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.

 

Protesting the Reform of Article 24 Continues

The news from Veracruz is that (mostly Protestants) were out in the streets before Christmas protesting the reforms of Article 24.  The fuss over this began back in late 2011 and early 2012, with opponents of the reform saying that any changes to the article would kill the secular state and provide huge benefits to the Catholic Church.  The reform - which would allow the Catholic Church to teach religious classes in public schools - has been under fire from protesters for nearly a year now.  It looks like with the new PRI government another attempt is being made to hamper those changes.  See here.

Before anybody in the United States gets too anti-Catholic about this, I would point out that California schools reserve rooms for religiously observant students to conduct prayers and religious club meetings, and in many western states like Utah, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, LDS students can take "seminary" classes in the public school buildings during "release" time.

The reform would also make other changes, as well.

Además de permitir al clero dar catecismo en las escuelas, esta reforma le otorga la facultad para poseer y administrar medios de comunicación, participar en el ejército y la marina mediante capellanías y obispados castrenses, así como en la política electoral, ocupar puestos de elección popular y recibir subvenciones económicas del erario para sus actividades religiosas y las visitas papales.  (See more from this story here.)

A Whole New World ...

We have entered a new age... an age where politicians aren't afraid to think out of the box, color outside the lines, or draw new maps.  Maps, apparently, that lack the rest of the Americas.  "Fracaso" to both the parties for failing to engage the question of guns and drugs in the US relationship with Mexico, for ignoring Cuba, skipping over US coups in Latin America, disregarding the failed war on drugs through interdiction, and the apparently invisible economic relationship of intertwined labor and capital with this hemisphere.

Chavez. Again.

As everybody that follows Latin America knows by now, Hugo Chavez has pulled off another electoral victory.  He's wielded the power of incumbency in a centralized economic state like a pro and benefited from the loyalty of increased state sponsored projects - not something that any incumbent can disitance themselves from.  I think, however, that he did himself and Venezuela a disservice on two fronts.

1) By choosing to run again he provokes a reaction that will dramatically seek to overturn his policies - which would undermine his entire project.  He also stifles a second tier of leadership that could replace him and creates another personalist regime in Latin America - and those are hit and miss on the legacy front.

2) Getting to the top required flinging a lot of mud - and he's going to have to work over time to clean that up.  For a comparison of Chavez to Mitt Romney, see this short commentary by the NY Magazine.

Ronald Reagan Tribute Video

Romney - Keeping Close to His Mexican Roots (Sort Of...)

Ohio coal miners say they were forced to attend a Mitt Romney rally - without pay.  Come on, Mitt.  In Mexico - home of your forefathers and many of your cousins - the ruling PRI party had more class than that. When they would have employers bus in workers and force them to attend rallies the workers could count on being paid as well as a sandwich and a soda or beer.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/28/coal-miners-say-they-were-forced-to-attend-romney-event-and-donate/#.UDzUbVtgKh4.reddit

1960

In this political year for the US, let's take a minute to remember some of those "great" Spanish ads that ran in the United States.