Thursday, November 30, 2006

Part of the right-wing agenda at the recent mid-terms was to exploit the race card by disguising it as a question of "immigration" or "language", with the clear target of both being the growing visibility of Hispanic [sic] speakers.

When 10 new countries join the European Union on 1 May, they bring with them an extra nine languages to add to the EU's existing 11. ...

Twenty languages gives a total of 190 possible combinations (English-German, French-Czech, Finnish-Portuguese, etc), and finding any human being who speaks, for example, both Greek and Estonian or Slovene and Lithuanian is well-nigh impossible. ...

The European Commission already has 1,300 translators, who process 1.5 million pages a year in the EU's 11 languages.

In two years that is expected to rise to almost 2.5 million pages - and the staff, based in two enormous buildings in Brussels and Luxembourg, will almost double in size to cope with the output.

The cost will rise from roughly 550 million euros today to over 800 million euros after enlargement.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The Pew Hispanic Center found an 11 percent swing of the Latino vote in favor of Democrats when this year's poll results were compared with those taken two years ago. The 11 percent compares with a 6 percent shift toward Democrats among non-Hispanic whites and a 3 percent change among blacks.

Latinos went 69 percent to 30 percent in favor of Democrats, compared with a 58-to-40-percent split two years ago and 61-to-37-percent four years ago.

"It is important to note that immigration in the Latino population is never a top-tier issue," said Gabriel Escobar, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center. "Nor is it for the rest of the population."

The National Election Pool, which conducted polling for the media organizations, pegged her Hispanic support at 44 percent. The Velasquez exit poll, however, estimated that nearly 54 percent of Latino voters in Texas supported Hutchison to 36 percent for Democrat Barbara Ann Radnofsky.

Adding to the complexity of deciphering the Hispanic vote is the fact that it spans different populations, said Nestor Rodriguez, co-director of the University of Houston's Center for Immigration Research. U.S.-born Hispanics may vote very differently from naturalized citizens or the young, he said.

"The seasoned Latino voters, they may have changed more because of the general concern of the war and dissatisfaction with Bush policies," Rodriguez said.

"Some new Latino voters who have become citizens may have been more affected by concerns of immigration."

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Sen. Joe Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's incoming chairman, wants to get tough with Mexico, calling it an "erstwhile democracy" with a "corrupt system" responsible for illegal immigration and drug problems in the U.S.

PRFAA closings continue
Posted: Sunday, November 26, 2006 - 03:11 PM

SAN JUAN (AP) – After the closing of the office in New Jersey of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA), the dependency only has offices in its Washington headquarters, Orlando, New York, and Chicago.

According to PRFAA Executive Director Eduardo Bhatia, the last employee that remained in the office of Newark, New Jersey, was transferred to the office in New York because of the cuts the agency suffered, according to published reports.

During the current fiscal year, PRFAA suffered a $4 million reduction when compared to the $10.2 million it received in Fiscal Year 2005.

After the cuts, the offices in Hartford, Connecticut; Cleveland, Ohio; Springfield and Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, California; and Houston, Texas were closed.

[T]he biggest problem with the Bush administration was never its doctrinaire conservatism, which wasn't all that doctrinaire in the first place, but its insistence that it could govern by gut instinct without recourse to serious policy analysis. John DiIulio figured this out after only a few months in the White House, and later told Ron Suskind that "the lack of even basic policy knowledge, and the only casual interest in knowing more, was somewhat breathtaking."

Monday, November 20, 2006

I am taken aback this week at the level of disenchantment with and dislike of the president and his men--not among Democrats, but among Republicans. On the Hill they no longer see the White House as talented and formidable. They see it as shuttered and second-rate. ... There is increased criticism too of the habit of high White House staffers to muscle critics, silence dissent, force obedience.

It is assumed by everyone, and accepted as truth that hardly needs expression, that the brilliant and independent Michael Steele was not chosen as head of the RNC for the simple reason that he doesn't look like someone who'd simply take orders. Mel Martinez was chosen for the reason that he will. I heard talk of what is called "the list"--the lengthening White House list of those who are to be treated as enemies. A White House preoccupied with the petty gave too little attention to policy, to the big picture. Thus the history of bungles.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Saturday, November 11, 2006

From 1993 to early 1995, [District of Columbia delegate] Norton and delegates from four U.S. territories were allowed to vote on the House floor in most cases. However, if their votes ever provided the margin of victory on a measure, a House member could request a second, binding vote without them. Republicans nixed the limited vote in 1995, after taking control of Congress.

Pelosi's press secretary, Jennifer Crider, said last night that the proposed rule changes would seek a return to those provisions. However, she said, Pelosi had not yet specifically addressed the issue of the U.S. territories' voting rights.

Friday, November 10, 2006

The largest ideological caucus in the new House Democratic majority will be the Congressional Progressive Caucus, with a membership that includes New York's Charles Rangel, Michigan's John Conyers, Massachusetts' Barney Frank and at least half the incoming chairs of House standing committees.

The caucus currently has 64 members -- up 14 since last year -- and its co-chairs, California Democrats Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, say they expect that as many as eight incoming House Democrats will join the CPC.

While the Blue Dogs are predicting that the membership of their caucus may grow from 37 to 44 members, and the New Democrats hope their membership will edge up from the mid-forties to over the 50 mark, the Progressives are looking at the prospect that their caucus -- the most racially and regionally diverse ideological grouping in the Congress -- could number more than 70 members once the new House is seated.

Of the 28 House seats that Democrats picked up in the midterm elections, 10 were in the Northeast and 10 more were in the Midwest. They added five seats in the South and three in the West.

The elimination of GOP moderates could push House Republicans farther to the right. ... [Ten] of the 28 most liberal members of the Republican conference were defeated. With fewer moderates, Republicans are less likely to feel pressure to bow to the wishes of moderates, especially on fiscal issues.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Two days after losing a bid for a second term in an election seen as a referendum on President Bush and the Republican Party, Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he was unsure whether he'd remain a Republican.

"I haven't made any decisions. I just haven't even thought about where my place is," Chafee said at a news conference Thursday when asked whether he would stick with the Republican Party or switch to be an independent or Democrat.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Friday, November 03, 2006

[T]hree poll workers were indicted in June on charges they cast fake votes to alter the outcome of a tight state Senate race last year. . . . The aunt of U.S. Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr., Ophelia Ford won a 13-vote victory in that Sept. 15, 2005, race against Republican Terry Roland. The election was later voided and Ophelia Ford was expelled from the Senate when evidence of fraud surfaced, including votes being cast in the names of dead voters.