Faux Has Been Flogging the BUSTAMANTE/MEChA Thing

Tony SNOWjob did a live segment this morning saying the Faux interviewer had given BUSTA ----FOUR, 4!!!---chances to repudiate his MEChA past, which he had refused to take. They've been repeating this on the hourly/half-hourly updates. In looking for a link, guess what, there's a whole website called "The SCOURGE of MEChA" that has been following MEChA people for years back, calling one "MEChA *Boy* ".

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http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6645105.htm
.... Bustamante's controversy is more obscure to the average voter, although it is being featured on conservative talk radio and Fox TV news. It involves his participation in a Mexican-American student group called Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan that critics say espouses separatist and racist views. Bustamante was a member in 1975, as a student at California State University-Fresno.

MEChA grew out of the civil rights movement and still has chapters on dozens of college and high school campuses in California. San Jose State University's MEChA chapter says on its Web site that it is committed to ``the liberation of Aztlan,'' a term that can refer to the part of the United States that once belonged to Mexico. ``Lands rightfully ours will be fought for and defended,'' the Web site says. ....

---------QUOTE 2: "The SCOURGE of MEChA"-----
http://www.americanpatrol.org/MECHA/MEChAindex.html

Former California Assembly speaker and former MEChA Leader Antonio Villaraigosa (right) being endorsed in his failed attempt to become mayor of L.A. by then mayor Richard Riordan, a RINO and cheerleader for amnesty for millions of Mexican criminals. Villaraigosa lost to James Hahn, a Democrat who later went to Mexico and told Fox that L.A. is a Mexican city
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http://www.atlanticblog.com/archives/001071.html
Give me a break - is the person who wrote this kidding? I was secretary for my MEChA chapter in college. Yes, it's a radical nationalist group but to equate it to the Nazi's is just silly. These two articles just demonstrate their ignorance more than anything else. They would be on firmer ground if they were to question Bustamante's nationalism rather than to over-inflate a hysterical notion about a group like MEChA, which exists more to keep young people in school than it does to recreate Aztlan. Perhaps there's a reason Bustamante's MEChA past has only received attention on the internet.

It'd be nice if the right wing would take Latino politics seriously and not be so silly about it. I'd think that conservatives could do more to attract conservative Latino voters than to be hysterical about MEChA - this tactic seems to be more about scaring white folks than it does about addressing any real issue.

Posted by: Carrie on August 20, 2003 07:41 AM

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Hee hee, Arnie really do the orgy thing?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=4&u=/nm/20030830/ts_nm/politics_california_dc_7

Never struck me as particularly crazed and nationalistic. At least they had no prob with this gringo.

Or is this just an underhanded attempt to increase the Latino turnout for the recall?

If this non-issue is all they can come up with, Cruz will be fine.

I will point out that it was Kucinich's supporters that first raised this issue in DU about Bustamante's questionable ties to MECha and to Hispanic groups with racist ties. They also brought to our attention that Bustamante's unfortunate use of the N-word was not a mere faux paus, but was indicative of Bustamante's alleged ties to racist Hispanic groups.

I support Bustamante for the recall election. Having said that, Cruz owes the voters an explanation.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=89038

where 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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Thanks for the links, UTUSN!

get naked with MECha? Are there pictures? Is he pumped up? Was there group sex?

THe conservatives need to get their priorities straight. Group sex is now somehow better than membership in a Mexican American advocacy group?

MzPip
:dem:

Yeah, I've seen this issue mentioned by right-wingers in another forum. To be honest, I've never even heard of MEChA until now. But when I do a search, the only articles I see are in Right Wing sites. They compare MEChA to the KKK which seems like an irresponsible and sensationalist comparison. The fact that no "legitimate" news sources have picked up on this makes me think it is being blown way out of proportion. (Of course, the righties would contend it's censorship by the "liberal media.") I looked over a couple MEChA websites from active campus chapters, and it all seemed pretty harmless to me. But I can find no information from an objective outside source.

to do the wingnuts' dirty work if Ahhhnuld looks like he's going down (what the hey, slip of the bad pun can stay).

(& you're-welcome to #7 and LOL to #8.)

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

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http://slate.msn.com/id/2087366/

.... RealClearPolitics.com was one of the few sites to spot a late-breaking trend and correctly predict the 2002 mid-term Congressional elections. When they talk, kf listens. Their analysis of the California recall, in essence: Cruz is doomed, but Davis ain't.
While the evidence continues to remain strong that Davis will indeed be recalled, we think the Democrats have a better shot at getting that pro-Davis recall number below 50.0% than they do of having Cruz out duel Arnold. ....

The issue of Cruz Bustamante's refusal to distance himself from Mecha, the creepy Chicano identity politics student group--raised most insistently by Michelle Malkin--appears to be getting some traction in the California recall. On tonight's L.A. evening news it got equal billing with the Scwarzengangbanger story. But while the latter scandal could fade quickly, the Mecha story won't, because Bustamante's response has been so revealingly pathetic. ....

P.S.: The Mecha issue is also a test of character for Bustamante. Who is it he's scared of offending and why? Donde esta la Hermana Souljah? ... P.S.: Bustamante is posing these days as a left-wing Democrat, but he's been a Lieberman supporter. Maybe some mischievous, bored journalist covering the Democratic presidential campaign should ask Sen. Lieberman what he thinks of Bustamante's Mecha support. It might break up the monotony. ... Bonus thought: Was Bustamante attracted to Lieberman precisely because the latter has succeeded in politics with a substantially unassimilated ethnic identity? ...12:59 A.M.

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and why the HELL can't Bustamante win a majority of the recall vote???? How the HELL is Arnie any better???

They're carrying water for Arnold. And this shouldn't be all that harmful to Bustamante since he doesn't need a majority to win the replacement race. Nonetheless, it would make things easier if he justs disassociates himself from the group.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0828pimentel28.html

Also, Mecha was in Cruz's past, but Arnie is still on the board of KKK infested US English:



> http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/26/1430228&tid=25
> --A Look at Schwarzeneggerís Fatherís Ties to the Nazis and Arnoldís
> Connection to Racist Hate Groups
>