Basta!! Patrick McIlheran!

In his latest "Quick Hit" Patrick McIlheran implies that the very foundations of American civilization are threatened by Spanish speaking residents refusing to learn English.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth!

Spanish speaking immigrants and their progeny are learning English. They must to survive in the United States.

It is true that adult immigrants often struggle with learning a new language, just as earlier generations of non-English speaking immigrants did. Adult brains simply aren’t as adaptive as those of younger people.

The children and grandchildren of today’s Spanish speaking immigrants, like the children of previous generations of immigrants from Europe and elsewhere, adopt the language of their new country. Travel anywhere in the world and you will see people of African decent speaking French, German, and Italian, Iranians speaking Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish and Latinos speaking English!

Cross-posted at the DailyKos.

David Elliot represents the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty

Wisconsin voters this November will be asked their opinion on whether the death penalty should be reinstated. Bringing back capitol punishment after a 153-year hiatus makes about as much sense as driving down I-94 in reverse.You see, even as Wisconsin is considering a nonbinding referendum on the issue, states around the country are backing away from the death penalty. The number of executions is down, public support is down and the number of death sentences sought by prosecutors and handed down by juries has dropped sharply over the past decade.In recent years, a number of states have debated placing a moratorium on executions or doing away with the death penalty altogether. These states include “blue” states like New York and New Jersey as well as “red” states like Montana and North Carolina.

The truth, as both Democrats and Republicans are coming to realize, is that capital punishment is a failed social experiment. It has not made us more safe. It makes egregious errors. And its cost is increasingly more than we can bear.