Posts Tagged ‘presidential election’
Obama Website on Immigration
1:37 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|US Presidential Race 2008 · 5 Comments
7 Nov 2008
As Mala pointed out several times, immigration simply wasn’t an issue discussed during the presidential debates at all. So it’s good to know that Obama has created the space on his “pre-election” website to discuss exactly what he intends to do about the ‘problem’ of immigration:
Create Secure Borders
Obama and Biden want to preserve the integrity of our borders. They support additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.
Improve Our Immigration System
Obama and Biden believe we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.
Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally
Obama and Biden will remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.
Bring People Out of the Shadows
Obama and Biden support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.
Work with Mexico
Obama and Biden believe we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.
I don’t know about you, but I see several things wrong with this little ‘plan’ right off the bat–for example, why is learning English a part of any immigration plan? Did the U.S. suddenly declare a national language that I don’t know about? Or does this plan buy into stereotypes about immigrants that they refuse to learn English (it’s actually exactly opposite, most immigrants are desperate to learn English, they just don’t have the time/resources to do so).
Also, I wonder what this “work with Mexico” plan would entail. Would it involve dismantling NAFTA (or at least scaling it back significantly) such that the indigenous farmers (who are the vast majority of people immigrating) could continue sustenance farming in a successful way? Or would it mean creating more and more miserable factories that continue to destroy Mexico’s infrastructure and push more and more workers to desperate moves like crossing a war zone without the protection of papers?
I wait to see Obama’s actions on this, and until then, I pray to who ever is out there to touch Obama’s heart with a compassion stick.
What a U.S. Passport Won’t Get You As a Rican : A Vote!
3:21 pm By Maegan La Mala · Puerto Rico|US Presidential Race 2008 · 7 Comments
14 Oct 2008
Not all U.S. citizens can vote. Specifically I am referring to Puerto Ricans. Pero before I am accused of bringing up my background, I direct you to the words of another Rican:
In October of 2008 I have discovered yet another off-putting situation. The other bearers of this passport are receiving their ballots this month, a head start to this November election. It’s an ex-pat party: the hitchhiker who went south from Recife and voted in Salvador, the old roommates from Buenos Aires, the new friends in Recife. All of them received their absentee ballots or voted at the embassy. Friends, acquaintances, strangers: all American citizens.But, somehow, I am different than them. I cannot vote. Though I am weighed down by the negatives of carrying the same passport, I do not have the same rights. Why? The last address I registered with the IRS (and the American government in general) is in Puerto Rico, my home (non) state. And Puerto Ricans, though US citizens in paper, are second class citizens in practice. Therefore, I am not allowed to vote in the presidential elections, unless I move and prove that my current legal residence lies in of the (actual) 50 states.
I carry the weight of this passport because I have no option. There is no Puerto Rican passport; I am a second class citizen with no alternative.
Read the entire post and the struggle that the colonial status creates at Zerotres
y mil graciaa a Elenamary for sending me the link.
Barack Osama : Our Children Are Watching / Listening
10:00 am By Maegan La Mala · children|race|US Presidential Race 2008 · 4 Comments
13 Oct 2008I admit it. I’m shameless about my politics around my children. For example my older daughter knows why we don’t take advantage of Colombus Day sales and why if I even see a millisecond of time given to revisionist history in her classroom, I march my ass and over with pages of real history for teachers to teach (ask some la Mapu’s teachers. It’s true). Pero my hija doesn’t know who I am endorsing for president. Not that I don’t talk about my dislike for McCain/Palin and the issues that keep me from jumping up and down about Obama. Pero my conversations with my hija reveal that her classmates’ parents are talking about the election too.
11 year old Mapu asked me the other day, ” Mami, is it true that Barack Obama’s middle name is Hussein?”
Well That Didn’t Take Long : Problems Voting for Obama (or Should I say Osama)
6:05 pm By Maegan La Mala · New York|US Presidential Race 2008 · 1 Comment
10 Oct 2008Absentee voters in upstate New York just got their ballots and Barack Obama isn’t on the ballot. Barack Osama is though. No I didn’t type wrong pero someone did and it needs to be fixed, stat.
The absentee ballots sent to voters in Rensselaer County identified the two presidential candidates as “Barack Osama” and “John McCain.”…The elections office faxed a statement in which the two commissioners, Democrat Edward McDonough and Republican Larry Bugbee, said they regret the error but never acknowledge what the error was.
“It’s human error, it’s very unfortunate, it’s an embarrassment to our office, obviously,” McDonough said in a later phone interview. “We wish we could turn back the clock, but we can’t.”
When they discovered the mistake, officials shredded the remaining “Osama” ballots and mailed correct versions to the roughly 300 people who had already received them. McDonough said the “Osama” mistake was made in only one of the 13 ballot versions mailed throughout the county, located east of the state capital of Albany.
The Children are Keeping it Real : They Know About Racism and the Electoral System
1:27 pm By Maegan La Mala · children|race|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off
6 Oct 2008
There are way too many adults in the country who would rather ignore or play pretend when it comes to the role of race in electoral politics. Children, however are not playing pretend. A study released yesterday suggests that:
Children are aware white males have monopolized the US presidency, and most attribute the trend to racial prejudice.
Wait, so children (and not just my own) get white male privilege something so many adults still refuse to acknowledge plays any role in anything? Well, not exactly.
The research team interviewed 205 children aged five to ten in 2006, a year before Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama began their historic bids for the White House. Clinton lost to Obama in the primary fight for the Democratic nomination.
The study asked the children, from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, about their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the US presidency, and specifically about similarities between presidents and the absence of female, African-American and Hispanic presidents.
A third of the children said the white male monopoly was due to “racial and gender bias,” and another third believed members of the excluded groups “lacked the skills to hold the position,” according to the study.
One in four participants told researchers they thought it was “illegal for women and minorities to hold the office of president.”
Amy Goodman Arrested at the RNC
9:10 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Media|Politics|radio|RNC08|Women · 5 Comments
2 Sep 2008Last night was a pretty intense night at the Republican National Convention. Protesters at the RNC were pepper sprayed, beaten with clubs, indiscriminately arrested and otherwise harassed nonstop. Among the arrested was noted indy media journalist and Democracy Now! broadcaster, Amy Goodman.
Hola!
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