Somehow I missed this.

Jorge Ramos interviewed the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President the day after the first debate between Senators Obama and McCain. Since there have now been three debates and not one question asked about immigration reform or border policy, I think it's important to note that these are still pressing issues for many of us.

Here's how Obama answered a question on the Great Wall of America:

Jorge Ramos
SENATOR THE LAST TIME THAT WE SPOKE YOU TOLD ME THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW IF A FENCE WOULD WORK TO STOP UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS FROM CROSSING FROM MEXICO TO UNITED STATES. NOW IF WERE YOU STILL UNSURE, WHY DID YOU VOTE ALONG WITH SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN TO AUTHORIZE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE FENCE?

Barack Obama
Well, here is what I said that I'm skeptical that…you can't build a fence along a border like the one between the United States and Mexico. There maybe areas were having barriers could actually prevent the kinds of flows into the United States, some of which really dangerous for the potential undocumented worker as well. But what I do think we have to do is to get serious about border security in combination with cracking down on employers like the ones in Iowa that were hiring 13 and 14 year olds to engage in some of the most dangerous work there is, meat packaging and we got to have a system to lift undocumented workers out of the shadows and provide a pathway to citizenship. Now, what we are seeing is because the decline in the construction industry in particular but the economy slowing down generally, that the flow of undocumented workers is slowing and that remind us once again that to the extent we are working with Mexico to relieve poverty there and provide jobs and opportunity. That is going to be the best recipe for us to be able to deal with this thing long term.

Blog de Obama

For a more comprehensive look at how an Obama administration would tackle an overhaul of the immigration system, you can always look at how he answered the Sanctuary's questionnaire.

Senator McCain, it seems, will be able to slide through the next few weeks without revealing that he is a minuteman, not a maverick.

Labels: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, border policy, immigration, John McCain

Thank you for continuing to save lives by showing that there is still compassion in the region.

Pima County has approved a grant of $25,000 to help a humanitarian group maintain emergency water stations in the Sonoran Desert outside of Tucson.

Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to fund Humane Borders' 90-plus water stations dispersed in the desert.

The supervisors first funded the water stations in 2001.

Tucson Citizen

Labels: Humane Borders

Residents of the Grand Canyon State - email your friends and family, today is the final day to register to vote and be eligible to cast a ballot in the November 4th General Election. I think the final time is 11pm tonight.

Labels: 2008 Election

My sweet coconut...

''Talking a little about his personal experience, he was famously born in Panama and has traveled all over the hemisphere for many years.'' Fontaine said. ``In fact, I saw, I guess it was last week, that his old girlfriend in Brazil has been found from his early days when he was in the Navy and was interviewed. She's a somewhat older woman now than she was then, but it sorta speaks to the long experience he has had in the region -- in the most positive terms.''

Fontaine was referring to former model Maria Gracinda Teixeira de Jesus, who recently gave an interview to O Globo saying the former sailor was quite the kisser. According to McCain's memoirs, `Faith of My Fathers,` they met in 1957, when his ship, the USS Hunt docked in Brazil.

''I called him John but also my darling and my sweet coconut,'' she said. ``He was a great kisser. I liked it so much that I bought a book to learn how to kiss myself.''

Miami Herald

What the....you've got to be......how could they possibly think....GAAAAAAAH!

Labels: 2008 Election, John McCain

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is Arizona's version of George W. Bush - struts around with a proverbial big stick while the operation he's supposedly managing turns to a pile of manure.

Maricopa County jails are no longer accredited by a national health commission because the facilities failed to meet federal standards for care and that county officials provided incorrect information to the accrediting agency, officials said.

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care sent Maricopa County administrators a letter late last week notifying them the group was pulling its accreditation of the county's jail system.

Tucson Citizen

Fortunately, residents of Maricopa County have a choice in the November election to get rid of Sheriff Joe's racist and mismanaged tenure as sheriff, replacing him with a competent, proven leader: Dan Saban.

Labels: Dan Saban, Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Monday, October 6th is the deadline for Arizonans to register to vote and be eligible to cast a ballot for the general election in November. As I've written before, groups like Mi Familia Vota and Voto Latino are working hard to get latinos engaged and empowered.

I'm sure the vast majority of people who stumble upon this website are already registered, but if not, please do so today. Arizonans, you can register online at: www.ServiceArizona.com.

Casting a ballot on election day, especially in 2008, is more than just picking a President. Voters will be evaluating the jobs of every single member in the House of Representatives, in some states Senators (not AZ this year, unfortunately), and many powerbrokers on the state level.

It's easy to dismiss the political world as something that "doesn't affect me" or politicians as a bunch of "clueless elites who don't listen anyways". Words to that effect can certainly be found in the archives of this blog; but the reality is that we can make a different in the direction of this country if a groundswell of common purpose rises up from the streets among the employers of politicians - We, The People. Raza.

There are just a few days left in the Grand Canyon State to be a part of what will hopefully be the beginning of a new, and saner, era of politics.

• If you haven't registered to vote: take five minutes and go to ServiceArizona.com right now
• If you have registered to vote: email, text, call, hire a blimp with a blinking billboard to communicate with everyone you know that they should stop what they're doing and take five minutes to visit ServiceArizona.com

Gracias

Labels: 2008 Election

The saddest part of this hilarious bit?

Tina Fey repeated one of Palin's answers word-for-word - an indictment of McCain's judgment to choose someone so unprepared (and unvetted) for second in command of the U.S. government. Enjoy:

Labels: 2008 Election, Sarah Palin

As a certified (and probably certifiably insane at this point) member of the news addict crowd in the U.S., I've been cycling through moments of horror and disbelief over the past few days. This has certainly been a week for the books in the annals of U.S. presidential politics.

The horror comes as George W. Bush performs one of the signature moves of his non-governance: raise a valid problem affecting the country and suggest such a ridiculous solution that hardly anyone takes the time to remove their jaw from the floor to stop what he and his murdurous, greedy band of criminal cronies intend to inflict on the world.

It's almost predictable. Junior Caligula swoops in with his proverbial big stick, reprises his role as The Decider, and makes horrible situations worse (often acting a few days later than a real leader would begin showing, you know, competent leadership). Exhibit A: Attacking Iraq as a response to 9/11; Exhibit B: the 2004 tsunami that devastated coastal communities of the Indian Ocean; Exhibit C: Hurricane Katrina.

This week we collectively watched in disbelief as a $700 billion bailout to Wall Street muckity-mucks was proposed to the nation in a prime-time address complete with dilated pupils and vacant expressions of a man who had absolutely no clue what he was talkin' about. $700 billion? Really? Which orifice did they pull that number from? Here's a clue:

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Forbes.com

My friends, this is your brain country on drugs. Or is it lunacy?

I've come to the conclusion that John McCain, for example, has completely lost his mind. I almost feel sorry for him but the schadenfreude is too succulent to pass up. A consensus seems to be building that the abrupt "suspension" of his campaign to fly back to Washington was a total disaster.

If McCain believed he could be a constructive force by busting his way into the center of the delicate negotiations between congressional Democrats and Republicans and the White House, he was not able to show it Thursday. The objective evidence is that things got worse, not better, in Washington after McCain arrived. There was a tentative deal, announced by congressional leaders, when McCain landed in Washington. Hours later, there was chaos and recriminations.

WashingtonPost.com

The quote marks are used above because in this case "suspension" equals "surge". Instead of truly putting the breaks on their campaign, the Palin-McCain ticket had surrogates all over the place peddling spin, both nominees gabbed with Katie Couric (but not David Letterman, which may prove to be a fatal mistake to their bid for the White House), ads continued to run across numerous media markets, and the donate button was kept live on the website.

Can anyone tell me how that all equals a suspension?

Suspension of belief, perhaps. It makes me nearly speechless to see McCain's campaign engage in blunder after blunder after blunder.

Make the focus of the campaign on experience? Pick Sarah Palin, who has little to none.

Make the focus of the campaign on McCain's Mavericky Jedi Skills to bring about change? Use the Karl Rove Handbook to attack the media, lie repeatedly about your opponent's positions, and shut down any investigations with an army of lawyers that could lead to embarrasment.

Make the focus of the campaign on McCain's steady hand in crises? Allow him to behave batshit loony by suspending his campaign, swooping in to Washington to attend a meeting he allegedly called for, saying very little at aforementioned meeting, threatening to pull out of the first debate, and then claim to have won the thing before it even occurs.

...all while there are legitimate problems that need to be solved with the financial system.

Yup, the behavior pattern definitely rings a dissonant chord that we've all been hearing for the past eightish years.

Labels: 2008 Election, George Bush, John McCain