BBC NEWS | Americas | Drive for strict US immigrant law

The Minuteman people interest me, because very often when they are quoted, the surnames of the spokespeople are Hispanic. Of course, they’re probably native born Latinos and Latinas, or at least naturalized citizens. They’re pretty successful at getting their pictures in the paper doing what they do, but not so successful with the gathering the massive crowds of people to rallies in support of their cause.

The caravan will leave Los Angeles on Wednesday, where it plans to highlight unemployment in the African-American community. It says the problem is caused by illegal immigrants taking jobs “that Americans would be willing to do”.The group is planning to hold rallies in cities including Phoenix in Arizona, and Crawford in Texas, where President George W Bush has a ranch. The convoy will finish by driving to Capitol Hill in Washington DC for a rally on 12 May. “Our power is not putting a million people on the street, our power is putting 10 million people at the voting box,” said executive director Stephen Eichler.

So they’re going to do a caravan across the country, in an attempt to build popular support. It’ll be interesting to check in later and see how successful this is and how many show up at their Washington rally. Actually, there’s a fairly good chance that the caravan will fall apart somewhere in the middle, because frankly, it sounds like the family roadtrip from hell.

Interesting route – the backtracking is via large cities in friendly states for maximum media exposure. It wouldn’t do to have a press conference in the middle of nowhere.

The Minuteman Project, the self-proclaimed citizen border patrol that has emerged as a vocal opponent of illegal immigration, arrived in the heart of South Los Angeles Wednesday hoping to recruit blacks to their cause.

But instead, they were met by protesters, most of them black, who compared the group to the Ku Klux Klan and urged them to take their campaign elsewhere.

The event, billed as the Minuteman Project’s launch of a cross-country caravan to Washington, D.C., quickly devolved into a series of shouting matches between two sides punctuated by honking horns and howls from a megaphone.

And the newspaper, radio and TV reporters far outnumbered the participants.

All of which drove away in 3 RVs and a few cars. Adios, amigos. Vaya con Dios (o al Diablo).

I’ll revisit this story and add links to local news coverage as the days go by.

UPDATE: I’ll be adding links and further quotes in the extended entry.
Continue reading →

LiveJournal site Once Lost, Now Found reminds us of the prototypical image of the Bush Presidency:

Just In Case You Haven’t Had Enough Yet…

Yes, boys and girls, that is our fearless leader delivering, no doubt, one of the more satisfying sucker punches of his career. Little did we know, he would model his whole presidency on illegitimate retaliatory acts like this one!!!

Illegal, but gratifying. Sign 750 bills into law without vetoing, but quietly file signing statements indicating you have no intention of executing them as enacted.

Because you’re President Gumby, dammit.

Yep, I think we’ve all had enough. We’ve had enough religious bullshit, we’ve had enough of wingnut bullyism, and we’re going to fight back.

Oh, GOD. This guy was all the news when we were in England a few years ago:

David Blaine begins another idiotic and unfortunately fruitless attempt to die getting our attention.

Blaine entered the “bubble” wearing trousers, rubber shoes and a special diving mask.

Please hold your “boy in the bubble jokes” until the end of the post. He will be fed with a special tube. Please, God, let his air feed and his feed feed get mixed up. Or let the guy in charge of the venting or valves or what not get fed up.

During the seven-day challenge the water temperature will be maintained at around 36C and he will be able to control his own core body temperature by wearing specially designed wetsuits.

That’ll be easy to get into, since 1 day in the water will turn him into a human prune. Remember, he’s an illusionist: when they draw curtains so he can “change in privacy,” he pop out for a quick one. So far, though, he’s wearing ordinary trousers. The “special wetsuits” are going to have some sort of gimmick, I bet.

He has also undergone intensive training for the challenge, shedding 50lbs (23kg) in body weight since January to improve the efficiency with which his body uses oxygen.

No, he’s just worried the spherical acrylic tank will maagnify his every little flaw. If he weren’t wearing a mask, he’d be asking tourist after tourist “Does this make me look fat?”

“I feel pretty good. Though I’ve been sleeping very little and breath-holding non-stop,” Blaine said.

Please, go on doing that non-stop breath-holding thing. We’re sure it’ll help.

“My system is completely empty and I did that so there’s no waste. That way in the sphere I don’t have to use the bathroom.”

Now there’s a mental image that’s not gonna come out of the old frontal lobes without a lot of bleach and tequila.

I’m going to bed now. I’m sure the Internets are bad for me.

Bush challenges hundreds of laws – The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON — President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ”whistle-blower” protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush’s assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ”to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ”execute” a law he believes is unconstitutional.