sent by an anonymous author

A few days ago, Elena D’Angelo de Marcone, an Argentine lady of 86 years of age appeared in a public hearing of the Parliament of Tucumán to defend “with tooth and nail the family “  before the attempts to legalize the “marriage” between people of the same sex.

Doña Elena affected to the legislators and all present ones during one of the so many public hearings summoned by the Commission  of General Legislation of the Senate of the Nation, in order to know the opinion and desire the town of the provinces on controversial project of law that tomorrow will be put under voting.

“X X” for them? And that corresponding the psychological characteristics will accompany them until death? , it questioned.

Doña Elena considered that to give the force of law to the unions between people the same sex, “is like using a pair of shoes, both for the left foot, or both for the right foot. Is that how they spend their time?

Are the problems of those minorities are going to condition and change the healthy customs of the Argentine family? “It is possible that we are prepared to go to jail to deny to us to resign to our more expensive moral values? Or is that the laws are turned to so immense and absolute power that they make ever more useless the use of free will? You, men and women, Senators of the Nation are going away to make people in charge of so large felony?  Although in the House of Representatives this law already has been approved, you can still reflect and change history “, she reminded.

“Be that as it may,  they know one thing: the Argentine family lives,barks, and annoys in the belly of each generous and sacrificed mother, and in the heart of each male and courageous man who fights for life and to bring children into the world, or better, into the Mother country. This Mother country ours needs people and not of aborted children, nor drugs and ways to prevent births and less of these sterile pairs that form a culture of death! “, it added. See the problem of  gay marriage in the U.S.A.. http://www.gloria.tv/ ?media=79991

by Jorge Mujica Mexico del Norte

Some news this week… the Senate could hold hearings on the reform. Even more news, the hearings would be led, if they happen to happen, by four Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell along Jon  Kyl plus John McCain andLindsey Graham.

The last ones are, supposedly, about the only Republican Senators who support immigration reform… or at least used to… But the reform these Senators want hearings on is not immigration reform but the 14th Amendment reform. Our readers may wonder why Latinos should care if four Republican Senators discuss the U.S. Constitution, so let’s make it clear: if they change it, they could take away the citizenship status to millions of Latino and other immigrant’s kids.

The 14th Amendment is the one granting citizenship to all persons born between the line where Mexico ends and the line where Canada starts, plus a bunch of islands all over the planet and Alaska. It was approved on July 9, 1868, and it starts with  “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” It was approved to give citizenship to the sons and daughters of former slaves after the Civil War.

These Republicans say they wan to change it because, Lindsey Graham told Fox News “the birthright citizenship is a magnet for illegal aliens to the United States.” Graham added that it would be a move to stop something he calls “birth tourism, in which travel firms in China sell travel packages designed to allow pregnant women to give birth in the US.”. I can see the danger now! Can you imagine 100 million Chinese women coming to give birth in the U.S. each year? By 2015 we would be the Chinese United States!

In The Hands Of The Enemy

The argument is idiotic and the target here is not Chinese, but the sons and daughters of undocumented immigrants. Besides idiotic, it is not new. Back in 2008 the Republican Party discussed an amendment to the 14th

Amendment that read something like “To be a U.S. citizen you would need that at least one of your parents be a citizen of the United States and that neither of both have violated the immigration laws”. It was not approved under the consideration that it could harm John McCain’s presidential campaign…

To change the Constitution you need two thirds of the vote in each chamber in Congress, plus the approval of 34 state legislatures, meaning this amendment to the amendment is going nowhere except maybe …China or further away… As Republican delegates realized two years ago at their National Convention, taking away their citizenship to children of the undocumented would only increase the numbers of those in need of legalization to around 16 million instead of 12.

The question is, then, why proposing the amendment now? The answer is simple: elections.

It seems Republicans already decided Latino voters don’t decide anything. In other words, instead of trying to win back the Latino vote they have lost because of their anti immigrant politics, they are trying to win the white vote they lost in 2008 to Barack Obama. Wise strategy… in the short term, but Latinos will have more and more votes in a few years, so it is a short-sighted strategy for the long term. But obviously the issue here is not pregnant Chinese tourist and neither undocumented parents, but the U.S. perception of immigrants and how far to the right they can take the discussion of the immigration reform.

Democrats responded via Congressman José Serrano, who stated in an editorial that “the Constitution should never be changed for the worst”, and call the attention to the fact that the Republicans’ amendment would not affect undocumented immigrants but their U.S. citizen children, and that would be unconstitutional.

The only answer from the Obama administration came via Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security and therefore highest immigration authority, who declared herself “surprised” by the Republicans “they presented this idea instead of discussing immigration reform”. The bad part of her statement is that she added, “Immigration reform depends on the cooperation of the Republican Party. Democrats can’t do it themselves”.

To me that sounds like “immigration reform depends on the enemies of immigration reform”. It is to surrender. If Republicans do not deserve a single Latino vote, it looks to me like Democrats do not deserve a single one either…

México del Norte can read at: http: //mx.groups.yahoo.com/ group/mexicodelnorte/

by Jenny Thompson The Health Science Institute

A California researcher has called on the federal government to “step back on the amount of high fructose corn syrup in our diets.”

Right. I can see it now: Federal HFCS agents roaming grocery store aisles and hanging out beside soda machines where they’ll advise  consumers to step back on their HFCS consumption.

Or maybe this researcher– Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA–has something else in mind. Maybe he’s aware that the U.S. government has generously contributed to the HFCS boom by imposing high tariffs to discourage sugar imports, while subsidizing farms thatproduce the raw material for  HFCS: corn.

In any case, Dr. Heaney just wants to help cancer patients  live longer.

Can’t argue with that.

Cancer 101

When Dr. Heaney and his UCLA team recently exposed pancreatic cancer cells to fructose, they found that fructose prompted a dramatic growth of the malignant cells.

In the journal Cancer Research, they wrote, “These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation.” And even worse, they believe that fructose may have this effect on other types of cancer cells–not just pancreatic cancer.

Of course, the Corn Refiners Association immediately responded with a press release, calling the conclusions of the UCLA study “premature.”

Fair enough. After all, it was a lab study, and what happens in a Petri dish can be very different from what happens in the body.

Still, I’d be willing to bet a paycheck that further research will very likely show that fructose does play some sort of role in cancer cell proliferation. For two reasons: 1) HFCS intake has already been linked with increased pancreatic cancer risk, and 2) It’s all about sugar, which is 50% fructose and 50 percent glucose.

About 80 years ago, German Otto Warburg, Ph.D., showed that glucose is a potent fuel for cancer cell growth. And this wasn’t some harebrained theory. It was proof. And it won Dr. Warburg a Nobel Prize.

For decades, the medical community has been aware of the danger for cancer patients who eat foods with added sugars and refined simple carbohydrates. So for every cancer patient, this advice should be considered Cancer 101: Wean yourself from these foods, and then restrict consumption as much as possible.

As for high fructose corn syrup, if you have cancer, you can’t go wrong to avoid it completely. And if you don’t have cancer… well, you can’t go wrong to avoid it completely!

But whatever you do, don’t wait for the government to dream up some bureaucratic Rube Goldberg program designed to step back our HFCS intake.

­

by Jonathan Farrell

The gloomy forecast reaching the media lately is that by the year 2037 Social Security will run out of money. Yet groups like the Gray Panthers who made protest outside the New Federal Building on Mission at 7th Street in San Francisco on Aug. 14th say Social Security is not going broke.

Dozens from various groups like SEIU Local 721, SF Central Labor Council and others gathered that Saturday morning to let the public know Social Security is doing well. As the longstanding government benefit program celebrates its 75th anniversary this month, they want people to know that the information the press has been given is inaccurate and misleading.

Current media blitz reports that the Baby boomer generation as they retire will bankrupt the funds. And, that by 2037 Social Security will be struggling to pay out benefits.

This is misleading “Social Security will be solvent for a-very long time, said Paul Van de Water from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Van de Water worked for Social Security. He now specializes in Medicare, Social Security, and health coverage issues.

He explained the missing details. “Social Security will not be able to pay out 100 percent of promised benefits by 2037, that’s if Congress was not to do anything to remedy the situation.” Yet still by that time benefi ts will continue, contrary to the headlines.

He and other analyst experts such as Eric Kingson and Alex Lawson say that with the over 2 trillion in a trust fund that Social Security holds the Social Security Administration has the funds to pay benefi ts. By 2037 benefits will still be paid. Yet, only if nothing is done by that time benefi ts would be reduced by 20 to 30 percent. This is where the information got mixed up.

Kingson and Lawson are among those groups trying to alert the public that the news they are hearing about Social Security is not all bad news. “In fact, Social Security is functioning extremely well, it is not broke,” said Lawson. But they warn that greedy powers are at work to alter or perhaps raid Social Security as a means to address defi cit woes.

Founded in 1935 by President FDR and his cabinet Social Security was designed to help the American people stay out of poverty. Social Security was and is one of the best retirement benefi t programs in US history. Even as this economic recession has a fl uctuating income revenue,  Social Security is secure.

Analysts and SSA advocates say there are simple ways for the predicted short-fall to be addressed such as raising the earning cap. A percentage of the population is in an earning bracket where they do not pay Social Security taxes. Perhaps it’s time to include those high-earners too?

By law, SSA is not allowed to go into debt. In fact, some budget analysts point out that SSA has had surplus funds which it then reinvests. That all adds to the 2 trillion trust fund which incidentally is expected to reach over $4 trillion by 2037. For more info about the facts of Social Security’s stability visit: http://socialsecurityworks. org

by Michael Marcell & Luis Carlos López

A study released Aug. 11 by the Pew Hispanic Research Center shows that 340,000 of 4.3 million (8 percent) babies born in the United States in 2008 were the progeny of undocumented immigrants — with most coming from Hispanic parents.

Pew found that nearly four in five of the 5.1 million children under age 18 of unauthorized immigrants were born in this country and therefore U.S. citizens.

“Overall, Hispanics who live in the U.S. have higher rates of fertility than do whites, blacks or Asians,” the Pew said. “Among Hispanics, the foreign born have higher rates of fertility than the native born.”

The study comes as some senators are making strides on Capitol Hill to redefine what it takes to be a U.S. citizen.

Currently, section one of the 14th amendment of the Constitution states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Some have proposed changing the amendment to exclude U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants from being considered citizens to help resolve the illegal immigration problem. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) held hearings Aug. 3 to discuss such possibility.

Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said addressing the issue of birthright citizenship would move comprehensive immigration reform legislation forward because it would be one method of preventing more undocumented immigrants from entering this country.

President Reagan addressed the first wave in 1986 when he signed an amnesty bill that provided a path to citizenship for 2.7 million persons.

Bishop told Hispanic Link Aug. 6, “We are now in the second wave of illegal immigrants…Senator Graham is committed that we don’t have a third wave.

Bishop stressed Graham’s position that changes should not jeopardize the status of people who have already been granted birthright citizenship .

Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza, said in a statement that Graham and McCain, once leading Senate advocates for comprehensive immigration reform, in joining with Senate Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl in support of repealing birthright citizenship, have led her to “conclude that, with some exceptions, the Grand Old Party has either taken leave of its senses or of its principles.”

Elizabeth Weidruff, chief counsel for the ConstitutionalAccountability Center, said, “The text and history of the 14th Amendment clearly include children of non-citizens or undocumented immigrants in the guarantee of citizenship for those born on U.S. soil.”

Others are echoing Graham’s call to action and have a different interpretation of the 14th Amendment.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said that being a U.S. citizen implies a deeper connection to one’s nation that someone who comes to the U.S. for opportunistic reasons cannot understand.

“The amendment says ‘all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof’, are citizens,” He said. “The issue is: what does it mean to be in the jurisdiction of the United States? Does it mean, simply, that you’re here and you have to stop at the red lights like the rest of us, or is their some deeper meaning to the concept of what it means to be in the jurisdiction of the United States?” Hispanic Link.

by the El Reportero’s news services

This week (August 25) marks the start of four weeks of campaigning for the September 26 legislative elections in which the opposition, which boycotted the last election in 2005, is hoping to secure up to 40 percent of the 165 seats up for grabs in the unicameral National Assembly (AN).

As ever, all elections in Venezuela effectively become a referendum on President Hugo Chávez himself. The ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV), which is not particularly popular as a party, is already calling on its supporters to ‘vote for Chávez’, despite the fact that he is not on the ballot – and despite the fact that pollsters have identified mounting voter fatigue with the president.

Colombia’s Farc call for Unasur summit A

Colombian guerrilla group, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc), released a public letter addressed to the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) in which it offered to “put forward our vision of the Colombian conflict in a Unasur summit”. The letter is the second call from the group for a dialogue since President Juan Manuel Santos was elected on June 20. On July 30, ‘Alfonso Cano’ (Guillermo Sáenz), the leader of the Farc, released a video message in which he asked Santos to “talk”. The administration, however, has refused to hold a dialogue with the guerrillas as long as the latter continue to refuse the government’s three preconditions to hold talks: the release of all hostages; the release of all child soldiers; and an end to the use of land mines.

Peru leader charged with rebellion eyes politics

A Peruvian protest leader facing rebellion charges stemming from deadly clashes last year announced Wednesday that Amazon Indians are looking to form their own political party, and he may be its presidential candidate.

Aidesep, an umbrella group representing 65 tribes across the Peruvian jungle, is collecting signatures to register the new party and could pick a candidate as soon as September for next April’s election, said Alberto Pizango, a Shawi Indian who is the group’s president.

“If the people propose that I be the political figure who can carry forward their grand ideals, their grand proposals, their grand projects, I will accept” the nomination,” Pizango said.

The new party is to be known as the Alternative Alliance of Humanity. It also intends to field congressional candidates.

Farc bomb attack and court ruling on US base accord could boost Santos

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos announced during his investiture on August 7 that the successes of his predecessor Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010) on the security front had left him free to concentrate on economic issues and social justice. Within the first 10 days of his term, Santos was given two sharp reminders that he will not be able to switch off on security at  Any point.

Firstly the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) sent a stark warning to Santos that it remains a force by detonating a car bomb in central Bogotá. Then, the constitutional court (CC) ruled that the October 2009 Defense Cooperation Agreement between Colombia and the US was unconstitutional. Both developments could actually have tangible benefits for Santos. (Latin News and Associated Press contributed to this report.)

by World Natural Health Organization and news

The synthetic sugar used in a wide variety of consumer products, such as pastries and deserts cause cerebral damage, memory loss and confusion as affirmed by the Mexican Association of Studies for Consumer Defence ( AMEDEC ).

In a message, the Association indicated the sweetener substance, called “aspartame”, which is distributed in Mexico under various brands, to sweeten drinks and principally the drinks labled “light”.

According to AMEDEC, the english publication “New Scientist” and the Consumers International warn that this substance can contribute to the development of Alzheimer. They also indicated that the chemical components of “aspartamo” have other dire consequences for excessive use including damage to the retina and nervous system.

It explained that the substance is composed of two aminoacids, fenilalanina and aspartic acid plus alcohol and methanol. it states that on taking aspartame and spasms are suffered, sharp pains, numbness in the legs, vertigo, depression, anxiety attacks, difficulty in speech, blurry vision and memory loss is due to “aspartame sickness”.

The Association showed that there are more than 5,000 products that contain this sweetner whose patent has expired. Further it said that it is not a diabetic product in that it generally leads to a craving for carbohydrates that can cause a fatal loss of control over levels of blood sugar. In pregnant women aspartame can cause deformities and mental retardation in fetuses. Check all products before using, eating or drinking it. Chewing gum, diet sodas, candies, canned or frozen foods may have this substance hazardous to your health. Stay aways from all these products that even can lead to death.

There was a judicial suite in three separate California courts against twelve companies that produce or use this artificial sweetener. The suite has been filed in Shsta, Sonoma and Butte county in California.

The suites allege that the food companies committed fraud and violated guarantees by marketing to the public products like diet Coke, diet Pepsi, sugar free chewing gum, vitamins, yogurt and children’s asprin with complete knowledge that the artificial sweetener Aspartame is a neurotoxin.

­Out of work and sleeping in the fields.

by David Bacon

Near Reedley, on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, several men sleep in the field. They get creative in building their own shantytown.

Humberto comes from Zihuatanejo in Guerrero.

Pedro, who wears an earring in his ear, comes from Hermosillo in Sonora. Ramiro comes from a tiny town in the Lancandon jungle of Chiapas, about halfway between Tapachula on the coast, and Palenque, the site of the Mayan ruins.

None of the men has worked more than a few days in the last several months. The riteros (people with vans who give workers rides to the fields to work) won’t pick them up, because they say they live with the vagabundos (vagabonds). The men use bicycles for transportation.

The rancher who owns  the land has abandoned the orchard where they sleep. A number of other fields in the area are also abandoned.

by Michael Marcell

Federal and state governments spend more than $10,000 per pupil on elementary and secondary public education annually, but new desks and computers are not the Rosetta Stones needed to assist young, Latino students.

Forty-two percent of Hispanic 4th and 8th grade students in the U.S. public schools have below-basic English reading proficiency, according to a study presented at the National Press Club June 22 by the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators.

“Closing the Achievement Gap” was conducted by the Los Angeles- based Tomás Rivera Policy Institute.

It targeted states and school districts with high numbers of Hispanic middle- school students.

The results showed major achievement gaps between English Language Learners and non-ELL students. Seventy percent of ELL middle-school students have belowbasic reading levels compared to 15 percent and 24 percent for their 4th and 8th grade peers.

Delaware State Representative Joseph Miro said there is a uniform problem with the teaching ELL and ESL students. “Unless we dedicate the resources, not just money, and training of different educators, we are not going to be able to address the problem.” Miro said.

Sen. Melinda Romero (Puerto Rico), newly appointed chairwoman of the NAHCSL education taskforce, said teachers of ELL students need better professional development, assessments and resources.

“The ELL teachers are usually not up to par,” Romero said, stressing the vaue of parent involvement. “Usually the teachers are not Latino or Spanish speaking and the parents are afraid of being involved.

Much of the study focused on middleschool students. Romero said middle schools are where most Latino dropouts occur. She called them the “Wasteland of American education.”

“We have seen years where almost 65 percent  of the Latino community has dropped out in middleschool.” Romero said.

Consensus among the speakers was that ELL students fall behind early in their academic careers, starting in the first grade, and often drop out in frustration.

TRPI’s Wendy Charavia said most students who drop out do so as they are going into the 9th grade.

Charavia stressed the  mportance of college awareness as a goal and motivatorfor ELL students.

“If you’re in middleschool and have some idea of where you’re going to be after school, it’s a huge motivator to stay,” Charavia said. No clear strategy forparent involvement was put  forward at the presentation.

When asked by Weekly Report what was being done to increase parental participation, Miro, a former teacher, said “the expectation of schools at this point is to take the role to educate the kids with a decrease in the parents’ responsibility.”

Kansas State Rep. Mario Goico said the best way to begin the parental integration is by assigning students reading lists to be signed by their parents  acknowledging that they were, in fact, doing their work.

“You have to have a certain interaction between the teacher, the parent and the student in order to communicate the knowledge,” Goico said. Hispanic Link.