Mayor of Alamitos, CA sends Racist Email about our President in the White House

Unbelievable! As our President strives for unity and non-partisanship to bring our nation together through this period of Global Economic strife, the Mayor of Alamitos, CA sends a racist email ridiculing our President with a vile, racial stereotype. Then, when asked to respond, he doesn't realize the error of his ways! Unbelievable!!

OC Register reports:

LOS ALAMITOS - The mayor has sent an apology for an e-mail sent to a local businesswoman and community volunteer that she says is racist and offensive.
Keyanus Price, an African American, said she was appalled when she received an e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose's personal account that showed a picture of the White House with a watermelon patch imposed as the White House garden. "I was horrified when I read that e-mail," Price said. "What I'm concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?" Being a public official, Price said, made the matter worse. "He's putting the city into a bad place, and he is a liability," Price wrote in an e-mail.
Grose sent an e-mail apology to Price, her boss and the City Council saying he did not intend to be offensive. He also called and left Price a message, he said. "It was just poor judgment on my part, and I am deeply sorry," he said. "It wasn't meant to hurt her."
The council received the e-mail from Price's boss and also received a copy of the apology. Councilman Ken Stephens said he didn't receive the original e-mail. "Being totally out of the loop on this one, I think I would be speaking out of turn if I said anything about it," he said. "I would think that anything like that at all would be inappropriate but, again, I haven't seen the e-mail." Calls to the other three Los Alamitos council members were not returned.
Price said she wanted a public apology for the e-mail and today contacted The Orange County Register to share the brief exchange that took place on Sunday.
Grose's e-mail included the picture with a heading that read, "No Easter Egg hunt this year."
"I think he's saying that since there's a black president, there will be no need to hunt for eggs since they're growing watermelons in the front yard this year," Price wrote. She responded to the e-mail with: "Hey, that's not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon… you should know better than that."
Grose replied: "The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests." Price said Grose's response upset her more.
"As soon as I saw his response; that put me over the top because it was no big deal to him," she said.
Price and Grose have worked together in the past – they both sit on the board of the Youth Center, and she often works with city officials in the community representing her employer. The two have exchanged e-mails in the past. In his apology to Price via e-mail, Grose wrote that he was not representing himself as a public official. "It was not sent to a whole bunch of people, and it went through my personal e-mail," he said. "People e-mail things all the time, but that's not an excuse."

Obama Speaks before Joint Session of Congress: Glimmer of Hope Amid Economic Crisis

"WE WILL RECOVER!"
"The time to take charge of our future is here"
Stimulus Plan:
Priorities: 3.5 Million New Jobs; Reduce Foreclosures
Focus on:
1. Energy: Clean, Renewable Energy
2. Healthcare: Cant afford to put it on hold. Time is now!
3. Education: Expand and Improve Early Education. College Affordable.
The Washington Post Reports:
President Obama plans to sound a note of hope at a time of crisis tonight, delivering to a joint session of Congress an address heavily focused on the ailing economy and how to fix it. Five weeks into a presidency already marked by dramatic highs and lows, Obama will tell the lawmakers and luminaries assembled in the House chamber that he sees light at the end of the tunnel, despite rising unemployment, a cratering stock market, teetering banks and an auto industry gasping for breath.
"But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," Obama will say, according to a preliminary excerpt released by the White House.
Obama will lay out his economic recovery plans and discuss the challenges of trying to pull the nation out of its worst recession in decades while setting a course of greater fiscal discipline, according to the White House. Obama is expected to flesh out the details of an economic strategy that some critics - and the markets - have tarred as too short on specifics to inspire confidence. A week after the president signed a $787 billion economic stimulus package, his administration is moving on separate fronts to shore up the housing market by stemming foreclosures and bolster the banking industry, possibly by purchasing shares of Citigroup and Bank of America.
After days of mostly negative news, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a glimmer of optimism today by testifying that 2010 could be a "year of recovery." "The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach," Obama will say, according to the excerpts.
"They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more."
But Obama will also distribute some blame for the economic crisis.
"We have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election," he will say. "A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day."
Obama will reiterate his desire to cut the federal budget deficit in half by the end of his first term in office, saying his team has "begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. ...
"In this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them. We'll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use."

NCLR Engaged Experts in Housing and Financial Fields to Identify Ways to Restore Latino Financial Security

Today, the NCLR hosted a conference call engaging a number of experts in the housing and financial fields to discuss restoring paths to financial security for Latinos.
Key call participants included: Henry Cisneros, Chairman and CEO, American CityVista; Janis Bowdler, Associate Director, Wealth-Building Policy Project, National Council of La Raza (NCLR); Andrew Jakabovics, Associate Director, Economic Mobility Program, Center for American Progress; Luis Pastor and President and CEO, Latino Community Credit Union, Cooperativa Latina.
Participants on the call gave an update on the status of Latino homeowners and consumers. They provided proposals for restoring the financial safety net in all communities, including calling for solutions that get to the root of the problem, reducing foreclosures and bringing back credit to minority communites.

Breaking News: Senate confirms Solis as labor secretary

The Associated Press Reports: WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed California congresswoman Hilda Solis as President Barack Obama's labor secretary. Solis' confirmation gives the agency a decidedly pro-worker tilt after eight years of business-friendly leadership under the Bush administration.

Yes We Can Live in Peace and Harmony in a Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Racial, Multi-Cultural Society! God Bless America!

Time for a Good News Story:

For Japanese and Koreans immigrating to America, containing cultural conflicts has been difficult. Their motherlands are burdened with a long history of conflict stemming from territorial disputes and historical grievances related to Japan's colonization of Korea in the early 20th century.

As Korean residents and shop owners have increased their presence in Little Tokyo, the historic heart of Southern California's Japanese American community, the multicultural melding hasn't always been harmonious.

When the number of Koreans began multiplying in Little Tokyo Towers a few years ago, complaints about them from Japanese residents quickly began to surface. The Japanese immigrants said of the Koreans: "They smell of garlic." "They don't follow the rules." "They're going to take over." Then, from the Koreans: "The Japanese are snooty." "They don't greet you in the elevator." "They disdain Korean culture." "They're trying to push us out."

Today, however, the tone in the towers -- a 300-unit senior housing facility on 3rd Street -- is strikingly different. A Korean resident whose relatives were jailed for protesting Japan's colonization of his motherland is teaching his native language to a dozen of his Japanese neighbors. "Ga, gya, go, gyo," they intently repeated on a recent night, mimicking the sounds of the Korean alphabet as teacher Simon Yoon pointed them out on a whiteboard. Residents recently held a New Year's party and debuted a Korean-Japanese bilingual newsletter called "Bridges" to share their cultures. On other nights, they belt out songs in both languages using a karaoke machine purchased by Korean residents -- who took care to include 2,500 Japanese songs. And in August, they attended a groundbreaking "harmony concert" featuring Japanese and Korean music and dance.

The turnabout in Little Tokyo proves ethnic harmony is possible, the residents say. "We want to show that in Little Tokyo, there are people who want to be good neighbors to each other regardless of the past and all of the conflicts we've experienced. If reconciliation can happen in Little Tokyo, then it could be a model for the city and for Japan and South Korea."

Reference:

Japanese and Koreans learn to live together in harmony in L.A.'s Little Tokyo

Violence Continues to Escalate Along the Border. How Does the USA Help Mexico Resolve the Crisis?

As I previously reported, the violence is increasing along the US/Mexico borders. President Calderone has escalated their fight against the drug cartels and the army has been deployed across border cities to thwart the cartels. Last week the violence escalated in Juarez as Cartel supporters blocked the Mexico/US border stations in protest of the army presence. Meanwhile, the Juarez vigilante group voiced support for the army and the Juarez police.

The border is in an uproar as violence escalates and some local officials/police resign in lieu of threats against themselves and their families. Our USA has a certain degree of responsibility and accountability for this Drug Crisis since we are the number 1 Drug Abusing Country in the World and many reports indicate the USA is shipping some 2000 illegal weapons into the Mexican Cartels a Day.

What does America do to help Mexico defeat the Drug Cartels?

The El Paso Times reports:

EL PASO - The El Paso Police Department is investigating alleged threats against Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, who reportedly moved his family to El Paso for safety reasons, Det. Carlos Carrillo said Monday.
"We received information that the Juárez mayor lives in El Paso, and that possibly they were going to come to El Paso to get him," Carrillo said. "He has not asked us for our help, but it's our duty to protect any resident of our city who may be under threat." Juárez police said written threats against Reyes Ferriz and his family were left in different parts of Juárez after ex-police chief Roberto Orduña Cruz resigned Friday. The threats were written on banners the Juárez drug cartel has used to send messages to the police and others. In light of the threats, Juárez city spokesman Sergio Belmonte said the mayor has increased security for himself and other city officials. Chihuahua state officials said they are going to call a news conference later Monday to provide more details about Sunday's shooting attack that killed one of Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas' bodyguards. The bodyguard who was killed while defending another state official was identified as Alejandro Chaparro Coronel. Officials said one of the armed men who allegedly killed Chaparro was injured and taken to a hospital.

2nd article from elpaso times.com : 2/22/09

Juárez vigilante group voices support for army

JUAREZ -- A so-called narco offensive last week left Juárez police leaderless and under fire with a wave of killings that also targeted for death elected officials in the outlying village of Guadalupe. The Juárez Citizens Command vigilante group on Saturday issued a manifesto, in which the group supported the Mexican army and condemned the crimes against police officers last week. According to Juárez news media, the manifesto of the Comando Ciudadano por Juárez, or CCJ, alerted the community against a group of kidnappers and extortionists that travels the city in a white Grand Cherokee with tinted windows and Texas plates and a white pickup also with tinted windows but no plates. The manifesto states the CCJ will act soon and asked residents to report the criminals to three phone numbers in Juárez. It was signed by a group leader identified as Comandante Abraham.

Shawna Forde's (Director of Minutemen) Lies Are Exposed!

Shawna Forde has been exposed as a liar. After her ex-husband was shot, she claimed she was raped and shot by a Mexican Drug Cartel and it was connected to her work as a Minuteman. Now, in this expose, HeraldNet.com reports Forde finally confesses these crimes may have actually been committed by friends of her son who is currently in prison. This expose also provides details into Forde's very troubled life, her mental instability and criminal past.

Heraldnet.com reports:

Trouble finds Shawna Forde - Border activist at center of recent spate of violence

EVERETT -- An Everett woman who attracted national attention by suggesting Mexican drug cartels targeted her for a series of violent attacks now acknowledges she told police they ought to look closer to home for suspects -- including among her own son's friends. Shawna Forde, 41, said she is convinced there are links between the Dec. 22 shooting of her ex-husband at their north Everett home, her reported rape and beating at the same house a week later, and an attack on Jan. 15 in a nearby alley that left her with apparent gunshot wounds to her right arm...(the police) investigation should focus on local street toughs who until last summer were burglarizing Everett-area homes and trafficking in stolen firearms. One member of the ring was Forde's own son, Devon Duffey, 19. He went to prison in October and now is serving more than two years at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla for being a felon in possession of firearms, records show.

..Forde's ex-husband declined to be interviewed for this story. He was home alone when ambushed by a narrow-faced stranger dressed in khaki-colored clothing...Forde said it is ridiculous for anyone to think she had anything to do with her ex-husband's shooting. The attack occurred roughly two weeks after she returned to Everett from a three-month stretch engaged in Minuteman border operations. "If I was going to do something like that I would have done it while I was in Arizona," Forde said.

Troubled Life:

...Forde said she has been diagnosed with attachment disorder...restraining order against her..felony forgery charges..four marriages...On March 20, 2007, three young men (including her son) showed up at the beauty salon on Colby where Forde worked. One pulled a baseball bat from under his jacket and clobbered the man who owns the salon. The victim required hospital treatment to close his head wounds (son now in prison)...(Forde convicted of )chocolate milk shoplifting...

Forde said she knows her background is unconventional but said she's not worried that it may affect her ability to work with other Minutemen in combatting illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

References:

Trouble finds Shawna Forde (click here for complete article)

Defunct Minuteman Group Leader Claims She Was Shot This Morning!

Defunct Minuteman Groups Are Crying for Attention!