Weekend Drive-by

Via The Guardian:

Too pretty for prison

... or so says the lawyer for Debra Lafave, the US teacher who this week escaped punishment for sleeping with her 14-year-old pupil.

She is, for the moment, America's most famous sex offender: young, blond, and in the words of her lawyer, too pretty for prison. When the prosecution in Florida this week dropped charges against Debra Lafave, a former teacher who admitted having sex with a boy who was then 14 years old, they reignited a debate about whether society is willing to tolerate sexual misconduct if the aggressor is female and, as in Lafave's case, attractive.

Lafave is the most recent in a series of high-octane cases of sexual abuse involving female teachers and their pupils, and the leniency of her treatment in America's legal system has provoked accusations of a double standard - not least from her ex-husband, Owen Lafave, who is producing a documentary film on such relationships.

It is a staple ingredient of the superstar lifestyle: the contract clause, detailing which luxuries the artist requires. The Rolling Stones, Jennifer Lopez, Prince, all have made headlines with their outlandish desires.

Now the White House's own rock star can be added to the list of demanding divas. Dick Cheney, the vice-president, demands that all lights be turned on prior to his arrival in a hotel room. He also insists that all televisions be tuned to Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel. While watching the White House being praised on Fox, Mr Cheney would like to guzzle four cans of Diet caffeine-free Sprite.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - As many as 15,000 immigrants and supporters marched through Phoenix on Friday in the latest of a series of protests in major U.S. cities that seek to stop legislation seen as punitive to undocumented workers.

Los Angeles students also walked out of at least 20 county schools on Friday, protesting proposed extension of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, said a Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson.

Some "hundreds of thousands" will march through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, one organizer predicted, while Chicago police on March 10 estimated that 75,000 to 100,000 rallied to protest tough changes in immigration law.

"Immigrant communities and groups across the country are coming together to send a loud and clear message to decision makers in Washington D.C. that we are not the enemy but part of the solution," said Jennifer Allen, executive director of Border Action Network in Phoenix.

Many of the protesters have focused on a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December. That bill, sponsored by Republican Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner, calls for tough border security and enforcement measures and would make it a federal crime, instead of a civil offense, for undocumented workers to live in the country.

It would also penalize people for helping illegal immigrants, drawing criticism in particular from church groups.

The U.S. Senate is set to take up immigration legislation next week. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, plans to bring to the floor similar border security and enforcement legislation.

Protesters such as Los Angeles march organizer Javier Rodriguez say the protests are to oppose Sensenbrenner's bill and press for legalization and citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the United States.

"It is a crusade to force the right-wing government to give us legalization, and we are not going to take anything less," he said. One marcher carried a sign with the slogan "The Sleeping Giant Woke Up," referring to the role of undocumented workers in American life.

On the other side of the political spectrum, a small group calling themselves the Minutemen, which began as an ad hoc organization patrolling a small section of the U.S.-Mexican border, is demanding enforcement of U.S. immigration law. It also opposes President George W. Bush's proposed guest-worker program.