Author: mopress

Associate Editor Tony Gallucci sent me a note saying hey have you seen what Kuff’s saying about you?

Then I looked and got goose bumps. Kuff gets it.

The more I read of Moses’ work, the more I share his distaste with the sustained attacks that Taylor made not just on individual voters, but on the concept that voting is a right, and as such it shouldn’t be trivially denied. Mark Schmitt notes that a frequent question on the test for US citizenship is “WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RIGHT GRANTED TO U.S. CITIZENS?” The answer, of course, is “the right to vote”. Well, if that’s really so, why do we make it so hard to vote?

We’d only add that because of the immigrant rate in Vo’s district, it’s likely that more voters there passed that test than in Andy Taylor’s precinct.

Thank you Mr. Kuffner. Thanks again.

March 13, 2005

After eleven years as a continuous student of the
law in the dungeons of America, and a graduate of one
of the most constitutionally oriented, conservative
Texas law schools (Baylor School of Law), I am unable
to prepare the necessary post-conviction remedy defense
for the re-opening of my federal case.

By administrative policy of the Bureau of Prisons, we are only
entitled to telephone communications of 300 minutes per month, or the
equivalence of ten minutes per day. At times, due to the importance of
the legal matter in which I am involved, I have used my entire 300
minutes in the first two weeks of the month, thus leaving me without
communications with the free world.

I ask that every attorney and/or professor
and scholar of law to place themselves in my present
position, and immediately react to the truthful and factual
matter of the application of one’s constitutional rights
under the Constitution of the United State of America.
The only legal reaction to my present constitutional law
situation is that it is in violation of the Due Process
Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Equal Protection
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of
the United States of America.

Presently, I am 62 years of age, and have been
imprisoned in one of the harshest core penitentiaries
(Leavenworth USP) for the last eleven years, facing the
essence — the actuality of a death sentence (life sentence
without parole). It is extremely difficult for me to
accept the violations and actions of the prison administrative
policies on the limitation of my right to counsel and my
constitutional right to prepare my defense in accordance
with all my constitutional rights within the practice and
rules of the federal courts.

I am not a criminal. I am a Mexicano political prisoner
of the 21st century. In order to present to the appropriate
jurisdictional federal court why my case should be reopened,
I must communicate by phone, in person, and through
correspondence. I must communicate with different attorneys,
investigators, politicians, constitutional defense rights
committees, legal constitutional professors, scholars,
and different law student associations involved in the
violation of human rights.

I am not requesting the
determination of my present legal position. I am demanding
that the laws and rights from the written constitution of
this country be applied to my case. Without a doubt, if
I were allowed to prepare an adequate defense with
the fulfillment of my constitutional rights, then I would
become a free man. Until the Bureau of Prisons or the
Federal Courts of the United States permit me to communicate
using unlimited telephone time, my constitutional rights
are in violation at this very minute of the night.

In other
words – to make it clearer – an injustice of the law applies
to my life every day and night in this mode of darkness.
Americans must realize that I am not confined in Iraq, but
here in the United States of America. Or am I?

I will immediately share further information pertaining
to this illegal cloud of injustice on my life…

Sent by Irma Muniz via email. March 23.
For more on Ramsey see: http://freeramsey.com/

Mujeres Por La Raza Unida /
The Women of La Raza Unida
A Tribute to Women’s Involvement in Texas Politics

An exhibition currently on display at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection
March 23 through June 30, 2005

This exhibit presents the breadth of contributions that Mexican American women made to Texas politics and to the struggle for equal rights for Mexican Americans. It was inspired by the Women of Raza Unida Oral History Project, developed in conjunction with a graduate seminar directed by Dr. Emilio Zamora in the School of Information. The course was entitled “Memory, History and Oral Narratives: Mexican Americans in Politics in Texas History.” The exhibit includes archival materials from the Raza Unida Party Collection, Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, as well as items and memorabilia from party members and quotations taken from oral history interviews.

Sponsored by the Center for Mexican American Studies and the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection. Guest curators: Linda Ho and Brenda Sendejo, graduate students, Center for Mexican American Studies and Department of Anthropology, UT Austin.

ANN ARBOR, Michigan (AP) — Seven months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the

University of Michigan’s undergraduate affirmative action policy, the number of applications from

blacks, Hispanics and American Indians is down 23 percent from the same time last year.
And the

number of those admitted is down 30 percent.

Officials said the figures are only

preliminary and thousands more applications will continue to be reviewed in a process the school hopes

to finish by the first week of April. The application deadline was February 1.

“We’ve

only accepted a fraction of the class we’ll ultimately admit,” associate director of admissions Chris

Lucier said Monday.

Overall, applications for this fall’s incoming freshman class are

down 18 percent, according to the preliminary data compiled February 5 and released to The Associated

Press Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Despite the decrease

in applications, the total number of students admitted so far — nearly 8,600 — is down only 1 percent

from the same time last year. The university plans to admit 12,000 to 13,000 students and hopes that

will yield an enrollment of 5,545 for this fall.

Last June, the high court upheld an

affirmative action policy at the University of Michigan law school but struck down the university’s

undergraduate formula as too rigid. It awarded admission points based on race.

The

University of Michigan adopted a new application that still considers race, but does not award points,

and includes new short-answer questions and an optional essay — changes that meant applications were

made available to students about a month later than usual, stalling the start of the admissions

process.

Lucier said essay answers are “providing the breadth and the richness of

information that we really were hoping to get from students.” But the questions also mean additional

work for high school seniors, which officials say likely contributes to the lower number of

applications.

Admissions Director Ted Spencer said minority students and their families

may not want to thrust themselves into the center of the debate over affirmative

action.

“The residual kinds of impact of all this discussion and dialogue, particularly

from the other side of this issue, that diversity is bad, it makes a lot of students think, ‘Well,

maybe I don’t want to be put into that sort of environment,”‘ Spencer said.

The

university said it has reviewed 44 percent of applications from minority students and 69 percent of

non-minority applications — indicating minority students’ applications have been arriving later in

the admissions cycle.

Ohio State University, which also revised a similar point-based

admissions policy in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, said applications from American Indians are

holding steady and Hispanic applications are up 6.2 percent from the same time last year, but

applications from blacks are down 18.6 percent.

“The mere conversation in the minority

community seems to be what lawyers call a chilling effect,” said Mabel Freeman, assistant vice

president for undergraduate admissions.