Category: Uncategorized

It is with dismay that we note the appearance over the weekend of an AP news story about Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the federal case against the Holy Land Foundation. With a Dallas jury in mid-deliberation on the fate of the five who have been indicted, we wonder what purpose is the story about Hamdan supposed to serve?–gm

NEWS ADVISORY

For Immediate Release: November 19, 2007
Contact: Camm Lary – (512) 756-2156

Who: Concerned residents of Burnet County.
What: A public meeting with the Burnet County Commissioner’s Court.
When: Monday, November 19th at 7:00pm.
Where: Old courthouse on the square in Burnet, Texas.

Burnet County Residents Oppose Private Detention Center
Proposed 500-bed Jail Would Hurt Burnet’s Reputation

“No Private Jail” Group to speak at Monday meeting

Burnet, TX – This Monday, concerned Burnet County residents will hold a public meeting with Burnet County Commissioners to discuss their opposition to a proposed 500-bed private detention center. The meeting will take place Monday, November 19th, at Old Courthouse on the square in Burnet at 7:00pm.

Burnet County residents are concerned that the proposed jail will be operated by a Louisiana-based for-profit private prison corporation, that out-of-county prisoners will shipped to the prison, and that Burnet County has taken steps to float revenue bonds to pay for the prison, which could endanger the county’s future bond rating, without a public vote.

Private prison corporations have a track record that include human rights abuses, lawsuits, higher rates of violence, and financial mismanagement. Research shows that prison construction has no positive economic impact on communities. Counties that finance private prison construction have been held liable for abuses that take place in the prisons.

We begin with a the Rio Grande Guardian tribute by Michele Angél: “Tributes have poured in from South Texas for Equity Center founder Craig Foster for the pivotal role he played in helping property-poor schools receive a fair share of state funding.

“Foster, whose encyclopedic grasp of school finance and the tax system was used extensively in court during the landmark Edgewood ISD v. Kirby lawsuit against the state, is credited with helping change the way the state of Texas funds its public schools.”

To study a problem, to know it well, to speak credibly about human inequities: the life of Craig Foster shows how these things do make history.

Email from Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr. (Nov. 13, 2007)

Hola y’all…

I arrived back from the UN endorsed Border Summit of the Americas sponsored by the International Indigenous Treaty Council. I’m going to give a brief report of that Summit as well as include some pics and other tid-bits about what’s happening with the wall.

First, to attend and be a presenter at the Summit was a deep honor and privilege. It was held on the tribal lands of the Tohono O’odham nation. You can read updates on the Summit by Brenda Norrell here.

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

The indigenous still find themselves profiled and victimized by the ruling supremacists. We went to the imaginary border between the US and Mexico and saw the border wall under construction. It was a horrifying experience to see the wall cutting across these people’s sovereign wilderness land. (see pics) We heard from experts how literally hundreds of women and children have died going across this stretch of desert. We saw first hand when women and children were arrested. And we realize that the sinister plot of Chertoff & the ICE company is to direct them even farther into remote desert areas…which would most inhumanely cause even more deaths. We’re not talking terrorists here. We’re dealing with poor starving people. What’s more sinister is that the ruling elite have planned it that way. These elitists only want to preserve the US racial landscape…and pad it with well educated minorities that have some money to deposit in their banks.

Some miles away from the border, we also went by the Border Patrol site where these poor indigenous are literally caged…not like but as animals. Rising above the “cage” is the private Israeli surveillance company spy tower…that spies on the Tohono O’odham who reside on the US side.

While we were holding the Border Summit, a group of young people held their own border wall protest, called No Border Camp at the wall in the sister city Mexicali-Calexico, CA crossing…just south of El Centro, CA. Check this link out. ( http://www.noborderscamp.org ) Like our border protests in Texas, this one will not get presented to the people of the US by the national network accomplices. Here’s a sample of what went on there just these past few days.

“No Border Camp” marchers were attacked in Calexico, CA.

Police Use Pepper Gas, Batons on Peaceful Demonstrators – Dozens Detained and Released, at Least 2 Arrested At the end of a bi-national march from the site of the No Borders Camp and rally at the Mexicali/Calexico port of entry, Border Patrol swarmed a group of about 30 demonstrators on the U.S. side and attacked them with pepper pellets and batons. 2-3 people severely beaten. Mass detentions. People being let go five at a time. In one case, a person badly injured by pepper pellets shot at close range was pursued away from the conflict, pulled away from a companion wanting to treat his wounds, surrounded and beaten in the head with batons by about 10 Border Patrol agents. Most who were detained have now been released. Two people have been taken into a Border Patrol vehicle. Further information forthcoming…

This is serious friends. If we aren’t courageous enough to stop the wall in Texas, look at what our kids and grandkids will be faced with. Right now, someone’s kids and grandkids out in CA are standing up to this ruling supremacist regime. This insanity must be stopped….NOW! Once the wall is in place…any scratch put upon it will be a felony…”damage to federal property”. Let’s damage the architectural schematic…and destroy the concept of something so dehumanizing and vile.

Whether one believes is God or not…or in Nature…or both…we must agree. Neither God nor nature would approve of this violation of natural harmony. The US has morphed into what we all detested at one time. At one time, the Berlin wall symbolized all that we detested. Now the racist-supremacists…nativists…want 700 miles of it. And they are picking on the most vulnerable peoples of this continent. The indigenous. Just look at what they are doing on the reservation in Arizona…and project that image all along the banks of Rio Grande.

Which brings me back to Texas. As reported in the Rio Grande Guardian, we have another sell out. Judge Carlos Cascos. He is seen here in this video proposing to the pro-wall/anti-immigrant, Texas Senator, John Cornyn…that a wall to be built on reinforced levies all along the banks of the Rio Grande in South Texas…especially around Brownsville. The levies would be steeply banked with the border wall on top…which would also provide a border patrol road on the top of the levy.

Cascos is certainly walking on thin ice here on the border. His friendship and representation of the No Border Wall alliance is in grave question. He certainly is no friend of our neighbors on the other sider of the river…if he presents his own border wall proposal to the US Senate. Without question he is alienating our environmental allies. By proposing such a heinous idea, he is a long ways off from representing the voice of the people. Is his proposal self serving? Is he seeking the admiration of his ruling elitist?

Meanwhile, Kay Bailey-Hutchison, another ruling elitist, who voted for the wall after saying she wouldn’t…and then co-sponsored with Cornyn the funding of the wall…is standing back and letting Cornyn take the heat. She well knows that Cornyn is up for reelection and knows that he will pay for his complicity in this totalitarian scheme. She well recognizes that her aspirations of becoming the next Texas governor could be harmed if the Hispanic/Latin/Border voters associated her with the wall. Well…Duh! We shall never forget her betraying cheap politics!

Just out today is the following…chilling…expose of yet another step to purge America of immigrants. Please read this news coverage of HR 4088…the supposed SAVE ACT…which will guarantee the most cruel and inhumane treatment of anyone not yet a citizen of the US.

Finally, we would like everyone to remember February 2, 2008. On that date, we will be holding a Winter Texans festival on the banks of the Rio Grande at Pepe’s on the River in Mission, TX. We will be deputizing our Winter Texans as Border Ambassadors…giving them a farewell as they return to their their northern residences where they are registered voters…to represent our mutual love of the border and the border culture…and our friends across el Rio Grande.

In solidarity…

Jay

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BorderAmbassadors.com
FreedomAmbassadors.com
Connecting the Dots…Making a Difference
jay@villadelrio.com
Please read my column: Inside the Checkpoints:
http://www.riograndeguardian.com/columns3.asp