Texas, and Activists, and Bloggers.  Oh my.

I actually wanted to title this entry "Sometimes, It's the White Liberals Who Get on My Nerves" but since I am not certain of this guy's race - although I venture to say he's most likely white - I'll edit myself for accuracy's sake.

Part of the problem is that some white liberals carry with them racist attitudes and they end up bubbling up in the weirdest of places.  And it's usually the weirdest of places because, unlike other non-liberal whites, they try not to sound act or be racist.  Which is a good thing.  Having good intentions is 90% of the way there.

But you have to cringe when you read entries that start like this one:

Wow, We Nominated The Black Guy

"The Black Guy"?  Barack Obama has been trying his best to get past race or at least try to make race as irrelevant as possible.  He has shown, smarts, charisma, resilience, and an uncanny ability to inspire people.  Even Mr. Latino Pundit himself is an Obamaniac.  And now that he has all but won the Democratic nomination for President he's "the Black Guy."

I thought it was a poor choice of words but then there's this little nugget here.

For quite some time, the Democratic Party struggled with a "loser" image nationally. Given its minority heavy, downtrodden heavy, freaks and geeks membership, it isn't a huge secret how it developed that negative brand. . .  A shift of electoral power toward the Democratic Party actually means a broad shift toward more pluralistic control of our government. The minorities, the downtrodden, and the freaks and geeks are taking over.

So, being a Latino automatically lumps you with the "downtrodden," the "freaks," and the "geeks."  And you're born with a "loser" image too!!  But that's OK because we're "taking over."  Good grief!

I never thought of myself as a freak, for being a Latino, that is.  The verdict still out on other stuff.  And I never wanted or expected to "take over" anything.  I'll leave that to Pinky and the Brain.  The only thing I've ever wanted, expected, and demanded - and will continue to do so - is the opportunity to do the best I can with my God-given skills.  That's all.  I find this whole thing unintentionally insulting, but insulting nonetheless.

And this is a guy who likes us!

MySpace is a winner in any demographic, which I guess leaves some wondering why it would go after a specific demographic and cater to it thus so...in this case Spanish speaking Latinos.  I think I could understand the surface argument of what the writer is saying:  why not have a universal MySpace.  But...in what Language?   Assuming that the same strokes are for all folks is ignorant and plain wrong, in other words you are living in a dream world.  Reality is there are many Latinos in the US who prefer to speak Spanish (not to say anything of those in the islands, South and Central America).

So why not a Myspace Latino, and a MySpace Korean...why not a MySpace in every language?  A true social network appreciates our differences and seeks to unite them, not wipe them out.

Sidenote:  Isn't it strange that computer applications such as MySpace is now part of our Culture? 

IT'S YOUR COUNTRY...REPRESENT

Yee-haw!!!  Haul your lazy behinds over to ManEege's Pro-Migrant Blog Roundup.  You won't be sorry, C@wboy!

The Wall Street Journal, covers a slew of Latino bloggers and their electoral commentary.  This is a fantastic piece, and does a great job introducing and covering the varied Latino Blogosphere.

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.”

If there is one more term of the Bush/Clintons, I'll have a breakdown.

Obama 55%, Clinton 27%, Edwards 18%

This is another installment of the Latino Bloggers Series (formally known as "What Latino Bloggers Need To Do".

The Latino Blogosphere is now becoming more authoritative:  There are gossip sites, blog-journalists, witty-opinions, book reviews, independent voices, news sites, Venezuelan sites, activism, politics, marketers, authors. 

Note I said in the title that the Latino-blogosphere is maturing - not matured yet.  We can consider this the tip of the iceberg and the beginning of Latino Blogs maturing.  Just a few short years ago, Latino bloggers looked and felt like a faint aspiration of their author's intentions.  Those fledgling days are being outpaced by some of the strides made by Latino bloggers on a daily basis.  And now with election year upon us like salsa on a taco, we will see more establishments, organizations, reporters, shows, average Jose's look up Latino blogs than before.

Mario, over at Nuestra Voice explains why the recent lack of Latino support for Obama speculation, based on race is not true.

The failure of the Obama campaign to garner Latino support is that his campaign was simply less accessible to Latinos than was the Clinton campaign during a critical early decision making period...

Richardson has even less Latino support than Obama in the poll Hutchinson quoted. In fact Richardson has received less financial support from Latinos than has Clinton. An indication that among even the Latino political elite who have shown tremendous ethnic political loyalty for at least two decades Richardson has been outdone by Clinton.

The post is a good read; if you haven't checked out Mario's radio show, you should.

I'm a big fan of social networking/web 2.0; it's the power of generosity and humaneness that exalts itself magnanimously within such arenas. 

I found this cool site:  BookCrossing.   The idea is to publicly distribute books and keep track of these books via their own ID number.  You place a book on a bench in the park, on the stairs of a building, a coffee shop in the mall, and jot it down on the site - the book is now ("out in the wild," as they call it).  Whoever picks it up can then sign into the website and state they have got it if they are so inclined.

I am releasing Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind," somewhere tomorrow (it's a book that's been lying around; I actually want to read it one day, but I don't think I'll get to it for some time).

I was flipping through some books on the Puerto Rican movement in New York city from back in the day.  It's amazing how journalist and authors can capture our passions and struggles within the contents of a book, making our lives searchable within the context of a web page. 

That had me thinking about the blogging movement: one day, in addition to the volumes of books already written, coverage by journalists, interviews on news and talk shows, they will teach the blogosphere in the history classes.

Some of us have been blogging too long to remember how long it was in the beginning.  For me there was this awkward feeling of the structure of the blog post:  is it too long, too short, where should the hyperlink go, do I sound dumb, do I sound presumptous, will people read, do I like it...and so on.

Fortunately, some have reached back and planted some sign posts (and some of us who have been blogging for awhile can use a refresher).

is broken in American:

“The time to fix our broken immigration system is now… We need stronger enforcement on the border and at the workplace… But for reform to work, we also must respond to what pulls people to America… Where we can reunite families, we should. Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should”

— Barack Obama, Statement on U.S. Senate Floor, May 23, 2007

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

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.