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Today's Stories February 2 / 3, 2008 John Ross Hilaria vs. "El Moreno" February 1, 2008 Ray McGovern The Iniquities and Inequalities of War Diane Farsetta The Wild Career of James "Dow 36,000" Glassman Patrick Cockburn The Most Dangerous Country in the World for Journalists Tariq Ali Et Tu, New York Times? Allan Nairn Eating Dirt for Lunch in Haiti Rannie Amiri Collective Punishment in Beirut Ramzy Baroud People Power in Gaza: They Simply Did It Kenneth Couesbouc The Mother of All Snowballs Peter Morici Recession Looms Mumia Abu-Jamal Witha "Brutha" Like This: Bill Clinton as White Negro Rosemary Jackowski 27 Reasons Nader Should Run for President Scott Campbell Direct Action to Stop the War Re-emerges Website of the Day Betes et Hommes   January 31, 2008 Saul Landau Return to Afghanistan Andy Worthington Horror at Guantánamo Mike Whitney Rate Cut as Dagger: America's Teetering Banking System Jeff Ballinger Sustainability for Dictators Initiative? Clinton Praises the "Suharto of the Steppe" Tiffany Ten Eyck The Saga of the Freightliner Five William Loren Katz Waterboarding: Torure or Mystery? Alan Farago Why the Republicans are in Deep Trouble Col. Dan Smith Oh Say Can You See the 2009 Budget? China Hand Slouching Toward Islamabad Dave Lindorff The Usual Suspects Once Again Wadner Pierre Fake Democracy in Haiti Website of the Day One Big Union   January 30, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair McCain vs. Clinton? Christopher Ketcham The Genius of the Development Industrial-Complex Robert Weissman America By the Numbers: The Shameful State of the Union Neve Gordon An Experiment in Famine Paul Craig Roberts Regulation or Deregulation, Which is Worse? Joanne Mariner How Anti-Terror Laws Threaten Free Speech David Macaray Labor's Only Real Weapon Liaquat Ali Khan Is NATO Committing Genocide in Afghanistan? Raymond J. Lawrence Prankster-in-Chief: Bush's Troubling Non-Verbal Communication Dan Bacher The Collapse of the Central Valley Salmon Website of the Day Onward Through the Fog   January 29, 2008 Franklin C. Spinney Bush's New War Budget: the $70 Billion Hand-Off Mike Whitney The Great Credit Unwind of 2008 Alan Farago Buyer Beware: Florida, the Candidates and the Latin Builders Association Patrick Cockburn "The Americans Bring Us Only Destruction" Gary Leupp "We Can't Afford to Let Them Spill the Beans:" a Sibel Edmonds Timeline R. F. Blader A World Without Abortion: USA v. Romania Ahmad Faruqui Musharraf's Post-Electoral Prospect Fran Shor Obama, the Kennedys and "Change We Can Believe In" Jeremy Scahill Secret Trials and Criminal Convictions: the Ordeal of the Blackwater Protesters Allan Nairn Bush's SOTU: Entitlement, Justice and the War of All Against All Website of the Day The Ghost of Rambo   January 28, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Return to Fallujah Paul Craig Roberts The End of American Liberty Allan Nairn The Breaking of the Gaza Wall Eyad al-Sarraj / Sara Roy Ending the Stranglehold on Gaza Martha Rosenberg Obit for the "Front Page" City Corporate Crime Reporter How They Rip Us Off David Michael Green Kristolizing Iraq: What a Great Freakin' War Jennifer Van Bergen What's Left? Nancy Oden Survival Tips for Hard Times Divya Karnad Saving India's Sea Turtles James L. Secor Pissed About Pistorious: Why the Olympics Needs a Gimp Website of the Day Yellow Journalism?   January 26 / 27, 2008 Uri Avnery Worse Than a Crime JoAnn Wypijewski How the Clintons Lost It, Whatever the Outcome in S. Carolina Ralph Nader Ambition, Power and the Clintons Paul Craig Roberts How Bush Destroyed the Dollar Paul Watson I'm Proud to be a Pirate! John Ross Murder and Cover-Up in Mexico Fred Gardner Ross v. Raging Wire: Employer's Right to Fire Workers Held Sacred by California Supreme Court Allan Nairn Little Hands with Fever: Some Consequences of Poverty Death Joshua Frank Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey Binoy Kampmark Société Générale and the Economic Meltdown James T. Phillips America's Sick Comedy: Bringing the War Home Stan Cox The Depressing Truth About Anti-Depressants Eamonn McCann Hillary's Lie: "I Brought Peace to Northern Ireland" Ron Jacobs The Horizons of History: What's at Stake in Bolivia Seth Sandronsky California's Health Care Crisis Ben Terrall The Future is Unwritten Poets' Basement Tripp, Gardner, Gibbons and Davies Website of the Weekend City of Immigrants     January 25, 2008 Douglas Valentine Operation Two-Fold: How the CIA Infiltrated the DEA Patrick Cockburn US Troops Will Be In Iraq for 10 More Years: an Interview with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari JoAnn Wypijewski Down to the Wire in South Carolina Heather Gray Are We Seeing a Racial Shift in the South? Conversations with South Carolina Voters Marjorie Cohn Senate Democrats Poised to Fold to Cheney on FISA Erica Rosenberg Environmentalists Out on a Limb: the Perils of Collaboration Alan Farago Jeb Bush Goes Nuclear Robert Weissman Reclaiming Economic Freedom Laura Carlsen Wild Cards: Mining the Hispanic Vote in Nevada Stephen Lendman Israeli Repression in the Hebron Website of the Day The FIX is In   January 24, 2008 JoAnn Wypijewski Obama as Anthologist of Uplift Paul Craig Roberts President Hillary Alexander Cockburn Hillary Wants to Talk About Dirty Legal Dealings? Remember Her Nursing Home Scam? Kathleen Christison One and Two State Solutions and the Myth of International Consensus Jeff Halper Power to the (Palestinian) People! Stanley Heller The Siege of Gaza is Broken George Wuerthner The Moronic Sport: ORVs on the Public Lands Patrick Cockburn Desperate Iraqi Farmers Turn to Opium Jeff Sher Just How "Good" is Your Health Insurance? Patrick Irelan Musharraf, the Steadfast Ally? Charles Modiano Restoring the Anti-War King Website of the Day An Illustrated History of Trepanation   January 23, 2008 David Rosen The Great Disappearing Act: the Presidential Candidates and the Politics of Sex David Isenberg Is It Really So Hard to Believe That Iran Stopped Its Nuclear Weapons Program? Farzana Versey Hillary's Harem Paul Craig Roberts The Empire That Must Be Obeyed Alan Farago Where Did All the Good Times Go? Allan Nairn Indonesian Intelligence Service Threatens to Kill Human Rights Activist Kenneth Couesbouc Another Turn of the Screw Niranjan Ramakrishnan How the West was Re-Sold Michael Donnelly Obama Strikes Back Norman Solomon The Power of Love Website of the Day Rafah Today   January 22, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Farewell to Old Economic Nostrums JoAnn Wypijewski King Day in Columbia, South Carolina Al Giordano Divide and Conquer Politics: How the Clinton Campaign Armed a Black-Latino Time Bomb in Nevada Felice Pace Power Politics in the Klamath: Water, Dams and Salmon Paul Wolf Bolívar's Sword Robert Weissman Deregulation and the Financial Crisis Dave Lindorff The Bush Dollar Trap Marjorie Cohn Cheney Impeachment Gains Traction Richard Neville Keeping Shakespeare in a Box Don Fitz / Zaki Baruti St. Louis Mayor Booed Off MLK Platform Ben Terrall Cindy Sheehan and the Virtues of Divisiveness Sam Husseini Stoning Martin Luther King, Jr. Website of the Day Defend the Mapuche!     January 21, 2008 Kevin Alexander Gray Playing the Race Card Linn Washington, Jr. Deferring Dreams, Delusions of Democracy Pam Martens How Wall Street Blew Itself Up David Macaray Labor's Grim Dilemma: Do We Need a Labor Party? Uri Avnery Look Who's Talking Omar Barghouti Europe's Collusion in Israel's Slow Genocide Joe DeRaymond Protest and Trial in D.C. B.R. Gowani Why Islam Should Tolerate Images Shepherd Bliss The False U.S. Economy Jean-Guy Allard Philip Agee Versus the CIA Dan Bacher Leaping Steelhead! Website of the Day Destroyed By a Rising Flood January 19 / 20, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Campaign in Black and White Saul Landau Good Time Charlie's War China Hand Endgame for Pakistan? Conn Hallinan Desert Mirage: What Was the Bombing of Syria Really About? Ron Jacobs No Retreat Dave Lindorff A Tax Rebate Won't Fix This Mess Andy Worthington Canada's Humiliating Double Standard on Torture Paul Armentano What's the Going Price for a Joint? More Than You Might Think Seth Sandronsky High Crimes and Economics Michael Donnelly Dodging Ecocide Patrick Irelan The Ordeal of Dr. Safdar Sarki Martha Rosenberg The Drug Industry Takes Another Hit Sherwood Ross Making the World Safe for Despots: Bush's Global Arms Trade David Michael Green So You Want to be My President, Eh? James Rothenberg Unimpeachable: Under House Protection Daniel Gross Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King Peter N. Carroll In Memory of Milton Wolff Susie Day Croakin' on Hudson Paul Krassner Woody Allen Meets Tongue Fu Poets' Basement Wolff, Buknatski and Orloski Website of the Day Rocky Mountain Blues   January 18, 2008 Allan Nairn Killing Civilians, Carefully Ralph Nader When the Big Boys Get in Trouble, Who Pays the Ultimate Bill? Joanne Mariner Terrorism and Preventative Detention Alan Farago The Stimulus and the Meltdown P. Sainath Pity the Brahmins R.F. Blader Beyond Steinem's Feminism Andy Worthington A Letter from Guantánamo John Jonik Private Insurance is Bad for Your Health Brian McKenna Where Even Sharing is Prohibited: Notes from Inside a Michigan Women's Prison Daoud Kuttab This Time Next Year? Website of the Day Those South Carolina Voting Machines   January 17, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Leader and Vassal Christopher Brauchli The FBI's Bills Come Due Robert Fantina Leadership, Bush and the New York Times Patrick Irelan Eternal War Paul A. Moore When the Rich Pay No Taxes Stephen Lendman Institutionalized Spying on Americans Beena Sarwar Bhutto and the "State Within a State" Walter Brasch Buzzwords in the Echo Chamber: Change and the Establishment Brenda Norrell Bush Legacy in Texas Sours Adam Federman End of the Left? Website of the Day Democrats for Romney   January 16, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Return of the Native Franklin Lamb The Bombing at Qarantina Julian Sanchez David Weigel Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters? Sharon Smith Ron Paul and the Left: a Slippery Slope? Allan Nairn Economic Indicator: No Free Lunch, No Free Market Ayesha Ijaz Khan How the American Media Enables Bush's Iran Fixation Andy Worthington A Strategic Call to Close Guantánamo Richard Behan Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach! Website of the Day Obama the New JFK? He's Not That Bad!   January 15, 2008 Andrea Peacock Breach of Trust in America's Most Toxic Town: How the EPA is Rubbing Poison Into Libby's Wounds Wajahat Ali An Interview with Seymour Hersh on Iraq, Bush Foreign Policy and the Prospects of War with Iran Joe Bageant Getting Out the Bling Vote Ralph Nader The Candidate Taboos John Ross Zero Hour: NAFTA and Mexico's Agrarian Apocalypse Elaine Cassel Jose Padilla vs. John Yoo: Can a National Disgrace be Rectified? Peter Morici The Fed Needs More Than a New Communications Strategy Beena Sarwar Pakistan's Dirty Tricks Brigade Robert Weissman Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Thought Binoy Kampmark Going Tata in India Dave Zirin Dennis Brutus Smacks Down the Hall of Fame Website of the Day David Lynch on the iPhone   January 14, 2008 Ishmael Reed Ma and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man Roger Morris Burials in the Sind Uri Avnery The Hands of Esau Mike Whitney Bush's Voodoo Stimulus Package Allan Nairn General Suharto of Indonesia: One Small Man Leaves a Million Corpses William Blum Oh, By the Way, the Iraqis Don't Really Want Us Alan Farago A Subprime Wake Up Call David Macaray Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time? Eva Liddell Getting Drunk with Obama Zoe Blunt Road Kill: New Highway Blocked by Protesting Raccoons Website of the Day Doug and Andrea Peacock on Grizzlies   January 12 / 13, 2008 Andrew Cockburn How the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian Deaths Saul Landau 60 Years of Empire Corey D. B. Walker Barack Obama and the Crisis of the White Intellectual Col. Dan Smith Bush, Iran and the Magician of the Tarot Eric Toussaint The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global Ron Jacobs Television, Murder and Vietnam Fred Gardner The People vs. Christopher James Chakos Stan Cox Don't Take That Pill! Jacob G. Hornberger The Warfare State Ramzy Baroud The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Joseph Grosso The Anglosphere: a Special Relationship of Elites David Díaz-Arias Imagining An/Other Latin American Left Stacey Warde Before We Move On ... Dan Bacher Pumped to Extinction: the Decline of the Delta Smelt Michael Dickinson Georgie in Jesusland Website of Weekend CounterPunchers Protest Outside NYT Offices   January 11, 2008 Dave Lindorff Did Hillary Really Win New Hampshire? More Questions About Diebold Voting Machines Paul Craig Roberts No Escape from War and Unemployment Andy Worthington Six Years of Guantánamo Kenneth Couesbouc Banking on Thin Ice Jeff Ballinger Inside the Vienna Consensus Christopher Brauchli Lethal Injection, the Supremes and China Manuel Garcia, Jr. Paying No Attention to the Presidential Campaigns Andrew Silverstein Bush's Weepy Visit to Jerasulem Marwan Bishara Bush in the Middle East Robert Weissman The First Amendment Gone Wild Patrick Irelan Damn the Small Boats! Website of the Day Hillary and the Superdelegates: Or Why She Wins Even When She Loses     January 10, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Now Nader Claims He Didn't Endorse Edwards Bob Wing Marqueece Harris-Dawson Race Within the Race: Obama, the NH Vote and the Specter of Tom Bradley Michael Donnelly White Women Gone Wild? David Macaray Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions China Hand Bush's Delusional Policy Pushes Pakistan to Brink of Catastrophe Ayesha Ijaz Khan Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Brotherly, Friendly Countries? Rannie Amiri Obama, Man of Kansas or Kenya? Website of the Day Iranian Video of the Hormuz Incident   January 9, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair The Empire Strikes Back Dave Lindorff The Bad News from New Hampshire: Death By Triangulation John Chuckman Pardon My Laughter: Watching the US Primaries from Canada James Bovard Stomping Freedom: Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006 Alan Farago As Florida Sinks: the View from the Titanic Russell Mokhiber Why Picket the New York Times in DC on Friday? William S. Lind Kicking the Can Down the Road in Iraq Peter Morici Beyond the Sophistry: Why the Trade Deficit Matters Josh Reubner Sudan vs. Israel: Double Standard on Divestment Mike Roselle The Pursuit of Happiness Website of the Day Bottles of Tears on the Wall: Steve Perry on NH   January 8, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts No Jobs for the New Economy (or the Old) Russell Mokhiber The Black Hillary: Obama is Just Another Political Sedative Robert Fantina The Gulf of Tonkin and the Strait of Hormuz Dave Zirin Butts on Parade Shamako Nobel I Am an Emcee: the Politics of Hip Hop John Ross Zapatista Women Encounter Themselves Brenda Norrell Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security Laura Carlsen Why Bolivia Matters Patrick Irelan Remember the Maine! Evelyn J. Pringle The Holes in Bush's FDA Jonathan M. Feldman After Iowa and New Hampshire: a Strategy for Rebuilding the Peace Movement Michael Dickinson Playing Soldier Website of the Day Sean Hannity on the Run!   January 7, 2008 Chris Floyd There Will Be Blood: But No Justice for Iraq Atrocities John Blair Remove That Man! Creeping Fascism in Indiana Uri Avnery The Case of the White Bird Andy Worthington Who Are the Gitmo Saudis? Binoy Kampmark Needling the Convict: Lethal Injection and the Supreme Court David Macaray Women on Strike Ralph Nader Obamarama: the Politics of the Smooth Mood Michael Donnelly It's the War Vote(s), Stupid! Ron Jacobs Ron Paul's Run: Is Being Against the War Enough? Gideon Levy The Hostile President Dave Lindorff A Real 9/11 Cover-Up? Sibel Edmonds, Turkey and the Bomb Website of the Day Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea   January 5 / 6, 2008 Douglas Valentine Good Guys in Black Hoods Kevin Young The US Occupation and Popular Opinion in Iraq Richard Rhames Saddam Who? Saul Landau Bush Snatches Defeat from Victory Marc Lynch Why Bush's Iran Strategy is Failing Robert Fantina Iowa, Democrats and the Iraq War Donna Volatile Antiwar Soldier: an Interview with Jonathan Hutto, Sr. Jelle Bruinsma Norman Finkelstein in The Netherlands Bob Sutcliffe Remembering Andrew Glyn, Rebel Economist Harvey Wasserman Anti-Nuclear Renaissance Missy Beattie Why Obama Can't Save Us David Swanson Remembering the Separation of Powers Jacob Hornberger The Importance of the Padilla Case Shepherd Bliss Survival Tools from Kokopelli Farms Ron Jacobs Bleeding Kansas Poets' Basement Patti Smith, B.R. Gowani and Peter Buknatski Website of the Weekend Jimmy Dean Sausage Call Complaint   January 4, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair A Good Night in Iowa Jonathan Cook War Crimes Airbrushed from History Paul Craig Roberts Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime Stan Goff Ron Paul's Monkeywrench Dave Lindorff Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds Niranjan Ramakrishnan To Pindi Station Allan Nairn U.S. Elections Over Before They Began Joshua Frank The Failures of Sectarianism Peter Morici Economy on the Skids Mary McInnis Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease Website of the Day The Return of Obama Girl   January 3, 2008 Fatima Bhutto Farewell to Wadi Bua Pam Martens The Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos Joanne Mariner The Presidential Candidates and Torture Zoltan Grossman Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the Web David Domke The Echoing Press and Huckabee Norman Solomon Edwards Reconsidered Nikolas Kozloff Return of the Faux Liberal Jacob G. Hornberger The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus Martha Rosenberg Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick Russell Means This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah Lands Website of the Day WolfQuest       Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition February 2 / 3, 2008 Crunching the Latino Vote in 2008 Hilaria vs. "El Moreno" By JOHN ROSS The so-called "Latinos" and/or "Hispanics" are expected to turn out 9.3 million voters next November, according to a Pew "Hispanic" Foundation survey, 1.7 million more than in 2004. Organizations such as the Southwest Voter Education Project and the Willie Velazquez Institute are spreading the hooey that voting will hold back the anti-immigration tsunami sweeping across the U.S. and are signing up new voters the moment they swear in as citizens. But how many of these new citizens actually get to vote is in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services division which claims an 18 month backlog in processing citizenship applications. In a Bush administration gambit to monkey wrench a predicted avalanche of new Latino voters, Citizenship and Immigration Services laid off 800 workers on the pretext of "cost-cutting" last spring. Meanwhile, Homeland Security is hiring thousands to fill out the ranks of the Border Patrol and Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport potential voters. With or without the new citizens, Latino/Hispanics counted for 11 per cent of the vote in New York in the 2004 primaries, 9 per cent in Florida, and 16 per cent in California where their numbers will increase to 40 per cent of the electorate by mid-century. Because Mexicans, the overwhelming majority of Latino voters, are no longer concentrated in border states, they now have potential clout in such far-flung entities as Georgia, Minnesota, Oregon, North Carolina, and Nevada. But who actually gets registered and goes to the polls when just going to the store is an invitation to deportation in America these days, is another matter. Consolidating Latino/Hispanic voters into a bloc is an illusion. Latino-Hispanics are split on many levels. Nations of origin are distinct - perhaps 29 million Mexicans and U.S. citizens of Mexican descent are dominant in this mix but regional differences water down cohesion. Central Americans and Caribbean immigrants are equally as uncohesive - Haitians and Hondurans are not necessarily on the same page. South Americans, chiefly Ecuadorians, Colombians, and Brazilians, don't even speak the same languages back in their old countries and Cubans in Florida are a whole other can of worms. Because their anti-Castro antics were so pertinent to Washington's Cold War psychosis, Cuban "gusanos" have disproportionate influence even in Florida where they are a minority among other Latino/Hispanic immigrants. Like the general voting population, Latinos/Hispanics are sharply divided between generations and across class, gender, and race lines - Afro-Latinos have joined the migration swim north in increasing numbers. The going myth is that immigration issues bond Latinos and Hispanics into a voting bloc but Puerto Ricans who wield substantial numbers in east coast cities and Chicago are citizens and immigration is not a core concern. While first generation new citizens may have residual sympathy with the indocumentados pouring in from the south, second and third generations have a greater stake in the American pie and often feel that the newcomers, with whom they compete in a diminishing job market, should be sent back to where they came from. Despite their overriding concern with immigration issues, the undocumented don't vote. Until the U.S. immigration crackdown in the wake of the 9/11 terror attack, Mexicans had a poor track record for nationalizing as citizens and voters - over 4,000,000 Mexicans living north of the border retain "green card" resident alien status but the Migra offensive is pushing more and more greencarders to convert to the Stars & Bars. Mexicans and other Latino-Hispanic alien residents have voting rights in their own country although Mexico's electoral mechanism effectively denies suffrage to its citizens in the U.S. With the debacle in Iraq being replaced by the economic doomsday looming on the horizon as the crucial campaign issue, immigration has become a fallback for 2008 presidential hopefuls - when in doubt, bash the immigrants. On the Democrats' side of the aisle, the candidates' voting records on immigration are redolent with bad faith. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama voted for the ill-fated Kennedy-McCain immigration reform measure that mandated construction of hundreds of miles of walls along the southern border and the deportation of nearly 5,000,000 Latinos/Hispanics to their home countries, the largest forced repatriation of a population in the history of North and South America. John Edwards, to his questionable credit, voted with Republican "social conservatives" to kill the bill which died a dog's death on the Senate floor. Significantly, no Democratic candidate, including drop-out Bill Richardson, the scion of a Mexican mother and U.S. businessman father who grew up wealthy in Mexico City and officially dubbed himself "the Latino (Hispanic) candidate", has ever dared to utter the "A" word - Amnesty for the 12,000,000 plus undocumented workers who hide in the nooks and crannies of America, a low wage workforce that has kept the U.S. economy booming - at least until the sub-prime disaster put the banks in default. Nonetheless, the Latino-Hispanics are swelling the Democratic Party's rank and file in ever-greater numbers - Pew "Hispanic" reports that while 48 per cent of Latino-Hispanics queried declared their affinity for the Dems in 2006, 56 per cent were on board by 2007. Meanwhile, Latino/Hispanic Republicans are an endangered species. Bush bamboozled a respectable 34 per cent of L/H voters to back his candidacy in 2000 and those numbers rose to 40 per cent by 2004 - if the numbers are to be believed. But Pew put those Latino-Hispanics embracing the Republican Party at 28 per cent in 2006, a figure that sunk to 23 per cent last year. Given the nativist taint of the Republican field, those preferences will dip even deeper in 2008. Of eight candidates that started out of the GOP gate, two proved outright Nazis when it came to immigration - Duncan Hunter, the San Diego congressperson and father of the separation wall, and Tom Tancredo, the Colorado Klansman who wants to shut down public libraries that stock books in Spanish because indocumentados might read them, were both engineers of HB 4437 sponsored by Wisconsin right-winger James Sensenbrenner that made being in the U.S. without papers a felony crime. Law & Order Judge Fred Thompson (drop out) was right behind dropouts Hunter and Tancredo, advocating the rounding up of alien "criminals" and their imprisonment. Mormon Mitt Romney beats up on immigrants at every stump speech and Ron Paul is a big fan of the Border Wall and internment camps for the indocs. Rudy Giuliani (drop out) who stands accused of turning New York into a "sanctuary city" (ask Amadou Diallo about that) was gung-ho to send them all back to where they came from. Giuliani was for bolstering the Migra by the installation of an "electronic border" but what he neglected to tell voters was that he once owned a 12 per cent share in Skywatch, which has partnered with Raytheon to sell their "electronic border" technology to Homeland Security for untold millions. The two purported immigration liberals in the Republican pack shed their past inclinations at the speed of sound. Mike Huckabee, who provided scholarships and health care to the children of "criminal" immigrants while governor of Arkansas, went Minuteman with a vengeance. Huckabee maintained that legalizing abortion encouraged illegal immigration by killing off potential U.S. workers. John McCain is, of course, saddled with co-sponsorship of the defunct Senate immigration reform measure that was ultimately so corrupted immigration advocates could not support it. But no matter who wins the Republican sweepstakes, Latino-Hispanics are focused on the Dems - and, indeed, only one Dem ­ Ms Clinton,AKA Hilaria. Clinton, who opposes granting drivers licenses to the undocumented, is backed by a crack team of Tio Tacos chaired by Chicano dinosaur Henry Cisneros whose "Juntos Con Hilaria" is out beating the barrios for votes. When Hilaria dined on tacos of carne asada at King Taco in east L.A., Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was her waiter. Later, she cut a half hour infomercial with a barrio family - both Hilaria and Obama are spending big on Spanish-speaking TV and radio. For his part, Obama has adopted Cesar Chavez's cry of "Si Se Puede", only in the English tongue - "Yes, We Can!" - for his white Anglo audiences. Nevada with 20 per cent of the voters catalogued as Latino/Hispanic (Cuban mobsters, Mexican hotel maids) was supposed to be the first mano a mano between Hilaria and Baracko but Clinton went into the match-up with a 32 point lead in voter preferences according to the Las Vegas Review Journal and doubled that in the caucuses. The gender thing worked like a charm among Latinas (Hispanas?) for Hilaria - upwardly mobile Latina school administrators, charter schoolers, and education workers, who are increasingly the power brokers in Latio-Hispanic communities across the country, won her the powerful teachers' union endorsement. But gender is not the only factor in the Latino-Hispanic stampede to Clinton. The race card is really her strong suit when it comes to wooing Latino voters. Latinos and Afro-Americans have fought for crumbs over jobs and housing for generations. Black resentment runs high against perceived gains by the Latino-Hispanics and no effective Black-Latino coalition has ever been built to overcome the bitterness. The angry recriminations between Black hotel workers and Latina women at the Nevada caucuses was not a good omen for reconciliation. On the other hand, Latino-Hispanics have their own brand of racial profiling. Obama, light-skinned and whitified as he is, is still referred to as "El Moreno" (the Brown One) in the Mexican press. Moreover, many Mexicans, brown as they are, consider themselves to be white. "Do you really think the barrio is ready to vote for a black man for president?" Arturo M., a Mexico-born, Los Angeles-based immigration activist, asks a U.S. reporter incredulously. Super Tuesday (Feb 5) is being billed by Bill Richardson as a "Latino primary" - with big Hispanic states like California, New Mexico, and Arizona on the docket, how the Latino-Hispamic votes shake out could decide who the next occupant of the White House will be. John Ross is in Mexico City. He can be reached at johnross@igc.org

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