Puerto Rico statehood

[Populus Romanus]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/07/politi...ico/index.html

In an overshadowed Election Day contest, Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood in a nonbinding referendum, marking the first time such an initiative garnered a majority.

Puerto Ricans were asked about their desires in two parts. First, by a 54% to 46% margin, voters rejected their current status as a U.S. commonwealth. In a separate question, 61% chose statehood as the alternative, compared with 33% for the semi-autonomous "sovereign free association" and 6% for outright independence.

I'm surprised this has recieved almost no coverage in the press. I thought the first new state in fifty-odd years would cause quite a stir!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Can anyone spot the difference?

[Strike For The South]

Merge the Dakotas to keep America solvent and free of Chinese fabric

[gaelic cowboy]

Or sell Alaska back to Russia for some of that Russian oil money

hmm hey it could wipe the deficit and remove Sarah Palin from the national picture

[Ronin]

the booty quality deserves statewood...I mean statehood.

[TinCow]

I'm a bit rusty on the statehood process, but doesn't Puerto Rico have to formally request it first? If that's correct, the question is whether the PR government will actually do so since the referendum itself doesn't qualify.

[Graphic]

There's a lot more that has to be done for them to become a new state.

[drone]

This might be a good time to finally get rid of Florida.

[Populus Romanus]

There's a lot more that has to be done for them to become a new state.

Including running the D.C. gridlock gauntlet. What a shame it would be if they got vetoed at the last step of the process for partisan politics lolo



war of the threads

[Seamus Fermanagh]

We should have made them a state decades ago, or cut them loose to move ahead on their own.

On the other hand, we could take the opportunity to make PR-variant Spanish the national language and cheese off just about everybody in N.A.

[Major Robert Dump]

Well, we need to do the same with Guam, CNMI, Samoa and the VI, they get as much, if not more, federal aid per capita than any other state. I believe PR and Guam have a far higher percentage of people on food stamps than the average state, and they pay little in federal taxes.

Another thing to consider, as that we as Americans do not hold full property acquisition rights in our non state holdings. A lot of the non statehood holdouts are funded by or associated with old family tribals and their money. they don't want the gringos coming in and buying their land.

In their defense of not becoming a state and getting so much federal money, Guam and PR actually have a higher percentage of people per capita in the military than the states, with Guam being right uip there at the very top in terms of recruiting, retention, deployments and casualties.

[Major Robert Dump]

Never met a guam soldier who was not squared away.

Puerto Rican NG was notorious for looting at Katrina. Their customs cell in AFG in 2011 was pretty good, though.

One other thing to also consider about these colonies being given statehood, is that they are all islands and thus have different sorts of national security issues. I can assure you that were we to go to war with China, Guam and the Marianas would be one of the first places attacked.

[Major Robert Dump]

In order to avoid the hassle of going IRR or dealing with MEB, I was considering trying to transfer to the Guam NG.

But then I realized that I was
A) Too tall, and
B) Not nearly as motivated and excitable as they, and
C) Did not want to be on the mustering roster for IRR through Guam, in case we go to war in Asia.

In fact, if I move to Guam or the PI I will become quite the peace activist.