Estado rojo, estado azul
What's Spanish for Florida 2000? For hanging chads? For stolen election? What's English for "ay caramba?" Here's how a President is inaugurated in Mexico.
posted by wretchardthecat at 12/01/2006 11:30:00 PM
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43 Comments:
Or Spanish for "foreign agent"?
From the May 06 Atlantic:
By finding an excuse to denounce Fox as an American toady and baiting him into a response, Chávez was hoping to bolster the presidential campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a Mexican socialist—and potential political ally—running to replace Fox... Indeed, by some accounts Chávez’s advisers have already been in touch with López Obrador to advise him, and the Venezuelan ambassador was reported to have attended meetings organized ópez Obrador’s supporters. Chávez’s TV stunt certainly worked in his ally’s favor.
What other "stunts" has he pulled for Obrador? Is a wad of cash technically a stunt? If he bought Obrador with a million-dollar stunt, who would really know? And since when do democratic candidates need or even tolerate a foreign dictators' "advisors", anyway?
No, I suspect the current protests aren't about hanging chads at all, but are instead a weapon Chavez is using to gain control of the Mexican government through proxy; to bad, bad ends. Which is a sad accusation against Mexican politicians' integrity, if true. But it wouldn't surprise me. Perhaps more recent spadework sheds light on the matter?
"Oil, darn near the root of all evil."
Tex, you might say,
"The love of oil, darn near the root of all evil."
OT, courtesy of our Bud Larry Johnson(!)
---
Today's WaPo article continues: :
The proposal, put forward by the State Department as part of a crash White House review of Iraq policy, follows an assessment that the ambitious U.S. outreach to Sunni dissidents has failed. U.S. officials are increasingly concerned that their reconciliation efforts may even have backfired, alienating the Shiite majority and leaving the United States vulnerable to having no allies in Iraq, according to sources familiar with the State Department proposal.
Some insiders call the proposal the "80 percent" solution, a term that makes other parties to the White House policy review cringe. Sunni Arabs make up about 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people.
[...]
The proposal has met serious resistance from both U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and military commanders in Iraq, who believe that intensive diplomatic efforts to bring Sunni insurgents into the political process are pivotal to stabilizing the war-ravaged country, the sources said.
Khalilzad, who has spearheaded U.S. outreach to the Sunni leadership, has developed a long list of steps to accommodate Sunni concerns ...
US purchasing power is the single greatest and most powerful weapon on Planet Earth. Latin America is one of the great untapped human and resource rich areas on the same planet. The US chooses to ignore the latter and buy "in mind numbing quantities", manufactured goods from China.
Refocus on the non-Islamic Americas. Make the Americas what they should be. OLÉ
Publius is sounding awfully gloomy about the Ven election tomorrow.
Buddy, when you rob from Pedro to pay Pablo you will always get Pablo's vote. Chavez will win.
2164th wrote: "US purchasing power is the single greatest and most powerful weapon on Planet Earth. Latin America is one of the great untapped human and resource rich areas on the same planet. The US chooses to ignore the latter and buy "in mind numbing quantities", manufactured goods from China."
Good point! It would be smart for the US to purchase imports from Latin America -- and perhaps even smarter to produce more of those goods in the US itself. But how do we deal with the reality that Chinese companies make high quality goods cheaper than Latin Americans, let alone US suppliers?
Old proverb says -- You can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. Applies as much to the South American manufacturer as to the Iraqi people.
If oil keeps going up, how can Chevez lose? It's a money tree. The old Ven upper classes can't really count on the usual Red economic crash to save the constitution, with this new tripling-in-three-years oil price phenomenon. Looks grim for the near term.
Brazil is a great model, though--breaking the oligarchy without resorting to secret police, doing it with actual economic policies that are raising all boats. Maybe in time the old Castro model will yet fall to the giant Brazilian example.
I heard a commentator say (paraphrase) that if we were to turn Mexico over to the Taiwanese we would be complaining about the economic colossus to the south within a year. Problem is Mexico's productive classes don't tax themselves; and there are really no fiduciary institutions that ordinary citizens can rely on. It's an economy of plunder with the result that everyone gets rogered by the guy above him down to the dirt poor Indian/peasant with no running water, electricity, paved roads.
The big difference between the US and Mexico is that in Mexico there is no "build it and they will come" attitude. America thrives on that maxim. As a result we do have a lot of business failures but we also have a good share of superb business success. Everyone loves to put down "developers" in America but without their manias, risks and visions we would have...well, look at Mexico.
2164th said, "The US chooses to ignore the latter and buy 'in mind numbing quantities', manufactured goods from China."
We see time and time again that Billy Ray and Sally Sue go to Wal Mart and see a DVD player made in Panama for $59.99, and a virtually identical DVD player made in Panama for $29.99, and they inexplicably choose to ignore the Panamanian one and buy the one from China!
And if the Panamanians are tour allies and the Chinese your enemy a Nation pursues it's long term interests and taxes the Chinese products to "even the playing field" for the Panamanians.
Since the Chinese use Slave Labor and are the biggest polluters on the planet.
Political use of taxes have long been used to modify Social behaviour in the US. Why not use them to support our friends?
The current low costs of Chinese goods is an opiate for the masses that, in the end, can kill the addict.
das is right--systems that redistribute property are at least keeping some of the value of the transferal in play, but if the effect is to shut down opportunity and incentive in the intangibles such as drive, genius, and ambition, nothing replaces the loss.
That the loss is always nebulous, and in the tomorrow, that is, not readily quantifiable, is the only thing that allows such 'opportunity-destruction' to persist.
Desert Rat wrote: "And if the Panamanians are tour allies and the Chinese your enemy a Nation pursues it's long term interests and taxes the Chinese products to "even the playing field" for the Panamanians."
History suggests that would be a dangerous path -- think Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, think Great Depression. That is not to say the "Tax Our Enemies Act" could not work, but the risks have to be thought through in this inter-dependent world. What happens when China, having been identified as a highly-taxed "Enemy", decides to blow the US Dollar out of the water? Could the New York Slimes stand the pain?
There may be a dirty little truth hidden behind the massive US trade deficit with China -- the true cost to the US people of our Betters' fascination with stringent, job-destroying, "environmental" regulations.
One 'dirty little secret' is, only the wealthier countries--those with industrial production--can afford to spend wealth on the environment. This is pretty well quantified, signed, sealed, and delivered.
Poverty means you slash-and-burn, raise animals amongst people, and use whatever stream is handy for sewerage. No wealth, no choice.
Cedarford said, "If we want to see Latin America stay in the "Western Camp" rather than move into the Chicom, Chavez, Cuban one - we have to rethink free trade and rebuild the trade and economic alliances down there Bush and his kind destroyed."
Staying in the Western Camp, with all the economic benefits that accrue, should be a seller's market rather than the buyer's market you paint it to be.
Would we rather provide Mexican nationals with welfare here, or workfare there? Of course, it's not so simple, but I'll illustrate with one example.
Not long ago, my partners and I looked long and hard at a very specialized high tech manufacturing opportunity that required very skilled machining. Most American shops have gone relatively high tech. Partly because lots of the low tech work has gone offshore, but mainly because it was the best way to make money. Skilled operators and top tier equipment are expensive. Making money requires excellent productivity.
For the highest tech applications, there really was no alternative to American shops. Only America, for the most part, had the technology, workforce and cost structure to win economically. And even for some mid to low tech applications, American shops were competitive due to astounding productivity. For many low tech apps, though, Mexico and China were the best bet.
The most enterprising American shops had already set up Mexican subsidiaries and shipped out their old and low tech equipment. With training, Mexican machinists produced quality widgets at a fraction of the cost. The most demanding and profitable work remained in the states, although raw dollar volume was creeping up down south.
The owners saw this as a win-win. They were developing a low cost alternative to keep market share, providing jobs and making good money.
Pay them here or pay them there?
Jeez, C4--did you miss the 20th century somehow? Despite all the jobs whooshing south, other jobs are filling in here (low unempl & rising wages), and the consumer--the largest interest group of all, benefit mightily from the freedom of industry to reward low-cost producers.
And even the Latin left-turn is far more a politics game than an economic--witness the Venezuela vs USA standoff--we are still growing trade every year, and are by far Ven's largest trading partner.
I dislike the latin oligarchs as much as you do, but please, let's not gild the statist model for what it expressly has not done vz latin economic growth.
Granted the 'mixed' model is doing well with Brazil as the exemplar, but just as the relevant point about Greenism is that there are points of diminishing returns between "dumping waste in the rivers" and state control of industry, the 'mixed' economies are anything BUT populist (yes, Ven is trending, but Ven has that money tree).
Saudi's worst nightmare
The Washington Times ^ | December 2, 2006 | Claude Salhani
Al-Sadr bloc talks of alliance with Sunnis, Christians
CNN ^ | November 30 2006
Chessboard Endgame
Obsessed with Iraq, we've lost sight of the rest of the world.
BY GARRY KASPAROV
Wall St Journal Opinion Page
Saturday, December 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
“Saddam's Iraq and Islamic Terrorism: What We Now Know”
Imprimis/Hillsdale College ^ | December 2006 | Stephen F. Hayes
WAy OT. We put on an open house Masquerade Ball last night for Belmont and Elephant guests some who will not go home. You have to read the btoom posts by Hu Dat and Buddy Larsen. It does not get better than than that.
We are not sure Wretchard appeared but you can never tell around here.
bottom posts that is. sorry.
tv news just announcewd that Chavez has just announced that "If the opposition contests the results of this election, I will call a referendum on ending presidential term limits".
Guess he's about got the compass boxed, doesn't he.
Ride Chavez Ride!
watch it here!
LOL--that's no trick photography, either--
Desert Rat wrote, "Ride Chavez Ride!"
Wow, I thought it was a Republican ad reminding voters of all the earmarks they'd gotten.
No, silly--that would've been "Taco Dennis".
"Ride Chavez Ride!"
Looks like he's lost a few pounds....
At least six people who identified themselves as members of the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL), which regulates electronic media in Venezuela, arrived Sunday afternoon at the hotel from which Telemundo had been transmitting since Friday, said Iacub.
The officials said the network needed permission to transmit and lacking such could not, he said. Iacub said he was unaware of such a requirement but that the Telemundo journalists were accredited with Venezuela's national elections council.
Iacub said the Telemundo team asked how they could obtain permission and, after an hour, were told that they would not be able to transmit.
Certainly seems reasonable for a Nation State to control the media. Happens almost everywhere in the world. Why expect the US standard of liberty and freedom, elsewhere?
Other countries governments will not allow themselves to be undermined by selfselected spin miesters
You say that now, rat, but Telemundo is owned by NBC--you just wait 'til MATT LAUER hears about this!
Buddy Larsen said, "You say that now, rat, but Telemundo is owned by NBC--you just wait 'til MATT LAUER hears about this!"
I suppose Cedarford will soon weigh in with admiration for how Chavez shut down the "Billionaire Jewish Oligarch's throttlehold on the media in Venezuela" and all we need to do is send some brownshirts around to offices in the Upper West Side of New York.
DbB is on something ...i mean, onto something: NBC is owned by General Electric. General Electric is owned by tens of millions of shareholders worldwide. Think about it, what could be a more perfect cover for a CABAL? Probably led by a so-called "Board of Directors" fronted by a bootlicking "CEO".
Buddy Larsen said, "Think about it, what could be a more perfect cover for a CABAL? Probably led by a so-called 'Board of Directors' fronted by a bootlicking 'CEO'."
Secret Jewish banks exist in the cities of the US northeast. COUNTRY CLUB is the secret facility for the Elders of Zion in Maryland. MJ-12 is the group controlling 98.3% of the world's diamonds, which has been the secret conduit for wealth since the Dark Ages. POUNCE is the project to either silence or discredit all independent research into the activities of MJ-12. DELTA is the Mossad arm tasked with security for all these projects. Delta agents have infiltrated all major media outlets and most blogs in preparation for a one-thousand year period of total pacification of the Earth.
Instap sees hopeful info in the Telemundo action.
The Corner flays AP alive. Good.
absolute proof of the existence of DELTA:
oops, here is the Venezuela link:
It links to Gateway, who seems to be calling it for Chavez.
Well, hell. The mullahs, Putin, and the next US Congress, will all be swelled up bigger than ever now. The Peso took a dive last Friday--look for a swan dive tomorrow. The Dollar, too. Buy oil, buy gold.
Oh, the bitter irony--Chavez has decided that the USA MSM model that has so well enabled his career from the USA, has no place in his own nation. link
Right, papa bear, the Venezuelan Government did not want any loose cannons messin' with their International Image, especially in the Spanish speaking world.
Not the US way, but perfectly reasonable. In a way Telemundo were spies, reporting to world.
Not in the Government of Venezuela best interest. They shut them down.
Of course Reuters was doing precisely the same thing, without interference. The only difference was, Reuters was reading the Chavez government's handouts.
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