http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=89038where just about all the angles were covered----1) racism, 2) no-just-a-culture-club, 3) just-about-all-Latinos-in-CA-have-ties, 4) wingnuts will scare-tactic non-CA-ers.
Just looking at the "American Patrol" link (above), it looks FOR SURE that the wingnuts ARE using racist scare tactics. And this link, from the selfsame site, unwittingly contains an exculpation. It sounds like BUSTAMANTE *has* been explaining and apologizing all along before this. The assertion that "A slip of the tongue means you use the word (the slip) all the time" is an assertion, not proof in itself. It would seem to matter that "a legion" of Black leaders "rushed to (his) defense" and that he has "an excellent record on affirmative action and relations with the African American community"----no?
There's NO doubt that the anti-immigrant furor (starting with ILLEGALS but spreading to more furriners) has been re-kindling in the past few years, and the usual Michelle MALKIN, O'REILLY, BUCHANAN, Faux are at the forefront. If they are FOR something, I'm against it and will find the right reasons to be against it as I learn more.
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http://www.motherjones.com/reality_check/?F22.html.... Bustamante has been apologizing up and down the state ever since.
A legion of black and Latino officials rushed to the defense of Bustamante, the state's first Latino lieutenant governor, citing his excellent record on affirmative action and relations with the African American community. Still, that hasn't saved the man from being momentarily shoved into the ignominious ranks of such notables as Cincinnati owner Marge Schott, Dodger executive Al Campanis, and a parade of other prominent whites who speared themselves with their mouths.
The difference, however, is that most of them deliberately uttered racist epithets that pandered to the most vile stereotypes about blacks. Bustamante, it seems clear, is guilty of nothing but an especially ill-timed slip of the tongue.
The colossal danger in lumping someone like him in with bigots is that it deepens racial resentments and heightens tensions. ....
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