Posts Tagged ‘xenophobia’
Arizona vigilante guilty of murdering Hispanic man, daughter
Obvious threat to Arizona Anglos
The leader of an anti-illegal-immigrant group has been convicted in a home invasion that left a 9-year-old girl and her father dead in what prosecutors said was an attempt to steal drug money to fund the group’s operations.
A Tucson jury found Shawna Forde, 42, guilty of murder in the May 2009 killings of Raul Flores, 29, and his daughter Brisenia at their home in Arivaca, a desert community 10 miles north of Mexico…
Forde is the leader of the Minutemen American Defense, a small border watch group. Prosecutors argued that she planned the attack to help fund its anti-immigrant operations.
Forde, formerly of Everett, Wash., and two men dressed as law enforcement officers forced their way into Flores’ home then shot him, his daughter and wife, Gina Gonzalez, who survived her injuries after getting into a gun battle with the attackers, authorities said…
A 911 recording released by the Pima County sheriff’s office captured Gonzalez pleading for help after her husband and daughter were shot. She was heard crying out in pain from a gunshot wound then becoming frantic as the attackers returned.
The sound of nine gunshots was heard as Gonzalez engaged the intruders.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe they killed my family,” Gonzalez said on the recording.
Police said Gonzalez shot and wounded one of her attackers, Jason Eugene Bush, who officers believe was the gunman.
Another man, Albert Robert Gaxiola, is accused of providing information about the area.
Bush and Gaxiola go on trial in the spring.
Like many rightwing vigilantes. Forde preferred 2nd Amendment Justice instead of the real deal. I guess some of that was her own tweaked mental imbalance. Some just the product of absolute belief in the ideology of bigotry and fear.
Like most political cowards, she tried to weasel out of responsibility at the end.
Culture vs. Congress: Overturn US ban on haggis!
Scottish officials are attempting to persuade American politicians to reverse a 40-year ban on the haggis.
Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Government’s Rural Affairs Secretary, has invited a delegation of American politicians to Scotland in the hope of persuading them to overturn the ban.
The iconic Scottish dish is been barred in the US for more than 20 years because its food safety department prohibits the use of sheep lungs in food products.
The US could provide a highly lucrative market for Scottish haggis producers, particularly in the run up to Burns Night, the traditional celebration of the life and poetry of Robert Burns…
Mr Lochhead said: “We want to capitalise on the diaspora of Scots in the US and many of them would enjoy the opportunity to indulge in authentic Scottish haggis to accompany their neeps and tatties on Burns Night.
“Scotland’s produce is amongst the best in the world and I’ve asked US Department of Agriculture officials to come here to see for themselves the high standards we have in animal health and processing.
This didn’t affect me personally – back when I lived in the Boston area. For all the whining of the Department of Agriculture and the other bureaucrats who march in lockstep against the import of traditional foodstuffs was meaningless when local butchers and meat markets produced their own haggis. I haven’t Googled it; but, I imagine I still could order one online for Burns Night.
This crap goes on and on – whether halting jambon from Spain or prosciutto from Italy, herbs and spices from the Caribbean and Africa, there always is a producer of plastic American food who claims the need for protection – or just good old Xenophobia getting in the way of choices.
Bill Richardson tries to salvage border governors’ meeting – UPDATED
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson says he is trying to rescue a long-scheduled meeting between the governors of U.S. and Mexican border states.
The six Mexican governors scheduled to attend the September Border Governors Conference in Phoenix have canceled their plans in protest of SB 1070, Arizona’s controversial immigration-enforcement law.
“I feel very strongly, and so do the Mexican governors, that we need to have the conference because this is a conference that has been going for 30 years,” Richardson told The Washington Post. “It’s a conference that diffuses a lot of problems.”
The Post reported the Mexican officials said they would meet somewhere other than Phoenix; however, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, chair of the conference, responded by canceling the event altogether…
Richardson said SB 1070 had created a “serious breach” in relations along the border and is trying to organize a meeting in Washington or in another Western state.
Brewer, every day, sounds more and more like a Republican who fears for her job. It’s boring watching her slide further and further to the Right while claiming to represent all the people. Not an uncommon problem for someone reasonably incompetent at the breadth of issues requiring leadership at the governorship level in hard economic times.
After all, it was her Fearless Leaders who dropped us into the sub-prime crapper. Now, she’s hoping to rely on the rage of American xenophobia to pull her coals out of the fire.
As much as Republicans would rather croak than admit it, it’s only the undemocracy of term limit laws that keep Richardson from being elected a 3rd time in a row. He’s continued to create jobs, public transit, federal funds in excess of taxes to our state. He could invite the border state governors to New Mexico for the conference and the only question would be – where are we going to eat, tonight, Bill?
UPDATE: Har! I knew it. Governor Bill has taken over hosting the meeting. Though, I bet the AZ guv will not attend.
