Migrants In Lexington

Consider this a public service announcement for the Migrant Network Coalition.

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR GATHERING

This Saturday, April 19th

Anytime between 4-7:00 p.m.

Corner of Main St. and Martin Luther King

Please join other fair-minded Lexington residents as we stand up and say NO to the scapegoating and dehumanization of immigrants that has become so acceptable in mainstream national and local media. Let us change the tide of the discourse together by showing Lexington WE WILL NOT TOLERATE HATE IN OUR COMMUNITY! Feel free to bring a sign showing your support for a diverse and hate-free Lexington.

Please pass the information on to anyone who may be interested!

Now you won’t be seeing any public service announcements from me for the other side, but to be fair if you want to see the other side of issue in Lexington look at the Kfire web site.

The guy that does this site is Doug Roy, that’s his smiling face on the website.

My real problem with Doug Roy, other than I think he is totally wrong on the issue of immigration, is that he and I agree on a couple of other issues. I would really like to blast this guy for being a total idiot, but I can’t.

Here are some of Roy’s opinions:

On George Bush’s war in Iran:

If you still buy the cover stories about Iraqi freedom, WMD and the evil dictator Saddam Hussein, you're still struggling to put dots together to make the picture work. Good luck.

If the truth were told, those missions were indeed accomplished back in 2003. The real mission is continuing to be accomplished: oil under control and buddies making billions.


On big Tobacco:

This year, more than 4,000 Fayette County residents will die untimely and painful deaths from smoking-related illnesses. If that number could be decreased even a little over the next few years because of the smoking ban, would it be worth it?

But some of us are worried that a few businesses will lose money. Saving lives or saving a few businesses: What's your priority?

I just wish he was a little more prone to dialog than demagoguery on the immigration issue.

Head on a Pike

Must we all now become government informants? From the Herald-Leader:

Immigration activists and the ACLU are accusing the federal government of overreaching in the prosecution of two Lexington landlords (William Jerry Hadden and Jamey Hadden) who had rented to 60 illegal immigrants……

But civil libertarians and advocates for immigrants are alarmed by the case.

They note the Haddens were charged even though it is not illegal to rent to undocumented immigrants. Outside of landlords who accept federal Section 8 housing subsidies, landlords have no obligation to check a tenant's legal status.

If you can be prosecuted for renting to undocumented immigrants, can you be prosecuted for selling them a car? A car would make it easier to transport illegal immigrants. So it sounds like the car dealers should also be worried.

Anyone who is knowingly harboring, or housing or transporting illegal aliens is subject to criminal prosecution," Montenegro said. "They shouldn't be surprised if they are facing criminal charges."

I’ve always thought of the term harboring as meaning sheltering, and there for taking care of basic needs like putting a roof over someone’s head, or feeding them or perhaps clothing them.

So I guess that a person could be drug into court for selling food or clothing to an undocumented immigrant given this definition. Does that mean the guy that owns the local McDonalds franchise needs to see and ID before he sells a Big Mac to a Hispanic or anyone else? Selling that Big Mac might get you hauled into Federal Court for aiding in harboring an illegal immigrant.

Yes, the Haddens probably knew what they were doing was skirting the law. But their prosecution is an example of selective prosecution aimed at intimidating the public; the Feds could care less about the Haddens.

Our Federal Government realizes the value of intimidating the peasants by sticking a couple of heads on pikes around the castle wall. This is nothing new.

Do you really think that when the Internal Revenue Service sent Leona Helmsley to jail on April 15th they weren’t sending a message to everyone to pay your taxes or go to the big house? This is the same tactic, different agency, different time but the same fear, threat, and intimidation tactics.

The bottom line here is this case is about fear, threat and intimidation.

This is the targeted intimidation of the Hispanic community and of anyone that does business with that group.

This case is about demeaning of a group of people seeking a better life by modern day Know Nothings.

This is about a Congress and a President that can’t lead and is unwilling to deal in practical way with a real issue facing this country.

This case is not about the Haddens.

Righteous Kill

Three cheers for Kathy Stein doing the right thing.

From the Courier-Journal:

The House Judiciary Committee chairwoman yesterday killed a controversial immigration-enforcement bill and has delayed action on a Senate abortion bill.

Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, announced that after an extensive series of hearings on House Bill 304, which would have Kentucky take over many of the federal government's immigration duties, she will not hold a vote on the bill.

Stein said she was particularly concerned by inflammatory rhetoric in e-mails from some citizens supporting a state immigration crackdown -- some of which she described as threatening, intimidating and disturbing.

The Doctor is In The House

Sometimes a legislator will just make you smile, take first term Legislator, Rep. David Watkins for instance.

From the Courier-Journal:

The Health and Welfare Committee voted 9 to 6 to reject Senate Bill 112 -- but not before committee member David Watkins, D-Henderson, delivered a tongue-lashing to the bill's sponsor, Sen. Vernie McGaha, R-Russell Springs.

Watkins, a family physician, called the measure divisive and said the Senate is ignoring the state's biggest health problems, including smoking, obesity and a lack of adequate mental health services for its citizens.

"I am tired of the same petty issues coming before us when we've got major issues to address," he said.

Right On!

The good Doctor is also pushing for a 70 cent increase in the cigarette tax, has yet to show me anything I don’t like.

He is absolutely right that McGaha in the Senate and likes of Stan Lee in the House continue to push petty issues and not addressing the major issues. They are caught up in gay bashing and blaming Hispanics for the ills of the Commonwealth instead of dealing with real problems.

An Editorial in La Voz makes this true point about McGaha, Lee et al:

It is problematic when public offices are used to feed the fire and propagate the ideology of the extreme right that in no way represents the majority.

In fact, each and every politician that aligned his or her electoral campaign with those ideas was defeated. Let’s ask Ernie Fletcher and Stan Lee, who both were completely rejected by the Kentucky electorate when they played the anti-immigrant card.

I guess Vernie couldn’t believe that someone in the General Assembly would tell him the truth so he pulled out the sanctity of marriage argument. I’m still waiting to see the marriage that was saved by that constitutional amendment.

Again from the Courier-Journal:

McGaha said his concern is the "sanctity of marriage" and said he was offended by Watkins' comments.

"Dr. Watkins is totally off-base," McGaha said. "He is a disgrace to the process we have here."

I think Watkins is a credit to the Commonwealth and General Assembly, McGaha may think Watkins is a “disgrace to the process” but as near as I can tell he was just using my Duck rule.

If it sounds like a duck, looks like a duck and smells like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

End Run

You always have to admire good ball handling even if the guards are working for the other team, which brings us this bit of ball handling.

Both Democrat (at least in name) Bob Damron and Republican Stan Lee have attached their bigoted bill, House Bill 304, which is quietly dying in Judiciary Committee as floor amendments to House Bill 553.

HFA (1/P, S. Lee) - Attach provisions of HB 304.

HFA (4, R. Damron) - Retain original provisions, with the following additions: amend the section relating to the crime of theft of identity to prohibit the use of additional identifying information; prohibit using another person's information for the purpose of obtaining employment or engaging in a violation of law; permit prosecution for theft of identity in addition to a forgery offense.

Hopefully when this comes up for a vote, Kathy Stein or someone else will point out that these amendments are not germane to the bill.

School Yard Bullies

Why are Bob Damron, Stan Lee, Bill Farmer, Rick Nelson, Kevin Bratcher, James Comer, Danny Ford, Russ Mobley, Lonnie Napier and David Osborne so damn scared of Hispanics? Was someone rude to them at the car wash, did they get the wrong change at the fast food drive thru, were the guys repairing their roof too noisy?

Since these guys managed a constitutional amendment to bash gays, maybe this bunch of school yard bullies, a just looking for another kid to beat up.

But I think the real reason that they want to beat up on Hispanics is that it takes our mind off of what eight years of conservative policies have brought us, a useless war that no one wants, $4.00 a gallon gasoline and an economy heading into the crapper.

Damron, Lee, et al are just trying to distract us from the fact that they have not served the citizens of the Commonwealth by taking on real issues like serious tax reform, pushing to allow felons that have served their time to vote again, or protecting the environment from the greed of coal companies.

They are just doing their part to maintain conservatism in Kentucky.

Kathy Stein is right in keeping this bill bottled up in committee.

HB 304/FN/LM (BR 1097) - R. Damron, R. Nelson, K. Bratcher, J. Comer Jr, B. Farmer, D. Ford, S. Lee, R. Mobley, L. Napier, D. Osborne

AN ACT relating to homeland security. Repeal, reenact, and amend KRS 514.160 relating to identity theft to increase the number of pieces of identifying information, include use of false identification to deprive a person of money, obtain employment, hide one's true identity, cause another person to suffer economic loss, defraud another person, or attempt, solicit, or conspire to commit identity theft; create a new section of KRS Chapter 441 to require pretrial release officers to obtain place of birth, citizenship, and related information from prisoners in jail and report the information to the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and Administrative Office of the Courts; create a new section of KRS Chapter 39G to expand the duties of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security with regard to immigration, customs, and other homeland security matters; create a new section of KRS 15.380 to 15.404 to permit local and state law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with the federal government for local enforcement of immigration and customs laws; create new sections of KRS Chapter 337 relating to employment to create definitions for an employee verification program; specify that the employee verification program applies only to businesses that contract or subcontract with government agencies and to government agencies; specify that an employer subject to the act shall verify citizenship, Social Security number, and other required information through the federal E-Verify program within the required time following employment to avoid hiring undocumented aliens; specify that an employer is not required to take any action that the employer believes would violate federal or state law; require an employer to utilize the federal Employment Eligibility Verification program beginning January 1, 2009; require the Department of Revenue to notify employers of the requirements of the employee verification law; create a new section of KRS Chapter 65 to require all local governments and local agencies to comply with the law and permit sharing of citizenship and immigration information as required by law and to prohibit local ordinances or other actions to violate the law; amend KRS 514.170 to conform