Puertorriqueños for the most part don't have the taxation or the representation -- they're exempt from federal income taxes. But what this means in practice is that Puerto Rico has a much less progressive tax system than the U.S. as a whole. It's a tax haven for the rich, but people with lower income pay Commonwealth taxes.
There are more interesting cases. One of the very first interviews on The Colbert Report was of Eleanor Holmes Norton, congresswoman for the District of Columbia. Colbert confronted her right away: in the decade she served in Congress, she cast zero votes on legislation -- an abysmal voting record. She was kind offended at the time, but eventually she became a regular guest on the show. D.C. wants statehood, and has wanted it for years, but can't even get Congress to act. I mean, I guess it's good that our capital didn't turn out to be the Paris of America in terms of resource use, but the lack of representation for 700000 people on the national level is ungood. It'll only get worse when the build the arcology. (Shadowrun, remember?)
And then there's American Samoa. People born there are American nationals, not American citizens. They can apply to become citizens, and don't need a visa to come to America, but they can't vote without applying for citizenship and paying up. (Well, they can vote for local races in SF and a few cities in Maryland, but that's not really the point.) They even get a passport that says that they are not citizens. They're not stateless, but they're sure second-class uh, nationals.
And I'll just point out that Native Americans only got the right to vote nationwide in 1965 -- five years after Canada did the same with First Nations.
There are more interesting cases. One of the very first interviews on The Colbert Report was of Eleanor Holmes Norton, congresswoman for the District of Columbia. Colbert confronted her right away: in the decade she served in Congress, she cast zero votes on legislation -- an abysmal voting record. She was kind offended at the time, but eventually she became a regular guest on the show. D.C. wants statehood, and has wanted it for years, but can't even get Congress to act. I mean, I guess it's good that our capital didn't turn out to be the Paris of America in terms of resource use, but the lack of representation for 700000 people on the national level is ungood. It'll only get worse when the build the arcology. (Shadowrun, remember?)
And then there's American Samoa. People born there are American nationals, not American citizens. They can apply to become citizens, and don't need a visa to come to America, but they can't vote without applying for citizenship and paying up. (Well, they can vote for local races in SF and a few cities in Maryland, but that's not really the point.) They even get a passport that says that they are not citizens. They're not stateless, but they're sure second-class uh, nationals.
And I'll just point out that Native Americans only got the right to vote nationwide in 1965 -- five years after Canada did the same with First Nations.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto