Well. It seems Senator "Big" John Cornyn agreed to one debate ( in the usual TX GOP arrogant chickensh*t manner led by Gov. Rick Perry) with David Alameel, his Democratic opponent, to be broadcast later this month from Dallas on Spanish-language network Univision.
The debate will be conducted in English, but only broadcast with simultaneous translation into Spanish for the network's audience.
The Dallas Morning News covered this a couple of days ago, but has a follow-up article on its website.
http://www.dallasnews.com/...
From the article:
Nearly two weeks after the rivals agreed to meet face to face on Oct. 24 in Dallas, only the host network, Univision, plans to air the debate. It will be conducted in English, but Univision will dub it into Spanish and broadcast it the following night.
Alameel blames Cornyn, the Republican incumbent.
“Even if one is tempted to celebrate this apparent newfound embrace of multiculturalism … more than-two thirds of Texan voters do not speak Spanish,” said Gustavo Bujanda, a spokesman for the Democrat.
He called Cornyn’s refusal to agree to a broader debate “an astounding move that would make any English-only proponent blush.”
Now, my personal command of Spanish is passable, and I imagine I could follow the roughly fifth-grade level of the debate by these two. But Alameel's point is well taken, and the failure of any other media outlet to broadcast the debate delayed, much less live, IN ENGLISH when it happens, is little short of astounding. Oh, wait... This is Texas, and October 24 is a Friday, and local high school football games will be going on, and many covered on local cable channels, so I suppose there woukd be only a small potential audience. Or something.
The arrogance of this sitting Senator, and cooperative complicity of the media in not covering the debate as if Cornyn's re-election is not only a foregone conclusion, but is his due, is sickening.
Read the article by Todd Gilliam and see how this strikes you.
I will vote for Alameel reluctantly, simply because he is not a strong candidate and is financing his run from his personal wealth, which to me is suspect on its face. But he could be no worse than Cornyn, and certainly Texans deserve better. And the US Senate could use someone, anyone (besides Cornyn), to counter Ted "Crazy Troll" Cruz.