Our new blog in Spanish

We have a new companion blog in Spanish -- freshly minted today. What a thrill!

Thanks to our new blogger, an accomplished journalist posting as Isabel-Democratas de Miami, we will have the ability to cross the language barrier. So much for Tancredoism!

The URL is http://democratasdemiami.blogspot.com

Fox would call this fair and balanced

Two posts ago there was some bragging here about a bit of news coverage of some of our Democratic-backed anti-war actions over the weekend, but in fact we were crying inside about the quick demise of Raul Martinez’ radio show.

Leave it to Joe Garcia, our chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, to wipe away the tears with a ripping statement on Monday:

"Just when we thought a strong, progressive voice had finally made its way on to the Spanish language airwaves in Miami, WQBA and its management decided to blackmail Mayor Martinez, refusing to allow him to continue his radio show unless he promised not to pursue elected office -- a decision he has yet to make.

“This is an outrageous affront to a committed statesman and certainly smells foul of a station who, along with the administration of Univision Radio, has shown no desire to censure the cacophony of Republican voices on its airwaves.”

Makes me wonder what Martinez, the former mayor of Hialeah, said on the radio. He got the hook after only a week on WQBA 1140 AM. They knew before hiring him for the one-hour daily gig that he might run for Congress against Lincoln Diaz-Balart (FL-21).

Chairman Garcia went on with his statement:

“Perhaps WQBA's decision is tied to the hundreds of thousands of dollars poured suspiciously into its parent company and sister stations by GOP lawmakers in the federal government for the purpose of airing Radio and TV Marti propaganda.

“Further disheartening is the fact that the Democratic Party worked together so successfully with Univision to host the groundbreaking Spanish language forum with our Presidential candidates a week ago. Of course, Republicans continue to refuse this invitation to speak with the Hispanic community.

“Mayor Martinez deserves better and the people of Miami certainly deserve equal time given to members of any political party. We maintain a strong spirit of commitment to work with Univision so that their audiences are given fair chance to hear the Democratic message of change and progress that they are desperately asking for."

WQBA calls itself “La voz de Miami.” Yeah, maybe La voz of a certain part of Miami.

Not the last progressive in Spanish

Now, all is not lost. There still is a progressive voice on the Spanish language radio in Miami. It’s on every Thursday evening 8-9 p.m. on 1550 AM, where Millie Herrera and Hector Caraballo hold forth on Democracia al Dia. They have been on the air since April 5, volunteering their progressive hearts and skills.

“We still need ads and contributions,” Herrera appeals. “We’re making headway but please consider placing an ad on our program. The prices are right.”

And in English we still have the 6-9 a.m. voice of Nicole Sandler on WINZ AM 940, and a lot of good local talk on 1080 AM WTPS the People’s Station.

UPDATE: Not to forget the Florida Progressive Coalition's daily internet radio show, 2 p.m. live, later available in the archives. Check it out at this link at BlogTalkRadio. Good listening.

Debates in Spanish coming

Here’s an interesting wrinkle. Presidential debates in Spanish. The link.

Why do I hear Jeb Bush’s heavy footsteps?

No, I don’t mean that they’d all have to learn Spanish – it would be done with simultaneous translation.

A question occurs: How has the Spanish-speaking population been informed about these debates? Are they broadcast on the Spanish channels with voice-over translation?

This also has played big on DailyKos, which approves. The link.

I guess if we have a debate every week, financed by the networks, we could cancel all those silly negative campaign commercials.

Update: Bill Richardson has accepted the invitation.