Habemus Presidente

Well, Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze is the new president of Bolivia. He is the head of the Supreme Court, and was also Chief Counsel to the Foreign Relations Ministry. He apparently has an MPA from the Kennedy School at Harvard.

So, Hormando V. has decided not to take power, as has Cossio. They were both in line for succession after Mesa.


Self Help, El Alto style. Well, talks of Autonomy in Santa Cruz, have been trumped by El Alto, or could it be the first Bolivian "Soviet".
El Alto radicals have decided to convene a 'popular assembly' and will have their own government, that will seek to 'nationalize' the gas. La Razon says that Abel Mamani a well-known Alto activist, and Jaime Solares from the COB labor Union, are the ones doing this whole thing. Solares was the one calling for a Chavez style military leader early on.

Whats Really Up!!

Finally, someone calls it as it is. Clinton Taylor at The American Spectator calls out Evo:

"rubber-faced Marxist thug named Evo Morales, who got his start rabble-rousing among Bolivia' coca-growers. Coca-growing is legal in one part of Bolivia; but Evo represented the Chapare, the part where it's not. Since then he's become a lightning rod for the politics of grievance; anyone with an anti-U.S., pro-(illegal)-coca, statist, socialist, anti-liberal, nationalist, isolationist, or racialist axe to grind joined Evo to swing it at the fragile roots of Bolivian democracy. The last time he brought down a president, 56 people died in the riots.

Dang!! Harsh but true. I am so Effin sick of Evo-mania among the Granola leftie crowd.

He calls out their hypocrisy, and is right on point.

It's ironic, though, when you consider he has just led a putsch designed to (a): nationalize Bolivia's considerable natural gas reserves, and (b): put himself in charge of the country. Here we have a losing politician deposing a democratic government and angling to usurp a nation's petroleum reserves -- but a genuine oil-for-blood coup is fine by the lefties if the instigator's ideology checks out.

The articles conclusion is sadly right: "This is mob rule, fueled by resentment and ideology. This is anarchy."

Mind you, I am not crazy about the Spectator, specially after their B.S. articles against President Bill. But someone needed to step up and call out the lunacy going on in Bolivia.


And for something completely different
For comic relief, Norwegians protesting Rumsfeld's visit had a peace goat, notice the hot chick with said goat. I am no fan of Rumsfeld, and I dig both hot Norwegian chicks and goats (not in that way you sick fucks) so this is very appropo.