Yesterday while in North Carolina, Donald Trump initiated a call to ban all Muslims from the United States.  Though late in the game, Republicans are finally speaking out against Trump.  House Speaker Paul Ryan condemned Donald Trump's Muslim comments quickly and said: “"Freedom of religion is a fundamental constitutional principle...This is not conservatism what was proposed yesterday, is not what this party stands for and more importantly it's not what this country stands for.”

Because Chicanos/Latinos and Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic in this Nation, let’s not forget how the GOP leaders said little come November 2016 election day when Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump referred to Mexicans as rapists and murderers.  The Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is responsible for their low diversity outreach and we look forward to the Party of Responsibility reaping what they sow come election day.  Reince turned a blind eye to hate rhetoric that sent a signal trickling downward throughout the GOP ranks that essentially said hate against other ethnic groups and religious organizations is okay. 

Podcast de 11-20-2014: Obama delinea puntos sobre una Acción Ejecutiva de Inmigración

Carlos Galindo is the host of The Carlos Galindo Show also known as Straight Talk/Hablando Claro Show. The only linguistic code switching political talk show of its kind in the nation. Carlos Galindo is an Immigrant from Mexico who worked the agricultural fields of California with his family before laying roots in the Imperial Valley. Carlos regularly attended Cesar Chavez rallies as a child, and he and his family participated in the Southern California grape strikes. Carlos was one of a handful of children utilized to desegregate all white schools in an affluent all white community in Southern California.   Amongst many activist actions performed as an adult, Carlos led a continuous protest of 56 days against unjust laws at the Arizona State Capitol.

Somos Independents (a Get Out The Vote Group)  has stated repeatedly how we do not support taxation without representation ideas the Tea Party GOP has been offering.  It is un-American and is a dangerous slippery slope to introduce a heinous idea. 

Both the Chicano / Latino voting leaders as well as Asian leaders are against (R-CA) Rep. Darrell Issa's immigration plan that is essentially a way for the GOP to track immigrants so they can kick them out 6 years later.  

Susan Pai gives us the pulse of the Asian voting community. She is also an immigration lawyer and here is an excerpt from her blog:

The Outrages In The Issa Memo

Issa’s proposal is that all undocumented immigrants need to register and cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security within six months…but of course, not all immigrants are eligible.

There are two outrageous shockers in Issa’s Alien Accountability Act memo. Immigrants who Issa says aren’t allowed to participate and must leave immediately include:

• Relatives of participating aliens
• Aliens with a pending deportation case

The ‘relative of participating aliens’ proposal creates an immediate and obvious problem; a race among immigrant relatives to see which family member cooperates with the DHS first. The winner of this Amazingly Cruel Race gets to (possibly) stay in America while everyone else in their family become The Biggest Immigration Losers.

Excluding “aliens with a pending deportation case” isn’t merely cruel but unconstitutional and borderline insane.

The idea here must be that the people in immigration proceedings already are the low hanging fruit: the people already out of the shadows with names and addresses on file, so they are easy to detain and deport.

Sure, it throws out the U.S. Constitution and the right to due process but it gives Issa an easy way to say he deported half a million people or so who’d put their faith in the American legal systerm.

While this manuver might bring cheers from the Republican base who imagine Mexican and Central America immigrants currently in deportation proceeding being tossed over the fence and back south of the border, conservatives would do well to remember that the immigrants Issa’s plan would kick out include every immigrant, not just the brown skinned people who cut your lawn and who built your home.

Darrell Issa mandates that if you’re in an immigration proceeding, back you go. That means everybody goes back; from Castro-hating Cubans seeking a better life to pale skinned Brits who fell in love with an American to Iranian Christians fearing religious persecution.   FULL STORY>>>>

 

 

 

According to IVN:  "The current Congress has an average 9.2 percent approval rating and 84.2 percent disapproval rating. ... These numbers point to a grave problem: the House of Representatives is utterly unrepresentative."

Independent voters are committed to voting out the Tea Party Republicans.  As a get out the vote organization (where we put emphasis on Mexican-Americans, Latinos, women while organizing the growing independent registered voters) we have been successful in creating stronger coalitions with but not limited to the African-American community, the Asian community and Native Americans.  We anticipate the Republican Party submitting an immigration bill that is reasonable and will not create an underclass or taxation without representation before the November 2014 elections.  The more the GOP puts off a CIR bill, the more it will drive us to the polls out of righteous political anger reminiscent of the 2012 elections that cost the Republican Party the White House. 

We still have not heard a peep from Prophet Thomas Monson of the Utah Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS)  in support of legal immigration reform this year despite their Mormon Temple that exists within the heart of the southwest. .  However, yesterday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Archbishop Timothy Dolan openly told House Republicans  to “get your act together” in passing comprehensive immigration reform. See video here.

We are very glad Cardinal Dolan understands that the House GOP Representatives like Speaker Boehner is preventing legal comprehensive immigration reform from taking place this year.  Rep. Nancy Pelosi told Rep. John Boehner we have enough bipartisan Republican votes to pass immigration reform.  The Democratic-controlled Senate passed a bipartisan immigration reform plan months ago, and the one man preventing this from being voted on this year is Speaker Boehner.

Though Dolan raises good points on immigration, he appears equally upset with Democrats on the pro life issue, however, I believe the breakdown in the pro life message has been within the  pro life leadership.  It does not help when we see some of the oldest pro life organizations affiliating themselves with  American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).   Pro life leaders and organizations lose credibility when their fingerprints are found on organizations like ALEC who appear to embrace a culture of death, and their pro life efforts targeting Hispanic and women voters in key races will have little merit until they do away with those fingerprints.

If one is going to call themselves pro life, perhaps they ought to essentially support it from a womb to the tomb standpoint.  Billions of our American tax payer dollars are being spent on detaining immigrants who get caught for working in agricultural fields, car washes, fast food restaurants and etc. We are well aware the private prison industry would take a huge hit if immigration reform passes – private prison systems who receive government subsidies where millions of our tax payer money is wasted. Millions of our taxpayer dollars are wasted because of lawsuits, and I believe we ought to reconsider private prison systems because the incentive to make more profit dollars seem to outweigh basic and humane treatment of human beings.

But these disturbing stories do not only affect immigrants – they affect American women, too. I am especially disturbed in hearing stories about women in private prisons owned by Corrections Corporation of American refusing Autumn Miller’s cries for medical attention. She says the guards gave her a menstrual pad and locked her in a cell. As a result, Miller says in a lawsuit filed in Dallas federal court, on June 14, 2012, “She looked down and watched, in horror, as she delivered baby Gracie into the toilet.” The infant lived for four days and died in her mother’s arms.

According the the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Speaker Boehner is an  alumnus. The Nation’s Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor reveal their role in expanding prison systems. According to their report,prison labor for the private sector was legally barred for years, to avoid unfair competition with private companies. But this has changed thanks to the ALEC, its Prison Industries Act, and a little-known federal program known as PIE (thePrison Industries Enhancement Certification Program). An In These Times investigation revealed that ALEC arranged secret meetings between Arizona’s state legislators and CCA to draft what became SB 1070, Arizona’s notorious immigration law, to keep CCA prisons flush with immigrant detainees. ALEC has proven expertly capable of devising endless ways to help private corporations benefit from the country’s massive prison population.

Lack of leadership within pro life organizations may have fueled the culture of death, and I know this because few stepped up to the plate when our 14th amendment rights were being attacked by the Republicans they endorsed via Birthright Citizenship. 

No Party Preference

By Ryan Trabuco

“I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.” — Theodore Roosevelt

My decision. My choice. Certainly, this wasn’t easy. Allow me to think this through.

I’ve always admired Theodore Roosevelt. He fought corruption, spoke out passionately about his beliefs in much-needed reforms, and was noted for his fairness in policy and politics.

Of course, you may also read that folks at the turn of the 20th century considered him belligerent and opinionated. Hell, I’ve been called worse. For every one of his critics, however, there were many more who considered him “the hero America needed” as author Michael L. Cooper penned in his 2009 biography on our nation’s 26th President.

What I admire most about Teddy’s legacy and leadership, was his ability to bring folks together — often transcending partisan politics — and in doing so, for the good of our country.

Many of Teddy Roosevelt’s decisions were not easy, such as leaving the Republican Party in 1912 — a party he was active in and helped lead as a New York Assemblyman, Police Commissioner, Governor, Vice-President, and President. The Republican Party had left him and tacked a hard right turn, and Roosevelt, through the passion of defiance, left the party to continue to champion those reforms, values, and ideas he held dear.

Today, I feel it’s the same path I must take as well. Today, I re-registered to vote as “No Party Preference” (a.k.a. “Independent”).

I assure you, no decision could have been harder for me, personally.

Freedom. Opportunity. Self-Reliance. State’s Rights. Government efficiency.  There’s a sense of tradition and a value system — that I cherish and hold dear — you just don’t find in other political parties.

There’s a proud history of nearly 10 years here registering Republican voters. Volunteering. Fundraising. Knocking on doors, calling voters, doing anything I could possibly do to help Republican candidates win elections — pouring blood, sweat, and often tears into these efforts. Oh Lord, did I mention the tweeting?

For now, in this moment, I just felt it was the right choice to make.

As unfortunate (for a number of reasons) that I felt 2008 was a bad year politically, nothing could’ve prepared me for the slaughter of 2012. Of course, in the heat of election cycles, it’s easy to re-hash the talking points of a campaign, and paraphrase why you feel it’s better that voters should choose your side. There’s facts, graphs, logic, and ideology at play. What’s often overlooked though is governing, and the plan to govern.

There hadn’t been much thought about re-registering until recently, while watching the fiscal cliff debate play out over weeks on end. Speculation. Finger-pointing. The constant will-they-won’t-they approach to politics. Quite honestly, it was sick. For as bad as it was for Democrats, I couldn’t honestly sit back and defend the Republicans’  seemingly hands-off approach to governing.

I kept asking myself, “Where’s the leadership? Where’s the plan?”

Then, allowing the Democrats to figure it out on their own and then dictate the terms of whatever the compromise would be was embarrassing to say the very least. I can’t defend that.

I admit, I said for a long time that wild horses couldn’t drag me from my party — and they didn’t. The selfish behavior of those who would rather bring our country to its’ knees, rather than face the challenges ahead of us have drug the party away from me. The constant kowtowing to the Tea Party and like-minded ideologues have damaged the brand, the mission, and the spirit of the Republican Party.

Look at California. The Republican Party, here, is a mess. Enough said.

In San Diego, it’s not nearly as bad but there’s problems here as well. There’s nothing wrong with good-natured, well-intentioned, and much-needed government reforms, but there is a significant problem when you allow a single elected official — an emotional and personality equivalent to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride — to dictate the focus of the party, and whether you are or aren’t welcome within the apparatus.

When Nathan Fletcher left the Republican Party last spring, I admit, I was more than disappointed and reflected those feelings to him over the phone. He said he was tired and over the drama. All the critics said it was political. After much soul-searching these last few weeks, I have to say that Nathan was right. I’m tired and over it, too.

All in all, I don’t feel there’s leadership. Or focus. I don’t feel there’s necessary attention being paid to strengthen the Republican Party. All talk, no action. I’ve said for years that the GOP needed to embrace it’s roots founded in the original 1856 Platform — a document that reads more like the blueprint for ideas in freedom and governance, rather than today’s GOP platform which specifically says what you can or can’t do in life.

Where’s the allure? What’s the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, aside from being polar opposites on the political spectrum? Nothing. God forbid you find yourself in the political center. You have no where to go.

All that said, where do we go from here?

I’m sure folks will say I’ve always been a squish. Not committed. Not conservative enough. That’s fine. That just shows that those folks have very little respect for the consistent work I did all those years. All the more reason for my decision to step aside, and re-register.

I am now a simple, registered voter who states that I have NO PARTY PREFERENCE. That doesn’t change who I am or what I believe. Our spending needs to be under control, I’m not in favor of big government or higher taxes — we need some desperate spending cuts, for sure. However, if I ever served as an elected official, I would have sense enough to know not to bring a government to its knees because of hard-headedness (a heartfelt sentiment to both parties).

Thankfully, I have no designs on political office. I’m too honest for it.

Now, there are good Republicans, and there are good Democrats. I’m honored to know both. It’s the self-interested ones on both sides of the aisle who need to reappraise their purpose in politics.

Hopefully, there will be a time in the very near future when the Republican Party evaluates itself in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. I pray it does.  It would be an honor to re-register as a Republican under such circumstances. Until then, I will spend my time focusing on my commitments and service to my community, and encouraging camaraderie among others — no matter what their political persuasion may be.

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” I’ve always been inspired to reach for the stars, and although I’m no longer a Republican, I feel as grounded as I’ve ever been.