Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Why Did John McCain Lose the Latino Vote? By Patrick Young, Long Island Wins

http://www.alternet.org/election08/106359/why_did_john_mccain_lose_the_latino_vote/

AlterNet

Why Did John McCain Lose the Latino Vote?

By Patrick Young, Long Island Wins
Posted on November 10, 2008, Printed on November 11, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/106359/

The massive movement of Latino voters to Obama has baffled some pundits and intrigued others. John McCain is arguably the most pro-immigrant Republican in the Senate and he took sometimes heroic stands in opposition to his own party's evolving anti-immigrantism. He was a frequent guest at Latino banquets and won awards from many major immigrant organizations.

Meanwhile, Barak Obama was clearly not the choice of Latinos during the primary season. I remember Obama's first test with this key demographic during the Nevada caucus. CNN televised a live caucus at a casino in which Hillary supporters were told to stand to the left and Obama backers took up the right. Almost all the Hillary fans were Latino. In primary after primary, Hillary considerably out-polled Obama among Latinos. Some commentators suggested that Hispanics had an antagonism towards African-Americans which precluded their support for a Black man.

So what happened to dash McCain's hopes of besting the 40% of the Latino vote that George Bush achieved?

Here are my ideas:

1. Some McCainiacs were sure that Latinos would not vote for a Black man. Liberals hoped that the same group would turn out for Obama as a ceiling-breaker, opening doors for non-White candidates. Both missed the way Latinos looked at Obama's ethnicity. Many Latinos did not see the election of Obama as an advance for all non-Whites.. But they did come to identify with him as the son of someone who came from someplace else. Latinos have to often juggle the issue of having their hearts in two worlds. Obama's backstory, which seemed rootless to many conservatives, actually was similar to the lives of millions of Latinos, immigrant and native born. The Obamiad itself reminded them of their own stories.

2. The primaries were vicious and drawn out and Latinos did back Hil 60% to 40% but not for reasons of race. Bill clinton is incorrectly remembered by Latinos as "good on immigration" and correctly remembered as supporting democratization and development in Latin America. He was also extremely open to the Hispanic community. Hil got a lot of Bill's reflected glory in this community as well as credit from Latinas for her ground-breaking advocacy for women.

Latinos were not, bye and large, voting against Obama. They were supporting a family they viewed as their champions for more than a decade.

As the primaries went on, unlike many White Clintonians, Latinos did not become angry at Obama. They still voted against him, but they also got comfortable with the idea of him as president in a way they couldn't have had he wrapped the thing up in March. At the same time, the long primary season increased interest in voting tremendously in the Latino community as folks were convinced that their individual votes could really help determine who the next president was.

3. McCain's pro-immigrant stand hurt him with his base, but why didn't it help him with Latinos? How could a stand-up guy like hime do so much worse than Bush?

Here, we have to look far beyond the four corners of this campaign.

In 2005 the Republican Party decided for tactical political reasons that anti-immigrantism was the only red meat that would sustain the party core through the 2006 election. Nasty ads like this one from failed Congressional candidate Vern Robinson proliferated. Republicans in the House passed legisaltion that would have tossed people like me in jail for providing help to immigrants regardless of their legal status. The Republicans said they were not anti-Latino, just anti-illegal, but they peopled their ads with pictures of brown men who could have been of any legal status but who were clearly Latino. And this assault on the Latino community and questioning of Latino loyalties and legality continued right up to March of this year. Then, just because McCain was the Republican nominee, Latinos were supposed to forget their wounds and vote for Juan. And, remember, by this time McCain himself was a diminished figure. He had once stood strong for the rights of immigrants, now, at the insistance of winger primary voters, he said he wouldn't even vote for the pro-immigrant bill he himself had authored.

Some commentators say that Latinos have proven ungrateful for McCain's leadership on immigration, but in reality, Latino voters have just watched this thing unfold a lot more closely than their Anglo counterparts. In the end, Latino voter liked 2007 John McCain who was the architect of comprehensive immigration reform. They were put off by 2008 John McCain who offered platitudes about Latinos being "children of God". Sorry John, Latinos already knew that without you saying it.

4. Bill Ayers and the whole culture wars thing just doesn't cut it with Latinos. Latinos are a younger demographic. Most of them came of age after the 1960s were over. A lot of them immigrated here in the last couple of decades. To them, The Weathermen are a meteorlogical association.

5. Whacky ministers like Rev. Wright don't scare them. Lots are evangelicals and they are pretty used to firebreathing preachers. Catholic Latinos are likely to brush off Wright as a "Black thing".

6. But the Number One reason Latinos turned their back on McCain is George Bush. Like everyone else, Latinos are worried about the economy and they view the war as a failure. They blame Bush for the messes. And they have a special grievance. They are particularly upset that Bush has launched huge immigration raids in their neigborhoods and at their workplaces this year. They wonder if John McCain, surrounded by Bush cronies, will just continue the perceived war against Brown people. With McCain indelibly branded as Bush's successor, the turn toward Obama is eminently understandible.

Other exit poll analysis

Califonia's Asian-American Vote

Latino Vote in the Southwest

Florida's Latino Vote

Anti-Immigration Activist Defeated on East End

Read Immigration 101 for a lively look at the laws and policies that shape the future of American immigration

© 2008 Long Island Wins All rights reserved.

View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/106359/

Educate to Liberate!

Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta

Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

Sacramento, California, U.S.A.

Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Tupac> Re: [NetworkAztlan_Action] Colombia: Letter from Indigenous Councils Northern Cauca to President Elect Obama

Sunday @10:37 PM ~
Thank you for your post and sharing information and news. Please help us unite each other and with those who share our common visions in all the ways that we can.

Feel free to invite others to get involved in the Network Aztlan matrix:

Educate to Liberate!

Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta

Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

Sacramento, California, U.S.A.



From: Tupac Enrique <chantlaca@tonatierra.org>
To: NetworkAztlan_Action@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2008 11:41:35 PM
Subject: [NetworkAztlan_Action] Colombia: Letter from Indigenous Councils Northern Cauca to President Elect Obama

It's one world. Hear us.
[ 11/09/2008] [ ] [ Autor: Association of Indigenous Couincils of Northern Cauca ACIN]

FotoAn Open Letter from the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, ACIN, to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama.

Santander de Quilichao, Cauca, Colombia

Dear Mr. President-Elect,

First, please accept our sincerest congratulations. We congratulate you for having won because of the noblest aspirations of your people. We believe your election expresses the deep desire for change felt by the majority of the American people: change in the economy and society, change in international relations, and from there, we hope, a change in the relation between the United States of America and the indigenous peoples of the world. During your historic campaign, you publicly noted some of what Colombians currently face: you acknowledged the murders of trade unionists by the regime and stated your reservations about a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, which our people have decided against through a democratic referendum, about which we have written before. We thank you for this, and now want you to know about the specific situation facing Colombia's indigenous peoples. In the past six years we have lost 1,200 people to assassinations by armed groups, both legal and illegal: right-wing paramilitaries, guerrillas, police, and members of the Armed Forces. These murders have created insecurity, and this insecurity has been used to strip us of our rights with what we call the 'Laws of Disposession', legislation and other institutional norms that legalize the loss of our lands, our fundamental freedoms, and our rights. These 'Laws of Disposession' dispose of Colombia's mines, hydrocarbons, water resources, intellectual property, and national parks â€" all of these are brought under the ultimate rule of the Free Trade Agreement with the US. The FTA will mean that if Colombia tries to change the laws to allow its people to share in its resources, or take any independent action, then we will be obliged to compensate investors. We will have to submit our laws to international arbitration outside our own legal jurisdiction. But in our view, the ultimate law is respect for life. In our view, the FTA puts commercial logic above the respect for life itself, not to mention international humanitarian law, and agreements such as the ILO's Covenant 169, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Worldwide. These covenants, as well as the respect for life, have to date been ignored by the government of our country, as well as by your government. Unfortunately both of our governments, yours with Plan Colombia, and ours with the so-called 'Democratic Security' policy, have done great harm to indigenous peoples and to Mother Earth, while multinational corporations have profited from the petroleum and gas contracts, mining concessions, privatizations, and low wages. We hope that you will contribute to change all this. We hope that you will listen to our words. We have lost many lives defending these words. Words that we have walked and words we have backed up with our civil resistance. These are the words that we have shared throughout Colombia since October 10th, through the Minga of Resistance, a national mobilization we convened as indigenous peoples, in association with other peoples and processes. We believe that the spirit of change in your people cannot be contained. We believe it is a powerful force and we hope it will join with the force of our words and with the need for change that has been crying out throughout Latin America. We invite you to come to listen to these words here in Colombia, and we are ready to articulate them there, if you invite us. Here or there, it is the same planet and our mission is the same: to protect it, to save us all. Finally, we call on you to join with us in fulfilling our responsibilities to Mother Earth and to history. The first one, our collective Mother, has given all of us life. The second one, History, has reflected our growing pains and our errors. History has not matured into systems that reconcile it with the rhythms, pulses and mandates of Nature. We believe the very reason human beings and our societies exist is to create the harmony between History and Mother Earth.

As children of Mother Earth, we speak to you as to a brother or sister. As indigenous, we speak to you as peoples, obliged from creation to seek harmony between History and Mother Earth. To reconcile ourselves with nature is not an option, but an imperative. By transforming life into merchandise, by making sacred the accumulation of wealth, by enshrining greed, we believe our societies have entered a crisis, including the economic crisis currently faced by your country. The destruction of our peoples in Colombia is a consequence of that Historic error that has placed greed before life. Brother President-elect Barack Obama, we do not write to ask or demand anything for ourselves, because we know that the death of our peoples and the destruction of our cultures for greed, signifies the beginning of the end for Mother Earth itself. Before we disappear with our collective Mother, we have decided to speak and to walk our words. In the name of life, of change, let us listen to one another and make the effort to find a way to create harmony between our peoples and life. Let us create the conditions for new History. One where the sacred ends of promotion and protection of Life and Beauty can never again be transformed into means for private accumulation of power at the service of greed. We await you. With great respect,

Association of Indigenous Couincils of Northern Cauca ACIN -Cxab Wala Kiwe-Territory of the Great People- Cauca, Mother Earth, November 10th, 2008 Santander de Quilichao


###

YouTube Video:



10,000 indigenous Colombians are marching against President Alvaro Uribe's policies. The protest comes one week after violence erupted during demonstrations to press for land reform and dialogue with the government.


Colombia's indigenous protest against Uribe

ZAA NKWETA, TRNN: Ten thousand of Colombia's indigenous peoples are taking part in a massive demonstration, which comes after days of violent clashes between indigenous groups and Colombian police. The 62-mile march began Tuesday in Piendamó, in the Cauca province, and will end Friday in the city of Cali. The aim is to pressure the government into returning land to indigenous farmers and to protest against the alleged genocide of indigenous peoples. Recent clashes stem from the killing of indigenous leaders. Indigenous groups claim 1,200 people have been killed by different armed groups since 2002. Colombia President Álvaro Uribe has denied that police and army forces have been using lethal force against demonstrators, but medics said they have treated scores of Indians injured by bullets and shrapnel. Uribe says out of Colombia's 150 million hectares of land, 30 million already belong to indigenous communities. According to Colombia's national indigenous organization, 27 percent of Colombia's indigenous population have no land. Demonstrators want the government to set aside more land for Colombia's 1.3 million Indians and to provide money for better education and health care. They also want the government to prevent corporations and multinational companies from encroaching on their land.

************ *


From Democracy NOW Interview above:

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Mario, obviously, the protests, you said, started on October 12th, which is the anniversary of el Dia de la Raza, or of Columbus Day, as it's called here in the United States. What is the—in terms of the condition of the indigenous under the Uribe government, what is it like right now?

MARIO MURILLO: That's a great point, and this is interesting that finally, after over almost two weeks of mobilizing and weeks before the mobilization began, the indigenous communities were putting out communiqués consistently on their websites and holding press conferences to draw attention to five key points that the communities are trying to address and to get the government to address, but it hasn't gotten any coverage whatsoever. Only the last couple of days, because the government has been forced to respond to the specific points, are the media now here in Colombia actually addressing them.

One of them, you pointed out in the introduction. They're really concerned about the free trade agreement that was signed by the Colombian government, and they're waiting for approval in the US Congress. It hasn't been approved by the Congress. And so, the Colombian indigenous movement and the popular movement in general are saying that this free trade agreement has to be reconsidered, because the communities were not consulted.

###


The Threat of REDD

UN Admits Its Climate Change Program Could Threaten Indigenous Peoples

Sept. 27, 2008 - On the third day of the General Assembly's 63rd Session, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Prime Minister of Norway launched the United Nations REDD program, a collaboration of FAO, UNDP, UNEP and the World Bank.

The inclusion of forests in the carbon market, or REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) has caused anxiety, protest and outrage throughout the world since it was created at the failed climate change negotiations in Bali and funded by the World Bank.

An estimated 60 million indigenous peoples are completely dependent on forests and are considered the most threatened by REDD. Therefore, indigenous leaders are among its most prominent critics. The International Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Climate Change declared that: '...REDD will steal our land... States and carbontraders will take control over our forests.'

It is alarming that indigenous peoples' fears and objectionshave now been confirmed by the UN-REDD Framework Document itself.

On page 4 and 5 it blatantly states that the program could "deprive communities of their legitimate land-development aspirations, that hard-fought gains in forest management practices might be wasted, that it could cause the lock-up of forests by decoupling conservation from development, or erode culturally rooted not-for-profit conservation values."

It is further highlighted that "REDD benefits in some circumstances may have to be traded off against other social, economic orenvironmental benefits."

In carefully phrased UN language, the document further acknowledges that REDD could cause severe human rights violations and be disastrous for the poor because it could "marginalize the landless.and those with. communal use-rights".

This is tantamount to the UN recognizing that REDD could undermine indigenous peoples and local communities rights to the usage andownership of their lands.

Could it be that the UN is paving the way for a massive land grab?

To read UN-REDD Framework Document: http://www.undp. org/mdtf/ UN-REDD/docs/Annex- A-Framework-Document.pdf

To see photos from the protest against REDD and the World Bank in Bali: http://www.globaljusticeecolog y.org/gallery.php

To watch the video from the protest against REDD at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= UtORVi7GybY

++++++++++++ +++++++++ ++

NAHUACALLI

Initial Fact Finding Report regarding the World Bank Funded Development Projects in Colombia

October 20, 2008

Hello Tom,
I am back in Arizona from Colombia, I hope to have a first chapter report by tomorrow, would like to connect with you regarding the mega-development projects that threaten the indigenous territories (Jeripachi Wind Project in Wayuu territories and the San Andres de Sotavento monoculture rubber plantations on the Zenu reservation - both with funding from the World Bank) and the current situation of blockade of the Pan American highway by the Misak (Guambiano) and the Association of Cabildos of the Northern Cauca (ACIN) in opposition to the US-Colombia Trade Agreement and in support of the Implementation of the Principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

And,

The megadevelopment projects threatening the sacred territories of the Tayrona Confederacy of the Elder Brothers in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta.


Tupac
Cell: (602) 466-8367




###

NAHUACALLI

Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples

Izkalotlan, Aztlan

October 16, 2008

Association of de Indigenous Cabildos of the Northern Cauca - Colombia

ACIN

Relatives:

By means of this message we submit our inquiry to the Association of de Indigenous Cabildos of the Northern Cauca ACINin Colombia regarding the situation in your indigenous territories, that the conscience of Humanity in its entirety become aware in particular of the violation of the Human Rights of the Indigenous Peoples.

To this purpose, the Nahuacalli - Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples now proposes to organize an International Indigenous Peace Legation of the Commission of Indigenous Nations and Organizations of the Continent (CONIC) to travel to the Northern Cauca to verify and strengthen the processes of Peace and tranquility that should be realized in terms of social justice in every part of our continent of Abya Yala.

We have received your letter to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights of the Organization of American Statesrequesting the intervention of that body in protection of the Human Rights and Indigenous Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Northern Cauca in Colombia, rights which are inscribed in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13th, 2007.

The mission of the International Indigenous Peace Legation of the Commission of Indigenous Nations and Organizations of the Continent (CONIC) shall be to verify and report to the international community regarding the processes and conditions under which the Indigenous Peoples of Colombia live, and further in pursuit of a relationship of Peace and Harmony among our societies and within the natural world.

Please communicate as soon as possible with our office regarding this request, in order to facilitate the arrival in your territories of the International Indigenous Peace Legation.

Tlazocamati.

Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh

Tlahtokan Nahuacalli

chantlaca@tonatierr a.org

NAHUACALLI

Embajada de los Pueblos Indígenas

Izkalotlan, Aztlan

Tel: (602) 254-5230

TONATIERRA

PO Box 24009 Phoenix, AZ 85074
###

Link:


Contact:
Tupac Enrique Acosta

Indigenous Colombians Begin 10,000-Strong March Against Uribe Government - The Threat of REDD

www.tonatierra. org


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Thursday, November 06, 2008

Reply: BANKING ON OBAMA WITH OPEN EYES- I'M VOTING FOR THE BLACK MAN: Nativo Vigil Lopez

11-06-2008 @9:00 PM
Gracias Nativo ~ There is much to be learned from the highly successful Presidential Campaign waged by Senor Barack Obama, his highly skilled, morally driven and sincerely dedicated campaign staff and those who voted for Obama for President. Plus, we can breathe easier knowing that the days of the Bush Rogue Regime are going to be over come January. It all gave me a renewed hope for better days ahead and we should all take a fresh look at the social-political-cultural dynamics here now inside the United States. Keep up the good writing of the truth!

Naturally, we should not ever be under any grand illusions. Obama still has to accept, advocate and support the urgent need for humane immigration legislation to be enacted by Congress. Plus, there are a host of domestic issues involving poverty in Amerika that need to be addressed in terms of the creation of community survival programs for all poor oppressed people inside the United States, whether they are legalized citizens or not.

We must see our common denominator as human beings ~ one singular race of people upon Mother Earth ~ as we strive to raise our collective psyche and humane consciousness to higher levels of unity, understandng and mutual acceptance. We are all in this together and we must evolve beyond artificial divisions of so-called race, cultural nationalism and various forms of tribalism, plus, let us not forget the divisions between North and South or Nortenos and Suenos!

In the protracted process of fighting for our liberation from all forms of oppression and repression we must not forget that we as Latinos ~or whatever terms we use to refer to La Raza Cosmica~ must also work on eliminating any and all remnants of racism amongst ourselves!

Educate to Liberate!

Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta

Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

Humane-Liberation-Party

Sacramento, California, U.S.A.



From: Nativo Lopez <nlopez@hermandadmexicana.org>
To: NetworkAztlan_News@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 11:17:33 PM
Subject: RE: [NetworkAztlan_News] Re: [NetworkAztlan_Action] New at NAC : New Video Shopper


November 5, 2008

BANKING ON OBAMA WITH OPEN EYES

- I'M VOTING FOR THE BLACK MAN

Nativo Vigil Lopez

National President, Mexican American Political Association (MAPA)

The American people can now rejoice in one of the greatest blows against racism in its history - the election of President-elect Barack Hussein Obama. This is the culmination of a two-year campaign for the son of an immigrant African father and a white Irish-American mother born and raised in middle America Kansas. Obama qualified the election success as "a defining moment" for America in his victory speech.

No matter your take on his politics - either from the left or right - president-elect Obama will be considered an American epic figure. He has smashed the race barrier and the glass ceiling, and he did it not just with the black vote, but a quilt of votes from all races, national origins, ages, party affiliations, ethnic groups, and ideological inclinations. The vote count bears this out. But the story is also about white America that favored the Democratic candidate by 43%, a higher margin than that received by Senator John Kerry in his 2004 presidential bid. While blacks and Latinos can claim him as "our" president, the reality is that the combined votes of blacks and Latinos would not have been sufficient to sweep him into office. This speaks volumes for white voters who did not allow race to be a factor in their determination to select the new father of our country.

What mattered more to the voters, according to exit polls, was the economy - by a margin of 68%. Interestingly, the issue of immigration did not even rate as an interest of concern to the voters, notwithstanding the hardboiled anti-immigrant campaigning during the primary elections by the Republican Party.

The "Yes We Can" (Si Se Puede) slogan encapsulated the spirit of Americans across the board who wanted change, and fought for it with expressions of hope and reconciliation. It is a slogan taken straight out of the playbook of Cesar Chavez in mounting the movement to organize farmworkers in California during the 1960s. It is a slogan now chanted by Americans across the country to reflect their optimism about creating a different country, about creating change. It is an adamant and defiant chant, repeated by Obama before half-a-million celebrants in Chicago last night, which poses a positive determination of what will come. This is how Cesar presented his case at a different historic juncture.

We have overcome, the words uttered by an African American woman celebrating in Chicago after the announcement of the results, and overheard by a television commentator. This is the past tense of those words declared in a televised speech by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 when he introduced the Voting Rights Act to the U.S. Congress - we shall overcome - words that he appropriately appropriated from the civil rights movement that demanded and struggled to obtain this legislation. It is said that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. openly wept when he saw and heard President Johnson on television repeat those words. He said that he never thought he would live to see a white man embrace this slogan. But King, like Obama 44 years later, was responsible for bringing together the political and social forces to create the opportunity and the moment.

This election reveals who we are as a people, and reveals this to the world. Does anyone ever remember when people throughout the world celebrated the victory of a U.S. presidential candidate as they did for the Obama victory as if to embrace him as their own president and their own victory? This is what the major media networks have reported.

Spike Lee characterized the moment as historic for the country, and that now we will reference U.S. history as BBO and ABO - Before Barack Obama and After Barack Obama. Doug Wilder, the former first black governor of Virginia, said he was "proud of America, and especially proud of Virginia." Pat Buchanan, an extremely conservative author and television pundit declared, "the Republican Party lost the Reagan Democrats in this election." Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., (D- Illinois), observed, "The genius of the Obama campaign was that he ran as an American who happened to be an African American."

The American electorate has grown as a result of this election cycle - an estimated 133 million people voted, eleven million more than in 2004, 64% of the eligible voters. Blacks increased their share of the electorate to 13%, two percent above their role in 2004. Some other figures help to understand the moment. Blacks voted for Obama by a margin of 95%, Latinos by 66%, and young voters also by 66% - in political parlance this is a super-majority. Latinos brought home the winning of the West by voting more than 2-1 for Obama in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado. The Latino support in Nevada - an important swing state - for the first black president of the nation was 74%. And, the united black and Latino vote in Florida was responsible for carrying this state. This Latino electorate performance smashes forever the racist myth rolled out by many media pundits after the Super Tuesday primaries in February that Latinos would never vote for a black man for president. Latinos proved them wrong - big time.

I'M VOTING FOR THE BLACK MAN

In December 2007, I attended an immigration conference in Houston, Texas. I took a taxicab to return to the airport, and struck up a conversation with the driver, an African American, and it eventually got to the elections. I asked him whom he was supporting for president. Without missing a beat, he responded, "I'm voting for the black man." He added that "the first 43 presidents have been white men, so why not give the black man a chance, he couldn't do any worst." The logic was compelling. One month later the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), for which I serve as national president, celebrated its endorsement convention and the hundreds of delegates unanimously voted to endorse Senator Barack Obama for president. The organization formed MAPA FOR OBAMA chapters and joined the campaign. The members resolved to cast their lot with our black brothers and sisters and look forward to the "change we need" - the Obama campaign slogan.

Many tears were shred, including my own, at the sheer delight of hearing president-elect Obama pronounce his speech at Grant Park in Chicago. I am proud of my president-elect, proud of white America, proud of the black community who demonstrated leadership, patience, and discipline moving towards this election, and proud of Latinos who showed the world that it is willing to support a candidate for the content of his character and not the color of his skin. The latter was a confirmation of what I have always experienced in life.

Obama's victory speech was somber in my interpretation and he took great pains to lower expectations within the context of expressing optimism, accomplishment, gratitude, and reflecting on the historic moment in reference to Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He staked out a laudatory posture of reconciliation and reaching across the isle in a big way. This is how he intends on governing in a too-fractured America.

Like many other Americans, I too am banking on Obama just as Obama banked on Latinos to win the West. There is probably no issue of great import to the country that could not be considered a Latino issue. Everything in his platform speaks to our needs - the economy, financial markets, a more progressive tax policy, homeownership, ending the war in Iraq, re-building the infrastructure, global warming, the development of alternative energy sources and ending our dependence on fossil fuels, universal healthcare, and certainly, comprehensive immigration reform. We have everything to benefit from this presidency, but it will more likely occur by continued organizing, mobilizing, and being present, and being counted.

We should have no illusions about the speed of change we need and want, or about the ability of president-elect Barack Obama to deliver. There will be great difficulties. President Bush will hand over a basket-case of a country, two wars, a half-a-trillion dollar budget deficit, a doubled national debt of $11 trillion, millions of home foreclosures, one million jobs lost during the last twelve months alone, and a economic recession that will only deepen. These are overarching challenges for any new president. But, these too are our challenges. And, from crisis comes opportunity.

____________ _________ _________ __

From: NetworkAztlan_ News@yahoogroups .com on behalf of Peter S. Lopez
Sent: Wed 11/5/2008 7:26 PM
To: NetworkAztlan_ Action@yahoogrou ps.com
Cc: Net-Aztlan-News Group; H-R-A Grouth; 3rd-World-Earth- News Yahoo-Group
Subject: [NetworkAztlan_ News] Re: [NetworkAztlan_ Action] New at NAC : New Video Shopper

Gracias! ~Peta-de-Aztlan!

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Venezuelan Government Hopes for New Era of Peace and Respect with Obama

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3930

Venezuelan Government Hopes for New Era of Peace and Respect with Obama

November 6th 2008, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com
President-elect Barack Obama.
President-elect Barack Obama.

Mérida, November 5, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- In a statement from the Foreign Relations Ministry on Wednesday, the Venezuelan government congratulated U.S. Senator Barack Obama for being elected president of his country, saying the historic moment could usher in a new era of friendlier relations between the two countries. The ministry also expressed optimism that Obama might heed South American initiatives toward greater democracy and begin chipping away at the U.S. policies of domination worldwide.

"The historic election of an afro-descendent to the head of the most powerful nation in the world is the symptom that the epochal change that South America has initiated could be knocking on the door of the United States," the ministry statement read. "From all corners of the planet a clamor arises, demanding a change in international relations, and the construction... of a world of balance, peace, and human co-existence," the statement continued.

Venezuela-U.S. relations have been strained since President Hugo Chávez-elected ten years ago-led Venezuela on a path of "oil sovereignty" that consistently clashed with the agenda of U.S. President George W. Bush. While oil business between the two countries has remained consistent (Venezuela sells 1.3 million barrels per day to the U.S.), diplomatic relations soured after the U.S. backed a two-day coup against Chávez in April 2002 and took a turn for the worse this September when Chávez expelled U..S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy on suspicion that the U.S. was behind new efforts to overthrow the governments of Venezuela and Bolivia.

Now, "the hour has arrived to establish new relations... based on the principles of equality, true cooperation, and respect for sovereignty," the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry stated Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro emphasized the need for "a bilateral and constructive agenda for the well-being of the people of Venezuela and of the United States." Chávez expressed hope that Obama will be able to "convince the institutions of his country that it is impossible to dominate the world."

When asked by a British reporter how a socialist administration could relate to a capitalist one, Chávez answered that it might be similar to the way Britain maintains the institution of the monarchy alongside parliamentary democracy.

The president of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Roy Daza, predicted that a meeting between Chávez and Obama "is going to occur much sooner than people believe." Daza said Venezuela will propose to Obama a meeting of all world leaders, not just the richest twenty who are set to meet in Washington soon, to discuss solutions to the world economic crisis.

Venezuela will also advocate an "urgent dialogue" between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the biggest oil consumers to stabilize the oil market, which has fluctuated from $147 per barrel prices last July to sub-$60 per barrel prices last month, said Daza. Several Venezuelan officials have speculated that an end to the U.S.-imposed embargo against Cuba will be an "inevitable" part of Obama's agenda, since virtually the entire United Nations General Assembly has voted against continuing the blockade.

However, the prospect that most of Obama's foreign policy advisory team could be picked up from the relatively conservative administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton and perhaps some Congressional Republicans, as today's New York Times reports, has some Venezuelan analysts worried that Obama will be less willing, or less able, to make any substantial changes in U.S. policy toward the South.

Analysts from the revolutionary forum website Aporrea.org doubt that Obama will curb the power of the CIA to meddle in the affairs of other countries and plot the destabilization of the democratic order in Latin America and across the world. Orlando Chirino, a leftist Venezuelan labor leader who is often critical of Chávez, was even less optimistic Wednesday.

"Nothing good can be expected from the new representative of imperialism, its multi-national [companies], and its wars of aggression," he declared. "Everyone who contributes consciously or unconsciously to generating false hopes for Obama does terrible harm to the struggles of the people and the workers of the world against imperialism and Capitalism," he continued. "Today, more than ever, we should call for the mobilization of the workers and the peoples of the world against imperialism and its new president," Chirino concluded.

Nonetheless, the Venezuelan government's description of Obama's election as a "time of hope for United States people" was echoed by many of Venezuela's allies, including President Cristina Fernández in Argentina, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Uruguayan President Tabaré Vásquez, Brazil's Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, one of Chávez's closest allies, said he hopes the Obama administration will be "less imperialist."
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Educate to Liberate!

Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta

Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

Sacramento, California, U.S.A.

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