Posted on 07/16/2012 7:12:18 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Eric Holder is scheduled to land in Guam today, the first U.S. attorney general ever to visit the U.S. territory, which serves as a center of U.S. military power in the Western Pacific. But the Associated Press reports that after meeting with local officials, Holder will not take any questions from journalists “because his tight schedule doesn’t give him time for a press conference.”
That may be, but the curious omission also spares Holder from any questions about why his department has refused to intervene in or comment on an important court case involving U.S. citizens who are being barred from voting on the island — a far more serious matter than the mainland voter-ID laws decried by Holder as the equivalent of “poll taxes.”
The Chamorro-native-controlled government of Guam is actively excluding the non-Chamorro U.S. citizens on the island from voting in an upcoming referendum on the island’s future. Non-native citizens — Filipinos, other Asians, whites, and blacks — are even prohibited from registering to vote for the election, although they make up 63 percent of the island’s 155,000 residents. The intent is to guarantee that only natives will decide whether they wish to sever ties with the U.S. and seek independence for Guam, keep its status as a territory, or move toward statehood. The territory’s Chamorro governor and the Guam Election Commission can call the vote on this matter anytime they wish.
The restriction is defended by Guam as being non-racial because it restricts the vote to “native inhabitants” who lived in Guam in 1950 and their direct descendants. But the Supreme Court has frequently struck down such sly attempts to restrict voting rights. In Guinn v. United States (1915), the Court rejected Oklahoma’s attempt to close voter-registration rolls by saying that the Fifteenth Amendment nullifies “sophisticated as well as simple-minded modes of discrimination.” In 2000, in Rice v. Cayetano, the Supreme Court struck down a law that allowed only native Hawaiians to vote on who should run the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The court opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy stated: “Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are, by their very nature, odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.” The Voting Rights Act of 1965, barring discrimination in voting, is also in full effect in Guam.
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“.....But there is on the island an undercurrent of hostility against the U.S. The local government is dominated by Chamorros, because of high voter turnout on their part and a correspondingly low voter turnout by other ethnic groups. A vocal minority of Chamorros goes so far as to envision the referendum as a first step toward ridding the island of U.S. “colonizers.” Protesters often call for removal of a key nuclear-submarine base on the island as well as the closure of Anderson Air Force Base, the operating home of B-2 and B-52 bombers assigned to the region. At a time when China is flexing its military might and making incursions into the territory of nations in the South China Sea, Guam is more important than ever to U.S. security interests.
Despite the importance of Guam, ideologues in the Obama administration seem to be actively helping efforts that will only increase ethnic and racial tension on the island. The Obama Interior Department is set to transfer $250,000 to the island’s territorial government to promote and advertise the racially discriminatory referendum, which local observers predict will be called in 2014.
It’s understandable why Eric Holder doesn’t want to answer questions while he is in Guam. The Voting Rights Act he claims to strongly support is being ignored on U.S. soil, and his Justice Department is completely indifferent — or even hostile — to enforcing it. No one would want to address all the contradictions inherent in that position.”
Maybe it will tip over and Holder will fall into the ocean.
Communism really didn’t die in ‘91.
It’s alive, well and metastacizing all over the world, with the help of its Islam allies.
IMHO
We soon found out that the locals practiced three tier pricing (the highest for tourists especially Japanese who are too polite to call them on it, the lowest for locals and everyone else in between). We countered this by opening a local bank account and getting a card from the bank which allowed us to pose as locals. We had lunch in an outdoor cafe and had one of the local Chamaro wait staff girls give us a quick lesson in the local island slang and left her a generous tip.
Then we proceeded to use that knowledge and the bank ID to get us the best rates everywhere or, use my Japanese driver's license in places which gave special rates to Japanese tourists. There were actually quite a few of those places as well, but the majority of them sold brand name luxury goods which had zero interest for us.
We did, however, have to agree with the assessment of most of our Japanese friends and neighbors who had told us about Guam. Most of the natives were friendly and laid back, but lazy. They grow almost nothing, even though the island was a major rice exporter at one time. What they do grow now (mainly pineapples) are mostly worked by imported guest workers.
They do make a lot of garments (great buys on blue jeans), but again these factories are mostly staffed by imported guest workers.
There is a huge hospital downtown, as big as anything you'd see in Pittsburgh, a town of hospitals serving a metro area of 2.5 million, roughly 12 times the population of Guam. I was told that the bulk of the beds were filled by druggies.
Long story short is that most of the locals who work are a distinct minority, either employed with the Guam government or serving in the only two other two industries which keep the island afloat-- the tourist trade and the U.S. Military which, by the way, maintains some fascinating historical sites on the bases, some of which have changed little since World War II save for putting AC in the Quonset huts instead of big fans.
I was thinking exactly the same thing..
I was thinking exactly the same thing..
I was thinking exactly the same thing..
Funny how well that fits with the Obama Communist Traitor meme.
Guam is a U.S. military fortress that sent thousands of tons of H.E. to destroy a million Communist cadres on the battlefields and supply trails of Indochina.
Of course Red-diaper baby Obama wants to deprive us of it. Of course he wants to cut Guam loose, and let the Chicoms snap it up and turn it into a forward base for the PLAN and PLAAF.
After all, the Chinese Politburo gave us the word last year: Out of the Western Pacific. We will, however, generously condescend to share the Central Pacific with you.
And, given his own background, of course Obozo is using ethnic divisiveness to accomplish his policy aim, and sending Key Man Holder to help stir up manage race relations there.
So if a bare majority of the 41% of Chamorro-stock Guamanians votes for independence, the 78% who either voted the other way or weren't allowed to vote are supposed to accept the results and leave?
My father was one of the Marines who freed Guam in 1944 (and received a silver star and purple heart). I don't think he would like this referendum.
It will be a travesty if this vote goes forward--but maybe even a majority of the Chamorros will realize that they would be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
What next--independence for the Northern Marianas Islands?
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