I was going to change the title, but it was just too good for its own good. See, it happens!

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents raided a Carbondale man's home and threatened to deport him last week.

The problem is, he is a U.S. Citizen.

"It was six in the morning, and I was still sleeping and I heard the knocking," said Marco Guevara.

When he opened the door, immigration agents quickly offered him a one-way ticket back to Ecuador.

The kid already had a US passport!

Oh well, the best thing to do in these types of situations is just be prepared.

It's a known fact that this Great Recession as it's now being called helped no one. Employment is still at an all time low, foreclosures seem to appear all over the place, and somewhere someone is complaining about aliens. And because money has to be saved some way or another, states are turning towards services they find useless, but the disabled find absolutely important. How can cutting money-saving services lead to more money for a state, when it's only going to be more expensive in the end?

For Afton England, who lives in a trailer home here, the news came in a letter last week: Oregon, facing a $577 million deficit, was cutting home aides to more than 4,500 low-income residents, including her. Ms. England, 65, has diabetes, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, arthritis and other health problems that prevent her from walking or standing for more than a few minutes at a time.

Through a state program, she has received 45 hours of assistance a month to help her bathe, prepare meals, clean her house and shop. The program had helped make Oregon a model for helping older and disabled people remain in their homes...

... Nursing homes here cost the state an average of $5,900 a month; home and community-based services cost $1,500 a month.

Other states have made similar cuts.

If an aid provides home service for 30 hours week at an average of $9, it comes out to around $1400 a month. This is assuming that the aid (caregiver) gets paid the $9, because in Texas it's $7.25. Now, if the elderly and disabled are forced to move into a nursing home the expense obviously goes up, sometimes to more than $15 per patient because we're kidding ourselves if we're looking at these patients as people. No independent living, then we're better off dead.

It just doesn't make sense.

via 19th Floor

Two green cards slipped through the work mail slot and landed on my desk.

Ah yes. Success.

I am fast becoming the immigration queen. Just don't quote me on this. :p

See, I knew this had to happen eventually. If you feel like reading a book, but don't want to go to your local library to check it out, you now have another option, the virtual kind. And it's fully accessible:

For those who are blind, dyslexic or have diseases like multiple sclerosis and have difficulty turning book pages, reading the latest best seller just got easier.

Brewster Kahle, a digital librarian and founder of a virtual library called the Internet Archive, has launched a worldwide campaign to double the number of books available for print-disabled people

I looked at Open Library the other day and the site is easy to navigate and self-explanatory. It also seems that I don't have to be a member of my local library in order to use the service, which I wouldn't have minded either way.

I do however feel that I now need an ereader so I can join the party.

MSNBC is reporting that officials in Utah have identified at least two state workers responsible for mailing out a list containing Hispanic names allegedly believed to be undocumented immigrants.

Newspapers started receiving the list of names and personal information this week, and its publicity created widespread fear in the Hispanic community. The anonymous mailing said it also was sent to immigration officials. It demanded that those on the list be deported, although some named have said they are in the country legally.

Do these people not realize that everyday citizens take advantage of the benefits our country gives us? There are people who walk into the food stamp office with their expensive jewelry and over $100 cable bills, but no one bitches about them.

Some of the people of that list had legal status. They were residents, or VAWA/U visa holders. They were citizens, but they're only misfortune was that they were Hispanic. I'M HISPANIC. But I look white and have a German last name. Lucky me, right?

It's no excuse for all the racist b.s. that's going on.

I should temporarily change my name to my mother's maiden name and speak with an accent just to irk people for a while. Maybe that will make me feel better.

Me no speak English no more.

I have a co-worker with a death wish. Thursday before our weekly staff meeting I walk by his office and instead of hearing his usual 80's mix, "Jingle Bells" is playing on his computer. I ask him if he's feeling alright. He says he's great, and Christmas music puts him in a happy mood. I get to my office where I can still hear the music, and I just want to bash my head in.

Really? Christmas music? In July? At least the office manager agreed with me in thinking it was a little nutty. So today the IPod returned with me to work.

Unlike some venues here in the good ole US of A, South Africa is making sure that only wheelchair users purchase the accessible seating available for the games.

“MATCH has been selling tickets over the counter to wheelchair customers when they were available... This is due to the limited inventory and this is to make sure that any remaining inventory is sold to wheelchair users and not purchased by customers who do not truly need them,”

Now as to the location of the seating, well here's hoping one can still see if the crowd goes wild and actually decides to stand. Like the Alamodome here, where you're pretty much SOL.

Thanks Dis.

I love my job. It's stressful, maddening, unfair, but in the end I can come home on days like this and say it was completely worth it. Every second of it.

I'm an Accredited Representative. To those who work in the immigration field, it means I can legally represent immigrants, and my credentials extend into the courtroom. I help immigrants, but my niche is victims of crime. It means that I've seen and heard it all, and I'm amazed sometimes that I can just shut it all down when I leave work. Maybe that's why I've started up my little rambling site again...

And today two of my clients became legal permanent residents of the United States.

I thought about calling them victims, but the truth is they're not really victims anymore. They're survivors. They've escaped abusive households and have started to make better lives for themselves and their children. And this is just one more step towards citizenship.

So I'm celebrating because my clients got their green cards. Especially A. A. has a disability that left him with some loss of movement because of an accident. This didn't stop his wife from beating him when he tried to defend their children. Children who were being abused. Now A takes care of these kids, and they take care of him. I adore his kids, and they are going to be so happy to see his new card!

We hardly knew ye. Your yellow and green jerseys. Your juego bonito as the announcers fondly reminded us everytime you played. And how can we forget, Kaka. The player with the oh so interesting name.

Yes, Brazil. Holland beat you down. And I for one cannot stop celebrating. See you in four years.