Category: Uncategorized

The time for the fourth vigil to “Free the Children” of the T. Don Hutto prison has been set to 5:30 pm on Feb. 12.

The vigil will be included as a stop in the Marcha Migrante II Border Caravan, says co-organizer Jay Johnson-Castro. He made the announcement upon arrival in his home town of Del Rio Wednesday night.

“We take off in the morning to Mission and will finish the border portion on Friday in Brownsville,” said Johnson-Castro via email.

He has been travelling with Enrique Morones and the Border Angels since their San Diego departure Feb. 2. A complete, updated schedule is archived here along with reports from the caravan.

Email from John Wheat Gibson

To all interested in the bond hearing of Salaheddin Ibrahim in the Immigration Court at Dallas, Texas:

We just received notice of the true reason the Immigration Court Clerk postponed the date of Salaheddin Ibrahim’s custody hearing from today (7 February 2007) to tomorrow. The BICE came up with two witnesses today that it wants to have testify why Mr. Ibrahim should be kept in prison. The Gestapo wants them to testify by telephone. Obviously, the Gestapo wanted more time to bring in these witnesses, and was not ready yesterday.

John Wheat Gibson

****************

Note: In a follow-up phone call, Gibson says he received a fax about 2:30 pm from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Chief Counsel advising him that Deportation Officers McCormack and Gilberg would be testifying about Salaheddin Ibrahim’s “flight risk and danger to the community.”

The testimonies will be conducted telephonically to accomodate the schedules of the officers.

Salaheddin’s brother Ahmad said he cannot imagine any serious issues that could be presented.

“My brother is a legal resident of the USA. His children haven’t seen him for three months. He needs to go back to his family,” said Ahmad.

A Texas Civil Rights Review Editorial

See hearing reports below.

By Greg Moses

GlobalResistanceNetwork / ILCA Online
IndyMedia Houston / NorthTexas / Austin / L.A. / NYC

After two months of investigation, knocking on 170 doors, serving folks with orders to divulge their votes, swearing them to oath under penalty of law, and chewing over everything with the finest teeth that money can buy, the ousted opponent of newly elected Texas State Representative Hubert Vo now claims loudly to have “irrefutable proof” that Vo actually lost the election by “at least five votes.”

The conclusion is announced with fanfare and jubilation, because if it stands the test of a legislative hearing, it will unseat an immigrant legislator in Texas who represents for the first time in more then 30 years an actual increase of Democrats in the statehouse.

Never mind Vo’s detailed reading of the same evidence, showing once again that he won the election by some 30 votes. What’s sad about the contest that heads into hearing Jan. 27 is that so many voters have been put through so much for so little result. Even the opposition camp admits that their best-case evidence fails to support claims of “widespread fraud” that they were slinging last month.

Instead of grand voter theft, the Republican strike team presents us with a tawdry series of common error and low-level cheating worthy of a robust election among free peoples. Nearly half of ballots alleged to be illegal involve 154 folks who registered one place but moved to another. That’s 154 folks out of 41,000 who might have gone back to their old neighborhoods to vote.

“Thus, a dark and troubling cloud looms over the purported outcome of this race because of the enormous number of illegal ballots which were cast and counted,” complains the First Amended Petition. True enough, people should vote where they live, but if they do go back to their old neighborhoods to vote, what kind of cloud do they drag with them? Is this behavior so scandalous as to draw down the scrutiny of an entire legislative investigation, knocking on doors, and taking names?

“Because the margin of difference between the two candidates is only .04%,” argues the defeated Republican, “even the slightest irregularity in voting has the potential for reversing the outcome.” But, on the other hand, we’d like to know, how did the election get to be so close, with a 22-year incumbent running in a district that had been drawn up under his watch?

Inflated concern over the tiniest irregularities cannot distract from the embarrassment of political errors that must have brought the challenger to this place, where in order to extend a political career by two years he should be making a historical record out of the names of American voters who failed to update their registrations, placing into public view on the internet not only who they are but how they voted.

I am tempted at this point to exaggerate the scandal of this contest by publishing in this paragraph the names of folks who crossed back into old neighborhoods to vote straight ticket Republican. But their names are already too easy to find. It would be better I think to simply call off the dogs, cancel the hearing, and get on with the job of making better laws. Okay, so we have attack-dog lawyers in Texas. Can’t the Republicans find them something better to do?

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Go for Vo: an online petition in support of State Rep. Hubert Vo has been posted by Houston 80-20 PAC. See story below.

Follow the contest at the legislative website.

Compelling Interest: Diversity at A&M

Featuring the Aggie March for

Diversity

Sponsored by Faculty Committed to an Inclusive Campus

Faculty

Committed to an Inclusive Campus (FCIC) is a group of faculty at Texas A&M University that seeks to

increase diversity at TAMU and make our campus a welcoming environment for everyone. FCIC has a broad

vision of diversity which includes race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and identity,

religion, geographic origin, age, and disability.

More info below, flyer at “Download”

section.

Dear Campus Organization Representative,

On behalf of the FCIC Rally

Organizing Committee, I am writing to invite your organization to participate in the upcoming rally and

march, “Compelling Interest: Diversity at A&M,” to be held on Wednesday,
February 18th, 2:00-5:00

p.m. at the Rudder Fountain Plaza.

At the rally, we will have tables staffed with FCIC

members and individuals from other organizations to speak with passersby about diversity,

debunk
myths about diversity, and publicize our positions on diversity issues.

At

3:00 p.m., we will invite all campus and community members who support diversity at Texas A&M to join

us in the Aggie March for Diversity. After a brief statement, the march will step off at 3:15, wind

its way through campus, and end up back at Rudder Fountain. The rally has already been mentioned in The

Eagle, and we expect to draw a strong media presence.

To help us organize and put on the

rally, we are asking your organization:

1. Whether you wish to sign on as an official

co-sponsor of the teach-in and march. Co-sponsoring does not entail a financial obligation. If you wish

to
sign on as a co-sponsor, please contact Brenda Bethman at bbethman@tamu.edu or Larry Oliver at l

-oliver@tamu.edu.

2. To encourage your organization’s members to come to the rally and

especially to the march at 3:00.

3. To recruit volunteers to staff tables (in half-hour

blocks) during the rally. Please tell your members that anyone interested in staffing a table should

contact Cecelia Hawkins at c-hawkins@tamu.edu.

Please let us know as soon as possible,

whether you are interested in participating in the rally and march. We are looking forward to a strong

show of support for diversity on this campus and hope that you and your organization will join us. If

you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you,

Harris

Berger and Joseph Jewell

Faculty Committed to an Inclusive

Campus