Nah, we don't need no steenking immigration reform

Last night I watched Homegrown terrorism explodes in Europe , and The Muslim Americans on PBS. Perhaps because of this, this morning I woke up thinking about criminal activity in immigrant communities all over the world.

Immigrant smuggling and gang activity
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 @ 1:30 pm 2172 Rayburn House Office Building

Human trafficking profits spur horrors
Vicious organizations move thousands of immigrants through Valley every day
Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 23, 2006 12:00 AM

Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Smugglers Suspected in Freeway Shootout


Now don't start in on me, because I know that it is rare. Most immigrants, legal or illegal do NOT engage in illegal activity (unless it involves paying coyotes or buying fake documents ). Then they can work for some asshole who is increasing profits by paying less than they did when American citizens would do the jobs. The whole cycle of exploitation makes me sick.

The STRIVE act is not the answer. It's a way for large corporations to use and throw away their slaves when they are done with them. The Gonzales hearings are getting all the press today, but there is supposed to be a meeting going on right now.

Get ready for another big immigrant rally on May 1, 2007

Guns, Lobbyists and Money

The Accomplices
by Greg Palast
Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:52:01 -0700


The US taxpayer subsidizes the arms industry

And "We're # 1!" applies to gun sales:

* The U.S. is the largest maker, buyer and seller of guns in the world
* The shootings at Virginia Tech reflect a "global epidemic" of gun-related violence
* Guns are responsible for 300,000 deaths worldwide every year

But not necessarily the health coverage of our citizens:

The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems.

Oh, and by the way, a hundred and sixty people died today in an unnecessary war that some people are making an obscene amount of money on .

Update: That's 233 so far this week Iraq.

Listen closely during this video for the "targets" montage

Gun Industry Caught Lying for Profit in an Illinois Mailer. They are Addicted to Their Blood Money.
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 04/19/2007 - 5:22am. Editorials
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

I don't like guns

I'm sad today. Today's shootings bring back memories that are painful and frightening for me.

When I was a teenager I knew someone for a short time who had a schoolgirl crush on Brenda Spencer's father. That was weird. Creepy and weird. I still remember her face, but not her name. Teenagers are weird, ok? I'm sure she got over that crush. I dunno, I never saw her again.

I lived pretty close to the border when the McDonald's massacre happened.

A few years later a friend blew half her head off with a .357 magnum. I don't know if I'll ever get over that one, she asked me to come pick her up that day. I told her no because I didn't trust myself to drive. I was exhausted from working the night shift and taking care of my daughter during the day. My ex had recently threatened to "take me out." I didn't know whether he had guns at that time or not. I knew that he had had them years before he met me.

Did you know that more people commit suicide (in the US) with guns than are killed by someone else with guns?

None of these experiences were as painful as the day my daughter came home from school and told me that she was afraid to go to school. They had locked down her school because some kid was playing in a nearby canyon with a bee-bee gun. I guess the school administrators were skittish because of the Santana High shootings.

Lastly, my friend's son is living in another state because his friend was killed in a stupid gang shooting. The ones who did it are in jail, but their homies will find him if he comes back. He wasn't even in a gang. My friend misses her son. I miss her son.

All the pain and fear I have felt is NOTHING like the people experience in Iraq on a daily basis. There are fewer people in Iraq than there are in my state . Does anyone else wonder what it would be like if 60 people a day died because of firearms in California?

I do.

I am sorry for the people who lost loved ones today in Virginia.

I am sorry for the people who lose loved ones every day in Baghdad .

Update 12:02 PM 4/17/2007 According to an IANSA report published in 2006, gun-related incidents result in 300,000 fatalities and one million injuries worldwide every year. Many of those guns come from the U.S.

Mexican authorities reported that 80 percent of guns in the country came from the U.S., 50 percent of handguns seized by Canada's gun crime task force were also smuggled across the U.S. border and 30 percent of guns recovered by Japanese authorities originated in the U.S., the IANSA found.

Danny Schechter says it all on the Imus thing

I loved it

I think San Diego voters deserve better than this

San Diego County recently hired Cuyahoga County, Ohio’s disgraced elections official, Michael Vu, who resigned under a storm of controversy stemming from the rigged recount in 2004 and a 2006 scientific study condemning Cuyahoga’s elections. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner recently fired the entire Board of Elections....

...One table in the ESI report on Cuyahoga County’s May 06 primary election reports what went missing (p.110) during Michael Vu’s watch:
13 VVPAT Summaries (voter verifiable paper audit trails)
86 VVPAT Cartridges
29 DREs (touch screen voting machines; one was later found)
24 DRE Election Archives (the archives displayed no data)
3 DRE memory cards....

Boo Who Vu?
April 13, 2007 at 14:17:18
by Rady Ananda
http://www.opednews.com/


*******************************************************************************

... Haas said that Vu was specifically hired to be assistant registrar, and that county officials were still searching for a permanent registrar. Retired Riverside County * Registrar Mischelle Townsend was named San Diego County's interim director last week....

"I'm disappointed, I think San Diego voters deserve better than this," Carlsbad attorney Ken Simpkins said. ....


Yeah, we do. But in this backasswards rednecked run Repugnant Thuglican town, we are not going to get it.

Whistleblowers

Well,

yesterday's primer on whistleblowers is topped of by Stephen Heller's post over at BradBlog:

"STEPHEN HELLER: Take a Deep Breath and Blow Hard!".

Ahhhhh, I feel hope again.

War sucks

Russia rules out military scenario for Iran - MP-1
17:05
13/ 04/ 2007

Missing American feared a victim of ‘dirty war’
By Guy Dinmore in Washington and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
Published: April 13 2007 20:56 Last updated: April 13 2007 20

Iran leads attack against U.S. dollar
by Jerome R. Corsi
Global Research, April 12, 2007

Dollar slide accelerates
By Richard Blackden
Last Updated: 8:31pm BST 13/04/2007

Currency converter
Sunday, April 15, 2007
1 US Dollar = 0.73950 Euro
1 Euro (EUR) = 1.35227 US Dollar (USD)

The Israel Lobby.
Portrait of a Great Taboo
The Power of the Israel Lobby in the United States
This is a must watch video

Thwarted Warrior
OpEd News
April 12, 2007 at 09:36:23
by Bob Koehler Page 1 of 1 page(s)

Uranium dust
John Upton/Tracy Press
Wednesday, 11 April 2007

Proposed explosives tests upwind from Tracy will release as much as 450 pounds of radioactive depleted uranium dust into the air every year, according to an air pollution permit application filed Friday by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The blasts will annually release other elements into the air, some of which will also be radioactive, the application reads.

A permit allowing the blasts was approved with no public scrutiny by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District in November, but was withdrawn after a community backlash...


You CAN Handle The Truth - Poison DUst - 1of4

1
2
3
4

Do you know where your pension is invested?

This week, NOW takes a close look at hedge funds—sometimes secretive and often very risky investment accounts that have brought incredible wealth and power to some, but with the potential to spell dire consequences for ordinary Americans.
(26 minute video)
Brancaccio doesn't mention in the video that Gary Aguirre and Mike Aguirre are brothers. I think their parents should be proud. It takes courage to keep following the money trail even when it leads to what may be the rich and powerful committing fraud.

This Aguirre's fight is with SEC He says he was fired for pressing a probe
By Bruce V. Bigelow UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 24, 2006

Gary Aguirre's Sacking Should Spur Probe
Published on July 20, 2006
By Don Bauder

Big fish swim freely in SEC pond
Commentary: Former investigator has exposed agency's fear of the powerful
By David Weidner, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:10 PM ET Dec 7, 2006

Chris Reed of the U-T said "reader complains that this is mean-spirited. If it comes across that way, that wasn't my intention. Whatever my opinion of Mike Aguirre, I don't know Gary Aguirre and have no way of judging his allegations."
I'm not linking to Chris Reed's blog because he IS mean spirited. Bulldog for the rich and powerful in this county if you ask me. I had a quite nasty email exchange with him over those expensive garbage voting machines, and the behavior of my congressional representative's children. I was quite angry and I have a tendency to become mean spirited also. This bitch bites. You've been warned.

Letters to the editor indicate that citizens like Mike Aguirre


So when the elite (and their bought and paid for "journalists") try to blame the middle class for for tanking the world economy:
Low savings rate in U.S. seen as danger

It's totally ludicrous. The elite are sucking everything they can out of the middle class. In fact they are sucking the life out of the middle class. The middle class are going to be surprised when they have no pension because one third of the money moving around Wall Street is in hedge funds that they don't know anything about.

If you think that there is no public corruption in the US , you are seriously deluded. Check out the Corporate Crime Reporter's for 2004. (pdf)

More on whistleblowers:

Notable Whistleblowers (NOW on PBS)

Whistleblower (Wikipedia)

Kill the messenger: whistleblowers and cover-ups (Sourcewatch)

New study links dinosaurs to living species

Updated Thu. Apr. 12 2007 10:40 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff




Hmmmmm, maybe these guys?



Uhhhh, nope.

These guys

looks fascinating

Embracing the Infidel: Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Journey West

It's Time to Fight Population Growth, Which Exacerbates Global Warming and Sprawl

AlterNet Envirohealth
By Katha Pollitt, The Nation. Posted April 9, 2007

It's ridiculous that we don't fight attempts to promote population growth while we wring our hands over global warming, species loss and suburban sprawl.

...When we think of overpopulation the usual image is of some teeming Third World slum, and indeed most population growth will come in the developing world. But actually it's the developed world that's doing the earth in. Every American uses as much energy as forty-eight Bangladeshis, and as many resources as an African village...

CIA country birthrate rankings

The article and comments were interesting to me.

Congress Must Cut Off Bush Family War Profits

Yesterday I tried to dig up more information on the Bush Family.

It was so depressing, frustrating and sickening that I quit.

Bush family war profiteers

Have I mentioned how much I hate these people?

Electronic voting in San Diego

What Went Wrong With The Electronic Voting Machines in My San Diego, California Precinct
March 2, 2004

DOWN FOR THE COUNT (LA CityBeat)
Riverside County’s outspoken registrar was a national poster child for touchscreen voting, but problems with the machines may have just ended her career
~ By ANDREW GUMBEL ~ 06-24-04

One of America's Worst Elections Administrators Gets a Promotion! Congratulations Mikel Haas!
San Diego County Chief Promotes Hard Rightwing Haas to Top Executive Position in County! --> March 24th, 2007

San Diego faces registrar search again
Last modified Monday, April 2, 2007 9:16 PM PDT

I used to have a bumper sticker that said

"Welcome to San Diego, Now Go Home"


Most residential water users wrongly billed

Sanders to push cutting 300 jobs

City Council To Vote On Controversial Pay Raises
POSTED: 4:24 pm PDT April 6, 2007
UPDATED: 4:56 pm PDT April 6, 2007
SAN DIEGO -- In the midst of a financial crisis, San Diego City Council members will vote next Monday on whether to give themselves a 25 percent raise, NBC 7/39 reported

SAN DIEGO, THE CITY THAT “KNOWS HOW” TO FACILITATE – THEN, TO COVER UP CORRUPTION


San Diego sewage spills

After perusing the state of "America's Finest City", do you think the sticker was cruel?

Saudi Arabia, US and oil

The Saudi Royal Family (2002) - CBS News -

BALKANS: FOCUS - WAHABIS SEEN AS GROWING REGIONAL THREAT

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador (part II)

Yup, the slimy, evil little bastard did it again.


Mmmmmm, there's more to this story:

Bush ties Democrats' hands with recess appointments
By Elana Schor (from The Hill)
April 05, 2007
Three controversial recess appointments that President Bush made late Wednesday are further aggravating already frayed relations between the White House and Congress, but Democrats’ options for undoing or delaying the nominations appear limited.

Bush installed three disputed picks during the Senate’s weeklong recess: Sam Fox, whose $50,000 donation to the 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had doomed his prospects with Democrats, as ambassador to Belgium; Susan Dudley, a critic of government rulemaking in principle, as White House regulatory czar; and Andrew Biggs, whom Senate Finance. Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had pledged to reject due to his views on Social Security privatization, as deputy commissioner of Social Security.

Recesspool (from TomPaine.com)

SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER

Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m.PUBLIC PROTEST!WE NEED YOUR HELP!

SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER USA'S PLAN TO BUILD A MERCENARY TRAINING FACILITY "BLACKWATER WEST" -- IN POTRERO!!

1. Attend the Scoping Meeting: The County Department of Planning and Land Use will hold a Public Scoping Meeting on Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m., at the Planning Commission Hearing Room, Department of Planning and Land Use, 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123. The Scoping Meeting is an opportunity for the public to comment on the project and provide input into what should be covered in the environmental impact statement. (note: written comments can also be submitted by April 27)

2. Attend the demonstration: THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC PROTEST "NO BLACKWATER! STOP BLACKWATER!" FROM 4:30 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M. , THURSDAY, APRIL 5, ON THE SIDEWALK ON RUFFIN ROAD IN FRONT OF THE COUNTY FACILITY JUST PRIOR TO THE SCOPING MEETING! Please bring signs with this theme. Join with citizens from Potrero who are fighting this project that affects all of us! WE NEED EVERYONE THERE!!!

"One citizen opposed to the project revealed that Lori Spar—listed with the California Bar Association as an attorney with a law firm representing Blackwater on July 31, 2006 —has since unexpectedly surfaced as a land use/environmental planner for the Department of Planning and Land Use.

"She walked into our Mar. 1, 2007 Save Potrero meeting, representing the County," said former Potrero planner Carl Meyer...
More from Raw Story (I told you the people that run this town are crooked)

More from Sourcewatch

Update: My local corporate newz is pathetic.

One station showed ten seconds of the protestors and a two minute interview with someone involved with the project.

You think you can buy anything in Tijuana?

HA, the local government can be bought, especially if you're a RepugnantThuglican.

Even the newz.

The VNR about brushing your cat's teeth was especially revealing.

Always a big fucking deal when there's a SWAT standoff, ,

You know, keeps people afraid and in their homes behaving themselves. Like we need more paramilitary assholes in this town or something.

Update: the VNR loving newz channel did cover it after all, with a pro-project person getting the last word in.

Yes, Mr. Erik Prince, you spoiled little douchebag, spreading $$ around this town, and sucking up to Preznit poopypants does pay. For such a good Christian man, doesn't it bother you to train killers, or make a profit on the death and destruction that is war?

Dickhead.

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador

Yup, the slimy, evil little bastard did it again.

Free

Josh Wolf has been freed.
Here is his statement


The British sailors have been freed.


One Iranian diplomat has been freed.

Now let's do what the Defense Secretary wants and close Gitmo.

China to extend Sudan military ties

But China, which buys much of Sudan's oil and wields veto-power over UN resolutions, has rejected UN forces without Khartoum's agreement.

Somehow, I don't think China gives a rat's ass about those people in Sudan

Central Africa: Darfur Crisis Snowballing Across Central Africa
Posted to the web April 3, 2007

And don't bag on me about Iraq, I've taken heat for five frigging years for my dissenting views, which are NOW mainstream, except that the mainstream media (liberal my ass, corporations aren't liberal, & the shareholders and rich CEOs are rarely "mainstream") won't frigging report that. You think I voted for Bush? Bwaaa haaaa haaaa haaha, don't make me laugh.

Dear Thom Hartmann

Since you get "several hundred e-mails a day" and can't respond to any of them I'll respond to what I'm listening to now.

You're talking about the prevalence of SSRI prescriptions in the US, due to the privatization of every government program under the sun, and the loss of education dollars.

Thom, watch The BBC's "The Trap."

I made it easy for you, the first part is good, but I linked you to the second part, which throws in all the important stuff from the first part.


Ooops, forgot the hat tip to neo-resistance

New Book Details Kissinger's Control over Nixon

My first thought was, "Oh, Kissinger was Nixon's Karl Rove." Then I read all of it (it's short), and realized that that nasty old war-monger is influencing Bush too.

Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed by the greed, arrogance and stupidity of those in power. How much power? How much money? How much cruelty towards other human beings?

These turds never get enough. Didn't their mothers hug them?

Stop Blackwater's mercenary camp in San Diego

Update 11:45 AM 12/5/2008
US mulls unusual tactic as Blackwater charges loom
By MATT APUZZO and LARA JAKES JORDAN – 6 hours ago
Charges could be announced as early as Monday in the shooting, which left 17 civilians dead and strained U.S. relations with the fledgling Iraqi government. People familiar with the charges said they may include an aggressive Reagan-era anti-drug law cracking down on assault weapons....
...Though drugs were not involved in the Blackwater shooting, the Justice Department is pondering the use of a law, passed at the height of the nation's crack epidemic, to prosecute the guards. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 law calls for 30-year prison terms for using machine guns to commit violent crimes of any kind, whether drug-related or not.

More of my posts on Blackwater.

Since this post pops up frequently in Google searches, I'm linking newer informational posts to it in the form of Updates: This post has links to articles that highlight Blackwater's shenanigans in San Diego thru OCT 31 '07

Update 9:33 AM 10/5/2007

Stop Blackwater West Encampment and Demonstration
STOP BLACKWATER WEST CAMP, RALLY AND WALK!--- October 6 and 7, 2007 Two day Educational Encampment and Walk to Stop Blackwater in Potrero, California Join us

5 minute video on why Blackwater should be stopped from GoLeftTV

Remember this?
Mercenary camp coming right up!




Well well well, a little birdie sent me this:

Stop Blackwater Demonstration and Public Hearing Thurs.,April 5
SAY NO TO TO BLACKWATER USA'S PLAN TO BUILD A MERCENARY TRAINING FACILITY --"BLACKWATER WEST"-- IN POTRERO!!

Blackwater USA, the private military contractor that trains mercenaries and is under investigation by Representative Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform plans to build an 824-acre training facility in Potrero, a small town in southeast San Diego County.

We need your help to stop this project!

1. Attend the Scoping Meeting: The County Department of Planning and Land Use will hold a Public Scoping Meeting on Thursday, April 5, 5:30 p.m., at the Planning Commission Hearing Room, Department of Planning and Land Use, 5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92123. The Scoping Meeting is an opportunity for the public to comment on the project and provide input into what should be covered in the environmental impact statement.
(note: written comments can also be submitted by April 27)

2. Attend the demonstration: THERE WILL BE A PUBLIC PROTEST "NO BLACKWATER! STOP BLACKWATER!" FROM 4:30 P.M. TO 5:30 P.M. , THURSDAY, APRIL 5, ON THE SIDEWALK ON RUFFIN ROAD IN FRONT OF THE COUNTY FACILITY JUST PRIOR TO THE SCOPING MEETING! Please bring signs with this theme. Join with citizens from Potrero who are fighting this project that affects all of us!

WE NEED EVERYONE THERE!!! For more information, please contact The Peace Resource Center of San Diego, 619-263-9301 or info@prcsd.org

Some resources about Blackwater USA:
Documents regarding the :Blackwater West" project and the scoping meeting can be found at: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/docs/PR/4-27-07/0620001.html

Jeremy Scahill's Nation Magazine article about Blackwater, "Bush's Shadow Army" and view short video at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill
Jeremy Scahill audio interview on Truthdig (mp3)

San Diego Reader article, Feb. 22, 2007, on "Blackwater West" http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=1566
(Bauder notes: "The company's owner, Erik Prince, has given lavishly to politicians, including former representative Tom DeLay, who left Congress in a lobbying scandal, and Duncan Hunter ($1000 in 2004).")


Read Jeremy Scahill's book: "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercentary Army"; Jeremy Scahill will speak in San Diego on May 1 and 2. Details of both events will be posted at prcsd.org/webcalendar

Hey, it's springtime, San Diego is lovely. Come on down!!!!

And Terry mentions the Golden Eagles that are nesting in the area, which I didn't know about: Blackwater Training Camp Planned in San Diego County

GAO: Looming Threat to US Oil Supply

By Matt Renner
t r u t h o u t Report
Friday 30 March 2007
A report released Thursday by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office concludes that worldwide oil production will eventually grind to a halt and the United States has no strategy in place to deal with the possible catastrophic results.

No shit Sherlock.

Those SUV's are gonna make really nifty planters, huh?

Former DoJ Official: Department Used to "Skew" Elections

By Paul Kiel - March 30, 2007, 12:40 PM

Straight from the horse's mouth.

Joseph D. Rich was chief of the voting section in the Justice Department's civil right division from 1999 to 2005. Today he penned an Op-Ed in The Los Angeles Times, and he didnt' mince words:

Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections.

( read the whole thing)

And you'll understand why I loved it when I overheard this statement:

"This democracy is so fucked."

China calls new U.S. tariffs 'unacceptable'

And Americans call the loss of our entire fucking manufacturing base to China.....?

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Survey says?

UNACCEPTABLE.

Democracy is for the rich

By Kevin Barr 03/30/07 "Fiji Times" -- -- Democracy is a system of government where the political power rests with the nation's population either directly or through elected representatives. It is government of the people, for the people, by the people.


Good read, somewhat depressing from ICH

Crap, something's wrong with Haloscan. Hacked? The site's down right now.

Oh Look, it's Khamenei finger puppets

Detained Marine apologizes on Iranian TV for trespassing
By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim, Special to the Times
9:11 AM PDT, March 30, 2007
TEHRAN -- A British marine captured by Iranians a week ago was shown on state television today apologizing for trespassing on Iranian territorial waters.


.... It was in this setting that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently made a significant statement.

The UN Security Council has voted against Iran on the nuclear issueHe said that so far Iran had acted legally to defend what it saw as its right to pursue a nuclear programme....

Josh Marshall informs.... I wonder about connecting the anthrax dots

Just. Go. Read it.


Local FBI head to become top security for Sempra Energy

Ha ha ha, welcome to my town.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if they find out eventually that the idea to send anthrax to the Democratic senators who were questioning the Patriot Act, and the rush to war was hatched right here in San Diego. Grover Norquist loves the place.

This town is full of brainwashed right-wing fucktards.

Yeah, I said fucktards.

Greedy fucktards with a sense of entitlement like you ain't never seen before.

Whiny punk-assed sniveling puerile bitches with porcine faces.

That's the husbands.

Don't even get me started on the airhead trophy wives.

I call them RepugnantThuglicans.

I'm sure they are buying the republican talking point that Lam needed to go because she couldn't keep up with the demands on her immigration cases. Senator Feinstein's questioning should put that to rest. These people will cover their ears with their hands and go "la la la la, I can't hear you."

They're also the type that grunt "Ugh, Mike Aguierre bad" because Mike won't let the real estate developers do whatever the fuck they want to do, unlike Downsize Jerry and Chief Landsdowne.

God I hate the fishwrap. They hate him. I love him.

Retailer TJX says computer breach involved 45.7 million

AP) - BOSTON-At least 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers of TJX Cos. customers were stolen from the discount retailer's computer system over several years, according to a regulatory filing by the company, which has stores in North America and Europe.


Crap.