You're NOT going to believe the additional facts that have come out about Markos (DailyKos) Alberto Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA. Read this: Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA's "Family Business" Pollutes Unique Salvadoran Lagoon and Threatens Wildlife Species.

The more we learn, the more it's clear that this "KOS" guy is bad, bad news. "!Mala onda!" They guy presents himself as a humble immigrant, but his family is filthy rich and is getting richer still polluting the estuary on which their hotel and condominium complex sits. AND THEY'VE GOTTEN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM THE US TREASURY TO DO THIS.

Por favor, lean lo que tengo escrito e publiquen en todas partes, porque este Markos - con sus seis meses reconocidos entreinando con la CIA - es un tipo MUY PELIGROSO para la política dos Estados Unidos y para nosostros que no somos hombres blancos. Kos representa la importación de la exportada política de las escuadrones de la muerte (banning and disappearance at DailyKos) y toda esa política de la dictadura de la oligarquia de El Salvador, promovida por el govierno de los Estados Unidos.

?Exagero?

Nez:

New Haven is home to Yale and also to a lot of poor folks. The Latin Kings are pretty active in New Haven, the last I heard. It could be that the act of giving people cards like these is one of enlightened self-interest. What I mean is that by letting the uninvited "guest workers" (what a fucked term that is) spend their money in the mainstream economy they can keep them from sending it home or turning to groups like the "Kings" for aid and succor.

BTW, Nez, how many packing houses or sod farms would it take to utilize all of the "legal" hispanic immigrants from Mexico and points south that are allowed by law each year. Something tells me, not many. This government's treatment of those immigrants is analogous to a wife beater who blames his spouse for his own shortcomings. Pitiful.

Gracias, Francis. You write some serious blog posts! Estoy de acuerdo, there is much to think on here. This subterfuge and omission of family business interests and activities is no small thing at all. And what really amazes me is that all these lefties that show so much passion over at DK, passion for the environment and such have no interest in this. THAT more than anything else really worries me. If it is progressive agendas they care for....then wtf? Truth, wtf? If anything, investigate it until you know what's going on. Wanna see a thousand comment thread? I could post on this using my old (abandoned) acct at DKos! Or maybe I'll just wait until I'm at the convention, and bring it up. ;)

Pd, you are a bit off-topic here. I understand...you wanted to drop it here for my readers. As an early comment on a new entry, tho, it threatens to sway the topic from the post I spent time on at five am or ss, today. Por favor, if you can next time, either drop such an off-topic comment on a post that is not the newest post, or at least not so early in the thread, where it might "hijack" conversation.

NOT that I don't think it is a very important post you link to, and points you make, and questions you raise.

Francis Holland, sir: As I guess you know, Zuniga is the maternal side of the family Moulitsas and while I am undecided as to how seriously your information affects anything that Kos or his group does, I am still waiting to read just in what way he is related to the hotel and salt people, and just how that is supposed to count for something. I will be continuing to read your research. At what point is your information going to break through to some location on the net other than your site and Nez's?

Damn, RC. Now the love I felt for New Haven has all but dissipated into yet another huff of cynicism. :) I kid. You make good points, thank you.

And you know I'm with you on the last graf.

Maternal, paternal, does that part really matter? I'd have to read all of Mr Holland's posts to fall more firmly on one side or the other of these accusations, because I somehow feel I am missing some info, too. BUT, even if the hotel industry is on his mother's side—if the rest of Mr. Holland's meticulous research holds up—I would at least expect someone so involved with US politics as Markos M. Z. to at least refute parts of the legacy that Francis writes about, a sort of "But this is what I'm about, here and today" etc. You know? If I believed more in the KosMachinery, I would spend more time on finding out, and perhaps I will spend some time on that soon. Because regardless of Mr Holland's possible motivations, you have to admit that to say nothing of this, given Kos' level of political involvement and influence via his site, is at the very least, remarkable, and at the most, highly suspicious. And that nobody has picked up on this even a bit is odd, too. Because I've seen bloggers go all Sherlock Holmes on the smallest of things...and yet with pages and pages of research and screenshots and links, Holland's pieces don't get around much, considering (tho a number of people can be seen linking, if you check Technorati). It seems a terribly selective attention and zeal for truth. Whatever that truth might turn out to be.

Geez, Nez, I wasn't at all cynical about New Haven, I was just saying something to Francis before I read your answer to him.
I LOVE what New Haven is doing. Maybe they have learned something from the New Haven riots of the sixties. Look that up if you might.
I had a friend who was the epitome of white racist {colorist for you Francis}, but he was also a psychiatric patient suffering paranoid schizophrenia. He was a New Haven cop who was removed from the force because in the investigation of the riot when he was asked why he shot a certain person in the back, he replied "Well, he was trying to run away."
Years ago {1994) my friend prepared to leave this world and took me aside. He said " You know, you are the only one I would say this to. I have spent the greatest part of my life dwelling on hate that has no basis in reality and if only I could live my life over again I would not be such a fool. I am so sorry for the life I have wasted." He committed suicide days later by cutting his throat and leaping into the sea, just to be sure. He had tried other times unsuccessfully, as I had had him recommitted.
If D. were here today I am very sure he would appreciate the changes that have occurred in New Haven.
When I read your post Nez, I of course remembered D.
I see the New Haven reality as a very hopeful sign.

I am also curious as to why no wider interest in Francis' research and who {aunt, cousin?} owns those enterprises.

thanks for elucidating, RC. it just seemed to me that "self-interest" rather than "leading the way with humane treatment," while compatible, still seems to frame things more cynically, qué no? which is okay! good point, as i said. there are economic factors that are also informing the humane action. the story of your friend is...moving. sad, tragic, beautiful. thank you for shoring up the cynicism in such a dramatic and unpredictable fashion. hope, yes. i am honored that you thought of your friend when reading this post.

and do you mind terribly, please, before telling me to go look something up, considering briefly that i just might know of facts of which i have not written in any given post? gracias, baby.

that cops response make me laugh. i mean, inside. no, not really. it made me sad. or angry. something. but it was funny. in a "murderous insane cop speaking the accidental truth" sort of way.

yeah, new haven is an odd duck like that. yale some how found itself parked next to a real bad neighborhood, and has been trying to spray perfume on it ever since.

a few things, in no particular order.

just days after this, federal immigration raids caught up a bunch of folks. no good deed goes unpunished.

yale is a traditionally liberal organization in many regards, in that it thinks it knows what's best for everybody. the failure of the presense of the school to lift the historically black neighborhoods that are within spitting distnace is thus somewhat of an oddity against this mindset. the result has been that in my time there, i have seen an ever growing cordon of police and security simply blocking campus off.

to my mind then, there's something there about yale activism in immigrant communities all the way over in fair haven (across town)...and the way in which tensions have emerged (and been purposefully inflamed) between black and latino communities over this issue. i can't quite put it to words, but i'd be looking this gift horse over very carefully.

that all said, it's also about damn time. bureocratic recognition is a pretty basic necessity, and this could be a step in the right direction. but it's gonna be pretty local. DeStefano is looking t for issues to raise his profile again, after losing to Rell for Gov. She, by the way, vetoed the CT Dream Act, which would have given undocumented immigrants access to in-state tuition.

there's always a story behind the story, eh? i really appreciate this info, sly.

This is a very interesting post. I have been noticing I have been receiving a high volume of hits either by Ice or the Border Patrol up in DC. It starting to make me wonder if they are getting ready for another raid and start targeting cities that are considered "safe havens." My father just came back from Iowa, he was telling about the raid that was done on the Swift plant for a project my father and his friend were doing. He had a chance to talk to some of the immigrants in Marshalltown. They asked where they were taking them, well the ones they detained are being scattered throughout the US and many of the families don't know where.

One of my biggest fears is that ICE target these safe haven towns just to put the fear in them and that dreaded message that there is nowhere they will be safe.

I like to hope that this is at least a not-wholly-bad thing, and thanks for posting about it, Nez. And even if people start faking having a good heart by doing good things out of self-interest, I would prefer the real end result of it over sincere asshole-ery from the start frankly.

Thanks for posting, and thanks to all your commenters for keeping it real. Lately, I've felt really disgusted with humanity in general, and white people in particular. I know that's messed up. It is good for me to hear of white people trying to do the right thing. I literally have to be reminded that it happens from time to time. Not to dump all my bitterness on your blog Nez. That's why I like it here--even when you are pissed you seem hopeful. You seem to have the good kind of anger. Right now, I've just got the throw-your-hands-up, hide in a basement lit by 1300 light bulbs kind of anger.

Back to the topic at hand, it doesn't even bother me if the id cards were issued with an eye to serving the white new haven community as well. This solution is better than locking up a bunch of brown people, or any of the other ways communities of color are dealt with.

Nez--The New Haven riots were very long ago, I'm not sure how old you are or how much history you study. Not having lived in the states since 1979 and being 55 years old, I often find that I have to explain a lot of my comments {those made in person} to statesiders I meet here. Suppose I mention Robert MacNamara to someone who is under 50, or even Henry Kissinger, nevermind Eisenhower-- well, they look at me funny. And the lesser known incidents that I think may not appear in the history books {like New Haven} I don't even mention because too much explaining to do. Victory Gardens is another one. Believe it or not I only know about the wartime gardens, the fact that there has been a Public TV show called The Victory Garden for decades, I just learned last week.
My friend D. the ex cop from New Haven, was a very talented artist and craftsman, extremely funny, very entertaining, but tragically flawed.
Sometimes I ask people to look things up because I just do not wish to go back in time and relive that period. I don't want to look it up myself. Too depressing.
Unfortunately, the present has many things I would like to avoid too.

I actually try to tone down my cynicism when I comment. I'll have to work on that more.

I might need a tag that says "human being" on it.

While I can applaud small steps. I will feel better about New Haven when everyone but the Yankee Patriot Association (or their ilk)is wearing the badges. The politicos are getting the message.

As was hinted, it may be a case of "enlightened self-interest" but that to me is one of the most positive signs. When small local governments begin to see the light, or the brown, that is good. However small, change is change. (Bigger changes they are-a-comin') There is an underlying concern (fear), not always addressed in words, about the future brown voting block. Our federal politicians know how effective the JDL and AIPAC are in their work, and if a similar PAC emerges in the brown interest, no district, state, or federal office will be "safe" in the future. They (the professional politicians)are at a cusp, a transitional point, in their attempts to placate the base they have, and the base they know "is-a-comin."

(That is also why, in my not always humble opinion, nothing will be done in the way of any immigration bill)

I really hope that this program goes through successfully. I know that recently the Maryland Court of Special Appeals heard a case where one of these so-called "patriot groups" (using 9/11 as a crutch, no less) tried to intervene in a case against the MVA for not providing facilities for Spanish-speaking residents. Status not even a factor in the case (even the woman's lawyer admitted she didn't know about the client's citizenship). It was the most appalling display of bullying I've seen. I don't expect they won their case, but I have to look it up. (I hope they didn't.)

But this ID program will be instrumental in helping people in general, legal or undocumented, from racist policing and profiling. I hope it passes all the required tests and government scrutiny, and that it's implemented in more locations.

"Right on, New Haven! And who would have thought you could be so cool, given the plastic cowboy of a "president" who hails from your state?"

You do realize that Bush wanted to sign the amnesty bill, right, and that his backing is a large part of the reason it got as far as it did? You can rightly paint him as a warmonger, but when you express surprise that a city in the state he hails from is going easy on undocumented immigrants, that just makes no sense at all. You should be honest and realize that yeah, he is a warmonger, but he sure as hell does love hispanics and even illegal immigrants.

On another note, here is an interesting article:
Debunking the Myth of Immigrant Criminality: Imprisonment Among First- and Second-Generation Young Men

By Rubén G. Rumbaut, Roberto G. Gonzales, Golnaz Komaie, and Charlie V. Morgan
University of California, Irvine

excerpt:
"....Second Generation

Incarceration rates increase significantly for all US-born coethnics without exception. That is most notable for Mexicans, whose incarceration rate increases more than eightfold to 5.9 percent among the US born; for Vietnamese (from 0.46 to 5.6 percent among the US born); and for the Laotians and Cambodians (from 0.92 percent to 7.26 percent, the highest of any group except for native blacks).......

Thus, while incarceration rates are found to be extraordinarily low among immigrants, they are also seen to rise rapidly by the second generation. Except for the Chinese and Filipinos, the rates of all US-born Latin American and Asian groups exceed that of the referent group of non-Hispanic white natives."
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=403

You should be honest and realize that yeah, he is a warmonger, but he sure as hell does love hispanics and even illegal immigrants.

oh darnit! here i go being dishonest again!

...eeeeeeeexcept that you mistake bush's allegiance to big business and their exploitation of mexican immigrants with "love." how sad for you. you see, the "love" i've known has nothing to do with cozying up to corporate factions at the expense of families and human rights. but HEY! there is alllll kinds of kink out there baby. don't kid me! i've seen the dubya rubber three prong suit! (who hasn't) lovin' it on ya.

on the statisticality of your latterness, what are you saying by telling me that my wave of generation mexican americans commits so much crime? aren't you worried i'll get angry and come and get felonious on your ass? ah, but don't worry about that. today i'm a man of paz. OH and pez! damn i love pez. pez crushed up and buttery-scraped over nativist toast. mmm.

It looks like XP was very right.

Yes. It's a pattern, I've noticed. Any city that shows "safe haven" status shortly after gets raided. This is not the first time. Sadly. I doubt it will be the last. Infuriatingly.

I'm trying to find info on an illegal immigrant that is still incarcerated in New Haven because ICE won't take custody of him. There was an article in the Register. I need this info . . . Can anyone help me out? Thanks.