This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Politics

  • Status of Chavez’ FARC rescue mission

    58-853-COLOMBIA_VENEZUELA_FARC_HOStages2_embedded_prod_affiliate_56.jpg

    Heavily armed Colombian policemen stand guard on Sunday

    around a Venezuelan Mi-172 helicopter

    sitting on the tarmac of the airport of Villavicencio,

    department of Meta, Colombia.

    Photo by Mauricio Duenas (AFP)

    But not to worry, look who’s on the job;

    0_21_stone_large.jpg

    U.S. film director Oliver Stone waves to journalists upon his arrival to Villavicencio’s airport in southern Colombia.

    With its fearsome record of kidnapping and violence, Colombia’s largest guerrilla army might seem a nightmare group to encounter. But not to Oliver Stone.

    The American filmmaker is jumping at a chance to meet with a group the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization.

    Leaving the glamor of Hollywood far behind, Stone arrived in the steamy Colombian city of Villavicencio on Saturday as part of a mission led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to retrieve three hostages held for years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

    “I have no illusions about the FARC, but it looks like they are a peasant army fighting for a decent living,” Stone said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press at his hotel bar. “And here, if you fight, you fight to win.”

    Yep, just a peasant Army fighting for decent livng – bombing and kidnapping innocent civilians instead of working for a decent living. What a dumbass. I guess that’s why I’ve never watched “Platoon” all the way through.

    Seems the only thing Chavez MAY succeed in rescuing is Stone’s career – but I think it’ll take a few more helicopters.

  • What’s Maryland’s government hiding?

    Tony Lobianco writes in this morning’s Washington Times that the Maryland Attorney General’s Office is trying to block testimony in a lawsuit aimed at blocking impending tax hikes;

    The state attorney general today will ask Maryland’s highest court to block a key witness’s testimony in a lawsuit aiming to overturn the results of last month’s General Assembly special session.

    The state will file a writ of certiorari with the Maryland Court of Appeals seeking to block testimony from Mary Monahan, the chief clerk of the House of Delegates, said Raquel Guillory, spokeswoman for Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler.

    “I am very surprised that the attorney general is exercising this degree of desperation,” said Irwin Kramer, attorney for Republican lawmakers and a Carroll County businessman who filed the suit this month. “It makes it all the more important that we find out exactly what the attorney [general] is trying to hide.”

    The Washington Examiner reports that it’s a pretty straightforward complaint and the testimony of the clerk is germaine;

    Attorneys representing Republicans want to question Mary Monahan, who records and validates House proceedings, about records kept during the session, which resulted in about $1.3 billion dollars in tax increases.

    They contend the Senate adjourned too long without permission from the House, which they say violates the constitution.

    A deposition has been scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday in Easton, said Irwin Kramer, who is representing the GOP. Kramer said the state is simply trying to keep the facts from becoming public.

    “For me it shows the intense desire to silence the witness,” Kramer said Sunday afternoon.

    But Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Attorney General’s office said Monahan’s testimony is not germane to the legislative process.

    “We believe that the deposition is unnecessary, one, because of legislative privilege and, two, anything that she has to offer is irrelevant” to the results of the special session, She said.

    Who else but the chief clerk could testify to the length of the session? I mean that’s whole purpose of the clerk’s office, isn’t it? Methinks Democrats doth protest too much. Mary Monahan must have intimate knowledge of more nefarious activities among Democrats enough so that the details of their whole scheme may have a political cost this year.

    [Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Rachel] Guillory said Sunday that a court stay on the new taxes would “cause undue hardship in the state.”

    How? Because the government would be forced to operate on the same amount of money operated on in 2007? Because taxpayers could keep a few pennies of their own money a little longer? Pompous arrogance in the extreme.

    (Crossposted at Red Maryland)

  • More empty promises from Hugo Chavez

    Venezuela’s strongman socialist leader Hugo Chavez promised a rescue operation for hostages held by the Columbian narco-terrorist group FARC “within hours” back on Wednesday. So how’d that go? From CNN;

    It was not immediately clear when the operation would begin. However, Chavez described Colombia’s agreement as the last step before the operation to free the hostages would begin.

    Yeah, that was on Thursday. The Miami Herald reports this morning;

    Two Venezuelan helicopters sent to Colombia to retrieve three rebel-held hostages sat idle on a runway on Saturday, waiting for the coordinates on the pickup location.

    The information never came.

    Marxist rebels announced last week a deal with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to release former vice presidential candidate Clara Rojas, 44, her jungle-born toddler and former congresswoman Consuelo González, 57. The women have been held for more than five years in a portion of the jungle controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

    With Colombia’s go-ahead and much fanfare, Chávez organized a mission of high-profile international observers, adorned two Colombia-bound choppers with required Red Cross insignia and had the hostages’ relatives flown to Caracas for the planned reunion. But as of late Saturday, family members and observers were still waiting for the one detail on which the entire mission depends: instructions from the rebels on the hostages’ pick-up spot somewhere in FARC-controlled land, which is about the size of France.

    I suggest the whole thing is an attempt by Chavez to take the focus off of him in regard to the two Maleta-gate cases that are being investigated by the media and US prosecutors.

    Tomas Sancio at Venezuela Politics wonders why a few non-Venezuelans are more important to the Chavez regime than 33 Venezuelans everyday;

    The previous article would probably make us look insensitive if the facts weren’t as grim for the amount of people murdered in Venezuela during 2007. 12,249 people were murdered according to government figures. That’s 33 persons per day. We didn’t use the word “people” because an average of more than one person per hour is killed and this person that is killed every 44 minutes is just as important as the ones being rescued this weekend in Colombia.

    The Interior Minister’s reaction is a typical one. He states that the opposition’s figures are exaggerated. But what can be more exaggerated than 33 people murdered on a daily basis. Is 100 a figure to worry about?

    Well, actually solving Venezuela’s problems is pretty hard, and if it fails, there’s no one to blame. There’s only an upside to getting FARC’s hostages released – and if it goes south, he can blame it on Uribe.

  • Bush signs SCHIP

    With a lot less ceremony (read that: media frenzy) than his veto of the two previous SCHIP proposals Congress sent him, President Bush signed an extension of the current Children’s Health Insurance Program through March of 2009(AP/Washington Times link);

    President Bush yesterday signed legislation that extends a popular children’s health insurance program after twice vetoing attempts to expand it.

    Politically, the move was a victory for Mr. Bush, although Democrats say it will come back to hurt Republicans at the polls.

    The extension of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is expected to provide states with enough money to cover those enrolled through March 2009. Mr. Bush and some Republican lawmakers say the program will still serve those who it should: children from families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance.

    “We’re pleased that the program will be extended and that states can be certain of their funding,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

    Yet many Democrats — with help from some Republicans — wanted to give the program a significant cash infusion and broaden coverage to an estimated 4 million children. They overwhelmingly supported a tobacco-tax increase to pay for the expansion.

    The story neglects to mention that the “4 million children” that didn’t get covered in this bill were the children of parents who made enough money to buy health insurance. Maryland just raised their tobacco tax, and the federal government wanted to raise tobacco taxes to pay for the expanded coverage – how much do they think smokers will pay for cigarettes? When smokers quit, how do they plan to pay for their largesse? At least Bloomberg comes clean;

    The law funds a 0.5 percent payment increase for six months to doctors who treat patients under the government’s Medicare and Medicaid plans, which provide health care to the elderly, disabled and poor. The legislation also maintains current funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program until March 31, 2009.

    Bush twice vetoed bills to increase SCHIP funding and boost enrollment to 10 million from about 6 million because he objected to moving more children into a government program rather than into private health insurance. Democrats, who control Congress, had sought to boost the program’s budget over five years by about $35 billion to $60 billion.

    When Bush vetoed the previous bills, it was front page news. Now that he’s signed it, the news is relegated to a wire story link in just about every newspaper. If the news services told the whole story, instead of the intellectually vacant “for the children” line, Republicans would be hailed as heroes holding the line against the socialists in the Democrat party.

    Spree at Wake Up, America asks;

    Amazing to me how some politicians would have rather made it a short extension, risking the low incomes childrens health insurance in upcoming battles, simply to “use” the children as a political tool in the 2008 elections.

    How sick is that?

    Well, Spree, we’ve become accustomed to knee jerk neoliberals manufacturing issues that distract from reality, aren’t we?

  • bin Laden and Reid; the view from the cave

    Much like Harry Reid, bin Laden is having problems accepting the fact that al Qaeda has lost Iraq. Writes Salah Nasrawi in the Washington Times;

    Osama bin Laden warned Iraq’s Sunni Arabs against fighting al Qaeda and promised to expand the terror group’s holy war to Israel in a new audiotape yesterday, threatening “blood for blood, destruction for destruction.”
    Most of the 56-minute tape dealt with Iraq, apparently al Qaeda’s latest attempt to keep supporters in Iraq unified at a time when the U.S. military claims to have al Qaeda’s Iraq branch on the run.

    Bradley Brooks, also in the Times, writes about the reality of the situation in Iraq that apparently eludes bin Laden;

    Iraq’s Interior Ministry spokesman said yesterday that 75 percent of al Qaeda in Iraq’s terrorist network were destroyed this year, but the top American commander in the country said the terror group remained his chief concern.
    Maj. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf said the disruption of the terrorist network was a result of improvements in the Iraqi security forces, which he said had made strides in weeding out commanders and officers with ties to militias or who were involved in criminal activities.

    He also credited the rise of anti-al Qaeda in Iraq groups, mostly made up of Sunni fighters the Shi’ite-dominated government has cautiously begun to embrace. Additionally, an increase in American troops since June has been credited with pushing many militants out of Baghdad.

    Of, course bin Laden goes on to rave that he won’t given “even an inch” to the Jews in Palestine. How he’ll deny living room for Jews with his rapidly evaporating army is beyond me. But, like Harry Reid, bin Laden is getting his news from sycophants instead of investigating for himself. I’m sure the echo chamber inside that cave in Pakistan is just as misleading as the echo chamber in the halls of Congress.

    In the Washington Examiner, Nancy Pelosi admits that Democrats have been boneheads this year;

    It’s a painful irony for Democrats: In the space of a year, the Iraq war that was the source of party’s resurgence in Congress became the measure of its impotence.

    By the end of the 2007, a Congress controlled by Democrats for the first time since 1994 had an approval rating of only 25 percent, down from 40 percent last spring. Then the debate over the war split the party and cast shadows over other issues, spawning a series of legislative failures and losing confrontations with President Bush.

    What to do about Iraq has turned into a dissing match so far-reaching and nasty that Congress’s accomplishments are seen, even by some who run it, through the lens of their failure to override Bush and start bringing the troops home.

    “There is no question that the war in Iraq has eclipsed much of what we have done,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters. “If you asked me in a phone call, as ardent a Democrat as I am, I would disapprove of Congress as well.”

    Now, if only Pelosi would wheel Reid out into the daylight.

  • More stuff that’s our fault

    Photo by Tom Charron/Miami Herald

    Miami-Dade fire-rescue personnel assist Cuban migrants

    who landed Friday on Adams Key.

    While news services are fixated on Pakistan, and while everyone floats new conspiracy theories about the murders there, a new surge is happening on our own southern border – 50 refugees from Castro’s Cuba have landed on Florida beaches this last week. And of course, it’s the US “wet foot, dry foot” policy to blame according to the Cuban government (Miami Herald link);

    As the Cuban government blamed U.S. policy Friday for an uptick in the number of Cubans leaving the island and disputed the number of dead in recent drownings off its coast, the top U.S. Coast Guard official in Miami called on exiles to denounce the illegal voyages.

    Rear Admiral David W. Kunkel said the Coast Guard has patrol boats and cutters looking for migrants constantly. “We have federal, state and local help. But there’s a link missing.”

    That link, he said, is the local community.

    ”They are not working with us. I know that’s rather blunt, but the fact remains that these smugglers are being financed by desperate families,” he said. “The only safe way is if we all work together.”

    I guess it’s too much to ask that we expect the Cuban government to treat their people with a measure of decency, ya know, things like stop throwing them in prison for having opinions and for writing the truth about Cuba. Then maybe folks won’t want to leave. Of course the Cubans claim to be helping and protecting their people, but those danged Cuban exiles in Miami keep sending money to the poor folks in Cuba and tempting them to make the dangerous voyage here.

    Granma, the Communist Party daily, the Cuban government blamed Miami news outlets, including The Miami Herald, for publishing reports of 25 suspected dead in an attempted escape Dec. 22.

    The Cuban government said the boat was in distress and Cuban Border Guard troops detained a Cuban on land who said he was part of a group that included women and children who were in trouble at sea.

    ”As a result of the ground patrol, 26 persons were detained [19 men and seven women], accompanied by two minors, both 9 years old,” the report in Granma noted.

    The Cuban government insisted that the sea search was a rescue operation that turned up two dead, identified as Yosvani Vera Alvarez, 29, and Zuleica Rodríguez Pérez, 43.

    The Cuban government denies having chased the boat — as Florida family members of some of the Cubans said earlier this week.

    The government blamed the United States’ ”wet foot/dry foot” policy that allows Cubans who reach U.S. shores to remain in America.

    Marc Masferrer writes at Uncommon Sense about the 25 assumed dead despite what the Cuban government says.
    Beats me why Cubans are leaving that workers’ paradise – especially since we know it’s a wonderland of literacy and health care. What else could those Cubans want, for Pete’s sake?

    Robert M at Babalu Blog outlines the problem;

    Would increasing the number of annual visas for Cubans help? Sure, only if Cuba cooperated, which we know isn’t possible.

    Encourage neighboring countries to help the U.S. deal with the number of Cubans who want to leave? Sure, but they’re more interested in maintaining relations with the castros than help Cubans attain freedom.

    Rear Admiral Kunkel wants us to “work together”. A noble suggestion and idea, but one that comes with more than its share of issues and complexities that can’t just be pinned on one group of people (such as Cuban exiles).

    A much easier solution is for the Cuban government to throw open their prisons and have real democratic elections and elect a government that works for the people instead of a few lucky enough to be born into the communist aristocracy. It’s inevitable, it’s happened everywhere in the world – the communists are just prolonging the agony.

  • Flatlander BDS in Vermont

    I lived in Saint Albans, Vermont for three years while I taught ROTC at the University of Vermont in Burlington. I actually thought about retiring there at one point. There were more cows than people, and the people were friendly and helpful. They were very civic minded (probably because the winter weather restricted travel most of the year-making us more dependent on our neighbors) and they took pride in their Town Meetings – it was a State holiday and it’s where most towns got their real political business done. Jim Jeffords was a real Republican then – his office sent me a letter while I was in the first war against Hussein. The only elected official to do so. Vermont was the perfect place to raise a family.

    What changed my mind, however, was the invasion of “flatlanders” from New York City. They started out settling in Burlington and they elected Bernie Sanders (a New York City flatlander) to mayor. Since 30% of the state lived in Chittenden County, they began to elect flatlanders to the legislature – and governor (Howard Dean is another New York City flatlander). I remember when they had a real Vermonter Republican governor and we got rebates on our state taxes every year. I remember that if you wanted your picture on your driver’s license, you had to go to the State Capitol because the DMV only had one camera.

    The State legislature was part-time and only paid $7000/year in wages – state politicians had to have a second job in the State in order to survive – which means they had to be regular joes part of the year and live with their legislation. That’s ended with the flatlander invasion, too.

    Michele Malkin reports that the flatlanders have brought Bush Derangement Syndrome to Vermont, too;

    Frustrated by the failure of the Dem leadership to carry through with impeachment, some Bush-haters in Brattleboro, Vermont want to subject President Bush and VP Cheney to arrest if they set foot in their town. Consider it sort of a do-it-yourself impeachment alternative:

    This movement in Vermont has been going on for more than a year. And the main instigator?

    [John] Nirenberg, a hearty New York City native and current resident of Brattelboro, Vermont….

    Another New York City flatlander transplant.

    This supposed warrant, is all based on HuffPo/Kos/DU talking points – all of which are intellectually vacant;

    Whereas George W. Bush has:

    1. Misled the nation about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction;
    2. Misled the nation about ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda;
    3. Used these falsehoods to lead our nation into war unsupported by international law;
    4. Not told the truth about American policy with respect to the use of torture; and
    5. Has directed the government to engage in domestic spying, in direct contravention of U.S. law.

    Therefore, the voters of the town of Newfane ask that our representative to the U.S. House of Representatives file articles of impeachment to remove him from office.

    The Barre/Montpelier Times Argus highlights a glimmer of hope for sanity in Vermont;

    But support for it is far from universal, even in Vermont, where the state Senate voted earlier this year to impeach the president, anti-war rallies are regular occurrences and “Impeach Bush” bumper stickers are as common as snowshoes in February.

    “I would not be supportive of it,” said Stephen Steidle, a member of the town’s Selectboard. “It’s well outside of our ability. From my perspective, the Brattleboro Selectboard needs to focus on the town and the things that need to be done here.”

    Blutto at Jawa Report calls it treason;

    Without the will and wherewithal (and luck, or, perhaps, a beneficent Providence) to enforce the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers would have gone down in history as traitors to the Crown.

    Kurt’s little hissy fit is simply treason, without any noble purpose.

    Wyatt Earp at First In blames it on an maple syrup overdose. West Virginia Rebel on Right-thinking on the Left Coast wrote;

    Maybe Bush should visit the state. But he should speak to the state’s governor through Condi Rice, since apparently Vermont thinks it’s another country.

    When I lived there a decade and a half ago, Vermonters were suspicious of New Yorkers – it seems they had good reason.

  • “Fair and Balanced” isn’t what they want

    I read with some amusement Pam Meister’s post at Blogmeister USA that some pointy-headed types discovered that Fox News Channel is indeed fair and balanced in their political coverage – what the political Right has been saying for years;

    Fox News Channel’s coverage was more balanced toward both parties than the broadcast networks were. On FOX, evaluations of all Democratic candidates combined were split almost evenly – 51% positive vs. 49% negative, as were all evaluations of GOP candidates – 49% positive vs. 51% negative, producing a perfectly balanced 50-50 split for all candidates of both parties.

    But then, while tooling around, I read at DUmmie FUnnies that individual Leftist news-nazis are going around demanding that Fox News broadcasts be removed from the private business they frequent. So just by using my limited understanding of statistics and math, I gotta figure that the Left doesn’t want “balance” – they want complete, unquestioned dominance of the media. I guess it’s just too bad for the Left that a majority of Americans don’t feel the same way.