E Pluribus Unum

From Many, One. It's right there on the money, it's our national motto, and it's what made our country great. Consider for a moment the poem on the Statue of Liberty, the door through which many of our ancestors passed seeking freedom from an impossible economic stucture and the liberty to create a better situation.

"The New Colossus"

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land,
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome, her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin-cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she,
With silent lips. "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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

1883

Immigrants have made this country great. Their hard work ethic, their fondness for innovation, their intelligence, fueled by the desire to speak several languages, and their insistance on equal rights which all helped US businesses and their leaders to prosper and created a thriving middle class. All of which were stifled in their country of origin - they needed to come here to make it happen.

From outside the US, the world used to see the US as the creator of the great music of jazz, drawing from all cultures to result in a unique music with afficionados world wide, the originators of flight, fighters against the German facism and Russian totalitarianism, and a place that stood up for the underdog, a place where humble immigrants prospered to the extent that their women didn't need to work outside the house to survive.

Now, that view has been changed. The US now exports crappy commercial music and propaganda films showing everyone living like millionaires, Boeing aircraft that cram passengers like sardines, a foreign policy that supports dictators and totalitarianism, a place that stands up for the richest of the rich, and a place now unwelcome to immigrants where both man and woman need to work full time just to survive, while their children are raised on television programming.

How things have changed. Many of the anti-immigrants' ancestors fought to a bloody death for forced immigration of poor Africans just a few generations ago, and Georgia, for example was even started as a penal colony. Now not even voluntary immigrants with no prior criminal record are allowed.

To make matters even worse, the US now demands the right to go around the world extracting resources, through free one-way trade, while closing the borders to those who would seek to follow their resources or buy US businesses. The US provides forceful support to ruthless dictators and oligopolies that destroy comfortable living conditions around the world, but then cry foul when those affected seek to enter the states.

US immigration laws are a far cry from the spirit of our national motto, and the spirit in which the Statue of Liberty, a formerly defining monument, was gifted to us. The tired, the poor, the huddled masses, the wretched refuse, the homeless have changed their tune. Now, the poor huddled masses are refused a visitors' visa even if they can save the money for airfare and vacation. To get an entry visa, just to visit and not even to work, one must prove that he or she has a stable, well paying job in their country of origin and family or friends to visit in the states. I've never heard of anyone, not friends of friends of friends of friends, not anyone who's ever received a working visa who hasn't married a US citizen or been an US supported aristocrat fleeing popular movements that led to their overthrow. So to those who say our current undocumented immigrants are illegal and they should have followed the immigration laws, I say that's just another way of saying to them, "Stay where you are while we make your life a living hell there by extracting resources and supporting repressive regimes. At least we're not systematically doing the actual murdering, like in Iraq - things could be worse if we weren't so stretched out."

The Statue of Liberty's initials are now more fitting for immigrants than the original intent - S.O.L., or shit out of luck. Someone needs to put out the torch.

If we had stopped immigration after the English arrived, we'd all be eating English food. Think about that for a while and try a kidney pie with blood pudding.

Iraqi Minister Backs Iran on Nuclear Research

Doh! US neocon leaders foiled again. $280 billion in 'aid' doesn't buy much influence these days.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 26 — Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari of Iraq today endorsed the right of Iran to pursue the "technological and scientific capabilities" needed to create nuclear power for peaceful purposes, in the first high-level meeting between officials from the new Iraqi government and its eastern neighbor.

General who Eavesdropped on Public is new CIA Chief

By Rupert Cornwell
Published: 09 May 2006

President Bush yesterday named Michael Hayden, a four-star air force general, to be the new director of the CIA, with the task of rebuilding the effectiveness and morale of the battered US spy agency.

General Hayden, a 30-year veteran of the intelligence world, is well regarded by both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. However, President Bush, who hit a new low of 31 per cent in a USA Today/Gallup poll yesterday, faces stiff opposition to his selection in some quarters.

General Hayden is expected to face tough questioning both for his military background and his role superintending the warrantless domestic eavesdropping programme by the ultra-secret National Security Agency, which he led between 1999 and 2005. But his confirmation by the Senate seemed in little doubt last night.

Since 2005 he has been deputy to John Negroponte, named last year as the new US intelligence "tsar" to co-ordinate the work of the country's 15 separate intelligence agencies. General Hayden's immediate task will be to reinvigorate the CIA, sapped by leak allegations and the loss of many senior officials who were dismissed or forced out by the previous director, Porter Goss. Mr Goss stepped down last week, under pressure from Mr Negroponte and fierce criticism on Capitol Hill.

Mr Negroponte said Stephen Kappes, the popular CIA deputy director of operations ousted in late 2004 by the incoming Goss team, would return to his old job under General Hayden. The new chief, however, will face familiar turf wars with Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon, which accounts for the lion's share of the estimated $40bn (£22bn) US intelligence budget.
President Bush yesterday named Michael Hayden, a four-star air force general, to be the new director of the CIA, with the task of rebuilding the effectiveness and morale of the battered US spy agency.

General Hayden, a 30-year veteran of the intelligence world, is well regarded by both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. However, President Bush, who hit a new low of 31 per cent in a USA Today/Gallup poll yesterday, faces stiff opposition to his selection in some quarters.

General Hayden is expected to face tough questioning both for his military background and his role superintending the warrantless domestic eavesdropping programme by the ultra-secret National Security Agency, which he led between 1999 and 2005. But his confirmation by the Senate seemed in little doubt last night.

Since 2005 he has been deputy to John Negroponte, named last year as the new US intelligence "tsar" to co-ordinate the work of the country's 15 separate intelligence agencies. General Hayden's immediate task will be to reinvigorate the CIA, sapped by leak allegations and the loss of many senior officials who were dismissed or forced out by the previous director, Porter Goss. Mr Goss stepped down last week, under pressure from Mr Negroponte and fierce criticism on Capitol Hill.

Mr Negroponte said Stephen Kappes, the popular CIA deputy director of operations ousted in late 2004 by the incoming Goss team, would return to his old job under General Hayden. The new chief, however, will face familiar turf wars with Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon, which accounts for the lion's share of the estimated $40bn (£22bn) US intelligence budget.