Free Republic

Agriprocessors, the Brooklyn-based company that is the nation’s largest kosher meat producer, is well known for the labor troubles at its meatpacking plant in Iowa — federal agents detained 389 of its workers as illegal immigrants in May, and labor officials in Iowa have accused it of employing 57 under-age workers. But Agriprocessors is also having labor troubles closer to home, with the company asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn a vote to unionize at its distribution center along the Brooklyn waterfront. If successful, the company’s appeal could have repercussions at companies across the country: it is trying...

[Phoenix] - John McCain made it clear who his daddy was Monday morning. Daddy Yankee, the hip-hop star from Puerto Rico, endorsed the Republican candidate Monday morning. Wearing black aviator shades in the library of Central High School here, Daddy Yankee said, “I believe in his ideals and his proposals to lead this nation…He’s been a fighter for the Hispanic community.”

A predominantly Latino audience trickled into the half-filled venue as Jorge Hernandez, “El Guero (Blondie),” took the stage just after 7 p.m. Sunday at the Nebraska State Fair. In contrast, people had packed around the fence surrounding the Open-Air Auditorium Friday before country musician Miranda Lambert had played her first note. A capacity crowd of 6,200 had filled the benches on Friday, and 5,800 came Saturday to hear two other country artists. Theories on why Sunday’s crowd was smaller and slower to form ranged from fear of immigration officials to the different cultural tradition of Latinos. Hernandez, the performer, speculated...

We all heard about the person who sat next to traffic and pointed a hair dryer at oncoming cars to see their reactions.I tried it with illegal aliens and a throw away camera. I went to the local gathering places, Circle K, Home Depot, wherever they gather waiting for an early morning pick-up. The minute they saw the camera, they dispersed. Some ran, some wandered away, but the outcome was undeniable. They left!I decided to expand the experiment and took the camera to Wal-Mart. It worked there too! The illegals got out of the store and walked away. Some around...

Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez signed an ordinance Monday that stops police from arresting or detaining anyone solely because of their immigration status. The ordinance, passed last week by the city council, also prohibits other city employees from asking anyone seeking services about their immigration status. Perez was previously lukewarm to the idea, maintaining that an order issued by Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts in March was adequate. It said that city police would not make immigration arrests unless there was also a criminal investigation. In a letter to the city council, Perez also expressed concern about "codifying standards...

National security trumps an immigrant's right to a speedy naturalization process, a Manhattan federal judge ruled yesterday......a group of New Yorkers who hoped to vote in this fall's election sued to force approval of backlogged citizenship applications in time for Election Day. Judge Lawrence McKenna dismissed the lawsuit, filed by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund; the Judge said he couldn't authorize the FBI to hurry "name checks" - a comprehensive vetting process expanded after 9/11.

Professor Paul Thornalley and his team from the University of Warwick have found a broccoli compound called Sulforaphane. This compound can encourage the body to produce more enzymes to protect the vessels, as well as reduce high levels of molecules which cause significant cell damage. Past studies have shown that a diet rich in vegetables – particularly brassica vegetables such as broccoli – is linked to decreased risk of heart disease and stroke. People with diabetes have a particularly high risk of heart disease and stroke and other health impairments, such as kidney disease, are linked to damaged blood vessels....

REDDICK - Marion County sheriff's deputies arrested an undocumented immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico, on Sunday evening on charges of molesting an 8-year-old girl. The victim's grandmother entered a bedroom and found Martin Ramirez Garcia, 43, with the girl, sheriff's Detective Mariam Diaz said. "She didn't see the actual touching, but she saw him on top of her," Diaz said. "The grandmother beat him off of her." According to the arrest affidavit, the victim told an investigator that Ramirez Garcia touched her inappropriately over her clothing on several occasions and exposed himself to her. Diaz said the victim's 5-year-old sister also...

The name of the nation’s most visible, self-defined Latino civil-rights organization, the National Council of La Raza, translates as the National Council of The Race. The official website denies it, of course, but we have dictionaries. That controversial term — La Raza — is gaining currency: Some K-12 public schools now teach something called “Raza Studies.” Like those in Tucson, for example. The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) has, in fact, welcomed Raza Studies in its classrooms for about a decade, but it’s been mighty secretive about the association. What, exactly, is Raza Studies? Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom...

The U.S. authorities must prevent the mass deportation because there are records that over 56% of those deported were sentenced for crimes in the United States, explained the owner of the Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE). Rommel Moreno Manjarrez manifestó que en el 2006 la Agencia de Aduanas y Emigración del sector de San Diego deporto a 16 mil 476 personas y el 56% había sido condenado por delitos en la Unión Americana. Rommel Moreno Manjarrez said that in 2006 the Customs Agency and emigration sector of San Diego deport 16 thousand 476 persons and 56% had been...

Dissatisfied with teaching in Spanish 85 percent of the time, a North Carolina superintendent is pushing for a $10 million budget that includes a plan for a school where only Spanish is spoken. Superintendent Peter Gorman pitched his proposal to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board today, with provisions to turn Collinswood Elementary into a Spanish program. Nora Carr, chief communications officer for Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District, told WND the facility will help to preserve Hispanic culture. We find that a lot of kids who go there have parents who might be English-speaking immigrants, and they might be very successful," she said. "They...

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - A wave of burglaries is spreading across the Washington area, and police say illegal immigrants, hit by police crackdowns and the drop in new construction, are likely playing a key role. “The immigrant community is at a tipping point,” said Montgomery County police community liaison Officer Luis Hurtado. “The poor economy is pushing more immigrants to turn to crime.” In the first five months of this year, burglaries climbed 10 to 20 percent in many jurisdictions. The District of Columbia had the greatest increase, jumping 20 percent from 1,370 in the first five months of 2007...

In a sign that the Hispanic vote in the West could hold the key to the November election, Republican presumptive nominee John McCain launched his first local campaign ad, a Spanish-language radio spot, in Nevada this week. The 60-second commercial touts McCain, a senator from Arizona, as a nonpartisan problem-solver on the economy. "When we are buying groceries, we don't have a political party," the ad states, according to a translation provided by the campaign. "When we are filling up the gas tank, we are not Republicans, Democrats or independents. We are Hispanics, and we are all hurting together in...

Due mainly to a slump in the construction industry, the unemployment rate for Hispanics in the U.S. rose to 6.5% in the first quarter of 2008, well above the 4.7% rate for all non-Hispanics. As recently as the end of 2006, the gap between those two rates had shrunk to an historic low of 0.5 percentage points--4.9% for Latinos compared with 4.4% for non-Latinos, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The spike in Hispanic unemployment has hit immigrants especially hard. Their unemployment rate was 7.5% in the first quarter of this year,2 marking the first time since 2003 that a higher...

WASHINGTON-The United Nations plans to examine Prince William County’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigrants during a visit next week. Jorge Bustamante, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on migrants’ rights, plans to tour Manassas and Woodbridge, receive briefings on local enforcement measures, and attempt to meet with local officials. He contacted immigrant leaders in the county two months ago to begin preparing for a visit, saying he was interested in the landmark nature of the county’s actions. Special rapporteurs are tasked with reviewing human-rights issues of international concern to raise political pressure and shape public opinion, but cannot issue sanctions. The...

The Live Oak County Sheriff's Office searched for as many as 19 undocumented immigrants from Honduras on Tuesday after they fled from police a day earlier, according to a county law enforcement official. As many as 22 illegal immigrants were inside of or in the bed of a Toyota four-door pickup that rammed a county deputy's patrol car and ran through a fence on Farm-to-Market Road 623 on Monday, Live Oak County Sheriff's Office chief deputy Glenn Thompson said. Thompson said Deputy Nick Chaviz was patrolling the area alone and fired multiple shots at the Toyota after the truck rammed...

There was no one thing that caused Hector Salinas to pack his bags and give up for good on the trials of life as an illegal immigrant in South Florida. But the reasons he enumerates are echoed by increasing numbers of Latin American immigrants, both legal and not, who appear to be souring on their job prospects and going home: It was the scant money he made at a menial restaurant job, Salinas said, just enough for food and rent, with barely anything left for his family in Mexico -- the reason he came in the first place. It was...

A large segment of the American Hispanic community has historically shared conservative Republican values, even though today many of them vote Democrat. In fact, a close look at US history demonstrates that Hispanics have traditionally been closer to conservative Republican values than to those of the Democrat Party. The GOP needs to establish a clear agenda to reach and mobilize these millions of American Hispanics who are not getting the conservative Republican message. Their presence in the party and their vote is critical and it is still today a swing vote up for grabs. Democrats should not assume that American...

(Burlington, NC) Twelve men were arrested in connection with charges of kidnapping and assaulting three women Saturday and authorities will still trying to sort out the "convoluted mess" on Sunday. The women say they were held against their will at gunpoint in a mobile home at Seamster's Mobile Home Park at 2111 N.C. 49 North, near Sandy Cross Road, north of Green Level, overnight Saturday. A list of names and charges against the men remained unavailable Sunday, as deputies and interpreters were still interviewing the suspects and victims. At least four men had been formally charged with a range of...

MATTAWA, Grant County — Nearly everyone in this small farming community speaks Spanish — nearly everyone except those in city government and the police department, where English is spoken. And almost everyone who speaks one language does not speak the other. It is a language barrier that has engulfed the community, which has grown over the past 20 years from 300 to about 3,200 year-round residents. Nine of every 10 Mattawa residents speak Spanish at home, and eight of every 10 adults speak English "less than very well," according to the 2000 U.S. Census. The Columbia River basin community, surrounded...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Texas mayors and business leaders filed a class-action lawsuit Friday alleging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hoodwinked landowners into waiving their property rights for construction of a fence along the Mexican border. Members of the Texas Border Coalition said Chertoff did not fairly negotiate compensation with landowners for access to their land for six-month surveys to choose fence sites. The coalition of mayors and business and community leaders is seeking an injunction to block work on the fence. They also want a federal judge to rescind all the agreements with landowners and to order Chertoff to start...

The nation's largest single immigration raid, resulting in nearly 400 arrests earlier this week, violated the constitutional rights of workers at a meatpacking plant, a federal lawsuit says. The lawsuit accuses the government of arbitrary and indefinite detention. It seeks to prevent the government from moving the arrested workers out-of-state as their cases wend through the system. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said he couldn't comment on the lawsuit filed Thursday on behalf of about 147 of the workers rounded up Monday at an Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant. The lawsuit was filed against the Immigration and Customs...

The raid today at Agriprocessors, Inc. meat packing plant targeted individuals who were using stolen Social Security numbers. Officials say at least 300 have been arrested but that the number could go as high as 700. The raid was the largest of it's kind in Iowa according to Claude Arnold of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Federal Immigration agents on Monday arrested more than 300 people during a raid at a Postville meat processing plant. The raid by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was the largest in Iowa history, Matt M. Dummermuth, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, said at a news conference. Dummermuth said the raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in northeast Iowa came after months of planning, beginning in October 2007. Federal agents were helped by state and local police. Authorities said more than 300 workers were arrested on a variety of charges included fraudulent use of Social Security...

At eleven years old, a Douglas elementary school girl finds herself pregnant and under the protection of Child Protective Services. The name of the girl was not released due to her age. In late January or early Februar 2008, when her homeroom teacher and the school nurse noticed the slight swell of her tummy, the girl dismissed her girth as a tumor, a Douglas police report stated. When her grandparents, who have legal custody of the girl, were questioned, they told Douglas detectives that she ate too much and that’s why she was gaining weight. By the middle of March,...

ST. ANTHONY, Idaho -- A man has been charged with raping a 10-year-old girl who later gave birth in eastern Idaho. The girl gave birth less than two weeks ago by caesarian section at Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg, Fremont County Sheriff Ralph C. Davis and other authorities said. Officials would not disclose the gender, date of birth or paternity of the baby. "I wouldn't have believed a 10-year-old could conceive in the first place," Davis said. A hospital spokeswoman would not discuss the condition of the girl or the baby and would not say whether either was still in...

E-mail Father Jonathan Yesterday, May Day, we witnessed some of the largest demonstrations of immigrants on American soil. The masses of mostly brown skinned activists and their followers were protesting what they consider unjust immigration policy and practice in the United States of America. Strewn conspicuously throughout the congregants, one couldn't help but notice church banners, crosses and other religious symbols. It would seem we are witnessing faith-based immigration reform activism. Does this mean God is on the side of the protesters? Seeing these demonstrations on television, my thoughts darted back and forth between the immigration arguments of social conservatives,...

As if Katie Couric didn’t already have enough problems. Weighed down by record-low ratings at the anchor desk of “CBS Evening News,� and by reports suggesting she will leave that post two years before her multimillion-dollar contract expires, Couric now has civil rights groups — mostly Hispanic — on her back. And for good reason. The CBS newscast that carries her name recently aired a one-sided and inaccurate report about illegal immigrant women who give birth to their children in the United States. The news story challenged the broader constitutional law of birthright citizenship and stated — without providing the...

An illegal alien accused of sexually molesting two underage girls in Carthage two years ago entered Alford pleas Monday on both felony counts he was facing in Jasper County Circuit Court and was ordered turned over to immigration officials for deportation to Mexico. Salomon A. Jiminez, 55, entered the pleas to counts of first-degree statutory rape and first-degree statutory sodomy in a plea agreement with the county prosecutor’s office. The agreement limited the length of sentences he could be assessed to 10 years for each conviction and called for the sentences to run concurrently. Circuit Judge David Dally sentenced Jiminez...

Authorities arrested a man they said fired a high-powered rifle into the air, the ground and surrounding areas Sunday in east Mesa. Abraham Duarte, 20, was arrested in connection with discharging a weapon after authorities tracked him down to an apartment complex south of 95th Street and Apache Trail, said deputy Doug Matteson of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. Multiple 911 calls were placed around 11:30 a.m. and police responded to the area near the corner of Apache Trail and Ellsworth Road. The sheriff's office joined Mesa police in tracking down the suspect, Matteson said. No victims or injuries were...

The following is the mission statement of the Philadelphia Prison System: "To provide a secure correctional environment that adequately detains persons accused or convicted of illegal acts; to provide programs, services and supervision in a safe, lawful, clean and humane environment, and to prepare incarcerated persons for re-entry into society." Advertisement Unfathomably, the last part of that policy makes no distinction between American citizens and illegal aliens. Both are released back into our society, courtesy of the incompetent United States government. It's good to be an illegal immigrant in America! Try following this "logic": an illegal alien gets convicted of...

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Gov. Don Carcieri called on religious leaders Friday to appeal for calm following protests and controversy over an executive order he signed last week cracking down on illegal immigration. more stories like this The latest reaction to his order was a rowdy protest Thursday, when dozens of protesters filled his policy office chanting slogans such as "No human is illegal." Capitol Police removed them from the Statehouse with no arrests. The Republican governor told WPRO-AM Friday that a woman on his staff was bruised when a door flung open on her during the protest. He said staff members are...

At least 304,000 immigrant criminals eligible for deportation are behind bars nationwide, a top federal immigration official said Thursday. That is the first official estimate of the total number of such convicts in federal, state and local prisons and jails. The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie L. Myers, said the annual number of deportable immigrant inmates was expected to vary from 300,000 to 455,000, or 10 percent of the overall inmate population, for the next few years. Ms. Myers estimated that it would cost at least $2 billion a year to find all those immigrants and deport them.

DENVER -- A Colorado Springs lawmaker referred Wednesday to unmarried, pregnant teenagers and the fathers as "sluts" who should be made to feel ashamed for their lack of morals. Rep. Larry Liston’s remarks were made during a discussion with health care professionals at a Republican legislative caucus lunch about Colorado’s high teen pregnancy rate. "In my parents' day and age, (unmarried teen parents) were sent away, they were shunned, they were called what they are," Colorado Springs Republican Rep. Larry Liston said during the meeting in Denver. "There was at least a sense of shame." "I think it’s wrong. They’re...

The following picture appeared on the front page of the Index Journal which is the newspaper for Abbeville, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick and Saluda Counties here in South Carolina. Clearly a sign of the times when Spanish has to be posted on signs voting precints in the area. I wonder how many Hispanics voted for McCain knowing he will allow them to stay and bring in their relatives?

I seek the advice of FReepers on home-schooling an academically gifted 8 year-old. We've had it up to 'here' with Creekland Middle School in Gwinnett County. (Georgia) How to get started? Best Curricula? Best web sites? Ideas? Challenges? Risks?

  Culture Jamming 101: ShopDropping Producer: kellyloudenberg Shopdropping is a tactic used by artists and activists to clandestinely place altered or recreated objects into retail stores. Handmade labels were printed out for students to color, cut, and paste. The project featured real people who make the products, their name, and sometimes even a story. The intent is to reconnect the labor with the product. To shopdrop on your own, go to www.PeopleProducts123.com. There you will also find useful information on fair trade and labor rights. For information on other projects like this go to www.antiadvertisingagency.com. Music work by Peter...

The richest 2% of the world's population owns more than half of the world's household wealth.... ...The research indicates that assets of just $2,200 per adult place a household in the top half of the world's wealthiest. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world, just $61,000 in assets is needed. If you have more than $500,000, you're part of the richest 1%, the United Nations study says. Indeed, 37 million people now belong in that category.... ...Half the world, nearly 3 billion people, live on less than $2 a day. The three richest people in the...

During the ABC telecast of today's Penn State football game, announcer Craig James called Joe Paterno an 'old fart,' while congratulating Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema on his game strategy. ABC/ESPN college football spokesman Josh Krulewitz confirmed to Patriot-News reporter David Jones that James did in fact refer to Joe Paterno as an old fart. Krulewitz, reached by phone in Connecticut, didn't have any comments on the derogatory term, but said, "I'm going to have to speak with some people first." - David Jones, The Patriot-News

Unable to compete in the world of free debate with transparent facts, liberals behaved like children this week - proving that in the end national security and even national identity are always subservient to their own ego, reputation, and appearance. It was pathetic, cowardly, and sickening. It is also far too typical. Liberals, who in large part are people devoid of true substance and belief, who also have great contempt for God, morality and truth, are often unable to deal with facts that reflect poorly upon them. And using pathetic, self-serving, cry-baby tactics is how they are commemorating this week...

Where are secret jails, the EU demands By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 08/09/2006) European politicians yesterday called on Washington to reveal the sites of the CIA's secret prisons after President George W Bush's admission that terrorist prisoners had been held in clandestine foreign jails. As Mr Bush hit the road to sell Wednesday's revelation of the "black sites" to the American public as a victory for his anti-terrorist policies, European politicians stepped up the pressure for further details. "The location of these prison camps must be made public," said Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, a member of the European Parliament's committee investigating...

September 7, 2006 -- AN infuriated Warren Buffett has renounced one of his granddaughters - telling her she is no longer his relative "legally or emotionally" because she took part in a documentary about the lives of the very rich. Nicole Buffett, the adopted daughter of Buffett's son Peter and biological daughter of Peter's ex-wife Mary, was featured in Jamie Johnson and Nick Kurzon's documentary, "The One Percent," which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival this year and is a follow-up to Johnson's "Born Rich." Enraged that Nicole not only participated in the documentary, but also plugged it on National...

JOKES about Jews and the Holocaust have become increasingly common at the Edinburgh Fringe as comedians tackle one of the last taboos. Some think that controversy over Israeli attacks on Lebanon have made Jewish history and beliefs worthy topics for stand-up routines. But one comedian has apologised after his outburst offended Jewish comedians and audience members. Steve Hughes, an Australian stand-up, told The Times that he regretted describing Richard Perle, an advisor to President George Bush, as “that f***ing Jew Richard Perle”. The comment, in his show The Storm, offended audience members including Jamie Glassman, a Jewish comedy writer. Glassman...

Isn't it ironic that one of the things our enemies, the Islamofascists, hate about America is the very thing that enables them to operate here? I'm talking about our openness. Our rights to privacy. The many freedoms granted us by the U.S. Constitution. And the protections and even special treatment afforded Muslim organizations in the U.S. We're a society like no other. Take for example last week's decision by Federal District Court Judge James Whittemore of Florida, who ruled in favor of ACLU lawyers last week that pat down searches before football games should be prohibited because they violate fans'...

Are there really more hurricanes? 06 June 2006 NewScientist.com news service AS THE season for hurricanes cranks up, so do the arguments about what is causing them. Now a meteorologist claims that the apparent increase in recent years - blamed on global warming - is an illusion. The supposed rise in hurricane frequency can be explained by better measurement techniques, says Philip Klotzbach of Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Klotzbach analysed the frequency and intensity of hurricanes over the past 20 years. The study that linked hurricanes to global warming used data going back over 35 years, but he...

At Evergreen Cemetery American flags are lined up row upon row, marking the names of veterans. On this Memorial Day, hundreds came to Evergreen for a ceremony that paid tribute to all of the men and women who died fighting for this country. Veterans placed wreaths and fired a salute. Boy Scouts blew taps. Others released doves. And, as the birds soared, so did emotions. Mike Brewer, a Vietnam Veteran, says, "I've been roaming around with Buddy Poppies since I was 8 years old, so 50 years of emotions." Judy Baldwin says, "My father was in World War II....

Alphabets are as simple as... (Filed: 18/04/2006) Writing systems may look very different, but they all use the same basic building blocks of familiar natural shapes, reports Roger Highfield If there is one quality that marks out the scientific mind, it is an unquenchable curiosity. Even when it comes to things that are everyday and so familiar they seem beyond question, scientists see puzzles and mysteries. Familar form: letters have been shaped by everyday sights such a the crescent moon Look at the letters in the words of this sentence, for example. Why are they shaped the way that they...

Are We All Asians? Renegade anthropologists rethink where humans came from. By Susan Kruglinski DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 05 | May 2006 Courtesy of G. Tsibahashivili (National Museum of Georgia) One of the best-known theories about human evolution—that the ancestors of Homo sapiens originated in Africa before populating the rest of the world 2 million years ago—is coming under fire. In a challenge to conventional wisdom, Robin Dennell of the University of Sheffield in England and Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University in the Netherlands argue that the "out of Africa" interpretation is built on shaky evidence. Maybe, they say, it...

CHICAGO - Soaring numbers of American children are being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs — in many cases, for attention deficit disorder or other behavioral problems for which these medications have not been proven to work, a study found. The annual number of children prescribed anti-psychotic drugs jumped fivefold between 1995 and 2002, to an estimated 2.5 million, the study said. That is an increase from 8.6 out of every 1,000 children in the mid-1990s to nearly 40 out of 1,000. But more than half of the prescriptions were for attention deficit and other non-psychotic conditions, the researchers said.

We often hear the claim that our nation is a democracy. That wasn't the vision of the founders. They saw democracy as another form of tyranny. If we've become a democracy, I guarantee you that the founders would be deeply disappointed by our betrayal of their vision. The founders intended, and laid out the ground rules, for our nation to be a republic.