compliments of Ryan- i think u will like this band…the song “talking with fireworks”..love it, so far my favorite…

Yeasayer is in austin, dallas april 29-30- Ryan say’s they are great live…

Interesting:
“…Oklahoma and Arizona have passed the most restrictive laws. An Arizona law yanks the business license of employers who hire illegal immigrants. Oklahoma’s law, used as a model for a Florida bill, makes it a crime to hire or transport undocumented immigrants.

Caulkett also runs a website, www.reportillegals.com, where, for a $10 fee, he will report a suspected ”illegal alien” to immigration. “

http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/476612.html

just skimming the news this AM, there’s like a million wars going on right now…i wish i could take the day off an read about them all! i felt extremely overwhelmed just reading the headlines…where to start…not to mention our own personal wars..

When my friend Cord first began writing for the black blog stereohyped, readers questioned if he was actually black after seeing the picture I took of him at the Guinness Factory: http://www.stereohyped.com/salutations-20080227/ Perhaps the question stemmed out of his remarks about living in Saudi Arabia, but for as long as I’ve known him … people always ask … “what is that kid?”

I’ve seen Cord respond by getting in fights, insulting people’s intelligence, and being pretty bummed out. Here, he responds in a way that makes me very proud.

http://www.stereohyped.com/cord-asks-am-i-black-enough-for-ya-20080328/#comments

Spoke with the founder for a while regarding, funding, lobbying and the effect of the program in women that have been reinstated into society. Really interesting. She has kept the organization quiet, but is intending on changing and stirring things a bit.

She has ongoing negotiations with Senators and prison directors, regarding an exciting possibility of having an area in the prison for art materials.

Next thursday there is a woman’s film festival that will be showing a documentary on the program called- “Bridging the gap”. I want us to all go. I think we could learn a lot from this lady.

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Mission

ArtSpring, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3), public charity whose mission is to support self-growth and effective life skills through art-making for underserved and institutionalized women and girls. Since 1994, ArtSpring has served the needs of women and girls representing a diverse ethnic, age and racial demographic through its two principal programs: Inside Out and Breaking Free. These interdisciplinary arts programs incorporate movement, theatre games, writing, drawing, music, story telling, meditation, guided imagery and performance as transformational tools for self-reflection and personal change.

MY FAVORITE PART———-

ArtSpring believes in the power of art to transform individuals and communities. We believe that each individual is inherently creative and that social meaning and expression can be found in every community. Artist Facilitators work together with our program participants to offer specifically designed creative workshops that encourage participants to re-connect to their own creativity, explore their inner imagination and assist them in forming their own creative ideas.

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One in every 100 adults in the U.S. is serving time in prison or jail, according to a report from the Pew Center on the States. Some key findings from the Pew Public Safety Performance Project report, titled “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008″:

• One in 100 U.S. adults are in prison or jail;
• One in 30 men aged 20-34 are incarcerated;
• One in 53 people in their 20’s is incarcerated;
• Men are 10 times as likely to be incarcerated, compared to women.

The New York Times reports that in 2007, “states spent $44 billion in tax dollars on corrections, up from $10.6 billion in 1987,” and that in 2005 it cost an average of about $23,876 dollars per year to keep an inmate in jail or prison.

more AMAZING reports—>

http://commonlaw.findlaw.com/2008/02/report-1-in-100.html

This doesn’t help Carlos case, just spoke with Appellate atty.assigned and discussed the repercussions…

Justices Rule Against Bush on Death Penalty Case

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush overstepped his authority when he ordered a Texas court to reopen the case of a Mexican on death row for rape and murder, the Supreme Court said Tuesday.

In a case that mixes presidential power, international relations and the death penalty, the court sided with Texas and rebuked Bush by a 6-3 vote.

The president was in the unusual position of siding with death row prisoner Jose Ernesto Medellin, a Mexican citizen whom police prevented from consulting with Mexican diplomats, as provided by international treaty.

An international court ruled in 2004 that the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row around the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention, which provides that people arrested abroad should have access to their home country’s consular officials. The International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, said the Mexican prisoners should have new court hearings to determine whether the violation affected their cases.

Bush, who oversaw 152 executions as Texas governor, disagreed with the decision. But he said it must be carried out by state courts because the United States had agreed to abide by the world court’s rulings in such cases. The administration argued that the president’s declaration is reason enough for Texas to grant Medellin a new hearing.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, disagreed. Roberts said the international court decision cannot be forced upon the states.

The president may not ”establish binding rules of decision that pre-empt contrary state law,” Roberts said. Neither does the treaty, by itself, require individual states to take action, he said.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.

The international court judgment should be enforced, Breyer wrote. ”The nation may well break its word even though the president seeks to live up to that word,” he said.

Justice John Paul Stevens, while agreeing with the outcome of the case, said nothing prevents Texas from giving Medellin another hearing even though it is not compelled to do so.

”Texas’ duty in this respect is all the greater since it was Texas that — by failing to provide consular notice in accordance with the Vienna Convention — ensnared the United States in the current controversy,” Stevens said.

Medellin was arrested a few days after the killings of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16, in Houston in June 1993. He was told he had a right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, but the police did not tell him that he could request assistance from the Mexican consulate.

Medellin, who speaks, reads and writes English, gave a written confession. He was convicted of murder in the course of a sexual assault, a capital offense in Texas. A judge sentenced him to death in October 1994.

Texas acknowledged that Medellin was not told he could ask for help from Mexican diplomats, but argued that he forfeited the right because he never raised the issue at trial or sentencing. In any case, the state said, the diplomats’ intercession would not have made any difference in the outcome of the case.

State and federal courts rejected Medellin’s claim when he raised it on appeal.

Then, in 2003, Mexico sued the United States in the International Court of Justice in The Hague on behalf of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row in the U.S. who also had been denied access to their country’s diplomats following their arrests.

Roe Wilson, a Harris County assistant district attorney who handles capital case appeals, applauded the Supreme Court decision. ”This case has been in the court system a long time based on various issues, ” said Wilson, whose office prosecuted Medellin. ”It was a heinous murder of two young girls who were only 14 and 16. It’s certainly time the case be resolved and the sentence be carried out.”

Medellin, who was 18 at the time of the slayings, turned 33 earlier this month. He’s now out of appeals and Wilson said her office will ask for an execution date once the Supreme Court resolves a separate case challenging lethal injections.

Mexico has no death penalty. Mexico and other opponents of capital punishment have sought to use the world court to fight for foreigners facing execution in the U.S.

Forty-four Mexican prisoners affected by the decision remain on death row around the country, including 14 in Texas. One Mexican inmate formerly facing execution now is imprisoned for life because of the Supreme Court decision outlawing capital punishment for anyone under 18 at the time the crime was committed.

Bush has since said the United States will no longer allow the World Court to judge the consular access cases because of how death penalty opponents have tried to use the international tribunal.

The case is Medellin v. Texas, 06-984.

This article had me in tears this morning while sitting at starbucks: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/us/25dead.web.html?ref=world

From stuff white people like–>

San Francisco is one of the top US destinations for white people in terms of both travel and living. It is universally agreeable and is a safe discussion topic for any situation.

The city is considered one of the world’s premiere locations for white person research.

White people like to vacation in San Francisco because it has beautiful architecture, fantastic food, and it is near the water. They like to live in San Francisco because of its abundance of Non Profit Organizations, Expensive Sandwiches, Wine, political outlook, and most importantly its diversity.

Since many white people either live in, plan to move to, or closely identify with San Francisco it is imperative that you know how best to deal with them.

The City of San Francisco has a very multicultural population that ranges from white to gay to Asian. Within white culture this known as “ideal diversity” for its provision of exotic restaurants while simultaneously preserving property values. The presence of gays and Asians is imperative as it two provides two of the key resources most necessary for white success and happiness.

However, it is important to be aware of the fact that regions outside of San Francisco feature many people who are not white, gay or Asian. They are greatly appreciated during the census, but white people are generally very happy that they stay in places like Oakland and Richmond. This enables white people to feel good about living near people of diverse backgrounds without having to directly deal with troublesome issues like income gaps or schooling.

Still, the presence of other minorities are welcomed by white people for so many more reasons than just statistics! Much in the way that white people in Brooklyn feel a strong and unfounded connection with The Notorious BIG, white people in San Francisco feel the need to identify with rappers from the East Bay. Interestingly enough, the further they venture from San Francisco, the stronger their need to represent their region.

“Oh man, I went to the Too Short show last night. So hyphy man, so hyphy. You should come by some time and we’ll ghost ride the Prius.”

When you are presented with statements like this, the best response is to say “Berkeley is close to Oakland,” and the white person will likely nod and throw up some sort of west side hand sign.

Though it is exceptionally easy to put someone from San Francisco in a good mood, there are some caveats. When talking to a white person who lives in San Francisco, it is best not to bring up New York City. Though they live in a world class city, San Franciscans have a crippling inferiority complex about New York and even hinting at that will make them very sad or very defensive.

Fortunately, there is a fool-proof method for quickly returning the conversation to a positive, trust-building tone. No matter how much you have offended someone from San Francisco, you can always make them feel better by asking them how they feel about Southern California. They will instantly talk of how it is filled with crime, pollution, hegemonic culture, and the wrong kind of white people: “I swear California is like two separate countries, and I am so thankful that I live in the cultural center of the West Coast.” This will allow them to reassert their superiority and leave the conversation with a positive feeling about themselves and about you.

Castro Photo by bkusler who has done an e

A new deal

Finding promise in prisoners
SAM AMAYA was six years old when he first pulled a gun on another person—his father, who was beating his mother. At eight he would produce the gun when he wanted his sister to change the channel from a soap opera to a cartoon. At 13, after a fight with his father, he fled from his house to his school’s playground, where some members of the Two-Six gang were meeting. He was initiated later that afternoon. He began running drugs as a teenager, picking up consignments of marijuana and cocaine near the border with Mexico and selling them around Texas.

With such a background, it is perhaps not surprising that Mr Amaya was arrested after pistol-whipping a girlfriend and is today, at 28, about to finish a long sentence for aggravated assault. Statistics would suggest that he will be back before too long: according to the Pew Centre on the States, more than half of released offenders return to prison within three years, and Texas has the country’s second-highest rate of incarceration. In fact, Mr Amaya’s future should be more cheerful than those numbers suggest.

Just before he is released on June 23rd, if all goes to plan, Mr Amaya will graduate from the Prison Entrepreneurship Programme (PEP), a remarkable effort to prepare some of Texas’s harder cases for their transition back to freedom. The programme was founded in 2004 by Catherine Rohr, a venture capitalist who changed careers after visiting several Texas prisons.

Her premise is that many criminals are intelligent people with good heads for business and healthy appetites for risk, and that these traits can be put to productive use. She is particularly interested in people who have already demonstrated these skills—for example by running a successful drug business or achieving a high rank in a gang.

During the past four years PEP has put more than 300 inmates through four months of business classes and study. They meet MBA students to develop business plans, and hundreds of businessmen have taken part in special events at the prison. About 40 graduates already have businesses up and running. The vast majority are employed. Fewer than 5% have reoffended. The programme is privately funded, and that success rate has helped it grow. In 2004 Ms Rohr used her savings to get things going; this year the operating budget is $3.2m.

PEP’s success is partly due to the fact that the programme takes only the most serious applicants. Prospective participants first fill out a lengthy questionnaire. Those that pass have an interview, where Ms Rohr claims she rumbles the fakers. Once selected, a participant can be booted out at any time for a variety of infractions, such as cheating or maintaining gang membership. The current class started with 87 members and is down to 39.

Participants say that PEP provides male role models, and helps them have hope for the future. Ms Rohr considers it her job to build character. “They’re not in here because they were bad businessmen,” she says. “They’re in here because they were lacking moral values in their lives.” She assigns them ethical case studies and leads discussions on everything from honesty to sexual relationships.

Texas is making its own efforts to improve results for released offenders, but released prisoners typically get just $100 and a bus ticket to Houston or Dallas. PEP picks up its graduates at the gate with packages of sheets, toiletries and business suits. It helps them find work and housing, and even offers a free trip to the dentist. According to Gregory Mack, a participant, all this makes a big difference. Mr Mack has been in and out of prison on drug charges for the past two decades. He completed a behaviour-modification programme in 2002 as a condition for parole, but its value was limited. “They really had nothing to offer outside the walls,” he explains. By 2005 he was behind bars again. Mr Amaya now has a chance to avoid that fate.