The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed on February 3, 1870 which protected the right of African-Americans to vote.
It reads,
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Of course this wasn’t the end of discriminatory disenfranchisement practices which went on for another century in this country with acts of violence and intimidation, the Jim Crowe laws, literacy tests, etc. These efforts at going around the Fifteenth Amendment were addressed by the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
Beginning in March, Americans will receive a form in the mail to fill out and return to the U.S. Census Bureau. Every decade, many wonder why it’s so necessary to participate in the census. From alloting seats in the House of Representatives to dispersal of billions in federal spending, there are numerous reasons. But the word isn’t getting out to everyone.
This is especially true for Hispanics — who are the fastest growing minority in the United States. Being counted in the census can potentially provide additional representation and funding for developing communities.
On Tuesday’s “Washington Unplugged,” actor Wilmer Valderrama joined Nancy Cordes to discuss his work with the non-profit organization Voto Latino, co-founded by actress Rosario Dawson. The organization aims to increases voter turnout and political involvement among Hispanic youth.
Valderrama and other Hispanic celebrities are meeting with House lawmakers Wednesday, unveiling a new campaign urging Hispanics to take part in the census.
“Rosario Dawson and I started this amazing campaign last year to register people to vote and inspire the youth to understand that voting is important. We knew that the census was coming in 2010 and that it’s very important thing for the community to embrace,” Valderrama said.
Valderrama also notes that Hispanics have much to gain from participating in the census. “It dictates the funding of public services, schools and hospitals. Depending on how many people are in the area, funding is distributed.”
Eric Cortes asks the question, What makes a city Latino? on Being Latino’s Blog. I grew up in El Paso, Texas and would definitely add her to the list. El Paso/Juarez is a truly bi-national and bi-cultural metroplex with El Paso having a solid Latino majority. Also, if you want great Mexican food, El Paso is the place to be.
The ever predictable James Dobson founded, Tony Perkins led Family Research Council has responded to President Obama’s call to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” by claiming that Obama is trying to sexualize the military… sigh.
Washington, D.C. – Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement in response to President Obama’s first State of the Union Address:
“At a time of enormous economic challenge, two on-going wars in which Americans are fighting and increased terrorist threats to Americans at home, President Obama seems untethered from that reality as he called on Congress to force the military to allow open homosexuality. As a veteran of the Marine Corps, the timing of the President’s call in the midst of two wars shows that he is willing to jeopardize our nation’s security to advance the agenda of the radical homosexual lobby.
“The military is a warrior culture for a reason: Our service members wear the uniform to fight and win wars, not serve as liberal social policy guinea pigs. The sexual environment /* This brain dead moron thinks that the repeal of DADT is about the sex. They’ll never get it. */ the President is seeking to impose upon the young men and women who serve this country is the antithesis of the successful warfighting culture and as such should be rejected.
So this will be the right-wing meme on this. The repeal of DADT means our military will be fucking instead of fighting? Or will it make everyone gay? No clue. The daftness of this press release is typical.
This was an amusing story from Fort Worth’s CBS affiliate KTVT…
LLANCASTER (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― At first glance, it looks like a cartoon character. But a closer look reveals something much more revealing. The billboard was put up by the companies Condoms to Go and Sara’s Secret.
At first glance, it looks like a cartoon character. But a closer look reveals something much more revealing. A billboard along Interstate-35 in Lancaster is packing quite a sexual punch and some North Texans aren’t amused.
The billboard was put up by the companies Condoms to Go and Sara’s Secret. Both stores feature adult toys, lingerie and movies.
It features a cucumber with cartoon eyes and a mouth. The billboard reads “stop vegetable abuse.”
The locally-owned adult stores are asking potential customers to consider alternative adult devices.
Employees of the stores say they’ve received several complaints since the billboard went up last week.
The campaign started from a television commercial that airs late night on cable TV. The television ad also features a moving cucumber looking for a place to hide. The spot ends with the message, “stop vegetable abuse.”
Here is the TV spot:
I always get a smile on my face when these moralizing hypocrites get their panties in a twist.
There are 16 million children in immigrant families in the United States, one of the fastest-growing segments of the population. It¹s an old American story made new in the age of globalization, when waves of human displacement- in recent decades have led to immigration on a scale not seen since Ellis Island. But a country that has been so good for so long at integrating new Americans is stumbling under the challenge.
… This is the great challenge that is forgotten in the heat of the immigration debate. The children of immigrants are Americans.”
This story is delectably karmic. Remember the Huntingdon Valley swim club? This is the swimming pool that got its panties in a twist after 56 Latino and black children dared to swim in their pool this past summer. Now they are filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. That’s right, they are closing shop and selling everything. The swim club was forced into the red due to mounting legal bills due to discrimination suits stemming from their segregationist policy.
The club’s legal problems stem from its revoked deal with Creative Steps [day camp], an arrangement that has evolved into an ongoing investigation of alleged racism by the state Human Relations Commission, one filed lawsuit, and the threat of more litigation.
In September, the state agency concluded that the club had engaged in racial discrimination and proposed a fine of up to $50,000 to address one child’s complaint. The Human Relations Commission still is investigating other claims and has not scheduled a public hearing, spokeswoman Shannon Powers said.
A federal class-action lawsuit filed by several children and a parent has been placed on hold by the bankruptcy filing. But plaintiffs attorney Brian R. Mildenberg said he plans to ask a court to let the case move forward.
Arizona State University Physics Professor and The Physics of Star Trek author Lawrence Krauss wrote an excellent piece for Scientific American on how the empowerment of women through education yields fundamentally positive results for society. The empowerment of women addresses overpopulation (the current rate of population growth is unsustainable) and alleviates extremist ideas in youngsters giving them a more balanced view of reality.
At six billion plus today, the earth’s human population will reach more than nine billion by 2050, according to estimates. If this many people consume energy at the current rate in the developed world, the planet will need more than double the amount of power it consumes today. But energy is just one issue that humankind will have to tackle to create a sustainable future. The root cause of the looming energy problem—and the key to easing environmental, economic and religious tensions while improving public health—is to address the unending, and unequal, growth of the human population. And the one proven way to reduce fertility rates is to empower young women by educating them.
High fertility rates in areas of the developing world that can least cope put tremendous pressure on freshwater and sanitation needs and fuel economic and religious tensions. In response, these countries ramp up their energy production via the only means available to them based on their resources—means that tend to either pollute the environment or contribute to global warming.
For instance, India, Somalia and Sudan have large positive birth rates. The latter two countries struggle to provide adequate food and water resources, and India increased its energy consumption by almost 50 percent between 1992 and 2001. (In contrast, Japan, France and Russia have negative birth rates, and the U.S. is slightly positive.) Indeed, a United Nations study published in August reported that Asia currently does not have the means to feed the extra 1.5 billion expected to live on that continent by 2050.
Empirical work indicating that providing schooling for women and girls will address these problems includes study after study showing that educated women have fewer children, are wealthier and are less likely to accept fundamentalist extremism. If we want a safer world, we should consider the utility of spending dollars on educating young people as an alternative to troops and weapons.
In Afghanistan and Pakistan today the Taliban have created thousands of madrassas, where children from poor families with no access to education can receive food and what passes for learning (but what is in fact quite the opposite). At the same time, they restrict access to education for women. In Gaza vulnerable young people are recruited early on to religious extremist training camps. I am not naive enough to believe that building schools and providing access to safe and secure environments for learning will alone solve our problems—we will need to create economic opportunities as well.
Moreover, in paternalistic societies where women have few rights, effecting change will be an uphill battle. For example, the government we are now supporting with troops and infrastructure in Afghanistan has recently passed legislation that food can be withheld from women who do not have sex with their husband and that women cannot go out of the house without their husband’s permission. In countries of this sort that now receive significant support from us, we need to make the empowerment of women a higher priority. As difficult and slow as the process might be, the education of women in such countries is a necessary first step to giving them the opportunity and motivation to begin to control their own destiny.
The long-term goal of reducing poverty, religious fundamentalism and overpopulation will be impossible to reach until we free women around the world from the enslavement of ignorance. More fundamental is the fact that education is a basic human right that has been systematically denied too many women for too long.
Below is a video of a vicious gay-bashing in Queens. It’s below the fold because it’s painful to watch. But the most amazing part of the news segment is an interview with one of the suspect’s buddies, who accused the victim of “coming on” to his friends and thereby deserving a beatdown – near to death. As he denies there was any anti-gay bias in the attack, he wears a proud Leviticus tattoo above. Video and news segment after the jump:
This hateful idiot quotes Leviticus 18:22, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.” Maybe this neanderthal should continue reading. In the next chapter (Leviticus 19:28) we read “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.” Selective Bible quoting just to support the hate. How typical!
