February 2008 Archives
This person needs a job. This
individual seeks an executive position, as he will be jobless in another few
months.
He will be available in January 2009, and is willing to
relocate.
(Please
don't skip the last section!)
RESUME
GEORGE
W. BUSH
Washington, DC 20520
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
Law Enforcement:
I was
arrested in
Military:
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a
drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air
National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in
College:
I graduated
from
PAST WORK
EXPERIENCE :
I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.
I began my career in the oil business in
I bought the Texas Rangers
baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.
With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry
(including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of
Where's my head - oh, it's stuffed with a severe cold. So mind my lapse, as I did not post that yesterday was the date Malcolm X was assassinated. Electronic Villager, has a good post. I read about the man shortly after learning he read the entire dictionary. Impressive. Later - a rare and fairly unknown fact about me - I would later take the train from the Bronx to Bushwick, Brooklyn, and participate in classes learning about the Koran, the Old Testament, and the New Testament, basically studying Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
Yes, I was a Puerto Rican brother, that embraced Islam. A few years later, I sold oils, incense, and books on 14th street by day (actually, I was selling many places before I settled there - even in the subway in Harlem - 125th street), and then on 42nd street between 8th and 7th by night.
My Muslim name was Duma; some of the elders told me I had an 'old soul,' for I was very young and showed interest in learning and practing Sufi teachings. But, enough about me; this posts is to honor Malcolm X.
Even the bearded one...Viva Cuba!...who has been fighting ailing health problems and has been bedridden for the past year will be stepping down; the economy is already wagging it's tail.
And even better, greater than change is the progress of the Latino Blogosphere, as one of our own debuts on CNN (I didn't watch it ...yet...but, I am sure you did good).
So, with all that excitement...all that news...you'd think I woulda updated and posted something, eh? Well...in 4 words (and then some), I will explain: I Got A Cold - and it's kickin' my a$%.
See you soon, loyal readers.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said: “I'm pleased that the Governor has incorporated in his budget many of the tax-trimming measures I've stressed, including capping the local share of the pre-school handicapped program, allowing schools to save through a health benefits consortium and expanding joint purchasing ventures.”. . . it seems there are better ways in which he could be spending the County's monies.
To great fanfare in October 2006, Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, signed a new law requiring 6,000 contractors working for the county to affirm that their employees were not illegal immigrants, prompting fear of impromptu inspections and roundups of Hispanic men.
Since then, county officials have found exactly one worker without proper immigration documents, after conducting two sweeps of a total of 33 contractors last summer and fall. A second worker at the same construction company, North Star Concrete, was initially suspected, but the $9,500 fine regarding his status was dismissed when the company produced proper documentation.
Suffolk County is one of several municipalities nationwide to have experimented with such laws after seeing sharp increases in their Hispanic populations, which are often blamed for spikes in crime and overtaxed social services, schools, hospitals and jails.So you pretty much waste the money it takes to enforce this law, the money it takes businesses to comply with this law, and all you have to show for is one worker without proper documents. That's what happens when the Federal government is stuck in political limbo when it comes to immigration reform and the States - or counties - decide they "are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore!!!"
We have been inundated with the tag line that more people are voting or caucusing in the Democratic primaries than ever before. In fact that is true. The voter surge has been attributed to younger voters showing up for Barack Obama that is only partially true. In fact now that the dust is settling it is obvious that a sizable part of the voter surge has come from Latino voters. Latino voter turnout is double the number than that of 2004. [...] The media, comfortable with ignoring Latino voters, has for the first time paid some attention to this critical mobile voting block. But credit for the voter “surge” has been totally given to Obama even though Latinos have been largely Clinton voters."The right wing media is hard pressed to admit that the Latino sleeping giant has been awakened..." Awesome post; go read. (UPDATE: A good friend points out that the comment in the post about Latino bloggers are blindly supporting him and not seeing his flaws, which is not true. This is an argument that suggests Obama supporters think he is perfect; and is being used to discredit his supporters.)
More from Gallup (via The Politico):
The tracking data suggest [Clinton's] support advantage among
Hispanics may be eroding, at least on a national level. In the Feb.
5-9 data, Clinton led Obama by nearly 2-to-1, 63 percent to 32
percent, among Hispanic Democratic voters. In the most recent polling,
the two are essentially tied among this constituency, with 50 percent
preferring Obama and 46 percent Clinton.
Special interest groups, lobbyists, and religious moralists have sought and semi-banned US online gambling (I say semi because the UIGEA - Unlawful
Internet Gambling
Enforcement Act, which is basically an update to the Wire Act, doesn't actually make it unlawful to gamble over the internet; it targets financial institutes).Financially speaking, simple regulation instead of banning (and imposing on citizens choices), to a billion dollar industry would have been better for our economy. It is also contradictory to ban ONLY certain kinds of gambling, but allow horse race betting and state run lotteries - aren't these too, gambling?
With the United States being the largest gambling nation (80%), our economic slow down will adversely affect gambling meccas like Costa Rica. But, I have read somewhere that in times of economic slow down, gambling among the masses increases (I have also read that being against gambling is the morally correct choice. However, I am opposed to anything that takes my freedom of choice away).
It is ironic that I take this position, as Clinton favors gambling economically, yet Obama disfavors it morally.
This is sort of like a follow-up to this entry at Telling Stories, where I took exception to NAACP's Chairman Julian Bond's argument, as summarized by the International Herald Tribune, that leaving these states without representation would disenfranchise a large number of minority voters. I later received clarification, which I independently confirmed, that Chairman Bond wasn't arguing in favor of seating delegates in proportion to the primaries' results but to have a new process take place to select delegates.
I still think that the argument about disenfranchising minorities is pretty weak and you can go to Telling Stories for the details if you care. What I want to raise here, since I haven't seen it raised anywhere else, is the argument that as a matter of basic small-D democratic principles, Democrats should allow for an alternate procedure to take place in Michigan and Florida.
Before all the Obamaniacs - or whatever name they go by - start screaming bloody murder and that I want Hillary to win the nomination, let me say that my candidate was Dennis Kucinich. And as I said then, I believe either Hillary or Barack will be an excellent President. At this time, I think Barack would be the better candidate while Hillary would be the better President, but we're picking between good and great, not between good and bad.
Now that we got that sort-of-disclaimer out of the way, here's what I'm thinking. The Democratic race is, in all likelihood, not going to be decided after the primaries are done. The math for Barack is bad but the math for Hillary is near impossible. So this are the choices the Democrats face: The Democrats can choose not to provide an alternative mechanism for FL and MI and have the superdelegates determine who should be the candidate. Or the Democrats can allow FL and MI to go ahead and have their primaries or caucuses, seat their delegates, and, maybe, put a candidate over the top or closer to it.
Which alternative is more "small-D" democratic?
There's no guarantee that it won't come down to the superdelegates. But for the losing candidate and his/her supporters it would be easier to swallow if they don't have to deal with the "what if."
I don't see how this helps or hurts either candidate. If anyone benefits from this is Obama. He has performed extremely well in caucuses and if it is a primary, the momentum is with him right now. For Clinton, she gets a do-over in two states where she had, essentially, election drills earlier in the year.
Right now, it seems like the proper thing to do.
Many, if not most indigenous and people of color communities around the globe wear their babies. From the continents of Asia, the Americas and Africa, indigenous women from ancient times wore their babies, mostly so that they could get back to the daily chores of life while taking care of their young. Babywearing was practical. So practical in fact, that on those continents, it is considered an act of the lower, poor classes. After all, wealthy women had people to do their chores for them, including carrying and taking care of their babies.
And it’s that fact that makes the whole babywearing movement in the U.S. so interesting. The babywearing community is mostly white and upper middle class to upper class and they better be...Many of these babywearing communities have the nasty little habit of fetishizing/exoticizing their practice. Without irony they post pictures of “traditional” babywearing across the globe and oooh and ahhh and say how cute. I even came across one post with a mama proudly and excitedly sharing how and Asian older man commented on her Asian style babywearing and according to her, he even said it in a “cute accent”.
Cross-posted at Telling Stories.
In what may be the ultimate irony, there are murmurs that it may be the Democratic delegation from Puerto Rico that may put Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama over the top.
The delegates will be chosen, technically at least, in a caucus in early June. Puerto Rico has 63 delegates to the Democratic convention, more than similarly sized South Carolina (54), Oklahoma (45), or Connecticut (60). The Democrats, in line with their traditions of welcoming and celebrating minorities, have long given Puerto Rico about as many delegates as it would get if it were a state, while the Republicans long gave it only a few delegates and today give it somewhat fewer delegates proportionately.
However . . . .
But one group of 63 delegates is more equal than another. Democratic delegates are supposed to be allocated by proportional representation. But that notion is alien to highly competitive Puerto Rican politics. In practice, the dominant figure in Puerto Rico identifying with the Democratic Party has seen to it that his faction gets all the territory’s delegates. . . This means that Puerto Rico is likely to have more leverage in Democratic National Convention votes than any single state, no matter how large. Its leader will be able to deliver a 63-vote margin for the leading candidate.
Emphasis added. And who will that candidate be? The answer is that it depends.
Puerto Rican parties are not aligned according to whether they are Democratic or Republican. They are aligned along favored political status. Currently, the governor is from the party that supports Commonwealth. The legislature and most of the cities and towns are controlled by the pro-statehood party. The pro-independence party basically rants from the sidelines and delivers flowery, nationalistic speeches. When you talk about national parties. Some members of the pro-commonwealth party are Democrats while others choose not to participate in national affairs. Some members of the pro-statehood party are Democrats and others are Republicans (this may be the only place in the world where Democrats and Republicans coexist within the same political entity.)
It is unclear to me who has control of the Democratic party in Puerto Rico. Regardless, this is how its going to go down: if the pro-Commonwealth party controls the delegates, they will pledge their delegates to whichever candidate pledges to leave sleeping dogs lie. If it is the pro-Statehood party, they will pledge their delegates to whichever candidate pledges to support Statehood, include it in the Democrats' platform, and commits to push the resolution of the Puerto Rican status condition by pursuing a process that will produce non-territorial solutions, i.e., statehood, free associated republic, or independence.
Personally, I don't think it will get that far. If the Democrats don't have a "prohibitive favorite" by June, things will be pretty interesting or they will be a disaster. Either way, if it comes down to Puerto Rico, you read it here first.
Did you get out and vote? I did, but was disappointed when my name was not on the roster sheet of registered voters. The district workers stated that that has happened a lot through the day (my immediate suspicions arose, but later subsided). So, with paper ballot in hand I filled in the little circles, sealed the envelope and dropped it off to be signed by the worker. Funny thing, that the same had happened to my fiancé, in her district. Conspiracy? Nah...probably an address screw up.
Gong to work today: Am I surprised? Is it no wonder, that the same people who expressed magnificent exuberance about the Superbowl game look at me cock-eyed when I boast of how great Super Tuesday's election night was? It's a shame most are more concerned with a game rather, than with their lives or country. No, no surprises here, but it is fun: "Man, did you see that election last night?" LOL
The votes will be counted into the night and into tomorrow, but today we won states
and we won delegates in every part of the country.
As of right now, we have won more states and delegates than Senator Clinton. It's a
remarkable achievement we can all be proud of.
Tonight, we know one thing for sure -- our time has come, our movement is real, and
change is coming to America.
At this moment in history, the stakes are too high and the challenges too great to
play the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a
different result.
This time must be different.
There will be those who say it cannot be done. But we know what we have seen and
what we believe -- that when ordinary people come together we can still do
extraordinary things.
Yes, we can.
Thank you so much,
Barack
Obama the choice of Democrats in Indonesia
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won the first battle of the Super
Tuesday showdown when Democratic Party voters in Indonesia -- where Obama
spent four years of his childhood -- picked him over Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Seventy five percent of the nearly 100 votes cast by expatriate Americans
a minute after midnight Indonesia time (12 p.m. Monday EST) went to Obama.
The rest were cast in favor of Clinton, said Arian Ardie, country
committee chair for Democrats Abroad.
VotoLatino is doing Live Blog for SUPER TUEDAY! Click the banner to visit (starts at 9:30am PST).
I thought it would be enough to elect a president who could talk right...but, one who is eloquent enough for songs?!? That too much to ask, but here you go:
Absolutely, the best football game I ever watched...the biggest upset in football history!
Related: NFL tries to capture Hispanic market.
P.S. This is just to get on Mr. Pundit's nerves since I know he's an Obama guy!
From California to New York, Hispanic bloggers are speaking up in ways that could influence Latino voters’ decisions just as their votes are becoming more relevant in the presidential race.
The bloggers’ politics vary widely. But with Super Tuesday right around the corner, their writings share a common tone: the urgency of an election year that is, as Latinopundit put it, “upon us like salsa on a taco.”
