Fact-esque

Just Pass the Damn Trade Pact Already, Will Ya'?

Do be sure to take a few minutes to read the unintentionally funny NYT editorial in defense of the Colombian trade pact.   I'd say that the paper is damning the agreement  with faint praise but I know that the corporate protectionist NYT is seriously pushing for its passage.  Their reasoning goes something like this: sure, American workers have reason to be worried since they've been getting hammered by "free trade" deals just like this one.  But the American economy (i.e. the same people who always benefit from these deals) will benefit from this deal and so Congressional Dems shouldn't stand in the way.  And even though we've seen free trade deals bring nothing but pain to the lower classes of practically every other country on the planet, this time it's going to be different and Colombia will magically beat the odds and  "extricate itself from the mire of poverty that provides sustenance to drug trafficking and a bloody insurgency."   It will also cure cancer and make penguins fly.

Plus, we need to strengthen our relationship with one of the only countries in the region that doesn't hate us.  Sure, the ruling regime is horrible and violence is "way too high," and all those murdered trade unionists are of concern - BUT - fewer trade unionists were killed last year than in 2001 and Colombia is setting up a justice system to investigate the murders and prosecute the suspects.  They're doing all that because we told them that they would get this deal.  Not giving it to them would be rude.  And it would send the wrong message: The perfect is the enemy of the good.  I hate perfect.  Nobody's perfect!   If we waited for Colombia to be perfect, then we'd never sign the deal and our rich would never get richer, I mean, we'd never help the poor Colombians realize their dream of  having their markets flooded with cheap goods.  How could that possibly help advance human rights in Colombia?   It can't, that's how. 

The editorial ends:

The Democrats are right to demand assistance for American workers, and the Bush administration should work with Congress to expand the safety net for workers displaced by globalization. But this should not stop the Colombian trade pact from coming to fruition.

Those Dems are adorable.  They're like Jiminy Cricket or something.  And they are absolutely right to ask for crucial changes to be made to the deal but by no means should they let getting those changes actually made stand in the way of the deal passing as is.   That would just be wrong.

Food First, Interest Later

And Professor Doctor Correa is one tough character. He told George Bush to take the US military base and stick it where the equatorial sun don’t shine. He told the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which held Ecuador’s finances by the throat, to go to hell. He ripped up the “agreements” which his predecessors had signed at financial gun point. He told the Miami bond vultures that were charging Ecuador usurious interest, to eat their bonds. He said ‘We are not going to pay off this debt with the hunger of our people. ” Food first, interest later.  Much later.  And he meant it.

And to the west east

Over the past 20 years, the World Bank and some rich nations Malawi depends on for aid have periodically pressed this small, landlocked country to adhere to free market policies and cut back or eliminate fertilizer subsidies, even as the United States and Europe extensively subsidized their own farmers. But after the 2005 harvest, the worst in a decade, Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi’s newly elected president, decided to follow what the West practiced, not what it preached.

Stung by the humiliation of pleading for charity, he led the way to reinstating and deepening fertilizer subsidies despite a skeptical reception from the United States and Britain. Malawi’s soil, like that across sub-Saharan Africa, is gravely depleted, and many, if not most, of its farmers are too poor to afford fertilizer at market prices.

“As long as I’m president, I don’t want to be going to other capitals begging for food,” Mr. Mutharika declared. Patrick Kabambe, the senior civil servant in the Agriculture Ministry, said the president told his advisers, “Our people are poor because they lack the resources to use the soil and the water we have.”

And so why not watch this part of one of my favorite Christmas movies again:

Consolidation of Power!? Say It Ain't So!

I'd be much more worked up over what's happening in Venezuela and the coming of President for Life Chavez aka "Permanent Majority Hugo," if we weren't living through the same sort of transformation in this country.  From the pro-war WaPo:

The changes would create new forms of communal property, extend presidential terms from six to seven years and let Chavez seek re-election. If Chavez were to lose, he would be barred from running for re-election in 2012.

The reforms would also grant Chavez control over the Central Bank, allow his government to detain citizens without charge during a state of emergency, and empower him to redraw the country's political map and handpick provincial and municipal leaders.

The big difference is that we aren't getting the benefit of a referendum.

UPDATE: Chavez lost.  This quote, which captures the essence of democracy, probably captures the reason why:

"I've voted for him every time before but not this time, I'm worried where this is headed," said Jonathan Machado, 25, a taxi driver in Barinas. "I want him to stay in office but on a leash."

Does anyone know how we can get people to use some of those leashes around here?

Don't Tell Me He's Not a Moron, Vol. XXI Pt. 276,000

From Dear Leader's ramblings in Brazil: (paraphrase)

I'm sure that most of the people here know that America has doubled its bilateral aid to South America since I've been president.  It's gone from 800 to 1.2 billion.

Math am hard.

If I Were Writing a Movie Pt. 3

If I were writing a geopolitical thriller, I'd have key players in the Western Hemisphere move left as the neo-fascist president cum emperor of the United States was distracted by moving toward a police state at home and squandering blood and treasure in a empire-buidling effort in the Middle East.  And I'd have one of the newly elected socialists in the neo-fascists' backyard be a survivor of the torture rooms of noneother than Augusto Pinochet, fascist US puppet.  From Reuters:

A Bachelet victory consolidates a shift to the left in Latin America, where leftists now run Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela, some with politics more extreme than others.

Socialist Evo Morales will soon take office in gas-rich Bolivia, and a leftist is favored to win Mexico's July presidential election.

"I think she will have to make one decision very soon, which is whether or not to attend the inauguration of Evo Morales, which is on January 22," Israel said, alluding to traditional tensions between the two neighbors.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised Bachelet's tenacity and pledged his government's collaboration with Chile, Venezuela's presidential press office reported.

Viva Chavez, I Guess.

Atrios links to this TPM Cafe post about Venezuela and the continuing effort to discredit Chavez. I'm not a Chavez fanatic but with all the nonsense that's being written about him, it's hard not to support the guy. I figure he must be doing something right to piss off the world's wealthy elite so completely. Mark Weisbrot's TPM Cafe post debunks some of the nonsense.

Now This is Funny

The red writing translates to "and I intend to spend it."
via Uggabugga, which also has the DLC's 2008 dream ticket.

How to Fight a Class War

Step One: Get Rich. Oil works well in this regard.

Step Two: Get into a position of political power. Coup, failed coup whatever works for you. Survive coup attempts against you made by the Super Power in your hemisphere.

Step Three: Get cozy with the Super Power in the other hemisphere.

Step Four: Open up your Marxism 101 textbook and an annotated history of Broadway and start spending capital on some excellent political theater:

Rafael Ramirez, president of Venezuela's oil company PDVSA, offered some details of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's offer to provide cheaper gasoline and heating oil to U.S. poor communities.

Speaking shortly after a press conference held by President Chavez and U.S. Reverend Jesse Jackson, Ramirez said that CITGO Petroleum Corp., the wholly owned subsidiary of PDVSA, is currently refining up to 664.000 barrels of oil through the refineries it owns and operates in the United States.

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and the fourth largest supplier of oil to the United States. Venezuelan oil accounted for 12% of U.S. oil imports.

Ramirez said that under the Venezuelan government plan, CITGO will set aside up to 10% of its refined oil products to be sold directly to organized poor communities, and institutions in the U.S. without intermediaries.

The plan calls for the sale of heating oil and gasoline to hospitals, nursing homes, schools and organized poor communities in U.S. soil, according to Ramirez.

Other Venezuelan government officials, who asked not to be named, said that Venezuela will not lose any money with this program because the idea is to "cut the middle-man", the intermediaries.

How that gasoline is going to be distributed is still a mystery since Citgo stations aren't owned by Venezuela. But the proposal is worth any embarassment that might ensue if it fails simply because we get to read the phrase "orgainized poor communities" attached to a plan of action obviously rooted in self-interest. That's got to be giving the US power elite the shakes.

Look for lots more stories in the corporate media linking him to terrorism, Communism, Commu-terrorism, incubator tossing, gassing his own people and yellow cake from Africa.

Step Five: Reach out to a neighbor in need.

If you want to get some good background on Chavez, I recommend the following sources:

Venezeula Analysis for that leftier perspective

Beautiful Horizons, where Randy Paul writes about all of Latin America. These two Chavez posts are my favorites: here and here.

Author and blogger Marc Cooper is always a good read. He talks about Chavez and the media here. The comments on that post are good as well.

Bloggings by Boz has a comprehensive Venezuela post up in the wake of the Robertson insanity. Lots of links to various voices in the discussion.