Racial profiling is alive and well in Denton, Texas, according to the Dallas Morning News which conducted an independent study. Its key finding:

The lieutenant over Denton County's traffic enforcement unit wrote 86 percent of his tickets to people with Hispanic surnames during the last two years, an analysis by The Dallas Morning News has found.....Overall, the members of the traffic unit have issued citations to people with Hispanic names about 50 percent of the time, records show.

Grits for Breakfast has additional details and analysis, including this observation:

Part of the problem appears to be that the traffic unit is targeting Mexican truckers, either suspecting them of drug trafficking, out of racial profiling, or for some other reason.

The United Arab Emirates has sentenced two women to be flogged for becoming pregnant outside of marriage. Their names are Rad Zemah Mohammed and Wasini bint Sarjan. Flogging is torture. It is also a cruel and inhuman punishment. See Amnesty International's action alert and weigh in. Here's more:

Both women were working in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah as domestic servants. According to reports in a local Ras al-Khaimah paper, police arrested them after their sponsors (either their employers or employment agency) reported that they were pregnant. After pregnancy tests confirmed the allegation, they were referred to the emirate's Shari'a court, where Rad Zemah Sinyai Mohammed reportedly confessed to having a sexual relationship outside wedlock. Wasini bint Sarjan allegedly made a similar confession, but later denied the charge. Neither woman is believed to be married.

....The UAE became a state party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, or the Women's Convention) in October 2004. Article 7 of the Convention expressly prohibits gender-based violence which violates "the right not to be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Send your letter to:

Grits for Breakfast has the goods on the Dallas Police who are sharing surveillance tapes from cameras installed on public thoroughfares with businesses. More proof, it says, that the proliferation of police cameras isn't really about traffic enforcement.

Proposition 200 which allows Arizona to deny benefits to undocumented residents went into effect today after a federal judge lifted a stay order.

Prop 200, which was approved by the voters in November, requires state and municipal employees to confirm the immigration status of applicants for welfare and various other public benefits. U.S. District Judge David Bury ruled Wednesday that Prop 200 did not go beyond the scope of existing federal law that requires applicants for public benefits to provide proof of eligibility.

An appeal is expected to be filed today or Monday. The law encompasses welfare, and five programs in particular:

General Assistance, Sight Conservation, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Utility Repair, Replacement and Deposit and the Supplemental Payment Program.

On December 29, a new law takes effect that changes the way asylum is granted.

Beginning next Wednesday, immigrants seeking asylum in the United States or Canada will have to apply to whichever country they arrived in first. Refugees who first travel to the United States, before attempting to enter Canada, will be turned away.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the so-called Safe Third Country agreement between the United States and Canada is meant to cut red tape for asylum seekers. Critics predict it will lead more immigrants to try to illegally cross the U.S. border.

Immigrant shelters on both sides of the border are trying to cope with the large numbers of asylum seekers showing up this week. They are filled to capacity. The shelters are asking resident immigrants to take the refugees into their homes.

Some conservative Republicans have too much time on their hands. Case in point: Minnesota state representative Marty Seifert, whose latest proposal is to test welfare recipients to see if they are smokers - and reduce the benefits of those that test positive

"If you're going to take the taxpayer's money, we're going to expect good behavior," the Marshall Republican said Friday. "I'm not interested in subsidizing bad habits. It makes no sense to give out health and welfare subsidies if the payments go to smoking and the detriment of people's health and welfare."

[link via email from Soccerdad.]

We have always opposed Republican plans to prevent undocumented residents from obtaining driver's licenses by requiring applicants to prove "legal presence." Speaking at the World Policy Institute Friday, Kim Taipale, executive director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology Policy, and director of the Program on Law Enforcement and National Security in the Information Age (PLENSIA) provides three sound reasons:

Although this provision is being touted by its supporters as a security measure, its implementation in practice will be to undermine national security because it ignores three widely- recognized principles of counter-terrorism security: the shrinking perimeter of defense; the need to allocate resources to more likely targets; and the economics of fraud.

First, the very fact that 13 million illegal aliens are already within our borders means that a perimeter-based defense is porous. The proposed policy would eliminate another opportunity to screen this large pool of people and to separate 'otherwise law abiding' illegal aliens from terrorists or criminals by confirming identity when licenses are issued or when such licenses are presented or used for identity screening at checkpoints.

by TChris

Federal law prohibits businesses from discriminating against patrons because of their national origins. Some customers of AmSouth Bank wonder if the bank is disobeying that law.

AmSouth sent Imad Aleithawe a letter closing his account, but won't explain why.

Aleithawe, a civil engineer with the Mississippi state transportation department, says that without answers he is left with only the lingering suspicion that it has something to do with his Middle Eastern heritage. At least three other Mississippi residents with Middle Eastern backgrounds -- including a university instructor and business owners -- have also had their accounts closed. Those affected say others with Middle Eastern ties have complained to them about closed accounts, but were unwilling to go public.

AmSouth claims it has "appropriate reasons" for its actions. If so, why won't it reveal those reasons to Aleithawe?

by TChris

The good news: 48 percent of Americans still believe in the fundamental principles of freedom and tolerance upon which the nation was founded. The sad and frightening news: 44 percent do not.

A survey by Cornell University reveals that 44 percent of Americans support some sort of restrictions on the freedom of Muslim Americans simply because of their religious beliefs. More than a quarter believe that all Muslim Americans should be required to register their location with the federal government. Unsurprisingly, the people who hold these decidedly un-American views tend to identify themselves as "highly religious" and as supporters of the Republican party.

Memo to the 44 percent: you live in the United States of America, not the Christian States of America. The same freedoms that you enjoy, including the right to practice your religion without governmental interference, apply to others as well. Deal with it.

by TChris

Christian conservatives who believe that tax dollars should be used to subsidize religious education have been frustrated by state constitutions that prohibit state financial support of religious institutions. In Florida, they've seized upon a plan to tear down the wall between church and state: a citizen initiative to repeal the constitutional barrier.

"So if the constitution stands in the way of their radical agenda, don't change the radical agenda — change the constitution," said Howard Simon, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

Supporters of the plan would need to gather the signatures of 600,000 Florida voters to place the question on the 2006 ballot.

by TChris

Students at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California are determined not to let a few bigots define the identity of their school. They took a stand against intolerance by attending a candlelight rally in support of a student who has been the target of vandalism to her home, car, and student locker.

School officials made the community aware of the events after vandals painted the words "Die Fag" in 2 1/2 foot letters on the wall of the school's Keyser Hall. Police say they have not yet identified any suspects.

Students have distributed 600 lavender ribbons to members of the community, who wear them to show their opposition to hatred.

"It's been the best thing. Really diverse groups of students are wearing them on their backpacks, their shoes and their shirts. We see them everywhere," [the junior class president] said.

The latest in the "give them an inch" department....Evangelical Christians, still high on their newfound power at the polls which they've been told was a big factor in Bush's re-election, now want to push the envelope by foisting their religion on the rest of us. They are starting with a nudge--Christmas--who would object to "Merry Christmas?" But it's just the opening of the door.

In Terrebonne Parish, La., an organization is petitioning to add "Merry Christmas" to the red-lighted "Season's Greetings" sign on the main government building and is selling yard signs that read, "We believe in God. Merry Christmas." And a Raleigh, N.C., church recently paid $7,600 for a full-page newspaper ad urging Christians to spend their money only with merchants who include the greeting "Merry Christmas" in ads and displays.

"There is a revival taking place in our nation that is causing Christian and right-minded people to say, 'Wait a minute. We've gone too far,'" says the Rev. Patrick Wooden Sr., pastor of the Raleigh church. "We're not going to allow the country to continue this downward spiral to the left."

Where does it lead?