Shooting for the Okanagan!

We re-filed our visa papers today. Being raised in South Central Texas, people often ask why I want to live in a place where you can only run around naked 3 months out of the year.

First, I have the ability to go well beyond the training available to me in the U.S.:

Then, there is the view from the home of our dear friends and sponsors. It is a beautiful place that inspires my artistic side and calms my other side. You may recognize this shot from my very first blog post:

For those of you who think this was photoshopped, I share this video taken in the same yard:

To top it off, we would have the opportunity to live with our dear friends and sponsors, the O'Briens:

Life is an amazing adventure and everything seems to point us North right now. We will miss Austin (if our visas are approved) with our entire being. Austin has been our home, close to our families, surrounded and supported by amazing friends. It is a warm, dynamic city of dreams, creativity, music, magic and possibilities. I will miss it and it's weird inhabitants so very much.

I will be returning regularly to the United States, even while I am in school. I have friends, family and clientele that demand it. Plus, I'm not allowed to work in Canada while I am studying and someone needs to pay for my extravagant lifestyle. Ha!

Art Refugee

Hiding twixt the lines of of this world and that
An art refugee searches for a place of harmony
Drawing near, one senses her peace
Wrapped in anticipation, bathed in thankfulness
Home; studied and chosen. But, will they accept her?
She waits.

I Blame Rick Mercer

We have been working on immigrating to Canada for quite a while now. We recently received our application back (again) from the Canadian Consulate in New York.  This time, advising us that they were no longer handling these requests and all must now be sent to Sydney, Nova Scotia.  

Until November, there were over 700 acceptable occupations allowed to apply for permanent residency as skilled workers(the step before citizenship)...Now there are only 38 occupations in the skilled worker class. It is as if they are slamming the border shut. 

I blame Rick Mercer!

World Banks Donate $100bn to Bail Out U.S. Sub-Prime Markets

The answer is more credit!!!

The worlds banks are joining together to make more than $100 billion *"available" this month.

The Federal Reserve is injecting $40 billion; the Bank of England $46.4 billion, the European Central Bank $20 billion, the Swiss National Bank $4 billion and the Bank of Canada is providing $3 billion. Sumitomo Mitsui, one of Japan's 3 largest banks was asked to invest $5 billion in a fund to bail out banks with sub-prime losses, but has not committed to it yet.

*By "making available", they mean dump money into our markets to try to bail out the economy as it is sliding due to the collapse of our sub-prime market.

So what is the credit crunch all about?

From the National Post's "Financial Post", Drew Hasselback stated:

Banks are hoarding cash against possible losses on investments related to the U.S. mortgage market, in which even borrowers with poor credit ratings were able to get loans. The problems in the wonky U.S. mortgage market are now so widespread that commercial banks are reluctant to lend to each other because the true extent of their mortgage losses remains unknown.

Too many funds are tied up in complicated, mortgage-related investments that can't be instantly unwound. This puts a strain on investors who want to pull their money out of the markets immediately. It also puts a strain on banks who want to loan money to customers. Because they're so busy trying to pay out the investors racing out of the market, the banks have less cash available for people who need loans.

The measures announced on Wednesday are supposed to make it easier for banks to access more cash. This extra "liquidity" would make it easier for banks to pay out the investors who want out of the market, and to provide loans to those who want to borrow.

It must be the fault of immigrants!

Did I mention that Congress just passed a defense policy bill that will authorize $696 billion in military programs, including $189 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Things that make you go, "hmmmmmmmmmm".

Thank you to my lovely wife for giving me the heads-up on this one. It was difficult locating information on the story ...especially within the U.S. press.

Tom Tancredo - Fear Monger - Approves this Message

Tom Tancredo is consistent if nothing else. Here is his most recent ad:

Be afraid of Islamists, be afraid of immigrants, be afraid, be afraid.

Pass the Pepto-Bismol.

Chertoff: Illegals Degrade the Environment

My blog entry for International Blog Action Day for the Environment:

This is an interesting article where Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff states that Illegals degrade the environment:

"I've seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas," Chertoff said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "And believe me, that is the worst thing you can do to the environment."

Of course, he thinks nothing of the 670 miles of fencing the U.S. is putting up along it's southwest border that will likely have a direct impact on the surrounding environment and animals attempting to reach water. (Projected completion: year-end 2008.)

Remember what East German citizens were told as the Berlin Wall was being built? It was for their own protection...to keep out the fascists. Now the Bush administration and many of our "representatives" claim we need to build a wall for our own protection...to keep out the Islamofascists.

What do you think?

We're back!

It was a fantastic trip and we could have stayed forever...if it were not for immigration laws.

I got lots of pictures and will be working furiously on the book.

I am re-energized and excited about getting everything done to get our emigration process moving in the right direction.

Blackout on U.N. Inspector Barred from Hutto Detention Facility

UN Human Rights Inspector Barred from Hutto Detention center in Taylor, TX!!!

&

CCA has been granted an exemption from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services!!!

(Hutto Detention Facility)

The UN human rights office in Geneva has stated that, Dr. Jorge Bustamante, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, was scheduled to tour the Hutto facility on Monday as part of an official fact-finding mission. But according to news reports, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has denied U.N. Inspectors access to the facility.

They knew the inspection was coming and made a conscious decision to bar them.

Wake Up America!!!

(picture courtesy of Mother Jones.com)

From the Eye On Williamson blog:

Last week, from documents (Linked here - part 1 and part 2 [.PDF]) sent to us from Dave Maass of the San Antonio Current, EOW has learned that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) applied for and was granted an exemption from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). It’s interesting that CCA would want to keep DFPS out of its facility.

An article from December of 2006 from the Texas Civil Rights Review:
Citizens denounce Hutto jail before county commissioners.


I will follow this article up with more details as time and leads allow.

Police Attack Journalists at Protest

Late last night, I turned on the TV. As there was little on, I flipped channels until I got to our Spanish-speaking channel and realized they were talking about an immigration protest in L.A.. I watched the video and was disgusted. Not only did I see police swinging batons at parents heads as they ran from the melee with toddlers in their arms, I saw the police (without provocation) attack a TV news crew (or two). They struck from behind, knocking them to the ground, kicking them and beating them with batons. The still below is from one of the videos. The girl in the white shirt is a TV reporter trying to help up her cameraman who was clubbed, thrown to the ground and kicked. As she moves to help him up, an officer strikes her from behind. I'm hoping the full video will appear on the web soon.


The police, as usual, claim that anarchists not involved in the protest threw rocks and a bottle...so they attacked the crowd of families and journalists. It is interesting that this is the same claim they make over and over when the police state lashes out against its enemy: the public.

When is this country going to skip a night or two of Tivo and attempt to regain control of our local, state and federal "law enforcement"? Has anyone seen this on white-people TV? I know I haven't.

Quotable Quote

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

From the poem 'New Colossus', by the nineteenth-century American poet Emma Lazarus. It is inscribed on a tablet within the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty Stands.