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Congress urged to pass fast-track paper ballot legislation

­by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

Resolutions urging immediate passage of emergency electoral legislation were endorsed last week by the Sonoma County Democratic Party and the Sonoma County Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America. The goal is to require that paper ballots replace any paperless electronic voting systems in time for the upcoming November election.

“Paperless, electronic touch-screen (DRE) voting machines have been documented losing or miscounting significant numbers of votes in hundreds of reports all across the country,” said spokesperson Dan Ashby, cofounder and director of Election Defense Alliance, a multipartisan citizens’ action organization devoted to election integrity.

Caregivers strike to improve quality of care for residents at Windsor Nursing Home chain

Dozens of religious and community leaders joined nursing home workers on Sept. 16 for a candlelight vigil at Country Drive Care Center in Fremont to urge Windsor CEOs Lee Samson and Lawrence Feigen to adopt proposals that would improve the care of residents and the rights of caregivers at their nursing homes. Since July 2007, more than 360 violations of health and safety regulations were documented at Windsor facilities during regular federal surveys. Over the same period, 58 patient complaints against Windsor were verifi ed by the Department of Health and Human Services on issues ranging from short-staffing to fire hazards.

To address these conditions, more than 650 nursing home workers have been in contract negotiations with Windsor for more than a year in four facilities and several months at four others.

State Latino group charges Labor Secretary with hiding scandal

The California League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is accusing Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao of engaging in “lulling tactics” to keep the lid on a scandal that has been brewing in her offi ce since 2005.According to Argentina Dávila Luevano, State Director of California LULAC, Secretary Chas assured National LULAC President Rosa Rosales that the threatened termination of Dr. Alberto Rocha, Assistant Bay Area District Director, would be “taken care of” at the highest levels.

Ironically, the OFCCP is charged with enforcing anti-discrimination laws in federal contracting, yet Rocha has fi led a complaint against the department, charging that he has been harassed and retaliated against for his participation in efforts to fight discrimination. According to Rocha, his troubles started when he began taking a leadership role in a national non-profi t active in the fi elds of employment, education, civil rights and other issues which impact the Hispanic community.

Organizations file lawsuit seeking implementation of language access

Four community groups filed a lawsuit against the City of Oakland for failing to fulfi ll its obligations under the “Equal Access to Services Ordinance,” a groundbreaking language access ordinance passed in 2001. Public Advocates Inc. and civil rights attorney Luz Buitrago represent the groups. The ordinance, based on basic civil rights laws, requires translation of key documents and sufficient bilingual staff available in public contact positions for languages reaching a 10,000 threshold, currently including Spanish and Chinese.

New SFO Terminal designs are unveiled

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Airport Director John L. Martin today unveiled the designs for the remodel of San Francisco International Airport’s (SFO) old international terminal, vacant since 2000, into a new domestic terminal that will emphasize customer service and sustainability practices.

“This design reflects a completely different way of thinking about air travel, environmental stewardship, and fi nancial responsibility,” said Mayor Newsom. “Our goal is to make this the fi rst LEED Silver certifi ed terminal in the country.”

Arizona is driving out immigrants, but at what cost?

by Jonathan Higuera

José de la IslaJosé de la Isla

It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out: if you want to get undocumented Mexicans to move out of your community, take away their ability to work. It’s happening here in Arizona, where the employer sanctions passed into law last year is having the effect sought by its proponents.

Thousands of residents are picking up stakes and getting the hell out of this so-called desert paradise. Formerly teeming malls and food courts in blue-collar neighborhoods are no longer teeming. They may not be deserted but they aren’t bustling either. Enrollment at many elementary schools has dropped precipitously. When school officials visit those homes to find out where the children are, they are finding row after row of empty houses. Calls to landscapers, maids, nannies and cleaning crew members are going unanswered.

Although it’s difficult to quantify, anecdotal evidence is clear: these people are not staying in a state that has taken away their ability to earn a living.

They could probably withstand the demonization they have been subjected to from anti-immigrant bigots, or even the so-called “Crime Suppression Sweeps” by the local sheriff’s department, which has been terrorizing residents in areas where they believe undocumented residents live. They probably could even withstand the hotlines encouraging neighbors to report on neighbors they suspect are here illegally. All those actions have poisoned the atmosphere; probably much like Proposition 187 did in California years ago.

But Latinos in my native state have dealt with heavy-handed police tactics and racist rhetoric that blames them for all that ails the community.

This time, however, it is this singular act of taking away their ability to work that has made leaving their only choice.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the state’s employer sanctions law, it was signed by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano last year. It was based on the premise that the state had to act, given that the federal government had not reached a comprehensive immigration bill that would have dealt with the estimated 12 million people in this country without proper documents. It requires fines and suspensions for employers caught hiring undocumented workers. A second offense results in the firm having its business license revoked.

Although few if any employers have been prosecuted, they are reluctant to hire or keep workers who can’t prove they have a legal right to work here. I know of one employer who had repeatedly put off letting go any workers. But the sanctions law proved too much and it finally let go of those who could not document their status, including one who had worked her way up to shift manager. The outmigration couldn’t come at a worse time for the state’s economy.

It’s been reeling for a couple of years as the housing crisis has taken its toll. For decades, the residential construction industry has been a major engine in the local economy. It’s currently at a standstill.

Local businesses envisioned this scenario long before it came to pass. It’s one reason they fought the law so vociferously, only to be overwhelmed by those who called them greedy employers.

Now the end result is hitting them in their pocketbook. Sales and revenues are down at retail establishments ranging from Wal Mart to car dealerships to State Farm insurance offices. Labor at many establishments has also been lost and in many cases, not readily replaced.

Not long ago many big-city mayors, among them-New York’s Rudy Giuliani, threw open their doors to all immigrants. They understood that, regardless of status, the newcomers brought a vitality that had long fallen into decay. In Arizona. strip malls way past their prime, dying neighborhoods and dormant commercial districts had new life injected into them by the mostly Mexican newcomers seeking a better life. Their children, if not the parents, were beginning their ascent into the mainstream U.S. workforce, bringing energy and intellect to critical endeavors as they followed a path blazed by countless groups before them.

It seems like a faded memory now. Sure, some immigrants are still clinging to what they can do to stay here and survive. But those who came here to work are moving on. I’ve heard talk about moving to places such as Wisconsin, New Mexico or back to Mexico.

Make no mistake: Arizona has plenty of need for the labor they bring. The notion put forth by proponents that those jobs will be filled by U.S. citizens isn’t panning out either. Funny how few people really want to work in the Arizona sun for $8 an hour. Or clean a house for less than $100.

Time will tell if and when Arizona’s economy will pull itself out of its downward spiral. But let it be clear that driving off an embedded segment of its workforce wasn’t a smart move for a slumping economy. Hispanic Link.

Where is our country heading to, oh my God! Have we become a totalitarian nation?

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin J. Ramirez

As much as I try to think that this is not possible, that how can a so powerful nation cease being the greatest nation on Earth overnight, I keep seeing the signs that in fact is happening, that an ugly future is unveiling to replace the good life in the U.S. when I go online.

News not shown on CNN, Fox News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, you name it, keeps coming at my direction via the Internet every day. The recently coming of the worst financial fall down of the U.S. economy in history that has hit the country, was anticipated early this year pretty clearly.

I kept receiving information online stating that something of great magnitude was about to happen before the presidential election.

Every time I had the chance to spread the message to other people about it, sometimes their response was, “Oh! Another conspiracy theory.” And I believe they respond this way because most people want to believe in the government, and most importantly, they really believe the traditional media will tell them the truth of the day.

I have heard that before this November elections, coinciding with a prospect bombing of Iran, the President may declare marshal law. Iran has repeatedly stated that if they are attacked, they will block ships navigation in the Persian Gulf, in doing so they will abruptly halt oil supply to most parts of the world.

Can you imagine our future? If marshal law is declared, there won’t be elections, and Bush will keep running the country under emergency powers as Commander-in-chief of the armed forces. There will be massive protests and looting on the streets because the supermarkets will run out of food in 48 hours. I suggested in previous editorials that we all should start storing food because a food crisis of great proportions never seen before is approaching.

We don’t have or grow food in the cities. Not in San Francisco, not in Daly City, not in San Mateo. Most of our food comes in trucks, but without oil, there won’t be food delivered, hence protests on the street will surge, and consequently, there will be repression – possibly by the U.S. Army.

The Army Times, an independent weekly newspaper serving active, reserve and retired United States Army and United States National Guard personnel and their families, reported on Sept. 6, that an Army unit will be deployed in October for domestic operations in our own United States streets.

According to the article, beginning in October, the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the fi rst time to serve as an on-call federal response team in times of emergency. http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/.

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq, but now the unit is training for domestic operations. The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command.

The Army Times reports that this new mission marks the fi rst time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called non-lethal weapons designed to subdue and contain unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.

The government knows and so is preparing to stop anyone who plans to stop the course of their plan, and the media is not investigating or covering the real news. They are keeping us entertained with the bailout issue, in which the government will be borrowing $700 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank to bailout a group of corrupt private bankers on the back of the taxpayers. What’s really happening is best described in the following statement.

“These are dark times while you were sleeping the cockroaches were busy about their work, rummaging through the U.S. Constitution, and putting the finishing touches on a scheme to assert absolute power over the nation’s financial markets and the country’s economic future,” wrote Mike Whitney, in his online blog this month, which was published on dozens of websites. (­http://www.smirkingchimp.com/author/mike_whitney).

“Industry representative Henry Paulson (Secretary of the U.S. Treasury) has submitted legislation to congress that will finally end the pretense that Bush controls anything more than reading the lines from a 4’ by 6’ teleprompter situated just inches from his lifeless pupils. Paulson is in charge now, and the coronation is set for sometime early next week.

Paulson rose to power in a stealthily-executed Bankster’s Coup in which he, and his coterie of dodgy friends, declared martial law on the U.S. economy while elevating himself to supreme leader. All Hail Caesar!” The days of the republic are over,” Whitney said.

Unless we start communicating among ‘We the People’, our little freedom that is still in existence, will be gone forever. We are weeks away from becoming a dictatorial, totalitarian nation, we should unite to stop the destruction of our country. The one who has ears listen.

NHLA directs candidates to six concerns of highest import

by Soraya Schwanz and Grazia Salvemini

Gabriela LemusGabriela Lemus

A series of Hispanic public policy proposals, packed into a quadrennial report endorsed by the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, were released by the coalition Aug. 21 in Washington D.C. The NHLA is made up of 26 leading Hispanic national and regional organizations.

It submitted detailed recommendations on education, civil rights, immigration, economic empowerment, health, end government accountability as its guide to both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates for addressing the 2008 Hispanic electorate responsively.

The document’s education highlights include early childhood, secondary and higher education. The off-proposed Dream Act, which would provide promising undocumented students access to higher education, is strongly supported. Civil rights actions are proferred to curb hate crimes and hate speech in the media. Attention is called to measures in employment discrimination and worker employment protection. Decreasing racial profiling in the criminal justice system is also addressed.

The immigration agenda strongly advocates enacting comprehensive reform and suggests ways to go about It. The report opposes employment verification systems that fail to meet set accuracy rates, as well as immigration enforcement raids which compromise public health and safety.

The United States should strengthen ties with other countries, extend job training and education programs to increase worker capacity as part of economic empowerment.

The recommendations were introduced by NHLA chairman John Trasviña, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and articulated in detail at an hour-long news conference by representatives of participating organizations at the National Press Club.

John TrasviñaJohn Trasviña

No one from the campaigns of either Barack Obama or John McCain attended, nor were they directly invited, Trasviña said in response to a Hispanic Link reporter’s question. The campaigns, Congress members and other appropriate parties would receive copies of the report, which would be also shared at the Democratic and Republican conventions, he explained.

“It is important for the NHLA to release the Hispanic platform at: both conventions,” said Gabriela Lemus, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement executive director, “to ensure that the presidential candidates and our lawmakers take into account the very critical needs of the Latino community.’,

The NHLA has produced similar agendas every four years since it was created in 1991. Its policy recommendations reflect a consensus from which candidates are asked to respond to Latino concerns and needs. Trasviña described it as the group’s “2020 vision.”

To view the complete 2008 Hispanic report and NHLA proposals go to www.maldef.org/puf/NHLA.2008.Hispanic.Policy.Agenda.pdf.

Bill passed by California Legislature will aid all students in remembering Mendez’s role

by Alonso Yánez

Photo is the 1934 1st Grade Class at the “Mexican” Wilson School in Orange County, Calif.Photo is the 1934 1st Grade Class at the “Mexican” Wilson School in Orange County, Calif.

Legislation requiring the Mendez v. Westminster School District case be included in the state’s future history and social sciences courses has been passed by California’s Assembly and Senate. It has not yet been forwarded to the governor’s office.

The bill AB531, introduced by Assemblywoman Mary Salas (D-Chula Vista) references an Orange County case filed in 1945 by five Latino parents challenging public school segregation.

The parents claimed that their children, along with other 5,000 others of Mexican ancestry, were forced to attend segregated schools in the Southern California communities of Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and El Modena. The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court ruled in their favor.

The case preceded the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court desegregation ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka~ Kans.

“All Californians should be proud that we were the first state in the nation to desegregate,” said Salas. Hispanic Link.

­

El Salvador: FMLN favorite to win elections

by the El Reportero’s news services

Mauricio FunesMauricio Funes

The opposition National Farabundo Martí Liberation Front (FMLN) maintains Saturday the sympathy of the Salvadorans with an eye toward the presidential elections, while the ruling party, Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) still looks for its formula.

The aspirant for President for ARENA, former boss of the Civil National Police Rodrigo Avila, said Friday that Salvadoran entrepreneur Arturo Zablah can figure among the pre-candidates to accompany him.

He also assured that another two names are in study and clarified that before November, he will let know who the chosen one will be.

The FMLN duet, integrated by Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez, maintains 3,1 percentual points of electoral preference above the ARENA aspirant, according to the most recent survey by LPG Datos.

The legislative and municipal elections in this Central American nation will take place January 18, 2009 and the presidential ones following March 15. More than 4,2 million Salvadorans are convoked to go to the ballot boxes.

If FMLN wins, it would be the fi rst time that the leftwing leads the country and it would break up with the serial government of rightwing ARENA, now in its fifth consecutive mandate.

Chávez unrepentant over HRW expulsions

Rodrigo ÁvilaRodrigo Ávila

Over the weekend of Sept. 20 and 21 President Hugo Chávez was severely criticized for his decision to expel the authors of a critical Human Rights Watch report on Venezuela. President Chávez’s abrupt decision to expel the authors of the critical report has played into the hands of his opponents who accuse him of being a protodictator.

It has also given the moderate leftwing governments in Latin America another chance to put clear water between themselves and Chávez. This suggests that Chávez’s increasingly shrill claims to speak for Latin America have a diminishing authority. Chávez starts another world trip today with a meeting with Fidel Castro in Cuba before going to China, Russia, France and Portugal.

Latin America goes it alone as Bolivian conflict explodes

Heads of state from the 12 member countries of the Union of South American nations (Unasur) met in Santiago, Chile, onSeptember 15 to discuss the social and political confl ict in Bolivia, which took a sharp turn for the worse over the last week (see page 3-4). The resulting declaration of support for Bolivia’s President Evo Morales might have rolled out the usual platitudes, such as a commitment to dialogue and the preservation of the country’s institutional integrity, but it carried symbolic value. It suggested that Unasur, created only four months ago, might in time supplant the Organization of American States (OAS) as the foremost regional body, unless there are some meaningful changes in US diplomacy towards Latin America.

Lula pushes for peace in Bolivia

President Lula da Silva has been closely involved in regional diplomatic efforts to bring about a peaceful negotiated solution to the current political crisis in neighbouring Bolivia, where regional prefects agitating for increased autonomy have destabilised the government of President Evo Morales. Brazil has a strong vested economic and political interest in maintaining a secure Bolivia, which provides it with up to a half of its natural gas supplies.

(Latin News and Prensa Latina contributed to this report).

McCain missing as Obama pitches Latino advocates

by Jose de la Isla and Jackie Guzman

John McCainJohn McCain

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hit hard at John McCain, his absent opponent, at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s gala at Washington, D.C.’s convention center Sept. 10.

He expanded on his reform theme to an audience of 2,300 political and social activists trying it to Latino community concerns. He called the imperative for change “a debate I look forward to have” with the Republican nominee who serves with him in the U.S. Senate. The first of three scheduled presidential debates is set for Sept. 26 in Oxford, Mississippi.

McCain was also invited to address the gala, but his campaign declined, citing a scheduling conflict. Had he accepted, he would have faced a mostly Democratic audience in a preview of the narrowing themes expected in the presidential debates.

As the flashpoint theme, immigration—in its broadest considerations—increasingly is a central focus in making appeals to Hispanic audiences. Domestic economics, the Iraq/Afghan wars, policy experience and capacity for the job have dominated the national discourse. The topic of immigration reform has often been skirted.

Due largely to strident legislative efforts by some GOP members of Congress to launch legislation that would criminalize undocumented immigrants, the Republican Party isn’t viewed favorably among pro-reform Latino elements within the party and among other sympathizers.

A recent study by Sergio Bendixen shows the position in several critical states has the potential to cost the GOP.

Barack ObamaBarack Obama

“There are many ways to describe Senator McCain’s agenda,” Obama told the audience, “but change isn’t one of them.”

He referred to immigrants who “come here with so little, but with big dreams, big hearts and a willingness to struggle and sacrifice.” He related this to the experience of his own father, who came from Kenya to study when he met Obama’s mother.

The candidate referred to the oft-repeated line that McCain would be a continuation of the “failed policies of the folks in the White House. “

He called for a “stop of the hateful rhetoric” about the 12 million undocumented people “living in the shadows.”

Joe BacaJoe Baca

About McCain’s prior position on immigration reform, when he co-sponsored with Sen. Edward Kennedy a reform bill, then rescinded his position, Obama said, “If you cannot trust him to stand up for reform in his own party, how can you trust him to stand for reform in Washington?”

Obama had been leading in national polls until recent polling showed some weakening following the Republican convention and McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

“I can’t do this alone,” he pleaded. “So I’m here tonight to ask for your help. Latinos will make the election difference in Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico and the election outcome. So I’m not taking a single Hispanic vote for granted in this campaign.”

CHCI spokesman Scott Gunderson Rosa said both presidential candidates were extended invitations in early spring to address the gala audience. A day prior to McCain’s Sept. 10 scheduled appearance, h is campaign sent a letter to CHCI chairman Joe Baca and executive director Esther Aguilera saying “an unforeseen scheduling conflict” would prevent the senator’s appearance.

The Sept. 9 letter followed an Aug. 28 CHCI press release stating McCain had agreed to address the group. McCain campaign spokesperson Hessy Fernández told Weekly Report,, “Sen. John McCain never confirmed that he would be attending.”

In addition to the Sept. 26 debate, others between the two candidates are set for Oct. 7 and 15. Vice-presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joseph Biden will debate Oct. 2. Hispanic Link.

Play on Tennessee Williams and a Mexican-American lover this month

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

Pancho Rodríguez and Tennessee WilliamsPancho Rodríguez and Tennessee Williams (photo from the Estate of Johny Rodrigue)

RANCHO ‘ON’ STAGE: A new play about the little-known relationship between Tennessee Williams and a Mexican-American lover will be performed this month at a prestigious festival dedicated to the late American playwright.

Written by journalist and playwright Gregg Barrios, Rancho Pancho had its world premiere Sept. 6 at the Jump-Start Theater of San Antonio, Texas. The play tells of the tumultuous, two-year relationship, 1946 to 1947, between Williams and Pancho Rodríguez, the Eagle Pass, Texas born man said to have inspired the Stanley Kowalski character in William’s Pulitzer-Prize winning A Streetcar Named Desire.

The play is based ons near 10-year investigation by Barrios, who had access to letters exchanged by the two men and who interviewed the family of Rodríguez, who died in 1993.

Rancho Pancho takes its title from the name Williams used for the various homes he shared with Rodríguez and will be performed Sept. 27 and 28 at the Province town (Massachusetts) Tennessee Williams Theater Festival. It will be the fi rst time a play not written by Williams is performed in the prestigious event.

VOICE OF SNOOPY: Bill Meléndez, the animator and cartoonist who produced all of the Peanuts TV specials died Sept. 2 in Santa Monica, California. He was 91.

Bill MeléndezBill Meléndez

Born José Cuauhtemoc Meléndez in Hermosillo, Mexico, he at~ tended the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles and worked as a Disney and Warner Bros. animator. In 1959 he worked on a Peanuts commercial and befriended the strip’s creator Charles M. Schulz. He went on to form his own company, Bill Meléndez Productions, and created the 1965 Emmy and Peabody winning TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Meléndez also voiced the Snoopy and Woodstock characters on several Peanuts specials; his company also animated the Cathie and Garfi eld strips.

“CHE’ OPENS: The first of two fi lms about the Argentine hero of the Cuban Revolution from the Oscar-winning team of director Steven Soderbergh and actor Benicio del Toro had its commercial premiere in Spain last week.

Puerto Rican actor del Toro plays Ernesto Guevara in Che, el argentino and in Guerrillero. Both films by director Soderbergh screened as one title at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Che, el argentino was met with lukewarm reviews in Spain, the only country where the Spanish-language films have secured distribution. Guerrillero is expected to open later this year.

ONE LINERS: director Patricia Riggen (La misma luna) and playwright, composer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) will be feted Sept. 9 at the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts’12th annual Noche de Gala dinner in Washington, D.C….and nominees for the 9th annual Latin Grammy Awards are to be announced Sept. 10 in Los Angeles… Hispanic Link.

For Latinos, Republican Party platafform is a hard sell

by Marisa Treviño

It’s no secret the Republican Party wants the Latino vote. Hessy Fernández, John McCain’s spokeswoman for Hispanic media, says the campaign’s goal is to secure 45 percent of the Latino vote. McCain Fernández, tells us, “is a true friend of the Latino community.”

Well, according to the Republican Party platform, a “true friend” seems to depend on who is defining “friend.”

While all issues are important to Latinos — education, health care, national security, the economy, etc. — certain ones impact Latino communities almost exclusively. The Republican platform addressed those : immigration, the Dream Act, undocumented immigrants and the English language.

Yet, overall, it is a disappointing read because when it came to the issues dealing with immigrants, the same old, tired, refuted exaggerations were regurgitated and adopted by the party as fact.

The McCain campaign won’t win over Latino communities with threats saying they want to guarantee “to law enforcement the tools and coordination to deport criminal aliens without delay — and correcting court decisions that have made deportations so difficult,” adding “It does not mean (providing) driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, nor does it mean that states should be allowed to flout the federal law barring in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, nor does sellit mean that illegal aliens should receive Social Security benefits, or other public benefits, except as provided by federal law.”

What they failed to say honestly was that because of this Administration’s policies — a.k.a. Republican Party — it’s common practice to criminalize undocumented immigrants by charging them with identity fraud.

Law enforcement officials who work with these fraud cases have gone on record in the past to say that the majority who perpetuate the damaging fraud against citizens, are their own fellow citizens.

From the adoption of their platform, some teens who want to go to college would be forever denied this possibility.

In this regard, McCain campaign workers will have their work cut out for them. Don’t they know that while “Dream Act” kids would not be allowed to vote, even though they grew up alongside friends who can and who are registering in record numbers this election season? If they don’t think these kids will cast a vote for the opposition in honor of their friends they see being left behind, the Republican Party is short-sighted and out of touch.

Punitive measures passed in state after state to assure undocumented immigrants don’t take advantage of Social Security or welfare benefits have turned into obstacles for citizens taking advantage of their benefits.

Again, state directors have gone on record saying undocumented immigrants don’t take advantage of Social Security and welfare benefits.

Another part of the platform makes you wonder just how some people envision this country’s future. They say our ties with Canada and Mexico “should not lead to a North American union or a unified currency.”

For the sake of argument, why is it a bad thing? We’ve seen European countries maintain their sovereignty and working in unison by joining forces.

Elsewhere they want, perhaps unconstitutionally, to curb the 2010 census, which apportions congressional representation, by saying it should not count every person, only those “legally abiding in the United States.”

Regardless of the intent, it’s not wise to shut your eyes and pretend 12 million people don’t exist. But pretending seems to be the name of the game among the committee which drew up this platform.

In one last example, the Republican Party platform says, “Gang violence is a growing problem…(which) has escalated with the rise of gangs composed largely of illegal aliens,” that “victims are law-abiding members of immigrant communities” and “illegal alien gang members must be removed…immediately upon arrest or after the completion of any sentence imposed.”

While it’s true gang violence has increased and many victims are immigrants, the assumption is not true that gangs are largely comprised of undocumented immigrants. Gang experts, usually in law enforcement themselves, say there are no studies to corroborate the figures, although they estimate the number is closer to 10 percent. That’s hardly a majority.

By clarifying the party’s positions, the Republican Party spells out for the Latino electorate just what true friendship means in a Republican context. Hispanic Link.

(Marisa Trevino, of Rowland, Texas, is a free-lance writer. She may be contacted through her blog Latina Lista.) ©2008

There should be an investigation on the 9/11 attacks

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin J. Ramirez

Most North American voters, with the exception of those who were too young during the events of one of the most shameful and ridicule political lynching that one can remember in the history of the world – of a U.S. president. And all happened to make the President tell he world that he had sex with someone – for denying that he did.

The impeachment of President Bill Clinton arose from a series of events following the filing of a lawsuit on May 6, 1994, by Paula Corbin Jones.

Then came the name of Monica Lewinsky, who had worked in the White House in 1995 as an intern, who was first included on a list of potential witnesses prepared by the attorneys for Ms. Jones that was submitted to the President’s legal team.

As usual, the public accepted the real-live political soap opera as entertainment, and hardly questioned the stupidity of the proceeding. As long as they had something to entertainment them, everything that comes from the great Wizard of mostly acceptable. I wonder why the same networks are always granted the airwave licenses.

Today, we do have a real national security issue, the attacks of the Twin Towers that killed almost 3,000, on 9/11, which have caused the loss of our freedoms and our government has become a military dictatorship – disguised with phony presidential elections between two traditional parties.

And there are important facts to look at 9/11, which many believe were “overlooked” by the media:

Finally, it had been reported by BBC, that WTC 7 had collapsed – 20 minutes before the event occurred?

Many say that the common suspected motives were the use of the attacks as a pretext to justify overseas wars, to facilitate increased military spending, and to restrict domestic civil liberties, which is exactly what we are experiencing now days.

Many of the theories have been voiced by members of the 9/11 Truth Movement, a name adopted by some organizations and individuals who question the mainstream account of the attacks, and they are committed to further investigation. On Sept. 10, Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader pledged support for a new investigation into the events of 9/11 Monday, commenting that the 9/11 Commission was “flawed, right from the get go”.

“Can you imagine an attack like that and the government didn’t even want to have an inquiry?” said Nader.

“The problem is that most people rely on the main stream news papers and they do not investigate anything other than what is on the TV, Radio and Mainstream Newspapers,” said Earl Koskella, a government critic. “Most people believed the government story.”

According to Koskella, no one in the media has ever brought up that all U.S. military aircraft were ordered to stand down by the vice president and no military aircraft were in the air for over 2 and a half hours after the first plane hit the tower.

To clear rumors, I believe an investigation should be demanded by everyone, and is owed to the people and to the world, and this needs to be done before the implementation of the marshal law, which many are voicing it will be imposed between now and the November 2008 presidential elections.

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