Rest in Peace, Jon Swift

I'm very saddened to read that blogger Jon Swift has passed away.

He ran a parody blog for several years and was very supportive of elevating voices that were often ignored by the so-called A List Blogs. He and skippy the bush kangaroo were instrumental in organizing the Blogroll Amnesty Day events.

Rest in Peace, Al. Gracias por su apoyo y amistad.

Happy 4th Blogiversary to Latino Político

July 1st came and went and it wasn't until a few minutes ago that I realized, "OH crap! The site's anniversary!"

So I'm gonna take a cue from the GOP leadership of Arizona's State Senate and pretend that it's not really the 2nd of July if I ignore all the clocks and calendars.

Four years. Wow. I think about the ways blogging has changed and evolved in that time span and am excited for what is possible. I haven't posted nearly as frequently here as I did in the past, but my blogging/activism hasn't slowed down at all. In fact, it's probably increased. Twitter has everything to do with it. Facebook, too.

This site was always about getting more eyes on a worldview that connected with the reality I experience as someone with morenito skin con una identidad sin fronteras. Immigration has obviously been a big part of the radicalizing I've undergone the past several years. With anti-migrant hate remaining out there in strong potency, and racist blowhards aplenty who conflate "latino" and "illegal" with descriptors like diseased/criminal/drugged-out/drug-pushing/etc etc etc, keeping on that beat remains very personal.

The nature of my blogging and activism has changed, but the spirit that sparked my entrance to the web pueblo remains the same:

I started this site to get my voice down on "paper". I don't really care if I get five or 500 hits in a day. I'm doing this because I care about my country. I yearn for the days when we can again proudly live up to this inscription that can be found on the Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

July 1, 2005

In the near future, this place will have a new voice added to the mezcla. She's Xicana, una feminista, una amiga mía and more importantly, completely unknown to all the blogging crowds and circles I've known over the past several years. Knowing her in real life is never boring so this should be quite the paranda. ¡Cuidado! haters. Lou will whup your ass.

This Week's Moment of Zen

click to enlarge

Jon Swift's Best of 2008

Jon Swift has posted his Best of 2008 roundup (complete with lolcats)

It's no surprise that there are quite a few posts about the election this year and perhaps when the history of this campaign is written, historians will look at these posts to get an idea of what people were thinking as it was taking place. They may conclude that the Chinese were right about living in interesting times. The bloggers represented below run the political gamut, from conservative to anti-America, but in addition to politics, they also write about movies, music, television, books, dance, education, fashion, travel, food, economics, health care, science, technology, religion and history and share personal stories, poetry and fiction. There is surely something here that will interest you and probably something to offend you, as well, but that at least might make you think. I'm afraid if I were to invite everyone in this roundup to sit together at a dinner party, I would have to hide the good china, and even then the evening might end with a visit from the police. And as we have seen when Obama has tried to reach across the aisle, it is a thankless task, so I am sure a few slings and arrows will be directed my way. But just in case you find your blood pressure rising as you read some of these entries, I have created an original series of soothing lolcats, which have been scientifically proven to induce a calming effect, to look at as you scroll down.

View the full round-up here

Happy Holidays, Everyone

To all who read here,
my best wishes to you and your familias
P A Z

A Good Way For Monday to End

Mother Earth giving us a reminder that she can beautiful anyday.
Even a Monday

Tamale Bliss

It's amazing how the scent of steaming tamales
can instantly improve my mood

Newborn Tapir Appreciation Open Thread

In honor of DuctapeFatwa

Proud parents Symphony and Larue welcome
their baby tapir to the Jackson Zoo

Midweek Open Thread

It may not be the bubonic plague, but I feel like crap.

Here's what's shaking in the news:

• $20 million dollars to be spent by the Obama campaign to reach out to us brown folk.
• I don't know about you, but I've had enough vaquero wanabees in the White House.
• The mass of skin McCain had removed this week was not of the melanoma type.
• Tejanos are still fighting the Great Wall of America™ con ganas.
• Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) has released the following powerful video entitled, “A Hidden System” and the Human Cost of Detention

Open Thread

Very, very busy this week with deadlines. Posting will be light. What's going on in your part of the world?

Immigration News Roundup

• ICE is pissed off at the Washington Post for having the audacity to write about the deaths of migrant worker detainees in the DHS concentration camps.
• The WaPo responds
• Blackwater mercenaries are setting up shop within view of la frontera in San Diego.
• An ACLU lawsuit has been successful in stopping ICE from stuffing human beings into overcrowded cells like animals in Otay Mesa, CA
• G. Gordon Liddy doesn't sleep at night, cuz he keeps having reoccurring nightmares of The Alamo.
• LATimes published an article regarding the effects on children of migrant workers who are put in concentration camps and/or deported. Nice to see more of these stories focusing on the human impact of ICE's detestable actions lately.
• Cherokee Chief Chad Smith speaks out in solidarity to combat the U.S.'s insistence that the populace be as ignorant as possible of different languages besides American™

That should get things started

Primavera

As Nezua would say: "And now, a word from our sponsor..."

Siesta Time

Too much going at the moment for blogging.

Will be back soon.

Another Premio to Incite Link Sharing

Thanks to fabooj for tagging us with a "you make my day award"!

The reglas:

“Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.”

• Blog Amigo James at the Mahatma X Files is one of the hardest working peeps on the tubes when it comes to shining a light on the atrocities and raising the signal for justicía
• House of Nezua - because it's just different enough from UMX that gives it its own identity. It's like horchata to arroz con leche - both delicious and similar in taste but never mistaken for the same thing.
  
• fabooj deserves a reciprocal pat on the back because I love reading her site and am glad that she popped back up at BooTrib over the last few months to remind me to check out her writing more often.
• White Knuckles - click on the link and you'll see why I am a loyal captive to knucklehead's posts and humanity.
• Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster because I love to laugh and they. are. funny!
• Tomás over at Hispanic Tips because he kicks nalgas when it comes to compiling links from all over the brownternet.
• Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez - ¡Viva la queen sucia!
• dove - though the last post was many months ago, I check in regularly to re-absorb the connection that I feel to el alma when I read what's offered there.
• Maegan la Mala and the rest of the crew at Vivir Latino - great offering from different aspects of latin culture, updated several times each day, what more could I need each day?
• kangaroo snark, of course

Who makes your day?

When Technology Strikes

Ever have one of those days when you knew from the moment you gained consciousness that it would be akin to passing a gallstone? Yeah, having one of those special events today.

It all started at 5:30 this morning, after only being asleep for 4ish hours due to a 100-mile drive home from hanging out with friends and family north of the Gila River for the weekend. The noises that blared out of my iPod dock/alarm clock thing-a-ma-bob could only be described as offensive to the ears. We humans think that we've got everything figured out on this earth - except that we've created things too smart for our own good.

My alarm clock, which should count its electrode blessings that it remains in one piece, decided that it didn't give a flaming cowpie that Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time. No, no - in fact, it was so stubborn to its routine that on the first Monday after DST kicks in (today), the alarm was given a shot of Jagger and Red Bull to make sure its lowly human servant didn't miss his morning appointments. So there it screeched, an hour earlier than its usual morning tantrum, having automatically changed its time zone so I wouldn't have to bother...

How kind of it.

Monday News Bits

• Mr. Calavera Head worries about terrorist Canadians
• Roger Barnett still owes $98,775 for holding brown border crossers U.S. citizens hostage with a shotgun.
• St. McCain is still hated by the haters for "trying to shove amnesty down our throats". This is what I like to call the Operation Wetbacker crowd. They won't be satisfied until the military is mobilized and mass deportations enacted.
  
• The hate-group San Diego Minutemen are still throwing a tantrum after having their Adopt-A-Highway segment moved away from the border. I'm guessing that they're not all that interested in the environmental aspect of it.
• When will we see hundreds of undocumented non-brown workers rounded up?
• Huckabee trotted out Chuck Norris and vigilante Jim Gilchrist to make sure that everyone thinks border crossers are terrorists with bombs in their suitcases; forgets about mochilas.
• Excerpt of the day: 'Senator Ernie Chambers of Omaha says the governor is, quote, "riding a crest of racism."'

And one for fun:

• He's an...Illegal Eh-lien
  

Miscellany

Apparently the primary silly season is entering the crescendo phase. I'm just glad that I (mostly) adhere to my absolutely-no-blogging-on-the-weekends rule. It's important for me to not stay plugged in to the constant bickering and UserX-centric world that can be found no matter which site currently enjoys my browser's attention. I think it's hilarious that we think we can know with certainty that a person views a situation in the exact way we interpret their writing, when it's highly probably that there is much more going on with a person's head space than is presented.

Not really thinking of anything specific here, just some anecdotal words that I felt like writing after skimming my RSS feeds. Perhaps it's due to my head space on this final Monday of February in 2008. In the past 72 hours I've traveled over 300 miles, helped run a horseshoe tournament, and heard that an ex-girlfriend's younger brother was killed in a car accident.

It's bizarre how one can be transported back nearly fifteen years without skipping a beat, yet that's how long it had been since I'd seen him. No family should have to deal with the tragedy that they are experiencing. I don't even know that I'll get the chance to share condolences with her, but I have sent word via a mutual friend that I was praying for them all. We've managed to salvage some type of friendship over the years despite plenty of drama, most of which was created by outside players, but I maintain distance out of respect for her husband. Still, my heart is sick today.

News Bits

I'm fighting off a cold - blech - but here are some things going on around the country that I thought was worth sharing:

• Cheech Marin has opened a Chicano Art exhibit at Anaheim Muzeo
• There's pushback in Kansas against anti-migrant laws being pushed through the state legislature
• F-16s scrambled along la frontera because of a vigilante's idiocy.
• 3,000 year old mujer discovered south of the line
• Human beings continue to die in the desert
• Minorities on their way to becoming majority in the U.S.......again.
  

What else is happening?

Blogroll Amnesty Day

Since there are habanero flakes in my bloodstream, I'm not one to go down the path of assimilation without resistance; hence the reason that I'm a day late for Blogroll Amnesty Day. Actually, the delay had more to do with a self-inflicted injury involving the consumption of mass (liberal!) quantities of fermented hops but who ever let details get in the way of propaganda? Surely, not I.

If you pay any attention at all to the two blogrolls over there on the right ------>
you'll note that the lists expand pretty regularly. That's because this blog is proud to have a liberal(!) blogrolling policy, where you're guaranteed a link from here if you reciprocate over at your site. I'm always on the hunt for good reads, too, so some of the offerings are based on stuff that I unearthed in my latest bout of procrastination. It's amazing how quickly you can be captivated by a new-to-you author, or realize that one of your favorite dead-tree writers is sharing their musings on the web.

Borders are something that I reject, if any of the writing over the past 31 months here will tell you anything - which is why I also have some of the offending so-called A-List sites listed in my blogroll that are responsible for blogroll bloodbath anniversary remembrance day; because due to an ironic twist of fate, the lines of blogtopia (yes! skippy coined that phrase) jumped around me with the crash of a gate and I, like others, found myself wandering listlessly through forsaken territory - only to learn that it's much more livelier (and liberal!) out here without the need to calculate the next post based on the prevailing meme of a corporate-ruled political system or the falling rates of an advertising network.

As web activists, we should be willing to share the work of each other con gusto. The 'we' depends on who you read, obviamente, but as you'll see if you check in with my periodic Pro-Migrant Blog Roundups, the center of the blogptopic universe does not revolve around the sites that have knighted themselves as The Netroots™. We are much more diverse (and liberal!) out here, and who knows, maybe you'll find us wandering the pages of the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Post speaking a different truth.

So without further ado, I am recommending in honor of Blogroll Amnesty Day, the following sites to keep you away from that latest task that you've been putting off for the last week:

• The Latin Americanist
• Problem Chylde
• Intercontinental Cry
• Generation 1.5
• Dream Act - Texas
• T. Don Hutto - America's Family Prison

And one for fun:

1. Hasta Los Gatos Quieren Zapatos
   

The Abyss

"Anyone who fights with monsters should make sure that he does not in the process become a monster himself. And when you look for a long time into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Can't do it today. I just can't. The news is often heart wrenching, but the apathy and sometimes outright approval of the atrocities has reached my personal limit of unbearable.

Everyday I remind myself that every single person on this earth has had a unique experience of life. Different locales, different relationships with family, friends and passers-by. Different languages, customs, and preferences for breakfast. Perhaps their fingers trained upon a certain button on the remote control that automatically directs them to the most outright and outlandish of propaganda cradles. Or is it the amount of fiber and saturated fat in the diet? Hmmmm.

In real life, I'm often pensive (which is mirrored here on the web), but it comes with a huge dose of humor and sarcasm as I play pundit to the going ons around me. Wallflower by trade, prankster by nature - I can be both predictable and shocking at the same time. Ah, the joys of a Myers Brigg flunkie (I scored in the middle of all four categories the last time I took it). Not that my spirit is content or able to be defined by a studious sorter of personalities based on a bunch of culturally incompetent questions.

What does one do at the end of the proverbial rope? Let go and let the Flying Spaghetti Monster God? There was a time in my life where that would have absolutely been the answer. It's not that I've lost the faith, it's that I've watched in horror as messages of hope and faith and peace and love become substituted by reality teevee, recycled episodes of Pants Off! Dance Off!, and pulpits of doom and gloom.

Do we see what we wish to see? Do the words we read, the speeches we witness, the smirks we view, the votes we cast, the bickering we thrive upon mean anything? I suppose the answer is yes, but it has been a very long time since any movement has been registered in the direction of sanity - using my personal Richter scale, of course. Yours may be functioning quite admirably, but it seems like my gauge has been broken or replaced by a more appropriate device.

No. The planet has certainly been tilting in a swiftly way that is beyond my comprehension. Madeleine L'Engle may have sussed out a nugget of truth in her reality, but I have yet to feel so lucky.

Whiner! Pessimist! Fool!
Yes.

But it gives rise to the inner-phoenix. It is the defibrillator to my apathetic heart. The muse that needs both salt and sugar to remind itself that it is indeed alive. Perhaps I am cursed to walk this world like a sponge - absorbing the angst and elation that comes with life's secrets.

There's a key somewhere, but until I stumble upon it, a post like this will appear every once in a while to keep my ego in check and the floating light bulb illuminated that signals a reminder that there is still breath in my lungs, blood in my veins, and love in my life that can ultimately slay the abyss with light.

Can someone flick that switch?

Mil gracias