Cross Posted at
http://greenchiledems.soapblox.net/...
http://squarestate.net/...
Today I was invited to the Hispanic Caucus for a morning of tribute, blogging and comraderie with the Hispanic legislators of our country at the invitation of fellow Kossack, Obama Super Delegate from Colorado, fellow garden blogger and Colorado DNC committeewoman...Green Chile Democrat.
John and Ken Salazar were the featured lead-off speakers which included a visit by Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton. Speakers included Senator Menendez of New Jersey, Congressperson Loreta Sanchez of California who all spoke of the dynamics of increased voter registration for the emerging Hispanic communities and demographics in America.
I barely slept last night as I anticipated the buzz downtown at the convention. I crawled out of bed at 7:00 a.m. with a hangover from Frankenoid's Garden and Pootie party with the SquareState.net party animals.
It's literally a circus Downtown on the the 16th St Mall.
Check out Daryl Hannah's cool peace symbol.
As we stepped out of the Convention Center Green Chile Dem casually said "Hey Ray see tonight at the delegate dinner." "Hey Green Chile see you tonight too."
Senator Menendez is a dynamic speaker. He is the first person of Hispanic ethnicity to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate. He reminded the Hispanic Caucus that education will be the cornerstone of the platform as in 8 years, 25% of all school children will be Hispanic. The Democratic primaries registered a record Hispanic turnout vote, with 17 million Latino voters eligble to vote in the November Election.
As the son of poor Cuban tenement immigrant parents, he was the first in his family to graduate from college.
" We are not second class citizens," he reminded a cheering delegation, "We will not have our families, friends and neighbors caught up in Immigration raids."
Hillary and Ken Salazar spoke of their commitment to the Obama/Biden ticket. Hillary asked, "...all who supported me in the past, to now support Obama/ Biden now."
The crowd loved her and started chanting Hill-a-ree.
Loreta Sanchez spoke of her Latino family roots in Los Angeles. She decried the wall with Mexico. " Our (hispanic) families are the ones who support and uphold this country and constitution when they deny citizenship to our people who work and serve in America."
"Stop breaking up families!"
"Stop building the fence that looks like the one in Germany."
" We dream dreams of color in 'black and white' America."
" We dream of Tomorrow."
Dr. Howard Dean spoke of "Register! Register! Register!" He encouraged us to register and vote early. He decried the Republican tricks to suppress the Hispanic vote throughout America. "Yes dirty tricks, like sending bullies to the polls in latino communities with big INS t-shirts to scare off the people."
Yeah the Big tent! Talk about Coolio! I drank 3 beers and called it quits at 4:00 p.m. I gave Something the Dog Said my credentials and said, See ya Wednesday!"