The LPGA takes a mulligan on English its proficiency penalty

Shortly after announcing a new policy that would have fined foreign players who were not proficient in English, the LPGA withdrew the proposed rule. The reversal came following a widespread public outcry with many calling the new policy racist and xenophobic.

"I hope they consult civil rights groups, community organizations and leaders, so they don't come up with the same stupid decisions they came up with the first time," California state assemblyman Ted Lieu told the Los Angeles Daily Breeze.

Few would argue that proficiency in English is a worthwhile goal for foreign golfers playing in the United States. But the LPGA’s punitive approach created a well-deserved firestorm of protest. After hitting one this far out of bounds, let’s hope the LPGA will take a better shot at helping its players adapt to the demands of playing in a U.S. league.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Political spin personified

Want to see the art of political spin in action? Watch this.



It's an oversimplification, I know. But I've seen a distinct pattern in the ways each party campaigns.

The Democrats resort to double talk, trying to sound reasonable by giving vague answers to difficult questions.

The Republicans use lies, distortions, and unfounded accusations then call it "straight talk."

Most people who voted for George W. Bush later regretted electing someone who seemed like "a great guy to have a beer with" but turned out to be a disastrous president. Now Sarah Palin comes along and the same people are going to vote Republican once again because Palin seems like "the hockey mom" next door.

We get the government we deserve.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

America Libre selected as a fiction finalist in the Writers' League of Texas awards

I received a letter today announcing my novel AMERICA LIBRE had been selected as one of the six finalists in the Writers’ League of Texas Violet Crown fiction awards. Besides AMERICA LIBRE, the other fiction finalists are:

River’s Ebb by Jim Ainsworth
Harpsong by Rilla Askew
Evacuation Plan by Joe O’Connel
Sandhill County Lines by Clay Reynolds
Trail of the Red Butterfly by Karl H. Schlesier

Congratulations to my fellow authors. The winner of the fiction category will be announced November 1, 2008 in Austin, Texas.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

The party of Lincoln becomes the party of Rove

John McCain resisted the torture of his North Vietnamese jailers. He could not resist the dark allure of dirty politics.

Republicans once proudly called themselves the party of Lincoln. Today, they have become the party of Karl Rove.

John McCain began his campaign touting a Senate record of bi-partisan cooperation that earned him the reputation as a maverick. McCain often crossed the aisle to get the job done, much to the dismay of the Karl Rove wing of the Republican Party who would have rather hurt the country than side with a Democrat.

McCain’s bi-partisan reputation helped him win the Republican nomination. Even Republicans were tired of the bitter partisanship that had been so much a part of the Bush years. In February of this year, during the nominating campaign, McCain denounced Cincinnati radio personality Bill Cunningham for his disparaging use of Barrack Obama’s middle name, Hussein. That was the old John McCain, the true maverick and gentleman.

But after Senator McCain won the nomination and found himself trailing Obama, he turned to the dark side. He fired his campaign leadership and brought in the Karl Rove brigade.

The hyper-partisan hacks, who once gleefully hurled the “flip-flopper” label at anyone who had the courage to revaluate their position, convinced McCain he should change his views on many of the bi-partisan bills McCain co-authored that had earned him his reputation as a maverick. McCain did a 180 on taxes, tobacco, and immigration. The same handlers also convinced McCain to choose Sarah Palin when the senator really wanted Joe Liebermann. But the Rovers knew they had to fire up the raw meat Republicans and two moderate candidates on the same ticket were not going to do that, no matter how qualified.

The Rovers were also behind the nasty, pit-bull tenor of the Republican convention speeches on Wednesday. These hate-filled screeds attacked Obama without offering any tangible examples of alternatives. To paraphrase the CNN slogan, it was all negativity, all the time. Look for more Swift Boat smears of Obama and Biden coming up shortly.

John McCain, like so many others, has compromised his principles in his quest for the White House. We now have the sad spectacle of a once-independent senator and public servant descending into the caricature of a mud-slinging flip-flopping politician. John McCain resisted the torture of his North Vietnamese jailers. He could not resist the dark allure of dirty politics.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Imagine if it had been one of Obama’s daughters

News of Bristol Palin’s unwed pregnancy has drawn much sympathetic head nodding among the GOP faithful. “It’s happened in the best of families,” seems the most common reaction—and I agree. Many young women have been carried away by a moment that seemed so right at the time. Unfortunately, the consequences are often a mother and father who are not emotionally or financially ready to become parents and an atmosphere of shame; hardly the ideal environment in which to raise a child. That’s why our culture encourages young people to wait until they have a stable home before they make the choice to have children.

All the same, I wonder if the Republicans who have been so sympathetic to Bristol’s fate would be as sympathetic if it was one of Obama’s daughters who were pregnant and out-of-wedlock? Would we hear the same compassion? I very much doubt it. I suspect a pregnant black teenager would have regressive tongues wagging about irresponsibility and uncontrollable urges. In the usual racist code words, she would be cast as a role model for the perceived sins of her race.

Of course, Obama’s oldest daughter is only ten. So the possibility of a pregnancy is out of the question. Still, I have little doubt that if the tables were turned, the conversation would be tainted by the same racism that has stained every aspect of this campaign among some voters.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Would sex education have made a difference?

I feel guilty posting this image. Bristol Palin's fate is no different from that of thousands of other unfortunate teens. But the irony was just too much. Dan Quayle, who Palin resembles in so many ways, once derided the TV character Murphy Brown for glamorizing out-of-wedlock pregnancy. How ironic that the current Republican VP candidate would find her own daughter in a similar predicament.

Bristol Palin does not deserve to be publicly humiliated. All the same, right-to-lifers like Sarah Palin and Dan Quayle need to be lambasted for their narrow views. These hyper-moralists oppose any kind of birth control education. Their only solution to teenage pregnancy is abstinence.

Would Bristol's pregnancy have been avoided by education about contraceptives? No one can say. One thing is certain, though. Sarah Palin did not want her daughter taught anything about ways to prevent a pregnancy.

The entire Palin family will now have to live with the consequences.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Gustav could not have come at a better time for the GOP

The president's hurricane dodge has a downside. If the federal government’s response to hurricane Gustav is less than stellar, Mr. Bush has set himself up for yet another ignominy.

As a powerful hurricane once again threatens devastation to a fragile region of the U.S. coast, many at the Republican convention are grateful. The reason? President Bush will be “focusing on the planning for hurricane Gustav” and unable to attend the convention. Vice President Dick Cheney is also embroiled in these “high-level plans” and will skip his planned convention appearance as well.

Of course, everyone within the GOP knows this is simply a convenient excuse. Republican politicians have been moving away from President Bush like someone with B.O. on a bus. The hurricane ruse helps take some of the sting out of the humiliation.

What an incredible collapse for a president who once held record approval ratings. The high-water mark of the Bush presidency came in 2003 when he strutted on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in a flight suit and declared the war in Iraq as a “mission accomplished.” Five years later, Bush is a pariah within his own party.

Is George W. Bush the worst president ever? You’d have to be a die-hard Bush supporter if you didn’t at least admit he’s in contention.

This hurricane dodge has a downside, however. If the federal government’s response to hurricane Gustav is less than stellar, Mr. Bush has set himself up for yet another ignominy.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Make sure Palin knows how to spell “potato”

By now the McCain team undoubtedly has Sarah Palin on a crash course in a number of subjects: national security, international relations, politics inside the Beltway, handling the national media, and a host of other areas where her skimpy resume needs bolstering. Given the dim bulb performance of Dan Quayle, another obscure vice-presidential nominee selected by the elder George Bush during the 1988 campaign, the McCain handlers might also want to make sure Palin knows how to spell “potato.”

Quayle and Palin share a lot of traits: both were virtual unknowns on the national scene when selected as running mates, both were better-than-average in appearance, and both brought hard-line conservative credentials the head of the Republican ticket lacked.

Quayle’s frequent gaffes during the 1998 campaign soon relegated him to nightly fodder for late-night talk show monologues. The ridicule continued throughout his term as vice president, culminating in a career-defining moment in 1992 when Quayle corrected a grade school student during a spelling bee, insisting the proper spelling for the source of french fries was “potatoe.” The incident permanently cemented Quayle’s reputation as an intellectual lightweight. The defeat in 1992 of the Bush/Quayle ticket by Clinton/Gore ended Dan Quayle’s short-lived tenure in the national spotlight.

Thankfully for the United States, George H.W. Bush survived his one and only term in the White House. It is frightening to consider what the world would be like today had Dan Quayle become president. Even more alarming is that John McCain is eight years older than the senior Bush was during the 1988 election. So the specter of an untested novice becoming commander-in-chief is chillingly real.

If John McCain wins the election, every American should pray daily for his health.

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Country first? Not hardly.

“Country First” is the campaign slogan chosen by Senator John McCain. However, McCain’s choice of a vice presidential running mate proves otherwise. Even the most ardent McCain supporters admit Sarah Palin’s qualifications for the office “only a heartbeat away from the presidency” are wafer thin. The GOP counter to Palin’s inexperience is to attack Barrack Obama for the same sin. That’s a pretty weak argument for choosing someone so woefully under qualified to lead the world’s most powerful nation – especially when your campaign slogan is “Country First.”

If the McCain camp truly believed in “Country First,” they would not have chosen someone with barely two years experience in governing a state of 400,000 people. They would not have chosen someone with zero foreign policy experience and no meaningful relationships with anyone in the U.S. Congress.

After passing over seasoned political professionals like Joe Liebermann and Mitt Romney, the McCain camp made a craven political decision to balance the ticket. They chose a hard-line conservative (she believes in teaching creationism in public schools, is pro-gun and anti-abortion) to bolster McCain’s tepid support among evangelicals and far-right Republicans. But the most callous act of political expediency was choosing Palin for her gender in hopes of stealing the votes of disillusioned women who had supported Hillary Clinton.The decision also reveals something about the McCain camp's opinion of the female electorate. They evidently believe that women are so gullible they will vote for another female regardless of her political views.

The choice of Palin is an act of desperation. It is shallow minded and shortsighted. It is hardly “Country First.”

Raul Ramos y Sanchez

Wall Street Journal advises GOP to stop nativist pandering

The Wall Street Journal editorial board, a renowned forum of conservative views, has seen the political folly of immigrant bashing. In this editorial from August 30, 2008, the WSJ advises Republicans to wake up and smell the coffee on the dangers of pandering to the nativist fringe. The growth of the Hispanic population has become too important to ignore.

Immigrants and the GOP
Wall Street Journal editorial - August 30, 2008

While the Democrats were in Denver nominating Barack Obama, Republicans were busy writing their party platform. Not surprisingly, immigration was a sticking point. And while some of the more extreme proposals, such as denying citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, were defeated, the platform committee did vote to wall off Mexico.

The platform will go before the full Republican National Convention next week. And before approving it, the GOP would be wise to consider the demographic data that the Census Bureau released earlier this month. The media focused on Census projections that ethnic and racial minorities will comprise a majority of U.S. residents by 2042, thanks to higher minority birth rates, especially among Hispanics. But there's also a political lesson in these findings: A party that thinks it can win elections by alienating Latinos is going to be in the minority for a very long time.

A Pew poll released last month found that Hispanic registered voters favor Barack Obama over John McCain by 66% to 23%. That yawning gap almost certainly has less to do with Mr. Obama's appeal than with a perception -- courtesy of conservative immigration restrictionists -- that Latinos are not welcome in the Republican Party. Ronald Reagan regularly won a third of the Latino vote, and more than 40% of Latinos supported George W. Bush in 2004.

In recent years, however, and despite President Bush's warnings, many on the political right have tried to turn illegal immigration into a wedge issue, like guns or abortion. And while it hasn't produced victories at the polls, this strategy has succeeded in alienating many among the country's fastest-growing voting bloc. By 2020, Hispanics are projected to be 20% of the electorate, up from 9% today.

"Latino voters have moved sharply into the Democratic camp in the past two years, reversing a pro-GOP tide that had been evident among Latinos earlier in the decade," according to Pew. "Some 65% of Latino registered voters now say they identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with just 26% who identify with or lean toward the GOP." The 39-point Democratic edge was 21 points as recently as 2006. It's an example of what can happen when Republicans lose their free-market bearings and start channeling cable news populists.

Restrictionists are also deluding themselves if they think sealing the border can reverse these demographic trends. Illegal border crossings peaked in 2000 under President Clinton. They're down by half under Mr. Bush. According to Census data, Hispanic population growth is no longer being driven by immigration, legal or illegal. Since 2000, it's been driven by the higher birth rates among Latino women already here.

To woo back these voters, Republicans needn't pander or abandon conservative principles. These are economic migrants who come here looking for work, not handouts, with labor participation rates that exceed those of the native born. But at the very least, the GOP must make Hispanics feel appreciated. And that's difficult to do when the party's attacks on illegal immigration end up demonizing Hispanic migrants.

Republicans might also keep in mind that most of the illegal Latino population in the U.S. is related to people here legally. To the ears of these legal immigrants, rants against illegals are attacks on a mother or father or sister or uncle -- not some abstract law-breaker.

Perceived animosity toward Latinos can also spill into other ethnic voting blocs. In the 1990s, Republican support in California for Proposition 187, a ballot initiative that denied illegal immigrants access to social services, not only hurt the party with the Hispanic electorate. It also led to a drop in GOP support among the state's Chinese and Koreans voters, even though many of them are small-business owners with a history of voting Republican.

About half of Latino voters are foreign born, which means they're relatively new to America and have yet to form strong party ties. These voters are up for grabs, and our politics will be healthier if both parties compete for their support.