Conserve Bofa Deez Nuts

It has been some time since I last posted anything on here. But I got into a discussion recently about what it meant to be a Conservative, and I realized what my problem is with "them," and I felt like sharing it. What does the word "conservative" actually mean? The dictionary defines it as, "disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change."

The Orwellian doublespeak in this term is delicious. To me it means potentially turning back the clock on hundreds years of progress. What specifically needs conserving? Certainly it isn't the environment, the public education system, or individual civil liberties. The current administration saw to that. Do they seek to conserve classic ideas like patriarchy and slavery? Perhaps they want to bring America back to the time when women worked in the home and obeyed their husbands, African Americans and other minorities were relegated to the most menial and low-paying jobs in the market, and citizens had blind faith that their government was acting in their best interest. Conservation as a whole is clearly not the idea, and what they seek to conserve is ambiguous. I suspect it refers to conservation inside that broad cultural realm where all the scary adult situations exist like homosexuality and unwanted pregnencies. The puritans probably had it right I guess, whenever something happens that you don't like, the devil must have done it.

Liberalism, on the other hand, is less ambiguously defined as "a political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties." Liberals seek to preserve institutions and conserve things like energy and public education, and conservatives seek to preserve the status quo, as long as they are the beneficiaries of it.

Bachelor

Once again I was impressed with our ability to consume large amounts of fermented beverages. As you can see the night started out innocent enough.











The shirts were awesome













We're all starting to look a little green.















Here's a picture of the boys, sans Russ and I.
















The rest of the pitcures you'll have to pay for.

6

Oil consumer's anonymous

It's been awhile. I know there is some underlying bullshit to this new requirement but at least its a start. There is no reason why we can't ratchet up fuel economy on our vehicles. It promotes innovation from the big three. I hate to say it but this new standard makes some sense, it doesn't go far enough of course, but it's a start.

Hooray for Hate!!!

The unending Right-wing assault on personal Freedom.

Unfortunately, the powers that be have forced me to beat the proverbial dead horse. This coming November, Wisconsinites will have the task of voting on a referendum that would preemptively ban gay marriage as a legally recognized union in the state.

Wisconsin will likely become another domino to fall to the Christian led crusade against equal rights for gays and lesbians by supporting the ban as several other states have.

This is also a fairly intelligent, albeit underhanded ploy to get Republicans to come out and vote Democratic Governor Jim Doyle out of office. It's about getting Republicans to the polls and the head of the state's Republican party, Rick Wiley, made no mistake about it.

"It's our job to be sure that people go to the polls to vote for the marriage amendment and the Republican candidates for governor," Wiley said. "Not only are they out there in force voting for this amendment, but because Gov. Doyle is vulnerable, you get a two-for-one shot."


We all know that the self-righteous proponents and supporters of this legislation harbor an antiquated and dangerously oppressive perspective. But the fact that Republicans are willing to indoctrinate hate and discrimination into the constitution in order to get party votes is, in a word, abhorrent. Some stats can put the solution into perspective.

We all know these stats, but I’ll display them anyway.

 61% of people age 18-29 support gay marriage.
 A clear majority of Americans age 30+ oppose gay marriage

The youth will have to lead the fight for civil rights. Go back and read about who was doing the sit-ins at segregated diners in the south. Whose bravery led to the integration of public schools? It was the American youth that saw rampant racial injustice, formed the civil rights movement and thus forced the social reforms of the 50s and 60s. So it’s no surprise that their children will have the responsibility to carry the torch.

Hooray for Hypocrisy!!!

If you do the math, you'll notice that a significant number of people who led the civil rights movement for racial equality must now oppose equal rights for gay and lesbian couples. This is one phenomenon that I simply don’t understand and I don’t have the stamina to argue with a bunch of pissed off Baby Boomers about why I think they are being hypocrites. Nor do I particularly enjoy arguing with 30-something Gen-Xers who are as cynical as their predecessors. Luckily, I won’t have to.

I hope that it is safe to assume that if the current trend continues, young teens will continue to become legal aged voters that oppose any tyrannical bans on same-sex marriage passed by their parents, grandparents, or the aforementioned Gen-Xers. And as our beloved Baby Boomers age, their political clout will go the way of Jim Crow southerners.

So What Does This Mean?

If an amendment that bans same-sex marriage is added to the state constitution, it's only a matter of time before it is repealed. Don’t get me wrong, we should do everything we can to stop this amendment from being passed in the first place. In the likely event that we fail to stop it, we should focus our energy on educating younger voters and high school students about why such a cruel amendment should be abolished and how we can go about doing it.

If this amendment passes into the state constitution, it isn’t the end of the fight for gay and lesbian civil rights nor is it a victory for the Right-wing. It should become the focal point of liberal and progressive counterattacks on the Right-wing because it is an indication of their dangerous grip on America and their contempt for American civil liberties, equal rights and, dare I say, Freedom.

Read this

Vicious Attacks Against Immigrants Should Be Warning to Rest of Us http://wisopinion.com/index.iml?mdl=article.mdl&article=3171

12/28/2005
By Robert Miranda

Many Americans are turning a blind eye to the vicious and inhumane actions being taken against undocumented people in this country. These actions are being conducted by law makers in government who have taken to using terrorism as the rational for attacking immigrants--legal and illegal. According to the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance H.R. 4437, a federal law being pushed in Congress, is a law that will: a.. Criminalize millions of immigrants, including lawful permanent residents and legal nonimmigrants who accrue technical violations of immigration regulations. Section 203 of H.R. 4437 makes being "present in the United States in violation of the immigration laws or the regulations prescribed thereunder" a federal crime punishable by a prison sentence of one year and one day. But such violations would include lawful permanent residents who fail to report a change of address to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) within ten days, as well as university students on an F-1 visa who drop below a full course load or H-1B workers who lose their jobs and take too long to find another job. Section 201 of H.R. 4437 would make such "crimes" an "aggravated felony," subject to mandatory detention and virtually no relief from deportation." b.. Criminalize U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who come into contact with undocumented immigrants in their daily lives. Section 202 of H.R. 4437 would so expand the scope of smuggling, transporting, and harboring undocumented immigrants that U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents who interact with undocumented immigrants in their professional or personal lives would run the risk of being prosecuted for the federal criminal offenses of smuggling, transporting, and/or harboring undocumented immigrants, even if they did not in fact know that they were dealing with undocumented immigrants. This would include not just employers, but also those who recruit or refer individuals for employment such as union hiring halls, temporary worker agencies, day laborer sites, worker centers, non-profits, and other job placement or referral programs. The bill disregards the fact that these organizations are not the employer, receive no direct remuneration for the work performed by the workers, and have no responsibility for the decision to employ anyone. c.. Mount an unprecedented attack on lawful permanent residents who are applying for U.S. citizenship. H.R. 4437 greatly curtails the power of federal courts to review DHS's actions (or lack thereof) on naturalization applications. Where the DHS fails to render a timely decision on naturalization applications, section 612 of H.R. 4437 would take away the federal district court's power to render a decision on the applications. Instead, it would only allow the court to remand the applications to DHS, the very agency that had failed to make a timely decision on the applications in the first place. Where the DHS has denied the naturalization applications, H.R. 4437 would also raise and shift the burden of proof to the applicant to show that the DHS's "denial of the application was not supported by facially legitimate and bona fide reasons." d.. Allow unscrupulous employers to challenge a worker's immigration status in retaliation for complaints about job conditions or attempting to join a union by allowing them to re-verify work authorization for any worker at any time. History has shown that law enforcement alone will not deter illegal immigration. H.R. 4437 is another example of reactionary policies being pursued by a Congress dominated with fear mongers who lack creative and visionary methods of managing immigration in our country. Mostly GOP, these brain dead zealots opt instead to seek band-aid solutions that are costly and inhumane. H.R. 4437 will cause serious harm to our economy and to our reputation as a civilized and just nation around the world.H.R. 4437 is also a reminder to us all of the insidious and vicious campaign being waged against humanity by power brokers more concerned about corporatization and nationalism than humanity and justice. This dangerous action against the immigrant people of our land is but a prelude to the campaign yet to come against the people of the United States by a government that has become nothing more than a brokerage firm for Wall Street. The government eavesdropping authorized by the Bush Administration against the American people is just the start of open warfare against our civil liberties. Soon, more often than not, we will hear of the "Men-in-Black" knocking on doors dragging innocent Americans out of their beds, because they have become a "person of interest" in the "war against terrorism.Indeed, it is not terrorists or communists whom we must dread; it is our government, which has made the fight against terror a fight against freedom. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."
-- Miranda is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Editor-in-Chief of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com

Read this article

A Question for Journalists: How Do We Cover Penguins and the Politics of Denial? by Bill Moyers (From the keynote address to the annual convention of the Society of Environmental Journalists, Austin, Texas, October 1, 2005.)

Tragedy

I'm sorry to inform you guys, that my cousin (Cesar's younger brother) Ismael Herrera passed away Friday morning in a horrible car accident. Apparently, Ish's vehicle struck a parked police car on loop 410 in San Antonio, on the Northwest side of town. Ironically, the policeman was scanning traffic for speeders, using a radar gun at the time of the collision. Ish's Chevy Caprice collided with the gas tank of the policeman's car, causing it to rupture, thus igniting a huge blaze killing both drivers.

I can't believe he's gone...not like this. I can't believe it....It's just so sad. Ish will be missed by many. I still have fresh memories of him from my visit with the Herrera family, just a few months ago, while I was on leave from Iraq.

I just found this out today from my father. Below are some of the web-links regarding the accident....

http://www.ksat.com/news/5098078/detail.html


http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/music/stories/MYSA101605.5B.driver_folo.31d3a73.html

I hope you all are doing well and i'm sorry to touch base with such terrible news. I'll send my regards to Cesar and his family in the coming days. Take care. Please keep the Herrera family in your thoughts and prayers.

Dan