Immigration Reform

Interesting, important article about the present and future of immigration reform in the US. The author gives an overview of what's happening now, what's on the horizon, what groups are involved and how, and offers her thoughts on what humane reform should look like. An excerpt:

On an everyday level, what do immigrant rights mean? And how do immigrant rights affect Americans who are not recent immigrants?

On an everyday level, immigrant rights means the right to be free of fear. Fear that at any moment you can be picked up and be separated from your family; the sense that everything you have worked for is fragile. Having to live with the fear of traveling within the U.S. and being stopped by police and questioned about your status, fear of not having identification that is so necessary in everyday life, the fear of crossing the border to be reunited with your family because of the danger if you try to come back. Fear of approaching the police if you are the victim of a crime. Fear of jail. Fear of hunger. The anguish of having to make the choice between seeing your family, in many cases your children or your aging parents, or sending them money to help them survive.

Immigrant rights affects all workers because historically, we have only raised the quality of life for working people in the U.S. by organizing across ethnic, racial, and gender lines. Immigrant workers are one segment of low-income workers in this country. If we are going to turn low-income industries into living wage industries immigrant workers have to be organized and the threat of deportation is a powerful weapon that employers use to threaten workers.

Austin!

So the big move has finally happened...Athens to Austin! We are officially in the house and trying to get our lives in order. Moving crap has meant that we have not really gotten to explore the town at all yet, but that's all to come. Our neighborhood is a great location: 4 miles from the UT campus where I will work, close to stores and places to eat, nice park right down the street, and tons of dogs for Laveau to make friends with (we hope).

The house is going to be a good fit, eventually. Right now, though, there are a whole slew of issues because the house has been sitting empty on the market for two years before the owners finally decided to rent it. One toilet's broken, one runs, about 1/3 of the outlets don't work, the lawn's a mess, and worst, the water heater doesn't work. We're going on day three of no hot water. Needless to say, we do not smell awesome at the moment. The property management people are very nice and helpful so far, so I'm encouraged that we'll get things in better shape soon.

Bought a new couch and loveseat today, which is exciting! My first real furniture purchase, not counting the occasional desk chair or bookshelf from Target or Ikea. I had a slight panicky moment when I handed over the credit card, but I am confident I made a good buy that we'll enjoy for a lot of years.

Once I find my camera cord I'll get some pictures up. No telling what box it's in though, so that might be a while.

"Don't Ask Don't Tell" Don't Work

Really like this well written, well researched article about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military that may soon be repealed (let's hope so!). This article responds to a Washington Post article by four retired military men whose tired arguments about how allowing gays to serve openly would harm and ultimately undo the military are just that: tired. About to become relics, I would venture to say. Their claims are not and have never been empirically verified. The case FOR allowing gays to serve openly, however, has lots of data to support it. Even the military's own research is in support. Some interesting tidbits:

When both Britain and Canada proposed lifting their gay bans in the 1990s, similar opinion surveys found much higher numbers — about two-thirds in both cases — claiming they, too, would leave. In each case, no more than three departures were attributed to the policy change. Three.

Even extensive research by our own military has concluded the gay ban is unnecessary, including a large 1993 study by the RAND Corporation — a think tank created by the military itself — and two official military studies — a 1989 study by the Defense Personnel Security Research Center and the Navy’s 1957 Crittenden report — which all found sexual orientation is irrelevant to military performance.

...under current policy, more than 800 “mission-critical specialists” have been fired just because they’re gay, including more than 60 Arabic linguists.

Britain's Got Talent...WOW

Again, another post you may have seen: clip of 47-year-old Susan Boyle on the reality music show "Britain's Got Talent." You can see by the judges' reactions that they are already assuming she's a joke from the moment she steps out, and several jerk audience members get caught on camera smirking and rolling their eyes when Boyle says she wants to be a professional singer. Once the initial awkwardness of her intro is over, she busts out with INCREDIBLE vocals and floors everyone. Her song choice of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miz also couldn't have been more perfect ("I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living/So different now from what it seemed").

Lindsay on eHarmony

This has been all over the internet: Lindsay Lohan creating her own spoof (ish...) eHarmony profile. She may be a bonkers but at least she has a sense of humor about herself. It's also a pretty smart ploy to get the general public to at least slightly like her again. Worked on me.

Tweenbots

Here's an article, video, and set of pictures to make your Monday brighter. Really, this will make you feel better about the world (even if only for a few minutes). A woman built a small robot that looks like a cereal box with training wheels and set it loose in NYC. She conceived it as an experiment in human relationships to space, technology, community, and the interactions/relationships among the three. Here's her description of the robots:

Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.

Watch people react to the robot and help it get on the right path, get unstuck from cracks in the pavement, and move toward its goal. Thanks to Leslie W for this delightful find.

Wolfgang's Vault

Mark alerted me to a site called Wolfgang's Vault. It's a repository of hundereds of concert recordings that you can listen to free. You can search their always-expanding database and create playlists. The playlists consist of the actual songs you choose, not similar-sounding songs like on Pandora. You can save the playlists and easily share with others (like Pandora). You can also listen to concerts in their entirety. The majority of the music is classic rock, but there is also indie/alternative, country, 80s pop, R&B, and so on. Some of the recordings I recommend checking out: Journey, Randy Newman, The Doobie Brothers, REO Speedwagon, Aerosmith, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Be prepared to lose (enjoy) a good hour or two playing around on this site once you sign up!

Rachel Maddow on Tea Parties

O. M. G.

Why do these Republicans just make it SO EASY for pundits to make fun of them??? Don't strategists have media people who are supposed to filter unintentionally inappropriate catchphrases? I mean really. I would like politicians to please pay me a lot of money so I can tell them what to NOT call their protests (i.e. avoid any phrase that is a blatant, gross sexual euphemism).

Kudos to Rachel Maddow for not completely dissolving into laughter and tears while delivering this segment. That's poise.

Back on Twitter

So after my Twitter post from a few weeks back, I signed back up and found that a LOT more of my friends have joined in the last four months, so I'm going to give to a go yet again. I'm on there as LeslieCaro right now (though I may change that--apparently choice of Twitter name is a big deal). Follow me and I'll follow you! I also would be grateful for anyone who is a Twitter pro and can offer me a cultural introduction to it...

I'm Finally on the Adam Lambert Bandwagon

I have been very slack about positing lately---packing, preparing for the move, and wrapping up things at work have been consuming me! I'll try to do better this week and the next.

Okay, so Idol. I hated Adam Lambert in the early weeks of this competition, especially after his creepy and screechy version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" that made me feel like I needed a shower or six. After he sang "Tracks of My Tears" two weeks back, I begrudingly gave him credit for a stellar performace, but wasn't yet sold. Last night, though, pushed me fully into his camp. "Mad World" is a great song and he absolutely killed it (in a good way...unlike the way Scott and Lil killed their songs) When you get the first and only standing ovation from Simon in the show's history...you're it. Damn. Well done.