Tom y Caro’s Big Plans

THIS IS ONE OF THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!

The first comprehensive look at California’s administration of the death penalty in 30 years has produced a study concluding that the state’s administration of the death penalty is “close to collapse” and would require either lots of money or changes in sentencing laws “to end decades of delay and dysfunction.” Here’s the story, from the LA Times.

The main report did not advocate abolishing the death penalty but did note that California could save more than $100 million a year if the state replaced the punishment with sentences of life in prison without possibility of parole. The report concluded that death-row prisoners cost more to confine, are granted more resources for appeals, have more expensive trials and usually die in prison anyway.

According to the story, the time from death sentence to execution in California is 20 to 25 years, compared with the national average of 12 years, the commission said. The state spends about $138 million a year on the death penalty and has executed 13 people over the last three decades, the commission said.

The commission learned of “no credible evidence” that the state had executed an innocent person but said the risk remained. Fourteen people convicted of murder in California from 1989 through 2003 were later exonerated. Six death row inmates who won new trials were acquitted or had their charges dismissed for lack of evidence.

Still, all were not of the same mind on the study. In one of the study’s dissents, five law enforcement commissioners complained that the majority was “seeking to undermine public confidence” in the death penalty and that the report “unmistakenly reveals a personal bias” against capital punishment.

I wish I could take off work so I could read all of the decisions that came out this week….

I’m not even finished with the DP Kennedy Louisiana..i got diverted with the Giles decision, which I spoke about with Carlo’s atty whom argued that exact confrontation clause issue early June in front of the OKC SC.

giles: Giles v. California that the California Supreme Court’s theory of forfeiture by wrongdoing is not an exception to the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause because it was not an exception established at the nation’s founding.

2nd ( TMAC was right with this one) :”A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

wow

***** i wish i could have an instant translator that would read me the decision as we go biking… that would be soooo GLORIOUS!! … although i think i would get into an accident when i get upset at something…id wave my arms up and  GO    OH  OUUU !!!

From Nicholas Kristof writing in Today’s Times:

The dirty little secret of the Iraq war isn’t in Baghdad or Basra. Rather, it’s found in the squalid brothels of Damascus and the poorest neighborhoods of East Amman.

Some two million Iraqis have fled their homeland and are now sheltering in run-down neighborhoods in surrounding countries. These are the new Palestinians, the 21st-century Arab diaspora that threatens the region’s stability.

Many youngsters are getting no education, and some girls are pushed into prostitution, particularly in Damascus. Impoverished, angry, disenfranchised, unwanted, these Iraqis are a combustible new Middle Eastern element that no one wants to address or even think about.

American hawks prefer to address the region’s security challenges by devoting billions of dollars to permanent American military bases. A simpler way to fight extremism would be to pay school fees for refugee children to ensure that they at least get an education and don’t become forever marginalized and underemployed.

We broke Iraq, and we have a moral responsibility to those whose lives have been shattered by our actions. Helping them is also in our national interest, for we’ll regret our myopia if we allow young Iraqi refugees to grow up uneducated and unemployable, festering in their societies.

. . .

It’s among the largest humanitarian crises in the world today,” said Michael Kocher, a refugee expert at the International Rescue Committee, which recently published a report on the crisis. “It’s getting very little attention from the Security Council on down, which we feel is scandalous and also bad strategy.”

It’s easy to blame the surrounding countries, such as Jordan and Syria, for not being more hospitable to Iraqis. But those countries have, however grudgingly, tolerated the influx despite the burden and political risk.

Iraqi refugees are hard to count but may now amount to 8 percent of Jordan’s population of six million. The average Jordanian family, which opposed the war in the first place, is now bearing a cost that may be as much as $1,000 per year for providing for the refugees.

In contrast, last year the United States took in only 1,608 Iraqis. European countries have done better, but they believe that America created the refugee crisis and should take the lead in resolving it.

“Apathy towards the crisis has been the overwhelming response,” Amnesty International said in a report last week.

We have already seen, in the case of Palestinians, how a refugee diaspora can destabilize a region for decades. If Jordan were to collapse in part from such pressures, that would be a catastrophe — and the best way to prevent that isn’t to give it Blackhawk helicopters, but help with school fees and school construction.

If we let the Iraqi refugee crisis drag on — and especially if we allow young refugees to miss an education so that they will never have a future — then we are sentencing ourselves to endure their wrath for decades to come. Educating Iraqis may not be as glamorous as bombing them, but it will do far more good.

Notice only a national consensus test was used by the majority. No mention of international standards (which Kennedy has been known to use in decisions outside the eight amendment - i.e. Lawrence v. Texas).

Other than believing that the death penalty in general is cruel and unusual punishment (think Justices Brennan, Souter, Breyer, and Marshall’s previous decisions), I have to agree that under established Eighth Amendment jurisprudence the majority’s opinion is not well-reasoned and extremely broad.

Though when it comes to Cruel and Unusual punishment–more than any legal test regarding national consensus or trends — I really believe that most Justices are inclined to apply the “gut test.” For a deeply Catholic man like Justice Kennedy, I think he has reservations of permitting executions period. In this case, I think he is stretching the facts concerning the national consensus to reach an outcome where he is not sanctioning an expansion of death. Legally, he probably knows he is wrong. Morally, he probably feels he is right. I know I would feel quite torn if I had to make this decision.

Also speculation as to posing as governmental officials to check U.S. recruitment techniques…

What these cats believe :

The right to practice in one’s chosen profession is a Constitutional liberty [Gibson v. Berryhill, 411 U.S. 564, 571 (1973)] that is violated by visas that force Americans to train their foreign replacements or otherwise result in displacement by foreign workers.

Part of their mission :

“Nonimmigrant Visas: H-1B/L-1

While the U.S. lost about 500,000 tech jobs between 2000 and 2003, Congress admitted about 500,000 foreign tech workers on nonimmigrant visas: L-1 and H-1B - resulting in the displacement of over one million American workers. These visas provide no protection to U.S. workers, as employers are not required to consider U.S. applicants as a condition of obtaining H-1B visas. Even with record unemployment and new graduates unable to find work, Congress continues to flood the job market.

While protecting Citizens is among the most important roles of government, the U.S. Congress has knowingly violated the liberty and property interests that 500,000 Americans had in their chosen profession by allowing them to be displaced by foreign workers. Many highly skilled U.S. workers now work at Wal-Mart and Borders Books, while their jobs have been given to foreign workers.”

wow- THIS IS CRAZY! 65,000 visa # hasnt been changed by congress since 2003 (WHEN THE # ACTUALLY WENT DOWN!)…this guild group is disregarding the fact that audits have increased by more than 70% and that prevailing wage is still a must , which makes U.S. workers more desirable since employers wont have to comply with a floor of minimum prevailing wage salary. Even if its 200 bucks a year less…that saves…atty fees and the pressure of potential audits/violations.

wow

Should hate speech be protected? An issue resolved in America, but at odds with the rest of the World.

In the last 2 months I have found and read more immigration related articles than i have in the last 6 months combined…. i mean really….its crazy interesting to see how we are getting “tough” on immigration by finding loopholes to adjudicating cases through federal court avoiding the admin law route and quasi vested rights path…

So same time the DOL publishes that unemployment rate is higher than ever at 5.5 and how we need to protect the US worker…same day the DOL goes berserk in a police fashion on Fragomen and claims they will audit all Labor Certification made by the firm in the last 2 years… It’s crazy!!!! i mean ICE is going down silently and hard, sending back more people than ever…having raids that have established records….and now the DOL and I will guess every other department representing the USCIS adopting a police-vigilant -protective-defensive face…really makes me curious and scared shitless of whats coming…

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOVE COAT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS REALLY SADDENS MY HEART………………….

Dan Anderson for The New York Times

“We’re Mexican — they don’t want us here.” ERIKA BARRAGAN, the wife of one of 23 people scheduled to be deported after police raids.

MILTON, Fla. — Three months after the local police inspected more than a dozen businesses searching for illegal immigrants using stolen Social Security numbers, this community in the Florida Panhandle has become more law-abiding, emptier and whiter.

Getting Tough

Crackdown in Florida

This is the first article in a series that explores efforts by government and others to compel illegal immigrants to leave the United States.

Dan Anderson for The New York Times

“What we’re victims of is a system that’s broken.” JOHN DAVY, a co-owner of Panhandle Growers, where 13 workers were detained.

Many of the Hispanic immigrants who came in 2004 to help rebuild after Hurricane Ivan have either fled or gone into hiding. Churches with services in Spanish are half-empty. Businesses are struggling to find workers. And for Hispanic citizens with roots here — the foremen and entrepreneurs who received visits from the police — the losses are especially profound.

“It was very hard because the community is very small, and to see people who came to eat here all the time then come and close the business,” said Geronimo Barragan, who owns two branches of La Hacienda, Mexican restaurants where the police arrested 10 employees.

“I don’t blame them,” Mr. Barragan added. “It’s just that it hurts.”

Sheriff Wendell Hall of Santa Rosa County, who led the effort, said the arrests were for violations of state identity theft laws. But he also seemed proud to have found a way around rules allowing only the federal government to enforce immigration laws. In his office, the sheriff displayed a framed editorial cartoon that showed Daniel Boone admiring his arrest of at least 27 illegal workers.

His approach is increasingly common. Last month, 260 illegal immigrants in Iowa were sentenced to five months in prison for violations of federal identity theft laws.

At the same time, in the last year, local police departments from coast to coast have rounded up hundreds of immigrants for nonviolent, often minor, crimes, like fishing without a license in Georgia, with the end result being deportation.

continued…

Becoming a radiant sherpa means striving to greet adversity with joy. It means sacrificing the “not-self,” embracing our higher self, serving others, and surrendering to the divine blueprint that waits to download into our life.

The radiant sherpas make every effort to live by twelve principles.

1) I pursue self-knowledge. Radiant Sherpas pursue self-knowledge in all of its forms. To pursue means to “follow, chase, hunt, trail, track, tail, shadow, practice, engage in, work at, go in for, take up.” We are not afraid to look at the “not self,” to understand our archetypes, to resolve our psychology. We know we can overcome our “stuff,” even if this brings us temporary discomfort.

2) I greet crisis as an opportunity. Radiant Sherpas understand that every crisis brings an opportunity to come up higher. We know that personal growth can only happen commensurate to our willingness to change. When conflict knocks at our door, we do not hide. We vigorously pursue resolution that brings everyone up a notch or two.

3) I take responsibility. Radiant Sherpas take full responsibility not only for what they say and do, but even for what they think. They understand that at a deep level, every circumstance and interaction that comes into their life, both pleasant and adverse, is somehow a result of a cause that they previously set in motion. They do not shrink back from that responsibility and make the best of it.

4) I am the master of my thoughts, words, and feelings. Radiant Sherpas practice mastering their thoughts, words and feelings. They know that thoughts, words, and feelings impact us in many seen and unseen ways, and even affect the overall health of our physical body.

5) I lead from the heart.Radiant Sherpas know that without agni (fire) in the heart, they cannot succeed. They seek to quiet the yapping of the mind, to disconnect from the constant aggressive mental suggestion of subconscious coping patterns, and to reconnect to their heart intelligence.

6) I am a co-creator.Radiant Sherpas know they can do nothing of lasting value, except it be God working through them.

7) I can let go. Radiant Sherpas embrace the serenity prayer attributed to Saint Francis as a way of life: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.” They pursue the middle way between being a doer, taking responsibility, and surrendering to a higher Will.

I have faith in re-creation. We change minute by minute. Radiant Sherpas understand this concept. They understand that without forgiveness, there can be no freedom. They learn form the past and move on, and trust divine grace that says, “behold I make all things new.” Instead of holding people to old matrices, they try to champion their highest self coming through.

9) I embrace the antakharana. Antakharana is a Sanskrit term for the “web of life.” It implies that everything we do, both seen and unseen, impacts every other part of life because we are all connected. Radiant Sherpas have faith in the “watershed effect.” They know that as they change, so will others, even if it is imperceptible at first. That is why they try to put into practice the teaching Jesus gave when he told his disciples to remove the log in their own eyes instead of focusing on the splinter in their neighbors’ eyes.

10) I influence by example. Radiant Sherpas know that practice is really the only effective way to preach. They understand that you can’t effectively teach what you haven’t become, and so they strive to always climb higher.

11) The four faces of God shine through me. Radiant Sherpas use the inner family archetypes as a tool to clear, balance and expand the four pathways to their authentic self. The more they do so, the more the four faces of God will shine through them as Father, Mother, Christ, and Holy Spirit—Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and Shakti.

12) I serve others first. Radiant Sherpas believe they have a calling to help others to make it up the mountain of self. They know that is through helping others that they can fulfill their reason for being. They seek to abide by the Prayer of Saint Francis.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joy
Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned,
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

The Radiant Sherpa calling is our calling. All of our seminars, classes, and publishing efforts center around these principles as we strive to bring the knowledge of the Inner Family Archetypes along with timeless spiritual principles to the world. May these Radiant Sherpa principles resonate with your heart as well.

We hope you will hear the inner calling of the Radiant Sherpas in your life mission. Then, we invite you to further hone your Radiant Sherpa skills during our life-changing Radiant Sherpa retreats.