Barack Obama and the Brown People

Various tidbits about Barack and the Latino vote...First, this analysis which makes the case that maybe the long awaited for Sleeping Giant is starting to wake up, or at least getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Key findings of the data include 1) Latinos' participation rates continue to increase; 2) Latino voters have decisively swung to the Democrat side; 3) Latinos improved the margin of victory in the four key battleground states of Florida, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada (and Texas -- OK, I'm lying on that last one, but a boy can dream, right?); and, finally, 4) how if these voting trends continue, the National map will continue to get harder for Republicans.

Crooks and Liars goes further and writes "it's looking increasingly as though Latinos have moved semi-permanently into the Democrats' column, in large part because the Republican brand has been semi-permanently tainted with the ugly nativist bigotry that has immersed movement conservatism. It certainly played a significant role in the voters' repudiation of all things conservative." Which is a fancy way of saying see what happens when you fuck with us?

In other news, and perhaps an indication that Raza may be flexing these new found demographic muscles after all, "immigrant rights organizations have called for a major march on Washington on January 21, the day after Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th US president." The march will be to press the new administratin for immigration reform and remind Obama that the Latinos indeed did vote for a Black man. 

Speaking of the new administration, speculation is running wild on who will be the next White House chef. Apparently the short list of potential cabinet members is taking a back seat to the public's appetite ("appetite," get it?) of who will be making Barack's dinner. Listed among the finalists, and I have no idea how they came up with the list, was Rick Bayless, who is not only described as an expert on Mexican food, but as a "food oracle," and a "food icon." Not sure if the accolades are justified since it's unclear on whether or not Puffy Tacos are part of Bayless's repetoire. (And don't get me started on who decides that a gringo is a Mexican food expert, that's a whole complicated discussion unto itself.) At the end of the day, however, the debate is all moot, as Bayless released a statement taking himself out of the running: "We cook this really wonderful Mexican food," he said, "I don't think that's what they want at every state dinner." Vato should speak for himself. Me, I'd love some bean and cheese tacos every time the President of France came to town. Even if they were cooked by a white guy.

Well, I got a lot more of these I've been collecting all week. But I gotta pack for an early flight tomorrow to Texas. Will be back home for two weeks visiting San Antonio, Austin, and the mythical Rio Grande Valley. Will be posting accordingly....

Oh, and anyone in San Antonio tomorrow night (Saturday), come by the Girl in a Coma show at Sam's Burger Joint...will be premiering, finally, the new Their Cell video I directed. Go to their MySpace for details. As for everyone else in Greater Aztlan as soon as Blackheart Records posts the video I'll publish the link.

Comments

[katynka]

Have you heard the latest from Karl Rove: "An anti-Hispanic attitude is suicidal"
http://www.newsweek.com/id/169173/page/1
A part of me was hoping that he'd throw in a reference to a TV show.
I'm sure he was stumped.
Maybe twenty years from now pundits will be talking about the Ugly Betty effect.
And we will cringe.

But your reference to the sleeping giant getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom?
that's funny stuff.