Submitted by Tricia Perry on Mon, 11/26/2007 - 4:32pm
- Following a series of related deaths in North America, Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake has advised us that the United Nations has declared tasering to be a form of torture. Portugal has been urged to forgo use of its newly purchased tasers as the intense pain they inflict is in violation of the UN Convention Against Torture. We hope that this statement will encourage universal reconsideration of taser usage.
- The 'Just News' blog has cited a New York Times article reporting that the Bush administration has elected to revise its controversial 'no-match' policy on verifying the identities of American workers. Given that the new rules were suspended indefinitely by a federal judge in San Francisco, for their potential undue harm to citizens whose records are incorrect in the social security database, Bush and Homeland Security are working to issue new standards that will not provoke legal challenges. In the meantime, Homeland Security has begun training firemen to search for 'hostility to Americans' while fighting housefires.
- In criminal justice news, the ACSBlog has posted on a New York Times article on about the challenges faced by those newly-released prisoners who have been exonerated of criminal charges after DNA testing proved their innocence. Inteligenta Indiĝena Indigenismo Novaĵoservo reports that the US leads the world in condemning juveniles to life sentences.
- We've seen some uses of the community frame in the blogosphere of late: That "We" Feeling on the DMI Blog and Diversity Makes Our Home Much Sweeter on Immigration News Daily are two good examples.
- With respect to last week's celebration of Thanksgiving, a number of
blogs questioned the historical construction of the holiday. Latina Lista
notes that the Spanish had a feast with the Timucua Indians in Florida
fifty-six years before the arrival of the Pilgrims. The Native American Netroots blog argues that the holiday has more to do with violence than cooperation. And Rachel's Tavern posted a piece on alternative ways of teaching children about the Thanksgiving story.
- Finally, the ImmigrationProf blog tells the story of an undocumented man who came to the aid of a 9-year-old boy who was the lone survivor of a car accident in the Arizona desert on Thanksgiving day. According to a local sheriff:
"He stayed with [the boy], told him that everything was going
to be all right." As temperatures dropped, he gave him a
jacket, built a bonfire and stayed with him until about 8 a.m. Friday,
when a group of hunters passed by and called authorities.
After the boy was rescued by local authorities, 26-year-old Jesus Manuel Cordova was taken into custody by the border patrol. In a related article, the same blog notes that Hispanic journalists are urging the media to stop talking about immigration in a way that dehumanizes undocumented immigrants. As Cordova's story shows, undocumented immigrants cannot simply be written off as criminals. Rather, they are also compassionate, generous and helpful people who are willing to make sacrifices in order to protect those in need.
