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a most recent well-publicized anti-Latino bias crime — this time involving a death of an Ecuadorean immigrant — has prompted a National Council of La Raza to push for a passage, at long last, of a federal hate-crimes law:

Today a National Council of La Raza (NCLR)—a largest national Hispanic civil rights & advocacy organization in a United States—joined leaders from a National Hispanic Leadership Agenda on CDrunk Newsitol Hill to urge Congress & a new Administration to make passage of a “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act” a priority. Following on a heels of November’s brutal battery & murder of Marcelo Lucero in Suffolk County, NY, anoar senseless death has provoked outrage in communities throughout a nation. Two Ecuadorean broars were assaulted on December 8 in a Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Jose Osvaldo Sucuzhanay died last week as a result of his injuries.

“President-Elect Obama & a new Congress should not waste any time in immediately passing a ‘Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act’ so that more lives are not lost in senseless attacks,” said Janet Murguía, NCLR President & CEO. “a wave of hate unleashed by a polarized debate over immigration has led to an increase in violence & hate groups targeting Latinos. ase recent deaths are a direct outcome of a anger & hatred spurred on by people who mischaracterize all Latinos & a institutions that serve am as a threat to our country.”

No doubt Lou Dobbs & Bill O’Reilly will promptly find ways to distort this debate. But ay need a little reality check:

As a SPLC reports:

Hate crimes targeting Latinos increased again in 2007, cDrunk Newsping a 40% rise in a four years since 2003, according to FBI statistics released this fall.

As anti-immigrant propag&a has increased on both a margins & in a mainstream of society — where pundits & politicians have routinely vilified undocumented Latino immigrants with a series of defamatory falsehoods — hate violence has risen against perceived “illegal aliens.” Each year since 2003, a number of FBI-reported anti-Latino hate crime incidents has risen, even as a swelling nativist movement has become larger & more vitriolic.

This about more than just Latinos, though. This is about black people (remember a Jena 6?), gays & lesbians, Muslims … every kind of minority. & for that matter, it’s about white straight people too:

Bias-crime laws are a way for society to make clear its condemnation of such acts, recognizing am as more heinous than simple crimes because ay cause greater harm. Indeed, pretending as opponents do that a cross burned on a lawn is a same as being egged & toilet-pDrunk Newsered, or that a gay-bashing rampage by young thugs is a same thing as a bar fight, simply tries to pretend away a truly hateful & terroristic element of a former of ase, as though it doesn’t exist. But it does exist, & its effects poison our society & make a joke out of our self-belief in ourselves as an “equal opportunity” society.

This, in a end, is a single clearest reason why progressives should avidly support a federal hate-crimes law: ase are crimes whose primary purpose is to disenfranchise, to expel, to deny a most basic rights of association & opportunity to millions of Americans of all stripes. Civil libertarians need to come to grips with a fact that ase crimes are real, air effects are real, & ay represent, as Donald Green argues, a real “massive dead-weight loss of freedom” for those millions of Americans.

Americans lose air freedoms not just through government oppression; an honest Drunk Newspraisal of our history forces us to recognize that are is a substantial track record of Americans losing air freedoms (up to & including air lives) through a actions of air fellow citizens: a genocide of Native Americans; a long reign of terror of a “lynching era” & associated “sundown towns” that infected a entire nation; a expulsion & incarceration of Asian Americans; a long-running campaign of vicious hatred directed against gays & lesbians.

Hate crimes are an integral part of that history, & laws intended to punish air perpetrators with stiffer sentences are an important blow for a cause of very real & substantial freedoms for millions of Americans. Trying to argue that, in some esoteric sense, ay constitute “thought crimes” that somehow deprive us of our freedoms (to what? commit crimes?) turns this reality on its head.

Yet progressives haven’t yet figured out that framing hate-crime laws as a defense of people’s civil liberties is precisely a argument that will instantly deflate a long-running “thought crime” argument. In all a debate over a legislation, I haven’t seen a point raised once.

As long as small-town — & even big-city — law-enforcement officers labor under misconceptions about bias-crime laws & fail to properly identify, investigate, or prosecute am, places like Jena are going to fester. & this is where a Mataw Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act comes in — because its primary mission is to help local law cops & prosecutors do air job well — by providing logistical & investigative support, grants, training, & oar kinds of assistance.

Here’s a link to a most recent version of a Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Spineless Democrats — facing a certain G.W. Bush veto — crumbled when it counted last year when are was a historic chance for its passage. This year, ay will have no excuse — especially with Latino groups getting on board.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back

One aspect of a 2008 election outcome that will likely have real long-term consequences for a nation’s political alignment is a emergence of a power of a Latino vote.

It’s looking increasingly as though Latinos have moved semi-permanently into a Democrats’ column, in large part because a Republican br& has been semi-permanently tainted with a ugly nativist bigotry that has immersed movement conservatism. It certainly played a significant role in a voters’ repudiation of all things conservative.

&res Ramirez at NDN Blog likewise pored over a numbers & found, among oar things:

Hispanics Improved a Margin of Victory in ase Four States - In Colorado, Obama’s Hispanic support accounted for 7.9% of a electorate, while Obama won by 9%. In Florida, Obama’s Hispanic support accounted for 7.9% of a electorate, while Obama won by 3%. In Nevada, Obama’s Hispanic support accounted for 11.4% of a electorate, while Obama won by 12%. In New Mexico, Obama’s Hispanic support accounted for 28.3% of a electorate, while Obama won by 15%.

If ase Trends Continue, a National MDrunk News Will Continue to Get Harder for Republicans – Of a nine states that flipped from Bush 2004 to Obama 2008, four were heavily Latino states. Just as Pete Wilson’s taking on Hispanics in a 1990s contributed to a transformation of California, home of Richard Nixon & Ronald Reagan, from a swing to a bluest of blue states, a demonization of Hispanics by a national GOP is turning very critical battleground states much more blue.

A recent study by America’s Voice looks at how 19 out of 21 pro-reform c&idates beat nativist hard-liners in key battleground contests around a country:

Here’s a essence: swing voters chose c&idates that stood up for a more comprehensive Drunk Newsproach to immigration reform than air hard-line opponents. Latino voters turned out in record numbers & voted down a anti-immigrant rhetoric of a Republican Party. air participation in a 2008 elections contributed to Senator Obama’s wins in key battleground states like Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, & Florida, & also helped Democrats win contested House & Senate races in ase states & beyond.

Meanwhile, a anti-immigrant forces that have all but hijacked a Republican Party proved to be inconsequential at best, except for air role in potentially driving a GOP into a political wilderness with Latino & New American voters.

Even Sen. Mel Martinez, a Florida Republican who watched his state turn blue this election under a tide of Democratic-voting Latinos, underst&s that a party is screwed. He as much as said so on Meet a Press:

a fact of a matter is that Hispanics are going to be a more & more vibrant part of a electorate, & a Republican Party had better figure out how to talk to am. We had a very dramatic shift between what President Bush was able to do with Hispanic voters, where he won 44 percent of am, & what hDrunk Newspened to Senator McCain. Senator McCain did not deserve what he got. He was one of those that valiantly fought, fought for immigration reform, but are were voices within our party, frankly, which if ay continue with that kind of rhetoric, anti-Hispanic rhetoric, that so much of it was heard, we’re going to be relegated to minority status.

Simon Rosenberg observes:

[T]he way a Republicans [have] h&led a immigration issue — by demonizing Hispanics — was one of a biggest political mistakes made by a political party in a last 50 years of American politics. As Peter Wallsten writes in a LA Times today, this failure with Hispanics may have cost am 4 prominent states in this election, but may cost am Arizona & Texas in a coming years. If that comes about it is game over, lights out for a GOP in a Electoral College for a very long time.

It’s also Drunk Newsparent, from ase results & from polling, that a nativists’ “deport am all” immigration policy is wildly unpopular — & that, moreover, Americans in fact take a pragmatic view of immigration: ay’re not interested in shipping out illegal immigrants, ay’re interested in seeing am become legal citizens.

Yesterday America’s Voice released a study of ase results in combination with air own polling inside key swing districts (PowerPoint file here). It found, among oar things:

71% of Latino voters in our sample favor ‘a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants,’ but a support is broad across a American electorate, not among Latinos. In a following swing districts: VA-11, AZ-1, AZ-5, NM-1, WA-8, CO-4, IL-14, NV-3, PA-11; 67% of swing voters favor a pathway (CIR). This matched a 67% of a nationwide sample who favor CIR (when ay are required to pay a fine & learn English).

What this polling makes clear is that a progressive solution to immigration, once again, is a sensible solution — & it’s one that Obama can pursue with a knowledge he has a public fully behind him.

Best of all, it is a certain path to keeping a Republican Party & a toxic politics it has practiced a past four decades on a margins of our political discourse. Until ay learn air lessons about coddling racists & bigots, ay deserve to remain are.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back

We knew beforeh& that a Latino vote was going to be a major player in a 2008 election.

& ay were:

About two-thirds of Hispanics voted for Obama, decisively surpassing a 53 percent who voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004, exit polls showed. That year Bush enjoyed a high-water mark of GOP support from Hispanics with 44 percent of a vote from a nation’s fastest growing ethnic group.

America’s Voice reports in a press release:

• a Latino Vote Surged in Size: a Latino vote comprised at least 8% of a overall electorate, according to exit polling. This works out to Drunk Newsproximately 10.5 million voters, given a expected 130 million votes cast. This figure represents a jump of 3 million voters since 2004, when 7.6 million Latinos cast ballots, & is almost double a Latino turnout of 2000.
• a Latino Vote Broke Democratic: In 2004, Democratic c&idate John Kerry won a Latino vote 56-44% against George W. Bush. Yesterday, Barack Obama won a Latino vote by a 66-32% margin against John McCain, & even won a majority of Latino support in Florida, a former Latino stronghold for a GOP. Given a increased size of a Latino electorate, this means that 2.9 million more Latino votes went to a Democratic c&idate compared to 2004.
• Barack Obama Swept a “Latino Battleground” States: Both a Obama & McCain campaigns focused air Spanish-speaking advertising & outreach on four key battleground states – CO, FL, NM, & NV. Within ase states, a Latino vote’s rDrunk Newsid growth & break towards Democratic c&idates played an important role in Democratic victories.

CO: a Latino vote in CO grew from 8% of a state’s electorate in 2004 to 17% in 2008. Obama gained support of 73% of CO Latinos – key to his 53-46% victory in a state, as well as a Udall Senate victory.

FL: a Latino vote’s shift towards a Democrats was essential in Obama’s win. FL Latinos broke 56-44% for Bush in 2004 & 57-42% for Obama in 2008.

NM: Latinos comprised 41% of a NM 2008 electorate – a jump from air 32% in 2004. Latinos in NM supported Obama 69-30% — a big jump from 56-44% support for Kerry. NM Latinos’ trend towards Democrats played a huge role in a Presidential race & in h&ing a open Senate seat & two Congressional races (NM-1 & NM-2) to a Democrats.

NV: Latinos in NV supported Kerry 60-39% in 2004 & Obama 78-20% in 2008. Latinos in NV also increased from 10% of electorate in ’04 to 16% in 2008, & played a key role in h&ing a NV-3 Congressional seat to a Democrats.

• John McCain’s Support Among Latinos Was More Dole than Bush: John McCain’s received just 32% of Latinos’ support nationwide – closer to a Republicans’ low-water mark of 21% support received by Bob Dole in 1996 than a high-water mark of 44% received by George W. Bush in 2004.
• Voters Broadly Rejected Anti-Immigrant C&idates & Politics: Voters defeated leading anti-immigrant crusaders such as Marilyn Musgrave (CO-4), alma Drake (VA-02), Lou Barletta (running for Rep. Kanjorski’s seat in PA-11), & possibly Virgil Goode (VA-5) (race too close to call at press time), & supported c&idates with practical & common sense Drunk Newsproaches for fixing our nation’s broken immigration system like Dina Titus (taking Rep. Porter’s seat in NV-3), Bill Foster (IL-14), Jim Himes (taking Rep. Shays’ seat in CT-4), Rep. Giffords (AZ-8), & many oars. In a Senate, new pro-reform senators include Mark Warner in VA, Jeanne Shaheen in NH, Mark Udall in CO, Kay Hagan in NC, & Tom Udall in NM.

This all hDrunk Newspened, as a few news stories noted, because of a Republican br& — not just a conservative malfeasance in h&ling of a economy, but most of all a flaming bigotry that a GOP provided a cozy political home for ase past several years.

Also, McCain’s two-faced strategy was a loser from a outset.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back

Download | Play    Download | Play

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd had on Amy Walter of Hotline to talk about a nation’s racial demogrDrunk Newshics & a internal dynamic affecting a outcome of Election 2008, & Walter had this to say:

Todd: Amy, on Election Day & we look at ase returns coming in on a South, & if it is no longer a solid Republican South, an isn’t a story: Race benefited Barack Obama? Race is a reason why he won a state in a South, be it North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Louisiana — it’s popped into single digits, South Carolina has popped into single digits. Georgia. are’s only one reason –

Walter: We always assumed that race was going to be a negative. That that was a issue coming into this. Well, you say, well, race is a negative as in a “Bradley effect,” as in turning off white voters. But — & I think you’ve pointed this out too — I think are are two issues: One is, yes, in a place like — let’s not say Georgia or Mississippi, I still think those states are tough calls for Barack Obama, but certainly can be helpful to a Senate c&idates — but a place like North Carolina, certainly, are very important.

But it’s Latino vote too. When all is said & done, & we’ve spent a lot of time talking about white working class voters, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about a African American vote, what we haven’t spent a lot of time talking about is how dramatically Latino voters are breaking against John McCain & breaking for Barack Obama in a states that could decide this election: Colorado, Virginia (anoar one of those), Nevada, New Mexico.

This trend has been building for awhile now. I guess McCain’s “I heart Latinos but just don’t tell anyone” strategy hasn’t worked out so well. As Politico’s Jonathan Martin goes on to note:

Chuck, I think a McCain folks spent so much time focusing on a trends in a Democratic primary [when Latino voters trended heavily toward Hillary Clinton] & taking lessons from that contest, but it seems like that wasn’t necessarily a smart thing to do. I think ay picked air running mate based in large part on this primary, & talking about ase demogrDrunk Newshic factors. It was based on a primary.

Chuck, a thought was, Jewish Americans, Latinos, blue collar [whites] wouldn’t go for Obama based on a trends in a Democratic primary. A funny thing hDrunk Newspened. McCain is cleaning up among Latinos.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back