MORE ON BUSTAMANTE AND RACISM: Pejman Yousefzadeh has a lengthy and link-filled post on the subject. Conclusion:

Cruz Bustamante, to the best of my knowledge, is not a racist, or a secessionist, or an advocate of violence. But he once joined those who were, and who are. And just recently, he failed to denounce them. If he had any shame whatsoever, he wouldn’t even get his own vote. It’s bad enough that California is currently governed by an incompetent. It need not be governed by a coward. Cruz Bustamante blew an easy call by failing to denounce MEChA. His supporters repeat the mistake by trying to excuse away the indefensible.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Roger Simon comments:

Identity Politics is so reactionary that it works against the very thing it pretends to espouse. I say pretends quite deliberately because many so-called progressive militants in these areas consciously or unconsciously yearn for the by-gone era when they could be social outsiders with all the attendant moral high ground. But all they succeed in doing is alienating people who already, for the most part, agree with them. Not smart and not useful to anybody.

That is why I was surprised to see that MEChA is still employing the rhetoric of another era and why I agree with Mickey Kaus that Bustamante must more fully disassociate himself from it. Not only does this shopworn language do his cause no good, it makes it difficult to have a serious discussion on what is probably the most controversial and complex subject facing California today.

Read the whole thing.