Young Guatemalan children, who were reunited with their mother in Cincinnati, could face deportation. How can we sentence them to death? (Photo: The Enquirer)
Thousands of refugee children have been fleeing violence and poverty in Central America for almost a year now. Until all Hell broke loose in Ferguson, Missouri last week, the refugee children had the national limelight. (We are on to the next shiny thing.)
Second, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that group of four young cousins would be facing an immigration judge in Cleveland today and could likely deported– despite having been reunited with family members in the US (pictured above).
Look at the faces of these children. How can we send them back to gang violence and death? Have we become a country of greedy, self-centered bigots? Probably, yes.
Roll Call‘s Shira T. Center is covering Arizona’s tight CD2 race and sees a formidable candidate in Martha McSally:
Operatives couldn’t make up a better candidate résumé if they tried: retired Air Force Colonel, first in her class at the U.S. Air War College, the first female fighter pilot in combat who flies the very plane — an A-10 Warthog — that’s economically essential to the 2nd District.
At a time when Republicans wrangle with messaging to female voters, this 48-year-old’s spunk and articulate bite is made for television — and unlike anything the House GOP Conference has seen in a while…
…McSally doesn’t talk like the average congressional candidate, instead dropping phrases like “awesome,” “dorked up,” and “bad-ass airplane” before crowds and in conversations. During a live appearance on Fox News Channel in February 2012, she said she wanted to kick former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., “in the jimmy” for his position on women serving in combat…
…“I consider myself a feminist Republican, and that’s not an oxymoron,” McSally tells CQ Roll Call in an interview over a vegetarian burrito slightly smaller than a bowling pin.
Legendary basketball superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a must-read opinion at TIME magazine that offers a thoughtful perspective on what is happening in Ferguson, Missouri under the provocative headline: The Coming Race War Won’t Be About Race:
Will the recent rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, be a tipping point in the struggle against racial injustice, or will it be a minor footnote in some future grad student’s thesis on Civil Unrest in the Early Twenty-First Century?
The answer can be found in May of 1970.
You probably have heard of the Kent State shootings: on May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on student protesters at Kent State University. During those 13 seconds of gunfire, four students were killed and nine were wounded, one of whom was permanently paralyzed. The shock and outcry resulted in a nationwide strike of 4 million students that closed more than 450 campuses. Five days after the shooting, 100,000 protestors gathered in Washington, D.C. And the nation’s youth was energetically mobilized to end the Vietnam War, racism, sexism, and mindless faith in the political establishment.
You probably haven’t heard of the Jackson State shootings.
The Supreme Court will decide this week whether to halt same-sex marriage in Virginia. Couples will be able to marry on Thursday unless the Court stays the mandate, or formal judgment, in the Fourth Circuit case, Bostic v. Schaefer.
The request for a stay has been filed with Chief Justice John Roberts in his capacity as Circuit Justice for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Chief Justice Roberts has called for responses by 5 PM Monday. Responses are expected from the Bostic plaintiffs, Virginia’s attorney general, and Lambda Legal and the ACLU on behalf of the Harris intervenors.
UPDATE: All three responses have now been filed. Chief Justice Roberts could rule on the request at any time, or he could refer the matter to the full Court to decide whether to grant the stay. Notably, all three responses ask the Court to treat the application for a stay as a petition for certiorari. Clerk McQuigg has noted that she intends to file a cert petition requesting that the Court review the Fourth Circuit decision on the merits, but she hasn’t filed one yet.
TPD officer filming me filming him while his partner gave me a ticket for being at Armory Park during Occupy Tucson. He ignored me when I said I was a journalist and had a right to be there and to film him and Occupy.
Twitter and Facebook have been ablaze with stories and photos about the shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri. (Check out the AZBlueMeanie’s poignant analysis here, photos from the New York Times here, and running updates here from Huffington Post.)
As you are well aware, Michael Brown’s shooting is just one in a very long and disturbing list of unarmed young blacks (primarily men) being shot by police or armed citizens. What the hell is going on?! Do ya think there are way too many guns out there?
In this world of smart phones and social media, everything from cute kittens playing with boxes to police violence is photographed and shared. Problem is: the police don’t like being photographed or videotaped. Journalists are citizens are often arrested or roughed up and cameras confiscated or broken when they try to record police behaving badly. That is illegal!
Following the arrest of two journalists in Ferguson today, I found this very helpful post from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) about photographer rights. Here is an excerpt. Check out the link below for more.
Photographers Know Your Rights
Taking photographs of things that are plainly visible from public spaces is a constitutional right – and that includes federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties. Unfortunately, there is a widespread, continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs from public places, and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply. Learn more »
Your rights as a photographer:
When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view. That includes pictures of federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police. Such photography is a form of publicoversight over the government and is important in a free society.
