Stop "lampooning" Sarah Palin: She does okay doing it to herself!

(click on pic for larger, better view...enjoy - or not!)

...Yes, Paul sought out Brit head-qauters instead of Brit head-quarters
thus thankfully giving Americans the edge in our fight for independence!!!

VITTERS & WEINER: SCALES OF INJUSTICE: THE ADDENDUM!

(click on pic for larger, better view...enjoy - or not!)

La Schwarzenegger Novela: This self-"right"eous clown does not deserve a break either!!!

(click on pic for larger, better view...enjoy - or not!)

An Oscar Meyer "Weiner" Special: Anthony's saga continues...

(click on pic for larger, better view...enjoy - or not!)

SpongeBob gets kudos for trying to get Tony to keep his skivvies on,
not his fault Weiner did not listen.

May 1st, 2011 another day 1 in May to remember: the last one being in 1945 "Hitler is dead"!

Way to go American troops world-wide: esp. Navy Seals i.c./w Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Panetta (future Sec of Def), all those affiliated with yesterday's capture/death of Bin Laden.
America also showing after almost 18 years of seeking the mad-man known as Osama, that we are as diligent, steadfast, unwavering and patient as any group, anywhere who wishes ill will against us and our allies that we will seek justice no matter what!!!
Americans like Trump should be ashamed of speaking ill of President Obama when he (Obama) was one of the persons at the helm of yesterday's capture. Perhaps a hero, not sure I am ready to give such accolades to just one person yet, but Obama is more worthy of such a title than his nemesis whom is known more for 4 non-heroic things:
1) the stupid coiffe on his head
2) for filing for bankruptcy to avoid paying taxes
3) for the stupid t.v. show
4) for his ear-worm saying "you're fired"!
Really, Donald, that's the best you can do?!!
I am proud that our President did not settle for air strikes against the million dollar compound where the coward Bin Laden was hiding, but he agreed to and approved a die-hard ground attack, 'mano a mano', in order to not only get the evil man but to ensure his death. Perhaps we can refer to that as a commander's preemptive authority.
I dare make this prediction for it is my own personal but fearless prediction...I see re-election for the President in 2012 and the likes of Trump (a.k.a. "Tromp L'oeil" / "fool the eye")finally being dismissed for the ignorant, petty, un-presidential character/person he is. If our citizenry is truly intelligent and wants only the best for this awesome country, people like Trump and other belligerent people and groups will soon go away (fade away) and make way for those whom truly have our best interests at heart.
As I stated last night, this is a victory not just for our great nation, but for the world. Another evil man has been removed as was announced some 66 years ago when Hitler's cowardly suicide was also announced on another glorious day, a first day in May!!!

SHOW US THE MONEY: TRUMP THE SKUNK!

To the so-called "party movements": Stop ruining our great country and making us all appear stupid and weak to the entire world!

(Note as written by me today on my wall):
Yes, the issue created by the 'birthers' bothers me and makes me an indignant American. It makes me question the intelligence level of some people or actually their real motive for believing such a thing and for continuing to fall for such idiocracies. What happened to the real issues we were supposed to focus on after last Nov. (2010) elections when the face of Congress (HoR and the Senate) was changed?!! Things have gotten worse and gone more awry.
As for the W.H. releasing President Obama's long form birth certificate, it was the president's decision to have it released to squelch rumors and unrest which stupidly clouds our great country right now. Instead of people worrying about the real issues plaguing the U.S., groups such as the 'birthers' decide that issues like this are important...REALLY, that's the best you people can do for our great country. What happened to the real problems in our country. Seriously, folks, is forcing shameful and silly issues like this going to bring us jobs, going to decrease unemployment, maybe it is going to stop the awful storms which have been slamming the mid-west for the past several days?!!!
"PLEASE!!!"...let's worry about real issues.
Kudos to the White House today, but shame on the party movements of late (and ppl like Trump who cowardly lead the way) as they continue to serve NO real purpose other than to continue to bring turmoil to our great country while continuing to incite hate and civil unrest with their polarizing, belligerent ideas. They don't care about our awesome country, they want to take control of the gov't and while they are at it, they -without shame and courage- are trying to take back a way of living pre-civil rights act of 1968 and pre-civil rights act of 1964!
Read between the lines as I write that - form your own opinion. I won't spew the awful words of racism in this particular forum perhaps taking a similar stance as the terrible party movements have as they go on denying such a thing leads their cause(s). At least I am able to admit that the issue of racism -and class wars- is still alive (and unfortunately doing too well) when I am directly asked. These so-called movements and groups still hide behind what could be considered 'white sheets' similar to the ones in "The Emperor's New Clothes"; I make the comparison merely to drive home the point that the clothing is similarly invisible, too - except Hans Christian Andersen did not write this fable, the party movements did.

I don't ♥ Apple: Apples rot!

Your iPhone is secretly tracking you!
A reminder why I am a snob against iPhone/iPod/iPad - most all things Apple.

I posted on my status the other day when I saw this story on Digi-life via the Today Show then again on CNN. I am not naive about all things electronic these days; I love and welcome technology and follow it to a tee as a matter of fact. I know the pro's and con's of it all. I read the George Orwell novel, 1984 (1949), back in the day when I was in high school and several times thereafter. I knew technology would one day become too advanced for our britches, per se, and that modern-day society might benefit from certain things, but that we would be in a dismal state as far as our privacy was concerned.

Apple is not the only company putting GPS (tracking) chips in its electronics. I am not such an anti-Apple snob that I do not recognize and admit such things; other companies are doing this without the public's knowledge and they get away with it. The reason why I publicly pick on (pardon the pun) and downgrade Apple is because they are usually the leaders in the electronic industry and of high-tech innovation and they make billions but never do they share their underlying logistical methods with us, the consumers. They sell their products to the public without warning that their products have these chips (GPS) embedded in them that tracks where we are at any time during the day. Let us, the consumer, decide if we want that feature or if we wish to opt out.
Under-handed schemes such as this by the likes of companies like Apple has given way for other companies (perhaps just as unethical) to engineer algorithms in order to come up with programs which coincides with the GPS chips that tracks our whereabouts into an app that is just as invasive and obtrusive as the chips themselves. Consumers can buy these apps which maps and details where he/she was all day long, at what time, precise location (longitude/latitude) and other data. Having access to this data is fine if the consumer wants to know these things, but it hinders on my rights when such data is then sold or shared with tele-marketing companies and such. That is where this consumer draws the line. Why is everything or anything I do via apps and such have to be shared with third-party companies and especially why is it done without my explicit approval. Let me decide.
If a consumer wishes to have access to their own data and is okay with it being done behind their back or not then is shared or sold down the line, that is his/her business. To me data like that is simply cumbersome plus much too private and really just my own damned business. But again if a consumer is that gullible, naive, inquisitive or just plain in need of such entertainment and wants to buy an app that traces your entire day's history and if you are okay with companies like Apple placing these chips in your electronics without letting you know they are there and without letting it be your choice...c'est la vie to that consumer, but heed the old adage, the warning: 'caveat emptor'! These companies do not have your best interest in mind, they simply want to sell your data to others in order to make more and more money.
I am not so sure I would even want to have these tracking systems on my child's cell phone; some say it is good in the event a child is kid-napped. If that is a necessity for a consumer, good luck to you. I realize children get lost, stolen all the time and that it happens to the most caring and doting parent...to them I say "take a chance". But at the end of the day, give consumers a heads up and let us decide.

RAISING THE DEBT CEILING: "WAITING FOR THE LAST MINUTE" - NOT AGAIN!

DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE AGAIN, PEOPLE!
DO NOT WAIT LIKE THAT AGAIN, GUYS!
GET OFF YOUR LAURELS!
STOP BEING PETTY!
BIPARTISANSHIP AND GOOD, SOUND GOVERNING NEEDS TO BEGIN!
NOW - NOT WHEN IT IS AT YOUR OWN CONVENIENCE(s)!

TEXAS TRASH OFF 2011: SATURDAY, APRIL 2nd, 2011

Dear family and friends:
It is that time of the year again...the time when our family group gathers to take part in this annual event not only to help keep Texas highways beautiful and clean, but to honor and to remember Philip!!!
We always have fun and we always welcome ALL participants!!!
The start time is always at 8:00 A.M.so that we may finish up early and to take advantage of the cooler weather.
Most often this event is capped off with a get-together of food, goodies/desserts, and always with good conversation.
Note: more details on a possible post-event gathering later.
Friendly reminders to be sent as we near the clean-up via:
- Emails, Facebook, Twitter, texts and word of mouth -
So please mark your calendars...and help spread the word.
Saturday, April 2nd, 2011 @ 8:00 A.M.
*********************************
THANKS and much LOVE to all from the
GUZMAN/DOMINGUEZ Family!!!

John Boehner: Passing of the HOR gavel: 112th New Congress!

(view original posting on my "Dora's Political Blog")

John Boehner: Passing of the HOR gavel: 112th New Congress!

(view original posting on my "Dora's Political Blog")

John Boehner: The Orange Man cometh to work with his new cronies: the New Congress 2011.

Caption reads: New Majority Leader Boehner and some of his Republican buddies. Part of the new 2011 Congress; arriving for their first day of the so-called "taking back of America" (a.k.a. "taking America Hostage"). How appropriate...they are taking the "little bus" to work.
(view original posting on my "Dora's Political Blog")

Learn to speak English: 'Si cabron...just as soon as you lose your stupid twang'!

I am all for people learning to speak English. There is not much debate or discussion needed to prove why English is so important. Not just to reside in this country, but perhaps to be able to communicate in another country or continent where English seems to be the most popular language to learn and to have as a second or third language. English should be the primary language in the U.S. - I totally agree. BUT...
For beginners - let's take a closer look at southerners, especially the ones whose English is accompanied with a twang of any sort. It is not cute. It should not be normal or done to show off the part of the country from which you may have been born or grew up. You don't need to be proud of your twang, it is merely just an accent which you justify -unjustly- as a dialect. It is embarrassing to the rest of us who are trying hard to just speak proper English. No accents, no twangs. Just pure unadulterated English. I don't want to struggle to understand you each time you spew out your "y'alls", "gettin ready to", "fixin to", "shoulda", "woulda", "Missourah", "Amarillah". It is bad enough when you use words like that one at a time, but when you mix it up and use them all in a phrase or in a sentence, it really hurts my ears. I am an American, 4 or 5 generations prior to me having been born and raised here, and I am proud of my English. I practice it every single day as I not only speak it, but as I write it in numerous blogs I have or via social networks. I try not to muck it up or to misuse it in any way. If you speak with one of those awful twangs and you find yourself having to repeat what you are saying...don't fool yourself, it is not the 'other guy' who does not hear you right, it is indeed your awful twang keeping you from being able to properly express yourself. You are not using your language skills properly. You are misusing the English language which you are demanding that people from other countries/continents use. Why don't you try speaking English first. Speak it properly, sound out the vowels as you should have been taught to do in grade school, get rid of any cutesy-mootsey twang and speak proper English before you start making any demands.
Lets not forget those dear American folk to the north of us whose English is marred by an accent probably impeded by our Canadian neighbors. Please feel free to stop any need to overuse the word "yah". Please refrain from over-stating any vowel sounds especially and mostly the letter 'A'. You also speak certain words that I might not understand if it were not for my ability (my common sense) to decipher the meaning of the word by the way you are using it in a sentence. It is not really English you are speaking, it falls more in a category that I have now dubbed, Englidian. English+Canadian=Englidian. Please lose the northern accent.

Sarah Palin: To "club" or not to "club"

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #1, The Bracero Program!

Note from me before I begin with the actual lesson: It was the U.S. (again) who needed assistance from Mexico to do those jobs that Americans clearly will NOT perform, the U.S. brought over people from Mexico here first then decided they were "persona non grata". It was wrong for the U.S. to use Mexicans like they did and worse to rid the country of them as they did in such an inhumane manner. The U.S. started this present-day so-called immigration issue and now certain Americans want to further use cruel and unusual punishment to keep ridding our country of people (Mexicans) who have more of a right to exist here than most of them (Americans whose ancestors are from other continents) do.
The Bracero Program (from the Spanish word brazo, meaning "arm") was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated by an August 1942 exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and Mexico, for the importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States. U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Mexican president Manuel Ávila Camacho, in Monterrey to discuss Mexico as part of the Allies in World War II and the Bracero Program. After the expiration of the initial agreement in 1947, the program was continued in agriculture under a variety of laws and administrative agreements until its formal end in 1964.
In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, over 500,000 Mexican Americans were deported or pressured to leave, during the Mexican Repatriation (***reviewed in another post below). There were thus fewer Mexican Americans available when labor demand returned with World War II.
The Bracero Program was initially prompted by a demand for manual labor during World War II, and begun with the U.S. government bringing in a few hundred experienced Mexican agricultural laborers to harvest sugar beets in the Stockton, California area. The program soon spread to cover most of the United States and provided workers for the agriculture labor market (with the notable exception was Texas, who initially opted out of the program in preference of an "open border" policy, and were denied braceros by the Mexican government until 1947 due to perceived mistreatment of Mexican laborers). As an important corollary, the railroad bracero program was independently negotiated to supply U.S. railroads initially with unskilled workers for track maintenance but eventually to cover other unskilled and skilled labor. By 1945, the quota for the agricultural program was more than 75,000 braceros working in the U.S. railroad system and 50,000 braceros working in U.S. agriculture at any one time.
The railroad program ended with the conclusion of World War II, in 1945.
At the behest of U.S. growers, who claimed ongoing labor shortages, the program was extended under a number of acts of congress until 1948. Between 1948 and 1951, the importation of Mexican agricultural laborers continued under negotiated administrative agreements between growers and the Mexican Government. On July 13, 1951, President Truman signed Public Law 78, a two-year program which embodied formalized protections for Mexican laborers. The program was renewed every two years until 1963, when, under heavy criticism, it was extended for a single year with the understanding it would not be renewed. After the formal end of the agricultural program lasted until 1964, there were agreements covering a much smaller number of contracts until 1967, after which no more braceros were granted.
The program in agriculture was justified in the U.S. largely as an alternative to undocumented immigration, and seen as a complement to efforts to deport undocumented immigrants such as Operation "Wetback" (***also reviewed in another post below), under which 1,075,168 Mexicans were deported in 1954. Scholars who have closely studied Mexican migration in this period have questioned this interpretation, emphasizing instead the complementary nature of legal and illegal migration. Scholars of this school suggest that the decision to hire Mexicans through the Bracero Program or via extra-legal contractors depended mostly on which seemed more suitable to needs of agribusiness employers, attributing the expansion of the Bracero Program in the late 50s to the relaxation of enforcement of regulations on Bracero wages, housing, and food charges.
The workers who participated in the Bracero Program have generated significant local and international struggles challenging the US government and Mexican government to identify and return deductions taken from their pay, from 1942 to 1948, for savings accounts which they were legally guaranteed to receive upon their return to Mexico at the conclusion of their contracts. Many never received their savings. Lawsuits presented in federal courts in California, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, highlighted the substandard conditions and documented the ultimate destiny of the savings accounts deductions, but the suit was thrown out because the Mexican banks in question never operated in the United States.
Even though the United States had made use of migrant Mexican labor in its agricultural sector since the early 1900s, such labor tended to be both migratory and seasonal with many workers returning back to Mexico in the winter. The situation changed with the involvement of the United States in WWII that created a massive labor shortage in all sectors of the economy with the withdrawal of much of the nation's active labor force into the various armed services. The extreme labor shortage forced a change in immigration policy for the United States that resulted in development of the Bracero Program in conjunction with Mexico. The Bracero Program was a guest worker program that ran between the years of 1942 and 1964. Over the twenty-two year period, The Mexican Farm Labor Program, informally known as the Bracero Program, sponsored some 4.5 million border crossings of guest workers from Mexico (some among these representing repeat visits by returned braceros).
The growing realization among businesses was that provisions within the program ensured an increase of costs for the imported labor. The program mandated a certain level of wages, housing, food and medical care for the workers (to be paid for by the employers) that kept the standard of living above what many had in Mexico. Not only did this enable many to send funds home to their families, but it also had the unintended effect of encouraging illegal immigration when the USA's workers quotas were met. These new illegal workers could not be employed "above the table" as part of the program leaving them open for exploitation. This resulted in the lowering of wages and not receiving the benefits that the Mexican government had negotiated to insure their legal workers well being under the bracero program. This in turn, had the effect of eroding support for the program in the agricultural sector for the legal importation of workers from Mexico in favor of hiring Illegal immigrants to reduce overhead costs. The advantages of hiring illegal workers were that they were willing to work for lower wages, without support, health coverage or in many cases legal means to address abuses by the employers for fear of deportation. Nevertheless, conditions for the poor and unemployed within Mexico were such that illegal employment was attractive enough to motivate many to leave in search of work within the United States illegally, even if that directly competed with the legal workers within the bracero program leading to its discontinuation.
Labor unions which tried to organize agricultural workers after WWII targeted the Bracero program as a key impediment to improving the wages of domestic farm workers. These unions included the National Farm Laborers Union (NFLU), later called the National Agricultural Workers Union (NAWU), headed by Ernesto Galarza, and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), AFL-CIO. During his tenure with the Community Service Organization, César Chávez was given a grant by the AWOC to organize in Oxnard, California which culminated in a protest of domestic U.S. agricultural workers of the U.S. Department of Labor's administration of the program. In January 1961, in an effort to publicize the effects of bracero labor on labor standards, the AWOC led a strike of lettuce workers at 18 farms in the Imperial Valley, an agricultural region on the California-Mexico border and a major destination for braceros.
The end of the Bracero program in 1964 was followed by the rise to prominence of the United Farm Workers, and the subsequent transformation of American migrant labor under the leadership of César Chávez. Dolores Huerta was also a leader and early organizer of the United Farm Workers. According to Manuel Garcia y Griego, a political scientist and author of The Importation of Mexican Contract Laborers to the United States 1942-1964, the Contract-Labor Program “left an important legacy for the economies, migration patterns, and politics of the United States and Mexico.”
Griego’s article discusses the bargaining position of both countries, arguing that the Mexican government lost all real bargaining power after 1950. The guest worker program continued until 1964.

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #2, Operation Wetback!

Operation Wetback was a 1954 operation by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about one million illegal immigrants from the southwestern United States, focusing on Mexican nationals.
Burgeoning numbers of illegal Mexican immigrants prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to appoint his longtime friends, John Cox and General Joseph Swing, as INS Commissioner. According to Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr., Eisenhower had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration upon taking office. In a letter to Sen. J. William Fulbright, Eisenhower quoted a report in The New York Times that said, "The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican "wetbacks" (rooted from the watery route taken by the Mexican immigrants across the Rio Grande) to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government."
The operation was modeled after a program that came to be termed the Mexican Repatriation, which put pressure on citizens of Mexico to return home during the Great Depression, due to the economic crisis in the United States.
Operation Wetback in action: The effort began in California and Arizona, and coordinated 1075 Border Patrol agents, along with state and local police agencies, to mount an aggressive crackdown. Tactics employed included going as far as systematic police sweeps of Mexican-American neighborhoods, and random stops and ID checks of "Mexican-looking" people in a region with many Native Americans and native Hispanics. In some cases, illegal immigrants were deported along with their American-born minor dependent children. Some 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions per day. By the end of July, over 50,000 immigrants were caught in the two states. An estimated 488,000 illegal immigrants are claimed to have left voluntarily, for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimated that 500,000 to 700,000 had left Texas of their own accord. To discourage illicit re-entry, buses and trains took many deportees deep within Mexican territory prior to releasing them. Tens of thousands more were deported by two chartered ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried them from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) to the south. Some were taken as far as 1,000 miles. Deportation by sea was ended after seven deportees jumped overboard from the Mercurio and drowned, provoking a mutiny that led to a public outcry in Mexico.

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #3, The Repatriation Movement!

The Mexican Repatriation refers to a forced migration that took place between 1929 and 1939, when as many as one million people of Mexican descent were forced or pressured to leave the US. (The term "Repatriation," though commonly used, is inaccurate, since approximately 60% of those driven out were U.S. citizens.) The event, carried out by American authorities, took place without due process. The Immigration and Naturalization Service targeted Mexicans because of "the proximity of the Mexican border, the physical distinctiveness of mestizos, and easily identifiable barrios.". The Repatriation is not widely discussed in American history textbooks; in a 2006 survey of the nine most commonly used American history textbooks in the United States, four did not mention the Repatriation, and only one devoted more than half a page to the topic. In total, they devoted four pages to the Repatriation, compared with eighteen pages for the Japanese American internment. These actions were authorized by President Herbert Hoover and targeted areas with large Hispanic populations, mostly in California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois and Michigan.

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #4, Operation Gatekeeper!

Operation Gatekeeper - was a Clinton-era measure aimed to halt immigration at the United States–Mexico border near San Diego, California. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the goal of Gatekeeper was "to restore integrity and safety to the nation's busiest border." Operation Gatekeeper was announced in Los Angeles on September 17, 1994 by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, and was launched two weeks later on October 1. In the United States Congress, additional funds were allocated to the United States Border Patrol and other agencies. By 1997, the budget of the Immigration and Naturalization Service had doubled to 800 million dollars, the number of Border Patrol agents had nearly doubled, the amount of fencing or other barriers more than doubled, and the number of underground sensors nearly tripled. The merits of Operation Gatekeeper have been debated extensively, including during Congressional hearings. The Department of Justice, the INS and the Border Patrol have maintained that Operation Gatekeeper is a success. However, various Congressmen and newspaper articles have sharply criticized the program and declared it a failure.

Voting: Why Latinos/Hispanics/Chicanos should vote: Reason #5, SB1070!

Arizona's poisonous, disgusting senate bill SB 1070:

Everything about this bill should be bothersome and worrisome to all of us who want true,
just Immigration Reform. If you are not familiar with the bill, click on the title above to read about it. I am totally against it. For one - immigration issues are federal issues. The issues are NOT for each state to decide how to deal with it. I am AGAINST SB 1070 because it is demeaning and takes the meaning of the word "human" out of human being. Letting such a cruel and crude bill exist and worse yet to be implemented, to me, is like letting each state go back post 1964/1968 to decide how or if they will allow or disallow persons of color their civil rights.

The Dream Act:

This act is one I am in favor of for various reasons. We cannot and should not punish children of undocumented workers/immigrants who did not obtain their residency or citizenship here in the U.S. as they should have. The children have been in the U.S. for most of their lives and know life only here in their beloved United States. Denying them a right to attend college so that they may obtain their residency or citizenship to better their lives is a terrible thing to do. Giving them a "hand up" by financially assisting them to obtain a college education is a good thing provided they agree, immediately upon graduation, to: 1) obtain their legal status 2) give back to their community. But never, ever should it be okay to send these students back to the country which they were born in but do not know. They know the U.S. The U.S. has been their home. Give them a chance to stay in their home. Let them serve in a branch of the armed forces or to sign up with a civil service program. Don't make them suffer for being in the U.S. illegally because of their parents. Allowing the Dream Act to be inspires people who would otherwise have no dreams the ability to have dreams, to set goals, to help better our country. As I gave an analogy above for being against SB 1070, let me give an analogy for being FOR the Dream Act: It would be very much like enacting Affirmative Action all over again for minorities in this country to have an equal opportunity to attend college. The rich people have their legacy programs, voila, minorities have affirmative action...let the children of undocumented workers have their dream act.