Diversity Headlines

About 48,000 people have petitioned against the Obama administration's plan to make sick women pay for health care by sacrificing their reproductive rights.

Though tens of millions of uninsured Americans won't see much change until the major reforms kick in around 2014, the Obama administration will in the meantime set up short-term "high-risk insurance pools," to cover people who would otherwise be blocked from the private insurance market due to "preexisting conditions." But the planned guidelines for this limited program contain a catch: no abortion coverage. So after the public comment period ends later this month, the administration will be poised to force an unprecedented abortion restriction on women who are conveniently desperate for any kind of health care.

As I've mentioned before, this quiet concession to the anti-abortion lobby isn't just unethical and unhealthy from a reproductive justice standpoint; it's also legally unnecessary. Despite existing restrictions in other federal health programs, and Office of Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle's insistence that "no new ground has been broken," the ban would be a fresh blow to abortion access. Jennifer Arons at the Center for American Progress pointed out that the policy would undermine abortion across the board by impacting even those abortions financed by private (not taxpayer) funds.

The irony of this "reform" is that high-risk insurance pools are supposed to serve as a "bridge" for people historically excluded by the industry. This includes many women suffering from conditions like diabetes or cancer, which disproportionately impact the poor and people of color. So for marginal relief from medical apartheid, those women will just have to avoid unwanted pregnancy for the next few years, or they'll wind up sick, pregnant and in deep trouble.

While the insurance-pool rules aren't yet finalized, the ban could play into a much larger conservative strategy to capitalize on health care reform. It's no surprise that the abortion rights of the sickest and most vulnerable women are the first to be attacked, but this may just be a practice run for an all-out war on reproductive choice.

Who are those hardcore souls who give so much of their MSG-laced sweat and hot sauce-induced tears to Hyphen magazine? This month, as part of Hyphen’s fundraising campaign, you'll get to know some of these ass-kicking heroines and heroes who aren’t anyone’s sidekicks or comic relief, and who live beyond the final scenes. Way beyond....

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OkCupid, the popular free online dating hub, has figured out a tech-savvy way to answer the question of what people of all races really like (take that, Christian Lander!). The company's blog detailed how over half a million users were randomly selected and grouped by their self-stated race. The love gurus then looked at all the groups' profile essays and isolated the interests that made each group "statistically distinct" from the others.

Of course, the lists are predictable. In some places, the data is parsed down between genders. So, while soul food is generally popular among all Black folks, it's "really, really important to women," according to the site. And Asian men are more likely than women to mention their specific ethnic heritage.

Among white people's top interests: Tom Clancy, Nascar, and the Boston Red Sox.

And of course black folks love soul food, basketball, and bibles.

Latinos? Merengue tops the list!

 

Asians apparently love noodles, and cricket. 

 

But not as much as Indians like cricket! Because, you know, Indians aren't Asian. 

We could make fun of this all day, because frankly, it's hilarious. So far it's unclear exactly how the company plans to use the data. After all, you don't spend all that time on research and fancy graphics for nothing. Earlier this summer researchers at Facebook announced a similar effort with pretty clear intentions of using the data to drive marketing revenue. No word yet on if and how OkCupid plans to do the same thing.

But maybe I'm just being a hater. As Shani Hilton points out over at Campus Progress, the information is still a good, informative read, despite its problematic assumptions.

In the mean time, it looks like all you black and brown Star War geeks might need to go and renew your race cards.

Kevin Powell, the Jersey-born former star on MTV's Real World who's currently running for Congress in Brooklyn, recently wrote an open letter to Hip Hop America. This is Powell's second run attempt to unseat longtime Rep. Ed Towns, and the aspiring lawmaker is working hard to court young voters in next week's Democratic primary.

Powell writes:

I am hiphop. And I am also a public servant and activist for people, all people. For the past 25 years, in fact, since I was a youth.

[snip]

Not only would I be the first true hiphop head in Congress, but I also would be bringing a fresh take on leadership, blending the best of grassroots politics with Washington, D.C. maneuvering, all to that boom-bap beat.

And, as dead prez once famously said, this is actually bigger than hiphop. This is about my being a leader, a bridge-builder, and all of us weaned on hiphop music and culture understanding the power of this, the most dominant art form of the past 30 years. If not us, then who?

While the odds are stacked against Powell, his efforts to paint himself as part of a new generation of black politicians is useful. New York is already in a pitched battle over who will define black politics in the coming years, and several longtime black lawmakers are already battling against ethics charges that have led some to question whether incumbency fosters corruption.

Border Patrol agents stationed across the country and along the nation's borders are struggling to keep their abuse in check. The Los Angeles Times reports that in recent years Border Patrol officers have been hit with complaints and even occasional federal charges for abusing immigrants along patrols.

The LA Times details just some of the stomach-churning incidents:

In the last 18 months, five Border Patrol agents have been accused or convicted of sex crimes, including one agent who pleaded guilty in January to raping a woman while off duty, and another who is accused of sexually assaulting a migrant while her young children were nearby in a car.

Another agent, Gamalier Reyes Rivera, is jailed in San Diego on $10-million bail, awaiting trial on attempted murder charges in a hatchet attack that paralyzed a man.

In June, Agent Eduardo Moreno pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge for assaulting a migrant in 2006 at a processing center in Nogales, Ariz.

That same month, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed an unarmed 15-year-old Mexican in El Paso after a group of young men threw rocks at the agent, authorities said. A poor-quality cellphone video of the incident shows that the teen was a considerable distance away, on the Mexican side of the border, when he was shot.

Today, Customs and Border Patrol is the largest uniformed federal law enforcement agency in the country. But where the Border Patrol is concerned, it's not even that smaller is necessarily better; at the rate of CBP's growth the force is full of fresh, poorly trained recruits. There is little oversight and few to no checks on Border Patrol power. They are tasked with patrolling the border but are accountable to no one except the federal government, which is increasing their ranks at a fast clip. Worse, the people they police, immigrants who are often on their way to getting kicked out of the country or detainees who languish in prisons awaiting the same fate, have small voices and few rights.

According to the LA Times, the DOJ has prosecuted only eight cases of misconduct or abuse against the Border Patrol since 2004. The newspaper maintains that the dehumanization of immigrants'--Border Patrol often refer to immigrants in their custody as "bodies"--is not racially antagonistic, since most Border Patrol agents stationed at the U.S.-Mexico border are themselves Latino. And yet, policing the region seems to be taking a toll on those officers. This summer, the AP reported that Border Patrol officers are committing suicide at higher rates than other law enforcement officers.

Contrary to official Los Angeles Police Department reports, Manuel Jamines did not have a knife in his hand when police shot him in the head in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, an eyewitness claims. LA Weekly reports that an eyewitness is set to give a press conference today to announce what she saw.

Jamines, a Guatemalan immigrant, was killed on the corner of 6th Street and Union in Los Angeles by Officer Frank Hernandez. Police said they responded to a call that a man had tried to stab a pregnant woman on the street. They said that the 37-year-old father of three was drunk and holding a knife. According to the LAPD, Hernandez shot at Jamines when he would not obey the cop's orders, which were given in both English and Spanish, and raised the knife over his head and lunged at Hernandez with a three-inch blade. Jamines' family says that he spoke neither English nor Spanish well; he spoke K'iche', a language spoken by a million indigenous Mayans from Central America.

The killing has sparked community outrage and several nights of protest. At a community meeting on Wednesday night with the LAPD and the Guatemalan Consul General, hundreds packed a Los Angeles middle school and booed LAPD Chief Charlie Beck as he defended his officers' actions. Tuesday night's protests ended with clashes between police and protesters. Hundreds gathered at the corner where Jamines was killed to voice their outrage, and then started marching to the LAPD Rampart station. The Los Angeles Times reports that protesters started trash can fires, broke bottles and threw eggs at police officers, who arrested four people.

The Associated Press reports that LAPD Officer Frank Hernandez was involved in two previous on-duty shootings.

Between the two us, we've spent a combined 59 years living, working and learning in the United States. In all that time, including the period immediately following September 11, 2001, this summer marks the worst anti-Muslim backlash we've ever seen here.

As the nine years since 9/11 have passed, Americans have forgotten an essential fact: Extremists can use any religion to justify murder, and the stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists sacrifices both American values and community safety. While we welcome national leaders condemning not just Quran burning, but all the less obvious forms of Islamaphobia along the way, the daily interruption of hatred is a job for all of us.

There's no question that attacks on Muslim people have escalated. Opponents of the Cordoba House keep saying that 9/11 was the worst attack ever on American soil, therefore Ground Zero is "sacred" and nothing as profane as a mosque should be built there. The logic is profoundly twisted and most un-American. It presumes that it is impossible that American Muslims, like Mamdouh himself, who worked at Windows on the World, could have been in the World Trade Center, could have lost friends, colleagues or relatives there, could have grieved afterwards.

Attacks on mosques across the country indicate that many people don't need the hook of Ground Zero on which to hang their hatred. In one of the never ending streams of "regular" Americans interviewed on TV news about the project, one man who opposed the Cordoba House was asked where a mosque could be built. "Nowhere" was his response.

It's becoming increasingly clear that some Americans--too many--do not consider Muslims part of the country. A recent TIME/CNN poll found that 55 percent thought Muslims could not be patriots. Nearly a third of those polled thought Muslims should not be allowed to run for president or serve on the Supreme Court. Although we won't have hard numbers on hate crimes for several years, the number of anecdotes is rising steadily.

A brick nearly smashed a window at the Madera Islamic Center in central California, where signs were left behind that read, "Wake up America, the enemy is here" and, "No temple for the god of terrorism." Police arrested five teenagers after the son of a mosque's founder in Waterport, N.Y., was sideswiped by a sport utility vehicle. One teen was charged with firing a shotgun in the air near the mosque a few days earlier. Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey popularized the notion that Muslims don't deserve the same religious freedom as everyone else, in his response to a question about the "threat that's invading our country from Muslims." Ramsey wondered aloud whether Islam "is actually a religion or is it a nationality, way of life or cult." Soon after, some of Ramsey's constituents set ablaze a planned mosque site near Nashville and fired shots when parishioners tried to inspect the damage.

These anecdotes are telling, but not necessary for us to know that the haters have been emboldened by all their media spokespeople. Last week, in a Queens Dunkin' Donuts, one of us walked in on a woman who berated the Bangladeshi American staff for five minutes over the supposed wrongness of her coffee. She proceeded to call the server ugly, take a breath--clearly considering her next line for maximum impact--and declare, "You're all a bunch of terrorists."

But there was an important lesson for us all in that exchange. A mild, "There's no need for that" was enough to disrupt the woman's rant. Maybe that woman won't change her attitude, but there were a dozen adults and four children there--and they might. The scene said everything: A few loud voices are spewing hate, but unless the rest of us stand up and counter it they will set the tone for us all.

Many people have speculated this week on why we are experiencing this rise in anti-Muslim feeling, and a few have become nostalgic for George W. Bush--who spoke no less than 11 times in the fall of 2001 about Islam being a religion of peace and love and having nothing to do with Al Qaeda. Others have called for President Obama to speak up more often to protect Muslims.

But the real problem is that everyday Americans keep silent about too much of this. America is a land of individual freedom. Now more than ever we need to exercise our freedom of speech, rather than huddling in fear and fascination at the group-think that can so quickly take over our country. We don't need Bush or Obama to give us a moral compass. This isn't just about challenging the most extreme versions of Islamaphobia. It's also about responding when neighbors argue that the Cordoba House should be moved for sensitivity's sake; challenging colleagues who "ask" whether Obama is secretly Muslim; and questioning popular representations of Muslims even when you're just watching TV with family. It's hard to confront bigotry, whether it comes from your uncle or a stranger. Your blood pressure goes up and your heart races. But if we lead with love and acceptance, we will always know the right thing to say, and we will set an example for someone else.

Muslims are Americans and they belong here. When it's time to pray, they will pray, whatever the circumstances. Mamdouh and his friends used to go into the stairwells of the World Trade Center, laying down a piece of cardboard if they had no rug. They do what they have to do to live out their values. It's time that we all do the same.

So is Saturday's planned Quran-burning event happening, or isn't it? For weeks, Florida pastor Terry Jones has been making headlines by promising to mark the ninth anniversary of 9/11 by burning Qurans at his tiny church in Gainsville. On Thursday, several news outlets reported that the event had been cancelled after Jones had secured a promise that the Park51 Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero would be moved. But Park51 leaders have unwaveringly denied making any such deal, and Jones has gone back and forth over whether his plans are back on as a result.

This morning, he told ABC's Good Morning America that as of then, he was not planning to burn the Quran tomorrow. Throughout the segment, ABC ran the misleading phrase "Ground Zero Mosque" across the screen--a telling reminder of how Jones' antics became international news in the first place.

Everyone from the Pope to Sarah Palin has tried to dissuade Jones from going forward with the plan. Most recently, President Obama called the whole thing a "stunt" that would only encourage anti-American violence; it'll also encourage more of the anti-Muslim extremism that's become a trend this summer. Jones had remained steadfast in his plans until Thursday, when he stood outside of his church with Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, and announced a new deal. Mursi, he said, had promised him that the New York Muslim center would be moved. 

Hours later, once it was clear no such deal existed, Jones angrily told the media that Mursi "clearly lied to us."

Jones continued: "We assumed what the imam said was true. Now, we're in a state of limbo and we have to rethink our position," Jones said Thursday evening, according to CNN. "We are rethinking our position. We are reconsidering, but we'd like to think what the imam said was true. We're a little back to square one. We hope this thing works out."

For his part, Mursi maintains that he had only agreed to fly out to New York with Jones and meet with the leaders overlooking plans to build the new Muslim center in lower Manhattan. 

The controversy over Park51 has been the subject of intense national debate. On Thursday, even billionaire Donald Trump entered the fray, offering to buy out a major investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site. Trump explained his motives in a letter released by his publicist:

I am making this offer as a resident of New York and citizen of the United States, not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse.

So far the investor, Hisham Elzanaty, has refused.
Still, the bigger question is how an obscure pastor with a tiny congregation managed to grab national headlines in the first place. Jones' church, the Dove World Outreach Center, boasts a membership of less than 50 people and is independent of any denomination, though it follows the Pentecostal tradition. He's known for posting signs that Islam is the devil's religion and claims that it's within his constitutional right to publicly set fire to one of the world's most holy texts.
Yet over the past week, some of the world's most powerful voices have had to respond to Jones's loony antics. The Pope denounced the plan, along with the U.S. general in Afghanistan, the White House and the State Department. Even Sarah Palin announced that it was a bad idea, calling the whole thing "insensitive and un-American." Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Jones to urge better sense.
It seems like under any ordinary circumstances, a plan like Jones' would easily be dismissed as deliberately inflammatory and unworthy of our attention. But, of course, these aren't ordinary circumstances. It's an election year, and the controversy over Park51 has allowed pundits and politicians to bash Muslims for weeks in an effort to draw clear ideological lines for voters. The furor has has quickly turned violent and, suddenly, a plainly fringe figure with plainly extreme ideas is leading the world around by the nose.
So instead of tackling worthy election issues, like the economy and jobs, we're left bickering over New York City's most popular real estate dispute. Jones' plan was no doubt awful, and it's led to several impassioned, powerful defenses of religious freedom. But the fact that it's even news in the first place is a sad testament to how deep our country's political swamp has become.

Editor’s Note: In the wake of devastating floods that have submerged a fifth of the country and affected some 20 million people, Pakistan is emerging as a climate change hotspot. Journalist and author Stephan Faris has traveled around the globe... Ngoc Nguyen http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=70

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Terry Jones might as well have gone ahead with his hollow threat—burning a Quran (Koran), the Islamic Holy Book.To Arabs and Muslims in America and abroad, the takeaway from this episode will be that American's hate Islam. Even though the... Ray Hanania http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103

This week’s headlines chronicled recent developments in cases of murder, kidnapping and abuse that have garnered international attention. Yet beyond the sensationalism lies the real story – violence against women is a global epidemic. On Tuesday, CNN continued its high-profile coverage of the murder of Peruvian student Stephany Flores and its connection to the 2005 disappearance [...]

President Obama this morning joined the growing number of national politicos who have denounced a Florida pastor who plans to hold a Quran burning to memorialize 9/11. Kudos to Obama for putting his objection plainly. In an appearance on Good Morning America, the president called the pastor's act a "stunt" that's "completely contrary to our values" and that may well incite violence against Americans around the globe. But it's hard to imagine how far off the rails our politics have gone when the president is forced to respond to this madness.

Pastor Terry Jones's stunt has drawn condemnation from folks ranging from Sarah Palin to Gen. David Petraeus, who also noted that images of burning Qurans in the U.S. will no doubt be used to stir up violence. It's tempting to ignore Jones, who's tiny congregation hardly feels representative of the country. But at this point, it seems we can sadly not dismiss the anti-Muslim sentiments that have reemerged so forcefully this election season. An exchange between Obama and host George Stephanopoulos was telling:

STEPHANOPOULOS: I wonder what this must feel like from behind your desk. You're President of the United States. You have to deal with the fallout. And he's a pastor who's got 30 followers in his church. Does it make you feel helpless or angry?

OBAMA: It, well it is frustrating. Now, on the other hand, we are a government of laws. And so, we have to abide by those laws. And my understanding is that he can be cited for public burning. But that's the extent of the laws that we have available to us. You know, part of this country's history is people doing destructive or offensive or harmful things. And yet, we still have to make sure that we're following the laws. And that's part of what I love about this country.

Destructive and harmful things as part of this country's history. He said a mouthful. Their also part of this country's present, and certainly part of this election season's tenor. Palin's objection to the Quran burning said it all. She warned the pastor about the ramifications of his act, explaining, "It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don't feed that fire." But then she compared Jones' act to the Park51 project in lower Manhattan. She's right that they are related, at least. By using the project to stir up anti-Muslim fears upon which she can profiteer and Republicans can campaign, Palin and her ilk showed Pastor Jones the way. He should thank her for his newfound fame.

Obama announced his plans to push for a major jobs stimulus this year during an impassioned Labor Day speech to union members in Milwaukee yesterday. The President called Republicans and corporations "the folks whose policies helped devastate the middle class" and then implored Congress to immediately pass a $50 billion infrastructure jobs package. But who exactly will get those jobs?

It's just one of a series of economic recovery plans the President plans to announce this week as Democrats wage an aggressive midterm elections campaign. It's an ambitious plan, and one that Republicans will likely do their best to attack as part of the administration's lawless government spending -- including what they deem the "failed" Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

If, somehow, the plan does get through Congress, it's also unclear exactly how jobs will be created and what kind of jobs they'll be.

The proposal would invest in roads, trains and airports in the next year and would be part of broader and longer-term infrastructure spending over the next six years. Obama says the plan will be paid for through offsets drawn from the elimination of oil company tax breaks and subsidies. Predictably, conservatives have already tagged the idea as more unnecessary and bankrupting stimulus program.

 As the White House struggles to get past Republican blockades of any investments in jobs or the safety net, concerns about the quality or work and the equitable targeting of job creation programs to those who need them most have taken a back seat.

But as Yvonne Liu wrote about the allocation and implementation of Recovery Act funds intended to create green jobs, "since equity is not a criterion either for who gets the money or for how recipients report their usage of the funds, we don't know whether the stimulus has benefited those hardest hit by the Great Recession: people of color and single mothers."

The same could pass with the president's proposed infrastructure funding unless racial and gender disparities are taken into account on the front end of the legislative process. If that does not happen, we may see unemployment start to fall while leaving vast racial and gender disparities strongly in place.

For the first time ever, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) awarded all three top honors to Asian-American designers Jason Wu, Richard Chai and Alexander Wang.

Founded in 1962, CFDA is a trade association whose membership includes the country's top fashion and accessory designers. Their annual awards ceremony is recognized as "the Oscars of fashion." Past CFDA honorees include household names like Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs.

Klein, Lauren and Jacobs along with other industry leading American designers like Donna Karan and Michael Kors are all Jewish. Maybe the 2010 teen years will be lead by Asian-American designers?

Four out of five of the latest CFDA emerging designer awards for women's wear have been Asian American.The women's wear award tends to be the most watched honor because its winner is anointed the next 'It' designer.

There have been several hypotheses floating around to explain the recent phenomenon. The Wall Street Journal accredited the model minority myth and even cited the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, which ended policies that put quotas on the numbers of Asian immigrants allowed into the country. Last February, in "Gaysians Take Over New York Fashion Week," ColorLines writer Alex Jung noted that the ability to acquire social and economic capital is clearly a deciding factor. This past weekend NY Times fashion writer Eric Wilson came up with the latest theory:

Throughout the 20th century, generations of Jewish immigrants had created a thriving garment district in New York, first as laborers, then as factory owners, manufacturers, retailers and, eventually, as designers. Many of today's Asian-American designers say they experienced a similar evolution from the factory to the catwalk, since some of their parents and grandparents were once involved in the production of clothes.

Fashion Week begins today and we'll undoubtedly hear even more theories in the coming weeks about why we're seeing more designers of Asian descent. Regardless of what's behind the emergence of these young Asian-American designers, it didn't come easy. Let's hope the runways this week start reflecting this new diversity.

Congress will return from vacation this week for a month of pre-election law making. It's the last opportunity both parties have to appeal to voters nationally before November. In all likelihood, the next several weeks will consist of a whole lot of partisan rancor and a regular flow of Republican obstructionism. As was the case before lawmakers went on break, the deficit is going to be the animating core of Washington this month. Republicans have effectively used fears over the growing federal deficit to push back spending on vital safety net and jobs programs and Democrats remain anxious about how to respond. Which is a shame, because there's a lot to get done.

Taxes

Taxes are likely to take up a lot of Beltway space over the next several weeks. On Wednesday, President Obama demanded that Congress not extend Bush era tax breaks for the richest Americans. The breaks are scheduled to sunset at the end of the year, and the White House hopes the debate over whether and how to renew them will paint a bright political line between House Republicans and Democrats. Obama's plan would end the Bush tax cuts for families with incomes greater than $250,000 or individuals with incomes above $200,000, but would leave in place the current tax structure for anyone who makes less than that amount. Bush's tax cuts were the single biggest contributor to the pre-recession deficit.

House Minority Leader John Boehner does not agree, despite the numbers. He is arguing that the deficit ought to be addressed not with taxes but by cutting spending, which inevitably will hurt those already leveled by the recession. Boehner says he'd accept as a compromise a two-year extension of the tax cuts on the richest segment of the country rather than a permanent extension. But the White House wants the cuts gone for good.

Obama's proposal is coupled with additional tax breaks for small businesses, which the White House no doubt hopes to use as a way to paint Boehner and the Republicans as concerned only about the wealthy. 

Jobs

Obama also tied his plan to the investment in infrastructure. In a speech on Labor Day, he called on Congress to immediately pass a $50 billion infrastructure jobs package. The plan calls for massive investment in roads, airports and trains and would create jobs as soon as next year.

Congress would be wise to listen, as jobs are plainly priority number one for both the Democrats' political future and the nation's economic one. With unemployment holding steady at 9.6 percent nationally, and higher in many communities, refusing to create jobs is just bad politics. 

But as I noted earlier this week, for the package to have meaningful impact, it will need to target those hit hardest by the recession--people of color and single mothers. Given the administration's clear reluctance to even passingly address those disparities thus far, such a targeted package seems unlikely. In any case, Obama's plan is sure to face a brick wall from GOP deficit hawks, and at least one Democrat is already indicating he will not support the stimulative spending. 

In more jobs creation news, immediately upon return, Congress will decide whether or not to extend the Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Contingency Fund, which was created last year as part of the first stimulus package. The fund has created 240,000 jobs.

The program reimburses 80 percent of any additional money states spend on TANF because of the recession. Thirty-five states, D.C. and the Virgin Islands have all tapped into the pool. Most of the $4.2 billion dollars (of the $5 billion initially allocated) drawn from the program's coffer have been spent directly on subsidized jobs programs. It's the country's only straight job creation program and it will expire on September 30 unless Congress extends the package. But the program is sure to come under assault by deficit hawks, just like most everything else.

The Safety Net

Like, say, food stamps. Before Congress went on recess in August, it axed the food stamp program in order to offset spending on an education jobs bill. The cuts will mean that the record number of families receiving food assistance will see their benefits diminished at the end of 2013. Many House Democrats have vowed to restore the food stamp funding by looking for offsets from elsewhere.

Along with food stamps and TANF emergency funds, congressional Democrats should attempt to restore funding to the COBRA health insurance program. Stimulus funds injected into the program last year expired in May and many can no longer afford the health insurance they need. A bill to fund COBRA is in the works but it may get stuck in committee.

On Friday, President Obama will hold his first formal press conference in four months. He's likely to continue outlining his priorities for the next several weeks of legislative work. Here's hoping he and congressional Democrats will be smart enough to push back against the GOP's deficit fear mongers and move some of these job creating ideas forward. Their own jobs certainly depend upon it. 

 

Los Angeles residents gathered for a heated meeting with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Guatemalan Consul general Wednesday night in the wake of a police shooting on Sunday afternoon that ended when the LAPD shot a 37-year-old Guatemalan immigrant dead.

Families and community members packed into the John H. Leichty Middle School on Wednesday evening and booed LAPD chief Charlie Beck when he read a witness statement who said she was grateful the LAPD responded when they did because Manuel Jamines, who was drunk and wielding a knife, was threatening her and a nearby pregnant woman. Community members were uninterested in Beck's explanations; they shouted "Assassination!" and, "Pig!" at Beck while police in riot gear were surrounded the school outside.

The AP reports that LAPD Officer Frank Hernandez was involved in two previous on-duty shootings.

On Tuesday morning fourteen protesters were behind bars for clashes with police that took place over the course of the last two nights; the gathering became heated enough that police declared the protest an unlawful assembly at 9:30pm. On Monday and Tuesday night, protesters gathered on 6th and Union, where Manuel Jamines was shot by police who said that he was drunk and threatening people with a knife. Police say he did not respond to their commands, which were given in both English and Spanish. Jamines' family says that he spoke neither language well; he spoke K'iche', a language spoken by a million indigenous Mayans from Central America.

The AP reports that LAPD Officer Frank Hernandez shot Jamines twice in the head when he lunged at him with his knife. His family acknowledged that Jamines had a drinking problem but that he was not violent. Jamines died at the scene.

Tuesday's protest ended with clashes between police and protesters. Hundreds gathered at the corner where Jamines was killed to voice their outrage, and then started marching to the LAPD Rampart station. The Los Angeles Times reports that protesters started trash can fires, broke bottles and threw eggs at police officers, who arrested four people.

The LAPD has defended the shooting incident, which they say happened in less than a minute, and says the angry community response has them flummoxed. The LA Times also captured this week's outrage in a series of photos.

As Wyclef Jean continues to criticize the Haitian government for not allowing him to run for president, questions are being raised about the Haitian government’s attitude toward Haitians not living in the country.Unlike in the United States, Haitians who aren’t... Cyril Josh Barker http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103

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