Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in U.S. Custody
Word spread quickly inside the windowless walls of the Elizabeth Detention Center, an immigration jail in New Jersey: A detainee had fallen, injured his head and become incoherent. Guards had put him in solitary confinement, and late that night, an ambulance had taken him away more dead than alive.
But outside, for five days, no official notified the family of the detainee, Boubacar Bah, a 52-year-old tailor from Guinea who had overstayed a tourist visa. When frantic relatives located him at University Hospital in Newark on Feb. 5, 2007, he was in a coma after emergency surgery for a skull fracture and multiple brain hemorrhages. He died there four months later without ever waking up, leaving family members on two continents trying to find out why.
Mr. Bah's name is one of 66 on a government list of deaths that occurred in immigration custody from January 2004 to November 2007, when nearly a million people passed through.
MAY DAY!
Bush Administration Rejects Bipartisan Veterans Measure
FACT SHEET
Bush Administration Rejects Bipartisan Veterans Measure
Opposes New GI BILL to Restore a Free College Education to Veterans,
Grow the Middle Class, and Invest in our Economic Future
As a bipartisan coalition of members of Congress came together with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to press for a new GI Bill to provide full college scholarships to returning service members yesterday, the Bush Administration said no.
In a letter, Defense Secretary Gates declared his opposition: "Gates also restated long-standing Pentagon opposition to GI Bill educational benefits that are too generous, making it more likely for service members to leave the military to attend college. "Serious" retention issues are expected if benefits exceed the average monthly cost for a four-year public college, including tuition, room, board and fees, Gates said." [Army Times, 4/30/08]
President Bush also warned at a Rose Garden news conference that he would veto any additions to the Iraq Supplemental spending bill, even as Democratic leaders consider whether to include the GI Bill as an amendment to Mr. Bush's $108 billion supplemental request for 2008 war spending. "I will not accept a supplemental over [$108 billion] or a supplemental that micromanages the war," he said.
Republican Former Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner calls the Pentagon's opposition "very thin and tenuous." "The flip side of that is putting a big piece of cheese out there will induce more qualified people to join just to get this. It should be a tremendous incentive for recruitment." [Politico, 4/ 30/08]
This measure will offer the 1.7 million brave men and women who have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan educational benefits, on par with those provided to veterans of the World War II era -- making military service more attractive, and strengthening our sagging economy. The original GI Bill launched millions of families on a course of prosperity and toward achieving the American Dream—and set the American economy on the right course after a draining war.
Once Again, Bush Administration Turns its Back on Veterans:
President Bush has a long record of opposing efforts to help our veterans:
· Opposed A Bigger Military Pay Raise. Last year, the Bush Administration opposed the House-passed Defense Authorization bill – objecting to a range of provisions including those that increased military pay by 3.5 percent calling it "unnecessary." (The Administration proposed a 3 percent increase.) Ultimately, Congress enacted this increase into law.
· Opposed Ending the Disabled Veterans Tax. In 2003, President Bush threatened to veto the National Defense Authorization Act over this provision. That year, the White House was forced to drop its opposition, as Congress passed legislation that took a first step in ending the disabled military retirees.
· Opposed TRICARE for Reservists. In 2003, Secretary Rumsfeld recommended that the President veto the defense bill if TRICARE for Reserve forces was included. In 2006, the Defense bill finally included TRICARE for Reservists.
The ACLU has a statement
http://www.aclu.org/votingright
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
WASHINGTON - In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a challenge to Indiana's most-restrictive-in-the-nation voter identification law. The American Civil Liberties Union's case, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board - consolidated with Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita - is an appeal of two lower court decisions that upheld the state's law requiring voters to present government-issued photo IDs in order to vote. The ACLU argued that the Indiana law creates an unconstitutional burden on voting rights.
"Today's decision minimizes the very real burden that Indiana's voter ID law places on tens of thousands of eligible voters who lack a government-issued identification while accepting at face value Indiana's unsubstantiated claim of voter fraud," said Ken Falk, Legal Director of the ACLU of Indiana and lead counsel on the case.
In January 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago upheld Indiana's voter ID law by understating the right of every individual to vote without being subject to undue burdens imposed by the state. There is no evidence that Indiana's voter ID law is justified by any actual problem of voting fraud, which is already prohibited by various criminal statutes in the state. No cases of in-person voting fraud have been prosecuted in the state in recent history.
"We are very disappointed in today's decision, but it leaves the door open to future challenges in Indiana and elsewhere by registered voters who are denied their right to vote based on onerous and unconstitutional voter ID laws," said ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro. "We should be seeking ways to encourage more people to vote, not inventing excuses to deny citizens their constitutional voting rights."
The Supreme Court's decision on the constitutionality of voter ID laws has broad national significance with the 2008 election underway. Indiana is one of over 20 states that have passed restrictive voter ID laws, while other states are considering similar legislation. Plaintiffs in the ACLU's case include the Indianapolis branch of the NAACP as well as organizations representing the elderly, the homeless, and people with disabilities, along with two elected officials.
"As the dissent notes, Indiana's law will sadly but predictably have its greatest impact on voters who are poor, elderly, belong to racial minorities, or have disabilities," said Angela Ciccolo, Interim General Counsel with the NAACP.
Attorneys on the case, Crawford v. Marion County, are Shapiro of the national ACLU; Falk, Jacquelyn Bowie Suess and Gavin Rose of the ACLU of Indiana; Laughlin McDonald and Neil Bradley of the ACLU Voting Rights Project; Ciccolo, and Victor Goode of the national NAACP: and Pamela Karlan and Jeffrey Fisher.
For more information on this case, including legal briefs, go towww.aclu.org/scotus/2007term
Supreme Court upholds photo ID law for voters in Indiana
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require
voters to produce photo identification without violating their
constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.
ADVERTISEMENT
In a splintered 6-3 ruling, the court upheld Indiana's strict photo ID
requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups said would deter
poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. Its backers said
it was needed to deter fraud.
It was the most important voting rights case since the Bush v. Gore
dispute that sealed the 2000 election for George W. Bush.
The law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the
integrity and reliability of the electoral process,'" Justice John
Paul Stevens said in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John
Roberts and Anthony Kennedy.
Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also agreed
with the outcome, but wrote separately.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter
dissented.
More than 20 states require some form of identification at the polls.
Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, but
struck down Missouri's. Monday's decision comes a week before
Indiana's presidential primary.
The case concerned a state law, passed in 2005, that was backed by
Republicans as a way to deter voter fraud. Democrats and civil rights
groups opposed the law as unconstitutional and called it a thinly
veiled effort to discourage elderly, poor and minority voters — those
most likely to lack proper ID and who tend to vote for Democrats.
There is little history in Indiana of either in-person voter fraud —
of the sort the law was designed to thwart — or voters being
inconvenienced by the law's requirements.
"We cannot conclude that the statute imposes 'excessively burdensome
requirements' on any class of voters," Stevens said.
Stevens' opinion suggests that the outcome could be different in a
state where voters could provide evidence that their rights had been
impaired.
But in dissent, Souter said Indiana's voter ID law "threatens to
impose nontrivial burdens on the voting rights of tens of thousands of
the state's citizens."
Scalia, favoring a broader ruling in defense of voter ID laws, said,
"The universally applicable requirements of Indiana's voter-
identification law are eminently reasonable. The burden of acquiring,
possessing and showing a free photo identification is simply not
severe, because it does not 'even represent a significant increase
over the usual burdens of voting.'"
Jenna Bush may not back McCain
(CNN) — President Bush was quick to endorse John McCain when the Arizona senator wrapped up his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
But another Bush might not be so sure.
Speaking with CNN's Larry King Wednesday night, Jenna Bush said she hasn't decided yet who she will vote for in November.
"I don't know," Jenna Bush, daughter of President and Mrs. Bush, said when asked if she will back McCain.
"Of course [I am open]. I mean, who isn't open to learning about the candidates and I'm sure that everybody's like that," she added.
Though the younger Bush conceded she has "been too busy with books to really pay that much attention."
Meanwhile, mother Laura Bush was quick to affirm that she will be voting for the Republican candidate in the fall.
The two appeared on the show to discuss Jenna Bush's upcoming wedding next month.
"[It will be] outdoors, very small wedding, you 'know, very small, all relatives, our families, really, kind of big," Jenna Bush said. “So it's half-family and then half very close friends."
From: CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Filed under: John McCain
Voto Latino and Crash the Parties on Good Morning Arizona!
Want to be a reporter? Crash the Parties!
April 23rd, 2008Journalists are fortunate enough to get to report on television every day, but for others its a dream. Now you can make that dream come true, and start your reporting career at the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
Clueless in America
We don't hear a great deal about education in the presidential campaign. It's much too serious a topic to compete with such fun stuff as Hillary tossing back a shot of whiskey, or Barack rolling a gutter ball.
The nation's future may depend on how well we educate the current and future generations, but (like the renovation of the nation's infrastructure, or a serious search for better sources of energy) that can wait. At the moment, no one seems to have the will to engage any of the most serious challenges facing the U.S.
An American kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. That's more than a million every year, a sign of big trouble for these largely clueless youngsters in an era in which a college education is crucial to maintaining a middle-class quality of life — and for the country as a whole in a world that is becoming more hotly competitive every day.
Ignorance in the United States is not just bliss, it's widespread. A recent survey of teenagers by the education advocacy group Common Core found that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, a third did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, and fewer than half knew that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900.
"We have one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world," said Allan Golston, the president of U.S. programs for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In a discussion over lunch recently he described the situation as "actually pretty scary, alarming."
Roughly a third of all American high school students drop out. Another third graduate but are not prepared for the next stage of life — either productive work or some form of post-secondary education.
When two-thirds of all teenagers old enough to graduate from high school are incapable of mastering college-level work, the nation is doing something awfully wrong.
Students suspended for skipping class to meet Obama
SCRANTON, Pa. - Two high school seniors in Scranton, Pa., are paying a high price for their interest in politics. Colin Saltry and Joey Daniel say they skipped gym class on Monday to rush over to a diner where Sen. Barack Obama's motorcade had just pulled in for an impromptu breakfast stop. The two met Obama, and they say he even signed excuse slips for them to show their teachers. That didn't work. Saltry and Daniel got one-day suspensions for leaving school grounds, and Saltry has been ordered to resign as senior class president. Saltry says it was worth being suspended to meet Obama, but he didn't expect to be bounced from his class presidency. Assistant Superintendent William King says the rules are clear, and adds that if the students had approached a teacher about wanting to leave campus, they probably would have been given permission.