December 2007 Archives

Random Thoughts are more or less observations rather than actual news of events.  But don't be fooled, they can point to a trend or provide other insightful thoughts not inherent to a regular post.
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I find that the Latino Blogosphere, is more representative than the current state of the news, which is of no surprise.  After all, Blogs have grown from the public's dissatisfaction of the media following 9-11.  It takes no revelation of thought to make the leap from shanty news coverage concerning the events that led up to 9-11 through to our present state of terrorist war: The American people woke up and realized that they have missed something.

Now Latinos, who have historically been misrepresented in the media have taken up the mightiest weapon known to man (the pen), in order to correct what they see as wrong to make right.  There is passion, because for most it is not a job; a deep urge to voice our opinions, because we are sick of other talking heads talking out of the sides of their mouths.

Not only do I believe that the Latino Blogosphere is more interesting than regular news for the reasons stated above, but I find it so in practice.  Many times I find more interesting stories via my RSS feeder from my fellow bloggers.  And that says a lot.

These are my random thoughts for today.

View scenes from a Mexican punk rock club over at Intersections.

"If you can't beat them, join them."

"....GOP candidate Fred Thompson told potential voters at his one-and-only appearance that immigrants deserve some of the blame for the mortgage crisis." 

This is a candidate for a future president? Someone who 'passes the buck' and scapegoats an ethnic group.  What he really wanted to say was that immigrants are the blame.  Ain't that right Fred?

Also: 

Janice Easley, one voter in the audience, was boiling with frustration at having to hear, "Para el espaсol, prensa dos," whenever she called the power company.

"Everything is in Spanish," she said. "It's sickening."

"You are so, so right," Thompson said, calling for English to be made the national language, before placing the blame for the sub-prime mortgage crisis on non-English-speakers.

Thompson, has proven himself to be as ignorant as this voter on the issue of Latinos and English, and doesn't support people in their choice of language.

Global Voices Online, pats themselves on the back.  And that's okay.

The title of this post includes words every Latino should know.

Because, the inherent problem with integration is that you can lose your roots by paying attention to things that dominate the visual mainstream.  And uprooted foliage is no good, except to the wind.

Mas.

McDonalds:  The King of Fast Food Opportunists.  An effort to catch the young Latino market, and some fetish about eating fries in the air.

At each year's end, we see some type of a top 100 countdown or so, of some song, album, movie, moment or whatever.  This year...2007, will be no different.  I've decided not to go against the grain on this one...just this once...and post, yet another 'top list'.

The Beast, has "The 50 Most Loathsome People, 2007." 

To my non-surprise, Lou Dobbs has made the list at no. 40, Bill O'Reilly at 23, Alberto Gonzalez at 10, George Bush as numero uno....and YOU, as number 9:

"You believe in freedom of speech, until someone says something that offends you. You suddenly give a damn about border integrity, because the automated voice system at your pharmacy asked you to press 9 for Spanish. You cling to every scrap of bullshit you can find to support your ludicrous belief system, and reject all empirical evidence to the contrary. You know the difference between patriotism and nationalism -- it's nationalism when foreigners do it. You hate anyone who seems smarter than you..."

HA!

Happy New Year, folks!!!

What's cooler than reading LatinoPundit.com?  Discovering an  800 year old Aztec pyramid!

Nice catch:

A sus 3 años de edad, el niño puertorriqueño Angel Vargas, diagnosticado con niveles elevados de plomo en sangre, padece las consecuencias de residir en un edificio contaminnado con pintura que contiene este mineral.

Which roughly translates to

At 3 years of age, the puertorican child Angel Vargas, diagnosed with elevated lead level in his blood, suffers the consequences of living in a building contaminated with lead paint.

They've pulled out all the stops and are looking for something to stick.  

From the comments:

With a recession on the horizon, don't expect Congress to pass amnesty anytime soon. Especially since the enforcement measures are beginning to work (such as in Arizona), our politicians can no longer try to dupe us into accepting that amnesty is the only practical solution.

Thanks Nick...and that put a thought in my head:  With the middle class slipping more and more every day, many Americans in debt, housing payments missed and an entire industry in dire, the weakening dollar, talks of the economy entering a recession, and outsourcing of jobs, we just may have ourselves our very own home grown cheap labor work force.  Then we'll have enough 'Americans' to work the fields, slave over a sewing machine, and work to their bones in the food service industry all for what an 'Illegal' makes a day.  How about that?  Great news, huh?  Now (then), everyone will be happy.

A hero dies...

With the year 2007 coming to a moaning halt, wax me nostalgic: From WaPo's Lies "Fibs of 2007":

 

"If we reported it, it's a fact."

--Lou Dobbs of CNN, interviewed by CBS's 60 Minutes, May 6, standing by a false claim that there had been 7,000 new cases of leprosy in the United States between 2002 and 2004, as a result of illegal immigration. His source: "medical expert" Madeleine Cosman.

No, no...no further action is needed. She is dead, as some have already found out while attempting to take action against her claims.  I am not sure if CNN ever retracted these false claims, but it looks like they never did.

For giggles, look at Lou Dobbs getting his ass handed to him in an interview, which also mentions the topic in this post.

Is it that the recruiters have a personal quota to fill, and their aren't enough Americans signing up for enlistment?  But, it is being reported that the US is enlisting illegal immigrants, for the Iraq war in trade for US citizenship.  Scared, some have run back to their hometowns in fear for their children joining - and I don't blame them.  I would like to see some official documentation guaranteeing citizenship, for those who participate and their families.

Via.

Leaving their cozy nook of bare legged models garnered in high-striped tube socked, panties and a t-shirt, American Apparel uses immigration within their ads:

"At American Apparel, we agreed with the President's call for immigration reform, so why has nothing been done for the last three years? ....It's time to give a voice to the voiceless. Businesses are afraid to speak to the media about immigration, frightened of reprisals by government agencies.... At what point are we going to recognize that the status quo amounts to an apartheid system? At what point will America stop living in a state of denial?"

Edgy?  Ballsy?  Sick of the status quo?  I think they have done more here than Congress has done in the past few years.

Mas.

Did I post this?  I think I implied it to myself while posting about FAIR's new radio tour against illegal immigration, but a side note to myself does nothing for the general public at large.  Now that it is spelled out in black and white for you dear reader, please do read on...

UPDATE:  You know, I knew I did...report post about FAIR that is.  But, that post leaves me unsatisfied, because the statement which begs to be said is how ironic that an organization, like FAIR can pass itself as a concerned entity for American immigration and yet, have ties to racist hate groups, spread fear and hate through it's activities, and spread false information. 

"It is evident to most Americans that large-scale immigration is not serving the needs and interests of the country."   This statement, just probably like many of FAIR's is just not true.  Many industries and the very livelihoods that most Americans enjoy survive off the back of Immigrants - illegal or not.  It's a shame, that with money and the right contacts truth can be usupred by hate and false tenets.

I grew up on these cheesy classic holiday specials:

 

A seasonal interruption will take place until the 2nd of next year.  Happy Holidays to all!

If Puerto Ricans have been paying attention to the news lately, they may be more inclined to entertain being independent from the US.  But the decision shouldn't be made too hasty, even the Lakota took 30 years to make sure everything would go smooth, after all every and any decision has repercussions. 

I met Luis back in October.  Looks like he's finished his trip around America.  Photos over at Luis Mendoza's blog, from Oakland.

Tired of the bull (no pun intended), not seeing the money, and the disregard for treaties made 150 years ago by the US, the Lakota have officially declared their independence as a separate nation.  Sitting Bull would be proud.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us. This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution. It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent.

[The treaties with the U.S.] are worthless words on worthless paper [and have been] repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," said activists for the Lakota Nation."

Ouch.  How does that do for our international reputation?

The cost of coming to America, and the fruit on your plate.

Just ask...

I am not crazy about the title of the book, because in the long run it just is not going to happen.  Our children will refuse to eat tamales or dance to Latin music.  An interview with the author of The Latinization Of America.

In the mail:

Dear Friends,

Any minute the New Orleans City Council is to vote to demolish 4
public housing units. Protesters gathered inside City Hall chambers
this morning, and crowded outside the building. I've just received
text messages from friends inside who say that police have used
pepperspray and taserguns on protesters, and arrests have been made.
Swat teams are present. You can also see footage on CNN.

The one request protesters are making now to supporters throughout the
country (via text message) is to make calls to Congress and HUD
decrying both the demolition plans, and the crackdown on the
protesters, who have committed themselves to non-violent
demonstration.

CNN has more.

I find it interesting too.  Why is the immigration issue being stuffed down our throats when ONLY 85% of the population don't give it the time of day or a second look?

Digital TV is the wave of the future and now is the Law.  Old 'rabbit-ears' television are a goner as the analog signal will be shut down.

Some are upset at FAIR's slated radio show due to broadcast in Iowa, later this month.  "We don't agree with their views that are demonizing immigrants, and we don't appreciate their coming to Iowa telling us what we should think about immigrants,"

VeryFunnyAds.com, has a new Latino side to it featuring some of the most funniest Spanish language commercials.  Some are quite funny.

Obama and Latinos may be like mixing water and oil - they don't mix.  Can it be because of some ill harbored conceptions that Latinos hold against blacks?

they asked Latino respondents to describe blacks. Some of the terms that most often came to mind were "noisy," "loud," "lazy," "dropouts/uneducated," "hostile," "complainers/whiners," "bad people," "prejudiced," "aggressive," "angry," "disrespectful/rude," and "violent." Only 54 percent of U.S.-born Latinos and 46 percent of immigrant Latinos approved of their children dating an African American. Forty-one percent of U.S.-born Latinos thought blacks had "too much power." Half thought that "most government programs that are designated for minorities favor African Americans."

This is no surprise, as these attitudes are not new, but many of which are carried over with new immigrants from Latin America.

But Obama also bucks up against another problem; a problem that’s not of his making, yet he’s an unintended victim of. That’s the latent and sometimes open tensions and hostilities that flare between blacks and Latinos. They exploded to the surface in some cities such as Los Angeles over jobs, and immigration, and at times have exploded in gang and prison violence. That could severely damage Obama’s court of Latino voters...

It would be unfortunate if he lost the Democratic nomination in the largely populated key states such as California, New York, Texas, Illinois among others.

Because there hasn't been any consensus on Immigration Reform, NY farms are now in jeopardy.  We are talking about an industry with hundreds of million dollars worth of crops (not to say the people who eat them) that may just lay rotting in the fields.

Luis Alberto Urrea wrote a book titled "The Devils Highway."  It was a pretty good read about a journey of 26 individuals crossing over the Mexican/US border.  Now a few college students have created an interactive map.  Pretty neat!

"When Jose and Donald go to Bahia in “The 3 Caballeros,” they ride on a cute little train with a samba beat."

Click here.

Or, catch it on You Tube.

And now a real Samba train:

Hattip.
HattipII

...to 10Questions.

This is months old already, but I missed it and.........well, here you go:

Linda Chavez, gets a wakeup call and admits that some her fellow conservative base are racist xenophobes.  You don't say?!?  She makes the error of minimizing them to a mere 10%  But even so, if that 10% or even 1% is the population that holds the most influence be it through media, politics or what have you, then numbers don't matter.

I like it so much that I had to read and post it again.

The burgeoning Latino/a blogosphere, front-lined by the likes of Latino Pundit, Latina Lista and Para Justicia y Libertad and which includes immigration policy blogs like Immigration Orange and Migra Matters, continue to expose anti-immigrant myths, call attention to under-reported stories, promote immigrant voices and drive on-the-ground pro-migrant activism. Diarists on community blogs like “Colorado Luis” and Migra Matters editor “Duke1676”’s crossposts to DailyKos have kept blog readers outside of the immigrant rights community informed of ICE raids and deportations. There must be greater attention for their efforts outside of immigrant rights circles.

"Memo to the Netroots on Immigration"

I spy, you spy, we all spy!

...where would they send me?  Probably, Puerto Rico, but then that wouldn't be a deportation out of the US, since PR is the US.  But, that would be cool, since I haven't been there yet.  On the other hand, if I ever move out of the Bronx, NY and they deported me from wherever I may be, they would deport me back to the Bronx and that would just suck.

And how did I come up with this wacky post?  Do a search for 'most latinos fear' on Google (or click the link), and you get that most Latinos fear deportation of loved ones.  Where are these 'most' Latinos?  Now 'most' Latinos are immigrants.  How can anyone say 'most'... anything?  Most.  It sounds like something that grows on the side of the tree, like moss but is uglier.

Hot damn!  Some good investigative reporting over at Alternet by Heidi Beirich.  Go read about John Tanton, and all of his organizations and ties to racist and white supremacy groups.

You won't be seeing this in your daily news.

With Christmas right around the corner, free time is becoming a rare commodity.  While shopping yesterday, I treated myself to a nice pocket Moleskin notebook.  Those Moleskins are expensive, so I managed to put the regular one on stocking stuffer list (I am one of those - if there are more of us - .who think the stocking is underrated).  I also acquired a new phone by upgrading my contract.  It didn't cost me a dime, because I qualified for a discount by signing a two year contract (I know - killer!), with my provider and opted for the free LG EnV, instead of forking over $100 for the new LG Venus, which is a great discount for the latest gadget, but hey...$100's is a $100; and the EnV is quite cool anyway.  Besides, why keep buying things that we don't really need?

Now I am blabbing.

Oh, so I was looking for an opportunity to present itself while shopping yesterday, that I could post for y'all here, but unfortunately...well, not really unfortunately...no inkling of racism or related hardships occurred during my shopping spree.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  That's not to say it doesn't happen, because it does. 

Anyway, enough of this (I was reading Tolstoy last night, and I always seem to be wordy after a good read), and on with the blogging...tomorrow.   

This is the first post in a series of posts called "What Latino Bloggers Need To Do."  I'll write more of what this series is about in another post (part II?), but for now we will just get on with the show.  So, here we go with the first part of What Latino Bloggers Need To Do

...link to one another, read one another...just like you complain that others are not doing for you, is exactly what you need to do. 

On my RSS feed I may have 30 some odd latino blogs -- more to add -- and I am surprised of the lack of linking amongst them, even the exclusion of some by others.  One of the problems is that some bloggers feel that if they link to someone then they'll lose traffic to that very blog they are linking to.  But, guess what - Latino blogs are no longer hard to find!  You'll lose 'em anyway (or gain more).  I lost traffic that way, but it's for the greater good and I don't care about such pettiness.  Even by losing traffic, this blog remains one of the best known (yes, I patted myself on the back).  Can't we all be friends? 

Sometimes, I am surprised by the surprised reaction of a blog that I link to.  And I am like...well, it's a good post - that's why.  Ironically, I am even more surprised that the very blog that I link to reads my blog and they never link here.  I find out that they read here by way of my link to them, and their email or comment saying thank you.  And that's a problem; we don't support each other.  Boo-hoo "...don't cry for me Argentina."

So, folks...linky, link.  Wink, wink.

If this title of this operation isn't proof that there are racial tendencies in the Department Of Homeland Security, I don't know what is...oh, well dressing up as a dark-skinned, dreadlock convict would do too. 

If they were Puerto Rican, they might of called this Operation Arroz con Pollo, or if they were Black, then operation Collard Greens.  Terms such as 'Operation Tamale' and 'Operation Wetback' is derragatory; I am surprised there isn't much mention of this problem within DHS.

My questions, your questions, we all question...Even with the NYTimes pushing this only 3 candidates had answered as of yet. 

(title says it all)

It feels like friday today, as there is a company party later. Anyway, check out this little guy.

 

Marketers are trying to reach this young mobile group that has only cell phones and no traditional landlines.  Although my initial notion was that the trend may be due to lack of funds, I never seriously thought that to be true.  I myself had no need for a landline, except for maybe a backup to my internet connection, because my cell phone was just fine.

"It's Not Only Good for the Economy, It's the Right Thing to Do for Our Countries"

This is what I call living in the past, or misplaced optimism.  I would of hoped we moved on from the Mexican war of 1846, when the US acquired a mass amount of land from Mexico.  But, on second thought as long as people don't recognize the indigenousness of Mexicans in Norte America, or the language treaties that America has broke or continue to be racist and demonize Mexicans then the injuries of past will not be forgotten.

I don't think the merging of two countries is the solution.  In a sense the countries are already 'merged' via NAFTA, which started some of the mass migrations and problems that we see today.

Do be careful:  The 41 million Latinos living in the United States are among this country's first "wired immigrants."

Get them at Coconut Caucus.  Oh, and Tom Tancredo was not there...he is under the assumption that no American citizens watch Univision.

Also, Kos has a nice roundup.

UPDATE:  MigraMatters has a transcript of the entire debate.

VivirLaitno is live-blogging.

Lol!  It's about time, because someone needed to say this: Professional Hispanics are folks who are Hispanic and have chosen their ethnicity as their profession. They have no specific expertise in Hispanic Marketing (or even marketing per se, for that matter) but rather ride the ethnicity of their name to define and build their career.

One of the managers of the firm stated:  "you are building a fence over rough country and “it’s hard to get people to do that kind of work”.  Sigh...the realities of fence building.  File this under:  Only In The US. 

From the reasons Tom Tancredo gives for not showing on Univision this Sunday, we can see that he harbors some very racist attitudes.How did Tom Tancredo win a seat in office with his racist attitudes?  Did someone pay him to try and shove immigration down the throats of voters as the media does (more on that in next post)?

Q: Tom Tancredo, taking a lot of heat for refusing to take part in this Sunday’s Spanish language presidential debate, it’s airing on Univision. —why take yourself out of this, sir?

Tancredo: Because I wonder to whom this audi…to whom you are supposed to to be speaking in a debate of this nature. Remember, that we are supposed to be talking to American citizens who have the right to vote. Alright, that’s what a debate is for so you can inform that electorate. It’s against the law to become an