by TChris

When schools censor the political expression of students, they teach kids that the Constitution is meaningless. That's the wrong lesson.

Camille Pontillo, the principal of Park Springs Elementary in Coral Springs, Florida, needs to learn a lesson of her own. Pontillo's school is having a talent show, but Pontillo won't allow 10-year-old Molly Shoul to sing Pink's new song, "Dear Mr. President." Pontillo doesn't think students should sing songs that are "too political."

Molly's mother nails it:

"If this was a student singing a pro-administration song, no one would quibble with it," Shoul said. "The principal is just running scared and doesn't want to upset any parents."

by TChris

From a recent speech by Massachusetts Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, who grew up fighting apartheid:

"Anyone familiar with the history of oppression in any part of the world knows that silence is a facilitator of injustice"

Here's downtown Denver this morning, taken by 5280's Jeff Panis. Larger version here. Update: Police estimate the crowd at 75,000 and stretched for a mile. That's huge for a city the size of Denver.

Tom Tancredo is stewing today. As I wrote over at 5280 this morning:

Millions of immigrants across the United States will take a sick day from work and school to peacefully march in protest of Congress' ill-conceived and overly punitive immigration reform proposals and to demand the recognition that is due them as an indispensable part of our labor force. This is not unprecedented in our country's history.

On May 1, 1886, workers in the U.S., many of them immigrants, took to the streets to protest oppressive working conditions. Over the course of the next several days, there was bloodshed and repressive police tactics, but thereafter, all workers in the U.S. incurred the benefits of an 8 hour, 5 day workweek, the right to unionize and other needed protections.

Today there will be rallies, boycotts and work closures. What do the marchers and protesters want? As NNIR puts it,

[They are] demanding recognition as indispensable members of U.S. society, with the right to living wages, safe working conditions and protections. They want the same rights as any other member of the U.S.: the right to travel, work, live, study and worship freely and safely, and to reunite their families without discrimination and violence.

by TChris

President "I'm a uniter, not a divider" Bush should embrace the patriotism displayed by Spanish-speaking Americans who enjoy listening to a version of the national anthem in their native language. Not so.

"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English," Bush said at the White House after an independent music producer released a Spanish-language version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Bush is pandering to the likes of Minuteman Peter Lanteri, who maintains that the song is "a slap in the face to America." A song that praises America and its national values can't reasonably be considered disrespectful to America, but reason isn't the driving force that motivates the criticism.

Rather than dividing the country, as critics claim, the song unites people who share a love of the country.

by TChris

If the government is powerless to interfere with our right to play with a consenting adult sex partner of either gender, it should surely be powerless to prevent us from playing with a sex toy. Some South Carolina extremists nonetheless view the sale of sex toys as the kind of commercial activity that the state legislature should ban.

The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses.

"That would be the most terrible thing in the world," said Ms. Gillespie, an employee the Anderson shop. "That is just flabbergasting to me. We are supposed to be in a free country, and we're supposed to be adults who can decide what want to do and don't want to do in the privacy of our own homes."

Those who fret about the private lives of adults should redirect their interest to a serious topic: the kidnapping and sex trafficking of women in Iraq, a phenomenon that began after President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished."

by TChris

Jacksonville (TX) A High School history and government teacher was suspended for showing a film clip.

The clip, called "The Ketchup Effect," showed a German boy and girl in a dimly-lit bedroom, sitting on the end of the bed. The boy asks the girl, in German, for a simulated sexual favor. The girl misunderstands how to perform it, causing the boy pain. He screams, and the clip ends.

The footage was blurred and did not show actual nudity. It is approximately one-minute long.

According to a student (we don't have the teacher's side of the story), the clip was part of a lesson on cultural differences, and was intended to show "a miscommunication between the boy and girl."

Students are upset at the suspension, apparently with good reason. They question why the schools' coaches aren't disciplined for their choice of films.

Republicans and Democrats appear to have made some progress on an immigration reform bill. Republicans now seem ready to drop two provisions from Sensenbrenner's bill : the one that would have made it a felony to be in the U.S. without proper documentation and another that exposed humanitarian workers to criminal liability for aiding the undocumented. The latter provision read:

"whoever -- assists, encourages, directs or induces a person to reside in or remain in the United States (illegally) -- shall be punished ...."

But there is no promise by Republicans not to make undocumented presence a misdemeanor -- nor to drop the other punitive measures in Sensenbrenner's bill.

In related news, 21 immigrants were fired from their meat-packing jobs at Wolverine Packing in Detroit for attending a March 28 immigration rally in Detroit that drew 20,000 people. The company's response:

From Lincoln, Nebraska and Bloomington, IL, to Jonesboro, TN and Tyler, TX to Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York City, Washington D.C. and dozens of more cities and towns across America, pro-immigrants rights advocates ruled the day, officially called, A National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice.

The rallies, whose mood was largely festive rather than angry, were the latest in recent weeks in response to a bill passed in the House that would speed up deportations, tighten border security and criminalize illegal immigrants. A proposal that would have granted citizenship to the vast majority of illegal immigrants collapsed in the Senate last week.

...the millions of immigrants who have quietly poured into this country over the past 16 years, most of them Hispanic, may be emerging as a potent political force.
Over and over again, construction workers, cooks, gardeners, sales associates and students who said they had never demonstrated before said they were rallying to send a message to the nation's lawmakers.

The best news is politicians and lawmakers may be willing to listen.

Monday there will be another national round of pro-immigrant rallies. This time, it is expected that other ethnic groups will join in what up to now has mostly been Latinos.

Koreans said they will march in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, banging traditional protest drums. Chinese said they will parade out of Chinatowns in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, led by marchers wearing colorful dragon costumes. Haitians said they will be heard in Miami and New York, and Africans said they will be among the tens of thousands who will gather at the Washington Monument.

While the majority of the undocumented in the U.S. are Latino, other groups have a vested interest in immigration reform.

The Hagel-Martinez compromise immigration bill touted by Senate leaders yesterday failed by a 38 to 60 test vote today.

It's just as well. Had it passed, it would have gone on to the house to be reconciled with Sensenbrenner's H.R. 4437 and the Democrats would likely have compromised on keeping some of that bill's excessively punitive provisions.

Frist's bill also failed, garnering even less votes.

My view: Take the punitive provisions out. Let families stay together. Then let's talk about a bill.

Should a bill pass, when it comes time to appoint conferees to reconcile the House and Senate versions, AILA is recommending that the Senate conferees include every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Today, key Senators announced a compromise has been reached on immigration reform. More here. If you're just catching up, here's a good primer on the issues from the LA Times today.

Shorter version: Say goodbye to Specter's Chairman's Mark bill that passed the Judiciary committee last week. Say hello to the Frist bill, that includes a compromise called the Hagel-Martinez bill introduced last night.

The Senate Judiciary bill died a filibuster death today when Senators voted against cloture. A vote on the new compromise legislation could come tomorrow. Congress starts a two week Easter recess Monday.

Background here. Key differences between the Chairman's Mark and the Hagel-Martinez include: