T1B

mvscal wrote:When do we start shooting Mexicans?

Toddowen wrote:And to think we are all virtually forced bob our heads in this fucking cesspool all football season long.

Mikey wrote:Why would you care about Spanish on the TV?
You already live in Texas. Can't get any lower than that.

OCmike wrote:

Mikey wrote:Why would you care about Spanish on the TV?
You already live in Texas. Can't get any lower than that.

You forget, I've seen Fallbrook. It's the Bakersfield of San Diego County.

OCmike wrote:

mvscal wrote:When do we start shooting Mexicans?

Shouldn't we start with the blacks first? Let's keep this thing orderly...

Viva Los Royals! Hispanic Heritage Celebration and Pregame Concert
Enjoy a pregame concert featuring Comedian Alex Reymundo, Grammy-nominated Tejano singer Jay Perez, international superstar Jose Jose, and local favorite Las Estrellas! The pregame show will start at 5:30 p.m. at Gate A.

La Raza threatens to cancel convention in KC, cites controversial park board appointee
By DEANN SMITH
The Kansas City Star

The nation’s largest Hispanic rights group is warning it may cancel its 2009 convention here because of a controversial Kansas City park board member.

The head of the National Council of La Raza said Thursday that the organization is already looking at several other cities because of the appointment of Frances Semler.

Meanwhile, Kansas City officials have heard that the NAACP might be reconsidering its 2010 convention here, although no one on Thursday said they had heard directly from the national organization.

Losing the two national conventions would cost the local economy $15 million plus the incalculable hit the city’s image would take, said officials, who added that they are working hard to prevent it.

“Hopefully we can work it out,” said City Councilwoman Melba Curls.

Janet Murguía, head of the Washington-based La Raza, said Thursday that Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s appointment of a member of a militant group opposing illegal immigration gave pause to the Hispanic rights organization.

Semler is a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps and has taken a strong stance against illegal immigration and has suggested a moratorium on legal immigration.

Murguía said she told Funkhouser in a telephone conversation last week that the conference all but certainly will go elsewhere if Semler doesn’t step down.

“It is very troubling that we would be in a position to reconsider but in fact we are,” Murguía said during a trip to Kansas City. “I don’t know there is a way short of her stepping down that we could salvage this. This is offensive on many levels. We want the mayor to understand it is something that sends a very wrong signal to the Hispanic community about what the city represents.”

La Raza would have to pay the city as much as $70,000 for failing to meet its hotel-room guarantee if it pulled out of Kansas City prematurely, she said.

“We will lose money if we pull up, but we are prepared to do that,” she said.

Murguía said concerns by local affiliates and a July 16 article in the Wall Street Journal on Semler’s appointment fueled the reconsideration decision. She said she has been in discussions with national NAACP leaders and she said they have the same concerns.

National and local NAACP officials did not return telephone calls Thursday. The six-day NAACP convention would bring more than 10,000 people and its economic impact is estimated at $9 million.

La Raza fills more than 5,000 hotel rooms for its annual conventions and the economic benefit of recent conventions has ranged from $5 million to $7 million, said Murguía, a native of Kansas City, Kan.

Rick Hughes, head of the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association, said a meeting Thursday with Murguía went well and he is hopeful that La Raza’s concerns about Kansas City can be addressed. He said he has not heard from anyone with the NAACP about its concerns.

“We still have it (La Raza convention) very much in our pocket and we all want to work toward a good, amicable solution,” he said. “These are two critically important groups and we want to keep them on the ground with us.”

City Council members said they have not heard directly from the national NAACP but understood from local members that the NAACP concerns are partly due to the Semler appointment. Other concerns, they understand, are that no minority-owned businesses have been signed up for the city-backed downtown entertainment district and that Funkhouser has tapped few minorities to key positions. Funkhouser is with his son as he starts college in Oregon and could not be reached for comment. His chief of staff, Ed Wolf, said Funkhouser knows La Raza is reconsidering its Kansas City convention and has heard speculation about the NAACP, and he hopes to retain the conventions.

“I think the mayor would be extremely concerned about losing them, but he remains steadfast in his appointment of Frances,” Wolf said.

The woman in the center of the storm, Semler, declined to comment when reached at home Thursday afternoon.

She previously offered to resign after the controversy broke in June, but Funkhouser declined to accept it.

Mayor Pro Tem Bill Skaggs declined to say whether Semler, a longtime neighbor of his, should step down, saying, “Mrs. Semler has to live her life the way she chooses.”

City Manager Wayne Cauthen immediately set up a meeting with Murguía after learning about her comments. He said he would outline the city’s aggressive efforts on behalf of Hispanics and African-American residents to both La Raza and NAACP.

“I hope they would look at the body of work as a whole and not one situation,” said Cauthen, who personally made Kansas City’s pitch to the NAACP in July.

Murguía said she is already considering several cities as a replacement for Kansas City and will make a recommendation on the 2009 convention to the La Raza board in October. She said she expects the board will decide the issue during its meeting in mid-October.

Councilwomen Curls and Cindy Circo said they would do what they could to keep the conventions in Kansas City.

Councilman Terry Riley said the La Raza and NAACP concerns just underscored the council’s decision in June to call for Semler to step down from the parks board.

“I think this is a serious issue,” he said. “The city could lose $15 million.”

Riley said with the downtown improvements that Kansas City is making a serious run at attracting large conventions, and losing La Raza or the NAACP conventions would undermine those efforts.

“I don’t want Kansas City to be looked on nationally as a city divided,” he said. “I want us to be viewed as united.”

Mace wrote:Maybe they should add Mexico City to their list of possible convention sites. Just a thought.

Mace

Senor Wolfie wrote:Muy o mio,
we drank
virgin margaritas at midnight,
then rode our donkies
down to the river crossing

tiempos silvestres!