The Bolivian Narco-Islamo-Commie State: Folks at WSJ are Bored This Week

Somebody let Wall Street Journal fiction writer Mary Anastasia O'Grady slip the leash this week and she's arguing that Bolivia has become a narco-islamo-communist terror state.  She tried before to argue that Nicaragua and Venezuela were harboring terrorists headed to the U.S. (all tosh) and now she's put Bolivia in her rifle scope of malarkey.  My guess is that O'Grady finally worked her way down as far as Bolivia with her Fisher Price "Nations of South America" floor puzzle and so decided to drop her discounted and tired theories on Bolivia.  Look out, Chile, she's coming for you next.

So, what is the evidence.  Well, the phrase "unconfirmed reports" most certainly make an appearance, so let's skip those moments. She also states that there is a narco problem because a Bolivian headed for Lebanon was detained by Bolivian officials for trying to smuggle 392 kilos of cocaine to Lebabnon.  Wait... the so-called narco-terror state arrested a guy for smuggling and that is proof of a coordinated state-run cocaine money for shoe bombs operation?  Never mind her confusion of the use of the coca leaf for daily use and the refinement of coca for cocaine.

She also quotes "global security specialist" Joseph Humire's testimony before the U.S. Congress that Iran is using its embassy to convert people to radical Islam and smuggle people.  It may be uncomfortably straw-man, but Humire is a former Koch brothers employee and currently a member of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation which is dedicated to the spread of free-market growth around the world.  With Bolivia sitting on vast deposits of lithium set to fuel Bolivia's quasi-socialist dream with minimal U.S. involvement and profits (they are dealing with China, Japan, Korea, and the Netherlands), angling for reasons to make Bolivia a target of U.S. security paranoia is a comfortable fit for Humire (and, frankly, O'Grady).

Read the "article" here, and take a look at the comical video below where the closest we get to sourcing is the "I've heard stories" trope.

 

Evo Morales: Ending Capitalism by Ending Luxury?

From Democracy Now:

AMY GOODMAN: How would you do that? How would you end capitalism?

PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] It’s changing economic policies, ending luxury, consumerism. It’s ending the struggle to—or this searching for living better. Living better is to exploit human beings. It’s plundering natural resources. It’s egoism and individualism. Therefore, in those promises of capitalism, there is no solidarity or complementarity. There’s no reciprocity. So that’s why we’re trying to think about other ways of living lives and living well, not living better. Not living better. Living better is always at someone else’s expense. Living better is at the expense of destroying the environment.

I've generally been a supporter of the Morales movement - a much needed retaking of Bolivia by the majority of the citizenry. However, Morales' climate summit speech and DN interview have me rolling my eyes? End luxury? End luxury and you end the entire export future of Bolivia, especially lithium. Define luxury, buck-o. Is luxury flying all the way to Copenhagen to complain about luxury for a few minutes? Pretty much. Come on, Evo, learn to ride the market and even moderate it ... don't try to put a bullet in its brain.

The export economies of South America demand a luxury market, and their subsequent failure to diversify the economy with the profits from those sales is glaring (cough cough - Chavez's Venezuela - cough cough). Text book after text book gives us enough single-export ppopulists to float a battleship. Diversify, democratize, distribute - the three words of the day for the Latin American economy.

Bolivia has potential to profit from "luxury" and use those profits for good. And the environment? If the market demands "green" then let the entrepeneurs of Bolivia profit from that demand.

Bring Out Your Dead... Bring Out Your Dead...

According to the Wall Street Journal

The End of Bolivian Democracy
Elections scheduled for December 6 will mark the official end of the Bolivian democracy.

A dictatorship that fosters the production and distribution of cocaine is not apt to enjoy a positive international image. But when that same government cloaks itself in the language of social justice, with a special emphasis on the enfranchisement of indigenous people, it wins world-wide acclaim.

This is Bolivia, which in two weeks will hold elections for president and both houses of congress. The government of President Evo Morales will spin the event as a great moment in South American democracy. In fact, it will mark the official end of what's left of Bolivian liberty after four years of Morales rule. Read more here.

With talk like this coming out of the world of business, Evo Morales is probably thanking his lucky stars every day for Afghanistan and Iraq. In the pre-9/11 world an article like that combined with lobbying and an unoccupied military would have spelled an invasion or at least a CIA supported coup. I suppose folks don't like it when the indigenous fight back.

At any rate, the Wall Street Journal reminds me of that scene in Holy Grail where they are trying to throw away the living man just by saying he is dead, then they crack him on the skull so that he really is dead.