9/11... I'll never forget you

Hard hitting immigration video

America's Voice has put out a hard hitting video on immigration.

Check it out.

Really?

"A small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." - Gov. Sarah Palin at the RNC

Full disclosure - I've been a community organizer for 15 years, so I take this personally. It's one thing to go after your opponents policies or their record, but to demean their work? Their professions?

I'll let Bishop Roy Dixon of the San Diego Organizing Project of the PICO National Network expressed his disappointment here:

"As a life-long Republican, the comments I heard last night about community organizing crossed the line. It is one thing to question someone's experience, another to demean the work of millions of hard working Americans who take time to get involved in their communities. When people come together in my church hall to improve our community, they're building the Kingdom of God in San Diego. We see the fruits of community organizing in safer streets, new parks, and new affordable housing. It's the spirit of democracy for people to have a say and we need more of it."

Others are speaking out as well.

Sarah - I'm guessing you don't understand community organizing. Try asking Angela Liston at Anchorage Faith. She's a community organizer, and according to you, has a lot of time on her hands for chatting. All their doing is bringing together churches and communities together to create safe neighborhoods, tackle affordable health care, push for better education, and secure opportunities for Alaskan youth (aren't these things that something a Governor should be doing?).

Come on Sarah, you should be better than that.

Reverse Swift Boat?

What it did do for me was remind me that John wasn't the only POW and simply being a POW isn't a qualifier for higher office.

Moral Guardians exposed as Hypocrites yet again

*SIGH*

Honestly I'm disgusted. Yet again we find a Republican at the center of a sex scandal. Why couldn't he just cheat on his wife? Go visit a prostitute or something? But no... Missouri state Representative Scott Muschany was indicted for sexual assault on a 14 year old girl. Muschany had co-sponsored tougher sex offender laws.

And this part just creeps me out: "The document also alleges that the mother "did admit that the incident did take place, including her witnessing same."

Really? Eww....

So I'm talking with a friend who tries to tell me this happens on both sides of the aisle. Yes. But only one side claims to be the moral guardians of the society, knowing what is best for us and damning those who fail to live up to those standards.

From Vito Fosella (R-NY) who loved family values so much he had two families; to Senator Vitter (R-LA) who was a frequent client with a DC Madam (he sponsored the Federal Marriage Amendment) with Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) who was arrested for soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom; to Mark Foley (R-FL) who was soliciting underage Congressional pages.

If you really want to have your stomach turned... Check out this list of Republican Sex Scandals.
Here is another story on it - from the Salem-News.com: Republican Sex Scandals Dwarf Those of Democrats

Now I know Democrats get involved in scandals as well... I'm not suggesting they don't. But the volume is larger on the right and the hypocrisy is ... well... nauseating.

Are African Americans Missing the Point on Immigration?

From Eric Ward at Imagine 2050

Eric has another well thought out take on the anti-immigrant groups.


I don’t know about you, but one of the ways that a movie can become one of my all time favorites is by having a great line. The Usual Suspects is one of those movies. Most people like the film because of its incredible acting and one of the best plot twists of all time. I’m not one of those people; I love the film because of one simple line. That point in the film where Kevin Spacey who plays the role of Verbal Kent, who is read more

I'll see you at the debates bitches!

Ethnic Cleansing

Recently Radovan Karadzic was arrested for war crimes stemming from the conflict in Bosnia. This is a guy who came up with the term 'ethnic cleansing'. This is a guy who oversaw the genocide against Muslims in Bosnia. Granted he described it as 'ethnic shifting'.... still - the thnking behnd it was that certain people, depending on their ethnicity, were not welcomed. In Bosnia men were rounded up and murdered. Killed in cold blood.

And the world is repulsed.

So... we had Rwanda and Bosnia and we're thinking that ethnic cleansing is wrong.

And yet....

Welcome to America in the year 2008. Congress has failed to pass any meaningful immigration laws so enforcement has fallen to states and local levels. ICE - the Immigration Custom Reform agency, is now enacting workforce enforcement - raiding different places around the country.

The solution to Congress's failure to enact any meaningful reform has become a policy of deportation by attrition. So we have stepped up raids throughout the country. The latest was in Pottsville, IA at a raid at a Kosher plant.

So why am I talking about this while talking about Radovan Karadzic?

I'd respectfully suggest that our current immigration policy is a form of non-violent ethnic cleansing. We're rounding up brown people and making sure it's so painful to live here that they will voluntarily move away.

Let's make this clear - our official policy right now is to make life such hell for people here that they self deport. We will have an official policy to make certain people... people of an paticular ethnic background... so un-welcomed in our communities that they move.

This isn't the America I believe in.
Is it yours?

Another voice of reason...

Jill over at Imagine 2050 had a nice post today on Hometown Heros in Chicago. We forget how quickly immigrants can be integrated when we value what they do...

If they play baseball for our favorite team? LET THE HEROS IN! If they work 12+ hours a day picking fruit and vegetables? DEPORT THE CRIMINALS!?! (I admit don't get it...)

Let's not forget the millions of immigrants who are working hard every day to make this country better. I wonder how we'd categorize these immigrants?

Imagine 2050 is a great blog. You ought to check them out: