One more reason Mittens doesn’t deserve the White House

Forget the magic underwear; Mitt Romney is unfit for presidency for many important reasons that have nothing to do with religion.

For one thing, there’s the little matter of his corporate ties. This is a man who became monstrously and obscenely rich off the same financial mess that is resulting in so many foreclosures across the US. He claimed he was “going to fight for every job”, but his not-so-former firm, Bain Capital, is in fact responsible for massive job losses all across the Fruited Plain. He’s right up there with Henry Kravis and all those other big-time highway robbers. Mitt, does your Heavenly Father like it when you lie through your well-tended teeth?

Then there’s the little matter of his former aide, a College Republican and former student body president, who just embodies that family-values thing sooooooo well. Don’t they vet these people for chastity and lawful conduct before they hire them to smear Democrats about their so-called lack of family values?

And of course, there’s the tragic tale of the Romney family dog–a universal moral fable on the unwisdom of strapping an animal carrier to the roof of one’s car with a live animal therein. Can a man who treats his own pet so callously be trusted with the reins of power? Ask “Seamus”–he knows.

But what really tells me this man is either callous or clueless–or more likely, both–is this little item:


Like other Republican presidential contenders, Mitt Romney favors a get-tough policy on illegal immigrants. But Romney’s desire for tougher immigration enforcement doesn’t apply to Cubans, who he says should be welcomed with open arms.

“I can tell you my inclination would be to say as many Cubans as want to come here should come in,” Romney said in an interview Tuesday with The Tampa Tribune editorial board.

And in case you’re wondering–yes, he’s in favor of keeping up the embargo that is the real reason so many Cubans are so miserable. It hasn’t democratized the island a whit, and if anything, has driven things in the opposite direction–but hey, what are a whole lot of impoverished Cubans when there’s a capitalistic democratic principle at stake? And to hell with logic. All that matters is that more gusanos get to come in, so the Repugs get more votes. Mexicans and other Central Americans trying to get in without papers, however, are still “illegal” and, since they vote Democratic (when they do finally get their papers and become able to vote), can go hang.

I don’t know how the Heavenly Father feels about such strange double and triple standards, but seeing as I come from a country that manages to love freedom and democracy while not embargoing Cuba in any way, well–perhaps I need some magic underwear myself, just to be able to follow Mitt’s impeccable logic.

I’ll bet Mittens, being an inveterate panderer, also loves those right-wing Venezuelan escualidos–they carry suitcases full of money with them wherever they go.

So, we’re a terrorist threat, now?

Well, that’s flattering. I’m glad to know we bloggers have been upgraded from a mere nuisance!


The laundry list of fictional catastrophes — which include hundreds of people on “No Fly” lists suddenly arriving at airport ticket counters — is significant because it suggests what kind of real-world trouble keeps people in the White House awake at night.

Imagined villains include hackers, bloggers and even reporters. After mock electronic attacks overwhelmed computers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unspecified “major news network” airing reports about the attackers refused to reveal its sources to the government. Other simulated reporters were duped into spreading “believable but misleading” information that worsened fallout by confusing the public and financial markets, according to the government’s files.

The $3 million, invitation-only war game simulated what the U.S. described as plausible attacks over five days in February 2006 against the technology industry, transportation lines and energy utilities by anti-globalization hackers. The government is organizing another multimillion-dollar war game, Cyber Storm 2, to take place in early March.

[...]

The AP obtained the Cyber Storm internal records nearly two years after it requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. The government censored most of the 328 pages it turned over, marked “For Official Use Only,” citing rules preventing the disclosure of sensitive information.

Including the most sensitive information of all, which becomes blatantly obvious from reading the above–namely, that the US government is full of loopy, paranoid yahoos. They see threats in everything, even the blogosphere and the news media. And no wonder: Guess who’s most likely to report that the US government is full of loopy, paranoid yahoos?

Oaxaca in revolt

“Compromiso Cumplido” (True to My Pledge)–the first part of a two-part documentary about the ongoing revolt in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Part of this film concerns the death of Brad Will, the Indymedia reporter who got directly involved–and paid with his life for the footage he shot. At the time this documentary was made, 25 activists had died. All their murders were state-sanctioned and committed either by police or plain-clothes paramilitary infiltrators, which is why the perpetrators have not been brought to justice. The corrupt political system in Mexico is as much a villain in these deaths as the gunmen who pulled the trigger.

What began as a teachers’ strike for better wages has since grown into a full-blown social justice movement–there is now a push on to get rid of the crooked governor, Ulises Ruiz, who played a part in the election fraud that put the current right-wing Mexican president into power. Oaxaca, it turns out, was a scene of massive electoral fraud. And the people are angry; they know that they were cheated of a free, fair election. This is why they want more than just more money for teachers or the removal of a bought-and-sold governor. They want a system-wide change–a full-fledged democracy that Mexico has yet to achieve. Elections alone are not enough, especially in light of how the last one was fouled. And the major media, who are complicit in the whole crime, must also be held accountable.

The struggle continues. You can read all about it at NarcoNews.

Joao Goulart, murder victim

Courtesy of Aporrea, another skeevy spy story comes to light:

The Uruguayan ex-spy, Mario Neira Barreiro, asserted that the former Brazilian president, Joao Goulart, was assassinated in 1976 at the request of then-dictator Ernesto Geisel, who ordered “Operation Scorpion”.

In an interview with the daily Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, Neira Barreiro said that the Brazilian political police ordered the assassination of Goulart by the Uruguayan Antisubversive Military Action Group (GAMMA), on the orders of dictator Geisel, who was in power from 1974 to 1979.

The ex-president, Goulart, died in Argentina in 1976, where he had been living since his ouster in 1964 by a military coup. The coup led to a dictatorship that lasted until 1985.

The ex-spy said that the so-called “Operation Scorpion” followed operations “Jakarta” and “Bandeirantes”, which persecuted Brazilian opponents of the dictatorships in the region before 1975.

Goulart headed a group of Brazilian politicians in favor of a negotiated exit of the military dictatorship.

The declarations of Neira Barreiro confirmed the existence of a repressive international network prior to Plan Condor.

(more…)

More on the Argentine Briefcase Caper

Hmmm…I like the sound of that: Argentine Briefcase Caper. ABC for short. Gotta know your ABCs, so you can spell out what’s really going on, as this Argentine journalist did:

“The operation (in which Guido Antonini Wilson carried a briefcase with $800,000 illegally into Argentina) was a CIA operation,” says Argentine journalist Luis Bilbao, director of the magazine America XXI.

During an interview on the VTV show En Confianza, Bilbao emphasized that in his investigation of the case, the first hypothesis he pursued about the event was that this operation was planned by the CIA.

“As soon as I began to follow my initial hunch, I knew that the operation was a CIA plan. I don’t have the slightest doubt about it.”

Another theory, one that also involves the CIA, is that Antonini Wilson might be a CIA agent, and that in the Argentine government there could be functionaries who also belong to the US agency, commented the journalist.

He added that there are many obscure facts that permit us to see the direct intervention of the CIA in the case, such as the way in which the events occurred, as well as the already noted friendship between Wilson and the former Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez, whose name appears among those listed by the CIA as a collaborator.

Regarding this point, Bilbao recalled that “everybody knows” that Carlos Andres Perez was a CIA asset in the 1970s, as confirmed by ex-CIA agent Philip Agee in his book, which listed “all the names of politicians and directors in Latin America who were with the CIA–and among them was that of Carlos Andres Perez.”

The Argentine journalist denounced the briefcase operation and its consequences as a CIA conspiracy, one which sought deliberately to destroy the stability of the Venezuelan government and, as a secondary consequence, though no less important, that of the Argentine administration.

Regarding the supposed declarations of Moises Maionica in which he pleaded guilty in the case, Bilbao emphasized that these statments were very confused, since Maionica, after declaring himself innocent, “is now ‘admitting his guilt’ a month later”.

Bilbao argued that surely the CIA was behind Maionica’s supposed admission of guilt, and that it was very possible that during this past month, they may have tortured him, at least psychologically, in order to make him take back his initial declarations.

He also said that this is a case that must be studied in depth.

(more…)

Good advice from ol’ Kentucky

Courtesy of Ditch Mitch KY:

Of course, Weak ‘n’ Stupid won’t listen. When has he ever? He’s got “good advice from great advisors”. And since this is his last year to wreak mayhem, look for nothing except that he’ll make the very most of it.

Posted in BushCo Death Watch, W is for Weak (and Stupid). Comments Off »

Remember that Argentine briefcase incident?

Yeah, I know…me neither. But apparently it’s a big deal in Miami, where the hatred for all things Chavez knows no bounds, and neither do the plans to sabotage him. And yes, this is one of those. It supposedly casts doubt on the election of Cristina Fernandez, the president of Argentina–supposedly. I’ve long had a sneaking feeling it was all bullshit. And now, when nobody’s looking, suddenly the truth comes out. And lo and behold, the truth is that it WAS all bullshit:

Jaime Bayly, the Peruvian writer who has never hidden his aversion to President Hugo Chavez, admitted in his column “Lost Papers” this 28th of January in the Correo del Peru that he met Guido Antonini Wilson in the beginning of 2002, the year of the coup d’etat.

Wilson freely confessed to being friends with ex-president Carlos Andres Perez, and to being opposed to President Chavez, whose time in office, he asserted, would soon come to an end.

“Chavez won’t last. He’ll fall soon. We’re going to topple him…he’s going to end up in jail,” Antonini told Bayly. A few months later, the April 2002 coup occurred, which removed President Chavez from power for 40 hours.

Antonini Wilson is the Venezuelan-American businessman who was arrested in August 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, carrying a briefcase with some $800,000 US which he did not declare to customs authorities. Later, he escaped to Miami, where he is protected by US authorities.

Bayly’s assertions are of interest, given that various sources have accused Antonini of working for the Venezuelan government, with the objective of handing over the money to the then-presidential candidate Cristina Fernandez.

Translation mine.

Of course, there is no way in Hades that Cristina Fernandez would have accepted that cash. A woman who denounces US imperialism in no uncertain terms would be rather reluctant to take any amount of Yanqui dinero, no?

Add to that the fact that this cash came directly from Miami, that the bearer was a friend of another Miamero fugitive, none other than the spectacularly crooked Carlos Andres Perez (who is most noteworthy for saying that Chavecito deserved to “die like a dog”), and bragged of being part of a conspiracy to bring Chavecito down some three months before the fact, and you have some pretty clear indicators that he was also planning to bring down a good friend and ally of said Chavecito, yes?

A translation of the full article by Bayly follows.

(more…)

I’ve been LANR’d!

Cowardly Lion receives medal for courage! Film at 11!

I don’t know how long I’ve been on Justin Delacour’s blogroll at Latin America News Review (muchas gracias!), but he’s also linked my piece on John Perkins and Rafael Correa, here.

Shucks, folks, I’m speechless.

Posted in A Bit of a Brag.... Comments Off »

Well. Now I’ve TRULY heard everything…

…at least, I think I have. For all those who doubt that racists–not just skinheads, but all of them–talk in code, here…bone up on the latest, courtesy of the National Post.

It was a routine e-mail from the boss sent to congratulate a junior prosecutor in Houston, Tex., who had won manslaughter convictions against an intoxicated driver.

“He convicted Mr. Sosa of a double intoxication manslaughter, got a weak jury to give him 12 years in each, and then convinced Judge Wallace to stack the sentences,” Harris County assistant district attorney Mike Trent wrote in an office-wide memo. Then came the odd part: “He overcame a subversively good defence by Matt Hennessey that had some Canadians on the jury feeling sorry for the defendant and forced them to do the right thing.”

The e-mail was sent in 2003 but came to light only this month as part of an unrelated controversy with his office, forcing Mr. Trent to defend himself against accusations of bigotry — not because he offended the people of Canada, but because “Canadian” has apparently become a code word for blacks among American racists.

(more…)

Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Newspeak is Nospeak. Comments Off »

I’ve been YouTubed!

Malmo Blue has YouTubed my letter to Mike Malloy (being read on the air by the radio god):

Thanks, MB!