For some reason this one breaks my heart

Merce Cunningham,dead at age 90.

Yes he had a long and prolific life, but I'm sad to see it pass. He was a very unique individual in American arts.

If You're not outraged, you're not paying attention:

(07-26) 18:37 PDT -- The son of a decorated Vietnam veteran, Hector Veloz is a U.S. citizen, but in 2007 immigration officials mistook him for an illegal immigrant and locked him in an Arizona prison for 13 months.


Veloz had to prove his citizenship from behind bars. An aunt helped him track down his father's birth certificate and his own, his parents' marriage certificate, his father's school, military and Social Security records.

After nine months, a judge determined that he was a citizen, but immigration authorities appealed the decision. He was detained for five more months before he found legal help and a judge ordered his case dropped.

"It was a nightmare," said Veloz, 37, a Los Angeles air conditioning installer.

This on the heels of a voice mail from my cousin, Carol, who was driving south on I-35 when she saw a giant billboard which said "GOT BIRTH CERTIFICATE?"

She was outraged and called to vent to me knowing I'd be outraged too.

This is not the first case I've heard of and it certainly won't be the last. There is a legal crack in the code here into which these people fall into. A code outside of our own proud law of "Innocent Until Proven Guilty." In criminal cases it is upon the prosecution to prove guilt, not the other way around. But apparently we exercise a more Napoleonic code of Guilty Until Proven Innocent. And then, even when we provide substantial proof of innocence, it is disregarded, appealed to death until a judge with some glimmer of intelligence gets a hold of the evidence.

In some cases deportation happens before any process of proving one's identity and citizenship can begin. This is especially true of the mentally handicapped.

And how do we view this whole situation? All I know is we spend far more time building walls and glorifying vigilante militias who take matters into their own hands.

So, then. Have we become the totalitarian state we decry in other nations? Is this the justice of a nation we are to be proud of? How many circular arguments does one country get to make to justify criminal treatment of citizens, resident aliens, and non citizens.

We are not judged by how we treat our betters, but how we treat the weakest and most exposed of our society.

America you get a great big, ol' fat:

F

Don't mistake the battle won for winning the war

The Pence amendment was defeated on Friday last but that is hardly the end of it. I've received an email from NARAL which states:

So far, anti-choice lawmakers have filed 36 anti-choice amendments in committee…and a group of anti-choice Democrats has vowed to bring down health-care reform unless it bans abortion care currently covered by most health plans!

Your gift today will also help us win media coverage to expose this heinous anti-choice agenda as well as protect choice at every level!

Randall Terry is threatening "random acts of violence against things, against facilities, things happening in the streets, acts of vandalism..." and "...reprisals against the individuals...deemed guilty...of pushing this tyranny."

And yes, the letter sent is also asking for donations to NARAL, the Pro-Choice PAC to help fight against these amendments. I'll let you decide on donations, but in addition to money find out where you representative and senator stands on this issue AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD. That is as effective as any money donated to PACs in fact, if we were more engaged and more vocal and less PASSIVE with those we elect, we might not always find ourselves in a life-or-death struggle.


And here is the man who is so ardently "PRO LIFE" that he encourages and indeed ADVOCATES violence up to and including the death of health care workers, patients, family members, in order to staunch this horrendous glut of abortions.



Once again, pro BIRTH supporters refuse to support life--in all its forms. They simply want to legislate the morality of others to suit themselves.