McCain’s problem looks to be most pronounced among Protestant Latinos, who had seemed to be the GOP’s doorway into the Hispanic population. From 2000 to 2004, Protestant Latinos increased their share of the total Hispanic electorate from 25 percent to 32 percent, in large part because of Bush’s evangelical outreach and strategic microtargeting of the community. Even as turnout increased, support for Bush among the group rose from 44 percent in 2000 to 56 percent in 2004.
The Pew poll, however, shows that only a third of Protestant or Evangelical Hispanics intend to vote for McCain, while 59 percent support Obama — who also enjoys a 50-percentage-point lead among Catholic Latinos, long a solid bloc of the Democratic coalition.
While McCain and Bush have similar views on most social issues, including abortion, McCain's candidacy may mark a return to an era of blue-blooded Republicans less vocal about their religious beliefs. Barack Obama, by contrast, speaks comfortably and frequently about his faith.
The Army has finally issued an apology to 28 black GI's wrongfully convicted of lynching an Italian prisoner of War in 1944. Only two of those GI's convicted are still alive.
Despite their protests of innocence -- and the government's own secret investigation showing the prosecution's case was poisonously flawed -- the men were sentenced to hard labor and forfeiture of military pay and benefits, and were given dishonorable discharges.
Twenty-six of the men went to their graves with the stain of wartime dishonor still on their records. It wasn't until Saturday, in a low-key ceremony on a wide lawn at the Army base in Seattle, that history switched gears. A senior Army official handed out certificates setting aside the convictions and converting the discharges to honorable status, in recognition -- 64 years after the fact -- that prosecutors' "egregious error" had resulted in a trial that was "fundamentally unfair."
Barack Obama's campaign has received roughly 10 times more money from declared U.S. donors living in Germany, France and Britain than his Republican rival, reflecting his popularity in Europe as he makes his first tour of the continent as the presumed Democratic nominee.
Federal Election Commission reports show Obama has raised at least $1 million from donors who identify themselves as Americans living in Great Britain, Germany and France, while John McCain has taken in at least $150,000.
While driving in my car the other day I was listening to WAMC-FM, Northeast Public Radio, as I always do, and the program aired was The Roundtable - a discussion of topics of interest to AMC listeners. The subject was the book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" and the interview was with the author Vincent Bugliosi.
Right-wing swift-boater David Bossie and his organization Citizen's United have geared up for the release of a "documentary" attack film on Barack Obama.
At the recent NAACP convention in Cincinnati, Governor Patterson gave his first major speech since becoming New Yorks first black Governor and the first legally blind Governor in history.
addressed the convention as the intersection between race and politics in the United States appears especially fraught. Recent polls have shown that whites and blacks hold very different views of Mr. Obama, and that despite the senator’s candidacy, blacks do not believe that race relations have significantly improved.
Addressing those fissures in his speech, the governor said that he was not sure whether Americans would be able to put their differences aside in this election and support Mr. Obama.
"Can America reject the crucible of race that has dictated and pervaded all of our history to embrace an African-American man who has the right policies?" he said. "We will find out."
In a recent article in Mother Jones, entitled What Family Leave?by Stephanie Mencimer, she discusses both the Bush plan to undercut existing legislation, and the need for the expansion of FMLA coverage.
The US is the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't provide paid maternity leave, putting it on par with such nations as Liberia and Swaziland, according to one study. But for 15 years the FMLA has been the beginning and the end of federal work/family policymaking.
As Bertha forms in the Caribbean, starting this years hurricane season early, boding ill for the summer to come, I reflect on this phenomena of nature we are so familiar with, yet who we as Americans give English names to. Huracan, or hurricane as we now call these storms, is an ancient deity, born of the (Arawak) Taino goddess Guabancex.
I awaken at 6AM to the sound of huge garbage trucks grinding bags of malodorous refuse piled curbside.
The garbage men do not collect the litter piled beside them, broken bags torn asunder by the homeless men and women who wander the streets nearby searching for bottle returns to pay for the next few vials of crack. Fat flies hover, searching for another place to alight, and the soft buzz of mosquitoes is drowned out by the sound of West Indian jitney vans and private car service drivers honking horns loudly; impatient to speed on their way to the next fare, competing with New York Transit buses for fares and winning at 1.00 a ride to the subway. The neighborhood stirs and awakens to start yet another day of grinding poverty.
The following diary is my answer to the over 50 diaries and hundreds of comments that have littered this blog over the last few days and as I see no end in sight – I will speak my bit here, and then retreat.
I will only address this here. It will be posted – scroll rapidly off the board and I will have said my piece.
Catharsis for me perhaps, but that is a diarist’s privilege.
Black people who have an experience growing up in rough neighborhoods, or going to prison, or fighting in the long long series of struggles to gain status as 100% human in our dear home of America are familiar with the saying, "I got your back".
Anyone who has ever fought in the military knows how dangerous it can be to leave your rear unprotected and how deadly such an opening can be.
This is my story. All of y’all have your own stories. Reminds me of an old TV series that used to open up with "there are a thousand stories in the Naked City and this is just one of them..."
Good news for Barack Obama and very bad news for John McCain.
Contrary to polls discussed during the primary season, it looks like McCain's purported strength among Latinos/Hispanics was an illusion.
National Poll Shows That Latino Voters Favor Obama Over McCain
June 16, 2008
Latino voters favor Obama over McCain, according to Latino Decisions Poll.
A new national survey of Latino voters shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama with a nearly 3-to-1 advantage over his rival, Republican John McCain.
Since the blowup over the incident with the two women who were wrongfully removed from sitting behind Senator Obama because they were wearing hijabs, there have been several diaries here discussing the issue, and I have tried to read all of the comments.
I was distressed by some of the remarks made in the diaries, and I won't call out anyone's names but my distress is based on the fact that I often wear a headwrap as a black woman here in the US for religious, cultural and ancestral reasons.
Some people who commented even asserted that the volunteers who took these steps were correct, since it would "protect" our candidate from the current slew of right-wing smears.
I was perturbed by what I feel is both a xenophobic and ethnocentric perspective on head-covering, and to explain how those of us who do wear them can identify with the feelings of the two women who were discriminated against. More importantly, I want to raise the issue in a broader context, and to discuss how this speaks to larger issues of diversity here in the United States.
Okay, for those of you who are looking for a political diary this isn't it. For those of you who don't give a hoot about fashion or fashion photography suggest you "git on down" the blogroll.
But if there are any Kossaks who pay the slighest bit of attention to Vogue and style - read on.
Today's NYT's Fashion and Style section features an article Conspicuous by Their Presence discussing the new issue of Italian Vogue inspired by Barack Obama.
As I browsed through the list posted today on TPM about staffing additions to team Obama, I grew curious about the last name listed; African American Vote Director: Rick Wade
While other Kossaks are pondering the deep inner meaning of the Solis-Doyle hire, I wanted to take a good look at the person who will more than likely be coordinating GOTV efforts in African-American communities.
David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network reports:
EXCLUSIVE: Obama Campaign will Launch 'Joshua Generation Project'
June 6, 2008
The Brody File has learned that in the next two weeks Barack Obama's campaign will unveil a major new program to attract younger Evangelicals and Catholics to their campaign.
It's called the "Joshua Generation Project." The name is based on the biblical story of how Joshua's generation led the Israelites into the Promised Land.
A source close to the Obama campaign tells The Brody File the following:
"The Joshua Generation project will be the Obama campaign's outreach to young people of faith. There's unprecedented energy and excitement for Obama among young evangelicals and Catholics. The Joshua Generation project will tap into that excitement and provide young people of faith opportunities to stand up for their values and move the campaign forward."
The Democratic National Committee today will release a spooky-music video, "McCain and Lobbyists," finishing with a shot of the senator slapping his forehead with his left hand.
