"Tu Voz Cuenta ...." Translated, it means "Your Voice Counts" (vote Democrat) ...

The photo at the right isn't of a bunch of bluebonnets scattered in the streets of Dallas -- it's of roughly 500,000 protestors flooding the streets to support "immigration."

Of course, the crowd was swelled even further by political activists of every stripe trolling for the Holy Grail of today's partisan politics -- the Hispanic Vote.

From the DallasMorningNews, title link:

Adela Rodriguez took exquisite flourish in becoming a Dallas County registered voter on Sunday. On her left cheek, she painted a red-white-and-blue flag, on her right, a lone star in blue.

A 37-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico, she said she wants to vote into office politicians who will support legalizing immigrants. A House bill that would make felons out of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants was too much to endure, she said, echoing the sentiments of many who turned out Sunday

Ms. Rodriguez is just one of the millions of untapped voters that political activists are hoping to energize for ballot-box appearances in the next election.

Some 16 million Hispanics are eligible to vote, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. But just 9 million are registered.

In 2004, Latinos made up 14 percent of the population but just 6 percent of the total votes cast in the presidential race. But many politicians know the potential muscle of the group – especially in tight Dallas County races where Democrats hold the majority of registered voters by a slim margin

Both parties are stumbling all over themselves to beg or buy the Hispanic vote.

"I am so optimistic that I have 5,000 voter registration cards," said Lena Levario, a criminal defense lawyer running for the 204th Criminal District Court bench as a Democrat. By the day's end, though, she hadn't received a tally on the number of new registered voters harvested from the massive crowd.

"The march doesn't end here," she said. "We are going to march to the end of the November election."

While the Latino population is 41 million strong, an estimated 14 million, or a third, are ineligible to vote because they are under 18. And 11 million adults don't have U.S. citizenship, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

In the 2004 presidential race, exit polls in Texas showed Mr. Bush got 59 percent of the Hispanic vote. Nationwide, however, the Pew Hispanic Center says that Bush's share of the Hispanic vote was probably close to 40 percent.

Democrats, however, dwell on the other 60 percent. Many candidates at the rally worked the crowd with blue T-shirts that declared their party affiliations.

David Hanschen, a Democratic candidate for judge of the 254th Family District Court, handed out bilingual fliers to the crowd that read: " Tu Voz Cuenta ... Vota Democrata en 2006," –Your voice counts ... vote Democratic in 2006.

Explaining his effort, Mr. Hanschen said, "I feel we have an opportunity here to connect with and talk to thousands of Democratic voters, who have been in the past disenfranchised because they, perhaps, believed their vote didn't count."

"In Dallas County, in 2006, every vote counts," he said, adding that Democrats have a thin lead over Republicans, who are expert at getting their party supporters to the polls.

At least two platoons of voter registrars worked the march. Ms. Levario led one multicultural troop that included Patels and Prodonoviches, Callahans and Carreños. Sister Consuelo Tovar, a Roman Catholic nun, led the other group. She set up her booth in front of the historic Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe with volunteers from Dallas Area Interfaith.

At day's end, the nun was unsure how many had been registered, but she said the work would continue. Dallas Area Interfaith has a goal of registering 50,000 for a pro-family agenda that includes issues such as immigration.

Once again, the point of the excercise is missed: it's not immigration that anyone objects to -- it's illegal immigration, along with the insane policies that permit it, and the employers that hire illegals, in the scramble to get voters and save money.

Protests like the above are likely to continue throughout the Senate spring break, so look for more spineless jibbering pandering when our leaders get back to work. Here in Texas, we're fortunate with John Cornyn, and blessed with Kay Bailey Hutchison. Consider e-mailing them both with a word of support because after viewing footage of the rallies, they'll need it. You can use the e-mail form on both of their websites.

There are more protests scheduled for today, along with an economic boycott, and if you want to see how it's playing in the Middle East, click here to Al Jazeera's fairly balanced story on the Dallas marches.

THe DallasMorningNews has some good blogging on the small counterprotests at the event, as linked by AndrewWest at SpelunkingThroughTheChaos; (if you don't want to register at DMN, you can read excerpts at West's site)

Karen Ayres reports from the DMN Blogsite:

Miles Walters, 16, a sophomore at Richardson High School, said he was scared when people started throwing water bottles and hunkered under a building for protection. “I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad,” he said. “Because we take pride in our country they hate us and call us racist.”

The police wound up advising the counter-protestors to leave since they couldn't protect them.

Yah.

(photo from DallasMorningNews, title link)

Trackbacked at MichelleMalkin, who's providing excellent nationwide coverage and ThirdWorldCounty., where Dave has a production of the GuardOurBorder BlogBurst. Also check out the Coalition Against Illegal Immigration -- which will have a home on my sidebar when I have a minute to dicker with the code.  ¶ 8:00 AM