Habla Espanol*

Via TBogg I find this post at San Diego Soliloquies which gives at least one strike against the claim that MEChA, the organization that California Recall candidate Cruz Bustamante belonged to in college.

So quite a few of the usual suspects are up in arms about Cruz Bustamante having been a member of MEChA in callege. Every single damn one of them translates:

Por La Raza todo.
Fuera de La Raza nada.
as:

For the Race, everything.
For those outside the Race, nothing
This is a common mistake among people who think the ability to order from a Taco Bell menu constitutes fluency in Spanish. The word "por" is almost never used as "for". You almost always use the word "para". "Es para ti" (Sorry about the accents) is "It's for you". Por has many uses, but the first definition is "because of", as in "eso te pasa por crédulo" (That's what you get for being so credulous). When you get a postcard from Spain that says "Por Avion", do you think that someone accidentally gave the airplane's mail to you?

Go read it now!

I was ready to believe that Bustamante might be homophobic. Until I read at Instapundit's post on the subject, of all things, (I won't link to him out of general non-conformity, but San Diego Soliloquies above has a link to the post in question) and found out that the evidence used by everyone in the righty blogosphere to accuse MEChA, and Bustamante by association, of homophobia is an article from Aztlan.net, Aztlan being a completely different organization from MEChA.

Now, I know next to nothing about Cruz Bustamante. But, given the current evidence, it doesn't seem he's a racist or a homophobe.

Show me where he said that if a segregationist had become president, the world might be a better place.

Show me where he said that there should be a law stating marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

Hell, show me where he said he had "no hang-ups about the 'fag' business."

And to be Fair & Balanced about it, you could even show me where he called New York "Hymietown." (Not even the most furious Googling gave me a good link to that, but it was Jesse Jackson that said it.)

Then I'd be more than willing to believe Cruz Bustamante is a racist homophobe. Until then, find some policy or something of his to criticize.

*Sorry about the lack of a tilde.