politics (147)

Time is running out to join the Hispanic Community Engagement Advisory Board. The panel will advise community leaders on how to get more Hispanics involved in efforts to address issues affecting their communities. That’s a theme that’s been prominent this year in Austin, which is conducting a study to learn what if anything the city can do to improve the lives of Hispanic residents. READ FULL STORY
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Hispanic theologian chosen for Vatican ambassador

A Hispanic Roman Catholic theologian who was an adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign will be nominated to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, the White House announced Wednesday. Miguel H. Diaz, 45, an associate professor of theology at St. John's University and the College of Saint Benedict in Minnesota, would be the first Hispanic to serve as ambassador to the Vatican since the United States and the Holy See established full diplomatic ties in 1984. Diaz was born in Havana. The announcement comes in the same week Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools, to the Supreme Court. She would be the high court's first Hispanic justice. The selection of a Vatican ambassador rarely attracts scrutiny. But Diaz's nomination comes as tensions run high in the U.S. church over Catholics' voice in the public square and the politics of abortion. READ FULL STORY
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Vote For Who You Are Not

When democratic operative Paul Begala made a donation to the Obama campaign this year, he wrote in the memo field of the check "for negative campaigning only." As much as candidates and voters complain about negative ads, the ads persist because, as Begala knows, they work.READ FULL STORY
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Latino Church Leaders Divided on Census Boycott

One influential group of Latino evangelical pastors said it would call for a census boycott among undocumented immigrants. Not everyone is on board. Latino evangelical leaders, who wield tremendous clout in immigrant communities, are sharply divided on the 2010 Census. The rift developed earlier this month after one influential group of pastors said it would call for a census boycott among undocumented immigrants as a bargaining chip in their demands for comprehensive immigration reform. "The boycott idea's spreading like fire," said Rev. Miguel Ángel Rivera, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, or CONLAMIC for its Spanish acronym. "It's the only thing that will make politicians sit up and listen." READ FULL STORY
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American Civil Liberties Union Legislative Counsel Deborah J. Vagins, along with Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and leaders in the women’s and business community, briefed Senate staffers today on S. 182, the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill to give working women the legal tools they need to challenge pay discrimination. “Statistics show there is still a persistent and pernicious pay gap,” said Vagins. “The fight for equal pay for equal work will not resolve itself. We need the Paycheck Fairness Act to help create a climate where wage discrimination is no longer tolerated. This bill eliminates loopholes and strengthens weak remedies that have made the Equal Pay Act of 1963 less effective in combating the unlawful wage gap.” READ FULL STORY
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Democrats' Hands Aren’t Clean in the Financial Mess

The normally expansive Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was anything but that when she was asked if the Democrats should get some of the blame for the Wall Street financial mess. Pelosi answered with a terse “no.” But Pelosi quickly got expansive when she finger pointed Bush and the Republicans for creating the mess. This is the standard Pelosi line. Bush and the Republicans eagerly cut sweetheart deals with financial industry lobbyists to gut lending and stock trading regulations, winked and nodded at the banks and brokerage houses as they engaged in an orgy of dubious stock swapping, buys, and trading, conned millions of homeowners into taking out catastrophic sub prime loans and watered down the oversight powers of government regulatory agencies. READ FULL STORY
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Efforts on the part of some conservatives to pin the Wall Street meltdown and the $850 billion rescue tab on the backs of minority homeowners are shameless and spurious, several activists and minority lawmakers said Friday. “That is total bunk,” said Kathleen Day, spokeswoman for the Center for Responsible Lending, a public interest group. “I think this is an effort by extremists who are embarrassed that their economic model of little regulation and oversight failed miserably, so they’re trying to deflect blame to the victims.” READ FULL STORY
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