk losing the vital Latino vote in the general election, Hispanic Democratic lawmakers are warning.

If he does not promise so-called comprehensive immigration reform, the lawmakers say, the only other way to win over. Hispanic supporters of his erstwhile rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), may be to pick her as his running mate.

Obama's National Latino Vote Director, Cuauhtemoc "Temo" Figueroa, will have his first meeting in Washington Thursday with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC).

They carefully avoided calling explicitly for Clinton's selection as the party's vice presidential nominee, but some indicated that her bond with Latino voters will get them to the polls in November, just as it drew them into the primaries.

"Hillary holds the entire Latino community in the palm of her hand," said. Rep. José Serrano (D-N.Y.), whose district went heavily for Clinton.

But Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), Obama's Republican opponent, is also liked by Latinos. He co-sponsored with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) the immigration bill that the CHC is demanding, which would put the country's 12 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship. And he did not buckle under pressure to abandon that position during the GOP primary.

Cecilia Munoz, the senior vice president of research, advocacy and legislation with the National Council of La Raza, said whether McCain can win over large enough numbers of Latino voters is "still an open question."

"But Latinos are brand-loyal, and after the Clinton brand, the McCain brand is the second-strongest among Latinos because of his military service and his immigration record," Munoz said.

CHC Chairman Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) said that if Obama chooses someone other than Clinton, it will not be a dealbreaker for Latinos.

"But I hope he does make the right decision and picks someone who draws together our communities," Baca said. "Is that Hillary? I think she's certainly one of those candidates."

While Obama won the Latino vote in his home state of Illinois and in Colorado, and stayed competitive in New Mexico and Arizona, he was walloped among Latinos - 64 percent to 24 - throughout the 24 contests making up Super Tuesday.

In California, Clinton won over Latinos 67 percent to 29.

Latino voters comprised 30 percent of California Democratic primary voters, an increase of 17 percent from 2004. In Texas, the number of Latinos voting in the Democratic primary rose 8 percent, to 32 percent of the electorate, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

In harnessing such enthusiasm, Baca also said that the CHC will be looking - but not necessarily asking - for Obama to make as strong of a pledge as Clinton did to putting comprehensive immigration reform on his "first 100 days" agenda.

"He says he wants to, but he needs to show that he's serious about taking it up."

Obama's campaign coordinator for Spanish-language media, Vince Casillas, said that while Obama has promised to take up immigration reform in his first year in office, he has not yet laid out his detailed plan for comprehensive reform.

"As soon as he's ready and has a plan in place, he'll announce it," Casillas said.

In the Florida Republican primary, where Latinos made up 12 percent of the total vote and where McCain edged out Romney by only 4 percentage points, the Arizona senator won 54 percent of the Latino vote compared to Romney's 14 percent.

And many Republicans remember that it was in 2004 when 40 percent of Latino voters abandoned the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), to vote for President Bush, Munoz said.

Munoz called 2004 the Democrats' "low-water mark" in pulling in Latino support. The "high-water mark," she said, came in 1996, the last time a Clinton was on the ticket.

And even longtime Obama backers in the CHC - including Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) -said that Obama has a lot of work to do in drumming up support among Latinos who are still fiercely loyal to Clinton.

"I have encouraged the [Obama] campaign for a year now that retail politics is very important to us, but they don't yet seem to have gotten the message," Gutierrez said. "We really need to see more of that from him."

Becerra said that once he gets out there, Obama will be a "natural at connecting with the Latino community," but he acknowledged that more outreach is needed.

"And first and foremost, the discussion will need to be about how to reach out to the Clinton supporters and then [get] them incorporated into his campaign."

Baca said that if Obama fails to do that, and fails to give his "strongest types of surrogates" in the Latino community the

ammunition they need to help seal support for his candidacy, the record Latino turnout that was seen in the primaries could disappear.

"We have a tendency to not go to the polls to vote," Baca said. "[The CHC] can help get them out to vote, and it'll make a big difference. But in the end it's up to him."

How Senator McCain can become a President

ODEH ODEH — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:59:37 EDT

In several quarters Sen. McCain is not just a 71 years old veteran and over 25 years of legislative membership as a senator of the United States of America, but as an experienced, reliable, and bi-partisan congressman with lots of wisdom, understanding and knowledge to lead the nation as the commander in chief. It is not therefore surprising that he has sorted to be the presidential flag bearer of the Republican Party as far back as the year 2000, in which he lost the nomination to the incumbent President George Bush.

Retrospectively in spite of the at times nonchalant campaigning strategy of his campaign which retrogressively portrays his rival in the current political dispensation, he has stock to his claim of being a maverick and champion of the modesty, honesty and transparency. Whether such a claim is authentic or just mere political machination and manipulation is another argument that can be debated by anybody interested in the well being of the United States of America.

Sen. McCain historically have track records of bi- partisanship in the senate as epitomizes by his earlier backing of a comprehensive immigration reform that will create the necessary opportunity for some immigrants to explore the path to citizenship after such fellows are able to meet some eligibility that will not in any way compromise the integrity of the country socially, economically and security wise.

Another blow to the America Worker

Michael P. — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:17:24 EDT

Have you heard about America's nursing shortage? I am talking about board certified Registered Nurses (RNs), not Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) or Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs). Have you heard what the solution to the problem is? Recruit registered nurses from underdeveloped countries who are willing to work for wages considerably below what professional nurses in the United States would expect. This is a very complex issue that begins with shortcomings in our own educational system, both academic and economic. We do not currently do a good job of preparing our children for the nursing profession, and the current administration actually and consciously supports the demise of registered nursing as a viable career path for the American worker. Why? The medical management industry does not want to pay us. There are so many constituencies involved with this issue: education, employment, immigration, unions, and women, as this is one of the more high paying and stable professions women traditionally pursue.

But do you know what the most devasting impact is? These nurses are recruited from countries many of which have near catastrophic national health issues of their own.

Check this out

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/08/05/ldt.tucker.foreign.nurses.cnn?iref=videosearch

Working with Mexico.

Adam Keck — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:03:48 EDT

Sen. Obama's campaign writes:

Work with Mexico

Obama believes we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.

In my understanding, Mexican immigrants have had to leave their communities for the U.S., because many are from farming communities which provided little or no education opportunities and now have few opportunities for unskilled labor. I believe we could do much to stem the tide of illegal immigrants from Mexico by funding colleges, high schools, and trade schools in Mexico. Helping Mexico prepare its citizens for the global, technology-driven, marketplace will allow their citizens to understand the needs of the global economy and to fulfill those needs with businesses in Mexico. Education sits at the core of economic advancement. If we help expand that core, fewer Mexicans will need to consider the U.S. as an option; they and their collegues will be creating opportunity in Mexico itself. Our forefathers founded this nation on principles of self-reliance. If we foster the same principles in Mexico by helping to expand their education system, Mexican citizens will not need to look north for opportunity. They will need only to look to their neighbors.

My .02,

Adam

Getting the message out but clearly

Zebby — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:34:29 EDT

I saw the following post at another site and find it very relevant to what I have been seeing in the polls recently.

Yesterday I briefly talked about the simple facts and simplicity of the Republicans. I felt the need to expand a little more as this simplicity is one of the reasons I believe the Republican party has had more presidents in the last 40 years.

Most Americans, like many other citizens of democracies, are not politically educated. I am not talking about formal education as I have friends with Masters Degrees that cannot tell me anything about the presidential candidates or political parties.

This was illustrated to me a few weeks ago at a birthday party. A few of us started to talk presidential politics. Everyone in the group was talking about Obama. I asked the questions “

What do you think of John McCain”. One of my friends said “Who”. He did not know who he was. I had to explain Enough said…back to the point of simplicity.

The Republicans have honed their beliefs and policies into 3-4 word sentences while the Democrats have a thesis for what they believe because they want to appeal to all. For example, Abortion, Republicans are “Against Abortion” (2 sentences) for Democrats “We are pro-womens right even though we think abortion is a terrible thing” (This is the short version depending on the Democrat).

Another example, smaller government and less taxes (Republicans). Government should not be the fix it all but should help it’s citizens (Democrats). You can automatically know what Republicans are for because of these simple snippets.

These easy to remember snippets appeal to the politically un-educated who make up the majority of the electorate in the US. The messages is tweaked especially for those residents in the “Red State” who are the working class. They don’t have time to dissect longs policy statements. As they say “keep it simple stupid”.

I think it is relevant because it appears that Obama's message is not getting through the clutter that is being created by Republicans. There is no doubt in my mind that Obama is the better candidate however MacCain is gaining ground due to the fear mongering among Republicans. I believe that if Obama simlified his message he would do better with the electorate.

Case in point, republicans say they are pro life however I do not believe the republican party would ever make abortions illegal. By Democrats adopting a pro women's right to choose position they have set themselves up for republicans to label them as pro abortion.

I think immigration holds a key to revitalizing our economy. It is lost on a great number of Americans that a lot of blue collar jobs cannot be filled by US residents who have been in the country for more than say 10 years. Why, because we think we are too good for these jobs or the legal residents who could fill these positions are not hungry enough to perform well in them. Yes there are exceptions but we can not build a country on exceptions. Having had my own flooring business for over ten years I have some experience in this area.

Lifting the trade embargo against Cuba is something that should be highlighted in the campaign. With this a clear message should be communicated. First off if we can have normal relations with Russia why the heck not with Cuba. Secondly think of the trade possibilities. South Florida would boom, just make sure English is spoken.

I do not like GW Bush as a person because I think he is first of all stupid, a liar and lacking in ethics. However I do give him credit for No Child Left Behind, his HIV policies in Africa and his attempt to reform our immigration policies. Just like Obama proposed speaking with our enemy Iran (and Bush was quick to adopt albeit somewhat quietly) I believe in giving the devil his due and Obama should do so publicly in my opinion. Nothing like disarming your opponents. I know No Child Left Behind is not a perfect program but it was a start and it should be seen as something we build on.

There you have it on some of my views, now let's hear from you, yes you...

I am most interested in how do we effect change through the channels available to us.

USA begins with US.........

Yiayia — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:01:20 EDT

......and Obama is one of US!. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm sickened by the unethical tactics of the McCain campaign and, specifically, John McCain himself. War hero or not (my brother was a POW in WWll) McCain spent a good part of the Vietnam war as a prisoner. How much does that qualify him as a better candidate for President on Foreign Policy? In addition McCain has had 20 plus years as a Senator but not until Barack Obama declared his candidacy for president and proposed policies on Foreign Affairs, the economy, immigration, discrimination, education, energy and on and on, has McCain discovered that there are alternate solutions to those programs he has had 20+ years to address. We are in a crisis today because John McCain only now discovered these are issues that effect all of us. Barack Obama in his few years as a US Senator has seen the direction our government needs to take. Had Obama been in the Senate as long as McCain - I promise you we would NOT be in the mess we are in today. As for abortion - killing lives is killing lives. Why is it not considered abortion when we are in a war we should never have entered that has killed over 4000 soldiers?

Immigration and Registration in Latino Communities

Juan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:51:20 EDT

Friends,
It is unfortunate that registration drives do not incorporate the urgent needs of the latino community when it comes to immigration. When we're out there on the street corners, in the parks, talking to the people, we ask them..."Will you like to register today?" With a nod and a stirred shuffle they walk away as if not listening to our important message and pitch. It is not because they are disaffected or on a rush to some other important meeting, but they are Spanish speaking immigrants who cannot vote. I know, I've met them and heard their stories. How can we expect any of them to vote for Obama if they aren't citizens? Do we ignore them and hurry on out towards the rest of the crowd? I raise this issue because I feel to reach the latino community with an impact, we need to cater to their needs: Immigration. For those not yet documented, who hide in the so-called "shadows", I feel we need to have not only a registration packet, but an application for citizenship. With both we not only ask someone if they are registered, but we are now better prepared to head off those who try to shuffle off because they're not yet citizens. By helping them get started with the process they will come to open up to you and your message about our country. In time they will associate the time you took to help them and apply it to their overall democratic participation come election day. They may not be able to vote in '08, but by changing our strategy and adapting to the number one cause for frustration in the latino community we can overcome many barriers and succeed in making greater inroads into our community. That's just my thoughts about the subject.

Ciao...

Juan...

DAMN THOSE BI-LINGUALS !! DAMN GOOD !!

new day 4 us — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:25:02 EDT

In honor of Sen. Obama's calls to teach our children another language in addition to their mother tongue of English, for your enjoyment here is ABBA, one of my favorite groups singing in Spanish. In case you are not familiar with ABBA ( they are an older group from my college days ) - they are Swedish and have numerous albums and songs they have sung in Spanish and other languages to include Spanish.

Not to mention, that there are several education studies that confirm that just like learning to play a musial instrument, learning an additional language in addition to your mother tongue increases your IQ.

Need I say more ?

NO HAY A QUIEN CULPAR ( ENGLISH - THERE IS NO ONE TO BLAME )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACo4DtH5eZQ

Obama Stands Up For Immigrants

me8md — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:32:48 EDT

"When communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel, when all that is happening, the system just isn’t working, and we need to change it."- Barack Obama

The Real Reason Barack Obama is Confounding the Pundits

Ms CYPRAH — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:08:35 EDT

Barack Obama, against all odds, has slowly cemented his hold on the nomination for the Democratic presidential candidate. Just over a year ago when he started, the pundits were excited by his presence, the first African American with a real chance at the top spot who dared to hope with such little 'experience'. But they knew best. Many would have chuckled to themselves rather smugly at this seeming no-hoper taking on the giant presence of the Clintons, their cronies and their reputation. In fact, if one followed Hillary's campaign closely, by September of 2007, it seemed to be a done deal for her nomination. They seemed sure. But the problem with trying to be fortune tellers without the crystal ball is that something always goes awry.

Regardless of the predictions, Obama has calmly stuck with it, displaying a determination, vision, organisation and stickability which has defied all the learned politicos every step of the way. Now it seems that he might even be on the home straight to making history. But this would be surprising only to those without the intuition to see what this man represents and why he will be the next president. Where the pundits have gone terribly wrong is that they have depended on three things in this race, while missing the only other thing that really mattered. But tradition seldom has all the answers. One has to always allow for that tiny element of surprise in life.

Immigration Crisis

GPaumer — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:52:48 EDT

Solution: a change in the law to state: "Children born of parents who are not legal citizens are themselves not legal." Would this not deminish the motivation for migration and multiplication? This would also allow families to stay together.

Why Obama Voted NO on declaring English as the official language of the US government.

Inspired in Florida - a Recovering Republican — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:00:59 EDT

Voted NO on declaring English as the official language of the US government. Voting YES would declare English as the national language of the Government of the US. Unless specifically provided by statute, no person would have an entitlement to have the Government of the US communicate or provide materials in any language other than English. If an exception is made with respect to the use of a language other than English, the exception does not create a legal entitlement to additional services in that language. If any form is issued by the Federal Government in a language other than English, the English language version of the form is the sole authority for all legal purposes. Nothing in this amendment shall prohibit the use of a language other than English.

I believe the American people understand in order to succeed in our society, immigrants need to learn English. But the amendment would do a number of things that are problematical. The first is that it is contrary to the provisions of law that exist in many States. For example, in New Mexico, you have in their State Constitution, a provision that says that many of the documents within that State have to be provided in both English and Spanish. The same thing is true for the State of Hawaii. I believe this is a States rights issue, and those constitutions of those States ought to be respected. I do not believe it is a matter we ought to be imposing here from Washington DC.

Also, this amendment would undo an executive order conceived by President Bill Clinton and implemented by President George Bush. Both recognized it is important that people who have limited English proficiency receive the kinds of services so they can understand what is going on in terms of the interface between the Government and themselves.

Reference: National Language Amendment Act; Bill S.Amdt.1151 to S.1348 ; vote number 2007-198 on Jun 6, 2007

Don't Fall into the Trap of Perfectionism

Prof. Susan L. Smith — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:44:03 EDT

There are many issues where I have some difference of opinion with Obama. I have a slightly different position on immigration, on FISA, etc. But, I still believe he is different.

I've watched him speak, read his articles in Foreign Affairs and elsewhere, read his books, kept up with the news. Based upon what I see and hear, I believe he is different.

I believe he is a genuine, authentic human being who cares about people, who cares about justice, who cares about peace, and who does not value wealth or prestige or material consumption or corporate power.

He has taken a unique path to seek the power of the presidency -- one that relies upon each of us being willing to put aside our differences and work toward a greater good.

I believe he seeks power to make the world a better place. He has been willing to enter the lion's den of Washington,D.C. and speak truth not only to power, but to all of us who try to simplify life into one or two or three big issues.

I know for sure that I'd rather have a U.S. Supreme Court considering the constitutionality of FISA that has Obama appointees than Republican appointees. And that goes double for the rest of the federal courts. Believe me, federal court appointments may well be the most enduring legacy of the King Bush II administration. A Supreme Court that believes the Constitutional Convention imagined individual rights to AK-47s, submachine guns, and bazookas. A Supreme Court that thinks a punitive damage award of a few million dollars will change the reckless conduct of Exxon Mobil in using drunks to pilot oil tankers. Dozens of cases would have been decided differently if Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II had not been presidents -- and America would be a different place.

This is a time for being honest about our differences...and our disappointments... but being realistic about how drastic a change Obama would be compared to McCain. We need that change. We desparately need that change!

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.

Unity has invigorated this campaign!

V, aka VCubed/Virginia V — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:01:29 EDT

In the past month, especially just since our Unity district-wide event this past Saturday in Fremont, CA, that drew 150 mostly brand new volunteers for Obama, I've seen a thunderclap of energy erupt in this campaign that I only dreamed of in the primary season.

Don't get me wrong, we've had great energetic volunteers throughout this odyssey. We wouldn't have gotten here without them, and we share the beginnings of this astounding movement that's taken the nation, and the world, by storm - we were at the birth, together.

But there are three new groups, new additions to the Obama Family, that we are all so happy to be working with, at last: Hillary's devoted supporters, the entire local Democratic Party family, and all the new or reenergized political participants fired up to be part the historical triumph of the grassroots in November.

I want you all to have a sense of how intense this desire to be part of change, to get out of the armchair, turn off the TV, and get out and talk to people, has become, because you won't know it from the media. Not from mainstream media, not from the pundits trying to out-yell each other, not even from the liberal blogosphere. Those are all competing for the same audience, thriving on conflict more than solutions, parsing people into categories as if we were still more separate than united. To see the reality, let me share our events.

Unite for Change: A Fellow's Perspective

Michael in Ohio — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:13:03 EDT

As mentioned in the previous post, the Obama Fellows have been critical to the efforts to get the general election campaign kicked off here in Ohio. Much of their work has been community organizing--something our candidate is personally acquainted with--and a foundation of these community networks have been local house meetings. Generous hosts open their home to like-minded Obama supporters for the opportunity to talk about their commitment to our movement, reach out to volunteers, and possibly even sway undecided voters.

The last set of these meetings were entirely and autonomously organized by the Fellows themselves, under the banner "Unite for Change." One of these Fellows was Andrew, and to give you an up-close look at how you "Unite for Change," below is Andrew's own account of his event.

He writes:

The Buckeye State kicked off the Unite for Change event this weekend with hundreds of house meetings. Americans from every walk of life gathered in living rooms to share their stories and plan action to create change.

Roxie hosted one of the house meetings and invited her friends and neighbors. She coordinated with Organizing Fellow Michael to plan the event.
Michael shared how when his father was 16 he was forced to work on a farm. His dad planned his escape and swam for ten hours while avoiding patrol boats and sharks. After he got to land he made his way to the USA to pursue the American Dream. Upon arriving in America he worked odd jobs until he found a union job in waste management. It was not a glamorous job. He spent his early career picking up garbage in Harlem. His father stuck with it though and worked his way up so he could provide for Michael and his mother. Michael brings his fathers work ethic with him to the campaign and wants to ensure that other Americans have the same opportunities that his father did.

Grace shares many of Michael's concerns. She is a social worker and has seen the opportunities that existed for middle class Americans like Michael's father dry up in the past 8 years. She knows that we need a fundamental change in policy to ensure the future of the American Dream.
Carlotta works in preventive health care and smoking cessation. She has seen health care plans become increasingly out of reach for average Americans. Carlotta told the group that by the time most people can get coverage by their health care they are already at a critical point and sometimes on their deathbed. She knows that we can get better preventative health care with Obama's plan.
Carlotta feels the need to take action. She is signing up to help register new voters. She understands how important it is in this crucial state because the election was so close here in 2004. You can get involved just like Carlotta by hosting a house meeting or signing up to register voters.

McCain vs. McCain: Immigration Reform

Mikeystyle — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:23:39 EDT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUYTUbJy71k

Today's speech

Zach — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:03:27 EDT

I just watched the speech that Senator Obama delivered to the elected Latino Leaders. I was very impressed as a I always am by the not only the delivery of the speech but as well by the content. The truth is that issues effecting the Latino community have a very large impact on other communities in our country.
I was particularly impressed by the short remarks on immigration. I am very much opposed to the idea of kicking out all the illegal immigrants, and or building a ridiculous fence. As the Senator said we are a nation of of immigrants but we are also a nation of laws. Except for a decreasing Native American population we are all immigrants in this country. Some have been here for a couple hundred years, and others for a couple of weeks. It is what makes us strong, and determined, and unique. We must though create safer more effective ways for immigrants to enter into our country so that they may too live out their American Dream.

Cuba: Must read Barack Obama and Cuba Policy.

! A LUIS "Cuba!" MORO. . . . . — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:05:55 EDT

"The Character Factor: U.S. Policy toward Cuba determines elections nation wide."

The following is a list of articles related to Cuba policies, politics and Barack Obama.

Being pro or against the embargo on Cuba seems to be one question that reveals

a politicians character.

If a politician is for a Cuba policy that has failed for 47 years, they should NOT be in political office.

Please take a few moments and review some of the articles.

Our commitment is to abolish the 47 year old failed U.S. policies against Cuba.

By Luis Cuba Moro

Table of content as of June 28th - at this blog:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/Cuba

Cuba: A world that works for everyone, with no one left out. Jun 27th, 2008 at 10:14 am EDT

Cuba: Barack Obama is a mulatto; does that make him a white man? - Jun 26th, 2008 at 4:58 am EDT

CUBA: The European Union's lift sanctions against Cuba. - Jun 25th, 2008 at 7:52 pm EDT

Cuba: Cuba approves, makes available lung cancer vaccine. - Jun 25th, 2008 at 12:47 pm EDT

Cuba: Obama has a 16 point lead in a South Florida poll - Jun 24th, 2008 at 8:17 am EDT

Cuba: There is no U.S. Embargo on Cuba.- Jun 24th, 2008 at 8:13 am EDT

Cuba: I'm sorry. - Jun 24th, 2008 at 6:45 am EDT

Cuba: If Cuba was a white (Och!) Country, there would be no embargo. Jun 21st, 2008 at 1:01 pm EDT

Cuba: 1,400 free photos of the Real Cuba today. - Jun 20th, 2008 at 2:03 pm EDT
http://www.EveryThingCuba.com

Cuba: The Death of Political Insanity: The Case Of Cuba. Jun 20th, 2008 at 1:37 pm EDT

English as Official Language and Barack's Vote

Patty — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:32:53 EDT

Below is an email circulating and like it or not, there are a vast majority of Americans who are influenced by just such emails. I would like to counter this email with facts behind Barack's vote because most of the time, there are other items attached to such a bill and the reason they vote against it is not as simple as this email makes it out to be. Can anyone point me to real facts related to this?

---

TAKE A FEW MOMENTS AND READ THIS LETTER. THESE ARE STRONG, POWERFUL AND COURAGEOUS WORDS COMING FROM A RETIRED COLONEL, AND READ WHAT LINCOLN HAD TO SAY AT THE END. WOW!
33 Senators Voted Against English as America 's Official Language on June 6, 2007.

On Wed. 6 June 2007, Colonel Harry Riley, USA , Ret. wrote:

Senators:
Your vote against an amendment to the immigration Bill 1348.... to make English America's official language is astounding.

On D-Day, no less, when we honor those that sacrificed in order to secure the bedrock, character and principles of America , I can only surmise your vote reflects a loyalty to illegal aliens.

I don't much care where you come from. What your religion is. Whether you're black, white, or some other color...male or female......Democrat, Republican or Independent....... But I do care when you are a United States Senator representing Citizens of America ...and Vote against English as the official language of the United States

Your vote reflects Betrayal. Political Surrender. Violates Your Pledge of Allegiance. Dishonors historical principle. Rejects Patriotism. Borders on traitorous action and, in my opinion, makes you unfit to serve as a United States Senator...impeachment... Recall........Or other appropriate action is warranted, or worse.

Four of you voting against English as America 's Official Language are Presidential Candidates: Senator Biden, Senator Clinton, Senator Dodd and Senator Obama.

Four Senators vying to lead America, but won't, or don't, have the courage to cast a vote in favor of English as America's Official Language when 91% of American Citizens want English officially designated as our language.

This is the second time in the last several months this list of Senators have disgraced themselves as 'political Hacks'..... Unworthy as Senators and certainly unqualified to serve as President of the United States .

If America is as angry as I am, you will realize a backlash so stunning it will literally 'rock you out of your socks'......... And preferably totally out of the United States Senate.

The entire immigration bill is a farce... Your action only confirms this really isn't about America ... it is about self-serving politics......despicable at best. It has been said: 'Never Argue with an Idiot....They'll drag you down to their level!' PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN SAID: 'Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damages morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, quickly tried and hanged!!!'

Cuba: Barack Obama is a mulatto; does that make him a white man?

! A LUIS "Cuba!" MORO. . . . . — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:58:14 EDT

Recently someone wrote to one of my blog articles saying that Cuba is a white country.

I almost fell off my chair. They simply must be watching to much I love Lucy reruns thinking everyone in Cuba is Ricky Ricardo.

Joking a side, I assert they think that because the Cuban politicians who have high-jacked Cuba policy in Washington, DC are rich white Cubans.

I was born in Cuba. I've been back to Cuba, I've see the people with my own eyes.

Cuba is a black country.

Now I personally couldn't care less about color, etc. BUT, I can't act naive, especially with the 47 year history of white Cuban politicians in both Cuba and the United States destroying families and friends relationships with childish politics.

The "white" politicians throughout the 47 years have lived great for the most part. While the citizens of Cuba, America and the world continue to be deprived access to Cuba.

As you read on, you will see a simple logic that will support part of my claim that:

If Cuba was a white country, there would be no embargo.

First lets get clear on Cuba is a black country. In a future article, you will read why "if Cuba was a white country, there would be no embargo."

By the why, Barack Obama is mulatto, hence a black man.

Go Obama, Free Cuba!
Luis Moro
www.EveryThingCuba.com
See 1400 Free images of Cuba and you decide what color people you see.

CIA Cuba facts related to ethnic groups.

Cuba's population is
51% Mulatto
37% white
11% Black
1% Chinese (Soon to be much more given the deals Cuba has with China)

Barack Obama is a mulatto.
The majority of the world considers Barack Obama a black man, hence if you are mulatto; you are black.

Barack's mother is white and his father is black. i.e. he's a mulatto.

Barack Obama is mulatto, yet there is no denying Obama and almost everyone else is going around saying it's history that Barack is a black man presidential candidate.

No body is mistaking Barack or considering him white.

The majority of the population in Cuba is 66% black. (51% mulatto and 11% black)

I trust you, the reader have now expanded your consciousness.

I truly believe you are not racist, and now you can consider with an even more open reality.

If Cuba was a white country there would be no embargo.

Again, it's not a matter of racism; it's a function of consciousness.

Definitions of mulatto on the Web:
• an offspring of a black and a white parent
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

• Mulatto (Spanish mulato, small mule, person of mixed race, mulatto, from mulo, mule, from Old Spanish, from Latin mūlus.) is a person of mixed black and white ancestry or the offspring of one white parent and one black parent or someone 50% black and 50% white. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto

• often pejorative: A person of mixed African and Caucasian descent; Census: Anyone born to two 1/2 African and 1/2 Caucasian parents; Census: Anyone 3/4 African and 1/4 Caucasian or 1/4 African and 3/4 Caucasian en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mulatto

• The child of one white and one Negro parent. (One half black.) www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples/Glossary.htm

• A person having one Caucasian and one Negro parent; any person of mixed Caucasian and Negro ancestry. www.balchfriends.org/Glimpse/vocabulary.htm

• Person of mixed race or dual descent. It often referred to the ofspring of a black female slave and a white man. ... abolition.e2bn.org/glossary/view_glossary_0_M.html

• A person with both black and while heritage.
freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~emty/Glossary_of_Words_and%20Terms.html

• (210) - (Sp., "person of mixed race") a person of mixed white and black ancestry.
www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/tignorterms.php

Source: CIA The World Fact book.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html

*I'm not saying the CIA is always right, (either are they); but the CIA is a much better reliable organization than Wikipedia top rely on as a source of information. No body would want to base their life on Wiki "facts".

CUBA: The European Union's lift sanctions against Cuba.

! A LUIS "Cuba!" MORO. . . . . — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:52:45 EDT

Obama is 100% on the mark with his foreign policy direction; talking and communicating works.

Our European brothers and sisters on earth have finally said enough is enough.
The have started the process of eliminating the U.S. lead embargo against Cuba and Americans.

See full story below.
Thank you and please spread the education.
Luis Moro
www.EveryThingCuba.com

End of EU sanctions on Cuba deals US a setback

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The European Union's decision to lift sanctions against Cuba dealt a setback to US diplomacy after Washington failed to convince eastern European allies to block the move, analysts say.

"It was a failure for American diplomacy, which did everything possible through pressure on eastern European countries, like the Czechs or the Poles, to get a different result," said Janette Habel, an analyst with France's Institute of Higher Learning on Latin America.

President George W. Bush's administration, which has stiffened sanctions against Cuba, initially expressed disappointment last week when the EU said it would end the sanctions it imposed after a crackdown on dissidents in 2003.

Tom Casey, the US State Department's deputy spokesman, cautioned US allies to "be cognizant of not taking actions that would appear to give additional legitimacy" to the Cuban regime.

But a day later the department's chief spokesman, Sean McCormack, softened US criticism, refusing to repeat the White House reaction that it was "disappointed."

"This is a tactical difference," McCormack told reporters Friday.

"The US and the European Union share common objectives in Cuba: freedom, democracy and universal human rights," he said, noting that the EU would review the human rights situation in Cuba every year.

The EU officially lifted the sanctions on Monday, hoping to encourage democracy in Cuba in the wake of the historic handover of power in February, when Raul Castro took over the presidency for his ailing brother Fidel.

The measure was largely symbolic, as the EU sanctions had been suspended since 2005. It was championed by Spain, which normalized relations with Cuba last year.

Marifeli Perez-Stable, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank here, said Washington's hardline stance against Cuba was dented because its eastern European allies backed the EU's decision.

The US position to keep up its tough stance on Cuba "until the two Castros die is running out of fuel," Perez-Stable said.

"In Europe or Latin America, no one agrees with US policy on Cuba, whether the governments are on the right or on the left," she said.

Spain's Secretary of State for the EU Diego Lopez Garrido said the decision to lift the sanctions showed the European bloc's "independence" from Washington.

"The White House has made it known to EU countries that it does not like this move at all," Lopez Garrido said, but Brussels "has shown it is capable of ... choosing its own foreign policy path."

The United States has imposed an economic embargo on Cuba since 1962. Bush tightened the sanctions four years ago.

White House contender John McCain, a Republican like Bush, has vowed to maintain the embargo. Democratic rival Barack Obama has pledged to lift some of the restrictions on Cuban-Americans imposed by Bush in 2004.

Tom Shannon, the top US diplomat for Latin America, said in a Spanish newspaper interview that the goals of the EU move regarding democracy and human rights "are the correct ones, are the right ones."

"But we are worried that it tries to go too fast in the relationship with a government that is still stuck in a dictatorship," Shannon told El Pais.

Spain's Cuba policy caused some tension between the European country and the United States. But a Spanish official said the latest move to end the sanctions would not create new problems.

"I don't think they are interested, in the end of a term, to open a new front and fight with the EU," the source said, "especially since it was an issue that was unanimously adopted and there was no opposition from the friendly nations."

Source:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gfuDkWsYl3D2_t6BZh73hwYMGIpg

Cuba: Cuba approves, makes available lung cancer vaccine.

! A LUIS "Cuba!" MORO. . . . . — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:47:01 EDT

Luis Moro comment on article

Cuba approves, makes available lung cancer vaccine - *See article below from: Reuters by Jeff Franks.

Luis Moro writes:

I’ve been personally aware of the high-end private negotiations that are active with certain sectors of industry with Cuba. One such area is the pharmaceutical field. I am not claiming to be an expert or authority on the topic. But I do believe this is accurate information given the source and, again, my own personal conversations with actual attorneys handling the on-going subject.

With that said, I expect that many of the pro-embargo against Cuba community will say this if false information, propaganda and more communist lies. Odds are, these will be the same people who say there is “no embargo on Cuba.”

Barack Obama now has an entire new community of voters who should move like “Chain lighting” to abolish the embargo.

Cancer patients all over America, the world; should know that in Cuba there is a possible cure for cancer. At the very least in Cuba, a cancer patient might have a viable new option. I could personally hold a grudge towards Cuba or Pro-embargo enthusiast given my mother and her brother (my uncle) have both died of Cancer. One in Cuba, without the treatment of the privileged and mom in America, without the treatment of the privileged.

With that said, the one thing that is certain, to get the treatment for Cancer in Cuba, it will take the same “product” as in the U.S.; it will take you lots of money.

Good luck and God Bless everyone who may need and actually get the opportunity to use this new Cancer treatment in Cuba. I suspect many pro-embargo against Cuba cancer patient will soon want to abolish the embargo. (Och!)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cuba approves, makes available lung cancer vaccine

Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:37pm BST

By Jeff Franks

http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKN2435519120080624?sp=true

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban scientists said on Tuesday the first vaccine to extend lives of lung cancer patients has been approved by Cuban authorities for use and is available in the island's hospitals.

The drug, CimaVax EGF, has been shown to increase survival rates on average four to five months and much longer in some patients, they said in a news conference at Cuba's Center of Molecular Immunology.

In contrast to chemotherapy, the traditional treatment for lung cancer, they said CimaVax EGF has few side effects because it is a modified protein that attacks only cancer cells. They said it was the first lung cancer vaccine to be approved anywhere in the world, although there are others currently being tested.

"It's the first vaccine for lung cancer registered in the world," said Gisela Gonzalez, who headed the development of the vaccine, begun in 1992.

The drug is in various stages of clinical trials in a number of other countries and is most likely to be approved next in Peru, where it could be publicly available by year's end, Gonzalez said.

She said several private companies had been licensed to market the vaccine, but it will be produced in Cuba. Cost for the treatment had not yet been determined, Gonzalez said.

Other cancer vaccines under development elsewhere include one made by Antigenics Inc against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, and another made by Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc and licensed by drug giant Pfizer Inc that attacks glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and deadly type of brain tumor.

FOREIGNERS WELCOME

Tania Crombet, director of clinical investigations at Havana's molecular immunology center, said people from outside Cuba can come to the island for treatment.

"It's possible to provide this vaccine to any patient, because it's available in Cuba, it's approved by the Cuban drug agency so we can market the vaccine in Cuba and we can receive patients from outside," she said.

The exception would probably be Americans, she said, who are restricted from Cuba travel by the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba in place since 1962.

"Even though there is a new therapeutic tool approved in Cuba they probably wouldn't be able to come to Cuba to receive it because of the embargo," Crombet said. The drug has been approved for clinical trial in the United States, but its possible use there is at least two to three years away, Gonzalez said.

Cuba's state-run biotechnology sector includes around 50 research and development centers and is considered one of the most advanced in the developing world.

END ARTICLEVisit Web: http://www.nlg.org/cuba and sign up for varied perspectives on Cuba policy.www.EveryThingCuba.com See 1400 free images of the real Cuba today.

Cuba: I'm sorry.

! A LUIS "Cuba!" MORO. . . . . — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:45:19 EDT

I’m sorry.

I did not mean to offend anyone with my recent post. If you actually read it through again, you should realize the title is not the point.

My point is not about race, rather lack of conciseness. A white rich Cuban politician out of Miami does not have the best interest of a black, white, green poor Cuban in Cuba or America. There is 47 years of evidence to prove that. AND I do agree 100% the embargo is not a race issue, but color, like gender, still a distinction that can't be ignored.

I trust you accept what I am saying next. I do not think the embargo is a race issue, it is a conciseness issue, an awareness issue. You and I are first aware of our own interest. I can bet everything I own that the most politicians supporting the embargo on Cuba have no idea who we really are, or care.

For example: most people refer to Obama as black, he is actually mixed. His mother is white. I personally don’t care, I’m for any person who actually thinks and makes decisions based on Character. I truly hope you get what I am pointing to, and by no means do I intend my point to be about race. Even though calling me “Negro” is perfectly find for most Latin’s, except of course if you are “Negro.”

I laugh at any name a person calls me. I give credit to that old school way of thinking. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Thank you for giving me your time and consideration. Luis Moro www.EveryThingCuba.com.

Can Our Leadership Reform the Immigration System?

Jeff B — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:56:19 EDT

Interesting and, from my perspective, logical ideas on what it's going to take to reform the immigration system taken from an article from Ruben Navarette Jr (taken from CNN.com):

By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- In a recent commentary, I spelled out what bothers many Hispanics about the immigration debate. In response, many readers demanded to know -- for all my criticisms -- how I would go about fixing our broken immigration system. I thought they'd never ask.First, let's keep it real. Congress doesn't have the appetite to reform the immigration system -- no matter which party is running the show. It's always the same story. After all the huffing and puffing, any workable solution needs to have two components: employer sanctions with teeth and a tamper-proof identification card for all U.S. workers to tell employers who is eligible to work. Republicans won't allow the first; Democrats won't allow the second. Game over.

But, if it were so inclined, here's what Congress should do:

1) By way of enforcement -- stiffen penalties against employers with a "three strikes" law (first offense, a warning; second, $10,000 fine; third, 10 days in jail); revise the 1996 Immigration Reform and Control Act by removing the word "knowingly," as in employers only face punishment if they knowingly hire an illegal immigrant; create an identification card; instead of adding more border patrol agents (the agency can't meet hiring goals as it is), give the agents already on the line better tools, including tunnel detection equipment; extend the deployment of the National Guard on the border, now set to expire on July 15; continue workplace raids but, for heaven's sake, arrest an employer every once in a while; and speed up deportations.

2) By way of legalizing the undocumented -- make it contingent on meeting enforcement goals, or "triggers"; establish a cutoff so that only those who can prove that they've been in the country for five years or more are eligible to apply for legal status and deport more recent arrivals; require applicants to learn English, pay a $5,000 fine, undergo criminal background checks, return to their home country to be processed, and take their place in the back of the line behind all those who are trying to enter the country legally; and, for those who are eventually given legal status, institute a lifetime ban on receiving welfare, Medicaid or food stamps but allow them to collect what they've contributed to Social Security.

3) By way of reforming the system for those who immigrate legally -- increase the allotment of green cards and work visas, including H1B visas for highly skilled workers; triple the number of legal immigrants currently admitted from 1 million to 3 million, or 1 percent of the total U.S. population; abandon the current system of using family reunification as the main criteria for admitting new immigrants but don't adopt the silly and offensive idea of a point system that rewards education and skills; instead, let the market drive the process by making labor demands the major criteria so (how's this for radical?) we always have jobs for those who come here instead of admitting engineers and doctors if what we really need are teachers and nurses.

This isn't brain surgery. But some of this will take courage and common sense. The bad news is, those can be scarce commodities in Washington.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist. Read his column here.

The Great American Service Program for the 21st Century

Gordon from Jersey City, NJ — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:38:07 EDT

About a month ago in the NY Times there were two articles next to each other. The first discussed a shortage of workers for the apple and fruit orchards in upstate New York, brought on by the anti-immigrant movement. The second article related the difficulties that college students and recent graduates are having finding summer work. It occurred to me that a very common sense approach to both of these issues would be to develop a program for college students to work at these small family farms picking fruits and vegetables. They would be paid and also receive some form of college credit or student loan credits for their service. With parental permission, this program could also be extended to high school age students by setting up camp like situations that would involve supervision, education programs (including science, business, economics, and history), work picking fruit (as opposed to the usual sports activities of most camps that many young people are not interested in to begin with).

I think such a program offers a number of positive benefits. First and foremost, vital needs for labor and employment will be met. Second, rather than simply work, the students and young people will learn vital lessons about where our food comes from. This helps foster a deeper sense of shared community, service and interdependence. The will begin to appreciate farming as a vital, rewarding, and fulfilling livelihood and greater form of service to their communities and nation. The will learn teamwork and group building skills. They will learn and begin to appreciate the values and history of the American family farm in an era multinational agribusinesses, that will soon see global food shortages. The will learn vital lessons in science and biology, business and economics.

I believe the benefits of such a program cannot be overstated and could be clearly and easily articulated to the public. It is a non-partisan issue that appeals to people across the whole political spectrum. It is a national issue that avoids the narrow pitfalls of local "pork-barrel" spending. All it needs is a leader like yourself to stand-up and advocate for such a program and probably a very modest initial federal investment/tax incentives to help get it off the ground and running, as it would ultimately be self-sustaining given that there is a product to be sold. It is my hope that you will consider this issue and lead it to become the first great American service program of the 21st century.

Illegal aliens and the border

Duane Kuehn — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:01:15 EDT

Rarely is the word, “Immigrants”, any longer said with a loving remembrance of the great “melting pot” of a United States gone by the wayside of history.

Today, when one says “immigrants”, illegal immigrants from south of the border come to mind. So does a lot of misinformation concerning illegal immigrants, and assumptions of how to repair this problem with illegal immigrants.

My good friend, Alfonso, was an illegal immigrant, maybe still is an illegal immigrant. One of those we learn to detest as they come across our border to earn money, which they send back to Mexico. Alfonso taught me much about illegal immigration, we even shared the same living space as he earned and sent money to his family.

I did not know at the beginning of our friendship that Alfonso was in the United States illegally. He worked, as did many illegals, in a restaurant where I worked. Alfonso in his forties is married, has three children and a home just outside of Mexico City. Back then, I lived in the hospitable land of Texas. Alfonso was to point out other illegals that worked in the same restaurant and with some help from the immigration authorities, taught me much.

Alfonso was a good and lovable person. A Catholic, he would pray before leaving his home in Mexico. What especially earned my respect for his religious devotion is that he would pray for help to not do things he would normally at his home, such as drink alcohol (which he claimed to do heavily in Mexico). The entire time that he was here, he never, to the best of my knowledge, broke this covenant he made with the Lord. The sinner in me tells me this would be very hard to do.

Alfonso did nothing that he might consider frivolous with money. Keeping every penny earned to send to his wife and children. Usually he would stay in the United States for 10 months, going back to Mexico twice a year. Alfonso taught me the differences between a “bandido” (who would rob you) and a “malido” (who would not be satisfied robbing you, he/she would kill you). He showed me, amongst the illegals and legal’s around us who was a good person and who was not.

He told me of the immigration games played, often very dangerous. That the “coyote” paid by Mexicans to be transported into the United States is malido, robbing illegals without a care for their safety. They are the reason sometimes a sealed truck would reveal a number of dead Mexican nationals inside. They were very bad news and Alfonso kept clear of them.

Alfonso told that sometimes he was sent back to Mexico six times before he got to his destination in the United States. Caught after entering the United States, the illegals would be transported back into Mexico. One simply came back across and, if caught, sent back. A circle repeated until one made it all the way to their destination in the United States.

One year he came back from Mexico and told me that he had been caught. A shame as it was the year of the big amnesty. An illegal had to be in the U.S. for a full year without returning to Mexico. Alfonso would have made it but he had promised his son that he would be home for his son’s birthday. His promise meant more than the Amnesty and if he had not been caught coming back across the border, he, as so many others would have gotten the Amnesty. I was proud of him all the same for putting his family first.

That was the time I learned something more. Alfonso told me that he would be allowed to stay in the U.S. if he gave the immigration authorities the name of a coyote. Alfonso told me that that was impossible because the coyote’s were somewhat of a mafia situation. If Alfonso gave a name and found out by the Mexican mafia, it would put not only his life but also the lives of his family in great danger.

To be marked as a “rat” would be easy. In the illegals circles, people knew people who knew people. Alfonso had been caught, this was known, if he was allowed to stay in the United States, he would be suspect and, for whatever reasons, the immigration officials would just as soon sacrifice him to get more information from someone else. The problem all boils down to the border patrol and hierarchy of the immigration service.

Those who would trade a work Visa for information and those others who would sell information to the coyotes on the other side of the border. The only illegals who give up names of coyotes are those who, themselves, are greatly feared in Mexico. This means that the illegals getting a free pass into the United States are the dangerous ones. Notorious in Mexico hardly makes one and angel in the United States.

The problem is worse today. The border patrol has increased by so many, and many of them know that hundreds of thousands of dollars can be made in graft. They only had to let certain vehicles, in the mass of traffic, into the United States. We now have another force to watch for and try to catch the officers of our own border patrol who do this! It is a pouring of tax dollars into a black hole.

Someone has built a wall across part of the border and that looks very good. However, the problem with walls is that they can be breached by going over or under. And locks will always deter criminals but none-the-less, in the end, locks only keep out honest people.

So what will work? A visitor work program that has been suggested is viable. In this, “visiting” workers documented, the United States knowing where they work and where they live. I always remember my friend Alfonso and the things he taught to me. He is the model for a “visiting worker”. Anyone who employed him would vouch for his good work habits and anyone who knows him would vouch for his honest integrity.

Such a program would not stop the flow but it would begin to control it and allow only those of good character to enlist in the program. Rules, of course would have to be set as to character and U.S. citizen controls. The beginning of the program would still leave those who use coyotes at risk of death but allowing these persons a safer option would force these coyotes to find new employment.

This, of course, leaves the newer problem of border guards themselves selling the United States “out” by taking large bribes. This problem is not so hard to address if one only takes another route. We are now hiring more and more persons to watch these border patrol guards, costing much more in taxpayer money and not really catching too many of them. The answer is doubling the guard cages on the border. Keeping these cages a small distance apart, each vehicle entering the U.S. would have to go through two guard booths instead of one. If the first booth were letting vehicles through for graft, the second guard booth would catch them. In essence, the flow of illegals stopped at the border and guards who repeatedly “miss” vehicles noted. Creating a situation where we are not paying someone to spy on the guards which only catches a few guards, we are spending the money for double guards who will catch even the first guards, possibly accidental overlooking of any specific vehicle.

A visiting worker program also alleviates issues with the government of Mexico. With this program in place, we also put in place punishments for repeat border offenders. One time caught a warning, two times equals jail time instead of being only shipped back to Mexico, three times harsher jail time, etc. Putting some bite into the no-illegals border problem.

Loveya,

Duane Kuehn

Cuba: If Cuba was a white (Och!) Country, there would be no embargo.

! A LUIS "Cuba!" MORO. . . . . — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:01:22 EDT

Racism is alive and well for Black Latin’s. The irony is America goes crazy if someone other than a black person calls a black person a “N…r”.

Yet the white Hispanic community will call Afro Latin’s “Negros” like it’s a term of endearment. It’s not.

I’m an Afro-Cuban and I’m equally proud of being a black, Latin, living in America. I’m an exile, I was born in Cuba, and I’ve been back to Cuba. I’ve made an excellent film in Cuba and I can assert with plenty of facts to back it up: “If Cuba was a white Country, there would be no embargo.”

Simply look at the majority of faces in Cuba and then look at the faces of who supports the embargo in Cuba. I personally don’t think it’s intentional racism, but rather a function of limited or no consciousness. Especially by Cuban and other politicians who’s families aren’t in Cuba, don’t have friends in Cuba and are well off financially in America.

It’s been rich white politicians from Miami that have high jacked and manipulated our laws, traded congressional votes and used PAC money to keep the failed 47 years of U.S. embargo policy toward Cuba in place. These fact should wake anyone up from thinking the current politicians, Republican or Democrat, have the peoples best interest at hand.

Obama represents a transformation this country, planet and humanity could benefit from. “A world that works for everyone, with no one left out.” You the reader, may know who I am by that statement. And if you don’t know me, I trust you can see that the world many of us are standing for includes you, includes me and includes us all having a life that works. “A world that works for everyone, with no one left out,” starts with me, then you, then us voting for a new generation to lead America.

With that said, I’m voting for Obama for one simple reason; he has the character to stop the insanity of 47 years of failed politics with Cuba. With that, I believe Obama will also stop the insanity in many other political arenas in Washington, DC.

Thank you for making the time to read these words, please forward if you find they can benefit another.

Luis Moro

See 1400 Cuba images free at www.EveryThingCuba.com

Do You Really Care?

Scott from Tampa, FL — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:49:34 EDT

You want a compelling story of how the United Satets is not who we say we are? Do you really want a story where the US is above the law, unilaterally imposes an illegal verdict on a non-deserving person depsite having fact to the contrary in front of them, and does not allow for an APPEAL?

This blog is my wife's story. Naomi Walls is an Israeli citizen travleing from Tokyo (two alies in the war of terror) was detined by the Customs Border Protection/Dept of Homeland Security (CBP/DHS) when visiting this country, denied entry, and banned for life (something reserved for terrorists, murderers -the worst of the worst) and she has never committed ANY single crime. The CBP/DHS knew this, but decided to ban her for life anyway.

Why? We don't know and cannot find out. We can't get access to the file (Freedom of Information Act - supposed to take 20 days...now taking 18 months).

Please read our story at this google group - http://groups.google.com/group/naomi-malcas-documents/files?hl=en. Here are the documents that prove our case. Start by reading Naomi's Story - Final. Feel free to contact me if you have questions - scottwalls@ngoi.com.

Regards,

Scott

Cuba: 1,400 free photos of the Real Cuba today.

! A LUIS "Cuba!" MORO. . . . . — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:03:01 EDT

I just posted 1,400 photos we shot while making our history making feature film in Cuba. You can go to http://www.everythingcuba.com/ and see many aspects of the real Cuba. These are not professional photos of the perfect landmarks, or photos focused on showing you the worst of Cuba. Those types of photos exist and have their place. What you will see are simple yet excellent photos of real like in Cuba by real people like you and I. I'm a Cuban exile and I can tell you the pro-embargo Cuban exile community does not represent the majority of Cubans in America and especially the Cubans in Cuba.And for sure, they do not have the best interest of all Americans by supporting, maintaining and using every political trick available to make sure we keep destroying Cuba and it's people. This is in no way saying I support Castor's ways. I am saying I don't support anyone's way that continues to support politics that don't work going on fifty years. I'm for Obama for many reasons. And number one is his character's ability to make equitable decisions related to Cuba. So please take a moment and see the real Cuba with your own eyes and enjoy the real Cuba. Some day soon you will be able to use your constitutional right to travel and go see Cuba in person. Here are some of the people who will thank you in person for abolishing the embargo on Cuba. Luis Moro, filmmaker

www.EveryThingCuba.com SEE 1,400 EXCLUSIVE ORIGINAL PHOTOS OF CUBA.

www.UrbanFamilyEntertainment.com

Cuba: The Death of Political Insanity: The Case Of Cuba.

! A LUIS "Cuba!" MORO. . . . . — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:37:25 EDT

ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN MAY/JUNE 2008 ISSUES OF

THE IMMIGRANT MAGAZINE

The Character Factor: The death of Political Insanity
The Case Of Cuba

By Luis Moro

Insanity may be defined as doing the same thing repeatedly with the expectation of a different result. A politician who supports a failed 40-year-old policy could be diagnosed with "Political Insanity". It is time we killed off Political Insanity by our elected U.S. officials. This and many more facts will be explored in the next issue of Immigrant Magazine.

Would you trust a person who continues to make the wrong decision for almost fifty years? Would you support a person who will speak in the name of helping people, PEOPLE who continuously say that person is not helping them? Would you believe a person who upon receiving a financial donation would change their vote?

"The Character Factor" is a full coverage story about the U.S. Embargo on Cuba and how a failed policy is still supported by so few even though it negatively affects so many. You will be surprised to find out how a one thousand dollar donation ($1,000) can buy a vote in Washington, DC. And even more surprising is how many politicians actually sell their votes for money. It is as blatant as one day they are against our U.S. policies against Cuba; they get a donation and the next day they vote for the failed policy against Cuba. We will explore why a few white politicians in America and Cuba strangle Cuba, a country with a predominantly black population.

With the duplicity, outright lying and misrepresentations by many of today's politicians there is one clear question that separates today's candidates for the U.S. Presidency. Are you for or against the four- decade failed, U.S. Policy on Cuba? The answer to this question could be the one answer that will determine the vote of every American.

Nobody can deny that U.S. Policies towards Cuba have failed over the last several decades. We all know that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. It is clear in these times of political insanity that no politician can hide from his or her history. And all politicians should be judged on their present character to determine our future. The character factor requests all Americans to bring to the forefront politicians who sell themselves. If a politician votes for and supports a failed U.S. Policy, they clearly are not able minded, equitable and perhaps even honest leaders.

It is known that in our nation's capital, legislative votes are for sale and barter. But no one will get away from the factual report revealing once and for all our nation's leaders who have lost their character factor.

Are you for a four-decade-old failed U.S. Policy on Cuba? Your character factor will now speak.

About the author: Luis Moro is an award winning filmmaker. He was born in Cuba and now resides in exile in the United States. His family has been separated for 38 years due to the failed polices of both the U.S and Cuban politicians. www.EveryThingCuba.com

Contact Luis@MoroFilms.com

The above article reflects the opinions of L.Moro and in no way the opinions of The Publishers Of The Immigrant Magazine. We welcome your perspectives on issues that affect you and the Immigrant Community at large. Please write to us at publisher@immigrantmagazine.com.

Pamela Asobo Anchang
Publisher/Editor-In-Chief
The Immigrant Magazine Inc.
http://www.immigrantmagazine.com/

La Opinion: Immigration Reform Defines Candidates' Positions

Jenny U. — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:25:16 EDT

Immigration Reform Defines Candidates' Positions
La Opinión
Maribel Hastings, Posted: Jun 13, 2008
Editor's Note: Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain may appear to have similar stances on immigration, but in fact they have significant differences.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — At first glance there don't seem to be significant differences between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama when it comes to immigration. Obama supports comprehensive reform that had been forcefully supported by McCain until the political climate led McCain to focus on security first.

If McCain and Obama – and their respective Republican and Democratic parties – share anything, it's their avoidance of the immigration issue altogether whenever possible: Although it is not at the top of the list of electoral priorities, it is a volatile issue.

What's odd is that it's an issue that some say would benefit McCain in the fight for the Latino vote. The Arizona senator was the co-author of the immigration reform bill with Democratic Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy.  

Although McCain now emphasizes a security-first approach, the Kennedy-McCain immigration bill still resonates for many Hispanics.
But everything is relative. Yesterday an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll concluded that 62 percent of Hispanic voters prefer Obama versus 28 percent for McCain.
In fact, when you look at the candidates' positions on specific topics, there are differences.

For example, McCain opposes the DREAM Act, which would benefit undocumented students, and Obama supports it; McCain opposes the idea of granting driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, but Obama supports it.

Both candidates, however, voted in favor of building a wall on the southern U.S. border.
"But the most important differences are less obvious and have to do with what type of reform they'll propose and try to pass," Cecilia Muñoz, vice president of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), told La Opinión. According to Muñoz, McCain's talk on immigration changes "depending on his audience."

"We had President (George W.) Bush's heart behind immigration reform and that wasn't enough. I think Senator McCain's heart is behind the legislation but we don't know if he'll want to or be able to really push through the type of reform he wants," she added.

"He (McCain) is not only trying to placate Latino voters, but also the anti-immigrant side of his party, and that will limit him in an important way," said Muñoz.

Jeff Sadosky, spokesperson for the McCain presidential campaign, told La Opinión that the senator thinks it is very important to express his positions with "clear and compassionate" language.

"John McCain thinks that we need to secure the border first, but at the same time he understands that we need to handle the immigration debate in a humane way, with the understanding that everyone must be treated with respect," Sadosky said.

The challenge for McCain is to attract Hispanics without alienating the conservative Republican base.
But Obama also faces challenges.

Certainly, the senator's positions are even more advanced than the official position of the Democrats who control Congress, such as Obama's support for granting driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants.

But not even the Democrats who control both houses of Congress have been able to advance comprehensive reform.

The Senate tried, but the House of Representatives seems more interested in holding hearings than producing concrete results.

There's a division between the most conservative Democrats in the House who favor measures focused on security – like the bill proposed by North Carolina Congressman Health Shuler -- and those like the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who support comprehensive reform.

It's not just the white working class that is suspicious of comprehensive reform. There's also a perception that there are sectors within the African-American community that oppose it.

Muñoz, however, pointed to polls that prove otherwise and the national African-American organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), that actively support comprehensive reform.

But according to Munoz, the fact that Obama promises to advance immigration reform at the beginning of his administration is not just a message to the immigrant community but also to Congress.

"It's the type of difference (from John McCain's stance on immigration) that is less obvious but extremely important: the quality of the compromise," she concluded.

Welcome to LIIS

activist and experienced campaign worker — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:04:38 EDT

This blog is to disseminate information, news, discussion on the immigrant origins of our nation and iimmigration's still vital and vibrant contributions shaping who we are as a people, as a nation and where we are going with Barack Obama uniting us and leading us to fulfill our history and our destiny as an immigrant nation. Our local focus will be on Long Island and the vital contributions made and still being made from the material and spiritual renewal and aspirations of today's newest immigrant arrivals, who continue to build on the immigrant labor of courage and devotion of our forebears that settled, founded and defined what we mean as a nation by the defining concept of democray and its implementation in our everyday lives. --mo

Discussion Group: Emigrating due to Obama?

Marjani — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:06:57 EDT

General Discussion - I am moving to England (101 views)Subscribe From: mewp 5-Jun 22:47 To: ALL 1 of 21 5166.1

According to the media, Obama is going to win the election in 2008. I have decided to move. England is my first choice. How are things there? Can I bring my pets? How is the economy? And will I ever fit in?

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The politics of racism

Larry Gaissert — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:25:31 EDT

I recommend Obama supporters watch Elizabeth Dole’s “Illegal Immigration” ad. Even though it is for her senatorial campaign, there are good reasons for watching it and learning from it.

https://dole.politicalsupport.com/Donate.aspx?cid=6zZHrcgnep5KcFNmdkq8YA%3d%3d&dcid=ffbcc4

I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I know racism when I see it, and this is a racist ad. Except for a few real nut cases out there no serious politician would dare be openly racist today. This is racism in its late 20th and early 21st century incarnation. And in what may be its most dangerous form, subtle (It appeals to people’s fears and prejudices without actually naming them.) and with deniability (“We’re not talking about all immigrants, just criminals.”). Remember “Willie Horton?” Remember “You deserved that job?” Remember “Call me sometime?” This ad is cut from the same cloth. Obviously the Dole strategists believe racist politics will still work here in North Carolina.

There is talk that Senator Obama may have a chance to move North Carolina back into the blue column. We all hope it will happen and are willing to work to make it happen. But rest assured that if the McCain people begin to believe it may happen they will not hesitate to resort to the same type of political strategy the Dole people have already employed. We Obama supporters need to be prepared. Prepared to name racism when we see it and to counter it with our voices, our pens and our keyboards.

INVESTING IN AMERICA

Chris — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:28:54 EDT

In the past, immigrant laborers worked together with citizens on large-scale projects that made the US great. It created a strong sense of unity and pride in the US, and provided a path to positive assimilation into US society. These opportunities are largely absent from modern society, and it is not surprising that many immigrants are finding it extremely difficult to assimilate into mainstream culture.

One of the key issues that continues to tear this country apart is that of immigration. By some estimates, there are as many as 20 million people living in the United States illegally. Regardless of what one's stance on the issue is, two things are certain--we cannot deport 20 million people, and we cannot simply hand out amnesty to them. But we must do something, because national security, domestic education, national health insurance, crime, and the economy are all directly related to our policies regarding illegal immigration and undocumented workers. Without a solution that is at once fair, bipartisan, and humane, we will not be able to solve any of the other problems that beset us. Therefore, I propose a solution as follows:

An amnesty program will be offered, but only upon the condition that we secure the borders with a long-term solution, and do it effectively. Once we have secured our borders, the amnesty program is presented. A path from illegal status to citizenship can be taken provided one give four years' service to this country. Service can be through enlistment in the military (provided there is no criminal record in this or the person's home country) or through enlistment in the CCC, where they will spend four years (re)building the infrastructure of the United States. Enlistment in the CCC can be done by illegal immigrants or by citizens. Citizens will be rewarded with four years of college funding in Obama's new program. By joining the CCC or the military, illegal immigrants will have a legitimate social security number and a legal, national identification card, just as current military members do. This would be the only path to amnesty for those of sound mind and body, so illegal immigrants who choose not to take this option will not be covered by the program and will continue to be at risk of deportation.

In addition, once the program is in place, stiff penalties will be enforced on all employers other than the government who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The social security databases will be revamped to eliminate employers' excuses regarding social security numbers their employees give them. With undocumented workers siphoned off to the CCC or the military, we also provide the opportunity for legal residents and citizens of the US to take the jobs that undocumented workers had previously done, thus decreasing the joblessness rate in the country. However, this can only be successful if we are diligent in stopping new waves of illegal immigration. The amnesty program is available at any time, but only to individuals who are on record as being within the country at the date the program is unveiled. This allows children who are of illegal status to also have a path to citizenship when they come of age.

You're no longer welcome

Belia — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:46:53 EDT

I was reading an article this morning about an ICE raid in Potsville, IA where 389 people were carted off for being illegal aliens and are being charged with identity fraud. I was outraged and deeply saddened. Three hundred and eighty nine families are broken now. This from an administration that touts Family Values. I'm a first generation American Mexican. I am, have always been and will always be an American first. But I am ashamed of what this country looks like now. From a country that was built by immigrants seeking a better life and freedom from persecution from government, we have become everything we ran from. I say 'we' because the american history is my history. I take ownership of it, even though my people had nothing to do with it. See, that's what a real American does. They stand for everyone within their country.

The issue of illegal aliens can take on many meanings for people. When you remove logic and leave only the emotions of as an argument it becomes a wedge issue. But as an evolved and intelligent individual, I think you have to look at facts and keep emotions at bay for a minute and then bring them in wisely.

Let's look at the facts, and let's only look at the pieces that the average individual should understand, because people only care about what specifically affects them anyway. There are 12 million illegal aliens in this country. Those aliens come from all over the globe. They come from places like Poland, China, Africa, Ireland, Serbia, Honduras, Guatemala, and Ecuador, not just Mexico. So they pretty much look like everybody else in America, which means they could be your neighbor or your family member. Let's table that thought for now.

Twelve million people is a lot of people. Some people in this country want to deport them and send them all back to their countries. Great. Putting aside that it's just not nice since we would be breaking up families, and that you would leave American children (if they have kids born in this country, those are American children), let's calculate how that impacts us financially and see if we still think for us if that would happen.

Let's assume that 90% of those 12,000,000 people are working, that's 10,800,000. Now let's say that those people work for minimum wage, because those are the kind of jobs illegal aliens take here in the US. Minimum wage is $5.65 currently (until July 2008 when it goes up to $6.55) so the total of those workers earn is $126,921,600,000. Now, if you work in the US and get paid by check, taxes are taken out---no one gets a choice on that, not even illegal aliens. Let's say that these workers pay in 15% in taxes (the tax rate for some making $11,000 a year), that's $19,038,240.

So if we send 12 million illegal aliens away, we lose $19 billion dollars of annual federal revenue. Now the rest of us, have to make up the difference. You don't mind paying more in taxes to live in an illegal alien free country, do you?

But what is that going to cost to round up those people? Then to hold them all while they wait for processing? Also, to hire enough government clerks and legal fees to administer that type of project? And then the airfare fees to transport these people to their own countries? And then how much will it cost to create more orphanages to house the now parent-less American children who are lucky enough to stay in the US when their parents are shipped off? Do you mind paying your part for all of those expenses to live in an illegal alien free country?

Ok, well that means of the over 16 million unemployed, 10,800,000 of those now have jobs. Because clearly, 10 million american will totally jump right in and take those $11,000 a year jobs, right? Sure. Now let's consider how long a company can survive with the majority of their labor force gone. Do you think that a company can afford to cover the cost of not producing product for however long it takes to rehire Americans to fill those jobs, train them to do the jobs?

I have worked in small companies before, and I know this much, smaller companies (and big companies) run on lines of credit. They're just like many individuals, they don't have big savings accounts where they can dip into to still pay their bills during a no incoming revenue period. What would probably happen is that many small companies would go bankrupt and not survive.

If you don't own a company, it won't impact you, right? Unless, you buy products that small companies produce--or used to produce. What if your local bakery closed, your favorite local restaurants, convenience stores, auto repair shops, local gas stations? Would that inconvenience you slightly? That's just your neighborhood. That doesn't even begin to consider manufacturing companies that create goods on a larger scale for national disbursement. Oh, well, we'll just buy more imported goods manufactured by people working in other countries like China.

Wait, I worked in a mortgage company for a minute and I know that illegal aliens buy homes. American banks lent them money to buy homes. So if some of those people in your neighborhood were deported, the homes they own would be foreclosed as nobody is around to pay the mortgage. The banks would have to dump the house in order to recoup their losses. Do you mind if the house next to yours sold at rock bottom foreclosure rates? Because you know what happens to your home value when the homes around you sell below market value, your home value goes down, too.

I believe that simplicity is a better way. The reality is that these people are here. They love this country, they work, and pay their part into this country in federal taxes, social security taxes, and sales taxes. Let's figure out a way where we can keep the country intact. There is a solution with little disruption if we just find a way to legalize these people and allow their families to stay together, work hard, make a happy home, and enjoy the beautiful freedom of America.

My Life In a Nutshell in USA

Bosnian Sniper Fox — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:19:17 EDT

I figured, I share my story and see how many of you can relate to or if you aren't in this position you perhaps get an insight of what happens when things go bad.

Message to Senators Obama and Clinton

Claudette Milner — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:10:45 EDT

If Senator Obama or Senator Clinton say that they loss a particular primary due to race or gender they would fail to examine their own strengths and weaknesses as a candidate, which could lead to failure in the general election. In this critical election there is no room for excuses and stereotypes instead it is time for Senator Clinton to examine her campaign, her political strategy during the caucuses, and President Clinton’s role in alienating voters. It is time for Senator Obama to visit the churches of West Virginia, and Kentucky, to visit the factories that are up for sale in Kentucky and the coal mines of West Virginia. It is time to reach across party lines and get to know all voters of this country. Americans are united in wanting a change in this country. In fact we are demanding a change. We have to leave a legacy for the younger generation. It must be that every American has an opportunity to achieve their goals. Never let anyone give you an excuse to fail. We must all examine ourselves and meet the challenge. This country can transcend race and gender. It is the only formula for greatness.

Many times I feel that a message is stronger if it is in words. I am releasing two chapters of my latest book "Unheard Voices" :Children of Plains Estates.

Chapter 16

Jesus went into the store to fill out a job application. It was offseasonand he needed to make some extra money. He was fifteennow, and he didn’t want to ask his mother for money. Jesus made surehe was dressed neatly, and that his penmanship could be clearly readbefore the interview.His mother had always taught him to make a good impression. Shecautioned him to always speak English during the entire interview. Ifthey were looking for bi-lingual cashiers, then let them know you speakfluent Spanish.When the interviewer came out, Jesus stood up to shake his hand,just like his mother had taught him. The interviewer ignored his handand sat down at the table.“Before I begin this interview, Jesus is it? I have to ask; are youin this country legally? I can’t afford to have any more immigrationproblems. I mean, you’re hard workers and come cheap, but I haveto look out for fake green cards. You know what I mean?”Jesus knew to keep his composure. He needed this job. “Sir, mymother is an American citizen. I’m an American citizen. I have mybirth certificate and my social security card with me.”Jesus had been humiliated in front of the people at the surroundingtables. The man was talking loud enough that everyone could hear.Some even smirked when he asked the question.His father lived in Mexico. He came across the border every springto work the crops in order to take care of his family in Mexico. Hisparents had never married. His father had a wife and children inMexico. The part of Mexico that his father was from was very poor.He worked for little money picking fruit during the harvest season sothat he could feed his family during the winter months.

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Immigration went easy on the immigrants during harvest timebecause they were cheap labor, but as soon as the harvest was overthey would crack down. He knew his father was wrong, but there wasno other way for him to feed his family.Sometimes Jesus resented the illegal immigrants because the onlyMexicans you heard about on the news or in the papers were thosethat entered the country illegally.His mother worked for a furniture store that had a large Hispanicclientele. They even had Hispanic salesmen. You never heard aboutMexicans like his mother. If you did, it would change attitudes andmake working conditions better for Hispanics.Americans resented Hispanics. They thought of them as jobstealers. In reality, Americans don’t want to work most of the jobsgiven to Hispanics and wouldn’t accept the wages that they earn.Hispanics worked harder because they wanted to prove that theydeserved to be in this country and treated equally. Jesus didn’t wantto work for men like this one, but until times changed he would holdhis tongue and be respectful.“Everything looks in order. The manager is out today, so you cancome in tomorrow and he will interview you. Can you come back, ordo you have to meet with your gang?”“I can come back tomorrow sir,” replied Jesus. “It will have to beafter school.”“I thought you all dropped out of school by your age,” he chuckled.“Come back around four o’clock.”Jesus did not discuss the interview with his mother. He only told herthat he had a second interview at four o’clock.Jesus went to the court to shoot some hoops. He looked on thesecond court, and saw John Humphrey. They played basketballtogether at Thomas Jefferson High School.John was pretty cool. They had never associated outside ofbasketball practice, but he got along well with everyone on the team.Since John was black, maybe he would understand what Jesus felt.Jesus was sensitive about people grouping all Hispanics together.The Cubans were Castro’s throwaways and Mexicans were illegal.

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Growing up he was told that blacks were lazy, didn’t want to work,drank, and lived on welfare. Jews were stingy, money hungry, andcontrolled all of Hollywood. Asians were smart. They didn’t respectother minorities. They thought they were better, different. Theyowned all the wig stores and beauty supply shops. They were prettysmart though, because all the girls were wearing weaves. Jesusthought this was a good move.Whites were paranoid. They blamed all their economic problemson other races. If they couldn’t find a job, it was because ofAffirmative Action. Jesus’ mom said it was always somebody’s fault.He had found those stereotypes were just as wrong as the stereotypesabout Hispanics.After he started reading the paper, he made an observation. Themedia played on these stereotypes. They used them to keepeverybody upset so they forgot about the real issues, like Iraq and theeconomy. His friends, for the most part, were Hispanics.John seemed to have many friends outside his race. As long as weallowed the prejudices of a few to keep us distracted, we were nevergoing to learn from each other.I would like to own a shopping center like the Asians. Maybeinstead of resenting them, I could learn from them and become anentrepreneur myself. Maybe instead of trying to work for a racist, Ican apply for a job at the beauty supply store. He wondered if the guyson the team would think he was a sissy. He thought about it. He saidto himself, “Man you need to check yourself.” He guessed we wereall racist in some way.Jesus walked over to speak with John.“Hey John, do you want to shoot a few baskets?” asked Jesus.“Sure, I’m trying to stay in shape during the off-season. I usuallyshoot with my dad and Tommy, but my dad had a heart attack and I’vebeen staying close to home. He’s doing better now, so I’ll be outmore,” replied John. “I didn’t know you practiced on these courts.Maybe we can meet up and play sometime.”“I’d like that, but I just applied for a job at Sheltons,” said Jesus. “IfI get the job, I’m not sure how much time I will have to play between

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work and homework. My mom said I could only work if it doesn’taffect my grades.”“You too? I thought I was the only one on the team with a mom withan iron club over my head.”They both laughed.“John can I talk to you about something?” asked Jesus.“My jump shot is a secret,” replied John. No really, come on overto the table and we’ll talk.”“When I went to the interview, the employee that took myapplication was a racist. He suggested that I was illegally in thecountry and that I had obtained fake identification. I have a secondinterview tomorrow. Should I go, or just walk away?” asked Jesus.What would you do?”“Man, my dad grew up in the south. He went through a lot. The onething he always said was, ‘don’t let the ignorance of one person orgroup give you an excuse not to succeed’.“Go to the interview. Even if you don’t get the job, you didn’t lethim stop you from applying. He wanted you to quit and not come back.Then he would have said you didn’t want to work, and he would havea reason not to hire other Hispanics.“Don’t give him an easy way out. Continue to be professionalthroughout the interview process, and don’t allow him to bait you. I’msure you will do fine. Come on, so I can dust you on the court.”Jesus and John played two games of twenty-one. They exchangedtelephone numbers and promised to talk at school.Jesus walked into Sheltons for his interview. He braced himself.He knew it was with the store manger. He prepared for the worst andhoped for the best. A young lady came and advised him that themanager would meet with him in the office.Jesus walked into the room. The manager stood up and extendedhis hand.“I’m pleased to meet you, Jesus. My name is Jose Gonzales.

Please sit down and we’ll begin the interview process.”

Chaper 18

Jose got to Sheltons early and opened up the store. He had beenwith Sheltons for ten years. He had worked his way up from cashierto restaurant manager. He had attended community college and takenall the management-training classes the store had to offer.He was lucky. Sheltons had a mentorship program at the highschool. They came to the school and said that they were looking forindividuals that were willing to work in fast food after school.Jose had jumped on it. He lived in a poor neighborhood and this washis way out. He remembered them showing him the pay scale for areamanagers. He never thought he would be able to make that kind ofmoney. In order to enter the mentorship program, one had to keep aB average at school, be at work on time, and get above averagereviews.Jose had been an average student, but now he had an incentive toget good grades. Jose thrived under the leadership of Thomas Gains.Thomas was from the neighborhood. He had gone to college andreturned as an area manager of Sheltons. He wanted to give back tothe community by creating a vehicle for others to becomeeconomically empowered.Sheltons paid for Jose’s education. He worked hard. He had beenat the same store for ten years. No one else wanted to stay in theneighborhood. Thomas Gains had asked him to take over the stores inthis area as a personal favor. He could not turn down the one personthat had probably saved his life.Oregon was not like New York City. He knew there would besome adjustments, but he was not prepared for the open hostility. Hewould not assume it was because he was Hispanic, because he wouldset himself up for failure.Several individuals had applied for this position. He was currentlyworking with two of the individuals.

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He was immediately made aware of the incident that happened inthe store with Jesus Ramirez. He had not decided on how to handleit. Nathaniel took out his resentment of Jose getting the job by lashingout at Jesus. What he did was just cause for termination, but Joseviewed termination as an easy way out. He would call a meeting ofthe assistant managers when the shift started, and go over Sheltonsdiscrimination policy. He hoped this would send a warning to the staffthat there was a zero tolerance policy for this behavior.Sheltons had always believed in equal employment. They did notimplement it because law required it. They simply believed it was theright thing to do.Jose called the meeting for after the breakfast rush and thetransition staff came in to prepare for the lunch rush.“Nathaniel, Greta, get yourselves a cup of coffee or drink of choiceand we’ll get started,” said Jose. “Now that we’re all settled, my firstarea of concern is to insure we’re in compliance with hiring practicesunder the equal employment laws. The law requires that we do notdiscriminate in our hiring practices. Sheltons has a zero tolerancepolicy against discrimination. Violation of this policy will result inimmediate termination.“Does anyone have any questions? I am reviewing this policy because we will begin a mentoring program in these stores. much likethe model started in the north.”“I guess we are going to have an affirmative action program now,”smirked Nathaniel.“No.” responded Jose. “I have been with Sheltons for over tenyears. We have never had to implement an affirmative action policy.We have always been willing to give anyone that wanted to work anopportunity. We hire individuals, not certain race groups.“I think our policy speaks for itself. We have a diverse work force.We have a mentorship program that actively recruits individuals fromthe communities where we are located, providing employmentopportunities and educational scholarships to all of our constituents.“We contribute to the community by keeping the profits in thecommunity and providing jobs and incentive programs. We have

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created a model that has been copied in many other cities. If we couldget all of corporate America to join us, there would be no lack of jobs.More importantly, some of the kids that drop out of school would notgive in to a sense of hopelessness.“We treat every applicant with dignity and respect. I would likeboth of you to review the files of current employees and match up theirqualifications with the qualifications of the mentorship program andmake recommendations.”“What if they don’t meet the qualifications?” asked Greta. “Canwe make exceptions?”“No. If they are truly interested, they will raise their standards tomeet the program guidelines. We are looking for individuals that wewill invest time in training, and pay for their education. Only the seriousneed apply. They can reapply every six months until they meet thecriteria.“We are a team. It is important that we adhere to all store policies.It’s up to the management team to set an example. I expect no lessthan total compliance from my staff. This is a new store for me, so Iwill depend on each of you to help me get adjusted.“Thank you for your help. Greta, can you run the floor while I speakwith Nathaniel please?” asked Jose.“Nathaniel, can you tell me what happened when you interviewedJesus Ramirez?” asked Jose.“Mr. Ramirez came in to fill out an application. I reviewed hisapplication, verified his age and ability to work in the US, and advisedhim to come back for a follow-up interview,” responded Nathaniel.“We received several complaints from our customers. You wereheard making derogatory remarks against Hispanics. We have adiverse customer base. You insulted our customer base and a potentialemployee. Can you explain your behavior?”“I admit I was out of line and I do owe Mr. Ramirez an apology.It won’t happen again.”“Mr. Ramirez will begin training on Tuesday. I expect you toapologize to him. Can I count on you?”“Certainly. I owe you an apology too,” replied Nathaniel.

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“We will consider this a verbal warning for violation of companypolicy. It will not go into your personnel file unless the action isrepeated. Thank you for your time,” said Jose. Take a few minutesNathaniel, before you come out on the floor.”Nathaniel let out a sign of relief. He thought he had blown his jobfor sure. Jose didn’t have to be so generous. He knew his behaviorcould have resulted in immediate termination.This was the second time he had been turned down for areamanger. He needed the money. He had children in private school andanother baby on the way.Jose was right. Sheltons had been good to him. He had applied tothe mentorship program six years ago. They had given him anopportunity. He would get his chance if he didn’t blow it.He knew why Jose had gotten the job. He had ten years experiencein a major market, and he had the ability to build a team. Sheltons wassupplying the opportunity. He had to choose to step up to the plate. Hehad only himself to blame for not being area manager.He had been offered positions in other states, but he didn’t wantto move. Jose had moved across the country. Greta had moved herefrom Washington. He had to make some decisions about his future.He either had to look for another job, or adopt a new work ethic. Adecision had to be made.Jesus saw John walking down the hall towards him. John stoppedto say hello.“Hey Jesus, how did the interview go?” asked John.“I got the job. I’ll be working after school and on the weekends tillthe season starts. Then they’ll work with me,” responded Jesus.“Are they still hiring? I need some extra money. I’ll have to talk tomy parents, but if they approve I think I’ll fill out an application. I stillwant to get together with you and shoot some hoops. Let me knowwhen you’re available.”“Sure thing. By the way John, thanks for the advice. It reallyhelped,” responded Jose.“Anytime. Sorry, I have to hurry. My next class is all the wayacross campus,” said John as he ran off to class.

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“Jesus, what were you doing talking to John Humphrey?” askedJacob. He’s a basketball star and probably taking remedial classes.You don’t have anything in common with him.”“Actually we have a lot in common. He’s a starter on the juniorvarsity team, but he’s not taking remedial classes. He’s taking theadvanced engineering curriculum. I know because he competed in thescience fair last year with Walter and won.”“So what? Are you going to hang out with his kind now?” askedJacob.“John is a nice guy. He helped me out yesterday. You are myhomeboy, but it’s okay to meet other people too. It makes us morediversified.”“Diversified, I like the sound of that. That’s all right.” They bothlaughed.“We’d better get to class before we both end up in the office,”replied Jesus.John talked to his parents about applying for a part-time job atSheltons. They both agreed that he was old enough to work as long ashe kept his grades up.John left home in a shirt and tie. His mom helped him with a resume.It was mainly filled with his academic history, clubs and extracurricularactivities. John walked into Sheltons and requested anapplication. He went to the table and filled it out.Both men saw John come into the store. Jose was there so hewould interview him. John returned his application. Jose looked it over,and then handed it to Nathaniel. “His resume looks as if he would bean asset to our team. Why don’t you interview him and let me knowwhat you think?”Nathaniel reviewed the resume and walked out to the dining room.He shook John’s out stretched hand.“Hello, Mr. Humphrey. My name is Nathaniel Hendricks. I’ll beinterviewing you today. Will you follow me back to the office?”

ICE Raid: Postville, Iowa Meatpacking Plant

Hope4Unity — Sun, 18 May 2008 06:49:18 EDT

On Monday, May 12, 2008 federal immigration authorities (ICE) raided a meatpacking plant in Postville, IA. ICE Officials reported that they arrested atleast 390 people.

What happened to "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..."?!

Most of the 314 men and 76 women arrested are from Guatemala and Mexico, but some are from Ukraine and Israel. There were 56 people released on "humanitarian grounds."

Agriprocessor, Inc. owns the meatpacking plant that was raided.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa condemned the raids in a statement Tuesday:

"It appears that detainees are not receiving adequate time to meet with their lawyers, and that defense attorneys are being overwhelmed by requests to represent far more clients than is advisable -- or perhaps even ethical," said Ben Stone, the group's president. "We are concerned that the sheer size of this raid is likely to result in numerous violations of The U.S. Constitution, which protects the due process rights of all persons in this country."

Guatemalan Natives Talk About Postville Immigration raid :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1IUTdU9IF8

Local News Report of ICE Raid at the Agriprocessor Plant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrDXYMtGA4I

Immigration / equality / victory gardens

Danielle Clarke USA Vietnam Vet — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:29:36 EDT

MY RESPONSE TO A DIVERSITY4OBAMA LISTSERVE EMAIL:

No one human country is better than another. yes we have leaders who try to play leaders and many times they run roughshod over other poorer weaker military countries. Who are we as americans to use and abuse most of the energy of the world?? Who are we as americans to think just because we have numclear bombs that another country can't?? Who are we to stop the world from balancing out as people cross boarders and become more industrialized?? Iran saw us attack iraq and well if i was them i would build a nuclear bomb. If i was a mexican i would cross the boarder and come to america, especially since many of americans kids are too lazy to do the work and think they are better than other kids from around the world.

All, we as individual humans can do, is try to share and care for one another and stop playing this foolish game of being imperialistic americans, who dare to think they deserve they better land and more of the oil etc..

I know my two america bloood children will get less as my two adopted kids in africa get more. Are my blood kids more valuable than my two kids i support in africa?? NO! People are humans and we all need to stop playing the country game and thinking we deserve more just because we were born here in america.

I served my country during the vietnam war and in doing so i learned a lot. I learned that my country is an abuser and needs a major adjustment in attitude. I support Barack Obama and pray he helps to bridge gaps around the world so other people born in other countries do not feel less than and so we americans learn to not feel we are better than.

I just built a 35ft by 35ft 8ft high deer fence in the suburbs for a veggie garden so my son and his neighbors can grow food to eat. I live on a small VA disibility and i don't abuse it, i use it to help make the world a better place. It isn't mine even though it is sent to me. ( after 30 yrs the VA finally gave it to me without me asking for it) but i am smart enough to use it properly.

We americans need to change our ways. Yes illegals come here and work for bosses who use them and abuse them and well its those bosses who don't care and its many of us who have them cut our lawns as we cry illegal immigrants who also think we are better than.

Well people you better get use to oil going higher and learning to grow your own food and get to work and share and care and stop using and abusing people and energy just because you are americans.

A true american has a victory garden and that is something i have had after WWII ended / in the 50's i was born. That victory is not about being a conqueror but it is about doing for yourself and doing for your neighbor and one of our neighbors is mexico and until we change our ways here in america we will suffer much much more and we will point fingers at others and make blame which is really about our own laziness and not teaching our kids to grow food and pick veggies because in the end someone has to do it and that means you and me, so get out there and plant a victory garden and share it with your neighbors.

PS: Take care of the elderly i do its how i survive as i sleep on a couch while they get beds, but at least i have a roof over my head.

BARACK OBAMA:
I AM MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS KEEPERS AND THROUGH HARD WORK AND INOVATION WE CAN MAKE THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE. I AM NOT HERE / WE ARE NOT HERE TO TAKE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES. WE ARE HERE / YOU ARE HERE TO MAKE SURE ALL COUNTRIES TREAT THEIR PEOPLE EQUALLY AND NO LONGER WILL BOSSES IN ANY COUNTRY GET TO USE AND ABUSE ANYBODY / ANY WORKER!!!

I am Barack Obama
You are Barack Obama
We are Barack Obama

always fired up and ready to go

Danielle Hussein Clarke = working for all Obamanites 10 to 12 hours a day since feb 11th 2007

Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.

"Juan Crow" : the new face of legalized oppression

Michael Whitehead — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:53:31 EDT

I started reading this article because the Southern Poverty Law Center lawyer mentioned was my wife's roomate at William & Mary, and a bridesmaid at our wedding. But as I read it, I got chills.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080526/lovato

Using the Fugitive Slave Laws of the mid 19th century as a model to arrest and detain the undocumented? Are we doomed to repeat the sins of our past? Is this some big fraternity initiation of sorts, that you have to suffer a generation or two (most of MY family will say it's GOT to be more than two, 'cause we're going on eight, nine, and ten) before you "become American?"

One thing is for certain: an Obama Administration would not use our ugly past as a frame of reference to manage some uncomfortable aspects of our present and future.

Voter ID Battle shifts to CItizenship NYT aeticle and Link

John From Cape Cod. Ma — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:54:18 EDT

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/us/politics/12vote.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

USE HE LINK IF MY FORMAT COPING THE ARTICLE IS TOO HARD TO READ<<THATS WHY I PRIVIDE IT

Voter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship

By IAN URBINAPublished: May 12, 2008

The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.

Enlarge This Image Dilip Vishwanat for The New York Times

Lillie Lewis, 78, with a letter from Mississippi saying it had no record of her birth. “That’s downright wrong,” she said.

The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card.

Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process. Critics say the measure could lead to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of legal residents who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship.

Voting experts say the Missouri amendment represents the next logical step for those who have supported stronger voter ID requirements and the next battleground in how elections are conducted. Similar measures requiring proof of citizenship are being considered in at least 19 state legislatures. Bills in Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Carolina have strong support. But only in Missouri does the requirement have a chance of taking effect before the presidential election.

In Arizona, the only state that requires proof of citizenship to register to vote, more than 38,000 voter registration applications have been thrown out since the state adopted its measure in 2004. That number was included in election data obtained through a lawsuit filed by voting rights advocates and provided to The New York Times. More than 70 percent of those registrations came from people who stated under oath that they were born in the United States, the data showed.

Already, 25 states, including Missouri, require some form of identification at the polls. Seven of those states require or can request photo ID. More states may soon decide to require photo ID now that the Supreme Court has upheld the practice. Democrats have already criticized these requirements as implicitly intended to keep lower-income voters from the polls, and are likely to fight even more fiercely now that the requirements are expanding to include immigration status.

“Three forces are converging on the issue: security, immigration and election verification,” said Dr. Robert A. Pastor, co-director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University in Washington. This convergence, he said, partly explains why such measures are likely to become more popular and why they will make election administration, which is already a highly partisan issue, even more heated and litigious.

The Missouri secretary of state, Robin Carnahan, a Democrat who opposes the measure, estimated that it could disenfranchise up to 240,000 registered voters who would be unable to prove their citizenship.

In most of the states that require identification, voters can use utility bills, paychecks, driver’s licenses or student or military ID cards to prove their identity. In the Democratic primary election last week in Indiana, several nuns were denied ballots because they lacked the required photo IDs.

Measures requiring proof of citizenship raise the bar higher because they offer fewer options for documentation. In most cases, aspiring voters would have to produce an original birth certificate, naturalization papers or a passport. Arizona and Missouri, along with some other states, now show whether a driver is a citizen on the face of a driver’s license, and within a few years all states will be required by the federal government to restrict licenses to legal residents.

Critics say that when this level of documentation is applied to voting, it becomes more difficult for the poor, disabled, elderly and minorities to participate in the political process.

“Everyone has been focusing on voter ID laws generally, but the most pernicious measures and the ones that really promise to prevent the most eligible voters from voting is what we see in Arizona and now in Missouri,” said Jon Greenbaum, a former voting rights official at the Department of Justice and now the director of the voting rights project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a liberal advocacy group.

Aside from its immediacy, the action by Missouri is important because it has been a crucial swing state in recent presidential elections, with outcomes often decided by a razor-thin margin.

Supporters of the measures cite growing concerns that illegal immigrants will try to vote. They say proof of citizenship measures are an important way to improve the accuracy of registration rolls and the overall voter confidence in the process.

State Representative Stanley Cox, a Republican from Sedalia and the sponsor of the amendment, said that the Missouri Constitution already required voters to be citizens and that his amendment was simply meant to better enforce that requirement.

“The requirements we have right now are totally inadequate,” Mr. Cox said. “You can present a utility bill, and that doesn’t prove anything. I could sit here with my nice photocopier and create a thousand utility bills with different names on them.”

From October 2002 to September 2005, the Justice Department indicted 40 voters for registration fraud or illegal voting, 21 of whom were noncitizens, according to department records.

A Holistic Approach to National Security and Immigration

Rebecca from Maryland — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:27:51 EDT

I posted this in a comment on one of Ben Vos's blogs - which are totally worth reading btw. I haven't posted a blog in a while so I am recycling - in honor of Earth Day (belated) of course. :)

I am looking for a president (or government really) that takes a Holistic approach to national security and immigration. Two things that in reality go hand in hand.

If we put a band-aid on a wound as deep as illegal immigration, the pus will ooze out in no time. The problem has to be addressed at its roots. The illegal immigration story is only half told. Mexicans are coming here for employment because people are employing them. Pressure needs to be applied in the right spot. Then the question becomes... why aren't the employers of illegal immigrants being pressured? There is an abiding belief that Americans won't work as cheaply as illegal immigrants. I'd say that is true in a lot of areas and a lot of circumstances, but as our economy gets weaker and weaker the tides are turning. Take my home state of West Virginia for example. Last year I read a report about the increase in illegal immigrant population on a state by state basis. I was not the least bit surprised to find out that WV was the only state to have NO increase. Why? Because the economy has been so bad for so long (forever really) that West Virginians don't expect high wages. In places where Americans are still demanding a decent wage, the government needs to crack down on employers. It will take a VERY brave and honest person to undercut those businesses though. I really hope Senator Obama is that type of person.

Foreign terrorism is another extremely deep wound. The things we are seeing happen now are rooted in hatred that goes back through years and years of discriminatory foreign policy. In my opinion, Senator Obama will be a fresh face on the foreign policy front, and might be able to at least turn the hatred into neutrality and open up a window of opportunity. However, I haven't heard him address the core issues on this so I can't say whether or not the final solution lies with him.

What Beer Drinkers Want

Benjamin Vos, Nashville — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:40:05 EDT

You're lucky I'm writing this.

Beer drinkers like me don't like talking about their feelings much. Most of us are not big talkers. We don't usually like the internet. We don't pay much attention to the news. And we don't want to be bothered.

Here's what I do know. Things were pretty good when Bill Clinton was president. Yeah, he screwed around a little bit, but when Clinton lied no one died.

I thought Bush was a pretty good president after 9/11. But then I found out about all of his lying. Now, I can't really stand to look at him. He's sending our kids to die in Iraq, and gas prices are still too high. Some of my friends still think he's great. But I don't see it.

Here's what beer drinkers like me want.

1. I don't want another terrorist attack. The next one could be worse.

2. I don't want my hard-earned money going to some other family who don't work or came here illegally.

3. If government is going to take my money, they better give me something good in return. Like healthcare or good schools for my kids.

4. I want my kids to have opportunities. The national debt is too big.

5. I don't want to get too involved in government. That's why I vote for you - to make things work for me.

6. I don't want to have to compete with illegal immigrants taking my jobs. They take the same jobs for less money, and beer drinkers like me get screwed.

7. I want government to leave me alone. I don't want someone telling me how to live my life, or criticizing my religion or my beliefs.

4/23 Articles.

EMK — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:11:23 EDT

Border Fence

Virtual fence scrapped.

Patreus

I'm not military, but Petraeus is now the Chief of Central Command (Cencom). What does that mean?

Pay Discrimination

Senate may consider unequal pay bill

Globalization

This is an interesting take on it, factoring the underground economy, but I wouldn't consider it the sole contributing factor: Globalization’s Aftershocks.

EMK

Country of Origin

Corrie — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:34:47 EDT

I just posted my first blog a few minutes ago and left something out that I believe makes me somewhat unique, with a different viewpoint from some. My family immigrated to this great country, The United States of America in 1957. I was 9 years old and we came from the Netherlands. My father wanted a better life for his children and he viewed this country as the greatest country on earth. He had fought side by side with American GI's during WWII in the Dutch underground and fell in love with Americans.

He saw all of his 3 children achieve much more than they could have in Holland and we are all very happy living in the USA.

I see the present administration taking away all of the benefits I had as a child to achieve my goals and even surpass them. I would like to bring this country back to the days where anything was possible for my daughter, her husband and my grandchildren. Hillary Clinton will keep the status quo, which will only continue to limit opportunities. Barack Obama will work to ensure that there are opportunities for all Americans, especially African Americans, who helped build this country and have had short shrift for many, many years. Yes, women have also been discriminated against, but we had a better shot than our AA counterparts.

Mortgage Foreclosure and Involuntary Fatherlessness, and Immigration too!

SteveW, Ohio — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:54:27 EDT

Senator Obama has made statements about the mortgage crisis, and about the fatherlessness crisis. I'm here to show that there is a causal link between the two issues.

I need to start with a supposition, which I infer from data I will present below. I hate supposition, but it is necessary here. I propose that if one would examine the demographics of WHO is losing their homes to foreclosure, they would find that the majority are members of one of two groups: single parents with children, and rental property owners whose tenants are struggling noncustodial parents. A third group, elderly widows and widowers on fixed incomes, is important but not a part of the causal linkage I'm describing here. Also, many elderly surviving spouses live in homes which have already been paid off, with no mortgage to foreclose.

Dr. Allan Carlson reports in "Fractured Generations", that since about 1960, the U.S. population has grown by about 25%, while in the same period, the number of U.S. housing units has grown by 65% This forces the conclusion that we are living fewer to a household than ever before. I believe this is a result of the steady rise in divorce rates since the 1960's, because every divorce ends with the former spouses occupying two homes when they formerly occupied one. So, one symptom of the rise in divorce rates has been an artificial increase in demand for housing, which has artificially raised housing prices and motivated builders to construct additional homes.

The problem is that this increase is unsustainable. If we continue building homes at a rate greater than we produce people to fill them, eventually we will have more than one home for every man, woman and child. We can not afford to construct, furnish, equip, maintain, energize and pay taxes on that many homes. Even now, when a two-income family living in one home, becomes a one-income single parent household and a one-income tenant in a rental home, the housing cost for that family is increased compared to when they were married. Even when their incomes are stable, they will have less disposable income than before, and less ability to participate in the retail/commercial economy.

If the divorce is for cause, as when one spouse violates a DV or child abuse law, the perpetrator should reside in prison instead of a rental home, but this incurs an additional burden on taxpayers and still leaves the single mother with one income to support the entire home. A living wage for prison labor, garnisheed for incarceration cost and family support, would alleviate this component of the problem.

But most divorces are "no-fault". This means that the defendant spouse has done nothing illegal and nothing to necessitate a divorce (at least, no charges have been filed, no allegations proven, and no criminal punishments will be enforced). It also means that the defendant has done nothing that would justify government interference with their parent-child relationships. Unfortunately, our family law does not honor the meaning of "no-fault", it does not protect the parental rights of the no-fault defendant. Instead, it presumes that the defendant must have done something to make the plaintiff want a divorce, and it interprets the plaintiff's no-fault petition as a request to push the defendant out of the family and away from the kids.

Here's the thing: People do whatever they do because they believe they will receive a benefit as compared with doing nothing. People marry for security. But marriage is an uncertain enterprise, as we are reminded in the vow: 'for better or worse..' In an uncertain economy, with housing cost (and all the rest) increasing, while real wages and job security decline, the risk of being married to a laid off or wage stagnant spouse begins to outweigh the security of marriage. In this scenario, the frightened spouse begins to be attracted to the security promised by the government issued child support check. To obtain that security, the spouse must file a divorce. So, now, people are filing divorces for security. Specifically, they're choosing an absolute guarantee of a little security, over a declining chance of more security, and when they do, they are contributing to the economic decline that frightened them in the first place.

My point here is simple and undeniable - every divorce is initiated by someone who chooses to file, and everybody who chooses to do anything does so with the expectation that their action will improve their own situation in some way. Imagine this conversation: Judge - 'Why did you file this divorce?', Plaintiff - 'I really want to be forced to move from my home, hardly ever see my kids, and find a way to maintain a new home with 80% of my current take-home pay.' How often could that conversation happen? Plaintiff parents file divorces when they have an expectation of sole custody and a desire to secure a child support claim from their spouse. If the no-fault petition were interpreted as a request to leave the family and pay support, the expectation of sole custody and the monetary incentive for divorce would disappear.

One way to reduce the monetary incentive for divorce, would be to modify 42 U.S.C. 658a to reward states that demonstrate equality in parenting time and custody orders. The Senate Finance Committee has 10 pages of testimony from me regarding S.1626, where I describe exactly how I would change 658a to achieve this effect.

Of course, if the present divorce incentives end, and divorce rates begin to fall, and the number of two parent households starts to increase, we'll see an increase in the number of vacant homes and a further decrease in housing prices. The economic efficiency of two-income homes will insulate those families from this effect, but we'll still have the problem of a housing surplus and low housing values. But within this problem lies an opportunity. Low housing costs is a benefit from the perspective of a prospective immigrant. One of the complaints about migrant labor is that the workers are transient - they export their paychecks to their families back home, and they do not make the "Investment in America" that characterized our past, successful assimilation of millions of immigrants. The affordable housing made available by the reduction of divorce rates will empower immigrants to make that investment, bring their families, and become part of our unique and diverse American culture.

Senator Obama, can we do this?

Road To Citizenship

Nickie — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:23:31 EDT

My family has been having a debate about illegal immigration, and my husband said something that startled us all. Now our conversation has been centering around a debate that I thought I shoulkd bring here, and get more input on.

Everyone agrees that there are two major problems in America, one is illegal immigration and the other is that recruitment in the military is down and we are overstretched.

The debate we are having is why not link a path to citizenship through the path of service?

Obama already believes that we should make a path for citizenship, and he has already said that young people should serve this country if they take advantage of college tuition help. WHy not give young illegal immigrants a path to citizenship through service as well?

What are your thoughts. We have already discussed it in our house and come up with a list of pros and cons to it, but we our conclusions may be different than yours.

One way to reduce illegal immigration immediately.

Gaylord from Camarillo, CA — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:29:40 EDT

Yes, I have the deepest compassion for anyone born in a less prosperous country. But I cannot adopt them.

When this country was formed, it was important to declare any new child a citizen of the U.S. to avoid any confusion with British or European jurisdiction. But that threat is gone and has been for a long time. It is foolish for us to grant citizenship automatically to children born here, regardless of their parent's legitimacy in being here. This is foolish, expensive, and one of the main reasons people break the law to get here.

Let us pass a law "protecting the citizenship" of any child born in the United States so that the child assumes the citizenship of his mother.

And let's do it now.

The Charlotte Observer: Obama on Immigration

Jenny U. — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:14:14 EDT

Senator Obama's immigration op-ed ran today in the Charlotte Observer:

Obama: Enforce tighter border, employer verifications

One of my fundamental beliefs is that for too long we have had a politics of division and distraction in Washington that's stopped us from coming together to bring about real change. There are few better examples of how broken our politics has become than the immigration debate. Just last summer, we saw comprehensive reform fail in part because of bitter partisanship.
While I understand the passions -- and legitimate differences -- on both sides of this difficult issue, we must restore civility and reason to the conversation. The longer we go without comprehensive reform, the more pronounced this problem will become.
We must find common ground and take action on the two central issues that lie at the heart of this debate -- and we cannot effectively address one without addressing the other at the same time.
First, we must reinforce our borders to deter the more than 2,000 immigrants who cross them illegally each day. Most of these aspiring laborers risk death in the desert to come here illegally, and they are diverting our attention from those trying to enter to do us harm.
Strengthening the border requires equipping Customs and Border Protection agents with better technology and real-time intelligence, improving infrastructure, and making smart choices about where patrols should be deployed.
We also have to ensure that employers are hiring only legal workers. That's why I've worked with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and Democratic Sen. Max Baucus to make it significantly more difficult -- if not impossible -- for employers to hire workers who are here illegally, including the more than 40 percent who came legally and overstayed their visa.
This will require a mandatory electronic system that enables employers to verify the legal status of their employees within days of hiring them.
Second, we must require the 12 million undocumented immigrants who are already here, including more than 300,000 in North Carolina, to step out of the shadows and onto a path that includes the ability to earn citizenship by demonstrating a sound character, a commitment to America, and a strong work ethic.
We have to understand that many immigrants want to get right with the law. They work in their communities, pay taxes, and have become an integral part of our society.
While it's unrealistic to deport them, illegal entry cannot go unpunished. That's why we must require them to pay a fine, learn English, and get to the back of the line for citizenship behind those who came here legally.
We are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, and we must reconcile those traditions. It's time to move beyond our broken politics and achieve real progress on immigration reform, not just for the sake of passing a bill, and not as a favor to immigrants, but so that we can finally address the concerns of the American people, and make real the hopes of all those who want nothing more than a chance at the American Dream.

Articles to note: 4/10.

EMK — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:17:59 EDT

Take note:

U.S. military trainiers to head to Pakistan: we have a lot of stuff going, now Pakistan?

Did CDC cave to pressure over toxic dust: just take a look at the story. It shouldn't be a matter of jobs vs. the health of the citizens.

Is Arizona law sending business south: Frankly, this is debatable, but I recommend reading this blog and debating that for yourselves.

Senate passes bill to ease housing crisis: Actually the House is likely to not pass the same version, probably as Sen. Dodd says, “Quite candidly, what we’ve done does not quite live up to the title...We have more work to do. We do not do enough in preventing more foreclosures in the country.”

EMK

I wonder if this was the intention of NAFTA...Debate thread.

EMK — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:35:13 EDT

Well in my blog, China's Investments, Columbia, and the economy: Debate and Discussion Thread, I mentioned:

Now, President Bush is pressing Congress to pass a "free" trade deal with Columbia, and here is what my argument was against NAFTA:
If workers can't get a decent job with a decent wage, imports won't be affordable in a bad economy. Youngstown [OH] is in bad shape, and that impacts Miami because if the people of Youngstown cannot afford to live since they cannot work, eventually, the people of Miami will be affected because they won't have as many imports to bring in, affecting their local economy. So what if we are in a global economy if the country cannot support itself and its citizens?

...NAFTA is not "free" trade at all.
I might not know all about this new deal with Columbia, but if it follows the lines of NAFTA, it's only going to get worse.
Going out on a limb here, but like Mexico, Columbians might be immigrating here, legally or illegally, maybe for the same reasons as Mexicans; but, that's up for you to debate.

Now, if you click on the word "illegally," you will be taken to a video link on CBS's first of a series called "Immigration Nation." (If the video link doesn't work, check out the article, here).

The second part of Immigration Nation focuses on the border fence, which to me is a bad idea. I recommend reading the articles on Immigration Fence: Articles from MSNBC...Debate invited... and to add, the border fence reminds me of Gaza's border fence.

Now does that mean I am in support of illegal immigration? No, but I think that NAFTA is more of a factor with illegal immigration, and I wonder if what happened with part three is partly what NAFTA was intending.

Now, it could be a bit of a stretch, but a lot of arguments for and against illegal immigration include the border fence due to some of the illegal immigrants are here to work. I believe that one of the contibuting factors is NAFTA, as the articles summarizing the impacts for the U.S. and Mexico, and as with part three of Immigration Nation, talks about how some farmers are are moving some of their businesses to Mexico. Though it may be helping the Mexican economy, it is a net loss for the U.S. as a loss in jobs and markets, mainly because it is a "rebalancing[sic]" between the U.S. and Mexico. However, rejecting NAFTA and negotiating trade deals with Mexico (and Canada) inidvidually would be better for all countries in order for all of them to have the best possible economy without creating a "rebalancing[sic]" but rather, an increase in the individual economies without sacrificing one anothers.

Questions? Comments? Criticisms?

"The society's degradation relies/ not on our differences/ but the separation within."

--Linkin Park, "Frgt/10"

EMK

CNN/MSNBC/Newsweek: Edwards, HRC taxes, and Environmentalists against the Fence: 4/4.

EMK — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:21:58 EDT

Just a some news links from around.

Edwards:

No VP for me: MSNBC.

HRC Taxes:

CNN and MSNBC report of HRC revealing her taxes. MSNBC's has links to the 2000-2007 tax returns: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, & 2007. CNN's has a repost of the announcement. (Also, look at the first comment.) Newsweek's article is about interpreting the returns.

If you're curious about Obama's taxes, MSNBC has them here.

HRC's Popular Vote:

Newsweek: The Popular Vote Fallacy.

Environmentalists and the Border Fence:

Newsweek: Parry and Thrust.

Immigration Fence: Articles from MSNBC...Debate invited...

EMK — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:41:01 EDT

I'm not sure this fence will make the U.S. good neighbors with Mexico, and they are sidestepping federal laws to do it: Waivers will be used to speed up border fence; Move will get around levee barrier and environmentally sensitive areas.

Homeowners are being sent to court over the matter: Border fence cases in three states head to court; Deadline for landowners passes; feds now shifting fight to court cases.

EMK