English First News and Notes

The New Republic doesn't get it

The New Republic's feaure article on the Fairness Doctrine ("Bum Rush") claims:

I went searching for the proponents of the fairness doctrine. I looked at Obama's position--and it turns out that he doesn't want the policy reinstated. Then I called the array of Democratic congressmen who had been tagged by conservatives as doctrine proponents. But they all denied any intention to push for its reinstatement. 

No mention of localism (which Obama does support).  As commentator Malwords put it in the article's comment section:

This [article] is a "How To..." book on painting Republicans as idiots, liars, and paranoids. As a part-time listener to talk radio, I would agree that some of these conservatives (hosts, guests, and callers) are goofs, but still. I come to TNR to see intelligent debate and good journalism, but this is weak stuff.

Adds Zoo2:

Steve M is correct. The "Fairness Doctrine" may not be the process which will be used, but rather a combination of FCC appoints and established local "community organized" broadcasting oversight boards. This approach will fly under the radar while Dem's state they are not imposing the "Fairness Doctrine." Instead, they will use intimidation and the law - sounds like Chicago Thug politics? Just ask WGN Chicago. Good news is that everyone knows this is coming.

Another amnesty attempt in 2009?

Maybe, reports the Boston Globe:

Representative Xavier Becerra of California, a Democrat who is the assistant to the speaker and the highest-ranking Latino in the US House, said in an interview that he was optimistic Obama would start to tackle immigration reform in his first year. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a recent news conference that she wasn't aware of a timetable and that passing any measure would require a bipartisan effort.

Obama's incoming chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said last year that an immigration bill couldn't pass during the first four-year term of a Democratic president.

McCain as the Republican's problem in 2008

Possibly so, according to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate [H/T: Timothy Noah]:

A downturn in the number and percentage of Republican voters going to the polls seemed to be the primary explanation for the lower than predicted turnout. The percentage of eligible citizens voting Republican declined to 28.7 percent down 1.3 percentage points from 2004. Democratic turnout increased by 2.6 percentage points from 28.7 percent of eligibles to 31.3 percent. It was the seventh straight increase in the Democratic share of the eligible vote since the party’s share dropped to 22.7 percent of eligibles in 1980.

Thought experiment: without Sarah Palin on the ticket, what would Republican turnout had been?

Want to learn about "Sharia Finance"?

Start here.

Obama's illegal alien aunt: why leave the USA?

Even if a judge ordered you deported four years ago:

President-elect Barack Obama's aunt is with relatives in Cleveland and mulling her options to fight a deportation order, according to her immigration lawyer.

Margaret W. Wong, a lawyer in Cleveland, issued a statement saying Zeituni Onyango did not wish to comment further.

The 56-year-old half-sister of Obama's late father had said she would speak to a reporter after the election, but instead declined to comment and left her apartment in the Boston Housing Authority for Ohio.  ...

An immigration judge denied Onyango's application for political asylum and ordered her deported four years ago. But since then she has been living in federal and state-funded public housing in Boston.

Immigration lawyers have said Onyango might have several options to stay in this country, even if she were facing a deportation order. She could appeal to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to allow her to stay while she tries to reopen her asylum case, for instance.

Illegal immigrants are ineligible for federal housing benefits, and Onyango had lived in federally subsidized housing until she transferred to state-funded housing this year for medical reasons.

State officials said a 1977 federal consent decree in Massachusetts prohibits them from denying illegal immigrants state-funded public housing.

Amnesty for illegal aliens may be a higher priority for the Obama Administration than anyone thought.

Obama's "to-do" list?

The National Council of La Raza, representing a nationwide Latino community that tilted heavily in Obama's favor, wants Congress to tackle immigration reform in a way that would provide supportive options for immigrants working in this country illegally.

Liberals' agendas may have to wait, The Tennessean.

A $45,000 Muslim headscarf

In Orange, California:

A Southern California county will allow jailed Muslim women to wear headscarves after settling a lawsuit with a woman who claims that deputies violated her religious freedom by making her remove her hijab.

The settlement agreement signed by the county last week and released Monday specifies that Muslim women must be provided a private area to remove their headscarves after arrest and must be provided with county-issued headscarves to cover themselves when they are in the presence of men.

The county, which did not admit wrongdoing, will also pay $45,000 in damages. Plaintiff Jameelah Medina will get $10,000 after subtracting attorney fees, said Hector Villagra, director of the Orange County office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The 2008 Election and English

My analysis is now online here.

Looks like a long night (and perhaps longer).

Today's exit polls are most likely to be inaccurate, so it is probably best to await actual election results.  Those results may not be known tonight if Colorado is any indication [H/T NRO's Campaign Spot]:

"The days of having your close to final results by 10 p.m. are over," said Alton Dillard, spokesman for Denver Elections. "There are just too many moving targets in the election world these days. So we made it clear from day one it would take longer to be counted and we would be counting ballots well into Wednesday morning and that still holds true."

Virginia still has a problem counting absentee ballots cast by our troops overseas.  McCain sued on Monday demanding that all military ballots received prior to November 14th be counted.

In Missouri, where Obama and McCain were dead even in pre-election polls:

"Expecting a voting problem here is almost a no-brainer," said Dave Robertson, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. "We have a very good chance of extending the time it takes to count the vote" past midnight or later.

Robertson stopped short of predicting a situation in Missouri along the lines of the disputed Florida vote in the 2000 race, which was decided by the US Supreme Court in a ruling that determined the presidency. But he would not rule it out, particularly because Republican McCain and Democrat Obama "both have armies of lawyers" combing the state, looking for irregularities.

Colorado, Missouri and Virginia are just the tip of the iceberg.  Might just as well get some sleep tonight.

Assimilation after a fashion

Juan Carlos Rivera knew that if he wanted to get a dishwashing job at the MacArthur Park hamburger stand, he would have to pretend to be Mexican.

But the thought of lying made the Salvadoran anxious. He paced outside the restaurant, worried that his melodic Spanish accent, his use of the Central American vos, instead of the Mexican tú, would give him away.   ...

For a year, Rivera stuck around, more determined than before to fit in. He studied his co-workers' accents, their language, their jokes and common expressions. He learned to stomach hot sauce. When the crew went out for beers, he tagged along, looking for the right time to proudly deliver a deep-throated Órale! And when the time came to apply for his second job, he sought the help of a Mexican friend. This time he would say he was from Mexico City. This time, he would learn the menu.

There is also less "unity" among Hispanic immigrants than their advocates claim:

Salvadorans began pouring into Los Angeles in large numbers in the 1980s, many fleeing El Salvador's brutal civil war. Many arrived disillusioned and powerless, and unlike Mexicans, their roots and networks did not date back centuries. Getting a job often meant getting the nod of a Mexican contractor, foreman or manager.

"It's always Mexico, Mexico, Mexico," said Jorge Mendoza, a 42-year-old painter, one of a group of Salvadoran men who gathered recently at MacArthur Park. "I turn on the radio and all I hear is Mexican music. If I want to watch a soccer game, I have to watch a Mexican team play."

The same goes for Spanish newscasts, telenovelas, celebrity gossip -- all dominated by Mexicans.

Welcome to multicultural America.  You can read the whole thing here.