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Mexican official: Fast and Furious 'poisoned' public opinion of USBy Jordy Yager - 05/31/12 05:36 PM ET The Mexican ambassador to the United States on Thursday said a botched gun-tracking operation by America “poisoned” public opinion of the United States for the citizens of its southern neighbor. Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan told a room of reporters on Capitol Hill that the failed Operation Fast and Furious, which has been the focus of a Republican investigation in the House for more than a year, “put a lot of strain” on U.S.-Mexico relations. “Fast and Furious has poisoned the well-spring of public opinion...

The head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has called on Arab forces to confront Israel and for the international community to pressure the “Zionist government to withdraw from the land of Palestine.” The statement – the existence of which was revealed Wednesday by the Investigative Project on Terrorism blog – reminds Brotherhood followers of the movement’s decades-long “sacrifices” in efforts to destroy the Jewish state. “On this day, like every year, the Arab and Islamic nations remember the worst catastrophe ever to befall the peoples of the world,” Badie wrote in the text, translated by The Jerusalem Post. “We demand the

From my email today: Dear MoveOn member, With November fast approaching, we need to make some hard decisions about which campaigns we can afford to take on, and which ones we'll have to sit out. There are so many important races this year. Of course there's the presidential election. But the U.S. Senate is up for grabs, too. There's the Scott Walker recall in Wisconsin. If we can elect Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, that will be huge. It's like picking which of your kids you love the most. I just can't do it. But I'll be honest—if we can't increase...

Wasteful, senseless and cruel. How better to describe the ridiculous battle that Felipe Montes is waging to be reunited with his three U.S.-born children? Since his deportation, they've been ensnared by the foster care system and are at risk of being put up for adoption. Montes, who had lived in the U.S. illegally for almost 10 years, was sent back to Mexico in 2010 after having been sentenced to probation following an arrest for driving with an expired license, an expired registration and no automobile insurance. He was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at one of his...

(snip) Eliberto’s two sons are US-born. He and his wife are undocumented immigrants and because they cannot have a Social Security Number (SSN), they use an ITIN instead to file their yearly tax return. “The money [Child Tax Credit] is the only one we qualify for, and we end up using almost entirely on the children,” stated Eliberto, who did not provide a last name to protect his family. The Van Nuys resident earns approximately $20,000 a year through full time employment and says that every two weeks approximately $154 disappear from his already small paycheck to pay federal and...

Ana shudders at what could have happened. She has heard about people who walk and die in the desert, who freeze in the mountains and who drown in canals. She knows that some suffocate in semitrailers or boxcars, where they are crammed so tightly they cannot turn. She knows that others are beaten and raped by smugglers, who leave them to die. Every year, migrants risk their lives to illegally cross the 2,100-mile border that separates Mexico and the United States, two neighboring nations that have one of the largest income gaps on Earth. "I was lucky," said Ana, who...

Newt Gingrich, plunging in the polls, dropped this bomb Wednesday: he would consider asking Sarah Palin to serve as his number two or in his Cabinet if he became president. "She is certainly one of the people you would look at," Gingrich said Wednesday, according to Right Wing Watch, when asked if he would consider tapping the 2008 vice presidential nominee for a second try. "I am a great admirer of hers and she was a remarkable reform governor of Alaska, she's somebody who I think brings a great deal to the possibility of helping in government and that would...

A French court has given former President Jacques Chirac a two-year suspended prison sentence for diverting public funds and abusing public trust. Mr Chirac, 79, was not in court to hear the verdict because of ill-health but denied wrongdoing. President from 1995 to 2007, he was put on trial on charges that dated back to his time as mayor of Paris. He was accused of paying members of his Rally for the Republic (RPR) party for municipal jobs that did not exist. The prosecution had urged the judge to acquit Mr Chirac and nine others accused in the trial. Two...

By all accounts, Jaime Villicana-Campos is a wonderful husband and a beloved father to his children. He held two physically demanding jobs and worked seven days a week to support his large family. He somehow still made time to spend with his little girls, especially 6-year-old Angelica who suffers from epilepsy. She is particularly close to her doting father and is known in the family as “Daddy’s girl.” But because of the nation’s sometimes vexing immigration laws, Villicana-Campos is sitting in a Tacoma federal detention facility. He was nabbed by immigration officials in June, a month before his fifth daughter...

KKKolumbus no hero: He's a murderer who caused the genocide of the Indigenous people! “It has been said of the Spanish Conquistadors, that first they fell on their knees, and then they fell on the aborigines.” Eric Williams - Columbus to Castro. Annually, on the 2nd Monday of each October, most of the United Snakes of Amerikkka celebrate the anniversary of when Cristoforo Colombo discovered that the planet wasn't as flat as all of Europe then thought.  At the same time, many so-called Indians across the U.S. publicly protest the holiday, demanding that it be renamed ‘Indigenous American Day'.

Sarah Palin is a very special American, she appeared to be our next Ronald Reagan, but with her deicsion not to run, what should we do? Sarah Palin was my hope for America! And while her future was uncertain I was unwilling to listen to the babble of Republican Primary. I was set on Sarah. For me, she was the answer, and I honestly believed I would be able to cast a ballot, whether it be Republican or Independent for Sarah. Sarah seemed to have that rugged American personality which had not been corrupted by special interests and assimilated into...

Having tied the knot in a white wedding, a lesbian couple thought the icing on the cake would be a traditional honeymoon along with other young couples. But the trip turned out to be a nightmare after staff at their resort treated them as if it was not a "real honeymoon" and excluded them from special romantic meals and dances. Gemma Harman, 24, and Tamsin Harper, 36, said it was the "worst two weeks" of their lives and the "homophobic manner" in which they were treated was "disgusting". The couple, from Brighouse, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, decided to go on...

Bob Russell EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (CBS 2) – He says he can’t take it anymore.A gay choir director at a Catholic Church in New Jersey has quit his job because he says the priest is making his work environment hostile.But does he have a case?St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in East Rutherford is where Bob Russell has been the choir director for decades. On Thursday, however, the 55-year-old was taking boxes into the parish to pack up his belongings.“Felt that I was put into a position that I had to resign my job because of my sexuality,� Russell told CBS...

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will today ask the FBI to investigate as a possible hate crime an incident in Louisiana in which a mosque was vandalized with pork. [Muslims are prohibited from consuming pork products and bigots often use pigs or pork to offend Muslim sensibilities.]

(Reuters) - A senior Pakistani security official said U.S. troops killed Osama bin Laden in "cold blood", fuelling a global controversy and straining a vital relationship Washington was trying to repair on Thursday. And Pakistan's army, in its first comment since Monday's raid, threatened to halt cooperation with its military sponsor if it repeated what it called a violation of sovereignty. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was still anxious to maintain its alliance with Islamabad. "It is not always an easy relationship. You know that," she said. "But, on the other hand, it is a productive one...

A Clear Creek ISD teacher has been placed on administrative leave after being accused of making insensitive comments to a Muslim student about the death of Osama bin Laden. The Clear Brook High School teacher is accused of profiling a student in his ninth-grade algebra class Monday by telling the girl, "I bet that you're grieving." ...Aziz Siddiqi, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, said he believes the remark was an isolated incident, but is encouraged by reports that other students helped comfort the girl and reported the incident. "Her supporters were her classmates. To them, she's a...

A transgender woman beaten at a Baltimore County McDonald's spoke out on Saturday, saying that the attack was "definitely a hate crime" and that she's been afraid to go out in public ever since. "They said, 'That's a dude, that's a dude and she's in the female bathroom,' " said Chrissy Lee Polis, 22, who said she stopped at the Rosedale restaurant to use the restroom. "They spit in my face." A worker at the restaurant taped Monday's attack and created a graphic video that went viral last week. After the video garnered hundreds of thousands of views on websites,...

The store fronts testify to an integral and economic piece of the Tulsa puzzle, but legal or not, many local Hispanics are feeling harassed by Oklahoma legislators. "It's a harassment, and I think they're being racist," said Irma Ramirez, who was in this country for 20 years before getting her citizenship. Do you have undocumented friends and are they worried? "Oh yeah, of course, I do have, and they're very worried, they're even afraid to go out, even to go shopping because they're afraid of being deported," she said. The legislative session began this year with some 30 bills aimed...

Olga Zanella , 20, grew up in Irving, attending school in Irving ISD as a child. But she hid a secret--she is an illegal immigrant from Mexico. According to WFAA, she found out she was in the country illegally during her junior year of high school, after attending a college financial aid workshop. She now faces deportation Monday because her status was discovered by Irving police during a traffic stop. Her story reflects the story of many children who are now growing up in the city, and could face similar fates. "I feel fear," she told WFAA. "It's going to...

SANTA CRUZ Xochitlquetzal hates the words "illegal" and "alien," especially when they're side by side. "It's dehumanizing this idea that a person can be illegal,' and by calling someone an alien you label them as an other,' as not human," the UC Santa Cruz student said. The community studies major has a remarkable memory and tells vivid stories from childhood, many of which come back to an endless struggle for acceptance. Xochitlquetzal carries a serious demeanor, with broad shoulders that seem to support an unseen weight. None of this is surprising when Xochitlquetzal stares with large, dark, emotive eyes and...

HONOLULU (AP) -- President Barack Obama ended his nearly two-week Hawaiian vacation on a somber note Monday, taking his daughters to visit his grandfather's grave. The president's motorcade wound through the island of Oahu's mountainous terrain late Monday afternoon on its way to National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

Alleged WikiLeaks source suffers out of spotlightThe Irish Times - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 Concern is growing over the harsh conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention as he awaits his court martial, writes LARA MARLOWE, Washington Correspondent WHILE JULIAN Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, celebrated his release on bail last week with cocktails before being driven to “mansion arrest” at a 650-acre estate in Sussex, Private First Class Bradley Manning was mouldering away in solitary confinement in the brig at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia, deprived of exercise, news or even a sheet or pillow. Assange (39) is preparing...

HOUSTON—At midnight on the first of the month, a scene unfolds at many Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sites that underscores the deep financial strains that many low-income American consumers still face. Parking lots come to life after 11 p.m. as customers start to stream into the stores, cramming their shopping carts full of milk, infant formula and other necessities. Then at midnight, when the government replenishes their electronic-benefit accounts with their monthly allotments of food stamps, nutritional grants for mothers with babies or other aid for needy families, they head for the registers. "We're not starving or anything, but we come...

“I think people underestimate how disastrous this could be,” says a Democrat Congressional staffer who worries over losing his job once all the new Republicans sweep into Congress after the November elections. Politico's Erika Lovley seems also to worry about the "massive layoffs" that will come to staffers in November. But to me this is one type of job loss to celebrate not cry over. Lovley gravely warns that if Republicans win big in the elections, "it’s not just elected Democrats who will be unemployed — more than 1,500 Democratic staffers could lose their jobs, with layoffs stretching from low-wage...

WILMINGTON, Del. — On the eve of the primary that would end his electoral career, Rep. Mike Castle was in a reflective mood. He seemed calm and confident, yet almost everything he said sounded valedictory as he offered a prescient analysis that explained in advance a defeat that echoes through the nation. A genial and courtly man in the manner of the elder President Bush (who held a fundraiser for him in Kennebunkport), the nine-term congressman was mourning the decline of both the conciliatory style of politics that animated his career and the moderate Republican disposition that the Tea Party...

SALT LAKE CITY - A list containing the names and personal information of 1,300 purported illegal immigrants has been mailed around Utah, terrifying the state's Hispanic community. Gov. Gary Herbert wrote in a tweet Tuesday that he has asked state agencies to investigate the list—sent anonymously to several media outlets and law enforcement agencies. A letter accompanying the list demands that those on it be deported immediately. Local advocates are decrying the list, saying whoever sent it is attempting to terrorize Utah's Hispanic community. Most of the names on the list are of Hispanic origin.

On this 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing when we all should be remembering that hatred has no place in a civilized society, we are confronted with the reality that hatred exists to an even greater degree than 15 years ago, takes all forms and in several instances has resorted to once again, in our country's history, to masquerade as law. The entire nation is waiting to see what happens in Arizona in the next five days. That's how long the governor has to decide what to do with Senate Bill 1070. It's a bill that would make it...

AUSTIN — Hispanic candidates ran strongly in many Republican primary races across Texas this week, but two candidates are blaming their losses to Anglos on racially polarized voting. Election returns and political consultants, however, say the losses of Railroad Commissioner Victor Carrillo and Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Leo Vasquez probably had more to do with personal issues and poorly run campaigns than ethnicity. Carrillo's father and half brother died last year, and Carrillo underwent surgery for a benign brain tumor, all cutting into the time Carrillo spent campaigning for re-election. Vasquez lost social conservative support, Harris County Republicans said, because...

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ATLANTA — After a largely sleepless night, Cruz Constancia got up Tuesday morning wondering whether this would be the day that she finally stopped receiving dialysis without charge. It was not. When Ms. Constancia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, arrived at her dialysis clinic at 6 a.m., she was escorted promptly to her recliner. “I thanked God,” she said after concluding the three-hour session, “because he is really the only one that can allow us to continue our treatments.”

These days, 24-year-old Delonta Spriggs spends much of his time cooped up in his mother's one-bedroom apartment in Southwest Washington, the TV blaring soap operas hour after hour, trying to stay out of the streets and out of trouble, held captive by the economy. As a young black man, Spriggs belongs to a group that has been hit much harder than any other by unemployment. Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. And last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported...

Since the economy has taken a dive, some very big celebrities are realizing their lavish estates just aren't worth as much as they used to be. In fact, now might be the best time in history to buy the extravagant former home of one of your favorite stars. Here are some of the celebrity palaces that have recently been put on the real estate clearance rack: * Eddie Murphy's 32-room manor in Englewood, New Jersey, which he calls Bubble Hill, has been on the market for $30 million for five years without a sale, so last month Murphy slashed the...

In First Lady’s Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery RACHEL L. SWARNS and JODI KANTOR October 7, 2009 WASHINGTON — In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475. In his will, she is described simply as the “negro girl Melvinia.” After his death, she was torn away from the people and places she knew and shipped to Georgia. While she was still a...

There is the dread of leaving the house that morning. People might stare, or worse, yell insults. Prayers are more intense, visits with family longer. Mosques become a refuge. Eight years after 9/11, many U.S. Muslims still struggle through the anniversary of the attacks. Yes, the sting has lessened. For the younger generation of Muslims, the tragedy can even seem like a distant memory. "Time marches on," said Souha Azmeh Al-Samkari, a 22-year-old student at the University of Dayton in Ohio. Yet, many American Muslims say Sept. 11 will never be routine, no matter how many anniversaries have passed.

Posters depicting President Barack Obama in makeup similar to the Joker from the most recent Batman movie have popped up across Lake County. A U.S. Post Office in downtown Clermont had a couple of the posters glued to a collection box. Clermont Postmaster Willie Montgomery said today that the posters were discovered yesterday. Customers complained about the pasted images, he said. "Everybody that saw those posters found them to be very offensive," Montgomery said. "These are personal attacks on the president. We don't have to necessarily agree with the way they're running the country, but we have to respect the...

WASHINGTON --A group of minority broadcasters asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday for financial assistance akin to the aid that has been extended to the financial and auto industries. "Minority-owned broadcasters are close to becoming an extinct species," the letter said. "Even in better economic times, minority broadcasters have historically had difficulties accessing the capital markets." The broadcasters told Mr. Geithner they can bounce back if they are given some temporary assistance while the credit markets are slow. "Unlike the auto business, broadcasting has been healthy for many years," their letter said. The broadcasters appeal follows a proposal sent in...

There is outrage over the state budget crisis. Thousands vented their pain and anger at a rally downtown Thursday. Chanting people first not politics, they supported a state income tax hike instead of doomsday cuts. Vital services for kids, seniors, the disabled and the homeless are about to be cut in half. Their backers want to send a message to lawmakers in Springfield. "Work it out or there's a mood now developing in the state where you won't be there in the next election," said Chuck Nilles, Community Support Services. "Change is now." That's the big picture, but the impact...

The song title "Cry Me A River" brings Justin Timberlake to mind for Generation Y. But that is likely to change thanks to Susan Boyle, the Scottish singing sensation whose Britain's Got Talent appearance wooed millions of broadcast and online viewers. Boyle's moving rendition of "Cry Me A River" was uploaded to YouTube Thursday night, sparking further interest and frenzy over the extremely talented singer. Boyle's "Cry Me A River" is a remake of the blues standard, not Timberlake's pop ballad. Boyle's track went virtually unnoticed when it was independently released 10 years ago on a charity CD reported Times...

PLAINFIELD, N.J. –- Dozens of unemployed Central American immigrants who lost their jobs and can't afford to pay rent have moved into caves, reports El Diario/La Prensa. Immigrants have been living in the makeshift homes in Plainfield and North Plainfeld, N.J. for three months, and call their new residence the “Devil’s Cave.” Their decision to move into caves is a testament to the harsh climate of the current economic crisis, which has had a greater impact on the undocumented who have more difficulty accessing government aid after losing their jobs.

A Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo Bay says the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Washington Post reported. "We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," Susan J. Crawford told the Post. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution. Crawford is the first senior Bush administration official who investigates Guantanamo dealings to publicly say a detainee was tortured.

BREAKING — About two years ago, Mexico native Carlos Perez left his job at a factory in Dayton, Tenn., to start Perez Produce, a distributing company for local Hispanic restaurants and stores. Now, Mr. Perez said he regrets leaving a stable job at the La-Z-Boy factory because the produce business is not going well and he is on the verge of closing. “When I first started with the business two years ago it was going well, but starting about three months ago it started going down, down,” he said in Spanish. “If the situation continues to get worse, I think...

According to the latest (9/28) Rasmussen Poll, Barack Hussein Obama now enjoys a 57% approval rating among American voters. What does this mean? It means that those Friday night debates didn't change a thing. It means that no matter how poorly Barack Obama acquitted himself that night it makes no difference. That revealing "America is the greatest nation in the world, BUT..." statement doesn't matter. That embarrassing soldier's bracelet gaff doesn't matter. His recently exposed contemptuous betrayal of our courageous military in Iraq by his behind-the-scenes attempts to manipulate our troop withdrawals for his own selfish political agenda doesn't matter....

<p>TIJUANA, Mexico – The towering black gate opens silently to an alley with walls of corrugated metal. Scrawled in large white letters on one wall is: "The End."</p> <p>For those deported from the United States, the words are an unnecessary reminder. Nearly every hour of the day, guards unlock this gate that leads back into Mexico, clicking open the padlocks hung on each side, in each nation.</p>

Excerpt - A teenage Omar Khadr sobs uncontrollably as Canadian spy agents question him at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a brief video excerpt released via the internet early Tuesday morning. The 10-minute video posted just after 5 a.m. ET is of poor quality and the voices are often inaudible, as it was never intended to be viewed by the public. But it shows Khadr, 16 at the time, being interviewed by Canadian officials in late February 2003. ~ snip ~

"Anyone who has doubts that this country is abusing and terrorizing undocumented immigrant workers should read an essay by Erik Camayd-Freixas, a professor and Spanish-language court interpreter who witnessed the aftermath of a huge immigration workplace raid at a meatpacking plant in Iowa." "The essay chillingly describes what Dr. Camayd-Freixas saw and heard as he translated for some of the nearly 400 undocumented workers who were seized by federal agents at the Agriprocessors kosher plant in Postville in May. Under the old way of doing things, the workers, nearly all Guatemalans, would have been simply and swiftly deported. But in...

The director of the FBI is not happy with the Supreme Court's recent handgun ruling. Robert Mueller says he tends to believe that "weapons harm people, and more often than not they harm the people carrying them." Mueller said the high court's decision, which threw out a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., "does throw a lot of things up in the air." Mueller said communities will now have to decide their own licensing programs. Mueller was speaking at a convention of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators in Hartford, Connecticut. He says with his grandchildren going to college,...

"Francelia Menchaca drove with her family from Phoenix to the Tijuana border to see her mother at the fence on Saturday." You can walk to the U.S. border, Francelia Menchaca's immigration lawyer advised her, but don't put your fingers through its fence. It may hinder her immigration paperwork, the lawyer said.But when, after a year apart, Menchaca's mother arrived in her flowered straw hat to the border in Tijuana on Saturday and put her small, wrinkled hands up to the cast-iron gate, Menchaca reached out and touched them. "Were you anxious to touch my hand?" Menchaca asked in Spanish. Tears...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Baby boomers say they are worried about achieving a comfortable retirement, but a new study suggests Generation X is even more pessimistic.

It used to be a high point of Goldy Anthony's life. Every six weeks or so, as a kind of personal morale booster, she and a group of girlfriends would make appointments to see a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon for little touch-ups -- getting lips plumped and frown lines on the forehead smoothed out. He was "an artist" with Botox and Juvederm, she said. Afterward, in a carefree mood, the ladies would dine at a popular restaurant on the Sunset Strip. No more. The sub-prime loan crisis, the housing slump and the general decline of the economy have claimed another...