Turning almost 12 million illegal immigrants into felons will aggrivate the problem and solve nothing

From the Houston Chronicle editorial board, courtesy of RealArt:

AFTER an intense debate that saw an unusually high level of Republican infighting, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected proposals that would have turned the 11 million or more illegal immigrants in the United States into felony fugitives. Members of the U.S. House, however, did not flinch: They passed a similar proposal by a wide margin last December.

Should such a large segment of the U.S. population be turned into criminals, how would their arrest, imprisonment and deportation be accomplished? The draconian antidrug laws passed in the 1980s should serve as a warning example.

Clickhereforallofit.

Lets think about the logic behind making illegal immigrants felons. The whole case is that they're illegal immigrants. Immigrants. So they want to put these non-citizens in U.S. prisons. Isn't that implying some kind of citizen-like status for these supposed illegal immigrants? It just seems a little contradictory to keep someone here for the crime of being here.

Here's something that I posted back in August about the Minutemen who argued that immigrants "steal our jobs":

Don't they realize that the term "steal our jobs" doesn't make any sense? There's only one person who can take your job away, and thats your boss. They should be pissed at people who employ illegal immigrants, not the immigrants. They wouldn't be here if they couldn't get jobs in the first place, and they wouldn't get jobs in the first place if the government would punish employers for doing so.

The DNC's "Grassroots Agenda"

From nader.org:

I just received a letter from Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, describing me as a “Democratic Leader” and “an active and engaged member of our Party in your community.” He asks for my “opinions” which “will help shape the future direction of the Democratic Party and make us more effective in building grassroots support for our agenda.”

[...]

The questions covered some important topics. They include one asking whether I support “new tax cuts targeted at working families.” But no request for my opinion on removing the massive Bush tax reductions for the wealthy, for their unearned income of capital gains and dividends, and for large corporations now making rocket profits.

Another inquiry asked about raising the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, but no higher figure was listed. Nor was there a question about labor law reform assisting workers in our concentrated industrial, commercial and retail economy (eg. WalMart) to establish or expand trade unions. The present system is rigged in favor of giant companies.

And he list goes on, click here for all of it.

This post seems to be an excellent way to see the differences between the Democrats and Ralph Nader. The Democrats says some pretty nice things but obviously don't actually propose any real change. Its pretty obvious that they really don't know what they stand for anymore, and they're too afraid to stand up for what they might say they believe in. Just remember, the Green Party (of which Nader is NOT affiliated anymore) gets more and more votes every year. I have an optimistic feeling that they'll become sort of a major party in the future. Maybe we'll have a three party state or something. Or maybe they'll overthrow the DNC as the nation's "liberal" party.....in two trillion years.

But anyway, isn't it kinda funny that a Democrat would be so respectful of Ralph Nader, given the widely accepted BULLSHIT opinion that he "steals" votes from them? I thought the Democrats hated Nader more than the Republicans because of "that". However, if the Dems are looking for some advice, Ralph's the top of my list, it just seems a little soon for them, or at least Dean, to be so humbled to him. Perhaps Howard Dean really is a progressive liberal Democrat, too bad he screwed himself over in '04. He'll never be taken seriously again. So just vote for Nader.

Size of L.A. March Surprises Authorities

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Immigration rights advocates more than 500,000 strong marched in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, demanding that Congress abandon attempts to make illegal immigration a felony and to build more walls along the border.

The massive demonstration, by far the biggest of several around the nation in recent days, came as President Bush prodded Republican congressional leaders to give some illegal immigrants a chance to work legally in the U.S. under certain conditions.

[...]

About 200 people protested outside a town hall-style meeting held by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a leading sponsor of the House bill. He defended the legislation, saying he's trying to stop people from exploiting illegal immigrants for cheap labor, drug trafficking and prostitution.

"Those who do that are 21st-century slave masters, just like the 19th-century slave masters that we fought a civil war to get rid of," Sensenbrenner said at the meeting. "Unless we do something about illegal immigration, we're consigning illegal immigrants to be a permanent underclass, and I don't think that's moral."

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Read that last paragraph. A Republican said that? First Russ Feingold (D-WI) pushes for Bush's censure, now a Wisconsin Republican says its immoral to cast illegal immigrants as a "permanent underclass". Wisconsin seems to have some pretty decent politicians who no one has heard of, I now wonder if there are more progressive-thinking politicians like these guys (though censuring isn't really "progressive" in itself) but are just shut up by the majority of their parties who want to sustain things that should be changed and change things that should be sustained. We'll just have to keep our eyes on the news I guess.

UNT acceptance

I've been accepted by the University of North Texas. Not their music school, just the university itself. Their music school, if I read correctly, will accept audition cds no later than April 3rd, and I haven't recorded anything yet. I tried to record the classical music I had worked up for the cd, then the other day I read their music site more closely and realized that there are separate audition requirements for jazz guitar, which is what I'm interested in. If I somehow record an audition tape by monday I am going to go through with the paperwork of auditioning there, but I seriously doubt I will be accepted.

I'm going to use that same tape for my UNO audition, oh yeah, and I'm still waiting to hear from U of H, if ANYONE wanted to know ANY of this.

In other.......stuff, nothing in the news has been grabbing my attention or inspiring me to go off on some tangent so I'm just gonna say, "Holy crap why is Bush still president?!"

A Strokie Tale

It was an amazellent concert. Ben and I had much more fun than the last time we saw them: THE STROKES.

After the show we were walking back to the Aquarium where we parked (crossing our fingers that the gate would be open and that Ben's car wouldn't be towed) when Ben suddenly said, "Wanna wait by the tour bus and see if we see anybody?", and of course I was like, "Heck yes lets DO this raquet!", so we turned the corner and went and stood with this group of groupies out in the back, by this little gate. The first Stroke we saw was Albert, he came out of a door, walked in our direction, waved at us, then went in another door. We knew that if we just waited it out we could see summore of them.

Some of the members of The Eagles of Death Metal came out at various times , but no more Strokes. Some dudes came up to the gate with this display that said "Autographed cds - $20", and we got pretty excited. Those dudes hoped in a little green car and drove away when no Strokes came out. So we continued to wait.

We saw a rockstar-looking man with long black hair who looked oddly familiar come out of a door with a case of Ozarka Natural Springtime Watertime bottle crisps water bottle crisps......uh....bottles of water, and a bunch of us were like "Waterrrr!!!!", and he let our group disperse the water amongst ourselves (Ben and I didn't get any). He came back out a little while later with a box of pizza! And we shouted, "Pizzaa!!!!!", and he gave the full UNTOUCHED box of pepperoni/onion pizza to our group. Ben and I weren't graced with a slice of our own, but I took the box and ate some cheese out of it, "Stroke Cheese," I dubbed it.

About half an hour after that, we had been standing there a little over an hour total..maybe....I don't really remember, but at about midnight we heard this big cheer from an invisible group of people down the street. We ran down there to find another little gate that was holding people back from the Strokes' bus, Nikolai was the cause of the disturbance, and Ben and I fought around the crowd to try and get our ticket stubs signed.

We did not get our ticket stubbs signed by Nikolai, but about five minutes later Albert came out, and this time I reached over the crowd and said, "Pizza box!", and that easily got his attention and prompted him to sign it. The simplicity of getting a random pizza box signed by a rocknroll superstar inspired me to go down the gate to where Nikolai had made his way and get him to sign it too. I went down and found him taking a picture with some fans and I held the box up and he was like, "Haha, no thanks--OH you want me to sign it?", and then he did. By this time Ben had gotten his ticket signed by Albert and I went back to wait for more Strokies to come out.

Maybe 15 or 20 minutes later Fab came out to a roaring crowd of fans, some of whom were still waiting to get Nickolai's and Albert's autographs. Fab went on the other side of the bus, out of site, much to the dismay of the people in my general area, but we quickly learned that he was making his way toward us from the other end of the line.

A little while after that, the two remaining Strokes, Nick and Julian, reluctantly came and began their signing journey down the gate of enthusiastic fans. Nick started almost in the middle of the line while Julian started over where we were, meanwhile Fab went over the gate with a marker and started screaming, "JULIANNN!!! JULIANNN!!!!", immitating his much delighted fans who were now surrounding him. After I narrowly got Julians sig' on the box, I went and got Fab's.
I didn't really feel like bothering Nick because he seemed a little cranky and sick of everyone, but I couldn't just stop with him being the only one left, so I held the box up for a while and he eventually got to it, completing the entire display of all five Strokes autographs on this generic, Verizon Wireless Theater pizza box.

Molly Ivans is amazing

The following is a snippet of Molly Ivin's March 2006 issue on The Progressive:

I can’t see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in hock to this system of legalized bribery they can’t even see straight.

I found that on RealArt on Sunday, it was probably written at least a whole day before that, then on Monday Feindgold tried to introduce his censure bill, something I read about on Feingold's website as soon as I asked myself "Who is Russ Feingold?" after reading the Ivins excerpt.

I'm not gonna talk about the censuring bill right now, I just wanna say that Molly Ivins is so cool for bringing up a politician who until this Monday was virtually unknown in the mainstream media. She not only brought him up but hailed him as the only Democrat worth running for president right now, and I found myself agreeing with her after I read this:

The Administration Has Used FISA Thousands of Times Since 9/11: Administration officials have criticized FISA, but they have obtained thousands of warrants approved by the FISA court since 9/11, and have almost never had a warrant request rejected by that court.

This is the meat of Feingold's argument. He's not saying that we shouldn't be trying to monitor terrorists, he's saying that it is suspicious that the president would get the proper warrant on some occasions but not in others.

“This issue is not about whether the government should be wiretapping terrorists – of course it should, and it can under current law” Feingold said. “But this President and this Administration decided to break the law and they have yet to give a convincing explanation of why their actions were necessary, appropriate, or legal. Passing more laws will not change the fact that the President broke the ones already in place and for that, Congress must hold him accountable.”

There you have it.

Chile Swears in First Female President

From the AP via Yahoo! News

Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist pediatrician who suffered prison, torture and exile under Chile's military dictatorship, was sworn in as the nation's first female president on Saturday.

[...]

Bachelet was elected to a four-year term in a Jan. 15 runoff vote to replace Lagos, a fellow Socialist.

[...]

A separated mother of three, Bachelet is the first elected Latin American leader who didn't rise to power with the help of a powerful husband. She says her victory reflects profound changes in Chilean society.

Bachelet is the daughter of an air force general who was tortured and died in prison for opposing the 1973 military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. She, too, was briefly imprisoned and tortured before being forced into exile.

clickhereforallofit

I wonder if Condoleeza Rice spoke with Bachelet that day. If she did, I would hope that she would appologize on the behalf of the U.S. government for putting Pinochet (who's army tortured her father) into power.

Eugene Debbs should have come back after prison the way Bachelet did and become our president; he was a socialist as well. I wonder what that would have been like...

Was it worth it?

Iraq's New Parliament to Convene March 19

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

President Jalal Talabani issued a decree Friday ordering Iraq's new parliament to hold its first session March 19, his chief of staff told The Associated Press.

[...]

Talabani, a Kurd who has opened a campaign with Sunni and some secular politicians to deny al-Jaafari a second term, tried to issue the necessary decree Sunday, but was unable to get the signature of one of two vice presidents, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who leads the Shiite parliamentary bloc loyal to Adbul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

The president has challenged al-Jaafari's candidacy on grounds he is too divisive and would be unable to form a government representing all of Iraq's religious and ethnic factions. There was also great unease over al-Jaafari's close ties to radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Talabani first sought to order the first session on March 12, the date dictated by the constitution.

Both Abdul-Mahdi and al-Hakim held back because of the uncertainty over al-Jaafari, apparently reluctant to be forced to join those in the opposition because they did not want to publicize the split in Shiite ranks. On Thursday, however, the two political heavyweights relented and Abdul-Mahdi agreed to sign.

The opening of parliament is the first step in the process of forming the country's first permanent, post-invasion government. When parliament convenes, it has 60 days to accomplish the task.

clickhereforallofit

Well well well, Iraq's government is doing things on its own. Good for them. Meanwhile, there is STILL WAR, oh but they have a new governmnt now, they're a democracy, we've helped them a lot, its WAY better than what they had with Saddam Hussein.

This morning I heard someone on CBS say that Talabani ordered his first execution yesterday, my Republican father quickly changed the channel...

More political indictments in Italy

Indictment Sought for Italy's Berlusconi

from the AP via Yahoo! News:

ROME - Prosecutors in Milan said Friday they have requested that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi be indicted on corruption charges.

The premier is accused of ordering the payment in 1997 of at least $600,000 to British lawyer David Mills — whose indictment also was being sought — in exchange for his false testimony in two trials against Berlusconi. Both men deny the allegations.

[...]

The conservative Berlusconi has repeatedly accused Milan prosecutors of siding with the left and waging a political vendetta against him following years of probes and prosecutions.

clickhereforallofit

Does this sound familiar at all? Escpecially that last line. What Berlusconi said about Milan prosectors is almost identical to what Tom DeLay said about the Texas Democrats.

I think this may be looked back upon as The Age of Indictments, unless it never ends........ wishful thinking.

U of H audition

I did my music audition at the University of Houston today.

I went into Mike Wheeler's office and played this ballad etude that I've known since like August. Then he gave me some chord chanes to play, knocked that one out for the most part. Then they told me to play some scales, the first one was g melodic minor. I attempted it twice and he said "Slow down", so I did and got it right. Then he told me to play E major and D flat major and of course I cranked those out like they was nothin'.

Then it was time to sight-read.

He opened up this fake book (its a real book but its called a "fake book", its used to just pull out and play jazz tunes) and had me play this song that I can't remember now. It was pretty easy, in fact he didn't let me finished it, he just said "Okay lets find something a little more syncapated". And he did. I sucked at it. I don't remember what I did but it was horrible. He didn't let me finish that one either, because I sucked it up so much.

Then he was like "Well do you have any questions?" and I was like "uuuuuuuh, do we learn any classical stuff here?", and he went on and on about classical guitar and then the auition was over.

At 1:00 I took a music theory placement test and totally kicked ass on it, that put me in a better mood.

Former Congressman Gets Eight-Plus Years

From the AP via Yahoo! News

SAN DIEGO - Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who collected $2.4 million in homes, yachts, antique furnishings and other bribes on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress, was sentenced Friday to eight years and four months in prison, the longest term meted out to a congressman in decades.

clickhereforallofit

I kinda feel sorry for the guy, but I wonder if I would feel the same way if Tom DeLay or Dick Cheney were given sentences.

S.D. Conservatives Seek Roe V. Wade Fight

From the AP via Yahoo! News

South Dakota is suddenly in the vanguard of the movement to overturn Roe v. Wade. But in truth, it was a role that was decades in the making.

Since the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing the right to an abortion, the state Legislature has become increaingly dominated by lawmakers from both parties promoting what they see as traditional family values. In fact, in the 1990s, South Dakota's Democrats dropped abortion rights from their party platform.

The conservative shift culminated last week in passage of a bill to outlaw nearly all abortions — a measure aimed ultimately at getting Roe v. Wade overturned.

The ban sailed through the House and Senate, and Republican Gov. Mike Rounds has said he is inclined to sign the measure, which would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion unless necessary to save the woman's life. The bill would make no exception in cases of rape or incest.

clickhereforallofit

Ah, another sighting of that nice little buzzy wuzzy Wal-Mart word: Family Values.

The thing about this whole "family values" front is that its completely based on religion, and the government is not supposed to legislate in the name of religion, unless Freedom of Religion means that politicians have the freedom to force their religion on people, and if so then I guess we actually LOST the Revolutionary War, God save the Queen, mate!

The prevailing attitude is that mothers who want abortions are irresponsible, and yet "this bill will make no exception in case of rape", something that the mother wouldn't be responsible for at all.

They also like to claim that abortion is murder, they say they're "pro-life", but the initial embryo after insemination can hardly be called a "life", much less a life of its own. Notice how I had to called it an "it"? If something is an "it", you can't possibly be murdering it, thats why its called abortion.

The way I see it, the "life" of the embryo belongs more to the mother than it does to the embryo, and if she doesn't want it then more power to her--for crying out loud, ESPECIALLY if she was raped! I'll admit that there's a certain point in pregnancy where it would be cruel to abort, but the first eight weeks that the law permits sounds about right to me in regards to humanity.

(Now would be a good time to note that you may find a differnent view on abortion somewhere in this blog)

Last time I checked, the government was in place to protect civil liberties, not trample upon them.

CBS Radio Sues Shock Jock Howard Stern

From Reuters via AOL News

NEW YORK (Mar. 1) - After sparring with U.S. regulators for much of his career on broadcast radio, shock jock Howard Stern and his new employer, Sirius Satellite Radio, are locked in a major legal battle with his former bosses at CBS Corp.

[...]

The suit says Stern profited from promoting Sirius during his CBS Radio broadcasts. It specifically seeks to claim from Stern and his agent more than 34 million shares of Sirius stock, valued at about $220 million, that they received for exceeding subscriber targets set in his contract.

[...]

Stern said his move garnered much media attention and CBS added to it, booking him for appearances on its news magazine show "60 Minutes" and "Late Show with David Letterman."

"I made them millions of dollars. If I was hurting them why did they keep me on the air for 14 months?" Stern said. "How can you have it both ways?"

He said he asked Moonves why he did not pull him off the air. "Les said, 'I knew I could sue you later,"' Stern said.

clickhereforallofit

This is just another case of First Amendment rights being exploited when huge sums of money are to be had by a corporation, i.e. the U.S. Shadow Government.

CBS knew that if Stern went on Letterman and was asked, "So whats with this new 'Sirius Satellite Radio' thing?", he would tell millions of viewers about his new totally unregulated radio show via satellite, a great early promotion opportunity for Sirius. So after it happens, CBS acts as if they had no idea that Stern was going to do this, and gets $220 million off of him. I hate when people act as if they had no choice but to sue someone, they couldn't just not make more money, that would be just plain un-American. Of all the sick, greedy things a corporation could do...

Not to mention the thick sturdy revenge boner that the Religious Right will get from this story.