Health Care Is A Right!

Puerto Rico Leads The Way for Immigration Reform

SAN JUAN, PR – Where President Obama has not be able, nor has the US Congress willing, the US territory of Puerto Rico did what the federal elected officials promise and don't do: reform immigration, step by step.

The first step was to allow immigrants to take the driver's license test, both written and road, and if they pass, they get the licence. Whether they have a legal status to be in Puerto Rico, which is to say, to be on United States land, is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is whether they know how to drive.

Puerto Rico is home to immigrants from around the world, mostly from the Caribbean, mostly from the Dominican Republic. In Barrio Obrero in San Juan, where a thriving Dominican community has be living for decades, there were celebrations.

Official representatives from the Dominican Republic and Panamá lauded the news, made reality by the swift pen of Gov. Alejandro García Padilla.

Noticel has the complete story here.

FOTO BY JEAN MARTINEZ FOR NOTICEL

Spanish as a Voting Language

GOP presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney agreed that ballots should be available only in English, a position that goes against the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The law, passed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, dismantled many of the obstacles that intentionally impeded blacks and other disenfranchised communities from voting. It was sweeping in its intent and enforcement. Today, according to the U.S. Census, “248 jurisdictions across the nation that must provide language assistance during elections for groups who are unable to speak or understand English adequately enough to participate in the electoral process.”

And yet, both Gingrich and Romney are in the lead for the GOP nomination, and just as bad, corporate media characterizes them as people to be taken seriously. Recent examples of their dim witted ideas:

• Last week Gingrich served up the insane idea to colonize the moon and then convert it into the 51st state. The District of Colombia, with more than 600,000 residents, have been clamoring for statehood for decades to no avail. And they host Congress, the White House and K Street lobbyists. And it is the capitol of the country.
• Romney pushed for a “self-deportation”plan for people with visas.

 

No wonder real estate tycoon, TV personality and Rosie O’Donnell hater Donald Trump thought he made perfect sense when he opted to run for the presidency. Any lunatic with money can.

The good news is that come election time, voters will go with President Obama again. Hopefully.

Technorati Tags: President Barack Obama,Newt Gingrich,Mitt Romney,colonize the moon,self-deportation,DC statehood,1965 Voting Rights Act,President Lyndon B. Johnson,Spanish,English as the official language

Romney’s Millions and Obama’s Law

 

Corporate and even independent media outlets have been leading the national conversation on GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s vast wealth. What no one points out is that Romney’s millions is a cornerstone of the American Dream pitch, where all one has to do is work hard in dogged pursuit of wealth and happiness becomes a constant in your life.

Romney has not broken any law nor twisted any IRS regulation to benefit himself to the tune of a $20 million annual payout derived from his investments.

But it is so much easier and pleasing to blow all out of proportion Romney’s wealth and leave Warren Buffet, Bill Gate  and the canonized Steve Jobs plus the rest of Fortune 500’s top billionaires and millionaires alone. Romney’s a Mormon, a Republican and apparently, unAmerican for having achieved the American Dream.

The public discourse on the leading GOP presidential candidates is locked on the least important aspects of a candidate – his wealth as a barometer of his ability to “relate”to the common people. It matters little how much Romney has in his bank accounts, offshore or at home. Just as it mattered little, if at all, John Kennedy’s trust fund built on his father’s talent for bootlegging in Prohibition. Millionaires and billionaires and trust fund babies have no way of knowing what common people’s lives are like. But that doesn’t mean we need a presidential candidate to experience losing a home, not have health insurance, choose between medicine and food in order to come up bright ideas on how to make policies to improve people’s lives and chances.

Now all this sounds like a defense of Mitt Romney. It is not. I do not agree with his current views on just about everything he says. But if I want to push for intelligent debates, then I am obligated to call out dangerously foolish media tactics aimed at demonizing a man for his millions. Instead, I want the media to get specifics from him and others in the GOP camp – and from President Obama – on HOW their policies will create permanent jobs with living wages.

Jobs, jobs, jobs. There are about 30 million underemployed or unemployed people in the United States as a result of George W. Bush’s ludicrous presidency and a out-of-control, unregulated Wall Street that triggered a global crisis.

Romney’s millions don’t matter to us anymore than Tom Brady’s $20 million or Steve Jobs’s $8 billion.

What does matter is thoughtful debates that force candidates to be specific about how they will create jobs and address the other pressing issues of the day.

Lacking that, then a deep look into why Obama signed a law that makes indefinite detention of anyone possible in the United States.

According to American Civil Liberties Union, “"The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.”

Why is it that so many liberals want to ignore this in favor of pouncing Romney’s wealth?

Read full text of Obama’s justification for the signing the law here.

Technorati Tags: President Barack Obama,Mitt Romney,GOP,wealth,billionaires,millionaires,White House,presidential debate,corporate media,independent media

Next Time, Come Back as President

Today, President Barack Obama returns to Puerto Rico as a candidate to raise money, starting at $35,000 a ticket, for his next presidential campaign.
Despite the brazen pretense of coming here to check on issues related to education and the economy –  and presumably to fulfill his campaign promise to return as president – there is still a chance for Obama to display presidential leadership.
Obama owes Puerto Rico serious consideration from the president its stateside compatriots helped elect in 2008.
There’s no doubt running a presidential campaign is prohibitively expensive – conventional wisdom says candidates must raise about $1 billion. Obama’s visit, while necessary for his campaign, could also have been beneficial to his presidency. He is, at heart, a teacher, and our firestorm status debates would welcome his gift of tempered leadership. If his presidency would actively address inequities in the relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S.,  Obama could have a major geopolitical victory in the Western Hemisphere.
His White House Task Force on Puerto Rico erred in its recent recommendation that Puerto Rico hold a status referendum in 2012. Obama could slow down the process to broaden informed participation.
In a future visit, the president could be the keynote speaker at a summit organized by his non-partisan task force and centered on the different status options. It could be one of several summits held across the island over the course of the next two or three years to ensure ample debate and participation.
Right now, partisan media outlets, mostly ruled by families and businesses who share a curious love of statehood, can’t sort out the complex nature of the U.S.–Puerto Rico relationship without calling it a “problem” or a vestige of colonialism.
The political status of Puerto Rico deserves more than instant gratification politics and tired, antagonizing buzzwords uttered by fear-mongering politicos.  We deserve thoughtfulness. This is us that we are talking about, the us that includes not just those to come but also those who came before.
No one should be shoved out of the process. The pro-independence movement isn’t any less worthy because of its small size anymore than the large pro-statehood or pro-commonwealth movements. Countries such as Spain value a multi-party system that relies on coalitions to advance its desire for progress.
History is a great teacher but for generations, Puerto Ricans have not had the privilege of being students of Puerto Rican history. In public schools, Puerto Rican history is an elective that competes with the much-enjoyed study hall hour. Yet students must take U.S. history. How can we vote on our future when we don’t know our past?
Obama could direct his Puerto Rico Task Force to nudge the Puerto Rico Education Department, despite its allegiance to the pro-statehood party, to include Puerto Rican history in the public school curriculum.
The president knows that thoughtfulness is the harvest of a good education, that it is through healthy debates in which ideas are rigorously tested that we can arrive at a vote of consequence.
Puerto Rico is vastly poorer than it was two years ago when Obama first visited to raise money for his campaign. Violent crime has expanded far outside the realm of narco-trafficking circles and crept out from under the cover of night. Prized cultural institutions have been decimated by a governor intent on disappearing Puerto Ricanness. Public education is in ruins. The incompetent health system forces sick people to wait hours for a regular office visit. The show-stopping ineptitude of the Legislature, which rivals children fighting in a sandbox over the fire truck, is a disgrace to those who fought hard build to a democracy, however still imperfect.
This is not the right environment to debate political status; Puerto Ricans are busy just trying to survive the day.
Hopefully, Obama will return again, this time solely as a president, to help lead Puerto Rico into a thoughtful debate about political status.

Obama's promise to Puerto Rico imperils Puerto Rico

The White House Task Force on Puerto Rico released its list of recommendations for what to do about Puerto Rico today, proving once again that Puerto Rico remains a mystery to Washington, DC.

In October of 2009, President Obama signed an Executive Order updating and broadening the functions of the Task Force to not only examine and report on the status question, but to also focus on matters affecting Puerto Rico’s economic development, and provide advice and recommendations to the President and the Congress on policies that promote job creation, education, health care, clean energy, and economic development on the island.

Obama's commitment to helping Puerto Rico stems from a campaign promise that, while it did not win him the strangely coveted 2008 primary in Puerto Rico – Hillary Clinton won that vote overwhelmingly – was a historic first. 

For the first time, a politician acknowledged and stated on the record that Puerto Rico's special relationship with the United States was worthy of respect. It was a love letter, and he is fulfilling his promise.

In fact, the White House Task Force on Puerto Rico wants to hold at least two referendums on the island for voters there to choose which status they prefer: statehood, commonwealth, independence or free associated state.

Back in in February 2008, Obama the camdidate wrote: "As President I will actively engage Congress and the Puerto Rican people in promoting this deliberative, open and unbiased process, that may include a constitutional convention, or a plebiscite, and my Administration will adhere to a policy of strict neutrality on Puerto Rican status matters. My Administration will recognize all valid options to resolve the question of Puerto Rico's status, including commonwealth, statehood, and independence."

Yet, during a conference call this morning with task force members

                 Cecilia Muñoz, Task Force Co-Chair and White House Director of Intergovernmental     Affairs

                 Tom Perrelli, Task Force Co-Chair and Associate Attorney General of the United States

     Eric Waldo, Task Force Member and Deputy Chief of Staff, US Department of Education

     Judith A. Enck, Regional Administrator, Region 2 US Environmental Protection Agency

                 Laura Smith Morton, Task Force Member and Senior Advisor, Renewable Energy, Department     of Energy/EERE

in which 35 minutes were taken up by members repeating some of the 221-page report's most headline-catching points, it became clear that the report, as all previous White House reports, is thin on substance and thick on grand ideas and recommendations that have no teeth. There is no regulation, law, executive order – and, given Obama's record thus far on controversial initiatives – no power of persuasion to implement any of the recommendations.

And at least one fundamental piece is missing from the report.

The report implies there is an urgency to hold a referendum on Puerto Rico's status before the end of 2012. But doesn't state why.

And it doesn't address the lack of access to impartial information that is a conerstone of any democratic process.

There are no mechanisms in place to ensure that voters on the island have complete and equal access to objective information regarding the status vote.

Puerto Rico's public education system, the third largest within the United States, has been systematically dismantled by successive administrations intent on gaining statehood for the island by encouraging more than half of the 650,000 students to drop out of school before graduation day. Their theory is, the more people don't know, the more likely they will vote for statehood.

It is a Caribbean version of the Tea Party in the U.S. Mass ignorance is bliss for vested interests.

As if not allowing enough time for the public education system to return to being one of the best in Latin America weren't enough, Puerto Rico is also littered with partisan media outlets, almost pro-statehood, that have contributed to the situation the island faces today. It's not just pundits in Puerto Rico who influence public sentiment – it is also the type of stories and how they are presented that sways voters one way or another.

In sum, we have a situation where Obama is rushing for island Puerto Ricans to vote on an important issue that will affect future generations in a context where people are poorly educated and misinformed by partisan media outlets.

This is a bad promise to keep, Mr. President.

 Before putting issues on the table to vote on, people need education. Otherwise, it will be just another episode of "Survivor"  mixed in with "American Idol." 

On immigration, nothing new

By Natalia Muñoz

The question to Gov. Deval Patrick was, “How do you persuade people
with other views to your side so that in the end, undocumented
immigrants have the tools they need to get on with their lives?”
For instance, a driver’s license, an ID that can mark the difference
between a traffic violation ticket and deportation, remains an
untenable proposal for most Republicans while most Democrats tighten
their lips so shut it appears as if they do not have a mouth.
Patrick has tried repeatedly to show both local and federal
politicians that allowing undocumented workers to learn the rules
of the road and take the test is as much a safety issue as much as
common sense.
But many politicians equate common sense with losing an election.
They would rather keep the job they are not suited for than have
to work for a living. And in this electoral climate in which most
people do not vote, these politicians are masterful at fooling most
of the people most of the time.
What their Republican colleagues also do well is transform rational
proposals into matters of tyranny vs. democracy. And the mainstream
media, which have the budgets to research and present reality
vs. demagoguery, prefer to present insipid reality shows that
stun people into inaction, similar to how the hugely popular Jon
Stewart’s “Daily Show” and Stephen Colbert’s “Report” television
shows keep the masses laughing all the way into sleepiness.
The mainstream media opts to position a nicely groomed nincompoop
like Anderson Cooper front and center and empanel the same tired
DC insiders to deconstruct the latest round of political wrestling
until … the next nonstory is broken by another highly paid
nincompoop bureau chief somewhere.
In this miasma between Barbie mainstream media and lightweight
politicians gunning for more exposure, visionary policy makers and
expedient demagogues, Patrick chips at the path to citizenship
for the thousands of residents in Massachusetts who enrich the
commonwealth with their contributions, tax- and otherwise.
Patrick answered the question, again saying that he supports
immigration reform and wants to usher in the day when undocumented
workers can apply for a driver’s license.
But another journalist at the press conference wasn’t convinced he
is doing enough and asked Patrick why he didn’t just do it without
Republican support.
After all, she said, Utah gives drivers licenses to people who pass
the test, regardless of their immigration status or citizenship. So
do New Mexico and Washington.
Patrick, who also said the commonwealth could lose millions of
federal dollars if it allowed undocumented immigrants to apply for
licenses, was not aware of this but said he would look into it.
In the meantime, no doubt that waiting for him are a herd of court
jesters and naysayers who will delight and lead the spineless
mainstream media into a talk fest where one expert will preach

anarchy is about to takeover the country and the other will plug
his new book, a profile on a Washington, DC, player who is now a
multimillionaire and jokes with Matt Lauer on ”The Today Show.” And
Stewart and Colbert will make clever jokes.
And those of us in the ethnic media who ask Patrick again and again
about immigration reform, have nothing new to report.
Natalia Muñoz is founder and editor of LaPrensaMA.com

For George Will, A Quick Lesson on Puerto Rico

From a column by George Will that ran in the Washington Post on July 19, 2010:


"Many Republicans suspect that congressional Democrats support statehood for the same reason they want to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state -- to get two more senators (and in Puerto Rico's case, perhaps six members of the House). Such Republicans mistakenly assume that the island's population of 4 million has the same Democratic disposition as the 4.2 million Puerto Ricans in the Bronx and elsewhere on the mainland.

(Gov. Luis) Fortuno disagrees, noting that while Republicans on the mainland were losing in 2008, he was elected in the island's biggest landslide in 44 years. The party he leads won more than two-thirds of the seats in both houses of the legislature and three-fifths of the mayoralties, including that of San Juan. Fortuno, who calls himself a "values candidate" and goes to Catholic services almost every day, says that Puerto Ricans are culturally conservative -- 78 percent are pro-life, 91 percent oppose same-sex marriage and 30 percent of the 85 percent who are Christian are evangelicals. A majority supports his agenda, which includes tax and spending cuts, trimming 16,000 from public payrolls to begin eliminating the deficit that was 45 percent of the size of the budget." 


Dear George,
* Your newspaper can't even get the ñ to work in Fortuño's name.


* Fortuño won by a large majority in the 2008 Puerto Rico elections because the other contender, Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, had been hounded by the federal government on trumped up corruptions charges that resulted in A) discrediting Acevedo -- not Vilá, as many Americans wrongly assume is his surname -- B) propelling Fortuño to a position that is creating chaos in Puerto Rico.


* Acevedo Vilá was cleared of the charges, but the damage to his credibility had been done. Surely you know how influential the United States is in positioning its favored people in positions of leadership (Kharzi in Afghanistan; Saddam Hussein in Iraq until W. hung him, Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Reagan's beloved Contras in Nicaragua, etc.)


* A majority do not support his agenda. If you were truly informed by reading translations from different media sources AND respected political analysts, who are nothing like the pundit circus we see on CNN, you would know this.


* A majority of Puerto Ricans do not want statehood as you noted. Frame the questions about what they value, and a majority will tell you that they want the schools to be well-staffed, the roads paved, the garbage picked up, they want meaningful and well-paid jobs, they want politicians from all parties (pro-commonwealth -- the current status that is akin to what Spain has with Catalonia, the Basque Country, Valencia, etc.; pro-independence and pro-statehood) to be clean.


The decade of the 1990s, when pro-statehood Gov. Pedro Rossello headed the most corrupt administration in Puerto Rico's 50-years democratic history, with more than 40 close aides from his administration in prison for stealing millions of dollars from the departments such as of health, education and housing, still sets the tone in current affairs.
The current Senate President, pro-statehooder Thomas Rivera Schatz, had blocked the media from recording public hearings. His lawyer, a former Senate president also from the pro-statehood party, Charlie Rodríguez, has taken the position that because the public hearings are transmitted via public access TV, there isn't a need for other media to be present.


* Just this week, on July 18, there was march against the government repression. You must know about Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, when hardly anyone in the U.S. general population knew about the Dirty War. In Puerto Rico, a similar and worrisome growth in intolerance by the government is taking place  that people fear could lead to political violence. Hardly covered by the pro-statehood owned media, however. But


* Re: " The United States acquired Puerto Rico 112 years ago in the testosterone spill called the Spanish-American ..." How could you show such disrespect to Puerto Ricans and American soldiers? It was a war in which Puerto Rico was robbed of  its newly-gained right for autonomy from Spain. In the 100+ years that have followed, we have been subjects of American policies crafted by congressmen who by and large know nothing about Puerto Rico, much less Puerto Ricans.


* Fortuño's belief that Puerto Ricans on the island are more conservative than Puerto Ricans in the United States holds truth. Those of us who have lived here know the U.S. much better than those on the island who believe in the Hollywood version of the United States. 


* If Puerto Rican in the United States could vote for any political status, independence would win. Ironic, isn't it? But then, maybe we should be grateful that we don't have independence just yet. Not while Fortuño continues policies that recall the 1990s. Not while there is a strong chance that we could end up with a Pinochet, who, as you must know, grabbed power from Latin America's shining example of democracy on Sept. 11,  1973.


In sum, George, you are usually the best-informed analyst at the table. But this time, your sources ambushed you and your reputation is cementing half-truths. Next time you want to know about Puerto Rico, talk to some of the Puerto Rican congresspeople in DC like Reps. Nydia Velázquez of New York, Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois and even the pro-statehood José Serrano. You'll see just how complicated this is. Thank you. 

‘Immigrant’ List Sets Off Fears

"A list of 1,300 Utah residents described as illegal immigrants has sown fear among some Hispanics here, and prompted an investigation into its origins and dissemination." 

So begins a story in The New York Times about a Utah group named Concerned Citizens of the United States. The group compiled a list of names of people they suspect of being in the county without papers. Naturally, the list is filled with the names of Latinos.

My question is: Where are the political leaders banding together to condemn this hate  mongering?

President Barack Obama is pushing, FINALLY, for immigration reform. He caved into right-wing fear mongers, however, by talking up border safety as if the murders and rapes along the border were committed by people who are here without papers. He needs to educate the Fearful Minority that there's a difference between people without papers and people who are criminals. The federal government is right to go after criminals, the hardcore narco-traffickers, the murderers, the rapists, the abusers.

But to go after people who are working in misery so that their children can have opportunities denied to them as a result of US foreign policy that led to the need to emigrate here in the first place? That is criminal.

And so is allowing a group of neo-fascists gather names in the name of the United States. That's what Joseph McCarthy did in the 1950s, when he saw monstrous communists everywhere. National treasure John F. Kennedy never railed against McCarthy. Their friendship and mutual interest in power came first.  By the time McCarthy was done in by his own maddness -- he was censured by his fellow senators eventually and lost power -- many people had lost their jobs and their reputations.

This list on supposed immigrants without papers is echoes those terrifying Red Scare days. But they echo the eight years when George W. Bush was "president," when traditional media outlets failed to hold him accountable for the economic collapse, Katrina, two wars, 911.

The silence on this list from our political leaders is beyond disappointing. It is almost criminal.

 

 

Women of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart respond to criticism of sexism

Jon Stewart is an exceptionally gracious host. He and his writers spotlight the incongruities, hypocrisy, blatant lies and "isms" within the GOP as much as the Democratic Party and across all the news programs, both left-leaning and those that are right-wing.

I watch his program almost every night and most times at the very least, I chuckle. But mostly, watching his show  I feel vindicated. I feel a big "yeah!" when he skewers the traditional media talking heads and shows politicians doing what some tend to do so well - provide their own slant on the truth.

This article that appeared in the Huffington Post about allegations of sexism at "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" is a good start for a conversation for the Daily Show producers to have.

The truth is, the Daily Show targets young white men, rarely has women guests and its "correspondents" are in the vast majority white men. Just look at the commercials if you are in doubt.

To be clear, pointing out these facts is not a suggestion to get rid of the brilliant John Oliver or give the equally brilliant Samantha Bee more airtime. (From posts that are circulating regarding the issue of sexism at The Daily Show, most of the chit chatters appear to be 12 and very defensive - "the NFL is sexist," noted one most helpfully).

The Daily Show doesn't need to change a thing - it's extremely funny as is. Yet, the sexism charge applies. The women at the show issued a public letter in response to the original article, and they signed that the show is a great  place to work; they are respected, bla bla bla.

But if you look at the picture of the women, most are white, most are young and apparently most have nothing to do with the comedy and sketches that we see. In their defense letter, the women do not point out whether any of the women hold  management, producer, director or any other top level positions on the show.

Maybe just as unfortunate, The Daily Show, funny as it is, is a oxygen sucker. It takes the air out of the Civil Rights Movement, pro-choice movement and other progressive causes.

It does this inadvertently.

Just as with Bill Maher and "Realtime,"  and "The Colbert Report," the two other comedy shows with a political agenda, Jon Stewart gathers the storm people feel, shakes and rattles it, and delivers stunning comedic bits that provoke laughter -- but little, if any, action.

Comedy, it turns out, has replaced marching in DC.

This isn't the fault of any of comedians. They are doing their jobs, and exceptionally well.

It's not them; it's us.

But between the sexism on all the programs, where women's voices are rarely heard, and the racism, where  the voices of people of color are rarely spotlighted, these darlings of progressives are not that much different than the right-wingers.

The difference is, the jokes are intentional on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report and Realtime with Bill Maher.

Otherwise, everything is as it ever was for most women, and most people of color. We are outside looking in.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: All Stories Are True

“Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.”

“About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Inspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent generations of westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels and stories are jewels in the crown of diasporan literature”

Obama stands down, Shakira steps up

Colombian megastar Shakira is looking to meet with Arizona officials to discuss the recently-passed immigration law that would, in essence, legalize profiling.

According to the HuffPo, "Shakira is deeply concerned about the impact of this law on hardworking Latino families," said Trevor Nielson, her political and philanthropic adviser. "She is coming to Arizona to try to learn more about how law enforcement is reacting to this new law and how we can ensure that people in the state of Arizona are not being targeted because of the color of their skin."

Shakira’s interest in the plight of immigrants throws a mega wattage on the issue that President Obama is already signaling that he will not take up, as he promised in his campaign.

In an interview with AP, Obama said, “We've gone though a very tough year and I've been working Congress very hard, so I know there may not be an appetite immediately to dive into another controversial issue.”

For now, civil rights groups and other organizations are standing by immigrants. Shakira’s stand may inspire others – maybe even Obama? – to stick to the plan: Fulfilling his own presidential campaign promise to institute real reform.

Go after Goldman Sachs and leave immigrants alone

 

This is from a press release sent by the federal ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) office on April 23, 2010, which shows how our tax dollars are used to spin stories of criminal immigrants as it were an epidemic rather than the exception, in a self-congratulatory press release.

 

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – To protect the traveling public U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers continually seek out individuals in possession of fraudulent or invalid documents used to deceive federal authorities, even as they attempt to board commercial air carriers.  This week, US Customs and Border Protection officers arrested various aliens from the Dominican Republic who attempted to elude detection. 

Read entire press release here.

In light of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer   signing into a law further criminalization of immigrants, the wordplay used by ICE in this press release is intentionally crafted to spread fear about immigrants. It is deceitful, harmful and should not be allowed by Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary – and former governor of Arizona. 

The simplest response I have for this sort of fear-mongering by my government is:

Dear Migra/Federal Government,

Please protect us instead from predatory financial firms like Goldman Sachs, and "health insurance" firms like Wellpoint, who exist solely to make billions off the suffering of millions. Immigrants are, by and large, working here under conditions that are below what we as a nation profess to be about.

After the Earthquake in Haiti: Rampant Rape

In the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, there was a groundswell of support across the United States to provide aid to the Caribbean country, founded in 1804 by enslaved people who broke free from the French colonialists. It is the only successful slave revolt in history, where the enslaved pushed out their oppressors.

But all these years after hundreds of thousands of courageous Haitian survived that brutal 12-year battle against the colonialists, brutality remains a palpable part of everyday life, especially for Haitian girls and women.

It wasn’t even until 2005 that rape was considered a crime in Haiti. The aftershocks of the earthquake that tumbled Port au Prince into a large pile of rubble and death continue in the form of mass rapes of girls and women.

So it is not enough to rebuild the country, to send money to reputable organizations, to send clothes, food and medicine. Those of us outside Haiti must also send a message that the only true way to help rebuild a country founded on freedom by its own liberators, is to insist that its girls and women be safe from predators.

That’s why I signed the petition to help make Haiti safer. Send money, send hope, send prayers, send the petition.

Click here to sign the petition. 

Haitian Women's Voices from Harriet Hirshorn on Vimeo.

Getting Closer to Immigration Reform

On March 21, thousands of people will march for immigration reform in Washington, D.C. It is past time for the government to treat undocumented immigrants with the same respect the counrty's revered "founding fathers" demanded from King George as they sought to create new opprotunities here.

Here, where there were already peoples across the land who were massacted in the name of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. History is complicated; there are no easy summaries of how we got here. No Doris Day-Rock Hudson romances. No nationalist flag-waving answers.  But here we are now, and it's time that the law-abiding residents of the United States who do not have visas, get a fair crack at the dream. 

Most came here precisely as a result of oppressive U.S. foreign policy in their native countries. Yet, most harbor no rage at what was done to their families and other ancestors. They just want to live in peace, raise their families, and never know hunger or the rumble of militia footsteps coming around the bend again. 

Click here for more information on how to be part of the movement to build a more perfect union.  

David Letterman isn’t funny and the HuffPo isn’t serious

The Huffington Post is a necessary part of the national discussion on culture and politics. But its promotion and defense of David Letterman dampens the blog's standing as a respectable participant in the world of ideas.
Letterman's conduct with female staffers over the years, in which he wooed women much younger than he to be in intimate relationships with him, should be condemned. Instead, it is condoned by the like of HuffPo, which continues to give him and his antics a forum on the blog.
Where else wbut in the so-called liberal media would a man get away with sexual harassment? Where else but in the liberal media would a man get away with making "jokes" about a politician's teenage daughter having sex with an athlete?
This is the bitter pill that I refuse to swallow as a supporter of liberal causes: watching leaders ignore or add insult to injury when it comes to women's issues.
The fact that sexism is the "ism" that few regard with any measure of seriousness means that women and girls in the United States and worldwide will continue to suffer brutalities that make us unworthy of calling ourselves liberals and progressive and all those other lables that separate us with W. and his friends.
When the news broke how American soldiers were abusing Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Gharib prison, everyone from The New York Times to Fox News was appalled about how the men were disrobed and forced to endure brutal humiliations.
Yet, when French Guinea soldiers pulled women returning from an anti-government rally onto the sidewalks, stripped them and gang-raped and amused themselves by taking pictures with their mobile phones of the attacks, hardly anyone said anything. The story had little traction. Of course the Obama administration, possibly history's most progressive administration, did address the brutality and had the fiercest ally women and girls have worldwide, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to condemn the president of French Guinea, even hinting that his days are numbered as the leader of the country.
And just this week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the international community to do something to end "the global pandemic of violence against women and girls."
These calls for action come as a result of the brutal sexism that is allowed to flourish among soldiers -- and a liberal media outlet that doesn't even see how Letterman's sexism is part of the greater problem.
It's no surprise that Don Imus got back on the radio a few months after making offensive remarks about a university women's basketball team.
If there is one thing that HuffPO and Fox News and everyone in between agree on, it's that the plight of women and girls doesn't exist.

Humor and Truth and Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor,Jon Stewart,Stephen Colbert,GOP

Two comics pinpointed the problem with Republicans regarding everything lately, from health care to the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the newest member of the U.S. Supreme Court.

They just donn't get it.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's commentary on the hypocritical GOP, to not say, racist GOP, is on point.

Sonia Sotomayor

When sports athletes scores and win big titles, millions cheer as if that victory actually means something in their lives. A World Series champion team, winning at Wimbledon, the World Cup and all those consuming distractions  do absolutely nothing to improve our quality of life.

In fact, the multi-million contracts exacted by this first baseman or that running back has a direct impact on our television cable or satellite bills, how much the hot dogs cost at the stadium and even the price of the game ticket itself.

Names like Manny Ramírez, “Papi” Ortiz, Tom Brady and a slew of others are cottage industries for selling an assortment of products like jackets, mugs and keychains that enrich them further.  City governments even go as far as directing tax dollars to pay for the construction of multi-million dollar stadiums to be built in their own backyard.

And now, finally, we are living in a time when names like Barack Obama and Sonia Sotomayor are also becoming cottage industries. But instead of losing ourselves in their particular and personal triumphs, their triumphs truly are our own as well.

As president, Barack Obama has instilled in the country a sense that hope is not only a noun, but also a verb. President Obama is making decisions that place him in the pantheon of the nation’s so-called “Founding Fathers.”  Through his governance, he is this generation’s founding father. He joins many Civil Rights Movement leaders from Malcolm X to MLK Jr. to Medgar Evers to Rosa Parks to César Chavez to many more, whose courageous struggle pressured reluctant presidents like JFK to begin acknowledging that equal rights is not negotiable.

And now, if Judge Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Supreme Court justice, she will join Obama as a founding member of the country’s new direction to form “a more perfect union.”

One day, names like Obama and Sotomayor will be seen on T-shirts and mugs and keychains. They are the true victors because when they win, we all do in real tangible ways and not momentarily.

This is a proud moment in history.

Licenses for Immigrants Down The Road in Massachusetts

By Natalia Muñoz

Driver’s licenses for undocumented workers will be on the agenda when Richard Chacón, executive director of the state’s Office for Refugees and Immigrants, presents his list of recommendations to Gov. Deval Patrick in July.

“It’s going to be part of the conversation,” he said at a recent community meeting in Springfield sponsored by the Alliance to Develop Power, Northampton’s Center for New Americans and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Immigrants and Refugees.

It’s not promise of implementation but it is a step in addressing one of many vexing immigration policies.

One of President Barack Obama’s own aunts, Zeituni Onyango, here illegally from Kenya, got a free pass to stay in the U.S., because her nephew is, after all, the president.

But there are 12 million people who are still counting on Obama to deliver on his promise of reforming immigration policies.

The government knows millions of undocumented immigrants are here and that most are working joes, accepts their taxes but doesn’t let them apply for a driver’s license.

The license is the difference between getting stopped for a broken tail light and then getting deported, or just paying the fine and the getting thing fixed.

The call for a license has been heard at several meetings convened by Patrick, who in 2008 signed into law the New Americans Agenda, an innovative initiative to integrate all immigrants into the commonwealth.

Sponsors expected 200 people at the meeting at the meeting in Springfield last week, but 350 showed up. It was yet another example of Patrick’s governing style, where his own version of Washington, D.C., K Street lobbyists are from the Main Streets of Massachusetts.

The agenda was simple: Ask the participants to list their top recommendations for the state to take under advisement.

Immigrants, refugees and U.S.-born nationals broke into groups divided by language. Georgians, Mexicans, Somalis, Iranians found themselves huddled alongside Chacón, state Rep. Benjamin Swan of Springfield and other members of the Advisory Council.

Among the issues residents from Western Massachusetts prioritized in the auditorium of St. Mary’s Church was the urgent need for more English-language classes and help to deal with abusive employers and police.

“The governor needs a mandate,” said Caroline Murray, executive director of ADP, an organization that teaches people sunk in apathy to tap into their anger, transform it into hope and then do something about the injustices that muted them in the first place.

It isn’t the first time that the ADP has brought everyone to the table, usually in a church hall, from the most vulnerable to the most powerful.

When Murray says things like, “We’re trying to create a better world for everybody” or “Our work is still ahead of us,” it is a call for action that fills churches to capacity the Vatican can only envy.

William Cano, an ADP organizer, believes that a license or ID will be available to undocumented immigrants given the growing chorus of people asking for it statewide.

Murray has sloshed through the mud at times to inform rivals, as when she took on the smug Bill O’Reilly and tenaciously showed him the door to morality. In the 2007 television interview to talk about a video that shows undocumented immigrants their rights, she managed to slip in some common sense into the idiotic but popular program.

Back then, ICE officers were notoriously abusing their charge. In this region, 20 ICE officials barged into a Springfield home and forcibly removed its occupants, including a woman in the shower.

The immigration police had also raided a leather factory in New Bedford that produced equipment for U.S. troops in Iraq, leaving the children of 400 workers unattended and creating what an outraged Patrick aptly called a “humanitarian crisis.”

Sen. Edward Kennedy saw the federally-induced mayhem up close.

“In my 45 years of public life,” he said, “this was one of the most heartbreaking scenes I have ever witnessed. Babies were screaming for their mothers. Wives were desperately searching for information about their husbands.”

His introduction to the ultimately defeated 2007 immigration reform bill recognized that undocumented immigrants do not disrespect the law for the ha-has of it. They stand against dying of poverty.

“They are men and women of dignity. They work hard every day. They care for their families,” he said, ever unabashedly passionate.

Obama’s and Patrick’s commitment to social justice is real. Their challenge is to show lawmakers the right way to continue to build the country founded on a sacred set of values.

Otherwise, Chacón’s report will be doomed to the dusty storerooms where so many fabulous PowerPoint Presentations end up.

Natalia Muñoz is editor of La Prensa of Western Massachusetts www.LaPrensaMA.com

Save or Create 3 Million Jobs

Technorati Tags: Stimulus bill,President Barack Obama,save or create 4 million jobs

President Barack Obama has pledged repeatedly that the $800 billion stimulus bill he is about to sign will either “save or create” 4 million jobs.

What does that mean exactly? Will 3 million jobs be saved and 1 million created? Will 500,000 be saved and 3.5 created? At last, we have clarity:

“The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create 3 to 4 million jobs,” Obama says in his weekly radio and YouTube address. “Ninety percent of these jobs will be created in the private sector. The remaining 10 percent are mainly public sector jobs we save, like the teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services in our communities.”