Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Food for Thought
From Theodore Dalrymple:
If the host nation is so lacking in cultural confidence that it does not even make familiarity with the national language a condition of citizenship (as has been until recently the case in Great Britain), it is hardly surprising that integration does not proceed very far.
|posted by Jim on 5:41 PM|
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Tuesday, February 07, 2006
How The Mighty Have Fallen
Day One of the pro-statehood efforts of various Puerto Rican politicians was oddly sad. In 1998, Statehooders would pack the largest hearing room in the U.S. Senate to standing-room only levels. Yesterday, they had a hard time drawing a crowd at their events I attended.
No longer was there an army of K Street lobbyists and Federal Affairs staff ready to do the bidding of Pedro Rossello. Instead, a few die-hards mingled with some familiar faces from 1998 in honor of Rossello's new book on statehood. This book is unavailable from Amazon.com, but some people I asked claimed to have seen a copy while others declared it a such a best seller that it is now unavailable anywhere.
Rossello outlined his book's thesis at George Washington University last night. Prior to 1898, the United States readily granted statehood to anyone. No territory (except Hawaii) obtained by the United States since 1898 has been given statehood, which proves the United States has become an empire and is irrationally discriminating against Puerto Rico.
Rossello managed to omit mention of any of the three referendums in which the voters of Puerto Rico have rejected statehood. The only election that seems to count for him is one in which statehood wins.
Rossello's playing of the discrimination card is a clever sleight of hand. But the key year in American history for advocates of Puerto Rico statehood is not 1898, but 1933. Prior to 1933, American citizenship meant pretty much the right to vote for candidates, period. After 1933 and the "New Deal", U.S. citizenship now meant access to economic benefits paid for by others.
The Statehooders' slogan, "statehood is for the poor" would have been meaningless in 1898 but is a powerful incentive today, precisely because U.S. statehood for Puerto Rico means lots of money rolling in from Washington D.C. to San Juan.
This money may or may not solve any problems, but it will provide endless opportunities for the graft and corruption which seems endemic to any major public works project/disaster relief program/AIDS treatment center on the island of Puerto Rico.
It seemed like the big question I always get from Statehood advocates is "who is paying you to oppose us?" It is as though they have no comprehension that anyone anywhere is involved in a political effort for reasons other than enhancing one's net worth.
The government of Puerto Rico employs one third of the island's population. This means that most of the island's families include someone whose income for the next four years will be decided by the election results. That is not the case in the United States. Accordingly, politics is a high intensity blood sport in Puerto Rico while politics is often a matter of indifference to many here.
The Rossello regime cleverly decided to exploit this difference by literally trying to buy statehood in 1997-98. How much money they actually spent remains unclear even today, but it was a fortune.
The problem with buying friends is that when the money runs out, so too do the friends (see Luke 15:1 for another example). This week, Rossello's powerful speeches and Romero-Barcelo's practiced oratory echoed off walls in half-filled rooms, instead of rapt audiences of thousands.
Ironically, even as Rossello was shaking hands and posing for pictues with people yesterday, a federal court in Boston, Massachusetts, was discussing an effort to remove a federal judge from a case involving possible statehooder corruption:
Department of Justice attorney Kathleen Felton argued Monday that Judge Juan Perez-Gimenez is illegally delaying the trial of two men accused of extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars for their part in securing a $305 million contract to build an aqueduct to bring water to the Puerto Rican capital, San Juan.
|posted by Jim on 6:08 PM|
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Friday, February 03, 2006
"Oh, What a Circus, What a Show"
sang Che Guevara in Evita. The "best show in town" here in Washington, D.C. in months is likely to be next week's "Rainbow Tour" by Puerto Rico's deposed Statehood Party Governor Pedro Rossello.
Because Rossello "comes from the people, they need to adore me," he is expected to spend his time talking up the statehood cause at plush receptions and costly press conferences. Like Evita Peron, this "savior" of the Puerto Rican people plans to wave 100,000 petitions in our face and hope no one asks how many people live in Puerto Rico (answer: four million) or how statehood did during the last three votes on the issue (it lost every time).
Rossello's entourage may be reduced from previous visits, given many of his close associates took part in corruption schemes which NEVER involved their beloved governor. Remember, it is not polite to ask Rossello how he managed to hire so many crooks and embezzlers.
His remarks are expected to be in English, which means that, as far as 90% of the residents of Puerto Rico are concerned, he might as well be speaking Turkish. As far as his English-speaking audience is concerned, he is counting upon American ignorance of basic facts, such as the majority of the island's population opposes the nation of Puerto Rico being annexed by the United States.
Rossello will claim Puerto Rico statehood is the key to unlocking the Hispanic vote from Maine to California and hope no one remembers that Castro is a bigger issue for Florida's Cubans than Puerto Rico ever will be, while Mexican Americans are far more concerned about immigration issues than Puerto Rico's status. Even the Puerto Ricans who live in the United States don't agree about statehood.
Rossello will attempt the feat of convincing Republicans that the island is a bastion of conservative politics while not allowing Democrats to hear anything except that an island entirely dependent upon Washington's treasury will send nothing but Democrats to Washington, once statehood is granted to Puerto Rico.
People of Puerto Rico, don't cry for Pedro Rossello. After all, you are paying the bills for his Rainbow Tour.
|posted by Jim on 3:52 PM|
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