Last night I went to an event at an Ethiopian Restaurant called HIDMO where many activist meet….This night it was an evening of Fandango.. Latina American, music, dancing and some rappers integrated to this wonderful event.

I love the dancing and decided to go alone (which means I couldn’t get a date).. And enjoy myself.. Before I knew it a young man was sitting down at my table and soon he began to unravel his story. Turns out that his father is Anglo and mother Lebanese. An interesting combination.

Then he looks at me ..And says I HAVE SEEN YOU SOME PLACE
WHERE ?.. I ask

YOU TESTIFIED AT CITY COUNCIL ON THE TUNNEL

The tunnel is this huge project to direct traffic under the city and I was raising financial concerns about costs over runs.

Later this young man Deric was telling me about how he traveled on a bicycle through Africa.. I was impressed. Then he told me that the other day as he was peddling across a bridge in Seattle when he saw a woman who was going to jump. Deric stopped, stayed and talked with her until the authorities arrived. Now I was very impressed. What a great act of humanity!!

He would have never noticed her if he had been in a car and was driving by to his meetings… Something to be said about riding a bicycle.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a. Johnny Cash
b. Why expand the death row in California
c. Leno’s Write-Tirement
d. Alex Sanchez update
e. Johnny Cash … when I wear all black…

On occasion I dress in all black.. I sort of like this costume.. I think it could be an image of a minister, a sinister or perhaps Johnny Cash. When folks mention Johnny Cash I respond by saying in my best CASH VOICE….. HELLO I’M JOHNNY CASH.. And then begin singing .. I HEAR THAT TRAIN A COMING… COMING ROUND THE BEND… I AINT SEE NO SUNSHINE SINCE I DON’T KNOW WHEN …I AM STUCK IN FOLSOM PRISON AND TIME KEEPS ROLLING ON…

Editorial: What price is too high for death row?

The Sacramento Bee

Published Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010
In a twisted sense of timing, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has placed the exorbitant cost of California’s theoretical death penalty squarely before the public again.

The Schwarzenegger administration announced last week that it plans to borrow $64.7 million from the state’s cash-strapped general fund to accelerate construction of a new death row at San Quentin State Prison.
The administration’s call for bids to build new digs for condemned inmates comes as the governor’s lawyers seek court approval to furlough state workers and cut their pay to minimum wage, and as he pushes to end safety net services for some of California’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens.

Schwarzenegger needs to reconsider his priorities and focus on what is truly important as his time as governor ends – such as engaging in negotiations with legislative leaders to resolve the budget impasse.
The $64.7 million is merely a down payment. Construction would cost about $360 million. Interest payments on 20-year bonds the state ordinarily would sell to finance the construction could add another $150 million or more to the final price tag.

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wants to borrow the $64.7 million because the state is prevented from selling the bonds. Like so much else in the death penalty system, there is litigation. In this instance, a suit by Democratic lawmakers has tied up the bond sale.

We cannot imagine the governor decided to press ahead with the construction out of spite or because he is upset with Democratic legislators. That would be extremely petty. We prefer to think the administration is being driven by its vision of what is best for the state, although its priorities are seriously askew on this one.

Administration officials note that lawmakers authorized a new death row in 2003. Prison officials want to move forward now because contractors are hungry for work, which is cutting construction costs.

Officials say the $64.7 million will be repaid once the state can issue the bonds. But that assumes the governor will win the lawsuit. As Schwarzenegger ought to know by now, it’s foolish to second-guess courts.
The plan to build a shiny new 541,000-square-foot death row within San Quentin’s boundaries underscores fundamental problems with capital punishment. So long as there is a death penalty, the state will need to house, clothe and feed the inmates at huge costs.

San Quentin sits on prime bayfront property in Marin County. It could be sold for a fortune and turned into housing, a transit hub, a ferry port and much more.
However, lawmakers cannot agree to close San Quentin. Nor are they prepared to abolish capital punishment, given that Californians support it by a wide margin. The U.S. Supreme Court and California Supreme Court seem willing to permit the process to continue, knowing that it is more likely that someone will be struck by lightning than die by lethal injection or gas.

California has 706 condemned inmates, by far the largest condemned population of any state. Since capital punishment was reinstated in California in 1978, 13 men have been put to death at San Quentin. Another 73 others have died of suicide, drug overdose and natural causes, including one last week.

The longest serving inmate, Douglas R. Stankewitz, has been on death row since Oct. 13, 1978. The oldest, David J. Carpenter, the “Trailside Killer,” became an octogenarian this year. There hasn’t been an execution since January 2006, and there’s no certainty there will be any executions any time soon.

In California, the death penalty is conceptual. There simply are too many smart attorneys who can mount too many arguments that will persuade too many judges to place executions on hold. So long as we retain this broken system, taxpayers will be condemned to pay the price – in this instance, about $500 million for a new death row.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

WRITE-TIREMENT

JUDGE POSTPONES ALEX SANCHEZ GANG TRIAL TO FEBRUARY 14, 2011

By Tom Hayden

In a surprise development Friday, US Judge Manuel Real delayed the start date of the gang conspiracy trial involving Alex Sanchez until next Feb. 14. Until now, the trial was scheduled to begin on October 15. No reason was given for the four-month delay but the parties are swamped by some 20,000 wiretaps that must be translated, transcribed and evaluated. Only 800 transcripts have been delivered to defense counsel thus far.

At a previous hearing July 28, Judge Real several times accused defense lawyers of “sandbagging” him, “playing games”, and going on “fishing expeditions” in their demands for documents, and planning “vacations in El Salvador” under the pretext of research. When he accused them of “playing games” at Friday’s hearing, he met a strong rebuke from an exasperated defense attorney, Ellen Barry, who enumerated the documents yet to be translated and asked the judge, “where is the gamesmanship in that?” The judge, who has received the most reversals of any federal judge, told those present that he’d “heard it all.”

Rhetoric aside, the judge on Friday for the first time asked the attorneys when they might be free in the first six months of 2011. He also has granted Alex Sanchez’ attorney, Kerry Bensinger, funding for a trip to El Salvador this week to take depositions and conduct interviews.

Some of the issues contained in court documents, but not yet reported, may be the most explosive yet in revealing the government’s globalized war on gangs. See www.The Nation.com next week for the new developments. #



KISS THE MOON WIND AND SUN

Enjoy the beauty of the world and give up a kiss now and then

My best
leno

New Holly Community Center 5-8 pm

On a Sunday afternoon in September there will be a fun filled celebration in Seattle. This will be a celebration of leno’s birthday and his Write-Tirement. Meaning he will soon be concentrating on his books and perhaps will work part time.

Message from Aviva Rose-Avila:

I would like to invite you to be a part of my father’s Write-Tirement celebration by accepting this invitation, by attending or just helping in whatever way you can. My dad, Leno, would like you; those with whom he has worked and known to be part of this event.

As many of you know he took out his retirement funds 14 years ago to start a unique organization called Homies Unidos to work with youth at risk and Gang members in El Salvador and Los Angeles. Now we ask you to help us raise some funds to allow him to return to Micronesia where he served as Country Peace Corps Director so that he can concentrate on his writings.

I hope you will still be able to attend or be of assistance from a distance. In any case this will be a wonderful event that we would like you to be a part of in some way. You can send any donation to (Att: Aviva Rose-Avila, 1358 4th Street, PHA, Santa Monica, CA 90401) written out to Magdaleno Rose-Avila.

Please let me know how you will be able to participate .

Hugs!

Aviva Rose-Avila
786-368-5756
Aviva.roseavila@gmail.com

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.Three women Supremes
b.Proposition 8
c.Neshoba
d.Asylum victories
e.Latinos and justice system
f.El beso de adios
g.Tans and getting darker

THREE WOMEN ON THE SUPREME COURT

I celebrate this historic milestone but we have a long ways to go yet.. The balance should be 5 women to four men and amongst them we should have an Asian and a gay or lesbian. The Court is still to right wing and is a threat to our very Constitution.
Today the Republicans are holding up two good Asian candidates for Federal Judgeships because they think they are too liberal… I think that is good thing to have a few liberal judges given the right wing politics of so many other federal judges…please pressure your elected officials to keep the names of Liu and Chen in the process.

GOP blocks two federal judges’ nominations

The Senate adjourns, sending back to the White House the nominations of Goodwin Liu and Edward M. Chen to the federal bench in California. Both are perceived as liberal

PROPOSITION 8

I have yet to read the decision but it seems to be good.. The arguments for Proposition 8 were weak and often most absurd. While we celebrate for the moment; just know that this fight is far from being over… So let us keep organizing and building our coalition…

NESHOBA: THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

opens in New York on Friday, August 13th, at Cinema Village.

The Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner families, and Tony and I, will be at the 7:15 p.m. screening for a Q&A with the audience.

We’re showing the new release cut for the first time and are very excited about that too. We hope some of you can be there to celebrate with us the release of our film and that NESHOBA continues to provoke honest dialogue about race in America.
NESHOBA runs from Friday, August 13th through Thursday, August 19th. Check the Cinema Village website for ticket information and show times. Please spread the word to your friends and contacts.

TIME OUT NEW YORK REVIEW
Neshoba: The Price of Freedom
FOUR STARS
Dir. Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano. 2010. N/R. 86mins. Documentary.

More than four decades after the Neshoba County murder of three civil-rights activists (the same crimes dramatized in Mississippi Burning), one would expect a new doc on the subject to play like yesterday’s news. But with the surprising 2005 indictment of octogenarian hatemonger Edgar Ray Killen, filmmakers Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano recast the tragedy in the light of a community forced to confront past wounds. Interviewing residents from across the spectrum, Neshoba reopens the debate: How was this allowed to happen? How do we move forward? Some questions, this compelling movie reminds us, still require answers.
(Opens Fri; Cinema Village.)—S. James Snyder, August 9, 2010
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Two Asylum Victories

Every now and then I am asked to be an expert witness on a Central American gang related Asylum case. Most often we do not win and it is tough to get the bad decision. But this last week I was notified by attorneys on two separate cases that we had won .Now that makes you feel very good.

When the client has money I am paid a small fee but on most occasions I am dealing with a law firm that is doing the case Pro-Bono and often the firm can’t pay for expert testimony. So more often than not I’m doing the case pro-bono…no money .but at least I have the satisfaction that I have been a part of the case and often become a cheerleader for the attorney who on occasion can get frustrated or depressed as the process moves slowly forward.. We should always do are best and if that is not enough then we will appeal the beans out of them.

LATINOS-CHICANOS-HISPANICS and the so Called Justice System

Latinos numbers in prison and ultimately on Death Row continue to grow. This is a problem for us all because it is a product of the socio-economic system that is failing this community.

The high school dropout rates of 20 years ago remain about the same. In the mid sixties when we fought for College Scholarships and programs we thought we had found the medicine that would help so many more to get an education and give back to their communities. The problem is that most never make it to college. These high school drop outs become the targets of police wanting to fill their jails and eventually the prisons…

Today the Judicial process is a key weapon being used against the Latino Community. We become easy targets …especially our youth who before they know it they are finger printed, and become part of the long road to judicial never-never land. A land of legal files that outline the pain and despair of our communities…And if the youth happen to be undocumented they are soon on the road to deportation…

Once in jail or prison your life begins to change. In order to survive you end up doing things you would have never imagined. And this can get you into even more problems.

The men and women with families leave behind children and a family that often begins to unravel as the head of the family begins serving a long sentence. Most of those in prison are not violent criminals or a real danger to society. But it seems Society wants to be tough on crime and not smart on crime.

While they correctional systems say that they want to transform the prisoners they somehow manage to move them from one prison to another without rhyme or reason. This makes it more difficult for loved ones to stay connected.

I hope to begin a dialogue with you that while we will begin with Latinos this injustice also affects all prisoners and a system that has gotten out of control. In the process we need to talk about this industry that chews up prisoners and helps to destroy families.

Please write to me at leno@magdaleno.org and just title it HISPANICS AND THE JUSTICE SYSTEM if you want to be involved with this issue… that way I can keep these conversations organized.
I hope that many of you will join me in this just cause

“El Beso del Adios” (Kiss Bessemer Goodbye)

A play written by Tencha Avila

If in the New York Area you must see this “stirring comedy” of the search for
the American dream is still in repertory at Repertorio Espanol
Theatre. 128 East 27th Street —  Tel. 212-225-9920. Tickets begin at
$25.  For more information, visit: www.repertorio.org.  Group rates
are available.

The New York Times:  ”A warm, funny, realistic circle of characters
that it’s a pleasure to spend time with.”

The Village Voice: “A delicately crafted Spanish-language piece that
delves wittily into the domestic dramas of a middle-class Mexican
American family living in Bessemer, Colorado in the 1970s.”

SYNOPSIS:  ”Kiss Bessemer Goodbye”

It’s April, 1970, in Bessemer, a steel mill town in southeastern
Colorado. A Mexican American family is roiled by problems:

Lupita, the first family member to attend university, is about to
graduate, a cause for celebration. Uncle Chuy, a boisterous, self-made
man who regards himself as the unchallengeable head of the family,
arranges for her to teach in a local school, but she’s got more
distant plans with a Japanese American boyfriend who arouses old
family ethnic antipathies.  Uncle Joe, out of work for four months
because of the strike at the steel mill, is severely depressed.
Lupita’s aunt and mother add their problems and solutions to the mix.

The play brings to life a Mexican American family in Colorado four
decades ago and dramatizes the universal themes of love and conflict
in a family undergoing generational and social change.

While it is a drama with serious themes, the cast of distinctive,
complex characters with their own personalities, foibles and
contradictions bring humor to their serious predicaments. In the end,
all works out for the best, but the issues raised will resonate with
the audience long after the curtain falls.

————————————————————————-

TANS AND GETTING DARKER

During the summer months many try to get a good tan. But those of us with natural coloring just enjoy our skin tones but we all have to be cautious with the hot sun and a thing called skin cancer. Slap on some sun block if you want to enjoy your summer
Many are able to achieve a good brownness and sometimes they look almost deportable.LOL… but one person who sports the worst and strangest colors is Congressman John Boehner.

His skin color ranges from a muddy yellow to a deep red to orange. Part of the coloring I assume is because he drinks a lot .but his current coloring is over the edge… is he still going to a strange tanning salon or could he be the first Alien from another planet and if so he must be a so called ILLEGAL ALIEN… but where or where can we send him ..??

My best
leno

Sunday night I performed a wedding for Abdullah and Labiba a lovely couple from Afghanistan… aaaahhh love was in the air.. One is Christian and the other Muslim. Abdullah had been held previously in the Tacoma Detention Center as he sought asylum. While there a legal program helped him to get bonded out and he was given refugee for two years in the home of a wonderful gay couple. By the way these two men were the witnesses for all the wedding documents and I found out they offer their home to many immigrants in transition from the detention center.

It was a nice ceremony on the deck at sunset.  It was a nice but small crowd at the home of Immigration Attorney Diane Butler. Her younger daughter served as the flower girl…
Abdullah cooked the many delicious Afghan dishes. The toasts to the wedding couple were done in many languages.  The wedding couple will be off to Virginia and will continue to hope and wait for the best from Immigration.
It was an honor to be part of the wedding but had to scramble when they also asked me to bless the food.  Yes I was the minister for four hours..And was happy to be there…
In the past 16 years I have performed many weddings and funerals and in the process have met many wonderful individuals.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    American Night
b.    Terminating pregnancy = jail time in Mexico
c.    Eating fruits of harvest

THE ANATOMY OF IMMIGRATION AND AMERICA

RICHARD MONTOYA AND CULTURE CLASH ARE TELLING THE TRUTH …  AND MORE IN A PLAY CALLED ‘AMERICAN NIGHT: The Ballad of Juan Jose.’

Recently I was treated to the most amazing presentation of the history of Immigration in this wonderful one act play.

Montoya, a spiritual rocket and Chicano historian, reached far into his artistic and archeological sides to bring a wonderful story that tells of a chapter of this book called America. In this production he and Culture Clash tell the story of me and of you.. It is a story of greed, race, violence, religion, compassion, hatred, despair and hope. This begins with an immigrant preparing for his citizenship test and then the dreams that enter his mind the night before the big day.

This presentation comes to you at times as a fast large tsunami of truth that fills your everything.. twice. At times it seems to be too much but in a moment you are begging for even more.

You learn of the Klu Klux Klan, heroic black figures, Lewis and Clark, the Japanese Internment Camps, Arizona, town hall meetings, ICE, and about the absurd exam that qualifies one for citizenship.
Richard who has his roots with the famous Culture Clash also performed in the play as did Herbert Siquenza another Clasher. It was good to see these artists introducing their art to others.

This play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland is there until October and should be seen by all who fight for the rights of immigrants and also serves as a good class room for those who need this lesson of Americana..

And it should be noted that the Acting, costumes, lighting,
Directing, and all aspects of the technical parts of the show blended in as a wonderful mosaic of stories into a seamless cloth.. which gave us reason to enjoy and believe in the characters and the story line…and to hope!!!

AMERICAN NIGHT.. MY NIGHT AND YOURS.

By leno rose-avila
206-618-9909
American Night review
July 5th, 2010 herbert Posted in Press, Schedule |

Play offers offbeat, surreal take on our country’s past

‘American Night’ kicks off OSF’s history cycle of plays with rollicking, insightful satire and occasional pathos
By Bill Varble
for the Mail Tribune

A colored cowboy, a Mexican revolutionary and a Ku Klux Klansman all walk into a saloon …

The premise is put forth by Ben Pettus (Rodney Gardiner), a black cowboy in “American Night: The Ballad of Juan José,” which had its world premiere Saturday afternoon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s New Theatre.

There’s no punch line, but the setup, with its hint of meta-theater, breaks the tension between three real (in the play) men who fit those descriptions.

It is 1918, and the three are facing off outside El Paso, Texas, where Ben’s wife, Viola Pettus (Kimberly Scott), is selflessly treating victims of the influenza epidemic that killed as many as 100 million people.

It is fitting that she do this, as it jibes with the larger vision of the play, which seems to have been inspired by a belief that often in American history, in the middle of great darkness, somebody steps up to do great good.

The credits say Richard Montoya and Culture Clash wrote the thing, but I don’t believe it.

It plays as if written by the Firesign Theatre and directed by the Marx Brothers, starring Monty Python.

“American Night” is a boisterous, rollicking, surreal, post-modern, postracial (warning: some descriptions may contain irony) journey into American history — and by extension the heart of one man’s American Dream.

Viewing is known to cause unrestrained laughter — and maybe a tear.

Juan José’s (René Millán) journey will take him over mountains and deserts, into wars and plagues, from rock festivals to shlock radio shows to internment camps. He will encounter Teddy Roosevelt, Sacajawea, a Shakespeare-quoting soldier, a bear, Malcolm X, NAFTA, Mormons, Harry Bridges, Bob Dylan, a tea bag lady, Fidel Castro and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

There will be social commentary, some of it caustic, all of it comic, most of it very funny indeed.

The seed of “American Night” seems to have been “The Citizen’s Almanac,” a sort of Civics 101 booklet published by the government for immigrants trying to become American citizens. Juan José left Mexico, where he was headed for trouble with drug lords and crooked cops, hoping to bring his wife, Lydia (Stephanie Beatriz), and the couple’s baby later.

In the U.S., using flash cards to cram for his citizenship exam, he falls asleep and dreams the play. The narrative has the fractured, disjointed structure of dreams, with one episode segueing into the next outside the normal constraints of rationality or plot.

Juan José finds himself in the Mexican-American War in the 1840s and wants to stop the killing, but the treaty he’s asked to sign will cede a good chunk of North America to the United States at the expense of Mexico, not incidentally making him into an outlaw. What to do?

“Hath not a Mexican eyes?” cries a Mexican soldier, quoting Shylock.

Rim roll.

Sacajawea is a 15-year-old with an attitude. T.R. never sees an animal he doesn’t shoot at. A Klansman with nowhere else to turn brings his baby to black Viola — and the infant has a tiny, little, pointy Klan hood.
Flash forward a bit and it’s a world in which America is ever more Mexican, and Mexico is ever more American, and Nike sneakers can rain from the skies. All this is painted by Montoya and director Jo Bonney in very broad strokes indeed. Scenic designer Neil Patel’s thrust stage fills the entire playing space, with Shawn Sagady’s projections filling in and/or commenting on much of the action: landscapes, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Manzanar internment camp for Japanese-Americans, the 1969 Woodstock festival, vintage postcards, the inevitable moving train, the Caribbean.

For a world of NAFTA there are giant projections of industrial gears and cogs filling the back of the stage like that famous scene in Chaplin’s “Modern Times.”

Much of the story involves stereotypes, with Culture Clash coming down on the side of the argument that says when we laugh at them they are undercut and lose power.

And laugh we do. Mostly. You can’t tell this story without ugly. There is a sign, of a sort once common, that says “No dogs, negroes, Mexicans.” But in the end the satire is the big-hearted, inclusive, Horation sort.
There is Woody Guthrie claiming this land is his land, and ours, and Harry Bridges organizing workers against the bosses, and a stoner Boy Dylan copping song lyrics to inject into loopy dialogue.
The surreal anarchy of the climax reminded me of “Duck Soup,” but Juan José is no Rufus T. Firefly. Millán plays him, brilliantly, as a straight man with a good heart in the midst of comic chaos, as befits what is essentially a zany but profound civics lesson.

“American Night” lasts but 90 minutes, and tickets should be impossible. Give it stars all the way off the page. And note that it debuted exactly 75 years after the first-ever OSF plays. It is the first of Bill Rauch’s “American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle,” 37 commissioned plays that will tell America’s story. It is a rousing, heartfelt beginning.

Bill Varble writes about arts and entertainment for the Mail Tribune. He can be reached at varble.bill@gmail.com.

Six in Mexico get 25-30 years in jail for abortion

/EFE) Six Mexican women have been sentenced 25-30 years in prison on homicide charges for terminating their pregnancies.

The women have already served between three to eight years of their 25 to 30 year sentences handed down by state courts in Guanajuato state, activists said.

Veronica Cruz, director of the Centro Las Libres, which provides assistance to over 160 women facing abortion-related charges, said the organisation would appeal to the federal judiciary.

Of the six cases, one was a spontaneous abortion, two others were undertaken because of rape and the rest were for accidental pregnancies, Cruz said.

‘All the men who got them pregnant abandoned them’, she said.

Since the beginning of the decade, over 40 women have been put on trial for abortion, which is punishable by up to three years in prison under the penal code.

The legislation regarding abortion varies in Mexico’s 32 separate jurisdictions. While in Mexico City it is legal, some states continue to treat abortion as a criminal offence.

——————————————————————————————————

EATING THE FRUITS OF HARVEST

This past weekend I was enjoying, berries, cherries, plums, and will soon begin on the fresh melons. There is a large fruit and vegetable market near my house that is my source of most of my fresh products.

While enjoying these products I need to remind myself that these are harvested by farm workers who are paid almost nothing and live in minimal shelters. They do not share in the profits and do not have a union that will protect them.

It is a union that will protect  your farm products from abuse of pesticides and ensure that workers are paid what they deserve.

At the same time I appreciate all those who provide services to farm workers year in and year out. One of my sheros is Rosalia Ginsburg who for many years in Oregon has gone out to help the farm workers in her area.

We all can do something… please help those who feed us .

My Jalapeno best
leno

SAVE THE DATE: September 12th 3-5 pm

New Holly Community Center in Seattle
Leno’s birthday and WRITE-TIREMENT CELEBRATION …
For more details contact Aviva Rose-Avila at aviva.roseavila@gmail.com

Today I dream of Micronesia .. I dream of jumping into a warm ocean… sinking down with all scuba gear on my back and with my regulator releasing oxygen into my mouth as I look around with my eyes through my mask. I continue to sink slower now as I adjust the air in my BC (buoyancy compensator) this is a life jacket to which is attached your tank of oxygen, your regulator, your depth and time gauges…soon I am at what you call NUETRAL BOYUANCY which is when you are neither going down or up. You are stable and floating as if you belonged in the ocean. I was Peace Corps Country Director there from 2000 to 2003. And it is then that I learned to scuba dive and enjoy all it had to offer.

Scuba Diving is a great feeling… It is as close as you will come to flying

Think for a minute about this.. 2/3‘s of this world of ours is under water. That means that we have in our life times have only seen part of our world.

While I Micronesia I got to see pristine fish sanctuaries where sea life is protected.. Often you can go to these areas with just a mask and snorkel and see enough wonders of the world that it will make you appreciate the ocean even more than you did the day before. But if you can go down 30-50 feet with scuba gear you will see even more details of this wonderful ocean of ours. You will see fish and plant life that will amaze me. A friend who did many drugs in the 60’s claimed that drugs could not create what he saw and experienced in the ocean. I had to smile… perhaps that’s how we get folks off of drugs and alcohol by giving them a good natural experience.

In Micronesia to many I was known as the Samoan… and I am sure that many are waiting for this Samoan to return.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

1. Armed Forces at the Border
2. Changes in the wind for Leno
3. Some brief notes
4. American Night a play in Ashland, California ..Culture Clash
5. Roy Rodgers

DON’T BE SURPRISED.. IF ARMED FORCES CLASH ON THE BORDER IN ARIZONA

There is new wacko patrolling the border … he is Jason J. T. Ready and has declared war on the Narco-Terrorists..And is supposedly keeping an eye out for illegal immigrants. His group is well armed and part of National Socialist Movement. They believe that only non-Jewish, white heterosexuals can be the true Americans. Well that leaves out a lot of us. And he believes that anyone who is non white should leave the USA peacefully or be forced out. I also read that they are wearing military clothing with bullet proof vests. They soon will find out how hot the desert really easy and be down to their under clothes trying to keep cool.

It is possible that J t might face some other armed groups who protest this silly group of racists. And he and his merry band of NAZI’s should know that if the Narco-Trafficantes wanted to target them that the NARNO’s would not only easily wipe the desert with them but might even visit their families. These vigilantes are not prepared for the Narco’s. Seems that the Narco’s in Mexico are now using car bombs and that is not good.

So I would suggest to the local police and HOME LAND SECURITY that they send these folks home before someone gets hurt. The media and police are doing nothing right now .. But what will be their reaction when some 50 well armed Latinos show up to protect the innocent immigrants???… It is at that time that the media, in particular Fox Noise and the police will get worried. Nothing more bothersome than some people of color armed to the teeth.

CHANGES IN THE WIND FOR LENO… BREAKING NOCTICIAS OR NEWS.

I will be leaving the Social Justice Fund in the next couple of months. I will be going into Write-irement.. Which means that I will take time to concentrate on my books that need to be finished. So Oct. 23 will be my last official day. SJF will announce its new ED soon who will take over on August 1^st. And I will stick around to be of assistance to the organization for the next couple of months.

The Fund is onto a new generation direction which I think you will find most innovative and exciting.

In the meantime…

I will be looking for some half time work or short term projects … just think … you can hire this Mexican to do some work with you … Or you can just pay me to sit there and be pretty. Now… I will also be available to come and speak to your group. But first and foremost is to do a lot of writing and finishing up my books.

In September there will be a celebration of my birthday and my jumping off the ledge to finish my writing.. If you want to help with this celebration you can contact Aviva Rose-Avila at aviva.roseavila@gmail.com. You don’t have to live in Seattle to be able to help. We will accept long distance assistance. DON’T BE SHY CONTACT AVIVA.

SOME BRIEF NOTES

1. A HIMALAYAN MARRIAGE CUSTOM FADES

It seems that in some far away regions women could have more than one husband. These were all prearranged. The women would be the final word as to who was the father of any child born. There was never a DNA test. Now this custom of multiple husbands is disappearing..

1. THE WELL IS CAPPED FOR NOW

But will it remain capped and what o what will happened to all the oil floating down in the far reaches of the Gulf of Mexico. How much poison has been released and what will be the damage to our environment and economy?

1. MUSIC IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL

I think we should all listen to some music every day. It helps us smooth over the rough spots in our life and can help us to dream again and then we will be ready to do something good for this world of ours. Perhaps the music will get you up and cause you to dance and smile.

1. MY BROTHER MICHEAL FOUND HIS AND LUCINDA’S GROVE

Michael is the last of 12 children .. the baby of the family. He has moved to Seattle to be with the love of his new life and her name is Lucinda. They visited me today and we went for coffee. Lucinda is an Engineer and may soon be working for the State Department. But she is also an artist and brought me a beautiful bowl that she had made.

1. LYNNE STEWART GETS 10 YEAR SENTENCE

Many of us know Lynne and are amazed by all the good legal work that she has done over her 30 year career. Lynne is 70 years and ill and may end up dying in Jail. She originally had a 28 month sentence. The judge was striking down Stewart who has been a clear voice for justice and when giving the harsher sentence lectured about Stewart giving voice to ideas of what are by the Justice Department considered to be radical and not to be tolerated. Stewart was the lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Islamic leader who was accused of plotting attacks in Egypt and New York. She was accused of smuggling message from him that gave directions to his supporters.

The 10 year sentence was an attack at all progressive and radical attorneys. I know Lynne and am afraid that she will die in prison. She does should have been given house arrest if anything at all.

1. MET A WOMAN WHO LIVES IN BOULDER

I was sharing a moment at a coffee shop with my friend Candace Inagi who works for the Mayor when I met a new friend. When Candace went to the bathroom, I began talking with the lady seated behind me who turns out lives in Boulder, Colorado and had lived in Nederland where my good friend Scott Harrison has built the most incredible Carousel. I hope she connects with Scott and tells him that she met the man who saved his life in Viet Nam. I never went to Nam but Scott was a Marine and was wounded in Viet Nam … but I always tell folks who will listen that I saved his white butt…LOL

Just so you know I am an introvert so this was out of character for me to start up this conversation with this woman who originally was from England but now lives in boulder.

AMERICAN NIGHT starring Richard Montoya in Ashland, California..

Written by Culture Clash.. and that makes it hot and good..

Play offers offbeat, surreal take on our country’s past
‘American Night’ kicks off OSF’s history cycle of plays with rollicking, insightful satire and occasional pathos

By Bill Varble
for the Mail Tribune

A colored cowboy, a Mexican revolutionary and a Ku Klux Klansman all walk into a saloon …

The premise is put forth by Ben Pettus (Rodney Gardiner), a black cowboy in “American Night: The Ballad of Juan José,” which had its world premiere Saturday afternoon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s New Theatre.

There’s no punch line, but the setup, with its hint of meta-theater, breaks the tension between three real (in the play) men who fit those descriptions.

It is 1918, and the three are facing off outside El Paso, Texas, where Ben’s wife, Viola Pettus (Kimberly Scott), is selflessly treating victims of the influenza epidemic that killed as many as 100 million people.

It is fitting that she do this, as it jibes with the larger vision of the play, which seems to have been inspired by a belief that often in American history, in the middle of great darkness, somebody steps up to do great good.

The credits say Richard Montoya and Culture Clash wrote the thing, but I don’t believe it.

It plays as if written by the Firesign Theatre and directed by the Marx Brothers, starring Monty Python.

“American Night” is a boisterous, rollicking, surreal, post-modern, postracial (warning: some descriptions may contain irony) journey into American history — and by extension the heart of one man’s American Dream.

Viewing is known to cause unrestrained laughter — and maybe a tear.

Juan José’s (René Millán) journey will take him over mountains and deserts, into wars and plagues, from rock festivals to shlock radio shows to internment camps. He will encounter Teddy Roosevelt, Sacajawea, a Shakespeare-quoting soldier, a bear, Malcolm X, NAFTA, Mormons, Harry Bridges, Bob Dylan, a tea bag lady, Fidel Castro and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

There will be social commentary, some of it caustic, all of it comic, most of it very funny indeed.

The seed of “American Night” seems to have been “The Citizen’s Almanac,” a sort of Civics 101 booklet published by the government for immigrants trying to become American citizens. Juan José left Mexico, where he was headed for trouble with drug lords and crooked cops, hoping to bring his wife, Lydia (Stephanie Beatriz), and the couple’s baby later.

In the U.S., using flash cards to cram for his citizenship exam, he falls asleep and dreams the play. The narrative has the fractured, disjointed structure of dreams, with one episode segueing into the next outside the normal constraints of rationality or plot.

Juan José finds himself in the Mexican-American War in the 1840s and wants to stop the killing, but the treaty he’s asked to sign will cede a good chunk of North America to the United States at the expense of Mexico, not incidentally making him into an outlaw. What to do?

“Hath not a Mexican eyes?” cries a Mexican soldier, quoting Shylock.

Rim roll.

Sacajawea is a 15-year-old with an attitude. T.R. never sees an animal he doesn’t shoot at. A Klansman with nowhere else to turn brings his baby to black Viola — and the infant has a tiny, little, pointy Klan hood.

Flash forward a bit and it’s a world in which America is ever more Mexican, and Mexico is ever more American, and Nike sneakers can rain from the skies. All this is painted by Montoya and director Jo Bonney in very broad strokes indeed. Scenic designer Neil Patel’s thrust stage fills the entire playing space, with Shawn Sagady’s projections filling in and/or commenting on much of the action: landscapes, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Manzanar internment camp for Japanese-Americans, the 1969 Woodstock festival, vintage postcards, the inevitable moving train, the Caribbean.

For a world of NAFTA there are giant projections of industrial gears and cogs filling the back of the stage like that famous scene in Chaplin’s “Modern Times.”

Much of the story involves stereotypes, with Culture Clash coming down on the side of the argument that says when we laugh at them they are undercut and lose power.

And laugh we do. Mostly. You can’t tell this story without ugly. There is a sign, of a sort once common, that says “No dogs, negroes, Mexicans.” But in the end the satire is the big-hearted, inclusive, Horation sort.

There is Woody Guthrie claiming this land is his land, and ours, and Harry Bridges organizing workers against the bosses, and a stoner Boy Dylan copping song lyrics to inject into loopy dialogue.

The surreal anarchy of the climax reminded me of “Duck Soup,” but Juan José is no Rufus T. Firefly. Millán plays him, brilliantly, as a straight man with a good heart in the midst of comic chaos, as befits what is essentially a zany but profound civics lesson.

“American Night” lasts but 90 minutes, and tickets should be impossible. Give it stars all the way off the page. And note that it debuted exactly 75 years after the first-ever OSF plays. It is the first of Bill Rauch’s “American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle,” 37 commissioned plays that will tell America’s story. It is a rousing, heartfelt beginning.

Bill Varble writes about arts and entertainment for the Mail Tribune. He can be reached at varble.bill@gmail.com.

Leno, Maru and Josefina will go to see this AMERICAN NIGHT on the 27^th of July.. you should make the drive and see it also. The play is running until October.

ROY RODGER’S STUFFED HORSE TRIGGER AND WONDER DOG BULLET were up for sale… HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN (This was the theme song for Roy and his wife Dale Evans)

Seems that someone paid a lot for these two stuffed animals so that they could put them in a museum some place for others to see. I know that Roy Rodgers was before the time of some of my readers but he was sort of a cowboy folk hero and appreciated by many who watched television in those days.

It would be a riot if someone many years from now were to have me stuffed. This way I could be around for all of the events and marches in the community for centuries to come. You could keep my sun glasses on me and change my clothes on occasion.. Just remember that I loved my blue shirts and also my island shirts. My right arm could be directed towards the crowd with my finger pointing the way into the future.. And if possible you could always play some of my shorter speeches.

But since I plan to live for many more decades we will just have to wait. Right now I am stuffing myself with re fried bean, Spanish rice, and Jalapenos.

My best

leno

I had first met Hilda Solis when she was a state legislator from the Los Angeles area. As that point I was the Regional Director of Amnesty International. It was exciting to see a good pro Labor Latina in the State Legislature…

Then she became a Congresswoman and I got to visit her several times in her office in our nation’s Capitol. And I would see her on television at the Democratic Conventions with UFW CO-FOUNDER Dolores Huerta.

And then finally I got to watch her be nominated and then finally confirmed as the Secretary of Labor. Now that was most exciting.

So there I am this past Friday arriving on a early morning flight from Seattle to Denver. I am in no hurry I have no one to meet and the family reunion does not begin until the early evening…

In Denver you have to take a train to the main terminal and baggage.. I am just starting for the escalator when I see someone who looks like Secretary Soliz.. Yep my minds computer confirms.. IT IS HER… I scoot around two men in dark suits.. And jump on to the escalator one step behind Hilda when I feel a strong hand on my left shoulder and a voice saying you can’t go there..

I AM JUST TRYING TO SAY HELLO TO HILDA SOLIS..

She turns and smiles at me .. Probably not recognizing me ..From so many other Latinos …

I thanked her for all the good work that the administration is doing especially the Labor Dept.

And she responded smiling… EVERYTIME WE TAKE A STEP FORWARD THE WACKOS COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK

OH BY THE WAY …I responded I APPRECIATE THE RECENT ACTION YOU TOOK ORDERING BUSINESSES TO GIVE GAY EMPLOYEES EQUAL TREATMENT UNDER A LAW  PERMITTING WORKERS UNPAID TIME OFF TO CARE FOR NEWBORNS OR LOVED ONES..

This law is the FMLA or Family Leave Act. And the expansion affects a partner or key friend or family who is not a spouse to qualify for this leave.(more on this act at the bottom of this AHORA)
YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT .. IT JUST CAME OUT .. She smiled

The announcement came out the 23 of June and today was the 24th

YES .. I replied.. IT WAS GREAT

ARE YOU HERE FOR THE NALEO CONFERENCE??

NALEO is the National Association for Latino Elected or Appointed Officials and I used to belong to it over 20 years ago..

NO … FAMILY REUNION… WOULD LIKE TO GO TO NALEO BUT GOTS TO DO THE FAMILY RENUION…

She turned to go in one direction once we got to the main landing and I waved and wished her well .. I hope to follow up with a card thanking her for all the work she is doing for the workers of this country.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Lebron
b.    Spies
c.    Cuba
d.    And many other interesting items.

HERE’S SOME BRIEF ITEMS

LEBORN JAMES

He has said that he is going to Miami, Riley has another feather in his cap and if he is happy then I am happy…

SPIES WHO CAME OUT OF THE COLD..OR TO RUSSIA WITH OUT JALAPENOS

We discovered some 10 Russian spies… and before you know it we have a prisoner exchange..This was magician quick.. And there were no Mexicans involved.. And none of these spies came to the USA through the Arizona border..There must be more spies.. I am looking under my bed tonight.. On second thought I will ask my cat Estrella to look under the bed.

Oh yes did you notice that none of them were Muslims… looked like White Folks to me… seems the best way to infiltrate is to get folks who look like the door keepers.. What a novel idea?

CUBA RELEASING PRISONERS

Now Cuba is releasing a number of prisoners to Spain.. Thank goodness they got involved.. Now when is our country going to normalize relations with the Cuban Government..We do business with China and Saudi Arabia … why not Cuba?

AND BP KEEPS POLLUTING

We must come up with a new name for the GULF OF MEXICO.. Perhaps the DEAD SEA OF MEXICO IS MOST APPROPRIATE…oh by the way the Dead Sea in Israel is almost dead.. I am told it is shrinking every day…
And  more misery is being placed on the residents and wild life of the gulf and its neighbors.

ELENA KAGAN

She seems to be very smart and should be confirmed.. I will welcome another smart woman to the court,,,,god knows we have enough dumb men on the court and we could use some more people who understand the constitution and legal history.

I went looking for Jesus and instead found a defensive player for the University of Washington  Huskies football team.

It was getting late and I needed to go to some place of worship so I went to NewBethany which is 5 minutes from my house… I got there and the service was in process.. They had made the church into a theatre in round setting and I couldn’t fine my natural place in the back of the church.. Plus it was full this Sunday so I found a young couple I knew and sat down next to them.

There was a guest minister from South Africa and a large Samoan Choir that sang some good and lively songs. Their voices were great and I loved looking into their island faces.

On my way out after church an older Samoan stopped to shake my hand and ask if I was a lecturer at the University Washington. I said that I did that on occasion. By then a younger tall Samoan came up and said aren’t you the guy who lectured in my Chicano Studies class. I smiled and we began talking about this young man. He is a Nose Guard on the Football team and a starter. He is a junior and looks very strong .. We had a brief conversation about the  football and academic sides of his life.

I found it interesting that he had listened to me when I spoke to his class and would be willing to reach out to me after church..I gave him my email and I hope that he will soon write… his name is Alameda Ta’amu..So now I need to find some tickets for the home games.

THE GIRL WHO PLAYS WITH FIRE

Just finished this book… i found it most entertaining… i was in bed a lot with an owwieee or gash on my leg that i was nursing… so i found time to read a lot …

BUGLEME

Now some of you are receiving some of my bugles and I hope that you are enjoying them and that you will get others to sign up.

LATINOS/HISPANICS AND THE DEATH PENALTY

More Latinos are ending up in prison and our numbers are increasing.. So I will be asking for your help in the days to come to help me organize my educational and outreach efforts..

THE AVILA FAMILY REUNION

The Family Reunion brought family from different parts of the country from Mississippi, California, Oregon, Oklahoma, Washington and various parts of Colorado.
It was and always is a great gathering of family, friends.. many blendings of races and ethnic groups.. The faces and people are all beautiful..

At these reunions we have a talent show where people sing, act dance, read, oral interpretation and some speech making…I am given the role as Emcee …as the night wears on more and more people ask to be given the opportunity to perform…it is wonderful and most inspiring.. I only wish that I had some good entertainment skills to offer…

It is good to be reminded that you have family who loves you more than the moon and cherish you…

As always I bring gifts and this time I taken more immigration shirts and bags and aprons..

It was a great time.. Filled with much love..

My Jalapeno best
leno



WASHINGTON – The Labor Department intends to issue regulations this week ordering businesses to give gay employees equal treatment under a law permitting workers unpaid time off to care for newborns or loved ones.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis  planned to announce that the government would require employers to extend the option that has been available to heterosexual workers for almost two decades, two officials briefed on the plan said Monday. Neither was authorized to speak publicly ahead of the announcement

When the Family and Medical Leave Act was first passed in 1993, it was a huge step forward in establishing the flexibility and security that the American workforce needed to care for our future generations. It allowed employees to take unpaid leave to care for their kids without the fear of losing their jobs.

But while many are quick to point out that the workplace, workers, and indeed the concept of families have changed, the flexibility to apply FMLA to shifting conditions did not.

Well, the Administration took a major step in recognizing the need for such flexibility on Tuesday when the U.S. Department of Labor issued Administrator’s Interpretation No. 1010-3, which clarifies the definition of “son and daughter” under the FMLA. In doing, so we have expanded FMLA protections to cover loving caregivers that have traditionally been left out.

It’s called in loco parentis, a Latin phrase and legal doctrine that may require interpretation for those of us who are not lawyers: It means “in the place of a parent.” And when applied to the new realities of work and family, it means all employees who have assumed the responsibility for parenting a child, whether they have a biological or legal relationship with the child or not, may be entitled to FMLA leave.

What does that mean in the real world? It means that children can get the support and care they need from the people who love them and are responsible for them.

It means that we’re recognizing the importance of a partner who shares in the parenting of a child in a same sex relationship, and his or her right to FMLA leave. It means that we are recognizing the importance of “Tia” (Spanish for aunt) who steps in to care for her young nephew when his mother has been called to active military duty. And it means that a grandmother who takes responsibility for her grandchild can — when needed — take unpaid time off of work to do it.

It’s an important interpretation and it is a long time coming.

Perhaps shades of Larry Craig of Idaho…

This past Wednesday while attending a meeting of the MEDC/Minority Executive Directors meeting held at the library on Yesler that I had a most interesting experience. And it happened in the men’s room.
We were in a hot debate about the Police Chief selection process and I did not want to miss the debate.. and as I expected my bladder was calling out bilingually for relief. Finally I saw a break and ran out to the hall and asked the young man at the desk to buzz me ..

As I stepped in my right hand was already searching for the zipper.. it was then that I saw a young and small blond person standing there with a clip board and a plastic box.  This person just looked at me and as I got closer I noticed that it was a woman with her blond hair braided back.

I looked to my left to see if there were urinals and to ensure if I was in the right rest room.

We both just looked at each other for what seemed a long moment as it donned on me that she was wearing a police uniform

AM I BEING ARRESTED ?…I said as I smiled at

NO .. I AM JUST CHECKING ON SOME THINGS … and she returned my smile with her soft voice

GOOD.. NOW I FEEL BETTER … I said almost laughing

DO YOU WANT ME TO STEP OUT FOR A MOMENT.. she asked

YEP .. THAT WOULD BE GOOD..DO YOU MIND?… I responded with relief.. I was in fact having trouble holding back all the coffee that was trying to get out of my bladder.

OKAY… she said walking out the door. I could see a smile in her eyes

Later as I left the bathroom she was there outside about 10 feet from the door waiting with her box of materials.

THANK YOU… YOU KNOW YOU GAVE ME THE MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE ..I explained

YES I GUESS I DID ..smiling she went back into the bathroom as I held the door open.

Thank goodness that she did not arrest me … how would I be able to explain how I ended up in a public bathroom with a 115 lb 5 foot police woman who arrested this rather large Chicano and what did I do wrong?

I should have taken her photo with my i phone.. but me at the moment I was most worried about the potential headlines..

Just remember that no bathroom is safe..

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Profiting from lies
b.    Violence from Oil
c.    A Chorus of Bartons
d.    Gardening
e.    Bugleme
f.    Leno’s travels

Profiting on Immigration by Repeating Lies..

Arizona politicians continue to tell a lie about a farmer being killed by immigrants who might be part of the drug smuggling.  And then going on to say how unsafe it has become. And the politicos and the media have used the murder of Robert Krentz a rancher as the face behind the violence and call for the awful actions being taken in Arizona.

Both are lies but the media does not question the validity of these incorrect right wing talking points.. Nobody ..yes nobody knows why the rancher or by whom he was killed.  Police and politicians should not make up information that does not exist. And to tell the truth… one would have to say the Arizona is relatively safe next to other serious hot spots.. and then they should admit to all the weapons sales being done by arms dealers in Arizona to drug runners. And they should admit that no police investigation ties Krentz’s murder to immigrants or drug runners.

But the media keeps repeating the lies.. Even the New York Times is guilty of this. In a article on Sunday June 20th..Randal C. Archibald continued to push these lies in his Times article on page 16.

And now we have Fremont Nebraska passing a anti immigrant law  yhsy punishes immigrants but refuses to address the meat packing plants that employ immigrants to cut up the meats that feed mainstream America.

If we could just get Comprehensive Immigration Reform then we could make a difference for everyone and stop this growing flood of lies and fear.

THE VIOLENCE OF THE OIL IN THE GULF

This is a most serious issue… for us all.. if we didn’t understand before we must now all become advocates for our environment.  We all  will suffer from actions taken by profiteers.. And in the end it is the poor that get the brunt of all criminal actions taken as these companies take lives and destroy jobs….
To be an human rights activist is to be an environmentalist. If you read ..please take the time to inform yourself about this horrific event .. and take some action .

A GOP chorus of Joe Bartons on the BP oil spill

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Joe Barton is not alone. The Texas congressman’s lavish sympathy for BP — which he sees not as perpetrator of a preventable disaster but as victim of a White House “shakedown” — is actually what passes for mainstream opinion among conservative Republicans today.

The GOP leadership came down hard on Barton after he apologized to the oil company for the beastly way it was being treated by the White House, saying he was “ashamed” that BP was being pressured to put $20 billion into a “slush fund” to compensate victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Barton was reportedly threatened with losing his powerful position as ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee if he didn’t retract his words, and pronto.

But Barton was only echoing a statement that Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) had issued a day earlier in the name of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of House conservatives whose Web site claims 115 members. The statement groused that there is “no legal authority for the president to compel a private company to set up or contribute to an escrow account” and accused the Obama administration of “Chicago-style shakedown politics.” Just to review: A group constituting roughly two-thirds of all Republicans in the House takes the position that President Obama was wrong to demand that BP set aside money to guarantee that those whose livelihoods are being ruined by the oil spill will be compensated. In other words, it’s more important to kneel at the altar of radical conservative ideology than to feel any sense of compassion for one’s fellow Americans. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how today’s GOP rolls.

To be sure, there are Republicans who realize that this is not the message the party should be sending as the midterm election nears. “I couldn’t disagree with Joe Barton more,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Party leaders insisted that there was nothing to see at the cliff where Barton went through the political guardrails and that everyone should just move along.
But no. Let’s slow down and crane our necks.

Barton’s remarks were no spontaneous gaffe. They came in a prepared statement and represent his genuine view of the situation: that the rights of a private company are absolute even when weighed against the clear interests of the public.

While the party leadership has managed to squelch members of Congress who might have been tempted to weigh in on Barton’s side, the conservative amen chorus can’t help itself. Rush Limbaugh called the agreement on the $20 billion escrow fund “unconstitutional” and accused the administration of acting like “a branch of organized crime.” Newt Gingrich said the White House was “extorting money from a company.” Stuart Varney of Fox News claimed — falsely — that Obama had moved to “seize a private company’s assets” and complained that the action was “Hugo Chavez-like.” Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol said that “I have no sympathy for BP,” but then proceeded to be sympathetic, offering that “it’s not helpful for the country, for the economy as a whole, for the president to bully different companies and different industries.” I’d advise these people to get a grip, but they’re just saying what they believe. It just happens that what they believe is absurd.

There is ample evidence that BP, one of the biggest and most profitable oil companies in the world, cut corners in operating the Deepwater Horizon rig that resulted in the worst spill ever to despoil U.S. waters. BP’s assertions about its ability to prevent, contain and clean up any oil leak turned out to be patently false. If we were not dealing with such a tragic situation, the company’s tin ear for public relations would be comic; the unforgettable line from BP’s chairman — “We care about the small people” — sounds like something Mel Brooks might dream up for a sequel to “The Producers.” Meanwhile, thousands of fishermen, shrimpers, oil-rig workers, restaurant owners and others along the Gulf Coast are suffering the economic effects of the spill. The environmental damage, still worsening, will be felt for decades. A mile beneath the surface, that noxious plume of gas and oil continues to billow.

Yes, President Obama used the power of his office to pressure BP to set money aside for compensation. If Republicans believe he shouldn’t have, then by all means they should speak up. Come November, the voters will be able to decide who’s right.

THE GARDEN PLANTS… moving slowly

As you might remember that I started my mini garden some weeks ago and have been very excited about being able to watch them grow. Except for the last couple of days the weather has been rather cool and rainy so we have not had much sun. At the same time some birds have gone after my pumpkin and squash plants.

In the near future I will plant some garlic .. Garlic does well and makes one a proud gardener. One of my chili plants has flowers as do two of my tomato plants.
I will be traveling for about 10 days so I have to ensure that the plants get watered while I am away.

Gardening is good for the soul .. so plant anything and care for it and it will help you to relax and heal.

BUGLEME

Some of you will begin receiving some calls and notices from a wonderful system called Bugleme.. you will get messages from me and my activities..it helps us to stay connected… I have signed some of you up for a 30 free test period.  If you are interested in getting my Bugles then please write to me.

Traveling with El Chicano .. leno

June 25-27 Colorado for Family Reunion
June 28th – July 2nd  Washington DC ..Vigil and Fast for Abolition
July 2-4th Washington DC family and friends

My best
leno

In the past months I had noticed that my clothes were shrinking and this has had me most worried. Is the shrinking of my clothes affected by a change in the climate.. Or is it the clothes dryer that is shrinking everything I own… Everything has gotten tighter. Nothing fits well..I have gone on the internet to see if others were suffering the same as me.

I know that those who make appliances plan for them to only last for a limited period of time.. Thus the machine will begin breaking down and soon you will have to purchase a new one. so I began to think that perhaps the Clothing Manufacturers were putting something in the clothes so that after a year that they might begin to shrink…I was and am worried .or could it be other circumstances that would make my clothes fit tighter .. Could somebody have exchanged my clothes for a size smaller..???

Thinking this was possible I quickly went to my closet to check out all of the sizes of my shirts and pants…

Then one day my friend Heri came to visit .. took one look at me and said LENO YOU ARE GETTING FATTER..

WHAT? I questioned.

SI, MAS GORDO.. MUCH FATTER! JUST LOOK AT YOUR FACE AND YOUR STOMACH… YOU LOOK AS IF YOU ARE GOING TO GIVE BIRTH

BUT I HAVENT HAD SEX I said and smiled at her

LOOK IN THE MIRROR she insisted

So I went to the Mirror and asked MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL WHOSE THE FATTEST OF THEM ALL

The mirror showed me the awful results.. A chubbier face and a very large stomach

I was in shock!!!! There in the mirror I saw my baked potatoes, salt, chips, steak, burritos and tamales.. They had slipped down my mouth and decided to take up residence in my body

What a shock!!!! I could not blame the clothes that were getting smaller… it was me that was getting larger…

I will be on a fast in DC for four days at the end of June to protest the Death Penalty. This will take place on the steps of the Supreme Court… But before then I must begin cutting out some items that are making me larger. I also decided to go swimming more often. Perhaps this will help..Oh yes I will also drink more water and eat more Jalapenos.

HOW ARE YOUR CLOTHES??? ARE THEY GETITNG SMALLER??

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

1. What to do
2. Bugleme
3. Initiative 1098
4. Planting for Peace
5. World coalition against the death penalty

What to do..WITH BP

This is the most horrific disaster of our time and we can’t figure out what to do .. For years we did not regulate the industry and now we are paying for years of neglect. The republicans have led the charge to give these polluters a free license to destroy our world…

Some of the most disturbing images is of birds suffering covered with oil.. what we don’t see is what gives me the biggest night mares is at the bottom of the gulf and in the various currents that will destroy ocean animals and plant life for years to come . Not to mention the marsh lands and poisoning the people who work and live near the gulf.

I wonder why we have not heard from the government of Mexico? Why are they silent when their beaches and fishing industry will also be damaged?

The effects of this Oil Tsunami will be felt for years both by the environment and the economy.

Some small businesses will receive some compensation for their losses but the workers of these businesses will probably not receive anything.. They will just have to sit and starve. When Crops have been devastated by a storm Farmers have crop insurance or get aid from the government but the farm workers get nothing… And the same will happen to the workers who will lose their place of employment due to the BP DISASTER.

The White House needs to do more and/or let us know what is being done. We don’t and shouldn’t trust BP.

Perhaps we should camp outside the homes of the officers of BP and outside their office building.. And perhaps we should follow their family members where ever they go and remind them that their parents are destroying an important part of our world.

Bugleme ..Its new and exciting way to communicate

I want to introduce you to a new and exciting program called Bugleme. By joining up on this system you can get my actual voice and get a backstage pass into my activities on a regular basis. I will be telling you what I am doing and in many cases asking you to help me to work on behalf of Human Rights. Please go to the Web page listed below and accept the one month free trial period. Once you have received some Bugles let me know what you think. Below is the link for you.

http://magdaleno.bugleme.com/celebrity/home

Why Faith Leaders Support Initiative 1098

sponsored by Washington Association of Churches and Lutheran Public Policy Office of Washington

As people of faith we are called to protect the vulnerable, to change systems that are unjust, and to create a world in which everyone is treated fairly and equitably. Washington State’s tax system fails on all of these values. That is why the Religious Coalition for Tax Reform is organizing support for Initiative 1098.

We have a chance right now to put our faith values into practice. After decades of inaction — as our state falls further and further behind in our ability to fund core priorities — Bill Gates Sr. and many other faith and civic leaders are stepping forward to help lead a campaign to enact real tax reform in Washington State. This proposal will not just make our tax code fairer, empower small businesses, and create jobs; it will raise more than $1 billion per year to fund core education and health care priorities – priorities the faith community values.

Dedicated Funding for Quality Education and Health Care

Initiative 1098 will raise $1 billion per year to help us build a more vibrant economy and better opportunities for our children. That new revenue will go to a special trust fund dedicated to funding education and health care priorities like reducing class sizes, lowering tuition costs at our colleges and universities, and funding the voter-approved basic health plan and long-term care for vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities.

For more information please contact YES ON 1098 by calling 206-225-4610 or by email at infor@yeson1098.com. Petitions needed before July 2^nd.

World Coalition Against The Death Penalty

This important conference will be held this weekend at the Hastings Law School in San Francisco. For information contact http://deathpenatly.org/june12

Leno along with Michael Radelet, Mike Farrell and many others will be speaking.

PLANTING FOR PEACE

Yep, I got some plants into the ground… I almost had a heart attack digging and planting… I planted cucumbers, tomatoes, cilantro, jalapenos, bell pepper, squash and pumpkins. Now will see how they do.

Why is it called a Peace Garden?? One reason is because I am doing something good and it helps me come to peace with my world when I am out there digging and doing… better than going to a shrink… in about 2 weeks I should get some flowers and then by mid July I should have some production of something…

This is the first time in Seattle where my plants can get a lot of sunlight… and this is good. My roommate Maru and her daughter have their own plot going… and while we are not competing… I do want my plots to do well.. After all somewhere in my life I was a farm worker…

My best

leno

A week or so ago I was in the Catholic Cathedral looking for Jesus…it was at this service that one of the ushers an elderly Filipino gave me a fist bump when we were supposed to be giving each other the sign of peace (normally a handshake).. Now that was super cool.

I go to a variety of places of worship hoping to find God. I often think I see him/her on the streets begging for money… or perhaps it is the woman helping those with some incurable disease. Or perhaps it is a truck driver taking another load of hope down the highway. Or an immigrant farm worker…I am told to be ready for God and that he/she might just be whom you least suspect.

Once a few years ago when I was Peace Corps Country Director in Paraguay that I had to admit that I thought that I WAS GOD…..(when I told this to my sister Roberta .she said
WHEN DID YOU STOP TAKING YOUR MEDICINE? And I had to laugh) Now there I was in Paraguay having my weekend coffee and eggs when my house keeper who had just came from answering the bell that was at the gate to the residence interrupted my peace and quiet,

SENOR, Irma my housekeeper urged, THERE ARE TWO MORMON BOYS HERE AND THEY WANT TO TALK TO YOU

WELL TELL THEM I AM NOT HERE.. And I returned to my coffee

BUT I TOLD THEM THAT YOU WERE HERE AND THAT YOU SPEAK ENGLISH AND THEY GOT VERY EXCITED… SO PLEASE GO TALK TO THEM.

The Mormon Church has one of the best language programs and trains it missionaries to go to any part of the world with the proper language. And then they send off these youth on door to door excursions to convert the unsaved. When the CIA and FBI were looking for language trained agents many a Mormon was hired…

I went to the gate…Grumpy… nothing worse than a grumpy Mexican who is pulled away from his breakfast.

Yep there they were standing just the other side of the rust colored gate and fence..
GOOD MORNING …WHAT ARE DOING HERE TODAY? I asked… there they were in their white shirts with ties in the early morning heat.

They said their names and said they were with the Mormon Church…

BUT WHY TODAY? WHY DID YOU COME TODAY?? I continued to question

WELL TODAY IT WAS ON OUR SCHEDULE FOR THIS NEIGHBORHOOD the lead missionary said.

WELL… I MUST TELL YOU THAT THIS MORNING I WOKE UP AND DISCOVERED I WAS GOD… YES GOD! I BET YOU ALWAYS WONDERED WHAT GOD WOULD LOOK LIKE… WELL THIS IS HOW HE LOOKS TODAY…

They were in shock…they didn’t know what to say …

AND OH BY THE WAY… IN MY BOOK YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO ARRIVE HERE UNTIL TUESDAY…SO PLEASE COME BACK ON THE PROPER DAY…

As I turned to go in… I said

AND BY THE WAY I GIVE YOU MY BLESSING. As I said these words I held up both hands in the air over my head sort of bent in their direction and fought the temptation to make the sign of the cross.

I am sure that they had a most interesting story to give their supervisor at the end of the day. But I do hope that God looks better than me .. Wouldn’t it be funny if there were places of worship that had my or your picture all over the walls? And that people worshipped us.

LMAO (whatever that means)

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a. Israeli commandos
b. Exodus ship 1947
c. Boycott is growing
d. Memorial day whom do we honor

ISRAELI COMMANDOS BOARD A FLOTILLA OF SHIPS CARRYING HUMANITARIAN AIDE AND ACTIVIST HEADED FOR PALESTINE

This is a huge story and needs to be followed closely…it is absurd that the Israelis’ think that they can board a ship in international waters and shoot people…none of the violence would have happened if they had not boarded these ships commando style.. More details will be coming out and none of it will be good for Israel. International pressure is needed and a UN investigation needs to begin now and the Red Cross needs to be visiting all being held by the Israeli government.
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May 31, 2010, 2:48 pm

Echoes of Raid on ‘Exodus’ Ship in 1947

By ROBERT MACKEY

The New York Times The “Exodus 1947 ,” a ship filled with Jewish Holocaust survivors who wanted to immigrate to Palestine, after it was seized by the British Navy in a deadly struggle at sea and brought to Haifa in July, 1947.

Updated | 8:51 p.m. To some Israeli observers, it was impossible to miss the parallels between Monday’s killing of pro-Palestinian activists by Israel’s military in international waters, as commandos intercepted a flotilla of ships trying to break the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza, and a seminal event in the Jewish struggle for an independent homeland.

Noam Sheizaf, an Israeli journalist who is rounding up reports and commentary on the attack on his blog, “Promised Land,” points to a post in Hebrew by Rafi Man of the Israel Democracy Institute which asks: “Will This Be the Palestinian Exodus?”

Mr. Man was referring to the story of the “Exodus 1947,” a ship filled with Jewish Holocaust survivors who wanted to immigrate to Palestine in July 1947. That month, the British Navy intercepted the ship to enforce a ban on Jewish immigration to the territory, which was then under British control.

As my colleague Margalit Fox wrote in December — in an obituary for Yitzhak Ahronovitch, the captain of the Exodus 1947 — the violent way the British Navy seized that ship and deported the refugees backfired, creating global sympathy for the plight of stateless Jews. Ms. Fox explained:

The refugees had no legal authority to enter Palestine, and the British were determined to block the ship. In the battle that ensued, three Jews aboard the Exodus were killed. The ship’s passengers — more than 4,500 men, women and children — were ultimately deported to Germany.

The attack and its aftermath, which focused attention on the plight of many European Jews after the war, made headlines worldwide and helped marshal support for an Israeli state. [...]
Captain Ahronovitch was 23 when he took the helm of the Exodus. On July 11, 1947, he picked up the refugees at Sète, in southern France. On July 18, as the ship neared the coast of Palestine, the British Navy intercepted it. Captain Ahronovitch tried to break through, but two British destroyers rammed the ship.

Several hours of fighting followed, with the ship’s passengers spraying fuel oil and throwing smoke bombs, life rafts and whatever else came to hand, down on the British sailors trying to board, The Times reported at the time. Soon the British opened fire. Two immigrants and a crewman on the Exodus were killed; scores more were wounded, many seriously. The ship was towed to Haifa, and from there its passengers were deported, first to France and eventually to Germany, where they were placed in camps near Lübeck.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, when refugees from the Exodus 1947 were forced into displaced persons camps in Germany by the British military:

Large protests erupted on both sides of the Atlantic. The ensuing public embarrassment for Britain played a significant role in the diplomatic swing of sympathy toward the Jews and the eventual recognition of a Jewish state in 1948.

THE BOYCOTT IS STILL GROWING AND BECOMING STRONGER

Alfredo Gutierrez now in his mid-60’s a former legislator is now the lead person in Arizona for the boycott. In interviews he has said that the marches are great but not all of the answer. He reminds us that we have to do voter registration, voter turnout and pressuring of everyone to boycott Arizona. I met Alfredo in 1984 when we were part of a delegation to the middle east and even then I was impressed by his political knowledge.

The recent gathering of activist culminated in about 20,000 marching in the streets of phoenix while across town in Tempe the BUYcott movement of Minutemen, Tea Baggers and others held their rally in DIABLO STADIUM.. yep Diablo means Devil.. so I think they chose a good place with an appropriate name for their rally.

While tens of thousands bused and flew into Arizona for the BOYCOTT demonstrations .. the pro SB 1070 could only draw a very much smaller crowd of locals who came to vent about the immigrants. Some say that his BUYcott rally was organized by the Tea Party of Texas and did draw some folks from Missouri and California. But the BUYcott event was dwarfed by the BOYCOTT march and rally. Later many of the local BUYcotters would go home to their manicured lawns, clean homes and cooked meals all done by undocumented immigrants.

The BUYcott team has a most uphill battle trying to convince many new conventions and meetings to come to Arizona… these meetings and conferences are planned years in advance and cannot be changed and moved so easily. So while the BUYcott sounds good, it is more smoke and mirrors than a reality. I am sure that today many business people are praying that a law suit prevails that puts this law into legal limbo.

Businesses in Arizona like in most states have suffered during this economic recession and there are still many small operations closing down as more people continue to lose their homes. Now a boycott makes it even more difficult for marginal tourists businesses to survive.

Even the big hotel and restaurant chains will begin complaining. Their boards want a profit and will demand that the governor and legislature stop this foolishness. And soon they will begin to hear from the Airlines who are losing money as well as the auto rental companies. At first these businesses will complain within closed meeting rooms but soon after that they will make their pleas public. Everyone will lose economically including the farmers and farm workers. But the rich love their profit line more than they hate undocumented workers. And if they have to choose they will chose profit over silly laws.
So my plea is that you help to continue to expand the boycott and in addition send in teams of folks to do voter registration. Arizona is our Mississippi.

MEMORIAL DAY WHOM SHOULD WE HONOR????

I honor the heroes and sheroes of our country… I include not just those who served our country in uniform but that those who also fought for peace and were demonized for raising the questions about senseless wars.

Many buried in government coffins and graves were cannon fodder for the politicians of the moment who wanted to raise their sabers in the air and then stay home and let others go to war.

We have Memorial Day, Veterans Day, the 4th of July and many more where we celebrate battles and those who fought them. And this does not include the many statues and monuments in honor of war. And we don’t even give lip service to Peace.

We need to have a DEPARTMENT OF PEACE, a National Day of Peace and monuments to all those voices of reason…to all the peace makers.

So this Memorial Day I honored all the heroes and sheroes.. Just remember that dying with a uniform on does not automatically make you a hero.. I know many a hero and sheroes who never wore a uniform and did the most amazing acts of humanity. Recognizing them all will give us a better future
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SEND AHORA YOUR STORIES AND GET YOUR FRIENDS TO SUBSCRIBE

You too can give your thoughts and ideas for AHORA…Write your news and thoughts… share your life with others… and then get your friends to subscribe… all they have to do is go to magdaleno.org and fill out the info requested on the mailing tab.

You can send your short essays, poems or links to stories, u tube and other interesting items… It just takes a minute and you can perhaps reach someone who needs the information you have in your mind or heart…

My best
leno

First of all there are a lot of things I want to correct and do before I get deported to the so called Promised Land.

• I want to be here for comprehensive immigration reform
• I want to see gay marriage accepted by all states
• I want to find the money for a hair transplant
• I want to win the lottery
• I want to change the laws in Arizona and some other places
• I want to finish writing my next three books
• I want to hear many more stories of the men and women who work hard to change this world
• I want to see the death penalty abolished
• I want to see violence diminished and healing increased
• I want to see a female president of this country…
• I want to do more for peace in the middle-east
• I want a cleaner and safer environment
• I want to regulate big business, and the military better
• I want to learn more from the Native people of our lands..

Thus you can see that I am not ready to be deported to the so called promise land.. And if they try to send me right now I will resist. LOL

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS.

a. Why we must help other
b. Elena kagan
c. BP is a terrorist
d. Governor of Arizona says no and yes
e. Rebranding Arizona

KING ON WHY WE MUST HELP OTHERS

MLK ..Dr. King said many things during his last speech in Memphis.. but one thought that stuck with me yesterday as I once again listened to this speech was the following … King said that many times we hesitate to help someone thinking about what the consequences might be on our own lives.. Instead of thinking of what would happen to the person that we might help if we did not help them.. in other words.. Be willing to walk off the ledge and help others and quit worrying about yourself. ..

ELENA KAGAN

Don’t know much about her but she seems to be heads above many of the boys on that court..and to tell the truth it just might be a beautiful thing to see all 9 members of the court being women.. okay .. okay .. I know .. There are plenty of good men who could also do good on the court.. Let’s just hope that some of these right wing judges leave before they do any more damage to the constitution.

BP IS A TERRORIST BUSINESS

This rogue company that cannot manage its oil well is a bigger danger to our ecology and the stability of our country than some on whom we focus as terrorists.. This oil spill will damage the livelihood of people, kill ocean animal and plant life and damage the economies of both the USA and Mexico.

Right now there are huge clumps of oil moving under water out of sight like a monster from the darkest regions of the earth (like the old time movie favorite the BLOB). This liquid oceanic dark cloud will be trouble for all sea and land that it touches.

The enemies today of the people are mega corporations that put profit over people. And they must be controlled and managed..

Today three corporations are playing the blame game regarding this oil volcano in the gulf and are not willing to tell the truth. I want them to put in writing that they will cover all the costs. At the same time these industry giants continue to make huge profits and lobby for even more deregulation.

All politicos should want to get control of these oil barons and Wall Street mega churches. They are the ones who can bring down a democracy faster than a small band of armed enemies.

The Governor of Arizona says …NO TO ETHNIC STUDIES ..AND YES TO RACIAL PROFILING..

Arizona is going backwards.. it seems like their politicos have gotten into TIME MACHINE and or have taken some strange desert peyote or perhaps even acid and have TAKEN A BAD TRIP… the only problem is that they are trying to take every one in Arizona with them …

There have always been some allowances in our country for Racism and Stupidity .. But right now the TEA BAGGERS, THE EX MINUTE MEN and RIGHT WING NUT JOBS …have joined together and are drinking the KOOL AID of fear and hatred and getting politicians to do their dirty work.

The governor will help to bankrupt state government by trying to defend against the many law suits coming their way . This will get even more complicated because there will be less revenue for the state due to the boycott..

Many small businesses cannot afford to lose one to five percent of their sales. This in these difficult times is their profit of margin.. You will begin seeing many businessmen and women going to the politicians complaining.. Although they may support these strange laws .. They are more interested in their own survival than in punishing the Mexicans.. It might take a month or two but they will feel the difference..

Farmers just might have problems getting workers to harvest their grapes, lettuce and other crops in the months ahead.. and who will cover their losses..

I suggest that someone start a business of creating signs for good businesses that might read something like WE SUPPORT HUMAN RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE. Thus local folks and visitors can choose to patronize these businesses. Yes .. Although there are many boycotting the state there will still be plenty of us who will go to Arizona to protest and do voter registration.. And we need to know where to shop..

The Seattle City Council approved the Arizona-boycott resolution 7-0 Monday afternoon. It calls for comprehensive immigration reform, and denounces the Arizona law.

The resolution urges Seattle city government to refrain from sending employees to Arizona and from entering into new contracts with businesses headquartered there –when legal and practicable.

In Arizona you have a lot of snow birds that have retired there and many of them have brought their conservative politics with them … and they now want to rid their new home of the people who have lived there for the longest of time.

Recently La Sarah .. Palin was in Arizona and stood up with Gov. Jan Brewer vowing to get an ANTI-BOYCOTT movement going.. Hey LADIES the bottom line will be the dollars and centavos not the rhetoric for the business community..

This is a green (dollars/pesos) movement against a red (racist) movement.. So put your helmets on and get ready for the ARIZONA HUMANITY OLYMPICS..Join a team and GET READY TO RUMBLE

In this process you will get to hear women, men and students saying

NO SE PUEDE (oh no you can’t) to the governor of Arizona.

So please do your part and make history..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.
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Rebranding Arizona

by Ginger Rough and Dawn Gilbertson- May. 14, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic..and edited by leno
The loss of business is critical in a recession-battered state vitally dependent on visitor spending.
“It’s up to us to get the truth out there. This is impacting Arizona’s face to the nation,” said Brewer, who blamed the controversy on misconceptions about the law.

A new task force is charged with rebranding and repositioning the state as a unique destination spot.
That is sure to be a tough task after weeks of talk-show comedians, celebrities, politicians and others making Arizona a punch line, calling the law racist and drawing comparisons to fascism and Nazi Germany.
Senate Bill 1070, which Brewer signed April 23 and which takes effect in late July, requires police to ask a person about his or her immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” the person is in the country illegally. Being in the country illegally will be a state crime under the law.

One of the task force’s first goals will be trying to stop the trend of boycotts, officials said.
An early plan for how to do that is due in about a month.

“The end goal is to reassert that we are a safe, inviting, diverse and culturally aware community,” said Steve Moore, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Brewer agreed to transfer $250,000 from the Arizona Department of Commerce to the Arizona Office of Tourism to support the effort.

Tactics will likely include not only a marketing campaign but direct contacts with the tourism industry elsewhere in the country.

The backlash against Arizona couldn’t come at a worse time, convention and business leaders say.
The state, which took in $18.5 billion in visitor spending in 2008, has seen its tourism industry struggle in the past couple of years as the U.S. economy sagged.

It took a bigger hit as a result of what is commonly called the AIG effect.

Officials were just starting to see signs of life when the backlash over the new immigration law began, said Debbie Johnson, CEO of the Arizona Tourism Alliance and the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association.

To date, dozens of cities and groups have announced boycotts. Arizona has lost at least 30 to 40 meetingsand conventions, she said.

“We were surprised by (the boycotts),” Johnson said. “We didn’t think it was going to be a tourism issue. This is a political issue.”

The new task force has about 15 members representing business throughout the state’s tourism industry.

They said stopping the boycotts is a top priority because they are worried about the approximately 200,000 hotelworkers, restaurant employees and others who could lose their jobs if the industry can’t find a way to lure new business here.

As part of their effort, officials plan to revive a past campaign that encourages Arizonans to take advantages of specials and deals and vacation within the state. How to rebrand the state to potential visitors has not yet been decided.

A big issue, Johnson said, is “tentative” bookings and new business, those groups that have indicated they were interested in coming here between 2011 and 2015 but are now refusing to sign contracts.

“We’re hearing from our sales people in the hotels and resorts, that people aren’t returning their calls anymore – that they don’t even want to talk to Arizonans,” she said.

Tourism officials huddled for nearly two hours in Brewer’s offices at the state Capitol on Thursday, discussing early strategies and devising ways to push the rebrand out to the public. They offered no time frame for fixing the problem but acknowledged this will have to be a long-term effort.

Acknowledging that Arizona has developed a serious image problem because of its tough new immigration law, Gov. Jan Brewer and tourism-industry leaders said Thursday that they will launch a new effort to stanch the flow of lost trade and convention business in the state.

The legislation and firestorm of negative publicity that followed brought calls for boycotts, moved groups to back out of local conventions and led several cities to cut business ties with Arizona companies.

TRAVEL WHILE YOU CAN

It is amazing how much you can learn by traveling… I have not done it recently but am getting ready to do some more. You just have to be willing to learn and experience the country you are visiting… Staying in a five star hotel does not give you a real look into the local culture.

So take time to travel and learn.. And if you cannot go to another country then go to another state or another end of your state and experience the world around you… sometimes you just need to go to another neighborhood in your own city to have a new experience.

Open up your eyes and your arms to the world in which you live
My best
leno

You have to lived the drug enhanced 60-70’s to find today’s news as real … you just have to listen to the news and say is this Saturday Night Live?

A Right Wing Anti-Gay Minister who is caught coming back from a Vacation trip with a young man who was hired from a male escort group called RENTBOY. And this Rev. Rekers says he hired him to carry his luggage .. Now that is funny . I travel with a lot of luggage and have managed it by myself.. Am I missing something?

Then there is the former moderate Senator John McCain who was previously decent on immigration reform now blaming immigrants for everything but the Vietnam War.  McCain’s recent campaign ad dubbed the THAT DANGED FENCE just shows what some politicos will do to get elected.

And now BP’s oil disaster is blamed as Obama’s Katrina.  And the governor of Texas calls this ecological disaster AN ACT OF GOD..11 workers missing 100 plus workers who survived being intimidated by a company whose oil volcano will pollute the coastlines and ocean waters of the gulf coast and Mexico.. Just because BP and others fought regulations we now have this tsunami of oil..And the Bush Administration supported them all the way to the bottom of the ocean.  Oh by the way were are LA PALIN and here DRILL BABY DRILL cheerleaders…and these same folks who do not like government now seem to want so much government help..

In Seattle police May — A Seattle police officer offered a tearful apology after being caught on camera kicking an innocent man and using a racial epithet.

The video shows a group of officers standing around three men who are lying on the ground. Seattle Police Detective Shandy Cobane shouts, “I’m going to beat the [expletive] Mexican [expletive] out of you homey! You feel me?
The young man was also it seems assaulted by a woman officer.. If this had not been videotaped the officer would not be apologizing.. Racial and Gang profiling are  ALIVE AND WELL in the Northwest.

KEEP LISTENTING TO THE NEWS .. IT WON’T BE LONG BEFORE YOU TEXT OR TWEET SOMEONE SAYING OMG ABOUT SOME STRANGE  THING IN THE NEWS..

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Immigration changed called for
b.    Protest Arizona and wear a shirt
c.    Rev. George Rekers has too much luggage
d.    Bill Mahers on mother’s day and immigration
e.    My back was not shovel ready

Immigration Marches Demand Boycott of Arizona and Call for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

I attended and spoke at the March and Rally in Seattle that had over 15,000 and was considered by experts to have been the second largest immigration event since the 65,000 took to the streets in Seattle in 2006.  There were smaller but most important events in about 9 other cities in Washington.

Los Angeles with it’s 250,000 participants was the biggest event.  Dallas, Chicago and many other cities showed that there was a national movement for Immigrant Rights.  It was wonderful that two large demonstrations were held in two Arizona Cities Tucson, and Phoenix.

Now the work at the community level must continue to organize and educate many about how they can support the effort for reform and to send a strong message to Arizona.

Get ready for more work and help to change our world for the better

George Rekers, Anti-Gay Activist, Caught With Male Escort ‘Rentboy’

George Alan Rekers, a prominent anti-gay activist who co-founded the conservative Family Research Council, was caught returning from a 10-day trip to Europe with a male escort he found on Rentboy.com, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Not to worry, Rekers told the Miami New Times, which broke the story: He claims he learned his 20-year-old companion was a prostitute only midway through their trip, they had no intimate contact, and he hired the young man only because recent surgery means “I can’t lift luggage.”

This seems highly dubious, not least because the New Times reporters spotted the retired professor pushing his baggage cart through Miami International Airport. It would be extremely difficult to stumble upon the Rentboy.com homepage, which features young well-muscled men rubbing each other’s crotches on grainy video loops, and not figure out what the site means by “rent boy.”

The site’s pages aren’t indexed by Google, either, so we’ll need to take the New Times’ word for it that the profile page for Rekers’ escort advertised his “smooth, sweet, tight ass” and “perfectly built 8 inch cock.” The young man denied that he and Rekers had sex, but he did confirm that they met via his Rentboy profile.

With the scandal flaring in the wake of the New Times expose, Rekers published a statement on his personal website that decries the story’s “misleading innuendo.” He confuses libel with slander, but he doesn’t deny any specific element of the story, only repeating his claim that he needed help carrying luggage and averring that family and friends will back that claim.

Rekers, who is also a professor emeritus of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina and a Baptist minister, recently testified against gay adoption in Florida, where he resides. Raw Story flagged a particularly jarring article in which he claims that children adopted by gay couples are more likely to commit suicide.

The retired professor has remained far less high-profile than his Family Research Council co-founder James Dobson, but he is an extremely prolific author of books like Who Am I? Lord and Growing Up Straight: What Families Should Know About Homosexuality. He has also advised members of Congress, the White House, and the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the New Times story, which is worth reading in its entirety.

NEW RULE ON IMMIGRATION and Mothers Day

BY BILL MAHER

New Rule: This Mother’s Day, all Americans must pause and extend a special thanks to the women who maintain our homes, who take care of our kids, and who still make time for sex with Dad. I’m talking, of course, about our nannies. Lost in this whole immigration debate is why Americans want to be so harsh on the people who, in so many and varied ways, enable them to sit on their fat asses. Nannies, valet parkers, gardeners, all the people who do the things we’re a little too busy or important to do. There are plenty of people to be mad at our there — the jerks at Goldman Sachs, the idiots at BP, the guy who charged you fifty bucks for these tickets — why set our crosshairs on the humble, servile people?

I’ll tell you why. Because we’re bullies. Instead of confronting real threats, like the debt or the environment or Utah, we pick out the poorest, most defenseless kid on the block — illegal immigrants — and say, “What are you looking at?” But I’ll tell you something, you anti-immigrant hoopies — as usual you’re mad at the wrong people. It was corporate America that busted your unions and didn’t keep your pay up to the cost of living, causing your wife to have to go to work and Esmeralda to have to come in to watch the kids. Your problem is low wages, not low riders. A middle class life can now only be maintained with the presence of an underpaid underclass. In the 1940s, fewer than one in five moms worked outside the home. Ironically, mostly in bomber factories, to beat Nazi Germany, a place, like Arizona, where you always had to show your papers. I kid, that’s an unfair comparison. The Germans knew how to dress.

All this anger that we see aimed at the Mexican underclass might be more understandable if illegals came here with a bad attitude and sent the crime rate soaring — but they don’t. The Justice Department says violent crime in Arizona is at its lowest point since 1971. Property crime is at its lowest since 1966. There is no problem. There’s only dicks and the politicians who pander to them.

I know this is anecdotal, but I’ve hired several immigrant housekeepers — legal immigrants, I might add, in case anyone at the White House is considering me for a Cabinet position — and they’ve all done great work. Especially on my monologue. While the one American-born Caucasian guy I hired to do some handyman work stole my tools. You know who you are, Stephen Baldwin.

And when I drive home every day and see maids trudging up a steep hill to the mansions where they work, and I offer them a ride, I’m astounded: they never refuse, because they’re so exhausted that they’ll accept a ride from a mysterious gringo blasting rap music, even though that’s the beginning of every slasher movie ever. You know, neighbors, you’re trusting these women to clean your homes, feed your pets, and give your kids their daily dose of Ritalin — the least you can do is not make them walk up the hill.

Some time in the distant future, brown people are probably going to — and I say this without judgment — breed their way to power in both Europe and America. Arab populations are growing in countries like France and Holland, and I think we all see where this Mexican thing is going in America. That’s right, because they fuck more, the darker skinned people are going to rule the world, and white people, for their own self-preservation, should get a start on being nice to them now! Nice! Just be nice, to the poor and desperate people who change our Depends and cook our food, hopefully not in that order.

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HURT MY BACK AND GOT HELP and then went to help others..

Today my back was not shovel ready…

I love gardening .. It is good therapy … and  I love plants.. Well this morning I awoke to this huge pain in my lower back and had to pay a friend to help me begin some of the work on the yard.. But once my back is better I promise to take up the shovel and begin putting out some plants..

Later in the afternoon I could walk a bit with a ton of Advil in me so I went to support UFCW 21 (UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIALS WORKERS) at a demonstration outside of a Safeway’s. There  I ran into members and friends of my work at the Social Justice Fund.. All of them were there supporting a good union contract for the workers.

Then I was soon home where I managed myself slowly into bed for a nap. Naps are free and seem to do us a lot of good.



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