Although the ad was pulled off, up to now, neither Sen. Charles Schumer nor the DSCC have offered an apology to the Hispanic community. As the mid-term elections are quickly approaching, I don’t see this happening anytime soon. It seems like this year has become an open season on Hispanics and this ad happens to provide some insight as to the type of political attacks that we should expect in the coming months from both political parties who are battling out for control for Congress.

Stace at Dos Centavos just reported that another Democrat, Harold Ford, also has an anti-immigration ad in his Tennessee senate race.

Last year, when Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean spoke at the National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) annual conference, he outlined the core values within the Democratic Party

Our moral values, Latinos and Democrats, are much more similar than some would have us believe…

“And while we’re talking about moral values…it’s not a moral value to scapegoat undocumented immigrants. President Bush won’t stand up to the anti-immigrant forces in his own Party…

The Republican leadership targets minorities to advance their own party agenda, but in elections they look for ways to divide us. It was African-Americans in 2002, gays in 2004, and it’s going be immigrants in 2006, you wait and see. There’s no place for discrimination in America. Democrats will never divide Americans to win elections.

I have been meaning to write about my thoughts about, but have been caught up with the Mexican election, which I will write about my own personal thoughts on the issue. After reading Maegan la Mala’s thought provoking post, Latinos not Invited to Any of the Parties, at VivirLatino, it had me thinking about a recent statement Stace made regarding Barbara Radnofsky, Texas Democratic Senatorial candidate.

Of course, the apologist Democrat in us will say that Radnofsky is only trying to appease the voters in the “center” by “talking tough.”

It is becoming more evident that our two-party system, are egar enough to sell out Hispanics in a minute if it means getting elected. And I can not really blame Maegan if she is “seriously considering sitting this one out.”

I know the all the arguments about protest voting but the justification seems to be that little transgressions such as breaking a rule or two that others are subject to, or letting things slide here and there, is forgivable because of the greater good of “The Movement.” If this is the case, then for how long do we let it continue? Say the Democrats do get into office, don’t they have to adhere to the same standards we put on the Rethugs? Are they not obligated to their constituents without looking as if they lied to them? Or do they get a pass, just because they are Democrats?

The problem is, if people are going to whore themselves to stay in the good graces of the center, and, politics aside, willingly use distortion and fear mongering, then what the fuck will these people do when there’s literally something important at stake? As history obviously shows us, those in power rely on the promotion of a certain ideology to maintain cultural and linguistic hegemony. From the turn of the 20th century well into the 1930s the US was an apartheid state (that is to say it was legal to discriminate on the basis of nationality and mere appearance) because people were considered either American – meaning white Anglo-American – or Mexican. Being Mexican meant, being dirty, unworthy of living here in the US. Sound familar? It should, that is the same thing being used now.

There are those who wonder why those of us who are Hispanic are overly sensitive when a word like “Mexican” is used freely. Although this word should innocently be denoted as a “citizen of Mexico” or a “person of Mexican-descent”, but to a gringo the word also connotes. The word conjures up many things in the mind of the gringo: a swarthy race of people who were half-Indian, the stereotypes of the shifty-eyed thief, dangerous drug abuser, or the passive siesta-taking fellow in a serape who is napping against a cactus. When a television ads comes on, all the person is seeing is someone who is not white crossing the border. Visual rhetoric is more powerful then oral or written rhetoric, hence the Willie Horton ad. If the DSCC thinks they are specifically are targeting a sub-group within the Hispanic community, they are sadly mistaken. The words Hispanic and Latino already are synonymous with illegal immigrant and illegal alien. If I got a nickel for every time have been asked, “Where am I from?” I probably would be a billionaire. When that question is being asked to a Hispanic, it does not have the same meaning if it was asked to a gringo. To a Hispanic, they are being asked what country did they come from; assuming anybody non-white just happens to be NOT American.

Well, enough is enough; enough of the privateers who contunue mixing their own racism and xenophobia with populist patriotism and demands “more can be done” about immigration. Of course, we need to protect our borders, but we do not need to conduct witch-hunts and enforcement-only stopgap measures to achieve this goal. To ensure our border are safe, we need an immigration policy that will recognize immigrants as economic refugees, not some sub-human savages from countries less civilized than ours.

If we are going to clean house of the corrupted, of the two faced liars and spinners, of the whores and used car salesmen now raping the country from the right, we don’t need to sink to their level. If we are going to call ourselves progressive and proceed to hide our head in the sand by never calling out those within our party who feel the need to scapegoat and persecute immigrants whenever it is politically convenient, we are no better than the ones we are trying to kick out of office. And in this case, this is not the party for me.

I forgot to update my post I put up yesterday after I found out from Stace at Dos Centavos about the latest stunt done by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Funny thing is, I updated post on the community blogs that I participate in. I really didn’t change the main context of the post but added a couple paragraphs near the end to include this information, which I will just post the jest of it here so people know what I am talking about. I plan post my thoughts of the situation soon.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee as now just come up with their ad campaign “Secure” to try to do one-up-manship on the Republican Party. In a Pete “I Hate Meskins” Wilson style attack ad, the DSCC potraits Hispanics as terrorist and the Bush administration has failed to combat it. All of a sudden the message that Bush let in “millions more illegal immigrants” rolls by.

Email the DSCC and tell them to stop the racism: info@dscc.org.

Well this morning we were fooled, I had made my rounds on the community blogs to give an update letting people know a small victory was achieved because the ads were no long on the DSCC website. I was getting ready to write a post about this victory until I saw the recent update on Dos Centavos.

Update 10AM: A visit to the DSCC front page finds the ad removed. Earlier, the link to the ad wasn’t working, but it seems to be back online. Again, Chuck Schumer’s phone number is 202-224-2447.

What? Do they think we don’t know computers?

Some media has gotten hold of this story.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Harris County Democrats denounced their own party Tuesday after joining the national outcry over a political ad they said equates Hispanic immigrants with terrorists like Osama bin Laden.

What began as an attempt to wrestle the traditionally Republican-dominated issue of security away during a hotly contested election year, instead risks driving Hispanic voters away from the Democratic Party, said Houston Councilwoman Carol Alvarado.

“You cannot compare people who come over for economic opportunities to people who are coming over to terrorize our country,” she said. “They should not be in the same message, same video or even in the same conversation.”

From the Associated Press:

A Democratic political ad is under fire from Hispanics who say it unfairly compares Latino immigrants to terrorists.

Pedro Celis, chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, said in a statement Tuesday that the DSCC should remove the ad because it vilifies illegal Hispanic immigrants and is “appalling.”

Houston City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, a Democrat, sent a letter to DSCC Chairman Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record) of New York asking that the ad be pulled. She said it could alienate Latino voters.

“To liken Latino immigrants to bazooka-toting terrorists not only undermines the positive relationship our party has with this community, but also lowers us to a despicable level as breeders of unfounded fear and hatred,” Alvarado wrote.

“This is the same kind of fear mongering we condemn in the extreme media and now we are seeing it at the DSCC,” said Lisa Navarrete, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza. “It’s appalling.”

Phil Singer is trying to play down the resentment we have towards the DSCC and is trying to make it seem only the Hispanic Republicans are having a problems with the ad.

Singer doesn’t take into account that CM Carol Alvarado is a long time Democrat is on the board of the Texas Democratic Party. Nor does Singer take into account that the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil right group, also has problems with the ad.

This fight is not over, we demand an apology from DSCC Chair Sen Schumer of N.Y. May we remind him, the current demographic regarding NY is 16.0%, 28% in NY City. We will remember during his re-election campaign, we will find another Democrat to replace him and do not think we cannot, look at what happened to Liberman, we can do with Schumer too.

Until the ad is pulled down and we hear an official apology, Senator Schumer YOU ARE ON NOTICE!!!

Call Sen Schumer and tell him to take down the xenophobic ad and let him know race-baiting tactics will not be tolerated – 202-224-2447