THIS WEEK begins our new schedule for the News With Nezua video series.

Wednesday mornings I will post the videos here and at The XOLAGRAFIK Theater and at YouTube (which will automatically feed the URLs to Twitter, Facebook, etc). At that point, the embed button will be visible and anyone is free to grab them and embed them (and my gratitude to all those who do!).

Sunday to Tuesday evening, however, NWN vids will be available exclusively at La Frontera Times. Like right now! So check it out. This week’s video is on the Fort Hood shootings and then thoughts that spin out from there. What does it mean to be a member of a multicultural nation that acts out violence and wars of Imperialism on other nations? What kind of conflict might this cause within? What does all of this say about the future of the United States of America?

I’m sorry I don’t have a transcript. If anyone wants to earn a few dolares writing up regular transcripts for the videos, contact me at nwn–AT–nezua–DOT–net.

THE POLITICAL WORLD IS A WHIRL OF CHAOS. And change. And resistance to currents of change. It smells like thunderstorm.

When I was a young teen living in upstate new york and surrounded by wilderness on my parent’s land (we were caretakers of the property, of many properties, always moving, never owning), I would walk through the fields of overgrown grass, parting the slender stalks, moving toward storms that rolled through the valley. Slowly and with quickened pulse, I’d wade forward into thickening electricity, despite any warnings dully rising in my mind (Never walk into the fields during a lightning storm!)

Feeling spectacularly small and alive under the churning violet, blackening sky-soup. Platinum and cast-iron etched moments…I can see and smell and hear them still: trees moaning and bending as the wind blows harder. Layers of sodden clouds leaking, and then fully unleashing distress onto our cornfields. Rain smacking down on my forehead…I’d squint but not turn back. Swollen streams bordered the cornfields, full with the water now. Glinting platinum corners flaring into the sky.

Moving toward this chaotic beauty, I felt I was walking to meet with God. Mother nature uncloaked and untamed for a dangerous and delightful moment: roused, angry, splitting sky and spitting throaty growls that shook the earth all about me.

These moments fraught with danger tore away my typical caul of youthful indifference—itself a guarded spiritual defense against the ennui and hostility and pettiness of the everyday society I found all around me. Nature is risen. Watching lightning spear and splinter the dusk. And neither of us is pretending tonight…let us shatter this pretense that settles around us like plaster-cast sunny-weather dream state.

These dangerous storms I was warned against felt like magic in the middle of the day. Yes, like a threat. But also like a New Cleansing opportunity. Like reality.

—

Erika said it a couple weeks ago. Talking about that chaos “when the classroom bells break.” And why did we love that as children? Because we weren’t excited by what was going on, breathing too much dust, sensing the futility and inanity in so many of our schooltime activities. The non-reality and ineffectiveness and irrelevance of so much of what was going on, and what we knew would go on from period to period to period from September until June. Parents tell themselves it is all so useful. And children know how to behave and do what they are told. Perhaps not to all, but to many of us the unspoken, not-needed to be spoken was that the years predicted of our schooling ahead was a sentence, a spell of years from which there would be no escape. And class room bells breaking were like little summer mornings dropped down like depth charges into the solidity of an oppressive schedule.

In terms of the political and volatile world today, I actually am excited by what’s happening. I’m not happy about the danger and the threat, of course—not happy about the harm that will directly come about, that is playing out. But I am happy to see the gross wrongs that so many have accepted as bedrock reality now being exposed and challenged in a large, or vocal way. We have the chance finally for some real conversations on higher, more visible layers of society than where they normally flourish.

There are a few things in place in the world (that will undoubtedly be with us as long as we have a world) that have angered me since I was young. But…beyond “angered.” Certain realities that play out in people and in relationships and in the world. When I began to see, as a young teen, that there was inequality and exploitation and greed and emptiness and mostly bullshit&hypocrisy ALL about me…it was very confusing. I didn’t understand why people wanted a world that way. It was Wrong. Why did it go on? Why did nobody care enough to stop these things? Why did I want to grow “up” and “into” this world where adults tried to tell me That This is Just The Way Things Are ????

Did you have a time like this? Where you told it was a phase of your adolescence? Was it? Is it?

I suppose one could look back now and say I was in an Existential Adolescent Phase. We label things and think we are done with them, though. I shrink back from that tendency, always have. I can call a gun a “feroxa” and it can still kill someone. I can call a “seed” a “protein sheath/husk protecting the genetic material within” but it can still grow when I shove it in soil. No matter what we label my thoughts at that time, in this language, in the framing of our culture—I was seeing something real. I was seeing injustice, and I was seeing the excusing of that injustice, and I was seeing hypocrisy. And it hurt my heart.

Honestly, I had given up on many things. Sometimes giving up on something (however you define this) is a very healthy thing.

But now…this BlackPrez dynamic has shifted things about. Obviously, Obama is in a very hard place. Simply for Presidenting While Black, his life is in danger. Imagine if he tried to be half as radical as his fearful opposers pretend? They’d have to recall half the troops just to guard him.

But aside from the systemic resistance to his changing anything, he is of course not very radical-minded. It’sjust not part of his (apparent) makeup. Obama is a huge cultural shift and it’s important and no way do I regret my vote. But I have to admit that while he physically represents a massive change, that does not mean he can enact lots of radical changes. Just what he has done is a lot. Even simply Presidenting While Black is shaking the foundations of this nation, and threats against him have risen like 400% and the USSS agents are being told to work longer, and that no more men are available to protect the POTUS from what I’ve read online. So in all reality, what more could he do? I mean, yes. He could do it anyway. He’d go down a hero. Instead of an icon used in the name of Imperialist war and a nation with massively institutionally entrenched racism. But that, too, is perhaps a bit harsh and cannot hope to contain all that he is, has done, and means to us. When the wind is whipping your eyes, it can be hard to make out the horizon.

This storm is unfolding as it will, and we are yet to see how it will end. The electricity feels threatening at times and it is. But here is a chance, now, finally to talk about the things we need to talk about. Which means the chance to make real change.

It is not just The Reality of Obama forcing these discussions. Such as the class divide always justified in this nation. Or the rich ruling class. The for-profit health racket. Racism. Wars of imperialism. The prison-industrial complex. It is all these things, and the feeling that they all approach to become an integrated part of the political dialogue. And this is due to so many things, just as a storm is a confluence of different temperatures and winds and factors which influence how hard or how long the rain falls. One part is the Reality of Obama, one part is how reporting and national dialogue is being taken back by the People, from institutions and unreliable liaisons and mouthpieces.

And it is the blatant non-representation we see that we have in these bought politicians. They continue to take money from all interests at their own danger, and at the peril of the nation’s wholeness. Because if the Left AND the Right feel you are bought and not representing the People…who is left to have your back? And vote for you? And believe in the system? Continue to take payola in place of doing your true work, and you bring on destruction of integrity, writ large. So as you go, so goes the nation. But these politicians are used to being able to get away with fakeness and hypocrisy and paid favors. Do they realize times have changed?

Now the conversations are no longer restricted to bitter rants on a street corner, or in huddles on the stairs of the college library or in loud, smoky parties or cloistered areas of the Nets, but on the main stage. And the proliferation of New Media does help in that it bridges these “small” conversations and the “big” ones in the MSM.

The major voices on the media will do its utmost to nurture and host those conversations honestly or doom us a possible step up in societal evolution. Yet I think there is no way around having them, and these conversations will separate the dying from the living, the lost from the struggling upward.

It makes me very interested in politics right now. Real conversations are coming to the fore, ones I’ve longed to have for over…25 years.

What will be left standing when the storm passes? Will the sun shine down upon our happy faces, or upon a quiet, razed countryside…peaceful, but empty?

I think this is up to us. But I wonder how many know we are making the decision every day….

The Shake-Job. I mean the Shake Weight.

The, um, Oozenator:

i found these here

[Alternate Title: Weekly Diaspora: Fort Hood, Pundits and Immigration Reform]

By Nezua, Media Consortium Blogger

First it was immigrants from Mexico, now Muslims in the armed services. After the tragic shootings at Fort Hood, conservative pundits are verbally attacking Muslims and Arab-Americans, much like they have vilified the immigrant community. The complexities of Islamic faith are being glossed over and “Muslim Terrorist” is stamped upon any act of violence involving their community. As a result, nuanced voices are buried in favor of suspicion and violence.

Dr. Riad Z Abdelkarim loves and serves this country, but is lumped in with alleged and actual enemies of the state due to his faith. In an article for The Progressive, Abdelkarim writes about his sense of anger and betrayal over the Fort Hood massacre. He is angry that the perpetrator of such harm is an American and as a doctor. He feels betrayed because the killer practices Islam, which is a beautiful and inspiring faith to Dr. Abdelkarim. “The Fort Hood murders are a huge setback” to the progress that Arab-Americans and American Muslims have made to clear the “guilt by association” that has affected their communities since 9/11, writes Abdelkarim.

The Real News Network also thoughtfully examines the aftermath of Fort Hood. Host Riz Khan gives background on shooter Nidal Malik Hasan and explores the effects of the Fort Hood shooting. Kahn asks “If a Muslim commits a serious crime in America, is that crime seen as that much more deadly?”

The violent culture that many U.S. citizens attribute to Islam and Arab-Americans criminalizes everyday people. For example, a bit of Arabic script led to a frenzied media reaction when Texas border guards found “ski jacket with three unusual patches” in Hebbronville, Texas in 2005. The patches were irresponsibly described as “terrorist garb” by “right wing media,” according to the Texas Observer. “One [patch] featured a lion’s head, a parachute and Arabic script, another an airplane flying toward a tower and the words ‘Midnight Mission.’ The third patch read ‘Daiwa.’”

It all made for a “fine story,” as Melissa Del Bosque writes. But the results were not so dramatic. “Daiwa” is an ad for a “popular fishing company,” the Arabic is the symbol of a “defunct air brigade in Syria” that was in fact “anti-Islamist,” and the jacket more than likely bought at one of the “pulgas” (flea markets) located closer to the border. It is fortunate that the voices trying to connect Al Qaeda and Mexicans were not successful.

In RaceWire, Debiyani Kar reports on the Obama administration’s latest announcements that immigration reform would come in 2010. Kar cuts to the heart of the issue, reminding us that “it is time to pause and make the connection again between (im)migration and globalization.” If our nation is truly interested in addressing the roots of the problem, rather than passing sweeping reform every decade, we have to address this issue. Meanwhile, Kar also reminds us that migrants “are not waiting for legal reforms to take control of their economic futures,” and wield their own economic power.

A liberal activist who goes by the handle of “Robert Erickson” subverted an anti-immigration rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, as the Minnesota Independent reports. Erickson called for sealing up the borders and sending “these people back where they came from” while the crowd of 50-60 people cheered along. Then Erickson revealed that he was actually calling for the removal of European immigrants, who are “responsible for the most violent and heinous crimes in the history of the world!” (Video here.)

The fallout from Lou Dobbs’ severance with CNN continues. Dobbs was an integral part of the CNN news team since 1980. Roberto Lovato, reporting for The Nation, called Dobb’s abrupt departure the “fast and fiery demise of a media titan.” Lovato discusses Dobbs’ career arc and departure from CNN. He also underlines the scope of the immigrant movement and “the centrality of spirituality to social change.”

These are reminders we need when engaging struggle! Spirituality, love and laughter keep us refreshed and strong for those times we must engage injustice or oppression. And we can’t show a dinosaur like Dobbs the door without commentary from two of the most celebrated pundits on the circuit today, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Both comedians’ segments on Dobbs are featured at Talking Points Memo in an article by Ben Craw.

For some more humor, let’s return to The Nation. Alana Levinson comments on Saturday Night Live’s rendition of Lou Dobbs’ last live speech, in which a parodied Dobbs said he wouldn’t rest until all people have the opportunity to sell fruit on the roadside, “not just the Latinos.” When compared to rants about disease and criminal Mexicans, comedic responses to Dobbs’ departure are a positive contribution.

———————————————————–

Also featured at Huffington Post, America’s Voice, FDL, Talking Points Memo, Open Salon, DailyKos, Sanctuary, Open Left, Rabble, RaceWire, In These Times Blog, NAM Ethnoblog

foto © Brett Stalbaum

ELECTRONIC CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE and BANG labs brings us the latest in Electronic Disturbance Theater and artpixel poetix in the shape of the new Transborder Immigrant Tool. While some US denizens concern themselves with fences, walls, and shrug off deaths in the desert as “their own fault” or some other loathesome croaking of inhumanity and ignorance, rebel artists and tech entrepreneurs are painting crystal cathedrals of resistance and poetry that illuminate the earthy corridors leading toward tomorrow. The Transborder Immigrant Tool is a demonstration of heart-hackery that uses simple tools to create an app that helps people wandering in the desert find the safest routes and thus, survival.

Associate Professor, tech genius and personal friend of Subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN, Ricardo Dominguez gives us the gritty:

We looked at the Motorola i455 cell phone, which is under $30, available even cheaper on eBay, and includes a free GPS applet. We were able to crack it and create a simple compasslike navigation system. We were also able to add other information, like where to find water left by the Border Angels, where to find Quaker help centers that will wrap your feet, how far you are from the highway—things to make the application really benefit individuals who are crossing the border.

How exactly does it do this, and why is that so important right now?

The primary goal of the Transborder Immigrant Tool is to increase safety during border crossing by directing heavy-footed immigrants to safe routes, shelter, food, water, and friendly sympathizers. With the recent surge in militia membership and the Obama administration’s announcement that they will be reducing the number of Border Patrol agents next year, it looks like we’re getting ready to witness a showdown for the ages.

And how did Dominguez arrive at this point?

In the 80s I was a member of something called the Critical Art Ensemble. We wrote a series of books published in the 90s that speculated on what the future, and computers especially, might bring. Our core speculations were that we would see the emergence of three different arcs of capitalism in the 90s: digital capitalism, genetic capitalism or clone capitalism, and particle capitalism or nano-driven technology. We decided we would speculate not only on the artistic aspect of these emerging capitalisms but also on how we could intervene as artist-activists into each of these areas. We developed the idea of electronic civil disobedience as a way to mediate the emergence of digital capitalism.

But do the Minuteman types know about this fierce and intelligent vato and his work?

One of the first things we did at BANG Lab was to interfere with the Minuteman Project in 2005. They were quite angry because not only were we committing public actions against them, but Calit2 and the UCSD system were also supporting it. They’re well aware of who we are and what we do. Once they get full knowledge of the Transborder Immigrant Tool—and we’re very transparent about it—I’m sure they’ll be quite critical. …  but again we’re not trying to hide. It’s a safety tool. It’s not trying to resolve the political anxieties of these communities or resolve the inadequacies of a fictional border for a so-called free-trade community. Again, our position is that it’s not a political resolution; it’s a safety tool.

From Narco News:

They work or hail from 24 countries across the five major continents. They investigate and write news reports, create documentary films and viral videos, and among them are up-and-coming pioneers of Internet journalism. Many of them do that through multiple forms of media. They hush the imposed silences from above and make the voices from below heard. They are aged 18 to 65, from diverse economic, social, political and demographic backgrounds. And each one’s experiences are compelling and unique.

…

Thankfully, none of these talents of conscience need me or anyone else to speak for them. They were chosen because they are already maestros at presenting themselves and the stories they report and care deeply about.

As you read a little about them here, please think about supporting them – as individuals and as a group – so that each can fully realize his and her scholarship and become even better, faster and more coherent than they already are at this work.
Everybody complains about the media, and for good reason. Here are the people who, together with the Narco News Team and our amazing roster of volunteer professors, are doing something about it.

Ladies and gentlemen: It is my distinct honor to present to you… The future.

Al Giordano
President School of Authentic Journalism

and en español:

Ellos y ellas trabajan o provienen de 24 países de América, África, Europa y Asia. Investigan y escriben reportes, crean documentales y videos viral, y entre todos son las promesas del periodismo en Internet. Muchos de ellos lo hacen a través de múltiples medios de comunicación. Desafían el silencio impuesto desde arriba y permiten que las voces de abajo sean escuchadas. Sus edades oscilan entre los 18 y 65 años de edad, y provienen de distintos orígenes económicos, sociales, políticos y demográficos. Y las experiencias de cada uno son absorbentes y únicas.

…

Afortunadamente, ninguno de estos talentos con conciencia me necesitan a mí o a ningún otro para hablar por ellos. Fueron escogidos porque ya son maestros al presentarse a sí mismos y a las historias que reportan y por las que se preocupan profundamente.

Al leer un poco acerca de ellos aquí, por favor considere en apoyarles—como individuos y como grupo—para que cada uno pueda cumplir plenamente su beca y pueda ser mejor, más rápido y más coherente de lo que ya son en su trabajo.

Todo el mundo se queja de los medios de comunicación, y por una buena razón. Aquí están las personas que, junto con el Equipo de Narco News y nuestra asombrosa lista de profesores voluntarios, están haciendo algo al respecto.

Damas y caballeros: Es para mí un claro honor el presentar a ustedes… El futuro.

Al Giordano
Presidente, Escuela de Periodismo Auténtico

Long time readers will, no doubt, understand much about my feelings on winning this without my having to speak too much of it. I guess I’ve competed for and won a few things here and there, been lucky enough to have a couple opportunities. This little trip and bit of education I’ll receive—direct and incidental—interests and excites me more than anything I can remember for a while.

One of the reminders of other lands and people to which I am related that I kept close to my heart when younger (aside from the food my abuela would prepare, and the language that some of my family used) were fotos of the Lacandón people (that my father took), and books he wrote after visiting the Southern reaches and jungles and indigenous peoples of México in his twenties. But that’s all so ethereal. This is air I need to breathe for a little while. Those are skies I need to be under. There is sand, soil, and stone I need to have under my feet. That said, I welcome wherever this path may lead and I don’t expect a lot aside from to see what México wants to show me for herself.

That’s the México part of it. That’s the history and identity and familia part of it. On the journalism angle, this is also wildly exciting. Narco News is one outlet I’ve long respected (and there isn’t a ton of them out there doing what they do) as they report news from México that feels real, and does not pass through the typical grimy lens that US MSM employs almost every time it reports on her. I am looking forward to being part of Narco News in even a minimal way. It is an honor and a challenge I hope to meet well.

You know, I got into this ‘New Media” movement incidentally. Never set out to do it, did not breeze in with some org or company or site looking to capitalize on NEW MEDIA or UNDERSTAND THE NEW TERRAIN OF JOURNALISM or any of that. It has all been extremely organic in my case. I just used the Internet to disseminate my art, once I saw the potential there in 1999 or so. Found LJ and then hopped off to a blog in 2003. And then did that for a while without a specific focus aside from my music. I had three blogs. One private, one political and public, one geared to my music.

And then in 2006 I focused. And that’s when I began writing The Unapologetic Mexican. Here I am now in the midst of this New Media movement, and honestly I also feel honored to find myself where I am. Able to take advantage of opportunities here, be part of this new essence of journalism, and I’ve reached the goal I had when I began: to push back on the racist messaging that was everywhere and to insert my own views on my people and people like me into the stream of media conversation. My purposes have grown since then, and are not entirely vested in my individual welfare or plight quite as much.

Today, I understand I have a responsibility to employ each and every power and privilege and talent and skill with every ounce of mobility and energy I possess in confronting, exposing, and righting the imbalances and injustices in our world. It sounds pretentious, I know. It probably is. Damn arrogant Mexicans. But something like this trip/curriculum makes me happy because as Al G said in his intro to the 31 winners, through the opportunity I can become even more efficient, coherent in my messaging, and more effective in my role. And that brings me a joy deep in my being, where that restlessness and agitation inflamed by the evils of our society and world lives.

It’s very possible I am simply humming like a tuning fork with the moment, as I am wont to do in my artist role. But I see this as a possible pivot point from where I can step up my goals, actions, and reach. Let’s see how it plays out. This trip threatens to be the most photographed and recorded and tweeted one ever, though. I know that!

Another thing I’m used to doing when I am fortunate enough to gain a scholarship or membership to some kind of selected group is looking around at the other winners to gauge what kind of crowd I’m in. And honestly, this is one crazy crowd of talent. I am also humbled to be part of the group…and it takes a lot to make me feel humble (again, as my readers already know . I will definitely be soaking up info and lore and craft from any one of these people I can. I can’t even imagine the levels of creative energy gonna be gathered in this one spot. Wow.

Finally, I’ll be posting the link to my individual scholarship fund now and then until February. I know we are all struggling out here, but if you are in the position to help fund my trip, I’d be grateful of course.

THIS IS HILARIOUS. The first clue that the anti-”amnesty” hate train has been derailed is his mention of Smallpox. And yet, even though liberal activist “Robert Erickson” goes on and on to detail why European immigrants, “responsible for Genocide” and countless other crimes and conflict brought upon “real Americans,” the racist, anti-immigrant crowd cheers him. Even at the end, when he has his fist in the air shouting for Columbus to “Go Home.” Too much.

From the YouTube page:

On November 14 “Robert Erickson” was introduced to the Minnesota Tea Party Against Amnesty as a Minneapolis resident concerned about illegal immigration. Sometimes the devil is in the details, as the supporters of the anti-immigrant Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform (MINN-SIR) slowly learn.

On the other hand, some of them never quite figured out that “Robert” wasn’t on their side.

It’s a great laugh, much needed.

I guess the not-so-funny part is how quickly and enthusiastically a group of humans who gather in the name of racist separatism and couching goals in violence-tinged imagery like bullets, homeland, borders, defend, invasion, etc—line up behind a cheer, a chant, anyone saying anything as long as they think they are marching in the name of their unholy hostility. This is how fascism and violent movements feed themselves, with minds like this.

As quickly becomes clear:

Unfortunately, some of the pro-MINN-SIR audience made up for what they lacked in humor through the use of violence. Both Danielson and I saw middle-aged men attack young protesters, knocking one off a bike before he started throwing punches at the young man.

Just as shocking was the reaction of the state police working the rally, who pushed back those being attacked, rather than those attacking the counter protesters.

YOU CAN catch the News With Nezua series here, in a dark room at the XOLAGRAFIK Theater, or at La Frontera Times ….

Remember to send feedback, info, thoughts, or links for the show to the News With Nezua Twitter account, @NewsWithNezua.

_______________________________________________

Transcript for News With Nezua Video “Goodbye to Lou” by Nezua

SPOKEN:
Hola Gente, and welcome to News With Nezua! (Translation from Spanish, “What’s up, people, and welcome to News With Nezua!”

[Flamenco/Latin style music. Rhythmic accordian, strings, shakers, handclaps, bass, catchy.]

SUNG:
“Guerrero!” (translation from Spanish: “Warrior!” or “Soldier” or “Fighter!”) “Ole!”

[Latin music fades into acoustic song, with voice: "Goodbye to Lou....Goodbye to Lou" to the tune of Patti Smythe's Goodbye to You and OVER TEXT: "GOODBYE TO LOU"]

SOUND OF Applause and Cheers, from an audience

SOUND OF Acoustic Song faint and fading

SOUND OF a WHOOOOSH, as Lower Third graphic zooms Screen Right

Lower Third Graphic: “nezua, theunapologeticmexican.org”

SPOKEN (in a somewhat low/soft tone):
And perhaps now it’s only proper to observe a moment of silence.

SOUND OF CHEERS and CLAPPING and HOOTS OF DELIGHT

SOUND OF 20TH Century Fox Production company music sting. Brass, snare drum rolls, cymbals, strings: very anticipatory and military and triumphant sound.

SPOKEN: (LOU DOBBS)
This will be my last broadcast here on CNN, where I have worked for most of the past 30 years and where I have many friends and colleagues whom I admire deeply and respect greatly.

SOUND OF CHEERING and APPLAUSE FROM AUDIENCE rises as Lou Dobbs speaks. COUGHING as the audience quiets down again.

SPOKEN: (LOU DOBBS)
Over the past six months, it’s become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country—

SOUND OF MUTED LAUGHTER from somewhere in audience

SPOKEN: (LOU DOBBS)
…and affecting all of us.

SOUND OF WIND RUSHING

SPOKEN: (LOU DOBBS)
…and some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN…

SOUND OF TRUMPET PLAYING SPARE MOURNFUL NOTES (from “TAPS”)

SPOKEN: (LOU DOBBS)
…and to engage in constructive problem-solving, as well as to contribute positively to a better understanding of the great issues of our day.

Movie screen begins showing luminescent holes as

SOUND OF flames licking and burning

BOUNCY BASS RIFF begins as scene FADES TO BLACK.

-END SKIT-

BOUNCY BASS RIFF lowers as Nezua speaks

SPOKEN: [NEZUA]
Lou Dobbs has finally come to his senses and left CNN. You do have to give Lou credit. Ah, acknowledging that he’s not part of the solution; that he’s saturating the airwaves with negativity.

He says his colleagues and many people have urged him to be part of the solution and not the problem, and begin contributing positively. And Lou understands, ah, that the best way to do that is to take his voice, to take himself off of CNN. And you can feel it! You can feel the positivity; it has increased in the world!

Feel it. [said quickly and with dramatic flair as Nezua looks to air and sky about him]

SOUND OF SCI-FI/DIVINE HUM

SPOKEN: [NEZUA]
See? So we have to thank Lou for that.

And of course now everybody’s speculating “What’s next for Lou Dobbs? Will it be politics? Will it be radio? Or will he return to his wildly successful Space.Com venture?”

-END STANDUP, BEGIN SKIT-

SOUND OF DRAMATIC DRUM pound and RISING ALIEN MECHANICAL WHIRRING TONE and PINGS as text on screen reads “BROKEN STRATOSPHERES” and “MOON WATER TAINTED BY TEQUILA???”. SOUND continues under entire segment

SPOKEN in COMICAL GARBLE-VOICE as if cross between Charlie Brown’s Teacher and FAKE LOU DOBBS: [NEZUA]
“Grblerrgrlbblowrerr-CRIMINAL-growblwgrrble-ILLEGAL ALIEN-rrrrrblegroable–MEXICAN-grrrblerowamrmarebwllel–ILLEGAL-grblegrrblrgrllrwor-LEPROSY”

-END SKIT-

SOUND OF RUSHING/ZOOMING as image of NEZUA comes together from many shattered pieces, ending with a muted bell’s echo fading out

SOUND OF NEWSROOM and PAPER BEING PULLED OUT OF TYPEWRITER as man in video background pulls paper from typewriter on desk

SPOKEN: [NEZUA]
You do sort of wonder what happened to Lou Dobbs, don’t you? The Lou Dobbs Reports used to be purely financial News. What happened to Lou? What set him off?

SOUND OF EERIE BELLS FAINTLY RINGING

SPOKEN: [NEZUA]
We don’t really have to wonder because Lou told Larry King when being interviewed what the pivot was for him, and he said it was September 11. It was September Eleventh, and then he talked about people having to compete with cheap labor. So…9/11 happened and before ya know it, Lou Dobbs finds himself obsessed with “furreners” sneaking across the border.

It’s not really an unfathomable reaction, and he wasnt the only one to have it. In fact, our immigration laws themselves went through this same change, this same reaction. They became extremely punitive, fearful, paranoid, and prison-oriented after 9/11.

Catch and Release became Detain and Deport; we got 287(g) which brought that intensity of the border guard situation and the borderlands to every city, and a general terrorizing of the Latino and the Immigrant communities is what happened. Yes, a terrorizing. People terrified, living with PTSD symptoms now…aware that any moment someone could stop them, could hassle them, split up their family, barge down their door….

And if you wonder when the SWAT style raids, and the focusing upon the immigrant community as a source of danger within started, that was under Jeb Bush, in Florida, after 9/11 and the Cuban immigrant community was the first ones to suffer this. And from there, that spread. Until now, when we almost take it for granted that the United States approach toward immigrants is aggressive, hostile, punitive…it wasn’t always that way.

September 11th spun everybody’s head. Some people are still spinning. I think Lou Dobbs is one of those people. This reaction after 9/11 to ‘root out the danger within.’ These people can’t question an entire body of facts because they can’t question the things that retain their power. Lou Dobbs, Rupert Murdoch, many members of the GOP…all these people that are freaking out about the BROWN PEOPLE; the Dangerous Brown People Slipping Through the Cracks; check ‘em on the plane, check ‘em on the border, check ‘em on the streets….they are incapable at looking at the actions of the United States of America as being part and parcel of why blowback comes to the nation.

So these people are off on this tirade, they’re off on this mission to root out the Dangerous Brown people. And when you view it like that, Lou Dobbs…he makes sense. His arc makes sense. He hasn’t stopped, he hasn’t slowed down, we definitely have to enjoy what has happened here, to an extent. But not to lose sight of the larger picture. Lou Dobbs is just another pawn in the game.

-BEGIN FINAL (MOVIE THEATER) SKIT-

SPOKEN: [NEZUA]
People on the Left…people who believe in human rights above profits, people who believe in The People, we are unifying more than ever.

SOUND OF HORN and LATIN MUSIC kicking up

SPOKEN: [NEZUA]
There’s really nothing to do but keep fighting, keep struggling, keep loving and of course, always: keep dancing

SOUND OF spare and polite clapping as MUSIC takes us out to final credits

SOUND of RUSHING OF AIR and IMPACTS as if ARROWS flying into wood

SPOKEN:
Xolagrafik

SOUND OF field or jungle insect and bird life. Whoops and Trills.

-end-

No, I understand. They are being tuff n blustery because it’s what they feel they need to in order to attain something “good.” (A frame that hints toward where they feel the power lies in our government or in a human soul, which is sad.) It’s just one of those really backward motions that makes me feel I’m living on a strange planet far away from reason and enlightenment. I think “One day, this will be seen by intelligent humans as stupid and cowardly half-measures. Sure wish I could live long enough to be in that world.”

The Obama administration will insist on measures to give legal status to an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants as it pushes early next year for legislation to overhaul the immigration system, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Friday. …

Laying out the administration’s bottom line, she said it will argue for a “three-legged stool” that includes enacting tougher enforcement laws against illegal immigrants and the people who hire them, and streamlining the system for legal immigration, but also what she called a “tough and fair pathway to earned legal status.” …

Congress should be ready to move forward on immigration, Ms. Napolitano said, because the administration had made a “fundamental change” in security at the border and in cracking down on employers hiring illegal immigrants. She said that the Border Patrol had increased its forces by more than 20,000 officers, and that more than 600 miles of border fence had been completed, both milestones set by Congress.

“Let me emphasize this,” she said. “We will never have fully effective law enforcement or national security as long as so many millions remain in the shadows.”

Under the administration’s plan, illegal immigrants would have to register, pay fines and all taxes they owe, pass a criminal background check and learn English.

Ms. Napolitano has been leading the administration’s efforts to gather support for the immigration overhaul, meeting in recent weeks with business leaders, faith groups, law-enforcement officials and other groups to gauge their support for the effort.

—White House to Begin Push on Immigration Overhaul in 2010

The Center for American Progress has the video of her speech, and offers this report:

Washington D.C. – Today, in her first speech on immigration reform, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano spoke in great detail about the security and enforcement measures that her agency has taken under her tenure to enforce current immigration laws, but she noted “the more work we do, the more it becomes clear that the laws themselves need to be reformed.”

Speaking at the Center for American Progress, the Secretary laid out her belief that her agency has done its part to secure the border, a major concern for Congress and the public during the last round of immigration debates in 2007, but that enforcement without comprehensive reform was falling short. “While it’s important to emphasize the need for immigration reform from an enforcement perspective, the need for reform stretches far beyond those reasons. We have to make sure the immigration system works to support American families, businesses and workers,” said the Secretary.

DHS is also ready to implement reform according to the Secretary who noted “We’ve ended a year-long backlog for background checks on applicants for green cards and naturalization. We’ve expanded the opportunity for a widow to gain legal status here, despite the untimely death of her U.S. citizen spouse. We’ve launched a new interactive website that allows people to receive information about the status of their immigration cases by email or text message, and we have reduced the time it takes to process those cases.”

The Secretary concluded “at the end of the day, when it comes to immigration, people need to be able to trust the system. Americans need to know that their government is committed to enforcing the law and securing the border – and that it takes this responsibility seriously. Law enforcement needs to have better legal tools and the necessary resources to deal with border-related and immigration-related crime. Businesses must be able find the workers they need here in America, rather than having to move overseas. Immigrants need to be able to plan their lives – they need to know that once we reform the laws, we’re going to have a system that works, and that the contours of our immigration laws will last. And they need to know that they will have as many responsibilities as they do rights…This Administration does not shy away from taking on the big challenges of the 21st century, challenges that have been ignored too long and hurt our families and businesses.”

1. “tougher enforcement laws against illegal immigrants and the people who hire them”

Well, this is nonsense. Firstly, those who are simply here on an expired Visa or who have got caught up in the many cracks in this system? Why do we need “tougher enforcement laws” for them??? And for the stereotypical Latina/o worker trying to get by in life by spending long days in factories, assembly lines, or the like? We’ve seen raid after raid—be they loud and accompanied by handcuffs and shamefaced and crying parents, workers, and children OR the silent raids/probes where ICE leans on companies like ABM or American Apparel and thousands of workers are dropped from the payroll. We’ve also seen that employers do not get punished. So here, this is bluster for the unreasonable and hostile.

2. a “tough and fair pathway to earned legal status.”

Call me naive, but I’ve a simple question. Why does it have to be “tough”? Why does “fair” not suffice? Fair means fair to all. This is the nature of the word fair, after all! Isn’t Fairness (we might also call it Justice) For All, good enough? Again, this is tuffguy bravado for those who desire more than anything else, to see the Brown™ suffer (because let’s be real: the collective image pool we all draw from when we talk about the undocumented is Mexicans and those from Latin America). We can’t be thinking these people who due to bureaucratic sloppiness can be whisked away from their life with no redress; or who live in fear half the time; or who get kicked to death/stabbed/shot in the street sometimes and for simply being perceived as Latino; or who get barged in on and shot by Minutemen sometimes in their own home; or who in some cases give up their family and homeland and risk death in the desert, rape and persecution in a strange country have it EASY, for crying out loud. We NEEED to see them suffer a little. Right? I know I’m closely parsing words, but I’m dead serious. Why isn’t “a fair pathway” enough?

3. the administration had made a “fundamental change” in security at the border and in cracking down on employers hiring illegal immigrants.

Again, bullshit. The only ones I read about getting punished (and I read a fair deal on this topic) are the workers.

4. more than 600 miles of border fence had been completed

You make of us a national laughingstock. Fences? Walls??? Today? In the US???

Fences do nada. People either climb them, put ramps over them, or cross in a new location. You are proud of this? Border fence that drives people into more dangerous areas and stacks up more corpses? This is an accomplishment, a selling point?

You suck.

5. “We will never have fully effective law enforcement or national security as long as so many millions remain in the shadows.”

I agree. Millions of dollars are living in the shadows. Moguls who move them live in the shadows. Companies advertise in Spanish on Mexican radio for workers, and they don’t get punished. NAFTA treaties are broken by the US Government and those violations of trust and treaty abide in the shadows. The TRUE economic problem that causes so many workers to seek a fairer economy en el Norte is hidden from everyone’s sight and we all pretend that we simply need more force, more weaponry, more fences, more troops and finally one day we will level things out.

FOOLS.

You are chasing symptomology and you want applause. You are sponging up blood but leaving the nail in your head, hallucinating that if you just wrap enough gauze around that nail, your health will return and tomorrow you will be happy.

Until we address the imperialist/hegemonic issue at the root of this—that the US feels it has the right to abuse Latin America, extort Latin America, collude with the Latin American ruling class to exploit the PEOPLE—you will NEVER stop migration to the US. Life just does not work that way. Mexicans—just like people who live in New Jersey and know if they can land a job in Manhattan, they can pay their bills without working two jobs or getting an ulcer from overtime—will never un-know that the balance is unfair. And that they can have a decent life if they can just move their body a little North.

My own bisabuela labored in the kitchens and swabbing floors of the rich and couldn’t even keep her kids with her because she didn’t make enough money. People fighting against fair immigration policy probably don’t have to make these kinds of sacrifices. They probably have jobs that pay them pretty well. If so, let me tell you: it’s not because you are more worthy than my bisabuela. It’s because you benefit from an imbalanced system that exploits Latin America (among other peoples). And you wanna keep that stolen pie allll to yourself.

I’m gonna warn you. It looks delish…but it tastes like blood.

6. Under the administration’s plan, illegal immigrants would have to register, pay fines and all taxes they owe, pass a criminal background check and learn English.

English fetish. USAmericans want to go to other nations and expect them to speak English. And then they want everyone to come here and speak English. Have you lived in Califas? Have you lived in Miami? Have you lived in Arizona? Do you know how little English is spoken in huge areas of these states? Do you know how long Spanish has been spoken in these (and many other) places in the US? If a citizen wants to move to Florida, should they be required to learn Spanish? I think so. Spanish has been there longer than English. The Treaty of Hidalgo Guadalupe was meant to insure this type of lingual hegemony would not happen, and there were provisions made that all documents be available in the previously-Mexican territory (much of our current Southwest) in both languages.

But whatever, okay. Have your English fetish. But I also want to see a provision that all the workers who have had their taxes taken over the years from employers, but who never get to file a tax return to recomp those, also get all taxes they are owed.

Isn’t that fair? Isn’t that just?

7. While it’s important to emphasize the need for immigration reform from an enforcement perspective, the need for reform stretches far beyond those reasons. We have to make sure the immigration system works to support American families, businesses and workers”

Yes, true. It is important to see the need for immigration reform beyond those reasons: We have to make sure we are not using Mexico and other countries south of the border as our kitchen help. Making them take the train back to the projects when they are done busing our “table.” And we have to make sure that we are not using unfair means to put other neighboring “restaurants” out of business so we can be The Grand Glorious Flag waving Mighty Huge Rich Solitary Shining Restaurant on a Hill. Because if we do, their workers shoved out of neighboring “restaurants” will need a job and simply come to us. And putting up a moat and fences around the hill so we can KEEP our income high without seeing the gradually worsening slums and broken bodies stacking at the foot of that hill is not fair. Or just.

8. “at the end of the day … Americans need to know that their government is committed to enforcing the law and securing the border – and that it takes this responsibility seriously.

Who are these Americans? You mean the GOP? You mean the hate groups intermingled with White Nationalist nazis and White Supremacists and Tanton-Tainted orgs calling themselves immigration restrictionists? I don’t run into a ton of people who walk around all day concerned that the nation is not “securing” the border. And of the ones who do, many have grown into this notion due to the permeation in our culture of racist, hateful, separatist messaging espoused by people like Lou Dobbs, William “Loonytunes” Gheen, and Rush Limbaugh types.

Why don’t you try this:

“At the end of the day (hey, why not ‘at the dawn of the day’ actually?), Americans need to know that their government isn’t a bunch of overgrown kids playing cowboys and indians or waving around weapons as if that can cure international economic imbalance or exploitation. At the end of the day, Americans need to know that their government has a broad view on the world, and that we are far too moral and just to take advantage of other peoples’ pain or economic hardship. At the end of the day, Americans don’t think fences and jails are the answers to everything that troubles our society. At the end of the day, Americans live in 2009; not in 1909.”

I won’t charge you for that. Just take it and use it.

9. “Law enforcement needs to have better legal tools and the necessary resources to deal with border-related and immigration-related crime.”

Nooo…. Law enforcement needs to clean up its act. Detention center rape, abuse, and outright racism on the parts of the guards needs to move into the modern day, and all those who abuse power in such manners must be punished. Border guards who exploit Latinos, throw away their papers, or beat them need to be thrown in prison. Americans, at the end of the day, believe that the tyranny of the strong is amoral. Americans, at the end of the day, want to trust their legal systems, and DHS has been a part of eroding that trust and I’m sorry.

10. “Businesses must be able find the workers they need here in America, rather than having to move overseas.”

They won’t do it. You know they won’t do it. The reason they do this is to HIRE CHEAP LABOR. And if you legalize the undocumented, why would they be more attractive? They would not. These companies (whom you promise to punish but never do) don’t want FOREIGNERS to work for them! They want people who are NOT PROTECTED by law!!!! So they can continue their vampiric methods! Again, as long as you pretend that you don’t see what’s really going on—and it’s all about extortion and gangster capitalism—you will continue trying to “fix” this problem.

“Immigrants need to be able to plan their lives – they need to know that once we reform the laws, we’re going to have a system that works, and that the contours of our immigration laws will last.”

Wow. Finally we get to the human beings trying to live their damn lives. Nice mild bone you’ve thrown here at the end.

PS: The contours won’t last. Conservatives think so; they cling to sameness, even as it fades to dust. But progressives and radicals understand that life is not bound by lines in the sand. La cultura cambiando and life is at its heart, change. Seasons spin by, rivers eat away the earth, wind wears down rock, hair grays, shapes change.

And mostly, because Paper might beat Rock, but Gauze will never cure Nail.