"Why do ****** push pounds of powder? Why did Bush knock down the towers?"

Long before the Chik-fil-A protests, the Westboro Baptist Church protesting at funerals of fallen US Soldiers, even before Cindy Sheehan camping out near former President George W. Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch, a man from New York was attacked for his "free speech."

His name was Jadakiss.

In 2004, he released the song "Why?" which features the now infamous lyrics "Why do n---- push pounds of powder? Why did Bush knock down the towers?"

Since I don't believe in censoring words, I am giving it out here. However, back then, half of US radio stations banned the song and/or bleeped out the word Bush.

On the Bill O'Reilly show back then, Jadakiss was ridiculed and slammed for those words and no one defended his free speech rights as they did during this year's Chik-fil-A outcry.

O'Reilly said back then that the Bush administration should sue him for the words, accusing him as a “smear merchant” and saying the Bush had a right to file a lawsuit for slander.

In a small way, O'Reilly was right and emotional, too. Regardless of what he said, if Jadakiss had NO PROOF, then he could have been sued for slander. To this day, a law suit was never filed.

There are reasons for this. 

Yet, thinking of both the METAPHORICAL AND LITERAL interpretations that exist IN ART, I would give Jadakiss the benefit of the doubt for what he said in a metaphorical way.

And that is how it was.

I do not, again do not believe that Bush or any member of his administration planned to "knock down the towers."

But neither did Jadakiss.

This is what a USA Today article quoted him in July of 2004.USA TODAY-JADAKISS

“Jadakiss doesn’t really believe Bush ordered the towers destroyed-he says the line is a metaphor and that Bush should take the blame for the terrorist attacks because his administration didn’t do enough to stop it.

'They didn’t follow up on a lot of things properly,' says Jadakiss. 'It’s the President of the United States. The buck stops with him.”

In a note, Jadakiss also told USA Today back in 2004 that he registered to vote for the first time, supported John Kerry and wanted the mininum wage raised and more jobs created.

He is an American in every sense of the word.

Yet, when O’Reilly brought him up, Jadakiss was the one smeared and treated like garbage.

This is straight from the horse’s mouth. Would O’Reilly be offended if he understood that I may have called him a horse? I don’t know.

This is what he said back then. Fox News

“Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight.

The smearing of America continues. That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo." While the federal government is punishing lewd behavior on the public airwaves, something far worse is going unchallenged by the Feds. Slander, libel, and defamation have now become profit centers with weasels putting out vicious falsehoods and running to the banks with their blood money.

The latest atrocity is a rap song by a guy named Jadakiss, who is just a pitiful pawn being run by the huge Vivendi

Corporation, a French company that's distributing some of the most vile entertainment "Talking Points" has ever seen.

Here's Jadakiss's contribution to the Arts:

JADAKISS, RAPPER: Why would n***** push pounds and powder? Why did Bush knock down the towers? Why you around them cowards? Why Aaliyah have to take that flight? Why Halle have to let a white man pop her to get a Oscar? Why Denzel have to be crooked before he took it? Why they didn't make the CL6 with a clutch? And if you don't smoke, why the hell you reachin' for my dutch?

So, according to this smear merchant, President Bush is responsible for murdering 3,000 people and actress Halle Berry won an Academy Award because she had sex with a white man. This is freedom of speech?

So, it's impossible for famous people to sue and win defamation judgments, and the Vivendi Corporation knows it. Thus, slanderers are running wild, saying anything they want, no matter how despicable and getting paid for doing it.

The laws need to be changed. Somebody defames a public figure, that somebody in the corporation behind the smear should be held liable.

Both President Bush and Halle Berry should be able to sue Vivendi and Jadakiss for millions. Enough's enough. You have a movie grossing millions of dollars. It's filled with provable lies. You have best-selling books that defame and injure for no purpose other than profit. You have so-called music that spews hate and encourages criminal activity. And you thought Howard Stern was bad?

The Factor, of course, is boycotting everything Vivendi produces because it's a French corporation, but I urge every responsible American to make sure you're not holding its stock, symbol "V" victor on the New York exchange.

I also urge congress people and senators to draft legislation that would impose fines on companies that distribute provable defamation. That's the only way to bring the smear merchants down because business is good in their evil world, and they'll justify anything and everything.

There's no talking to these people. You got to hit them where it hurts — in the wallet.

And that's "The Memo."

O’Reilly has every right to get pissed off and call him out on his show, just how Jada kiss had every right to throw his own punch and call out Bush.

If anything, this was democracy at its finest, but to attack another in favor or against his speech rights is child’s play.

 How does that transform to today?

Many people want to call on the president of Chik-fil-A’s words as freedom of speech.

 Yet, in this regard, many do not see that this is a speech that a certain group of Americans believe in.

However, when there is speech that goes AGAINST yours, people get attacked.

Where were these same people so emotional on Cathy’s free speech rights when Jadakiss said his words?

 WHERE?

 Or in the tradition of Jadakisss, WHY didn’t they protect my free speechrights back then?

The truth is that in America, people will always defend the speech that they agree with and attack the free speech they disagree with.

I find it ridiculous as an American that in 2012 people have not moved on.

In America there are two types of speeches: free speech and hate speech and under the constitution both are protected. As Americans, we have to accept that.

Speech is only criminalized when it incites violence or causes public danger. Such as speeches given to hate groups that later create DOMESTIC TERRORISM, as in the Sikh Temple attack in early August of 2012.

All speech is not good speech,just ask the Southern Poverty Law Center and they will tell you who are the groups that should be watched on so that they do not harm other people.

Is hate speech right.correct? No, but it is the devil we have to live with if we want to be a full democracy and not a partisan one.

However, if it is used to cause harm those need to be held accountable and given a trial for endangering the public-if it gets to that point.

 Can we criticize hate speech condone it and do our best to educate others to not fall in the same line of bigotry?

 Yes we can.

I personally disagree with what Mr. Cathy said and I am no longer supporting his Chik fil A restaurants because of its views and the money it spends to continue bigotry and fuel hate in this country, niot to mention turn back the clock.

But I do believe that we can move on and educate others to teach the difference between bigotry and speech.

Let us reflect today on the errors we have commited as Americans and begin a new era where we can prevent hate speech so that there can be less Americans dead and free of prejudice.

Courtesy of Latina Lista

Latino middle-schooler creates website to share passion for space

Marisa Treviño | May 16, 2012 | 1 Comment

By Alain Castillo
LatinaLista

Joseph Ruiz sees the world as a big ball of mystery that still needs to be explored. Once he discovers its secrets, he wants to lead and be its hero.

“There are so many things we don’t know yet…people are trying to figure out the mysteries of the world,” said Joseph, 12. “I want to be one of these people that finds out these mysteries.”
  

Together brothers Ray and Joseph Ruiz built PhotonKids.com.

Joseph, who attends KIPP Liberation College Preparatory, a charter school in the Houston, Texas area, is passionate about space. He loves space so much that he already knows what he wants to be when he gets older — an astrophysicist.

In fact at KIPP Liberation, a school for at-risk and low-income students, Joseph is already on his way to achieving his career goals. Joseph has created a couple of projects that bring his interest in space closer to home.

For starters, Joseph built a seismograph, with the help of his dad, for a school project. The instrument demonstrated how quakes could be measured on other planets.

“I want to find out the mysteries of space,” he said, and shared that he is currently exploring the location of other Earth-like planets in the galaxy.

Yet, Joseph wants to share his passion with others and make a difference within his community at the same time.

He and his brother, Raymond Ruiz, 31, a graduate education student at the University of Houston, worked together and created a kid-friendly website called Photon Kids.

Joseph is currently its webmaster.

“After learning that many minority kids don’t do well in math and science, he set out to help others share in his passion,”
said the elder Ruiz.

Joseph started to grow his website after it was well-received at KIPP Liberation.

After presenting his website for his school’s community service project, his teachers and peers became more interested.

“Joseph’s website is excellent. It is very appealing to both adults and youth,” said Ashley Warren, his current math teacher at KIPP. “His website is very easy to navigate, even for a novice.”

Since January, Photon Kids has attracted 1,800 visitors.

On the website, which Joseph updates daily, visitors find a range of interesting news and activities. Visitors can read the latest updates on the Mars Rover, look up definitions of space vocabulary in the “Space Dictionary” section, watch videos on cool science experiments, such as dropping an iPod from space, and even play space-related games such as Martian Mayhem.

There is also a “Cosmo Basics” section, where visitors can learn how old is planet Earth.

His website will be entered in a school district competition, but Joseph says sharing his website is the key to its future
success.

“I think spreading it is more important [than awards] because at-risk students can have access to it and they get involved and can get better grades,” he said.

Joseph’s brother noted that the website can benefit the 12-year-old’s peers and teachers in a lot of ways too.

“Joseph plans to collaborate with his teachers and get more kids involved with the website. That way, they not only learn about science, but they can build their technology skills as well,” Ruiz said.

It also can serve as a way for Joseph’s leadership and collaborative skills to grow, added Ruiz.

Joseph wants to make sure each KIPP charter school in the country uses the website and hopes to enlist students from each of these schools to help maintain it.

“I think that it’s very mature and forward-thinking (of him), said Ruiz proudly of his younger brother. “I’m really surprised that he’s becoming a community-oriented person. He’s always thinking of the other students.”

Joseph likely learned this calling to serve the community from his older brother, a former Big Brother/Big Sister mentor. Ruiz’s influence can be heard in his younger brother’s view of education who describes it as something that is “really
important because it provides a better quality of life, stability and opportunity.”

Ruiz says that since the start of his seventh grade year, Joseph has been more focused in school and that has helped him earn better grades. It also helped Joseph discover his own passion and creativity, which lead to creating the website.

Joseph plans to continue growing his website and inviting more kids to get involved. But more importantly, he hopes to share with his peers what he’s already learned.

“I learned leadership and how to sacrifice and make my confidence bigger,” Joseph said. “This helps me want to help my community.”

SAME WORK, LESS PAY

Courtesy of Latina Lista.

Latino day laborers — doing the same amount of work for less pay

Marisa Treviño | July 25, 2012 | 0 Comments

By Alain Castillo
LatinaLista
DALLAS — On a sunny Saturday morning, a couple of drivers from commercial moving companies stop their white rental vans near two gas stations in northwest Dallas, Texas.

One driver, a blonde, spiky-haired Caucasian-American, steps out of the truck and walks towards some day laborers waiting in the back lot.

“Who speaks English?” he yells. The driver chooses two men who raise their hands.

The workers follow the man and hop into the front driver’s seat. The truck rolls out of the lot. A few moments later, the other rental truck pulls up near the bus stop next to the gas stations. The driver signals two men to join him. Like the men in the first truck, the trio disappears down a street known for its busy 7-day-a-week traffic.

It’s a scene that continually repeats itself on a daily basis on this corner and thousands like it where day laborers wait for that next job.

These particular day laborers — all men — begin their day as early as 6 a.m. and end it as late as 5 p.m., if they’re lucky enough to be chosen for jobs ranging from roofing, fencing, landscaping, painting apartments and furniture moving to helping build swimming pools, garages or restaurants.

But to these men, who must rely daily on total strangers for their livelihood, it’s all just business. A business that is as unpredictable as the jobs offered.

Same work, less pay

Some of the day laborers are undocumented immigrants who arrived from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Cuba.

Others show up at this corner just to make some extra cash — when they can.

One man, who became a US citizen three years ago and chose to remain anonymous, said some workers are lucky to have two days of work during the week.

Long-time day laborer Jose Alfredo Romero Rodriguez agrees and says that though the types of work have remained the same, the pay is getting lower.

“Sometimes we are getting paid $7 for helping people move,” he said, while a truck filled with lawn mowers and weed whackers pulled in and picked up another day laborer.

Rodriguez, who came from Monterrey, Mexico in 1999, said he recently helped construct a Family Dollar store in Oklahoma, where he spent nine days working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. For that, he claims he only received $500, or an average of $56 per day.

He said that he received a call from the same company and they wanted him to help build another Family Dollar store in Corpus Christi, Texas, but he turned down the offer.

“How am I going to go there if I can only expect $500?” he asks.

These days, it’s the small moving jobs that continue to be the most popular ones that need workers, Rodriguez said.

Different ethnicities, different expectations
However, experience teaches day laborers not only what is fair pay for certain jobs but what kind of payment to expect from some prospective employers — based solely on their ethnicity.

In some corners, it’s called racial stereotyping or considered politically incorrect. For these men, it’s a way to temper their expectations.

According to Rodriguez, the men chosen by the white moving company driver will more likely receive higher pay, breaks, food and water because, at the moment, most white American “employers” give the most benefits in this business.

“The white Americans pay us $10, while the Indians (Indian-Americans) pay us $8 and Koreans $7,” said Rodriguez.
“White Americans give us food and water, while others don’t give us breaks, food or even water on a hot day,” Rodriguez complained.

According to “El Morro,” a day laborer whose traveled from nearby Irving, Texas and chose to give only a nickname for this report, said that white Americans and some Hispanics pay them $10 and up.

“We can make up to $120 for a 10-hour shift,” he said.

However, he says not all Americans or Hispanics treat them well and it can cause for a stressful day.

“They tell us what to do next without letting us finish the first task,” El Morro says.

El Morro also has had different experiences working with various ethnic employers. He said while Chinese Americans treat them to eating out at restaurants, they can deduct around $400 from a monthly pay of $1200.

He says that he’s also worked with other ethnicities such as Israeli Americans and Russian Americans and said he receives decent pay, but the latter gives them no time for water breaks.

Fear, cheating employers part of the risks of the job

While the amount of pay can be a sticking point, Rodriguez and El Morro claim to be more bothered and afraid by what some employers choose to do to workers — not return them to their original location.

“At times, some will pick you up and later drop you off at a far-away place and not pay you,” Rodriguez revealed.
Given the amount of fear some undocumented immigrants feel about reporting emergencies or crimes to the police, many won’t report that they’ve been cheated out of their wages. In fact, Rodriguez and others say that they do not feel safe when local police show up.

“I feel intimidated by the police presence in my area,” Rodriguez said.

Yet, even with all of their uneasiness, whether from the police or people wanting to hire them, these men and others continue waiting on street corners and back lots seeking employment.

The reason is simple. In these economic times, everybody is after the same job — survival.

Latina Lista contributor Alain Castillo is based in Dallas, Texas.

Sanctuary Cities America

Courtesy of Fox News Latino
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/06/09/where-police-dont-ask-and-immigrants-dont-tell/

By Alain Castillo

José Alfredo Romero Rodríguez looked to the United States as a place for better opportunity and quality of life than the one he experienced in Monterrey, Mexico.

“I crossed the Rio Bravo in 1999 to have a change in my life,” said Rodríguez, 54, a day laborer in Dallas, Texas, told Fox News Latino.

Today Rodríguez, known as “El Perro” or “the Dog” to his friends, waits to be picked for a day laborer job along with dozens of others near the Conoco Gas station on Dennis Road in Northwest Dallas.

“I stay here in Dallas because it is the most prosperous city in all of Texas. I may leave to work in other cities, but I always return here,” he said.

Tucked in a small area of Northwest Dallas lined with homes and apartments, gas stations, small restaurants, day care centers, the Dennis Road labor cue is repeated in many other street corners in America.

Like Rodríguez, there are many undocumented workers in the cue. Dallas is a so-called “sanctuary city” --where local police do not enforce federal immigration law, are forbidden or discouraged from inquiring about immigration status, and refuse to share fingerprints with the federal immigration database.

Even then, Rodríguez and others say that they do not feel safe around the local Dallas police officers.
“I feel intimidated by the police presence in my area,” Rodríguez said, an adds that he is afraid to call emergency dispatchers because he feels they will find out that his place of residence also houses undocumented immigrants.

However, Bernardo Hernández, 53, another day laborer on Dennis Rd., disagrees.

“If I have an emergency, I wouldn’t be afraid to call the police so they can assist me,” said Hernández, a national of Guatemala.

Like Dallas, in a growing number of cities, local police are discouraged from inquiring about immigration status.

According to the anti-illegal immigration web site Ohio Jobs and Justice PAC, a controversial, non-partisan group that supports enforcement of existing U.S. immigration laws, there are at least 100 other US cities, towns and counties with some form of these enforcement policies regarding immigration. They include: Miami, Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Portland.

Some states, too, do not enforce federal immigration law. Oregon is one.

According to David Woboril, Senior Deputy City Attorney of Portland, Oregon’s state law “prohibits law enforcement from expending resources on enforcement of federal immigration law.”

Portland’s Mayor, Sam Adams, says that his state’s law, “Works well.”

Texas which has 13 cities or towns on the list –including Austin, Fort Worth, Houston and Laredo-- has taken a different approach than Oregon.

Last summer, the Texas legislature met for an ”emergency session” declared by Governor Rick Perry. They debated on bills, HB 12 and SB 9, that barred local governments from instructing law enforcement personnel not to inquire into the immigration status of persons detained in a criminal investigation. The bills failed in the Texas Senate.

Organizations that work with undocumented immigrants, Catarina Torres, Missions and Social Concerns Coordinator for Catholic Charities Dallas, says that she has heard concerns from refugees and recently arrived immigrants about calling for help. Their Immigration and Legal Services Division, within Catholic Charities Dallas, helps immigrants understand their rights, obtain lawful residency, and if eligible, become US citizens.

“We have heard from clients and parish members of families being afraid to report crimes of suspicious activities for fear that they may be deported,” said Torres.

Torres says that the Texas Catholic Bishops Conference stance on last year’s attempts at taking away sanctuary city status’ remains the same as they called it “bad policy.”

“Furthermore, the legislation threatens public safety by undermining the relationship between the local police and the communities they serve,” Torres said.

“If a victim or a witness to a crime is afraid that his or her status will be determined by law enforcement, the he or she may choose not to report criminal activity in the community.”

Down on Dennis Road, workers start cuing-up as early as 6 am on Dennis Rd. to find a day’s work, but Rodríguez says that work can be found around the clock.

“People can be picked up as late as 5 p.m.,” he said.

These jobs include mixing and putting together concrete blocks for homes, building residential swimming pools, landscaping and installing air conditioning ventilation systems.

Rodríguez says that at times he and other workers, who have arrived from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Cuba, experience rough working conditions such as not receiving breaks, water or food and not being paid at all.

“At times, some can pick you up and later drop you off at a far-away place and not pay you,” he said.
Dallas police are also concerned.

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez reaffirms and reassures to all Dallas residents that they should call the police, no matter their immigration status.

“If you commit a crime, we’re going to go after you. If you’re a victim of a crime, we are going to ask for your assistance if you’re a witness,” she said.

“They need to feel comfortable that they won’t be punished to be a witness.”

Valdez added: “You come here for a better life and we’re not going to allow people to abuse you.”


Alain Castillo is a freelance reporter in Texas.


Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/06/09/where-police-dont-ask-and-immigrants-dont-tell/#ixzz1xRreosfI

Remembering Our Soldiers....

This week I put up an American flag that I saved from desecration on Memorial Day.

On that day, I saw it as I waited for a bus to go to my friend’s house. It hung upside down and was attached to a stick on the bus stop across the street.

I decided to grab it as soon as I returned home. I figured that someone more patriotic than me would have saved it, but to my amazement, no one else did. So I took the initiative to save it.

In the past, dissenting Americans have dozed gasoline and burned flags, defecated on the flags and held it upside down, most notably during the Vietnam war and recent street demonstrations, including the G-8 protests in Seattlein 1999, the Elian Gonzalez raid in Miami in 2000, the anti-Iraq War March from 2003 to 2009 and most recently in the Immigration Reform March in 2006 and 2010 and the Occupy Wall Street Movement in 2011.

However, this was not a day for protest. Whoever did thus showed ignorance.

Memorial Day is a day for rememberance, not desecration. It is a day in our country when we honor those who have fought and died for preserving our freedoms and our beautiful and solid Constitution.

Memorial Day remembers the soldiers who have died over seas, but there are also veterans who have returned home with unmeasurable wounds, both physically and mentally.

Let us also remember through out the year  those who have suffered in our own nation while preserving our freedoms by pressuring Congress to continue seeking health and rehabilitation services for the ones who made it aliveafter fighting to protect Americans on the battlefield.

Original is always better

This is the original, unedited version of the Fox News Latino Cover Story on Jose Manuel Lozano

BY ALAIN CASTILLO

Jose Manuel Lozano started the month of March as a Democrat, representing District 43 in south Texas.

But now the Mexican-American business owner is a Republican.

"I didn't leave the party...the party left me," Lozano said in a recent interview.

Lozano described mounting pressure and treatment by of the Democratic House caucus leadership in Austin that gave him a final push to switch parties.

"There were promises I made to my constituents,” he said. “My constituents didn't have a problem with it [voting]. The Democratic caucus leaders had a problem with how I voted. I was voting for my district."

Lozano says that over time he noticed how the Democratic Party in Austin pushed for issues "more to the left" of his former district --an area of heavy oil and natural gas drilling, agriculture and small businesses. There, he said, Democrats "wanted to kill jobs."

"This is not San Francisco. This is Texas," he said.

Lozano said as a Democrat, he voted pro-business and anti-abortion, noting that these positions are more closely aligned with his new party.

"I wasn't going to change the way I voted,” he said. “I voted my conscience and I voted my district.”

 "I tried, but the party leaders chose to turn a blind eye to the Hispanic community."

A recent, San Antonio-based federal court-approved electoral map reconfigured his district, which formerly included Kleberg, Jim Hogg, Brooks, Kenedy, Willacy and part of Cameron counties.

These mostly Hispanic-populated counties are substantially Democratic, based on an analysis of the 2008 and 2010 elections and are now in District 31, represented by Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City.

Lozano now represents Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg and San Patricio counties that are heavily Hispanic, but swing for both parties.

President Barack Obama carried Jim Wells and Kleberg counties while Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, carried the other two by more than 55 percent in 2008.

After the 2010 election, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White carried the same counties as Obama with more than 55 percent while Governor Rick Perry carried San Patricio and Bee counties.  

The interim, bipartisan map approved on February 28 and negotiated by Texas US Representatives Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo and Francisco Canseco, R-San Antonio, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott also created two new districts that are Republican-leaning and Latino-dominated in the Dallas-Fort Worth areas, and one in each of the San Antonio and Austin surrounding areas.

The approval also gave way for the Texas primary set on May 29^th and it will be used for the 2012 state and federal congressional elections. 

A Washington D.C. district Court is currently reviewing a permanent electoral map approved in 2011 by the Texas Legislature and signed by Perry for future election cycles in the state.

 The federal-court panel is reviewing if the permanent map meets Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, according to the Texas Attorney General’s office.

The interim map has caused a ripple effect across the state among former and current Latino public officials.

For instance, now that the Dallas area has an additional representation, former state representative Domingo Garcia filed for his candidacy on March 8.

Lozano will now have opposition, as former State Rep. Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, D-Alice,

plans to run against him.

The map changes moved Guadalupe and Jim Hogg counties and are now represented by US Rep. Ruben Hinojosa,  D-Mercedes. Both counties were formerly represented by  Cuellar, but he still represents Brooks, Duval, Live Oak and Karnes counties in District 15.

Under the map, Cuellar’s district changed, but he still represents Bexar, Atascosa, McMullen, Webb, Zapata, Starr and most of La Salle and parts of Bexar and Wilson counties.

Both Hinojosa and Cuellar share parts of Hidalgo County.

Cuellar disagrees with Lozano's decision to change parties.

"I wish he wouldn't have switched," Cuellar said.

Cuellar said that Lozano was a conservative, Blue Dog Democrat like himself.

Lozano planned to work alongside Cuellar in a joint, Blue Dog session for state and federal representation. But the animosity on the floor from the Democratic leadership was such, he said, that it just was not possible to follow through with plans for the Blue Dog caucus.

"I admire him because he works with everyone," Lozano said of Cuellar.

Yet, Lozano said the Democratic caucus was oblivious to his constituents’ needs.

"It's wrong," he said.

The Texas Democratic Party, according to an Associated Press story, called Lozano’s decision “unprincipled and cowardly.”

“Just 15 months ago, Lozano was elected to office as a Democrat. The instant things got tough, Lozano jumped ship and joined a party that has betrayed his constituents,” Chairman Boyd Richie said in a statement to the AP. “He’s proven he has no core and stands for nothing, but his quest to grab and hold power.”

“If that’s what they got, that’s a vague and weak argument,” Lozano responded. 

Lozano said he did not change parties because of his own selfishness or fear that he may have lost support. He said to the Texas Tribune that his decision was, in part, due to the make-up changes of his district.

"It wasn't about me, it was about my community,” he said. “If I was to stay as a Democrat, I would have lied to myself and my family.”

Disillusioned by the Democrats, a Texas Latino Lawmaker Joins GOP

Courtesyof Fox News Latino
Freshman Democrat switches parties

The controversial redistricting battle in Texas has had a ripple effect throughout the state.
It has spawned lawsuits that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, accusations of ethnic and racial discrimination, and has pitted Latino groups against one another.
For a freshman state representative in southern Texas, the battle was the catalyst for yet another thing – it made him switch political parties.
José Manuel Lozano, who represents District 43, started the month of March as a Democrat. Now the Mexican-American business owner is a Republican.
"I didn't leave the party...the party left me," Lozano said, echoing Ronald Reagan’s famous line, in a recent interview with Fox News Latino.
Lozano explained that mounting pressure by the Democratic House caucus leadership in Austin finally pushed him to switch parties.
The Democratic Party has pushed for issues "more to the left" than the positions held by the constituents of his former district –-an area of heavy oil and natural gas drilling, agriculture and small businesses—Lozano explained. The Democrats, he said, "wanted to kill jobs."
"This is not San Francisco. This is Texas," he added.
As a Democrat, Lozano said, he voted pro-business and anti-abortion, and noted that these positions are more closely aligned with the GOP, his new party.
"I wasn't going to change the way I voted,” he said. “I voted my conscience and I voted my district.”
Lozano’s district formerly included Kleberg, Jim Hogg, Brooks, Kennedy, Willacy and part of Cameron counties, Latino heavy counties that are predominantly Democrat, based on an analysis of the 2008 and 2010 elections. These areas are now in District 31, represented by Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City.
Lozano’s new district includes Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg and San Patricio counties, which are also heavily Hispanic (63 percent), but which are more evenly contested. President Barack Obama carried Jim Wells and Kleberg counties, while Senator John McCain carried the other two by more than 55 percent in 2008.
The interim bipartisan map, approved on February 28 and negotiated by several U.S. representatives and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, also created two new districts that are Republican-leaning and Latino-dominated in the Dallas-Fort Worth areas, and one in each of the San Antonio and Austin surrounding areas.
The approval also gave way for the Texas primary on May 29th and will be used for the 2012 state and federal congressional elections.
A Washington D.C. district court is reviewing a permanent electoral map and determining whether it meets Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, according to the Texas Attorney General’s office.
Controversy over the map has caused a ripple effect across the state among former and current Latino public officials. So will Lozano’s decision to switch parties.
Lozano is the third Democrat to switch parties since late 2010, and the second Latino.
"I wish he wouldn't have switched," said US Representatives Henry Cuellar, whose district also changed during redistricting.
Cuellar said that Lozano was a conservative, Blue Dog Democrat like himself.
The two were supposed to work together in a proposed Blue Dog session for state and federal representation. But the animosity on the floor from the Democratic leadership was such, Lozano said, that it just was not possible to follow through with plans for the Blue Dog caucus.
"I admire him because he works with everyone," Lozano said of Cuellar. Yet, he said the Democratic caucus was oblivious to his constituents’ needs.
"It's wrong," he said. “I tried, but the party leaders chose to turn a blind eye to the Hispanic community."
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie, in a prepared statement, called Lozano’s decision to switch parties “unprincipled and cowardly.”
“Just 15 months ago, Lozano was elected to office as a Democrat. The instant things got tough, Lozano jumped ship and joined a party that has betrayed his constituents,” Richie said. “He’s proven he has no core and stands for nothing, but his quest to grab and hold power.”
But Lozano argues that the decision was necessary to properly represent his district, which has a new political makeup.
"It wasn't about me, it was about my community,” he said. “If I was to stay as a Democrat, I would have lied to myself and my family.”
Alain Castillo is a freelance reporter in Texas.




Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/04/07/disillusioned-by-democrats-texas-latino-lawmaker-joins-gop/#ixzz1taOnaVI0