Unicornhat Mounts Drive to Oust Haters

From the Dayton Daily News

Butler County mounts drive to oust illegal immigrants
Program touted as first of its kind in the country
By Mary Lolli

Cox News Service

HAMILTON | Less than 24 hours after President Bush announced a national initiative to reduce the numbers of illegal immigrants living in the United States, Butler County officials launched a county initiative to rid the county of undocumented, foreign-born residents.

Friday, Sheriff Richard K. Jones, county Commissioner Michael Fox and state Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Hamilton, announced a multi-tiered program they said is the first of its kind in the country.

Beginning Monday, Jones said he will be requiring a declaration of citizenship from all inmates booked into the county jail.

Combs said he is drafting legislation that will make it a state offense for illegal immigrants to cross Ohio's borders.

Fox is working on initiatives to discourage employers from hiring illegal immigrants.

The three said they began working on the issue six months ago, but shelved it when racial tensions boiled over in Hamilton after a Hispanic man was accused of raping a girl.

In retaliation, two teenage boys set the house on fire, destroying it.

The suspect remains a fugitive police said and may have fled to Mexico.

According to national figures federal officials released Thursday, an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants are living in the United States and another 3 million are expected to enter the country by year's end.

Although officials have no estimates on the number of illegal immigrants living within the county, Jones said that in the past two years more than 600 inmates had been booked into the county jail without Social Security numbers, which he said makes them undocumented persons.

In the past year, 885 foreign born people had been booked into the jail, some documented, some not.

"It cost us $1 million alone to house just those who were booked into our jail without Social Security numbers," Jones said. "It's more likely than not that an adult living in the United States without a Social Security number is an illegal alien."

Under the new booking program, Jones said detectives will double-check the inmate's citizenship information against his or her birth records.

Those in jail on misdemeanor offenses who falsify their information or are found to be illegal immigrants, will be reported to the federal department of Immigration and Naturalization Services for possible immediate deportation.

Those jailed on a felony offense will first stand trial and then face possible deportation.

To force INS officials to take the local measures seriously, the sheriff said he intends to bill the federal government $70 a day for every illegal immigrant housed at the county jail.

"We're not saying we don't want immigrants to come here and try to make a life for themselves in America," Combs said.
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Let these haters know what you think, and where they can shove their ignorance:

Rep. Courtney Combs
77 S. High St
12th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
Telephone: (614) 644-6721
Fax: (614) 644-9494
district54@ohr.state.oh.us

Commissioner Michael A. Fox
Butler County Board of Commissioners
Butler County Government Services Center
315 High Street, Sixth Floor
Hamilton, Ohio 45011-6061
Phone Number: (513) 887-3247
Fax Number: (513) 887-3505
foxma@butlercountyohio.org


Sheriff Richard Jones (who, according to his website, has adopted the, gasp, Non-English motto of "Spectemur Agendo" or Let us be judged by our actions. Indeed we will)
705 Hanover St.
Hamilton, OH 45011
1-800-553-1497
513-887-3029
webmaster@butlersheriff.org

Icon vs Reality

I got word yesterday that MTV and Paramount have bought the rights to Marla's life story and are in the process of producing a film about her life, staring Kirsten Dunst as our Marla. This has unleashed a flood of emotions in me that have me feeling like we lost her all over again. But this is just one episode in a string of things that have upset me since her death (besides the very basic and gut wrenching fact that she is gone at all).

Overall I feel like since the day she died, people have been using her death (not her life) as a tool to further their own agenda. This includes people from both sides of the "aisle" so to speak. You have your fuck faced David Horowitzs out there saying that marla was guilty of treason and that she painted the brave people of the armed services in a bad light, and she was just out to bring down the U.S. then you have your super left wing fuck faces out there sitting behind their computers all day long with their supposed moral righteousness blaming her for not being "pure" enough in her ideals, not speaking out against the war strongly enough, not protesting enough, becoming a media darling apologist for the bush regime etc etc.

WTF people?! both of these portrayals are so wrong and so untrue to Marla's life and memory. They don't really have anything to do with marla AT ALL. They aren't about HER. They are about an iconic vision that they want to paint in order to make their point. I'm disgusted. I'm outraged. To the right wing ass holes who don't even listen to the actual military who they are supposedly "supporting" I say: i wish it were you that had been killed. To the left wing "protesters" I say: what the fuck have you done lately to actually ease the suffering of the innocent people who are being harmed by the Bush regimes policies that you are so self righteously opposing and protesting?

Most people who are protesting the war and the atrocities that are happening in the name of the United States, ostensibly are doing so because they care about the people who are innocently being affected. So why tear into and question Marla's motives/actions. She was so affected and so hurt by what we do and have done all the world over to make innocents suffer that she worked her ass off to ease that suffering IN A REAL WAY. Not just ideologically. When we were living in Jerusalem, she would stand up and debate with anyone who didn't agree that the occupation had to end, as it was unjust and was causing pain and suffering for innocent Palestinians, not just those who perpetrated attacks on innocent civilians from the other side. But IN ADDITION to writing papers, debating, working against demolitions of houses etc., she also volunteered her time at a daycare in a Palestinian refugee camp, taking the kids to the zoo, playing with them, hugging them, loving them. She wasn't just against injustice on an intellectual or academic level, she really truly felt the pain of each individual as if they were a member of her family, and dealt with the situation how, I hope, most people would if it were THEIR family member experiencing the injustice and pain. You would do the most pragmatic things possible to end the suffering, and change the situation at the same time. Even if that meant swallowing some things from time to time.

I just wish people would stop using and misjudging Marla to the public in order to make their point.

Back to the movie/Kirsten Dunst thing. All I can think of is "Bring it On" because that movie is one of my stepdaughter's favorites, and it upsets me that they didn't pick a more serious actor to "play" her. But if they do end up making a good and honest and compassionate and MOTIVATING film, then its a good thing to pick a big Hollywood actress for it, in order to bring more folks to the theater that might not have come elsewise. But at this point I could also see it going the route of the overly sexualized, ditsy "memories" of Marla that have been floating around publicly since her death. I guess only time will tell. Maybe my problem is less in who is "playing" her than the fact that ANYONE has to do it. I just want her back, and for HER to portray herself. I want all this media attention to have happened while she was alive. While she could revel in it, and use it to HER end goals.

Marlita baby I miss you, I wish you could tell me what you think of all of this.

Don't even bother

Some of you may remember a post of mine a while back about caseworkers in Ohio taking it upon themselves to question people's immigration status based on their last name sounding "foreign" or not.

how do you decide whether you are going to question a person's citizenship status or not? I guess you could take on the onerous work of verifying every applicant's citizenship status, but how realistic is that in an already heavily overburdened highly bureaucratic system that the whole country is saying is eating up too much money as is?

Well, apparantly some in the Ohio legislature thought that was a good idea, and lo and behold, we now have HB 358, which seeks to impose citizenship verification on all people applying for Medicaid in Ohio. Apparantly, our legislature doesn't have much to do but figure out how to spend more money to make people less likely to get health insurance. But wait! you say... won't this save us money in the long run, what, with all those non-citizens trying to get health insurance for themselves on our dime? Well, considering that Ohio's non-citizen population tops out at about 2%, and in order to apply for yourself you must provide a social security number, you don't have a whole lot of folks clamouring to give the government a fake SS# so that they will be deemed eligible. But what you will have as a result of this bill is more people who are eligible for the program not being enrolled.

The main thing that keeps eligible people from getting enrolled in Medicaid is lack of turning in all the required documentation. This bill will add to those documentation requirements, effectively keeping eligible people off the rolls, while making more work for the caseworkers. Crazy Horse, looks like you're out of luck too.

Contact Rep. Wagoner, the guy from Toledo who introduced the bill. Let him know what you think about him spending your tax money to hate on folks. Here is his info:

Address:
77 S. High St
11th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
Telephone: (614) 466-1731
Fax: (614) 644-9494
Email Address: district46@ohr.state.oh.us