U.S. Lawmakers Enter Honduran Fracas

By Erick Galindo
Tensions continue to grow in the Americas with the tumultuous political climate of Honduras. Ousted President Manuel Zelaya’s return to the country under the protection of the Brazilian Embassy has not only escalated violence but has raised the stakes in U.S. chambers.

The rift between Republicans, who support conservative coup-installed president Roberto Micheletti, and Democrats, who defend democratically elected populist Zelaya, was underpinned by a battle between Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

Kerry blocked State Department funding for a trip to Honduras by DeMint. The senator’s aides had called the visit a “fact-finding” trip, but also told The New York Times that the senator was going to Honduras to encourage the coup government to “resist,” in possible violation of U.S. law.

Official Washington policy on the matter calls for reinstatement of Zelaya, although U.S. officials stated in the last OAS meeting that the way Zelaya returned to his country was irresponsible and foolish. They talked about the importance of recreating a peaceful democratic environment.

Despite the U.S. posture and lack of international support for Honduras’ de-facto government, in the end, DeMint acquired logistical support for his trip through the U.S. Department of Defense. Also to demonstrate her endorsement for the de-facto regime, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) has made arrangements to travel to Honduras next week with key staff, including media director Alex Cruz, to explore whether current U.S. policy is “undermining the democratic aspirations of the Honduran people and vital U.S. national security and commercial interests.”

Zelaya was seized and spirited out of the country on June 28 for what foes called constitutional violations. Now his associates are attacking Micheletti for suspending constitutional rights. Honduras has already tear-gassed the Brazil Embassy in an effort to keep Zelaya uncomfortable.

The political crisis has affected the media. Most recently, the coup government ordered the closure of media outlets, including Radio Globo, one of the largest radio stations in Honduras. Responding to world reaction, coup leaders later lifted such sanctions.

Ros-Lehtinen has remained adamant of her support of Micheletti.

“I am traveling to Honduras to conduct my own assessment of the situation on the ground and the state of U.S. interests in light of the U.S.’s misguided Zelaya-focused approach,” she said.

The de-facto government gave Brazil a ten-day ultimatum either to give political asylum to Zelaya or to turn him in to the Honduran authorities in order to keep its diplomatic status. Brazil responded by warning Honduras that invading the Brazilian Embassy would be a major violation of international law in violation of the Vienna Convention.

“I also wish to ensure that the Honduran people and democratic constitutional government have the opportunity to tell their side of the story, given that the international community has ignored the will of the Honduran people throughout this process,” Ros-Lehtinen added.

Her fact-finding mission will not include a meeting with Zelaya, Ros-Lehtinen aide Alex Cruz told Hispanic Link. “It’s not part of our agenda,” he said.

-erick geee

Requiem for Obama’s ‘Death Panels’

By Erick Galindo
Hispanic Link News Service

A hidden provision in the House tri-committee health care bill creates “death panels.” It proposes federal committees to decide how old folks should die.

Seized on by anti-“Obamacare” zealots, this provision has gained instant mass-media attention, terrifying millions.

There’s only one problem. No such provision exists.

“There are no death panels anywhere in the health bill,” Dr. Elena Ríos, National Hispanic Medical Association president, emphasized to Hispanic Link News Service, “It’s just another way of changing the argument to create confusion.”

The pernicious rumor led to what Ríos called “irrational” discourse in the health care debate, putting senior citizens in the middle.

Already covered by Medicare, seniors are being targeted for scare tactics that President Obama wants to “pull the plug on grandma” and take away her insurance. On Aug. 22 Obama responded in his weekly address to this and other rumors.

“Every credible person who has looked into it has said there are no so-called ‘death panels’ – an offensive notion to me and to the American people,” he said. “These are phony claims meant to divide us.”

The president also confronted rumors that taxes would fund abortions, cover illegal immigrants’ care and that the government would ration health services.

“There is fear of government takeover, but this isn’t a takeover,” Ríos elaborated. “It is a change in the government’s role that will hold insurance companies more accountable. The government will not decide your treatment. Your doctor will.”

Both Ríos and Obama pointed out that insurance companies do make such decisions at present. “I no sooner want government to get between you and your doctor than I want insurance companies to make arbitrary decisions about what medical care is best for you, as they do today,” Obama said. “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan.”

Senior citizens in particular are wary that rationed health care would mean less Medicare. The president has pointed to the fact that Medicare is unsustainable at status quo and will run out of money in eight years.

“It won’t be totally broke, but it will be in the red, because the costs are going up a lot faster than the money that’s coming in,” the president said.

With more than 2 million Hispanics age 65 or older and 30% of those below 65 uninsured, this is a particularly ominous prediction. By 2030, the Hispanic elderly are projected to comprise 11.2% of the U.S. elderly population. By 2050, that figure is expected to climb to 17.5%.

Without Medicare or some form of subsidized insurance, Rios said, the community will be at increasingly greater risk.

The president put the blame on insurance company greed and partisan politics.

“The insurance companies and their allies don’t like this idea or any that would promote greater competition. I get that,” he said. He has also blamed the media for spreading “death panel” rumors.

During an Aug. 20 webcast, Obama maintained, “Part of the reason it spreads is the way reporting is done today. If somebody puts out misinformation, ‘Obama’s Creating Death Panels,’ then the way the news report comes across is, ‘Today such-and-such accused President Obama of putting forward death panels. The White House responded that that wasn’t true.’ And then they go on to the next story. And what they don’t say is, in fact it isn’t true.”

The president mentioned that people already have a natural tendency to distrust the government. This fear, Ríos said, is especially prominent in the Hispanic community and it has been exploited to create distractions in the health care debate.

Dr. Christine Cassel, American Board of Internal Medicine president, has also made it clear that she has read the specific provision of the bill and that it does not include anything closely related to a death panel.

Cassel told a packed audience at the National Press Club Aug. 20 that the provisions in the House’s H.R. 3200 dealing with “end of life” simply ensure patients who seek counseling on issues such as a living will or what their options are if diagnosed as terminally ill would be able to afford such services.

Another rumor, that government panels would “ration health care,” is explicitly addressed in the bill: “Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit the Commission or the Center to mandate coverage, reimbursement, or other policies for any public or private payer.”

The Associated Press, ABC News, FactCheck.org and Pulitzer-winning Politifact all have debunked both rumors. Still, GOP leaders such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele and Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley have all fueled them.

The provision that would pay for end-of-life counseling and care would greatly help Hispanics, Rios maintained. “We all have or have had grandparents who are very ill. It’s important to know their options and feel comfortable they have quality of care even at the end of life.”

(Erick Galindo is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C. Email: erick.geee@gmail.com)
©2009
END

Health Care Debate: Immigrants Land on Sacrificial Altar

The health care debate has become a shoving match, and immigrants, legal and otherwise, are being pushed the hardest. President Obama’s admission that immigration reform will have to wait until next year further fueled fears that, while one-fifth of the 45 million uninsured are immigrants, health reform benefits will not cover them.

“We are critically concerned,” Jennifer Ng’andu , who heads the National Council of La Raza’s health policy project, told Hispanic Link News Service. “There are no current provisions extending public benefits to undocumented immigrants, and now legal immigrants are in danger of losing some benefits.”

Obama told Hispanic Link columnist José de la Isla and other Latino correspondents that the animosity around both issues will be tough to overcome at present time. “I think that, with respect to the debate that’s taking place around health care reform now, it is not going to be possible to provide coverage for undocumented workers,” he said, noting that health coverage had already been extended to 11 million children including undocumented ones. “That was a fight that had been out there for a decade. And it was a huge accomplishment.”

A weeks-long battle for public support of proposed reform has intensified as members of Congress have faced tough crowds peppered with hostile shouting and pushing matches at “town hall” meetings across the country. Many detractors have made it clear they do not like “Obama’s plan” because he is a “socialist.”

Encouraged by such groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Libertarian political party and rabidly right-wing talk radio hosts, the outrage and outbursts at these meetings are part of an opposition strategy to disrupt the administration’s message. Comprehensive care supporters have reacted by sending their own members to counter.

Immigration has been thrown into the fray as nativist groups, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform lobby vigorously for exclusion of “illegal aliens.”

“Including them under the plan is unwarranted and would add billions to the price tag,” claimed FAIR president Dan Stein. “In Pennsylvania and all across the nation, the public is understandably upset about the staggering costs of illegal immigration and adamantly opposes providing a full range of health benefits to illegal aliens.”

NCLR’s Ng’andu challenged the notion that immigrants, legal or otherwise, do not pay taxes. “Immigrants pay taxes like everyone else. Everyone should be integrated and everyone should share in the responsibility.”

These hot-button issues intersect beyond 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. While Massachusetts’ Commonwealth Care program has become a reform model, the state legislature voted last month to stop covering documented immigrants with fewer than five years on their green card —all 30,000 of them.

Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter, who switched registration from Republican to Democrat earlier this year, has said he will not support health legislation that covers undocumented immigrants. In the past Specter has supported path-to-citizenship legislation, but assured a rowdy crowd at an Aug. 12 town hall meeting in Lebanon, Pa., that “none of the bills in Congress would provide health insurance to illegal immigrants.”

In California, with its nation-leading immigrant population, the health care and immigration debates have always been intertwined. In February of this year, several counties, including heavily Latino Sacramento County, began to cut non-emergency care to the undocumented, citing financial restraints.

The pro-immigrant Immigration Policy Center charges that the issue is being used “as a way to jam a stick into the wheels of impending reform.”

Obama reacts, “When it comes to legal immigrants, then my attitude is that, in the same way the Children’s Health Insurance Program made sense, we should try to provide assistance and help for those who are here legally. We don’t want children, or their parents for that matter, to be on a playground with tuberculosis and not have access to any health care services.

(Erick Galindo is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C.   Email: erick.geee@gmail.com)

© 2009

Latina Justice, Finally

By Erick Galindo
Hispanic Link News Service

   After 220 years on the outside looking in, Hispanics are about to celebrate the arrival of their first initiate to the U.S. Supreme Court.

   Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will administer the constitutional oath to the appellate court judge from New York in a private ceremony Aug. 8. The formal investiture will take place exactly one month later at a special sitting of the nine-member Court.

    By a comfortable 68-31 majority, the U.S. Senate confirmed Aug. 6 President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, an appellate court judge from New York, as an associate justice.

   The former litigator, of Puerto Rican background, has dominated public attention for weeks, including four days of sometimes acrimonious hearings in June, in which she answered questions that often focused on a remark she made 10 years ago at the University of California-Berkeley during a speech about how one’s outlook can affect decision-making on the bench.

   Sotomayor’s personal and legal positions on abortion, gun ownership and eminent domain, and her tenure on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund were areas of intense scrutiny.

   She answered 17 questions in reference to her now-famous “wise Latina” speech, which her detractors claimed implied that she was not without bias. Each time, she affirmed she would uphold the Constitution and precedent. Once citing “empathy” as a desirable quality, she avoided citing it as a qualification for judgeship.

   Shortly after the Senate vote, President Obama thanked its members “for giving Judge Sotomayor a thorough and civil hearing…in a timely manner so she can be fully prepared to take her seat when the Court’s work begins this October.” The president added he was pleased with the margin of her support. 

   The vote was strongly partisan. All 31 votes opposing the nomination came from Republicans. Nine GOP members supported it.

   Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) was not present to vote, but he previously expressed his support for confirmation. Kennedy is convalescing after surgery for a brain tumor.

   The Republican opposition drew criticism in many Latino circles over how race, ethnicity and gender issues drew more attention than did judicial qualifications. Other speculations centered on whether a wall was going up between the Republican Party and Hispanics.

   “That so many from one party were reluctant to recognize Judge Sotomayor’s impressive qualifications will be something our community is likely to remember,” said David Lizarraga, chairman of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

  

Democrats accused Republicans of ignoring the judge’s substantial record. Minutes before the full Senate vote, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont urged Republicans to vote their “conscious.” He denounced any suggestion that Sotomayor’s ethnicity or gender would play any role in her rulings, and called the insinuation “demeaning to women and all communities of color.”

   Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund president Thomas Saenz agreed with Senate Democrats, saying, “Her eminent qualifications and wise committee testimony shattered a glass ceiling. This tremendous accomplishment is marred only by the fact that so many senators chose to elevate partisanship and political pandering over principle. History – and the fast-growing community of Latino voters – will judge these senators harshly.”

   Both Hispanic senators, Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and Bob Menéndez (D-N.J.), voted in favor of confirmation. “This is a moment at which a young Latina, sitting in an elementary school classroom, will fully understand that anything is possible in this amazing country,” Menéndez stated.

   Organizations throughout the country held confirmation parties. In Washington, D.C., rallies on the day before the Senate vote were held as major Hispanic organizations came together to show solidarity.

   “It is a date that will quickly take hold in the memories of millions of Hispanic Americans of all ages and backgrounds,” National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguía said. “Finally, our community has representation on the highest court in the land. For that reason and many others, this vote matters to Latinos and it matters to our country.” The Supreme Court was formally established in 1789.  

   Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said that the vote against Sotomayor was a stance against Obama and an indicator of possible obstacles for future court nominees.

   Republicans cited Sotomayor’s perceived bias against gun rights as a major factor in their votes. With a pending gun-rights case on the Court’s docket, Sotomayor refused to state a specific opinion on the matter, saying only that the Court had recognized the right to bare arms as an individual right.

   Libertarian Party spokesman Donny Ferguson called the confirmation “a defeat for individual property and gun rights.”

   Several key pro-gun senators voted in favor of confirmation. Among them: Democrats Mark Warner, Virginia; Tim Johnson, South Dakota; Max Baucus, Montana; and Republicans Lamar Alexander, Tennessee, and Lindsey Graham, South Carolina. All have an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association.

   (Erick Galindo is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C. Email: erick.geee@gmail.com)

   ©2009

Wise-Latina Rally

When I was a kid, I’d never thought I’d be doing something I liked when I got older. I dreamt it though. I hoped it though. Maybe Sonia Sotomayor did also, growing up as NAACP Washington Bureau Director Hilary O. Shelton put it: “one bad sister!”

Shelton joined members of several key grassroots groups and Senators Cardin (MD), Schumer (NY), Whitehouse (RI) and Menendez (NJ) during a noon rally held on Sotomayor’s behalf at Upper Senate Park, right across the street from the Capitol Building. The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow—and expected to vote largely “yay”—on whether Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.

The real vote is on her qualifications, but Republicans have made it a vote on whether her “Hispanicness” is too much—just look at her speech she made 10 years ago, they say.

And it is true. She is a proud Puerto Rican. A proud Latina. A proud Citizen of Los Estados Unidos. But none of that really would have mattered if she was a proud Texan or Californian and made a speech about how Texans make damn-fine justices; she just had to go and get way too Latina, in a speech 10 years ago.

Maybe the GOP just doesn’t get that being Hispanic in this country is not about being from some other country. It’s just like being from Texas or Idaho. It’s about being part of something bigger than you. It’s about being a part of a time way before today and way after tomorrow. And it’s still about being an “American.” A “patriot.” A proud little piece of something bigger than any speech.

Today, on the Hill, I saw so many different shaped “American” faces with different shades of skin tone and they wanted to be a piece of Sotomayor’s life. They all wanted to be wise Latinas. Black. Asian. Disabled. White. Hispanic. Indian. Red. White. Blue.

We the people require nothing but faith that our government works because we the people run it in a matter that is fitting to justice and the prosperity of the laws that keep justice just.

Sotomayor’s story is my story and I’m not sure either of us could have ever dreamed this big: that we would be in the nation’s capital where people from our background hardly ever where before. And we did it because of skill and effort, and because we are Hispanic in a country where all that’s supposed to matter is that you’re damn good!

- Erick Geee

Bad for your health

HEATH CARE BATTLE HEATS UP IN CAPITAL

By Erick Galindo
Hispanic Link News Service

With the nation watching, Washington, D.C., has become consumed with its health — for better or worse, and especially bad for those who can’t afford it.

Meanwhile, 45 million people remain uninsured, with the majority being people of color. According to the Centers for Disease Control 30.4 percent of Hispanics and 17 percent of blacks are uninsured.

President Obama’s primetime speech on July 22 attempted to refocus the issue and press Congress to get comprehensive health care reform passed posthaste. It served to highlight the partisan battle on Capitol Hill.

“I understand how easy it is for this town to become consumed in the game of politics,” Obama told the U.S. public on national television. “I’ve heard that one…Republican senator said defeating health reform is about ‘breaking’ me.”

Obama touted the drafting of the first comprehensive reform bill in 15 years and the endorsement of the American Medical Association as victorious battles, but eased off his insistence of an August deadline for lawmakers to have complete bills in each chamber.

The president and his opponents have been scrambling to gain grassroots favor in hopes that public opinion will shift the debate in their favor. The past several weeks have seen TV ads, rallies and press conferences promote their opposing views on an administration plan that it maintains would insure 97 percent of the U.S. population.

In the nation’s capital, grassroots groups have stepped up the pressures. On July 21, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched its campaign opposed to what it calls “irresponsible” reform. On the same date, the Center for American Progress held a teleconference highlighting the positive effects of a comprehensive health care initiative on communities of color.

Jennifer Ng’andu of the National Council of La Raza was one of the panelists during the teleconference. Ng’andu told Hispanic Link News Service that the huge disparities among communities of color are directly addressed by the House health committee’s version of the proposed bill.

Another report, released by Health Care for America Now, a grassroots organization dedicated to comprehensive coverage for all, cited the damage done to communities of color if everyone is not covered.

HCAN’s report cited the lack of an affordable health care option as the main reason for the disparity. The group also called the battle in Washington counterproductive to true reform, stating, “On Capitol Hill, the American public is witnessing a historic clash of Washington special interest groups fighting to protect their revenue streams.”

Across the aisle on the issue, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Bruce Josten released a statement saying, “A government-run plan will cause businesses to cut jobs and could seriously harm our economic recovery.” This, adversaries argue, is despite the fact that cheaper health care would offer savings across the board, even for members of the Chamber.

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson released a statement calling for anyone who votes in favor of public option to “forgo their right to participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and agree to enroll under that public option.” Wilson failed to note that the FEHBP is a government-ran public option.

- Erick Geee

Honduras means heat in D.C. speak

Although this week has not been as hot, for Honduras media coverage or D.C. residents, it’s still a bit of a sweat for all involved.

The week has been filled with both sides lobbying Washington after a bizarre ultimatum and news of violence coming in from Hounduras. It may all come to a breaking point after today.

Today at the White House gates, while President Obama prepared for his 9 p.m. press conference on health care, a few dozen protestors braved the heat and humidity to picket on behalf of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

The two-hour protest underscores what’s at stake in Honduras.

A window on negotiations between Zelaya and interim President Roberto Micheletti set by Costa Rica President Oscar Arias, who has served as negotiator, will close tonight.

Zelaya has announced he will effectively sneak into the country if he is not put into place as Honduras leader. His return to the country could lead to more violence and a possible uprising from his supporters.

It’s been quite a chain of events thus far and a reverse coup d’état would be the coup de grâce for an already tumultuous political scene that has spilled over into Capitol Hill.

Republicans and Democrats are sharpening their knives on Honduras and health care as elections loom. Meanwhile, millions remain uninsured and the people of Honduras lack a stable country.

And the heat in D.C. will continue to rise, as I expect the political burners will. But don’t expect either side to be deterred by a little hot weather.

As the protest came to a halt, the protest leader already announced that if Zelaya is arrested sneaking into Honduras, they would be outside the very next day, picketing 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, no matter what the weather man says.

One small step for Latinas, one huge step for mankind

In this, the 40^th year since man first walked on the moon, it is remarkable to see that our vision can sometimes be limited to the space between the aisles of congress.

Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor opening the vote to the entire Senate.

After a historic week, the weekend featured an array of analysis with two common factors- Sotomayor has an impeccable record and yes, she is Latina.

It’s easy to see that not much has changed in the past 30 years of U.S. politics. The criticism from either side of the ideological divide, even before the hearings, was centered on abortion. The fact remains that qualified judges who are just should be confirmed despite any perceptions. My personal preference on abortion should not matter especially if we believe in the Constitution and in the idea that we have a system that works.

Sotomayor’s record remains unblemished and her story is proof that there is hope even for poor Hispanic women in a country that has been long-run by white men. It’s undeniable that her ethnicity and background do matter here.

She would be only the third female justice and the first Hispanic. And that matters. It matters to the millions of little girls and boys that may otherwise think there is little to shoot for. And it matters because we ought to have a representative court.

This isn’t about racial quotas or “wise Latinas,” it is about the fact that a highly educated Hispanic Judge with an impeccable record of fidelity to the Constitution should have the same chance as any man of any race.

- Erick Geee

Living in that Latino moment

There was a moment when it struck me as to just how grand of a moment I was living during the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor.

It wasn’t all the cameras or reporters or that I was in the presence of such powerful people.

It was actually the outpour of kudos and comments from my friends and family, saying how proud or jealous they were that I was covering Sotomayor.

Up to this point: I held the First Lady’s hand for a cool 10 seconds, walked right up to Barack Obama and crawled around shooting photos of Dick Cheney at the National Press Club.

These were all points that I had boasted about and I thought myself a privileged member of the Fourth Estate.

But it was Sotomayor who impressed everyone I know.

From the very first moment when people saw my photos and updates, they began to write me and that’s when I knew how significant this moment was to mi gente- to my Hispanic people-and to women, Latinas in particular.

It was then that I knew that it was even bigger than I could have ever anticipated because she represented a shift for Hispanics that we could only feel and not see coming, even in our perpetual optimism.

- Erick Geee

Day four: Republicans fluster, Sotomayor plays it cool

Last day features still-calm Sotomayor.

 By Erick Galindo
www.HispanicLink.org
Photo SlideShow Here

Republicans sharpened their questions on the last day of her Senate questioning and once again attempted to press Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on weather her fidelity was to the law or to her personal views.

But as the attacks sharpened and senators got frustrated, Sotomayor remained calm and composed.

Senators tried several times to get her to admit a bias or a mistake in the infamous Ricci case involving a law suit by a group of firemen.

Democratic senators came to the defense of Sotomayor at some points as they seem frustrated by the repetitive line of questioning that has been going on all week.

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), at one point defended her from an attempt by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to discredit Sotomayor’s ruling.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at one point asked Sotomayor if she understood the difference between the Court and Judicial branches to which Sotomayor replied, “yes sir, I understand the Constitution.”

In the end senators from both sides of the aisle praised her record and confirmation could come by the end of this month.

- Erick Geee

Last day features still-calm Sotomayor.