Dear Friends

A couple of days ago Rush Limbaugh a right wing radio talks show host was arrested at customs for VIAGRA…hmmm? Rush was on his way back from a vacation in the Dominican Republic and was found to have a bottle of these pills and did not have a prescription written in his name.

Rush had been arrested previously for getting multiple pain prescriptions from a variety of doctors. Now he is going back to court to explain why he had those little blue pills.

Now Rush should show that he is a stand up guy (so to speak) and should tell the truth for the first time in his life…

While I chuckled aloud when I first heard the news…I later began to wonder HOW DID HE GET ALL THOSE PILLS AND ARE THEY SO EASILY AVIALABLE FOR ALL OF US?

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

1. an abolitionist wedding
2. phillipines abolishs the death penalty
3. cuchata
4. pets make people better

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AN ABOLITIONIST WEDDING

The Marriage of Abe Bonowitz and Beth Wood

On July 2^nd 2006 Abe and Beth will take their marriage vows in front of the Supreme Court and in front of family/friends…And I will have the honor of officiating at this important ceremony.

Every July 4^th weekend Abe coordinates with the help of others the annual fast and protest against the death penalty in front of the Supreme Court building. These annual events help to keep this issue alive in the hearts and minds of others. And it is important to be in front of the Supreme Court.

Many will come to this wedding to share this special moment with these two wonderful individuals. It is good to have such a special highlight to a weekend of fasting and protest.

So if you are in the area come by and celebrate this very special event. Arrive on the 2^nd at 11pm to meet and greet the many quests before the wedding begins…And then join in as we celebrate this important event.

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: Philippines abolishes the death penalty -

Ø      Philippines abolishes the death penalty – Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060624/ap_on_re_as/

Ø       ———————————- ————————————————————-

Ø     

Ø    Cuchata Rocks California.

Cuchata is a wonderful band that is touring California and will return to Seattle and will open for THE REFUGEE ALL STARS for a benefit concert for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project on July 13. Those of you in California should take a moment to see one of Cuchata’s shows and then join us in Seattle on July 13^th.

Ø     
> June 30th        South Lake Tahoe, CA           The Divided Sky
> (http://www.thedividedsky.com)
> July 1st           Arcata/McKinleyville, CA        Six Rivers Brewery
> (http://www.sixriversbrewery.com)
> July 2nd          Davis, CA                               Delta of Venus
> (122 B ST. Davis, CA 95616)
> July 4th           San Francisco, CA                  The Makeout Room
> (http://www.makeoutroom.com)
> July 6th           Los Angeles, CA                     The Temple
> Bar     (http://www.templebarlive.com)
> July 7th           Temecula Valley, CA               The Temecula Valley
> International Jazz Festival (http://www.tvijf.com)
> July 8th           Temecula Valley, CA               The Temecula Valley
> International Jazz Festival (http://www.tvijf.com)
>
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PETS MAKE PEOPLE BETTER

During the past days writing to a friend I was reminded that pets are a most important part of the lives of many. They make us more humane and give us reason to smile and relax.

While I have a preference for dogs, I have been a proud friend to many cats…today I feed squirrels, blue jays and crows who come to my door in search of peanuts.

If we take good care of our pets we will in the process take care of ourselves.

With this weekend period of fireworks we must ensure that our pets are not frightened by all this noise of war.

We went through a noisy holiday in El Salvador when Aviva my daughter was 11 years old.  At that time, she was the proud owner of two wonderful dogs who were most sensitive to the thunder of the fire works. When we returned home later in the evening after a holiday celebration crowned with fire works.. we could not find our daughter. We searched the entire home and she seemed to be missing…

Finally we discovered her and the dogs asleep and locked in the master bathroom under many blankets. She had stuffed toilet tissue into the ears of the dogs so that they would not be frightened by all the noise of the mini bombs. Those poor dogs looked so silly with all that tissue sticking out of their ears. But they were all happy and safe.

We should have taken a picture of this wonderful sight. Aviva like many of you love your pets and do all you can to protect them and in the process protect yourselves.

 

LOVE YOUR PETS AND LOVE YOURSELF.

leno

DEAR FRIENDS

 

I wanted to let you know that today we must enjoy the bit of sun we get in our world….Take time with your family and friends and get out of the office, home or factory.  Enjoy the sun.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a. Family Reunion Rocks

b. Ann Coulter

c. Suicides in Guantanamo

d. Alex Sanchez and Homies Unidos

e. Memo from U.S. Ambassador in Iraq

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FAMILY REUNION ROCKS in San Antonio        

It was great to gather the Avila Tribe and many of its rivers and tributaries there in San Antonio. It was a wonderful weekend that rocked our memories.  We were reminded by our cousin Cuca from Chihuahua about how the Avila clan first migrated to Chihuahua from Zacatecas and then to Las Animas, Colorado. They went north to work and earn money.

While many returned to Mexico others stayed on, got married and had families. Our parents like so many immigrants today came looking for work and believing in the land of plenty…a promise of hope to a poor people…This was a political time of economic need when my family came north just as it is today for so many immigrants. And hey …most of us learned English better than the man who sits in the White House at this moment. And I am not talking about the janitor…I am talking about the president.

Today we have many successful individuals in the family…we have business people, soldiers, social workers, a lawyer, actors, nurses, writers, students, administrators,  some in prison and others of us just holding on with the help of others..And we are all dreamers.

At our reunions we always have a talent show…giving all a chance to perform……everyone can do some thing…my family, dances, sings, reads, performs and laughs a lot…it reminds me of the old days….When we lived on the Spady Farm Colonia in Las Animas, Colorado, we had these kinds of performances on Mexican Holidays…I can’t sing nor dance so I get to be the MC (MAIN CHICANO). This Avila family clan has talent and I admire all those I love who are willing to display their talents or lack of talents……

At this reunion we also celebrated the 70^th birthday of Maria Avila Boswell the senior member of our clan who was born the same year as Elvis Presley. We call her the General since she had been in the Army and ruled us with an iron fist and a heart of gold. It was good to honor our General. She was the first of our clan in the USA to graduate from college. And that is important.

My brother Mano and his partner Bette hosted this nomadic pack of travelers and gave their best to all of us…it is a lot of work gathering these families together.

I went to San Antonio to take back the Alamo but got sidetracked with all the family events. This meeting reminded me of gang summits which I have attended over the years…Each gang had their groupings and swagger.

David Avila a young nephew who is in prison in Sterling, Colorado wrote me recently expressing his love for our family and saying how much he missed not being at the reunion..He is turning his life around and wants to one day be free to dream and do what he wants. He should not be in prison but instead in a halfway house (which is cheaper) since he is not a violent man.

ANN COULTER…..provides hatred and lies

Coulter who is a right wing darling media personality has taken the opportunity of her new book to attack Arabs, Muslims and some of the widows of the 9-11 attacks.

Her anger with these widows seems rooted in the fact that they forced Bush to create the 9/11 commission and hearings and because they also later supported Kerry. Had they supported Bush she would have been silent or would have praised them.

Here are some of Coulters venomous comments.

“These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis.

“I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ death so much. It’s as if the terrorist attacks only happened to them,” she writes.

 

“And by the way, how do we know their husbands weren’t planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they’d better hurry up and appear in Playboy.

 

Instead of condemning her, the administration has sent out its representatives to defend Coulter. Ann Coulter is nothing but a blond Doberman Pincher trained to attack almost anyone…. And she should not be tolerated. ( I want to apologize to Dobermans for placing Coulter in the same light as them…but I was trying to reach some who might see the similarities of trained uncontrollable attack animals).

 

We as a society should demand a better example of those whom want to be public spokesmen and women. Instead many of the national media gave Coulter a lot of exposure.  This was wrong and those who allowed her to attack these widows never invited them on to the same shows to tell the truth.

 

We must raise some of our anger at the media and should consider picketing them for there biased and inadequate reporting.

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LA TIMES….Outcry Over Suicides at Guantanamo

The following are some of the horrific comments made by military spokesmen.

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — U.S. military pathologists on Monday examined and tested clinical data obtained from autopsies of three prisoners who were found hanged here Saturday, while human rights advocates warned of the potential for more suicides by prisoners with little hope of release or legal recourse.

Officials of the military prison and interrogation network were reviewing detention procedures to determine what changes might be necessary to avert further suicide attempts and to modify guard routines to prevent prisoners from knowing when they might be observed, said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, spokesman for the prison and interrogation compound.

Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris’ characterization of the suicides as acts of “asymmetrical warfare” and a State Department official’s assertion that the first deaths among Guantanamo inmates were “a good PR move” brought renewed outrage in the Muslim world as well as among U.S. allies in Europe.

But Durand said the admiral in command of the detention operations here stood by his view that the deaths “were not acts of despair but coordinated efforts by three committed combatants.”

 

Alex Sanchez of Homies Unidos.

This past weekend I had the pleasure to listen to hear Alex teach and preach about gangs and youth at risk. Alex is a former member of La Mara Salvatrucha whom I met in Los Angeles 10 years ago when I was organizing Homies Unidos.

Alex was in the area to do a workshop for El Centro Latino of Tacoma. While it was get an effort to get many community people in, not as many came as was hoped but that is always the case when you are beginning a new project.

I was impressed by how much Alex has learned over the 10 years and how much his public persona has developed. Over the weekend I saw him able to talk to both youth and adults and to weave his stories and lessons to reach the different audiences.

Alex is a leader from the hood/barrio who stepped off the edge of the ledge in his search for peace. Too bad we can’t clone him.

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MEMO FROM THE AMBASSADOR

The following is an edited version of a confidential memo from the Ambassador in Iraq to Condoleezza Rice…This memo does not express the positive image of Iraq that the Administration tries to paint for the media…I saw these same pressures and attacks take place on any local connected with the US Embassy during the war in Nicaragua between the Sandinistas and the government of Somoza in 1980.

CONFIDENTIAL MEMO
FROM: US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Baghdad
TO: Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
SUBJECT: SNAPSHOTS FROM THE OFFICE
SENSITIVE
Published: 20 June 2006

1. Iraqi staff in the Public Affairs sector have complained that Islamist and Militia groups have been negatively affecting daily routine. Harassment over proper dress and habits is increasingly persuasive. They also report power cuts and fuel prices have diminished their quality of life.

Women’s Rights

2. Two of our three female employees report stepped up harassment beginning in mid-May. One, a Shia who favors Western clothing, was advised by an unknown woman in her Baghdad neighborhood to wear a veil and not to drive her own car. She said some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative.

3. Another, a Sunni, said people in her neighbourhood are harassing women and telling them to cover up and stop using cell phones. She said the taxi driver who brings her every day to the green zone has told her he cannot let her ride unless she wears a headcover. A female in the PAS cultural section is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats.

4. The women say they cannot identify the groups pressuring them. The cautions come from other women, sometimes from men who could be Sunni or Shia, but appear conservative. Some ministries, notably the Sadrist controlled Ministry of Transportation, have been forcing females to wear the hijab at work.

Dress Code For All?

5. Staff members have reported it is now dangerous for men to wear shorts in public; they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts. People who wear jeans in public have come under attack.

Evictions

6. One colleague beseeched us to help a neighbor who was uprooted in May from her home of 30 years, on the pretense of application of some long-disused law. The woman, who is a Fayli Kurd, says she has nowhere to go, but the courts give them no recourse to this new assertion of power. Such uprootings may be response by new Shia government authorities to similar actions against Arabs by Kurds in other parts of Iraq. (NOTE: An Arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he said is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militias are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all over Iraq.)

Power Cuts and Fuel Shortages a Drain on Society

7. Temperatures in Baghdad have already reached 115 degrees. Employees all confirm that, by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without. By early June, the situation had improved slightly. In Hal al-Shaab, power has recently improved from one in six to one in three hours. Other staff report similar variances. Central Baghdad neighborhood Bab al-Nu’atham has had no city power for over a month. Areas near hospitals, political party headquarters and the green zone have the best supply. One staff member reported a friend lives in a building that houses the new minister; within 24 hours of his appointment, her building had city power 24 hours a day.

8. All employees supplement city power with service contracted with neighborhood generator hookups that they pay for monthly. One employee pays 7500 Iraqi dinars (ID) per ampere to get 10 amperes per month (75,000 ID = $50/month). For this, her family gets eight hours of power per day, with service ending at 2am.

9. Fuel queues. One employee told us that he had spent 12 hours on his day off waiting to get gas. Another staff member confirmed that shortages were so dire, prices on the black market in much of Baghdad were now above 1,000 ID per liter (the official, subsidized price is 250 ID)

Kidnappings, and Threats of Worse

10. One employee informed us that his brother-in-law had been kidnapped. The man was eventually released but this caused enormous emotional distress to his family. One employee, a Sunni Kurd, received an indirect threat on her life in April. She took extended leave, and by May, relocated abroad with her family.

Security Forces Mistrusted

11. In April, employees began reporting a change in demeanor of guards at the green zone checkpoints. They seemed to be militia-like in some cases seemingly taunting. One employee asked us to get her some press credentials because the guards held her embassy badge up and proclaimed loudly to passers-by “Embassy” as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if heard by the wrong people.

Supervising Staff At High Risk

12. Employees all share a common tale: of nine employees in March, only four had family members who knew they worked at the embassy. Iraqi colleagues who are called after hours often speak in Arabic as an indication they cannot speak openly in English.

13. We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their “cover”. A Sunni Arab female employee tells us family pressures and the inability to share details of her employment is very tough; she told her family she was in Jordon when we sent her on training to the US. Mounting criticism of the US at home among family members also makes her life difficult. She told us in mid-June that most of her family believes the US – which is widely perceived as fully controlling the country and tolerating the malaise – is punishing the population as Saddam did (but with Sunnis and very poor Shia now at the bottom of the list). Otherwise, she says, the allocation of power and security would not be so arbitrary.

14. Some of our staff do not take home their American cell phones, as it makes them a target. They use code names for friends and colleagues and contacts entered into Iraq cell phones. For at least six months, we have not been able to use any local staff for translation at on-camera press events.

15. We have begun shredding documents that show local staff surnames. In March, a few members approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate.

Sectarian Tensions Within Families

16. Ethnic and sectarian faultlines are becoming part of the daily media fare in the country. One Shia employee told us in late May that she can no longer watch TV news with her mother, who is Sunni, because her mother blamed all the government failings on the fact that Shia are in charge. Many of the employee’s family left Iraq years ago. This month, another sister is departing for Egypt, as she imagines the future here is too bleak.

Frayed Nerves and Mistrust

17. Against this backdrop of frayed social networks, tension and moodiness have risen. A Sunni Arab female apparently insulted a Shia female by criticizing her overly liberal dress. One colleague told us he feels ” defeated” by circumstances, citing the example of being unable to help his two-year-old son who has asthma and cannot sleep in the stifling heat.

18. Another employee tells us life outside the Green Zone has become ” emotionally draining”. He claims to attend a funeral “every evening “. He, like other local employees, is financially responsible for his immediate and extended families. He revealed that “the burden of responsibility; new stress coming from social circles who increasingly disapprove of the coalition presence, and everyday threats weigh very heavily “.

Staying Straight with Neighborhood Governments and the ‘Alama’

19. Staff say they daily assess how to move safely in public. Often, if they must travel outside their neighborhoods, they adopt the clothing, language, and traits of the area. Moving inconspicuously in Sadr City requires Shia dress and a particular lingo.

20 Since Samarra, Baghdadis have honed survival skills. Vocabulary has shifted. Our staff – and our contacts – have become adept in modifying behaviour to avoid “Alasas”, informants who keep an eye out for ” outsiders” in neighborhoods. The Alasa mentality is becoming entrenched as Iraqi security forces fail to gain public confidence.

21. Staff report security and services are being rerouted through ” local providers” whose affiliations are vague. Those who are admonishing citizens on their dress are not well known either. Personal safety depends on good relations with “neighborhood” governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. People no longer trust most neighbours.

22. A resident of Shia/Christian Karrada district told us “outsiders” have moved in and control the mukhtars.

Comment

23. Although our staff retain a professional demeanor, strains are apparent. We see their personal fears are reinforcing divisive sectarian or ethnic channels. Employees are apprehensive enough that we fear they may exaggerate developments or steer us towards news that comports with their own world view. Objectivity, civility, and logic that make for a functional workplace may falter if social pressures outside the Green Zone don’t abate.

(This is an edited version of the memo)
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SPORTS        

Yep…many of us are now  entranced by the WORLD CUP PLAYOFFS….The USA got bumped out early but there are many more wonderful games to be seen…it is said that there is much beer drinking and that there has been a mini invasion of prostitutes that have arrived in Germany for this athletic event.

I hope all get their fill of the wonderful German food and beer and that they are peaceful

==========

At the same time back in the USA my daughter Aviva and I rooted for the Miami Heat …and guess what they won the NBA Championship. My daughter called the night of the victory and I could hear the cheers of the many fans in the background. I had been a fan of the Lakers for many years and Coach Riley was the Coach in LA for many years before moving to Miami.

During the Amnesty International Concert Tour in 1988 I got to meet Coach Riley …RILES as he is called and had a interesting and funny conversation with him at the concert in Paris…Enrique Valenzuela who also worked on the tour is my witness to this meeting…I hope he will be a good witness if needed …ha…

Sports are wonderful but it is still entertainment and should not be confused with the real issues facing us…but on occasion we need to have fun and celebrate….so I am celebrating with Miami…

Celebrate Life

Leno

 

 

FRIDAY   06.16.06

 

 

Dear Friends

 

It is the time to plant new ideas….ideas that can give us the opportunity to explore new opportunities for change….We must plant these ideas in the minds and hearts of others…

We must fertilize water and care for these ideas and help them to grow…in this way we can continue to create the conditions for change.

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

 

1. Marches and Marchers
2. Bush comes to Seattle
3. Gang Prevention Summit
4. Poem Dreams Shattered
5. Give a little

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MARCHES.. MARCHERS AND ORGANIZERS….

 

I am always excited to participate in historical events..and see that in each such event the wonderful leaders and workers who make it possible…In the case of Seattle we were blessed to have a group of activists call EL COMITE PRO AMNESTIA Y JUSTICIA SOCIAL….They took on the incredible task of organizing three major marches and rallies. They did this with no budget, very little infrastructure…but with a dream bigger than everyone’s expectations….While the rest of us worked hard, and supported the event; we now must recognize all the work of EL COMITE.

 

In many of the activities around the country it was these kinds of organizations who took on the bulk of the organizing and made it look easy for all those who marched, spoke, sang. Chanted and celebrated…

 

I was glad to be there and thank all the Comites of this country who care enough to organize these events..

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President Bush in Washington State this Friday

George W. Bush will be visiting the Puget Sound this Friday, to attend a fundraiser for anti-immigrant Congressman David Reichert (R).

 

The Latino Vote Project and our immigration reform supporters will participate in a rally at Westlake Plaza in downtown Seattle at 11:30 am.  Send a message to Congressman Reichert and President Bush that Immigrant Rights ARE CIVIL RIGHTS. Please RSVP at rsvp@wa-democrats.org

 

***Westlake Plaza,. 4th & Pine Seattle, 98101

***11:30 AM

 

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SATURDAY   06.17.06

¿Que Pasa?  ~  Gang Prevention Summit

 

Are you concerned with the growing number of young people who are turning to gangs in hope of fulfilling needs not currently being met by family, school, community, or church?  If you answered yes, please join Centro Latino, Safe Streets, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, Lakewood and Tacoma Police Departments for “Making the Community Safer for Our Children” a gang prevention summit for the Latino community. ….

 

***Gault Middle School
***8:30 am – 2:00 pm

 

Summit presenters include Magdeleno Rose-Avila, founder of Homies Unidos, Deputy Jesus Villahermosa,  Julio Quan, Executive Director of Centro Latino, and keynote speaker Alex Sanchez, Program Director of Homies Unidos  and former member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang..

 

Dreams Shattered

He was frightened

By the difference

In their language

Their dress

Their food

Nothing looked right

And everything seemed wrong

They had come from some place far away

Another land …another culture …another people…

His dreams were shattered

That spring

When the tulips were blooming

When colorful birds were singing their mating songs

His one …

His only child….

His Daughter

Fell into the deepest of love

With one of them

In spite of his strongest opposition

In spite of his greatest of fears

She would not listen….

She continued to shatter his dreams one piece at a time…

A castle he had created in his room of hopes

Was now falling apart…

Only the best for his princess

That was his ultimate desire

The dream world he had created

Eventually she married this man

From another world

From another culture

With different dreams and chants

With different ways of praying..

It was the most difficult of time

The nights were too long

With mile after mile

Filled with one question

After another….

.

Two years later to the date

He was presented

With a most special of gifts….

Something he could not

Should not refuse

He was given ….

The smallest of packages…

A grandchild

With the biggest of eyes

With beautiful olive skin

And a forest of dark

Black shiny hair

on her little head

This child from another moon

Reached into the deepest

And darkest part of his heart

And changed

 

 

GIVE A LITTLE …GET A LOT

 

Friends I encourage you to give a little to some one …right now …today…and your investment will be well worth it…It is good for you and for them when you give a little…

So give and smile

 

My best

leno

AHORA…Ethics Classes for Soldiers

 

Dear Friends

 

Where is KARL ROVE….??? Many of us thought that he was going to be indicted…is some sort of strange deal being cut, is he selling out his friends or has escaped the indictment?  I wish that we could be told what is going on with this investigation.

 

      Now for My View of the News

1. Haditha Killings
2. Sin Fronteras
3. Was the 2004 Election Stolen
4. Unity 08

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Haditha Killings ….November  to June

It is interesting to listen to the White House and Right Wing Media talk about how we must give the Haditha investigation time to process this issue…   Isn’t it interesting that the military didn’t really begin an investigation until a news reporter raised the question.  How long does it take them to investigate these killings. The killings took place in November and it is now June…

It is clear that there was an initial cover up..and a lot of Marine officers up the chain of command are quilty and they must be held accountable. There are many such incidents and their cover ups  are coming to light and these actions by our soldiers and their commandors is hurting the integrity of our military…No body can trust a military investigation.  Too many soldiers are being found not guilty or being given very light sentences by military courts…And that is wrong….

I blame the administration that sends our men and women back to fight an unjust war. The soldiers have been there in Iraq on too many tours. This is a fighting force that is worn out and afraid. These soldiers have become easy targets in a war created by men who have never had the courage to fight in a war themselves..…and I call them cowards.

If these chicken hawks love the war so much they should send their children and grand children.

Today as part of the public relations ploy they are now giving all soldiers in Iraq classes on Ethics…hmmm…It’s Ironic that this administration which has no ethics is wanting to teach what they don’t practice…

We must bring our men and women home today…No More Excuses.

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SIN FRONTERAS

In May I went to Passau, Germany to attend a conference on Immigration and Latin America. I presented a paper on Gangs and Immigration and was able to do my presentation in both English and Spanish. I am always impressed by the fact that people in Europe speak more than one language.

This conference presented perspectives from Germany, Spain, Argentina and the USA on immigration of Latinos. It was a great weekend of  panels, speakers and in depth discussions of analysis and solutions.  Every wealthy first world country is working to find a way to deal with the complexities of immigration.

It was great to be in Germany and to meet so many wonderful individuals. This International Conference was organized by students.  They found the money, speakers and time to tackle this most important issue.

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Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted — enough to have put John Kerry in the White House. BY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

The complete article, with Web-only citations, follows. For more, see exclusive documents, sources, charts and commentary. Like many Americans, I spent the evening of   ….( go to the web to get the rest of the story)

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen

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UNITY O8

David S. Broder / Syndicated columnist

Santos and Vinick in ’08

WASHINGTON — In a wonderful example of life imitating art, a group of serious political pros has taken the plot line of “The West Wing” and turned it into the most intriguing gambit yet seen for the 2008 election.

As fans of the now-canceled NBC drama know, the closing episodes showed newly elected Democratic President Matt Santos offering the position of secretary of state to his defeated Republican rival, Sen. Arnold Vinick. The Great Reconciliation not only brought Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda together for the closing show, but satisfied the audience’s hunger for national harmony in a time of bitter partisanship.

That’s also the motivation for the creators of Unity08, a scheme announced last week to put forward an alternative ticket for the next presidential race, joining a Democrat and a Republican or headed by an independent pledged to forming a bipartisan administration.

The founders of Unity08 include Hamilton Jordan and Jerry Rafshoon, key players in Jimmy Carter’s campaign and presidency, and Doug Bailey, a longtime adviser to Republican moderates and now publisher of The Hotline, a political newsletter.

The one leading sponsor who has actually held public office is Angus King, who was elected twice as an independent as governor of Maine. He came to see me last week, along with two impressive college students, Lindsay Ullman of Yale and Zach Clayton of the University of North Carolina, who represent Unity08′s target audience of young people.

The sincerity of their motivation is as striking as the odds against their success.

Their hope is to harness the power of the Internet — already demonstrated as a fundraising and recruiting tool in the 2004 campaigns of Howard Dean and others — to mobilize the vast numbers of Americans who say they dislike their current political choices. A poll they commissioned found that 70 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with politics today and a similar percentage think politicians do not care about the views of people like them.

To provide an outlet for those alienated people, the Unity08 sponsors plan an Internet nominating convention in 2008. People who sign on can vote for the bipartisan ticket of their choice — or an independent who would present a slate for a bipartisan administration.

Then those electronic “delegates” would be charged with qualifying the nominee for a place on their state ballots — an often-arduous task for a third-party candidate.

The practical difficulties facing the venture are enormous. Persuading prominent figures to submit their names for consideration will not be easy. King suggested to me that if such a mechanism had been in place in 2000, Colin Powell might have run for president as an independent and been elected.

That is possible, but it would be a huge risk for Republicans or Democrats who have been elected to a position of responsibility to abandon their party and run under the Unity08 banner.

The electronic nominating convention would take place early in 2008 — at a time when voters would know the concept but not the makeup of the Unity08 ticket. How many would participate is an open question. And the task of qualifying the nominee for the ballot in 50 states and the District of Columbia is one that has been a tough struggle for other third-party efforts.

Both polling and practicality suggest that the notion of an Internet-generated third ticket would have its greatest appeal to younger Americans. Clayton and Ullman, former presidents of the National Association of Student Councils, certainly are right when they say that many of their contemporaries are frustrated by the spectacle of both parties catering to entrenched interest groups and ideological extremes. Even though a senator from his home state, John Edwards, was on the Democratic ticket, Clayton said many of his friends “didn’t like the choices and didn’t vote” in 2004.

There may be more than a whiff of elitism in the Unity08 manifesto, which explicitly puts down social issues such as abortion and gay marriage that are important to many voters while emphasizing education, the environment, health care and energy. But there undoubtedly is a hunger in the land for consensus and an end to partisanship.

A more straightforward answer would come from a credible independent presidential candidacy or an agreement by credentialed figures from the two parties to form a ticket. The rigmarole of an Internet convention could give way, then, to an actual campaign.

But meantime, those of you who share the wish for some alternative can find out more at www.unity08.com

IT’S NOT EASY

I  admire all the work that my friends and associates do on so many issues and am proud to find our about all their work. I especially appreciate all those who work with youth and help them to see beyond today. It’s not easy keeping up with all my friends…but I will try to do my best

My best

leno