Indefinite Detention: Congressional roll call.

The vote on indefinite detention this week, and the facebook page to resist it...

US Senate: More DREAMS Deferred...

These three are among the bravest, finest youth in America. John McCain and the US Senate have shamed us all.


Carlos, Marlene, and Francisco: I'm so sorry. I pray that someday all your DREAMS come true. This land desperately needs more good souls like you...

-------------------from America's Voice via Common Dreams-----------------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2010
11:56 AM

CONTACT: America's Voice
Michael Earls
(202) 494-8555


Senate Votes Against DREAMs

WASHINGTON - December 18 - This morning, in a procedural vote requiring 60 votes to advance the legislation, the U.S. Senate voted against the DREAM Act by a 55-41 margin, effectively shutting the doors of opportunity to thousands of bright and talented young people who grew up in America and wanted to give back to the country they call home.

The following is a statement from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America's Voice:

"Today we won a majority of votes in the Senate. Last week we won a majority of the votes in the House. But because of a Republican filibuster we needed 60 votes to pass DREAM and we fell short.

To those who did the right thing and voted for DREAM, you had our back and we'll have yours. But to the majority of Republicans and the handful of Democrats who voted against the best and the brightest of the Latino immigrant community, your vote against DREAM will be remembered as long as you are in politics. Many of you have expressed your sympathy for the DREAMers. But today we did not need your sympathy. We needed your vote.

As disappointed as we are in those who slammed the door of opportunity on talented young people who are Americans in all but paperwork, we are buoyed by the nationwide outpouring of support for this cause, the unprecedented mobilization in support of DREAM across the nation, and the leadership and courage of the DREAMers who came to Washington to insist on making their DREAM come true.

Where do we go from here? We will continue fighting, organizing, mobilizing and educating. We will continue to build an ever more powerful movement. We will continue to speak up and speak out for immigrant youth, for immigrant families, for immigration reform that embodies the best of our ideals rather than the worst of our fears.

We get stronger every day. We may have lost this battle, but in the war between justice and injustice, inclusion and exclusion, courage and cowardice, victory is not a matter of if, but a matter of when."



###
America's Voice -- Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform. The mission of America’s Voice is to realize the promise of workable and humane comprehensive immigration reform. Our goal is to build the public support and create the political momentum for reforms that will transform a dysfunctional immigration system that does not work into a regulatory system that does.

------------So, what do we do now? A reminder from Arundhati Roy:---------

"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness, and our ability to tell our own stories..."

Kyl and McCain: Deliver the DREAM.

UPDATE December 9, 2010: I'm leaving the post below as is, but first want to refer folks to a well-articulated opposition to the DREAM Act (which has recently been degraded to a real nightmare through too many compromises). This was written in September - I just pulled it off of the sb1070resistance blog today (where it was posted last night). Click the title and follow the link to read:

Letter to the DREAM Movement: My Painful Withdrawal of Support for the DREAM Act

by Raúl Al-qaraz Ochoa

---------------------------------------------

This came into my box this weekend from the Border Action Network. I oppose the militarized aspect of the DREAM Act, but I oppose the selfish, small-minded people who want to deport the youth I posted about earlier even more. So, if you care about the kids begging for help to pass the DREAM Act, call your senators pronto. It really does matter when they add up constituent yeas and nays at the end of the day.

------------------------------

Urgent Action Alert!

US Senate to vote on the DREAM Act this week!

Photo by DreamActivist- Ruben Hernandez

In September, the Senate lacked only a few votes to pass the DREAM Act. Senator Harry Reid has promised to bring this legislation to the Senate floor again in the week after Thanksgiving recess, and we need your emails and phone calls to win this first step toward immigration reform!

Click Here to Send a Message to Your Senators!

Even though the majority of the public supports the DREAM Act, opponents are flooding Senators’ phone lines and email inboxes. This may be one of our only chances to make something good happen on immigration in Congress this year, and just seconds of your time could change the lives of over one million young people.

Please Take 30 Seconds and Send a Message to Your Senators Telling Them to SUPPORT the DREAM ACT!

After you've emailed, call your Senators and ask them to support the DREAM Act:

English: 866-996-5161
Spanish: 866-961-4293

Call Republican Senators who are on the fence:

English: 866-587-6101
Spanish: 866-956-3902

If you live in Arizona, you can also call Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl at these local offices:

Senator McCain

Phoenix: (602) 952-2410
Prescott: (928) 445-0833
Tempe: (480) 897-6289
Tucson: (520) 670-6334

Senator Kyl

Phoenix: (602) 840-1891
Tucson : (520) 575-8633


When you're done, be sure to forward this email to all of your contacts! Thank you for taking action!

--

America's Longest War: Protest at AZ Senator Debate!

SHORTLY BEFORE THEIR FIRST PHOENIX DEBATE:

PROTEST SENATOR MCCAIN
and FORMER CONGRESSPERSON J. D. HAYWORTH'S
CALL FOR ENDLESS WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

Friday, July 16, 2010

5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

at

KTVK - 3 TV Studios

5555 North 7^th Avenue, Phoenix

7^th Ave, south of W. Bethany Home north of W. Missouri
(park on the nearby residential streets)

We will hold banners like JOBS AT HOME, NOT WARS ABROAD. Indeed, since 2001 taxpayers in Arizona have paid $14.4 billion for the unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

1,849,589 People Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for One Year OR

287,196 Firefighters for One Year OR

2,101,597 Scholarships for University Students for One Year OR

2,595,756 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5550 OR

3,176,024 Children Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for One Year OR

1,742,809 Head Start Slots for Children for One Year OR

2,740,952 Households with Renewable Electricity - Solar Photovoltaic for One Year OR

280,009 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR

7,309,206 Households with Renewable Electricity-Wind Power for One Year[1]

Sponsored by the End the War Coalition, Arizona Alliance for Peace and Justice, Arizona Institute for Peace Education and Research, Code Pink-Phoenix, Grandmothers for Peace, Progressive Democrats of America -Arizona, Veterans for Peace-Phoenix, Women in Black-Phoenix

For more information email: endthewarcoalition@cox.net or call (480) 894-2024.

---

[1] http://costofwar.com.com/


Immediately following the protest , chill out with us at Mary Coyle Ice Cream Parlor, 5521 N. 7^th Avenue, (a three minute walk from the KTVK - 3TV studio, located just south of the studio).

Support the troops:

BRING THEM HOME ALIVE!!!

Pinal deputy shooting: Not what it appeared to be.

And he got a medal for this?

--------------------

Lawyered Up: A Crime-Scene Report Shows a Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Who Claimed to be Shot by Mexican Drug Smugglers Didn't Cooperate Fully With a State Police Probe

Paul Rubin
Phoenix New Times
June 17, 2010


It's late Saturday afternoon, June 5, and the roof at Chase Field is closed for the Diamondbacks' game against the Colorado Rockies.

John McCain steps out of the Diamondbacks dugout onto the diamond.

The famed U.S. senator's mission, along with that of a new friend of his named Paul Babeu — the increasingly nationally visible sheriff of Pinal County — is to present awards to six law enforcement officers from central Arizona.

A private corporation and a nonprofit foundation have supplied tickets to 1,600 employees of the Pinal County Sheriff's Office and their families.

The star of the pre-game festivities, the recipient who gets the loudest ovation, is a middle-aged man wearing eyeglasses and standing at attention in a crisp PCSO uniform.

His name is Louie Puroll, and he is about to win his agency's Purple Heart:

"On April 30, 2010," the announcer reads over the public-address system, "Deputy Puroll was patrolling in the Vekol Valley when he spotted several individuals transporting illegal drugs through the desert area."

"Shortly thereafter, the individuals who opened fire with AK-47-type weapons ambushed him. The suspects and Deputy Puroll fired multiple rounds. Ultimately, a bullet struck Deputy Puroll, above his kidney. Deputy Puroll has since recovered from his injury and has returned to full duty."

It seems like a happy ending for the 53-year-old deputy, who allegedly escaped serious injury or death during the gun battle.

The shootout, which captured the nation's attention, happened about three miles south of Interstate 8 near milepost 147.

The use of "allegedly" in connection with the incident — lone deputy fights off band of murderous bad guys in broad daylight and lives to see another day with nothing more than a superficial wound — seems appropriate in light of an Arizona Department of Public Safety crime-scene report obtained by New Times.

DPS Sergeant Jennifer Pinnow also uses the word in the report, noting that she assisted in "locating casings in the area where the deputy allegedly fired his rifle and handgun."

The DPS report doesn't suggest that Deputy Puroll staged the episode or that the 14-year PCSO veteran was involved in a nefarious scheme gone awry, perhaps not unlike that in which James Wren — a young Phoenix cop charged last week with stealing about $40,000 from dope dealers while on duty — has admitted involvement ("Phoenix Police Officer Charged With Shakin' Down Drug Dealers," Valley Fever blog, June 11).

Written by lead scene agent Detective Jeff Brown, the DPS report says, "All conclusions relative to this criminal investigation will be formulated by the Pinal County Attorney's Office upon review of the criminal case."

The DPS report raises more questions than it provides answers about an incident that escalated an already-volatile mood in Arizona spawned by the contentious anti-illegal immigrant Senate Bill 1070 and the late-March shooting murder — perhaps by an undocumented alien — of Cochise County cattle rancher Rob Krentz ("Cowboy Down," June 8).

For starters, Puroll did not fully cooperate with DPS detectives as they performed their crime-scene duties at the request of the PCSO.

Instead, in police parlance, the deputy "lawyered up" and followed the advice of his union (AZCOPS) attorney Denis Fitzgibbons by providing the DPS few specifics about what exactly happened out there.

The lack of cooperation by Puroll has veteran local police detectives (active and retired) wondering why...

Hit the Phoenix New Times for the rest - worth the read)

Arizona Police Association: JD Hayworth is The Man.

This is a press release from the Arizona Police Association, issued April 23, 2010. Just so folks know.

------------------------

APA Endorses J.D. Hayworth for U.S. Senate

The Arizona Police Association, an association that represents 18 individual police, detention, correction and border patrol associations and which counts approximately 9000 individual members from across the great state of Arizona is announcing our endorsement of Mr. J.D, Hayworth for the Republican Nomination to the United States Senate

The APA believes that now is not the time for continued “Maverick ideology or policies” but rather it is a time for consistent Arizona constituent based determinations on national issues.

The need for Arizona’s voice to be heard on issues related to immigration reform, border secu-rity, tax reform, constitutional right protections as they relate to the labor/management rela-tions have been ignored for too long.

For decades we have heard Washington politicians advocate but do little to address these is-sued especially the issues related border security and immigration reform. The time to con-vert talk to action has now arrived. It is no longer a time for the “Arizona’s last line of Defen-sive” posture rather it is time for Arizona’s congressional delegation to hear their constituents and initiate a compelling offensive drive on these issues. We believe J.D. Hayworth has the drive, ability and desire to actively pursue quick results on these issues.

1102 West Adams Street Phoenix, Arizona 85023

Solidarity With DREAMers

Spotted hanging over the I-10 during this morning's rush hour.

(liberties taken with color and hue)

DREAM Activists Sit-in, Arrested at McCain's Tucson Office.

This email floored me when I got it last night. These kids have more courage than most American citizens. They've put everything on the line for the DREAM Act. The least the rest f us can do is can McCain and tell him we want these kids free and legal. How can anyone think they'd be anything but a blessing to our nation? They already are.


Here are McCain's Senate office numbers:

• 
  

  Phoenix Office: (602) 952-2410

• 
  

  Prescott Office: (928) 445-0833

• 
  

  Tempe Office: (480) 897-6289

• 
  

  Tucson Office: (520) 670-6334

• 
  

  Washington Office: (202) 224-2235

  And here are his campaign office numbers. 

   Phoenix Office: 602-604-2010                      Tucson Office: 520-327-2773

  Boy is his campaign site looking scary...he's really turned anti-immigrant - and didn't mention a thing in his news releases about having those Dream Activists arrested, of course. I don't see how he can keep all his promises to the Latino community when he's so busy sucking up to the far right...

  Made my call, and registered my voice to free those youth and push the DREAM act through. It'll only take you two or three minutes to do the same - just pick an office and dial.

---------------------------The Dream is Coming--------------------------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts: Juan (407) 602-8675,
Flavia de la Fuente (949) 910-6362
media@thedreamiscoming.com
 
DETAINED in Arizona: Four Student Immigrant Leaders
Peacefully Resist Current Immigration Law, Urge Passage of DREAM Act

As of 6:00 PM PST Monday May 17, Mohammad, Yahaira, Lizbeth and Raul, an Arizona Resident, have been arrested and detained after their day long sit-in at Senator John McCains Office in Tucson, AZ. Tania, who was not detained, has been designated as spokesperson and will be relating the experiences/thoughts of the group during the action.

Senator John McCain offered the students a meeting in order to discuss the Dream Act, however, the students recognize that this is insufficient and that immediate action is needed to pass the DREAM Act!

Tucson, Arizona. May 17th, on the anniversary of landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education, Arizona law enforcement arrested four undocumented leaders of the immigrant student movement in addition to Arizona native Raul Alcaraz. Lizbeth Mateo of Los Angeles, California; Tania Unzueta of Chicago, Illinois; Mohammad Abdollahi of Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Yahaira Carrillo of Kansas City, Missouri; were detained Tucson, Arizona, after staging a sit-in at Senator John McCain’s office. With this challenge to local and federal law, these youth hope to highlight the urgency of legislative action in Congress, and catalyze mass grassroots mobilization to pass the DREAM Act before June 15th.

These four leaders are risking deportation from the United States in the hope that this action will make a significant contribution to the fight for immigrant rights. In response to the onslaught of enforcement-based immigration law, they staged a sit-in at Senator McCain’s office, and urged congressional leadership to champion the DREAM Act and the values it represents: hard work, education, and fairness.


Lizbeth, 25, an organizer with DREAM Team Los Angeles, states, "There are already ten other states across the country considering immigration legislation similar to Arizona’s: legislation that is anti-family, anti-democratic, and anti-freedom. Police states and enforcement are quickly becoming the standard, and we are running out of time. We are going to pass the DREAM Act because it is based on freedom and equality."


Mohammad, 24, co-founder of DreamActivist.Org, a resource web portal for undocumented students, said in a statement: "Never in our history has it been American to deny people their civil rights. We have decided to peacefully resist to encourage our leaders to pass the DREAM Act and create a new standard for immigration reform based on education, hard work, equality, and fairness."
At least 65,000 undocumented immigrant youth graduate from high schools every year, and many of them struggle to attend institutes of higher education and the military. The DREAM Act will grant youth who traveled to the United States before the age of 16 a path to citizenship contingent on continuous presence in the country, good behavior, and the attainment of at least a two-year university degree or a two-year commitment to the armed forces.

"During the civil rights movement, African-American students were arrested for sitting down at lunch counters. We’ve been detained for standing on a sidewalk. We can't wait any longer for the DREAM Act to pass," said Tania, 26, co-founder of the Immigrant Youth Justice League, and immigrant rights organizer in Chicago.

All four are leaders in their own communities and have dedicated years to work for immigrant rights, legalization for undocumented immigrants, and the DREAM Act. “Dr. King spoke of a dream of equality overcoming fear. Well, the fierce urgency of our dreams has overcome any kind of fear we may have had before. We can’t wait,” concluded Yahaira, 25, a founder of the Kansas Missouri Dream Alliance.

National Press Conference
Tuesday May 18th
9 AM Pacific, 11 PM Central, Noon EST

In front of Senator John McCain’s office:
407 West Congress Street
Tucson, AZ 85701

Concerned for Prisoners' Rights? Tell Oprah Today.

Since 1976 a handful of people in New Mexico dedicated to promoting the rights of America's prisoners has been assembling and disseminating a free monthly newsletter across the country, including over 9,000 copies to prisoners themselves. After absorbing the costs for these mailings - with decreasing resources for funding over the years - the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights is having to stop publication of its newsletter, at least until it can pay off its $25,000 debt and establish a means of staying out of debt. I learned about their crisis from an impassioned plea for support put out by Lois Ahrens in the Real Cost of Prisons Project blog, and sent what I could.

Today I received what was my first - and may be their last - issue of the newsletter, down from 8 pages to two, one side in English and the other in Spanish. The featured article was about the abuse of extended lockdown in solitary confinement, which has become increasingly commonplace in American prisons over the past 20 years. Referring to the March 30, 2009 issue of the New Yorker, in an article titled "Hellhole", the newsletter quotes Arizona Senator John McCain describing solitary confinement, which he endured for a substantial portion of his incarceration as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Straight from the New Yorker article:

"“It’s an awful thing, solitary,” John McCain wrote of his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam—more than two years of it spent in isolation in a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot cell, unable to communicate with other P.O.W.s except by tap code, secreted notes, or by speaking into an enamel cup pressed against the wall. “It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.” And this comes from a man who was beaten regularly; denied adequate medical treatment for two broken arms, a broken leg, and chronic dysentery; and tortured to the point of having an arm broken again. A U.S. military study of almost a hundred and fifty naval aviators returned from imprisonment in Vietnam, many of whom were treated even worse than McCain, reported that they found social isolation to be as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse they suffered."

According to the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights, at least 25,000 people are being held in isolation in what are know as "Supermax" prisons in America today. Another 50,000 to 80,000 are kept in restrictive segregation units where they have minimal human contact, even with guards.

That's mindboggling. It's routine. And it appears to be the trend of the future.

The newsletter goes on to describe the serious psychological trauma such treatment inflicts on people, about a third of whom develop psychotic symptoms with hallucinations.

But it doesn't end there. After pointing to how the British have learned to prevent violence rather than resorting to extreme punishments in the aftermath, the newsletter goes on to advise prisoners how to survive solitary - concrete suggestions for getting through it.

Now that's the kind of thing I'd want to know if I was in prison, because I'd most certainly be spending a lot of time in the hole, going out of my mind. This newsletter is definitely written with the prisoner audience in mind, and has never cost anyone but the Coalition a dime.

This newsletter can't be allowed to die just like that. Their debt is only 1/3 of my student loan debt. Their estimated total circulation is about 50,000 newsletters per month. If everyone who received one gave them just $1 a year (they've never charged for subscriptions), they could pay off their debt and operate in the black.

I don't have 50,000 readers, and I'm sure that of the handful (literally) who do visit this page, few are any more wealthy than myself. A suggestion made by one of the former prisoners in the coalition, though, was for 10,000 readers - roughly representing the number of prisoners who depend on the newsletter - to use just one stamp and send a note to Oprah about why this newsletter needs to be saved. Just one stamp.

I don't know why Oprah, and not John McCain (who owns more homes that he can count). I don't know if anyone else will do this, or if they do, if Oprah will even get the SOS. She's dropped more money on sillier things than this before, though - and she does seem to have a heart.

So, I'm printing up this blog entry and enclosing my copy of my newsletter and sending it off to Oprah with a prayer. Hopefully it will be more productive than the Progressive's campaign to get people to mail their old shoes to President Bush (since we could never get close enough to throw them at him personally, I presume). Maybe Oprah will even be moved to do a show on the kinds of issues the Coalition has covered over the years. Wouldn't that be remarkable?

Her address is: Oprah Winfrey, c/o Harpo Productions, Inc., 1058 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill 60607. If you'd rather call, the number is 312-633-1000.

I swear I never thought I'd find myself writing to Oprah about anything, much less suggesting publicly that others do the same. But if it was Amnesty asking me to write the President of Iran or the Governor of Georgia, I would without hesitation. And who knows, maybe if enough of us do from all over the country it will make a difference, and the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter can be saved.

(The Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter is published monthly by the Prison Project of Santa Fe, Inc., PO Box 1911, Santa Fe NM 87504-1911 and will accept any donations of cash or stamps that people can afford, on the off chance that Oprah doesn't come through.)