Yes, that’s what Mike Kelley called himself when introducing me and my sisters to his friends and associates. Mike was a Democratic and GLBT activist, an artisan-quilter, and just the best brother I could have had.

Some of you might be saying, “a brother?” Well, our family had known Mike for years and we sort of adopted him. Or, he may have adopted us. When he first called us his “Mexican family,” I just thought it was funny. But when he traveled with us to my nephew’s performances, graduation, spent holidays with us, and introduced us as his brother and sisters, well, he was family. He was my big brother.

Yes, my family is better for having known and loved Mike, but this community is better because of Mike, too. It was long conversations with him about GLBT history, issues, and activism that made me first want to meld Latino and GLBT activism as a means of bringing together communities for a common goal–civil rights. And I will definitely continue that in his memory.

A memorial service honoring Mike will be held on Saturday, Feb. 11.

LaTeaNut Group Steals Trademarks “Republatino”

I can’t say I invented the word, but I’ve been using “republatino” since DosCentavos got started (2005). I received a comment from someone stating that the term was copyrighted. A quick search found that they just did it in December 2011 and seems to have first used it on some teabagger website targeted at Latinos. When I did a search on the e-mail, I traced it back to some North Texas teabagger group. Well, I coined the term in 2005, but I obviously do not use it for business purposes like the LaTeaNut group does. I just use it for fun. So, who infringed upon whom?

Anyway, any free copyright lawyers who can give me an opinion, please let me know. I don’t live off the “republatinos,” so I can always use RepubLatiNuts, RePendejos, etc. I can go on, but they just might steal trademark them all!

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.— Tennessee Williams

A Solution Hoping For A Problem?

Much like Voter ID is a solution in search of a problem, I’m of the opinion that the new Republican-created requirement that college admissions offices serve a “migra” office to remind Texas DREAM students to fix their immigration status is just a solution hoping for a problem–like self-deportation or worse, a student inadvertently turning themselves in to authorities. The only saving grace is this:

The Mexican American Legal and Educational Fund worked with state officials in tweaking the in-state tuition policy, said Luis Figueroa, a staff attorney at MALDEF.

An informal agreement will ensure “that a student who is not eligible for adjustment status would not be sent to a federal agency,” Figueroa said.

Ultimately, though, the THECB stated that they only did this because of the Republican debate, not taxpayer input. So, there you go. It’s a political decision that costs taxpayers more, in the end.

Many of you have heard that along with banning Latinos, generally, Arizona is doing away with ethnic studies programs, thus, banning Latino-created literary works, including works by highly renowned authors like Sandra Cisneros and Guggenheim Fellow Dagoberto Gilb.

Nuestra Palabra is organizing The Librotraficantes Banned Book Caravan to Arizona. March 12 – 17.

The caravan will be filled with authors and activists who will be taking banned books back into Arizona, to give away. The bus will be filled with authors who were banned, new authors, as well as other advocates concerned with preserving First Amendment rights of Equal Protection and Freedom of Speech.

The Caravan will be making stops in Texas, New Mexico, and, of course, Arizona. More stops will be listed as they are finalized. More will be added as funding permits.

It’s time for Texas to support this effort. You may make your contribution at Librotraficante.

And the Texas Democratic Party has their pre-debate response to the whole hypocrisy, which I will add below. Bottom line:  ”Mewt” is not interested in serving any group of people. In fact, they are interested in corporate interests.

Even their Latino-esque-slash-immigration pronouncements will be about how best to exploit cheap labor under the guise of being “Latino-friendly,” as their republatino self-loathers club (including Marco Rubio) have attempted to spin this Florida episode.

Here’s what will happen tonight:  They’ll attempt being friendly with DREAMs of IED Fodder Act; they will say that Latinos are conservatives just like them; they will push the corporate charter school/school choice line; and I’m sure we’ll hear something about boot straps somewhere along the way. They will avoid words and phrases like equality, family unity, education funding, etc. Of course, I’m sure there will be attempts at lecturing Latinos, too.

I agree with the TDP that once they are done with the Latino niceties in Florida, it’s back to their normal–especially those other southern states.

Here’s the TDPs take:

Austin—Tonight the Republican presidential contenders will be taking part in a CNN/Hispanic Leadership Network debate. TDP spokeswoman Rebecca Acuña released the following statement:

“This momentary desire to appeal to Latinos will pass the second the polls close in Florida and the vehemently anti-Latino policies and attitudes that have dominated this presidential primary will return. The President has pushed for comprehensive immigration reform and passage of the DREAM Act while Republicans continue to view Latinos as little more than a political piñata.

As the GOP contenders tout their ‘moral values’ they won’t mention they are the party that punishes immigrant children because their parents dreamt of a better life for them.

Mitt Romney will probably not brag about the endorsement he received from Kris Kobach, the architect of the draconian Arizona and Alabama immigration laws. He won’t mention that as Governor, he vetoed the Massachusetts DREAM Act, and will likely try to gloss over the fact that he’s promised to veto the federal DREAM Act. He’ll have to defend his claim that ‘self-deportation’ is an immigration policy, which drew laughs at the last Florida debate.

Newt Gingrich is unlikely to repeat his comments that Spanish is the ‘language of the ghetto’ and will try to not dwell on the fact that he only supports the military provision in the DREAM Act.

It’s insulting that Newt Gingrich thinks it’s ok for immigrant students to risk their lives for this country, but not ok for them to practice their professions. Republicans are on the wrong side of every issue that’s important to Latinos. Before they got to Florida they were practically beating us off with a stick.”

According to a recent Latino Decisions poll, registered Hispanic voters in Florida support President Obama 67 to 25 over Mitt Romney and 70 to 22 over Newt Gingrich.

I like our chances with either of these, but if the self-loathers want Newt because he’s so “Latino-friendly,” bring it on!

Teddy Wilson at the American Independent reports that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is about to give colleges and universities added tasks regarding the Texas DREAM Act. I’ll call them “migra” tasks.

Currently, the Texas DREAM Act calls for a student to sign an affidavit committing to seeking a positive change to their immigration status. The policy change calls for higher education institutions to now manage the affidavits, as well as “remind” students of their obligations to fix their status.

According to the new policy, which has been placed on the consent agenda for the meeting, institutions will be required to “retain the signed affidavits permanently, and to instruct students when they are admitted, annually while they are enrolled, and upon graduation of their obligation to apply for permanent resident status.” The new rules also call for the institutions to “refer students to the proper federal agency” for instructions on how to apply for legalized status.

So, why the change? Well, they blame Mitt and Newt and the rest of the Republicans who have used Latinos and immigrants as their favorite political piñata.

“During the presidential election, when the dialog became so white hot, our board decided that there could be changes to the way the law is implemented,” said Chavez.

So, bigoted remarks by candidates are cause for policy changes, now? And wasteful policy changes, at that, according to a student Wilson quotes in the article.

“Higher education institutions are not knowledgeable in immigration law and would not know how to approach a federal agency about a student’s situation without putting in peril their privacy. For institutions of higher education to handle this without prior training is in fact, an unfunded mandate.”

We’ll be keeping an eye on this. Great article by Teddy Wilson!

And it looks like Mitt Romney’s immigration plan is pretty simple:  Self-deport, just like his family did–from the US and from Mexico.

On language:  They all reserve the right to campaign in Spanish, but don’t you dare try to conduct gum’mint business in your language. According to Mitt, bilingual education has caused “American” kids to learn less English (if I caught his drift).

So, as the Somos Self-Deporters group tries to spin Romney’s supposed flip-flop, I hope they develop a similar policy pronouncement as Mewt (I can’t tell them apart anymore) so we can tell which Latinos are actually for CIR and DREAM.

Thirty-nine percent of Americans call illegal immigration an important issue, down from 55 percent in 2007.

That’s a bigger drop than crime (14 percentage points), the environment and global warming (both 13 point declines).

On the flip side, the economy has rocketed up 18 percentage points in importance since the beginning of the Great Recession. The budget deficit (plus 16 percentage points).

Terrorism has slipped from the top spot on the priority list five years ago to third now, behind the economy and jobs.

Overall, illegal immigration ties for 17th on a list of top priorities, tied with strengthening the U.S. military. The only issues less important to voters are global trade, transportation, cutting military spending, campaign finance and global warming.

Well, this doesn’t mean Republicans will stop using Latinos and immigrants as their political piñata. Whether there are threats of a DREAM Act veto (Romney) or the creation of an all-new Bracero (labor exploitation) program (Gingrich), it is all about making the base and the big corporate check-writers happy. Either of these short-sighted ideas can make Latinos the political cucuy of 2012.

What it does provide us is a window at how voters are feeling nowadays, and if the economy and jobs are the issue, then it will be a battle of ideas. I like our chances in this type of battle, as long as we can clearly outline our ideas and defend them.

And I hope someone reminds some of our blue-dogs that immigration is not a top issue, too.

In this second phase of Promesa, Texas Democrats will launch a Fellowship Program and place fellows in at least eleven campuses across Texas, including: UTEP, UT-Pan Am, UTSA, UT, U of H, A&M-International, UT-Brownsville, UT-Arlington, UNT-Dallas, UH-Downtown, and A&M CC.

“These universities were selected because they have a large Latino enrollment and is perfectly located to provide the opportunity to affect several local competitive races,” said TDP Deputy Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez.

The Promesa Fellowship program will include a training program conducted by experienced campaign professionals. Fellows will then work to register voters, recruit Latinos to the campaign, organize campus events, get out the vote and much more. All the work done by Fellows will be geared towards turning out young Latinos in the Democratic Primary who would likely not participate otherwise.

“Several races across Texas are decided by a small number of votes every cycle,” said State Representative Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas). “We believe this project has the potential to have far-reaching electoral ramifications, including potentially at the statewide level.”

It is great to see this coming about. Let’s hope that this smacks to hell the notion by a republatino group that they are going to tell Latinos to vote for Newt in open primary states because he’s the “Latino-friendly” candidate. Democrats are going the extra mile with a diverse ballot that includes Latin@s who are actually Latino-friendly, unlike the republinuts’ Rubio and Ted Cruz, among others. Why the republatinos would want to support Newt of the Ghetto  is beyond me.

Anyway, Promesa is one of those projects that is giving me some hope regarding the young Latin@ vote in 2012.

Oh just one thing:  Maybe include Texas State University, too.

These kind of articles as “top stories” make me sick. Attempting to give relevance to Rick Perry as he destroys this state just to keep a media job does little justice to the political process. Why not have a continued conversation about how Republicans are intent on destroying this state? Instead, a single-digit presidential candidate is given credence just because he’s from Texas? Embarrassing.

Primaries Will Be Held in December

Well, maybe not, but Republicans are intent on destroying democracy. Not only are they trying to destroy voting rights, they’re trying to destroy voting. There’s different spins to the whole “Supremes reject the maps” story. TDPs is probably the most coherent one.

“The Supreme Court did not strike down the interim maps. The issues they had pertained to the process by which the court arrived at new maps, not necessarily the maps themselves.

While it is not clear what the final districts will look like at this point, what is clear is that the state’s original maps have been found to be discriminatory in some way by every court which has examined them.

The state’s maps completely ignored the demographic realities of Texas. The Supreme Court did not approve the state’s maps and we don’t expect they ever will.”

Republicans Intent on Destroying Latino Voting

That’s right. Emails by Republican legislators found they were indeed attempting to dilute Latino voting strength.

No shame!

I’d wish you all a good weekend, but it’s time to turn these fun weekends into working weekends if we really expect to win in 2012. And you better think outside the box if you really want to win.

Filed under: Chicano Politics, Houston Dems '12, Houston Politica, LatinoVote '12, TDP Convention 2012, Texas Dems 2012 ]]> http://doscentavos.net/2012/01/20/thoughts-on-viernes-01202012/feed/ 1 DosCentavos Republican Scoundrels http://doscentavos.net/2012/01/19/dc-reacts-to-perry-quitting/ http://doscentavos.net/2012/01/19/dc-reacts-to-perry-quitting/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:27:24 +0000 twocentavos http://doscentavos.net/?p=8059 Continue reading →]]> Perry’s out?

Was he ever in?

Obviously, I’m no fan of Rick Perry and his policies. He’s still bad for Texas and will return to continue his attempts at destroying Texas. It seems to me the only reason Rick Perry was still in the news–even after his poll numbers tanked and stayed tanked–was because of the Texas media’s weird crush on him. Otherwise, his campaign would have looked smaller than the fly-speck Paint Creek is on the Texas map.

To borrow a line from the guv, “Adios…”

And right before a big primary in South Yahoo-lina. Nice strategy.

The reason?

“We believe Speaker Gingrich is the most Hispanic-friendly candidate in the race,” Steve Rodriguez, a spokesman for the group, told CNN in a phone interview from Colorado.

Does this sound Hispanic friendly?

“We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto,” Gingrich said to cheers from the crowd of more than 100.

And these stances aren’t all that Hispanic-friendly, either.

But immigration and being the target of a GOP culture war aren’t the only issues of interest to Latinos. Just like the rest of America, we are interested in jobs and the economy. Latinos want to save Social Security, not privatize it. Latinos support universal health care, not the same old way of doing things. Here are a few of Newt’s stances on these issues.

Que feo, ¿verdad?

Bottom line:  There is no Republican candidate in the mix that is “Hispanic-friendly.”

SOPA/PIPA…BAD!

NO! to the other SOPA

So, it was not a surprise to see Good Jobs Great Houston and HOPE make a strong statement after a city committee made their budget proposals. Here is the organized group’s list:

Good Jobs Great Houston, of which the Houston Organization of Public Employees is a member, held a news conference outside Wednesday’s City Council meeting to get their own ideas out. They claim that some of the ideas they had submitted to the Task Force did not make it onto the draft list. Among the union’s ideas distributed Wednesday:

• Raise the city’s tax rate;
• Establish a higher property tax bracket on homes with a value exceeding $500,000;
• Establish a 1 percent income tax on city residents who make more than $30,000 a year;
• A “blight tax” on foreclosed homes that banks would pay on vacant properties they let deteriorate;
• End the practice of double dipping — remaining on the city payroll while collecting a pension;
• Put a cap of $100,000 a year on annual pensions for new hires;
• Review all outsourced services to see if they can be done more efficiently in house.

There are a lot more, but the Good Job Great Houston and HOPE officials said they want the conversation to include more than what’s already on the Task Force’s 229-item draft list.

The union leaders also pointed out things they don’t like on the draft list: eliminating the property tax homestead exemption for the elderly and providing tax abatements and other incentives to lure biotech companies to Houston. The latter, a Good Jobs Great Houston release states, equates to “tax giveaways for big corporations.”

The responsible thing is to put everything on the table, including our city employees’ ideas.

Heck, I would add a commuter income tax (for those who reside outside of the city limits and use our roads and infrastructure while providing little return to our coffers), too.

I heard somebody say recently that if we just took all of the money the rich in this country have and redistribute it across the country, that that would end our economic problems.  I thought it an interesting concept, so I decided to crunch some numbers (I know, I’m a nerd).

According to the Wall Street Journal, there were 3.1 million millionaires in the United States in 2010 (the most in history).  The combined net worth of these millionaires was $11.6 trillion (up from $10.7 trillion in 2009).

According to the US Census, there are approximately 312.9 million people living in the United States.

Dividing $11.6 trillion by 312.9 million (e.g. spreading the millionaires’ net worth across the population of the country) yields about $37,000 per person.  A nice sum of cash, but certainly not enough to solve the poverty issue facing our country.

Myth busted.  In evaluating policy to bring us out of this recession, it seems that the only way to elevate the status of the poor in this country, in the world for that matter, is to create new wealth…on a massive scale.

Dr. Reynaldo Guerra is Chair of the Houston Civic Coalition and a local small business owner.

Note:  3rd Centavo is the new name of DosCentavos.net’s guest blog-post opportunity. If you have meaningful commentary you would like published, please submit to DosCentavos@gmail.com.

…the one about the two people who don’t even live in the Congressional district they are running in? Thankfully, the best candidate does live in the district.

 Deport Craig James!

Who is this guy? He admits to taking money and favors illegally as a student-athlete, but passes judgment on people who want to actually earn their take? He does all this as a college student, but he passes judgment on college students who haven’t done anything wrong?

The Republinuts get nuttier (and disgustingly self-righteous) everyday.

Thoughts on ¡Rob!

I loved it. One of my sheroes, Dolores Huerta, likes it, too. If that means I’m included with those that can appreciate good-natured humor, as well as the employment of a lot of Latin@ actors and writers (with none of them being Eddie Olmos–kidding), then I guess I must be in good company.

Music Break: Los Palominos – Mafia Medley (© Urbana Records)