Pope Francis Meets the World

The first Latin American Pope was chosen in the Vatican City in Rome yesterday, Pope Francis I from Venezuela.

From NBC News

Pope Francis is unique not just for being the first Latin American pope. He's also the first Jesuit pope, possibly signaling a renewed emphasis on traditional Catholic theology by the church.

The Society of Jesus, as the Jesuits are formally known, observes a vow of poverty, and as archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was known for his accessibility and simplicity, said Michael Sheeran, president-elect of the American Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
"Pope Francis took the bus to work every day," Sheeran said in a live online discussion of Bergoglio's election. "He sold the cardinal's residence and lived in a small apartment where he cooked for himself."

. . . "I'm amazed (Francis) was selected," Sheeran said, because "the Jesuits steer clear of getting high-ranking jobs like this."
The society was founded in Rome in 1540 by St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier as a movement devoted to living in the imitation of Jesus.

Marco Rubio Flubs GOP Response to SOTU With Terrible Thirst

Source: Daily Kos

You can't make this stuff up. With the whole world watching, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) guzzled his way to infamy last night as he stopped in the middle of the GOP response to the State of the Union to reach off-camera and grab a bottle of water.


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While the whole thing is absurd and may seem petty, this was Rubio's big chance to show he is Presidential enough to get the nomination from his party in 2016. And yet all anyone will remember is his dry mouth and overwhelming thirst. He apparently forgot about Bobby Jindal's weak response to the 2009 SOTU, Paul Ryan guzzling water during the Veep Debate, and the Mitt Romney parody on SNL showing him guzzling plain white milk to drown his sorrows. Now Rubio has joined the group of sweaty politicians who look nervous on camera and who need more libation than the average guy. Not a good place to be.

Twitter went cray-cray of course - see all the quotes on my other blog:
Snark Amendment: Stay Thirsty My Friend ~ Rubio Water Bottle Gate

Memory Lane . . .

Message to Dodge Trucks ~ American Farmers Are Not Just White Marlboro Men

Dodge Trucks scored a hit with their nostalgic Super Bowl ad, a slideshow of pictures featuring white male American farmers with a voice-over of legendary radio man Paul Harvey reciting a poetic speech from 1978. That part is cool - he was a daily radio presence while I was growing up and I'm glad people still remember Paul Harvey. The rest of the commercial has a few problems . . .


The video now has nearly 3 million views on YouTube, but how well does it reflect the realities of American farm life?

For instance, where are the people of color? There is one picture of an African-American man, but what about Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans ~ aren't they farmers too, and don't they play a huge role in the agriculture of our country? Why did they ignore the contribution and history of those who pick fruit and crops, pluck chickens, and do all the other agricultural jobs no one else wants to do in this era of corporate farming?

Uh, more importantly, doesn't Dodge want them to buy trucks? If so, they should think about spending some advertising money to reflect the new demographics of our nation.

Several Latinos have edited the commercial to reflect the real American Farm Experience - see below:

From MSNBC

"It's a white-washed ad," said Axel Caballero, founder of Cuéntame, a Latino nonprofit. "(The) composition of America has changed. The faster brands understand that, the better they're going to do."

In response, Cuéntame uploaded its remixed version of the Ram truck ad to its Facebook page, keeping the audio but replacing some of the photos with images of Latino farmworkers. Cuéntame's caption to the post read, " 'God made a farmer' ad - K, we fixed it!"

. . . As for the faces of farmers in America, 71 percent of agricultural workers in the U.S. were born in Mexico and Central America, according to a 2011 U.S. Department of Labor National Agricultural Workers Survey. Just 29 percent of U.S. farm workers were born in the USA and Puerto Rico.

And God Made a Farmer by Paul Harvey

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.

"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.

"Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer.

Obama on Immigrants ~ They are Us

Full Text of the President's Speech Here

From ThinkProgress:

On Tuesday, President Obama unveiled a comprehensive plan for immigration reform based on four tenets: continuing to strengthen border security, cracking down on employers hiring undocumented workers, creating pathways to earned citizenship, and streamlining legal immigration.

Speaking in Nevada, Obama said that the bi-partisan enthusiasm in the Senate is “very encouraging,” and offered a plan that closely resembles the framework outlined by a bipartisan group of eight senators. ”So at this moment, it looks like there’s a genuine desire to get this done soon,” Obama said. “The ideas I’m proposing have traditionally been supported by both Democrats like Ted Kennedy and Republicans like President George W. Bush.”

. . . McCain offered the following statement in response to Obama’s speech: “I appreciate the President’s support for our bipartisan effort on comprehensive immigration reform. While there are some differences in our approaches to this issue, we share the belief that any reform must recognize America as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. We should all agree that border security and enforcement is particularly important in order to ensure that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the 1986 immigration reform.”

The Inaugural Poem by Richard Blanco

Poet Richard Blanco, son of a Cuban Exile from Miami, FL, made history today by becoming both the first Hispanic and openly gay man to read at a Presidential Inauguration.

"One Today"

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning's mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:
equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,
the "I have a dream" we keep dreaming,
or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won't explain
the empty desks of twenty children marked absent
today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light
breathing color into stained glass windows,
life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth
onto the steps of our museums and park benches
as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk
of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat
and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills
in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands
digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands
as worn as my father's cutting sugarcane
so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains
mingled by one wind—our breath. Breathe. Hear it
through the day's gorgeous din of honking cabs,
buses launching down avenues, the symphony
of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,
the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,
or whispers across café tables, Hear: the doors we open
for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,
buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días
in the language my mother taught me—in every language
spoken into one wind carrying our lives
without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father
who couldn't give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together.

Votes Still Uncounted in Arizona as Arpaio Claims Victory

Good Grief - hundreds of thousands of votes are still uncounted in Arizona, which could affect all the election results including that of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the crazy birther. Reason: Most of the uncounted votes are from Latino voters who were the target of voter suppression techniques, such as forcing them to vote with provisional ballots that have to be checked individually. The ACLU is on the scene, and Harry Reid has chimed in on the situation. Stay tuned because this is far from over.


From Addicting Information

Nearly a third of votes cast in Arizona remained uncounted the day after the election. Most of them were probably cast by Latinos, organized and newly registered by multiple civil rights groups in the state to combat candidates like the notorious Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio.

On Thursday, the Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, announced the figures: 631,274 early and provisional ballots remained uncounted out of a total of 1.8 million votes. At least 350,000 of them are from Maricopa County (Phoenix metropolitan area), where Joe Arpaio has already claimed victory. Activist Randy Parraz, president of Citizens for a Better Arizona, told the Huffington Post, “We’re not conceding anything until every vote is counted. They’re just going to act like, ‘Oh, the election’s over, Arpaio wins.’ Hell no.”



Three Congressional races also remain in limbo. Although Democrat Rich Carmona originally conceded the Senate seat to Jeff Flake on election night, he changed his mind after hearing the unprecedented number of uncounted votes. On Friday, he sent this message to supporters: “We will take every necessary step to make sure all of our supporters’ ballots are counted.” Two U.S. House races are also too close to call until the remainder of the votes are tallied.

Protestors from a coalition of rights groups are maintaining a continuous presence outside of the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center. In a letter to the county recorder, Helen Purcell, the American Civil Liberties wrote that the “public confidence in the voting process” was at risk.

The situation has attracted attention all across the nation. Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid weighed in, issuing a statement of his concern: “All of the votes in Arizona must be counted promptly, accurately and equally. The uncounted votes in Maricopa County alone represent a major portion of the total votes cast in Arizona on Tuesday.” He also pointed out that this problem occurs just as the Supreme Court is ready to consider whether the voter protections in 1965′s Voter Rights Act should be scaled back. Specifically, the justices are being asked to rule that the part that prevents states from disenfranchising minorities is no longer relevant.

DNC Spotlight on the Hispanic Community

Voice of America

The mayor of San Antonio, Texas, Julian Castro, delivers his highly-anticipated keynote address Tuesday night at the Democratic Party's presidential nominating convention.

The 37-year-old Castro is the Democratic National Convention's first Latino keynote speaker. As mayor of the nation's seventh-largest city, he is also the youngest mayor of a top 50 U.S. city. Last year, he won re-election with more than 80 percent of the vote.

. . . Castro's selection as keynote speaker is widely seen as part of President Obama's effort to boost support for his re-election among Hispanics, the nation's largest minority group and a key voting bloc in this year's race.

Latinos Post

. . . the DNC will feature their first Latino keynote speaker with San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. Actress Eva Longoria and broadcast journalist Cristina Saralegui are also scheduled to speak.

DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz spoke during the Hispanic Caucus and said, "The way I look at it is, we have a very deep bench, and we have so many stars through many layers. Julian Castro is one of the key rising stars in our party, and I think he's going to electrify the arena tomorrow night."

Castro is set to speak during the 10 p.m. EDT hour on Tuesday.

As for the number of Latino delegates at this year's DNC, the Huffington Post reported up to 800 are to be in attendance.
Latinos have favored the Democratic Party more than Republicans, with polls showing Obama at 60 percent over Romney's 30 percent.

"Being the keynote speaker at the Democratic Convention this year is an honor I don't take lightly. I know I've got some big shoes to fill. Two conventions ago, the keynote speaker was a guy named Barack Obama. I remember watching his speech in 2004 and being inspired."

"True the Vote" Poll Watchers are Dangerous Vigilantes

 

cartoon by Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury

Most ordinary people think of election observers as people who come into third world countries to view elections to make sure the process is fair to all - like Jimmy Carter's UN group. In this country, the history of "Poll Watching" is much more dark, and was originally allowed by states that wanted to suppress the African American vote during the Jim Crow years after Reconstruction.

This year and true to form, the Republican Party wants to use Poll Watchers to intimidate voters in states like Ohio, where Secretary of State Husted is helping the cause by cutting out early voting on weeknights and weekends, prohibiting many minority voters from participating.

Rachel Maddow has done several great reports on "True the Vote," a group formed to allegedly combate "voter fraud" by placing watchers at polling places where they could signal officials if they saw something they thought was a "gotcha" moment.

To give you an idea of what True the Vote is all about, you have to see Their Official Website. It has nothing to do with wanting to make the process fair. It has everything to do with blocking voters from the polls.

Under "Latest News" here is just one article about Pennsylvania Voter ID filled with a sense of palpable disappointment that voters might actually get help in carrying out their right to vote:

The anti-ID crowd continues to have the wind taken out of its sails.

First, Pennsylvania plaintiff Viviette Applewhite gets a photo ID the day after the ACLU’s Voter ID challenge is shot down in court on grounds that the law disenfranchises no one. Now, PennDOT is rolling out its program to provide free voter identification cards to all Pennsylvania voters who can’t otherwise get a state photo ID

Yeah, that's a real bummer. It's too bad the State of Pennsylvania is helping more voters have a chance to vote. That spoils all the fun.

Here's the leader of True the Vote, Catherine Engelbrecht, speaking to her followers. She loves her some Voter ID Laws!!! Basically she is a vigilante bully who believes there is fraud where none actually exists, and she wants to make the process more difficult for everyone. She is an alarmist, and how dare she talk about "civil rights leaders" when some of them would roll in their graves at the thought of an all-white posse looking over an election. Her call for "Election Integrity" is a big dog whistle to the Tea Party because her goal is to favor the white vote over the minority vote.

True the Vote 2012 Summit - Catherine Engelbrecht from True the Vote on Vimeo.
But of course, there is still Ohio, with Tea Party sympathizer Jon Husted, the Secretary of State who is trying his best to do the one-man election body-block. Last week I posted this impassioned speech by State Senator Nina Turner on The Ed Show, expressing the outrage many feel towards Husted as he tries to rig the system against elderly and minority voters.

And Husted has also been busy threatening to fire two Democrats who stood up to him over the new voting schedule.

In a 15-page decision filed Aug. 27, Jonathan Allison concluded that Husted has the authority to remove Dennis Lieberman and Tom Ritchie Sr. from their posts.
“Furthermore, I believe the facts warrant removal and recommend that the secretary take such action,” Allison wrote.“It’s not justice when you already know the outcome of being put on trial,” he said. “A hearing examiner appointed by SOS Husted has agreed with his boss. This is not news.”
Husted spokesman Matt McClellan said the state’s chief elections official will make a decision Aug. 28 on whether to remove the two board members.

Lieberman and Ritchie were called to Columbus a week ago for a hearing in Husted’s office after they backed a motion to open Montgomery County’s early polls on weekends in the weeks before the Nov. 6 election, just days after Husted issued a directive ordering boards to adopt uniform weekday in-person early voting hours, with no Saturdays or Sundays.

. . . “We do not want to return to the long lines, the hours upon hours of waiting that took place in 2004 when J. Kenneth Blackwell was in Secretary Husted’s job,” Lieberman said. “Secretary Husted needs to follow Jennifer Brunner’s model in 2008 that led to a historic voter turnout and abandon Blackwell’s 2004 model that was a disaster and made Ohio a poster child for voter suppression.”

It turns out we have proof that Husted is all in cahoots with True the Vote - he was listed as a "featured speaker" for their Ohio State Summit Meeting, but after Rachel Maddow announced that on her show, he withdrew, to be replaced by Ohio State Senator Bill Seitz.

As Maddow reported, when True the Vote started in Harris County, Texas, the mainly white watchers showed up in African American precincts and intimidated registered voters. The group understood that they were intimidating people - but they seem to think that's okay. Hello Jim Crow!

Talking Points Memo, 2010

Harris County, the biggest county in the state, is where a Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots launched an anti-voter fraud initiative called “True the Vote,” which recruited poll watchers and amped up fears over groups like the community organizing group ACORN.

Chad Dunn, a lawyer who is representing the Texas Democratic Party, told TPMMuckraker a number of witnesses have been interviewed by Civil Rights Division lawyers already. “We’ve gotten a number of reports — quite a few out of the Houston area — that poll watchers, King Street Patriot training poll watchers, are following a voter after they’ve checked them out and stand right behind them,” Dunn said. There’s at least a dozen reports that they could confirm with witnesses, he said. “Interestingly, it’s all in the polling places in Hispanic and African-American areas,” he added.

Terry O’Rourke, the first assistant in the Harris County Attorney’s office, told TPMMuckraker that there have been allegations of poll watchers talking to voters, which they are not allowed to do, as well as hovering over voters as they are waiting to vote. He said the complaints came from Kashmere Gardens, Moody Park, Sunnyside and other predominantly minority neighborhoods of the county.

The action group Colorlines posted an in-depth story on True the Vote:

Catherine Engelbrecht is the founder of both the King Street Patriots and True the Vote, in that order, and only months apart. Name and IRS status appear to be all that differentiates the two groups. The former, a 501c4, is a Tea Party group that lobbies for conservative issues, chiefly election reform; the latter is a 501c3 that takes a hands-on approach to making sure election reform is implemented—Dr. Jekyl and Dr. Jekyler.

The 2008 ACORN “scandal,” where ACORN was found with thousands of falsified voter registration forms, is partially what inspired Engelbrecht to form the King Street Patriots. Even though no fraudulent votes were cast, Engelbrecht’s King Street Patriots lionized the ACORN tale and used it as a mobilizing tool to recruit hundreds of volunteers for 2009 Election Day poll watching, mostly in black and Latino districts. . . .
. . . Only a handful of fraud cases were tried after the election, and none led to full convictions. Still, the King Street Patriots spun off as “True the Vote” and came out again for the 2010 elections—bulkier with more recruits, again at black and Latino polling places. A local Houston newscast noticed the bulge in poll observers and reported, “As the number of poll watchers have increased, so have the number of complaints.” A video True the Vote circulated at the time contained doctored photos of black people falsely pictured as advocating for voter fraud.

True the Vote’s lawyer Kelly Shackelford, of the Christian rightwing organization Liberty Institute, explained away the intimidation complaints this way: “Poll watchers show up for the first time and [the poll watchers are] a different color than them and they just don’t like that.”
 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


  

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Shocking Poll for Republicans

Look at the latest ststs targeting the presidential election. Romney isn't doing that well, especially with African American voters - ZERO percent!

I am always surprised that any women would vote Republican, and after the Todd Akin fiasco, I think Romney's percentage of women will fall below 41%.

The NBC/WSJ Poll of Registered Voters
Complete PDF Here

Registered Voters:
Obama/Biden 48%
Romney/Ryan 44%

In Swing States:
Obama/Biden 49%
Romney/Ryan 46%

African Americans:
Obama/Biden 94%
Romney/Ryan 0%

Latinos:
Obama/Biden 60%
Romney/Ryan 30%

Women:
Obama/Biden 51%
Romney/Ryan 41%

On Medicare:
Obama - No Change to system  50%
Romney - Vouchers/RyanPlan   34%
 

President Obama on the Statue of Liberty

There's a lovely essay by President Obama on the "Dream Act" and the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty in Time Magazine. Funny how every American is descended from an immigrant family at some time in the past, but now want to slam the door on everyone else. Heart and mind disconnect, unfortunately.

Obama is such an optimist that he is still urging Congress to pass the The Dream Act. Considering the pressure the Republicans are under to save the Latino vote this election year, they might just listen to Obama this time. Or not (which is fine because he will be reelected more easily). But still, a lovely essay.

. . . There is still time for Congress to pass the DREAM Act this year, because deserving young people should be able to plan their lives in more than two-year increments. And we still need to pass comprehensive immigration reform that addresses our 21st century economic and security needs. Reform that gives our farmers and ranchers certainty about the workers that they’ll have. Reform that gives our science and technology sectors certainty that the young people who come here to earn their PhDs won’t be forced to leave and start new businesses in other countries. Reform that continues to improve our border security, and lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

. . . I believe that, eventually, enough Republicans in Congress will come around to that view as well because it is the right thing to do for our economy — something CEOs throughout the country agree with — and it is the right thing to do for our national security. Above all, it is the right thing to do, period.

We didn’t raise the Statue of Liberty with its back to the world. We raised it with its light to the world. What makes us American is not a question of what we look like or what our names are. What makes us American is our shared belief in the enduring promise of this country – and our shared responsibility to leave it more generous and more hopeful than we found it.

Rubio Out for Romney Veep

ABC News is reporting that Marco Rubio is probably out of the Veepstakes and isn't being vetted as a possible running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

He has not been asked to complete any questionnaires or been asked to turn over any financial documents typically required of potential vice presidential candidates.
Although it is possible that Rubio may yet be asked to go through the vetting process, it has been nearly two months since Romney named his long-time aide Beth Myers to run his vice presidential search. The fact that Rubio has not been asked to turn over any documents by now is a strong indication that he is not on Romney’s short list of potential running mates.
Officially the Romney campaign has no comment. And Rubio has refused to make any comment when it comes to vice presidential questions.

This comes as no surprise to me, because as I blogged in detail back in May, The Donald Trump (who was travelling around with Romney on Honeymoon-in-Vegas week) said Rubio was too young and too ambivalent, and that same week ex-Att. General Roberto Gonzales told CNN that Rubio wasn't experienced or "wise" enough to run for Vice President.
But the real kiss of death was probably last Friday when Rubio was the first Republican to praise President Obama's decision to extend safe status to 800,000 illegal "Dreamers" who have been trapped in legal Limbo. This is too far left of Very Important Tea Party Birthers such as Joe Arpaio and Trump himself. Add to that this quote from Rubio's new book, American Son, in which Rubio writes:

Many people who come here illegally are doing exactly what we would do if we lived in a country where we couldn’t feed our families....If my kids went to sleep hungry every night and my country didn’t give me an opportunity to feed them, there isn’t a law, no matter how restrictive, that would prevent me from coming here.

How dare he write such a *gasp* compassionate and understanding sentence! That does not compute for the Romneybot equation of Big Fence Plus Self-Deporting Grandma equals Republican Immigration Policy. That doesn't add up with Sheriff Joe Arpaio arresting a 6-year-old illegal girl after Obama's new rule went into place. And it especially doesn't add up with Donald Trump's Obama Birther Conspiracy Theory.

This is actually an opportunity for Rubio. Being an "outsider" to the Romney campaign puts him in line with other mainstream conservatives from Jeb Bush to Arnold Schwarzenegger to George Will to. Sanity is a good thing, and Rubio will probably thank his stars someday that he narrowly escaped.

Prediction: Rubio Probably Out of Veepstakes

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that as of this week, Marco Rubio is out of the running to be the Republican Vice Presidential candidate. Why? Because in the past few days some have labeled him "too young" and inexperienced to serve. I think this is rightwing code for "too bad, kid" - we've got someone else in the wings.

Super-Surrogate and Romney's Homey Donald Trump nixed Rubio last week before holding himself forth as the better choice:

On a younger side, you could look at Sen. Rubio, who I think could help with Hispanics. But he is young, and I think he sort of doesn’t want to go through it and doesn’t want to do it. Probably the best choice of all would be Donald Trump.

That alone wouldn't mean much, although it's clear that Trump has sway over the Romney campaign right now with the Birther honeymoon of their dreams in Vegas and all. But now Roberto Gonzales, ex-Attorney General from the George W. administration is echoing the Donald and speaking out against his fellow Latino and - *ouch* - saying he "lacks wisdom":

From CNN's Political Ticker "Gut Check" May 30, 2012

GONZALES: If I were the nominee the person I would look to put on the ticket would be the person I know - they want - could be as president. As I look at the slate of candidates, there are a number of good people from the Republican Party who have more experience (than Marco Rubio) and would be better suited on day one and if you combine that with the principle that I don’t think Hispanics are going to vote for a nominee based upon who is number two on the ticket. I think it behooves Governor Romney to look at other candidates....

KING: But what you’ve said in the past, you’ve just hinted at it in more diplomatic language right now is you don’t think he meets the number one test to be ready to be president, why?

GONZALES: Again he’s extremely talented and I honor his service. But I think the job of president, and I’ve seen it first hand – how hard it can be. And how important it is to have someone with wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience. It comes from living, comes from success, comes from failure. And I think the country needs to have people in positions of leadership who have that level of experience that’s important to serve effectively as president and as vice president.