Vanessa's blog :-)

Over the past months some of you have complained about McCain’s attempt to reform immigration and his lack of interest in deporting every illegal “alien” in the country. You stated your case loudly and clearly made your point. I’m sure both John McCain and Sarah Palin heard you. And I for one strongly believe that they actually care about you, this country, and all Americans in general. I believe they’re patriotic and ready to lead. They’ve got Americans best interest at heart. I haven’t heard either of them talk about reforming the world, like Obama does, they’ve made it clear that the United States of America’s their main priority, and American’s are the ones they’re going to work hard for. They always refer to themselves as proud Americans, not world citizens like Obama does.

Obama wants to grant illegal immigrants licenses!!!! So do you really think Obama will listen to you when you protest? NO. He’ll call you an ugly racist, just like last time. Besides, doesn’t Obama have an aunt living in this country illegally? Clarify me on that, cause I haven’t heard the specifics.

Now do you really want him in charge of your country? McCain’s not perfect, no candidate will ever be, but OBAMA? C’mon! If you don’t vote for McCain because you disagree with him on an issue, you’re giving it to Obama. How many issues do you agree with Obama on?

I’m very fortunate not to be able to vote, I don’t have that huge burden and responsibility. I don’t have to worry about how my vote helps America, or destroys it.

YOU DO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKWistpodWk>

If tomorrow all the things were gone
I'd hoped for all my life
And I had to start again
With just my family by my side
I'd thank my God above
To be living here today
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom
And they can't take that away

From the lakes of Minnesota
To the hills of Tennessee
Across the plains of Texas
From sea to shining sea
From Detroit down to Houston
And New York to LA
There's pride in every American heart
And it's time we stand and say…

I'm proud to be an American

Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me
And I gladly stand up next to you
And defend her still today
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land

God Bless the USA!

I was researching the Nations best schools & found interesting data. But what does it all mean?  You be the judge.

Student Ethnicity at Rialto High School, Rialto California.

Hispanic or Latino 79%

African American 12%

White 6% 

Asian 2% 

Filipino <1% 

Pacific Islander <1% 

Multiple or No Response <1% 

American Indian or Alaska Native <1%

Students participating in free or reduced-price lunch program:  58%

State Average:  51%

Home Languages of English Learners:

  Spanish 97%   State Average 85%    

Khmer (Cambodian) <1%   Vietnamese <1%   Filipino (Pilipino or Tagalog) <1% Marshallese <1%  Arabic <1%   All other non-English languages <1%    Burmese <1%  Russian <1%  Thai <1%  Rumanian <1%  Hindi <1%  Farsi (Persian) <1%  Samoan <1%  Gujarati <1%

CAHSEE Results

Grade 10 English Language Arts
 67% (2008)
 67% (2007)
 69% (2006)
 67% (2005)
The state average for English Language Arts was 79% in 2008.

Math
 66% (2008)
 70% (2007)
 65% (2006)
 58% (2005)
The state average for Math was 78% in 2008.

* I found these scores interesting considering the CST results:

Grade 9  Algebra II

Data not available for this school (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
 16% (2005)
The state average for Algebra II was 66% in 2008.

General Mathematics (Grades 6 & 7 Standards)
Data not available for this school (2008)
 0% (2007)
 0% (2006)
 6% (2005)
The state average for General Mathematics (Grades 6 & 7 Standards) was 18% in 2008.

Biology/Life Sciences
 50% (2008)
 34% (2007)
 33% (2006)
The state average for Biology/Life Sciences was 52% in 2008.

English Language Arts
 37% (2008)
 36% (2007)
 27% (2006)
 28% (2005)
The state average for English Language Arts was 49% in 2008.

Earth Science
 5% (2008)
 7% (2007)
 3% (2006)
The state average for Earth Science was 31% in 2008.

World History
 0% (2008)
 0% (2007)
The state average for World History was 36% in 2008.

Integrated/Coordinated Science 1
 0% (2008)
 0% (2007)
The state average for Integrated/Coordinated Science 1 was 12% in 2008.

Algebra I
 1% (2008)
 3% (2007)
 3% (2006)
 3% (2005)
The state average for Algebra I was 18% in 2008.

Geometry
 17% (2008)
 17% (2007)
 19% (2006)
 9% (2005)
The state average for Geometry was 43% in 2008.

Grade 10

Algebra II
 23% (2008)
 17% (2007)
 14% (2006)
 10% (2005)
The state average for Algebra II was 36% in 2008.

High School (Summative) Mathematics (Grade 9-11)
Data not available for this school (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
The state average for High School (Summative) Mathematics (Grade 9-11) was 68% in 2008.

Science
 24% (2008)
 20% (2007)
 23% (2006)
The state average for Science was 40% in 2008.

Biology/Life Sciences
 8% (2008)
 4% (2007)
 4% (2006)
The state average for Biology/Life Sciences was 35% in 2008.

English Language Arts
 27% (2008)
 18% (2007)
 26% (2006)
 22% (2005)
The state average for English Language Arts was 41% in 2008.

Chemistry
 21% (2008)
 17% (2007)
 12% (2006)
The state average for Chemistry was 41% in 2008.

Earth Science
Data not available for this school (2008)
Data not available for this school (2007)
Data not available for this school (2006)
The state average for Earth Science was 23% in 2008.

World History
 22% (2008)
 16% (2007)
The state average for World History was 33% in 2008.

Algebra I
 0% (2008)
 2% (2007)
 3% (2006)
 3% (2005)
The state average for Algebra I was 9% in 2008.

Geometry
 1% (2008)
 1% (2007)
 3% (2006)
 2% (2005)
The state average for Geometry was 12% in 2008.

Source: CA Dept. of Education, 2007-2008

Student Ethnicity at Paul Harding High School, Indiana.

Black, not Hispanic 85% 

White, not Hispanic 12%

Hispanic 3%

Asian/Pacific Islander <1%       

American Indian/Alaskan Native <1% 

Students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch program:  65% 

State Average: 36%

ISTEP Results (equivalent to California's CAHSEE)

Grade 9

English/Language Arts
 37% (2008)
 28% (2007)
 42% (2006)
 46% (2005)
The state average for English/Language Arts was 66% in 2008.

Math
 40% (2008)
 27% (2007)
 32% (2006)
 36% (2005)
The state average for Math was 70% in 2008.

Grade 10

English/Language Arts
 38% (2008)
 25% (2007)
 39% (2006)
 35% (2005)
The state average for English/Language Arts was 68% in 2008.

Math
 31% (2008)
 17% (2007)
 27% (2006)
 20% (2005)
The state average for Math was 66% in 2008.  Source: IN Dept. of Education, 2007-2008

White, not Hispanic 96%

Hispanic 2% 

Black, not Hispanic 1%

Asian/Pacific Islander 1%      

American Indian/Alaskan Native <1% 

Students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch program:  7%

State Average:  36%

ISTEP Results (equivalent to California's CAHSEE)

Grade 9

English/Language Arts
 88% (2008)
 88% (2007)
 81% (2006)
 86% (2005)
The state average for English/Language Arts was 66% in 2008.

Math
 93% (2008)
 90% (2007)
 87% (2006)
 89% (2005)
The state average for Math was 70% in 2008.

Grade 10

English/Language Arts
 88% (2008)
 85% (2007)
 87% (2006)
 85% (2005)
The state average for English/Language Arts was 68% in 2008.

Math
 88% (2008)
 83% (2007)
 87% (2006)
 83% (2005)
The state average for Math was 66% in 2008.

Source: IN Dept. of Education, 2007-2008

I couldn't find any National statistics on levels of education and ethnicity for all schools combined, but this was pretty much the state trend when researching them individually. There’s an obvious difference, so people need to stop blaming others, but instead take responsibility for their own failures and accept the fact they begin at an early age. And that points to the differences in our cultures, unless you’re blind or living in denial, Black and Hispanic’s don’t emphasize that education is important to their children, as much as Whites do, and that’s the root of the problem. Fix that, and everything else will fall into place.

No shock there, not anymore. But she had Obama on her show.  ?

Hey Oprah, if Sarah was Black, would she be on your show?

How disappointing. No wonder I stopped watching.

PARIS - France has denied citizenship to a veiled Moroccan woman on the grounds that her "radical" practice of Islam is incompatible with basic French values such as equality of the sexes.

The case will reignite debate about how to reconcile freedom of religion, which is guaranteed by the French constitution, and other fundamental rights, which many in France feel are being challenged by the way of life of some Muslims.

Le Monde newspaper said it was the first time a Muslim applicant had been rejected for reasons to do with personal religious practice.

"She has adopted a radical practice of her religion, incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes," said a ruling by the Council of State handed down last month and sent to Reuters on Friday to confirm a report in Le Monde.

The Council of State is a judicial body which has final say on disputes between individuals and the public administration.

Married to a French national, the woman arrived in France in 2000, speaks good French and has three children born in France.

She wears a black burqa that covers all her body except her eyes, which are visible through a narrow slit, and lives in "total submission" to her husband and male relatives, according to reports by social services. Le Monde said the woman is 32.

The woman's application for French nationality was rejected in 2005 on grounds of "insufficient assimilation". She appealed to the Council of State, which last month approved the rejection.

In the past, nationality was denied to Muslims who were known to have links with extremist circles or who had publicly advocated radicalism, which is not the case here.

The ruling comes weeks after a heated debate over whether traditional Muslim views were creeping into French law, prompted by a court annulment of the marriage of two Muslims because the husband said the wife was not a virgin as she had claimed to be.

Going to an extreme?
In the case of the Moroccan woman, Le Monde suggested the Council of State had gone to the opposite extreme by rejecting the woman's beliefs and way of life rather than accommodating them.

"Is a burqa incompatible with French nationality?" the newspaper asked.

The legal expert who provided a formal report on the case to the Council of State wrote that the woman's interviews with social services revealed that "she lives almost as a recluse, isolated from French society," Le Monde reported.

"She has no idea about the secular state or the right to vote. She lives in total submission to her male relatives. She seems to find this normal and the idea of challenging it has never crossed her mind," Emmanuelle Prada-Bordenave wrote.

Le Monde quoted Daniele Lochak, a law professor not involved in the case, as saying it was bizarre to consider that excessive submission to men was a reason not to grant citizenship.

"If you follow that to its logical conclusion, it means that women whose partners beat them are also not worthy of being French," Lochak said.

ahhh...I've always liked the French. Good for them. Maybe we should begin investigating to see who's assimilated sufficiently as well.

America does not adequately protect the human rights of noncitizens, says an investigator. He takes aim at increased detentions, saying they are overused.

By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 8, 2008

The United States has failed to uphold its international obligations to protect the human rights of migrants, subjecting too many to prolonged detention in substandard facilities while depriving them of an adequate appeals process and labor protections, a United Nations investigator said Friday.

In the international body's first scrutiny of U.S. treatment of its 37.5 million noncitizen migrants, U.N. investigator Jorge Bustamante took particular aim at what he criticized as the "overuse" of detention for immigrants. Noting that the annual detainee population has tripled in nine years to 230,000, he called on the United States to eliminate mandatory detention for certain migrants and instead expand the use of alternatives, such as electronic ankle bracelets.

Bustamante, who visited Los Angeles last year during a three-week fact-finding mission, also urged that migrants be given the right to legal counsel, more impartial hearings and improved holding facilities, particularly for women and children.

"The United States lacks a clear, consistent, long-term strategy to improve respect for the human rights of migrants," said his report, which was presented Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Bustamante serves as the body's special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.

In a statement to the council, the U.S. delegation called the report disappointing.

The report "focuses only on a narrow slice of the migrant population in the United States and makes no effort to recognize notable, positive aspects of U.S. migration policy," the statement said. "This results in an incomplete and biased picture of the human rights of migrants."

The delegation said the United States had one of the world's most generous immigration policies and offered more than 11 million migrants green cards, citizenship, asylum, refugee resettlement and temporary protected status between 2000 and 2006. The United Nations estimates that global migrants number 200 million, with the United States by far the largest haven, with 35 million as of 2000.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Kelly Nantel also criticized Bustamante, saying he did not adequately consider the voluminous information provided him by U.S. officials documenting migrant protections in place here.

Those include the right to seek administrative review of detention and deportation decisions, along with access to federal courts to challenge removal orders.

Bustamante "has made a number of inaccurate or misleading claims and has drawn sweeping conclusions that appear to be based on anecdotal evidence from a small sample of individuals, for which he fails to provide appropriate evidence and reasoning," Nantel said.

At the U.S. government's invitation, Bustamante visited seven cities last year to interview dozens of migrants, community activists, immigration attorneys and senior government officials. He toured the U.S.-Mexican border and visited a federal detention center in Arizona, but he was denied access to other facilities in Texas and New Jersey.

In his two-day visit to Los Angeles in May, Bustamante said he was concerned about "rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States" and took testimony about worker abuse, government raids, family separations and other issues. In his report, he wrote that xenophobia and racism toward migrants had worsened since the Sept. 11 attacks, with a particularly devastating effect on children, Afro-Caribbean migrants, and those perceived to be Muslim or ethnic South Asians and Middle Easterners.

But the report said that two federal laws passed in 1996 accounted for the biggest changes toward a stricter approach in U.S. immigration policy. Among other things, the laws increased the number of people subject to mandatory, prolonged and indefinite detention, including those who commit an expanded list of crimes such as minor drug offenses, the report said. The laws also reduced avenues of appeal and limited judges' discretion to grant migrants the right to remain in the United States.

The growing reliance on detention tears families apart and costs U.S. taxpayers $1.2 billion a year, the report said. In contrast, alternatives such as electronic monitoring are far cheaper -- about 20% of the cost of detention, according to a 2006 congressional report.

Human rights activists hailed the report as an important and independent voice that brings public attention to problems faced by migrants.

"The U.S. touts the importance of human rights abroad, but rhetoric doesn't match the reality at home," said Chandra Bhatnagar of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York. "All we are asking is to bring human rights home."

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

"The United States lacks a clear, consistent, long-term strategy to improve respect for the human rights of migrants," ?????

Pardon me while I LMAO!!!!!

How about "the migrants" implement a clear, consistent, long-term strategy to improve respect for the human rights of Americans? Because Americans, already do, and continue to improve their treatment of everyone around the world. Unbelievable! Break our laws, and then complain when you get caught and we enforce them. What are we, pushovers? To be used and abused to the criminals hearts content?

Jorge, are you insane? Seriously.

I was really pisst off at some of you who spoke up against illegal immigration and labeled you racists. I did it because I read some comments that I deemed cruel. Maybe I misunderstood you, or maybe you really are cruel- whatever! That aside, I would like to know, how in the heck someone can say: "Bustamante said he was concerned about "rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States" , when I just saw a news report on T.V. on how racially motivated attacks are down?

A representative for the ADL said that racially motivated attacks where down from last year. First the ADL says they're up, (I posted their articles) now they say they're down, but according to Bustamante, now there’s rising anti-immigration sentiment. YEAH RIGHT! So what’s it going to be next week? "Anti-Immigration sentiment is now down this week"....shut-up. What a load!

And Teresa, how about you ask actual immigrants, and how about legal immigrants for a change, what they think of this country and how American Citizens treat them? Oh, off the top of my head, how about me for instance? Well, lets see now, ever since I stepped foot in this country, American Citizens have been the ones who have shown me love, respect, compassion, helped me, educated me, given me a great quality of life and supported me. How about you write that huh?

The United States of America treats EVERYONE humanely & compassionately. I'm not saying we're perfect, we do make mistakes and there’s bad and good everywhere, BUT in general, we are the best country in the world and don't you forget it.  If we make a mistake, we fix it, and we hold ourselves accountable. (That’s just one reason that makes us a great Nation, there's many)

So how dare you United Nations? Get your story straight please.