Tidbits for today
In no particular order of importance.
Just a bit of an update:Star-Telegram.com | 11/13/2006 | Bill filings pouring in for Legislature:
— The U.S.-born children of people who enter the United States illegally would not be able to attend Texas public schools or receive any government-backed social services under legislation introduced Monday and in line to be considered when lawmakers return to Austin in January.
I am guessing since the Constitution is no obsticle to Leo Berman that the supreme court ruling in 1982 saying that no state can’t deny public education to any child regardless of citizenship doesn’t sway him in the least. Wait a minute, isn’t our current educational nightmare No Child Left Behind? Oh, Leo, just what did those big mean babies ever do to you? Did you read this before you filed it? Did anyone on your staff look into the legality of a bill like this or are you just pandering to a bunch of xenophobes?
Researchers: Chocolate can thin blood, protect the heart
One more reason to love chocolate
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have found that chocolate thins blood and protects the heart in the same way as aspirin. The key is a compound in chocolate called flavanol, which slows down platelet clumping that can block off blood vessels and lead to a heart attack or stroke.
I just threw this in here because everyone should know what I have always known. Chocolate is really good for you :).
CIA refers to classified documents for 1st time in letter to ACLU
WASHINGTON — The CIA has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including a directive signed by President Bush, that have guided the agency’s interrogation and detention of terror suspects.
The contents of the documents were not revealed, but one of them is “a directive signed by President Bush granting the CIA the authority to set up detention facilities outside the United States and outlining interrogation methods that may be used against detainees,” the ACLU said, based on its review of published accounts.The second document, according to the group, is a Justice Department legal analysis “specifying interrogation methods that the CIA may use against top al-Qaida members.”
You have to love this. Until now,the entire administration has said these documents just plain didn’t exist numerous times. I will wait to see exactly what is in them before commenting too much but anyone who has taken the hardline that the United States Government doesn’t condone torture is going to be in for a big surprise. Did no one understand why guantanamo bay wasn’t within the continental United States but me?
The election for this state’s last undecided congressional seat is likely to be Dec. 12 or Dec. 19, and it promises to be a challenging one for both candidates.
Until now, Bonilla has done most of his talking with slick TV and radio ads and extensive targeted mailings. Now, he has agreed to debate, which he previously avoided. And RodrÃguez, who has run low-budget, shoe-leather campaigns, must raise big money very quickly for the electronic media and mailers needed to get his message out in this vast district. Reached between Veterans Day parades Saturday, RodrÃguez expressed confidence, saying: “I’ve been endorsed by all the other candidates, labor and the Texas (congressional Democratic) caucus. It will be all about turnout, and when people see the stands Bonilla has taken, they’ll see how out of touch he is with this district.”
At least we are closer to a runoff date. Looks like mid-December. Just in time for one more little Christmas present for me.
Private space firm launches 1st test rocket
The first test rocket was launched Monday from a remote West Texas spaceport being built and bankrolled by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
“There was a launch, a one- or two-minute event,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig said from the agency’s Southwest regional office in Oklahoma City.
The company has said it hopes to begin commercial flights in 2010.
You have to admit, it is pretty cool that they expect commercial space flights in 2010. Not that you would ever see Dig on one since I can’t do a 30 minute plane ride without being horribly ill but it is cool nonetheless. We are one step closer to the future we were told by the jetsons was waiting for us. Now I just want my hovering car so that I don’t have to deal with traffic on 10 and 1604 and I am really waiting for those transporters because I am sick of having to wait 3-5 days for my amazon orders to get to my house.
Filed under: 14th Amendment, Bonilla, Ciro Rodriguez, Congressional District 23, Constitution, Constitutional Rights, District 23, HB 28, Henry Bonilla, Leo Berman, Misdeeds, citizen rights, education, illegals, immigrants, immigration, politics, redistricting, run-off, runoff, texas, texas politics, torture, vote
In response to Leo’s no education and social services to children of illegal immigrants bill. Hello?! How can this be allowed to even get to this point? We are now denying rights of U.S. citizens based on who their parents are??? Does anyone else see what dangerous territory we are treading here? This is so wrong on so many levels that I am still having difficulty absorbing the ramifications of this. I believed stunned is more like it.