First week at the yob (that's Spanglish for 'job') went surprisingly well. I gotta wear office dress (no sneaks or jeans), the florescent lighting does nothing for my beautiful complexion, a.m. rush hour sux big fat maracas, and mon-to-fri, 9-to-5 work schedule makes feel like a programmed lab rat, I'm an absentee doggy mum, everything's expensive, my chair back does nothing to distribute my boob weight well, but beyond that I can't complain.
Everyone was very helpful, welcoming, and chill. All the big-wigs seem to be in the main headquarters uptown or elsewhere so my work area isn't that fancy schmanz. And animals are the number one topic, concern, and priority always, which is awesome.
Offices are the strangest places. Who the heck thought up the central air, florescent lighting, sealed up window bit and the wall to wall carpeting? Because it's just gross. I share an office with a skinny feisty and outspoken web coordinator from chinatown. It's sort of like college. I was bunked with my 180-degree counterpart. It's cool most of the time because she's pretty amusing. And it's heaven when she's off because I can play my music in our office and/or work in silence if I choose. The one thing that is hard about the arrangement is when she starts griping about the computer she's working on not working and doesn't let up until she gets me to take notice and validate her technological dismay. By the time she succeeds in distracting me from my stuff, her computer's reloaded, she quiets down and resumes her work while I'm left all out of it.
Nevertheless, the pos's way outweigh the negs. And I'm writing. Writing. Writing. Writing. From 9 to 5. It's what I get paid to do. It's a beautiful thing. And I've met someone. And D's a beautiful being. And we're taking our time with everything. And it's really nice. We type or talk just about every single day. Saturday we went to my fave borough, the Boogie-down, to the Botanical Garden and to my fave restaurant. We discovered this beaten trail in the middle of the Garden that felt as if we were in a pristine piece of nature far away from where we actually were, in between the Bronx River Parkway and the Bronx River in New York City. There's a great glass installation exhibit throughout the Garden too--I highly recommend.
I'm happy. Life is normal but at the same time good.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
Tis the season to get pumpkins...muahahahahahaaahahaha
Betcha your dog doesn't smile! 
Here comes the pumpkin sun
Awww! Notice the sexy mums on his harness... Ladies, don't hate the dog; hate the game.
Our pumpkin booty.
(booty, booty, booty!!!)
Friday, October 06, 2006
Back from Battery Park City, which is the area west of the Westside Hwy by the WTC. It's so idllylic there. High-rises with names like The Solaire and Terrace Pointe, doormen, Hudson River views, manicured green areas, and wealth as far as the eye can see. It's the NYC that Mayor Bloomy and others would love to create. Kinda surreal. Like I walked into a condominium pamphlet. Envious? Probably. It was nice. But so is where I live. It just makes me wonder why the "haves" have so much, and that there are places that have so little and could have too w/ only a little bit of have sent their way. I went to pick up some used books from a Freecycler. She lived on the 34th Floor. And seriously, I think I take more time climbing the two flights of steps up to the 7 train platform than that elevator reaching the 34th floor. Amazing. The elevator was so fast I thought Willy Wonka managed the building.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
I need a de-junking, stat.
I'm currently trying to organize my apartment and it's HARD. I have so much crap that I'm aware is crap but I can't seem to give or throw away because I'm convinced I may use them in some sort of creative project some day. But you never do. And you never regret getting rid of it. Some of this crap includes: a shopping basket full of empty Bustelo coffee cans, a broken enlarger, darkroom equipment, about a year's worth of New Yorkers that as long as the New York Library keeps lending me books I will never get through (oy, I'm not even going to think of the four other magazine subscriptions that I ordered yesterday. Eight dollars for four year-long magazine subscriptions? Yeah you would do it too) , an empty, dusty Garfield the Cat fish tank, a plastic punch bowl full of broken dishes for mosaics, an unfinished mosaic plant pot, a dead Gateway tower, a stack of quilts and blankets taller than me, and at least four shoeboxes (or coffins, depending on my mood) of memories from high school, college, grad school...( I have this corny image of one of my daughters finding one in an attic and going through old journals, pictures and dried up roses. But until that day what will I do with all my old rants and high school play bills? Oh, and did I mentioned I have pending work to finish that I'm avoiding by embarking on all of this "organizing"?)
The other day I wondered what it all was for. Every time I lock my door, I can't help feeling like all the stuff on the other side is nothing more than the contents of one big (expensive) locker. Every single piece of it is supposed to serve a purpose or symbolize an intention, but at it's purest level they're just lifeless (except for the plants, Jupiter, Dannyboy, and Andiamo) stuff occupying space.
Ever been in the home of a deceased person? When I was a little girl I went with my godfather, Tio Moncho who was the superintendent of my building, to the apartment of Mrs. Diamond, an elderly woman who coincidentally shared my birthday, to clean it out. Her apartment was filled with dusty furniture, glass- and silverware, and yellow photographs strewn everywhere. It looked like an unearthed furniture showroom from the sixties. You didn't know if the place called for a cleaning crew or an archeological one. Yet, she probably had a story for each and every ashtray, photograph, or clipping. That once she labored over choosing the right color sofa and lamp-shade with dangling fringes. Now it was dusty junk that some burly man with no last name and fat, dirty hands piles up in used furniture store located at the sketchy end of an avenue that at night becomes a prostitute hangout.
Most of Mrs. Diamond's memories went into the incinerator. Dying seems to be like relocating without packing and moving out or giving notice. If it's all destined to become someone's else crap then why not just say goodbye to it and get rid of all of it now? Why keep any of it?
The other day I wondered what it all was for. Every time I lock my door, I can't help feeling like all the stuff on the other side is nothing more than the contents of one big (expensive) locker. Every single piece of it is supposed to serve a purpose or symbolize an intention, but at it's purest level they're just lifeless (except for the plants, Jupiter, Dannyboy, and Andiamo) stuff occupying space.
Ever been in the home of a deceased person? When I was a little girl I went with my godfather, Tio Moncho who was the superintendent of my building, to the apartment of Mrs. Diamond, an elderly woman who coincidentally shared my birthday, to clean it out. Her apartment was filled with dusty furniture, glass- and silverware, and yellow photographs strewn everywhere. It looked like an unearthed furniture showroom from the sixties. You didn't know if the place called for a cleaning crew or an archeological one. Yet, she probably had a story for each and every ashtray, photograph, or clipping. That once she labored over choosing the right color sofa and lamp-shade with dangling fringes. Now it was dusty junk that some burly man with no last name and fat, dirty hands piles up in used furniture store located at the sketchy end of an avenue that at night becomes a prostitute hangout.
Most of Mrs. Diamond's memories went into the incinerator. Dying seems to be like relocating without packing and moving out or giving notice. If it's all destined to become someone's else crap then why not just say goodbye to it and get rid of all of it now? Why keep any of it?
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
I want to go on a row boat ride. I want to see the trees in Pennsylvania before the leaves fall. I love the name Sabine and Emmanuel. Patrice and Colette too. Jupiter sits with his left back foot in the space btw hands on my laptop keyboard just below the space bar on top of the mouse. He's laying on my right leg, a little on my right arm and at the bottom right corner of my screen. I just finished watching the end of Le Journeur de'l Seducteur and the end credits were rolling hence the French names. I woke up with a big headache--the combination of oversleep, caffeine fix, and forgetting to take my meds yesterday. It was like a laziness hangover. I didn't have an breakfast food so I took my expresso to go--in my Care Bears cup, hooked up Andi's harness and started out the do'. I decided I'd like to open an affordable doggy day care for me and my neighbors sometime in my life. I mean think about it, people leave animals at home about 10 hours a day. Almost half a day. Like when I'm retired or something. There are a lot of dogs in my 'hood. You can't walk down a block without passing by at least one person walking their dog(s). And I bought some sunflowers for my hiring. And potting soil to replant a couple plants. Sorry if I'm typing poorly joop is covering the right portion of my screen. I guess i'll being a productive homemaker. not too sure what i;ll do with this day.
Monday, October 02, 2006
mellow jello
Just got home from a lovely evening with C. We saw "The Science of Sleep" at the Angelika and had some faux-Indian food afterwards. Gael Garcia Bernal shines, Michel Gondry is a genius. He is like the cinematic Roald Dahl. Garcia Bernal's character is a quirky inventor-dreamer artist that inverts reality with his dreams. For example, in one dream he's trying to ski but his feet are stuck in the slope. When he wakes from the dream, finds that his feet are in a freezer at the foot of his bed. The dreams are these intricate animation sequences using robotics and puppetry, among other things. So cool.
I got the job I wanted. I'm an editorial assistant at a major animal rights' organization. I start 10/9. I feel like I'm starting school again; as if summer vacation is about to end. I have one week to: do laundry, clean, and learn how to program my tv-vcr to record Live w/ Regis and Kelly, Judge Mathis, Martha, and The View. (That's how you know you're getting old: when you start wishing you were friends with Regis Philbin (fellow Bronxite), Rosie O'Donnell and Martha Stewart.) I also gotta get some work clothes. Ugh, I gotta find a way to avoid rush hour. Riding during rush hour is bad vibras--too many people loathing their existence all at once. Oh well. I'll figure something out. I get pet insurance, a discount and preferential appointments at the hospital too! It's a good thing I work in a satellite office, and not the main building, because I'd take every stray home.
Everything's good. Over and out. Happy Monday, y'all.
I got the job I wanted. I'm an editorial assistant at a major animal rights' organization. I start 10/9. I feel like I'm starting school again; as if summer vacation is about to end. I have one week to: do laundry, clean, and learn how to program my tv-vcr to record Live w/ Regis and Kelly, Judge Mathis, Martha, and The View. (That's how you know you're getting old: when you start wishing you were friends with Regis Philbin (fellow Bronxite), Rosie O'Donnell and Martha Stewart.) I also gotta get some work clothes. Ugh, I gotta find a way to avoid rush hour. Riding during rush hour is bad vibras--too many people loathing their existence all at once. Oh well. I'll figure something out. I get pet insurance, a discount and preferential appointments at the hospital too! It's a good thing I work in a satellite office, and not the main building, because I'd take every stray home.
Everything's good. Over and out. Happy Monday, y'all.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
wrist roots
A day ago I had a dream that I was in a bookstore with a whole bunch of white people from PBS programs studio audiences. I don't know why my subconscious pays attention to the audiences on the public television network but there ya go. They were an friendly bunch. They were having wine and mingling--it seemed to be a book party. A lot of 30-something publishing and banking Manhattanites. The women were laughing heartily; twirling straight black shoulder-length hair with their fingers. Coquettish eyes, inviting body language--I'm telling you the husband hunters were on the offensive. The bookstore was sort of cramped. I busied myself checking out books on a shelf while I'm waited for the author to sign my copy. Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano is hanging out by a book island in the middle of the store. He was listless. Flipping boredom through a hardback on the table. He gave me directions on how to exit the store and visit the rest of the town. The part of Washington D.C. that wasn't talked about, he whispered to me.
Outside the store, the town resembled Port-Au-Prince more than Pennsylvania Ave. I decided to take a short jaunt through the nearly-deserted tropical town.
On my walk, I saw a lot of street children and starving cats and dogs. Every so often a mom would yell out of a window for a kid to go inside the house--lots of yelling, lots of hostility and stress in their interactions. There was a black woman dressed in a lobster costume shimmying and shaking beside two men wearing glittery tuxedo/cumberbun costumes. The men played the guitar and maraca respectively as a line of outdoor restaurant tables filled with tourists ate their surf-n-turf meals. The diners hardly noticed the troupe. It was a pathetic sight. Even though I walked down a straight boulevard, I got lost on the way back. There weren't street signs, names, or numbers. I kept asking locals but they quickly grew frustrated with me because I didn't see the directional logic in their system. Finally I started counting down the house until I found the mall/center place where the store was located.
Inside, I freaked out because I noticed that growths, like the kind that spud from old potatoes but in a Sour Punch green apple shade were sticking out of my left wrist. I start asking people at the party what they were. Only one woman turned around and answered. The rest brushed off the growths as if it were as common as dandruff or a hangnail. She said, "Ooh, don't worry. It's fine. It's nothing." Then Galeano, in a heavy-accented English, said "D'own wori. It's, it's your roots." Then I just stood there. Dumbfounded. Staring at this thing that didn't hurt but was freakin' me.
Outside the store, the town resembled Port-Au-Prince more than Pennsylvania Ave. I decided to take a short jaunt through the nearly-deserted tropical town.
On my walk, I saw a lot of street children and starving cats and dogs. Every so often a mom would yell out of a window for a kid to go inside the house--lots of yelling, lots of hostility and stress in their interactions. There was a black woman dressed in a lobster costume shimmying and shaking beside two men wearing glittery tuxedo/cumberbun costumes. The men played the guitar and maraca respectively as a line of outdoor restaurant tables filled with tourists ate their surf-n-turf meals. The diners hardly noticed the troupe. It was a pathetic sight. Even though I walked down a straight boulevard, I got lost on the way back. There weren't street signs, names, or numbers. I kept asking locals but they quickly grew frustrated with me because I didn't see the directional logic in their system. Finally I started counting down the house until I found the mall/center place where the store was located.
Inside, I freaked out because I noticed that growths, like the kind that spud from old potatoes but in a Sour Punch green apple shade were sticking out of my left wrist. I start asking people at the party what they were. Only one woman turned around and answered. The rest brushed off the growths as if it were as common as dandruff or a hangnail. She said, "Ooh, don't worry. It's fine. It's nothing." Then Galeano, in a heavy-accented English, said "D'own wori. It's, it's your roots." Then I just stood there. Dumbfounded. Staring at this thing that didn't hurt but was freakin' me.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Sexed-up Sin City swap
Last week, I borrowed some movies from the Mid-Manhattan library: A Place in the Sun (very good b&w Liz Taylor 1950s flick), American Graffiti (so-so), Sin City, and I don't remember the other (ha, must've not been so good).
So I go at the last hour after having my usual bouts of 'should I go, should I not.' I think I had a book due so I thought I ought to be responsible and every cent does count these days. Anyhow, I take Andiamo with me (in his doggybag not just in my bookbag as I've also done). But turned out to not be enough to get him into the library, cuz the security dude said his boss would yell at him. So here I am, at the corner of 40th & 5th on a Friday, an hour until closing (okay, granted it's open on Saturdays) and no possible mode of entry. I mean, who was I going to leave him with, the handbag seller? Andiamo would get trampled in the crowd of cheap tourists and poor secretaries. Or I'd get sued because he'd bitten one of them in the heel. So I chose to tie him to the street sign that's visible through the library's windows. And, in the guard's line of vision who I asked to keep an eye on him.
Okay so I go in. Dash to the express reserves picked up some books, went to the movie section, didn't even bother to go to the DVDs, I mean I JUST turned 25 I don't have a death wish. Meanwhile the announcers counting down the minutes until closing. Not having enough time to peruse, I grab recognizable titles (hence my choices) and making sure to visit the rolling cart because I figure if they've been borrowed then they must be good or at least interesting. Plus, I have this thing about viewing classics and other universally-known and -mentioned movies. I really like knowing what the references are when they're mentioned in books, the media, etc. Like when someone says 'oh wow, that was a real Sophie's Choice-type of decision' I like knowing what that means. (BTW, Sophie's Choice is about a Holocaust survivor who's haunted by choosing between her children when a Nazi threatened to shoot all of them. Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline are excellent in it.) Haul ass to the line (mind you my vicious poodle tied up outside), as I stood on line I glance at the new non-fictions and picked up the latest Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer titles.
As I wait until it's my turn to checkout my treasures--the library is my Bloomingdales or literary candystore--I see about five women (yentas, really) surrounding my poor little freaked out Andiamo. They're looking around and working themselves up. One of them has her cell in her hand, by that time, I'm able to knock on the window and motion to her that he's mine. In her exasperated voice and exagerated affect, she yells 'then geeet out hee-ah.' But I'm on the bag check line with about five people ahead of me.
The exit guard approved of my choices particularly Sin City and Matchstick Men. Matchstick Men with Nicholas Cage--that was the fourth one. And it was good btw. It had one of those Usual Suspects sort-of endings (see I do it too, lol. ) which I should seen coming considering the premise of the movie. I won't spoil it but, Cage plays a con artist with OCD that meets his teenage daughter and teaches her some of his cons.
I thank him for his approval and chalked it up to small talk, maybe a little flirting, or, from what I gather boys really dig Sin City with all of its comic book-ness, violence, and special effects. So I don't think anything of it and brace myself for the hens to ambush me. They yell at me, attacked me w/ hypotheticals like he could been hit by a car (which would be impossible unless someone runs over the entire block and I think Andi would be of minor importance in that situation); he could've been stolen, he could've bitten someone, they would've called the police if they hadn't seen me, he could've appeared on an Al Qaeda video...everything. And then they point to him saying he's all anxious because of being left alone, yada yada yada when in reality it's due to everyone causing this big commotion around him. I mean there was a guy snapping photos of him w/ his cell, for goodness sake. Then the "Get out here" woman starts showing me photos of her yorkie and maltese in her wallet. Ugh, I hate it when people show you pictures of their pets and then wait for a minute staring at photo adoringly. What are you supposed to do, pet the picture? Simultaneously other people asking his breed combination, calling his name, saying he's so unique. Meanwhile, entrance security dude stands by the door with a concern yet bewildered look on his face, you know the one the president does when talking about war or something bad. I swear, he's useless (the security guy AND the President too, but this time, the security guy) . Why does he have to inspect peoples' bags before entering the library?
Whoa this is getting long.
I get home watch the first movie A Place in the Sun--good. Montgomery Clift, the gay icon and star of the movie, is entrancing. There's definitely something intriguing about him. I look him up on IMDB after and found this place called findadeath.com and read all about his life. Turns out he died at age 45 of a heart attack brought on by years of drinking, pill-popping, and smoking. Apparently, his whole life was shadowed by his conflicting feelings about being gay and sought those subtances to numb himself, I guess. I forget who said it but he said that Clift had the longest suicide in Hollywood.
Sin City next. I pop in the movie. A blonde woman blowing a dildo appears on the screen. I stop the movie rewind it to see if someone tampered with the tape and recorded a porn after the movie. Seconds later, the rewind ends. I press play and after the usual warning sign, the same blonde shows up and I see her hotline ad from the beginning. I'm like 'okaaay I can't believe these guys would start a movie like this.' I thought that the chick would be the victim of a mysterious murder and Sin City would be about how Benicio del Toro or somebody solves it. Another ad starts and the next one, there was even one about chicks w/ dicks. Which honestly I always wondered about the usefulness of having a little of everything on one body, but never have actually seen. After seeing this porn preview, I don't get it. It's a citrus toothpaste-type of thing for me: both good things individually, but not appetizing together.
At this point, I'm rereading the video's cover blurb to see if this had anything remotely related to what I was watching on my telly. (Which I had to mute b/c I live on the first floor and I can hear everything that goes on on the street, sometimes I even get cigarette whiffs so I imagine porn sounds would clearly make its way to my neighbors' ears.) I fast fowarded through the previews and the movie is a porn too! I turn it off and start googling "Sin City" to see if there was some sort of library-wide manufacturing mishap. The only thing I found was a kid that got a NBA video game from a Walmart that turned out to be porn. And, there also turns out be a"Sin City" porn.
Now my dilemma shifts from the source of the switch up to should I report it to the library. Or should I leave it be? I was afraid what if the person after me reports it and they'd think I recorded it? Then, I was thinking what if some little boy puts the tape in only to see the dildo woman doing her thing, ruining his childhood, and I let that happen by being an embarrassed chicken instead of a responsible decent member of the library community.
In other words, my brain ran amok. I thought about the guard's comment. Did he know about the porn? Or worse, he was slyly sending me some dirty, perverted thumb's up?
I'm starving. I'm going to go make dinner. I'll fill you in on what I did in my next post.
So I go at the last hour after having my usual bouts of 'should I go, should I not.' I think I had a book due so I thought I ought to be responsible and every cent does count these days. Anyhow, I take Andiamo with me (in his doggybag not just in my bookbag as I've also done). But turned out to not be enough to get him into the library, cuz the security dude said his boss would yell at him. So here I am, at the corner of 40th & 5th on a Friday, an hour until closing (okay, granted it's open on Saturdays) and no possible mode of entry. I mean, who was I going to leave him with, the handbag seller? Andiamo would get trampled in the crowd of cheap tourists and poor secretaries. Or I'd get sued because he'd bitten one of them in the heel. So I chose to tie him to the street sign that's visible through the library's windows. And, in the guard's line of vision who I asked to keep an eye on him.
Okay so I go in. Dash to the express reserves picked up some books, went to the movie section, didn't even bother to go to the DVDs, I mean I JUST turned 25 I don't have a death wish. Meanwhile the announcers counting down the minutes until closing. Not having enough time to peruse, I grab recognizable titles (hence my choices) and making sure to visit the rolling cart because I figure if they've been borrowed then they must be good or at least interesting. Plus, I have this thing about viewing classics and other universally-known and -mentioned movies. I really like knowing what the references are when they're mentioned in books, the media, etc. Like when someone says 'oh wow, that was a real Sophie's Choice-type of decision' I like knowing what that means. (BTW, Sophie's Choice is about a Holocaust survivor who's haunted by choosing between her children when a Nazi threatened to shoot all of them. Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline are excellent in it.) Haul ass to the line (mind you my vicious poodle tied up outside), as I stood on line I glance at the new non-fictions and picked up the latest Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer titles.
As I wait until it's my turn to checkout my treasures--the library is my Bloomingdales or literary candystore--I see about five women (yentas, really) surrounding my poor little freaked out Andiamo. They're looking around and working themselves up. One of them has her cell in her hand, by that time, I'm able to knock on the window and motion to her that he's mine. In her exasperated voice and exagerated affect, she yells 'then geeet out hee-ah.' But I'm on the bag check line with about five people ahead of me.
The exit guard approved of my choices particularly Sin City and Matchstick Men. Matchstick Men with Nicholas Cage--that was the fourth one. And it was good btw. It had one of those Usual Suspects sort-of endings (see I do it too, lol. ) which I should seen coming considering the premise of the movie. I won't spoil it but, Cage plays a con artist with OCD that meets his teenage daughter and teaches her some of his cons.
I thank him for his approval and chalked it up to small talk, maybe a little flirting, or, from what I gather boys really dig Sin City with all of its comic book-ness, violence, and special effects. So I don't think anything of it and brace myself for the hens to ambush me. They yell at me, attacked me w/ hypotheticals like he could been hit by a car (which would be impossible unless someone runs over the entire block and I think Andi would be of minor importance in that situation); he could've been stolen, he could've bitten someone, they would've called the police if they hadn't seen me, he could've appeared on an Al Qaeda video...everything. And then they point to him saying he's all anxious because of being left alone, yada yada yada when in reality it's due to everyone causing this big commotion around him. I mean there was a guy snapping photos of him w/ his cell, for goodness sake. Then the "Get out here" woman starts showing me photos of her yorkie and maltese in her wallet. Ugh, I hate it when people show you pictures of their pets and then wait for a minute staring at photo adoringly. What are you supposed to do, pet the picture? Simultaneously other people asking his breed combination, calling his name, saying he's so unique. Meanwhile, entrance security dude stands by the door with a concern yet bewildered look on his face, you know the one the president does when talking about war or something bad. I swear, he's useless (the security guy AND the President too, but this time, the security guy) . Why does he have to inspect peoples' bags before entering the library?
Whoa this is getting long.
I get home watch the first movie A Place in the Sun--good. Montgomery Clift, the gay icon and star of the movie, is entrancing. There's definitely something intriguing about him. I look him up on IMDB after and found this place called findadeath.com and read all about his life. Turns out he died at age 45 of a heart attack brought on by years of drinking, pill-popping, and smoking. Apparently, his whole life was shadowed by his conflicting feelings about being gay and sought those subtances to numb himself, I guess. I forget who said it but he said that Clift had the longest suicide in Hollywood.
Sin City next. I pop in the movie. A blonde woman blowing a dildo appears on the screen. I stop the movie rewind it to see if someone tampered with the tape and recorded a porn after the movie. Seconds later, the rewind ends. I press play and after the usual warning sign, the same blonde shows up and I see her hotline ad from the beginning. I'm like 'okaaay I can't believe these guys would start a movie like this.' I thought that the chick would be the victim of a mysterious murder and Sin City would be about how Benicio del Toro or somebody solves it. Another ad starts and the next one, there was even one about chicks w/ dicks. Which honestly I always wondered about the usefulness of having a little of everything on one body, but never have actually seen. After seeing this porn preview, I don't get it. It's a citrus toothpaste-type of thing for me: both good things individually, but not appetizing together.
At this point, I'm rereading the video's cover blurb to see if this had anything remotely related to what I was watching on my telly. (Which I had to mute b/c I live on the first floor and I can hear everything that goes on on the street, sometimes I even get cigarette whiffs so I imagine porn sounds would clearly make its way to my neighbors' ears.) I fast fowarded through the previews and the movie is a porn too! I turn it off and start googling "Sin City" to see if there was some sort of library-wide manufacturing mishap. The only thing I found was a kid that got a NBA video game from a Walmart that turned out to be porn. And, there also turns out be a"Sin City" porn.
Now my dilemma shifts from the source of the switch up to should I report it to the library. Or should I leave it be? I was afraid what if the person after me reports it and they'd think I recorded it? Then, I was thinking what if some little boy puts the tape in only to see the dildo woman doing her thing, ruining his childhood, and I let that happen by being an embarrassed chicken instead of a responsible decent member of the library community.
In other words, my brain ran amok. I thought about the guard's comment. Did he know about the porn? Or worse, he was slyly sending me some dirty, perverted thumb's up?
I'm starving. I'm going to go make dinner. I'll fill you in on what I did in my next post.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Ladies and gentleman, Castro has left the building...
I wonder all this controversy about his illness, operation, and/or death will create an Elvisesque cult...That'd kick ass... we'd have Fidel sightings in tobacco shops around the world.
Maybe one day after a long, hot, sweaty day I plop down a park bench and Fidel's playing dominoes. I'd point him out but no one would see him in the maze of old gray dudes rockin' guayberas and Fedoras.
What if he's here already? Chillin' in a cooling station talking about what went wrong in the post-Cold War world. And you know he's the one doing the talking. I bet Fidel even talks in his sleep. Maybe he wouldn't be in Manhattan or in New York but what about southern Jersey where the Cubans with sense live.
Puede ser...
Maybe one day after a long, hot, sweaty day I plop down a park bench and Fidel's playing dominoes. I'd point him out but no one would see him in the maze of old gray dudes rockin' guayberas and Fedoras.
What if he's here already? Chillin' in a cooling station talking about what went wrong in the post-Cold War world. And you know he's the one doing the talking. I bet Fidel even talks in his sleep. Maybe he wouldn't be in Manhattan or in New York but what about southern Jersey where the Cubans with sense live.
Puede ser...
Thursday, July 27, 2006
The Taupe-Out
Since I am in Sunnyside, which up until a few days ago was one of the power outage places in Queens, I guess I should blog my experience on it. I got e-verbal-vomit as I wrote a friend back so I won't bother but to copy & paste aqui:
I'm good. Not too much to report. I was pretty lucky in terms of the blackout. Judging by the news coverage it seemed like your old Ditmars 'hood and Astoria in gen got the shaft. Still it's pretty weird to have Red Cross actually come and "rescue" my community in general though.
But I only had a severe 24-hour taupe-out. I wouldn't even call it a brown out. My fridge, microwave, and a ceiling fan never completely stopped running. And that happened the day just after last week's heat wave. It is a pretty fun feeling to wake up and the power's back on. It's kinda like Christmas morning. I first experienced it back as a kid spending summers in the Dominican Republic. It was also kinda like God 'let there be light'. And you run around turning on random shit just to marvel at it as if it hadn't been there for years... but I digress...
I was surprised to see how kooky the system is. I mean one building would lose power but across the street would be fine or like every other other streetlight would be on the fritz. A good thing was that there was hardly anyone at the post office so the line took no time at all. Although it was pretty scary trying to cross Queens Blvd w/out working streetlights. I decided to go to the library downtown and it was surreal how no one skipped a beat. (Like sorta like coming back to NYC after being in DR or Cuba or somewhere like that.) This was early on, when nobody knew how big the problem was when the mayor brushed off the power outage to the media in favor of congratulating newly graduating teenagers who were starting careers in construction work.
I'm good. Not too much to report. I was pretty lucky in terms of the blackout. Judging by the news coverage it seemed like your old Ditmars 'hood and Astoria in gen got the shaft. Still it's pretty weird to have Red Cross actually come and "rescue" my community in general though.
But I only had a severe 24-hour taupe-out. I wouldn't even call it a brown out. My fridge, microwave, and a ceiling fan never completely stopped running. And that happened the day just after last week's heat wave. It is a pretty fun feeling to wake up and the power's back on. It's kinda like Christmas morning. I first experienced it back as a kid spending summers in the Dominican Republic. It was also kinda like God 'let there be light'. And you run around turning on random shit just to marvel at it as if it hadn't been there for years... but I digress...
I was surprised to see how kooky the system is. I mean one building would lose power but across the street would be fine or like every other other streetlight would be on the fritz. A good thing was that there was hardly anyone at the post office so the line took no time at all. Although it was pretty scary trying to cross Queens Blvd w/out working streetlights. I decided to go to the library downtown and it was surreal how no one skipped a beat. (Like sorta like coming back to NYC after being in DR or Cuba or somewhere like that.) This was early on, when nobody knew how big the problem was when the mayor brushed off the power outage to the media in favor of congratulating newly graduating teenagers who were starting careers in construction work.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
It's a boy!
The rescue stork dropped a little male poodle mix named Andy into my family. He's obedient, house- and leash-trained, and smart. My mom, stepdad, and at least one of my cats are thrilled. Dannyboy has adapted well while Jupiter is quite defensive about him. But that's the only hiccup. Andy is really good with them though. He doesn't snap or bark at them. And when Joop does his hissing/defensive stance thing, Andy just stops, looks at him, turns around and walks another way. With people it's a different story. Around strangers he barks. He's already bitten and punctured the skin around each other my thumbs. Here's a photo:
According to the rescue, he once belonged to an elderly woman who left him in their home when she was moved to a nursing home. The woman's daughter found Andy starving and shivering a few days later while she was cleaning out the place. This is what he looked like when the rescue first got him:
According to the rescue, he once belonged to an elderly woman who left him in their home when she was moved to a nursing home. The woman's daughter found Andy starving and shivering a few days later while she was cleaning out the place. This is what he looked like when the rescue first got him:
I think you can see it in his eyes that he's had a pretty rough past. But that's all over now that he's been taken in by yours truly, M. Doolittle.
In other news, I was layed off from dogwalking on Sunday. I worked one business week. I was gonna ask for time-off anyway so it all works out. Just as it always does...
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
What made the dawgs hurt? Ooh ooh ooh
My feet are in pain. Kinda like when in the cartoons a character gets a foot caught in a mouse trap and then when they get it loose it's throbbing. That's me with both my feet. It's day two of the day job. (Yes, I have re-entered the economy. As a dogwalker. Which hurt my mother's ego more than my own. In fact, my ego is completely intact. She thinks it beneath me; akin to pushing artificial food and drink at the local fast food restaurant. It boggles her world that I can be a master's candidate and a poop scooper for dogs in the northern Manhattan. Such is life.) Since I started (yesterday) I've been shadowing people and geting acquainted with all of the clients--the dogs. I'm digging lots of parts of this gig. The increased physical activity is a nice change of pace after several months of molding the perfect loveseat tush. But ohh the dawgs, my feets be hurtin' by the end of the job.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Dannyboy urinated on my cellular phone and it died. I realize this right before a phoner for the only paying gig I have at the moment, thus, preventing me from conducting the interview and making me look flakey. Although, he did not squat directly on cell, I'm suspicious as to why he chose to pee in his toy basket where the phone lay charging in the first place. If the Buddha would have gotten his phone peed on, he'd most likely take as a sign that something good is coming. Hmmm...
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
I hope that the lessons, reflections, and connections stick. That L., the T.'s and others are people that I will see again. The weekend was a success. I think that besides race or gender, age is also an arbitrary designation. What if there were other means to distinguish how we all advance? What if rather than number of years on earth we could be promoted by the divine/spirit/energy? We could achieve certain levels of distinction by the way we think or treat others and ourselves? Because age and energy certainly do not correlate. I learned that this weekend. A learned soul could be four-and-a-half or 92. It just depends how you look at things. I wish to enhance my being by staying in tune with that information. I want to carry it like a satchel in my brain. To know that we never lose our own individual essence. And to know that we do have say or input on when we stop living our lives. And that among the living there are just as many dead and as living among the dead. It is all in the way you choose to look at things. I’m glad to keep advancing on this vision quest. Or should I say knowledge quest? I like the constant flow of changes to my beliefs and thoughts. I like searching for being above and beyond the pettiness those in power try to suppress us with.
Friday, May 26, 2006
I'm off...
to Annville, Pennsylvania. I signed up for the Friends Conference on Religion and Spirituality a couple weeks ago after I picked up the booklet before meeting one Sunday. I saw that the interest groups planned were congruent to my own spiritual interests and queries so I registered the next day. The deadline, in fact. (Serendipity says what? what?) This jaunt outside the city is long overdue.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Eugenia Last, you talkin' to me?
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Someone from your past can play a prominent role in your life today.
Today I received a classmates.com quicknote from my high school frenemy. Well we were mostly friends, but we definitely had our moments. Much of it was due to our school being a homogeneous environment where two girls from similar geographic, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds inevitably had to outdo the other in order to be liked by (read: amuse) the cool kids and upperclassmen.
I'm not sure how prominent the role will be but considering the lengthy and complicated (as if there was such a thing as an uncomplicated high school thing) past we share, I'm pretty sure this'll stir up some of that lingering emotional detritus.
I sent a note back. Unless you subscribe to their site your choices are pretty wack. This is what I had to choose from:
Just wanted to say "hi." Drop me a note and let me know how you've been. (This is the one she sent me. I thought it'd be weird to reply with it, so I chose the last one.)
I'm so glad to see your name here—it's been too long. Send me a message!
Are you going to the reunion this year? Send me a note and let me know.
Hey, it's been a while! What's going on? Let's get back in touch. (But now I regret it. Whatever, it's done. No sense lamenting sent quicknotes. Ugh, I hate being a premature quicknoter...)
Today I received a classmates.com quicknote from my high school frenemy. Well we were mostly friends, but we definitely had our moments. Much of it was due to our school being a homogeneous environment where two girls from similar geographic, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds inevitably had to outdo the other in order to be liked by (read: amuse) the cool kids and upperclassmen.
I'm not sure how prominent the role will be but considering the lengthy and complicated (as if there was such a thing as an uncomplicated high school thing) past we share, I'm pretty sure this'll stir up some of that lingering emotional detritus.
I sent a note back. Unless you subscribe to their site your choices are pretty wack. This is what I had to choose from:
Just wanted to say "hi." Drop me a note and let me know how you've been. (This is the one she sent me. I thought it'd be weird to reply with it, so I chose the last one.)
I'm so glad to see your name here—it's been too long. Send me a message!
Are you going to the reunion this year? Send me a note and let me know.
Hey, it's been a while! What's going on? Let's get back in touch. (But now I regret it. Whatever, it's done. No sense lamenting sent quicknotes. Ugh, I hate being a premature quicknoter...)
Friday, May 19, 2006
URGENT URGENT URGENT CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW!
URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT
Friends,
It is URGENT you contact Senators Hillary Clinton (http://clinton.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm?subj=issue ; In DC Phone: (202) 224-4451), Chuck Schumer (http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/webform.cfm; In DC: 202-224-6542) and any other senator from where you reside (see: http://www.senate.gov and click on "Senators" at the top left to find your senators' names and their offices' direct phone numbers.) to oppose the Senate bill 2611 the Hagel-Martinez-Specter compromise NOW. The bill, which is being voted on today, would among other things:
call for the deportation on undocumented immigrants
Establish a temporary worker program
Provisions like restricting due process to those accused of violating immigration laws would further erode the human and civil rights of immigrants.
You can see the complete text summary here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN02611:@@@D&summ2=m&
Republicans are pushing to add additional punitive enforcement provisions and further restrict access to citizenship, with few Democratic Senators standing up to them.
Yesterday by a vote of 83 to 16, the Senate voted to construct a 370-mile wall on the Southwest border. If Bush's proposals are incorporated, too, it will be a major victory for the far right.
Call them, email them, snail mail them anything just tell them that you oppose the so-call “Compromise,” that Senate B.2611 is no compromise at all.
Tell your Senators to remove the provisions from Senate Bill 2611 (the Hagel-Martinez-Specter compromise) that criminalize undocumented immigrants and restrict their rights and ability to gain citizenship.
Tell them to reject the Bush administration's proposals for sending National Guard troops to the border and new punitive enforcement provisions.
Instead of undermining civil rights and civil liberties, our elected officials should support real immigration reform that:
· increases the number of available family visas
· enables all undocumented immigrants within the U.S. to legalize their status and gain a path to citizenship
· provides due process, including restoration of access to the courts and meaningful judicial review for immigrants
· stops mandatory deportations and indefinite detentions
· allows undocumented immigrants and their families to remain together in this country
· protects the rights of both immigrant and native-born workers
If efforts to radically amend Senate Bill 2611 in a progressive, pro-immigrant direction do not succeed, it must be defeated.
Friends,
It is URGENT you contact Senators Hillary Clinton (http://clinton.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm?subj=issue ; In DC Phone: (202) 224-4451), Chuck Schumer (http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/webform.cfm; In DC: 202-224-6542) and any other senator from where you reside (see: http://www.senate.gov and click on "Senators" at the top left to find your senators' names and their offices' direct phone numbers.) to oppose the Senate bill 2611 the Hagel-Martinez-Specter compromise NOW. The bill, which is being voted on today, would among other things:
call for the deportation on undocumented immigrants
Establish a temporary worker program
Provisions like restricting due process to those accused of violating immigration laws would further erode the human and civil rights of immigrants.
You can see the complete text summary here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN02611:@@@D&summ2=m&
Republicans are pushing to add additional punitive enforcement provisions and further restrict access to citizenship, with few Democratic Senators standing up to them.
Yesterday by a vote of 83 to 16, the Senate voted to construct a 370-mile wall on the Southwest border. If Bush's proposals are incorporated, too, it will be a major victory for the far right.
Call them, email them, snail mail them anything just tell them that you oppose the so-call “Compromise,” that Senate B.2611 is no compromise at all.
Tell your Senators to remove the provisions from Senate Bill 2611 (the Hagel-Martinez-Specter compromise) that criminalize undocumented immigrants and restrict their rights and ability to gain citizenship.
Tell them to reject the Bush administration's proposals for sending National Guard troops to the border and new punitive enforcement provisions.
Instead of undermining civil rights and civil liberties, our elected officials should support real immigration reform that:
· increases the number of available family visas
· enables all undocumented immigrants within the U.S. to legalize their status and gain a path to citizenship
· provides due process, including restoration of access to the courts and meaningful judicial review for immigrants
· stops mandatory deportations and indefinite detentions
· allows undocumented immigrants and their families to remain together in this country
· protects the rights of both immigrant and native-born workers
If efforts to radically amend Senate Bill 2611 in a progressive, pro-immigrant direction do not succeed, it must be defeated.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Geez, does he work on commission?
"Bush Turns to Big Military Contractors for Border Control"
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: May 18, 2006, New York Times
WASHINGTON, May 17 — The quick fix may involve sending in the National Guard. But to really patch up the broken border, President Bush is preparing to turn to a familiar administration partner: the nation's giant military contractors.
Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, three of the largest, are among the companies that said they would submit bids within two weeks for a multibillion-dollar federal contract to build what the administration calls a "virtual fence" along the nation's land borders.
Using some of the same high-priced, high-tech tools these companies have already put to work in Iraq and Afghanistan — like unmanned aerial vehicles, ground surveillance satellites and motion-detection video equipment — the military contractors are zeroing in on the rivers, deserts, mountains and settled areas that separate Mexico and Canada from the United States.
It is a humbling acknowledgment that despite more than a decade of initiatives with macho-sounding names, like Operation Hold the Line in El Paso or Operation Gate Keeper in San Diego, the federal government has repeatedly failed on its own to gain control of the land borders.
Through its Secure Border Initiative, the Bush administration intends to not simply buy an amalgam of high-tech equipment to help it patrol the borders — a tactic it has also already tried, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, with extremely limited success. It is also asking the contractors to devise and build a whole new border strategy that ties together the personnel, technology and physical barriers.
"This is an unusual invitation," the deputy secretary of homeland security, Michael Jackson, told contractors this year at an industry briefing, just before the bidding period for this new contract started. "We're asking you to come back and tell us how to do our business."
The effort comes as the Senate voted Wednesday to add hundreds of miles of fencing along the border with Mexico. The measure would also prohibit illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors from any chance at citizenship.
The high-tech plan being bid now has many skeptics, who say they have heard a similar refrain from the government before.
"We've been presented with expensive proposals for elaborate border technology that eventually have proven to be ineffective and wasteful," Representative Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky, said at a hearing on the Secure Border Initiative program last month. "How is the S.B.I. not just another three-letter acronym for failure?"
President Bush, among others, said he was convinced that the government could get it right this time.
"We are launching the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history," Mr. Bush said in his speech from the Oval Office on Monday.
Under the initiative, the Department of Homeland Security and its Customs and Border Protection division will still be charged with patrolling the 6,000 miles of land borders.
The equipment these Border Patrol agents use, how and when they are dispatched to spots along the border, where the agents assemble the captured immigrants, how they process them and transport them — all these steps will now be scripted by the winning contractor, who could earn an estimated $2 billion over the next three to six years on the Secure Border job.
More Border Patrol agents are part of the answer. The Bush administration has committed to increasing the force from 11,500 to about 18,500 by the time the president leaves office in 2008. But simply spreading this army of agents out evenly along the border or extending fences in and around urban areas is not sufficient, officials said.
"Boots on the ground is not really enough," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday at a news conference that followed Mr. Bush's announcement to send as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to the border.
The tools of modern warfare must be brought to bear. That means devices like the Tethered Aerostat Radar, a helium-filled airship made for the Air Force by Lockheed Martin that is twice the size of the Goodyear Blimp. Attached to the ground by a cable, the airship can hover overhead and automatically monitor any movement night or day. (One downside: it cannot operate in high winds.)
Northrop Grumman is considering offering its Global Hawk, an unmanned aerial vehicle with a wingspan nearly as wide as a Boeing 737, that can snoop on movement along the border from heights of up to 65,000 feet, said Bruce Walker, a company executive.
Closer to earth, Northrop might deploy a fleet of much smaller, unmanned planes that could be launched from a truck, flying perhaps just above a group of already detected immigrants so it would be harder for them to scatter into the brush and disappear.
Raytheon has a package of sensor and video equipment used to protect troops in Iraq that monitors an area and uses software to identify suspicious objects automatically, analyzing and highlighting them even before anyone is sent to respond.
These same companies have delivered these technologies to the Pentagon, sometimes with uneven results.
Each of these giant contractors — Lockheed Martin alone employs 135,000 people and had $37.2 billion in sales last year, including an estimated $6 billion to the federal government — is teaming up with dozens of smaller companies that will provide everything from the automated cameras to backup energy supplies that will to keep this equipment running in the desert.
The companies have studied every mile of border, drafting detection and apprehension strategies that vary depending on the terrain. In a city, for example, an immigrant can disappear into a crowd in seconds, while agents might have hours to apprehend a group walking through the desert, as long as they can track their movement.
If the system works, Border Patrol agents will know before they encounter a group of intruders approximately how many people have crossed, how fast they are moving and even if they might be armed.
Without such information, said Kevin Stevens, a Border Patrol official, "we send more people than we need to deal with a situation that wasn't a significant threat," or, in a worst case, "we send fewer people than we need to deal with a significant threat, and we find ourselves outnumbered and outgunned."
The government's track record in the last decade in trying to buy cutting-edge technology to monitor the border — devices like video cameras, sensors and other tools that came at a cost of at least $425 million — is dismal.
Because of poor contract oversight, nearly half of video cameras ordered in the late 1990's did not work or were not installed. The ground sensors installed along the border frequently sounded alarms. But in 92 percent of the cases, they were sending out agents to respond to what turned out to be a passing wild animal, a train or other nuisances, according to a report late last year by the homeland security inspector general.
A more recent test with an unmanned aerial vehicle bought by the department got off to a similarly troubling start. The $6.8 million device, which has been used in the last year to patrol a 300-mile stretch of the Arizona border at night, crashed last month.
With Secure Border, at least five so-called system integrators — Lockheed, Raytheon and Northrop, as well as Boeing and Ericsson — are expected to submit bids.
The winner, which is due to be selected before October, will not be given a specific dollar commitment. Instead, each package of equipment and management solutions the contractor offers will be evaluated and bought individually.
"We're not just going to say, 'Oh, this looks like some neat stuff, let's buy it and then put it on the border,' "Mr. Chertoff said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Skepticism persists. A total of $101 million is already available for the program. But on Wednesday, when the House Appropriations Committee moved to approve the Homeland Security Department's proposed $32.1 billion budget for 2007, it proposed withholding $25 million of $115 million allocated next year for the Secure Border contracting effort until the administration better defined its plans.
"Unless the department can show us exactly what we're buying, we won't fund it," Representative Rogers said. "We will not fund programs with false expectations."
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: May 18, 2006, New York Times
WASHINGTON, May 17 — The quick fix may involve sending in the National Guard. But to really patch up the broken border, President Bush is preparing to turn to a familiar administration partner: the nation's giant military contractors.
Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, three of the largest, are among the companies that said they would submit bids within two weeks for a multibillion-dollar federal contract to build what the administration calls a "virtual fence" along the nation's land borders.
Using some of the same high-priced, high-tech tools these companies have already put to work in Iraq and Afghanistan — like unmanned aerial vehicles, ground surveillance satellites and motion-detection video equipment — the military contractors are zeroing in on the rivers, deserts, mountains and settled areas that separate Mexico and Canada from the United States.
It is a humbling acknowledgment that despite more than a decade of initiatives with macho-sounding names, like Operation Hold the Line in El Paso or Operation Gate Keeper in San Diego, the federal government has repeatedly failed on its own to gain control of the land borders.
Through its Secure Border Initiative, the Bush administration intends to not simply buy an amalgam of high-tech equipment to help it patrol the borders — a tactic it has also already tried, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, with extremely limited success. It is also asking the contractors to devise and build a whole new border strategy that ties together the personnel, technology and physical barriers.
"This is an unusual invitation," the deputy secretary of homeland security, Michael Jackson, told contractors this year at an industry briefing, just before the bidding period for this new contract started. "We're asking you to come back and tell us how to do our business."
The effort comes as the Senate voted Wednesday to add hundreds of miles of fencing along the border with Mexico. The measure would also prohibit illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors from any chance at citizenship.
The high-tech plan being bid now has many skeptics, who say they have heard a similar refrain from the government before.
"We've been presented with expensive proposals for elaborate border technology that eventually have proven to be ineffective and wasteful," Representative Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky, said at a hearing on the Secure Border Initiative program last month. "How is the S.B.I. not just another three-letter acronym for failure?"
President Bush, among others, said he was convinced that the government could get it right this time.
"We are launching the most technologically advanced border security initiative in American history," Mr. Bush said in his speech from the Oval Office on Monday.
Under the initiative, the Department of Homeland Security and its Customs and Border Protection division will still be charged with patrolling the 6,000 miles of land borders.
The equipment these Border Patrol agents use, how and when they are dispatched to spots along the border, where the agents assemble the captured immigrants, how they process them and transport them — all these steps will now be scripted by the winning contractor, who could earn an estimated $2 billion over the next three to six years on the Secure Border job.
More Border Patrol agents are part of the answer. The Bush administration has committed to increasing the force from 11,500 to about 18,500 by the time the president leaves office in 2008. But simply spreading this army of agents out evenly along the border or extending fences in and around urban areas is not sufficient, officials said.
"Boots on the ground is not really enough," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday at a news conference that followed Mr. Bush's announcement to send as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to the border.
The tools of modern warfare must be brought to bear. That means devices like the Tethered Aerostat Radar, a helium-filled airship made for the Air Force by Lockheed Martin that is twice the size of the Goodyear Blimp. Attached to the ground by a cable, the airship can hover overhead and automatically monitor any movement night or day. (One downside: it cannot operate in high winds.)
Northrop Grumman is considering offering its Global Hawk, an unmanned aerial vehicle with a wingspan nearly as wide as a Boeing 737, that can snoop on movement along the border from heights of up to 65,000 feet, said Bruce Walker, a company executive.
Closer to earth, Northrop might deploy a fleet of much smaller, unmanned planes that could be launched from a truck, flying perhaps just above a group of already detected immigrants so it would be harder for them to scatter into the brush and disappear.
Raytheon has a package of sensor and video equipment used to protect troops in Iraq that monitors an area and uses software to identify suspicious objects automatically, analyzing and highlighting them even before anyone is sent to respond.
These same companies have delivered these technologies to the Pentagon, sometimes with uneven results.
Each of these giant contractors — Lockheed Martin alone employs 135,000 people and had $37.2 billion in sales last year, including an estimated $6 billion to the federal government — is teaming up with dozens of smaller companies that will provide everything from the automated cameras to backup energy supplies that will to keep this equipment running in the desert.
The companies have studied every mile of border, drafting detection and apprehension strategies that vary depending on the terrain. In a city, for example, an immigrant can disappear into a crowd in seconds, while agents might have hours to apprehend a group walking through the desert, as long as they can track their movement.
If the system works, Border Patrol agents will know before they encounter a group of intruders approximately how many people have crossed, how fast they are moving and even if they might be armed.
Without such information, said Kevin Stevens, a Border Patrol official, "we send more people than we need to deal with a situation that wasn't a significant threat," or, in a worst case, "we send fewer people than we need to deal with a significant threat, and we find ourselves outnumbered and outgunned."
The government's track record in the last decade in trying to buy cutting-edge technology to monitor the border — devices like video cameras, sensors and other tools that came at a cost of at least $425 million — is dismal.
Because of poor contract oversight, nearly half of video cameras ordered in the late 1990's did not work or were not installed. The ground sensors installed along the border frequently sounded alarms. But in 92 percent of the cases, they were sending out agents to respond to what turned out to be a passing wild animal, a train or other nuisances, according to a report late last year by the homeland security inspector general.
A more recent test with an unmanned aerial vehicle bought by the department got off to a similarly troubling start. The $6.8 million device, which has been used in the last year to patrol a 300-mile stretch of the Arizona border at night, crashed last month.
With Secure Border, at least five so-called system integrators — Lockheed, Raytheon and Northrop, as well as Boeing and Ericsson — are expected to submit bids.
The winner, which is due to be selected before October, will not be given a specific dollar commitment. Instead, each package of equipment and management solutions the contractor offers will be evaluated and bought individually.
"We're not just going to say, 'Oh, this looks like some neat stuff, let's buy it and then put it on the border,' "Mr. Chertoff said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Skepticism persists. A total of $101 million is already available for the program. But on Wednesday, when the House Appropriations Committee moved to approve the Homeland Security Department's proposed $32.1 billion budget for 2007, it proposed withholding $25 million of $115 million allocated next year for the Secure Border contracting effort until the administration better defined its plans.
"Unless the department can show us exactly what we're buying, we won't fund it," Representative Rogers said. "We will not fund programs with false expectations."
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Spring/summer semester-end seasonal sojourn starts...
F.'s the first to go. He leaves tomorrow and won't be back until mid-August.
It's the beginning of that transitional time when students and others start spreading out the five boroughs across the country and globe. I feel a little sad because it feels as if I'm getting left behind. This time last year I was in Europe; hanging out with S. in the French countryside. I haven't left since I returned from that trip. I suspect I have a little NYC-cabin fever. But I guess it's up to me to get out if I truly wanted to do so. It's hard to remember that though.
That's my thing, I think. I teeter between escapist fantasies and anchoring itches (my need to create a stable, secure, safe and static sense of stasis ... snore). It's a struggle. There's also that nutty thing I do where I imagine everyone else in the world partying it up on a beach without me. And everyone is wearing hawaiian shirts and/or gigham swimsuits, those 80s glasses that the Corey Feldman made famous, sipping frozen drinks...
Okay, obviously I have abandonment issues. I'm human. But this annual activity isn't my favorite. Not only do I not like being left, but I hate missing people. If I had a Dolorean I would go back to an era where moving entailed the construction of a new dwelling adjacent to your current one. A time period where travel took so long you actually forget about the person by the time they return.
I am looking forward to getting through my reading list though. Paperback traveller, indeed.
It's the beginning of that transitional time when students and others start spreading out the five boroughs across the country and globe. I feel a little sad because it feels as if I'm getting left behind. This time last year I was in Europe; hanging out with S. in the French countryside. I haven't left since I returned from that trip. I suspect I have a little NYC-cabin fever. But I guess it's up to me to get out if I truly wanted to do so. It's hard to remember that though.
That's my thing, I think. I teeter between escapist fantasies and anchoring itches (my need to create a stable, secure, safe and static sense of stasis ... snore). It's a struggle. There's also that nutty thing I do where I imagine everyone else in the world partying it up on a beach without me. And everyone is wearing hawaiian shirts and/or gigham swimsuits, those 80s glasses that the Corey Feldman made famous, sipping frozen drinks...
Okay, obviously I have abandonment issues. I'm human. But this annual activity isn't my favorite. Not only do I not like being left, but I hate missing people. If I had a Dolorean I would go back to an era where moving entailed the construction of a new dwelling adjacent to your current one. A time period where travel took so long you actually forget about the person by the time they return.
I am looking forward to getting through my reading list though. Paperback traveller, indeed.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
April 30, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Save a Tree, Don't Plant One
By WILLIAM ALEXANDER
IN case you missed it, Friday was a holiday — National Arbor Day [April 28th] — although in my opinion, calling a day with no white sales, no extended store hours and no Hallmark card, and which you celebrate by swinging a pickaxe for half a day, a "holiday" is a bit of a stretch. Still, before the weekend is over I will have dutifully planted a shrub in the rocky clay that masquerades as soil on my Hudson Valley property. Or, as my son once put it as he watched me plant a rose bush, "That's not gardening, Dad — that's mining."
Despite my affinity for this quaint tradition, I do wonder if Arbor Day has outlived its relevance, and if 21st-century America wouldn't be better served if the focus shifted from planting a tree to saving one, or a thousand.
Arbor Day originated in Nebraska in 1872, the brainchild of J. Sterling Morton, a journalist who, recently arrived from Michigan, was alarmed at the lack of trees on the plains. (Just think: if he had ignored Horace Greeley and gone east instead of west, we might be observing Woodcutting Day today.)
Some 90 years later, when I was 7, my father observed the spirit if not the letter of Arbor Day in his own fashion, taking me into some woods a few miles from our Roslyn home with a shovel and a roll of burlap. After walking for a while, we came upon a beautiful young dogwood, standing alone in a small clearing.
"This is it," my father proclaimed, as he started to dig. We wrapped the roots in burlap and dragged the tree out of the woods.
"Dad, whose property is this?" I asked repeatedly, but he avoided answering. "We're stealing a tree," I finally concluded.
"We're saving it," he replied, his face tight.
Within a few weeks, bulldozers had transformed what was left of the once glorious Mackay estate — which had boasted a 70-acre farm, formal gardens surrounding a Stanford White house and more than 500 acres of parkland — into first, 19th-century Nebraska, and then, 20th-century suburbia.
This made my father immensely sad, a sadness matched only by the pride he took in tending his little piece of the vanished estate. Our purloined white dogwood, the last living thing remaining from those magnificent grounds, stood in our front yard for many years, surviving even the man who saved it from the bulldozer.
My father's lawless but victimless act was the only way he knew to respond to what he viewed as a crime against nature. Four decades later, even though everyone complains about development, similar "crimes" are still occurring with alarming frequency. Fueled by rising home prices and population growth, bulldozers are threatening farms, orchards and tracts of scenic lands in New Jersey and New York and across the nation.
On this Arbor Day weekend, there are some simple things — more effective than planting a tree — that ordinary citizens can do to observe the spirit of the day. No. 1, stop complaining about the price of milk. It seems that every time the price of a gallon of milk goes up a dime, our elected officials — often the same ones who scream the loudest whenever a farm is turned into a housing development — go before a television camera to demand action (and garner a few votes).
Milk pricing is a complex issue, but the fact is, small dairy farms are vanishing at an alarming rate, and the ones that remain are struggling for survival. If you don't want your local farms to become housing developments, you need to accept the reality that milk prices are going to rise because dairy farmers need to make a living. You can't have it both ways.
For the same reason, buy local produce. This may be a challenge. But insist that your supermarket carry black-dirt onions and Long Island potatoes. In season, buy New Jersey tomatoes and Hudson Valley apples. Or, if one is available, join a local farm cooperative. Your participation in community-supported agriculture will reward you with a supply of farm-fresh, often organic vegetables and greens throughout the summer.
Make a contribution to a land trust. Your tax-deductible dollars will go a long way to saving a piece of land from development.
And finally, when you feel powerless, take a page out of my father's book and respond in the only way you know how. Even if it flaunts the law. But you didn't hear that from me.
William Alexander is the author of "The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden."
Op-Ed Contributor
Save a Tree, Don't Plant One
By WILLIAM ALEXANDER
IN case you missed it, Friday was a holiday — National Arbor Day [April 28th] — although in my opinion, calling a day with no white sales, no extended store hours and no Hallmark card, and which you celebrate by swinging a pickaxe for half a day, a "holiday" is a bit of a stretch. Still, before the weekend is over I will have dutifully planted a shrub in the rocky clay that masquerades as soil on my Hudson Valley property. Or, as my son once put it as he watched me plant a rose bush, "That's not gardening, Dad — that's mining."
Despite my affinity for this quaint tradition, I do wonder if Arbor Day has outlived its relevance, and if 21st-century America wouldn't be better served if the focus shifted from planting a tree to saving one, or a thousand.
Arbor Day originated in Nebraska in 1872, the brainchild of J. Sterling Morton, a journalist who, recently arrived from Michigan, was alarmed at the lack of trees on the plains. (Just think: if he had ignored Horace Greeley and gone east instead of west, we might be observing Woodcutting Day today.)
Some 90 years later, when I was 7, my father observed the spirit if not the letter of Arbor Day in his own fashion, taking me into some woods a few miles from our Roslyn home with a shovel and a roll of burlap. After walking for a while, we came upon a beautiful young dogwood, standing alone in a small clearing.
"This is it," my father proclaimed, as he started to dig. We wrapped the roots in burlap and dragged the tree out of the woods.
"Dad, whose property is this?" I asked repeatedly, but he avoided answering. "We're stealing a tree," I finally concluded.
"We're saving it," he replied, his face tight.
Within a few weeks, bulldozers had transformed what was left of the once glorious Mackay estate — which had boasted a 70-acre farm, formal gardens surrounding a Stanford White house and more than 500 acres of parkland — into first, 19th-century Nebraska, and then, 20th-century suburbia.
This made my father immensely sad, a sadness matched only by the pride he took in tending his little piece of the vanished estate. Our purloined white dogwood, the last living thing remaining from those magnificent grounds, stood in our front yard for many years, surviving even the man who saved it from the bulldozer.
My father's lawless but victimless act was the only way he knew to respond to what he viewed as a crime against nature. Four decades later, even though everyone complains about development, similar "crimes" are still occurring with alarming frequency. Fueled by rising home prices and population growth, bulldozers are threatening farms, orchards and tracts of scenic lands in New Jersey and New York and across the nation.
On this Arbor Day weekend, there are some simple things — more effective than planting a tree — that ordinary citizens can do to observe the spirit of the day. No. 1, stop complaining about the price of milk. It seems that every time the price of a gallon of milk goes up a dime, our elected officials — often the same ones who scream the loudest whenever a farm is turned into a housing development — go before a television camera to demand action (and garner a few votes).
Milk pricing is a complex issue, but the fact is, small dairy farms are vanishing at an alarming rate, and the ones that remain are struggling for survival. If you don't want your local farms to become housing developments, you need to accept the reality that milk prices are going to rise because dairy farmers need to make a living. You can't have it both ways.
For the same reason, buy local produce. This may be a challenge. But insist that your supermarket carry black-dirt onions and Long Island potatoes. In season, buy New Jersey tomatoes and Hudson Valley apples. Or, if one is available, join a local farm cooperative. Your participation in community-supported agriculture will reward you with a supply of farm-fresh, often organic vegetables and greens throughout the summer.
Make a contribution to a land trust. Your tax-deductible dollars will go a long way to saving a piece of land from development.
And finally, when you feel powerless, take a page out of my father's book and respond in the only way you know how. Even if it flaunts the law. But you didn't hear that from me.
William Alexander is the author of "The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden."
*Sigh* Everything's gonna A-OK
Stuff like this restores my pride in my fellow Americans and in humanity in general...
&
Here's an excerpt for the Improv Everywhere's sum-up:
We met at Union Square North at 3:30 PM. Around 80 agents showed up, most them looking like wonderful Best Buy employees. More than a few came dressed in navy or teal, but with the belt and the khakis they still looked employee-like. After everyone arrived I explained the mission. The first step was for everyone to throw their newspapers away. The instruction to bring a newspaper was a red herring meant to throw people off the scent of the mission's true nature. I then revealed the plan, "We're heading up to the Best Buy on 23rd Street. We'll enter the store one by one. Once inside, spread out and stand near the end of an aisle, facing away from the merchandise. Don't shop, but don't work either. If a customer comes up to you and asks you a question, be polite and help them if you know the answer. If anyone asks you if you work there, say no. If an employee asks you what you're doing, respond 'I'm waiting for my girlfriend/boyfriend who is shopping elsewhere in the store.' If they question you about your clothing, just explain that it's what you put on when you woke up this morning and you don't know any of the other people dressed like you."
There is something about this photo that has captivated me. It's from the April 1st immigrants' rights rally. C took it. It's my desktop background and everytime I start up my computer I say to myself that I want to change it, but I still have it up. I wonder if it's the barefeet on asphalt? Or maybe the strong calves and legs? The shadows? Or that I don't see his face and yet I, the viewer, am following him.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Mmmmmm. Back to normalcy.
I finished my 20-page final. Other course assignments were turned in.
Done.
Complete?
Not quite.
I still have to conduct my master's project in order to be officially finished. But the course work portion of my degree is complete. I worked the hardest I could and in the manner I saw fit. It may have not been pretty. Or efficient. But it never is. The good thing is that my journalism professor gave me valuable feedback. And I'll definitely find ways to improve.
I didn't get to attend the local Mayday actions though. But I obeyed the boycott. I stayed home; deeply engrossed in my paper. I only consumed cable internet and Con Ed. (Hey, a girl's gotta live.)
I'm looking forward to moving on. All of this forced last-minute writing has got me jazzed about working on newer things. I really want to do a World Cup-themed story. I also want to send around stuff I've written to see if I could muster up any interest. For now, it's finishing waking up (I slept until 11 a.m.), return library books and videos, and hit the gym. I'm goin' swimming!
Done.
Complete?
Not quite.
I still have to conduct my master's project in order to be officially finished. But the course work portion of my degree is complete. I worked the hardest I could and in the manner I saw fit. It may have not been pretty. Or efficient. But it never is. The good thing is that my journalism professor gave me valuable feedback. And I'll definitely find ways to improve.
I didn't get to attend the local Mayday actions though. But I obeyed the boycott. I stayed home; deeply engrossed in my paper. I only consumed cable internet and Con Ed. (Hey, a girl's gotta live.)
I'm looking forward to moving on. All of this forced last-minute writing has got me jazzed about working on newer things. I really want to do a World Cup-themed story. I also want to send around stuff I've written to see if I could muster up any interest. For now, it's finishing waking up (I slept until 11 a.m.), return library books and videos, and hit the gym. I'm goin' swimming!
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Who done it? Will the guilty fund please stand up?
Gosh, ya donate to one or two non-for-profits and now everyone, from Planned Parenthood to Catholic Charities including my HS, undergrad, and graduate development offices, is hittin' me up for cash. Social cause solicitation is about 60 percent of my paper mail. I feel like I've created a tax-deductible monster or I unleashed the philanthropic beast. FYI: Bills, student loan consolidation offers, zero APR introductory credit cards, and the New Yorker (God bless the New Yorker) make up the other 40 percent.
Don't get me wrong, I was a Fresh Air Fund kid, my HS and alma mater were very generous with me, but gimme 15-20 years to get past the post-graduation/real world trauma, the soul-searching, graduate school, entry-level paychecks, and make a dent into my academic loans and I'll hook you up. But in the meantime, if I send you a check please, don't tell all your friends about me.
Don't get me wrong, I was a Fresh Air Fund kid, my HS and alma mater were very generous with me, but gimme 15-20 years to get past the post-graduation/real world trauma, the soul-searching, graduate school, entry-level paychecks, and make a dent into my academic loans and I'll hook you up. But in the meantime, if I send you a check please, don't tell all your friends about me.
Monday, April 17, 2006
"Immigrants rights movement affecting African Americans"
By Karen Juanita Carrillo
Amsterdam News,
6 April 2006.
The nation's growing movement for immigrant rights is making some peopletake a second look at the current work and living conditions AfricanAmericans face.
With right-wing calls for deportation of immigrants, and amidst claims that immigrants are stealing jobs from U.S. citizens - which, in many cases means working class African Americans - some portions of the U.S.-born Black community have turned their anger at immigrants.
"But African Americans should join the immigrant rights movement. We're already part of it; we're intricately connected to it," claimed Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn). "We need to get our focus straight: Your enemyis not immigrants. Your enemy is white male domination, the white male power structure. What is stopping us from getting jobs is not immigrants. We should not settle for that divide-and-conquer tactic," added Baron, who is currently sponsoring the Voting Rights Restoration Act in New York City Council.
The Voting Rights Restoration Act would re-establish local voting rights for[legal] non-citizen immigrant residents who have lived in New York City formore than six months.
Barron points out that many of today's immigrants are from Africa and theWest Indies and that the current wave of immigrant fear could stem from the fact that so many immigrants are people of color.
"The problem is that the white power structure has more jobs than it shouldhave, and they have to be forced to open up opportunities for everyone," the councilman continued. "This was happening before immigrants came - beforethe Mexicans were here, we didn't have jobs, so don't fall for that storythat we were all happily employed before."
With a national budget of $2.7 trillion, a New York State budget of $112 billion and a New York City budget of $55.5 billion, Barron claims there's no reason for a lack of employment opportunities in this country.
"There are 2.3 million Black people in New York City and we're worried about some Mexicans?" he scoffed. "We'd better be worried about the Bloombergs and the Spitzers out there; those are the ones really affecting our lives!"
"I really believe that this whole issue brings up a larger question. It really reminds me of why we started the Black Radical Congress (BRC) in the first place. This is exactly the issue that emerged for us during the emergence of the move toward globalization. You have something like NAFTA[North American Free Trade Agreement], which disassembles the nature of workin a place like Mexico so that people have to find a way to feed themselvesand work and pay for their families," said Humberto Brown, a member of theBlack Radical Congress. "That leads them to come here, so now you have a situation where African Americans who have historically and today continue to be the most disadvantaged group in this 'wonderful' U.S. democracy, now they're faced with the question of whose rights should be fought for. Do labor rights, immigrant rights and the right to work supersede the rights of Black Americans? It's putting two oppressed groups, who are both victims of capitalism and globalization, against each other."
The immigrant rights movement is pressuring civil rights advocates to redefine what it means to be a citizen of any country, Brown added.
"Citizenship should not be defined by nation states anymore. Citizenship should be an element of your human rights - you're right to work, your rightto health care, and your right to stability and to a pension wherever you are living in the world. Since globalization has cheapened labor, it's corrupted the safety nets that so many countries used to offer. I think African Americans should join the immigrant rights marches to demand jobs for themselves, jobs for everybody. We should make sure that this economy works for everybody. It's a challenging issue, because we have to force global capitalism to provide equity for the people who produce its wealth. And that may be something it is unable to do," he said.
Included by permission of Amsterdam News. Voices C 2006, IPA, all rightsreserved.
Amsterdam News,
6 April 2006.
The nation's growing movement for immigrant rights is making some peopletake a second look at the current work and living conditions AfricanAmericans face.
With right-wing calls for deportation of immigrants, and amidst claims that immigrants are stealing jobs from U.S. citizens - which, in many cases means working class African Americans - some portions of the U.S.-born Black community have turned their anger at immigrants.
"But African Americans should join the immigrant rights movement. We're already part of it; we're intricately connected to it," claimed Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn). "We need to get our focus straight: Your enemyis not immigrants. Your enemy is white male domination, the white male power structure. What is stopping us from getting jobs is not immigrants. We should not settle for that divide-and-conquer tactic," added Baron, who is currently sponsoring the Voting Rights Restoration Act in New York City Council.
The Voting Rights Restoration Act would re-establish local voting rights for[legal] non-citizen immigrant residents who have lived in New York City formore than six months.
Barron points out that many of today's immigrants are from Africa and theWest Indies and that the current wave of immigrant fear could stem from the fact that so many immigrants are people of color.
"The problem is that the white power structure has more jobs than it shouldhave, and they have to be forced to open up opportunities for everyone," the councilman continued. "This was happening before immigrants came - beforethe Mexicans were here, we didn't have jobs, so don't fall for that storythat we were all happily employed before."
With a national budget of $2.7 trillion, a New York State budget of $112 billion and a New York City budget of $55.5 billion, Barron claims there's no reason for a lack of employment opportunities in this country.
"There are 2.3 million Black people in New York City and we're worried about some Mexicans?" he scoffed. "We'd better be worried about the Bloombergs and the Spitzers out there; those are the ones really affecting our lives!"
"I really believe that this whole issue brings up a larger question. It really reminds me of why we started the Black Radical Congress (BRC) in the first place. This is exactly the issue that emerged for us during the emergence of the move toward globalization. You have something like NAFTA[North American Free Trade Agreement], which disassembles the nature of workin a place like Mexico so that people have to find a way to feed themselvesand work and pay for their families," said Humberto Brown, a member of theBlack Radical Congress. "That leads them to come here, so now you have a situation where African Americans who have historically and today continue to be the most disadvantaged group in this 'wonderful' U.S. democracy, now they're faced with the question of whose rights should be fought for. Do labor rights, immigrant rights and the right to work supersede the rights of Black Americans? It's putting two oppressed groups, who are both victims of capitalism and globalization, against each other."
The immigrant rights movement is pressuring civil rights advocates to redefine what it means to be a citizen of any country, Brown added.
"Citizenship should not be defined by nation states anymore. Citizenship should be an element of your human rights - you're right to work, your rightto health care, and your right to stability and to a pension wherever you are living in the world. Since globalization has cheapened labor, it's corrupted the safety nets that so many countries used to offer. I think African Americans should join the immigrant rights marches to demand jobs for themselves, jobs for everybody. We should make sure that this economy works for everybody. It's a challenging issue, because we have to force global capitalism to provide equity for the people who produce its wealth. And that may be something it is unable to do," he said.
Included by permission of Amsterdam News. Voices C 2006, IPA, all rightsreserved.
The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for April 16 is:
meliorism \MEE-lee-uh-riz-um\ noun: the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment.
I love when the Word of the Days give me the precise words that match my current beliefs and thoughts. It's like a semantical-consciousness horoscope.
meliorism \MEE-lee-uh-riz-um\ noun: the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment.
I love when the Word of the Days give me the precise words that match my current beliefs and thoughts. It's like a semantical-consciousness horoscope.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
On Monday, I think I was waiting for there to be tumbleweeds rolling here in Queens. A "28 Days" sort-of thing. But no. Typical Monday. Cars to and fro on the Queens Blvd into Manjatan and out.
At home, I combed my apartment for a white shirt. Boy, was it difficult. I'm a New Yorker and plump Latina, who loves her colors. I ended up settling for sunglasses with white plastic frames for "peaceful visions," I told myself.
It was a little after four when I arrived at the rally. The corrals of protesters seemed like a carnaval. Flags, cheers, chants, costumes. Jesus, Mary, and the Romans. The Passion of the Inmigrantes. By this time the police were more permissive with pedestrian traffic than earlier, I learned. Yet at times, it seemed as if they were involved in a great, big game of human Tetris or Pacman: poring protesters of one corral into available space in another.
The morale of my protesting brethren was surprisingly pleasant considering it was almost hour three of the rally. Enthusiasm was channeled into shouting chants of "Bush escucha, la gente esta en la lucha." Maybe it was the Jesus with the cardboard cross or the constant standing, or simply the call-and-response but the march reminded me of a Catholic mass.
I left shortly after my hero Roger Toussaint spoke. I thought it was great that he still delivered a warm speech after having been sentenced to 10 days in jail earlier in the day.
That night and the morning after I realized that I took a souvenir with me from the march. I developed a cold! But it was worth it. I can only imagine the astonishment in Washington. Two million individuals coalesced to send lawmakers one huge check. A reality check, that is.
At home, I combed my apartment for a white shirt. Boy, was it difficult. I'm a New Yorker and plump Latina, who loves her colors. I ended up settling for sunglasses with white plastic frames for "peaceful visions," I told myself.
It was a little after four when I arrived at the rally. The corrals of protesters seemed like a carnaval. Flags, cheers, chants, costumes. Jesus, Mary, and the Romans. The Passion of the Inmigrantes. By this time the police were more permissive with pedestrian traffic than earlier, I learned. Yet at times, it seemed as if they were involved in a great, big game of human Tetris or Pacman: poring protesters of one corral into available space in another.
The morale of my protesting brethren was surprisingly pleasant considering it was almost hour three of the rally. Enthusiasm was channeled into shouting chants of "Bush escucha, la gente esta en la lucha." Maybe it was the Jesus with the cardboard cross or the constant standing, or simply the call-and-response but the march reminded me of a Catholic mass.
I left shortly after my hero Roger Toussaint spoke. I thought it was great that he still delivered a warm speech after having been sentenced to 10 days in jail earlier in the day.
That night and the morning after I realized that I took a souvenir with me from the march. I developed a cold! But it was worth it. I can only imagine the astonishment in Washington. Two million individuals coalesced to send lawmakers one huge check. A reality check, that is.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Hi everyone,
I'm asking you to email the News editor at the NYPost regarding a sentence in the article about my friend Julio, the artist killed by the drunken off-duty police officer a day ago. In the article: "Off-duty Cop in deadly DWI rap" http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/66154.htm, the third sentence says
"Colon then backed up and ran over the shutterbug again."
While my friend was an artist who was taking photos when the accident happened, the sentence trivializes Julio's death and is disrespectful to his friends and family. If you agree, please contact: Chris Shaw, Online Editorial and News, at: cshaw@nypost.com.
I'm asking you to email the News editor at the NYPost regarding a sentence in the article about my friend Julio, the artist killed by the drunken off-duty police officer a day ago. In the article: "Off-duty Cop in deadly DWI rap" http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/66154.htm, the third sentence says
"Colon then backed up and ran over the shutterbug again."
While my friend was an artist who was taking photos when the accident happened, the sentence trivializes Julio's death and is disrespectful to his friends and family. If you agree, please contact: Chris Shaw, Online Editorial and News, at: cshaw@nypost.com.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Immigration Debate Heats Up in Senate
by Norman Eng
March, 2006
The long-awaited immigration debate in the U.S. Senate is finally about to get underway. The next few weeks in the Senate will be crucial in determining how this country will treat the 11 million undocumented immigrants who have come in search of the American Dream but who lack legal status to live and work here. In the end, we’ll find out if we are capable of reforming the failing immigration system to manage migration flows better, and if we can do it in a way that treats immigrants fairly.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to begin working on sweeping immigration reform legislation in early March. Whatever bill emerges from that committee will then go to the full Senate for consideration and eventually a vote, most likely in April.
The stakes could not be higher for New York City, where an estimated half a million city residents live and work without legal immigration status, and many more are affected by family separation and immigration processing backlogs.
The Bush Plan
In order to understand the context of the Senate debate, it’s necessary to look at some of the major proposals on the table. In January 2004, President George W. Bush made the first of several speeches in which he called for stepped-up enforcement combined with a guestworker program that would offer temporary work visas to undocumented workers and workers from abroad.
The president’s plan pleased just about no one, however. Immigrant advocates criticized his guestworker plan because it would kick workers out of the country after six years and offer them no path to permanent residence and citizenship. Anti-immigrant restrictionists, meanwhile, labeled even this very limited guestworker program an “amnesty” that rewards lawbreakers.
The House Bill
In a few whirlwind days near the end of the session in December, House Republicans, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, railroaded through to passage the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (H.R. 4437).
The House bill (if approved by the Senate as well) would ratchet up border and interior enforcement and create severe new penalties for immigration violations. Unlawful presence –- when someone’s visa status expires, for example -– would no longer merely be a civil violation but would become a felony crime. Anyone who “assists” or “encourages” an undocumented immigrant to remain in the country could be sent to prison for five years –- a provision that has social workers, advocates, and others wondering if their work with undocumented populations is going to land them in jail if H.R. 4437 becomes law.
The enforcement-only approach taken by the House bill makes no attempt to deal realistically with the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country, other than to criminalize, arrest and deport as many of them as possible. Immigrant advocates insist that a more comprehensive and solution-oriented approach to fixing the broken U.S. immigration system is needed, and they have been riding on the hope that more moderate voices in the Senate will prevail.
The Senate Debate
A number of different immigration bills, all claiming to be comprehensive, have been introduced in the Senate, including a bill by Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy, and one by Senators John Cornyn and Jon Kyle. On February 23rd, however, Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released his “Chairman’s Mark,” a draft bill that ends the speculation about which bill would serve as the starting point for consideration of immigration reform in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Specter’s draft bill attempts to cobble together a compromise from various existing proposals. The bill, to immigrant advocates’ dismay, incorporates many of the severe enforcement provisions from the Sensenbrenner House bill. Like the Bush plan, it would create a guestworker program to allow needed workers from abroad to spend up to six years working in the United States before being forced to return to their country of origin.
The bill’s treatment of undocumented workers constitutes perhaps the most strained compromise of all. Specter’s bill would grant temporary visas of indefinite duration to undocumented immigrants; the visa status would not expire after a certain number of years. However, there would be no specific path to permanent residence and citizenship for these workers. This provision basically creates millions of workers stuck in a permanent second-class status.
What -- And Who's -- Missing
Immigrant communities are protesting the Chairman’s Mark as falling far short of the basic principles needed for effective and realistic immigration reform, which include:
legalization and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already here
reunification of families separated by restrictive laws and bureaucratic delays
a temporary-worker program with full labor rights and a path to citizenship
smart, targeted enforcement
These compelling principles need more champions in Congress if we are to achieve a humane and workable immigration system. New York’s senators have been largely missing from the immigration debate so far. But Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton could make a crucial difference in the weeks ahead in avoiding a rush to a compromise position drawn from deeply flawed proposals.
Norman Eng, an immigration attorney, is communications and research coordinator with The New York Immigration Coalition. For more immigrant news, see The Citizen.
The long-awaited immigration debate in the U.S. Senate is finally about to get underway. The next few weeks in the Senate will be crucial in determining how this country will treat the 11 million undocumented immigrants who have come in search of the American Dream but who lack legal status to live and work here. In the end, we’ll find out if we are capable of reforming the failing immigration system to manage migration flows better, and if we can do it in a way that treats immigrants fairly.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to begin working on sweeping immigration reform legislation in early March. Whatever bill emerges from that committee will then go to the full Senate for consideration and eventually a vote, most likely in April.
The stakes could not be higher for New York City, where an estimated half a million city residents live and work without legal immigration status, and many more are affected by family separation and immigration processing backlogs.
The Bush Plan
In order to understand the context of the Senate debate, it’s necessary to look at some of the major proposals on the table. In January 2004, President George W. Bush made the first of several speeches in which he called for stepped-up enforcement combined with a guestworker program that would offer temporary work visas to undocumented workers and workers from abroad.
The president’s plan pleased just about no one, however. Immigrant advocates criticized his guestworker plan because it would kick workers out of the country after six years and offer them no path to permanent residence and citizenship. Anti-immigrant restrictionists, meanwhile, labeled even this very limited guestworker program an “amnesty” that rewards lawbreakers.
The House Bill
In a few whirlwind days near the end of the session in December, House Republicans, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, railroaded through to passage the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (H.R. 4437).
The House bill (if approved by the Senate as well) would ratchet up border and interior enforcement and create severe new penalties for immigration violations. Unlawful presence –- when someone’s visa status expires, for example -– would no longer merely be a civil violation but would become a felony crime. Anyone who “assists” or “encourages” an undocumented immigrant to remain in the country could be sent to prison for five years –- a provision that has social workers, advocates, and others wondering if their work with undocumented populations is going to land them in jail if H.R. 4437 becomes law.
The enforcement-only approach taken by the House bill makes no attempt to deal realistically with the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country, other than to criminalize, arrest and deport as many of them as possible. Immigrant advocates insist that a more comprehensive and solution-oriented approach to fixing the broken U.S. immigration system is needed, and they have been riding on the hope that more moderate voices in the Senate will prevail.
The Senate Debate
A number of different immigration bills, all claiming to be comprehensive, have been introduced in the Senate, including a bill by Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy, and one by Senators John Cornyn and Jon Kyle. On February 23rd, however, Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released his “Chairman’s Mark,” a draft bill that ends the speculation about which bill would serve as the starting point for consideration of immigration reform in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Specter’s draft bill attempts to cobble together a compromise from various existing proposals. The bill, to immigrant advocates’ dismay, incorporates many of the severe enforcement provisions from the Sensenbrenner House bill. Like the Bush plan, it would create a guestworker program to allow needed workers from abroad to spend up to six years working in the United States before being forced to return to their country of origin.
The bill’s treatment of undocumented workers constitutes perhaps the most strained compromise of all. Specter’s bill would grant temporary visas of indefinite duration to undocumented immigrants; the visa status would not expire after a certain number of years. However, there would be no specific path to permanent residence and citizenship for these workers. This provision basically creates millions of workers stuck in a permanent second-class status.
What -- And Who's -- Missing
Immigrant communities are protesting the Chairman’s Mark as falling far short of the basic principles needed for effective and realistic immigration reform, which include:
legalization and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already here
reunification of families separated by restrictive laws and bureaucratic delays
a temporary-worker program with full labor rights and a path to citizenship
smart, targeted enforcement
These compelling principles need more champions in Congress if we are to achieve a humane and workable immigration system. New York’s senators have been largely missing from the immigration debate so far. But Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton could make a crucial difference in the weeks ahead in avoiding a rush to a compromise position drawn from deeply flawed proposals.
Norman Eng, an immigration attorney, is communications and research coordinator with The New York Immigration Coalition. For more immigrant news, see The Citizen.
Hispanics New Target of Hate Groups
By BILL POOVEY,
Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:32 PM ET
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Organized hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan have historically terrorized blacks and Jews in the Southeast. But the recent influx of Hispanic immigrants to the region has given hate groups a new target, and officials say Hispanics are increasingly targets of hate crimes.
Former Klansman Daniel Schertz, a 27-year-old from the southeast Tennessee town of South Pittsburg, was indicted in June on charges of building pipe bombs to kill Hispanic immigrants.
Imperial Wizard Billy Jeffery of the North Georgia White Knights denied any connection to the bomb plot and said he banished Schertz from the group, but he readily admits he isn't happy with the flow of immigrants to the region."
The blacks fought for their civil rights. These illegal immigrants are coming in here and having everything just handed to them," Jeffery said.
Advocates say there are no precise statistics on hate crimes against Hispanics. Victims don't always call the police because of their precarious immigration status."People feel they will not be protected, and they are risking deportation," said John Bernstein, director of federal policy at the National Immigration Law Center in Washington. "That is more and more a problem with hate crimes."
Hate crimes against Hispanic immigrants have been common in other parts of the country, but Southern states saw their Hispanic populations boom in the 1990s. Arkansas' Hispanic population rose by 337 percent during the decade, Georgia's by 300 percent, Tennessee's by 278 percent and South Carolina's by 211 percent.
One of the first signs of organized anti-Hispanic activity in the South occurred in Gainesville, Ga., in 1998, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama group that tracks hate crimes.
The American Knights of the KKK held a rally on Hall County Courthouse steps, followed by a cross-burning in nearby Winder. A few years later, in 2001, the nation's largest neo-nazi organization, the National Alliance, staged a rally in Hall County.
Santos Aguilar of the Alianza Del Pueblo, an advocacy center for immigrants in Knoxville, said he believes the number of hate groups taking aim at immigrants continues to grow.
"The majority of the crimes are not reported to the law enforcement agencies," he said.
While a member of the North Georgia White Knights, Schertz was caught by an undercover federal agent and a confidential informant. Court records show he took them shopping for bomb materials at a home improvement store."
Once at Lowe's, Schertz picked out five end caps and some silicone for the pipe bombs he was making," the agent's affidavit says. He then explained how to wire the explosives.
After returning to a shed at his home, Schertz gave instructions "down to the proper order of laying gun powder and shrapnel material." He made five pipe bombs and sold them for $750, records show.
Schertz is charged with teaching and demonstrating how to make a weapon of mass destruction and interstate transport of explosive material with intent to kill or injure. He is being held without bond.
Schertz's attorney, Mike Caputo, declined to comment on the charges, but said he was working on a plea agreement. He said Schertz is a military veteran and has no previous criminal record.
His Klan leader, Jeffery, said Schertz was thrown out of the Klan for unrelated disobedience in mid-May — weeks after the alleged bomb making and selling in April.
"We kicked him out for breaking his oath that he swore before God," Jeffery, 43, said in a telephone interview. "We are not a violence-making group, and we don't believe in that. This isn't the '50s and '60s."
Federal agents say hate groups always deny involvement when one of their members is charged with a crime.
"There are always a percentage of these people who are ready, willing and able to go off," said James M. Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Nashville field division.
Cavanaugh said that "when the group burns the cross, worships under the swastika, you dehumanize the people ... that has been a plague on the world for centuries."
The Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report counted 762 active hate groups in the United States in 2004. South Carolina had the most, with 47, and Tennessee had the most Klan chapters, with 13.
David Lubell, director of the Nashville-based Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the Schertz case shows how supremacist talk can prompt violence.
"It is what happened in the civil rights movement. All of a sudden it is acceptable to incite hatred of immigrants, whether Latino, or from Africa, or Asia or wherever," he said.
Lubell said "usually it is a lone wolf kind of person who listens to these messages and acts on them ... This is just a symptom of what has been anti-immigrant sentiment, much more freely used by radio talk show hosts, anti-immigrant groups and even politicians."___
Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:32 PM ET
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Organized hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan have historically terrorized blacks and Jews in the Southeast. But the recent influx of Hispanic immigrants to the region has given hate groups a new target, and officials say Hispanics are increasingly targets of hate crimes.
Former Klansman Daniel Schertz, a 27-year-old from the southeast Tennessee town of South Pittsburg, was indicted in June on charges of building pipe bombs to kill Hispanic immigrants.
Imperial Wizard Billy Jeffery of the North Georgia White Knights denied any connection to the bomb plot and said he banished Schertz from the group, but he readily admits he isn't happy with the flow of immigrants to the region."
The blacks fought for their civil rights. These illegal immigrants are coming in here and having everything just handed to them," Jeffery said.
Advocates say there are no precise statistics on hate crimes against Hispanics. Victims don't always call the police because of their precarious immigration status."People feel they will not be protected, and they are risking deportation," said John Bernstein, director of federal policy at the National Immigration Law Center in Washington. "That is more and more a problem with hate crimes."
Hate crimes against Hispanic immigrants have been common in other parts of the country, but Southern states saw their Hispanic populations boom in the 1990s. Arkansas' Hispanic population rose by 337 percent during the decade, Georgia's by 300 percent, Tennessee's by 278 percent and South Carolina's by 211 percent.
One of the first signs of organized anti-Hispanic activity in the South occurred in Gainesville, Ga., in 1998, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama group that tracks hate crimes.
The American Knights of the KKK held a rally on Hall County Courthouse steps, followed by a cross-burning in nearby Winder. A few years later, in 2001, the nation's largest neo-nazi organization, the National Alliance, staged a rally in Hall County.
Santos Aguilar of the Alianza Del Pueblo, an advocacy center for immigrants in Knoxville, said he believes the number of hate groups taking aim at immigrants continues to grow.
"The majority of the crimes are not reported to the law enforcement agencies," he said.
While a member of the North Georgia White Knights, Schertz was caught by an undercover federal agent and a confidential informant. Court records show he took them shopping for bomb materials at a home improvement store."
Once at Lowe's, Schertz picked out five end caps and some silicone for the pipe bombs he was making," the agent's affidavit says. He then explained how to wire the explosives.
After returning to a shed at his home, Schertz gave instructions "down to the proper order of laying gun powder and shrapnel material." He made five pipe bombs and sold them for $750, records show.
Schertz is charged with teaching and demonstrating how to make a weapon of mass destruction and interstate transport of explosive material with intent to kill or injure. He is being held without bond.
Schertz's attorney, Mike Caputo, declined to comment on the charges, but said he was working on a plea agreement. He said Schertz is a military veteran and has no previous criminal record.
His Klan leader, Jeffery, said Schertz was thrown out of the Klan for unrelated disobedience in mid-May — weeks after the alleged bomb making and selling in April.
"We kicked him out for breaking his oath that he swore before God," Jeffery, 43, said in a telephone interview. "We are not a violence-making group, and we don't believe in that. This isn't the '50s and '60s."
Federal agents say hate groups always deny involvement when one of their members is charged with a crime.
"There are always a percentage of these people who are ready, willing and able to go off," said James M. Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Nashville field division.
Cavanaugh said that "when the group burns the cross, worships under the swastika, you dehumanize the people ... that has been a plague on the world for centuries."
The Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report counted 762 active hate groups in the United States in 2004. South Carolina had the most, with 47, and Tennessee had the most Klan chapters, with 13.
David Lubell, director of the Nashville-based Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the Schertz case shows how supremacist talk can prompt violence.
"It is what happened in the civil rights movement. All of a sudden it is acceptable to incite hatred of immigrants, whether Latino, or from Africa, or Asia or wherever," he said.
Lubell said "usually it is a lone wolf kind of person who listens to these messages and acts on them ... This is just a symptom of what has been anti-immigrant sentiment, much more freely used by radio talk show hosts, anti-immigrant groups and even politicians."___
On the Minutemen
In the Shadow of the Minutemen
Sunday, February 26 2006 @ 06:00 PM PST
by Zach Morris, ARA
Their founders and spokesmen have appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes and chapters have popped up from Bisbee, Arizona to Fort Lee, New Jersey, but what few know about the anti-immigrant, vigilante Minuteman Project is their connection to violent white power groups.
Their founders and spokesmen have appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes and chapters have popped up from Bisbee, Arizona to Fort Lee, New Jersey, but what few know about the anti-immigrant, vigilante Minuteman Project is their connection to violent white power groups.
THE NEW THREAT
Founded by right-wing extremists Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox in April of 2005, the Minuteman Project ostensibly began as “a reminder to Americans that our nation was founded as a nation governed by the 'rule of law,' not by the whims of mobs of ILLEGAL [sic] aliens who endlessly stream across U.S. borders.” Vigilantes, many of them armed, pledged to keep watch on the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexican border, to detain anyone crossing the border illegally from Mexico and to promptly notify the U.S. Border Patrol of their location. Instead, their patrols have either been covert vigilante actions of questionable legality (there has been talk of setting up “sniper posts” along the border on Minutemen web forums, coincidental to a series of at least nineteen “unexplained” murders of Latino immigrants, by gunshot wounds, in the Arizona and New Mexico deserts) or have been orchestrated media stunts aimed at whipping up racist, anti-Latino sentiment.Supporters say that they are simply helping over-taxed, under-powered law enforcement perform their duties under the Constitution, but critics contend this is nothing more than a veil to legitimize the actions of violent racist organizations.The Minuteman Project has since moved from the U.S.-Mexican border to recruitment throughout the United States, usually in areas with a large or growing Latino immigrant population far away from any international borders.
COMMON THREADS
Looking at the background and political affiliations of the Minuteman Project's leadership, as well as the activities of its membership, critics' claims are not surprising.56-year old Gilchrist, the Minuteman Project's director who once envisioned a future where America would be host to “neighborhood armies of 20 to 40 going out and killing and invading one another” if immigration continued, is also a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens and the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. Both organizations are considered hate groups: the Council of Conservative Citizens opposes “race-mixing” and has close links to the neo-fascist British National Party, while Barbara Coe, president of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, refers to Mexicans as “savages” and claims to have knowledge of a “secret plan” by the Mexican government to invade and annex the American Southwest.Simcox joined forces with Gilchrist only after suffering a mental breakdown in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on NYC. Initially restricting himself to bizarre answering machine messages that demanded the caller recite the preamble to the Constitution before leaving a message, he left his home and family in Los Angeles to embark on an anti-immigrant crusade. His ex-wife, Kate Dunbar, filed for sole custody of their child in late 2001, citing “sudden, violent fits of rage,” paranoid outbursts and instances of child abuse at the hands of Simcox. Organizationally, the idea of holding vigilante patrols of the southern border is not new: the Ku Klux Klan did it in the 1960's and called it the Ku Klux Klan Border patrol. Then in the 1980's, the KKK did it again and called themselves the Minutemen. The 1960's also saw the rise of right-wing terrorist group who called for the assassination of left-wing student and civil rights activists. Their founder was arrested after an armed bank robbery attempt in 1968. The name of this right-wing terrorist organization? The Minutemen. Go figure.
DISSENT WITHIN THE RANKS
Interestingly enough, the most jarring criticism of the current Minutemen does not just come from anti-racist activists, it also comes from within the Minutemen's own ranks.Self-described anti-immigration activist Jim Chase, founder of the California Border Watch group, publicly severed all ties with the Minuteman Project and other groups in November of 2005. Chase stated in his open letter to them: “You have murderers in your ranks. You have Nazis, other anti-Jews, and anti-Hispanic racists side by side with you. You are whom you run around with. Proud to be a Minuteman now? You may not be so proud in the future.”What Chase is referring to is the deep association of the Minutemen to racist groups. In April of 2005, during the Minutemen's border watch, a neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance flooded the border towns of Bisbee, Douglas and Nogales with racist literature calling for the extermination of all non-whites in support of the Minuteman Project's efforts. Members of White Revolution, the National Vanguard and other Nazi groups have been featured prominently at Minutemen recruitment events. Most blatantly, many Minuteman affiliated groups, such as California's Save Our State, now openly embrace white power fascist politics.The Minutemen also claim to be peaceful, yet encourage their members to engage in armed patrols. They have also engaged in violence. On May 25, 2005, Minuteman supporter Hal Netkin drove his van into a crowd of anti-racist protesters outside of a Minuteman rally in Garden Grove California, sending two people to the hospital. Yet, in public, Minutemen spokesmen continue to deny such accusations.
CALLING THE BLUFF ON A POKER FACE
Local activists from Anti-Racist Action and the One People's Project recently exposed the band Poker Face for its anti-Semitism, leading to a flurry of follow up articles in local New Jersey papers. Poker Face was scheduled to play the NJ Libertarian Party's annual convention at the University Inn at Rutgers University, but after residents, students and alumnae sent letters and phone calls of protest to the administration, Rutgers pulled the plug. Rutgers' officials denied the cancellation had anything to do with the allegations of anti-Semitism. Lead singer Paul Topete repeatedly denied being anti-Semitic in interviews to various newspapers while at the same time effectively denying that the Holocaust ever happened. Topete also denied being racist by stating that he was half-Mexican.Well, it just so happens that after Poker Face's Rutgers appearance was canceled, they managed to book another show at a conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The conference just happened to be a recruitment meeting for a Pennsylvania chapter of the Minuteman Project, headed by John Ryan of Quakertown, PA. The conference was moved to that hotel after the management of the Valley Forge Convention Center canceled the Minutemen's event due to protests regarding the group's racist ties. Outside the conference, one attendee said to a protester holding a sign that read, The Minutemen are a Nazi Front: “Yes, we are, and proud of it!”
GROWING CONCERN, GROWING OPPOSITION
Despite being lauded by public figures such as CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox's Sean Hannity and California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar, there is growing opposition to the Minuteman Project, ranging from small community groups to national civil rights organizations and direct action oriented anti-racist activists. Yet all recognize the Minutemen for what they are, only a symptom of a much larger problem. While membership in racist organizations has declined over the past five years, the number of racist and anti-Semitic bias incidents has increased. Hysteria created by politicians and conservatives over national security issues, the so-called “Culture Wars” and the large influx of Latino immigrants is proving to be a volatile mix. Neo-Nazis have seized on this to incite violence against people of color, Jews, Muslims and homosexuals.
On February 25, the same day as the Minutemen conference in Pennsylvania, members of the swastika-armband clad National Socialist Movement attempted to march through a predominantly black neighborhood in Orlando, Florida. Others held rallies outside of Chicago. Additionally, the Minutemen held recruitment meetings in 43 cities nationwide that Saturday. Anti-racist and civil rights groups are gearing up for a long campaign to counter the shadow cast by organized racists. They vow to keep working until Americans realize that the only border the Minutemen are really interested in patrolling is the Mason-Dixon line. Until then, anti-racists will continue to be ready at a minute's notice to stand up against this new face of hate.
Sunday, February 26 2006 @ 06:00 PM PST
by Zach Morris, ARA
Their founders and spokesmen have appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes and chapters have popped up from Bisbee, Arizona to Fort Lee, New Jersey, but what few know about the anti-immigrant, vigilante Minuteman Project is their connection to violent white power groups.
Their founders and spokesmen have appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes and chapters have popped up from Bisbee, Arizona to Fort Lee, New Jersey, but what few know about the anti-immigrant, vigilante Minuteman Project is their connection to violent white power groups.
THE NEW THREAT
Founded by right-wing extremists Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox in April of 2005, the Minuteman Project ostensibly began as “a reminder to Americans that our nation was founded as a nation governed by the 'rule of law,' not by the whims of mobs of ILLEGAL [sic] aliens who endlessly stream across U.S. borders.” Vigilantes, many of them armed, pledged to keep watch on the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexican border, to detain anyone crossing the border illegally from Mexico and to promptly notify the U.S. Border Patrol of their location. Instead, their patrols have either been covert vigilante actions of questionable legality (there has been talk of setting up “sniper posts” along the border on Minutemen web forums, coincidental to a series of at least nineteen “unexplained” murders of Latino immigrants, by gunshot wounds, in the Arizona and New Mexico deserts) or have been orchestrated media stunts aimed at whipping up racist, anti-Latino sentiment.Supporters say that they are simply helping over-taxed, under-powered law enforcement perform their duties under the Constitution, but critics contend this is nothing more than a veil to legitimize the actions of violent racist organizations.The Minuteman Project has since moved from the U.S.-Mexican border to recruitment throughout the United States, usually in areas with a large or growing Latino immigrant population far away from any international borders.
COMMON THREADS
Looking at the background and political affiliations of the Minuteman Project's leadership, as well as the activities of its membership, critics' claims are not surprising.56-year old Gilchrist, the Minuteman Project's director who once envisioned a future where America would be host to “neighborhood armies of 20 to 40 going out and killing and invading one another” if immigration continued, is also a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens and the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. Both organizations are considered hate groups: the Council of Conservative Citizens opposes “race-mixing” and has close links to the neo-fascist British National Party, while Barbara Coe, president of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, refers to Mexicans as “savages” and claims to have knowledge of a “secret plan” by the Mexican government to invade and annex the American Southwest.Simcox joined forces with Gilchrist only after suffering a mental breakdown in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on NYC. Initially restricting himself to bizarre answering machine messages that demanded the caller recite the preamble to the Constitution before leaving a message, he left his home and family in Los Angeles to embark on an anti-immigrant crusade. His ex-wife, Kate Dunbar, filed for sole custody of their child in late 2001, citing “sudden, violent fits of rage,” paranoid outbursts and instances of child abuse at the hands of Simcox. Organizationally, the idea of holding vigilante patrols of the southern border is not new: the Ku Klux Klan did it in the 1960's and called it the Ku Klux Klan Border patrol. Then in the 1980's, the KKK did it again and called themselves the Minutemen. The 1960's also saw the rise of right-wing terrorist group who called for the assassination of left-wing student and civil rights activists. Their founder was arrested after an armed bank robbery attempt in 1968. The name of this right-wing terrorist organization? The Minutemen. Go figure.
DISSENT WITHIN THE RANKS
Interestingly enough, the most jarring criticism of the current Minutemen does not just come from anti-racist activists, it also comes from within the Minutemen's own ranks.Self-described anti-immigration activist Jim Chase, founder of the California Border Watch group, publicly severed all ties with the Minuteman Project and other groups in November of 2005. Chase stated in his open letter to them: “You have murderers in your ranks. You have Nazis, other anti-Jews, and anti-Hispanic racists side by side with you. You are whom you run around with. Proud to be a Minuteman now? You may not be so proud in the future.”What Chase is referring to is the deep association of the Minutemen to racist groups. In April of 2005, during the Minutemen's border watch, a neo-Nazi group called the National Alliance flooded the border towns of Bisbee, Douglas and Nogales with racist literature calling for the extermination of all non-whites in support of the Minuteman Project's efforts. Members of White Revolution, the National Vanguard and other Nazi groups have been featured prominently at Minutemen recruitment events. Most blatantly, many Minuteman affiliated groups, such as California's Save Our State, now openly embrace white power fascist politics.The Minutemen also claim to be peaceful, yet encourage their members to engage in armed patrols. They have also engaged in violence. On May 25, 2005, Minuteman supporter Hal Netkin drove his van into a crowd of anti-racist protesters outside of a Minuteman rally in Garden Grove California, sending two people to the hospital. Yet, in public, Minutemen spokesmen continue to deny such accusations.
CALLING THE BLUFF ON A POKER FACE
Local activists from Anti-Racist Action and the One People's Project recently exposed the band Poker Face for its anti-Semitism, leading to a flurry of follow up articles in local New Jersey papers. Poker Face was scheduled to play the NJ Libertarian Party's annual convention at the University Inn at Rutgers University, but after residents, students and alumnae sent letters and phone calls of protest to the administration, Rutgers pulled the plug. Rutgers' officials denied the cancellation had anything to do with the allegations of anti-Semitism. Lead singer Paul Topete repeatedly denied being anti-Semitic in interviews to various newspapers while at the same time effectively denying that the Holocaust ever happened. Topete also denied being racist by stating that he was half-Mexican.Well, it just so happens that after Poker Face's Rutgers appearance was canceled, they managed to book another show at a conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The conference just happened to be a recruitment meeting for a Pennsylvania chapter of the Minuteman Project, headed by John Ryan of Quakertown, PA. The conference was moved to that hotel after the management of the Valley Forge Convention Center canceled the Minutemen's event due to protests regarding the group's racist ties. Outside the conference, one attendee said to a protester holding a sign that read, The Minutemen are a Nazi Front: “Yes, we are, and proud of it!”
GROWING CONCERN, GROWING OPPOSITION
Despite being lauded by public figures such as CNN's Lou Dobbs, Fox's Sean Hannity and California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar, there is growing opposition to the Minuteman Project, ranging from small community groups to national civil rights organizations and direct action oriented anti-racist activists. Yet all recognize the Minutemen for what they are, only a symptom of a much larger problem. While membership in racist organizations has declined over the past five years, the number of racist and anti-Semitic bias incidents has increased. Hysteria created by politicians and conservatives over national security issues, the so-called “Culture Wars” and the large influx of Latino immigrants is proving to be a volatile mix. Neo-Nazis have seized on this to incite violence against people of color, Jews, Muslims and homosexuals.
On February 25, the same day as the Minutemen conference in Pennsylvania, members of the swastika-armband clad National Socialist Movement attempted to march through a predominantly black neighborhood in Orlando, Florida. Others held rallies outside of Chicago. Additionally, the Minutemen held recruitment meetings in 43 cities nationwide that Saturday. Anti-racist and civil rights groups are gearing up for a long campaign to counter the shadow cast by organized racists. They vow to keep working until Americans realize that the only border the Minutemen are really interested in patrolling is the Mason-Dixon line. Until then, anti-racists will continue to be ready at a minute's notice to stand up against this new face of hate.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
A few highlights from my week
Amy Goodman and Howard Zinn listening and looking on at Saturday's Quaker Arts Committee talk Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal.
Jupiter and Dannyboy's interpretation of Ying-Yang. Do you think they're dreaming about Taoism?
Leaving Sunnyside.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Manhattan had an ominous tinge to it today. The sky was full of gray cotton clouds. The overcast daylight made colors pop out of the multigrade shades of the sidewalks, asphalt and buildings. Then the gray cotton became a big public school blackboard. Yet no rain fell. I cut through Bryant Park to Fifth Avenue. The park looked like a school cafeteria after lunch. For every six chairs around a table there was one person seated. The green metal tables and chairs were positioned in a fashion that indicated many lunch encounters must've taken place earlier in the day. Some were paired off distanced from the rest. Others looked like co-worker chairs in a circle. Now they looked like those abandoned nests in the trees. I wonder about the birds who construct those nests. How long does it take to build one of them? Do both bird parents build it together? And how do they know how to make? Or that they even should build nests? I guess not all of them do because there are A LOT of pigeons here in the city. Each tree would be like pigeon apartment/birthing structure.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Arggghhh I live in Juliard!
There's an opera singer next door or wall practicing. Nothing but scales, ghastly scales... I feel like Salieri from Amadeus. WTF!!
Remember the children of the Tenth Department...
Last night, I dreamt that I was in the Haitian governmental palace, or rather what my mind imagines it to be like, walking down a long and narrow marble & exposed brick corridor. A plaque (in English, I guess) to the left of the large imposing door at the end of the corridor reminded legislators to remember to think about the children of the Tenth Department. The Tenth Department, from what I understand, is a designation/sector created by the Haitian government signifying the Haitian nationals residing abroad in NYC, Miami, and elsewhere. When I pulled the large door open, the room, which up to then was lit with dreary, depressing rectangular florescent lights, was overwhelmed with sunlight, green slopes and valleys and little kids jumping rope, playing hopscotch and jacks.
J., an ex, was also in my dream. We had a baby together and he was really good with it. At first the baby was a loaner (we were babysitters) but by the end of the dream he was ours. He was a white baby, one of those fat, blonde, blue-eyed ones from commercials. He also kinda looked like the Gerber baby and Sweet Pea from the Popeye movie. Sweet Pea. That kid must be my age. But in the dream, the boy--who never had a name the whole time--, J., and I were being schlepped around through the Catskill Mountains, Niagara Falls and a wooden arcade, which must've been on the Canadian side of the Falls because once I saw a PBS special (or was it the History Channel?) that said that their's was much more welcoming to visitors and tourists than our side (surprise, surprise), which was more business and industry-oriented, on a madcap adventure by an upstate Native American lesbian couple. But anyway, the boy was always smiling and giggling; he was a pretty good kid.
J., an ex, was also in my dream. We had a baby together and he was really good with it. At first the baby was a loaner (we were babysitters) but by the end of the dream he was ours. He was a white baby, one of those fat, blonde, blue-eyed ones from commercials. He also kinda looked like the Gerber baby and Sweet Pea from the Popeye movie. Sweet Pea. That kid must be my age. But in the dream, the boy--who never had a name the whole time--, J., and I were being schlepped around through the Catskill Mountains, Niagara Falls and a wooden arcade, which must've been on the Canadian side of the Falls because once I saw a PBS special (or was it the History Channel?) that said that their's was much more welcoming to visitors and tourists than our side (surprise, surprise), which was more business and industry-oriented, on a madcap adventure by an upstate Native American lesbian couple. But anyway, the boy was always smiling and giggling; he was a pretty good kid.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
TLC a la Moi (a work in progress)
A recipe for self-honor & love:
Joyful sounds (Grupo Niche or Lila Downs, Juan Luis Guerra is a mandatory)
Disc One of "Faith in the Valley" by Iyanla Vanzant
1 hour of silence (in a Meeting House, if possible)
Delicious, nourishing food (e.g. My house special: whole grain pasta with olive oil, fresh basil & garlic, salt)
One long conversation in the shower with the divine spirit, your self, and anyone who deserves to hear some of your good sense
Plenty of water
Some yoga stretches
Herbal tea (Yogi Detox tea or Chamomile tea or Green tea are especially good)
Think about where you were a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago and all that you've accomplished and grown
Joyful sounds (Grupo Niche or Lila Downs, Juan Luis Guerra is a mandatory)
Disc One of "Faith in the Valley" by Iyanla Vanzant
1 hour of silence (in a Meeting House, if possible)
Delicious, nourishing food (e.g. My house special: whole grain pasta with olive oil, fresh basil & garlic, salt)
One long conversation in the shower with the divine spirit, your self, and anyone who deserves to hear some of your good sense
Plenty of water
Some yoga stretches
Herbal tea (Yogi Detox tea or Chamomile tea or Green tea are especially good)
Think about where you were a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago and all that you've accomplished and grown
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Today I had my first doctor appointments since I went to Urgent Care last Tuesday. Of note was my first physical therapy appointment; an evaluation, really. Apparently I hurt a disc in my lower back region. The physical therapist was so sweet. It felt good to have someone be attentive to my pained areas. To be with someone whose job requires her to be cognizant that each person's body is full of unique intricacies and as such tailors the therapy accordingly. The regular physicians read the folder more than they look at you. Sadly, these days C.Y.A. trumps T.L.C.
Even after this first visit, I feel the healing beginning. I feel like I'm starting to get back to normal, healthy 24-year-old Monika. One reason I believe this to be true, is that I'm starting to reflect on and learn lessons from this experience.
Beyond the physical ailment, the symbolism behind it isn't lost on me. Losing my ability to carry my own weight and support myself is both scary and eye-opening.
I think about how far empathy and caring goes. My mom and Frank have picked up so much of my slack (mostly in the form of library books and groceries) in the past week even though both of them lead full lives. It just feels good to directly witness people act and help you out of love for you and nothing else.
But getting back to my reflections and lessons, I'm glad that I've gotten this opportunity to literally and symbolically strengthen my spine. And realign it, too. I could be better about balancing myself; to use all of my muscles (strength) rather than relying on some more than others.
Having lower back pain usually means that one's core is weak. This truly resonates for me. In the pursuit of spiritual, intellectual and emotional growth, I let my physical needs turn into an outgrown and unruly garden. I think that this injury attests to it and is a reminder to get working on that part of my self.
I'm so funny. Even though 90 percent of my work week schedule is the same during this Spring Recess week, I'm behaving so differently. "Academic" Monika would never be up at 1:20p.m. on a Wednesday-Thursday night. Funny.
Even after this first visit, I feel the healing beginning. I feel like I'm starting to get back to normal, healthy 24-year-old Monika. One reason I believe this to be true, is that I'm starting to reflect on and learn lessons from this experience.
Beyond the physical ailment, the symbolism behind it isn't lost on me. Losing my ability to carry my own weight and support myself is both scary and eye-opening.
I think about how far empathy and caring goes. My mom and Frank have picked up so much of my slack (mostly in the form of library books and groceries) in the past week even though both of them lead full lives. It just feels good to directly witness people act and help you out of love for you and nothing else.
But getting back to my reflections and lessons, I'm glad that I've gotten this opportunity to literally and symbolically strengthen my spine. And realign it, too. I could be better about balancing myself; to use all of my muscles (strength) rather than relying on some more than others.
Having lower back pain usually means that one's core is weak. This truly resonates for me. In the pursuit of spiritual, intellectual and emotional growth, I let my physical needs turn into an outgrown and unruly garden. I think that this injury attests to it and is a reminder to get working on that part of my self.
I'm so funny. Even though 90 percent of my work week schedule is the same during this Spring Recess week, I'm behaving so differently. "Academic" Monika would never be up at 1:20p.m. on a Wednesday-Thursday night. Funny.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
What a great horoscope:
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The ancient Greeks had words for love that transcend our usual notions, writes Lindsay Swope in her review of Richard Idemon’s book Through the Looking Glass. Epithemia is the basic need to touch and be touched. Our closest approximation is “horniness,” though epithemia is not so much a sexual feeling as a sensual one. Philia is friendship. It includes the need to admire and respect your friends as a reflection of yourself—like in high school, where you want to hang out with the cool kids because that means you’re cool too. Eros isn’t sexual in the way we usually think, but is more about the emotional gratification that comes from merging souls. Agape is a mature, utterly free expression of love that has no possessiveness. It means wanting the best for another person even if it doesn’t advance one’s self-interest. The phase you’re currently in, Virgo, is providing you with opportunities to explore the frontiers of at least three of these kinds of love.
from: http://artvoice.com/issues/v5n10/free_will_astrology
from: http://artvoice.com/issues/v5n10/free_will_astrology
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
No donating for YOU! & Oscars talk
Got rejected AGAIN! Last Saturday, I went to another donation place to give platelets (not the whole blood just the platelets) and my iron was even lower! Who woulda thought a little double expresso would do such a number on the iron count. Boy I tell ya, if getting into college or grad school depended on your iron count I'd probably still be an eighth grader.
Oscars were good. Gustavo Santaoallla (the Argentine who won Best Original Score for Brokeback Mountain and dedicated the award to all Latinos in is acceptance speech) is quite special in my heart because he's Cafe Tacuba's producer extraordinaire. He's also produced Juanes and sold his Bajofondo Tango Club song to a car company but hey, the guy's a got a mortgage like everyone else.
For the record, Brokeback was robbed.* The Times hit it on the head; Crash was the hometown fave, very FUBU (For Us By Us), if you will. As a film, Crash is an afterschool special for idiots and as realistic as Rupaul competing in a Miss America pageant. I couldn't sit through the entire movie, I walked out of the theater. I also thought Heath Ledger's cowboy was better than Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Capote; but overall, the burly blonde is gifted. Jon Stewart was a riot though. I loved the faux-political ads.
*I could write volumes or talk hours about how Brokeback is a great movie. Suffice it to say, the movie was the true winner this year.
Oscars were good. Gustavo Santaoallla (the Argentine who won Best Original Score for Brokeback Mountain and dedicated the award to all Latinos in is acceptance speech) is quite special in my heart because he's Cafe Tacuba's producer extraordinaire. He's also produced Juanes and sold his Bajofondo Tango Club song to a car company but hey, the guy's a got a mortgage like everyone else.
For the record, Brokeback was robbed.* The Times hit it on the head; Crash was the hometown fave, very FUBU (For Us By Us), if you will. As a film, Crash is an afterschool special for idiots and as realistic as Rupaul competing in a Miss America pageant. I couldn't sit through the entire movie, I walked out of the theater. I also thought Heath Ledger's cowboy was better than Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Capote; but overall, the burly blonde is gifted. Jon Stewart was a riot though. I loved the faux-political ads.
*I could write volumes or talk hours about how Brokeback is a great movie. Suffice it to say, the movie was the true winner this year.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Denied!
I was rejected at the donor center because my iron was .04 something, I don't even know the unit of measure, too low. Let that be a lesson ladies: the post-period week is too soon for donation, fyi. Anyguey, after being deemed iron deficient I went swimming. Since our bodies 60 percent water no matter what, I knew I would fit in or wouldn't be turn away (unless there was a swimming practice or meet, but you get my point).
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Sabado relajante
Frank says the week flew by. I say the week dragged but the semester is flying. Just had breakfast with my mom. Life has changed. Ten years ago she was my number one enemy, today she's my spine. I'm listening to Tupac's Greatest Hits album, "I get around" is on. I'm back in '96 big time.
Today, in about two hours, my body will extract a pint of blood from a plucked vein. It's been 56 days and the NY Blood Center seems to have me on speed-dial. It's all good. I find it funny that the site is inside the Citigroup building. I'm donating at a bank, hardy har har. It was funnier in my head.
The week was fruitful. Slowly I'm letting go of fears and insecurities that were so ingrained I thought they were facets of my personality. I still feel like my true self wears twenty North Face coats, mittens, and earmuffs for a winter ended a long time ago. And I know this but I keep it all on for security, precaution, and isolation. It's all a process though, a trip with an irrelevant destination. Let get outta here and go give away my sangre, gresan, ergnas, my gotas of me. Its wild to think that there are folks somewhere walking about with some of me inside of them.
Today, in about two hours, my body will extract a pint of blood from a plucked vein. It's been 56 days and the NY Blood Center seems to have me on speed-dial. It's all good. I find it funny that the site is inside the Citigroup building. I'm donating at a bank, hardy har har. It was funnier in my head.
The week was fruitful. Slowly I'm letting go of fears and insecurities that were so ingrained I thought they were facets of my personality. I still feel like my true self wears twenty North Face coats, mittens, and earmuffs for a winter ended a long time ago. And I know this but I keep it all on for security, precaution, and isolation. It's all a process though, a trip with an irrelevant destination. Let get outta here and go give away my sangre, gresan, ergnas, my gotas of me. Its wild to think that there are folks somewhere walking about with some of me inside of them.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Things I'd like to do today... let's see
Go to my favorite second-hand furniture store in the Bronx
Have my eyebrows threaded- I've never done it before and I'm curious.
Go buy some frames for my posters and pic-tu-res
laundry-BOOOOOOO!
Walk a dog at B.A.R.C.
Work on my poetry
Finish The Prophet
Check out the Tianguis
I need some more contact lenses but I don't want waste my Sabbath (day of rest) on errands.
Write thank you cards to a couple of peeps.
Go swimming.
We'll see. In any case, I've got much to choose from. Happy Saturday!!!!!!!
Have my eyebrows threaded- I've never done it before and I'm curious.
Go buy some frames for my posters and pic-tu-res
laundry-BOOOOOOO!
Walk a dog at B.A.R.C.
Work on my poetry
Finish The Prophet
Check out the Tianguis
I need some more contact lenses but I don't want waste my Sabbath (day of rest) on errands.
Write thank you cards to a couple of peeps.
Go swimming.
We'll see. In any case, I've got much to choose from. Happy Saturday!!!!!!!
Friday, February 17, 2006
El que sabe sabe...
Here's my MSN horoscope:
February 17, 2006
You might find yourself out and about in your neighborhood today, running errands and paying visits to friends and family. Don't be surprised, however, if everyone you meet seems preoccupied and less inclined than usual to make light conversation, Monika. This is not the day to try to communicate about serious matters. All signs are that people are introverted, and their minds a bit befuddled. This is a great day to stay home and read.
February 17, 2006
You might find yourself out and about in your neighborhood today, running errands and paying visits to friends and family. Don't be surprised, however, if everyone you meet seems preoccupied and less inclined than usual to make light conversation, Monika. This is not the day to try to communicate about serious matters. All signs are that people are introverted, and their minds a bit befuddled. This is a great day to stay home and read.
What would Judge Mathis do?
I have major brain flatulence this morning. My body resists being productive once my last class of the week is over. From Thursday 9pm until Monday (sometimes Tuesday) my workbrain commutes to some obscure part of me, an intimate little bistro on a side street in my head to drink wine and pontificate about life.
So the rest of me is split on what to do today. I have tons of work to do, the only pieces of clean clothes left in my closet are my socks, and I have no desires to be anywhere but underneath my deliciously comfy flannel blanket and quilt.
What would you do Judge Mathis?
Monday, February 13, 2006
What happened to northern Manhattan?
When I Google'ed "map of Manhattan" I was dumbstruck at the number of map images (and respective websites) that have edited out upper Manhattan (see it here). The maps' makers--who you know are downtown New Yorkers themselves--just lopped off everything above Central Park as if it all broke off and floated away. See example below:
(from: Manhattanliving.com)
Harlem, El Barrio, and Washington Heights must be a part of the Bronx, I guess. Hmmm...Could this be the map the Mayor Bloomberg consults when designing the budget?
(from: Manhattanliving.com)
Harlem, El Barrio, and Washington Heights must be a part of the Bronx, I guess. Hmmm...Could this be the map the Mayor Bloomberg consults when designing the budget?
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Upon reading the snippet for an award-winning South African movie in today's Daily News (see it here), without passing judgement, I wonder:
Why is it easier to enter a movie theater ran than a neighborhood to witness the ‘ghetto life’? It’s this sort of detachment that prevents us from unifying as a people. The Civil Rights impacted the country precisely because it forced different communities to enter each others’ spaces and interact. We are regressing more and more each day as we keep figuring out effective and sneakier ways to exclude those who are different in class or race.
Why is it easier to enter a movie theater ran than a neighborhood to witness the ‘ghetto life’? It’s this sort of detachment that prevents us from unifying as a people. The Civil Rights impacted the country precisely because it forced different communities to enter each others’ spaces and interact. We are regressing more and more each day as we keep figuring out effective and sneakier ways to exclude those who are different in class or race.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Jackie Collins on Tony Danza Show...[Mon's imitation of the tabloid media]
Jackie Collins: I have to tell you [to the audience] this man has the greatest meatballs on earth.
Tony Danza: Yeah, my balls are great...
TD: ...Yes, I need to have my balls in the picture....
JC: ...Of course they have Italian blood in them...
Tony Danza: Yeah, my balls are great...
TD: ...Yes, I need to have my balls in the picture....
JC: ...Of course they have Italian blood in them...
Monday, February 06, 2006
The bittersweet Saturday
I spent most of Saturday at home. My thoughts, my breath, my being were slower than usual. I listened to the Republica Dominicana and Ladies of Latin America compilation cds while I worked on the frame for her picture. I've decided the picture needs a new location since Dannyboy knocks it down off of my desk lamp with his big hind feet when he's trying to find a comfy sleeping position. My poor abuela gets no respect.
On February 4, 2005, my grandmother Queta died. It's strange to think she's been buried in the earth for a whole year. She was 97 when she went. But with an advanced stage of Alzheimer's Disease, I think the abuela I knew growing up has been gone for years. Her frail frame became a jaula for the claustrophobic spirit of the matriarch in the royal blue bata.
Everyday afterschool she fed me a meal of grilled cheese sandwich, Tang, and a tale about her parents or children (my tias and tios) in Santo Domingo decades and decades ago.
The things she must have seen and lived through in those 97 years... She was born in 1908! Her life experiences and memories were the kind of stuff Hollywood and PBS filmmakers use in making nostalgia pictures and historical documentaries. Cut to a Spielberg movie (or Gregory Nava, if it's an ethnic pic) of Abuela Queta's life with J.Lo or Eva Longoria opposite Russell Crow or Javier Bardem in sweaty, tropical Santo Domingo and the Bronx (in the summertime) throughout the twentieth century.
After eating dinner, I went over to Rose's and hung out with Rose, her mom, Shaun, Rachel and others. We shared baby names and laughed at sketch comedy shows.
On February 4, 2005, my grandmother Queta died. It's strange to think she's been buried in the earth for a whole year. She was 97 when she went. But with an advanced stage of Alzheimer's Disease, I think the abuela I knew growing up has been gone for years. Her frail frame became a jaula for the claustrophobic spirit of the matriarch in the royal blue bata.
Everyday afterschool she fed me a meal of grilled cheese sandwich, Tang, and a tale about her parents or children (my tias and tios) in Santo Domingo decades and decades ago.
The things she must have seen and lived through in those 97 years... She was born in 1908! Her life experiences and memories were the kind of stuff Hollywood and PBS filmmakers use in making nostalgia pictures and historical documentaries. Cut to a Spielberg movie (or Gregory Nava, if it's an ethnic pic) of Abuela Queta's life with J.Lo or Eva Longoria opposite Russell Crow or Javier Bardem in sweaty, tropical Santo Domingo and the Bronx (in the summertime) throughout the twentieth century.
After eating dinner, I went over to Rose's and hung out with Rose, her mom, Shaun, Rachel and others. We shared baby names and laughed at sketch comedy shows.
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