The oath of allegiance is:

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

I think that if someone is of German decent and they are more concerned with Germany–they should move there. If someone is more concerned about Mexico they should move there too. Not to be rude but this is the United States of America a NATION not a motel!

Sweetheart you sound like the person I want to follow. I just ask that you disclosed what Latino politico you work for. Personally I like older women. Besitos. Al

Nobody is forcing anybody to vote a certain way. People vote for the candidates they feel will best represent them and their interests. If you don’t want to vote for Mexican-American candidates then don’t. Nobody is stopping you. In fact, Latinos vote for candidates of all races. The one making an issue of race/ethnicty is you.

The only time I have ever felt pressured to vote for somebody based on race was last year during the primaries when the media kept calling Latinos racist for supporting Hillary instead of Obama. (It didn’t work on me.)

And for the record, I don’t think Hispanic Caucus is or has been useless. As I have said in other posts, I remember when we didn’t have any representation at all. I remember when white elected officials made the area that is now the Montebello Mall into a city dump that could be smelled for miles. They didn’t care about the families who lived nearby.

My guess is that you whiners are very young or newly arrived. If you want to change things, it takes the work of everybody. You’re waiting for some charismatic leader to come and save you. If you don’t like your elected leaders, then recruit new ones. Get involved.

The Mexican-American community needs to organize our money and our power based on our needs. Let’s stop the BS of vote for me because I’m Mexican-American. Don’t underestimate our gente – we are not as dumb as Univision thinks we are.

Author Naomi Klein, in 2005, tagged Pascual as a key architect of “shock doctrine” policies:

On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine, Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate “post conflict” plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries “at the same time,” each lasting “five to seven years.”…

In close cooperation with the National Intelligence Council, Pascual’s office keeps “high risk” countries on a “watch list” and assembles rapid-response teams ready to engage in prewar planning and to “mobilize and deploy quickly” after a conflict has gone down. The teams are made up of private companies, nongovernmental organizations and members of think tanks—some, Pascual told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in October, will have “pre-completed” contracts to rebuild countries that are not yet broken. Doing this paperwork in advance could “cut off three to six months in your response time.”

The plans Pascual’s teams have been drawing up in his little-known office in the State Department are about changing “the very social fabric of a nation,” he told CSIS. The office’s mandate is not to rebuild any old states, you see, but to create “democratic and market-oriented” ones. So, for instance (and he was just pulling this example out of his hat, no doubt), his fast-acting reconstructors might help sell off “state-owned enterprises that created a nonviable economy.” Sometimes rebuilding, he explained, means “tearing apart the old.”

Does Obama plan to start a war down there? Why else would he name Pascual, an expert in dividing up the spoils in war torn countries?

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/world/2009/04/20/D97MG4H01_lt_mexico_us_ambassador/index.html

What about the rest of us? We’ve been completely overtaken by that issue, and they can’t even vote. I have not had any politician address me or my issues in I don’t know how long. They’ve been convinced that people like me don’t exist, that we all speak Spanish, and they’ve veen convinced that all of us place immigration at the top of the agenda.

Focus on the problems that exist here. Lobby the government for education, etc.

SIGH…it won’t ever stop, even if they legalize all of them.

I agree with this, but Anna, some of us are established. As Seneca points out in this essay, there are Mexican-Americans who have been in this country for well over a century and many who are second or third generation. I’m sure among all of us here participating in this discussion, we know of some Latinos who can trace their roots back three, four, five generations here in the US. A case could be made for creating a more constructive dialogue about immigration, the detention situation, etc. especially as we start to see US born people being deported for fitting certain profiles.

Just because Latinos here in the US have a real interest in getting ahead and established doesn’t mean that we should put on blinders and only focus on a domestic agenda. The US loves our labor when we enlist in the armed forces…for that reason alone, I think that we should pay attention to foreign policy.

I disagree. Getting an education and becoming economically established should be the first priority. If you want respect, that’s the only way to get it. Too many Latinos have problems with alcoholism, gangs, etc. And too many people have children to young and then can’t take care of them properly. It takes education and money to fix those problems and it should be obvious by now that the government will not do it. Not when their donors are the prison industry and the alcohol industry.

And if anybody wants to lobby, it should be against the massive cuts in the education budget. If Latinos were more active in state politics, no way would Arnold get away with this. But Latinos don’t say anything. Loretta’s Christmas cards are a bigger issue here.

Has there been a single post here about education cuts? Nope.

Fix the problems here first.