Via Guerrilla Network News
Eminem/Iraq mash-up


A video Mash-Up/Re-Mix, whatever, of the Eminem iPod TV ad. We replaced Eminem with Iraq war images, and added new lyrics to the instrumental version of “Lose Yourself.” The clip was inspired by ForkScrew's 'Iraq' posters.

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The US Supreme Court ruled that the so-called "Guantanamo Bay military commission" failed to meet the requirements of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Conventions.

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Congress did not take away the Court's authority to rule on the military commissions' validity, and then went ahead to rule that President Bush did not have authority to set up the tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and found the commissions illegal under both military justice law and the Geneva Convention. In addition, the Court concluded that the commissions were not authorized when Congress enacted the post-9/1l resolution authorizing a response to the terrorist attacks, and were not authorized by last year's Detainee Treatment Act. The vote against the commissions and on the Court's jurisdiction was 5-3, with the Chief Justice not taking part.

Marty Lederman of SCOTUSblog stated that the Court held that Common Article 3 of Geneva aplies as a matter of treaty obligation to the conflict against Al Qaeda. In other words:

This almost certainly means that the CIA's interrogation regime is unlawful, and indeed, that many techniques the Administation has been using, such as waterboarding and hypothermia (and others) violate the War Crimes Act (because violations of Common Article 3 are deemed war crimes).

Can we begin the impeachment of our war criminals NOW!!!!

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The US Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to uphold most of the Texas congressional district map has been spun in so many ways by the MSM and the Rethugs, it's hard to decide the victor.

In fact, Rick Perry was doing the happy dance in front of the MSM, anybody who was watching their local news would actually think the Rethugs did win.

"Today is a clear victory for our state as the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Texas' redrawing of a gerrymandered map, and preserved the vast majority of the redrawn districts,"

The Republicans have already spin the ruling by calling the court ruling a "Republican victory," while having us overlook and play down how the Court actually handed a major victory to the Hispanic community. Not just the Hispanic community, but it is also a major victory for minorities in general. What is not being discussed by the Republicans is how the Court actually found that the redrawn map failed to protect minority voting rights.

The court, however, said that part of the new Texas map failed to protect minority voting rights, a small victory for Democratic and minority groups who accused Republicans of an unconstitutional power grab in drawing boundaries that booted four Democrats from office.

According Justice Anthony Kennedy:

In old District 23 the increase in Latino voter registration and overall population, the concomitant rise in Latino voting power in each successive election, the near victory of the Latino candidate of choice in 2002, and the resulting threat to the incumbent's continued election were the very reasons the State redrew the district lines. Since the redistricting prevented the immediate success of the emergent Latino majority in District 23, there was a denial of opportunity in the real sense of that term. Plan 1374C's version of District 23, by contrast, is unquestionably not a Latino opportunity district. That Latinos are now a bare majority of the district's voting-age population is not dispositive, since the relevant numbers must account for citizenship in order to determine the group's opportunity to elect candidates, and Latinos do not now have a citizen voting-age majority in the district.
...
By purposely redrawing lines around those who opposed Bonilla, the state legislature took the latter course. This policy, whatever its validity in the realm of politics, cannot justify the effect on Latino voters. ... The policy becomes even more suspect when considered in light of evidence suggesting that the State intentionally drew District 23 to have a nominal Latino voting-age majority (without a citizen voting-age majority) for political reasons. ... This use of race to create the façade of a Latino district also weighs in favor of appellants' claim.

...The State chose to break apart a Latino opportunity district to protect the incumbent congressman from the growing dissatisfaction of the cohesive and politically active Latino community in the district. The State then purported to compensate for this harm by creating an entirely new district that combined two groups of Latinos, hundreds of miles apart, that represent different communities of interest. Under §2, the State must be held accountable for the effect of these choices in denying equal opportunity to Latino voters.
...
Based on the foregoing, the totality of the circumstances demonstrates a §2 violation. Even assuming Plan 1374C provides something close to proportional representation for Latinos, its troubling blend of politics and race — and the resulting vote dilution of a group that was beginning to achieve §2's goal of overcoming prior electoral discrimination — cannot be sustained.

Although some many argue that the ruling affected one District, the ruling actually address two districts Districts 23 and 25. District 25 is not mentioned because the Court added 25 into the ruling of District 23 since District 25 was drasticlly changed since the Rethugs tried to cover up their abysmal master plan to suppress minority voters.

Because we hold Plan 1374C violates §2 in its redrawing of District 23, we do not addresses appellants' claims that the use of race and politics in drawing that district violates the First Amendment and equal protection. We also need not confront appellants' claim of an equal protection violation in the drawing of District 25. The districts in south and west Texas will have to be redrawn to remedy the violation in District 23, and we have no cause to pass on the legitimacy of a district that must be changed.

Modifing two congressional districts will have a ripple effect through out Texas. In fact, they will have to modify three congressional districts, CD 23, 25 and 28.

When the Rethugs broke up CD 23, they didn't break it into two even parts like the Rethugs would like us to believe, they gave one half of CD 23 to Bonilla and the other half was broken up further and placed into CDs 25 and 28 and this is the reason the League of the United Latin American Citizen (LULAC) focused on CD 23 the redistricting of Laredo, Webb County, TX. In fact, the Houston Chronicle also mentioned it in today paper.

Bonilla's district cannot be redrawn without making changes to District 28, held by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and District 25, held by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

And let's not kid ourselves why TX Rethug's made the decision to kill the vote on HR 9, the "Voting Rights Reauthorization Act of 2006. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, would like for us to believe there really isn’t "racial bias in Texas anymore." But this is just another Rethug façade - a Rethug Shangri-La. Once their glass house begins to crash down, their messages and actions are nothing but lies and spins with one purpose only - to oppress and suppress black, Hispanic and Native American voters by the hundreds of thousands.

The Greedy Old Party led by Tom DeLay have been and continue to run a massive operation to challenge the legitimacy of black, Hispanic and Native American voters here in Texas. And now that they have been caught, they are now circling the wagons and spinning it their way without being held accountable for their true actions behind the redistricting and their move to kill the VRA vote. The Texas Rethugs were hoping that the Supreme Court would eliminate the law so they wouldn't be caught by breaking the law. But it failed, just like their actions in the past.

Truth be told, Texas has a nasty history of using procedural tricks to suppress women, black, Hispanic and Native American from voting. In 1996, Texas was involved in a  previous case, Bush v. Vera, that also challenged the Texas congressional redistricting plan. In that case, the Supreme Court also ruled that the Texas congressional plan was unconstitutional because "race was 'the predominant factor' motivating the drawing of district lines and traditional, race neutral districting principles were subordinated to race."

With yesterdays ruling, the case is being sent back to the District Court and now the Rethugs will have to provide a plan that is constitutional.

It is time we stand together on the following demands. We shall not settle for anything less. We the citizens of Texas demand:

• Immediate relief!
• CD 23 go back to the original lines as it was before redistricting! and
• The Texas delegation will be held accountable for their actions by calling up the tabled Voting Rights Act of 2006 for a House vote and will vote in favor of the ACT!

And if a ripple effect was created throughout the surrounding districts and Texas because CD 23 happened to be returned to its original lines - So be it! Hopefully, they will think twice before trying to suppress Hispanic voters.

The foundation of our DEMOCRACY is based upon the right of ALL citizens to equal participation in the voting process.

We will not and can not be silenced!

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The Supreme Court made their ruling regarding the Rethug master plan to redistrict Texas' congressional map.

The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld almost all of Texas' Republican-friendly U.S. House election district map.

Although the news are saying it is a Republican victory, the court did hand a victory to Hispanics and other minorities.

The court, however, said that part of the new Texas map failed to protect minority voting rights, a small victory for Democratic and minority groups who accused Republicans of an unconstitutional power grab in drawing boundaries that booted four Democrats from office.

In a 5-4 ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the opinion, ruled that TX Rethugs did violate the voting rights among Hispanics. Justice Kennedy said that the new plan violated their constitutional right to elect a candidate of their choosing in south and west Texas. Therefore the Court found that the state's new Congressional District 23 was invalid under the federal Voting Rights Act. The district in question is District 23, Rep Henry Bonilla's district.

According Justice Kennedy:

In old District 23 the increase in Latino voter registration and overall population, the concomitant rise in Latino voting power in each successive election, the near victory of the Latino candidate of choice in 2002, and the resulting threat to the incumbent's continued election were the very reasons the State redrew the district lines. Since the redistricting prevented the immediate success of the emergent Latino majority in District 23, there was a denial of opportunity in the real sense of that term. Plan 1374C's version of District 23, by contrast, is unquestionably not a Latino opportunity district. That Latinos are now a bare majority of the district's voting-age population is not dispositive, since the relevant numbers must account for citizenship in order to determine the group's opportunity to elect candidates, and Latinos do not now have a citizen voting-age majority in the district.

The League of the United Latin American Citizen focused on CD 23 because the redistricting broke up Laredo, Webb County, TX - which happens to be over 90% Hispanic - in half. The break up placed one half in CD 23 and the other half in CDs 25 and 28. The Rethug plan also moved a large group of conservative voters from West Texas into district 23, therefore making it harder for the Hispanic voters to ever win another election.

Let's not kid ourselves about the TX Rethug's decision to kill the vote on HR 9, the "Voting Rights Reauthorization Act of 2006. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, would like for us to believe there really isn’t "racial bias in Texas anymore." But this is just another Rethug façade - a Rethug Shangri-La. However once their glass house has come crashing down, one can see their world is nothing more but to oppress and suppress black, Hispanic and Native American voters by the hundreds of thousands.

Let's not forget how the Greedy Old Party ran a massive operation to challenge the legitimacy of black, Hispanic and Native American voters here in Texas. And now they are trying to spin it their way without accepting the truth, the Supreme Court found that the methods they used in South and West Texas breached the Voting Rights Act.

The VRA was passed in 1965 because the Ku Klux Klan and other upright citizens were also trying to use procedural tricks - "literacy tests", poll taxes and more - to block minorities from voting. Nothing has changed. The Texas Rethugs were hoping that the Supreme Court would eliminate the law so they wouldn't be caught by breaking the law. But it failed so now they are spinning saying how the ruling worked in their favor.

The case is being sent back to the District Court and now the Rethugs will have to provide a plan that is constitutional. It is time stand together and demand immediate relief! We here in TX will not settle for anything less, we demand that the CD 23 go back to the original lines as it was before redistricting. And if this creates a ripple effect throughout the surrounding districts. So be it! We will not be silenced!

The foundation of our Democracy is based upon the right of all citizens to equal participation in the voting process.

¡Qué viva la raza! y ¡Qué Viva Nuestra Comunidad!

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Pierce Bush is the nephew of Dudya, son of Neil Bush and Sharon Bush, brother of Lauren and Ashley.

Pierce began making news back in March when he wrote a letter to the Houston Chronicle regarding the Dubai Ports World controversy: (via Crooks and Liars)

"If he was against the ports deal, I don't know if I would've written the letter." The White House refused to comment on the letter writing. The president's nephew is familiar with Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. His father's company, Austin-based Ignite Learning, has investors in the UAE, and Neil Bush has taken his son there. Pierce Bush insisted his latest letter had nothing to do with his father's business interests.

Pierce later appeared on NBC's Weekend Today to discuss the letter. A must see video

Brown: Have you heard from the President or anyone from the White House about this?

Pierce: No, I'm kind of surprised that they haven't. Normally you know-the stuff- hot button issues kinda hits the forefront you know-maybe get a call or something, but um.. I haven't heard from them...

Piece is currently being groomed in Austin and where he attending The University of Texas. Wonkette has an exclusive on young Pierce. I just can't wait till 2028.

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Beginning next month, all US citizens applying for Medicaid or renewing their Medicaid eligibility will have to prove their citizenship by presenting a U.S. passport or the combination of a U.S. birth certificate and an identification document. Individuals who cannot do so will be denied health services financed with federal Medicaid funds. It seems Dudya and Congress pulled another fast one. According to the NY Times:

The Bush administration plans ... to issue strict standards requiring more than 50 million low-income people on Medicaid to prove they are United States citizens by showing passports or birth certificates and a limited number of other documents.

The requirements, which take effect July 1, carry out a law signed by President Bush on Feb. 8 [Public Law No. 109-171,§ 6037].

... The purpose of the law was to conserve federal money for citizens, reducing the need for states to cut Medicaid benefits or limit eligibility.

More than 50 million Medicaid recipients will soon have to produce birth certificates, passports or other documents to prove that they are United States citizens, and everyone who applies for coverage after June 30 will have to show similar documents under a new federal law.

The lies given by the Congressional Budget Office. They claim that 35,000 people will lose coverage by 2015. Most of them will be illegal immigrants, but some will be citizens unable to produce the necessary documents.

However, that is a plain out right lie. On June 9 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a guidance to state Medicaid agencies explaining the requirement and what individuals and states must do to comply with it. The guidance makes harder on US citizens and state Medicaid agencies than is required by the DRA or needed to ensure that US citizens are in fact US citizens.

Under the terms of the guidance:

• US citizens applying for or renewing their Medicaid coverage must produce passports or birth certificates to prove their citizenship unless they can show these documents do not exist or cannot be obtained within a reasonable period of time.
• All documents provided to meet the requirement must either be originals or copies certified by the issuing agency.
• US citizens who apply for Medicaid and meet all eligibility criteria cannot receive coverage for needed health or long-term care services until they have produced the required documents proving that they are citizens. The guidance prohibits states from making coverage available while the applicant attempts to obtain a passport or birth certificate. Delaying coverage for applicants in this way is a significant departure from the draft guidance that HHS circulated in May. The draft guidance would have allowed US citizens who meet all other eligibility requirements to receive Medicaid coverage while they obtain the documents that prove their citizenship. By contrast, under the final guidance, low-income children, parents, seniors and people with disabilities who have applied for passports, copies of their birth certificates, or other documents will be denied coverage for health care services while they wait for government agencies to provide these documents.
• The documentation requirement will even apply to seniors and people with physical or mental disabilities who are Medicare beneficiaries, as well as to seniors and people with disabilities who receive SSI benefits, all of whom have already had their citizenship verified by the Social Security Administration. Many of these people may now be in a physical or mental state that makes it difficult, if not impossible, for them to produce these documents (and in some cases, even to comprehend what they are being asked to do).
• State Medicaid agencies will have to obtain documents showing that US citizen children in foster care are citizens, even though state child welfare agencies have already verified that fact in determining these children's eligibility for federal foster care payments.

These provisions will result in delays, outright denials, and loss of coverage for many US citizens applying for Medicaid. US citizens who cannot provide "primary" documents to meet the documentation requirement must provide proof both of citizenship and of their personal identity. Using birth certificates, along with several other documents such as - final adoption decrees and official records of military service, will be considered as "secondary evidence" of citizenship.

The guidelines list four categories of documents that can be used as evidence of citizenship:

• 1st category: US passport or a certificate of naturalization;
• 2nd category: state and local birth certificates and State Department documents issued to children born abroad to United States citizens;
• 3rd category: nongovernment documents - medical records from doctors, hospitals and clinics, nursing home admission papers, and records from life and health insurance companies; and
• 4th category: affidavits, which can be used "only in rare circumstances when the state is unable to secure evidence of citizenship" from other sources.

Documents that are considered acceptable of proof of identity, such as - driver's license; school identification card; include a picture of the individual, however, many people with disabilities do not have these documents and CMS does not make any provisions to help people with disabilities prove their identity.

According to HealthLawProf Blog the new standards will create an additional hardship and possible loss of benefits to millions of children, older Americans and poor people born at home in rural areas who never received birth certificates. HealthLawProf also explains:

Federal policy may be to deny health care benefits to undocumented immigrants, but it obviously doesn't go so far as to require (or even permit) the denial of health care services (emergency services, at any rate) to undocument immigrants. EMTALA requires Medicare-certified hospitals to provide a medically appropriate screening for patients who come to their ER's and to attempt to stabilize any emergency condition found to exist, and this requirement applies (as it should) regardless of the patient's citizenship status. Tightening up Medicaid eligibility rules may (or may not) make some kind sense as a matter of immigration policy, but as a health care policy it only makes a bad situation worse -- and not only for hospitals.

Examples of those who are at risk of having their Medicaid coverage terminated, denied, or delayed are:

• An elderly parent who is stricken with Alzheimer's and resides in an assisted living residence can lose Medicaid coverage which happens to pays for their care because their birth certificate cannot be located or no longer has a driver's license.
• A child of an incarerated single mother may not receive Medicaid coverage for the health services because a certified birth certificate cannot be located.
• A low-income woman who is just diagnosed with breast cancer and would qualifies for Medicaid, treatment could be delayed for a number of weeks or months because she is forced to wait for a certified copy of her birth certificate.
• An elderly African American woman who was never issued a birth certificate (many elderly African Americans were born at home and never received a birth certificate because their parents did not have access to a hospital due to racial discrimination, especially if they were born in the South in the early decades of the last century) and who has no living family members who could attest to her birth in the United States may lose Medicaid coverage.
• Native Americans who could lose thier coverage because "certificates of Indian blood" and other forms of tribal identification are not considered proper identifications.

Here is the irony of it all, in a quest by the Rethugs to screw the undocumented, they ended up screwing its own citizens. Since emergency health care benefits to undocumented immigrants can not be denied all they did was create a silly health care policy that only made things worse. They are so blinded by their hate, they do not see how they are clearly destroying lives and families and the very fabric of this country they claim to care about.

If you do not have insurance, you can now kiss your health care good bye.

Considering that I do get visitors from Congress, I HOPE YOU ARE READING THIS!!!!

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A recap on Blake Gottesman (here and here) for those who are wondering why he is getting all this attention. Blake Gottesmans, is the 26-year-old Texan who was the Presidential aide who has no college degree who recently was allowed to pass go and collect 200 dollars as he just got accepted into the prestigious Harvard Business School. In other words, he was admitted by way of Harvard's affirmative action program, better known as the legacy system.

For a brief run down:

• Blake Gottesman once dated Dudya's daughter Jenna in high school. has the title of personal aide to the President.
• According to Laura Bush, Blake and Jenna got into a fight, Dudya to choose not to defend his daughter

  Jenna woke him at 1:30 a.m. to tell him her boyfriend, Blake Gottesman, had been mean to her, and she asked her father to speak with him. Jenna became angry when, instead of defending her, Bush told Gottesman, "Could the two of you please just work this out in the morning?"

• Blake began working for Dudya his presidential campaign back in 1999.
• Attended Claremont-McKenna College in California for one year and dropped out (still hasn't said why he did).
• Began as junior aide to then - White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and in 2002 he became Dudya's full-time personal aide.
• Blake's salary has constantly been on the rise. In 2003 - $52,100; 2004 - $54,400; 2005 - $70,000; and now in 2006 - 95K
• Blake's daddy is Sanford Gottesman, who runs The Gottesman Company
• Sanford also on the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a government corporation, which to serve of the board, he had to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
• OPIC supports projects that encourage "political stability, free market reforms and U.S. best practices" by providing loans and insurance to US companies investing abroad. OPIC exists only for the sole purpose to "support US foreign policy."
• Since Iraq is now a free-trade zone, US business have been pouring billions of dollars in Iraq, however, if the new Iraqi government decided to nationalize all privately owned business, those businesses would be royally screwed, and OPIC would save the company by compensating them for their lost. Who bails out OPIC? - the US Treasury which means the US taxpayer.

It seems Blake is concern with his public image. The Time recently published a puff piece on Blake, "Who Knows Bush's Mind Best?". I guess Blake wasn't feeling the love from the blogosphere and especially his soon to be alma matter, considering it was the student paper The Harvard Crimson rolled out the un-welcome wagon when they first broke the story. It was the Times' article which exposed Blake's current salary.

At Bush's ranch, Gottesman, who makes $95,000 a year, sleeps in the senior-staff trailer...

As a Z-list blogger and knowing I have a few regulars (I humbly thank you for stopping by and reading my blog), I do have to admit I like to think I am causing some to type of concern to some mucky-muck within the Dudya administration through my blog. The first post I did on Blake, Harvard's Royal Treatment, I asked: "How did Blake fairly compete with all the rest of the people (not just minorities, everybody!) who applied to get into HBS? Given the President's schedule, did Blake even take the GMAT?" Then on my follow-up, My Special Shout Out - I See You Too, I noted that I come out first in a Google search for "Blake Gottesman gmat." The only blog that brought up the issue compared someone they knew who had done everything Harvard required of him and speculated the score was to get in. In jacek's blog, or How I learned to stop worrying and love the MBA, he writes:

But what one Mr. Gottesman has that my friend does not, is that he dated the President’s daughter. And while my freind, like the rest of us, has to work, be creative, involve himself, and really be a go getter to get that grad diploma. He didn't date the president's daughter, and unlike Mr. Gottesman, will probably have to do better than drop out of college and in all lieklihood score a 420 on his GMAT (yes, the pun was intended).

I bring this up because in the Times article, not only addressed the issue about Blake being admitted into Harvard without having a college degree, but the article also addressed the GMAT question.

Gottesman had a notable hurdle: he went to work for the presidential campaign when he was 19, so he didn't finish his undergraduate degree. He found a 1991 Boston Globe article, "Harvard Business School on a High School Diploma," that described cases of successful graduates who had been admitted without finishing college, and he won over admissions officials by outlining the earlier cases in an essay. "I researched not just the precedent but whether I'd be able to hack it and contribute to the classes," Gottesman says. "I talked to a bunch of alumni and current students and decided it was worth a shot." Gottesman scored in one of the top percentiles on his Graduate Management Admission Test. He also got into Stanford's business school.

There are three things I want to address here - the Boston Globe Article, the GMAT, and his acceptance to Stanford's business school.

GMAT
Time write that Gottesman scored in one of the top percentiles on his Graduate Management Admission Test. Time's article is a play on words, when one sees "top percentile" one would automatically ASSUME a score above 700. GMAT scores are often mentioned along with GMAT percentiles. A percentile is the percent of test takers you have outsmarted out of the total number of test takers. Say Blake scored a 630, which would place him approximately to the 90th percentile, meaning that 90 percent of test takers scored at or below this level. Another question, what does Time consider as one of the top percentiles? Do they consider being in 50th percentile as top, or is it 60?

Percentiles may vary from year to year.

Chart provided by 800score.com.

Stanford's Business School
It is interesting Blake mentions Stanford as if to show that other highly regarded graduate schools would also have accepted him regardless of Harvard's Affirmative Action Program for Rich People. However, Stanford also has a "Legacy Admissions" program. In fact, back in 2003 The Stanford Daily ran a story, Higher admit rate for legacies, how Stanford was had a higher admit rate for legacies than other students.

According to a newly published research paper by Thomas Loverro, Class of 2003, legacies are admitted to college at higher rates than other students — even if they are somewhat less qualified.

In the paper, which was published in the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal, Loverro cited a Department of Education report that found that legacy students at Harvard averaged 35 points less on the SAT than non-legacies. According to Loverro, Harvard's admit rate for legacies is 40 percent versus 11 percent for general applicants.

So why would Blake choose Stanford as his second choice? Could it be that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also happened to be the former Provost at Stanford. It is very disheartening that both Blake and the Times are trying to fool the people into thinking was not given special consideration. And it is more disheartening that universities like Stanford and Harvard, continue to defend their affirmative action program for the rich. Face it Blake, you have the connections some people would die for.

Boston Globe
There is an article in the Boston Globe written back in 1991. It was written by Paul Hemp back and the article was published on December 22, 1991. For $2.95, I figure, what the hell, so I purchased the article to see if there were any similarities between him and those who went before him, since he did say he researched the precedents.

The first person mentioned is Edward Popper, Class of '75 who flunked out at Northwestern University - three times. But at the age 23, he was managing a $20 million advertising budget for a milk trade association. He decided to apply to Harvard after taking some part-time business courses at the University of Chicago. Something tells me his business experience had something to do with his acceptance. And managing Dudya's dog fails in comparison to managing a $20 million advertising budget.

Anthony Athos Class of '57 - He came to the business school after four years of part-time study at the General Motors Institute in Detroit. - He was still going to college before he was accepted into the Harvard's MBA program. - No comparison.

Deborah White, Class of '84 - She had dropped out after her first year at Antioch College in Ohio in 1970. - Something Blake did. Here is the difference, she felt her career at Standard Oil was stalling because she lacked an MBA. People told her "We like you very much but we wish you had the credentials." He was already working in the business industry, it is hard to compare being boy lacky to someone who had a career at Standard Oil. Besides, she also went back to college to take some courses:

After taking some economics courses at the University of California at Berkeley and the Graduate Management Admission Test White applied to Harvard "to see what they would say.

Nope Blake, I don't think you can compare yourself with Ms. White.

Thomas Pyle, Class of '67 - After entering MIT at age 16, Pyle dropped out after one year. At 18-year-old production assistant on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour television program. Later he produced daytime soap operas. Another one who had business experience, something tells me the Pyle would be considered outside the norm since he entered college at the age of 16. From MIT News section of Technology Review via Matt McGann's McGann's Factor:

...Each year, a handful of "underage" teenagers are among MIT's incoming students. The university takes no initiative to court them, but anywhere from one to five, ranging in age from 14 to 16, join the MIT community annually.

If Blake was consider a Doogie Howser, I highly doubt that he would be Dudya's butt boy. Nice try Blake.

Louise Gross Hersey, Class of '77 - was former dude ranch manager. "she went to the Katharine Gibbs secretarial school, became a secretary in the chemistry department of Harvard College. Several years later ... she began attending Simmons College at night to get the necessary college diploma." After her two years she was told that an undergraduate degree wasn't needed to apply. Even though she was admitted through the same "Legacy Admissions" program, what makes her different from Blake, she went back to college - Blake never did.

Those were the people mentioned in the Boston Globe article Blake. It is interesting how he found that article, either way, he found it. Blake is correct about Harvard accepting prospecting students without an undergraduate degree, but he and Time failed to mention that each one were also attending courses at the same time they applied. It would be hard a hard sell to compare his duties to those who already were contributing to business industry before they were accepted. Nice try, Blake.

Both the Times' and Blake Gottesman are trying really hard fool people into thinking he was accepted by his own merits. But the of truth of the matter, the only merits Blake has is being a $95,000 glorified lackey who is nothing more but being proficient at keeping hand-sanitizers for Dudya and placing his note cards on the podium.

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The donut hole in the Medicare Part D program is about to become apparent to many new subscribers here in Texas. Under the new Medicare D plan passed by Congress in 2003, out-of-pocket prescription expenses between the annual amounts of $2,251 and $5,100 are not covered - hence the "donut hole." The New York Times' Robert Pear reports how Texas' Hispanic elderly are getting a crash course about the notorious and the impact of the donut hole on them.

Jose M. Flores, a Medicare beneficiary who lives outside McAllen, used the new drug benefit four times from January to April to purchase Byetta, an injectable medicine for diabetes. Each time he paid $40.

So when he went to the pharmacy on May 25, he was dismayed to be told that he owed $167.56 for the next month's supply. Mr. Flores had reached the notorious gap in Medicare's drug coverage. He had to pay the full price of Byetta. His Medicare drug plan paid nothing.

"It's almost useless," said Mr. Flores, a 66-year-old school bus mechanic who was interviewed at his home in La Joya, Tex. "I'm paying the premium, but not getting protection."
...
In coming months, millions of beneficiaries will have similar experiences, as the cost of their drugs reaches the initial coverage limit of $2,250. Like Mr. Flores, they will have to pay the full cost of each medicine until their out-of-pocket costs reach $3,600. At that point, Medicare coverage resumes, paying 95 percent of the cost of each prescription.

Yet, BushCo continues to pull the wool of over the eyes of millions of American citizens with their lies.

In Washington, Bush administration officials say Medicare's new prescription drug program is humming along smoothly, filling more than three million prescriptions a day and cutting costs by an average of 50 percent for each beneficiary.

Seniors on Medicare are in this bind because BushCo once again filled the pockets of the insurance industries and the pharmaceutical companies. PhRMA's Medicare plan has made sure that the government are not allowed to negotiate lower costs with the pill pushing drug companies — as other federal agencies, hundreds of corporations and several states do.

According to the Alliance for Retired Americans, BushCo and the robber barons manipulated the system to achieve their agenda:

• Censored C-SPAN cameras and drafted legislation in exclusive GOP closed-door sessions
• the Bush administration violated the law by withholding cost estimates for the drug benefit from Congress and threatened a federal employee with his job if he disclosed them
• House leaders held the middle-of-the-night vote open for an unprecedented three hours resorting to bribes and backroom deals to narrowly pass the bill
• following passage of the bill, the White House revealed the cost would exceed the $400 billion ceiling it had promised lawmakers
• the Bush administration illegally used taxpayer funds for a multi-million dollar propaganda campaign to promote the Medicare drug deal to the public

The conflict of interst between ex-lawmakers and lobbying firms:

• one of the principal authors, former Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), negotiated a $2 million deal to head PhRMA, the drug industry's trade group, while working on the law
• former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Thomas Scully, who left to join Alston & Bird, a law firm representing hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and other health care companies. (Side note: CMS is now headed by Dr. Mark McClellan, son of TX Governor Independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn)

We can now expect that millions of seniors on fixed incomes, especially those with chronic illnesses and with disabilities, will be struggling to pay for the life-sustaining medications they need but can’t afford without coverage.

Currently, many patients are having difficulty getting the drugs they need. Yet, the BushCo spin according Pear:

Bush administration officials say that low-income people like those in McAllen stood to gain most from the new program because they were often eligible for extra help. Medicare officials said they were trying to solve the practical problems reported by pharmacists here. And they said that a typical beneficiary would save at least $1,500 before reaching the gap in coverage.

This is nothing more than a scam by Big PhRMA and Big Insurance to screw millions of low-income elderly out of their limited funds. Under Part D, a "standard" drug plan pays 75 percent of initial drug costs up to $2,250 after a $250 deductible for most seniors. But then the program pays nothing until drug expenses reach $5,100, after which the government pays 95 percent of all costs.

In Texas, there are 47 Medicare drug plans, with different premiums, co-payments and lists of approved drugs. However, doctors and pharmacists are having trouble figuring out what drugs are on the approved drug list.

Typically, a doctor writes a prescription, and the patient takes it to a pharmacist, who submits a claim to the insurer. In many cases, the doctor learns the drug is not covered only after the claim is rejected. The doctor and the pharmacist may repeat the process three or four times until they find a drug that is covered.

There are other problems with Big PhRMA's Medicare plan.

• Many beneficiaries told the government to withhold Medicare drug premiums from their monthly Social Security checks. But Social Security did not always act promptly on such requests.
• John R. Morris, 83, a retired salesman in Mission, said he was annoyed when four months' worth of premiums — more than $155 — was deducted from one month's Social Security check.
• Insurers sometimes jumble the claims filed for different beneficiaries.
• Nine of Mr. Morris's drugs showed up in the latest monthly statement for his wife, Joan D. Morris. As a result, her drug spending appeared much higher than it actually was. If the error goes uncorrected, she will reach the coverage gap sooner than she should.

Will anything be done? No!!! It will get worst for low-incomes individuals. Last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will be increasing deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums and other costs for seniors by 6.8% beginning Jan. 1, 2007. The deductible for the standard benefit will increase from $250 to $265. In addition, seniors will have to spend $3,850 out of pocket before having 95% of their drug costs covered, instead of the $3,000 they have to spend in 2006.

Even worse, beginning next month, ALL low-income individuals (regardless of their citizenship) will are required to show proof they are citizens. Not a joke.

It seems Dudya and Congress pulled another fast one. According to the NY Times:

The Bush administration plans ... to issue strict standards requiring more than 50 million low-income people on Medicaid to prove they are United States citizens by showing passports or birth certificates and a limited number of other documents.

The requirements, which take effect July 1, carry out a law signed by President Bush on Feb. 8 [Public Law No. 109-171,§ 6037].

... The purpose of the law was to conserve federal money for citizens, reducing the need for states to cut Medicaid benefits or limit eligibility.

According to HealthLawProf Blog the new standards will create an additional hardship and possible loss of benefits to millions of children, older Americans and poor people born at home in rural areas who never received birth certificates. HealthLawProf also explains:

Federal policy may be to deny health care benefits to undocumented immigrants, but it obviously doesn't go so far as to require (or even permit) the denial of health care services (emergency services, at any rate) to undocument immigrants. EMTALA requires Medicare-certified hospitals to provide a medically appropriate screening for patients who come to their ER's and to attempt to stabilize any emergency condition found to exist, and this requirement applies (as it should) regardless of the patient's citizenship status. Tightening up Medicaid eligibility rules may (or may not) make some kind sense as a matter of immigration policy, but as a health care policy it only makes a bad situation worse -- and not only for hospitals.

However, all States must comply because if they fail to do so, they can lose federal Medicaid money.

The guidelines list four categories of documents that can be used as evidence of citizenship:

• 1st category: US passport or a certificate of naturalization;
• 2nd category: state and local birth certificates and State Department documents issued to children born abroad to United States citizens;
• 3rd category: nongovernment documents - medical records from doctors, hospitals and clinics, nursing home admission papers, and records from life and health insurance companies; and
• 4th category: affidavits, which can be used "only in rare circumstances when the state is unable to secure evidence of citizenship" from other sources.

Feeling dizzy yet, as Grandmaster Rove and DJ Fly-boy Luntz keep spinning their Pipe Piper tunes, as the Big PhRMA and Big Insurance Robber Barrons rob you blind. These Merchants of Death sleep easy in their nice penthouse suit, vaction in one of their multiple summer homes knowing they shorten the life exceptency of millions of low incomce elderly.

Now that Grandmaster Rove is off the hook, don't be surprised when he starts seeking redemption as he releases a remix of his popular spins to wreck vengeance upon those who attempted to take him down.

But for now kiss your health care good bye, if you do not have insurance.

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Earlier this month, there was a custody battle regarding two young teens who have gained national attention for their white supremacist song.

The parents of the Gaede twins have been in a bitter custody dispute. The girls' father thinks they are being poisoned by their mother, a self-professed white seperatist.

The two young teens in question are the Hitler-loving teenybopper twins Prussian Blue - the 13-year-old twins; Lynxe and Lamb Gaede. Their mother, April Gaede, manages the group. Oddly enough, they have been called the neo-Nazi movement's Olsen twins.

These adolescents are being raised to believe in "White nationalism." The Southern Poverty Law Center reports

Since joining the neo-Nazi National Alliance in 2001, Gaede and her girls have become prominent ambassadors of hate, thanks in no small part to Gaede's dogged determination to turn her 12-year-olds into racist pop stars.

Gaede herself grew up on goat's milk and Third Reich footage in the foothills of Fresno (the family now lives in Bakersfield), the daughter of a rancher who branded horses with swastikas. A college dropout, she married a man she describes as a pot-smoking Icelandic pole-vaulter when she was 20, giving birth to Lynx and Lamb in 1993.

The father decided to sue the mother for custody and he admitted that he had been a bad father but would like a second chance because the mother is warping and ruining the girls. In fact the mother doesn't deny it.

"I'm a racist ... I believe there are differences in races. Everybody's a racist. There are two kinds of people. Those who deny being racist, and then the honest folks," said April Gaude.

It seems that the jackbootedness roots runs deep, it seems that it has been passed down from father to daughter as it evident with Apri. According to a 2005 ABC report, April's father is also involved in neo-nazism and is not afraid to show is belief. The Nazi swastika can be seen on his belt buckle, on the side of his pick-up truck and have even gone so far to register his cattle brand to the Bureau of Livestock Identification.

"Because it's provocative," explains April of the cattle brand, "to him he thinks it's important as a symbol of freedom of speech that he can use it as his cattle brand."

Back in 1997, April divorced the twins' father, Kris Lingelser for domestic violence and drug abuse, after obtaining a restraining order against him in 1996. However, Kris says he's changed and the reason he wants custody, he would like to unbrainwash the girls.

"I would hope that they could see a white separatist attitude, where whites and blacks and Mexicans and everybody needs to live in their own separate universe is not healthy. It's not what this country is about, it's not what I'm about. I would just hope that they could see that."

What are the words are found in the twins song? In the song "Sacrifice" — the song is nothing more but a tribute to Nazi Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy Fuhrer. The lyrics praise Hess as a "man of peace who wouldn't give up." In their song "Aryan Man":

When the man who plows the fields is driven from his lands. When the carpenter must give away what he's built with his own hands. When a mother's only children belong to her no more. And black masked men with guns come bashing down the doors. Where freedom exists for only those with darker skin. Where lies and propaganda will never let you win. Where symbols of your heritage are held with such contempt, and benefits of country 'cept tax are you exempt .

Aryan man awake, How much more will you take, Turn that fear to hate, Aryan man awake.

What will it take for you to remember your own folk? What will it take for you to break that heavy yoke? Why do you still cast your eyes downward to the ground? Worry lest what you say have prejudicial sound. Who will stand beside us when the war begins? Who will run and hide their heads and wait to see who wins? Who will face the end and watch a Valkyrie ride forth To join the gods and fallen stormtroopers of the North?

One would figure the judge would rule in favor of the father. Nope, Mommy Dearest won the custody battle. But what the judge has done is nothing more but help contribute to the hate movement. By allowing them to stay with their mother, the judge has helped Erich Gliebe, operator of one of the nation's most notorious hate music labels, Resistance Records, accomplish his goal who hopes Lynx and Lamb will help expand the base of the White Nationalist cause.

"Eleven and 12 years old," he said, "I think that's the perfect age to start grooming kids and instill in them a strong racial identity."

One has to wonder if the judge the ever talked to the twins and would continue their being raised as racists. It is apparent that these girls are just parroting April's racist beliefs. In the ABC interview with Prussian Blue conducted by Cynthia McFadden it seems these teens are just repeating what April and National Allance has told them to say.

McFADDEN: And what's your opinion on Hitler?
LAMB: I think that he had ... he wanted to preserve his base.
McFADDEN: He had 6 million Jews executed.
LAMB: I think that's an exaggeration.
McFADDEN: You do.
LAMB: Yes.
LYNX: I hardly believe there are even that many Jews alive back then.
McFADDEN: Is Hitler someone you admire or someone you don't admire? ... You think he was a great man?
LYNX: Yeah, I think he did a lot -- he had a lot of good ideas.

I guess we can thank the judge for returning these two young adolescents back to a dangerous home. We have seen what can become of teens who grow up hate in their heart.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is shocked and appalled by the beating and sodomizing of a 16-year-old Spring boy ... Investigators have been quoted as saying the victim was beaten by two young white men who stomped on his head while insulting his Mexican heritage. Allegedly one of those two men wears racist tattoos and purports to be a skinhead.

What the hell was the judge thinking? The Pendejo Award would have to go to the judge for his bonehead judgment.

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Has anything changed here in our country after the historical ruling from Brown v. Board of Education - the case that promised equal educational opportunities for all children? Not really.

Millions of students are still not getting the basic education they need to survive and compete in the 21st century.

National Graduation Rates*

• 75% White (non-Hispanic)
• 50% Black (non-Hispanic)
• 53% Hispanic
• 77% Asian/Pacific Islander
• 51% American Indian/Alaska Native

Segregation Continues**
After the Brown ruling, it took over ten years for the nation to committed to desegregation and it worked right after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As more schools integrated, academic achievement increased for both African American and Hispanic students.

Resegregation began in the 1980s when the courts chipped away desegregation plans - denying new petitions to desegregate schools, ending previous court imposed plans and even striking down voluntary plans created by local school districts. The "Great Communicator" stopped previous aggressive campaigns to enforce the Brown decision and the Civil Rights Act that was so successful in the 1960s and '70s. By 1989 schools were beginning to resegregate, reversing many of the academic gains of the previous 20 years.

African American
38% African American students are in extremely segregated schools. The four most segregated states in 2001 for black students were New York, Michigan, Illinois and California. In California and New York, only one black student in seven was in a majority white school and the typical black student was in a school with 82% nonwhite students in New York and 77% in California. In New York 61% of black students were in schools where less than 10% of the student body was white.

Texas is the 13th most segregated state for African Americans, with 37% of Black students in extremely segregated schools (those with a 90-100% minority student body).

Hispanics
42% Hispanic students are in extremely segregated schools. California, New York, and Texas were the most segregated states for Hispanics. In these three states less than a sixth of Latinos were in a majority white school. In New York, 58% of Hispanics state-wide were in schools where less than 10% of the student body was white.

Texas is the 2nd most segregated state for Hispanics, with 48.0% of Hispanic students in extremely segregated schools (those with a 90-100% minority student body).

"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right that must be made available on equal terms." - Chief Justice Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Source:
* Losing Our Future: How Minority Youth Are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis, Gary Orfield, Daniel Losen, Johanna Wald, Christopher B. Swanson, Urban Institute and Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.
** Brown at 50: King's Dream or Plessy's Nightmare?, Gary Orfield and Chungmei Lee, Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.

Technorati: Education, Segregation, Hispanics, African American

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A continuation of the For Whom "The Wall" Profits series I and II

As we know, DHS Deputy Secretary is Michael P. Jackson will oversee the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) program, however there are other major players in the overall functionality of the program. According to GovExec.com, these players are

Greg Giddens, the SBI program's executive director ... Julie Myers, new head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on interior enforcement and Emilio Gonzalez, the new director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, on the guest worker program.

SBI Program Director Greg Giddens

Giddens was appointed Michael Chertoff in December and before his appointment, he was the former Coast Guard Deepwater program official. He wasn't any program official, according to a Aug 2002 GovExec.com artcle, Giddens was the deputy program executive officer.

Giddens, the deputy program executive officer for the Coast Guard's Deepwater project, is largely responsible for navigating the 20-year, $17 billion deal. Capping off six years of hard work, the Coast Guard on June 25 awarded the project to a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

The acquisition represents a major shift in the way the Coast Guard buys ships and aircraft. Rather than specifying the exact mix of assets for the revamped fleet, the agency took an innovative approach, allowing three competing private sector bidders unprecedented freedom to design an entire system of ships, small boats, aircraft, satellites and robotic unmanned aerial vehicles.

It would seem appropriate for Giddens to be tapped by DHS to become SBI's program director considering his program experience. However, Giddens performance as the deputy program executive officer is pretty telling to what would be expected in his new role as SBI’s program director. But then again, this is a BushCo government and one shouldn’t expect much to change.

In a post-9/11 world, all seemed well for the Coast Guard considering they have always had limited resources. Since 2002, Congress has increased the Coast Guard's budget and also provided them an additional $1.5 billion to develop Deepwater, the Coast Guard’s integrated system of ships, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and computer and surveillance logistics. In 2003, the GAO was asked to investigate into the Deepwater program to see if it had been managed effectively and to see how effective the Coast Guard was at overseeing their contractors. The GAO found

...the Coast Guard has neither measured the extent of competition among suppliers of Deepwater assets nor held the system integrator accountable for taking steps to achieve competition. Deepwater’s acquisition structure is such that the two first-tier subcontractors have sole responsibility for determining whether to hold competitions for assets or to provide these assets themselves. The Coast Guard has taken a hands-off approach to "make or buy" decisions made at the subcontractor level. As a result, questions remain about whether the government will be able to control costs.

In regards how the Coast Guard’s oversaw their subcontractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman – the same two who are submitting proposals for the SBI contract – the GAO wasn’t pleased with the Coast Guard’s performance either. According to the GAO Report, it seems the Coast Guard has no knowledge about Lockheed Martin's and Northrop's activity's when it comes to managing Deepwater's assets, nor do they know if their subcontractors will keep the funds to themselves or hold a competition for bids. And even if they do have a bids competition, it most likely will go to one of Lockheed Martin's and Northrop's subsidiaries.

The acquisition structure of the Deepwater program is such that the two first-tier subcontractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman — the companies that formed ICGS and that developed the Deepwater solution — have sole responsibility for determining whether to hold competitions for Deepwater assets or to provide these assets themselves. Over 40 percent of the funds obligated to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have either remained with those companies or been awarded to their subsidiaries.

So what should we expect from Giddons and SBInet? Giddons' vision for SBInet will be modeled after the Deepwater program; which would mean - SBInet will also have a lack of oversight and will be a doomed program.

Evidence of this could be found during the last House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee hearing meeting. According to an April GovExec.com article, Appropriators skeptical of promised secure border initiative, senior members of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee began questioning the whole program.

Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., added, "I'm worried that DHS thinks that the solution is to hire a private technology company to run the SBI, and then sit back and watch."

During a hearing, Rogers had demanded that the department submit the strategic plan for SBInet and at the time Giddens assured Rogers, he would submit it at the end of April. It is now June and the Homeland Security as yet to cough up the plan.

The department will continue to move forward with its scheduled plans to award a prime contractor in September, regardless being $97 million less than what the administration had requested from the subcommittee.

Once a prime contractor is awarded, BushCo can rest assure that the no competitive contract bidding policy will continue to flourish on Homeland Secretary Chertoff and SBI Program Director Greg Giddens watch. Chertoff's appointment of Greg Giddens is additional proof that the border wall construction project in another one of BushCo's money making scheme.

"Recess Appointment" Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Julie Myers

Last year, many questioned Dudya's decision to nominate Julie Myers to head up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Myers is not only the niece of General Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but she is recently married to John F. Wood, Secretary Michael Chertoff's Chief of Staff.

As Myers continues to receive the onslaught of intense questioning by both sides of the political aisle, one thing is over looked, her marriage to John Wood. As Chief of Staff, Wood will oversee the Department's policy, planning and operations responsibilities, which will include the new SBInet program. After a closer look, Wood's background should shed some light as to why BushCo is so adamant in having Myers as ICE Queen. According to a Feb 2005 Press Release:

From 1998 to 2001, Wood was an Associate in the law firm of Kirkland and Ellis. He clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas from 1997 to 1998 and for Judge J. Michael Luttig on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1996 to 1997. Previously, he served on the staff of Senator John C. Danforth (R-Missouri).

Kirkland and Ellis is famous for one of its most well-known lawyer, Kenneth Starr - which Myers happened to be an Associate Independent Counsel when Kenneth Starr was Independent Counsel. But what does Kirkland and Ellis have to do with Wood and the "border wall"? A lot.

According to their website, one of their major clients is Raytheon, one of the defense contractors who is also bidding for the lucrative SBInet prize. Considering Raytheon has brought in a revenue of 20,245 million to Kirkland and Ellis, I highly doubt that Raytheon is a recent client.

Currently, there hasn't been any journalistic investigation to cause suspicions about the obvious conflict of interest. But I do have to admit, it was a nice Rovian parlor trick by sending out a sacrificial lamb to distract the people from looking into BushCo's "border profiteering" buddies. However, the real question remains, is all this too late for current and future immigrants as evidence shows that the Customs and Border Protection agency have been working in overtime to detainee a large level of immigrants.

The Customs and Border Protection agency is considering a variety of methods to accommodate what is expected to be a surge in illegal immigrants detained, including holding those arrested on ships to await trial, a source within the agency said.

If so, we can no longer sit idly by as this country continues to suffer. It is time to make noise and sound the alarms.

NOW IS THE TIME TO TAKE BACK THIS COUNTRY FROM THE CORPORATE PROFITEERS!!!

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Does anyone know who these people are and why they should be important people to know?

• Bernardo de Galvez;
• Francisco de Miranda;
• Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo;
• Santos Benavides;
• Juan Cortina;
• Adrián J. Vidal and "Vidal's Independent Partisan Rangers; and
• Federico Fernandez Cavada

If you can't, don't feel bad because you are not alone according to a study from the Fordham Institute.

A new Fordham Institute study says two-thirds of the states don’t make the grade when it comes to standards for instruction in world history, but states received their lowest marks for weak or non-existent standards for the teaching of the history and culture of Latin America and Mexico.

The names I listed have contributed in the shaping of America while they were citizens of Mexico or a Latin American country.

The Houston Chronicle that the same study reported that ranks Texas number 4 among the four border states when it comes to teaching Latin American and Mexican history.

Fordham's The State of State World History Standards 2006, found that thirty states would receive a grade of a D or F grades for not addressing a history of other countries in the Western Hemisphere, and have "significant gaps or shortcomings" in their approaches.

Nonetheless, on a scale of "zero" to "10," four states (Alaska, Idaho, Missouri and Montana) received a grade of "zero" for maintaining standards that pay only "superficial or cursory attention" to Mexico and the Western Hemisphere. Another 30 states – including Hispanic population centers like Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada and Texas – received grades of "2" through "5" for standards that address Mexico and Latin America, but with “significant gaps or shortcomings” in their approaches.

On a brighter note, Arizona, California, New Mexico and twelve other states received scores of "6" through "10" for standards that "propose a coherent and thorough approach" to the history of Mexico and Latin America. Even those states drew criticism, however, for not requiring students to study world history. No state requires that students be tested in it before being advanced to the next grade, the report says.

It is sad when our future generations are taught that Alamo was about land squatters versus the evil Mexicans. Or leaving out important figures who helped in very significant ways or omitting important facts.

Answers to the people listed above which I mentioned in a pervious post I did on my blog, Memorial Day Observance.

Bernardo de Galvez - From 1775-77, de Galvez provided rations and weapons to the Continental Army. In 1777, he arranged safe passage for James Willing, an American agent of the Continental Congress, who had led a successful campaign along the Mississippi harassing British shipping, plantation owners and military outpost. Before Spain entered the American Revolutionary War, Gálvez did much to aid the American patriots. He corresponded directly with Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Henry Lee, personally received their emissaries, Oliver Pollock and Capt. George Gibson, and responded to their pleas by securing the port of New Orleans so that only American, Spanish, and French ships could move up and down the Mississippi River. Over the river, a veritable lifeline, great amounts of arms, ammunition, military supplies, and money were delivered to the embattled American forces under George Washington and George Rogers Clark. Spain formally declared war against Great Britain on June 21, 1779, and King Carlos III commissioned Gálvez to raise a force of men and conduct a campaign against the British along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast....After the fighting, Gálvez helped draft the terms of treaty that ended the war, and he was cited by the American Congress for his aid during the conflict. Gálvez also organized a militia of Native- Americans, freed African-Americans and his own Spanish regular soldiers to attack British held forts at Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. A year later, he engaged the British at Mobile, Alabama and a year after that at Pensacola, in western Florida. In each case, de Galvez was able to force the British from their entrenchments and freed these cities. The largest bay on the Texas coast is named after him as well as an island. The bay was called Bahía de Galvezton, which was later called Galveston.

Francisco de Miranda - de Miranda fought in the siege and surrender of Pensacola, and later in the Spanish capture of the Bahamas, which he negotiated as the official representative of the governor of Cuba. While in Cuba, de Miranda played a role in obtaining supplies for the French Admiral de Grasse who then sailed to the Chesapeake Bay to assist the Americans to capture Yorktown, Virginia.

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo - Born in 1808 to an upper class family in California Mexican. Vellejo helped the US win California from Mexico. Vallejo was extremely critical of much of Mexican upper class society and government. Much to the horror of his family, at age twenty-three he had been unofficially excommunicated from the Catholic Church for his refusal to turn over banned books to a local priest. He consistently identified with Mexican liberals, who stressed the rule of law and an efficient government with constitutionally limited powers, separate from religious authority. Like many other Mexican liberals, he saw the United States as something of a model form of government. Accordingly, in 1836 he supported a short-lived rebellion led by his nephew, Juan Batista Alvarado, that led to the proclamation of California as a "free state."

Given his attraction to the United States, Vallejo's treatment at the hands of American rebels in 1846 came as a rude shock. General John C. Fremont, the leader of the so-called "Bear Flag Rebellion," imprisoned Vallejo and his younger brother at Sutter's Fort for two months without filing any formal charges. The city of Vallejo, CA, was named in his honor, a vineyard produces wines with his name, and in 1965, the U.S. Navy commissioned the nuclear powered fleet ballistic missile submarine USS MG Vallejo, one of "the forty-one for freedom," in honor of this distinguished Hispanic.

Santos Benavides - he was highest ranking Tejano to serve the Confederacy. The Confederacy ill equipped Benavides, which also meant he was frequently without food. He was also forced to march across vast expanses of South Texas and northern Mexico. Benavides was joined with his two brothers, Refugio and Cristóbal, who both became captains in the regiment. He was one of the last to surrender.

Juan Cortina - "Robin Hood of the Rio Grande" he aided the Union Army during the Civil War. Before that on July 13, 1859, in Brownsville, Cortina witnessed an Anglo city marshal pistol-whipping one of his former family employees. Outraged, Cortina demanded that the marshal stop abusing the Mexican, and when the marshal refused, Cortina shot him in the shoulder, took his former servant up onto his horse, and fled with him to safety. Cortina aided Benito Juarez and other Mexican nationalists against French intervention.

Adrián J. Vidal and "Vidal's Independent Partisan Rangers - soldier in both the Confederate and Union armies. Vidal acted as the eyes of the Union Army in the Valley. After switching sides, Vidal and his men were able to get through Brownsville, where he and his men plundered neighboring ranches and killing several Confederate sympathizers. Vidal was enlisted in the Union Army along with many of his men who served with him in the Confederate Army. But even in the Union Army, he and his men were faced with discrimination so he and his men had fled into Mexico to help Cortina.

Federico Fernandez Cavada - Cavada, a Cuban-born Unionist fought in in the Battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg and was later caught and sent Libby Prison in Richmond, VA. After the war, Cavada went back to Cuba to fight in Cuba's 10-Year War which he attained the rank of general.

When Hispanics talk about having their land taken from them, many are not talk about the war between the US and Mexico. Many are talking about after the war. For example, I was looking into my families history since trying to figure what part of Mexico where my grandparents were from or where they orginally from Texas when it was part of Mexico.

After Texas' independence, the Anglos never considered the Hispanics who were in Texas as being citizens of Texas and continued to call them Mexicans. In my research into my families past, I found out that I am related to Colonel Antonio Zapata.

Antonio Zapata, military leader and wealthy ranchero, was born around 1800 in Guerrero, Tamaulipas, and spent the early part of his life as a sheepherder. He eventually made a fortune as a ranchero. Zapata served as juez in Guerrero and distinguished himself as a militia officer against Comanche and Lipan raiders. ... He joined with other northern leaders in armed resistance to Antonio López de Santa Anna's Centralist subversion of the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Commissioned a colonel, he fought for the Federalist cause under the command of Antonio Canales Rosillo. ... In 1838 he became a major leader in an insurrection that organized at Guerrero against the Mexican Centralist government. He participated in various military campaigns and served against Centralist forces.

So this would mean that on my mothers side of the family, they were orginally from Texas. However, after Texas' independence, Zapata lost a large majority of his land to the gringos. From the Handbook of Texas:

During the Texas Revolution foreign merchants closed their trading houses in northern Mexico, Zapata's properties were looted, and he took some $70,000 in losses, yet he remained financially solvent.

What is never mentioned in the history books is how many Mexicans lost their land, we are made to believe that my relatives gladly gave up their land and people like me have no right to make claims that the land was stolen.

It is time to take down the Matrix of fabricated lies.

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The day has finally arrived. Should we look at today as only being June 6, 2006, or is it really 6-6-6; which happens to be the mark of the beast that is mentioned in the Book of Revelation of the Christian New Testament, Revelation 13:16-18.

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom: let anyone with the understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.

Today 06/06/06 happens to coincide with the number mentioned in the biblical Book of Revelation as the mark of the beast.

Besides having the premiere of the film remake The Omen open today, expect all the all freaks will come out and play because the wingnuts will be all in a tizzy.

So far, BetUS.com, an online gambling site, has put 10-1 odds that the Apocalypse will happen today - 6-6-06.

We are in the midst of the 2000 millennium and there have been both severe natural disasters and man-made wars. Could this be a sign that the Apocalypse, described by St. John in the last book of the New Testament, is just a week away? BetUS.com – a leading online gaming site, posted 10-1 odds that there will be an Apocalypse on 6-6-06.

I wonder what were the odds were if it occured at 6:06:06 AM. I guess there is still this afternoon at 6:06:06 PM.

Proof that Satin is coming and a sign of an impending apocalypse, a false prophet and Satin's spawn will make their appearance today. Ann Coulter decided to launch her new book Godless: The Church of Liberalism, today.

Tim LaHaye's new Christian-themed Left Behind book, "The Rapture," will be pandering to the End Timers today has his new book will be released today.

Ann Coulter, one of Satin's spawn, will launch her latest book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism." Another sign that 6-6-06 will be the end of world. From the right wing propaganda machine:

"If a Martian landed in America and set out to determine the nation’s official state religion, he would have to conclude it is liberalism, while Christianity and Judaism are prohibited by law."

All this and it is just 9:30 in the morning. What else will happen today.

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For the first time since World War II, Alaska's Guard reserve troops in tiny Yup'ik Eskimos villages are being called up according to the Los Angles Times. There is only one problem, the Yup'ik community is very worry about losing their men to go serve in BushCo’s war. The Yup'ik still depend upon subsistence fishing, hunting and gathering for food and it is the male who are tasked for this role. According to the Times, the Reservists are being called up during Alaska's "breakup," when the long days melt the snow and ice that have blanketed the tundra for more than half the year. It is during this time when the men prepare themselves for the hunting, fishing and seal-catching to survive throughout the winter months.

Some will argue they it is too bad since they signed up to serve in the National Guard, but living in that region the average income is considered the lowest in the nation, therefore signing up for the National Guard is an important source of cash. However, why would the Defense Department want to call them up when they have traditionally called up troops from Alaska's cities and towns which are served by a road system stretching from Anchorage to Fairbanks. The Yup'ik villages are located in the marshy delta part of the state, it is even so remote there are only two ways to get there — by airplane or snowmobile. And this can be done only a third from May to September.

During the Cold War, the Yup'ik unit avoided duty because of the US-Soviet tensions that existed during that time, in fact, most of the Alaskan unit avoided being called up because they were already positioned in case of an attack. They served as America's front-line defense if the Soviet Union ever planned to attack the US through Alaska. Now in a post Cold War era, according to the Times the Yup'ik unit:

... have avoided duty in places such as Kosovo, or the Middle East in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, because they were the most distantly located and expensive to activate. Those factors have played into the Alaskan units' late entry into Iraq, when Guard units from densely populated Eastern states have seen multiple tours.

One has to wonder why are they being called up now, if the current plans are to phase out the National Guard in Iraq by next year? There are currently 23,000 National Guard troops in Iraq compared to the 50,000 from last year. So why now?

Another question, how will the military get the Yup’ik ready for the extreme heat of Iraq knowing they have lived in a state where temperatures can plummet to minus 60 degrees. Even now, current soldiers are having a difficult time keeping up in Iraq's 120+ degree weather.

The effects of the heat can be felt and seen everywhere in eastern Diyala Province. An N.C. National Guard soldier manning a .50-caliber machine gun through the roof of a Humvee outside a hospital in Tuz Kharmatu can't leave his post, but his water bottle is close by as sweat drips down his face. At Forward Operating Base Caldwell, a 100-yard walk results in a T-shirt drenched in sweat. At Forward Operating Base Roughrider, the metal on the Humvee is so hot that the drivers must wear gloves.
...
Not that anyone enjoys the furnacelike temperatures. Patrolling the streets and roads of Iraq while the temperature hovers around 100 degrees daily isn't the image that comes to mind when the N.C. National Guard is mentioned. The protective equipment that soldiers wear makes the effects of the heat worse ... It is recommended a person doing normal activity drink eight to 10 glasses of water daily. But with the heat, the soldiers in Iraq are drinking as much as four or five gallons a day.

With a large majority of young adult males being called up, the Yup'ik community are now forced to figure out a way to make up for their shortage of men while trying to maintain an adequate food supply to survive the winter months until the next Alaska "breakup."

Another bright idea by BushCo.

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Gracias Miguel Delgadillo!

Libertad by Los Angeles' Maria Fatal


A message from lead singer Fernando Ramirez that I couldn't have said any better myself.

El video de "Libertad" lo hemos hecho como testimonio de la Gran Marcha Americana 2006. Cineastas, Artistas, Fotografos, Productores, etc. coincidimos en movilizarnos y no solo criticar. Muchos de nosotros vivimos (algunos todavia) en carne propia la discriminacion e intolerancia que se vive en este pais. Simpatizamos apasionadamente con el inmigrante ilegal. La constitucion Norteamericana se redacto para respetar los principios y derechos mas valiosos del ser humano, y dar la oportunidad a todo extranjero de tener un espacio donde vivir su vida con libertad. No es justo que ahora se quieran cambiar las reglas constitucionales por las creencias intolerantes de solo una minoria. Lamentablemente todavia existe gente en EU como James Sensenbrenner, The Minutemen, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Arnold Schwarzenneger, etc, etc. que conforman esa minoria. Tienen ese complejo Hitleriano de superioridad sobre las demas razas del mundo. Minoria que quiere manipular al sistema que "enmienda" a la constitucion para privar al latinoamericano de seguir los pasos de millones y millones de extranjeros que han llegado a Estados Unidos a beneficiar a la sociedad ya establecida con esfuerzo, sudor y lagrimas.

La marcha del 25 de Marzo de 2006, fue una manifestacion pacifica. Un movimiento para expresar el sentir general de intolerancia a la intolerancia. Exigimos respeto y justicia. Exigimos igualdad social. Exigimos la oportunidad que se les brinda a otras nacionalidades de venir a este pais a tratar de vivir dignamente. Seguiremos manifestandonos hasta lograrlo!!!!! Seguiremos documentandolo como lo estamos haciendo en este video. Apoya.......muestra este video para que gente que no pudo asistir se de cuenta de lo que realmente sucedio. No te dejes llevar por las mentiras que las corporaciones televisivas manipulan para ensuciar la verdad. Copia este video y compartelo. - Fernando Ramirez Abril, 2006

The video for "Libertad" was made as testimony of the great american march of 2006. Filmmakers, artists, photographers, and producers coincided and united to not only criticize, but also participate. Many of us have lived (and continue to live) the discrimination and intolerance that is witnessed to this very day within our borders. We sympathize and solidarize with all immigrants and working people not only in the US, but throughout the world. Our very own constitution was created to respect the most basic rights and principles of all people, and provide to all people, foreign or not, the right to live their lives with justice and liberty. It is unjust that we now see this movement to change these most basic constitutional rights due to the intolerant beliefs of a very small minority. Unfortunately, we still see people and organizations such as James Sensenbrenner, The Minutemen, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Arnold Schwarzenneger, etc. etc., that comprise this minority; having an almost Hitler-esque belief of superiority over others. This minority of people who want to manipulate the system and ammend the constitution to deny immigrants the same rights provided to millions and millions of foreigners that have come to the United States to benefit our society already established with effort, sweat, and tears.

The march that took place on March 25, 2006, was a peaceful demonstration. A movement to express the general sentiment of intolerance towards intolerance. We demand respect and justice. We demand an equal society. We demand the opportunity that is afforded to so many others to come to this country and live with dignity. We will continue to fight until our goals are reached!!! We will continue to document, as we did with this video. Show this video to all those who were not there with us, so they can witness a short account of what occurred. Dont let yourself be taken by the corporate media entities that manipulate the truth. Copy this video and share. - Fernando Ramirez April, 2006

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With a re-election coming up, Rick Perry is scrambling for a victory in November. Gov. Perry has decided to pander to the fringe in order to show he knows how to protect the Texas' border. Last Thursday, as Gov. Perry signed the agreement that would officially allow the National Guard to set up shop in Texas, Perry decided he might as well add in his two cents. He announced the state would allocate an additional $5 million to a "virtual border watch program" which will be part of the state's "Operation Rio Grande" program, the state-level program that is meant to detect, track and deter criminal activity, which is also part of another program, "Operation Linebacker." A program that was started by the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition.

Gov. Rick Perry vowed Thursday to counter rising border violence, drug activity and illegal migrant crossings by placing a "virtual" wall of Web cameras on ranch land in South Texas.

These cameras will not just be placed in any ole public spot, they will be placed on private property and neither the state or the property owner will monitor the cameras. This will be left up to the public. In other words, somebody in Maine can be part of the team to fortify the border.

Perry said the state would pay $5 million for a Virtual Border Watch Program, installing hundreds of surveillance cameras with the permission of farmers and ranchers who own land along the border. The first cameras are expected to begin transmission in the next 30 days.

The cameras, he said, will be placed in known hot spots for criminal activity. They will be equipped with night vision and will not be placed in neighborhoods where families expect privacy, Perry said.

Landowners, neighbors and state, local and federal law enforcement agencies will be able to monitor the cameras 24 hours a day. An 800 number will route reports of crimes caught on camera to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

"Landowners will be able to monitor and defend their property from those who might endanger their families," Perry said.

Bill Lovelady owns a 1,000-acre cotton farm along the border in Tornillo, and migrants used to trek through his fields daily.

He welcomed Perry's surveillance plan and said he would be willing to have a camera on his land.

This program not only is a waste of money, which could go to better use, say health care, since Texas ranks high on the number of uninsured. But that doesn't seem to matter to the Texas GOP. This nothing more than the MinuteKlans’ dream come true - open season on immigrants.

In Texas, allowing wingnuts to play with their toys is nothing but trouble. But what Perry has done is give every Cheeto eating member of 101st Fighting Keyboarders more reason to sit on their lazy fat asses and monitor their computer screens playing border patrol while they call in the location to every member of the all-American MinuteKlan. Think Gilcrest and his Klan are morally balanced? Think again. Their view on morality and humanity is nothing but outright biogottry and those who defend are either a fool or down right racist themselves. More frightening, Texas allows the use of deadly force to defend property. Texas law (secs. 9.41-9.43), allows any rancher (and any property owner) the right to use deadly force to defend both their property and their neighbors' property. Any person who actually thinks each rich white rancher is actually patrolling their own grounds better have wake up from their utopian fantasy world. They have somebody else do their dirty work from them, just like their counter-parts in Arizona. They have contracted with the Minutemen to do it for them.

Members of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps can continue patrolling on state trust lands without permits because they've been invited by ranchers leasing the land and agreed to do ranch work...

It doesn't matter if the Southern Poverty Law Center has provided evidence that the Minutemen are connected to racist, White Supremacist groups. As long as these jackbooted neo-Nazi wingnuts have taken care of the "problem" the only problem that exist cover with bullets.

Think they would even shed a tear as one of their neo-Nazi henchmen brutally kills Juan, their favorite ranch hand, in cold blood? Not chance! A spic is a dime a dozen for these rich white bastards. And how will theses rich white racist ranchers explain it to the authorities? The answer obvious, - all Mexicans look the same, so it must have been an "illegal."

Perry claims to be a friend to the Hispanic community, well, friends like him - who the fuck needs enemies.

Technorati: Gov Rick Perry, Operation Linebacker, Immigration, virtual wall

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