HR4437 IS DEEPLY FLAWED

Why are they complaining?

This is why...

Dangerous Immigration Legislation

Pending in Congress!

Something akin to a panic has descended upon the immigrants’ rights community with the introduction in December 2005 of Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner’s HR 4437, The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. Passed last week in the House and poised to move quickly through the Senate, if passed, HR 4437 could signal some of the most sweepingly dramatic changes in immigration law since the now infamous Illegal Immigration Reform and Individual Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996 and could actually surpass that law in gutting judicial review and eroding due process.

Nothing in the bill provides a comprehensive and realistic plan for our immigration system to enhance border security, support economic growth and provide a legal means to lawful permanent residency for the millions of hardworking undocumented immigrants and their families in the United States. Nearly 500 organizations, including a wide variety of civic, religious and business groups are opposing this legislation. Below is a summary of just a sampling of the areas of greatest concern to the ILRC. See also www.ilrc.org/criminal.php for more information about drastic possible changes regarding immigration consequences of criminal convictions that would result if HR 4437 were passed.

* HR 4437 criminalizes organizations and individuals assisting undocumented immigrants
HR 4437 greatly expands the definition of “alien smuggling” to include assisting a person to remain or attempt to remain in the United States when the “offender” knows the person is in the United States unlawfully – thereby treating social services organizations, refugee agencies, churches, legal services and others the same as smuggling organizations and imposing criminal penalties for providing such assistance. Even family members and charitable workers could face federal prison time for assisting undocumented immigrants.

* HR 4437 criminalizes undocumented immigration status
Under current law, presence in the United States without valid status is a civil violation, not a criminal act. HR 4437 would create a new federal crime of “unlawful presence” and would define immigration violations so broadly as to effectively include every violation, however minor, technical or unintentional, as a federal crime. In addition to permanently barring the entire undocumented population – including 1.6 million children – from the United States, this would also lead to the tragic separation of families as undocumented members of mixed-status families would never be able to secure lawful immigration status in the United States.

* HR 4437 grants state and local law enforcement agencies “inherent authority” to enforce immigration laws
HR 4437 would grant law enforcement agencies the authority to investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, detain and transfer to Federal custody immigrants they find in the United States. When police act as immigration enforcement agents, it undermines their ability to keep communities safe because immigrants and their family members will be scared to report crimes, fires, and suspicious activity out of fear of exposing themselves, families or neighbors to police. Inevitably, crimes will be left unsolved and the safety of entire communities will be compromised.

* HR 4437 furthers the erosion of due process
Our immigration laws provide that some individuals in removal proceedings can be granted voluntary departure – essentially leaving the United States on their own, with their own money – at the conclusion of the immigration hearing process. This is an important alternative to receiving a removal order because it allows an immigrant to reenter the United States lawfully in the future, despite having been in removal proceedings in the past. It is only granted to individuals with good moral character at the discretion of an immigration judge. Under HR 4377, noncitizens would be required to waive all rights to any further motion, appeals or petition for review related to removal or protection from removal in order to be granted voluntary departure, essentially barring them from a list with their family in the United States
Currently, various circuit courts have ruled that immigration officials may be prohibited from simply removing an individual from the United States without a hearing, based on the reinstatement of a prior removal order. HR 4437 purges this appellate court precedent. As a result, if passed, HR 4437 would strip the rights of immigrants with prior removal orders to any sort of hearing before being removed again.

HR 4437 would also eliminate the ability of any person who wishes to enter the United States on a nonimmigrant visa (such as a tourist visa, a student visa, etc.) to have a hearing before an immigration judge in the event that he or she is later charged with an immigration violation. This is because HR 4437 would prohibit the issuance of a nonimmigrant visa unless the applicant first waives his or her right to any review or appeal of an immigration officer’s decision.

* HR 4437 expands the costly detention of immigrants
HR 4437 would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain all noncitizens apprehended along the border until they are removed from the United Statues – thus filling up already overcrowded and tremendously costly facilities as detainees wait for final decisions on their cases. To address the overcrowding issue, HR 4437 authorizes an increase in DHS detention capacity by contracting with state and local jails – thus further criminalizing immigrants by placing them in criminal facilities.

* HR 4437 guts the federal courts’ authority to review immigration matters
HR 4437 would prevent courts from reviewing any application for naturalization denied because of a discretionary determination of ineligibility based upon “any relevant information or evidence.” This gives the immigration agency practically unfettered authority to deny naturalization applications with no judicial review.
HR 4437 also completely eliminates judicial review where noncitizens visas are revoked and is a specific attempt to remove courts’ ability to review consular decisions.
For the few remaining immigration cases that could be reviewed by an appellate court, HR 4437 implements an unprecedented system whereby no appellate court review is available unless a single judge certifies that the petitioner has “made a substantial showing that the petition for review is likely to be granted.” The decision of the single judge to deny certification for review would be not be open to appeal or review of any kind.

* HR 4437 turns many minor crimes into aggravated felonies, which carry the worst possible immigration consequences
Because aggravated felonies are supposed to be reserved for the worst and most violent of crimes such as murder and rape, they carry the most serious immigration consequences. HR 4437 would make makes minor offenses aggravated felonies, with same concomitant consequences. As a result, misdemeanor drunk driving offenses, mere presence in the United States without documentation, assisting an undocumented immigrant to reside in the United States, and minor accessory roles in the criminal conduct of others would all qualify as aggravated felonies. Most of these changes would be retroactive, meaning that someone who committed an offense 20 years ago that was not a deportable offense then could be charged with an aggravated felony now. By making these offenses aggravated felonies, HR 4437 seeks to treat those who commit nonviolent, negligent acts or omissions the same as those who have acted with criminal intent to injure. Regardless of whether it is a major or minor crime, the mere characterization as an aggravated felony will trigger the same immigration consequences – mandatory deportation, mandatory detention, disqualification for almost all immigration benefits, permanent banishment from the United States without hope of lawful return, and the inability to present any equities to immigration judges regardless of how long the immigrant has been in the United States and how many ties he or she has here. Those at risk include permanent residents who have lived here lawfully for decades. In addition, because the noncitizen population in the United States is so large and many American families include both immigrants and citizens, these deportations will break up U.S. citizen families without any possibility of reunification.

* HR 4437 expands the consequences of an aggravated felony and other offenses
Despite the current drastic consequences of an aggravated felony, HR 4437 seeks to add more. It would bar an immigrant from establishing good moral character required to become a U.S. citizen if they have an aggravated felony conviction in the past – even if they could prove that at the time the offense occurred it was not characterized as an aggravated felony, and they presently have excellent moral character. Under HR 4437, aggravated felonies would also bar admission to the United States and bar the ability to re-immigrate to the United States via an immediate relative as defense to removal. There would be no waiver available. It would further bar an asylum seeker who has an aggravated felony conviction from ever becoming a permanent resident. These provisions will eliminate the little available relief and benefits for immigrants with aggravated felony convictions who demonstrate rehabilitation and strong family, social and economic ties.

* HR 4437 eliminates key safeguards concerning evidence used to prove that an immigrant is deportable for an aggravated felony
Since 1990, the United States Supreme Court has established guidelines, called the “modified categorical analysis,” for how a court can characterize a prior conviction. While this may sound technical, the categorical analysis is a vital safeguard that protects immigrants from wrongful deportation. It ensures that immigration judges consider only the most reliable information and documents from a prior conviction – and not from facts that were not established at the original criminal trial – to identify the offense for which the person was actually convicted. HR 4437 seeks to eliminate these guidelines for those accused of being aggravated felons in immigration proceedings. This means that immigrants could be deported for a conviction of an offense that is not actually an aggravated felony, simply because the offense is listed in the same state criminal statute that also includes an aggravated felony. Eliminating the categorical analysis is a radical violation of basic fairness that seeks to overturn years of established judicial precedent.

* HR 4437 reverses the burden of proof
Historically, the burden has been on the government to prove deportation, because the hardship of deportation is so great. Analogous to the criminal “innocent until proven guilty” standard, the longstanding rule has provided that the government may not simply arrest a long-time permanent resident, allege that she is deportable, and force her to prove that she is not. HR 4437 reverses this burden of proof for those charged with aggravated felonies. This would be an extreme blow to deeply-rooted and longstanding notions of fairness. The result in practice is that once the government decides to charge the person, the low-income, unrepresented, detained immigrant will be required to obtain the public records and to produce the extremely complex legal arguments required to disprove the government’s assertion. If the person cannot meet this nearly impossible burden, he or she will face mandatory detention, deportation, and permanent exclusion and separation from family and friends in the United States.

* HR 4437 makes an immigrant associated with any street gang deportable and ineligible for any immigration benefits
Under HR 4437, immigrants who have never committed any crimes whatsoever and who have obeyed all of our laws can be deported, denied admission and the ability to obtain lawful status, subjected to mandatory detention, and denied all forms of protection such as asylum and temporary protected status, simply because the Attorney General has determined that they are associated with a designated street gang. The Attorney General, through a secret process that provides no notice or opportunity to be heard to the immigrant, can designate any formal or informal group of three or more persons who have committed two or more enumerated gang crimes a “criminal street gang.” As a result of this designation, many immigrants who never committed or supported a single criminal act may be punished severely for exercising their right to association – they may be deported to a country where they face interrogation, torture, detention and even death.

* HR 4437 undermines state court decisions regarding the reversal or vacation of convictions in immigration proceedings
HR 4437 would allow immigration authorities to ignore certain reversals and vacations of criminal convictions by state courts, such as the failure to advise the immigrant of the immigration consequences of the guilty plea. This provision will seriously undermine the concept of “full faith and credit” due to state courts. This is particularly so, in states like California, where the state Supreme Court and other lowers courts have ruled that the failure to advise and defend of the immigration consequences and giving affirmative misadvice as to the immigration consequences constitute ineffective assistance of counsel, meriting vacation of the conviction.

* HR 4437 imposes mandatory minimum sentences for many offenses
HR 4437 adds dozens of new mandatory minimum penalties to current law. It imposes the same sentences upon persons who aid or assist certain immigrants to enter the United States as the immigrants themselves would receive. The bill would also impose one to 10 year mandatory minimum penalties for those who reenter the United States after deportation. These mandatory minimum sentences punish arbitrarily and strip judges from the discretion to make the punishment fit the crime, while also increasing the cost of incarceration to American taxpayers.

April 10 -- "Day of Action" -- Tomorrow

Sleep well, America.
Tomorrow you will be shaken from your nap.
Unless I miss my guess, tomorrow's crowds of immigrants in the streets will be the subject of every news report.

It is still possible that some unforseen event will dominate the news. As people in the business know well, news isn't planned; it is reported. But all that I have read since March 26 indicates that April 10 will be historic. It will be so big that weather will not affect the impact, because no inclement weather can cover North America all at once. Storms may dampen parts of the event locally. But at the end of the day a historic mark will have been made.

Looking at the usual suspects, I can't find any indication tonight that anyone in a position to know has any idea that the next twenty-four hours will be different from the last twenty-four. If anyone in a position of leadership has any suspicions they are keeping quiet, lest they be accused afterward of being part of the cause.

It is likely that security people are making preparations, police forces and the like. Whenever large crowds of demonstrators might be in the streets safety and security are always a high priority, and professionals in that line of work make it their business to prepare, like firemen or weather forecasters, to what can be expected to happen. (At least I hope that is true, although the federal response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was, can we say, less than impressive. It was state and local responses that spelled success or failure in the wake of those events.)

The media will be in hog heaven. There will be a veritable banquet of stories to pick from, good, bad and ugly. Human interest to Homeland Security. Cats to coyotes and everything inbetween. As I said in the previous post, pundits will be publishing reams of commentary aimed at spinning one agenda or another. Those of us sympathetic with the people in the streets will watch and hope that the sheer magnitude of the event will inspire prompt and realistic responses to temper the extremism and fundamentalism now forming a xenophobic subtext to American politics, both domestic and foreign.

People will be gather in breakrooms, backrooms and boardrooms trying to figure out what the hell is going on. By sundown I expect a kind of numb, dumb quiet to settle as those in positions of leadership try to evaluate what has happened and what should be their next best move. A great social tectonic plate is about to shift and everyone in America, like it or not, will be affected.

Beyond what I have written, I have no clue what might happen after tomorrow. Like everyone else I have opinions, inclinations and expectations. But nothing has happened simply because I wanted it to come to pass. More often than not, what has happened has occurred without my blessing and despite my good intentions. There is no reason to believe that the next months will unfold any differently.

Good night, all.
Sleep well.

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Nathan Newman is ready.
So is Cole Crawitz.
Oh, and the spinning has already begun at Powerline. Already the event is being painted Communist. (I recall as though it were last week Southerners' insisting that Negroes would not be causing all that desegregation mess were it not for outside agitators!) Memeorandum will be the flower where all those bees assemble.

Palm Sunday reflections

It could be coincidental, but I think not. That tomorrow's nationwide demonstration on behalf of immigrants comes the next day after Palm Sunday. I don't think the timing was intentional on the part of those responsible for planning this event, but I have no way to know. However it came to pass, the timing strikes me as more than an accident of the calendar.

The Christian significance of Palm Sunday has in recent years been underscored in many congregations by a paritcipatory liturgy which involves having members of the congregation respond to questions posed from the pulpit as though they were not modern Christians but ordinary people in the street at the time just before the crucifixion.

As the Passion account is being read from one of the synoptic Gospels, there is a moment when Pilate asks the crowd what to do with Jesus. After his own personal examination he has found nothing for which he should be killed, so he turns the matter over to the crowd, whereupon they yell out "Crucify him! Crucify him!" It is a powerful moment when you find yourself reading those words aloud as part of the congregation. You realize at that moment that by doing so you become one of those participating in an execution, the execution of Jesus! No matter how often it is read, it is always a shocking reminder that we do that very thing almost every day we live.

Here are a couple of items to reflect on today with tomorrow's events in mind.

The first is a reflection by Frederick Buechner I came across via a comment left at a blog that I have been following. It is a story within a story within a story. Take time to read it carefully so that you don't get the stories mixed up. It is worth the short time it takes to slow down to pay attention. Here is a tickler:

A few years later, she returned to the Bay Area and remembering this friendship, she called up the man and said, "It is Maya Angelou. I'm back again. I would love to pick up our friendship where we left it off. I enjoyed you so much before."

He said, "Terrific. Let me tell you a little bit about what I have been doing during the interval."

He had been in Europe working with the problems of the American troops stationed over there.

She said, "How did it go?"

He said, "The black troops have a particularly hard time because they are black and there aren't many blacks around. But our boys, also..."

She said, "What did you say?"

He said, "The black troops have a particularly difficult time for various reasons but our boys, also..."

She said, "What did you say?"

A third time she went through it. All of a sudden, as she described it, he, himself, heard what he said and said in effect, "This is the most awful thing I have ever done. I can't continue the conversation. I have got to hang up, to have said such a thing to you, Maya Angelou, 'the black boys, our boys.'"

She said, "No. This is just why we must talk because that is what racial prejudice is. Beneath the superficial liberal utterance, there is the deep, ingrained sense of 'black boys, our boys.'"

Nonetheless, they continued the conversation and agreed to meet.

What happened then was she tried a number of times to get hold of them, to meet him and see him and his wife. Again and again, the calls didn't go through. She left messages which weren't answered and finally the whole thing just fizzled out. So that was, in a way, her answer to the question, "How about racism?"

It moved her and upset her and that was the last question she took that day.

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The second reading is this poem, also by Maya Angelou. (You will catch the reference above from the second comment.)

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling
I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Something about poetry enlarges the experience of an individual to exemplify the collective experience of a people. And by the same dynamic, the experiences of one people can come to exemplify the experience of all mankind.

As the news reports play across tomorrow's screens, as the predictable vitriolic words of condemnation come spilling out of well-meaning pundits writing from the comfort and safety of their respective habitats, reflect on these words. And recall the image of the mob as it cries out to Pilate, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"

Multiculturalism running amok

Lest I be accused of cultural hubris, I have to point to one of our own toxic offshoots.

And yes, ebonics, like it or not, is a specifically American cultural product, as native to North America as tobacco. Sorry. You can get a divorce but you can't fire your kids. And if you want to maintain peace in the family, you can't fire your in-laws, either. (As you get older, you will also see how the most hybrid of seeds can go wild a couple of generations out.)

Robert at The Marmot's Hole points to a March post at Becky's T*Blog, Conversational Ebonics, a dictionary of African-American street slang for Japanese readers. It's not clear if some cross-cultural enterprise is in the works calling for this book, but who knows? I can envision smiling groups of Japanese young people trooping down the sidewalks of the 'hood, trying to walk properly so as not to be noticed too much. Better yet, a clutch of young black kids in Yokohama, squinting without their shades and scratching discretely as fitted clothing feels too snug in the groin.

Meantime, Becky is caught a bit off guard today finding that her March post has taken on a life of it's own. I think this is what they call a meme. Becky may have started something. This a great flight of fluff for weekend reading. Drill away.

(Don't neglect the comment threads or you might miss this.)

It's the Latinos, stupid!

His title, not mine.

But the point is well-made.
Sometime in the next forty-eight hours go read this article by Leon Hadar. Otherwise whatever you say in response to Monday's Day of Action might sound even more ignorant than it should.

...no one seriously argues that the illegal immigrants are responsible for any of the structural problems facing the US economy, in particular the decline in manufacturing jobs. Similarly, most analysts agree that the majority of the immigrants, certainly those who arrive from Mexico and Latin America, don't pose any security risks.
[...]
In the 19th century and early 20th century, even Catholic and Jewish immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe were regarded by Americans as too alien and 'exotic' to be able to assimilate into the Anglo-Saxon Protestant majority in the United States. But the difference between then and now was that those immigrants wanted to assimilate into the American society and were provided with incentives to do so.

The current immigrants from Latin America - illegal and legal - are in a society that celebrates 'multiculturalism'. And that provides them with inducements to maintain their Hispanic identity, as well as to preserve their ties to the 'old country', which is just across the border and not thousands of miles away in Europe or Asia.

The result is the growing expectations (or fears) among middle-class white Americans that their country would soon be overwhelmed by an Hispanic majority - with some parts of the country becoming the way Miami and Los Angeles are today - that is, bilingual communities of 'Anglos' and 'Latinos', where the Spanish-language media now reaches a larger audience than English-language newspapers and television stations.

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Hoots' take: They're here. Deal with it.

CFR Iraq Update

Spin, spin, spin...

If I have seen the numbers once I have seen them cited a dozen times: Casualties are trending down, therefore we must be doing something right! Woo-hoo! Get 'em, boys!

Sorry, folks. That dog won't hunt.

Good news from Iraq seems hard to come by these days. Growing militia violence (TIME) and the lack of progress in forming a government paint a bleak picture. Thus, it might be easy to overlook the fact that fewer U.S. troops have been dying (NPR) in recent months. This is partly because insurgents have begun to concentrate on non-U.S. targets, and partly because U.S. forces have become less exposed. Writing in the Sacramento Bee, conservative columnist William F. Buckley says reduced exposure "can be seen as the military voting with their feet to begin withdrawal."

In fact, the slowing U.S. casualty rate may well be the result of shifting strategies among both U.S. and insurgent forces. For its part, the insurgency appears to be attacking Iraqi targets with more frequency (NYT). With more than 2,300 U.S. soldiers already dead, inflicting more casualties on the increasingly secure American forces is not likely to chase out the "occupiers." On the other hand, as AEI's Reuel Marc Gerecht writes in the Wall Street Journal, the fault lines among Iraq's leadership appear to be growing. If the insurgency can continue to fuel the recent rise in sectarian violence, which was highlighted by an April 7 mosque bombing in Baghdad (BBC), it may well succeed in driving Iraq into chaos. Speaking to cfr.org's Bernard Gwertzman, New York Times chief military correspondent Michael Gordon says the prospect of civil war can't be ruled out. In the midst of all of this are reports that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, may have been demoted (CSMonitor).

Lots more links at the site, if the reader has time for drilling.

Donald Sensing on the "Judas Gospel"

I haven't paid much attention, but there is a resurgence of interest in what are being presented as "early Christian" writings (as though there were not already enough confusion about the Faith). Mostly they strike me as yet another attempt to push an oversized foot into a too-small glass slipper, but thanks to a pop revival stoked by the likes of the Left Behind series, The DaVinci Code and, yes, Gibson's snuff film, such efforts are getting a lot of serious play. Too bad, since the Gospels we have are fragile enough without a lot of careless handling by latter-day Philistines. Don't get me started. I have a hard time even allowing for good intentions.

Anyway, Dondald Sensing, an authority who stands high on my list, has produced an excellent essay looking at one of these fadish texts, putting it into a historical context that every thinking Christian should read. He also links to another authority underscoring many of the same points. If you think today's revisionist thinking and writing offers any new enlightenment, this reading is not optional.

Oral tradition had begun to deteriorate in post-apostolic times, partly because many or most of the eyewitnesses to the earliest events of Jesus’ life and death and the beginning of the church had died. Because the early church perceived its risen Lord as a living Lord, even his words could be adjusted or adapted to fit specific church needs. By the end of the first century, local gospel production was a booming business. Some gospels purported to be words of the risen Lord that did not reflect apostolic traditions and even claimed superiority over them. Such claims helped to push the early church toward canonization. Faced with such confusion and claims to late revelations, the church came to acknowledge it had to retain the historical dimension of its faith, the “once for all” revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

In addition, there were “para-Christian” movements flourishing that combined elements of pagan religion, Greek philosophy and Christian tradition. Gnosticism sounded Christian on its face, but it denied that Jesus and God were the same and also denied that Jesus was truly physical. Hence, Jesus did not actually die on the cross, but only appeared to. Gnosticism’s root was Greek philosophy, which made a sharp distinction between the physical world and the spiritual one.

Later:
David Kopel at Volokh Conspiracy agrees. I really like the clarity of this paragraph.

This Friday's coverage of the so-called "Gospel of Judas" in much of the U.S. media was appallingly stupid. The Judas gospel is interesting in its own right, but the notion that it disproves, or casts into doubt, the traditional orthodox understanding of the betrayal of Jesus is preposterous.

Amazing Juggler Video

This one I gotta link.
If you haven't seen it yet, you soon will.
Turn on the sound and get to it.

Advertisements running amok

Drilling back into an old post I hit upon New Kerala dot com, online edition from India. Interesting, I thought. Let's see how the news reported from another vantage point. Click on a story, and voila! Here is the text with a string of hypertexed words. Gee, pretty impressive, no? Hyperlinks bringing more details that couldn't fit into the lede.

Wrong.

The hyperlinks are for ads, some of which have nothing more than a vocabulary word in common with the story. And in the case of disaster stories, a jarring and inappropriate advertisement coming across as tacky as a phone solicitation at a wake.

Two die, 46 sickened at retirement home

VANCOUVER, Wash. : Health officials are trying to determine what caused the death of two people and the illness of 46 others at a retirement home in Vancouver, Wash., this week.The outbreak on an assisted living wing of the Cascade Inn retirement center began Monday when eight people were transported to the hospital, a report in the Columbian said Friday. One 91-year-old victim died Wednesday and another, age unknown, died Thursday. Of those sickened, 31 were residents and 15 staff.There is no indication as yet that the vomiting, nausea and diarrhea were triggered by a food-borne illness but the dining area in the affected wing of the center has been closed and the center quarantined. Family and friends of the residents were told to stay away. The manager of the county's infectious disease program, Marni Storey, said the residents' symptoms are similar to those in norovirus outbreaks that hit two local schools last fall."An illness cluster is not unusual at a retirement facility," Storey added.She said it can take up to a week before the state laboratory can determine the cause of the outbreak. In the meantime, staff members are observing several measures to prevent spread of the illness.

The links are apt to change, so I will copy them here for future reference...

Illness -- The Cause and Cure of Human Illness can be purchased on line from Ehret Literature Publishing Company for only $14.95 (US) Selling a book.

retirement home -- US News and World Report link. Magazine advertisement selling a host of books and articles about retirement.

assisted living -- Link to Visiplex, selling a wireless call system for use in nursing homes and retirement living settings.

Just the word retirement -- link to financial advisor...When you work with an Ameriprise financial advisor, you will work together to define your dreams then develop and monitor a tailoredfinancial plan that will help you achieve your dreams and adjust to life's changes.

This may be the best one. the word diarrhea is a link selling medicine. Do YOU feel disabled by unpleasant constipation or troublesome diarrhea and no one seems to know why? Chances are you too have Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
If you have tried everything else and nothing has worked for you, now it is time to ask your doctor if all-natural Digestrol™ is right for you.

And the word dining links to an ad for JC Penney!

Now THAT is what I call getting a lot of bang for your buck, even if you weren't looking for it.

"...in El Salvador abortion is punishable by up to 30 years in prison."

Lindsay Berenstein's post looks at the truly mad state of affairs in El Salvador since abortion was criminalized there eight years ago.

Salvadoran law admits no health exemptions, not even when abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. Hospitals even force women with ectopic pregnancies to wait until the embryos burst inside them, lest the precious-but-doomed embryonic material end up in purgatory sooner than God intended. The government literally employs "forensic vagina inspectors" who are tasked with examining women who have lost pregnancies under "suspicious" circumstances.

Unbelievable.

Is this the dream of those who imagine that immoral choices should be subject to legal penalties?

Medical billing, Part II

Reminder: Dr. Bob's second lesson is now up.
This is a non-credit course, but with penalties for those who fail to audit.
Not for the feint of heart, dull-witted, or sleepy.
This man's patience is only exceeded by his perspicuity.

"For cockroaches, it seems, cooperation comes naturally."

Cockroaches govern themselves in a very simple democracy where each insect has equal standing and group consultations precede decisions that affect the entire group, indicates a new study.

The research determined that cockroach decision-making follows a predictable pattern that could explain group dynamics of other insects and animals, such as ants, spiders, fish and even cows.
[...]

Halloy tested cockroach group behavior by placing the insects in a dish that contained three shelters. The test was to see how the cockroaches would divide themselves into the shelters.

After much "consultation," through antenna probing, touching and more, the cockroaches divided themselves up perfectly within the shelters. For example, if 50 insects were placed in a dish with three shelters, each with a capacity for 40 bugs, 25 roaches huddled together in the first shelter, 25 gathered in the second shelter, and the third was left vacant.

No comment.

Discovery Channel on line.
H/T Joe Katzman, Winds of Change

Michael J. Totten is home

And he is in great form. This Open Letter to Hezbollah is an absolute gem. He addresses an individual, but he speaks for the world to see and hear. If this were ancient Rome, he would be wearing an olive wreath. Check the comments.

What do you people expect? It’s one thing when you trot out your impotent Death to America slogans. It’s another thing altogether when you threaten and bully us personally. I’m not a wire agency reporter. When you talk to me you’re on the record. When you say “We know who you are, we read everything you write, and we know where you live,” you’re on the record. Of course I’m going to quote you. If you don’t want to look like an asshole in print, don’t act like an asshole in life.

Lazy Mexicans

David Niewert is doing the heavy lifting these days for progressives, but there was a time when heavy lifting was not his best quality.

The first time I encountered Mexican workers was in 1975, when I came home to Idaho Falls from college in Moscow, Idaho, looking for work for the summer. The first place I could find that would hire me was a potato warehouse out on Lindsey Boulevard, next to the rail tracks.

Most of my co-workers were from Mexico, were likely illegal immigrants, and most of them spoke only Spanish. But they were friendly and tried to help me and my friend Scott, who had also gotten a job there. We both towered over them, and we were both in pretty good shape; I was 18 at the time, and had spent the previous summers hauling pipe in potato fields, so I knew what hard work was about. But we weren't quite prepared for this work.

Basically, the job entailed loading 100- and 50-pound gunny sacks of potatoes into rail cars: stacking them onto a dolly, rolling them into the car, and stacking them up. This is a reasonable job when the stack is less than chest high, but loading them over our heads was a real test.After two weeks, I failed it. I was completely exhausted and broken down by the end of that time. I called in, said thanks for the opportunity, and quit. (So did Scott.) I wound up setting up my own house-painting business that summer and making my tuition that way.

But I'm sure that most of those Latino co-workers not only stayed on, they probably worked at the warehouse year-round. Because they were simply unfazed by it all. They could load, stack, and load some more, all of it far more efficiently than I ever could. And at the end of every day, as I collapsed in a heap, they were still in good spirits.

Not only were they the hardest-working people I ever met, they also had the best work ethic I ever saw. That is, not only did they work hard, they worked smart. I muscled those 100-pound sacks of spuds up to the top row, while they simply tossed them up with a little leverage and technique.

Oh, and my old boss back at the potato farm where I hauled pipe? Within a couple of years after I left that farm, he went to an all-Latino crew, and he admitted to me that they were mostly illegals. But, he said, they worked harder and better and far more reliably than any crew of teenagers ever had for him. Having been one of those teenagers, I knew exactly what he meant.

I can testify that my own experience with immigrants in general, Mexicans in particular, has been much the same. I hired the first Mexicans at one of the busiest cafeterias in the market in 1982. All I can say is it was an answer to prayer. Six years later, at another location, I went through the same thing. After stumbling along with high-school kids and other hard-to-manage individuals, I let Mexicans take over my dishroom. I felt as though I had died and gone to heaven. It was the end of broken dishes, quarreling, absenteeism, complaining, and instability. When someone wanted to go to another job, or stay home with a new baby, or return to Mexico for family matters -- they would let me know in advance and often bring in a successor to the job being vacated. You think I didn't take advantage of that kind of loyalty and reliability? You think I'm stupid?

LULAC -- League of United Latin American Citizens

On 18 May 1929, at the Allende Hall in Corpus Christi, Texas, the first LULAC General Convention was called to order by Ben Garza. The first order of business was a constitution. The assembly promptly adopted one proposed by J.T. Canales and based upon the one used by The Knights of America. The next order of business was the election of officers. Ben Garza was elected President General, M.C. Gonzalez was elected Vice President General, A. DeLuna was elected Secretary General, and Louis C. Wilmot of Corpus Christi, Texas, was elected Treasurer General. These officers undertook the thankless job of guiding a new and young organization besieged by many enemies and skeptical friends and facing a future beset by pitfalls yet to be encountered.

Mexican Americans were not allowed to vote because in many instances they could not understand the English language, because they were not allowed to learn it. Finally, when Mexican American were able to vote, they had to pay for this right. Many were not able to pay, instead their anglo bosses paid this charge and told them who to vote for.

Many Mexican Americans were denied jobs because they were perceived as lazy, poorly dressed, dirty, ill educated, and thieves. In the end, many Mexican men and their entire families worked in the fields, farms, and ranches and their children never went to school.

American children had to attend segregated schools known as "Mexican Schools. "In those days "Mexican Schools" were legal in the southwest. These schools were staffed with the worse of teachers and the buildings were in deplorable conditions.

Hmm. Where have we heard this before???

Press release dated April 4

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the National Capitol Immigration Coalition in partnership with organizations from across the country will hold rallies across the country on Monday, April 10, 2006 in support of a fair and comprehensive immigration reform bill. Over 29 cities will participate in this unprecedented day of action that has energized immigrant communities nationwide.

“Comprehensive immigration reform must include an earned adjustment for immigrants currently working in the United States; create legal channels for future flows of immigrant workers; and reduce the vast backlogs in family-sponsored immigration,” said LULAC National President Hector M. Flores, “There is a bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill that offers effective enforcement, strengthens borders, and encourages people to come out of the shadows by offering a path to permanent residency.”

This earned legalization legislation is not amnesty because under the provisions of this legislation, an undocumented worker will have to pay a $2,000 fine, undergo a background check, pay any back taxes, learn English, enroll in civic education, remain employed for six years, and then, at the end of those six years, go to the back of the line to apply for legal permanent resident (LPR) status.

Sounds to me they are supporting, not protesting, constructive legislation addressing the elephant in the room. HR 4437 does not meet that need. It is seen by advocacy groups as counteer-productive for a number of reasons. If it has done nothing else, this proposal, called the "Sensenbrenner Bill," has glavanized immigrant advocacy groups like nothing else has done.

***********ILRC************

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The Immigrant Legal Resource Center was founded in 1979 by Bill Hing, a well-known immigrant rights advocate who recognized the developing need for expert technical assistance in immigration law and policy. In the mid-1970's, at a time when legal service agencies weren’t focusing on immigration law, Bill responded by organizing the Golden Gate Immigration Clinic, an agency originally staffed by law students. This early experience revealed that Bay Area community-based organizations serving immigrants and refugees lacked adequate training and staffing to grapple with the increasingly complex legal and social challenges faced by their clients. As a result, the agency became the ILRC in 1979 and Bill served as the organization's first Executive Director on a volunteer basis from 1979 to 2000.

Objections to HR 4437 are listed at the ILRC website.

• criminalizes organizations and individuals assisting undocumented immigrants
• criminalizes undocumented immigration status
• grants state and local law enforcement agencies “inherent authority” to enforce immigration laws
• furthers the erosion of due process
• expands the costly detention of immigrants
• guts the federal courts’ authority to review immigration matters
• turns many minor crimes into aggravated felonies, which carry the worst possible immigration consequences
• expands the consequences of an aggravated felony and other offenses
• eliminates key safeguards concerning evidence used to prove that an immigrant is deportable for an aggravated felony
• reverses the burden of proof
• makes an immigrant associated with any street gang deportable and ineligible for any immigration benefits
• undermines state court decisions regarding the reversal or vacation of convictions in immigration proceedings
• imposes mandatory minimum sentences for many offenses

That list is neither frivolous nor vague. Each of these items is addressed individually. For example under the "street gangs" section...

...The Attorney General, through a secret process that provides no notice or opportunity to be heard to the immigrant, can designate any formal or informal group of three or more persons who have committed two or more enumerated gang crimes a “criminal street gang.” As a result of this designation, many immigrants who never committed or supported a single criminal act may be punished severely for exercising their right to association – they may be deported to a country where they face interrogation, torture, detention and even death.

You don't have to be a weatherman, they say...

Undocumented workers are rebuilding New Orleans

Somebody has to do it.
Doesn't look as though our favorite sons and daughters are stepping up.
Who's left?

As the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina receded in September, roads filled with residents leaving the city, their cars, SUVs and moving vans jammed with what they had salvaged of their lives.But another mass movement was taking place on the other sides of the highways.

Thousands of men from Mexico and Central America were driving into the city. Word had spread throughout the Latino immigrant diaspora in America that the city had plenty of work, construction wages had doubled to $16 an hour and no one was asking for papers."It was like a Gold Rush," said Oscar Calanche, a Guatemalan immigrant who lived in New Orleans before the storm and returned as soon as the waters receded. "In one car there'd be three up front and three or four in the back, with suitcases and tools on top. It looked like a river of people from our countries."

Latino workers have gutted, roofed and painted houses and hauled away garbage, debris and downed trees. Undocumented workers have installed trailers to house returning evacuees at New Orleans City Park, their pay coming from FEMA subcontractors."

It's all illegals doing this work," said Rey Mendez, a FEMA trailer subcontractor from Honduras.

No one knows how many Latino immigrants are here, but John Logan, a Brown University demographer who has studied the city since Katrina, says "there must be 10,000 to 20,000 immigrant workers in the region by now, and the number is going to grow."

As the Senate debates new immigration laws and marchers demonstrate across the country, these immigrants offer another reminder of the country's reliance on undocumented labor from Latin America.

More at the LA Times LINK.

Iran's military capability.........NOT!

Sabre-rattling out of Iran is making our own warriors tremble with anticipation.

Cernig says, "It's a hoax, folks."

I'm no expert on such things, so all I have to go on is past history. We know, for example, that Iraq's military capabilities were a lot less impressive than Saddam had bragged about. Scud missles were primitive, but they had the advantage of portability. Kind of a modern trebuchet. We know EID's are deadly, but here again, primitive. Likewise suicide bombers. I recall seeing long lines of unarmed former Iraqi troops walking...WALKING, for goodness sakes, back home. As far as the eye could see. Unarmed, smiling and going home. Not fighting. Walking.

Wasn't it in Iran that we saw those curious pictures of nun-like women in black garb rapelling down a building? Toting guns? Women in ankle-length black garb, already! Now we see pictures of odd-looking planes and torpedoes.

I dunno, folks. Something tells me Cernig is right. Again.
Drill into the links, read and decide for yourself.

But it really makes no difference what you and I think. It looks like a confrontation is in the works. Apparently they want it. Our guys want it, too. I learned in the Army that the urge to make war is as natural for some people as taking a leak or clearing your throat. Seems like it's gonna happen again.

The New McCarthyism

Moorish Girl (and others, I'm sure) point to an in-depth look at how PC Gone Wild is seizing U.S. classrooms and campuses. Political correctness is usually the term applied to the Lunatic Left, but in this case the Radical Right is every bit as involved with the same dynamic. Gary Younge, writing in the Guardian, paints the picture.

University professors denounced for anti-Americanism; schoolteachers suspended for their politics; students encouraged to report on their tutors. Are US campuses in the grip of a witch-hunt of progressives, or is academic life just too liberal?

...it has primarily been universities that have been on the frontline. And on the other side of the trenches has been the rightwing firebrand David Horowitz. Horowitz...was raised by communist parents and was himself a marxist as a teenager. He is involved with Campus Watch, Jihad Watch, Professors Watch and Media Watch; he was also connected to discoverthenetworks.org, which targeted Gilroy. A few years ago he founded a group, Students for Academic Freedom, which boasts chapters promoting his agenda on more than 150 campuses. The movement monitors slights or insults that students say they have suffered and provides an online complaint form. Students are advised to write down "the date, class and name of the professor", get witnesses, "accumulate a list of incidents or quotes", and lodge a complaint. Over the past three years Horowitz has led the call for an academic bill of rights in several states. The bills would allow students to opt out of any part of a course they felt was "personally offensive" and force American universities to adopt quotas for conservative professors as well as monitor the political inclinations of their staff.

The bill has been debated in 23 states, including six this year. In July, Pennsylvania approved legislation calling on 14 state-affiliated colleges to free their campuses from the "imposition of ideological orthodoxy". Meanwhile, House Republicans have included a provision in the Higher Education Act which calls on publicly funded colleges to ensure a diversity of ideas in class - code for countering the alleged liberal bias in classrooms.

"The aim of the movement isn't really to achieve legislation," says Horowitz. "It's supposed to act as a cattle prod, to make legislators and universities aware. The ratio of leftwing professors in Berkeley and Stanford is seven to one and nine to one. You can't get hired if you're a conservative in American universities."

I became aware of Discover the Networks last June. Scary bunch, if you ask me.

I expect these folks will be trembling with rage and fear next Monday with all these immigration rights advocacy groups taking to the streets. It's just the kind of activity they love to document for the purpose of maligning someone's sincerity or patriotism. Serious objections to proposed legislation have animated and united a broad array of otherwise fragmented groups. HR 4437 has really struck a common nerve.

ILRC lists objections in a clear and understandable manner.

Jib-Jab does Passover

It would be remiss of me not to link.
H/T allisonks

Cubans in America are refugees, not immigrants

Val Parieto pens Babalu Blog, the preeminent Cuban voice in the blogworld. Been doing it a long time, too. He points out there is a big difference between immigrants and refugees.

ref·u·gee n. One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution.

im·mi·grant n. A person who leaves one country to settle permanently in another.
Contrary to what today's media prefers to call Cubans who risk their lives to reach US

Don't expect him to have either patience or participation in Monday's "Day of Action." It's a subject that rubs him the wrong way, for good reason.

Contrary to what today's media prefers to call Cubans who risk their lives to reach US shores - lately the term has been "migrants" - those Cubans are fleeing political oppression and are, thus, refugees. As I stated in a previous post, when Mexican "migrants" are faced with systematic violations of every basic human and civil right as the people of Cuba are, then perhaps I would accept a similarity.

What I will never accept, however, is the undignified treatment of a symbol of the United States of America under the caveat that as a "latino" or "hispanic" it is done on my behalf. While this country may not be perfect, it offered me refuge and the freedom to be me and I take great umbrage when an American flag is desecrated supposedly in my name. That's my flag that was being burned. That's my flag that was being hung upside-down and below the flag of another nation on my own soil.
[...]
Now, if you think you can criticize me for not supporting your protest while insulting me by desecrating the flag of the country that has taken my family in and offered me liberty and prosperity, and then all the while proudly displaying the image of a man who murdered countless of Cubans and was instrumental in the destruction of my country of birth and the reason for my family having to seek refuge in the first place, you got another thing coming.

Grand Rounds -- NHS (UK)

Boy, they don't call it "Grand" for nothing.
It's been a while since I looked at a Carnival of [Topic here] or one of the US Grand Rounds, a collection of doctor blogs.
I forgot how impressive some of these presentations can be. This one I barely scratched the surface, and I have to tear myself away so I don't spend the next hour or so drilling into the links. Wow! LINK here to NHS Doctor Blog, Grand Rounds Vol 2 (27)

(I'm just glad Dr. Bob has my attention. One or two doctors is about all I can handle, and he is the gold standard for me.)

Here is a powerful piece of writing from a doctor reflecting on a patient who died. I'm glad I don't have his job. And I'm glad he does. The blog is Sunlight Follows Me.

Okay, this is an extension of my previous post. I was going to write about it earlier, but I needed some time to really think about it.

When I was looking after that lady who collapsed, I had about 30 seconds to assess her, in the presence of her relatives, before further help arrived. In fact, one of the patient's daughters was still holding her in her arms, in order to stop her from falling to the floor. Her other daughter and grandaughter stood behind me.

I saw her take only ONE breath during this time. One breath in thirty seconds is not a good sign.

I said out loud, "She is still breathing." This was a lie. One breath is not "breathing". And I could also tell that it was not an effective breath.

I was also feeling her pulse which stopped *whilst I was feeling it*. I remember thinking at the same time that the patient's daughter was still right next to me. I could feel the eyes of the other relatives on the back of my neck.

And I said out loud, "I can feel a pulse." This was also a lie.

I lied twice. Why? Why? Because I didn't want to alarm her family? Because I didn't want them to panic? Because I was 'buying time' until I had more help, more time to think? Because I didn't trust my hands? Is that a good excuse?

We had to pry the daughter's hands off the patient. She was in shock - she nearly fainted. The grandaughter became hysterical and started to scream. This happened because my registrar and two nurses ran into the bay, and the registrar immediately said, "There's no pulse, get her on the trolley."

The reason why I wrote the previous post was because I felt really bad, not because I had lost a patient, but I had lied to her family. And in doing so, had I wasted precious seconds in dealing with the patient? I could have started CPR twenty seconds earlier, and it may have made a difference.

What have I done?

I must watch my mind and guard my tongue more closely.

Anybody who can now go read his previous post and remain unmoved has a heart of stone.

Somebody please tell me how heartless medicine is in the UK.

More about next Monday, Day of Action

Irish undocumented aliens have a lobby. Check out the website.

WHO WE ARE: ILIR has been set up to lobby the US government on behalf of the estimated 40,000 undocumented Irish in the US. ILIR supports the Kennedy/McCain bill. (SR#1033)

WHAT WE ARE DOING: The immigration debate is currently taking place in the Judiciary Committee. The ILIR will be fighting for the voice of the Irish.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Attend the April 10 rallies in your city. Keep the pressure on your senators. See Our Toolkit

We are working to ensure that Congress knows that immigration affects Irish voters, Irish businesses and Irish communities.

As I said, just keeping up...
The March 31 post is getting a lot of traffic. The numbers are increasing daily.

"If these were northern Europeans pouring across the border, nobody would care."

Chris Matthews is speaking...

"If these were northern Europeans pouring across the border, nobody would care."

It's at the end of a Crosstalk encounter with Amy Goodmand and Hugh Hewett as guests. There was the usual jabbering back and forth, split screens and all that jazz, but in the main none of the three could agree with either of the other two. See the MSNBC clip at Media Matters.

H/T Latino Pundit

Latino Pundit also has a string of one-liners about immigration illustrating how prickley people are getting...

"My fear is that if we continue down this path that the Senate has established, that we will have created the biggest magnet ever...It would be like a dinner bell, 'Come one, come all." - Representative Bob Beauprez

"Are we going to continue our rich tradition of hundreds of years of welcoming new blood and new vitality to our nation?...Or are we going to adopt a protectionist, isolationist attitude and policies that are in betrayal of the very fundamentals of this great nation of ours, a beacon of hope and liberty and freedom throughout the world?" - McCain

"If they want to become a citizen, they can get in line, but not the head of the line." - Bush

"Let the prisoners pick the fruits...We can do it without bringing in millions of foreigners." - Representative Dana Rohrabacher

"Push is coming to shove..." - Tom Tancredo

"To stand here today and guess at what it might look like and how we might deal with an issue is a lot of speculation that we don't need to engage in..." - Representative John A. Boehner

"There is an effort far and wide to try to degrade the committee bill by the smear of amnesty...And it simply is not amnesty...This word 'amnesty' is a code word (read: frame - LP)." - Sen. Arlen Specter

"We feel the debate is taking a very positive turn," -Cecilia Munoz, National Council of La Raza.

"Anybody that votes for an amnesty bill deserves to be branded with a scarlet letter, 'A' for amnesty, and they need to pay for it at the ballot box in November."- Rep. Steve King

"We need tough and smart enforcement at the border and throughout the country. We need realistic immigration laws that bring immigrants out of the shadows, paying taxes, learning English and contributing to our communities." - Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid

"If you are here illegally and want to fly the Mexican flag, go to Mexico," - Virgil H. Goode Jr.

"We are a nation of immigrants" and "Bring people out of the shadows." - Unknown (counter frames - LP)

"It is not amnesty because the undocumented aliens will have to pay a fine,...They will have to pay back taxes. They will undergo a thorough background investigation. They will have to learn English. They will have to work for six years. And they will have to earn the status of staying in the country and the status of moving toward citizenship." - Sen.Arlen Specter

Another Saudi Arabia

We in the west have a stereotypical view of Saudi Arabia as a country filled with obscenely rich "sheikhs." The reality is quite different. And while Saudi Arabia, as a country, has been doing very well as a result of high oil prices, those riches haven't trickled down to all.

John Burgess patiently and methodically blogs away, informing his readers about ordinary realities in Saudi Arabia not flashy enough or politically correct enough for the Western media. A feature in Arab News catches his attention.

Still awaiting assistance promised to him by the Muslim World League months ago, he could be seen washing cars last Friday, not far from the homeless camp in which he now resides.

Last week, Ali greeted me at his tent flap, but couldn’t invite me in as the space was cramped. Instead, he walked me out to a plastic tarp laid out on the concrete a few steps away.

There, he introduced me to two other Saudis, Maher Naif Al-Assaf, 36, and Ali Ibrahim Asiri, 38 — his friends and neighbors.

Maher had left Tabuk bound for Jeddah, three months ago, also hoping to find work. Not finding a job within a month, he also bought a tent and set up camp here hoping to somehow make enough money to renew his fishing license, now three years in arrears.

Maher is particularly pleased today because he was able to convince a truck driver to angle a trailer closer to his tent. Now sandwiched between two trailers, Maher can enjoy his bucket baths almost completely out of sight.

Ali, from Jeddah, came to live at this camp three months ago after losing his job. Today, he is considered the luckiest among the three after landing a new job as a security guard just last week.

Eagerly awaiting his first SR1,600 paycheck in six weeks, he looks forward to renting a room somewhere. He is already making plans to get married.

Too proud to beg or borrow, and too honest to steal, these three men are almost always without money and must depend on charity for their single daily meal — but they have to walk two kilometers each way to get to it.

Taking a cue from another piece that takes a light-hearted look at a serious question, the meltdown of traditional extended families resulting from "future shock," he comments...

It's a tongue-in-cheek look at a serious social issue: a tremendous decrease in the number of marriages in the Kingdom. This is one of the many facets of social disruption that are accompanying modernization in Saudi Arabia, issues that frighten the average Saudi and discourage momentum toward more change.

Other disruptions include a breakdown of the extended family, being replaced by more nuclear families living on their own, distant from their larger families. There's been a breakdown in family care for orphans, the elderly, and the disabled as well. Now, state organizations are required to provide care.

Modernization is hitting Saudi Arabia like a speeding freight train and it is causing disruptions left and right. It's no wonder, really, that Saudis become paranoid about the pace of change and its direction.

Robert X. Cringely -- Paul Allen and the Microsoft Empire

Robert X. Cringely tells a fascinating story, almost mythic, about Paul Allen, former boss at Microsoft.

Paul Allen is one week older than me. I have more kids but he has more toys -- a LOT more toys -- including professional football and basketball teams, SpaceShipOne, lots of planes and a HUGE boat. Allen is an enthusiast of epic proportions, but one of my fondest images of him was from the 20th anniversary party for the Altair 8800 computer (arguably the first PC), when Paul Allen-the-billionaire wanted some fast food late at night and -- not having a car -- WALKED through the drive-through as part of a long line of cars.

Having set the stage, Cringely relates a twenty-year-old story...

In the Boys’ Club that was Microsoft in those days, maybe the concept of mortality was too abstract, maybe Allen’s poor health wasn’t as obvious to those around him every day as it was to the IBM team that visited from time to time. To his credit, Allen stayed long enough to finish the job, delivering DOS 2.0 then leaving the company forever, eventually to have a bone marrow transplant that cured him completely.

But during one of those last long nights of working to finish-up DOS 2.0, something happened. I have heard this story from two people, each of whom was a friend of Allen’s and in a position to know. Each told me the same story the same way. I am not staking my reputation on the accuracy of the story, but I am saying I have it from two good sources. Paul Allen certainly won’t confirm or deny it, so I’ll just throw it out for you to consider.

Dirty linen follows. Interesting, indeed. And according to Cringely, about to become timely. Those with a voyeuristic interest in the lives and fortunes of movers and shakers might want to take a look.

H/T blogsnow.

Trivia: What are the Eight Vegetables in V8?

Guess first then check the comments.

(Hint: onions are not on the list.)

Andrew Sullivan, London Times, Sheriff Bush and the Latinos

Smart guy, that Sullivan. I don't often read his blog but when I do I'm usually impressed. Today's op-ed in the Times is first-class. I can't find too much to argue about with his take on the George Bush game plan -- and it's unhappy state of affairs in these end-time days.

...Before 9/11 Bush’s primary foreign policy focus was going to be Mexico. He knew the place well, having been a border-state governor. He’d also crafted an electoral strategy in Texas and nationally that could appeal to Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal.

He would appeal to their religious faith and their social conservatism by repeating such platitudes as “family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande”. He would dole out federal funds to Latino pressure groups and churches. He would appoint a Latino attorney-general, Alberto Gonzales. He would propose humane measures that would help guide the 11m or so illegal immigrants to eventual American citizenship.

But sadly the best laid plans of sharp politicians don't always unfold as planned...

...What Bush has discovered is that it’s hard to hold on to an extremely conservative white Southern base, and yet also reach out to minorities, like African-Americans, Muslims, gays or Latinos, that have long been part of the Democratic party spectrum. Muslims were lost not long after 9/11. Gays disappeared after the federal marriage amendment. Blacks baled out after Katrina. Now Latinos look antsy with the prospect of serious immigration reform.

The denouement is not a pretty site. Check it out.

Jill Carroll's Statement

I posted a picture of Jill Carroll the day she was released and I messed it up by mistake. It doesn't matter, though. She will be famous and safe now. And she will not be forgotten. A spate of ignorant critical remarks made by writers and commentators transparently trying to discredit her because of how she conducted herself immediately upon her release has now subsided. Such people are without shame and apologies from them would be without meaning.

Jill Carroll's statement is a model of good taste, overlooking the venom that has been spewed in her direction.

Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not. The people who kidnapped me and murdered Allan Enwiya are criminals, at best. They robbed Allan of his life and devastated his family. They put me, my family and my friends--and all those around the world, who have prayed so fervently for my release--through a horrific experience. I was, and remain, deeply angry with the people who did this.

I also gave a TV interview to the Iraqi Islamic Party shortly after my release. The party had promised me the interview would never be aired on television, and broke their word. At any rate, fearing retribution from my captors, I did not speak freely. Out of fear I said I wasn't threatened. In fact, I was threatened many times.

Also, at least two false statements about me have been widely aired: That I refused to travel and cooperate with the US military and that I refused to discuss my captivity with US officials. Again, neither is true.

I want to be judged as a journalist, not as a hostage. I remain as committed as ever to fairness and accuracy--to discovering the truth--and so I will not engage in polemics. But let me be clear: I abhor all who kidnap and murder civilians, and my captors are clearly guilty of both crimes.
Now, I ask for the time to heal. This has been a taxing 12 weeks for me and my family. Please allow us some quiet time alone, together.

Medical billing -- another primer

Dr. Bob's most recent blogpost is a must-read.
Here is your assignment:

Go read what he says then come back to this list able to define and discuss each of the following terms.

• procedures
• E&M Services
• the UCR system–for Usual, Customary, and Reasonable
• RVUs–relative value units
• conversion factor
• amended schedule
• edits
• component edit
• mutually exclusive
• black box edits
• bundled procedure
• modifier
• determining E&M service levels

Actually, that last item is not covered. That is to be the jumping off place for Part Two. He hasn't told us how many parts there might be. I'm hoping they stop somewhere in the single digits, but with the subject under discussion, I'm not optimistic.

Not now, but later, I want someone to plow through all this stuff then come back to the comments section and explain to me and everybody how we have the best health care system in the world and it doesn't need anybody messing around with it. I have very serious problems with health care being treated as a commodity, as in soy beans or precious metals or orange juice. For everyday economic challenges like food, shelter and transportation, there seem to be cheap (read second-hand, shabby, undesireable, whatever) offerings at the low end of the market. At the extreme end of these there is always dumpster-diving, walking or sleeping in the woods, but the low end of health care seems to be get sicker and wait to die. There is something about that scenario which sticks in my craw.

Oh, I forgot. There are three other terms that need to be on the list above: Variable, constant and the wonderful new postmodern (Ready for this?) variable constant!

April 10 watch -- Day of Action

On April 10, 2006, immigrants and their allies are continuing historic mobilizations in Washington, DC and multiple cities to oppose the harsh and unworkable HR 4437 and demand real immigration reform that is comprehensive, respects civil rights, reunites families, protects workers, and offers a path to citizenship for the current undocumented and future immigrants to the US. ...

National Day of Action is sponsored by the National Capitol Immigration Coalition (NCIC), an NAOC member organization, in partnership with organizations across the country.

Chronological List of all NAOC Events (including April 10)

NAOC Coordinating Committee

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Just keeping up, you know...

Saudi investing for beginners

There's an old saying that says "You can make a small fortune investing in commodities. You start with a large fortune."

It seems that investing in KSA is not too different. Take a look at The Religious Policeman, The diary of a Saudi man, currently living in the United Kingdom, where the Religious Police no longer trouble him for the moment.

Ibrahim is depressed because he's been looking forward to a comfortable retirement on his farm with his date trees and his camels, but he's just had a bollocking over the phone. A right royal bollocking, in fact. From a very senior royal person, who complained that his bright young royal relative, Abdul Aziz MBA, had this brilliant idea for selling shares to expatriates, so restoring the fortunes of the stock market, but the whole exercise "has gone belly up like a dead cat", (Ibrahim winced at those particular words) and he, Ibrahim, had better do something about it, otherwise he's going to find some obscure Prince making an offer for his farm "that he won't be able to refuse", (for such is the way of things in Saudi Arabia*).

New US Government Official Website

Caption:

If a door is closed, karate chop it open.

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Hey, I'M READY.

Are YOU ready?

Are your friends?

If not, go tell 'em about the website.

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Thanks to Underground Dubai for the link.

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Now go read this essay by Richard Hofstadter written in 1964.

...we now take the long jump to the contemporary right wing, we find some rather important differences from the nineteenth-century movements. The spokesmen of those earlier movements felt that they stood for causes and personal types that were still in possession of their country—that they were fending off threats to a still established way of life. But the modern right wing...feels dispossessed: America has been largely taken away from them and their kind, though they are determined to try to repossess it and to prevent the final destructive act of subversion. The old American virtues have already been eaten away by cosmopolitans and intellectuals; the old competitive capitalism has been gradually undermined by socialistic and communistic schemers; the old national security and independence have been destroyed by treasonous plots, having as their most powerful agents not merely outsiders and foreigners as of old but major statesmen who are at the very centers of American power. Their predecessors had discovered conspiracies; the modern radical right finds conspiracy to be betrayal from on high.

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Now go check Wikipedia for World War IV.

CSM report on Jill Carroll

Within hours of her release Jill Carroll was the subject of sneering, rabid, unconscionable rhetoric simply because of what she was wearing and her carefully-worded remarks about her ordeal. This column drives home the simple point that the main job of a hostage is to remain alive.

The Monitor's editor, Richard Bergenheim, says that "none of us - except perhaps her personal friends and family - know what Jill's views are about the war in Iraq. But we do know that they did not color her reporting for the Monitor. She covered a wide spectrum of people in Iraq and that is part of what made her reporting valuable."

On the evening of March 29, her captors brought her written questions in Arabic, and asked her to translate them into English for the video. Though they promised her freedom in exchange for cooperating, she didn't believe them, as she'd been promised freedom many times in the past, she told her father.

But that evening, during the first attempt at producing the video, the power went out. They finished up the next morning, shortly before she was dropped off in a Baghdad neighborhood and pointed to the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), which then contacted friends and the US government.

Mr. Garen, who was forced to make a propaganda video by his own captors, says that "I said the US should 'stop the massacre' in Najaf - and they weren't my words, and I felt very uncomfortable saying them," recalls Garen. He says he tried to change some of the text he was fed but "that was very risky."

Garen's book "American Hostage," co-authored with his wife Marie-Helene, recounts his experience, and in the process of researching it he delved into the methods and motives of kidnappers, particularly ones with political agendas. "The point of taking hostages is to get them to make propaganda statements," he says. "The job of a civilian hostage... is to stay alive."

H/T Althouse