Thanks, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

So, I'm trying to make a comeback and I thought this video was interesting. A former classmate of mine helped produce it. Immigration is an issue near and dear to me because my parents immigrated. But, today immigration policy is focused on our hard-working, Spanish-speaking friends from below the southern border and Latin America.
I'm not really mad at this because I would hate to see popos raiding the kitchen of my favorite Jamaican restaurant and dragging West Indian sitters out of nursing homes. These raids in Maryland are especially foul because they targeted working immigrants.

If you have any interest in immigration you have to check out this Washington Post article about deportees being heavily sedated for no good reason as they travel home. It's a few weeks old but had me fuming when I read it. I didn't really realize that deportation duties now fall under an immigration office within the Department of Homeland Security. That's been the case for a few years now.

One Nigerian man's father came to pick him up from the airport and had to put him in a hotel for days until he felt better. He didn't want the family to see him return home looking so bad. The dude couldn't even speak because he was given an injection. This man wasn't even a violent criminal he was deported for a check fraud charge.
I guess I say all that to say, I love the U.S.A.

Crappy interns and Michael Vick get the gas face

I peeped out my Google Analytics and decided hmm... someone's reading this crap. So here I am typing instead of preparing a project for my finals. I miss the days where I'd sit at work and blog for 30 minutes...

I think of interesting blog topics all the time. Like the other day when I was at work and got a returned FedEx package from August. The best I can think of is that I asked an intern working with me to send this package out. She messed up the address, FedEx tried to find the office and couldn't because she also forgot to add a phone number, which would help them find the recipient. She only lasted a few weeks, the intern, before she had to quit. But the question that ran through my mind was: How do you manage to make a former employer dislike you more FOUR MONTHS AFTER you're gone?? I thought she sucked when she left and was slowly beginning to realize that she would not improve with time.

She was the poster child for crappy interns. I mean, she found ways to make the simplest shit, i.e. shipping a FedEx envelope, complicated. I couldn't understand what would make a college student with no experience in my field think that she could find a better way of doing a job that I've been doing for years. I would give specific instructions and get almost nothing back because she came up with a harder, more time consuming way of doing something. Sigh... She reminds me of the intern who wore headphones around the office all summer and hated to ask her boss questions. I was thinking, why are you here? This also reminds me of that MTV show The Hills. I caught a few episodes while studying over the weekend. Man, that Lauren girl is an IDIOT. She was an intern at Teen Vogue and chose spending the summer at the beach with her boyfriend over going to Paris for another intern opportunity. Man that was dumb. For any women under 25 reading this, always pick opportunity over boyfriend. If you live this way you'll never regret it.

Hmm, what else? Michael Vick. So he was sentenced to 23 months. Do I care? Eh, not really. I mean, I don't watch football, he's not that cute to me (but he is kinda sexy). Then throw in the fact that he kills doggies in his free time and I'm thinking, "Micheal who is going where?" I could give two turds. I don't think his sentencing is totally fair, but there's a long list of inmates ahead of Vick in my protest queue. I mean, Mumia Abu-Jamal is still in jail. And there are 127 journalists behind bars around the world for simply reporting the truth. I'm supposed to think twice about this dude? I've moved on to R.Kelly's sentencing. Can we get this over with already? If he doesn't get 23 months, I'm going looting. Who's coming with me?

About Kanye's mom

So, I've been saying this, but I think I can stop repeating myself if I just put it out here in cyberspace.

I was seriously upset about the death of Kanye's mama. I seem to like her more than Kanye, and I don't even know her. The thing about Kanye's mama is that she's such a mom. You know? She's not dying her hair blond every month or trying to steal his shine. She's much like my mom and most people's mamas. For Ye to be such a jerk, but shower so much affection on his mom, she must be cool peoples. A few people in my family have done a little nippin' and tuckin' and it's so routine that you NEVER imagine they won't pull through. That said, I totally sympathized with the scenario. Good mamas want to look good. They have EVERY right to tighten up their tummy surgically. (Fk whoever thinks otherwise, it's not your body.) And these mamas have even more right to their privacy.

I'm personally sickened by "journalists" digging into Ms. West's medical history and calling her doctors to update this story several times a day. Be for real, TMZ.com doesn't give a damn about exposing the truth. They just want to drag a plastic surgeon out into the public and flog him without a trial. If they gave two shits about Kanye's mama, they would write a new story every day, rather than every three hours. Can you imagine sitting at your desk and getting email updates about your mother, auntie, boss, friend who just died suddenly? Have a friggin heart.

I can respect the outlets, such as "Good Morning America" who use this tragic event to explore the dangers of plastic surgery or share some helpful information with people. But the tone and frequency of TMZ.com reports, the only ones I'm reading because I'm getting forwards, is simply disgusting.

I actually feel sorry for Kanye not only because he lost his mom, but also because I know he never loved the media in the first place. Now, this. Honestly, she's not a celebrity. She's not guilty by association. When she dropped her book, no one really cared. Now she's some sort of pop culture icon? My ass!

Ellen Pompeo and hubby keep it light

I thought Ellen Pompeo was responding to Hollywood's pressure to be rail thin. Now, I see that her husband, music producer Chris Ivery, was probably the source of her weightless look. I bet money they put their future kids on the Anna Nicole Smith sexy baby diet.

Supporting the troops

So, I'm reading this book called The Long Road Home by Martha Raddatz. It's a really well-written story that follows soldiers from their base in Texas to Baghdad in 2004. Man, I'm not in favor of the war but I always said that I support the troops. What's interesting is that, while I support the troops for just doing their jobs no matter how silly their boss may be at times, I didn't get the magnitude of their bravery until I read this book.

I'm not even done reading it, but the point is that she puts a face on the numbers that we hear on the news. These guys probably represent most of the 20-30,000 serving in Iraq now. They're dads and very young and most of these guys had never shot anyone, never been shot at, never seen a dead body. One doctor was a pediatrician who had never seen a bullet wound. Then they arrive for their "peace keeping mission" and end up in a gun battle. It's just crazy because they were TERRIFIED. And this book gets that point across. They also didn't have the armor and vehicles they needed, but I won't even go into all of that.

I've always said that I support the troops and that's why I'd like to see them return to their families. After reading these stories, I have to really give it up to military wives. What they go through is like a breakup that won't end for a year. I can't imagine loving someone and then seeing them go off to war or "keep peace" in Iraq.. I've always assumed that military people don't have strong political views, which helps them to their jobs, so I doubt they dislike the war. Of course, when it hits home it doesn't seem like it matters one way or the other how you feel about the war. These guys in the book don't all make it home, some came back missing parts because they were attacked.. and just as depressing as the attack is that they were surprised. They thought the people would be happy to get their help since the war had ended a year ago

Rocking all black today

I'm excited that the Jena 6 is finally getting some mainstream news coverage. Sure they may have mentioned it before, but ABC and other outlets have flown reporters in to cover the march. They even asked the President about it today in a press conference. He wasn't really trying to make a statement about it race relations. He said he wants justice to be fair or something like that. He focused on the judicial process that may have failed, but avoided the racism that caused its failure. Typical.

I'm off to the March in DC.. as a reporter. I know I've always been a journalist, but I've recently learned that news reporters can't march and support causes. Boy this is going to be tough.

I rest my case...

Thanks to the sad situation down in Louisiana that is known widely as the case of the "Jena 6," I can finally stop arguing that racism is still alive. It's very official, and now all I have to do is utter two words to naysayers who think there's no need for affirmative action or programs that aim to improve race relations: "Jena Six" Then I'll throw my hands in the air and say, "What? What do you have to say now?"

If you don't know about this situation, Google it, I'm going to assume no one reading this blog has been living under a rock or too wrapped up in their own life to notice this case.... Actually, most people who read this blog either have ample free time or they suffer from severe A.D.D and procrastination issues. Anyway, where was I...

Oh yeah, A fucking whites-only tree?? The only thing that black people exclusively are a bunch of greasy-ass haircare products that barely work. Why does any race deserve their own damn tree?

Now black minors ages 15-17 are facing 100 years in prison?? One of the boys is already convicted and facing 22 years for a schoolyard fight that was incited by ongoing racial tension at Jena High school. The white classmate they allegedly tried to murder was doing well enough to attend a school function later that day.

You would think that Jena officials simply don't tolerate fighting and violence, but earlier in a school year a black student was beaten for attending a whites-only party that he was invited to (or so I hear). Um, skip the outrageous hate crime and notice how territorial white people in this town are.

Just as I sit here thinking what I've written I see this quote from a Jena resident on the Democracy Now website.

ACQUIE SOOHEN: Most people we spoke to in Jena’s white community, however, see no connection between the students’ charges and race. Barbara Murphy, the town librarian, claims there isn’t a race problem in Jena.

BARBARA MURPHY: We don’t have a race problem. It’s not black against white. It’s crime. The nooses? I don’t even know why they were there, what they were supposed to mean. There’s pranks all the time, of one type or another, going on. And it just didn’t seem to be racist to me.

I can believe this is still going on, because of silly people like Murphy, but I have a hard time believing that the justice system still hasn't constructed a full-proof mechanism that can stop racism in the courts.

If people of all races can't get justice in the courts of this country then everyone shouldn't have to abide by the law. It's a little radical, but hey, I'm blogging.

If you're not going to get fair treatment in the courts, then you shouldn't have to follow rules. I know a lot of people who already subscribe to this idea. They live life as they please because they know that the chips aren't going to fall in their favor no matter what.

Anyway, I hope that people of all races can get behind this case and say enough is enough. Racism in the U.S. is completely out of hand. It will never disappear, but younger generations shouldn't have to deal with it on this level.

Another one bites the dust...

Well, well, well... look who's stepping down. Ol' attorney general Alberto Gonzales. He said something like this in his goodbye:

Let me say that it's been one of my greatest privileges to lead the Department of Justice [into the ground]. I have great admiration and respect for the men and women who work here [minus those people I fired unjustly].

Is it just me or does Gonzales remind you of that guy in the Will Smith movie Enemy of the State? He's been caught (or accused of) lying to congress about why he fired those U.S. attorneys and misusing terrorist surveillance programs. Naughty, naughty.

Well, I'm glad to see him go. I wonder if any Latinos feel like he's messed it up for others given a chance to hold a high position? I seriously doubt it, because I think he behaved as any member of the good ol' boy club would.

How many resignations will this administration see before the man behind all these guys gets questioned? I know he didn't put our country in harms way by lying about getting head from a White House intern, but I think we can find something he's lied about if we dig deep enough.