COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, July 03, 2011

Illegal Immigrants: We have earned the right to be here.

Thousands rally against strict Ga. law cracking down on illegal immigration at state Capitol



ATLANTA — Thousands of marchers stormed the Georgia Capitol on Saturday to protest the state’s new immigration law, which they say creates an unwelcome environment for people of color and those in search of a better life.

Men, women and children of all ages converged on downtown Atlanta for the march and rally, cheering speakers while shading themselves with umbrellas and posters. Capitol police and organizers estimated the crowd at between 8,000 and 14,000. They filled the blocks around the Capitol, holding signs decrying House Bill 87 and reading “Immigration Reform Now!”

Friends Jessica Bamaca and Melany Cordero held a poster that read: “How would you feel if your family got broken apart?”

Bamaca was born in the U.S., but her mother and sister are from Guatemala. She said she fears they will be deported.

“I would be here by myself,” said Bamaca, 13. “I have a feeling (the governor) doesn’t know the pain affecting families. If he were to be in our position, how would he react?”

Adelina Nicholls, executive director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, said the crowd was sending a message.




“They are ready to fight,” Nicholls said. “We need immigration reform, and no HB87 is going to stop us. We have earned the right to be here.”

Azadeh Shahshahani of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia called the rally inspiring and said she hoped lawmakers would recognize the law’s potential to damage the state.

“I think it’s going to have an impact,” she said. “Unfortunately, the damage has already been done as far as people of color having second thoughts about moving to Georgia.”

Several different groups stood with the largely Latino crowd, including representatives from the civil rights movement. The Rev. Timothy McDonald, an activist who has been supportive of immigration protesters, was among the speakers showing his solidarity.

“You are my brothers and my sisters,” McDonald told the crowd. “Some years ago, they told people like me we couldn’t vote. We did what you are doing today. We are going to send a message to the powers that be ... that when the people get united, there is no government that can stop them. Don’t let them turn you around.”

MiLi Lai, a student at Emory who is Chinese, also attended the rally because the immigration law doesn’t just apply to Latinos, but “all non-American people.”


“We are the same community,” Lai said. “We have to fight for our rights.

Bellanira Avoytes came to the rally with her husband and three children. Although she is a legal resident and her children were born in Georgia, she does not see herself as separate from undocumented Latinos.

“I have family who are not residents,” she said. “I am together with the Latin people. I love Georgia. I have stayed here for 18 years. I want to buy a house here.”

Saturday’s rally follows a “day without immigrants” organized Friday, when some parts of the law took effect. It was organized by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. The organization asked businesses to close and community members not to work or shop to protest the law.

On Monday, a judge temporarily blocked key parts of the law until a legal challenge is resolved. One provision that was blocked authorizes police to check the immigration status of suspects without proper identification. It also authorizes them to detain illegal immigrants. Another penalizes people who knowingly and willingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants while committing another crime.


Parts of similar measures in Arizona, Utah and Indiana also have been blocked by the courts.

Provisions that took effect Friday include one that makes it a felony to use false information or documentation when applying for a job. Another provision creates an immigration review board to investigate complaints about government officials not complying with state laws related to illegal immigration.

23 comments:

  1. this would only happen in a border state like Georgia. Oh wait.........

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  2. The anti federalists were more right than wrong.

    Goddamn most of the federal courts.

    dwrnl

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  3. When are we going to say enough is enough or has the syetem been so rigged that reform is impossible? I suppose that is the conclusions society make and then they do it another way. The courts are totally out of control. They have usurped the law and the voice and the federal system.

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  4. (CNSNews.com) - Forty-nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives--including the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee and two presidential candidates--are pointing to evidence they say is "contradictory" to Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's confirmation testimony and calling for the House Judiciary Committee to investigate the matter.
    The lawmakers also say they believe that evidence already made public shows that Kagan must recuse herself from any court cases involving the health care bill signed into law by President Barack Obama while she was serving as Obama's solicitor general.
    "We respectfully call upon the House Judiciary Committee to promptly investigate the extent to which U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was involved in preparing a legal defense of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) during her tenure as Solicitor General," the 49 lawmakers wrote in a letter to Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Texas), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. John Conyers (D.-Mich.), the ranking member of the committee.
    "Contradictory to her 2010 confirmation testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently released Department of Justice (DOJ) documents indicate that Justice Kagan actively participated with her Obama Administration colleagues in formulating a defense of PPACA," the letter said.

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  5. hi deuce this is sudheer,the Scientifc Orchard guy.I have started a new blog .please have a look it here-http://theherringpond.blogspot.com.Its just my version of the elephant bar.

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  6. .

    Executive Pay in Study of 200 Large Companies up 23%

    “What is of more concern to shareholders is that it looks like C.E.O. pay is recovering faster than company fortunes,” says Paul Hodgson, chief communications officer for GovernanceMetrics International, a ratings and research firm.

    According to a report released by GovernanceMetrics in June, the good times for chief executives just keep getting better. Many executives received stock options that were granted in 2008 and 2009, when the stock market was sinking.

    Now that the market has recovered from its lows of the financial crisis, many executives are sitting on windfall profits, at least on paper. In addition, cash bonuses for the highest-paid C.E.O.’s are at three times prerecession levels, the report said.

    Of course, these sorts of pay figures invariably push the buttons of many ordinary Americans. Yes, workers’ 401(k)’s are looking better than they did in some recent years, but many investors still have not recovered from the hit they took during the financial crisis. And, of course, millions are out of work or trying to hold on to their homes — or both.

    And it’s not as if most workers are getting fat raises. The average American worker was taking home $752 a week in late 2010, up a mere 0.5 percent from a year earlier. After inflation, workers were actually making less...


    Let The Good Times Roll. For Some

    I know mentioning this puts me in the category of 'class warrior';therefore, may as well get hung as a sheep rather than a lamb.

    Another recent study showed that the median net worth of our representatives in the House and Senate, half of which are millionaires, increased by 16% over the past two years.

    .

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  7. 9.1% Unemployment.

    Just close the border, already.

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  8. Leave the border open, encourage illegals to move here...

    then elect a foreign born america hater as president...

    oh right that already happened...

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  9. I going to starbucks and then to work for a few hours...

    i am going to do business, make a few bucks...

    get some things accomplished...

    I will take a moment tomorrow to think and remember what 7/4/1776 is and was about..

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  10. This is amazing that the NYPC and DA had this caper pulled on them. DSK may very well become President of France ona sympathy vote.

    The Sofitel maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of a sex attack in his suite wasn't just a hotel hooker -- she continued to work as a prostitute in a Brooklyn hotel where she was stashed by prosecutors, The Post has learned.
    The so-called victim, whose web of lies has crippled the Manhattan DA's case against the former International Monetary Fund boss, played host to a parade of paying male visitors in the weeks after Strauss-Kahn's arrest, a prosecution source said.
    "While she was under our supervision, there were multiple 'dates' and encounters at the hotel on the DA's dime," the source said of her paid hotel room. "That's a great deal for her. She doesn't have to cover her expenses."

    RAMEY PHOTO
    SECRET LIFE: The infamous Sofitel maid/hooker, her identity protected by a sheet, is guided by cops last month.

    The woman has a regular fleet of gentlemen callers who range from wealthy clients she met at the Sofitel to counterfeit-merchandise hawkers and livery-cab drivers, said sources close to the defense investigation.
    Some of her clients also gave her pricey jewelry, the source said.



    Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/she_laid_low_as_da_paid_for_digs_8Udq6nhQaHaC4KOOfkctpI#ixzz1R462Zvkv

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  11. Oops, sorry 'bout that. :)

    I can't help it; I think it's funny as hell. :)

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  12. I really don't like the f**king french. :)

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  13. How much for a minefield from gulf to Pacific?

    dwrnl

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  14. .

    This is amazing that the NYPC and DA had this caper pulled on them. DSK may very well become President of France ona sympathy vote.

    Remains to be seen.

    Despite Eva's little pout, some have speculated that attitudes regarding womanizing among French political elites is gradually changing.

    Also, there is the fact that DSK is a leftist and some of his supporters on the left haven't been real happy to see photos of their hero spending $250k per month for a rented townhouse while he awaits the progress of the indictment.

    Diminuitive Dick Not Quite So Popular

    If DSK wins, it will more than lkely be less about sympathy and more because Sarkozy, also a womanizer, is so disliked because of the austerity program he has instituted.

    Regardless, were DSK to win, how would you like to have to deal with this pompous little dick as President of France.

    .

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  15. Personally, I don't see much reason to "deal with" France, no matter who's in charge.

    I can get my "Cheddar" from Wisconsin, and my "Wine" from California, and I doubt very, very seriously that I'll be in the market for a "Renault" any time soon.

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  16. 5,000 houses in Phoenix w/o power due to heat wave. If they had 50 Megawatts of Solar they would be in business.

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  17. "There's growing anger, it's not just impatience, in the Congress of the United States toward Pakistan," said Lieberman. "We want to have a good relationship with them but we're tired of seeing them be both our allies and our enemies and supporting our enemies at the same time.

    They've got to decide to be our allies and we'll be good allies to them, or we won't."

    Shortly before the senators' news conference in Kabul, an improvised bomb exploded on the other end of the capital, wounding three Afghan policemen, the Afghan Interior Ministry said. Insurgents have focused many of their attacks on Afghan security forces to undermine their development and NATO's plans to transfer security operations to Afghan control.

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  18. Maria Esposito was ready to give up. Wasted away at 92 pounds, she couldn't bear another dose of chemotherapy to fight the Stage IV Burkitt's lymphoma that had invaded her body while she was pregnant with her second child.

    ...

    "I am here. I want to say I'm alive.

    I know what I went through and I assure you, it was really serious, something awful. Death was very close.


    Prayers Cured Cancer

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  19. NATO said yesterday that it has begun ramping up its airstrikes on military targets in the western part of Libya, where rebel forces have claimed advances through territory still largely under Moammar Khadafy's control.

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  20. KABUL, Afghanistan -- American troops in are being killed at the same rate as last year -- despite the Obama administration's moves to shift the burden to the Afghans.

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  21. Read somewhere that Sudan has now pushed 400 miles into Libya. Getting close to the Southeastern(?) oil fields.

    Now, what are we going to do about That?

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