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WASHINGTON - A Republican gubernatorial candidate's call for creation of a forced labor camp for illegal immigrants drew rebukes Friday from two GOP lawmakers, who labeled it a low point in the immigration debate.
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Don Goldwater, nephew of the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, caused an international stir this week when EFE, a national news agency of Spain, quoted him as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting."

The article described Goldwater's plan as a "concentration camp" for migrants.

Goldwater, a candidate for governor in Arizona, said in a statement Friday that his comments were taken out of context. He said he was calling for a work program for convicted nonviolent felons, similar to "tried and tested, effective and accepted practices" used by state and local jails.

But two Republicans, Arizona Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) and Rep. Jim Kolbe (news, bio, voting record), called Goldwater's comments "deeply offensive" and asked state Republicans to reject his candidacy in the Sept. 12 primary.

"That Mr. Goldwater is either unaware of or indifferent to the loaded symbolism, injustice and un-Americanism of his 'plan' to address the many serious issues caused by illegal immigration reveals his flaws as a candidate and a stunning lack of respect for the basic values of a generous and decent society," McCain said in a statement.

Kolbe said that if the comments are true, Goldwater "has demonstrated his complete unworthiness for public office, and I am confident he will be soundly rejected by Republicans from the party of Barry Goldwater, who consistently demonstrated his compassion and respect for all people. This is a sad day in the national debate on immigration policy."

McCain and Kolbe favor a guest-worker program for illegal immigrants.

Goldwater made a similar comment at an April anti-immigration rally.

"Build us that wall — now!" Goldwater said, referring to a proposal to add 700 miles of fences along the U.S.-Mexico border. He promised then that if elected, he would put illegal immigrants in a tent city on the border and use their labor to build the wall.

Barry Goldwater, the former Arizona senator, was the Republican presidential nominee in 1964.

Posted by at 5:28 PM | Permalink

The Buddhabrot Set is a re-visualization of the familiar Mandelbrot Set using a technique invented by Melinda Green. Instead of selecting points on the real-complex plane, initial points are selected at random from the image region. The point is iterated through the function, z = zˆ2 + c, where z has components in both the real and imaginary planes.

If the particle escapes (exits the viewing area with high speed), its path is reiterated, exposing its position onto the image surface with each step. In this fashion, areas of dense particle travel appear bright white. The result is an amazing universe of structure, spirituality, and mathematical intrigue.

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Sunday March 26th 2006
NEW YORK
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at Second Street)

Telephone: (212) 505-5181
2.30pm for 3pm Screening
(tickets available at venue)

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I just bought my ticket for India Im so excited I could spit!!!

And REW is gonna be there at the same time!!

Cant wait!

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Om

Om shanti, shanti, shanti

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(New York City) Legal arguments were filed Friday in the second of at least four lawsuits seeking the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York State.

This case involves gay and lesbian couples who had registered to marry in New Paltz, New York but were blocked by a court ruling last year that ordered Mayor Jason West to cease performing weddings.

The ACLU is representing 12 same-sex couples, among them New York State Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell and his partner John Banta. (story) O'Donnell is the brother of Rosie O'Donnell.

A midlevel New York state appeals court ruled earlier this month that it is not unconstitutional to prevent same-sex couples from marrying.

In its brief to the Court of Appeals - the state's highest court - the ACLU argues that New York's law banning gay people from marriage violates the equal protection, due process, and free expression provisions of the New York constitution.

"We've known all along that it would ultimately be up to New York's high court to end the unfairness that lesbian and gay couples face because they are unable to secure marriage protections for their families," said James Esseks, Litigation Director for the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.

"Same-sex couples who commit to each other and raise families together shouldn't be treated as legal strangers."

The ACLU case will likely be argued at the same time the court hears arguments in a case brought by Lambda Legal also seeking marriage for same-sex couples.

That case involves five gay and lesbian couples. Lambda filed its arguments last month with the Court of Appeals also arguing that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

The other two cases remain in mid level courts and it is possible all four will be wrapped together for the high court.

The Court of Appeals has not set a date for the arguments.

One of the couples involved in the ACLU case outlined some of the problems faced by same-sex couples unable to marry.

"My partner Heather was grilled by hospital staff over and over about who she was and why she was there when I was in the hospital for breast cancer surgery," said Carol Snyder.

"We never would have had to go through such an ordeal if we were only able to be married," she said.

Snyder and her partner Heather McDonnell live in White Plains and have been together for more than 15 years

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(03-03) 04:38 PST Charleston, W.Va. (AP) --

A small-town police chief was accused in a federal lawsuit Thursday of stopping a would-be rescuer from performing CPR on a gay heart attack victim because he assumed the ailing man had HIV and posed a health risk.

Claude Green, 43, died June 21 after being stricken yards from City Hall in Welch, a community of about 2,400.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of his mother.

Police Chief Bobby Bowman called the allegations "a boldface lie." He said that he called an ambulance and that Green was taken to the hospital in "no more than nine minutes."

"No one refused him CPR as his sister and mom are saying. They can do what they want, but if they're saying I refused him CPR, that is no way true," Bowman said.

The lawsuit accuses Bowman of pulling off Green's friend Billy Snead as Snead was performing chest compressions on the man. Snead was a passenger in Green's pickup truck when Green collapsed; Snead had managed to pull over the vehicle.

Snead said in an interview that he didn't realize at first it was Bowman giving the order and continued working on his friend. Bowman repeated his command to get away, saying that Green was HIV positive, then grabbed Snead by the shoulders and told him to sit on the curb, Snead said.

"He was a police officer so I got out the way. I assumed he would help. I didn't want to be a hindrance," Snead said. "He also told the ambulance drivers that he was HIV positive and to be careful."

Green was pronounced dead at the hospital after about 30 minutes of attempts to revive him.

Rose Saxe, a lawyer with the ACLU's AIDS Project, said Bowman's alleged actions contributed to Green's death and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, equal protection laws and due process rights.

Saxe said Green's death was "tragically senseless" because he did not have the AIDS virus, but added that he should have received lifesaving care even if he was HIV-positive.

"He was simply a gay man in Welch, West Virginia. And because of that we can only assume that Chief Bowman assumed he had HIV and it was unsafe to even touch him," Saxe said.

When asked if he knew if Green was gay, Bowman would not answer and referred questions to McDowell County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Danny Barie, who also represents the City of Welch.

Barie said Thursday he had received a copy of the complaint but could not comment because he had not reviewed it or discussed it with Bowman.

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Posted by at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

triang muhka ... this asana has always been on the not so fun side for me. unless of course i cheat and not worry about wether or not my knees are touching for the forwadbend. up until recently it was really difficult for me not to feel as though i was tipping over. maddening really, it seems like a not so difficult posture. well i finally figured out, forgive me if this remedial to y'all, that the trick to keeping the knees touching without the tipping sensation is all in the placement of the bent legs foot. i had up to now had the top of my foot resting on the ground which when you think about it does nothing other than create force in the oppsite direction, thus the tipping over sensation. i had been dutifully rotating my bent leg calf so as to make room and lessen the force that my foot was creating but it was never enough and id either have to use my elbow or a towel to keep from falling over. well i think it was monday that it clicked that it was my foot creating all this force and that to counter it i had to rotate the foot along witht the calf so that the foot was snug up against my bum and that the outer edge, the one on the pinky toe side, was touching the floor not the top. its made a big difference. i also go D both sides 1st try.

i got my haircut lastnight which takes maybe half an hour tops well as i walked home there was a HUGE fire in a building on Ave A which started and basically destroyed every apartment within the 4 story building within that time.
i was so deeply affected by a sense of loss for those people. their entire life was gone in the flames of that fire. the east village while in the thores of gentrification is still full of normal working class people who dont have a lot and who more often than not do not have renters insurance. its sad, and i hope they are alright. luckily it didnt seem like there were any casualties at least that i could tell.

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not really. i ended my well intentioned fast last night after work almost by accident. i say that to mean that i was on auto pilot when i opened the fridge, grabbed the most delicious oil cured morrocan olives from the "Whole Paycheck" olive bar and went for some crakers along with it. up until the crakers part i had no conscience realization that i was not suppsed to be eating as i was fasting. once i grabbed the crakers i came to and in a phrase said...screw this shit Im STARVING!

so i ate more olives than i care to mention and quarter box of stoned wheat thins and i feel fantastic about the decision. strange because i wasnt weak or exhausted from not eating, i felt fine in fact. but mentally there was some ritual that i had left out for the past couple of days and the loss of that was more then i could bear. it didnt help that in a meeting yesterday an entire basket of baked goodies were sat directly in front of me. all sorts of cookies and brownies and chocolate covered strawberries. ughhh. thats my weak spot ,sweets i love em. if anything it was this that did me in. i couldnt get my mind off them for the rest of the day.

i dont know what if anything i accomplised with a two day fast, other than perhaps a realization that most of my "hunger" is mental as opposed to physical. which in itself is a pretty good lesson. it makes the idea of 1/2 for food 1/4 for liquid and 1/4 for air seem much more accessible. tonight im going to make a kitchari of sorts wth lentils, rice and hominy...yum!

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A Florida company known for its "faith-based" clothing line has begun distributing a T-shirt that uses "Brokeback Mountain" to condemn gays.

The T-shirts depict an angry Moses on Mount Sinai looking down on a group of ancient Israelites and modern gay cowboys who are dancing around an idol of the biblical Golden Calf.

The caption on the T-shirts reads "In his anger, Moses BROKE the two tablets of stone that the Ten Commandments were written on while walking BACK down the MOUNTAIN."

The T-shirts also bear the message "The Original 10 Commandments, BrokeBack on the Mountain".

The T-shirts are made by Second Coming Clothing Co.

"The message is the same now as it was at the time of Moses, company CEO Rick Wade said in a statement, "that God’s covenant is broken with His people, God’s heart is broken for His people, and that judgment is coming prior to the return of the Lord, which is soon."

The company's products are sold in Christian stores across the country and marketed under the slogan "Take Your Faith Out of the Closet, and Put Our Clothes Back In".

Wade said that 100 percent of the company’s net profit will go to faith-based organizations.

"Brokeback Mountain", the gay love story of two cowboys, has been nominated for eight Academy Awards.
source

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alright so i spoke about how nice it was to chat with fellow ashtangi's at sundays puja, which it was.
during a conversation with someone they talked about a 10 day fast that they had just done, its the one where you drink fresh squuzed lemonade (basically) with maple sryup (grade b or below) and cayenne pepper.
these 3 ingredients are supposed to cover your basic nutritional needs. i was intrigued, as i had been on the subway a few nights before and heard someone talking about the same fast. so i decided to try it.
the deal is that you have to do it for a minumim of 10 days which just isnt going to happen but i am going to do it for a couple of days. maybe work up to a longer period over time. the juice itself is delicious. tastes just like lemonade but with a bite. they pepper makes the juice alomst substancial if that makes sense. anyway, we'll see how it goes and for how long. i love food and i love eating it.(just ask my belly.) but it seems like a good idea to clean the pipes out every now and again.

the shala was packed today with many faces ive never seen before. my theory is that people are coming out of the woodwork prior to guruji's visit later this month. one thing i know for sure is that im getting to the shala EARLY for mysore with sharath. i hope we dont have to move to the back for closing when he's in town. it would make the experience a lot less stressful, infact i wish we didnt have to move to the back for closing now. im sure there are good reasons why its necessary to move but it would be nice if we could just close where we start.

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I happened upon this on the huffington post which is my source for news and politics of the day.

Speaking to a Wall Street gathering Wednesday, the former Federal Reserve chairman decried the "polarization" of American politics and said the ground was ripe for a third party presidential candidate, according to several people who attended the event.

A member of the audience asked Mr. Greenspan if he would endorse a candidate for president. Mr. Greenspan said he would not, "for now." But he went on to describe the two American parties now as controlled by their extreme wings, even though the voting public is far more centrist, the people who were present said. He described the leadership of the parties as "bimodal," meaning clustered at the extreme ideological ends, whereas the voting public was "monomodal," meaning clustered near the middle.

Such situations, he said, create an opening for a third-party candidate who appeals to the center. That, he said, could prompt the candidates of the other two parties to move back to the center, for fear of losing.

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