Oops – 1st off – mea culpa, oh glorious TRex. Can’t believe I addressed you as Pach. Sorry, sorry. I had just come from Pachacutec’s immigration raids/camps posts.
Oon that topic; I haven’t seen this noted–on 12/13/06, Gwen Ifill asked ICE director Julie Myers about the splitting of parents from children. She claimed they gave all parents picked up the opportunity to pick up their children, or make arrangements for them:

JULIE MYERS: “Absolutely there were plans put into place to take into account the human factor, particularly the factor of those victims — the U.S. citizens who were victimized by the illegal aliens working at the plants.

In addition, we have a toll-free number that we put together so that individuals could call in if they’re worried about a family member.

We also asked each and every individual that we encountered whether or not they were the sole caregiver of a child. If so, if they told us they were the sole caregiver of a child, we made special accommodations for them so they could be released and care for that child.”

Nothing that I have read since supports that statement.

BTW, I used to do immigration law. With the draconian measures of the 1996 law, I gave it up.
The horrendously surreal detention camps/prisons have been around a few years (there’s a major one in York, PA, where some of my family live), but it’s just getting worse. People languish there virtually incommunicado for years, much like those “enemy combatants” in Guantanamo.
Sorry for the long post. My sense of helpless fury is deep right now.
(and it is deepened by the amazing sickness of the troll posts down below)

[Mod Note;it would be really helpful if you’d leave a copy of your thoughtful comments on that thread as well]

Good morning, what am I up to? Trying to make sense out of this mad world. Tejanarusa, thank you for the above post. I too used to do a bit of immigration work, but not much – couldn’t stand all the administrative crap – up until I retired.

I just found something I think is special and I want to share:

By definition, immigrants represent fluidity and change. In fact, they are a moving, human reflection of the great global processes unleashed by big capital, processes that are also altering—and in some ways devastating—our values. Even some progressives have joined the Minutemen and haters like those in Hazelton, Pa., the town that recently made renting apartments to undocumented residents illegal, in blaming immigrants for cheapening our sense of work, citizenship, community, nationhood and country. (I do read your angry letters that start with something like “I think there’s a place for LEGAL immigrants, but….”) Instead, progressives should keep one eye on these complex causes and effects—the real political reasons behind catastrophes like Katrina or Iraq—and the other eye on the immigrants like Juan who are part of the solution.

If we are to effectively take on the global and domestic—and interconnected—challenges of the digital age, none of us can afford to work separately in the silos of single-issue politics or of a computer-based politic that ignores one of the most important, most reliably militant and bold groups in our midst. Immigrant-rights activists need to understand you better. And you need to understand them better.

That said, here’s a thought: If you cross the river or desert to enter the country and are caught, you have committed an administrative offense. If this is your first time, you can request a “voluntary departure”. If you don’t get such and are in fact deported without a hearing, then, if you re-enter, you have comitted a criminal act. Guess which route the federals use most?

Or, like it is said, try thinking outside the box. In an effort to work legally (and only in this mad world is working considered to be illegal activity), Juan buys a phony SS card. A criminal act? Sure. He and others like him pay jillions into the SS fund – a fact which the Feds acknowledge – with no thought or hope of ever collecting benefits. He pays property taxes (generally through rents) and sales taxes. He is terrified of seeking social services because he fears he will be caught and deported, even when they are available.

One question: who is the real criminal? Juan, or the system?

I once represented an individual who had a legal green card. It took him 13 years to bring his wife and kids over, even with all the help his employer gave him. He and his family are now in Spain – he has high tech work qualifications – and he has not quite forgiven us. And he did it legally. And I don’t blame him for leaving.

May all of you enjoy the happiest of holidays, may you have a merry Christmas surrounded by friends and family, and may God richly bless you during the coming year.

Lift a glass and toast the detainees who fell victim to the vulture Chertoff, and remember the people of New Orleans also. In their faces and suffering we may well see outselves.

Rumi, just got back from making the coffee. Hope you like French roast…

Ahem, ah, Freedom Toast please. There’s still a war on terra going on.

-Chimpy’s Codpiece

Tidbits from Iraq and the “War of Terror”

…Thomas Ricks’ book, Fiasco, a devastating account of U.S. military operations during the first half of the war, and written based primarily on military sources, goes into some detail about how certain of the U.S. military commands in Iraq, particularly the Fourth Infantry Division under Ray Odierno, would routinely round up every Iraqi adult male in the area of a given operation, then holding them for months effectively incommunicado.

This kind of tactic, of course, as much as anything, led to the creation of a wide-scale insurgency. Once the counterinsurgency became well-established, it’s been an open secret that standard doctrine in large parts of the country, including Anbar province, calls for treating all military-age males as potential enemies. During the second assault on Fallujah, it was routine practice to turn back car-loads of people trying to flee the bombing if they contained even a single military-age male. …

traditional 12/26 breakfast faire @ chez cbl

substitute egg nog for the half & half

one year we flambe’d gran mariner over the finished product (use acetyline (sp?) torch if flambe makes ya nervous)

http://www.gingerbear.org/~esm…..ouffle.xml

U.S. generals advocate extra troops for Iraq
ADVICE REMOVES OBSTACLE TO EMERGING BUSH PLAN

…Top U.S. military commanders in Iraq have decided to recommend a “surge” of fresh U.S. combat forces, eliminating one of the last remaining hurdles to proposals being considered by President Bush for a troop increase, a defense official familiar with the plan said Friday.

The approval of a troop increase plan by top Iraq commanders, including Gen. George Casey Jr. and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, comes days before Bush unveils a new course for the troubled U.S. involvement in Iraq. Bush still must address concerns among some Pentagon officials and overcome opposition from Congress, where many Democrats favor a blue-ribbon commission’s recommendation for a gradual withdrawal of combat troops….

…Commanders have been skeptical of the value of increasing troops, and the decision represents a reversal for Casey, the highest ranking officer in Iraq. Casey and Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander in the Middle East who will step down in March, have long resisted adding more troops in Iraq, arguing that it could delay the development of Iraqi security forces and increase anger at the United States in the Arab world….

The Haditha killings are another controversy that amplifies the disconnect between American and Iraqi opinion of troop presence. Murder charges for the deaths of 24 civilians is viewed as probably another whitewash of unaccountability.

Mornin’ ya’ll. Mrs. Hardin Smith sleeping in this a.m.? Good for her.

btw, linked to Odierno around the time it was announced – b/c he is all over Fiasco by Ricks

The history of Lt. Gen. Odierno’s 4th Infantry Division in Iraq is characterized in the book “Fiasco” as one involving massive detentions of Iraqi civilians and widespread abuses of civilians, including killing. One reported result of the wholesale rounding up of civilians conducted by his division was the abuse at Abu Ghraib.

“What wasn’t widely understood at the time,” writes Thomas Ricks in “Fiasco”, “or now outside the military, is that the overcrowding at the prison, and some of the resulting lapses in supervision, resulted directly from tactical decisions by (Lt. Gen. Ricardo) Sanchez and his division commanders, most notably the 4th ID’s Gen. Odierno

oh, and did I mention Fallujah ? (didn’t see reference in LAT link) go ahead, google it

mornin’ egregioius and bunster

why am I up? haven’t I been complaining it’s far too dark to be up at this hour of the morning?

but I’ll take some of that coffee anyway, thanks