PFIR is not a progressive organization

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Tuesday July 08, 2014 · 11:08 PM PDT

2014/07/08 · 23:08

PFIR - Progressives for Immigration Reform - is not a progressive organization.

Who says so?

Well, we can turn to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which has documented decades of hate groups across the United States. They say that PFIR is a front group - astro-turf - for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) which was founded by white nationalist John Tanton.

• Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR), a new organization that purports to represent liberal environmentalists, is headed by Leah Durant, an attorney who once worked for the nativist Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of FAIR. John Tanton, who remains on FAIR's board, has written about the need to use progressive or liberal environmental organizations as a means of insulating nativists against charges of racism.

But what if we don't want to accept the word of the SPLC? Who elected them the last word, right? Well, one thing we could do is look at the words of John Tanton himself:

"I've come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that."
– Dec. 10, 1993, letter to the late Garrett Hardin, a controversial ecology professor.

From the New York Times:

Latino fertility rates caused him special alarm: “those with their pants up are going to get caught by those with their pants down!”
...
“One of my prime concerns,” he wrote to a large donor, “is about the decline of folks who look like you and me.”
...

He corresponded with Sam G. Dickson, a Georgia lawyer for the Ku Klux Klan, who sits on the board of The Barnes Review, a magazine that, among other things, questions “the so-called Holocaust.” Dr. Tanton promoted the work of Jared Taylor, whose magazine, American Renaissance, warned: “America is an increasingly dangerous and disagreeable place because of growing numbers of blacks and Hispanics.” (To Mr. Taylor, Dr. Tanton wrote, “You are saying a lot of things that need to be said.”)

[emphasis added]

Is your stomach turning yet? Well, let's see what we can do about that. There's much more.

YucatanMan

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Tuesday May 27, 2014 · 7:44 PM PDT

2014/05/27 · 19:44

No, not an economic one.

My own.

I've just had yet another surgery on my vertebrae, nerve paths, and intervertebral foramina. I have enough metal in me to build a 737, let alone beep at security. I survived a pulmonary embolism late last year, after a previous 5 hour surgery to conduct fusions and laminectomies.

But that's not what depresses me.

YucatanMan

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Thursday November 28, 2013 · 7:29 AM PST

2013/11/28 · 07:29

Really! Everyone.

Wouldn't that be great news? When was the last time you got a Christmas bonus from your employer? For me, it has been over 30 years, and then it was just a nice gift from a boss (a ham or turkey), not really a company-paid holiday bonus.

Does anyone anywhere in the United States get bonuses any more? Or have they all been eliminated by profit-maximizing, cost-cutting corporations?

Rather than people being fired for refusing to open up on Thanksgiving or being short-shifted in order to decrease their Christmas holiday pay, what if there were a law that everyone MUST receive a Christmas Bonus, guarantees the minimal amount and date by which it should be paid?

There is such a law.

Poll

70 votes Show Results

Should all US workers be guaranteed an End-of-Year Bonus?

70 votes Vote Now!

Should all US workers be guaranteed an End-of-Year Bonus?

Yes

53 votes

15 votes

I'm an anti-employee corporate 'person'

1 vote

Screw everyone else, I've got mine plus the bunker to hide it in

1 vote

Ignatieff Advocates War to "Protect Civilians"

YucatanMan

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Saturday September 14, 2013 · 8:00 PM PDT

2013/09/14 · 20:00

In yet another screed to advocate for an Imperial USA to commit to a "duty to protect" civilians across the world, Michael Ingatieff launches an OpEd in the New York Times

A friend, perhaps unaware of Ingatieff's long advocacy for US imperialism around the world, recommended this OpEd to me as a justification for the US' preparation for strikes against Syria.

This diary is my response to my friend, an answer to that column, an answer to the apparent unawareness of Ingatieff's history, and to the very concept that the USA must intervene in every nation where civilians are at risk.

To be clear, international law and international decision-making must be respected. The USA should stop acting unilaterally and seek to reinforce coalitions, diplomacy, international pressure, sanctions targeted against leadership not civilians, and avoid a default to warfare.

No one will step forward, or need to, if the USA always acts first and negotiates later.

YucatanMan

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Monday April 08, 2013 · 7:17 PM PDT

2013/04/08 · 19:17

Obama has stated "reforming" Social Security as a goal of his over many years.

He brings up "reforming" Social Security over and over, in every election and in many of his speeches.

Cutting Social Security is one of his long-term goals.

Source please? Links?

Here you go, with video from 2006:

Obama at the Hamilton Project, 2006: “This is not a bloodless process.”

For those on the left, and I include myself in that category, too many of us have been interested in defending programs the way they were written in 1938... {diarist's comment: hmmm... what was created back then? actually 1935 for Social Security and 1938 for Minimum Wage.}
.....

...So there are real consequences to the work that is being done here. This is not a bloodless process.

(emphasis added) (continued)

YucatanMan

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Thursday December 06, 2012 · 12:21 AM PST

2012/12/06 · 00:21

Bob Dole Country

That used to be on a billboard along I-70 near Russell, Kansas, Bob Dole's hometown. My father knew Bob Dole's mother there in Russell and I shook Bob Dole's left hand many times as a teen and young man.

Bob Dole's right arm, you see, had been shot up as he attacked a German machinegun nest in Italy during World War II. He was greviously injured. Almost died. The VA basically told him, "Well, that's it. There's nothing to be done for you." And sent him home to Russell to live severely disabled, likely bed-ridden for life.

The hometown - a small prairie town mind you of under 2000 people - got together and raised money for Bob to get to some specialists for surgeries to fix him up better.

YucatanMan

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Saturday March 31, 2012 · 3:35 PM PDT

2012/03/31 · 15:35

Damien Lopez, 10, died Tuesday, March 27, in a tragic house fire in Shenendoah, Pennsylvania, which also claimed the lives of his cousin, Christian Sanchez, 10, Christian’s mother Tiffany Matejick Sanchez, 29, and her nephew 7-month-old Aziah Hernandez. Before succumbing to the flames, Tiffany was able to push her 8 year old son, Diego Sanchez onto a back porch roof through an open window. Diego suffered burns and smoke inhalation.

YucatanMan

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Tuesday September 20, 2011 · 5:35 PM PDT

2011/09/20 · 17:35

Cables published by Wikileaks led to today's resignation of Wadah Khanfa, Al Jazeera managing director. http://english.aljazeera.net/...

These cables show that Khanfa met with Political Affairs Officer(s) of the US State Department and responded to Defense Intelligence Agency complaints of "disturbing" website content by ordering that content's removal in 2005.

This cooperation with the censorship of news from the Iraq War led to his disgrace and resignation today, September 20, 2011, in Doha, Qatar.

YucatanMan

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Tuesday December 07, 2010 · 8:15 PM PST

2010/12/07 · 20:15

(with apologies to Cleopatra, from whom I'm stealing the title)

Or is it Greek?

In recent days, I have found myself recalling stated respect for Reagan's style by his opponents who were known to say, "I may disagree with him, but I know where he stands." Public opinion polls found a surprising number of people voted for Reagan for this reason, even though the voters may have had various disagreements with one or more of Reagan's policy goals.

And my muse tonight, Cleopatra, made a similar comment about W Bush:

As destructive as he was, at least bush accomplished what he set out to do and made no bones about it. The voters who voted for bush, got exactly what they voted for.

Stumbling upon Cleopatra's comment in One Pissed Off Liberal's righteous diary - I Don't Blame Obama http://www.dailykos.com/... - I had a series of thoughts that were new to me. This may not be a diary in the traditional sense, because I cannot stay here to respond tonight, but my response was so new and so surprising to me that I want to preserve it here to think over, to gather your reactions, and to try to understand.

Poll

21 votes Show Results

How should public policy and legislation be created in the United States of America?

21 votes Vote Now!

How should public policy and legislation be created in the United States of America?

Behind White House doors - there's only one No Drama Adult available.

2 votes

Through Public Debate, in the general public's favor, reflecting the public will.

9 votes

Through phony Public Debate with preset results arranged through lobbyist contributions.

2 votes

Behind White House doors - let's draw straws to see which arguments the Republicans or Democrats win in the future.

2 votes

There won't be any decisions for the next two years - gridlock will freeze our nation in time.

4 votes

Chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pie.....

2 votes

Vast Undersea Pollution - BP's (invisible) Disaster

YucatanMan

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Saturday May 15, 2010 · 7:03 PM PDT

2010/05/15 · 19:03

For the first time, scientists are coming up with an explanation of the huge discrepancies in observed phenomenon related to the BP / Transocean / Halliburton oil disaster.

The last previously reported "official" statement by the US Coast Guard had the leak at ~ 5,000 barrels per day. That was up from 1,000, which was up from "no leaks." So, clearly, they were just guess-timating.

Earlier this week, NPR referred BP's only released video clip to several scientists for their analysis of ONE of the leaks.

The worst news is after the bump:

YucatanMan

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Sunday May 02, 2010 · 7:49 AM PDT

2010/05/02 · 07:49

ACTION UPDATE: Sign the petition at http://www.presente.org Receive a free anti-Arizona 1070 sticker or order many for a small donation: http://presente.org/...

May Day. Workers' Day world round. In Dallas, many of those workers did a reprise of the historic 2006 Dallas immigration march of 500,000 people. Begun on shorter notice, with less radio promotion, and held on a Saturday afternoon when many are working, today's march drew an estimated 25,000 participants including non-Latino church groups, workers from all walks of life, people of all ages and races. [Updated figures below the jump!]

Poll

30 votes Show Results

Whose photos were better? YucatanMan or Dallas Morning News (link)? ;-)

30 votes Vote Now!

Whose photos were better? YucatanMan or Dallas Morning News (link)? ;-)

YucatanMan

13 votes

Dallas Morning News

1 vote

What part of illegal do you not understand, you European squatters on Native American Lands?

4 votes

Si Se Puede! - Yes we can!

4 votes

El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido - The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

2 votes

Hate is the wind that blew out the Republicans future.

5 votes

I'm too bored by color photos to vote.

1 vote

Murtha says No Health Care Bill until January!

YucatanMan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday August 15, 2009 · 1:03 AM PDT

2009/08/15 · 01:03

It's bad enough that yesterday's recommended list had a couple diaries taking swats at cowardly Democrats who won't follow through with long term party goals and pass health care reform. First off, the unions reminded Democrat congressional members where their donations and people-power come from during each and every election in Labor Leader To Blue Dogs: Don't DARE Ask For Support (Video)
by PaulVA http://www.dailykos.com/...

Running a close second in my book was F--- You, Democrats
by Angry Mouse http://www.dailykos.com/... which captured my sentiments exactly. What the hell good is electing Democrats if they won't back the party platform's own goals?

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PFIR is not a progressive organization

A Texas-sized Depression

We're ALL getting Christmas Bonuses!

Ignatieff Advocates War to "Protect Civilians"

Obama Doesn't Really Mean It... or does he?

Jerry Moran, shame of Kansas

The Stone Cold Heart of US Customs and Border Protection

Bush State Dept Censored Iraq War News; Shockingly, Al Jazeera Cooperated

Acts in a Shakesperean Tragedy

Vast Undersea Pollution - BP's (invisible) Disaster

Dallas Immigration March - PhotoDiary w Action Update

Murtha says No Health Care Bill until January!