Author: mopress

And the winner is Tom O’Neil, a “Gold Derby” writer for the L.A. Times who posed the rhetorical question on Dec. 24, 2007, before the list of Oscar nominees was released:

Surely, Oscar voters won’t snub “Sweeney Todd” (Tim Burton), “There Will Be Blood” (Paul Thomas Anderson), “Atonement” (Joe Wright), “The Great Debaters” (Denzel Washington) and “The Kite Runner” (Marc Forster) entirely.

Of the five films named in the question, Mr. O’Neil was correct about four.

This “Black History Month in Hollywood” special presentation has been brought to you by the Texas Civil Rights Review, because February is about making memories that refuse to go quiet.

And by “White Atlantic” Perfume — Smells Classy!

Note: Following Thursday’s burning of the American embassy in Belgrade, we were reminded of nearby Albania and a Texas veteran of the Albanian democratic movement. This month marks one full year that Rrustem Neza has spent at the Rolling Plains Prison of Haskell, Texas while federal officials have toyed with his life.

While Neza’s brother has been justifiably granted asylum in the USA, owing to real dangers to his life, brother Rrustem has been treated to the dark side of federal immigration enforcement. Acting with icy indifference to Rrustem Neza’s well being, the feds are now attempting to gain a court order that will allow them to drug the Albanian refugee and throw him onto an airplane. Meanwhile, two children (ages 6 and 8) in East Texas live without their father.

With the weight of these facts in mind, we asked Mr. Neza’s attorney John Wheat Gibson to send us a statement as to why Rrustem Neza should be immediately released to his children.–gm

Dear Editor,

In what kind of society is it necessary to explain why children need their parents? Rrustem Neza’s children do not have their father because der Fuehrer says he must be deported. There is oil and gas in Albania, and
so unserer Fuehrer does not want to embarrass the organized crime syndicate
that controls Albania and Kosovo. Therefore the father of the children cannot be released from prison. Instead, he must die to make sure the oil and gas concessions go to Conoco or British Petroleum instead of some
Chinese company.

The bureaucrats who carry out the orders of der Fuehrer are afraid to exercise any judgment or morality of their own. If they did, it could affect their advancement in the federal bureaucracy. Instead, they chant,
“Zieg, heil!” and “Heil Georgiepoo!”

John Wheat Gibson, P.C.
Dallas

“Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law” (From Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948).

You read it here first. See Jay J. Johnson-Castro’s Christmas letter to the President–gm

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Press Release
February 22, 2008

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD ANNOUNCES OPPOSITION TO FEDERAL JUDICIAL NOMINATION OF CCA GENERAL COUNSEL GUS PURYEAR

On June 13, 2007, President Bush nominated Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV for a position on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Mr. Puryear currently serves as vice president and general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit private prison company. If appointed he would serve as a federal judge in the same jurisdiction where CCA is headquartered.

Since 2000, at least 260 federal lawsuits naming CCA, company subsidiaries or CCA employees have been filed in the Middle District of Tennessee. Such cases would constitute a conflict of interest for Mr. Puryear, and assigning them to other judges would not be an effective use of judicial resources.

Of greater concern is that Mr. Puryear lacks familiarity with the federal courts and has little trial or litigation experience. By his own admission he has tried only two cases to verdict; he has been personally involved in only five federal cases, most recently a decade ago. He is not admitted to practice before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is over the Middle District of Tennessee, and received only a “qualified” rating from the American Bar Association rather than a “highly qualified” rating.

Both Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker strongly support Mr. Puryear’s nomination. Neither Senator has acknowledged the substantial financial contributions received from Mr. Puryear and his employer, CCA – which include over $80,000 to Senator Alexander and $27,000 to Senator Corker since 2004.

Further, Mr. Puryear mentioned in disclosure statements that he is a member of the Nashville-based Belle Meade Country Club. The fact that Mr. Puryear maintains membership in an exclusive, predominately white club that did not admit its first minority member until 1994, and reportedly does not afford voting privileges to female members but only to male members, is a matter of significant concern for a federal judicial nominee.

In an Associated Press national wire article concerning Mr. Puryear’s nomination, Vanderbilt Professor Stefanie Lindquist was quoted as saying his judicial appointment “might slide through as a compromise.” The National Lawyers Guild does not believe the people of Tennessee should have to compromise or settle for a less-than-qualified federal judge to represent their interests in U.S. District Court.

The National Lawyers Guild calls on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to vote down this unqualified, conflicted and controversial judicial candidate.

Email from Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

The Spring Break…March Against the Border Wall is a 9-day 115-mile walk from Roma, TX to Brownsville. It will start on March 8 and end on March 16 at the UTB campus. This protest walk/march is being organized by the academic community. It is designed to allow the students, many of which have friends and family on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande, to have a chance to be heard, whether they want to be condemned to a costly and grotesque border wall on American soil that cuts through their community and their land. What better time than Spring Break for the future leaders of America to speak up and be heard?

Through Border Ambassadors networking the 1250 mile Texas-Mexico from El Paso to Brownsville, the entire border region is not caving in, bowing down or bending over to the dictates of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. When it comes to our ecology, our environment, our economy, our culture, our history, our geology, our solidarity or our friendship, as long as we live in a democracy, “we the people” of the borderlands will have the final say. To Chertoff, the border is little more than a black line that runs the thread of the Rio Grande. In his mind, the border will be defined as a totalitarian “iron curtain” that will cut through people’s lives and community and turn a culture of friendship into a war zone.

For those of us who live in this militarized zone, the region “inside checkpoints” on the north and every form of military surveillance on the south, the border is not a line, but the blend of we the people on both sides of the Rio Grande. It is diverse and tolerant. We get along, despite the political corruption, oppression and racist supremacy from the north. We are the poorest and most neglected region of the great state of Texas. Worse, we are the poorest region of then entire United States of America. Yet, today, because the Texas delegates will more than likely determine the Presidential candidates in the March 4 primaries, and therefore the next President, the Presidential hopefuls are rushing to South Texas to garner the predominantly Hispanic vote.

It will therefore be the vote here in South Texas that tips the scale in the presidential race. We the people “inside the checkpoints” on the Texas-Mexico border will not squander this opportunity. We will make THE difference.

Can we the people of the Texas-Mexico border shape the future of Texas and therefor the entire United States and therefore the world?

“We sure as hell can”

We will…

Jay

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Connecting the dots
…Making a difference

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Border Ambassadors
Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.