Showing posts with label puerto rico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label puerto rico. Show all posts

Monday, May 3, 2010

Now That's a Lot of Dog Whistles!

A lot, apparently.

I have no opinion on Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state, mostly because I don't know enough about the issues involved to have an informed opinion. The difference between me and people who write for Breitbart's Big Government is that they don't feel the need for information in forming opinions or advising policy. Racism and fearmongering are plenty enough for them.

Please consider this:

* The U.S. would transform, overnight, into a bilingual nation. At least half of Puerto Ricans do not speak English, the language of our U.S. Constitution and founding documents. The Washington Times article, “Puerto Rican statehood,” analyzes all the implications of adding a foreign language-speaking state to the Union.

* It would bring immediate demands for massive federal spending. The average income of Puerto Ricans is less than half that of our poorest state, and infrastructure and the environment are far below American standards. Puerto Rico has a population with a median national income of $17,741, nearly a third of that for the U.S.

* Puerto Rico is already a democracy. Despite the bill’s deceptive title, Puerto Rico already has an elected government and exists as a self-governed commonwealth of the U.S.

* Statehood would give Puerto Rico more congressional representation than 25 of our 50 states! It would inevitably give Democrats two additional U.S. Senators and 6 to 8 additional Members of the House.


So, there would be Spanish-speaking persons as citizens? Don't we already have . . .

Spanish! They speak it! Fear them! And they're poor! Poor people as citizens!

Don't we already have . . . Poor people! Fear them! Besides, we spread democracy, they already have it!

I'm pretty sure we spread war and terrorism, but what does that have to do with anything?

Brown, they are brown, er, democratic! They are democratic! And Democrats!

Ooooh, got it. Say no more. We can't have Democrats becoming citizens, that's insane!

Friday, September 18, 2009

So That's How That Works

puerto rico, vacation, secretary,
Some days, being a secretary drives me crazy.

Literally on his way out the door, my boss tells me to book a vacation for himself and 3 of his friends/clients in San Juan, Puerto Rico. "Golf . . .," he said as he walked out the door.

Before you ask your secretary to engage in such a task, ask yourself one question: What the fuck do you suppose your secretary knows about lavish vacations in unincorporated territories in the US? Do you suppose the person who makes a little over 20k a year spends a great deal of time at expensive resorts and/or golf courses? How do you suppose I choose hotel rooms? Price. The cheaper the better. I'd share a room with an angry bear to save $10. I assume that's not what my boss is looking for.

The El San Juan Resort looks lovely, and the people who answer the phone are amazing. The concierge gave me the number for a mysterious gentleman who booked three days of golfing that I am assured is PGA quality. If my boss ends up being sold for organs, he really has no one to blame but himself.

Also, could somebody please tell USAirways that Puerto Rico is not a separate country from the US?
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Forever in Hell by Personal Failure is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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