Dispatch From a Friend Back Home: Dey

Obama�s acceptance speech as the democratic nominee hit on many areas that did not resonate with my political ideologies, and many that did.

On first take, I found the need to stretch the American values of hard work and underdog achievement as opportunistic and �selling out� of the social justice movement, where in inequities have excluded the vast majority of �Americans� from achieving the American Dream.

While I strongly believe that this has been the case and that Obama could have gone a lot further in pointing out the social inequities in our society, I do have to admit that many of the undertones in his speech sounded extremely familiar to me.

See, I�m a Mexican immigrant whose parents� main reason for immigrating to the United States was the believe that their children would have better opportunities in this country than they did themselves. And that by working hard, their children would have a better a life. So, they packed everything they had, sacrificed leaving their families and everything they knew, and made the treacherous journey to the USA.

I strongly believe that like my family, 98% of immigrants believe that with hard work they and/or their children will succeed in this country. And if they are the lucky ones, like I was, these children will only reinforce this myth within their families and their communities.

The reality is that only a few of us make it. Many people in this country would look like at my story, immigrant Latina that had to overcome language and cultural barriers at the young age of 13 and still made it to Harvard�s Graduate School of Education while graduating top honors in a Masters in Education Policy Program, as a success story. I am proud to say that it was. Like Obama, I�m proud to say that my parent�s credo in hard work paid off.

But, what is often missing from the conversations in immigrant and non-immigrant communities is the fact that TOO MANY OF US DO NOT MAKE IT.

When I look at the fact that my mother has not seen her mother in nearly twenty years, it breaks my heart. When I remember that my mother lost her work as a seamstress due to manufacturing work being shipped abroad, or that my aunt died in the desert along with my baby cousin in her arms while in search of a better of life, or that my three other siblings are stuck in low-paying jobs because they could not continue their education or because they cannot exercise their career due to their immigration status, or that 475 plant workers in Mississippi were detained this week without due process because of their immigration status, it breaks my spirit.

And yet, neither Obama nor McCain have renewed their commitment to neither Comprehensive Immigration Reform nor the Dream Act.

I agree with Obama that we can do better! I believe that America can do better!! I believe that local and national immigrant rights organizations can do a better job of pushing for Comprehensive and Humane Immigration Reform. I believe that politicians and Presidential candidates can do better by tackling head-on the though issues, like immigration.

I believe that past and current immigrant communities can do better by demanding concrete immigration policy solutions from their local and national political and non-profit representatives. Only than, can we have a full discussion about democracy and America�s values.
-Dey

El Diario Article on Immigrant Protest and Road Trip

Inmigrantes protestan en Denver

El Diario

Denver, CO/EDLP

Vinieron de diferentes puntos del pa�s, desde Nueva York hasta California, para exigir que los candidatos presidenciales incluyan claramente en su plataforma una reforma migratoria con v�a a la legalizaci�n, un tema controversial que ha estado ausente del debate en este �ltimo tramo de la campa�a.

Fueron m�s de mil personas que marcharon ayer por las calles de Denver, sede de la Convenci�n Dem�crata. Con pancartas en mano y gritando ��queremos justicia!�, los manifestantes llegaron pac�ficamente al Alma Lincoln Park, ubicado en uno de los barrios m�s hispanos de la ciudad.

�Es hora de que se produzca un cambio. Necesitamos arreglar el sistema de inmigraci�n porque no est� funcionando. Ese es nuestro mensaje para los dos candidatos�, indic� Milan Bhatt, coordinador de la Coalici�n de Inmigraci�n de Nueva York.

Tanto el dem�crata Barack Obama como el republicano John McCain han esbozado sus planes de reforma migratoria durante la campa�a, pero es un tema tan explosivo que los dos candidatos han preferido tocarlo lo menos posible.

Obama ha expresado su intenci�n de abrir una v�a a la legalizaci�n, mientras McCain dice que lo m�s importante es reforzar la seguridad fronteriza primero.

�Estamos aqu� para asegurarnos que el candidato que gane las elecciones de noviembre incluya una reforma migratoria completa como prioridad en su plataforma. Ha pasado mucho tiempo y la gente sigue sufriendo�, dijo Ram�n del Castillo, profesor de Estudios Chicanos de Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Las deportaciones y el sentimiento antiinmigrante han aumentado alarmantemente en los �ltimos meses. Esto, combinado con el baj�n de la econom�a, ha puesto a los inmigrantes indocumentados entre la espada y la pared.

Stephany Vargas, de 17 a�os, vino por autob�s desde California para ser parte de la manifestaci�n porque esta situaci�n la afecta directamente.

�Mis padres est�n pasando un momento muy dif�cil. Mi mam� no encuentra trabajo por ser indocumentada y estamos por perder nuestra casa�, se�al� Vargas, quien dice que no quiere que le pase lo mismo que a su amiga, cuyos padres fueron deportados.

La soluci�n, seg�n los organizadores, es presionar a los funcionarios electos con la fuerza del voto. En estas elecciones, m�s de 9 millones de latinos est�n inscritos para votar, pero la inmigraci�n no es la principal preocupaci�n de este grupo.

De acuerdo a un estudio de NALEO, la econom�a, la falta de seguro m�dico y la guerra en Irak son los temas m�s importantes para los latinos en este ciclo electoral.

�Es importante que si eres residente, te vuelvas ciudadano. Si eres ciudadano, te registres para votar. Y si est�s registrado, votes�, implor� Enrique Morales, fundador y presidente de Angeles de la Frontera.

Presenting the Winners of the Android Developer Challenge I

Since we started the first Android Developer Challenge late last year, we all have been eager to see who the winners of $275,000 and $100,000 would be. All 50 applications that emerged from Round 1 of ADC I showed great promise, and these teams have been working intensely for the past several months to polish their apps for the final round.

Similar to round 1 we sent laptops preconfigured with the judging environment, emulator, and all entries to each of our seven judges. In this round, each judge reviewed all 50 applications, took collaborative notes and gave initial scores. Then, all judges met together over conference calls to discuss and debate these applications, finally coming to consensus on which applications should receive $275,000 and which should receive $100,000.

We're pleased to present all of the winners and finalists in our detailed ADC gallery. Peruse and enjoy — there are awesome applications and unique uses of the Android platform. We would like to congratulate the winners and thank all the entrants for their hard work!

Marching for Immigrant Rights

Just walked into Lincoln Park here in Denver after marching in the immigrant rights march. The route was strange, it passed right by Invesco Field, but no one is there until after 3pm so I am not sure what the point of it was. There were close to 5,000 people in my completely unofficial estimate. The march was also spread out along a highway overpass, so it did not pass through any residential areas. In my opinion, it was important to march and show solidarity, but the effect of the march is questionable. Nobody inside the convention is talking about immigration, no one is addressing the raids happening right now, nobody seems to feel the need to address this now. And after the trip, I have to say, it's important to address this. It's important to stop the raids and create a fair system for all people. The tacticts of DHS in the field of immigration are the tactics of a para-military, not a government committed to protecting the rights of all of it's residents.

I hope that these marches continue, that people keep screaming for a solution NOW! This cannot go on.

Android Market: a user-driven content distribution system

When we talk to developers, a common topic is the challenge of getting applications in the hands of users. That's why today I'm happy to share early details of Android Market—an open content distribution system that will help end users find, purchase, download and install various types of content on their Android-powered devices. The concept is simple: leverage Google's expertise in infrastructure, search and relevance to connect users with content created by developers like you.

Developers will be able to make their content available on an open service hosted by Google that features a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube. We chose the term "market" rather than "store" because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available. Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it. We also intend to provide developers with a useful dashboard and analytics to help drive their business and ultimately improve their offerings.

I also wanted to share some early details to help with planning your efforts so that you can be ready as our partners release the first Android-powered handsets. Developers can expect the first handsets to be enabled with a beta version of Android Market. Some decisions are still being made, but at a minimum you can expect support for free (unpaid) applications. Soon after launch an update will be provided that supports download of paid content and more features such as versioning, multiple device profile support, analytics, etc. Below are some screenshots that illustrate some of the security features and workflow.

With the addition of a marketplace, the Android ecosystem is becoming even more robust. I am incredibly energized by the support and amazing content I've seen so far. We will share more details as they are available and I look forward to working with many of you in the coming months.

Finding America: Father Paul Ouderkirk, Postville, Iowa, Part 1

This is an interview with Father Paul Ouderkirk, a pastor at St.Bridget's Roman Catholic Church in Postville, Iowa. Father Ouderkirk was a pastor there for four years and a visiting Spanish mass reader for a lot longer, before retiring 5 years ago. He came back on May 13th, 2008 - the day after the raids.

The interview went on for over an hour, and we will have the whole thing up eventually, but the first cut of it is in four parts:

Part 1.

Finding America: Father Paul Ouderkirk, Part 2

Part 2

Finding America: Father Paul Ouderkirk, Part 3

Part 3

Finding America: Father Paul Ouderkirk, Part 4

Part 4

Finding America: Cindy from Minnesota

We met Cindy while walking the main street in Postville, Iowa.

Finding America Video Dispatch: Paul Sonnenberg. CRIS. Columbus, OH

An interview with Paul Sonnenberg, Esq., an immigration attorney with Columbus Refugee and Immigrant Services (CRIS). Mr. Sonnenberg was kind enough to talk to Milan and myself about what dealing with the legal system in Columbus was like, and some of the pitfalls documented and undocumented immigrants and asylees face. He also pointed out some myths and misconceptions about the immigrant experience in the legal system.

Denver in Pictures

We've added another batch of pictures to our picasa site.

Day 2 of the DNC: Driver's Licenses in Denver, Hilary, and the Right Wing

The El Diario reporter and I are still gathering more information about this anti-immigrant ballot initiative (# 100) that passed just days before the convention (after Denver's City Council approved the vote in June), which would force police to impound the cars of driver's caught without a license and require proof of lawful presence to recover them. As was the case in Hazleton and other locations on our trip, local lawmakers appeared to have been taking their cues from the anti-immigrant apparatus. Our partners at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, who we will meet at tomorrow morning's rally played a big role in trying to defeat the proposal in collaboration with vocal backing from local religious groups.

Also on Day 2, from Box 320 in the Pepsi Center we watched so-called governors night at the convention, leading up to the keynote speech by Hilary Clinton. The energy level for most of the late afternoon and evening speeches felt low, but anticipation slowly built as Hilary signs were passed through the crowd and the 8:30 speech time approached. Most of the speeches of the night were variations on the same themes, highlighting the Democrat Party's agreed upon policy platform, pushing the Bush-McCain comparison, and praising Obama. The most memorable part I suppose was the thunderous reception for Hilary, with much of the crowd wiping away tears, reminded no doubt of the roller coaster primary season that spanned half of 2008.

Finally an observation from the street: I've found that values issues have percolated up and down the 16th Street Mall by far more than any other, mainly abortion and homosexuality. I suppose these are the issues that do tend generally to evoke more emotions, but even in terms of numbers and presence, they have dominated. In fact, I think its safe to say that the right has out-vocalized the left so far. Very little focus on immigration, health care, or the economy so far at that level. Looking forward to what Bill has say tonight and to tomorrow's rally. That El Diario video interview is taking a little longer than I expected, but hang tight.

Breaking Records and Hearts

On day one of this road trip, on Long Island, we met Mario Castellon, the Dallas resident who had undertaken a five month bike ride from El Salvador to the convention in Denver to highlight the plight of immigrants in this country. He is clearly a man who doesn't do things half-heartedly: in another biking adventure, he is going to try to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records by biking around a track for 27 straight hours.

And we've just finished with the Olympics, where it's all about breaking records.

And now, it looks like our federal government is also in the record-breaking mode, having just detained an estimated 595 immigrants at a raid on a plant in Laurel, Mississippi--increasing by 50% its "haul" over the previous world record, the raid at Postville, IA, in May.

It appears that few of the 595 have yet been charged criminally for using someone else's social security number, and a New York Times reporter asked an ICE spokeswoman if it was because ICE took heat for having pursued criminal charges against the Postville workers. According to the article, �'Absolutely not,' said the spokeswoman, Barbara Gonzalez, in an e-mail message. 'In fact it�s the opposite.' She added that more people were being charged with crimes by ICE every year."

I guess ICE is going for the gold in what is surely a pyrrhic victory for our nation.

strange loops at the DNC

We decided to create our very own picture-word-picture fugue on this post. As a way of showing real-time blogging to bloggers and others. Just finished walking around Denver. It's a remarkably condensed area, with people flooding the tiny downtown in preparation for going to the different convention events. 16th street is a nice little shopping area, full of people trying to make a buck off hope, i mean a certain presidential candidate. We walked over to union station, and saw a large tent full of cameras, with the anchor sitting with her back to an audience of largely aging people wearing various T-shirts promoting their causes, the cameras moved so fast over them that it was tough to imagine any of the messages actually making it through. We walked by the unimpressive "big-tent" of the bloggers, with ads all over it and no access for us "unlicensed" bloggers. We are now sitting in an area close to the pepsi center, but not within the free-speech zone, waiting to see if we can get credentials to get onto the floor of the convention.

After talking to Telemundo this morning and getting curiously emotional about the journey to get here, actually being here seems anti-climactic, so many people are trying to get everybody's attention that all messages just fade into the jumbled cacophony of sound and flyers. We are still working on the video dispatches, having settled down into a comfy apartment way on the outskirts of Denver, it finally gives me a chance to look through the video and see what we have gone through. It breaks your heart and fills youwith hope at the same time. Working on the video of Father Paul from Postville, I had to just stop a number of times and walk away from the computer. It will be up tonight.

Meanwhile, the strange loop closes and a new

one begins as i see myself blog through a friends camera lens, it all comes back to the same page.

Seafood Fried Rice Ala Chinese - Nasi Goreng Cina

Ingredients:

2 cups Steamed Rice
4 ea. Medium Prawn, peeled
1 ea. Squid, cut into 1x1 inch
30 gm Dory Fillet or Snapper, diced
2 ea. Garlic, chopped

5 ea. Shallots, diced
1 ea. Dry Chili, thin cut
1 ea. Tomato, thin sliced
1 ea. Eggs
1 Tbs Salted Soy Sauce
1/5 tsp Sesame oil
2 Tbs Cooking Oil
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper

Cooking Method:
Heat oil in a WOK over high flamed. Add seafood, garlic, shallots, chili and tomato and until aroma comes out, add egg and stir with spatula very quickly to avoid burning.
Add rice, soy sauce and continue stir until all ingredients incorporate or mix well. Add salt and pepper, adjust seasoning. Just before remove from heat, add sesame oil.
Serve fried rice on plate, garnish with shredded lettuce and cut green onion.

Place rice on tray and keep it in room temperature and let it cool before cooking. Reduce amount of water when cooking the rice from regular amount that you used. It will be obtain the excellence fried rice.

My Appreciation to this post commentator: apiscerana, gus, Fajar Indra

Teaming Up with El Diario on Denver's Own Anti-Immigrant Policies

After a long interview yesterday debriefing on our trip with Carmen, a reporter from El Diario, she got word of certain anti-immigrant policies here on the doorsteps of the DNC worth looking into and has offered to team up on interviews later today. We've been promised a full video feed of that coverage on El Diario's website. By the way, Denver has struck me as the perfect location for a convention with so much happening in close proximity, a town-plaza type presence on a broad range of important issues, and perfect weather! Of course, this sense of communal advocacy is dampened in part by the 2-to-1 ratio of police to protestor up and down the 16th Street Mall.

mb

Cirque du Soleil's Kooza and Saltimbanco in Boston and Amherst

A spectacular moment from Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco coming to Amherst September 3-7

Cirque du Soleil has remade the traditional circus into a true artistic experience. Their mission is to invoke the imagination, provoke the senses and evoke the emotions of people around the world. In the process of reinventing the art form, this Montreal based company has grown from a small troupe of twenty performers into a worldwide phenomenon. They have 4,000 employees, and 17 shows currently being performed all over the world. I am impressed that they dispensed with the circus animals that were often brutally forced to entertain us. Good thing too, since the handlers often utilized hurtful training methods on the animals in their care.

Cirque rethought the way everyone from the clowns to the trapeze artists perform, raising the bar to the point where even Ringling Brothers tries to copy their concepts, costumes and choreography. But nobody does it like the Cirque people. This coming month, there will be two Cirque du Soleil troupes visiting Massachusetts. One is a tent show, the other a touring arena production.

Arriving in Boston on September 5 for a month's stay at the Bayside Exposition Center, Cirque du Soleil will set up their Grand Chapiteau near the extensive parking lot and MBTA station. The show is fresh and new and "Kooza" tells the story of The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world. The plot, of course, is just the connective tissue that holds together the half dozen acts that are presented with the most glorious costumes, lighting and special effects. Click here for Kooza information

One of the Cirque clowns in Kooza in Boston, September 5- October 5

The Arena Show is an old favorite of mine (I have seen almost all the Cirque shows - three of them multiple times) titled Saltimbanco. It will play the Mullins Center at the Univesity of Massachusetts in Amherst from September 3-7. Saltimbanco takes spectators on an allegorical and acrobatic journey into the heart of the city, celebrating the people who live there. Click here for Saltimbanco information

Either show will provide memories for a lifetime. I guarantee it. Like me, you may be bitten by the Cirque bug, and start thinking about seeing their five shows in Las Vegas (Myst�re is still the best in my opinion) or Orlando to see La Nouba. If you are ever in Hong Kong, take the boat to Macau for Zaia.

National Coverage: New Yorkers to Push Immigration Reform at National Party Conventions

New Yorkers to Push Immigration Reform at National Party Conventions

August 25, 2008

New York, NY � As the nation's immigration debate drags on unresolved, the immigrants in its midst say they are being threatened, discriminated against and sometimes killed. A group of New Yorkers is sharing their stories at this year's major political conventions. This week, they're in Denver at the Democratic National Convention, asking that immigration reform be given priority in the party platform.??

The group spent the past week videotaping in six immigration "hot spots," including Long Island. Pat Young, director of the Central American Refugee Center, says the immigration debate turned bitter, and even dangerous, after national leaders failed to act on immigration reform.??"Graffiti went up on Latino-owned businesses, telling Latinos to give up their businesses, to abandon the area, or face death.

So, we think it's important for the folks in Denver and in Minneapolis to hear how immigrants and native-born Americans are affected by their failure of leadership."??While immigration tensions in New York have largely been limited to threats, Young says a Mexican immigrant was beaten to death in neighboring Pennsylvania. The videos by Young and others will be shown at both party conventions, and also are posted on Web sites such as Facebook and Blogspot under the phrase "Finding-America."??

The idea of creating a video road trip to both national conventions came from theNew York Immigration Coalition, where Milan Bhatt says both McCain and Obama have a better record on immigration issues in the U.S. Senate, than either has shown so far on the campaign trail.??"What we're not hearing is the need to reunify families, and to protect labor standards. We're not hearing the holistic, visionary recipe that we've heard both candidates articulate in the past. And so, in that sense, there is room for both candidates to do a better job."??In addition to Long Island, the video team traveled to New York City; Trenton, New Jersey; Hazelton, Pennsylvania; New Haven, Connecticut; and Postville, Iowa, to capture the statements on immigration reform.

Michael Clifford/Craig Eicher, Public News Service - NY

Finally a response from our fearless leaders...

There have been some recent developments in the Postville story. Chet Culver, the Governor of Iowa wrote a guest column in the Des Moines Register calling out Agriprocessors for "...strong evidence of a company that has chosen to take advantage of a failed federal immigration system."

Obama denounced "employers who are taking advantage of undocumented workers" in response to a question about Postville on Monday.

Finally, some sad news. Today ICE performed a raid in Laurel, MI very similar to the one in Postville, as predicted here earlier.

Some information on APIs removed in the Android 0.9 SDK beta

Earlier this week, we released a beta of the Android SDK. In the accompanying post, I mentioned that we had to remove some APIs from the platform for Android 1.0, and as a result they don't appear in the 0.9 beta SDK, and won't appear in 1.0-compatible SDKs. Today, I want to take a few minutes to explain why.

GTalkService

We were all really excited when the "XMPPService" (as it was called, at first) was included in the first early-look SDK. Once we brought in our security review team to examine Android, however, they soon realized that, as exciting as it is, the GTalkService has some fundamental security problems. Rich Cannings is one of our security researchers, and here's his explanation of the issues:

When I first read about GTalkService, I was both excited and scared. As a developer, I was interested in a feature that provided a simple interface to send messages between two Google Talk friends. The messages would appear on the receiving device as a standard Intent that was easy to handle. How simple and beautiful is that? Unfortunately, when I put my tin foil hat on, I recognized that things are a little more complicated than that.

We decided to postpone GTalkService's data-messaging functionality for the following reasons:

1. "Repurposing" Google Talk Friends

   
   

   Google Talk friends are intended for a different purpose than that envisioned by the GTalkService. Your Google Talk friends can contact you at any time via IM. They can see your email address and often can see your real name. However, the idea of a Google Talk friend does not always line up with the types of people who may want to interact with via an Android application.

   
   

   For example, imagine a really cool mobile Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game using GTalkService. You would have to add all the players to your Google Talk friends list in order to play with them. Next time you log in to Google Talk from your desktop or on the web, you would notice that you have many new "friends". You may not want to chat with these friends -- and perhaps worse, you may not want them to know what your real name or email is.

   
   

   We do realize that Android users will want to interact with other Android users anonymously and for short periods of time, especially in gaming scenarios. Unfortunately, it turns out that using Instant Messaging is not really a good way to do that.




2. Verifying Remote Intent Senders

   
   

   Intents were designed to send messages within the device. The Intent subsystem can conclusively determine who sent Intents only when the Intents originate from the same device that services the Intent. When Intents come from other devices, the Intent subsystem cannot determine what application sent the Intent.

   
   

   This can lead to a variety of problems. At first, remote applications could send arbitrary Intents, meaning that your Google Talk friends had almost the same control of your device as you did. Even once that issue was resolved, we recognized that we could not trust the identity of the application who sent the request. We could only trust the identity of the user. So a "bad" application on your friend's device could send a message to a "good" application on your device which would negatively affect the good application.

   
   

   In the end, we determined that the Intent system, as designed for local use, did not lend itself well to being the vehicle for a Remote Procedure Call (RPC).

3. Placing Too Much Security Burden on Developers

   
   

   As originally designed, the GTalkService placed a significant burden on the application developer to avoid security flaws and perform user and relationship management. An Android application using GTalkService would be reachable from all of the user's Google Talk friends, and a flaw in that application could pose an inviting target to a malicious "friend" or automated malware. There are automated mechanisms that could be used to help protect vulnerable applications or stop the spread of malware, but the deployment of these technologies was not possible in time for the launch of the first Android handsets.

   
   

Although we would have loved to ship this service, in the end, the Android team decided to pull the API instead of exposing users to risk and breaking compatibility with a future, more secure version of the feature. We think it's obvious that this kind of functionality would be incredibly useful, and would open lots of new doors for developers. One of our top priorities after the first devices ship is to develop a device-to-device (and possibly device-to-server) RPC mechanism that is fast, reliable, and protective of developers and users alike.

As a final note, I want to point out that since the GTalkService was always a Google "value-added" service anyway, it was never guaranteed that it would be present on every Android device. That is, GTalkService was never part of core Android. As a result this change actually allows us the potential to build a new system that is part of the core of a future version of Android.

Bluetooth API

The 1.0 version of Android and the first devices will include support for Bluetooth; for instance, Android will support Bluetooth headsets. In the early-look SDKs, there was an incomplete draft of an API that exposed Bluetooth functionality to developers. Unfortunately we had to remove that API from the 1.0 release. To get the skinny on why, I contacted Nick Pelly, one of the Android engineers responsible for that functionality. Here's the story on Bluetooth, in Nick's words:

The reason is that we plain ran out of time. The Android Bluetooth API was pretty far along, but needs some clean-up before we can commit to it for the SDK. Keep in mind that putting it in the 1.0 SDK would have locked us into that API for years to come.

Here's an example of the problems in the API. Client code is required to pass around IBluetoothDeviceCallback objects in order to receive asynchronous callbacks, but IBluetoothDeviceCallback is meant to be an internal interface. That client code would break the moment we added new callbacks to IBluetoothDeviceCallback.aidl. This is not a recipe for future-proof apps.

To make things even more tricky, the recent introduction of the bluez 4.x series brings its own new API. The Android Bluetooth stack uses bluez for GAP and SDP so you'll see more than a passing resemblance to bluez's interfaces in Android. The bluez 4.x change requires us to carefully consider how to structure our API for the future. Again, remember that once we settle on an interface we need to support it for years going forward.

Rather than ship a broken API that we knew was going to change a lot, we chose not to include it. We absolutely intend to support a Bluetooth API in a future release, although we don't know exactly when that will be. This should include some tasty features, such as:

• Bindings to GAP and SDP functionality.


• Access to RFCOMM and SCO sockets.


• Potentially, L2CAP socket support from Java. (This one is under consideration.)


• An API to our headset and handsfree profiles.

On a personal note, Nick adds, "I would love nothing more than to start seeing some neat third-party applications and games over Bluetooth. In my opinion, Bluetooth is completely under-utilized on most mobile platforms and I'm excited to someday see what the developer community can do with Android."

I'm definitely bummed about these API removals. I was particularly looking forward to the P2P capabilities offered by GTalkService, but, as always, user security and privacy must come first. In all these cases, we'll work with the developer community to create some great APIs that balance these concerns.

Dispatch: Entering Colorado

Pulling into Colorado now. A week in a van with Alan, Milan, John, and John; enough techno music by the Robotic Space Penguins (among others) that the insistent beat no longer stresses me out; actually had dinner last night at a restaurant in Nebraska that wasn't part of a national chain. We now know that in addition to Potachos and Sliders at Dennys you should never order a Monte Cristo at Bennigans.

And now on to the convention!

Dispatch: Leaving Postville

Driving out of Postville late Saturday, we pulled to the side of the road along a cornfield and spent half an hour staring at the sky in the perfect dark silence of an Iowa night. We could make out the Milky Way, the Big Dipper, and what Alan thought might be Venus (I had to rely on Alan for the astral tour, as I�ve seldom been able to make out constellations and have never been up on my planets). I even saw a shooting star.

We needed that quiet time; Postville somehow brought everything to a head for us. Throughout this road trip, we�ve been moving along on a kind of undercurrent of sorrow and discomfort�a feeling I hadn�t quite yet articulated but could feel nagging at me. But I came out of so many of our stops on this road trip with an uneasy sense of regret, and Postville was where the cumulative impact of that sentiment unfolded into what I can only call grief.

When we set out on this journey, our goal was to document how immigration plays out in different locales across the country. I was ready for us to highlight both the bad stories and the good. And there is, obviously, so much that is good. Vibrant areas where there is a sense of community between the immigrant and native-born populations, where immigrants have helped revitalize towns that had become depopulated and depressed, where local leaders recognize the importance of welcoming immigrants into the fabric of their communities, and whose communities are all the stronger for it.

But no matter what, it was hard to get away from the overarching framework for how immigration plays out in the nation at large: a broken system that gives rise to the very �lawlessness� it so zealously, and vindictively, seeks to enforce against.

On Long Island, a span of eight years, and the emergence of the internet and of outside groups and political �leaders� intent on aggravating whatever tensions might exist as local demographics change, meant that Nassau managed its transitions fairly smoothly while Suffolk became�and continues to be�a war zone in the immigration debate.

Even in New Haven, I came away from what was a positive story from our perspective�the city offering a municipal i.d. to folks regardless of status, with positive results�with a feeling of regret. This i.d. program became fodder for the Lou Dobbses of the world, and it didn�t just mean a lot of hot air coming from blowhards on t.v.; it meant outside groups coming into New Haven and trying to foment tensions between African Americans and immigrants; it meant the DC-based anti-immigrant �experts� (who are given credibility by the news media despite their links to organizations that espouse racist views) filing FOIA requests in a witch hunt to uncover the identities of those New Haven residents who applied for the cards.

In New Jersey, Trenton has integrated immigrants with relative ease, but there are places elsewhere in the state where racial profiling is rampant�in Freehold, for example, where a grandfather can be ticketed by cops for driving an unauthorized taxi, when he�s merely bringing his granddaughter and her friends to get ice cream; and where hate groups harass day laborers.

And in towns that are struggling�that have lost their initial economic base and are making a transition, or not, to a new economy�cynical and opportunistic politicians, often allied with hate groups, stoke public anxiety and anger, funneling it all toward immigrants as the cause of people�s woes and trying to ride that wave of discontent into office.

Looking at Riverside, NJ, and Hazleton, PA, I was struck by how world-weary the townspeople seemed, how in some ways the towns seemed filled with the walking wounded, bruised over the ugly immigration battles that have consumed them over the past several years. This applies equally to the native-born as to the immigrant population. Until these towns� leaders put forth their anti-immigrant proposals, folks more or less got along�the native-born and the immigrants might not have interacted all that much, but they co-existed peacefully, and over time they got to have at least a passing familiarity with each other. Not that there might not have been tensions, but they were tensions that could have been addressed, and with productive measures that could have brought the communities together. Instead, whatever sparks of conflict there were became all-consuming conflagrations.

And then there is Postville. How could we have arrived at this place, where the government storms the plant like paratroopers and pursues criminal charges against the workers for using fake i.d.s, while taking only halfhearted action against the plant�s management for their abhorrent labor practices?

And to what end? We could storm a plant every day for a year and round up 400 immigrants each time, and that would still net only 146,000 undocumented immigrants at the end of a year. Are we going to do this every day for ten years to make sure we get every last undocumented immigrant?

And how many families will be torn apart, communities sundered, and economies destroyed in the process? And what kind of nation does that make us?

We�ve been riding a terrible tide these past several years, and the fallout is glaring. We�re no closer to solving our immigration �problem,� but we�ve inflicted untold hardship. In the process, we�ve become a government that rules by fear and intimidation and showboating, one whose political leaders too often posture and demagogue on the issues, or avoid them altogether.

It makes me angry, but the overwhelming emotion I have as I near the end of this road trip is one of sorrow, at all we have lost as a nation as we�ve embarked on this fruitless and destructive course. There is so much good within our grasp, and yet we squander it with outdated laws, ineffectual policies, and acquiescence to those who pursue a divisive agenda.

Standing by the roadside as we left Postville, I saw a star shoot across the sky and then fade away.

Short Takes: More from Postville

On May 12^th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided the Agriprocessors meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa, arresting nearly 400 of the workers�400, in a town of some 2,000-odd people. The story has been well covered in the media; click here for an editorial describing the treatment the workers received at the hands of the government.

We spent Saturday afternoon and evening in Postville, talking with passersby on the street; eating at Sabor Latino, a restaurant on S. Lawler Street, the main street in town; attending the Spanish language mass at St. Bridget�s church; and having a lengthy conversation with Fr. Paul Ouderkirk, who came out of retirement to help the village of Postville in the wake of this crisis. Below is just a bit of what we heard:

***

�I�ve lived here almost my whole life. But the young people, they move away. We�re a dwindling town�there are maybe only six local families of childbearing age. Everyone moves on. It�s sad when there�s no one to replace you�I think there needs to be reform. I mean, it�s really the government that�s at fault. This plant�s been here 19 years, and they only do this now? Why now? And these people�okay, they�re not supposed to be here, but they�re here to do work, work that needs to be done, really hard work, six days a week, even on Sunday. It�s really been a very trying time.�

--a lifelong resident of Postville, age 71, commenting on the raid at Agriprocessors

***

�The trauma they faced of not knowing where their loved ones were�a lot of them come from Guatemala, with a history of �the disappeared.� And you can�t imagine how that trauma came back to them with these raids. They didn�t know where their husbands were. And the floods didn�t help�three of the county jails flooded, and they moved the workers around, and no one knew where they were. The families stayed here at the church; we kept trying to reassure them that their husbands were safe, but they were afraid, they didn�t believe us, they just shook their heads.�

--Sr. Jane McCarthy, St. Bridget�s Catholic Church, on how the raids affected the families of the detained workers

***

"I would never buy their meat; I mean, it�s good quality, but they treat people like slaves. My paycheck the last three weeks? Zero zero zero. They keep taking my money! They pay me $10 an hour, but they take out the taxes, they take out for my housing, and the last three weeks it�s zero zero zero. That guy down there? He got his check, it was $2.99; well, it costs $3.00 to cash your check, so he had to shell out a penny! Damn!�

--Dwayne, a rather expressive Dubuque resident who was recruited by Jacobson, the employment agency tasked by Agriprocessors to refill its depleted workforce. (Check out upcoming photo and video downloads from Postville for the full effect of Dwayne�s exuberant personality)

***

"I saw a report by Amy Goodman and she said that all these Mexicans and Guatemalans were taken away with shackles on their hands and feet and they�re treating them like criminals�the women can�t work and how are they feeding their children? so I�ll help fill out forms or do something�if there�s something I can do in the short or long term to help these women.�

--Cindy, a woman who was moved to come to Postville to see if there was anything she could do to help out in the wake of the crisis that turned the town upside down

***

�Since the raids, there�s been no work; they took everyone and the few that are left are moving away. I knew basically everybody. They say they�re doing all right in jail or otherwise they�ve gone back to where they came from but some of them we�re not really sure what became of them. Before the raids, people basically got along and even though there�s nothing to do here, people got along and there were more things around, like more stores; but after the raids it�s been dead�Every time there are raids, it reduces the economy and everything gets worse.�

--A Guatemalan man we met on the street in Postville; much thanks to road trip team member John Croes for translating.

***

�Neither senator has come here�Our governor? He�s like a church mouse. You hear him but never see him�[Every elected official] should just hang their heads in shame.�

--Fr. Paul Oudekirk, decrying the lack of responsiveness by elected officials to the crisis facing Postville.

Alert: Possible Mississippi Raids

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 22, 2008
TO: Editor/News
Director
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Contact:
Patricia Ice-office 601-354-9355
Bill Chandler-office 601-968-5182
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JACKSON, MS- A series of preparations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the Gulf Coast has
local advocates on edge about the possibility of yet another worksite raid, and
yet another devastating blow to businesses, families and communities in the
name of immigration enforcement. "The preparations we are seeing ICE make are alarmingly similar to what
occurred immediately prior to the raid on the Agriprocessors, Inc. Kosher
meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, a few months ago, " said
Patricia Ice, an immigration attorney and spokesperson for MIRA. ICE has
reportedly booked dozens of rooms in hotels on the Gulf Coast.
They may be checking in as early as tonight.

Perhaps even more worrisome are the reports that the federal court in
Hattiesburg is being readied for a response similar to the response to the raid
in Postville, when nearly 400 plant workers were arrested on trumped up
identity theft charges, and slammed through criminal prosecution and judicial
removal (being forced to waive all their criminal defense and immigration
claims) within just days of the raid. "What happened in Postville was an
absolute travesty of justice that must never happen again," said Ms. Ice. "ICE
must assure that any future enforcement actions are conducted in a humane
manner and that detainees are permitted their constitutional rights to due
process and to legal counsel."

With all the signs pointing to an impending raid, Ms Ice, other staff and
local leaders are working quickly to identify possible targets, educate workers
and assemble a team of attorneys to offset the burden on public defenders and
provide immigration advice. The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance
(MIRA) is a membership-based alliance which guarantees the human rights of
immigrants and all workers in Mississippi. MIRA works to support immigrants in the
exercise of their rights through providing services, organizing, advocacy and public education.
www.yourmira.org [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001xCXiTCC8ItxxPMa367rZICMJ8yvn9n3nxRPGRi8-etyRHNI11he2o5MXNTMjpZlam-Ork33UVIX5ZSLK5SjEoyxP3fx4EaBR-gxSGUaMnSWIqK82Axi5Sg==]
# # #

It's unlikely ICE will do anything over the weekend, but it seems very
likely a raid could be in the works for Monday or possibly Tuesday.
(The Postville raid was on a Monday--the first speculations about the
operation were published over a week earlier.)

MIRA's website, http://yourmira.org/, seems to be down--a few minutes
ago it was working but now i'm just getting an error page.

We can speculate that the target of the coming raid could be anywhere
in the area. The Postville workers were processed 77 miles away in
Waterloo, so if the same basic pattern is followed and Hattiesburg, MS
is where the processing of detainees will take place, then any
businesses within an 80-mile radius or so could be the target.

(The MIRA press release doesn't say where on the Gulf Coast ICE is
renting hotel rooms. Presumably not far from Hattiesburg? If by the
"Gulf Coast" they mean actually on the coast itself, Gulfport & Biloxi
are about 70 miles from Hattiesburg. That would suggest that the
targeted raid sites would be somewhere in between Gulfport &
Hattiesburg.)

Poultry plants seem the most likely possibility, perhaps especially
those where MIRA has been active in organizing, or where a union
(especially the UFCW) is in the middle of an organizing drive. It
seems to be the biggest industry in that part of the state. And ICE
seems to like showing workers that organizing for their labor rights
won't save them from deportation. Hopefully MIRA is working with its
members on a strategy (such as: all workers refuse to submit to
questioning, link arms and stay silent?)...

a list of Mississippi poultry plants at
http://www.equaljusticecenter.org/MS%20list%20of%20plants.htm shows
only one in Forrest County, where Hattiesburg is located: the Marshall
Durbin plant in Hattiesburg itself. (http://www.marshalldurbin.com/).
There appear to be no plants anywhere south of Hattiesburg, but there
are a couple close by to the north: Sanderson Farms and Wayne Poultry,
both 33 miles away in Laurel (Jones County); and another Sanderson
Farms plant 27 miles away from Hattiesburg in Collins (Covington
County). According to the list of plants, workers at Sanderson Farms
in Collins are represented by LIUNA 693, while workers at Wayne
Poultry in Laurel are represented by UFCW 1529 and workers at the
Marshall Durbin plant in Hattiesburg are represented by UFCW 1991. No
union is listed for the Sanderson Farms plant in Laurel, but the UFCW
represents workers at Sanderson Farms poultry plants in other
locations.