2008 November 04 | VivirLatino

VivirLatino’s own Maegan la Mala will be on HITN live tonite discussing the election and the Latino vote. Check your local listings. I think I’ll be on the air between 9 and 10 pm est.

As soon as I get back I’ll join you all on the chat!!!! Save me a spot.

So How Are Latinos Expected to Vote?

4:40 pm By Maegan La Mala · US Presidential Race 2008 · 1 Comment

4 Nov 2008

This morning some numbers on the fabled Latino vote were released. If my family is any indication, the numbers may well be true.

The Univision/Reuters/Zogby poll released on Tuesday said that 78 percent of a sample of 1,016 Latino likely voters favored Sen. Obama, with 13 percent supporting McCain, an Arizona senator.

The poll, which was conducted between October 30 and November 2, found that 54 percent of respondents said the economy and jobs were the most important issue in deciding who to vote for, followed by health care and immigration, with 12 percent and 11 percent respectively.

Wait? Immigration is an issue? I wouldn’t have known that based on the last weeks of both major candidates’ campaigns.

Via / Hispanic Tips and Reuters

Whoopi Takes out her Fightin’ Gloves

4:17 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · US Presidential Race 2008 · No Comments

4 Nov 2008

It still appears too early to get this video from youtube, but ABC.com has it, and it is a miserable joy to watch.

The scenario: The View’s Elizabeth Hasselbeck is SO angry about that evil Reverend Wright and Barack Obama. How *dare* Obama sit and listen to his speeches and how dare he pray with him or be friends with him, and how dare anybody defend that church? Cuz you know, like, Elizabeth totally doesn’t care about the color of a church (purple, pink, blue and green), you will not be a total a-hole about supporting our glorious nation!

Even if you *are* a black man that had to get off the sidewalks when a white person was on it and wasn’t allowed to vote and saw loved ones lynched. FORGIVE AND FORGET.

Dammit.

At which point, Whoopi got out her can of whoop ass and took down the gloriously naive Liz with a few well placed punches and a little help from her friends.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

I voted, did you?

3:01 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · US Presidential Race 2008 · No Comments

4 Nov 2008

Well, somehow I made it up and out to the polls before eight AM today. I actually finished voting before the Obama campaign knocked on my door asking me if I needed a ride to the polls.

I am currently crossing my fingers with much exhaustion–Oh, MAN do we need things to be different, no? Cross your fingers in exhaustion with me, VLatin@s.

And if you haven’t voted, take a gander at this interview with VP candidate Rosa Clemente. I encourage you to consider her words as you go into the voting booth, but I am in no way attempting to sway your vote!
Cuz I know you’re going to vote, right?
And then when you’re done you’re coming back here to help us bring in the new administration?

I know you don’t have any other plans at all. I have that kind of faith in you!

Latinos : Election Day is Today not on the 9th as Westchester County Told Latinos

2:02 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York| US Presidential Race 2008 · No Comments

4 Nov 2008

Westchester County, just north of NYC, sent out as many as 20,000 mailers with a “typo” on the Spanish version only, that election day is November 9th, not today.

“I think most people do know when Election Day is, but if you get an official letter from the Board of Elections that tells you another day, you might be confused,” said Grace Heymann, director of the Westchester Hispanic Coalition.

“I would especially worry about first-time voters,” she said. “We have been working hard to get out the vote, and we are getting some questions because of this letter.”

The mailing, about the availability of ballot marking devices used by disabled voters, was in English and Spanish. The English part was correct, but the Spanish section said Election Day was Nov. 9 instead of Nov. 4.

Via / Hispanic Tips, AP,

One Mala’s Vote

12:42 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York City| US Presidential Race 2008 · 1 Comment

4 Nov 2008

I have strong feelings about voting, and those aren’t always easy feelings. Raised in a family that always votes (and always Democrat- my dad even had a failed run for Congress once), and politicized by a Young Lord who also ran voter registration campaigns, voting has always been a complex issue. As a New York born and Rican with family who can’t vote because of their current or past criminal record or by virtue of living in a U.S. colony, it’s not a decision I take lightly.

As I went to vote, I struck up conversations with the people in my hood who can’t vote. My community is an immigrant community. The parents of many of my daughter’s schoolmates, my neighbors, the shop owners, are undocumented and they all asked me if I was voting. As I waited online for my bagel after voting, I spoke with day laborers asking what the scene at the polls was like. My vote today was more than my individual vote, it was for My tios, tias, y Abuela Lila who are in Puerto Rico now and for those who work here, put money into the U.S. economy and don’t have a say in who makes the laws and carries out foreign policy.