Seems like neither side will take the other side's point.  Dems, it makes sense to discourage people from using their children as a way to get into the US.  Reps, it's not fair to treat every desperate person who illegally crosses the border as a vicious criminal.  Let's talk about this, and Dems stop harping on "inflicting harm on the children" ( ( Read more... )

This documentary is well worth seeing.  It explains how the 13th Amendment did more than free the slaves, because it had an exception that said criminals could be imprisoned.  A massive cultural effort ensued to criminalize blacks, and our so-called "criminal justice" system was not sufficient to protect them from powerful white men determined to ( Read more... )

According to the Oregonian yesterday, there are 15 million illegal Mexicans in the US today. The announcement today is that Obama will issue work permits to some 800,000 young illegals instead of deporting them. The older folks are still getting deported, but the young will be... assimilated? Perhaps. Once they have a work permit, and they can ( Read more... )

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There's fear and consternation on the conservative side that this bill, introduced by Rockefeller, will give Obama the power to shut down the internet. On the other hand, the goal of the bill is to address security threats and provide all US internet users with a higher level of security for our data. So the question is, are there national ( Read more... )

As of this week, you cannot cross the Mexico-US or Canada-US border without a passport. There are many people who routinely cross the border who do not have passports. As of this week, those people have to choose a country, and stay there. Too bad if their family is on the other side from their job.
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And that is to Legalize Pot. She makes a good case for it here, in the Arizona Republic:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2009/03/14/20090314Valdez15-vip.html?&wired

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Jesse Helms is probably turning in his grave. Helms opposed funding for AIDS programs, foreign and domestic. The U.S. travel and immigration ban for people with HIV/AIDS was his creation. He got it passed as an amendment on another bill. Because of the "Helms Amendment", the US has banned HIV+ people from visiting even for a day for two decades ( Read more... )