Bolivia Vs. Brazil: Vienna..Name..Calling

This past week has seen a really big row in South America involving Bolivia against Brazil over the nationalization of certain oil and gas holdings. One view has Evo in the middle of a tug of war between Chavez and Lula, but he did a pretty good job of making headlines and aggravating the Brazilians further. Lula and the Brazilian foreign ministry have taken an increasingly critical stance with Morales government over the nationalization decree.

Separating Spin From Fact - War of Words v 1.0

Before the nationalization decree of May 1, 2006, Bolivia passed a its Hydrocarbon law, based on the popular referendum, which raised the tax on natural gas exports. One of the most affected companies was Petrobras, the Brazilian oil and gas giant which is partially owned by the State. After Morales was installed as President, Brazil and Bolivia began negotiating over price, volume and taxation. More or less out of the blue, came the nationalization decree, which was done loudly on May day with plenty of bells and whistles, speeches and troops.

That next week, a photo-op meeting of Presidents Evo and Lula, took place to smooth things out in Argentina. The two were joined by the host President and also, Chavez of Venezuela. According to Reuters, Brazils foreign minister, Lula and Evo were working on "an accord to guarantee natural gas supplies, and Lula said that ultimately they recognized Bolivia's sovereign rights, a Lula aide quoted by Reuters said that "gas prices was the central issue for Brazil." So the message here was that Brazil accepted the nationalization as fait accompli, the bottom line here was over price and any compensation. The week after, a high level Brazilian delegation, consisting of Petrobras President and the Minister of Energy arrived in La Paz, and serious negotiations began, according to all concerned.

So basically they took care of it right??

Not quite, behind the scenes, this mini-summit annoyed at least some in the Brazilian government, due to the presence of Hugo Chavez. What business did he have there??

The week after, Evo Morales in what could be seen as a crowd-pleasing stump speech accuses the oil companies of conspiring with the "mafias" that own media outlets to reverse nationalization. Problem is this ends up in that same media outlets and is read outside as a slight. The largest company is Petrobras, you can not talk about the multi-nationals without talking about the Brazilian company.

Brazil increasingly starts accusing Hugo Chavez of Venezuela of directly interfering in Bolivia. Celso Amorim, the Brazilian foreign minister in front of a congressional committee said President Lula himself had warned Chavez that his interference in Bolivia, jeopardized the proposed South American gasoduct program. Amorin also stated plainly that Chavez wields a huge influence on Evo Morales. In addition, one of President Lula's advisors, accused the Venezuelans of interfering in Bolivia. One clue to what had particularly irked them, was the presence of PDVSA officials at Evo's nationalization decree speech. Venezuela of course, denies it. But it shows an increasingly stronger tone by Brazil before Venezuela.


Vienna Calling

So then this circus moves to Vienna for the EU conference with Latin American leaders. It is here where Evo, makes controversial statements to the World Press. At a press conference on Thursday the 12th, when asked about the Bolivia-Petrobras contracts he responded:

Si quiere hablar de los contratos, le voy a demostrar que son ilegales e inconstitucionales y si quiere saber sobre Petrobras le voy a informar cómo ilegalmente operaron sin respetar las normas de Bolivia

If you want to talk about the contracts, I will demonstrate that they are illegal and unconstitutional, and if you want to know about Petrobras I will show you how they operated illegally without respecting Bolivias norms.

Interestingly enough, he also admittedhe did not consult with/or give advance warning to leaders of countries affected. That is contrary to a claim made, that he was unable to get through to Lula or those close to him, in the critical couple of days prior to the announcement. He also happened to be meeting with Castro and Chavez those days too. This could be taken as a further slight to Lula personally.

Bolivia's foreign ministry tried to put out the fire, claiming President Morales was talking about Bolivia's mulitple contracts with approximately 20 multi-nationals, never ratified by congress and therefore unconstitutional. No dice there, the direct quote is taken from this AFP article. This initial press conference seemed to set the tone for the war or words that cast a shadow over what would otherwise be a boring meeting, according to some articles in CNN and the New York Times

Soliz Rada, Bolivia's dogmatic oil minister further stoked the fire by stating that Petrobras should be left out of Chavez pet project to run a natural gas pipeline from Venezuela to Argentina, ironically via Brazil.

Then Brazil's foreign minister Celso Amorim came out swinging and said his government was outraged at Evo's statements, and even considered pulling its ambassador Other statements were issued by Petrobras and Gas Minister. It seemed that when the Brazilian government was concerned about the security of Brazilian gas and oil interests, it had let Petrobras go public, keeping itself above the fray. Here, they took the initiative.


Still More...

Now we also need to go back to what was happening on the ground in Bolivia. Bolivian and Brazilian negotiators were simultaneously negotiating not only the price of gas, but also any compensation which Bolivia might have to pay Brazil. That would be because Bolivia might have to pay the value for a small percentage of the stock, to obtain a majority interest in the mixed-ownership companies that Petrobras operates. Evo said that Thursday that there would be no compensation for any assets seized, since they had recouped their investment. That is in stark contrast to what Evo, and other s in his cabinet had said earlier.

So this mini-crisis heats up on Thursday and Friday, and then you have the spectacle of Blair, Chirac, Javier Solana, and assorted Euro-types making all sorts of statements, but basically telling Morales and Chavez to mellow out, and try to work with the evil multi-nationals. While BP is a UK concern, Blair does represent the Labor Party of Great Britain, for whatever that is worth to Evo.

Solved on Saturday or Photo Op??
So on Saturday, Lula and Evo have breakfast and essentially say to the world it all was a misunderstanding blown out of proportion by the media.
But consider this story in the AP out of Brazil.
Lula firmly told Evo that he would not live under the sword of Bolivia's gas over him. Clearly this is leaked by the Brazilian government to show that not all was hunky dory.


And Brazil Now??


This has shaken Brazilian policy-makers. The country
s foreign policy the past 60 years has been fairly independent, very measured, and prudent. Its foreign policy establishment takes pride in its professionalism and sophistication; it is undoubtedly very experienced in dealing with governments in the third world. Brazil has cultivated the image of a relatively benign big neighbor, even during its authoritarian military governments, and by and large many South Americans view the giant positively, outside of rival Argentina. And Lula's work behind the scenes with Morales seemed to be a good course of action.

This row with Bolivia is hurting Lula's image in an election year, as he gets slammed in the media:

''Lula for President . . . of Bolivia,'' read a headline of a column in the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo. This week's Veja, Brazil's largest-circulation news magazine, carries a cover showing Lula with a painted oil-stamped shoe on his rear end, and a headline reading, 'Lula went to bed as the `big leader' of Latin America, and woke up as the fool of the court of Venezuelan [President] Hugo Chávez, who plotted the theft of Brazil's assets in Bolivia.''

But beyond, electoral politics and headlines, there seems to be palpable nervousness in the Brazilian public about gas prices. Celso Lafer, Brazil's ex-foreign minister, claims he has not seen this kind of public reaction over a foreign policy issue'in many decades.' according to Andres Oppenheimer. Lafer says this hurts Brazilians national pride, regardless of class. (Bolivia national pride, is at issue too, though) Since the conventional wisdom in Brazil according to Oppenheimer seems to be that this is something that Chavez provoked, Bolivia can still be seen as more of a satellite or pawn (and a victim) in this beef.
More ominous - and undereported- is the fact that some in Brazil's military establshment has taken notice, and considers the nationalization and the potential expropriation of Brazilian-owned farmers a threat to its "national security" and is urging the government tomove troops to the Bolivian border area. And long term they are asking for a re-armament of Brazil's military to protect from future wars resulting from new enemies and allainces.
People like Lafer represent the foreign policy elite of Brazil, and what is emerging is a consensus to shift how Brazil does business in the area. This consensus seems to be shared by the military establishment, as the recent comments from military intelligence shows. Short term, it means that Chavez is seen as its most dangerous rival, and it will be more vocal in seeking to curb his influence. Long term, this new rival is seen as leading to unknown outcomes and complicating life for Brazil.

Bush On Immigration Speech

Bush was actually ok.

So we get 6,000 national guard at the border??

Was that a bone tossed at the right and the anti-immigration lemmings?

Better hope they have geiger counters and chem weapon detection capabilities. That is the "unsafe" part of the border that concerns me.

Is this guest worker program comprehensive??? Seemed to me he is simply arguing for a "temporary" with no measures so folks can become permanent residents. The id card is not a bad idea.

If he is arguing for a temporary worker program, providing for 400,000 permits, split 75-25 b/ween Mexico and Central and South America, that might be a start.

Then, you can bring down the enforcement, and then you get Mexico aboard to seal the border.

Nice response by Dick Durbin, sounded tough enough and noncomittal either way on immigration, got in a dig at Dubya over the National Guard, then got out of there quick. Let the Republicans beat their brains out over it, it will be fun to watch. Could not have happened to a nicer bunch.

US: Latino Home Ownership Increases Dramatically Nationwide

While this hardly is a surprise to anyone who has done any real estate work in places like California or Illinois, the numbers are staggering.

Across the country, the number of Hispanic homebuyers is climbing dramatically, especially if you look at the name game.

An analysis of public records by San Diego-based DataQuick reveals the top 10 most common homebuyer names in 2005.

On this list appear four Hispanic names, double the amount of 5 years ago.

Included on the list are: Rodriguez, Garcia, Hernandez, and Gonzalez.

The story in California is even more revealing, where the five most common surnames are Hispanic.

Almost 28 percent of all homebuyers in the state are Hispanic, according to a 2005 study.

Undoubtedly, it also means that many undocumented workers are also buying houses, much to Lou Dobbs horror (he did a piece about it some months ago). There is nothing wrong with foreign nationals acquiring equity in the US, paying property taxes, and adding to banks portfolios of loans, right Lou? Sometimes it is done through third parties, usually a close relative either acting as the buyer or co-signer.

Anyways, this is a really good thing.


Source Hispanic Trending

Latin Drivers: Alonso is King of Spain, Super-Mario Throws it Away in Houston, Viso Victory in Barcelona

Image: Speedtv LAT Photography
Image: Photo by Brad Bernstein, USA LAT Photographic
Image: Speedtv LAT Photography

Formula One World Champion, Fernando Alonso delights the huge home crowd at the Circuit de Catalunya, in Barcelona, Spain. The Asturian first got pole position, and then winning from Michael Schumacher. Colombia's JPM gets messed up by team in qualifying then spins it during race, DNF.

Mexico's Mario Dominguez gets the pole in Houston in that city's Champ Car race, leads most of the laps, over 2-time Champ Sebastian Bourdais, but throws it away through an unforced error on lap 66, still makes it to podium.

Venezuela's Ernesto Viso, takes his second win in the GP2 season at the Sprint race, which is the undercard for the Barcelona Spanish Grand Prix.

Pics from Speed TV..

MEXICO: EDGAR FALLS!!!!

LMAO
This has a taken a life of its own. So some kid named Edgar in Mexico gets messed with by his friends, falls in stream.
but, they tape it, put it on web...




A cult hero is born..before you know it there are edited versions of it, mix tape versions of the audio, its own fan web page, MySpace page and now it has become a ringtone in Mexico...
Remix


Remix With Effects




Edgars Revenge


Edgar Dance Remix


Edgar Super Freak Remix

Edgar Scene Re-enactment

BENNY AND THE DITZ

My son, I am afraid there is nothing I can do for you.






See I am two Simon's...Bolivar and Simon Peter the Apostole

Rock N' Boli Friday: The Replacements Live

The'Mats: fast, loud, sometimes sloppy, but always great

If you like basic rock n' roll and want to see a great band, when they were just starting out this is how you do it.

1981 figuring out how to play their instruments, some shindig for the label, so they prolly weren't that wasted. Pretty much a chunk of Sorry Ma and some other stuff that ended up in Stink. Great footage...

Goddamn Job(off Stink)/Junior's Got A Gun<


Takin' A Ride/Staples In Her Stomach/Careless

kick your door down
Customer/Rattlesnake


86 mainly a sound check before a show, not the greatest recordings either......I almost didn't wanna include 'em......but it prolly is one of the last times they played w/Bob Stinson. So you know they were wasted and pissed at each other. A Buddy Holly Cover and Bastards of Young.

Color Me Impressed

That'll Be The Day

Hayday

Bastards Of Young

Did Evo Really Blow it With Lula --- And Zapatero???

So say you happen to be Evo Morales and you want to change your country's policies, you need friends right? So isn't it great that the president of the biggest country in the area -and a neighbor- happens to be a working class guy who started out as a trade union leader, just like you? Lucky you, the one Spanish-speaking country in Europe - the gatekeeper to the EU- happens to be ruled by the Socialist Worker party. Zapatero, reminds you more of your vice-president than Lula, but he is heir to that PSOE tradition of working class militance, these guys did not back down, paid the cost with blood in the past. Only problem, the largest multinationals in Bolivia happen to be Brazilan and Spanish, and you need to change the rules of the game.

But that is ok too. Because these guys really, really GET IT! The struggle for the means of production, class warfare, fighting big corporate interests, organizing workers and the dispossesed, fiery rhetoric, organizing strikes, boycotts, blockades BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! . Even better all three of you understand what it takes to get to the next level; you are so good at the nuts and bolts of politics you made it to the top through the ballot box. Quite a feat when you start with nothing!

So you know when the time is right you can call Lula. Tell the companero that you made electoral promises to nationalize the hydrocarbons industry. Hey, you want Petrobras as a partner, it represents all Brazilians, no? The real deal here is about the price for gas, and how much you tax it. You gently remind Lula that for the Bolivian electorate this is a done deal, since they voted in droves for the measure increasing taxation and royalties. But, prices, taxes, and volume, that can be fixed the old fashioned way by negotiation, old hat for old union leaders, just need to make sure it looks good for the public.
With a firmer -but still- friendly tone you also tell him about how some companeros in your own party are openly questioning your committment to the program and even your leadership. The population, they tell you, still sees Petrobras signs on the oil companies property and think nothing has changed. Other popular sectors, ones outside your control, are also getting louder in calling for complete nationalization of anything foreign. Lula and Zapatero both know all about the ones at the fringe, the ones who don't shut up. But, you are still in control - for now.

How to fix this? What you need to do is mount a show for the benefit of your voters. Lula understands campaign promises, and if anyone knows about the importance of symbolism it is him. Something can be done that looks great for TV. Maybe send a token force of army troops, raise some flags, make speeches, and change some signs "YPFB-Petrobras." Hey, after all it is 50/50 partners, it is just decorating. Why not have Petrobras' marketing people there to make some tapes to show to Brazilian TV? Throw in a Brazilian dignitary or two, joint communiques just to show it is ok. Lula is after all campaigning too! Nothing is really going to change, things will go on as normal. This is nothing different than one big campaign commercial, you both know it isn't personal.

Even if Lula does not go along with this production, the least you can do is give him a heads up, a days notice to brief some of his people on the ground, get the spin ready on the TV to cover his rear end in Brazil. It is not like he is going to call you out on it publically; if you do it despite his bitching, you will look like a hero in Bolivia, if you don't do it, he looks silly and Chavez makes fun of him. Same goes for Zapatero, maybe Alvaro can go over there and talk to him, he isn't half as tough as Lula.

You would not want to mess it up with Brazil and Spain, specially with understanding government like Lula's and Zapatero If you play your cards right, you can look like a hero, make a better deal for your country on prices, and still get the Brazilians to put more money in the industry. Same with Zapatero, he likes you.

That is done, time to go talk to Hugo Chavez and Fidel on some stuff....

Whose Your Papi? Name Lou Dobbs Love Child

LMAO..
These jokers out of Los Angeles' top rated English language Latino radio talk show, The Pocho Hour of Power on KPFK 90.7 FM , Fridays at 4pm, have a contest for undocumented workers:

"POCHO HOUR OF POWER RADIO SHOW OFFERS PRIZE TO FIRST ILLEGAL ALIEN TO HAVE LOU DOBBS BABY

[The] first undocumented immigrant to name their U.S. born child "Lou Dobbs," before September 16 th, 2006, will win $500.00 worth of baby nursery items from participating East Los Angeles merchants supporting the Name Your Baby Lou Dobbs Challenge."

Lou....Quien??

Lou Dobbs is the pompous windbag who unloads on undocumented aliens every f!%cking day on CNN. At one point it appears he was a decent business reporter, but just started getting wackier starting with an anti-trade and protectionist crusade that at first won him props on the left, but his dogmatic views and lack of balance weirded them out pretty quick. When bad economist populism didn't produce monster ratings -and as his feeble mind rotted away - he added an equally relentless anti-immigration crusade to the mix. Dobbs continues to be strident and bombastic, makes no pretense of objectivity, puts questionable guests whom he identifies as experts and/patriots.
This lunacy has people across the political spectrum wondering variously about the guys sense, views, and sanity. FAIR on the left calls him out, and on the other side the National Association of Manufacturers has an on-going blog Dobbs Watch that chronicles the madness. The normally measured, Andres Oppenheimer, has referred to him openly as leading the "wave of Latin bashing that has filled the air waves over the past two years," angering Latinos and energizing them across the country.

[H]ow would you feel if you were an undocumented Mexican gardener returning home after a 12-hour workday, turned on the TV set, put your feet on the coffee table and came across CNN's Dobbs warning America that you are a potential health risk, in addition to being a potential terrorist, a possible secessionist agent, who on top of everything is taking away American jobs?
On March 30, an alarmed Dobbs informed his audience that ''diseases are making an unfortunate comeback in the United States'' because of illegal immigration. On March 31, Dobbs alerted America that some Mexicans ''want to see California, New Mexico and other parts of the southwestern United States given over to Mexico,'' and that they are using illegal immigrants ``as an army of invaders to achieve the takeover.''

Dobbs is a world-class idiots, who takes statements by three idiots, and blows it way out of proportion. Worst part is, this character is on CNN, which has that whole Darth Vader-voice-credibility. Anti-immigration lemmings all over the US get ammunition for their cause by repeating the rants of their hero.

.....Anyway...I will get off my soapbox and say that this contest rocks!! certainly be a proud PAPI. Maybe he can hire a fine American worker to change both Juniors diapers and daddy's Depends (tm) and colostomy bag.

Hey The Baby comes with warranty!!

•Baby promises to gurgle adorably, work cheaply
THE BABY LOU DOBBS PLEDGE:
Baby Lou Dobbs thanks you and sends you his love! Baby Lou Dobbs promises to work hard for the American dream, even at below minimum wages for extended hours with no overtime. Baby Lou Dobbs promises to pay his taxes, to diligently report for jury duty and to always wash his hands before returning to work.

Helpful Suggestions:

Other acceptable nicknames for "Lou Dobbs" in the Name Your Baby Lou Dobbs Challenge are, Potato Head, Beaner Town Boogie Man and Y.T. Bashaspick.

LOL...

Dobbsh@t, works great too.

Source: Vivir Latino

Bolivia: Did Evo, MAS Loot Bolivia's Old Age Pension Fund???

Bolivia's Pension Fund Administrators, who administer the fund on behalf of all Bolivians, are demanding that Bolivia's government pay the fund the value of the stock it held in the newly nationalized oil and gas companies. Soliz Rada, Bolivia's rather strident gas and oil minister, has publically refused, claiming the fund is not entitled to any money under the new decree.

Confusing???

When Evo Morales' government decreed the "nationalization" of Bolivia's Oil and Gas companies, it stated its claim based on Bolivia's ownership of half the stock of these companies. This statement on who owns the stock is the crux of this problem.


Capitalization and Pensions

Under the innovative capitalization law in the 90's, the Bolivian government did not privatize YPFB (the oil company) outright. What it did was separate the company into several upstream and downstream units, and spun each one off. In return for a 50 percent capital investment, private buyers could acquire half the stock and get management control. In effect, what they paid had to go specifically towards investments in the company.

YPFB's 50 percent share of the equity, as Economist Rosemary Thorp describes it, "was [now] formally owned by all Bolivians of voting age, and was held in new collective pension funds, with the legal obligation to provide a universal and equal annual pension, a 'bonosol', to all Bolivians of 65 and over."

This was a unique approach, meant to avoid the problems of privatizations in Eastern Europe and Latin America, and to provide a viable system of social security. In order to accomplish both goals it ensured that capital coming in went straight to needed investments. Had funds gone to the treasury, it could have ended up as a quick fix for budget and foreign debt problems, besides being subject to sticky fingers.

While capitalization did not go right in the case of the airlines, in oil it looks very succesful. The mixed ownership companies were until fairly recently, autonomous bodies and could operate as efficiently and profitably as is possible in Bolivia. And it is undisputed that YPFB attracted several billion dollars in investment into the country, and the gas industry has increased hugely.

The reasoning behind making Bolivias pension fund the sole beneficiary of the ownership interest of the YPFB, was to eliminate YPFB as a source of patronage, cronyism, and theft for whatever government happened to be in power in power. It also ensured that the pension funds held assets, that were outside of the grasp of the same greedy politians. If a future government wanted to divest Bolivia of these assets, it was not entitled to the proceeds by the same logic, and any proceeds went directly to the fund. Conversely a government re-nationalizing the companies or at least assuming a bigger role in ownership, would be required to pay the pension fund the fair market value of the shares or risk the very integrity and soundness of the fund.

Under Bolivian Law, the pension fund administrators hold these shares, under a a constitutional mandate based on three Bolivian laws: the Bonosol Law the capitalization law , the law of popular credit and property PCP laws have preeminence over decrees in the Bolivian system. So now the present nationalization decree calls for the stock in these entities to be transferred from the pension funds to the government, and without compensation. Soliz Rada's claims that stock never was never formally transferred is wrong, since the decree itself admits the funds held the assets. In addition, there is ample documentary evidence that this has been recognized as fact by Bolivia's Government and Courts. Further, it is written into the law and the contracts and the corporate charters of the individual companies - which even the government is following in attempting to appoint new directors.

Morales and MAS want to ignore laws, and impose their will on everything by decree - like most tin-pot authoritarians. And there is a hint of pure ideological hatred and resentment in these actions. While Evo and Soliz Rada were as expected among the loudest critics of capitalization, MAS also opposed the pension scheme and the pre-natal care laws, on grounds of fiscal responsibility!! And this coming from the left!

Ideas like capitalization and the Bonosol, were just too much for the dogmatic ideologues around MAS like Soliz Rada. Beyond the deep hatred of Goni, they deeply resented new ideas they could not undersand, and were outside their narrow frames of reference, and which they suspected might actually work. So now they go about trying to erradicate these concepts from the Bolivian mind and polity with a vengeful single-mindedness, and they forget who they are really hurting - the Bolivian people.

Colombia, How Some FARC Members Indicted in US

This indictment and the affadivit in support, alleges that certain FARC members conspired to send Cocaine to the US. What really gives this some teeth is the fact the feds have the FARC people on tape. The Miami Herald article says a snitch on DEA payroll, sold the FARC several supposedly untraceable Satellite Phones, which actually had listening devices.

One of the counts also mentions that one of the indicted was responsible for FARC cocaine laboratores in Paramilitary (AUC) territory. Production facilities within an avowed enemies territory??? Sounds like active cooperation to me; a labratory requires protection of facilities and free transit.

Carlos Mencia Is Damn Funny - And Latino

As I said last year, I think Carlos Mencia is funny as shit, watched him back when he did Loco Slam. And his comedy show on Comedy Central Mind of Mencia, has become much better this year, his monologues and skits are hilarious and topical.

On the handicapped, Way Un-PC, but dropped dead hilarious, and even sneaks in a point or two



Mencia on Terrorism, Jingoistic?? Yeah, But Funny as Hell

On People's Music Tastes

I dig everything....all types of music...and I don't mean that I'm like one of those stupid people that say..."I LOVE ALL TYPES OF MUSIC EXCEPT RAP AND COUNTRY MUSIC..." Well guess what???? YOU DON'T LOVE ALL TYPES OF MUSIC SO STOP SAYING THAT YOU DO!!! That's like saying..."I love neopolitan ice cream...BUT I HATE CHOCOLATE AND STRAWBERRY...

Not Mexican?
What is funny, is that comedian Joe Rogan called Mencia out for "not being Mexican" (in addition to stealing material).

He sells himself as being mexican, but the reality is his real name is Ned Holness, and he's actually half German and half Honduran. The mexican hook is something he did to ingratiate himself with the local Mexican population of LA where he started.

Since I can remember Carlos has always said he was born in Honduras, that his mom was Mexican and that he was raised in East LA. As this Washington Post article says: He was born in Honduras as Ned Mencia, son of Magdalena Mencia, a Mexican, and Roberto Holness, a Honduran. When he was 7 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he was raised by his mother's sister and her husband in East L.A.. He also lived in Honduras as a teenager.
Carlos himself inhis blog

My birth father’s name is Roberto Holness. When I was born, my mother was pissed off at my father and decided not give me his last name. She had a brother who was married but unable to have children. (Her brother is the one in my family that came to America first and then went back to Honduras to get the rest of his family). My mother did the most amazing thing a parent could do; she gave me to her brother and his wife to be raised as their own. I grew up with my biological mother and father, brothers and sisters living just next door. Out of respect for my birth father, my mom and dad decided I should still use his name even though my legal name (the one on my birth certificate) is Ned Arnel Mencia. All through school I was known as Ned Holness. I’ve never try to hide this, but only people who know me personally or have heard and or read all of my interviews and articles would know this.

So the guy's dad has a German last name, or maybe even is German.BFD, still makes Carlos/Ned, Honduran by birth. Heck, my maternal last name is Irish, doesn't make my moms family any less Nicaraguan. If anything Mencia's origins, represents what Andres Oppenheimer has called the trans-national identity of some Latino immigrants. We move back and forth across borders, might have parents of different nationalities. We navigate fairly seamlessly between different cultures and nationalities as a matter of everyday life; culture surfing as a friend once referred to it. If anything, it probably helped to turn Carlos Mencia into such a sharp observer of everyday life among the different groups that make up the American - and Latin American fabric of life.

Venezuela: Good Article on Oil "PDVSA The Dispassionate Story"

The story about how Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. or PDVSA has been run into the ground by Chavismo needs to be told, and is very relevant today with what is happening in Bolivia, and potentially Argentina.

At its height, it was considered one of the best-run state enterprises in Latin America. By and large people attribute this to the quality of its work force. It recruited some of Venezuela's best and brightest, and sent many of its employees to graduate schools in the U.S. and Europe all expenses paid. This meritrocratic approach ran against the grain of the traditional crony system, and unfortunately it set up clashes that only worsened as Chavismo with its single-minded vision took power.



The Author of the article:

Luis A. Pacheco earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Imperial College, University of London. He then worked at PDVSA for 17 years, leaving in 2003 after serving as the executive director for corporate planning.

This article appeared in Petroleumworld

Luis Pacheco :
PDVSA, The Dispassionate Story



The Energy Tribune has run several pieces on Venezuela and PDVSA and I feel the dispassionate story must be told.

When PDVSA was created in 1975, as a result of the nationalization process, there was a natural apprehension that it would follow in the steps of all the other failed Venezuelan state enterprises. Against the grain, the company evolved – from a loose coalition of E&P companies into a major integrated oil company and a relevant factor in the world energy scene – through a succession of governments.

But that evolution was not without its price – a very important political price. The technical and commercial success of PDVSA left in its wake a number of tense situations. For example, the OPEC quota policy was always a contentious issue between Venezuela’s oil ministry and the company. But there were other sources of irritation: among them, the salaries of oil workers, the investment overseas, and the debate on what to do with its generated revenue. Most of these issues were never resolved to the satisfaction of the political establishment, and they re-surfaced years later with a vengeance.

Of course, this is all hindsight. The PDVSA managers were raised in an environment that strived only for technical prowess and were ill-equipped to be sensitive to the potential political nuances of their activities. In modern management speak: PDVSA was not very adept at managing its stakeholders. In turn, there is no doubt that the political actors cared very little about understanding the details of the oil industry, so long as it was generating enough revenue.

The success of the “Apertura” (the opening up) strategy in the 90s, which allowed the controlled participation of the international oil companies in the upstream business, gave Venezuela access to capital and technology. And that technology was necessary to fulfill the potential of its huge hydrocarbon resource base. The Apertura helped thrust PDVSA into a competitive environment, which was instrumental in counteracting the inevitable inefficiencies resulting from its legally designated isolation. All of these events created political friction.

When President Hugo Chávez came into office in 1998, he did not arrive alone. He brought with him a prejudiced opinion about the oil industry and its workers, borne from all the previous tensions and misunderstandings, and he was accompanied by a cadre of PDVSA’s historical enemies. Not surprisingly, the PDVSA establishment was apprehensive about its new political masters. These two forces were bound to clash sooner or later, and after some skirmishes, the tensions exploded destructively in the widely reported but little understood PDVSA crisis that boiled up in the spring and winter of 2002.

PDVSA is no longer the proud company that it once was. Thanks to the firing of more than half of its workforce, it has lost its former vitality. As modern economists and managers have come to understand, the soul of any corporation, in particular one as complex as PDVSA, resides in its people and their expertise. Without that, no modern organization has a sustainable future.

Surprisingly, the PDVSA name still remains. The oil keeps flowing, although at a steadily decreasing rate. The people left inside, old and new, still retain their spirited hubris. It comes with the territory. But the life force of the organization has been irretrievably lost. Today, PDVSA is little more than a political tool in the hands of the shrewdest political operator Venezuela has ever known, and a blunt instrument with regard to the future of the Venezuelan oil industry.

After more than 80 years of oil industry, Venezuela has not yet discovered how to live harmoniously with it. From unrestricted private participation to unbridled state intervention, we have not managed to grow beyond the primitive stages of rent-seeking behavior. Sooner or later, the state-owned enterprises are bound to fail, either through inefficiency or as victims of political expediency. PDVSA will not be an exception.

The company is like a wounded giant, dizzy and without a sense of direction, running around in circles. It appears to be incapable of moving forward under this or any other government. Sadly, it doen’t seem that the story will have a happy ending. The state has proven to be an incompetent manager of the oil resource. Venezuela has to start thinking anew, while there is still time left for its oil.

Bolivia: Nationalization and Disfunctionality

Bolivia's first real nationalization of its natural resources, did not happen after the Chaco War, or the National Revolution of 1952. We have to go back to 1924, when, Simón Ituri Patiño, bought out Chilean interests Bolivia's then booming tin mining industry which by 1910 produced 20 percent of world production.

Patiño, who started out as a lowly clerk, was very much in the mold of America's robber barrons, and is considered the first modern Latin American capitalist. He controlled extensive holdings in tin production, not only in Bolivia, but worldwide to the point where he arguably rigged pricing of the metal. In Bolivia, he came to symbolize the rosca, or the screw, which together with two other families, exerted vast influence in the country's life. They made billions of dollars from Bolivian mining, most of that capital leaving the country, and forever leaving a bitter taste in many Bolivians minds.

What is less known is that at one point, Patiño had offered to finance settlement efforts in the underpopulated eastern lowlands, to increase agricultural production, and to build a railroad from there to the highlands. He had less than pure motives; he wanted a steady source of food and wood for his vast workforce in the mountains. In those critical first couple of decades of the 20th century, Patiño was generating a lot of cold hard cash, and was willing to invest at least some of it in Bolivia - he started and financed the country's first real national bank. But,his proposal went nowhere, because a squabbling Congress refused to give him a concession. Other plans of his ended up with the same fate, through legal and political wrangling. Patiño then simply went about his business, building his own railroads, sending his capital abroad, bribing politicians to avoid taxation, and moving his influence around through his army of lobbyists.

In the end we will never know how much of his capital Patiño was willing to keep and invest in Bolivia, but it is clear from this tale, that when there was a rare window of opportunity, when capital was ready and available for valuable improvements in the countries interests, but that it was killed by stupidity. As a result the railroad from Santa Cruz was never built, the East continued to be isolated for decades, and Bolivia was mostly a net importer of food.

Unfortunately, Bolivia has continued with a cycle of lost opportunities, and bad timing. The left loves to mythologize the 2002 "Gas War," celebrating it as some big victory. Reality is that much opposed plan people opposed (some paying with their lives) involved foreign companies willing to finance and build a pipeline to a Port in Chile, to set up the capacity to produce liquid natural gas for export to ready customers in the United States. It is 2006, Bolivia does not have a pipeline to a Pacific port, does not have facilities and capacity to produce liquid national gas for export, in a world where there is rising demand. HOW GREAT IS THAT??.

When the military government nationalized Gulf Oil's holdings, they got basically a turnkey oil-producing operation, with sizeable reserves, which could produce, store and ship oil to customers anywhere in the world. Despite initial losses caused by a fairly loud Gulf campaign worldwide, after settling, Bolivia was in a great position to take advantage in the post 1973 rise in oil prices.

There are critical differences between 1969 and today. Then it was mostly about oil, which unlike gas, is easier to store and ship. And Bolivia's gas industry is still in its infancy, with crucial new investments needed not only for further exploration and industrialization, but also for maintaining current production levels. The past four years have seen investors panic and cancel investments. Evo's show of force supposedly "nationalizing" the gas and oil fields, might have sunk any remaining confidence, despite the fact that this is nowhere near as drastic as early expropriations. But the damage is done, and the country stands to lose in the long run, and it can not go it alone to develop its resources. The cynical lesson is that you should at least wait until the enterprises you want to expropriate are fully funded and projects completed, before taking them over. To paraphrase Lenin, let the capitalists sell you the rope with which to hang them. But here, it appears that Bolivians might have both jumped the gun and shot themselves in the foot, again.

Bolivia: Roundup of Nationalization Stories.

This is a great source of links to stories about Evo's latest gambit, which also includes stories from reactions in other countries. Also a timeline with links

All in Spanish

BOLIVIA: EL ESCANDALO DE AUDITORES VENEZOLANOS

Pareciera un chiste de mal gusto, el Presidente de la Republica De Bolivia trae auditores de la Petrolera Venezolana PDVSA, para que supuestamente hagan "auditoria" de las petroleras.


QUE CREDIBILIDAD TIENE ESTA GENTE, para hacer una auditoria honesta. !!!

PDVSA es una empresa estatal corrupta e ineficiente que no tiene control de sus propios finanzas, donde decenas y possiblemente cientos de millones de dolares se han esfumado. Si sus auditores no saben donde va la plata en su propia empresa, menos van a tener capacidad para hacer una auditoria satisfactoria.

Y aun si ese no fuera el caso, es un conflicto de interes tener a empleados de un competidor de Petrobras, Total, etc, haciendo una auditoria independiente.

Encima de eso, PDVSA es la sombra de la empresa que era antes. Es una estatal cuya misma capacidad tecnica ha sido arruinada por el Chavismo, que despidio miles de sus empleados muy capacitados a todos niveles, y los reemplazo con gente cuyas unicas credenciales son lealtad al Supremo Venezolano.

En vez de ir a Bolivia, estos supuestos auditores deberian de venirse a Miami a investigar las propiedades que altos ejecutivos de PDVSA y sus familias parecen estar collecionando como casas miniaturas que se venden en Carnaval. Esa si seria una auditoria interesante.

Bolivia: Venezuelan Auditors... Huh???? FUERA PDVSA

This is a bad joke.

I wrote before about how Evo Morales' government had brought in Venezuelan auditors to conduct an audit of the troubled national Airline, Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, angering Bolivian employees.

Well, according to this article in the New York Times, Venezuelan auditors from PDVSA are supposedly going to be helping in the audit of the newly nationalized foreign oil companies.

As a first step, auditors from Petróleos de Venezuela, that nation's oil giant, visited three foreign companies in Bolivia and announced that they would be involved in the audits, an executive of one company said.
The Venezuelan company is also providing technical help to Bolivian authorities and is to sign a contract to build a gas separation plant.

Go home and clean up your messes there!!! PDVSA is a poster child for massive corruption and disfunctionality in state agencies. How qualified and credible can these auditors be, when tens of millions of dollars (at least) have completely disappeared from company books??? In the greater scheme of things, who needs advice from a company that despite an oil boom windfall, squanders money like crazy, and can not even keep up with its supply contracts keep up production.

How fair is it??? It is a huge conflict of interest, since PVDSA is a competitor of these same firms, (and sometimes even a partner). Employees of an oil company -which stands to gain- should not be doing audits of the holdings of its competitors on behalf of a national government.

PDVSA is a corrupt, politicized, and inneficient company. Chavez laid off thousands of its most competent and well-trained employees replacing them with political hacks and cronies. It lacks the means to fairly audit, or for that manner advise any other oil company. They have repeatedly failed to account to the Venezuelan people about where their oil wealth is being squandered, maybe they should stay at home and work on that.

Then again, maybe PDVSA auditors should travel out of Venezuela, not to Bolivia though, they should instead come here to Miami to audit the real estate holdings of high PDVSA officials and their families, most of it bought quite recently.

Trippy Reggaeton??? Calle 13, Voltio

Calle 13, are two half-brothers from Puerto Rico, who go by Residente and Visitante. Graduates of art-school and computer science respectively, these guys laid down some of the most inventive hip-hop ever done in Spanish with clever rhymes and intriguing musical back beats. It is pretty trippy stuff, close in spirit to A Tribe Called Quest, with a nod to Beck. Definitively not your average cookie-cutter stuff, this sets the bar high for current reggeaton and spanish hip-hop. Videos are not your standard issue bling-blineo and hot mami's.....Well actually, lets just say there is no bling. LOL

They first hit it big with Se Vale To-to.. and then their current hit. Atrevete-te, where Residente beeseches, his rather “intellectual” love interest to "levantate ponte hyper" even if...“te guste Green Day..... que importa que te guste Coldplay”. Latest is La Jirafa, which is even more out there. Good stuff.

Residente,also mixes it up with another highly inventive MC Julio Voltio on Chulin Culin Cunflay , with its absurdist lyrics and wacky video - product of repeated watchings of Kung Fu movies and Starsky and Hutch reruns.
Voltio, who got his nickname after being electrocuted on his job as an electrician's assistant, on his debut solo album, had another off-the-hook track, Se Van, with the multi-talented Abayarde himself, Tego Calderon. Love the agressive energy and pounding back-beat of this number. cool video too, kind of a noir in the tropics deal.

On his last album, Voltio rounded up Miami's Cubano MC, Pitbull, So-Cal Chicano Rapper Lil Rob, re-mixed his track, Bumper .. This example of Latino unity...is ultimately an ode to...the female booty......regardless one of 05's hottest tracks, and a kick-ass production by Luny Tunes, who masterfully combined Voltio's boricua stylings, with Pit's manic crunked-up Miami sound, and Rob's laid-back, cholo-cool flow.

Props to Mundo Reggaeton for up to date videos.

New Chili Peppers Tune...

Great tune, video rules... how many references to different bands can you find?? Misfits imitation rules!

Dani California

Brazil: Ayrton Senna Remembered

You can never have too much Senna. Cool video, narrated by the one and only Murray Walker, about the Paulista 3 Time Formula One Champion.

Note From Chicago Protests...

I must say, I totally dig Chicago. The city has a blue-collar, common-sense flavor to it; a town of hard work and diverse close-knit neighborhoods. It is a city born of inteimmigration and migration. New immigrants with their work ethic have no problem adopting the city's ethos. And that extends to its surrounding suburbs such as Joliet, Aurora, and Waukegan. You get the feeling sometimes, that it is America at its best. The Trib has a great blog-like summary of todays protest in Grant Park, those little snippets that captured some pretty big moments. And this picture in the Trib, taken by a reader, John Matt Dorn, just seems to sum it all up. Its about as Chicago as you can get.

Starting at my old neighborhood in Wicker Park, moving to Grant Park.


Its Everyone..hey even Palestinians and Israelis.

10:30 a.m. About 150 people had gathered at Division Street and Milwaukee Avenue by 9:30 a.m., unfurling U.S., Mexican and Polish flags.

"I am seven years here. I love America," said a burly Polish construction worker who identified himself as Jan Kowalski. "We work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. I pay taxes. I pay Social Security."

9:40 a.m.: At the Korean American Resource and Cultural Center on the Northwest side, dozens of Korean and Filipino immigrants boarded school buses around 10 a.m., saying they wanted to add an Asian-American presence to the march.

Bryant Kim, 24, of Chicago, adjusted the red, blue and yellow sashes of his traditional Korean outfit. He planned to play at the event with the IL Kwa Nori (Work and Play) percussion troupe.

"By participating, this shows that immigration is a universal issue," he said.

11:15 a.m.: The Wicker Park feeder march headed south on Ashland Avenue with a sound system blaring the late '70s anthem "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" and the song "Walk This Way."

The crowd, having swollen to more than 1,000, displayed multiple flags from the Palestinian Authority, the Philippines, Poland as well as the multicolored banner of gay pride.

But the U.S. flag dominated. Amber Javed, 23, of Chicago, carried a sign in Urdu that translated: "We are America."

"It's going to be a beautiful day," said Javed, an immigrant from Pakistan.

12:01 p.m.: The head of the march is now at Des Plaines and Madison Streets, led by a row of flags from Israel, Japan, Argentina and more. The sign on the pace car reads: "We are are here, like it or not."

Some skinheads trying to cause trouble......

12:38 p.m. There is conflict with three or four skinheads on LaSalle Street. Charles Williams, deputy superintendent of patrol, takes a handful of officers into the crowd and kicks them out. The crowd cheers the police, chanting "paz. (peace)."

There is something really compelling about that image, that made me crack a big smile....


The unruly demonstrators..demanding special rights...

The crowd now is chanting, "We want to pay taxes!"

Peaceful And Orderly

4:17 p.m.: Charles Williams of Chicago Police Department now estimates the crowd at 400,000.

He says no arrests were reported as of about 3:45 p.m. One person needed emergency medical service and transport by the Chicago Fire Department after fainting. A few kids ended up at the lost child tent.

Williams says there have been no huge traffic hassles and he calls the demonstration "a very good march."

7:52 p.m. At a wrap-up news conference Monday night, Office of Emergency Management and Communications Executive Director Andrew Velasquez said there were no arrests during the rally.

The office handled 10 ambulance calls -- "none of which were trauma" – with more than 200 firefighters, paramedics and other Chicago Fire Department personnel on hand, Velasquez said.

Although the rally attracted about 400,000 demonstrators, "at no time, I repeat at no time, was order disrupted," he said.

After the demonstration, crews from the Department of Streets and Sanitation cleaned up what they regarded as a "moderate" amount of debris.

Deputy Supt. of Police Charles Williams said the 400,000 people "were able to peaceably march and get their message out without breaking the law."

Williams credited march organizers.

"What we had were organizers who had volunteers along the march route to keep the peace," Williams said. "They helped police themselves, which assists us."

Bolivia: Evo Orders Seizure of Oil and Gas Fields.

This is silly, the army was ordered to seize gas and oil fields, and did so with big fanfare.

Before I go into hysterics, I will say that this has ample precedent in Bolivian history, going back to the seizure of Standard Oil's holdings by a military government in 1937, and the later expropriation of Gulf Oil in 1969. In both cases it was military regimes in power that did this, and like Evo's actions were also done with a lot of flash.

Both were US owned companies. And as a result, the US government, under FDR, and then Nixon pretty much did....... nothing. Actually, FDR's government got Standard to reduce its claim, and then brokered the deal that effectively settled Standard's claims. Bolivia paid a minimal amount, and in return received millions of dollars in US credits, with which it set up Yacimientos Petroliferos. There was of course, an issue about the US simply wanting Bolivian tin supplies during WWII.

The seizure of Gulf's holdings, which were much more substantial, provoked a collective yawn from the Nixon administration which continued to engage the left-leaning military government of Torres and then Ovando. The military government,from the beginning indicated it would indemnify the company, and reached a settlment with Gulf eventually. While the Banzer regime which overthrew Ovando's government, was more to the right, it happily kept the oil fields, and actually negotiated a reduction in the indemnification amount.

All in all, the Nixon and Kissenger team had little concern for Bolivia, their big issue in South America was Allende, which in the greater scheme of things was insignificant considering Vietnam, detente with the Russians and the opening of China.

So in the present case the seizures affected European and Brazilian companies. US interests affected here include mainly Exxon holdings. Given prior US policy towards Bolivia, I do not see that much of a backlash in the US about this.

But, Petrobras and Repsol-YPF, are pretty ticked off, and Lula and Zapatero's governments have already shown a lot of displeasure. I would think that they would have been forewarned - particularly Petrobras, and this appears to not be the case.

Boycott--Immigration Roundup

Nationwide, people prepare for the day.
In the Miami Herald, South Florida Businesses brace for the Boycott. Debate is About Real People Leonard Pitts Jr. weighs in from the Miami Herald.

Why Even Crack Down? Wonders MITCHELL SCHNURMAN.

Washington Post on why people do cross the border. and what about those remittances?

A.M. Mora at Publius is trying to make sense of it all in LA.

Classic Spanish Rock Videos: Aterciopelados & Soda Stereo

Some of the biggest classics of Spanish rock from two of my all-time favorite artists. Props to YouTube, some of these videos are hard to find, not even Mun2 has some of them.


Aterciopelados, Andrea rocks hard in Florecita Rockera one of their anthems, which they reworked later on. Rocking on with Baracunatana

Taking it trippier and slower....Andrea is kinda fed-up or hasta la coronilla en Bolero Falaz, then clearly confused in Rompecabezas


Soda Stereo the late great Argentinian Band that basically set the standard. No more cheesy imitations of American and British bands, these guys rocked in any language.

The anthem.... Musica Ligera, then done live as the last song in their last concert in front of a huge Buenos Aires Crowd, Ceratti closing with his now iconic phrase Gracias Totales As a very new wavish 80's band doing another classic, Persiana Americana. At the top of their powers in the late 80's with La Ciudad De La Furia.

Not done yet....

From their last two studio albums, you have the Beatlesque, Ella Uso Mi Cabeza Como Un Revolver, the My Bloody Valentine-meets-Charly Garcia sounding Primavera Cero.. and the trippy Zoom.

Wrap it up with Soda Stereo unplugged, from their MTV Unplugged Album with Andrea from Aterciopelados doing La Ciudad De La Furia.

Speaking of "Songs" For the Protest

The so-called Spanish Anthem is a joke. Should never had called it the Spanish "Star Spangled Banner", it is in fact a totally different song.
Don't mess with national symbols people hold sacred, particularly at this stage of the game. Having Gloria Trevi, Mexican Citizen and felon, participate on it is just stupid. A.B. Quintanilla of the Kumbia Kings, got in trouble in Mexico, because as a tribute to his heritage he put a Mexican flag image on his bass. Ran afoul of a law that prohibits desacration of "National Symbols". Trevi would never do this to the Mexican anthem, she should just STFU.
Much more dignified and personal is the song that Arjona did with Intocable, Mojado

Now Lets Be Well-Behaved and Dignified.

Look if you are going to boycott work, walk out of school, or protest after work and/or school, do it with class and dignity. The whole country is watching. Fly the American flag, march in peace. Don't say stupid things if the TV people ask you questions. In the end it is about wanting to live United States, not about being discriminated against because you are Mexican.

The haters need no excuse, but don't give them one. The most succesful mass movement ever succeeded in this country because it never lost its moral compass, in the face of horrible backlashes.

And remember, this is not only about Mexicans, it is also about South Americans, Haitians, Poles, and Chinese too.

US: Immigration, Idiotic Article "Why Simper to Fidel"

Among the stupidest things I have read in a while....

Why Simper to Fidel?
(from The AMERICAN SPECTATOR)
By Jay D. Homnick

Published 4/11/2006 12:06:19 AM

NORTH MIAMI BEACH -- Life is rife with little misunderstandings: look what happened when President Bush told Seymour Hersh that he was going to try to win over Ahmadinejad with a "new Koran"! Hersh reported that we were going to "nuke Iran," so we're off to the races. And poor Cynthia McKinney thought that detector was out to test her mettle, so we're off to the racism.

We need to be sympathetic. Haven't we ever made mistakes? All of us have once looked for our glasses when they were on our foreheads or our watches when they were on our wrists. So why can't we be more understanding of a Mexican who went on a bender and wound up on the wrong side of the border? Or a South American who gambled away his return ticket at a casino and had to overstay his visa by twenty years? There's eleven million of them, but they work hard: we're thinking of moving Labor Day to Sept. 11th.

So I'll tell you what. Here's my deal. If you guys in the Senate want to ram through an immigration bill to reach out and bring all these folks into the Big Tent of the Republican Party, I'll bite my lip and go along. I won't be legalistic or puristic or a nudnik. You want me to give you your short-order cooks and your lawn guys and your house painters, you got it.

But I want something in return. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door, right here in Miami. Give me your Cubans. (No, not the cigars. Apparently Babbin copped all of those.)

HERE WE HAVE one of the great ironies. The one group of emigres with the most legitimate claim for asylum is the Cubans. The one law-abiding cadre that doesn't make large demonstrations is the Cubans. The one enclave that never presses for bilingual education but works to master English without complaint is the Cubans. (You would never hear them yelling "March!" in April.) And -- here is your full daily USDA RDA of irony -- the only reliable clique of Hispanic voters for the Republican Party is Cuban. Well, guess what? As things stand, the proposed immigration bill leaves the Cubans missing the boat.

These folks are living ninety miles from our shores under the longest-ruling dictator on the planet. While he jubilantly closes in on his jubilee, defiant in his autocracy, oppressive and restrictive and vindictive, we not only refrain from interfering in his internal affairs, we turn away his escapees. Plenty of hardy Cubans would hot-foot it here, but they get cold feet because of our "wet foot - dry foot" policy. This means that after days of baking in the sun on a makeshift raft made out of a car fender and a few pickle barrels, then swimming with labored strokes toward shore, throat parched, breathing stertorous, spirit flickering, if the Coast Guard can intercept you a foot from shore, back you go to the Communist paradise. Foot on shore, more sure of foot, you stay.

Whichever spineless State Department wonk thought that up in time immemorial has long since ossified and become fossilized in his chair. The original memo probably sits in a dusty, musty file somewhere in the National Archives under one of those classic one-word titles. It's undoubtedly called "Rapprochement" or some such elegant evasion, instead of its true name: "Tergiversation." What a sorry face to put on our noble nation!

The most recent travesty to emerge from this approach came a few months ago, when a few desperate Cubans managed to guide their ersatz craft onto shore at the base of a bridge in the Florida Keys. The Coast Guard turned them back anyway, because that bridge was no longer in service and they did not view that as an active extension of American soil. A court later reversed that ruling, but -- oops, too late -- the people are back singing "Havana, hold your hand."

The Cubans themselves are reluctant to press their case at this juncture, because they do not want to be thought of as being on an equal plane with illegals. They wonder, as we do, why the illegals are stealing the march on them, why the inmates are getting the asylum. We need to be courageous and advance their cause.

The old Cuban joke goes like this. Castro tells his people there are only wood chips to eat. They shout: "Give us wood chips! Give us wood chips!" Then he says they are down to the stones. "Give us stones! Give us stones!" Finally, one day he announces that humanitarian aid has arrived and there is food. "Give us teeth! Give us teeth!" How about a bill with some teeth?

Jay D. Homnick is a columnist for JewishWorldReview.com and a contributor to the Reform Club.

What a dumbass.

Where to even start?


"The one law-abiding cadre that doesn't make large demonstrations is the Cubans."

Ummm. remember the collective meltdown in Miami during the Elian Gonzalez situation?. The Cuban-American civic and business leadership actively called for large demonstrations, leading to shutdowns of parts of Miami. This was further fueled by prominent elected officials, including the Mayor of Miami, publically stating that they would disobey Federal Officials, and others called for massive civil disobedience. Lets not even get into people flying the American flag upside-down as a sign of protest.





"The one enclave that never presses for bilingual education but works to master English without complaint is the Cubans. (You would never hear them yelling "March!" in April.)"

That is beyond wrong, it is retarded. In the 1960's, Miami (with ample use of Federal funds) became the first major city to experiment with billingual education. Miami-Dade has been officially a "Billingual County" since 1973. And this was done by pressure placed largely by Cuban-Americans.
When non-Latinos have launched "English-Only" initiatives, Cubans have been among its loudest opponents.

The largely Cuban-American congressional delegation have also been the most ardent proponents of legalization of undocumented immigrants, sentiments that are also shared by many residents of Miami.

Coca Cola in Colombia - Weird Campus Protest

Normally, I'm all for publically shaming corporations, by among other things by calling for boycotts of their products when they do really shady things in the US or abroad.

But these things have to make sense, and this protest on UCLA's campus, aimed at Coca Cola, for actions it allegedly did in Colombia, does not.

Alec Mouhibian, a columnist on UCLA's highly regarded student newspaper The Daily Bruin took on the issue in his recent column.

The student group Coke-Free Campus wants to ban Coca-Cola products from UCLA because some of the casualties of the ongoing civil war in Colombia have allegedly included union leaders and Coca-Cola factory workers.

So he probes deeper and asks some student leaders at the protest about their reasoning:

I asked James, between his many speeches, why he's mad at Coke and what evidence he has of its guilt. "Direct your conversation to one of the organizers," he said. "I'm just here in support." Minutes later he was leading the chant, "Coca-Cola stop your lying! Because of you people are dying

Another protest leader interviewed:

Villagrana admitted "(Coke isn't) the one doing the killing. ... The paramilitary in Colombia is the one causing all these deaths, massacres and tortures." Two minutes later, she was chanting: "Cherry, diet or vanilla: Coca-Cola is a killa."

She admitted Coke was giving Colombians jobs they otherwise would not have. Two minutes later, she was chanting: "We support workers, we don't support Coke."

After these admissions, all that remained was the complaint that Coke hasn't provided enough protection for its workers. Any sensible person dreams of a world in which corporations have armed battalions guarding their factories from government intrusion. Sadly, we have yet to achieve that ideal.

Mouhibian does a great job of showing how the activists were short on knowledge but full of slogans.

turns out other folks who knew first hand about Colombia's situation had some things to say:

Her fellow riders who actually attended the meeting were jolted off their horses when a young Colombian refugee emotionally testified to the heroism of the Coca-Cola Company in her native land. She begged Coke to stay and hold its own, as the thousands of jobs it and other corporations provide help those who would otherwise probably end up joining the paramilitaries.

Colombian Professor Miguel Ceballos, of Foundation for Education, Colombia, said that no Colombian lacks a friend or family member – union or nonunion, Coke worker or non-Coke worker – who's been killed in the violence. He bashed the protestors for knowing nothing about the violent context in Colombia, where Coke is a rare force for saving lives.

So if the students did not really have a clue, why protest in the first place? Obviously it is great fun to yell at corporate pr hacks and annoy stuffy administrators. Campus "solidarity" groups like to collect like-minded groups, and organize "fronts" to raise hell over "progressive" issues.

Bigger issue is why get so fired up over Coca Cola in Colombia, in the Los Angeles area with a small Colombian community, but which also happens to be a major media market? Maybe because they won't be challenged???? Try that in a Miami school where there is a large Colombian presence, and a Colombian Institute.

I wonder (pure speculation) if this is nothing more than the "solidarity network" trying to embarrass Colombia's government. More emails from PR firms linked to Chavez????

Bolivia: Morales And His Justice Minister - Who Isn't A Lawyer

Washington Post profiles one of Morales most stupid cabinet picks.

Actually this goes beyond stupid, it is retarded. It makes Bush picking the lottery lady look like an act of genius.

Ok.. we have Justice Ministry, that presides over a legal system that has major systemic weaknesses, and where some reforms have been implemented. The criminal side is a mess -- people still languish in jail for long times, on the civil side cases can go on forever.

So Morales then goes and picks a non-lawyer to run it. Who cares if she is an ex-maid or activist. Point is, she is not a lawyer, much less a practicing attorney with experience before the major Courts.

She is an activist who suffered injustice in a Bolivian Court. Fine, there are tons of aggrieved hausfraus with "some college" in the United States, who got screwed in small claims, divorce court, or in domestic violence Court, but that does not make them qualified to be Attorney General.

She allegedly is "studying anthropology". She says silly things too. The blather about communal justice is one, people get lynched. Any serious efforts to incorporate that kind of justice into the judiciary system, requires having someone with some legal training.

This is a joke. It is like a caricature of post-Colonial Africa.

For one, a jury system introduced in the last decade isn't working very well.

It doesn't help that Bolivia spends a meager 1 percent of its national budget on the judiciary _ one of the lowest allocations in Latin America, according to the Organization of American States.

"The vast majority of (legal) conflicts don't reach the system," said Cristian Riego, academic director of the OAS's Justice Center of the Americas. Those who suffer most are indigenous people and workers in the informal economy.

Rodriguez says she'll fight to boost spending for the judiciary and make it work for the poor, who account for more than 60 percent of Bolivians.

She also wants greater respect for traditional Indian justice systems, still used in much of the country, where community elders hear cases and decide on sentences that can include corporal punishment.

"Community justice is so different from the ordinary justice system," said Rodriguez, "because you don't spend money and even though it's not legally recognized, it resolves cases in hours, or at the most in a week and doesn't add to the quarrel, it's more fraternal."

Mexico: Mexican Bloggers Take on Lopez Obrador

Mexican friends have pointed out interesting internet activity about Mexico's upcoming elections. PRD candidate, Antonio Manuel Lopez Obrador has a lot of people online fired up, with chain emails circulating, and several anti-AMLO bloggers. Some are fairly clever, others slightly cruder. Many of them are plays on the nickname for the PRD candidate, El Peje, which is pretty close to a certain naughty word in spanish whose first letters are p...e...n..d..

When AMLO appeared on TV, and said he would not answer questions about "general culture" the clip was downloaded and spread on the web pretty quickly on Your Tube. It was at one point the 51st watched clip in the world with 300,000 hits, which as Mexico en Peligro pointed out that was probably more than saw that morning program.

There are emails also circulating widely, which provide links to that, and other videos.

According to a recent poll Lopez Obrador and the PAN candidate are in a dead heat in the student vote, and among voters who consider themselves "upper middle class" and "upper class" the PRD has virtually no support. This kind of "virtual" campaigning might actually be a factor in this election.

General Anti-Obrador site

Antipeje

Blogs...

Mexico En Peligro

Peje Populista Y Marranadas Extra

Falso Mesias

Pejendejo

Galeria De Pendejos


General Article

Blog Economista - Why To Vote Against AMLO

Random Thoughts On Immigration, Immigration Reform and What Not

Big Protests

The size of these massive protests all across the nation was breathtaking. Of course, the haters in the media were quick to throw out accusations about how "carefully orchestrated" and "planned" these demonstrations were. Anyone with half a clue about the main Latino organizations in many large cities would know what nonesense that is. Groups like La Raza and MALDEF are very good at lobbying on single issues, in fundraising, for educational campaigns towards communities, they do not have the mobilization ability, they are credited with. This all happened within such a short period of time.

The momentum for this came totally from below, at most the national organizations, Spanish media, churches, and sympathetic groups channelled this energy. This was some of the most well behaved mass protests seen anywhere, period.

Amazing, how the usual idiots in the media continue to smear the protestors, by inferring they were mostly "illegals". Rubbish, there were a lot of US residents and citizens. As The Economist pointed out, a big percentage of Latino school children in Calfornia had one or more undocumented parents. This issue tears across families, talks of making their relatives criminal really riles people up, and specially in close-knit Latino families. You can tell both political parties damn well know that there are many voters there, from the way the Republicans were backpedalling after the protests.

The Flag

Spanish radio and TV should be commended for strongly recommending that marchers carry the American flag. While TV was quick to show foreign flags and some flags flown upside down, there were more images of people -very proudly- waving the US flag. Many members of the armed services too.

Speaking of flags, in the end what is the big deal? The know-nothings complain endlessly of protestors carrying the Mexican and other Latin American flags. But then again, that seems to be a tradition among immigrant groups in the US. During the Civil War entire battalions of Irishmen, many fresh off the boat, marched to their deaths waving the Irish flag. Speaking of flags and the Civil War, lets not even get into the whole Confederate thing.
Loyalty to countries of origin? How about FDR failing to aid Ethiopia from Mussolini's attack, because he did not want to offend Italian-Americans. Or Irish-Americans, generations removed from Ellis Island, raising money for certain shall we say "violent" groups fighting the British. In the end it is no more than hypocrisy and selective history.

Assimilate it.

And then, there are the cultural bigots. Thinking that these new "hordes" will not assimilate....
As Linda Chavez has argued for more than a decade, Mexican and Latin American immigrants and their children, do indeed "assimilate", in terms of learning English and increasing their educational levels. They do so in a pattern that is remarkably similar to that of Italian-Americans.

But, what really annoys me endlessly because it is so damn obvious is the following:

Outside of the United States, people complain continually about how US culture, available through mass media are "Americanizing" their youth. HOW ABOUT IMMIGRANT KIDS LIVING IN THE US!!! The tug of English mass media is (duh!) much more powerfull when you live in the US, than outside. Geez, I do not care if you are in Miami or Brownsville, kids of immigrants or new immigrants are going to watch US TV, and lots of it. They deal daily with kids who do the same thing. The numbers bear this out, young Latinos watch English language TV much more than their parents. This is a force for not only learning the language, but also "acculturation. " Call it the MTV Effect, the one that produces remarkably similar teenagers, who talk the same lingo no matter if they live in Des Moines, Ventura, or Orlando.



More Silliness

If this is in fact the Reconquista (or the reconquering of the Southwest), isn't what's good for the goose also good for the gander too? The claim is that the entire Southwest was the "Siberia" of the Spanish America's so basically, the anglo "immigrant" farmers and miners pushing westward, simply took advantage of the situation and in the end put this land to use much more productively than the post-colonial Rancheros.
So, aren't the Mexicans and others crossing the border simply doing what the "pioneers" did before? They are finding opportunities the native-born don't find, and are creating wealth that did not exist before. Then there is the obvious irony of them "taking over" parts of cities with Spanish names, but that obviously eludes the anti-immigrant Lemmings in places like Colorado.

USA: Answering Questions On Immigration

I am so annoyed at the constant demagougery coming from Lou Dobbs and from Republicans like Tancredo. The rhetoric in public and in the language of the House bill, clearly is aimed at "criminalizing" immigrants both in the Courts and in the court of public opinion.

Check out how this rhetoric and cheap sloganeering plays in the heartland, see this thread at the discussion board at the Indianapolis Star newspaper site.

Just like the anti-globaloney types, claims by anti-immigration lemmings become "true" through sheer repetition and not rationality.

Linda Chavez, who is a Republican, has a good piece demolishing some misconceptions that the demagouges throw around. WHO these so called "lawbreakers" are. The ticle was first posted by Latina Lista.

Answering Questions on Immigration
BY LINDA CHAVEZ

As the Senate continues to grapple with immigration reform, it's time to
clear the air of some broad misconceptions in the current debate. Since writing about this topic over the last few weeks, my inbox has been flooded
with e-mails raising questions.

Some critics seem especially rankled by my arguments that many illegal
aliens are "otherwise law-abiding" members of their communities. Most detractors point out that illegal aliens can't pay taxes since they aren't entitled to work. But that's only half right. Confusion and ignorance on the immigration issue abound, so, here are a few facts worth considering.

First, illegal aliens are not currently criminals. They have committed a misdemeanor civil offense under current law by entering or remaining in the United States once their visas expire, but the House-passed immigration bill would automatically make these offenses criminal felonies.

Second, illegal aliens, by definition, broke the law to enter the country, but the way they got here doesn't differ all that much from the way most immigrants came in previous eras. Until the success of the immigration restriction movement in the 1920s, people who wanted to immigrate simply showed up at U.S. ports, or in the case of Mexicans and Canadians, just walked across the border.

There were laws in place governing naturalization, which varied over time from requiring that an immigrant live here as little as two years to as long as 14 years before being eligible for citizenship. Indeed, laws requiring registration of immigrants were set up to ensure that immigrants met the naturalization residency requirements.

Unless they were from Asia (Chinese and, later, other Asian immigrants were barred or severely limited from immigrating between 1862 and 1952), immigrants had merely to show themselves to be free of "loathsome or contagious diseases"; demonstrate that they were not likely to become dependent on public assistance (still required to gain admission today); attest that they were not polygamists, convicts or prostitutes; and, later, pay a small fee. These requirements were met after the immigrants were
already on U.S. soil -- in fact, the huge numbers of people immigrating in the early 20th century led to the creation of Ellis Island off Manhattan to process the entrants.

Today's legal immigrants face a lengthy, sometimes decades-long,process, must have close relatives already living in the U.S. to stand any realistic chance of being admitted, or must possess unusual skills much in demand and have an employer ready to hire them.

Third, the overwhelming majority of illegal aliens pay taxes, including Social Security, Medicare and property taxes, not to mention sales taxes. The chief actuary of the Social Security Administration estimates that three-fourths of all illegal aliens have Social Security (and Medicare) taxes deducted from their wages.

How? It's simple.

Since it is illegal to hire someone who does not present a Social Security number (and show other documentation of legal residence), many illegal aliens use phony numbers or cards to get jobs. In 2002 alone, the Social Security Administration reported it had collected $7 billion in payroll taxes and $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes from workers who could not be matched with valid Social Security numbers.

In addition, illegal aliens pay property taxes just like everyone else, either directly, if they own homes (and surprising numbers of illegal aliens do), or indirectly through their landlords' property taxes in the form of rent. Most illegal aliens pay income taxes -- since these, too, are automatically deducted -- but they fail to claim any refunds since they are fearful of drawing attention to their illegal status.

Do these facts mean we ought to ignore the problem of 12 million illegal aliens living in the United States? Of course not. It's bad for all of us when laws are so wantonly flouted. Those who have entered the country should pay some price for having violated the law -- a heavy fine, for example, which is the usual penalty for misdemeanor offenses.

The more difficult question is how to stop more people from coming here illegally -- and the best way to do that is to increase border security and change our current, inflexible laws to make it possible for more people to come here legally.