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SNIPPET: "Three Spanish aid workers were kidnapped in the North African nation Mauritania on Sunday. Spain’s Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, expressed his concerns that kidnappers could be members of the North African branch of Al Qaeda." SNIPPET: "The names of the workers kidnapped are Alicia Gámez, Roque Pascual and Albert Vilalta. Vilalta’s father, Albert Vilalta is a former regional councilor for the environment."

Now that the holidays are upon us, it’s time to get annoyed with the consumerism, secularism and political correctness that continue to whittle away at the meaning of the holiday season. The secular and consumption-driven nature of the season has become so routine that one has to work hard to remember to take time for the traditions and religious observances that once defined the season. I thought I had seen every example of how religious meaning has been stripped out of Christmas until a friend showed me the label on a festive seasonal bottle of Coca Cola the other day....

"Texas has a very diverse heritage, but all Texans expect our leaders to be accountable and responsible to the people. We are taking the message to the people."

TAOS, N.M. – Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence

TAOS, N.M. – Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names. No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark. Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years...

MADRID (AFP) – Underground fires have been raging for weeks in a wetlands area in southern Spain, sparked by the dry summer and the overuse of water for agriculture, an environmentalist said Tuesday. The Tablas de Daimiel National Park, fed by the Guadiana river, has been drying up since the 1980s, and some lagoons have already disappeared. In late August, hot dry weather caused the peat subsurface to catch fire, and plumes of smoke can be seen rising from the ground, said Jose Manuel Hernandez, head of the environmental organisation that looks after the park. "This is a new phenomenon...

Here is video of a man being booed when he asked a question in Spanish at a town hall meeting. (Watch Video)

First the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet cited freedom of the press as its justification for accusing IDF soldiers of harvesting Palestinian organs. Now the Spanish daily El Monde is using the same argument to defend including Holocaust denier David Irving among its list of experts to be interviewed this week to mark 70 years since the start of World War II. An interview with Irving, who served time in an Austrian prison for his Holocaust denial, is scheduled to appear in the paper on Saturday, a day after an interview with Yad Vashem's chairman Avner Shalev.

Well, the day finally came for me to actually be a first-hand witness of why knowing and understanding English is so vitally important when one gets a driver's license. My Florida license expires next month and I will be on tour so renewing it in Florida will be impossible. So I decided to finally get a Tennessee license although I still claim Florida as my legal domicile. I gathered my official documents as required by the state of Tennessee for anyone getting a TN license for the first time. It was a busy day at the DMV (when isn't it...

As the debate and discussions about the health care bill take front and center positioning, it is important to note that at the core of being alive and a human being, it is our innate will to survive. Yes, times are tough these days. But it is the inner desire of oneself to survive, to make it happen, to succeed that is vital to our existence. When one chooses to rely on government, then the pure sense of being alive, of being in control of one's own life begins to erode. Sure, government is needed to provide for roads, infrastructure,...

Lawmakers pass bill to protect language freedom California would protect the freedom of a person to speak any language he or she chooses in a business establishment under a measure approved by the state Legislature today. The bill, authored by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is the lawmaker's response to a controversial proposal by the LPGA last fall requiring golfers to speak "effective English." The organization scuttled the proposal after loud objections by Yee and others, and the Democrat says this legislation will ensure it does not happen again. "No one in the state of California should be compelled to...

7/28/2009 - MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFNS) -- Thought not traditional Air Force linguists, two multilingual Airmen bring a unique skill to Manas Air Base. Capt. Jecek Dempnaik and Staff Sgt. Maria Hudgeons, who speak a combined seven languages, reduce communication barriers between Air Force members and coalition forces through written translations and verbal interpretations. They are the ears and eyes to the director of the Transit Center here. When acting in this capacity, they are referred to as the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing coalition coordinators and linguists. Shifting tongues between English, French and Spanish is as easy as breathing...

PHOENIX — State senators took the first steps Friday to protect businesses from winding up in legal trouble for failing to provide translators for customers who don't speak English. Existing law prohibits discrimination in places of "public accommodation against anyone because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin or ancestry." That category includes restaurants, hotels, theaters and any place that offers services or goods to the general public. SB 1199, as unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would spell out that the law doesn't require any business owner to provide a "trained and competent bilingual person" to assist customers....

Martin High will focus on teaching English Painfully aware that Martin High School likely will fail federal standards for the sixth year in a row, LISD officials say they will redouble their efforts to teach English to a hard-core group of students who are not learning the language of their adopted country. "We need to speak as much English as possible," said Severita Sanchez, Laredo Independent School District's executive director of compliance and accountability. "(Freshmen) are coming in with a very weak English foundation. The comprehension is not there." According to LISD, the federally mandated restructuring plan at Martin High...

The long-rumored e-book boom at last has arrived. But publishers still wait, and wait, for another supposed surge: Spanish-language titles. Thousands of booksellers, publishers and authors gathered for BookExpo America, the industry's annual national convention, which ended Sunday. Along with much discussion about rapidly growing digital sales, there was disappointment, and some confusion, about the relative slowness of Spanish sales in any format. Publishers have looked for years to the Hispanic market, which back in 2000 was spotlighted at BookExpo as one of great promise. The Hispanic population is at least 45 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and...

The winner of the world's biggest lottery jackpot in last week's £110million EuroMillions draw did not find out for three days because she was ill with flu. The 25-year-old from Majorca discovered her massive win on Monday after she returned to work. She was still feeling ill but feared losing her job in the economic crisis gripping Spain. The woman, who has not been named, was eventually contacted by Jose Mieres, director of the website through which she bought her ticket. Enlarge Big EuroMillions draw was scooped on Friday - this is what £100m looks like He said: 'When she...

Two Videos of Obama in His Own Words: http://www.butasforme.com/2009/05/05/cinco-de-quatro-2/Obama: It’s embarassing when Europeans come here and they speak French, German; and all we say is “Merci beaucoup” — So you can understand how embarassing it must be for Obama to say “Cinco De Quatro?”

President Barack Obama celebrated Cinco de Mayo a day early by holding an event in the East room of the White House with Mexico’s Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan. At the event Obama botched a joke when he said it was “Cinco de Cuatro,” which means fifth of four. The president apparently meant to say ‘Cuatro de Mayo’ or the Fourth of May.

Molina wants Spanish translation for Gold Line. “La Linea de Oro”? April 22, 2009 When light rail returns to the Eastside neighborhoods of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles this summer, many Spanish-speaking residents will undoubtedly talk about taking el tren. But will commuters say they are riding La Linea de Oro? L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina will propose during an MTA board meeting today that the Eastside extension of the Gold Line be officially named La Linea de Oro, Edward R. Roybal. If the motion is approved, it will be the first time the name of an MTA facility,...

Ga. could require drivers to take test in EnglishPosted: Tuesday, March 31st 2009 at 7:28am By The Associated Press ATLANTA - The Georgia Legislature appears on the verge of approving a measure that would require driver's license applicants to take the written exam in English, which could make Georgia the only state to have such a rule. The measure passed the House Monday by a 104-58 vote. The proposal, which has already passed the Senate, would go to Gov. Sonny Perdue's desk if the chambers hash out minor differences in their versions of the bill. **SNIP** State Rep. Pedro Marin,...

In his continuing media blitz, President Obama used a popular Spanish-language music awards show tonight to reach out to Hispanics. "Buenas noches. I want to thank the millions of you who voted for tonight’s winners, and I also want to thank all of you who voted in that other election back in November – even if it wasn’t for me," he said in a pre-recorded message that aired during Univision’s live coverage of the “Premio Lo Nuestro” Latin music awards from Miami’s BankUnited Center.

I am in need of assistance with translation to Spanish and French. We are in a local battle up here near Seattle with the ACLU who is putting signs in the transit buses telling illegals they do not have to cooperate with Border Patrol agents. We (R) party , demanded equal 1st amendment protection and are getting it. So, we have our sign but we want to translate it and include French since we are just below the Canadian border.

MADRID (AFP) – Spain's ruling Socialists were ousted from power in Galicia and trailed the incumbent party in the Basque Country in regional elections on Sunday seen as the first test of voter sentiment since the country plunged into recession. In northwestern Galicia, the Socialist leader of the regional government, Emilio Perez Torino, conceded defeat to the conservative opposition Popular Party, which won a majority of 39 seats in the 75-seat regional assembly. The leader of the PP at the national level, Mariano Rajoy, had campaigned hard in his native Galicia with a victory in the regional polls seen as...

A middle school in Southern California is spending $10,000 a year to teach Advanced Placement Spanish to 35 of its 650 students -- and all but one of them are already fluent in Spanish. Thirty-four of the kids in the AP class are from Mexico or are the children of Mexican immigrants. They all grew up speaking Spanish at home. The program -- the only one of its kind in California -- has outraged some critics who say they are concerned that the AP course wastes public resources – including taxpayer dollars – to teach native Spanish speakers how to...

Archaeologists have found a mass grave in Mexico that may hold the skeletal remains of the Aztecs who fought conquistador Hernan Cortes. The unusual burial was found in a ruined pyramid in downtown Mexico City. It holds the carefully arrayed skeletons of at least 49 adult Indians who were buried in the remains of a pyramid razed by the Spaniards during the 1521 conquest of the Aztec capital. The pyramid complex, in the city's Tlatelolco square, was the site of the last Indian resistance to the Spaniards during the months-long battle for the city. Archaeologist Salvador Guilliem, the leader of...

Being taught about famous people and events in Wisconsin history in Spanish is not how some Waunakee parents want their fourth-graders learning social studies at school. "We as parents have been in such an uproar over this," said Keith Wilke about the district’s elementary language program in which students learn Spanish by having the language integrated into social studies lessons for 30 minutes three days a week in first through fourth grades. "They’re force-fed Spanish." This is the third year for the program, which has added one grade a year since 2006 and is designed to continue until fifth grade....

Beginning Jan. 16, Girl Scouts of the Moccasin Bend Council will be practicing Spanish as they ask customers to purchase the Dulce de Leche (DOOL-seh deh LEH-chay) cookies which means "candy of milk." Inspired by the classic confections of Latin America, the all-new Dulce de Leche cookies are rich with milk caramel chips and stripes and have a hint of cinnamon. This latest Girl Scout cookie adds an international flair to this year's Girl Scout Cookie Season. This new cookie also gives Girl Scouts a unique opportunity to celebrate Latin-American cultures and learn a little "Cookie Spanish" at the same...

I have a cousin in 8th grade who's taking a "sampler" class in which she's taught the minimum basics of Spanish, French, and German. The point is to give her a better grasp of languages so that she can choose which class to take for her mandatory language requirements in Highschool. I believe that the highschool she'll go to also has Russian and Latin in addition. Do folks here feel that Spanish would be a bad idea, politically/culturally? Her parents consider it somewhat gauche, and there's also a concern that encouraging kids to learn Spanish would delay assimilation of US...

I've noticed that parts of my Youtube links show up in spanish. Uh, can someone tell me how to get it back in all ENGLISH? Please don't tell me this has now become a part of a massive government program for us to finally learn spanish!

'No More Aliens' message appeared on stolen signs just prior to election Elementary school district officials are angry over the act of a vandal or vandals who stole some of the district's Spanish-language signs and re-posted them on Shoreline Boulevard last month with the words "No More Aliens" spray-painted in red. Whether the act is technically a hate crime depends on whether there was hate in the mind of those who did it. Mountain View police say they are not sure, and have suspended an investigation into the case due to lack of evidence. The two-by-three-foot signs -- part of...

A Deltona woman has sued the Volusia County supervisor of elections, contending that, as a Puerto Rican, she should have been able to cast her vote in Spanish. But county lawyers say her case is unfounded and point out that Spanish speakers are already offered assistance at Volusia County polling sites. Crimilda Perez-Santiago, with the help of New York-based LatinoJustice PRLDEF, filed suit on Election Day because she said she had trouble understanding the ballot, particularly the state constitutional amendments. Last week, the county filed a motion to dismiss the case, pointing out that Volusia does not meet a federal...

Is anyone else being bedeviled with Google appearing in Spanish or Chinese? Yesterday, it was so bad that the best I could do with it was to get it to appear in "Elmer Fudd" ("are you feewing wucky"). I have two screen shots for of the mess, but no place to serve them from. I use Firefox as my browser. I have checked, it is set to U.S. English.

DALTON, Ga. — Katelyn Flores carefully wrote on her notebook “the dog is mad” with the help of tutor Veronica Rivas on a recent Saturday morning at the offices of the Coalition of Latino Leaders. “I really like coming here because they are good teachers and they help me with my homework,” said the second-grader in Spanish while she looked at Mrs. Rivas. Katelyn is one of about 10 children who attend the free Saturday tutoring sessions offered by the coalition, a community organization that works to improve students’ graduation rates and offer parents a tool to help their children,...

The Highlander Research and Education Center and the East Tennessee Rapid Response Coalition will hold a “Know Your Rights: Train-the-Trainers” workshop in Spanish from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Magnolia Avenue United Methodist Church, 2700 Magnolia Ave., in Knoxville. The workshop is for allies and community members who want to learn how to conduct educational Know Your Rights workshops using popular education and other participatory methods, a news release stated. The East Tennessee Rapid Response Coalition is one of the groups that came to Chattanooga to help after an April 16 raid that resulted in the arrest of...

LOS ANGELES - East L.A. — birthplace of the lowrider, Los Lobos and Oscar de la Hoya — is to Mexican-Americans what Harlem is to the black community. Now it wants to become its own city. Commonly mistaken for a part of Los Angeles, East L.A. is actually an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, with more than 130,000 people — 96 percent of them Latino — packed into 7.4 square miles.

The Obama campaign has released new radio and TV ads in Spanish that seek to tie Sen. John McCain to anti-immigrant comments made by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The ads also suggest the Republican has "dos caras" -- "two faces" -- when it comes to his relations with Latino voters. The new messages, airing in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, come in response to recent Spanish-language ads by the McCain campaign that suggest Obama is responsible for the collapse of last year's bipartisan immigration reform efforts. "They want us to forget the insults we've put up with, the...

[UPDATE: The Spanish Olympic basketball teams are sponsored by Li-Ning, the Chinese footwear company sometimes called “the Nike of China.” See bottom of post.] Thanks to a comment by a reader named Will, on an earlier post about Spain’s basketball team, we were alerted to an article in The Guardian by Sid Lowe — a Madrid-based correspondent for the site’s excellent Football Weekly podcast — about the photograph above. As Lowe explains: Spain’s Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an...

Obama to America--Learn Spanish From: floydb310 Views: 46,132 Comments: 107

Go to the FedEx.com homepage, and select the country drop down list. Notice the first two countries. 1. U.S.A. 2. U.S.A. - Espanol FedEx, when it absolutely has to sell your country down the river.

MADRID (AFP) - Spanish police said Saturday they had arrested a 57-year-old Spanish woman they claim is the leader of the Spanish cell of Colombian Marxist rebel group FARC. Maria Remedios Garcia Albert was arrested at her home in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, northeast of Madrid, they said. The interior ministry said Garcia Albert had provided logistical support for FARC and had direct contacts with Raul Reyes, the FARC number two who was killed by Colombian troops inside Ecuador earlier this year. Analysis of Reyes' computer passed on to Spanish investigators by Colombian authorities had led...

TEA has until the end of January to change program for secondary schools.

A roulette worker at Foxwoods came up the big loser when he bet that nine women gathered around his table - including an NYPD sergeant, FBI special agent and Long Island cop - couldn't understand the gross comments he was making about them in Spanish. It turned out the party also included Michelle Marigliano, a businesswoman who used to teach bilingual education and was able comprende every disgusting word. After complaining, the women were invited into the high-rollers' lounge, given free drinks, a free breakfast and two free rooms for one night at the Connecticut facility. They were told at...

English First Executive Director Jim Boulet, Jr., today called upon Senator Barack Obama to reconsider his anti-English statements. Senator Obama has voted against official English four times in 2006 and 2007 and earned an "F" rating for English First in 2006. "Senator Obama, there are plenty of languages spoken in America. What makes Spanish so special, instead of, say, Chinese or Arabic," said Jim Boulet, Jr., Executive Director of English First. "What next, Senator? Will you be saying that too many Americans are bitterly clinging to our English language? Why does it seem you are always looking down your nose...

At a Georgia town hall meeting, Barack Obama found himself pontificating about American ignorance: I don’t understand when people are going around worrying about, we need to have English only. They want to pass a law, we just, we want English only . . . Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English, I agree with this. But understand this, instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, they’ll learn English, you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. So to be clear: Americans must learn Spanish! Here’s the thing, though: Barack Obama, who holds several impressive...

Your child should speak Spanish.

Video. He says he is "embarrassed" at Americans who can't speak foreign languages, but he's got no problem with foreigners who can't speak ours. All American boy, that guy.

Barack Obama addressed the issue of official languages yesterday by endorsing one: Spanish.  Instead of worrying about immigrants learning English, he told an audience, America should be teaching its children Spanish.  Every child should be bilingual, Obama said, but listen to the language he chooses later: "It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup." Well, which is it — should we teach them Spanish or French? Maybe we should teach them Chinese, or perhaps Arabic. Immigrants...

Title says it all. AP...so can't post. John McCain...Hispandering 101.

...now broadcasters worry about communicating with Spanish-speaking listeners during emergencies. 1030 AM is the only talk and information station of its kind in Charlotte. “And we were that venue. So a lot of the sorrow we feel today comes mostly from that and that link to the community was lost,” Lozano said. The community calls Aura Maria Gavilan-Posse "Charlotte's Spanish Oprah". She too worries listeners will suffer. “We were like a 911, like a 311 and went to the people in the cold helping a lot. More than journalism or reporter we were human beings tried to help the other...

Marketers increasingly use commingling of languages for ads A billboard on U.S. Highway 77/83 reads, "Our huevos are bigger." The bigger huevos are the subject of a Stripes' convenient store advertisement for its in-store restaurant, the Laredo Taco Company. The sign's clever use of bilingual double entendre has caused quite a stir on this stretch of the Texas-Mexico border, in addition to being a source of amusement for some. The success of the sign hinges on the Spanish word huevo, which literally translates as egg and figuratively refers to a part of the male anatomy. The commingling of Spanish and...