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Implanting immigrants with chips?

5:07 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration · 4 Comments

6 Jun 2006

Funny how you have to read the foreign press to get these juicy little stories. It’s not Sci-Fi: there’s a company pitching the government its tracking technology in the form of implanting chips under the skin of immigrants. According to Spain’s 20 Minutos, it’s the same type of chip used to track animals:

Human identification chips from the company VeriChip are a bit larger than a grain of rice and inserted under the skin.

In the midst of the immigration debate, the president of said company wasted no time in proposing to Bush that chip be implanted in immigrants.

Some of the principal objections to this iniciative are that it invades an individual’s privacy, that it would allow changes to their medical history, and that once implanted, it cannot be removed without professional assistance.

20 Minutos points out that, in an ironic twist, the chip has only been tested on human in one country: Mexico. In addition to that interesting tidbit, according to a U.S. Senator, at least one government official said he would allow his U.S.-bound citizens be implanted with the chips: Álvaro Uribe of Colombia.

True? Who knows. The fact that this is even being brought up is frightening.

Live Science has a good write up on this story. Check it out.

Via / 20 Minutos

Photo via CNet.com

To Steal a Line From Shakira: Don’t Bother (Looking for Latinos Working in Federal Jobs)

1:44 pm By Maegan La Mala · Careers| Politics · 1 Comment

10 Jan 2006

Just because Latinos are the fastest growing “minority” in the U.S. doesn’t mean those numbers are reflected in the jobs held by Latinos, especially Federal Government jobs. While Latinos are at least 40 million strong, we only hold seven percent of Federal Government jobs according to a coalition of Latino watchdog organizations. The private sector employs 13 percent of Latinos and that statistic does not take into account undocumented workers. Why the discrepancy? Discrimination (especially since Federal jobs are only available to U.S. citizens) and poor recruitment campaigns to Latinos are part of the problem. Another problem is the lack of qualified Latino candidates, traced back to poor educational training.

Via / Terra

Hispanic Magazine Chooses Their Hispanic-American of the Year

9:32 am By Maegan La Mala · Magazines| Politics · 1 Comment

27 Dec 2005

alberto Gonzalez.jpg Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has been chosen as Hispanic Magazine’s Hispanic-American of the year. Not only is Gonzales, the son of migrant workers, the United State’s first Latino Attorney General, he was also passed up not once but twice to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Gonzales was a key person in the creation of the Patriot Act and took heat for what seemed like his defense of the U.S. use of torture interrogation tactics. With the hot button issue now being the issue immigration, let’s see how well this Hispanic-American of the Year represents.

Via / Hispanic Magazine

Walk with Me Freddy

10:10 am By Maegan La Mala · Events| New York City| Politics · Comments Off

27 Oct 2005

It seems like yesterday that I was complaining about not seeing Freddy Ferrer in the hood. Oh wait, maybe because it was yesterday. Bueno you too can caminar con NYC Democratic mayoral hopeful Freddy Ferrer. According to the Daily Gotham Freddy will be stumping in the ‘hood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn on Sabado. He won’t be alone, Rican Congresista Nydia Velasquez and even the Governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo-Vila (who just threw Ferrer a fancy fundraiser on the isla del encanto).

Such events are a good opportunity for peeps to get up close and personal with the candidate or at the very least get your pic taken with him.

Via/ The Daily Gotham

Freddy’s Not Rockin’ So Steady Among Latinos

7:02 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York City| Politics · Comments Off

26 Oct 2005

It seems I’m not the only Latina in NYC not jumping on NYC mayoral hopeful Freddy Ferrer’s bandwagon. The latest Quinnipiac University poll has Ferrer leading current NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg among Latinos polled by a measly five points, 48 percent to 43 percent. 61 percent of likely voters overall support Bloomberg, while Ferrer hangs on to 30 percent.

I haven’t seen that much outreach to the Latino community specifically by Ferrer. Whereas Bloomberg has been filling my mailbox with bilingual flyers and speaking to me in choppy Spanish between novelas. No doubt some of this is because the incumbent mayor is a billionaire who could air ads in pig Latin if he wanted to because money is no object. Pero what about old fashioned pressing of the flesh? Yeah we’ve seen Ferrer waving at parades but when was the last time he was in your hood? Sources have placed Ferrer at an event last week in the highly Latino concentrated Jackson Heights, Queens but it wasn’t publicized. I’m sure many members of the immigrant would have had plenty of questions and concerns that Freddy could have played up.

Of course Freddy’s camp says that polls don’t mean anything and that
Quinnipiac pollsters have always underestimated the NY Rican.

We will certainly be able to decide for ourselves in just two more weeks when election day comes.

Via / New York Post

Gonzales to Latinos: Get Over it and Have Harriet’s Back

1:11 pm By Maegan La Mala · Politics · Comments Off

21 Oct 2005

In a speech to the Hispanic National Bar Association, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Latinos to get over it about him, or any other Latino for that matter, not being nominated to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court and to throw their support behind Harriet Miers. According to AP, Gonzales asked that:

you and others reserve judgment and give her an opportunity to show why she would be good for the Court, for the country, and for the Hispanic community.

Gonzales was passed over not once but twice for a spot on the nation’s highest court, first to John Roberts and now to Ms. Miers.

Latino Pundit probably hit it right on the nose when he says that Gonzales’s request is probably based more on loyalty to the Republican hands that feed him than on a real belief that Miers is going to do right by the community. The little we do know about Miers is cause enough for concern. She’s anti-choice and thinks President Bush is the smartest person she’s met, ever (really mujer needs to get out more). According to ImmigrationProf Blog when Miers worked as President of the State Bar of Texas she did some pro-bono work handling an immigration and naturalization case for Catholic Charities of Dallas. Hopefully she didn’t help deport people and hopefully Latinos won’t just go the way of sheep and follow what Gonzales says just because he is “one of us”.

Via / Latino Pundit and Los Angeles Times

VL Opinion: Just because we both eat mofongo doesn’t mean I’m voting for You

8:00 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York City| Politics · 5 Comments

19 Oct 2005

With Latino Antonio Villaraigosa recently becoming the mayor of Los Angeles, there is lots of Latino pride and Latino desire to see one of our own kind in public offices from sea to shining sea.

In the case of the NYC mayoral election less than a month away, talk abounds about voting for anyone but incumbent mayor/billionaire Michael Bloomberg. The “anyone” most people mean is Bronx Rican Freddy Ferrer. Many Dems have Freddy’s back including Jesse Jackson and both Bill and Hillary Clinton. His Latino endorsements include the Latino Officer’s Association, Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez and 1199 SEIU led by Dennis Rivera. Many people feel Ferrer isn’t the best man for the job but he’s the best we got, or the lesser of two evils.

So as a progressive Latina NYC chica my hand should be itching to pull the lever for fellow Boricua Freddy right? Or as Marisa Treviño asks today in her blog Latina Lista, When is Being the Right Gender or Ethnicity Enough? In a word and in my humble opinion, never.

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