Steve Martin’s Personalized Form Letter For Fans (via jayparkinsonmd & laughingsquid)
DanceAfrica 2010 hosted by BAM.
You can see the Empire State Building all the way in the back.
One has to feel sorry for Phyllis Schlafly. Eighty-five years old, she has spent most of that life spewing some of the most bigoted, hateful, and anti-American drivel and she is still going strong. In the process, she has given conservatism and conservatives a really bad name. It is no surprise that the far-right icon, known for her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, is now opposing statehood for Puerto Rico. Why? Because Puerto Rico statehood, at its core, is an issue of equality and we all know how Schlafly feels about equality. To support statehood for Puerto Rico means to reject second-class citizenship, which is what the 4 million American citizens living in Puerto Rico currently have.
Eagle Forum, Schlafly’s communications group, has been one of the staunchest opponents of H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act. Despite their best efforts, the group failed to stop H.R. 2499 in the House and the bill is now on its way to the Senate. Because of this, Eagle Forum has cranked up their hysteria to 11 and is coming out with all sorts of falsehoods and spreading even more misinformation about Puerto Rico statehood.
Exhibit A: Schlafly’s anti-statehood rant posted today on the Eagle Forum blog. Let’s break it down:
Most Americans do not want Puerto Rico to become our 51st state in the United States.
This is a lie. Various polls conducted over the years by Gallup, Mason-Dixon, and Opinion Dynamics have found that a majority of mainland Americans support statehood for Puerto Rico. The latest poll I could find is a 2004 Opinion Dynamics poll that found 68% of mainland registered voters would support Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state.
One of the many reasons is that making Puerto Rico a state would overnight turn the United States into a bilingual country.
This is laughable and neglects one glaring fact: the United States already has the fifth largest Spanish-speaking population in the world and the numbers are expected to grow, with or without Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state. The only countries with larger Spanish-speaking populations are Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Spain. This scares the likes of Schlafly to no end.
Other countries that have two or more languages have experienced major national problems. Even in Canada a few years ago. the province of Quebec almost seceded from Canada largely over the language issue.
Again, this neglects the fact that the United States is already a multilingual country. But, more importantly, most states in the United States of America have, at some point in their history, proposed to secede from the Union. Language has not been a reason to secede in any of those proposals, even though states such as Florida, Arizona, Texas, California, and New Mexico had very large Spanish-speaking populations before being admitted as states. The state of Hawaii has two official languages, English and Hawaiian, and there have been no major threats of secession due to language since being admitted to the Union.
Ideologues like Schlafly are scared of a society where individuals look, act, and speak differently from one another. They inject political relevance to things that historically and presently do not pose a problem to mainstream society, but do represent a big problem to a political fringe that Schlafly has advocated for her whole professional life.
[A] few lobbyists are trying to make Puerto Rico a state, and they have concocted a deceitful scheme to achieve their goal. This plan calls for Congress to pass legislation requiring two referenda in Puerto Rico. The wording of the proposed ballots is rigged in a very dishonest way.
No deceitful scheme or dishonesty here. For the first time in 112 years, Congress will officially ask the people of Puerto Rico: what do you want? That is what H.R. 2499 intends to do. Anyone who supports the American ideal of “consent of the governed” will naturally support this bill.
They will be forced to choose between statehood or full independence and not have any chance to vote for the present commonwealth status. In order words, the two ballots are rigged to produce a result in favor of statehood, thus overriding the wishes of both Americans and of Puerto Ricans who want to maintain the current commonwealth status.
Wrong. The original text of the bill offered three options: statehood, independence or enhanced commonwealth. However, an amendment was introduced and approved by the House that offers the current commonwealth status as an option.
It’s funny how Schlafly makes a distinction between Americans and Puerto Ricans, as if the two were two different groups. Puerto Ricans are Americans and have been so for 97 years.
Puerto Ricans have made it clear that they like their current status with the United States. That should not be changed by forcing them to vote in a rigged election. The bill now in Congress should be defeated.
Wanna talk about rigged referendums? Talk about past local plebiscites on the status issue in Puerto Rico where the pro-commonwealth party, the PDP, has gone out of their way to manipulate, misinform and divide Puerto Ricans—to the point where the last option that won was “none of the above.”
The fact remains: the present colonial status is unacceptable and shouldn’t be an option at all. Period. It is a status in which American citizens are subjected to a President and a Congress that they do not elect. Unfortunately, the current commonwealth status was introduced as an option in an amendment to the bill thanks to the work of PDP lobbyists in Congress with the help of various far-right organizations.
For those not fully familiar with the local politics of Puerto Rico, the PDP is considered to be the left-wing party in Puerto Rico and the pro-statehood party, the NPP, the conservative one. In fact, the Republican Party has been the one to historically support statehood for Puerto Rico. Ronald Reagan wasn’t shy about expressing his support for Puerto Rico statehood. The founder of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico was José Celso Barbosa, widely regarded as the father of the Puerto Rico statehood movement. The founder of the NPP, Luis A. Ferré, was a staunch Republican. And the current governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, is a Republican who has taken on the public sector unions of Puerto Rico in an effort to reduce the deficit.
That’s why, as a conservative and a member of the Republican Party, I’m shocked to see the opposition coming from my Party, which is currently letting itself be hijacked by the far-right and led by pundits and clowns. Opposition to H.R. 2499 can be summed up as the following: it’s the far-left in Puerto Rico working with the far-right in the mainland. They oppose the same thing but the opposition comes from two different places. One comes from a disdain for the United States and the other from racism and bigotry. For them, the ends justify the means.
And this is how Puerto Rico statehood proves to be a winning issue—when both political fringes despise it.
I may write about why I was away from this blog for the last month now that the issue has been resolved. Maybe.
But for now, it is ON.
At Coney Island.
Having some dark ale at NYC’s oldest Irish tavern, McSorley’s Old Ale House. It feels like I’m back in time.
I’m here :)
Why does Beck support taxation without representation? -
This here is a Media Matters article. Yes, me, I’m linking to a Media Matters article and they’re right on point.
I’m about an hour away from DC, btw. Not sure if we’ll get to do much tonight, but we have a rally tomorrow and we’ll be visiting congressional offices to garner support before the vote.
Being told I am not an American.
I know it’s best to completely ignore bigoted, uninformed assholes. But this got to me. People that know me well and some of you who read this humble blog know how ridiculously proud I am about being an American—thanks to that good ol’ Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917 which grants American citizenship to all persons born in Puerto Rico. And, no, there are no varying levels of “American.” Either we’re all Americans or we’re not. I defend America at every opportunity I get. Being told I am not something that I hold so damn close to my heart is heartbreaking. Even if it’s some irrelevant bigot saying it, it still stings. But it also makes me want to work even harder for my cause. Harder and harder.
So, thanks, bigot!
DC here I come.
Have I mentioned it? Have I?
As it stands now, I am ashamed to call myself a conservative Republican.
It’s disgusting the amount of ignorance among conservatives regarding Puerto Rico.
Glenn Beck is the latest one to come out against giving Puerto Ricans their right to democracy and equal citizenship status. He will devote today’s show to bashing H.R. 2499—the Puerto Rico Democracy Act.
And as I write this, I’m getting ready to head out to the bus station and go down to DC to help out with H.R. 2499.
I will try to update as much as I can.
Please, if you believe in America and the notion that ALL Americans are equal (including the 4 million Americans living in Puerto Rico), please speak up and support H.R. 2499.