Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, President-elect Barack Obama’s reported primary choice for Homeland Security secretary, says she still thinks National Guard troops should be sent back to the U.S.-Mexico border. Napolitano says “as governor of Arizona” that’s something she has advocated with other border state governors and still believes. Guard troops were deployed for two years to support the Border Patrol as it hired more agents, but the troops left in July. Napolitano wouldn’t say on Friday if she’s been offered the Homeland Security post. It includes overseeing the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And she won’t say whether she’ll seek to redeploy Guard troops to the border if she becomes Homeland Security secretary.

As Man_Eegee says, this isn't change and it's nothing I can believe in.

"What are we doing to make sure the media doesn't grab our kids to be interviewed?" and then many parents screamed and confronted the Newsday reporter--who was escorted out even though she was given permission to attend.

I have little sympathy because these parents and so many others like them were not and still are not screaming the way I and other Latinos have been screaming for years: "What are we doing to make sure that my neighbor, lover, father of my child, tio, hijo, familia and comunidad are not grabbed to be killed."

Marcelo Lucero's story, sadly is not a new one. It is one of many instances of hate fueled by anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric coming from both ends of the political spectrum. The fact that Marcelo is another Mannuel Mayi is the reason why I take no issue with calling Marcelo an immigrant, while some Latino blogs have taken issue with that labeling. When Marcelo was targeted for death, the killers didn't ask to see his papers or engage in conversation to hear if he spoke with an accent. He was tagged a Latino which has been made to equal immigrant which has been made to equal not having the right to exist. It didn't matter what Latin American country Marcelo came from. It mattered that he was "other", the way my own children can be othered by the color of their skins and their names.

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Twenty years ago, it simply wouldn't have been possible -- pregnant, single and a member of Congress? Oh, the scandal! But Hester Prynne has morphed into Juno MacGuff . . . and "unwed mother" has been recast as "single mom."

Who do we have to thank for that? Thousands, from Madonna to Dan Quayle. In 1992, Quayle waged moral warfare on the sitcom character "Murphy Brown" -- famous, rich, single and pregnant. . . . And, of course, Bristol Palin.

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My 11 year old had read all the books (and so have I- pero I always read what she reads so we can discuss etc), so she just had to be at the local movie theater's first showing at 12:01 early this morning/late last night to get her some Edward Cullen and she wasn't the only one.

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It features photos like this:

Who is Paulo Quevedo? Who the hell knows? All I know is that when I am finished surfing CF's for the day, I always feel better--no matter how gray, nasty, snowy, and violently cold it is outside. Leather is a great way to stay warm and happy, don't you think?

For these soldiers from mostly poor countries like Ecuador and Bolivia, the advantages are clear: a steady monthly salary of $1,300, which is not that bad by Spanish standards and rises significantly with overseas assignments, and the possibility of obtaining Spanish citizenship.

"Who would have thought I would end up taking part in missions with the Spanish army? It is odd, different. But it has opened up a lot of doors for me," said Dalton Rafael Jimenez, a 22-year-old Ecuadorean who has been in the Spanish army for nearly three years.

The question I have about all these rich Western countries hiring Latin@s to run their military is: What effect does training whole generations of Latin@s in the ways of the military have on the women in their lives? Especially seeing as those people who suffer from PTSD are much more inclined to be abusive and violent towards partners?

The Day of Remembrance is ours, and it is sacred. It is the one day we set aside to honor those in our community, overwhelmingly poor trans women of color, who were killed due to bigotry and hatred. It is a single day in the year where we make certain that the names of the murdered are heard and held up, so we can all remember that these people mattered, were real, were loved, and are missed. It's a day to gather the community together and call attention to the violence directed against us and the caring we have for each other. It came from us. It was built by us. It was never supposed to be flashy or glitzy. It is a solemn mourning for the dead, a place to hold hands, and a promise to those who violence took away from us that we who are still living will hold together, take care of each other, and push forward together into a world where that violence is only a painful memory...

...My right to stay alive is more of a priority than my right to get legally married. And right now, as this society and its culture and its legal system stand, I'm one of many people who don't have either right. You want to fight for my right to marry? Wonderful. Thank you. But those hours protesting, those donations, all that outrage and community support and work--I'd prefer they went, for a start, to keeping me alive out here. And I think the "GLBTQ" community in the United States, such as it is, needs to take a long, hard look at why they have money and time to fight Measure 8, but nothing to give but silence, co-opting, and more requests for us to pipe down and lighten up when it comes to the more than monthly murder of trans people. Show us our lives and deaths matter to you. Show us you acknowledge that the violence against us is worth paying attention to, that our dead were real people who deserved far better, and that our living shouldn't have to live in fear.

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San Diego County recently announced that it would soon be partnering with ICE and dedicating its energy to identifying immigrants in jail for deportation. ICE unveiled its new program – The Secure Communities Program – in March 2008. It gives jails access to ICE and FBI databases so that they can identify inmates who lack legal status or have a criminal history and then turn them over to ICE for deportation. Through this new initiative, ICE plans to eventually have a presence in every one of the 3,100 local jails throughout the U.S.

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