Immigration Rallies In 100 Cities Today

It's my understanding there was a massive demonstration of over a million people in TX today - it' was on BBC's news tonight on PBS. I forget which city, maybe Houston? There were aerial shots of masses and masses of people for many blocks.

But with neoCons wanting to make illegal immigrants felons, that explains why Halliburton has an open-ended $385 Billion dollar contract to build concentration camps in California.... They're very sure their legislation is going to pass, aren't they?

And, no, I don't believe illegal immigrants should be labeled felons or imprisoned. I'm not sure what the answer should be; I'm just sure that making illegal immigrants felons and imprisoning them (not much different from being imprisoned at Gitmo or elsewhere) is not a good thing. Legislators need to go back to the drawing board and figure out something else.

Sorry for the repost from the last thread, but I didn't notice the thread had changed:

Posted by: James/DiAnne at April 9, 2006 11:43 PM

And those countries that think The Cretin is more dangerous than Al Quaida or Iran are right.

So, when will our Clueless Congress wake up... and impeach the bam dastards?

I'm sending that link to my rep & Dem senator, too.

Yeah, I know. If DumDum is impeached, that leaves Dead-Eye Dick. But there's a possibility Dickie could be charged with outing Plame (a federal offense) and forced to resign (and wouldn't it be jolly if DumDum was charged and forced to resign, too?), and if the Speaker of the House got the job, he would be basically ineffective as a replacement lame duck until a new president can be inaugurated. And, there's a chance Dems could take control of the Senate and the House in '06, which could render a neoCon ineffective as president. Hopefully, the elections won't be rigged....

I can deal with turmoil in our government for the next two years as long as Congress does SOMETHING - ANYTHING - to get rid of those two menaces in charge right now (and stop the stupid wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our Guard and Reserve troops home ASAP, and redeploy our regular troops somewhere safe immediately after that, etc.)!!!

This is a repost of Bert's diary on Kos, because it's relevant to the topic & I forgot to mention that the photos he took are great.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/9/22581/90397

When PattiF called, she told me we had a big rally going on here tomorrow (Seattle) so I'll check the link, as I'm off.

You know, sometimes the circumstances of our past come up in conversation? Well I just saw "Brokeback Mountain," filmed in Wyoming and supposed to be in the early '60s. Well it reminded me so much of western South Dakota when I was a kid, but the strange part is that it doesn't seem to have changed that much.

NonnyO
Check this out - look at the style - the tv screens, the newspapers. It's so graphic. Look at the provocative title. This article has everything.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/10/1936/74217

Posted by: DiAnne at April 10, 2006 03:07 AM

I wish, I wish, with all my might
To see more headlines come to light.

The deadly deeds of the far right
Prove to us their might's not right.

So on the evil shine a light
And prove again that right makes might.
~~~~~

Thus endeth my poor attempt at poetry for the first time in many years (so okay, I borrowed heavily from echoes of Camelot). I want the criminals out of office so badly (sooner rather than later) it's a visceral feeling deep within.... Lady Justice needs to take her blindfold off and see the evil so she can react soon and save us from the destruction that is sure to follow if DumDum and his evil crew are left in office. They are evil personified, and we all know it.

If we are very, very, very lucky, Lamestream Media (TV) will get the hint and follow suit, and there will be a new poll out sometime this week with even lower ratings to splash all over the TV screens.... Keep in mind, I'm not holding my breath, because I think some meaningless diversionary tactic or event will be manufactured to catch Lamestream Media's nanosecond attention span and they'll spin off on something totally irrelevant to what we need to hear and see on TV.

Revision:

I wish, I wish, with all my might
To see more headlines come to light.

The deadly deeds of the far right
Prove to us their might's not right.

So on their evil shine a light
And prove again that right makes might.

(That's what I get for writing a lame little poem in five minutes without editing....)

Migrant issues divide Latinos

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0410stance0410.html

[snip]
But Camarota at the Center for Immigration Studies said Latinos with the strongest views against undocumented immigrants tend to be those who directly compete with them in the job market, or live in neighborhoods with large numbers of immigrants.

In some Phoenix neighborhoods, recent Latino immigrants have clashed with longtime Hispanic residents over lifestyles and education and housing opportunities. In some cases, city officials have been asked to mediate disagreements or enforce neighborhood ordinances.

A tipping point in Phoenix streets

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0410mon1-10.html
[snip]
Latinos vote in smaller proportions than their numbers would project. While active in starting businesses, there is less interest in civic associations and public affairs.

Phoenix political pollster Earl de Berge is among those who suspect the rallies are a tipping point in the mobilization of Hispanics as a political force.

For years, undocumented immigrants have existed on the periphery of American life. They work. They spend. But they shy away from real engagement.

Now, across America, the immigrant community has decided to come out from the shadows, perhaps putting some of those who are undocumented at risk. Indeed, one teenager, a student at Trevor Browne High School in west Phoenix, walked out of school two weeks ago, got arrested and now fears deportation.
---------------------------------------------

The Senate immigration Bill problem
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0410immig-congress0410.html
[snip]
But Sen. John Kerry said a majority of senators had reached an agreement on the immigration bill and, by common Senate practice, had agreed not to consider outside amendments that would change that agreement.

"Senator Frist and the Republicans were unable to hold their part of the agreement," Kerry, D-Mass., told NBC's Meet the Press. He blamed the Republicans' "own internal squabble" for the Senate not passing an immigration bill.

Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State

Book Description
These thirteen essays, organized under the headings of Christianity and War, The Evils of War, Specific Wars, and The U.S. Global Empire, have one underlying theme: opposition to the warfare state that robs us of our liberty, our money, and in some cases our life. Although many of these essays reference contemporary events, the principles discussed in all of them are timeless: war, militarism, empire, interventionism, the warfare state, and the Christian attitude toward these things. It is the author’s contention that Christian enthusiasm for the state, its wars, and its politicians is an affront to the Saviour, contrary to Scripture, and a demonstration of the profound ignorance many Christians have of history.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0976344807/002-6628627-8751211?n=283155

Jon Talton, AZ Republic business writer on conservativism..
http://www.azcentral.com/business/columns/articles/0409talton09.html
[snip]
Most conservative politicians enthusiastically supported globalization, deregulation and merger mania. This entailed major shifts, in some cases abandoning decades of successful policies. In every case, conservative think tanks produced what appeared to be impressive research promising handsome payoffs for all.

Yet it is a central tenet of conservatism that there are no panaceas, only trade-offs. As it became clear that some of the tradeoffs were painful indeed, it didn't matter. The successful conservative political machine, including the think tanks, had been financed by big business profiting from this brave new "hyper capitalism."
-------------------------------------------------

Talton again on layoff myths

http://www.azcentral.com/business/columns/articles/0406biz-talton0406.html
[snip]
What changed? Foreign competition and a new merger-driven paradigm on Wall Street that demands ever-higher growth rates are big reasons. So, too, are deregulation, the decline of unions and recent trade-liberalization deals.

Uchitelle says we accept the turmoil because of three myths: that they're necessary to make companies more competitive; that the laid-off themselves are to blame if they can't recover; and that "the pros and cons of layoffs are entirely measurable in dollars and cents."

Indeed, 30 years after mass layoffs began in America, the evidence is abundant that they don't necessarily help companies, while retraining has severe limitations. And the damage to communities and individuals is severe.
------------------------------------------------
Talton on immigration

http://www.azcentral.com/business/columns/articles/0330biz-talton0330.html
[snip]
Twelve million undocumented immigrants didn't put a gun to our heads and demand work. They came at the ongoing invitation of an American economy addicted to cheap labor, the workers often paid below minimum wage and with no benefits or protections. (Talk about shameful, Mr. Mayor.)

Unfortunately, many don't want to connect the inexpensive prices they enjoy on a range of products and services to this huge undocumented workforce.

Here is a story which takes us back to the roots of the DCP and its mission and it incorporates a major to-do list for those who choose to take up the challenge.

It's from John Gideon, founder of votersunite.org and leader of votetrustusa.org, published on Bradblog...

E-VOTING 2006: The Approaching Train Wreck
Our Elections are Now Officially 'A National Disaster in the Making'

Today I am going to use this space to talk about what I see as the beginning of a disaster in the making with our elections. This isn't the election fraud that some point to when they talk about the vendors and some elections officials. It's not about recounts or audits. This is a real, get your hands around it, happening problem that will disrupt our election process if we do not do something about it now. While we have been involved in all of our issues about Direct Recording Electronic (DRE or "touch-screen") voting machines or paper ballots the electronic voting machine vendors have been wreaking complete havoc across the country.
~snip~
So far this year two states have conducted primary elections. In Texas there is at least one candidate who has stepped forward and has challenged the election because of anomalies in vote counts and known voting machine failures. One county's machines counted some votes up to 6 times which resulted in approximately 100,000 more votes being counted than were cast. Though the vendor, Hart Intercivic, initially blamed the problem on human error, they finally had to admit that it was a programming error and not poll workers or voters who had erred. In Illinois some county officials are threatening to withhold final payment of funds on contracts with Sequoia Voting Systems because of failures with their machines that ended with results in the primary not being known for over a week after the voters went to the polls. In both states the involved vendors were very successful in the media with deflecting the blame from their machines to "human errors" or "glitches". However, when you listen to people who were there and who saw and worked through the problems you get a very different picture...

As these primaries were being conducted Summit County Ohio announced that over 70% of the memory cards for their precinct based optical-scan machines would not work. The vendor, ES&S, announced that their memory card contractor had made mistakes on some cards and they would be replaced. Memory cards for electronic voting machines store vote tabulations amongst other things.

Apparently ES&S does not consider 'Quality Control' to be a worthwhile corporate value because they never bothered to check those cards. They replaced the bad cards and 20% of those cards failed. Now, this week, the newest batch of cards were delivered after being tested twice by ES&S. They were tested by the county who found that 4% of those cards failed. In the meantime all 1000 memory cards delivered to the state of North Carolina were replaced because of a large percentage of failures. There is no report, yet, of how many of the 1000 memory cards are bad and will need replacement except that local counties still have not received their cards.

Meanwhile early voting began in Indiana and Nebraska. 69 of the 93 counties in Nebraska have no paper ballots from their vendor, ES&S, and no ballot programming for their voting machines. 11 counties in Indiana have the same problems and they are threatening lawsuits. Prebel County Ohio reported they had not gotten their paper ballots. On March 29 the Texas Secretary of State sent an urgent memorandum to all county clerks, elections administrators and county chairs noting that many officials had not received electronic programming or paper ballots for primary runoff elections to be held on April 11.
~snip~
What is reported above is only what has been in the media. We now have reports from Nevada County, California that ES&S has missed its deadline for delivery of paper ballots to the county. They were due to be delivered on April 6. On April 7 the county registrar received Democratic ballots only and those were filled with errors and will need to be returned to ES&S. The county also has not had their ballot programming done, as promised.

In Wake County, North Carolina they have 218, just tested, ES&S M-100 precinct based optical-scan machines. ES&S acceptance tested the 218 machines to their standards and failed 11 of those machines. The remaining 207 machines were delivered to a county contractor, InfoSentry, who tested those machines and failed 5. ES&S then delivered 11 machines to replace the machines they had failed and InfoSentry failed 2 of those. This represents a 7.8% failure rate or 18 failures out of 229 machines received. Where is the quality control?

Why is this happening? It is very apparent that some of the voting machine vendors over-extended their ability to meet their contracts for machines and for ancillary services like paper ballot printing. These companies saw an opportunity to make a lot of money at the expense of the tax payers and they saw a deadline of 1 January 2006 that fit right in with their plans to get as much money as possible this year. The vendors are raking in the money through deceptive practices and shoddy workmanship.
~snip~

[And here's the part that you can do to follow up.]

This issue has nothing to do with security of voting machines or accuracy or voter verified paper ballots or some vendor CEO having ties to a political party. It is just about contractors who are out to grab every dollar they can get and they don't seem to care that our elections are going to suffer for their actions or inactions. And imagine, this is only the first year. Counties have HAVA funds to spend this year. What happens next year when those counties get the bills for technical assistance, ballot printing, maintenance, ballot programming, and machine storage? ES&S certainly doesn't care about that. They show that every day.

I often get asked, "What can I do?" Well, the time for action is now. Pass this article on to your local, state and federal elected officials and ask them to do a little reading of the media reports included in this article. They are far from being the only articles on this subject. Ask them how they are going to handle these problems when it comes time for their primaries. Don't let them tell you it won't happen there because it very easily can happen there or here or the next state over. We, you and I, need to take action on this now for the sake of our elections. We are headed for a train wreck.

The entire article is here...
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002673.htm

Posted by: dwahzon at April 10, 2006 08:54 AM

Along with that, check out this diary on Kos about how the Dem candidate for Attorney General in TX is going to declare electronic voting unconstitutional...

Texas has a suffrage amendment in it's constitution.

"In all elections by the people, the vote shall be by ballot, and the Legislature shall provide for the numbering of tickets and make such other regulations as may be necessary to detect and punish fraud and preserve the purity of the ballot box; and the Legislature shall provide by law for the registration of all voters. (Amended Aug. 11, 1891, and Nov. 8, 1966.)"

Paperless voting cannot fill these requirements. Where is the ballot, where is the numbering, where is the ballot box, and how does paperless voting fulfill these requirements?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/10/8312/41314

Also note the problems are with paper ballots and memory cards for optical sensor machines.
I think the hope is to foul up the voting process so bad that paper-less machines are the only ones left.
As I have said many times, OS devices are very simple and have been in place for over 40 years.
The newer ones have memory storage capability but there is still a paper trail.

30,000 marched for immigration rights in St. Paul, MN on Sunday.

Started at the Cathedral and went to the Capitol. They all had signs that said "I love America."

They'll build this country for the next century, just like the last batch of immigrants built it for the last one.

And they know how to march, too:)

Victoria Ellen
Here is Bert's diary about the St. Paul rally

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/9/22581/90397

He took the pictures there.

Dwahzon
Thanks for the wakeup call about voting.
We need to keep this on the front burner.

NonnyO
I LIKED you poem!!!

It is the author’s contention that Christian enthusiasm for the state, its wars, and its politicians is an affront to the Saviour, contrary to Scripture, and a demonstration of the profound ignorance many Christians have of history.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0976344807/002-6628627-8751211?n=283155

Posted by: monkey at April 10, 2006 07:54 AM

Yes it is contrary to scripture, and is a demonstration also of the profound ignorance many Christians have of scripture as well as history. The scriptures in the Christian bible tell a message of love, kindness, helps, gentleness, meekness, and non-violence. And, as Matthew Carnicelli pointed out yesterday on this blog, were never meant to control people or be political.

Thanks for the link, DiAnne:) Great shots!