I love the guys at http://runawaybox.com.  This is a very cool, tongue-in-cheek musical testimony of the extent of Spanish usage after two semesters of Spanish, with a special guest appearance by everyone’s favorite Everglades timeshare hawker, Erik Estrada.  Word!

Posted: November 27th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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Now, those of you who know me know that I am trying very hard to be a good Catholic Christian. What that means is “love your enemy” and all that jazz. And some of you know that I actually succeed from time to time. But this thing about Joe Lieberman me tiene arta; in other words, it’s really pissing me off.

“Why,” you ask. It’s because even though I want to take the high road (I really, really do), I want Joe Lieberman’s head on a platter. I really think he’s a backstabbing SOB gold-digger that honestly believed this crap about this being a center-right nation. He really drank the kool-aid on that Republican hooey, and he lost his shirt at the poker table on this one. I think he’s ambitious and won’t stop at selling his homies down the river in exchange for some political brinkmanship. What really makes me mad is that only two elections ago he was actually the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate! ¡Que huevón! (translation: what balls!)

The reality of the situation is that this is NOT a center-right nation. At best, it’s a dead-center nation, though I truly believe it’s left of center. When you think about all the mudslinging that Sarah Palin was tossing around during the election, all the socialism comments, it’s funny to me that some people on the far right are so dumb that they actually believe all that. Redistribution of wealth? Hell yeah, if it means that rich people are going to pay their fair share of taxes like we do. We actually like having all the “socialist-y” things that Democrats have worked hard and shed blood over, like a 40-hour work week, collective bargaining rights, Social Security and welfare when you need it. Nobody likes to pay for those things, but when you put it in the context of patriots sharing the load, it makes sense. Hell, I don’t even really like to recycle!

But I’m trying hard to believe that the Senate Democrats are trying hard to take the hard road. I want to believe that they got that idiota behind closed doors and kicked his ass. One way to look at this is that it’s a move to show the Rethuglicans that we’re not doing the scorched-earth victory dance, that we truly are conciliatory. I have confidence that Obama’s leadership is trickling down and that we’re all learning to be lady and gentleman statespersons again. This is, after all, what we wanted, after eight years of cowboy antics al estilo Bush, right?

I’m trying hard to love this Lieberman jerk, Lord. I’m trying really hard.

Posted: November 18th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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Our friends over at The Center for Justice, Peace and Environment are sharing this report with us:

Ken Buck, DA of Weld County, has announced that they are investigating over 1,300 people for using false SS#’s on tax returns.  They have stated they will charge ID theft.  They are turning people over to ICE

We are already getting calls from people who are being arrested.  The Weld County PD and Colorado AILA are aware of the situation and ready to help.  If anyone has a family member who has been arrested and needs assistance, they can call the Fuerza Latina help line at 970-472-1501.

KUNC radio announcement:

WELD IMMIGRATION

WELD COUNTY AUTHORITIES ARE INVESTIGATING THE ALLEGED USE OF STOLEN OR PHONY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS BY SUSPECTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO FILE FOR $2.6 MILLION IN TAX DEDUCTIONS THEY’RE NOT OWED.  WELD COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY KEN BUCK SAYS MORE THAN 13-HUNDRED CLIENTS OF A TAX BUSINESS IN GREELEY MIGHT HAVE USED STOLEN OR PHONY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS.  AUTHORITIES SAY 11 SUSPECTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED. THE ARRESTS STEM FROM AN INVESTIGATION THAT BEGAN THREE MONTHS AGO.  THAT’S WHEN A TEXAS MAN WAS AUDITED BY THE IRS FOR UNDERREPORTING HIS COLORADO INCOME.  IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT HIS SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER HAS BEEN STOLEN AND USED TO FILE FOR TAX REFUNDS (emphasis mine).

Fuerza Latina
P.O. Box 400
Fort Collins, Colorado 80522
970-419-8944
fuerzalatinaco@yahoo.com
www.cjpe.org

We’ll keep you posted on developments and how you can help the affected families.

Posted: November 14th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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More from the Colorado Independent.  Could this be the start of a new, bipartisan approach to immigration in Colorado?  Can there be any stranger bedfellows than those mentioned below?  What’s next?  Tancredo and the Ghost of Corky Gonzalez?  (ha ha!  can you just imagine that?):

Now that the election is over, it’s apparently time to hunker down with immigration. And who better to do that than a group that, on its face, will bring every imaginable perspective to the table? We’re talking Polly Baca to Pete Coors; Kay Norton to John Hickenlooper; Bill Ritter to Bill Owens.

On Friday, University of Denver Chancellor Robert Coombe will announce the new group as part of the college’s Strategic Issues Program (SIP) will study immigration.

Past University of Denver SIP panels have hashed out everything from the state’s economy to its water supply and constitution.

Two years ago, the Colorado Legislature passed what former Gov. Owens termed the toughest in America dealing with immigration. Among the laws passed during a special session called to deal with the immigration issue in Colorado: new applicants for public benefits must prove they are in the United States legally; and employers must certify their employees’ legal statuses.

At a Friday press conference, Chancellor Coombe will detail what the newly formed group will tackle in the coming year.

Posted: November 13th, 2008 under Colorado Independent.
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Cara Degette at the Colorado Independent is news flashing us on some great numbers that came out from the election:

A blogger at ColoradoPols has crunched a bunch of election numbers in several interesting ways, and determined that of Colorado’s five largest counties, four went for Barack Obama. Only El Paso County, a reliable GOP stronghold, went John McCain’s way. And, the pol noted, Denver and Boulder counties turned out to be way more Democratic than El Paso County was Republican.

The presidential election results are based to the most recent data published by the Denver Post.

Here’s the breakdown of the big counties:
Jefferson 283,468 votes — 54.69% (Obama)
El Paso 264,407 votes — 58.97% (McCain)
Denver 259,647 votes — 75.29% (Obama)
Arapahoe 232,167 — 55.29% (Obama)
Boulder 159,469 — 72.33% (Obama)

In another interesting view, the pol, who goes by the moniker Precinct854, determined the five counties that registered the highest Republican presidential turnout were sparsely populated and rural, with all but Rio Blanco on the eastern plains.

Here’s the GOP breakdown:
Cheyenne 80.11% (890)
Washington 77.77% (1935)
Rio Blanco 77.38% (2425)
Kiowa 76.27% (630)
Lincoln 74.27% (1683)

And, of the five highest-percentage counties that went for Obama, San Miguel in southwestern Colorado came out on top, with 77.06 percent.

Here’s the Democratic breakdown:
San Miguel 77.06% (3,345)
Denver 75.29% (195,499)
Costilla 73.40% (1,236)
Pitkin 73.74% (7,260)
Boulder 72.33% (115,339)

This is really interesting to us at Liberal Latina, because of the high numbers of new and Latino voter registrations that were gathered in those very same four counties (other than El Paso) have also seen a growth spurt in the number of Latino/Hispanic residents.

Keep this in mind, mi gente.  Just because you see a family with undocumented/legal resident members doesn’t mean that no one in that household can vote.  We all know that even though Mami and Papi can’t probably vote yet, there are plenty of young people of voting age that can.  I read a statistic recently that every month 35,000 young Latinos turn old enough to vote!

And even if Mami and Papi can’t vote this time around, chances are that they have completed all citizenship requirements by the time the next general election comes around…or even sooner!  Don’t forget that you are eligible to apply for citizenship after 5 years as a legal resident.

Voter registration needs to be constant, year-round activity for the Latino population.  The Democratic Party better be along for the ride at every step of the way in this process!  Talk to your neighbors.  Keep them informed about politics and how progressive agendas are good for them.  When they’re ready to vote, get in touch with the Democratic Party branch in your area and get them registered!  We can’t afford to pass this up!

Posted: November 13th, 2008 under Colorado Independent.
Comments: none

Here is a picture of the first of my new liberal Latina swag that I’m going to be offering via this blog.  I hate that there aren’t a lot of women-specific (or even Latina-specific) gear for female liberals, so I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and design my own line.

Stay tuned for more stuff, because as stuff happens, I want to wear the slogans.  Everything will be cataloged on the “Latina Gear” page, which will be linked to the right of the page.  A percentage of each sale will be earmarked for various causes, and I’ll specify which as I identify a worthy one!

“Earmark”!  I guess that was a dirty word during the election, but ha ha!  They lost!

Posted: November 12th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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Our friends from the Coalition on Human Needs need your help to remove barriers to help the poor and elderly caused by unfair focus on immigrants. Please read and sign the letter.

As our country moves into a time of new opportunities, let’s urge our leaders to stand up for the just treatment of immigrant communities

Organizations: Please Remember to Sign Letter to Congress

Deadline has been extended to Thursday, November 13

Many advocates working to improve the social safety-net have been saddened by the negative targeting of immigrants in Congressional debate, doubly harmful when the targeting results in burdensome requirements that jeopardize eligible beneficiaries’ access to services. These restrictive policies are a disservice to our communities and have broad unintended consequences, such as threatening loss of health benefits of poor seniors who cannot assemble documents proving their citizenship. For more information on how this has played out in 2007 and 2008, see the one-page backgrounder: http://www.chn.org/pdf/2008/imigrestrictions.pdf.

Soon our country will have a new Congress and it is important that Members understand the harmful effects to these restrictive policies. Therefore, we are distributing an organizational sign-on letter protesting the recent attacks and asking Members of Congress to stop playing politics with the lives of immigrants and other vulnerable low-income people. Anti-immigrant voices, relatively small in number but loud, are too often the only voices heard by Senators and Representatives. Please help us to create a stronger voice for fairness, effectiveness, and integrity in federal legislation affecting immigrants by adding your organization’s name to this letter.

You can view and add your organization’s name to the letter here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/125/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1713. Click here for a printer-friendly copy of the letter.

Thank you!

Posted: November 12th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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(Spanish for “Yes, we could, and yes we did”!)

Man, we worked our culitos off for Barack Obama, and it really paid off!  It’s been a week since Election Day 2008, and here are some of the statistics regarding Hispanic voter turnout:

According to the Colorado Independent article entitled “Colorado Latinos turned out in record numbers,”

More than 330,000 Latinos voted in the state last week, compared with 165,000 in 2004, based on exit polling from media outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Voto Latino, a national nonprofit organization that organized Latino voting drives in the state.

The data also shows that the share of Latino voters in Colorado has increased by 9 points to 17 percent since 2004. Nationally Latinos increased their share of the vote from 8 percent in 2004 to 9 percent in 2008, according to The Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization.

This is increible, because it really shows how the electorate in Colorado increasingly has a Hispanic/Latino face.

I think Barack has some quick work to do on immigration reform!  He can’t afford to forget about us.  But I have lots of faith in him, because even during the last week he has shown a lot of solid judgment and good character.  Hell, if he can cut Joe Lieberman some slack, I know he has good things in store for nuestra gente!

Posted: November 11th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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As you saw on the 2008 Youth Vote Map, Colorado is one of the states for which we have no exit poll data on young voters. Early in the evening on election night, CNN reported exit poll data showing Obama losing the Colorado youth vote 47 - 53 percent.

Based on that data, the NY Post wrote:

Colorado was the only state that Obama flipped from Bush’s 2004 result without winning the youth vote — he lost 47-53 among that age group there, perhaps due to the large military presence in that state.

The story was also picked up by PolitickerCO.

Unfortunately (or, fortunately), the story turned out to be false. Something was dramatically wrong with the exit polling data, and before the night was through CNN replaced the 47 - 53 percent youth figures with “N/A.” As of this writing, the exit poll still shows “N/A” for its 18 - 29 data.

No one seems to know what went wrong (though I’ve got a few inquiries out at the moment), however the folks at New Era Colorado were able to get a local pollster to go on record about state polls leading up to election day. Here’s what they had to say about the Colorado youth vote:

RBI conducted a number of statewide surveys among likely voters over the course of the 2008 election season and Obama was never behind in the Colorado youth vote. In fact, RBI’s last statewide survey just days before the election showed Obama receiving over 60 percent of the 18-34 vote.

Yes, RBI’s numbers are for 18 - 34, not 18 - 29, but it seems unlikely that the numbers would be substantially off considering that the Gen Xers in the 30 - 34 category tended to be more conservative, rather than more liberal. Any bias they introduced into the data would likely swing in McCain’s favor, not Obama’s.

It always seemed fishy that Colorado youth would swing towards McCain. The state is trending blue for a while now, it’s got a great progressive infrastructure, and a growing Hispanic population - all recipes for Democratic support. It’s good to know that is likely still the case. I’ll post more if I get a good explanation for why the exit polling was so flawed.

Mike Connery is a CIM correspondent at Future Majority.com and expert on the youth vote.

Posted: November 11th, 2008 under Colorado Independent.
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