Fausta’s Blog

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The other day Richard Fernandez was pointing out that

the press have already built him up to the point where they need him more than he needs them. He has become the story. Without him there would be no headlines; no sales.

Nowhere more so than in articles like Spiegel’s Gerard Sporl’s, No. 44 Has Spoken,

Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin’s Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious — he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world.

Sporl, who is chief editor of DER SPIEGEL’s foreign desk, admiringly ends his article by encouraging us to “allow ourselves to be warmed today, by this man at the Victory Column.”

Am I the only one who thinks this is creepy?

I don’t mean the “No. 44″ part - after all, four years ago the French referred to John Kerry for several months before the November election as “America’s next president”, and the Victory Column rally was meant for European consumption. As the BBC points out,

Surveys suggest three out of four Germans want him to be the next US president.

What I find creepy is that a foreign desk editor of a major newspaper is so willingly embracing someone who comes to his country “to lay claim to become the president of the world.” President of the world? Creepy, yet not totally unexpected from a continent which has willingly given up national sovereignty for the sake of the European Union behemoth.

Lee Cary also noticed that

Obama’s Berlin speech was the platform for his transfiguration into the presumptive victorious candidate for global leadership.

Of course the speech itself had nothing to do with history: Don Surber fact-checked the text and found huge gaps between Obama’s perception and what actually happened when it comes to post-colonial African politics, World War II (the real reason why America and Germany came together AFTER Germany was defeated), Gen. Lucius Clay who initiated the Berlin airlift, September 11, the poverty-breeds-terror fallacy, France’s president, NATO, the connection between the Cuban missile crisis and the Berlin wall, and Iraq.

President of his own world, indeed.

But what really came through in that speech is Obama’s ever-present ambition:

In the audacity of his advancing megalomania, Barack Obama imagines that he has a manifest destiny to bring hope, not just to America, but to the world.

Not coincidentally, the American flag on the tail wing has been replaced by an enormous Obama O.

Obama won’t be visiting wounded American servicemen and women in Germany because, according to his campaign, the Pentagon sees it as a political event. Perhaps if he went by himself, as a private citizen, without his coterie of foreign policy advisors and his entrouage of network anchors, the Pentagon would consider it OK as the visit of a private citizen.

But would that be fitting for the first president of the world?

Gerard Baker has more on the annointed one’s travels.

Special thanks to Larwyn for the links.

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Special thanks to No Runny Eggs for keeping track of what you would think I would, namely the new feed: http://faustasblog.com/?feed=rss2

Today’s WSJ has an article by Travis Pantin, Hugo Chávez’s Jewish Problem, which highlights the ideological connection between Hugo Chavez and Norberto Ceresole.

Norberto who, you ask?

Norberto Ceresole. Pantin explains,

As an alleged oppressor of the Palestinian Arabs, Israel has its own place of special infamy in Mr. Chávez’s worldview. This latter theme has served him particularly well in his efforts to mobilize the sentiments of his rural constituents. Thus, during a 2005 speech marking Columbus’s discovery of the Americas, Mr. Chávez likened the plight of Venezuela’s Indians to that of Palestinians. Reminding his listeners of how their ancestors had been “murdered in their land” by “governments, economic sectors and great land estates,” he thundered: “You were expelled from your homeland, like the heroic Palestinian people.”

All of these elements seem entirely derivative of Marxist-Leninist theorizing, with a strong admixture of postcolonialism à la Franz Fanon and Fidel Castro. But Mr. Chávez is not just another Latin American leftist on the Castro model. While the Cuban dictator may be his most important political influence, his greatest intellectual debt is to the Argentinian writer and thinker Norberto Ceresole: a man not of the left but of the populist right, a Holocaust denier and a sworn enemy of Israel and the Jews.

Born in 1943, Ceresole was one of the leading spokesmen for the radical populist government of the Argentine president Juan Perón. Later, in the guise of a political theorist, he argued that the only appropriate leaders for Latin American nations were caudillos: nationalist, militarist and charismatic strongmen capable of ushering in a “postdemocratic” age in which the region’s people would become effortlessly at one with the generals who would direct every aspect of society. Led by a group of such caudillos, a confederation of Latin American fascist states would then be in a position to beat back American global hegemony.

Ceresole reportedly traveled with Mr. Chávez during his initial bid for power. After the latter’s 1998 victory, he published a celebratory volume, “Caudillo, Army, People: The Venezuela of President Chávez.” The second chapter is entitled “The Jewish Question and the State of Israel.” In it, Ceresole espoused a “new revisionism” that defined the Holocaust as a “myth” and Israel as a global menace:

The existence of this political enterprise—Israel: a power concentrated in the monopoly of monotheism and implemented through an army, police forces, jails, tortures, assassinations, etc.—seeks to consolidate itself through a series of ideological manipulations in the bosom of the hegemonic power of the United States, which seeks to be accepted as the ruler of the world by any means, even generalized terror, and dissuasive and persuasive practices.

It was for this reason, according to Ceresole, that one of the greatest threats to the Chávez regime lay in Venezuela’s “Jewish financial mafia.” Indeed, the Venezuelan Jewish community as a whole was to be considered guilty of race-based hostility to Chávez’s redemptive nationalist movement.

* * *

The ingeniousness of Ceserole’s doctrine, as filtered through the sensibility of Hugo Chávez, resides in its blending of Marxist economics with two venerable anti-Semitic traditions. The first, still powerful in South America, derives from Catholic teachings about the historic Jewish responsibility for the death of Jesus. The second, encapsulated most notoriously in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” has flourished in both rightist and leftist variations throughout modern European history, resurfacing in our own time in the fulminations of extreme anti-Zionists.

This is an ominous sign, and yet one more symptom of the illness that is Chavez’s regime.

But caudillismo itself is nothing new: Latin America has suffered immensely by holding on to their tradition of caudillismo, and by staying away from true democratic institutions.

Will they ever change?

Hugo and Medvedev

In other Chavez news, he’s talking big in Russia, pushing for a natural gas OPEC-like cartel and mutual investment protection.

Hugo was also saying that

if Russian military forces ever visited Venezuelan territory, they would be greeted “by flying colors, drum beats and songs, as this means the arrival of our allies with whom we share the same view on the world.”

Worried that this might imply that Russia’s welcome to build a military-technical base on its territory, the Venezuelan government was quick to correct that, saying that it only means that the Russian Navy would be welcome to dock at a Venezuelan port.

It’s all so redolent of the Cold War it makes one want to send The Hunt for Red October’s Jack Ryan to Caracas.

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The National Enquirer has more details on John Edwards’s second family. Since we’re talking about politicians here, the emphasis is not on morality or on character, but instead,

One political source divulged: “His advisors told him they were furious that this had been brought out by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER right when Obama is considering whether he’s V.P. material with the Democratic National Convention (Aug. 25-28 in Denver) only weeks away.

“From what I hear, John was read the riot act by his people. The fallout from this could cost him the job of running mate. They told him Obama doesn’t want to pick someone and be embarrassed by the choice. This ‘bimbo eruption’ at this critical time will do him absolutely no good.

And then,

“While his people are not trying to tell him how to live his personal life, this baggage isn’t going to help him convince Obama that he’s the right guy to be his veep.”

Well, maybe “his people” would be well advised to tell him how to llive his personal life: a candidate running for president who is cheating on his wife while she is battling cancer shows a kind of sleaze that should not go uncensored by anyone, be it “his people” or the public at large. Adding a child born out of wedlock is yet more immorality.

It’s a sad comment on public morals when people like John Cole think that

In short, aside from the fact that all there is to the story is an Enquirer report, it is just boring. You all have made standard affairs pedestrian and dull. Even when you use the phrase “love child,” what it boils down to is a guy allegedly sleeping with a woman. Pretty tame stuff, given what the GOP has provided us for the past few years

After all, there’s a different standard for the GOP.

And that’s the real reason why the Edwards love child will remain as undernews, even if Edwards does become a cabinet official. You can rest assure the media’s going to continue looking at the PR triumphs instead.

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I made it home last night.

The only problem were the train delays. As I mentioned earlier, passenger trains must wait for freight trains and there is only one track in each direction (for brief parts of the trip there is only one track), so you must expect delays. There was one delay I didn’t expect, however. Yesterday afternoon the train left Philadelphia during a huge rainstorm, and then the train stopped somewhere between Philadelphia and Trenton for over an hour. I was glad I wasn’t in an airplane trying to land in Philadelphia or Newark.

What we didn’t know was that the storm had knocked out power for central New Jersey, which affected the train lines. Trains were backed up in both directions of the Eastern Corridor. When we finally got to Trenton at 6:45 I waited for the 4:45 train to Princeton Junction. You know it must have been something when a guy from the NJ PBS affiliate, NJN news, was walking down the platform getting soundbites.

Will I do it again? Absolutely, yes. I’ll probably fly to either Chicago or Colorado and then ride the Zephyr. It is an extraordinary experience. I just got this comment from Melissa, who I met in the train,

Fausta,
My husband Tim and I had the pleasure of dining with you on the zephyr this week and we wanted to tell all of the cynics out there that a trainride should be experienced by everyone at least once in your life. I don’t even consider myself an outdoor person, but when you see the sights on the train, the only word that can describe it is majestic. We live in the city and usually drive from california to denver but, on the train, you get to see the “Real America” that we tend to forget about. It’s also a very nostalgic experience that my husband and i will have for the rest of our lives. Who’s waxing nostalgic in an overcrowded airplane or when fueling at the pump. Who I ask you? WHO?

It was a wonderful journey.

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The National Enquirer has a story about John Edwards and his alleged “second family” with Rielle Hunter. Betsy comments about the undernews

If the National Enquirer is correct, his girlfriend (are mistress and love child passé terms these days?) was six months pregnant in December 2007. Do the arithmetic. He and his wife announced that her cancer was back in March of that year and he must have been out working on his second family just a few months later. And it was all during the campaign last year when he still might have had a chance at the nomination.

As it turns out, the Enquirer says that

The former senator attended a press event Monday afternoon with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the topic of how to combat homelessness.

Homelessness is not the only topic the two could compare notes: Those of us with good memories (and Google) will remember that Villarraigosa cheated on his wife - while she battled cancer - with Mirthala Salinas. Salinas herself broke the news on Telemundo almost exactly a year ago. The difference between the two cads is that Salinas didn’t get pregnant.

Someone at the HuffPo is upset that McCain answered two questions from Ed.

Dr Melissa takes a look at the Obama posters for the Brandenburg Gate Victory Column speech, which are fraught with symbolism and more than a passing resemblance to other posters. Dean Barnett has an Obama ignorance watch special edition.

I’m still riding the trains, but will be back in Princeton this evening. I’m trying to figure out how to post a Picasa album of the trip’s photos.

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Today at 11AM Eastern we’ll talk to Denny Wilson of Grouchy Old Cripple about travel, cars, and politics.

The chat’s open by 10:45AM, Siggy will be doing the switchboard, and the call in number is 646 652-2639. Join us!

I’m still on the road but the Carnival goes on! Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in next week’s carnival please email me: faustaw2 “at” gmail “dot” com.

LATIN AMERICA
The New Battlefield in Latin America

La Raza to the bottom

ARGENTINA
Argentina blocks farm export tax

BRAZIL
Mending an icon: How Rio’s first good governor in decades is starting to renew Brazil’s most famous city

COLOMBIA
SWISS HELP FARC COVER UP ITS OWN BLUNDER

FARC, Chavez y Correa: el trio del terror

Love fest: Presidents Chávez and Uribe agree to bury the hatchet—for now

Hard Reality Of ‘Soft Power’ In Colombia

CUBA
Cuba to Allow Private Farming: Land Will Remain in Government Hands, However

The elephant in the room

ECUADOR
Ecuador assembly approves Constitution

New Ecuadorian Constitution has 494 Articles

Freedom of Speech Killed by Euthanasia in Ecuador

EL SALVADOR
Documentary on Hugo Chavez aired on Salvadoran TV (in Spanish). You can watch it in full at Fuerza Solidaria
Here’s the first part on YouTube

MEXICO
Sicarios mexicanos reciben formacion de extremistas en Iran - Terra Top-ranking Mexican criminals with military background travel to Iran via Venezuela for terrorist training.

VENEZUELA
Chavez pleads for investment as falling output fuels inflation

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wore a suit for the occasion, and, grinning at about 300 business leaders he usually calls “oligarchs,” asked for help relieving a drought in investment.

Chavez minister anti inflation plan: Haggle!

Deadly massage : How not to tackle a soaring murder rate

Venezuela: Looking ahead

Galp to Receive 1 Million Barrels of Oil From Venezuela Hugo Chavez keeps giving away Venezuela’s wealth at our expense

AMERICAN POLITICS
In South Florida Congressional Race, Incumbent and Challenger Have the Ethnic Bases Covered

Special thanks to Maria, Eneas, Siggy, Larwyn, Pat Patterson and Judith

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I’m riding the Zephyr for the trip back from BlogHer08 and have been reading an article Maria sent by Ben Jervey of the NY Post, RUN OUT ON A RAIL
THIS WOULD BE THE TIME FOR TRAINS, IF TRAINS RAN ON TIME

Ask around onboard almost any Amtrak train, and you’ll get a pretty short list of reasons why people ride the rails. In the café car, chugging along one of the country’s oldest routes, I counted four types of passengers. There are thrifty ones looking to save a few bucks on plane tickets. There are those who are scared of flying, a group that has no doubt grown in recent years. There are the zealots - without exception, older men - who describe themselves with charming lack of inhibition as “rail junkies,” “railroad nuts,” “train buffs,” or, my personal favorite, “railfans.” The rest - indeed the majority - say they’re here for “the experience.” Good thing for Amtrak, that romantic notion of the rails is alive and well. Naturally, it’s something the beleaguered rail company promotes to death. The experience is an important sell; nobody ever mentions reliability or practicality.

Jervey is right about riding the Zephyr for the experience: the views have a spectacul beauty of almost mystical quality, and the Zephyr is the way to enjoy them, much more so than driving through the same part of the country. I have driven trough much of the area and one gets to enjoy the views much better in the train.

You might save money over plane fare if you ride in a seat, not in a sleeping compartment. For a two-and-a-half day trip you will need a bed to sleep, so there is no saving.

As for the three other kinds of passengers, the “experience” ones outnumber all the others. While most of them are Americans, you will also find a good number of Brits, several South Americans, and an Australian couple or two.

While Jervey makes a long list of Amtrak grievances, the main problem is that freight trains have priority over passenger trains. That is the main cause of delays in all the routes Amtrak serves, and, as I mentioned on this post, the logistics for passenger rail travel in America are much different than for rail travel in Europe .

That said, I recommend that everyone take the Zephyr from San Francisco to Denver. It is a journey of wonderous beauty.

Here’s a photo I took right now, just outside of Reno,

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