Change we can live with – Cecilia Munoz named to top White House staff job

On 11.26.08, In American Politics, By PMC

Cecilia Munoz Senior vice president for the research, advocacy and legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)Cecilia Munoz Senior vice president for the research, advocacy and legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)

Cecilia Munoz Senior vice president for the research, advocacy and legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)Cecilia Munoz Senior vice president for the research, advocacy and legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)

President-elect Barack Obama has named a national Latina leader to a top White House staff job.

The Obama transition team today announced the selection of Cecilia Muñoz as his Director of the White House Office for Intergovernmental Affairs. That office directs White House outreach to state and local governments, as well as constituency groups.

The Detroit-born Muñoz currently serves as senior vice president for the research, advocacy and legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). She has been a prominent voice on civil rights issues, education and immigration.

Muñoz, 46, is the youngest of four children of parents who had moved to the Michigan from La Paz, Bolivia, so that her father, an automotive engineer, could attend the University of Michigan. Muñoz, who grew up in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, attended the University of Michigan and received degrees in English and Latin studies in 1984.

In addition to her La Raza post, she also is the board chair of Center for Community Change and serves on the U.S. Programs Board of the Open Society Institute and the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Philanthropies.
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[UPDATED]Opposition to Cross Border Truck program has nothing to do with safety or security concerns

On 09.15.08, In American Politics, Cross Border Program, NAFTA, By PMC

Trucks wait to clear US Customs. The passage of HR6630 will produce longer waits resulting in more fuel consumption and pollution at border crossingsThose who have followed the debate on the Mexican Cross Border Program, might have noticed as time passed, Todd Spencer and OOIDA for example kept changing their reasons for opposing FMCSA Cross Border Program. First it was “Safety issues”, then economic issues, both which have been debunked here and in other places.

Jimmy Hoffa continues to rant about those “dangerous and unsafe” Mexican trucks putting the American motoring public at risk, without offering one iota of proof to back up his accusations.

Even Steve Sommers on America’s Trucking Network has toned down the rhetoric, insisting his opposition to the program is from the viewpoint of American’s losing jobs, which ain’t gonna happen.

So what the truth behind the opposition? Could it be pure old “Mexican bashing”, the xenophobia  that is sweeping America, pushed in part by groups who are preying on the fear and insecurities of Americans, while putting their hands in the pockets of those who respond to their promises of ridding America of Mexicans? I think the truth lies somewhere in between.

Let’s backtrack 15 months to June 22, 2007 and an article that appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review in reponse to an Editorial by Trib staff titled MEXICAN BACKFIRE Dimitri Vassilaros came across with this scathing and totally false editorial.

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Former President Vicente Fox – Champion of Democratic Values

On 08.22.08, In Mexico Today, By PMC

Vicente Fox, 66, governed Mexico from 2000 to 2006. His term was marked by low inflation and prudent fiscal oversight,

Vicente Fox, 66, governed Mexico from 2000 to 2006. His term was marked by low inflation and prudent fiscal oversight,

SAN CRISTOBAL, Mexico – Eighteen months after leaving office, former President Vicente Fox is taking a page from Jimmy Carter’s playbook and engineering his legacy as a champion of democratic values and government transparency at home and abroad.

In a wide-ranging interview at his ranch near historic Guanajuato, Fox discussed his new projects and chided the United States for abdicating its role as global leader, questioned presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s position on free trade and dismissed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as “a loudmouth.”

The United States no longer initiates ambitious projects such as the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II or former President John Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress, which spurred economic cooperation in the hemisphere, said Fox, a strong U.S. supporter.

“We don’t see this happening anymore,” Fox told The Miami Herald. “We see walls being built. What is the U.S. afraid of?”

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More Americans Question Religion’s Role in Politics

On 08.21.08, In American Politics, By PMC

Some Social Conservative Disillusionment

Some Americans are having a change of heart about mixing religion and politics. A new survey finds a

Majority now says church should stay out of politics

Majority now says church should stay out of politics

A narrow majority of the public saying that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters and not express their views on day-to-day social and political matters. For a decade, majorities of Americans had voiced support for religious institutions speaking out on such issues.

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center reveals that most of the reconsideration of the desirability of religious involvement in politics has occurred among conservatives. Four years ago, just 30% of conservatives believed that churches and other houses of worship should stay out of politics. Today, 50% of conservatives express this view.

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He ain’t whistling Dixie no more! Senator Jesse Helms (R NC) dead at 86

On 07.04.08, In General, Opinions, By PMC

Jesse Helms Retirement planHow appropriate is it that on July 4, 2008 we are freed from the hateful thoughts and rhetoric of this vile excuse for a human being.

Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress, died on the Fourth of July.

He was 86.

Helms died at 1:15 a.m., said the Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University in North Carolina. The center’s president, John Dodd, said in a statement that funeral arrangements were pending.

This is the man that led the opposition in the Senate during the debates to create a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is the man who clashed frequently with President Clinton, whom he deemed unqualified to be commander in chief. Even some Republicans cringed when Helms said Clinton was so unpopular he would need a bodyguard on North Carolina military bases. Helms said he hadn’t meant it as a threat.

Like so many other not-so-fine wines, Jesse Helms may have mellowed as he aged but his various changes in positions on social issues did not and cannot change the fact that he stood against so many and supported the denial of protections and rights under the Constitution to so many.
Nativist and Xenophobe Jesse Helms and PBS
He will probably join Jerry Falwell and so many others who took this country down the wrong path. And I doubt it will be in Heaven.

 

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