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Puerto Rico wants to become the 51st state of the US
BBC News ^ | The Day After | 7 November 2012

Posted on 11/07/2012 6:39:20 PM PST by MinorityRepublican

Voters in Puerto Rico have supported a non-binding referendum to become a full US state.

The measure will require approval from the US Congress, but President Barack Obama has said he will respect the vote.

The island is currently a US territory, which uses the dollar and whose citizens travel on US passports.

But it does not return senators to the US Congress and is represented in Washington by a non-voting delegate.

Almost 80% of the island's electorate took part in the referendum, the fourth in the past 45 years.

With almost all the votes counted, almost 54% voted to change the island's relationship with the US.

And in reply to a second question on what future they favoured, nearly two-thirds wanted full statehood.

If Congress grants its approval, Puerto Ricans would have the right to vote in all US elections, but would also have to pay federal taxes, something at present they are excused from.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: puertorico
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To: sean327

Well we can certainly fix that quick, just promise more gimmees and tear the doors down to America, and they’ll all just love us, for the short time we survive in this country.

I am over politics as a means to change. My fundamentalist forefathers were right, I should have paid them heed to stay well away from politics.

Next week I remove my Republican registration, and this was my last vote.


101 posted on 11/07/2012 11:49:47 PM PST by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: gleeaikin
You could all move there anyway, and then vote for Independence. It would only take about a million votes.

If PR ever went independent, at least half the population would flee for the US to keep their US Citizenship.

102 posted on 11/07/2012 11:50:33 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: IDFbunny

I know. It’s like Groundhog Day, it’s like the election never happened. Maybe if we just pander harder...


103 posted on 11/07/2012 11:52:32 PM PST by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: mrsmel

I still don’t understand what happened when you think about the GOP gains in 2010 and Wisconsin. There was definately a trend going on.


104 posted on 11/07/2012 11:55:26 PM PST by tsowellfan
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To: wardaddy

This is a prime example of why I frickin’ love your mind WD! You speak what is on your it right or wrong...and I personally think you are more right than wrong. Passion like yours is exhilarating in these times when people have been cowered by the radicals, haters, and screamers on the left.


105 posted on 11/07/2012 11:55:48 PM PST by beaversmom
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To: re_nortex; wardaddy

I second your second. Wardaddy always hits the nail on the head. Ro mix metaphors, he hit this one out of the park. I can’t believe not ONE DY after an election where hispanics showed that they’re all about the gimmees as much as any ghetto welfare baby mama, people are already talking about how we just have to “reach out” more. WHY won’t people face the truth, or do they hate their own children?


106 posted on 11/07/2012 11:59:37 PM PST by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: sean327
The one thing I dislike about FR is the constant bashing of Hispanics.

I don't bash Hispanics; in fact, I kind of like them in a general way. But as a whole their politics reek of statism, and that's inimical to my notions of what a free society ought to be.

107 posted on 11/08/2012 12:02:15 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: tsowellfan

I don’t know either, that’s a good question, strictly from a philosophical POV. Because I will never again invest the hope that would be put to better use in my God and my faith, in politics.


108 posted on 11/08/2012 12:03:24 AM PST by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Why are so many against this?

I would welcome them as our next state.

My adopted daughter has Puerto Rican heritage. I see nothing wrong with them wanting to better their American status.


109 posted on 11/08/2012 12:07:24 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: MinorityRepublican
More Democrat votes!


110 posted on 11/08/2012 12:45:23 AM PST by Pinkbell
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To: wardaddy

From Victor Davis Hanson’s Three Ways of Explaining Defeat:

Three Ways of Explaining Defeat
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2956887/posts

Moreover, if Republicans would deal on illegal immigration, and propose paths to citizenship for the law-abiding who were brought here as children, the Latino leadership would still not, in turn, allow deportation for the felons and those not working and entirely on public assistance, or agree to close the border with finishing the fence, fining employers, and cross-checking federal documents. And why should they? A forever-blue California is their model, and many activists think it soon can be replicated in the American Southwest with sufficient cycles of open borders and cyclical euphemistic amnesties. As far as young unattached women, or the youth vote in general, the argument was made to them on economic terms (e.g., you are unemployed or underemployed and crushed by student loans in an ossified economy), and it went largely nowhere. Moreover, what does one do with a lily-white and well-off place like Washington, or the Connecticut suburbs, or the California coast, where blue counties of upscale yuppie married couples went overwhelmingly for Obama?


111 posted on 11/08/2012 12:46:22 AM PST by beaversmom
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To: sean327

Count me as one of those ‘’bashers’’ but with an explanation. To begin with ‘’Hispanic’’ is made up name, meant to lump together New World countries where Spanish is the primary language. My problem with all of this is the constant hyphenating ‘’Hispanic-American’’. How about dropping the’’Hispanic’’ and just call yourselves “Americans’’.


112 posted on 11/08/2012 1:05:22 AM PST by jmacusa (Political correctness is cultural Marxism. I'm not a Marxist.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Let’s give DC statehood as well.


113 posted on 11/08/2012 1:16:01 AM PST by Silver Sabre
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To: sean327
There are many of us who are Conservatives, and many more who have served this country honorably in the military.

You bet.

114 posted on 11/08/2012 1:24:37 AM PST by notfornothing
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To: Verginius Rufus
The Puerto Ricans are products of a different cultural tradition--Spanish-speaking and Catholic.

The same was true of Florida when it became a state. Louisiana was largely French and Catholic. So what?

As for the flag, we could either keep it at 50 stars and require Vermont to become a province of Canada

Do you realize that a generation ago Vermont had NEVER elected a Democrat to statewide office? Even more recently Texas was a reliably Democrat state. Things change. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

115 posted on 11/08/2012 1:37:13 AM PST by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: zerosix

With average incomes that are 1/3 the US average, I doubt many Puerto Ricans have to worry about paying taxes.


116 posted on 11/08/2012 1:43:04 AM PST by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: Viennacon

The Jewish vote was not much better than the Latino vote


117 posted on 11/08/2012 2:09:24 AM PST by chopperjc
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To: MinorityRepublican

No. No. No. No. NO. NO. NO.


118 posted on 11/08/2012 2:21:32 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: sean327
Puerto Rico has a Republican gov

Not for long. He lost on election day, too.

119 posted on 11/08/2012 2:22:41 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: wardaddy
I was a FR user with a different screen name once. I made a sarcastic comment about the claim that there was a lot of diversity at an all Black college. Faster than greased lightning I was no longer a FR member. I guess you can say Honkey, Cracker, Whitey, Paleface, Gringo, Yankee, or any other kind of slur imaginable about a white guy, but if even in jest you mention a name given some Blacks you're out of here. That is how it was. Political correctness was enforced.

I find it telling that there is no anti-White name anybody has ever said that I find offensive. If somebody of another race makes a points of me being White, I feel a little swell of pride and think "you're darn right I'm White, and proud as can be".
I note that whatever American members of the negroid race have chosen to call themselves eventually comes to be considered a slur. For example they were once Colored then Negros then Afro-American then "Brothers" then...
Might these names gain a negative connotation in the minds of their bearers due to negative behaviors eventually coming again to be associated with the group bearing the new name?

I spent six years of my childhood living in South Korea well over three decades ago now. I was a glaring minority in a very physically and genetically homogenous mass of People. They had a racist old world culture and did not make any attempt at what we now call political correctness. Some of them would literally cross the street to check out the "American". The adults would just stop me and start feeling my blond hair, or ask me if the whole world looked blue out of my eyes. They might mention that they had only seen Americans on black and white TV, and in black and white newspaper photos, but now they were able to see one in color. Then they might say that they had heard that Americans had bigger feet and bigger noses and now they could see that it was true. Then they would often try to get me to go with them so they could show me to their friends or family usually offering food as a bribe. They almost all wanted to try out the English that they learned in school, and see if it really worked. They might just blurt out some random phrase and then look at me to see if my face lit up in comprehension. In their culture children were on the lowest rung of a society that respected their elders, so it was expected that I wouldn't mind being waylayed to satisfy the curiosity of an adult, or being drug around as a novelty, "Hey! look what I just found. Its an American boy!" Anyway, in spite of being a minority in a country of people that thought their own race to be the best and were proud to tell you that. And in spite of being told American jokes or how odd my American culture and customs were to them. I was never bothered by any of it in the least. It never entered into my mind to resent them for thinking they were a superior race, or that they would never treat me like other Koreans, or that I stuck out, or that they shared American jokes with me, or any of a million things that might set off an African American who has been taught to try to perceive hostility hiding in every action of a White person.

And worse than slavery, the Catholics martyred my Anabaptist Ancestors in horrible public spectacles and hounded the remainder from country to country all around Europe reducing them to poverty time and again while using the full weight of their worldly power to oppress my pious ancestors, and yet I voted for Catholic Paul Ryan without the least reservation. I just don't see how one race gets permission to walk around with a chip on their shoulders for the rest of eternity for something that a few people did to their ancestors in generations past? Half of my White ancestors were not even in America at that time, and the half that were fought for Abe Lincoln to free them. If anything My ancestry should merit me a "thank you" from any African American who wants to be mad about past injustice. And If it is the present time that is bothering them, why don't they ask Our Black president to do something about what is bunching up their panties? Some Blacks have moved past grievance, but too many still own it with as strong a conviction as their religion.

Arg! Just had to get that off my Back.
I'm a fan of Dr. King's civil rights movement. Too bad the Clown Reverends who took it over made a U-turn and no longer want equality but instead want racial preferences again. Ungodly Fools!

120 posted on 11/08/2012 2:37:54 AM PST by ME-262 (Ichabod)
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