On April 29, the U.S. House passed HR 2499 by a vote of 223 to 169. Now it goes to the U.S. Senate. It provides that a vote be conducted on the future political status of Puerto Rico. Any adult U.S. citizen who was born in Puerto Rico would be eligible to vote.
There would actually be two votes. The first vote would be on whether to conduct the second vote. If the first vote says “Yes” to the second vote, then that second vote would give four choices: (1) statehood; (2) the status quo, which is Commonwealth status; (3) sovereignty in association with the United States; (4) independence.
If this bill becomes law, the election (or elections) would be conducted by the federal government, not by the states. That alone would be historic. The federal government has never conducted an election in which residents of various states are eligible to vote.
http://www.bostontea.us/node/696
Last Summer – The Boston Tea Party National Committee passed a resolution “in support of HR 2499 To provide for a federally sanctioned self-determination process for the people of Puerto Rico†5-0 (with 1 not voting).
believes that the residents of Puerto Rico deserve better than continuation of the century of imperial enslavement by the English speaking land lords off shore ……….
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This is ridiculous. If the people of Puerto Rico want to be a state, they should tell their commonwealth government to petition Congress for admission. It is a simple as that. The vote to have a vote sounds like a convoluted application of Robert’s Rules of Order. There already have been several votes on this issue in PR, with several choices offered, and which always have resulted in no choice winning a majority. It there is to be yet another vote in that commonwealth on the issue, there should be two choices: 1) independence or 2) statehood.
Yet another way for Obama to get his mid-term votes. Dems can’t win otherwise.
Brian: you are partially right. Don’t judge the bill by the simplistic way ballot-access.org summarizes this bill (it is wrong). You need to read the bill and then opine. As a Puertorican, I attest to the fact that this bill is wrong because it was intending to create a rigged, fictitious majority in favor of statehood. But thanks to an ammendment by NC Rep. Virginia Foxx, the bill is no longer tilted and includes all options to be on the ballot. I disagree that the two only choices to fix Puerto Rico must be independence or statehood though. Puertoricans have the God given right, especially after being invaded by you in 1898, of aspiring to become a true autonomy of the USA, just like Wales or Scotland are of the United Kingdom. As long as USA does not ditch us back to Spain or leave us drifting in the atlantic Ocean, we are going to fight for that Autononomy, even if our American co-citizens to the North don’t like us (we may not like you either…. that’s why we rejected statehood in 1967, 1993 and 1998).
What about a vote for Alaska?
In the mean time…how about actual voting representation for Puetro Rico, D.C. and the territories?
Donna: you don’t know jack. Inform yourself before opining. This is not an Obama “plan” to get more votes like Glenn Beck said two days ago. If you knew better about the subject you would understand that (if this crappy bill clears the Senate floor) Barack Obama will not sign it into law. Obama has expressed that he does not favor a gimmicky Puerto Rican referendum — he will only support a vote that includes a Constitutional Assembly. For you information, the gimmicky, con-artists in Puerto Rico are the Republicans pro-statehood supportes–they want to shove statehood down the throats of 60% of the electorate who despise total assimilation in your culture. It is the Democrats pro-Commonwealth/Pro-Autonomy who, through a Constitutional Assembly with all adversaries (including the statehooders) want to debate the issue democratically and let the chips fall where they may.
Who is Jack?
One more EVIL scheme by the EVIL Donkey party hacks to have more Donkey U.S.A. Senators and Reps. ???
Duh.
Since when can a voter residing in a sovereign State vote on ANYTHING outside of such State ???
Sorry – ONE person/voter in ONE State [political area].
What’s next — having ONLY the voters in Donkey States voting directly for a U.S.A. President ???
E-V-I-L powermadness in DEVIL CITY ??? Duh.
Proper remedy – Constitutional Amdt
Uniform definition of Elector in ALL of the U.S.A.
P.R. and A.V. — even in Puerto Rico, D.C. and the other U.S.A. colonies.
If PR chooses independence what will be the citizenship status of those born there that now live in the US?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico
A LONG history of external and internal political machinations.
What old part of the U.S.A. was a territory for the longest time before becoming [part of] a State ???
AK – circa 1869-1959 — a mere about 90 years ??? — or the far west part of the 1803 LA Purchase ???
The underlying political ROT is partly due to the party hack Supremes in the Insular Cases — i.e. the folks in the areas conquered by U.S.A. military force have about ZERO constitutional rights — i.e. in the Spanish – American War and other similar wars.
i.e. the D.C. party hacks can play non-stop games with the lives, liberties and property of the folks in such conquered colonies.
Hmmm. Sounds familiar. See 1775-1783 in the 13 ex-British colonies versus the EVIL U.K. regime back then which tried such control freak stuff and of course failed. See the 1776 DOI and the 1783 Peace Treaty.
John Doe, your as opinionated as Donna and some of the other folkss in this debate. Brian is ABSOLUTELY right.Being european myself I know that the context of circumstances between Wales and the rest of GB offers NO similarities with the situation between the US and PR. Whar all the referenda and polls in PR INCREASINGLY demonstrate is that if there is somenthing that Puerto Ricans do NOT want is independence. You are so biased that you can’t see the other side of the coin. You need to leave your personal issues out of this debate…