Politics

Budget Cuts Leave Consumers and Food Workers At Risk

Written by Charlotte Williams

Last Friday night, Washington, D.C. politicians went into overdrive in order agree upon an 11th hour 2011 federal budget.   Framed as a fight to the bitter end, compromises became personally evident by Monday morning as the long undetermined budget cuts were translated into harsh realities for the working class, underemployed, and unemployed across this nation.

Few departments of government remained unscathed as hard won social, environmental and progressive economic improvement strategies underwent deep to devastating cuts.  One potentially disastrous $10 million budget reduction impacts the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Modernization Act which was signed into law January 4, 2011.   How soon we forget.

New FAIR Press Release

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

The anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) issued a press release this week in reaction to an Arizona court’s ruling against the discriminatory SB 1070 law. FAIR called on Congress to take more authority over immigration policy to prevent the executive branch from “being the de facto law of the land.”

Immigration

Anti-immigrant Writer Attempts to “Green” Bigotry for Small Businesses

Written by Guest Blogger

By Catherine Craig

The “green” movement has been co-opted by hundreds of groups, organizations, and even corporations. Wal-Mart, George W. Bush, and even the United States military have taken the word “green” and used it to their (fiscal) advantage. Green has come to mean anything that is sustainable or “earth-friendly.” It has also become a verb: businesses can “green” themselves by limiting their energy footprint.

When any entity uses the word to increase its financial profit, or for other such selfish purposes, I refer such use as “green-washing.” One of the more recent and creative co-opters of this practice is The Greenery, a landscaping business in South Carolina.

Politics

Kris Kobach: Coming to Your Town, or Not?

Written by Aaron Patrick Flanagan

As has been widely reported on this blog and elsewhere, anti-immigrant lawyer and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is having a hard time these days finding a parking spot for his mobile legal lab of bigotry.

With towns and counties in Arizona, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska as the fiscal and social evidence of his ways, news that “Kobach and FAIR are coming to town” has recently had locals in Alabama rather ironically ready to erect a wall to keep them out.

Ecopolitics

CLPP Conference Attendees Take a Stand Against Attacks on Women

Written by Rebecca Poswolsky

Last weekend, The Civil Liberties & Public Policy program (CLPP) had the 30th anniversary of its annual conference. CLPP is a national reproductive rights and justice organization dedicated to educating, mentoring, and inspiring new generations of advocates, leaders, and supporters.  This year’s conference, “From Abortion Rights to Social Justice” Population and Development Program at Hampshire College and the Civil Liberties & Public Policy, brought together activists and reproductive justice organizers from over 30 states across the nation.

Most workshops were packed as hundreds of activists came together to talk, network and expand social justice movements.  Workshops included topics around access to health care, population control, immigration, gender binaries, climate, the environment and abortion.

Politics

White Nationalists Galore Attend FAIR’s Annual Event

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Last week, the anti-immigrant organization Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) held its annual “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” event in Washington, DC. Despite FAIR’s best efforts, the event garnered little press and was sparsely attended. The two day event included lobby training, an awards reception and a “Radio Row” event.

Most of the action took place at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington, DC, which is across the street from FAIR’s offices.  Though the event was meagerly attended, the individuals who did show up indicate that FAIR hasn’t learned its lesson when it comes to affiliating with bigots.

FAIR put out a call for activists… Read more

Politics

Kris Kobach: Neither at a Loss for Words nor Money

Written by Aaron Patrick Flanagan

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, April 12th, the poison scribe of the anti-immigrant movement, Kris Kobach, the man who wrote SB 1070, is set to deliver a speech he’s entitled, “State and Local Law Discouraging Illegal Immigration: Their Economic and Security Impact,” on the campus of Kansas University. (See below for event info.)

Long “The Golden Boy” of far-right hardliners seeking out a legal mouthpiece, Kobach’s luster has been flaking to expose some serious rusting. To borrow from Chinua Achebe, things are rather beginning to fall apart.

Kobach was set to receive a $10,000 honorarium for his lecture, but the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission has objected on state precedent. According to this source, “Ethics Commission… Read more

Immigration

Cross-Post: House Subcommittee Battles Diversity in U.S. Immigration System

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Borrowed from the pages of the Immigration Impact blog. By Travis Packer.

Opponents of immigration reform are often quick to differentiate their disdain for unauthorized immigration and their alleged support of legal immigration. But finding evidence of their support for legal immigration has always been difficult. Over the past several months, the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement has conducted several hearings where some members have questioned the value of most forms of immigration, including legal avenues. This week, the Subcommittee tackled diversity visas, a program which provides 50,000 green cards annually by lottery to persons from countries that do not currently send many immigrants to the United States. And per usual, restrictionist

… Read more

Cross-Post: FAIR Hosts Extremist Rally To Denounce “Disease-Ridden” “Racist” Immigrants

Written by Jill Garvey

Gratefully borrowed from the Media Matters for America blog. Originally posted on April 05, 2011, by Media Matters staff.

This week, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is holding a rally hosting a various extreme anti-immigrant radio hosts. Yet FAIR promotes themselves as a mainstream organization, touting their ability to “shed light on this complex subject on their website.” Below the jump are some of the extreme, violent, offensive and false comments that FAIR’s rally guests have made.

Jeff Katz
Katz Has Been Repeatedly Fired For Offensive Comments, Including A “Joke” Encouraging Violence Against Immigrants

Katz was fired from a radio station after he made a “joke” suggesting that drivers who run

… Read more