Monthly Archives: August 2010

…and I lived to tell about it!  Actually, the Kingwood Tribune tells about it here. The Kingwood Observer provides a bit more expanded take on the forum here, although I do have one correction.

The group was mostly friendlies from Kingwood Area Democrats; although, a few did ask some tough questions.

Whether it’s the Tribune or the Observer, the letters to the editor section of both papers has seen much right-wing vitriol–mostly from the same 3 divisive nuts–being tossed about. I hadn’t answered the letters because, as my mom tells me, “Mejor que haiga un pendejo y no dos.”  Instead, I commend both newspapers for reporting on the forum and for basically being the vehicle to respond to those letters.

Here’s my favorite quote of mine:

“No matter what side of the issue you are on, the immigration system is broken,” said Medellin. “What part of the system is the question…without a strong and vibrant legal immigration system, undocumented people will keep coming.”

Medellin said that Republicans are not focusing on the big picture.

“Republicans make it more about border control than reform – piecemeal solutions – this will continue to fail,” he said. “Because the Republicans are keeping the issue out there it is like political football. This year the Republicans obviously have decided to make it an issue for this election – they have decided that immigrants are the bogey-man and are campaigning this with the tea party, but it’s been a loser for them so far, because Latino voters have been escaping the Republican party since 2006.”

The above quote is correct, we need a better legal immigration system.  Corey Turner misquoted me and used “a vibrant illegal immigration system…” and never did I say that. Thanks to Ann McIlhany from the Tribune for not misquoting me.

Yes, because we are in the midst of campaigns, I chose to take the political route because it is a loser for Republicans nationally.  2006 was the start of Latinos leaving the Republican Party in droves, and 2008′s continued GOP vitriol basically made Latinos self-deport to their home-the Democratic Party.

The Texas Governor’s Race and The Border

Rick Perry has been playing both sides of the issue, kind of. One point I brought up was the fact that the term “border security” is being tossed around by Rick Perry.

When Perry talks about it (say, in a press conference or to President Obama), he’s careful to not get down to specifics or sound like Jan Brewer. In fact, he’ll talk about border violence and the cartels. Here’s a sample from his speech to a right-wing group today:

“Washington’s lackadaisical efforts have left the door open to a cadre of criminal organizations, including transnational gangs, who readily
engage very brazen violence in pursuit of their sordid efforts.”

Now, to someone who actually worries about cartel violence and how demand from OUR side of the border (ignored by Perry) has allowed these cartels to enlist street and prison gangs to open up distribution channels around the U.S., this sounds like a strong statement.

But if you pair it up with, say:

“Bottomline, an unsecure US-Mexico border is a serious national security threat and the federal government is obligated to secure that border. Unfortunately Washington has been an abject failure to date.”

“[U]nsecure …border” just gets the right-wing juices flowing, and then compare the situation to “… back to the 1930s in Europe, the South Pacific in late 1941, or even the United States in early September of 2001…” and you’ve just compared Latinos and Muslims to the Japanese American citizens which were rounded up and placed in concentration camps without any due process.

If you haven’t gotten it yet, think HUTTO and GUANTANAMO. Get it, now?

Rick Perry is quite artful at appeasing his right-wingers while appearing to be nice to Texas Hispanics by “opposing” Arizona-type laws at Hispanic conventions. Well, one’s artfulness is easily another’s two-faced strategy.

Bill White pointed out some of Rick Perry’s freak-outs on the Border.

Perry’s border crime stats wildly inaccurate
In numerous public appearances and on both publicly-funded and campaign websites, Governor Perry has falsely claimed 60-65% drops in border crime or crime rates. In fact, total crime rates in the 14 Texas counties bordering Mexico dropped 3.1% between 2005 and 2008.

and

Perry distracts attention from his border failure by falsely claiming that bombs are exploding in El Paso on national television
“You’ve got bullets hitting City Hall in El Paso. You’ve got bombs exploding in El Paso,” Rick Perry told Fox News. “Perry later made a similar statement in Laredo, saying a car bomb went off in El Paso, according to Pro8News.” “Perry did harm to the name and the goals of El Paso by trying to make a point to the nation that the federal government isn’t doing its job of protecting our southern border.”

The bottom line–Rick Perry’s Border problem is one that is concocted for his own political purposes. Whilef handing envelopes to President Obama and making up stories, Rick Perry failed to lead.