Word: commonwealthers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Rico won't be a swing state in November. It's not even a state, and its 4 million residents aren't allowed to vote in the general election. Its partisan politics have little in common with the mainland's; the main competitors are not Democrats and Republicans, but "commonwealthers" and "statehooders," and while they are divided into reds and blues, the reds of the commonwealth party are more likely to favor Democrats, while the blues of the statehood party skew more Republican. Puerto Rico residents do serve in the U.S. military, but they do not pay U.S. income taxes...
...United States seized the archipelago of Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898, but most boricuas still speak Spanish at home. It is now a semi-autonomous commonwealth, separate and not quite equal. Its residents are U.S. citizens, and they do pay U.S. payroll taxes and receive Social Security benefits, but their sole representative in Congress has no voting power - and when it comes to presidential elections, they have no voting power either. Puerto Ricans narrowly voted to maintain the status quo in three non-binding plebiscites, most recently in 1998, but the status question is still the dividing line that...
...Clinton and Obama have both pledged to support self-determination for Puerto Rico, which appeals to both parties, although Obama has suggested that he supports a constitutional assembly to address the issue, a bit of a shout-out to commonwealthers. Obama has snagged the endorsement of Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila, who presides over the commonwealth party's machine, and is running for reelection even though he's under indictment for campaign finance violations, allegations which he denies. But commonwealthers like former Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo support Clinton, as does Senate President and statehooder Kenneth McClintock, while the statehooder vying...
...evidence global warming is causing this drought or will ever cause anything like a permanent one; there's even a theory that higher temperatures could help boost Australian agricultural production by bringing more rain to some parts of the country. On the other hand, modeling studies by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation suggest temperatures will rise by 1-6°C over the next 60 years, increasing evaporation and water scarcity in future droughts...
...serve and better the community, callings that shouldn’t be reduced to assuage the problems the state government can’t handle. Perhaps this proposal would have been more amenable if the money taken by the state went directly to struggling non-profit organizations around the Commonwealth or other salutary areas. The fact that this revenue mechanism would have only been one of many recent ploys to help the government’s economic problems (like casinos are) then the justification loses all merit. Universities across the country, regardless of endowment size, should not be taxed. Universities...