We cheered when we heard this week about the the DNC's unprecedented $20 million commitment to engaging and mobilizing Hispanic voters for the November election.

"Senator Obama is honored to have earned a strong lead among Hispanic voters, but neither he nor the Democratic Party are taking a single vote for granted," said Frank Sanchez, Obama for America National Hispanic Leadership Council Chairman. "We know we have a lot of work to do, and this bold and unprecedented commitment to engaging and empowering Hispanic voters in our political process is an important step toward the November elections."

Now we have the good news that Hispanic voters will be given the opportunity to enjoy the Denver convention live in their own language on TV and radio as well as on line.

More after the fold:

Great news from the west

It is ironic that a new battle is taking place here in San Antonio at the Alamo, that legendary battlefront where so many gave their lives for freedom.  This time the battle is for the First Amendment and the freedom of speech.

Just days after stepping on the third rail of American politics with his proclamation that Social Security is "an absolute disgrace," John McCain may once again have stepped in it on the immigration issue.  His new ad praising the contributions of Hispanic-Americans, titled "God's Children," has much of the conservative blogosphere frothing at the mouth.  Meanwhile, the imbroglio will only serve to once again highlight McCain's just-in-time reversals on the comprehensive immigration reform he once advocated.

FISA is sucking the energy out of me, so I felt the need to post a more upbeat and hopeful diary.  I ran across this and didn't think it was getting enough attention (It looks like there was a previous diary on this topic, but it got yanked)...

Both Barack Obama and John McCain delivered speeches to the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Washington on Tuesday.

According to the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle, Obama won by a large margin.

Obama, who was introduced by former Clinton supporter - Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, delivered a new speech which directly addressed LULAC and immigration reform.  

According to the SF Chronicle:

Illinois Sen. Obama, largely an unknown among Latino voters only months ago, drew a standing ovation after delivering a rousing populist speech aimed directly at their core concerns - immigration, education and health care.

Consider all the primary-era bullshit spin we heard the first half of this year, and none was more offensive to me than the notion that Latinos wouldn't support Obama because (a) he was black, or (b) they supported Clinton too heavily, or (c) because McCain had a good relationship with that group based on his pre-flip flop support for comprehensive immigration reform, or (d) because that's what the b.s. convention wisdom told them and they were too frackin' stupid to think for themselves.

We've already seen evidence that the CW was terribly awry on this issue.

There was a growing consensus during the Democratic primary season that Obama was going to struggle with Latino voters -- due to the exit polls, his race, and McCain’s immigration stance. In fact, in that now-famous conference call in which Hillary Clinton indicated that she would be open to serving as Obama’s running mate, that response was spurred by concern by New York Rep. Nydia Velasquez (D) that Obama was going to have trouble with Latinos. But it looks like that CW -- at least right now -- was wrong. In addition to our recent NBC/WSJ poll, which showed Hispanics breaking for Obama 62%-28%, a new survey of 800 Latino voters from 21 states finds that 60% of them plan to vote for Obama versus 23% for McCain. That is down considerably from the 40%-plus Bush received in 2004. It’s no longer fair to say that Obama has a problem with Latino voters; McCain does. This was a case of conventional wisdom that was never based on fact, just semi-informed speculation based on primary exit polling and bad stereotypes of Latinos.

Gallup now offers additional evidence that Latinos, in fact, are poised to support Obama in record numbers:

Some political experts assumed Obama's struggle to attract widespread Hispanic support in the primaries would carry over into the general-election campaign against the Republican candidate. But Hispanics have become a reliable Democratic voting bloc, and have so far shown little difficulty in transferring their loyalties from Clinton to Obama. Obama continues to lead McCain by about a 2-to-1 margin among Hispanic voters, as he has since March. Hispanic voters could be crucial in key swing states such as New Mexico, Colorado, and Florida.

While George W. Bush made a strong push for the Hispanic vote in the 2000 and 2004 elections, McCain faces an uphill climb to attract Hispanics' support, given their consistent and solid support for Obama in recent months.

Remember, Kerry won the Latino vote in 2004 only 53-44 per the exit polls. Latinos have been one of the biggest swing demographics in recent years. They are not as reliably Democratic as some believe. Yet here we are, already showing a 30-point lead and one that I'm willing to bet grows. It'll be at least 70-30 by election night, if not 75-25.

This, of course, matters greatly because, in short, us Latinos are growing stronger by the year.

oting by Hispanics surged in the last congressional elections, showing strength that could swing this year's presidential vote in closely contested states like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.
A government report released Tuesday shows that 5.6 million Hispanics voted in the 2006 general election, an increase of 18% over 2002, the previous year for a federal election without a presidential race on the ballot. That compares to a 7% increase among white voters and a 5% increase for black voters.

"For years they called the Latinos the sleeping giant. Well, they woke us up," said Luis Vera, general counsel for the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC.

Vera said the debate over illegal immigration has energized Hispanic voters, a trend he expects to continue this year.

There's a reason Karl Rove worked so hard with Bush to try and bring over that demographic -- which is socially very conservative -- over to the GOP.

Also in the interview, Rove worried that after the recent immigration debate, the Republican Party risks losing the Hispanic political support that he and Bush worked to build up in the past three elections, going back to their days inTexas.

"I am worried about it, and you cannot ignore the aspirations of the fastest-growing minority in America. We did that once before, and that's why we were able to increase our vote among African Americans by 40 percent between 2000 and 2004, going from an incredibly anemic 9 percent to a virtually anemic 13 percent. And we better not put ourselves in the place with a vital part of the electorate that fundamentally shares our values and views."

Obama is poised to win Latinos huge, and with them, the states of Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and maybe even Florida. Smaller Latino populations are helping lock down Oregon, Wisconsin and Washington (and of course California), will play a role in Missouri and Ohio (which will likely remain tight through election day), and may even help drag Texas into contention.

A lot of people seem to be forgetting something in this election. Democrats have nominated two white men on the ticket every year (except the year that Ferraro was on the ticket) since 1972.

All over the news, in the work place, and the streets, many Americans are talking about change and genuine diversity.  The spirit of Obama has captured the hearts of many, even Republicans, who may never vote for him.  On talk radio today, people are talking about becoming multi-lingual, traveling to different continents, and doing things outside of their own local cultures and paradigms.  It is as obvious as day that America has being re-born for the best, and true unity of a nation is around the corner.  America has come to a place in history where the old order of restriction must be dismantled.  All ideals and people of the past that represented heritage, tradition, war, and singularity must be relegated to the bottom to sleep beneath the dust.

On March 13th, the Janesville (WI) Gazette ran an innocuous little story about a National Guard veteran upset that his son had to listen to the Pledge of Allegiance being recited in Spanish over the intercom at the Edgerton High School: by the school's Spanish class.  The outpouring of rage from the local community grew so vitriolic that the newspaper had to disable the comments on their blog.  The school administrator is now receiving threats of bodily harm because he won't renounce this practice (as it's something they've done since before he even took the job 20 years ago).

I was looking at the numbers from the just out Isider Advantage poll and I was struck by something. It may not be much but...

My present day criticism of Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama comes assuming he has one of three simplified choices, does he remain neutral until the eventual nominee was more evident not attempting to expend what political collateral he has on either candidate, does he support Hillary, or does he support Obama?

In the effort to get out the vote for Senator Obama in Pennsylvania, more Spanish speaking volunteers are needed.  If you speak Spanish, contact the PA Obama campaign on their website and they’ll direct you to where you can be of help.

Hispanics represent about 4.1% of the population of PA.  "The Hispanic population in Pennsylvania (506,084) passed the half-million mark for the first time in 2005. The number of persons of Hispanic or Latino origin increased 5.4 percent from 2004 -2005, and grew more than 28 percent over the last six years." (US Census 2006)

The majority of are registered as Democrats.  However, they have not turned out in the primaries in great numbers.   I realize that much of the discussion as been about the white working class vote in PA, but don’t overlook a group of Democrats who can help push the numbers up, and who should be a strong consituency for the message of change.

Mark my words, Obama's difficulty on race is not so much with whites as it is with Hispanics. Just wait. You'll see.

We continue to repeat the polls from two years ago in order...

Race and Ethnicity is certainly at least as contentious a topic as Sex/Gender, and not nearly as real as Age.

Race/Ethnicity is not a matter of skin color, genetics, country of origin, upbringing, social-economic status, personal family history, national history, social-cultural construct... it is bits of all of those.  I have tried to follow the U.S. Census definitions, with some modifications.

Once again, please take the poll itself seriously, and save the humor, snark, and uhmmmm... comments, etc. for the comments section.  

Once again, hopefully, this poll will stay up in the Recommended Diary section for at least 24, so that everybody at all local hours in all times zones will have an equal opportunity to participate.

Dear Hispanic Community,

I went to college with Hillary Clinton, voted twice for Bill.  I don't feel positively now.  

After I learned 166,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide since Monsanto went in there (other corporations did, too, but it's the biggest), I began reading about Monsanto and saw they are connected to the Clintons.

Monsanto used to make Agent Orange and PCBs and nuclear weapons parts - all things that kill.  Now they "do" food.  They do "genetic engineering," meaning they tear into the soul (DNA) of plants and animals, shifting things around - the most drastic change in biology since the beginning of life on earth.  

When they make those changes, Monsanto says the new seed or animal is their "invention," and patent it.  They have 4 patents on "the pig."  

If farmers buy  GE-seeds, grow plants and then collect seeds from those plants, Monsanto sues them for stealing Monsanto's "intellectual property."  In this way, Monsanto turn farmers into seed-renters, tenant farmers on their own land, never owning anything, a fundamental change in the structure of agriculture.

My wife is Mexican. She watches a LOT of Sanish language television. She has been following the debates between Obama and Clinton.. and been able to give me a good idea of how well the candidates are faring with the "Hispanic" demographic...

She just told me that Obama made a HUGE mistake with the MOST IMPORTANT and RESPECTED news reporter in front of the US Spanish language television audience.

His name is Jorge Ramos... this is guy is not just good at his job, he is GREAT at his job... he is on the level of Bill Moyers and Walter Cronkite rolled into one.. he is BETTER than anyone of the fools working for English language newscasts... he does not show partisanship and he asks intelligent and informed questions. And Obama fucked up with him BIG TIME.

This is great news for Obama to secure the endorsement of a prominent Hispanic leader, Charlie Gonzalez.  Charlie Gonzalez is the son of the legendary Hispanic statesman Henry B. Gonzalez, who is still to this day remembered as one of our greatest civil rights leaders in the Hispanic community in Texas.
Here's what Rep. Gonzalez said:

"Senator Obama brings all these new fresh faces,’’ Gonzalez told the San Antonio Express-News. "He has a wider audience. He has the greater potential to engage a greater number of people.’’

Link:

Texas will be very much up for grabs for Barack Obama!

Yes We Can!

My father is Dominican and he voted for Hillary. When I asked him why he intended to vote for her the day before the primary (New York) he said that if "the other guy" wins, the Republicans win in '08 because America hates black people.

My father rarely watches TV news; he's a very busy person, and when he does, it's always Noticiero Univision (Univision news).

While watching a Univision analyst the day after Super Tuesday trying to explain the Hispanic pro-Clinton preference, my dad yelled at the TV screen, half-joking and half-serious, and said "go ahead, say it. Hispanics are racist. Everybody knows that".