THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† El Efecto Bradley: Fernando C de Baca , the chairman of the Republican Party in NM's most populous county resigned at the urging of members of his own party after making some impolitic remarks about the Hispanic vote to in two BBC interviews , reports The Associated Press:
C de Baca, 70, was quoted in a BBC News blog last week as saying: “The truth is that Hispanics came here as conquerors. African-Americans came here as slaves. Hispanics consider themselves above blacks. They won't vote for a black president.”
C de Baca maintains that his comments were taken out of context, explaining that he was referring to views held by some in the generation of Hispanics who grew up before the civil rights movement. He said Thursday that “snippets were used to try and embarrass me.” …
Pressure on C de Baca to resign had grown with the release of audio from a second BBC interview.
In that interview, he said older Hispanics would not support Obama “primarily because there is a strong feeling that African Americans during the civil rights movement took advantage, full advantage, of all the benefits and programs that the government offered, that were supposed to be offered to all minorities. But we were left behind, we were left sucking air, and we resented that ever since the '60s, and I don't see how a black president is going to change that.”
For months, Obama has consistently led John McCain in various polls.
† Updates To Previous Posts (What Part Of “Loose Lips Sink Ships” Doesn’t The New York Times Understand?: Part II): Pakistani and American ground troops along the border with Afghanistan engaged each other in an unfriendly fire incident on Thursday, in Pakistan’s tribal region along the Afghan border, The New York Times reports:
The clash started after the Pakistanis fired shots or flares at two American helicopters that Pakistan says had crossed its border.
The two American OH-58 Kiowa reconnaissance helicopters were not damaged and no casualties were reported. …
American and NATO officials said that the two helicopters were flying about one mile inside Afghan airspace to protect an American and Afghan patrol on the ground when the aircraft were fired on by troops at a Pakistani military checkpoint near the Tanai district in Khost Province. The officials said small-caliber arms were used.
In response, the American ground troops shot short bursts of warning fire, which hit well shy of the checkpoint, and the Pakistanis fired back, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for the United States Central Command.
But a spokesman for the Pakistani Army, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said Pakistani forces fired warning shots at the American aircraft after they crossed into Pakistan’s territory in the area of Saidgai, in the Ghulam Khan region of North Waziristan.
For his part, Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari claimed that flares – not ordnance – were fired at the helicopters.
The Times notes that “Pakistani civilian leaders have denounced an incursion by American Special Operations forces into Pakistan on Sept. 3, which was authorized under orders given by President Bush in July” – but fails to mention that the paper itself was responsible for divulging what had been a classified military secret, resulting in heightened tensions between Pakistan and the U.S. and complicating our anti-terror mission.
† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, Another Cockamamie Lib Idea Fails The Real World Test): Sixteen children ranging in age from 1 to 17 have now been dumped at hospitals under NE's safe haven law, which allows caregivers to abandon children as old as 19 without fear of prosecution, reports The Associated Press - nine of them from one family:
The five boys and four girls were left by their father, who was not identified, at Creighton University Medical Center's emergency room. Unrelated boys ages 11 and 15 also were surrendered Wednesday at Immanuel Medical Center.
The law, which went into effect in July, initially was intended to protect infants. In a compromise with senators worried about arbitrary age limits, the measure was expanded to include the word "child," which wasn't defined. Some have interpreted this to mean anyone under the age of 19. …
Two of those cases don't fall under the safe haven law because one child was left at a police station and one child's age wasn't covered by the law.
Todd Landry, director of Health and Human Services' division of Children and Family Services, said that in nearly every case, the parents who left their children felt overwhelmed and had decided they didn't want to be parents anymore. None of the kids dropped off so far have been in danger, he said.
State Sen. Arnie Stuthman admits that the law is being used as “an easy way out” for parents and guardians who can’t control their kids.
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