As part of its fight against crime and terrorism, the British Home Office has proposed that records of every person’s e’mail, landline phone calls, text messages, voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) phone calls and time spent on the Internet be held in a massive government database, with Internet service providers (ISPs) and telephone companies providing the information to the Home Office. The proposal for the national database has been discussed with ISPs and telecommunications companies in preparation of the Communications Data Bill (CDB), to be included in Queen Elizabeth’s November speech to Parliament. The Queen’s November speech traditionally sets forth the legislative agenda for the upcoming year.

The Times Online estimates that about three billion e’mails are sent every day in Great Britain, with about 57 billion text messages sent in 2007. The new security measures follow plans for the creation of massive databases containing British ID card information and the medical records of National Health Service (NHS) patients. The CDB proposal would allow the government to store the Internet and telecom information for at least a year. Law enforcement would only be able to access the records with a warrant. Since October 2007, British telecom companies have been required to retain phone call and text message records for 12 months; in addition to turning that information over to the government, the data collection requirements would expand to include e’mail, records of Internet usage and VOIP calls under terms of the CDB.

In addition to privacy concerns, there are questions about whether the government can safely manage a sensitive database holding billions of records which might be more prone to identity theft given centralized record location. Jonathan Bamford, assistant commissioner of a privacy watchdog organization, the Information Commissioner’s Office, said: “This would give us serious concerns and may well be a step too far. We are not aware of any justification for the State to hold every UK citizen’s phone and internet records. We have real doubts that such a measure can be justified, or is proportionate or desirable. We have warned before that we are sleepwalking into a surveillance society. Holding large collections of data is always risky — the more data that is collected and stored, the bigger the problem when the data is lost, traded or stolen.”

The Data Bill is part of a plan to implement uniform record-keeping, as required by the European Union (EU) following the July 7, 2005 London bombings in which Muslim terrorists disrupted London’s transportation and mobile telecom infrastructures with a series of morning rush-hour bomb blasts which killed 52 commuters and injured 700, in the city’s deadliest and largest terrorist attack. Other European government agencies might also be able to access the proposed new database.

Passage of the controversial CDB is in doubt, with Liberal Democrats vowing to fight the bill and Shadow Home Secretary David Davis characterizing the massive database as a threat. Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne commented: “Ministers have taken leave of their senses if they think that this proposal is compatible with a free country and a free people…Given its appalling track record of data loss, this government simply cannot be trusted with private information. This is an Orwellian step too far.”

Read more British news.

Photo credit: BBC

Copyright ©2008 pajamadeen.com

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who spoke tonight to 12,000 people at the NAACP’s 53rd annual “Fight for Freedom Fund” dinner held at Cobo Hall in Detroit Michigan, said he is “descriptive,” and not divisive in describing American social ills. In part, he spoke in response to many recent criticisms and the firestorm of protest which erupted after a snippet of his ““God damn America” speech appeared on YouTube. Wright said that social and political change will come to America only when Americans see each other as Americans, as essentially the same, rather than focusing on differences. “Different does not mean deficient,” he said. “It simply means different.”

Wright, 66, who recently retired from pastoring Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, said during an interview which aired Friday on PBS that he’d received death threats and had endured “vitriolic hatred” recently because Americans “would rather cling to what they are taught” than re-examine the government’s oppression of minorities such as African-Americans, Native Americans and civilians swept up in wars overseas. Wright didn’t recant any of his controversial sermons, either in the PBS interview or in the NAACP speech tonight.

Rather, he said: “We are committed to changing the way we treat each other. Everybody in here who’s not an Indian do be an immigrant. Some of ya’ll came over on the decks of the ship and some of ya’ll came in the bowels and holds of the ship, but we’re all immigrants.” Referring to Barack Obama, the preacher said: “Please tell my stuck-on-stupid friends that Arabic is a language, it’s not a religion. Barack Hussein Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. Barack Hussein Obama. There are Arabic-speaking Christians, Arabic-speaking Jews, Arabic-speaking Muslims and Arabic-speaking atheists. Stop trying to scare folks by giving them an Arabic name as if it’s some sort of disease…Did you hear me, O’Reilly?”

Wright, never one to mince words, delivered a sermon on September 16, 2001, five days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which seems eerily prescient in hindsight. Here’s an excerpt from it:

“I heard Ambassador [Edward] Peck on an interview yesterday. Did anybody else see or hear him? He was on FOX News, this is a white man, and he was upsetting the FOX News commentators to no end. He pointed out — a white man, an ambassador — he pointed out that what Malcolm X said when he was silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true: He said America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (Peck, a career diplomat, also argued against the March 2003 Iraq invasion, commenting at the time: “When you take out Saddam Hussein, the key question you have to ask then is, what happens after that? And we don’t have a clue. Nobody knows, but it’s probably going to be bad. And a lot of people are going to be very upset about that, because that really is not written into our role in this world, to decide who rules Iraq.”)

Wright continued in his sermon by saying: “We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.

“We took Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.

“We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.”

“We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard-working fathers.

“We bombed Qaddafi’s home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against the rock.

“We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hard-working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they’d never get back home.”

“We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.

“Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

“Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y’all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that.”

Learn more about how Americans are perceived in Iraq.

Photo credit: Kathleen Galligan/Detroit Free Press

Copyright ©2008 pajamadeen.com

Fortified with MP5 machine guns (and $30 million from the Department of Homeland Security), New York City’s finest are now patrolling the Big Apple’s subways in a counterterrorism initiative dubbed “Operation Torch.” The police are also armed with M4 carbine rifles and body armor and are accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs. With five million riders a day, the city’s subway system has been considered a primo terror target since 9/11.

Five or six teams per day will patrol major transit hubs such as Columbus Circle, Grand Central Station, Herald Square, Penn Station, the Rockefeller Center and Times Square in Manhattan, as well as Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue. New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Ray Kelly said other locations will also be guarded. “The assignments will vary and will be following no discernible pattern,” he said. Similar NYPD “Hercules” police officers have patrolled the Empire State Building, Wall St. and other city landmarks since September 11, 2001. During previous periods of heightened security, Hercules officers have patrolled the subways. The NYPD’s transit division has conducted 48,000 random baggage checks since 2005 and inspects tunnels and ventilation systems for explosives. Surveillance cameras are also in place.

Police Commissioner Kelly, noting an attempted August 2004 bomb plot at Herald Square, commented: “Our transit system has been targeted unsuccessfully…And, of course, we know of successful attacks throughout the world in subways. We’ve done more than any other transit system in the world, by far, to prevent another attack…Our transit system is as safe as it’s ever been and I can assure you that it’s our intention to keep it that way.”

The NYPD received the $30 million Transit Operational Response With Canine and Heavy Weapons (TORCH) funds as part of a $151 million grant made by the Department of Homeland Security to Connecticut, New Jersey and New York; the funds are projected to last for two years and will beef up operations of the approximately 2,600 police officers who work the NYPD’s transit bureau. Kelly said: “We think this is a reasonable expenditure of funds. We’re doing everything that we think is appropriate to prevent another attack.” Kelly indicated that if the program is successful, New York City will seek additional funding to continue it. But how does one tell if such a program is successful? This is the first time in U.S. history that counterterrorism units have been assigned to a mass transit system.

Each six-member Torch unit, working 12-hours shifts, will have four officers from the police department’s emergency service unit, a sergeant, a dog handler and a bomb-sniffing dog. While some passengers welcomed the increased police presence, others complained that the Torch units were too “in your face.” Subway passenger Carol Ann Daniel of Brooklyn told a New York radio station: “I find it kind of scary…The idea of people with guns all around doesn’t actually make me feel safer for some reason…It kind of feels like you’re in a war zone.”

Read more terrorism news.

Photo credits: Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse – Getty Images

Copyright ©2008 pajamadeen.com

It was more of the same from President Bush yesterday, as he spoke at the White House about the Iraq War and accepted General David H. Petraeus’ recommendation to suspend a U.S. troop drawdown in Iraq. Bush said that Petraus would have “all the time he needs,” until next January to consolidate what the adminstration views as economic, political and security gains (where?) in Iraq. Bush envisions U.S. troops assuming a “supporting role” in the war-torn country. “To ease the burden on our troops and their families,” Bush also reduced troop deployment length from 15 months to 12 months, effective for troops deploying as of August 1.

As usual, Bush persisted in inflaming the situation describing Iraq as “the convergence point” for two terrorist threats against the U.S: al-Qaeda and Iran. He said that U.S. troops would continue to pursue al-Qaeda in Iraq and alluded to his long-held dream of invading Iran. In warning that Iran must stop arming, funding and training extremists in Iraq, he said: “If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests, our troops and our Iraqi partners.”

As we move inexorably towards the one trillion dollar mark for the cost of the war in Iraq and as Bush left for a long weekend at his Crawford, Texas ranch, we wondered if he might like to swing by New Orleans again. Since Hurricane Katrina struck more than two years ago, not one fire house has been rebuilt; 22 of the city’s 33 fire stations were damaged or destroyed in the storm. At least nine need to be rebuilt. See an interactive map showing the fire houses in need of repair.

In his Jackson Square speech of September 15, 2005, Bush said: “Many first responders were victims themselves — wounded healers, with a sense of duty greater than their own suffering. When I met Steve Scott of the Biloxi Fire Department, he and his colleagues were conducting a house-to-house search for survivors. Steve told me this: ‘I lost my house, and I lost my cars, but I still got my family, and I still got my spirit.’…To every person who has served and sacrificed in this emergency, I offer the gratitude of our country. And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.”

Here’s New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD) District Chief Timothy McConnell, standing on the slab of what once was Firehouse No. 22 in the 3rd District, in October 2007. The 3rd District fire station is still based in a FEMA trailer at the corner of N. Claiborne and Caffin Dr. in the Lower 9th Ward. And we all know how healthy FEMA trailers are. McConnell told CNN: “It’s frustrating to firefighters, and certainly taking its toll on morale. The fire gear they all wear is light sensitive, and is supposed to be stored in a dark locker to make sure the uniforms remain as fire resistant as possible. In a trailer, that just doesn’t happen.” Fire response times are down, too, posing a safety hazard for citizens. As McConnell explained, “The time it takes you to lock up a trailer, to get from there and get on the…[fire truck], all that delays response time just a little bit.”

Here’s a slide show, showing the Fourth District’s FEMA trailer and volunteers making repairs. So, let’s see…We can spend over $2.4 billion a week “rebuilding” Iraq, but we can’t rebuild fire stations in New Orleans?

Help has come, instead, from the kindness of strangers. Actor Denis Leary, who portrays a firefighter on the Rescue Me TV show, formed The Leary Firefighters Foundation in 2000 in response to a Worcester, Massachusetts fire in an abandoned warehouse in his hometown. More than 75 firefighters worked what’s been called “the perfect fire.” Six of them perished, including Jerry Lucey, who was Denis’ first cousin, and Lt. Tommy Spencer, a childhood playmate and high school classmate.

The Leary foundation has provided millions of dollars in equipment and training support to firefighters. After 9/11, the foundation created The Fund for New York’s Bravest to raise money for families of the 343 fallen firefighters. Relying on his entertainment industry connections, Leary created The BASH for New York’s Bravest, which is now an annual star-studded fundraiser. After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA estimated that it would cost millions of dollars and take 10 years to repair and replace the damaged New Orleans fire stations. Last year, a member of the New York District Council of Carpenters, Jerry Cremins, was in New Orleans to pick up his son at Loyola University. He couldn’t believe what he saw. As he told CNN: “It doesn’t translate that well on TV…It was astounding to me that they haven’t been helped out — that local governments and municipalities haven’t held up their obligations. That is basically when citizens have to step in and get the job done.”

Deciding he was just the man to help, Cremins contacted the Leary foundation. Soon, union volunteers and NOFD firefighters were working together. So far, five fire stations have been rebuilt by the volunteers, with two more scheduled to be finished this spring. Cremins himself has made nine trips to the Big Easy, on his own dime and own time. Leary says he got involved because “I gave up on ever hoping that politicians in this country — local, state or federal — would step in to help these guys.” Leary says that some of the firefighters have told him almost-unbelievable stories of bureaucratic red tape and heartlessness. One firefighter spoke of a fire house that had three feet of water in it; he told Leary that when FEMA inspected the fire station, they told the fire department that they’d pay for the hinge on this door below the water line, but the two hinges above the water line they weren’t going to pay for.”

Edward Blakely, who’s in charge of New Orleans recovery efforts, said he appreciates the Leary Foundation’s work but, due to spiralling crime rates in town, the city has focused on rebuilding police headquarters instead. While not complaining, firefighters like to note that not a single firefighter abandoned a post during Hurricane Katrina — unlike many NOPD officers who bailed.

And this is the problem, Mr. President. Simply put, we’re on to you. Not that many people care anymore about the Iraq war and your personal feelings about Iran. While banks receive multi-billion dollar bail-outs and war costs are expected to bleed us white to the tune of at least $3 trillion, millions of Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure. We care about foreclosures and the high cost of gasoline and the escalating cost of food and the economic recession. We care about jobs. We loathe outsourcing. We want health insurance, considered a basic human right in most countries.

You had two golden moments, in which you could have shone and gone down as a defining President: 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. It’s clear that you’ve squandered both seminal moments in American history.

You can donate to the Leary Foundation’s efforts to rebuild New Orleans fire stations here.

Read more firefighting news, about a historic school fire which changed how fire safety exits are built.

Photo credit: Jennifer Zdon / Times-Picayune, Mario Anzuoni and Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Copyright ©2008 pajamadeen.com

Mark Fiore has another of his classic, barbed videos up, this one poking fun at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which basically authorizes spying upon Americans and offers telephone companies immunity from prosecution for ratting out their customers. George Bush has been having temper tantrums over the failure of Congress to extend the bill, today repeating his mantra that terrorists are this very minute plotting to do us all in. Watch The Spys Who Love You! here; Snuggly the Bear will explain everything in a jiffy.

At a press conference, Bush said that “American citizens must understand, clearly understand that there’s still a threat on the homeland. There’s still an enemy which would like to do us harm…By blocking this piece of legislation, our country is more in danger of an attack.” Democrats say they want to address civil liberty concerns, which are eroded by FISA, and need more time to consider the legislation. Last night, Republican members of the House had a temper tantrum walked out of Congress and gathered on the Capitol steps to protest Democratic delays.

Read Independence Day Reflections as an antidote. It will give you something to do this weekend.

An anti-John McCan’t McCain video skewers the Republican candidate for his statement that it “would be fine with me” if we kept troops in Iraq for 100 years, if that’s what it takes to bankrupt us win the war.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Another thought-provoking video is from Less Jobs, More Wars.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Read our post about what the Iraq war has really cost Americans; we also keep a running tab with the “Cost of the War in Iraq” counter at the bottom of every page.

Here’s some more Friday link love: Edwin Starr’s War Song.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Copyright ©2008 pajamadeen.com

Happy Valentine’s Day from the good folks at FEMA. Remember the trailers they provided to about 144,000 Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita victims? (No, not the acres of FEMA trailers that sat empty and unused in Arkansas fields, while FEMA paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in storage fees; that’s a different story.) Surprise! The trailers FEMA did supply to hurricane victims are toxic. They give the term “trailer trash” new meaning. The trailers contain high levels of formaldehyde — a known carcinogen — and are poisoning people, especially the elderly and the very young. About 40,000 people still live in FEMA hovels trailers.

FEMA held a news conference today, in conjunction with the CDC, urging people to move out of the trailers as soon as possible. “But where?” asked Sean Callebs of CNN, as he reported from New Orleans this morning. “There’s no affordable housing here in New Orleans.”

Actually, it turns out that FEMA’s known about the formaldehyde problem since late 2005, just a few months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. People living in the trailers began to complain of nosebleeds and headaches. Watering, burning eyes and breathing problems have also been reported in asthmatics and others sensitive to airborne pollutants. In fact, people living in FEMA trailers speak of having a “Katrina cough.” Last May, FEMA blew off reports by environmentalists which claimed that the trailers created serious health risks. In fact, FEMA said that the mobile homes conformed to industry standards. Residents didn’t buy that story and, last August, about 1,000 Louisiana families asked FEMA to relocate them. In November, hurricane victims and their lawyers asked a federal judge to require FEMA to test the trailers for hazardous fumes.

Finally the CDC, working with FEMA, hired a contractor, Bureau Veritas North America, to test air samples from 79 mobile homes, 82 park trailers and 358 travel trailers. The samples were collected from 21 December through 23 January. According to CDC environmental hazards spokesperson Mike McGeehin, the test results, which came back last week, showed that formaldehyde fumes in the trailers are at least five times the level in modern homes and, in some cases, the formaldehyde fume levels were almost 40 times the normal exposure levels. The smaller the trailer (such as travel trailers), the higher the formaldehyde concentrations were. The higher the temperatures, the more formaldehyde gas levels climb in the heat. While there are no federal standards regarding formaldehyde levels in homes and the EPA only classifies formaldehyde as a “probable” carcinogen, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies the chemical as a carcinogen.

In an afternoon news conference, CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said that the CDC will start a registry of people who are or have lived in the toxic trailers. She offered these cheery tips to the poisoned:

• “Improve the ventilation.”
• “It’s really important that people not smoke in their trailer.”
• There will be an “acceleration of relocation.”
• If residents have further questions, they can call the CDC hotline. (You’re on your own figuring out what the phone number is; it wasn’t provided during the news conference.

Gerberding then said that she hoped that by next Valentine’s Day, people could be safely back in their homes, as “home is where the heart is.”

FEMA yesterday urged trailer residents to seek safer housing and at today’s news conference, R. David Paulison, FEMA director, said that the agency will be “aggressive” in its relocation of dispossessed hurricane victims. Paulison said that weary trailer occupants would be relocated to apartments or “other alternative housing,” preferably convenient to schools and work. Failing that, the trailer inhabitants will be relocated to hotels and motels.

Paulison also said that the CDC and FEMA will go door-to-door, hand delivering formaldehyde test results to trailer occupants and advising them of “housing alternatives.” Residents will also be given information on how to contact FEMA about relocation, since that has worked so well in the past for Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims. Paulison also said that FEMA will coordinate with the CDC to provide health information to trailer occupants, so that they fully understand the health risks they might have incurred, courtesy of the government.

As Callebs noted on TV: “They’ve cut corners. They’ve buried the truth.” Meanwhile, North Carolina Senator Richard Burr (R) wondered on CNN why the formaldehyde information hadn’t been publicized earlier, questioning whether fear of embarassment or fear of legal liability had kept FEMA quiet for so long. At the online edition of The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans, comments ranged from “Get ready for about 100,000 lawsuits to be filed” to “Didn’t FEMA already say this wasn’t an issue? The federal government wouldn’t lie to us, would they?”

Read more Hurricane Katrina news. Or, if you’d like something more lighthearted for Valentine’s Day, see a charming c. 1907 Valentine.

Photo credit: Alex Brandon / AP

Copyright ©2008 pajamadeen.com

Americans seem slightly less preoccupied with the idea of a border fence now that the economy is tanking, but Rafah shows just how easy it would be for Mexicans to demolish sections of our proposed border fence. (While Israel and the United States have urged Egypt to regain border control, Hassam Zaki, of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said that the Rafah border crossing would remain open “as long as this is a humanitarian crisis.” According to MENA, a state-run Egyptian news agency, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he ordered troops to let the Palestinians in because they were starving.)

Rafah, the only Gaza border crossing not controlled by Israel, was maintained by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority until Hamas took over last June. After a series of rocket attacks on southern Israel, Israeli authorities closed all of its Gaza border crossings last week. But punishing Hamas also punishes already-impoverished Gaza residents. On Tuesday morning, Israel briefly allowed medical supplies and fuel into Gaza to avoid a humanitarian crisis. However, Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, reported that Israel intends to keep Gaza sealed off except as emergency humanitarian needs dictate. Good luck with that plan, Israel.

Photo credits: AFP / Mahmud Hams and AP / Kevin Frayer

Copyright ©2008 pajamadeen.com

In a spectacular display of “Homeland Security” über alles, U.S. Border Patrol agents at the Rouses Point, NY border crossing detained Québec firefighters racing to assist fellow firemen battling a blaze at the Anchorage Inn on Lake St. in Rouses Point on Sunday evening. The blaze, which started about 11:00 p.m., burned throughout the night, destroying the inn.

Despite the fact that it’s common practice in Rouses Point to call on Canadian firefighters because some Canadian fire stations are closer than American fire stations and despite the fact that Clinton County officials contacted Customs and Border Protection to let them know the Canadian firefighters were coming, Lacolle and St. Paul, Québec crews were still delayed, as several didn’t have proper photo identification. Border Patrol also inspected some of the fire trucks.

Ten fire departments fought to save the Anchorage, including crews from Isle la Motte and Alburgh, Vermont. Fire departments and emergency responders from throughout Clinton County, New York, southern Québec and northwestern Vermont all participate in a mutual aid system, providing assistance to one another during emergencies.

According to WPTZ.com, Border Patrol said that “while they recognize the need for emergency crews to get to the scene of emergencies, they have a primary mission of protecting the border and need to make sure everyone crossing the border is fine to do so.” Chris Trombley of Clinton County (NY) Emergency Services said that common sense needs to be used in emergencies, including the expeditious processing of emergency officials. Isn’t it nice to know that people who don’t have the sense that God gave a goose are “protecting” you from Canadian firefighters?

Read about more border folly.

Photo credit: WCAX-TV

Copyright ©2007 pajamadeen.com

A ninth-grade student at Catalina High Magnet School in Tucson, Arizona, who went to school stoned last Thursday and with a small amount of weed in his backpack, was speedily deported along with his parents and younger sibling after school officials called police about the stash and police in turn called the student’s parents to come to the school. Once there, the parents, unable to produce U.S. drivers’ licenses, admitted that they were illegal immigrants, and the U.S. Border Patrol was summoned. Border Patrol took the ninth-grader and his parents into custody and picked up a 12-year-old sibling at Doolen Middle School.

On Monday, Tucson Assistant Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor said that the officer who responded to the scene handled it correctly because the student committed a crime and department policy allows police officers to contact Border Patrol if they think a suspect is an illegal immigrant. Faux News quoted Villaseñor as saying: “We can’t lose track of the fact that an administrator came across a juvenile who was violating the law, in possession of marijuana…That is a crime in this country, whether you are here illegally or not.” When asked whether such draconian measures created an atmosphere of fear, a mistrust of police and an unwillingness to call police at all, Villaseñor commented: “While we don’t want to put a chilling effect on anyone calling us, we are also obligated to do our job.”

Dozens of students, seen above, protested the deportation on Monday, marching approximately five miles from the Catalina school to police headquarters. One student, 15-year-old Erick Quintero, told the Arizona Daily Star: “We’re students, not criminals.” Sophomore Daninza Bautista, 15, said: “We’re doing something positive, something valuable. We’re showing other students to stand up for what is right.”

Ernest Portillo, Jr. wrote in an op-ed piece for the Star: “…in today’s hyper-charged environment, there is no rest for undocumented immigrants. Bashing illegal immigrants has become a national sporting pastime. The vilification of undocumented immigrants propels people to elected office. It garners high ratings for ranting hosts on cable television and hate radio. Without a comprehensive immigration policy, there’s a green light for this to continue. There is no real accountability for raiding workplaces, homes and neighborhoods in search of America’s pariah…The hard hammer on undocumented immigrants is a sweet sound to some folks who dream of a United States that never was — empty of illegal migrant workers.”

Read more immigration news.

Photo credit: Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star and Tucson, Arizona Police Department

Copyright ©2007 pajamadeen.com

Starting on 1 November 2007 if you hire, house or even give a ride to an undocumented worker, you can go to a prison for up to a year in Oklahoma. Say what? Oklahoma’s draconian HB 1804, otherwise known as the “Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007,” contains the following provisions:

SECTION 3. NEW LAW

(Is this like “New Rules” on Real Time with Bill Maher?)

• A. It shall be unlawful for any person to transport, move, or attempt to transport in the State of Oklahoma any alien knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the alien has come to, entered, or remained in the United States in violation of law, in furtherance of the illegal presence of the alien in the United States.

• B. It shall be unlawful for any person to conceal, harbor, or shelter from detection any alien in any place within the State of Oklahoma, including any building or means of transportation, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the alien has come to, entered, or remained in the United States in violation of law.

• C. Nothing in this section shall be construed so as to prohibit or restrict the provision of any state or local public benefit described in 8 U.S.C., 1621(b), or regulated public health services provided by a private charity using private funds.

• D. Any person violating the provisions of subsections A or B of this section shall, upon conviction, be guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for not less than one (1) year, or by a fine of not less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or by both such fine and imprisonment.

An estimated 20,000 Hispanics have fled Tulsa, with estimates including another 10,000 by the time the bill goes into effect in a few weeks. Many of the departing are apparently headed to Arkansas and Kansas, but Arkansas is about to adopt a similar law and Kansas is considering the idea. Representative Randy Terrill (R-Moore), who authored the bill, commented: “This isn’t about whether you are for or against immigration, or for or against immigrants. It doesn’t matter what your skin color is or if you speak with an accent. What matters is if you are in the country legally or illegally. The only people threatened by House Bill 1804 are those who choose to break the law.”

The Latin American and Hispanic Affairs Advisory Council, a state panel, is already questioning the constitutionality of the new law, and voted to send Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry a letter saying that the state law attempts to supercede Federal law. Tulsa businessman and council member Guillermo Rojas told KOTV: “Everybody is worried and seriously concerned…This is not just about immigration, this is racism.” State Rep. Al Lindley (D-Oklahoma City), who also opposed the bill, has already asked the state’s attorney general, W.A. Drew Edmondson, to render an opinion on HB 1804’s constitutionality, but a spokeswoman for his office, Emily Lang, said it’s unlikely that the opinion will be released before 1 November.

Attorney Carole Wangrund has also requested an opinion from Edmondson. She says it’s impossible to enforce HB 1804 without racial profiling. “We are giving up all of our rights in the name of national security…And for some bizarre reason, we are picking on the Hispanics…They passed this incredibly unconstitutional mess, without understanding that federal law pre-empts it.”

Next year, Rep. Terrill plans to compound the error follow up with a bill making English the official language of Oklahoma. He might want to read our recent News for the English-Only Crowd to see what others have learned about the pitfalls of adopting an official language.

Aside from the fact that immigration enforcement is a Federal concern, most Americans don’t seem to realize that the immigration system is broken in another way: if one applies legally to enter the country, the wait can be anywhere from 20 to 100 years. Undocumented workers also have taxes withheld from their paychecks but are either too afraid to file tax returns — although they would most likely receive tax refunds — and/or don’t stay in the country long enough to collect Social Security. Vicente Fox Quesada, former President of Mexico, estimates that the tax monies thus retained by the government amount to $80,000 per worker, or a $50 billion annual windfall to the U.S. government.

Living on Tulsa Time

Well, I left Oklahoma
Driving in a Pontiac,
Just about to lose my mind.
I was going to Arizona,
Maybe on to California
Where people all live so fine.

Living on Tulsa time,
Living on Tulsa time.
Gonna set my watch back to it,
’Cause you know that I’ve been through it.
Living on Tulsa time.

–Lyrics by Danny Flowers, sung by Eric Clapton

Read more draconian immigration news.

Copyright © 2007 pajamadeen.com