The Power of One – How a Revolution is Made

Fernando Espuelas — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:48:08 +0100

Nicolae Ceausescu was one of the most brutal dictators of the Communist-era. Ruling with his wife Elena, the Ceausescus spread terror and poverty across Romania. They jailed, tortured and killed their opponents.

They lived like a king and queen, while enforcing a brutal austerity program meant, in part, to pay for Elena's insane dream of building Europe's biggest palace – a Communist Versailles that would stand as a symbol to the Ceausescus.

But in 1989, as the Soviet empire Read More...

Adios GOP

Fernando Espuelas — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 18:40:08 +0100

The so-called immigration debate has descended into a caricature of a serious discussion on what is the best policy for our country. As demographers will tell you, America needs a steady influx of immigrants in this century in order to maintain our historically robust economy – and pay for what will be the growing social cost as Baby Boomers retire.

That America's immigration system is dysfunctional is a widely accepted fact across the political spectrum. The trRead More...

First Cracks in Arizona's Anti-Latino Coalition

Fernando Espuelas — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:55:07 +0100

Arizona’s power structure – the same collection of self-interested politicians and racists who pushed the most controversial immigrant project in a generation – are in disagreement as to how to move forward after Federal Judge Susan Bolton eviscerated the anti-Latino law known as SB-1070.

In a ruling that stripped most of the noxious elements of the act, the Judge found key parts of the law unconstitutional.

Meg Whitman's Achilles' Heel?

Fernando Espuelas — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:18:48 +0100

Meg Whitman strides the California political landscape like a colossus. Her estimated $100 million dollar investment in trying to win the state's highest office has given her star-wattage name recognition. Whitman's TV and radio spots, in English and Spanish, are ubiquitous.

A slew of polls has Whitman either equal to or ahead of long-time political icon Jerry Brown as the most likely next Governor of California comeRead More...

Ostracism is no liberation

Jose Alejandro Amoros — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:12:36 +0100

Nothing happens in Cuba unless preceded by careful calculation by the regime. A small group of prisoners of conscience in Cuba, mostly ill, will be “liberated” by giving them the following options: “Go into forced exile, or remain in prison”. To some this piece of news is “a sign of improvement” in the human rights situation. But this looks like just another calculated move.

Never mind that they shouldn’t have been incarcerated to begin with, now they must suffer another violation to Read More...

Desperate Chavez Desecrates Simon Bolivar's Tomb

Fernando Espuelas — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:00:00 +0100

Desperate dictators will do anything to distract their captive populations from their flailing regimes.

Famously, Argentine dictator and drunk, Leopoldo Galtieri, sought to bolster his collapsing popularity by launching a half-baked attack on the Falkland Islands, an outcrop of rocks in the south Atlantic claimed by Argentina but controlled and populated by a few thousand British citizens and their considerably more numerous sheeRead More...

My Journey from Spic to Spic

Fernando Espuelas — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:27:27 +0100

As a small child living in Connecticut, recently arrived from Uruguay at a time when Latinos were still rare outside of the major metropolis, I was quickly labeled “Spic”.

It was a daily grind of humiliation and hostility, lightened only by the embrace of a few non-bigoted kids and teachers that sought to protect Read More...

Puerto Rico, From Sublime Challenges to Undemocratic Agitation

Jose Alejandro Amoros — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:07:35 +0100

From the ludicrous characterization of constitutional “coup d'état” in the malicious writings of "journalist" Wilda Rodriguez in the Orlando Sentinel to the postings by Puerto Rican class hate ideologue Ramos Perea (his articles are published in Cuba where Cuban dissidents are not published) you would think that Puerto Rico is under a state of siege, or as Ms. Rodriguez called it “martial law” by Pinochet or RaRead More...

Tips for Successful [Job] Hunting

Vanessa Keating — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:04:48 +0100

I have officially started the very fun experience of searching for a job! woooo hooo! (just kidding). A change in plans and a move to Miami has prompted this adventure earlier than anticipated. The World Cup has derailed some of my productivity, but for the most part, job hunting is a full time job. I am fortunate enough to have met some pretty incredible, talented, wise, and extremely helpful people in my career thus far, and they in turn have further connected me to other helpfuRead More...

Obama Becomes the War President

Fernando Espuelas — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 05:00:00 +0100

When the General Stanley McChrystal Rolling Stone article debacle began last week, it seemed that President Barack Obama had only bad choices.

Either fire the General and firmly re-fresh everyone's mind that under our Constitution the military is subordinate to the Civilian Authority; or alternatively, for the good of the war effort, forgive the breach in decorum of the General and his troop of babbling bozos that had attacked the intelligence of the Read More...

California's Newest Latina: Meg Whitman

Fernando Espuelas — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:32:02 +0100

Vanquishing her California gubernatorial primary opponent Steve Poizner proved to be a surprisingly easy, if wildly expensive, endeavor for Meg Whitman. Winning the hearts and minds – or at least the votes – of California's Latino citizens will not prove so easy.

The Republican nominee seeking to be California's next governor showed a willingness to fight hard for her campaign – a killer instinct honed in Whitman's years of driving businesses forwardRead More...

Don't Just Sit There! Start Asking Questions!

Vanessa Keating — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:40:57 +0100

How has the struggling economy affected corporate dollars and engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR)? At a recent donors forum in Chicago, leaders in the corporate world expressed genuine understanding and a mutual sense of despair. Foundation and government grants are down, so guess to whom the non-profit community is turning to for money? And why not? Aren’t businesses the ones that are supposed to be making money and driving the stock market? Perhaps, but most for-profit orgaRead More...

Flasher Journalism Only Exposes the Flasher

Jose Alejandro Amoros — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:00:00 +0100

Imagine if a disgruntled or self-righteous sibling of yours, an employee, a spouse, a co-worker takes all your personal letters, files, photo albums, home movies, business files and letters, emails, insurance policies, trinkets, in essence, any or all of the material documentation of your daily dealings, and ran and gave it to a tabloid. Now imagine that they make it public. They put it out on print, the Internet, television, etc.

Welcome back readers,

For the past four weeks, I have critiqued the United States prison industry and the dramatic increase in prisons and prisoners in the past 30 years. I discussed the localRead More...

Don't Blame Obama – this is Bush's Spill

Fernando Espuelas — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:20:22 +0100

A growing chorus of voices on the left and right pronouncing their sense of disappointment with the presidency of Barack Obama are consistently singing the same tune: Mr. Hope is not doing a good job.

Example number one of this supposed slide into another Carter Presidency is Obama's handling of the BP oil spill. Talking heads and political opponents have accused the President of taking a handRead More...

The Prison Industry Part 4: What are the Consequences of High Incarceration?

Joe Maldonado — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:48:28 +0100

This post comes from http://joemaldonado.wordpress.com

Dear readers,

While Republicans are likely to make gains - as off-year elections usually punish the party that controls the White House - there does not seem to be evidence yet that November will be a 1994-style tsunami that washes out the Democratic majority in Congress.

National psychology has improved steadily over the lastRead More...

Atheism is myth misunderstood

Jose Alejandro Amoros — Mon, 24 May 2010 05:00:00 +0100

I haven’t seen anything so dogmatic and “religious”, in the bad sense of the word, than militant atheism. “Atheism is myth-understood” is a clever bumper sticker of the fundamentalist militant atheists but also telling. Let’s take a look at that.

But first consider this. If you believe in God, you don’t have to prove it. On one hand, you don’t have to prove you believe in God, and on the other, you don’t have to prove that God exists to anybody. You know it, not only by faith but by pRead More...

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