I am generally an optimist, but there are days when as a minister and an advocate, I feel discouraged, especially when I'm being attacked from either the left or the right.But there are signs that we are moving towards a world of sexual justice.

That's a saying among the United Farm Workers, and this summer it is more fitting then ever.  Yesterday we mourned, Today we act, Tomorrow we will gain justice.

Since May, six farm workers in California have died from what appears to be heat-related causes.  This brings to 15 the number of farm workers whose death have been investigated as heat-related since Governor Schwarzenegger took office.

A motto of the United Farm Workers is Si, Se Puede!, which the Barack Obama campaign has borrowed in its anglo version as "Yes, we can!"

Senator Barack Obama adopted the English version "Yes, we can!" first during the 2004 Illinois Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate, and it has become a mantra of his 2008 presidential campaign.

Wikipedia: Sí se puede

Come around after the fold and I'll show you how we can work together to save lives in California. Si, Se Puede!  Yes, we can!

U.S. Appeals Court to Rehear Case of Deported Canadian

http://www.nytimes.com/...

Six California farm workers have died since May from what appears to be heat related causes.  The latest one was Maria de Jesus Alvarez, 63, mother of nine, who died early this month.  The first one to die was 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, who died in May.  Marie was about a month pregnant when she died, and likely did not ever know she was pregnant. The state fined the labor contractor $262,700 for failing to follow heat illness prevention regulations at the time Jimenez was stricken, but that won't bring her back. And the deaths have continued at an accelarated pace since then.

You can help to end this tragedy. This Monday, August 18, more than 800 farm workers from throughout California want to go to Sacramento to lobby the Legislature on a key bill that will help them help themeselves. They want the chance to tell the Governor and their elected officials to support AB 2386, "Secret Ballot Elections for Farmworkers," which has moved out of the assembly and which will be voted on that afternoon in the state senate.  

How you can help, after the fold.

I have been writing about this story since May.  (after the fold are links for diaries for background).  Yet another farmworker has died from the heat. This is the sixth this summer.

Maria de Jesus Alvarez, 63, mother of nine, died from heat exposure in the fields on August 2.  Her death makes six farm workers who died of heat exposure since May and the 15th farm worker heat death since California Governor Schwarzenegger took office.  Even one is too many.  Six this year is a tragedy.  These deaths show that the state of California is unable to protect farm workers.  

We must act.  We must force action by the state to allow farm workers to protect themselves.  For there are no others to do so.

If you care, join me after the fold.

For the past 7.6 years, the Federal judiciary has been proactively packed with conservative jurists.  This past week has been a preview of what we can expect to see from them.

1.)  This one.  (Paraphrase:  Intentionally using a jackhammer outside the church every Sunday may hurt worshippers, but it is not illegal)

2.)  This one.  (Paraphrase:  Public sector trustee responsibility is less than ordinary trustee responsibility)

3.)  This one.(Paraphrase:  Treason is now legal if a government official commits it)

4.)  This one.  (Paraphrase:  Screw those AK fishermen and natives even more)

Having worked at the Department of Justice, I was particularly torqued about the hiring scandal under the wildly incompetent Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.  I thought Monica Goodling, the criminally corrupt White House Liaison who interviewed people and asked questions like "What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?" and "Why are you a Republican?" represented the worst of Washington, and, frankly, broke the law.

Turns out I was right

So my boss at work, in this big corporation where I slave away regularly, murdered my son.

I'm really angry about it, but you know what?  I just got promoted to the boss's job, and the boss is retiring, so it's really not so bad!

Now that I'm in charge, I can replace all of his cronies, including the guys who covered up my son's murder, and the people who actually helped him do the deed.

It's all okay now, because they're out.  And I'm in.

Hello, Ivan, my old freind, I've come to speak with you again.

I hope this message finds you well. How are things?

It's been so long since we have spoken. I miss you.

You don't want to hurt me,
But see how deep the bullet lies.
Unaware, I'm tearing you asunder.
Ooh, There is thunder in our hearts.

Is there so much hate for the ones who love?
Tell me we both matter don't we?

You,
It's you and me,
It's you and me who won't be unhappy.
-- Kate Bush, Hounds Of Love, Running Up That Hill

I sometimes find inspiration and enlightenment in music. It so happens that at times listening to a talented artist can reach a place in me that reason and logic cannot penetrate. I hope that Kate Bush will not mind so much that I'm quoting her lyrics on a political blog. I know next to nothing about her politics, only that her music has nearly always brought me hope.

This is a big story.  I heard Ron Suskind being interviewed on NPR this morning. There's also a Rec List diary on this story and I invite you to read it.  Bombshell: White House ordered forged document to sell war

I have some more details on this story.  Author Ron Suskind appeared on the Today show and said that Bush ordered the CIA to forge a letter after the invasion linking Saddam Husein and al-Qaeda, in an effort to justify the invasion after the fact. His new book is "The Way of the World."

President Bush committed an impeachable offense by ordering the CIA to to manufacture a false pretense for the Iraq war in the form of a backdated, handwritten document linking Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, an explosive new book claims.

msnbc.com; Today

I have more, including a link to video, after the fold,  

It's (almost) unbelievable that this could happen to anyone under American law.

The first person to be tried in a military tribunal at Guantanamo will remain incarcerated no matter the verdict. Concerns remain about the procedure's fairness.

By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 4, 2008

Clip of article is below the fold.

In the wake of improbable events, like the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, we should
Consider all possible explanations.
  Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, but fiction can illuminate truth.  Often the travels of fiction disappoint or outrage, but as Carly Haskins, President of the Carnegie Institution in 1963 said, "A society committed to the search for truth must give protection to, and set a high value upon, the independent and original mind, however angular, however rasping, however socially unpleasant it may be; for it is upon such minds, in large measure, that the effective search for truth depends."  
   The author of the story below would not presume to be an "original and independent mind". The story enclosed is it fiction?  Perhaps.  It is woven from news reports.  It can be seen as a means to view recent events, events that have held the stage as explanation for nearly every act, in a different light. Though to do so today is near treason, or brings on questions of one's sanity.  We have all the answers.  We do not need to deal with messy details. Our ideology demands a struggle between East and West.

The time is almost upon us, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm feeling a sense of urgency to start out shouting, out screaming and straight up kicking some rethugican butt...

With the loss of rational proof of God's existence, we now turn to Occam's Razor in an effort to rescue some sort of proof of God's existence. Occam's Razor, in a nutshell, states that, all other things being equal, the simplest explanation is usually the right one. While we rejected the conventional rational proofs of God's existence, we left open the possibility that he still exists. And then comes Occam's Razor -- if all other things are equal, then the simplest explanation is usually the best -- and the simplest explanation is that God caused the Big Bang which caused the Universe to begin.

There is no doubt in the minds of even Sen. McCain’s supporters that most unfortunately and regrettably too this admired and veteran senator have recently set the all time record in approving the most lopsided, demeaning, unpatriotic, desperate and the most bizarre advertisement in the current political dispensation in which he attempts to characterize Sen. Obama, a fellow American and presidential rival to celebrities such as Paris and Britney.

I have been writing for months on the deaths of farm workers in California from the heat.

United Farm Workers Calls for Manslaughter Charges Against Company in Death of 17 Year Old  

How many Farmworkers must die before someone cares??

Please Tell Fallen Farm Worker's Family We Care

"How much is the life of a farm worker worth? Is it less than the life of any other human being?"

Another farm worker died from the heat today.  5 in the last three months.

Come around after the fold for the sad news and what we can and must do to prevent more deaths.

Courtesy of the good folk at Think Progress comes this story about the arraignment of the four Iowans who attempted to conduct a Citizen's arrest of Karl Rove back on July 25th.

UPDATED: Added link to the Think Progress story, not just TP.