Earlier this week, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was invoking the Second Amendment when describing a protest in his front yard by immigration activists. Today, according to the HuffPost, Kobach is now claiming that Sunflower Community Action advocates were employing tactics perfected by the KKK.

Here is what the HuffPost shared about Kobach’s latest comments:

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) continued to push back Tuesday against aweekend demonstration by pro-immigration advocates, arguing that the gathering outside his home was an example of a “KKK type of intimidation.”

Speaking to radio host Glenn Beck, Kobach repeatedly described the Sunflower Community Action activists as “the left,” saying they had “crossed the line” by coming to his house instead of his office.

“I don’t feel like I’m going to be able to shelter [my young children] from it much longer,” he lamented to Beck.

Kobach said he planned to seek legal recourse against the group by filing charges under “the Klan laws … a set of laws that say you cannot intimidate an official by trespassing on his property or threatening violence.”

Later in the article, Kobach kept going:

Nonetheless, Kobach said that using legal protections crafted in response to the Ku Klux Klan would be particularly appropriate.

“They’re just not wearing white cloaks, but this is exactly KKK type of intimidation,” Kobach told Beck, who quickly seconded the comparison, saying the activists had “learned from the Klan.”

Kobach went on to decry the “brazenness” of the group, arguing that many of them were likely undocumented immigrants themselves because they were speaking Spanish. He also claimed that this kind of “mob” protest violates the principles of American discourse.

“It looks like from the video there’s probably a significant number of illegal aliens, saying ‘Si se puede’ and all of that,” Kobach said. “This gets to the very core of what our American system depends on, which is we don’t have mobs, we don’t have this kind of pressure put on decision-makers.”

The following video by @CarlaDauden was recorded right before massive protests occurred last night in Brazil.

You can follow @CarlaDauden on Twitter or on Instagram.

Here is the text that went with the video:

TODAY (Jun 17, 2013) thousands of people are going to the streets of São Paulo to protest against the raise in the prices of bus tickets.

This video was recorded right before the recent protests started, but with all of this going on, it becomes even more evident that the World Cup and the Olympics should not be our priority. The world has to know about what’s really going on. Please share #changebrazil

I know this is a brief overview, so if you want to know more about the problems discussed in the video, please check the links below:

A Nova Democracia (The New Democracy)-https://www.youtube.com/user/patrickg…
Domínio Público (Public Domain)- http://vimeo.com/50479054
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=…
https://www.facebook.com/events/38868…

http://www.insightcrime.org/news-anal…
http://www.theworld.org/2012/08/brazi…
http://comitepopulario.files.wordpres…
Marcelo Lacerda - http://vimeo.com/24851532

Looks like the momentum from Sergio Romo’s brilliantly genius FU moment when he wore a “I Just Look Illegal” tee last year during the San Francsico Giants’ World Series parade is over. That powerful message clearly struck a chord with many, and Romo was celebrated as an athlete speaking out.

Now that message has become an ice cream product.

Fail.

We got this news from Buzzfeed, which reported that Northern California’s Three Twins Ice Cream signed Romo to endorse a new flavor, “Sergio Romo’s Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream.” The ice cream’s packaging shows a smiling Romo next to two of the Twins in sombreros. Under that image, there is the tagline: “It only tastes illegal.”

The tagline is trying really hard to jokingly play tribute to Romo’s shining moment, and the joke falls flat. There was something empowering about what Romo did last year, and his latest product just seems to mock it.

One person said it best when she told Three Twins the following: “If its what i think it is (spicy chocolate) cant wait to try it, but i Don’t care for the slogan either. Why not something like “you MexiCan’t get enough”?” Yeah, why not?

Another individual asked, “I love it! but i dont like the line about the illegal maybe your design team can come up with something a little less tacky…”

We tend to agree about the tackiness on this end. This ice cream isn’t about the tee shirt Romo wore and the message it conveyed. This is about ice cream and a forced connection with Romo that, quite frankly, misses the mark. There is a reason why the Three Twins Facebook page continues to explain the connection, and even then, it still feels forced. Romo’s World Series parade moment was about how labels keep dehumanizing us. This new product is about ice cream

As for Romo? Some of his shine has worn off a bit. He’s still cool in our book, but this is still tacky. Here’s hoping this product doesn’t start a new trend of “illegal” products. We already have seen enough.

The Daily Texan reported yesterday that the University of Texas’ “Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) took another cut Friday when Gov. Rick Perry line-item vetoed $1.5 million in funding to the center approved by the Texas Legislature.”

Perry issued a statement where he explained that “he vetoed the funds for the center and other programs because they had not been requested with regular budget ‘formula funds’ and instead were requested as ‘special funds’ outside of the University’s legislative request.” The statement also said the following: “Because of the growth in special item funding, there is less state money to teach college students, which contributes to rising tuition. If the Department of Mexican-American Studies is a priority, the University can use its $2.2 million appropriation for Institutional Enhancement.”

According to the article, the line-item veto also applied to other special item funding requests, such as the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M International University. The article stated that “the center will still receive a $400,000 budget increase next year as part of the University budget appropriation, said University spokesman Gary Susswein. Budgeted funding to the center declined 60 percent between 2008 and 2012, according to the center.”

The article also published reaction from CMAS staff and students:

Nicole Guidotti-Hernandez, associate director of CMAS, said the center had been planning to use the additional funding to help develop into a full department capabale of setting the standards for its own faculty hires.

At present, the program’s restricted funds and status as a center means it cannot set the standards for recruitment of new faculty, which has already resulted in a potential faculty member choosing another department during hiring, Guidotti-Hernandez said.

“UT could not compete with other schools, in particular with their salary offers, which is a shame because the candidate is currently the CMAS Carlos Casteñeda Postdoctoral Fellow,” Guidotti-Hernandez said. “We should have been able to retain her and CMAS did everything we could on our end to do so.”

Mexican-American Studies graduate student Jaime Puente said the veto was constricting available resources for graduate students at the University.

“It’s terrible,” Puente said. “It’s part and parcel of what I think is a concerted effort by Rick Perry to attack the University of Texas. If the center can’t fund its graduate students, it will definitely affect recruitment.”

According to the CMAS website, the center was “born out of the activism of the civil rights movement” and “was established in June 1970:”

The mission of CMAS is to serve Texas and the nation as a leader in the intellectual development of Mexican American studies. Faculty and students affiliated with CMAS have worked to enhance our understanding of Mexican American cultural practices, historical development, and socio-economic conditions, as well as the broader Latino experience, and to strengthen the presence of Mexican Americans and other Latinos in the intellectual terrain, both within and beyond US borders.

CMAS accomplishes its mission by offering an undergraduate degree program, a master’s degree program, and a graduate portfolio program for masters and doctoral students. CMAS engages in community outreach efforts throughout the academic year that include hosting various lecture series, organizing an extensive public programming calendar, and fostering a variety of community and research partnerships.

Last night, Brazil woke up.

With massive protests occurring in several of the country’s major cities, what started out last week as a protest against increased bus fares has “evolved into a broader movement by groups and individuals irate over a range of issues including the country’s high cost of living and lavish new stadium projects.” Brazil ha not seen protests like these since the military dictatorship period of the mid-1980s.

The protests have already gotten major media play, including The New York Times and the BBC. The Times even reported that social media played a huge part in the protests’ quick and massive growth:

Sharing a parallel with the antigovernment protests in Turkey, the demonstrations in Brazil intensified after a harsh police crackdown last week stunned many citizens. In images shared widely on social media, the police here were seen beating unarmed protesters with batons and dispersing crowds by firing rubber bullets and tear gas into their midst.

A Storify we published earlier today presents a sampling of last night’s most powerful images.

]]> http://www.latinorebels.com/2013/06/18/social-media-pictures-and-videos-from-last-nights-changebrazil-protests/feed/ 0 http://www.latinorebels.com/2013/06/17/kris-kobach-calls-for-criminal-investigation-and-tells-protesters-dont-come-to-my-home-and-dont-scare-my-family/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kris-kobach-calls-for-criminal-investigation-and-tells-protesters-dont-come-to-my-home-and-dont-scare-my-family http://www.latinorebels.com/2013/06/17/kris-kobach-calls-for-criminal-investigation-and-tells-protesters-dont-come-to-my-home-and-dont-scare-my-family/#comments Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:31:00 +0000 Rebeldes http://www.latinorebels.com/?p=17156

Today, after conservative bloggers expressed outrage about “a mob” of 200 people using “intimidation tactics” at a protest in front of the home of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Fox News’ Tod Starnes interwiewed Kobach, who said that he is calling for a criminal investigation about the protest.

Protesters in front of Kris Kobach’s home. Credit: @scaKS

Here is what Starnes reported:

“I was just appalled,” Kobach told Fox News. “They have a right to protect at my office or at public places – that’s fine. But they don’t have a right to enter someone’s private property and engage in this kind of intimidation.”

“I have four little girls and they would have been terrified to see 200 protesters shouting at their daddy on megaphones on the front lawn,” he said.

The secretary of state said a large number of the protesters were believed to be illegal aliens. They can be seen on video chanting in Spanish, standing on Kobach’s porch, front yard and driveway and demanding that he come outside.

“Kris Kobach, come on out,” one unidentified protester shouted. “We’ll show you what Kansans are all about.”

Kobach and his family happened to be out-of-town when the demonstrators arrived. Video showed the protesters arriving in four buses – and then marching through the neighborhood. They left behind 20 pairs of shoes at his doorstep – representing illegals who’ve been deported.

Kobach has built a national profile presenting tough policies on illegal immigration issues. He and his family apparently weren’t home during the protest at his home.

“You don’t go to a public official’s home and try to intimidate him because of the positions he’s taken,” he said.

Later in the story, Kobach said the following: “On a typical Saturday, my four girls would have been riding their bikes and coloring chalk in the driveway,” he said. “That’s where they play. If four buses pulled up and the mob started marching down upon them, they would have been absolutely terrified.”

He added, “If we had been in the home and not been armed, I would have felt very afraid – because it took the police 15 minutes to show up,” he said. “It’s important we recognize there’s a reason we have the Second Amendment. There are situations like this where you have a mob and you do need to be able to protect yourself.” Kobach said that the Second Amendment “is the private property owner’s last resort.”

Koback aslo said, “Don’t come to my home and don’t scare my family.”

Meanwhile, Sunshine Action Network, the group that protested at Kobach’s home, issued a response to Kobach’s comments:

Sunflower Community Action Executive Director Sulma Arias released the following statement in response to Secretary of State Kobach’s degrading statements about immigrants:

“On Saturday Kansas families – including children who were separated from their parent’s because of Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s policies – prayed, rallied, and then peacefully gathered outside Sec. Kobach’s home to remind him that Kansans believe in keeping families together. Sec. Kobach has spent years promoting policies that do not represent Kansan values, hateful policies that force our families, friends, and neighbors to live in fear across Kansas and America. Nowhere is safe from his vicious policies of racial profiling and home raids, and our peaceful protests outside his home have now even led to violent physical threats. Enough.”

“We demand an end to Sec. Kobach’s destructive policies and violent behavior. We urge Senator Moran to take immediate steps to distance himself and fix our broken immigration system by supporting and voting for comprehensive reform that puts family unity first and includes a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented Americans. Only then will children like Carolina and Dora, who were present for Saturday’s peaceful gathering, not have to spend Father’s Day alone as a result of families torn apart.”

Monday afternoon, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach told Fox News that the 2nd Amendment was essential in responding to events like Saturday’s peaceful protest outside his home. “It’s important we recognize there’s a reason we have the Second Amendment,” Kobach told Fox News. Children as young as five were outside his home, which was unoccupied at the time of the event.

On Sunday, Kobach took to talk radio to make degrading statements about a group of 700 Kansans who converged in Kansas City Saturday to pray for and tell stories in support of common sense immigration reform. 300 members of the group travelled to Sec. Kobach’s house after the event to peacefully deliver a message to him that his policies dedicated to tearing immigrant families apart are out of the Kansas mainstream. Families and children whose fathers have been deported, including Caroline and Dora, were present to tell Mr. Kobach how his policies have hurt them directly, and they delivered single shoes of fathers torn apart from their children by Sec. Kobach’s policies.

So now we really know where Puerto Rican governor Alejandro García Padilla stands when it comes to the island’s status quo and its commonwealth relationship with the United States. In an interview on CNN en español, García Padilla said that if Puerto Rico were to become the 51st state of the Union, the island would turn into a “Latin American ghetto.”

“I believe in the development of the Commonwealth (Estado Libre Asociado). I do not believe in statehood. That would be disastrous for the economy of Puerto Rico. It would turn Puerto Rico into a ghetto, a entire country turned into a Latin American ghetto. And we cannot allow that to happen. I don’t believe in independence,” García Padilla said in Spanish, as he answered questions from Juan Carlos López.

García Padilla claimed that Puerto Rico would lose its competitive advantage if it were become a state, because, according to the governor, the island would lose the ability to attract foreign companies: “Puerto Rico has a different tax status, because it is not a state. It would then lose this competitive advantage and would make Puerto Rico worse off.”

The governor also said that first- and second-generation Puerto Ricans should be able to vote in any future status questions surrounding the island’s political future. Pedro Pierluisi, the island’s top statehood leader, opposes this. Pierluisi will be speaking today at the United Nations about Puerto Rico’s status.

Here is a video clip of the full interview that García Padilla gave on CNN.

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You don’t think words matter? You don’t think people like Michelle Malkin and Rep. Steve King aren’t strategically using words and labels to whip up the desperate nativist fervor in the United States of America? Last week, the Twitter profile Rep. King was sharing the Iowa congressman’s disgust that a bunch of young people (“self-professed illegal aliens”) had “invaded” his D.C. office. It was beyond ridiculous.

Via @maricelaguilar

Now this morning we have Malkin playing the game as well. Her latest Twitchy piece shockingly claims that “Open borders mob descends on home of Kansas Secretary of State.” That Kansas Secretary of State is none other than Kris Kobach, the same Kobach who was dressed down in Congress earlier this year. The same Kobach who is one of the architects behind many of the country’s most restrictive immigration laws. Kris Kobach, to put it mildly, ain’t that popular with many Latinos, or with immigration activists, as well as those who want to stop the deportation and separation of families. But why would Malkin tell you that? Enough said.

Yet, if you read Malkin’s piece, we are now being exposed to a “mob” that demonstrated in front of Kobach’s house. That they were trespassing private property. Kind of like when ICE does the same things to families? Yeah, look at this “mob.” They look so dangerous.

Video streaming by Ustream

And the tweets that were shared were so violent and hateful:

BREAKING: 300 leaders at the home of Kansas Secretary of State, and #KingOfHate, Kris Kobach. Stop the hate towards immigrants! #timeisnow

— SCA (@scaKS) June 15, 2013

It’s pouring rain! But we shall not be moved. Standing outside of Kobachs home NOW. http://t.co/rpSqgwHTFu — SCA (@scaKS) June 15, 2013

Today, we have children of families who have been deported. Kris Kobach needs to stop and step aside now. #KingOfHate — SCA (@scaKS) June 15, 2013

We’re going back to our homes, praying that our Fathers aren’t deported tomorrow. #KingOfHate #11million

— SCA (@scaKS) June 15, 2013

Then there is this “conclusion” by Twitchy: “If you didn’t think that the thug-style tactics of ‘delivering a message’ through mob intimidation were the Kansas way, we have news for you: that border’s wide open, and we’re all living in Chicago now.”

Whatever that means.

Here’s the scoop: Malkin is freaked out because people in places like Kansas are finally speaking out against Kobach, who is seen by many as a dying voice in the immigration debate. If Malkin knew anything about the situation in Kansas (and she doesn’t), she would know that the group that organized this visit to Kobach’s home, Sunflower Community Action, has been protesting against Kobach for a while.

That wasn’t a “mob.” This was just a group of committed people who are expressing their right to free speech to say that enough is enough. But hey, we get it, Malkin has to craft a narrative to keep her nativist fans thinking that she is still relevant. Times are changing, Michelle. Get used to it.

This is one video you will very likely not see on on the mainstream nightly news.

This is powerful, and it happened in Brazil this week.

You can learn more about the protests here or follow #changebrazil.

Before yesterday’s opening game of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup being held in Brazil —also the home of the 2014 World Cup— the BBC reported that 30 people were arrested and 39 were injured:

Up to 1,000 Brazilians demonstrated outside the country’s national stadium to vent their anger at the amount of money the country is spending on staging next year’s World Cup.

Police used tear gas and pepper spray to control protestors before the match, in which Brazil beat Japan 3-0.

There were also reports rubber bullets were used and 30 arrests were made.

Demonstrators held up posters reading: “We don’t need the World Cup” and “We need money for hospitals and education”.

BBC Sport’s South American football correspondent Tim Vickery told BBC World Service: “Brazilian society was explicitly told in 2007 that all of the money spent on stadiums would be private money.

“It hasn’t worked out that way at all. More than 90% of the money being spent on football stadiums is public money.”

Yesterday, attorney David Cohn, who represents the family of David Sal Silva, announced the the filing of several federal civil rights claims “against the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, six sheriff’s deputies and a sergeant, two California Highway Patrol officers, the county and the state alleging excessive police force killed [Silva],” according to local reports.

Cohn gave a 22-minute press conference detailing the lawsuits that were filed yesterday. One of the main points he emphasized repeatedly was that the family was “trying to change the culture” of Kern County officers. Silva died in-custody on May 8 in Bakersfield. David’s father, Sal Silva, said last month on Los Angeles radio that the Kern County Sheriff’s department murdered his son. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, who is also the Kern County Coroner, ruled that the death was “accidental” and that Silva died from heart failure, even though video showed law enforcement officials allegedly beating Silva on the floor with batons.

You can read two of the full claims here. The first one is the claim against the state of California.

Claim Against California by Silva Family in Wrongful Death of David Sal Silva by Latino Rebels

This claim is the one against Kern County.

Claim Against Kern County by Silva Family in Wrongful Death of David Sal Silva by Latino Rebels

The Bakersfield Californian reported the following:

Cohn said that he hoped the filing of the claim — which is a required step before filing a lawsuit — would serve as a catalyst for serious change among local law enforcement agencies.

Government agencies often deny such claims, after which time plaintiffs then file their lawsuit.

The Silva family seeks damages “in excess of $10,000,” according to the claim against the county of Kern. The state claim is a “non-limited civil case over $25,000.”

“No amount of money is going to bring David back,” Cohn said at Friday’s news conference. “It’s the family’s desire to bring out all the facts in this case. It’s really the family’s desire to change the culture and the behavior of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department.”

The department needs to change its “strike-first, ask-questions-later” culture, Cohn said.

The Sheriff’s Office referred calls seeking comment to the Kern County Counsel’s office. Mark Nations, chief deputy county counsel for litigation, said the claim was inappropriate in light of the coroner’s report.

“(Silva) essentially had cardiac arrest because of the amount of exertion he was putting into resisting the police,” Nations said. “Based on the information I have, I think law enforcement handled the situation as best they could under the circumstances.”

The California Highway Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.