“This draconian initiative signed into law this morning by Gov. Robert Bentley is so oppressive that even Bull Connor himself would be impressed,” said Wade Henderson, head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, referring to Birmingham’s notorious segregationist public safety commissioner from the civil rights era. “HB 56 is designed to do nothing more than terrorize the state’s Latino community.”
The Alabama immigration law, which is set to go into effect on Sept. 1, follows Arizona’s lead in requiring police to ask for legal documents if they reasonably suspect someone is in the country illegally.
But the Alabama law goes one step further than SB 1070, which was passed last year and then challenged by the federal government. The Alabama law requires schools to check the citizenship of their students — even though undocumented children are allowed, under law, to attend K-12 schools — and penalizes businesses if they do not check immigration status. It also forbids drivers from transporting undocumented immigrants, even though Alabama does not allow people without proper papers to get driver’s licenses and transport themselves. [ READ MORE ]
Last week, Cuéntame launched a powerful animated video exposing private prison corporations. The first of a sustained documentary campaign to expose the greed and the abuse by CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), The Geo Group and Management and Training corporations – which combined currently profit more than $5 billion a year at the expense of the detention and abuse of our immigrant community.
Already media outlets have taken notice and our video has been played in full on MSNBC, The Nation, Hola TV, The Huffington Post among many others. It won’t be long before private prison corporations begin retaliating and will put their unlimited resources in efforts to derail our powerful exposé.
The battle ahead won’t be easy but with your support and building strength in numbers we will be ready to take it on. We hope you enjoy our latest work by checking out some of our videos below.
- Axel Caballero and the rest of the Cuéntame team
•Journey through Georgia: Victims of private prisons: — Pedro Guzman was locked-up in a private detention facility for 19 months because of a procedural mistake. His wife Emily has gone through great lengths to get him out here is a preview of their powerful journey. Stay tuned for the full story. [ VIDEO ]
•MSNBC’s ‘The Last Word’ covers Cuéntame: — Thanks to all of your help in sharing the ‘Immigrants for Sale‘ video. We now need to double our effort! Please continue to make a difference by sharing the video with your friends and letting them know about our work! [ VIDEO ]
•Boycott Georgia corporations funding discrimination!: Georgia has followed in Arizona’s footsteps with discriminatory bill HB87. Like in AZ, the discriminatory bill has been taken to court and will cost taxpayers millions. Did you know GA also houses the largest private detention facility in the nation? Boycott the corporations which have funded those responsible for this discriminatory bill. Pledge to boycott GA @ Mycuentame.org/BoycottGeorgia [ VIDEO ]
•Gov. Brewer asks people to pay SB 1070 legal fees: — AZ Gov. Brewer is asking the public to pay the legal bill as she tries to defend her discriminatory SB1070 law in the U.S. Supreme Court. This should be a note to GA as it follows in AZ’s footsteps. We created a pop-up video message highlighting how these laws are unconstitutional and expensive! [ VIDEO ]
The L.A. Film Festival: Important Latino films to be featured — The Los Angeles Film Festival is focusing their International Spotlight this year on Cuba. When people think about this country, some only remember stories heard on the news about their political unrest and poverty. I bet what they didn’t know is that Cuba is filled with amazing culture and art among so many other of its colorful qualities… [ READ THE ARTICLE ]
Playlist: The Apartheid States in The U.S.
Playlist: American Anti-Immigrant Xenophobia — Exposing American Anti-Immigrant Bigots, Racists and Xenophobic Extortionists.
American XENOPHOBIA: Anti-Immigrant FEAR, HATE and LOATHING
[CLICK PLAYLIST FOR MENU]
———————————————————————— Fox on Immigrants: Just Hang ‘Em All!; Immigrants Are Serial Killers!
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Fox Obfuscates The Fact That A Majority Detained By ICE Program Are Nonviolent Immigrants: During Fox News’ coverage of Secure Communities, a deportation program begun under the Bush administration, Fox pushed the idea that opting out of the program would create “sanctuary states” for dangerous undocumented immigrants. In fact, a large proportion of individuals who are detained and deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry only misdemeanors and minor infractions or have no criminal conviction or background. [ READ MORE ]
Fox Suggests If States Opt Out Of Program, Serial Killers May Be On The Loose: On Fox, Lars Larson Seizes Opportunity To Rehash Immigration Myths — On Fox News, radio host Lars Larson repeated the myths that immigrants commit a disproportionate amount of crime and that the Obama administration “has not been great on deportations.” In fact, data don’t support the claim that undocumented immigrants have high crime rates; moreover, under Obama, deportations are at an all-time high. [ READ MORE ] [ READ MORE ]
MMFA: On Fox News, radio host Lars Larson repeated the myths that immigrants commit a disproportionate amount of crime and that the Obama administration “has not been great on deportations.” In fact, data don’t support the claim that undocumented immigrants have high crime rates; moreover, under Obama, deportations are at an all-time high. [ READ MORE ]
Scenario: In 2004 John Kerry won Michigan by 165,437 votes. Since last year, roughly the same number of homes have been foreclosed in Michigan, mostly owned by low-income African Americans.
Michigan is among states leading in new home foreclosures. A record 9 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June, as damage from the housing crisis continues to mount, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Friday, September 5, 2008.
Detroit, a city with a heavy minority population has the highest home foreclosure rate in United States.
Last week it was reported that Republicans plan to use home foreclosure lists to block voters from the polls. James Carabelli, chair of the Macomb County Republican Party, told Michigan Messenger that on election day Republican volunteers will “have a list of foreclosed homes and make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses.” The Republican party will use returned mail to challenge voters based on residency.
Macomb County is part of the Detroit metropolitan area.
The Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer said Tuesday that the “lose your home, lose your vote” strategy, even if the challenges are unsuccessful, “creates an atmosphere of intimidation that could drive voters from the polls.” He said even people who aren’t challenged may leave without voting because lines move slower at polling places.
Obama is challenging these Republican goons. In their suit, the Obama team contends that GOP has a history of voter “caging.” The 24-page filing incorporates Michigan Messenger’s report last week that a GOP official in Macomb County cited plans to use such lists to challenge voters in November into a broader narrative based on decades of Democratic complaints about how Republicans seek to limit turnout among low-income and African American voters by compiling information about their mailing addresses.
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Intimidation, lies, distortion and blatant racism — is the Republican “Modus operandi.“
You can bet this scheme to steal the election from the Democrats will be going on in every “nook and cranny” of GOP strongholds, all over the United States.
These morons cannot win FAIR — They have to STEAL because they have no message, just RACIST Innuendo and loads of SHIT!
BBC Documentary – How Bush Stole The 2000 Elections
How to RIG an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative
Product Description: Fresh out of grad school, Allen Raymond joined the GOP for one reason: rumor had it that there was big money to be made on the Republican side of the aisle.
From the earliest days of the Republican Revolution through its culmination in the second Bush White House, Raymond played a key role in helping GOP candidates twist the truth beyond recognition during a decade of crucial and bitterly fought campaigns. His career took him from the nastiest of local elections in New Jersey backwaters through runs for Congress and the Senate and right up to a top management position in a bid for the presidency itself.
It also took him to prison.
Full of wit and candor, Raymond’s account offers an astonishingly frank look at the black art of campaigning and the vagaries of the Republican establishment. Unlike many “architects” of the political scene, the author takes full responsibility for his actions — even as he never misses a trick.
A completely original tale of the disillusioning of a man who enters politics with no illusions, How to Rig an Election is a brilliant and hilarious exposé of how the contemporary political game is really played.
From Publishers Weekly: Republican campaign advisor Raymond achieved some notoriety when he plead guilty in federal court to jamming Connecticut phone lines in a 2002 Democratic get-out-the-vote effort-small potatoes compared to what he had gotten away with for more than a decade, vividly and hilariously chronicled in this outrageous career retrospective.
For 13 years, Raymond worked his way up the ranks of GOP operatives by smearing opponents and worse in campaigns across the country, including the aborted presidential bid of Steve Forbes.
Besides documenting such ingenious strategies as arranging for phone calls during the Super Bowl touting his candidate’s opponent, Raymond witnesses the Republican party’s rise to power in the 1990s, and the effects of that power, in both professional and personal terms. (“Bill Martini’s screaming fits were reaching exciting new heights all the time.“)
Though Raymond appreciates the depravity of his former enterprise (“if you could find two of us Republican operatives who could still tell the difference between politics and crime, you could probably have rubbed us together for fire as well“), his confession often sounds a lot like boasting; naturally, Raymond is charming enough to get away with it, taking a deliciously cynical view of everyone involved (voters especially).
For those who care about the electoral system, this look inside the sausage factory of contemporary campaigning is compelling, arguably essential, reading.
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“For those who care about the electoral system, this look inside the sausage factory of contemporary campaigning is compelling, arguably essential, reading.” — Publishers Weekly
“Refreshingly candid about his vindictive motives, Raymond offers a damning chronicle of political hubris.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Paints a picture of the corruption of modern politics that should leave no doubt about the creativity and cynicism of operatives like Mr. Raymond or the need for tough new election-reform legislation.” — Adam Cohen, The New York Times
“Offers a raw, inside glimpse of the phone scandal as it unraveled and of a ruthless world in which political operatives seek to win at all costs.” — McClatchy News Service
“Raymond offers an insider’s look at the world of dirty campaigning and hardball politics. [A]n engaging read…the book is hard to put down.” — Nathaniel French,St. Petersburg Times
The GOP (Grand Old Propaganda) is working to keep eligible African-Americans from voting in several states. To get an idea of how many African-Americans nationwide lack driver’s licenses, recall Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when thousands were stranded without transportation. “Crawford Republicans” could make the old “Jim Crow Democrats” look like pikers when it comes to voter suppression.
It was a mainstay of Jim Crow segregation: for 100 years after the Civil War, Southern white Democrats kept eligible blacks from voting with poll taxes, literacy tests and property requirements. Starting in the 1960s, the U.S. Supreme Court declared these assaults on the heart of American democracy unconstitutional.
Now, with the help of a 2008 Supreme Court decision, Crawford vs. Marion County (Indiana) Election Board, white Republicans in some areas will keep eligible blacks from voting by requiring driver’s licenses. Not only is this new-fangled discrimination constitutional, it’s spreading.
GOP proponents of the move say they are merely trying to reduce voter fraud. But while occasional efforts to stuff ballot boxes through phony absentee voting still surface, the incidence of individual vote fraud–voting when you aren’t eligible–is virtually non-existent, as “The Truth About Vote Fraud,” a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, clearly shows. In other words, the problem Republicans claim they want to combat with increased ID requirements doesn’t exist. Meanwhile, those ID hurdles facing individuals do nothing to stop the organized insiders who still try to game the system…..[ more ]
