And what was all the commotion about?

Jim Gilchrist, founder of the highly controversial anti-illegal immigration group, the Minuteman Project, was about to make a book-signing appearance at the store. The Minutemen, considered by many to be vigilantes, have made headlines by organizing civilian patrols of the U.S.-Mexico border. Gilchrist’s new book, co-authored by Jerome Corsi, Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America’s Borders, is a first-hand account of the authors’ views on what they consider America’s lax immigration policies.

And while there were a handful of fans and readers inside waiting for their signed copy of the book, the crowd outside easily outnumbered them.

With police standing by in case anything got out of hand, John Osmond of the May Day Coalition for Students and Workers Justice explained that his organization had been keeping its eye on the Minutemen’s actions. “They are anti-immigrant … But really, what is going on is an assault on Latinos,” he explained. “They aren’t worried about undocumented workers from Canada, only immigrants from Mexico … It is something we need to speak out against.”

On the cover of Gilchrist’s controversial book a man is pictured, ostensibly a Minuteman, scanning the horizon with a pair of binoculars. An American flag waves in the background. The image itself worries Osmond, as it shows a Minuteman in the midst of a patrol. Osmond expressed concern about the Minutemen’s civilian patrols of the border. “They say they’re not endangering anyone. I don’t buy it,” he said, citing their lack of training.

Despite the heated rhetoric, the book signing and protest concluded without altercation. Osmond felt the demonstration was a success and was encouraged by what he felt was an “energetic turnout.”

~ By STEPHANIE KINNEAR ~

were the fans of Jimbo antichrist gilchrist

Author writes;

“Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, the Minutemen have got to go” to an angry “Racists go home” to an even more creative “Down with the geriatric fascist.”

Maybe keep an eye on the creative antagonists that include terms like "geriatric" when discussing the misleading myth of "Minuteman",s CIA influenced facist scapegoating propaganda..

Are there neo-con protest warriors amongst the defenders of immigrant rights? To antagonize and target a group based upon their age could be the work of a provacatuer..

On the other hand we have megacorporations who continue to profit from WTO/NAFTA induced poverty in Mexico on both sides of the percieved border, from the murderous maquiladoras in Juarez, Tiajuana, Mexicali to the saline drought ridden pesticide soaked industrial agriculture fields in the Imperial Vallejo, Arizona, etc.. all dependent on the Rio Colorado for irrigation, the continuous dam-induced drought of the Colorado delta extirpating the culture and lifestyle of indigenous Cocopa nation from their formerly (pre-dam) lush Colorado delta ecosystem?

No, Mexico, the Cocopa and the To-hono Odham nations living along the border have only been harmed by repressive US border policy combined with WTO/NAFTA free trade agreements. The cost of Mexico's economy being suppressed by corporate interest and resulting unemployment/poverty in Mexico benefits the corporate CEOs in industrial agriculture, maquiladoras as the centralized capitalist power structure forces Mexicans to work as undocumented plantation slaves for below minimum wage, then charging undocumented workers fees for drinks, food, shelter, etc..

Despite being asked numerous times, the psuedo-patriotic Minutemen refuse to address these issues of profits corporate from exploitation of undocumented immigrants, pesticide exposure from industrial agricorps with no legal medical help provided, usually resulting in deportation..

That being said, the heirarchy of the Minutemen would point to a right-wing think tank that attempts to segregate Mexican immigrants from older Euro-american immigrants who feel that their culture is being driven out by the "flood" as they refer to it, of indigenous people's from Mexico migrating up to el norte to breath pesticides and grow the food for slave wages that graces their grocery tables each day. Even organic farmers hire Mexican immigrants, so basically any vegetable people eat was likely handled by a Mexican farm worker at some stage from seed to table..

Similar to the extreme pro-Israeli apartheid Zionists that attend the Pro-Palestine/ Pro-Peace protests in Sacto, the Minutemen employ racism as their motivational factor, instead of attempting to organize Euro/African/Latino/indigenous Americans along class lines and in opposition the the billionaire megacorporate execs that in some way exploit us all, whatever ethnicity, language culture, etc.. in racially imposed heirarchy that encourages battles between neighbors based on ethnic/linguistic differences by placing one group's standard of living above anothers..

Certain members of the economically dominant Euro-americans witness their percieved status of superiority disappearing with the influx of economically desperate people from a neighboring nation with a suppressed and depressed economy, with US corporations profit soaring as undocumented immigrants are coerced into working below minimum wage, no OSHA to stave off pesticide drift, no medical benefits, health ensurance, etc..

The south central campesino farmers represent the positive alternative to the nightmare scenarios of corporate agriculture plantation slavery. Here campesino's tend their own farmland and employ sustainable methods with crop biodiversity, beneficial insects, symbiotic intercropping, etc..

What do the LA Sheriff's and real estate mogul Ralph Horowitz of the Horowitz/Libaw corporation do to this modern botanical masterpiece, said to contain hundreds of different species of both medicinal and food plants??

The fascist police state thugs in uniform destroyed the SC community farm with their Caterpillar bulldozers, indicating a real estate mogul's warehouse was a better option than community farm collectives..

LA already has enough warehouses, not enough green spaces. Why did the Horowitz/Libaw corporation not trade off the land value with the city in a swap, then build warehouse on an unused parcel of land, as there are many vacant lots throughout LA that do not contain community farms..

Why destroy the botanical wonder of sc community farm, a place where people of all ethnic/linguistic groups joined together in an attempt to save the sc farm from imminent destruction of life giving plants, fruits and vegetables, a symbol of neighborhood growth and healing??

The result of the conflict instead had strentghened the sc community farmers to international levels of fame, attracting treesitter activist Julia "Butterfly" Hill, a non-violent direct action ecoactivist with her very own FBI entourage..

On some greater level this battle between sc farmers and real estate developers is played out in the struggles of undocumented Mexican farmworkers to obtain a healthy and safe work environment in the plantation fields of corporate ag, finding few options besides the routine pesticide exposure and weakened OSHA standards in protective gear, not to mention increased risk of heat stroke from the heavier, thicker, more 'complete' protective safety gear..

A good rallying point for bringing Mexican immigrant farmworkers and US citizen/residents (ie., social supply base for Minutemen recruiters) together is in common ground of health risks from pesticide exposure considered most severe for farmworkers, second most severe for downwind residents/water drinkers, third most severe to urban consumers via vegetable ingestion who cannot afford to purchase organic produce..

Pesticide exposure in these three forms do not often kill people instantly, here again farmworkers are most suceptible to death from combo of heat stroke, toxic shock, etc..

However, over periods of time pesticide exposure effects the human immune system, various hormonal glands, and mutates DNA/RNA strands to induce birth defects in children..

The reclaimation and restoration of industrial agriculture corporations and redistribution of farmland to Mexican campesino farmers is the needed direction humanity needs to begin of life in the desert southwest is to continue into the future. The continuation of the present system of industrial agriculture will result in an eventual ecosystem collapse (desertification) and massive famine that will effect Mexicans, Euro/African/Asian-americans and all other two legged primates who call themselves human beings in a very unpleasant way. The so-called Minutemen can include themselves in this category also, eventually that canned food stockpiles will run out..

To prevent this catastrophe people can adapt to their ecosystem as the sc community farmers do and reclaim the fertile lands of sc farm and elsewhere from plantation/developer corporate domination, planting hedgerows for soil restroration/windbreaks/shade4rests/beneficial insect habitat and on political level organizing collective farmworker unions similar to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers from Florida, or an IWW meets Cesar Chavez land steward collective for the CA valleys..

Coalition of Immokalee Workers works in solidarity to gain fair wages, safe working conditions in florida's corporate agriculture plantations;

"Learn more about slavery in Florida's fields today, the CIW's efforts to investigate, uncover, and bring slavery operations to justice, and how major food-buying corporations benefit from the exploitation of US farmworkers...>> "

Read More @;

http://www.ciw-online.org/

http://www.ciw-online.org/slavery.html

Refocusing on the source of Mexican farmworker struggles to remove the taxpayer subsidized US/MEX border wall completely and allow the free flow of traditional knowledge of indigenous meso-americans with dry/hot climate farming sustainability to help el norte solve their problems with overuse of pesticides, soil salinity from irrigation, soil erosion from lack of hedgerows, etc..

Peppers, tepary beans, nopales and many other drought tolerant food crops would consume less Colorado rio agua than temperate climate accustomed nutritionally devoid iceberg lettuce that currently soaks up US military perchlorate rocket fuel from overirrigation in Imperial Valley desert ecosystem..

The uptake of irrigation water by iceberg lettuce results in greater accumulation of perchlorate than a drought tolerant species like nopales, tepary beans with far less irrigation requirements. Stop contaminating the future generation's groundwater with perchlorate irrigation water!!

"Eating lettuce or other vegetables grown in fields irrigated by the Colorado River may expose consumers to a larger dose of toxic rocket fuel than is considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to test data and documents obtained by Environmental Working Group (EWG).



Test results never before made public show that leafy vegetables grown with contaminated irrigation water take up, store and concentrate potentially harmful levels of perchlorate, a thyroid toxin that is the explosive main ingredient of rocket and missile fuel."

read on @;

http://www.ewg.org/reports/rocketlettuce/

Yes, time for another weblinx to native drought tolerant plants that could replace the high irrigation requirements of the current lettuce crops. Repeat as needed until whomever makes decisions for implementing sustainable and safe farming methods takes notice..

Sometimes Madre Tierra knows best;

"If you're in the mood for experimentation, you could try to duplicate the early native Americans' method of cultivation. Using a digging stick, such farmers would sow three to five seeds, three inches deep, in hills spaced six to eight feet apart. The Papagos often planted their teparies at the mouths of arroyos, waiting till after those gullies had been flooded with the early summer rains. These areas are usually moister than the open desert, and they're also rich in the nutrients and trace minerals washed down by the seasonal torrents."

read on @;

http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1983_July_August/Tepary__The_Bean_that_Laughs_at_Drought

Really, there's no need for people on either side of the percieved US/MEX border wall to fight, let's expose the corruption of corporate exploitation of undocumented immigrants and remove the US/Mex border wall as the artifically imposed Berlin Wall was torn down decades ago. We will no longer tolerate the fascist antics of the GWBush/Cheney regime at the US/MEX border (y Iraq, y otras lugares) and request international assisstance with removal of these tyrants from the Presidential office..

Earth First!, ELF/ALF are also aware of the ecological destruction to migratory Sonoran pronghorn antelope imposed by the artificial US/Mex border wall. We will not allow right-wing corporate think-tank interests to create Minutemen's media fearmongering of Mexican immigrants while agricorp CEOs literally get away with murder from exposing Mexican farmworkers to dangerous levels of carcinogenic/endocrine disrupting pesticides..

Apparently the GW Bush/Cheney regime feels that their lobbyists from petrochemical corporations can continue violating US labor laws by continuing the KNOWN CARCINOGEN methyl bromide, a pesticide Cesar Chavez spent years attempting to remove from the market..

Even Minutemen get pesticide drift, so why not do something in solidarity??

"Please help us continue Cesar Chavez’s fight against this dangerous pesticide. Help us remind President Bush’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that methyl bromide threatens the earth and the health and safety of farm workers. A study published last year in a medical journal, based on a study of 55,000 farm workers, showed those exposed to methyl bromide were two to four times more likely to develop prostate cancer."

read on @;

http://www.1000friendsoffresno.org/pesticides.html