If you are in Houston, Nogales, AZ, Nogales, Sonora, MX, Sunland Park, NM or Anapra, Chihuahua, MX, organizations from both sides of the border will rally for social justice and against the anti-immigrant actions of the so-called “Minutemen Project” tomorrow.

Houston:

On Saturday, October 8, from 3 pm to 5 pm, at Burnett Bayland Park(Chimney Rock & Gulfton), there will be speakers, poets and music to rally supporters of immigrants and against the Minuteman Project's call to patrol Houston streets and US/Mexico border areas. Rally speakers include Juan Alvarez, Teodoro Aguiluz, Rev. Jezer Urena, poets Joe B., Claudia Peña, and singers Chuy Negrete and Xavier Herrera.

by TChris

Contending that the Air Force Academy has encouraged evangelical Christians to impose their religious viewpoints on cadets in a coercive fashion, Academy graduate Mikey Weinstein filed suit against the Air Force yesterday to end the school’s tolerance of religious proselytizing.

Over the past decade or more, the suit claims, academy leaders have fostered an environment of religious intolerance at the Colorado school, in violation of the First Amendment.

Among the complaints:

by Last Night in Little Rock

The Oregon Supreme Court held yesterday that its State Constitution protects live adult entertainment shows and dancing, also voiding a 4' limitation. City of Nyssa v. Dulforth.

by TChris

The first legal challenge to a school district's plan to teach intelligent design will go to trial on Monday in Harrisburg, PA. Proponents of the plan defend the teaching of a religious belief as "free speech." But science teachers aren't free to speak about their religious beliefs in a public school; their free speech rights are subordinate to their duty as government employees to respect the separation between government and religion.

Proponents also argue that they're simply exposing students to alternative views about the origins of life.

William Arkin writes in the Washington Post that the Armed Services Committee may be using Donald Rumsfeld to spur the end of the Posse Comitatus Act - under the cover of Hurricane Katrina. This would make it easier for Bush to impose martial law.

First off, Arkin says, it's based upon a faulty premise.

Nothing in law prevents the President from employing the military in a Katrina-like emergency if state and local government really breaks down. In fact, the 130-year-old Posse Comitatus Act more symbolizes the military's subordination to civil authority than it actually restricts what the military can do.

Update (TL): Crooks and Liars has the video. More from the Village Voice and New York Times.

by TChris

New York City police prevented Cindy Sheehan from finishing a speech she was delivering at Union Square yesterday. They also arrested a rally organizer for failing to obtain a permit before allowing Cindy to use a "sound device" to criticize the president.

"This is what's been happening for the last couple of years," said the co-chairman of the Green Party's Manhattan chapter, Daniel Starling, who attended the rally. "Every time we try to hold a demonstration, they arrest us."

Free speech in New York: you're free to speak when, where, and how the City permits you to speak.

Update: Cindy describes what happened:

by TChris

Congress passed a resolution yesterday honoring the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks' refusal to sit at the back of the bus.

This is the text of the resolution (H. Con. Res. 208):

If I lived in Massachussetts, I'd be very alarmed about this:

Governor Mitt Romney raised the prospect of wiretapping mosques and conducting surveillance of foreign students in Massachusetts, as he issued a broad call yesterday for the federal government to devote far more money and attention to domestic intelligence gathering.

In remarks that caused alarm among civil libertarians and advocates for immigrants rights, Romney said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation ... ''How many individuals are coming to our state and going to those institutions who have come from terrorist-sponsored states?" he said, referring to foreign students who attend universities in Massachusetts. ''Do we know where they are? Are we tracking them?"

How did this guy get elected? First he wants to reinstate the death penalty with a law he claims is fail-safe, when no such law is possible, and now this. A giant raspberry to Gov. Romney.

by TChris

As predicted here, a proposed amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution banning gay marriage died after failing to gain a majority on its second trip through the Massachusetts legislature.

Wednesday's 157-to-39 vote by a joint session of the House and Senate partly reflected the fact that some legislators now consider same-sex marriage more politically acceptable, after a largely conflict-free year in which some 6,600 same-sex couples got married and lawmakers who supported it got re-elected. The vote also reflected some lawmakers' reluctance to pass a bill that could either withdraw rights from already married couples or create a class of married gay men and lesbians and a class of those unable to marry.

The lopsided vote attests to the wisdom of procedures that prevent constitutions from being amended in the heat of the moment.

If the steam has gone out of the "gay marriage will end civilization" train, the religious right will be forced to pounce on today's pledge decision to try to regain momentum. But that decision pertains to one case, in one court. The case isn't likely to reach the Supreme Court soon. Not much steam in that train either, as much as the right would like a distraction from the more pressing problems their favored president has caused or mismanaged.

by TChris

Another pledge of allegiance case might work its way to the Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."

TalkLeft background on the case that reached the Supreme Court, only to go unresolved on the merits, is here.

This weekend, another Minuteman-style group is gearing up to “patrol” the California-Mexico border at various points between the Pacific Ocean and the Arizona state line. As they head to the South Bay and drive past Chicano Park on I-5, this group will see the above 50 × 10 foot canvass painted to resemble a movie billboard.

Cazamigrantes is Spanish for migrant hunters. The billboard was designed by local artist Susan Yamagata and painted by Southwestern College’s Border Arts Workshop. It was commissioned by Latino organizations in San Diego.

by TChris

A proposed amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution, banning gay marriage while permitting civil unions, appears unlikely to survive a second legislative session. A majority of the state’s 200 legislators must approve the proposed amendment in each of two consecutive years before it goes to voters. Last year, the proposal squeaked by on a vote of 105-92. This year, according to an AP survey, the steam has gone out of the state's anti-gay marriage movement.

The survey, conducted between Sept. 6-9, found at least 104 lawmakers who plan to vote against the proposed constitutional amendment, which would ban gay marriage but create civil unions.