Kansas City organizations representing various racial and religious groups will call today for newly appointed parks board commissioner Frances Semler to resign because of her anti-immigrant views.And six of the 13 City Council members on Wednesday said they agreed that for the good of the park board’s image, Semler should step down.
The Coalition of Hispanic Organizations, the Jewish Community Relations Bureau/American Jewish Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other groups will gather 11:30 a.m. at Gage Park to protest Semler’s membership in the local Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which has taken a militant stance against illegal immigrants.
This is exactly what needs to happen across the country - grassroot groups that span racial, religious, even political lines need to unite against the campaign of xenophobia that has been fueled brightly through the efforts of vigilante activism.
It's not rocket-science to figure out that the worst aspects of human nature would be allowed time to play in the playground given the current political climate wrt immigration. I can't help but feel the sting of burning irony that Mr. Bush is seeing his approval ratings further erode now that he has royally pissed of his base for pushing his (flawed) immigration initiative through Congress.
In the poll, Bush’s approval rating is at just 29 percent. It’s a drop of six points since April, and it represents his lowest mark ever on this question in the NBC/Journal poll.This is truly a divided country when upwards of 75% of Republicans support the bloodthirsty sociopath and still his approval ratings are hovering or submerging under the political "Mendoza line". (Why does that have to have a Latino connotation, btw?)
[snip]This drop comes as Bush tries to resuscitate the comprehensive immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate, which has angered many Americans -- particularly conservatives -- because they believe its provisions allowing for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants amount to “amnesty.” Bush and other supporters of the legislation dispute that charge.
A divided nation - or is it?
Poll after poll after poll shows that the public overwhelmingly supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Yet, you won't find that in the stalled Senate bill - "guest worker" sure, but that's to appease the corporate slave-owners who want to make sure their profits continue to soar. The workers are left hanging, as usual, with tons of loopholes and continued discrimination.
So what we have at the moment is a Congress that is controlled by Democrats that are still taking their cues from the hard-liners. No attention is paid to their base (or the majority of U.S.-born Americans for that matter). They only fear of losing their jobs if they piss off the right wing too much. Sound like another issue in the headlines?
People like Frances Semler, mentioned at the beginning of this post, are not in the majority, but you would think they were after seeing the inaction of the House and Senate. Clearly, this is a problem that needs to be resolved; otherwise the case will continue to strengthen that there are no longer two-political parties, but one that is beholden to profit and power.
Crossposted at Booman Tribune
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