More on Rubio

Over at the Frum Forum the crowd is having a minor meltdown over a Frum post chastising some on the Right for defending Rubio's 'exaggeration.' Some are seeking to claim that Rubio's parents are real exiles because they somehow 'sensed' that things were going to go bad - at a time when Fidel was still hanging around cheap cafeteria's in Mexico City writing his latest manifestos (please see small print).

So far, my favorite comment is this from Watusie:

But what the WaPo has revealed is that he is not the son of exiles; he is an anchor baby for economic migrants.

Which as far as I can tell is literally true.

But of course there are Hispanics, and then there are Hispanics. Get to land as a Cuban and you are welcomed with open arms. Get to land as a Mexican - and you are forever an illegal who should be sent back with your children. A curious dichotomy.

NOTE: I ate at one of the cafeteria's famous as a Castro hangout. He used to pen his famous 'manifestos' there. By an odd coincidence Carmen's godmother and her husband were couriers for Castro. The godmother had the typescript of one of el maximo lider's manifestos with corrections in his own hand. Small world.

Clemens learns a new word

Coconut.

No, it's not what you think. In modern slang it means "tan on the outside, white on the inside." Sort of like a Latino Oreo.

Here [from Andrew Sullivan] is a bright light on CNN misusing the term, on so many levels:

"You almost need that blank piece of paper [to be a politician]. That's the new model. Like, you know, this coconut Rubio down in Florida," CNBC commentator Donny Deutsch. If you don't know what a "coconut" is, see Urban Dictionary.

Don't know, but this would make Carmen and her whole family coconuts [must.resist.urge. for. funny.comment] - and they are all about as Europoid as you can get.

Visca Catalunya!

Late last night I was working on my article about the Catalan mercenaries hired by the Byzantines in the early 14th century (Catalans being Catalans it did not end well for the Byzantines). What better than to listen to a little faux medieval music from Miklos Rozsa while writing.

Then on a whim I looked at Andrew Sullivan and found this little map showing Catalunya as an independent country! None of that ol' Castilian for them.


what happens to France is kinda interesting too.

.

Dirty Tricks (or simple fraud) in Avery County?

One of the more hardcore of the western mountain counties in North Carolina is Avery Co. As red as red can get. Except for a large number of Hispanics, some of whom are citizens and can vote. I don't know the details of the following allegation, nor if it will hold up to scrutiny, but the source that e-mailed it to me is pretty reliable. FWIW, here it is, the instructions on the presidential ballot in Avery Co., North Carolina:

The Spanish instructions for how to vote are completely wrong. In Spanish it says "Para votar un candidate marque con una equis en el cuadro a la izquierda del nombre del candidate." Translation: "To vote for a candidate mark with an X in the square to the left of the name of the candidate.” This is the opposite of the English instructions. In English it clearly says that a vote will only be counted if the oval is filled in completely. An "X" will not be counted.

UPDATE: Seems that a complaint has been filed, embarrassing statements were made by the election officials concerned, and now the Wall Street Journal may be investigating.

Always willing to do my bit to embarrass public officials who screw up. Only a few more hours now.

Mr Sobrino's recurring nightmare

Posted by some guy named Patrick over on Andrew Sullivan and properly billed as "Lou Dobb's Recurring Nightmare."

Thank god Joey is leaning his ancestral tongue.


of course, this is just an amusing fantasy.



.

Adios, Muchachos!

I am curious about Republican strategy for the future. Apparently I am not the only one. The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today titled 'Hispanics and the GOP.' It hits on a topic I've mentioned several times: if the Repubs are seen as anti-illegal immigrant, plus anti-legal immigarnt, how can it avoid being seen as anit-Hispanic? And since Hispanics make up about 8% of the electorate and will be 20% by 2020? And how will this bode well for the Repubs when they have seen their edge among Hispanic voters rise to more than 40% in 2004 only to drop down to less than 30% in 2006? Right now it seems that 51% of Hispanic citizens favor the Demos to 21% for the Repubs.

To understand this remarkable erosion of Latino support for Republicans, look no further than the most recent Presidential debates. While GOP candidates debated the urgency of erecting a fence from California to Texas along the Mexican border, Democrats debated in Spanish on Univision.

And:

... getting people to vote for you is easier when you're not likening them to Islamic terrorists, or implying that Latino men are hard-wired for gang-banging. Unlike blacks, who have hewed to Democrats in large majorities for decades, Latinos are proven swing voters, and Republican energies would be better employed trying to win them over instead of trying to capitalize on ethnic polarization to win GOP primaries.

There's precedent here. In the mid-1990s after California Governor Pete Wilson embraced Proposition 187, which denied education and health-care benefits to the children of illegal aliens, Latino support for Republicans fell to 25% from 53%, and GOP support among Asians and women declined as well.

BTW, as an example of the delusional thinking and denial that goes into this, I have seen some Republican commentators simply deny that Proposition 187 had anything to do with the implosion of Republican votes in California.

But wait! We are only talking about illegal immigrants here, the law breakers who deserve this negative rhetoric!

Well, no.

... but when the target of scorn is the mother or brother or cousin of someone here lawfully, that becomes a difference without much of a distinction politically. Moreover, Tom Tancredo, the pied piper of restrictionists in Congress, wants a "time out" on all legal immigration, and Hispanic voters are wise to the fact that it's not because he thinks there are too many Italians in the U.S.

And then there are the Irish! Once regarded as even worse than the Hispanics! Really.

Es la verdad.


Just curious, but would that time out on legal immigraion include Canadians? Cubans (who overwhelmingly vote Repub)?