American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
Congressman Resigns in Sex Scandal
Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon announced Tuesday that he will resign amid political fallout from an 18-year-old woman’s allegations she had an unwanted sexual encounter with him.
Wu had been asked to resign by Democratic primary challengers. His erratic behavior had been cause for concern for a while.
Rob Bluey has the details,
Obama Tells La Raza: ‘The Democrats and Your President Are With You’ (emphasis added)
President Obama opened his speech to the National Council of La Raza yesterday by publicly acknowledging the Hispanic group’s close ties to the White House, a relationship that has aligned the two on nearly every policy issue during his presidency.
“Right off the bat, I should thank you because I have poached quite a few of your alumni to work in my administration,” Obama said to laughter. “They’re all doing outstanding work. … Latinos serving at every level of my administration.”
Those alumni have rewarded La Raza generously with taxpayer funding. A Judicial Watch investigation last month revealed the organization’s federal funding skyrocketed after Obama hired La Raza’s senior vice president, Cecilia Muñoz, to be his director of intergovernmental affairs in January 2009.
The Judicial Watch report shows,
This week a JW probe has uncovered details of the alarming increase in federal funding that these NCLR groups have received since Muñoz joined the Obama Administration. In fact, the government cash more than doubled the year Muñoz joined the White House, from $4.1 million to $11 million.
Not surprisingly, a big chunk of the money (60%) came from the Department of Labor, which is headed by a former California congresswoman (Hilda Solis) with close ties to the La Raza movement. Since Obama named her Labor Secretary, Solis has launched a nationwide campaign to protect illegal immigrant workers in the U.S. Just this week Solis penned declarations with Guatemala and Nicaragua to preserve the rights of their migrants.
The NCLR also received additional taxpayer dollars from other federal agencies in 2010, the JW probe found. The Department of Housing and Urban Development doled out $2.5 million for housing counseling, the Department of Education contributed nearly $800,000 and the Centers for Disease Control a quarter of a million.
Additionally, NCLR affiliates nationwide raked in tens of millions of government grant and recovery dollars last year thanks to the Muñoz factor. An offshoot called Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) saw its federal funding nearly double to $18.3 million following Muñoz’ appointment.
A social service and legal assistance organization (Ayuda Inc.) that didn’t receive any federal funding between 2005 and 2008 got $600,000 in 2009 and $548,000 in 2010 from the Department of Justice. The group provides immigration law services and guarantees confidentiality to assure illegal aliens that they won’t be reported to authorities.
In order to appoint Muñoz, Obama had to issue a special “ethics waiver” to get around his own ban on appointing lobbyists.
In spite of all this, the audience was not impressed: The Washington Post reports that Obama leaves Hispanic activists unsatisfied, since La Raza’s goal is complete immigration amnesty. There’s even a protest scheduled for today,
At 3 p.m. Tuesday, a coalition of Latino organizations, including CASA de Maryland, CARECEN, Familias Unidas, Presente.org, Progressive Maryland, Gamaliel, Partnership for Renewal in Southern and Central Maryland, Center for Community Change and the Franciscan Action Center, has scheduled a protest in front of the White House.
La Raza is a demanding mistress, indeed.
In his speech, Obama also said,
“Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own”
Am I the only person outraged that a President of the US would even contemplate the idea of a dictatorship?
Mr BIngley pointed this out on Friday,
The maximum sentence for any crime in Norway is 21 years.
Today the Daily Caller confirms it,
Police: Alleged Norwegian mass murderer faces just 21 years in prison
Oslo police chief of staff Roger Andresen told the San Francisco Chronicle that the maximum prison term suspected killer Anders Behring Breivik could face is 21 years under Norwegian law.
Two law professors at the University of Oslo confirmed Andresen’s assessment.
“21 years in prison is the maximum,” Professor Per Ole Johansen told The Daily Caller.
“The max punishment may — theoretically — be increased, but not for crimes which are already committed,” he said, when asked whether it was possible for the punishment to be increased considering the scale of this specific mass crime.
“[I]f the prisoner behaves, he or she will probably be released several years earlier,” Professor Nils Christie told TheDC while also confirming that 21 years is the maximum penalty in Norway.
As Jim Treacher says, “So that’s about 82 days in prison per murder victim.”
Anders Behring Breivik is 32. He’ll be out before he’s in his mid-fifties.
UPDATE,
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Must be that excellent Cuban healthcare we’re so used to hearing about. Describing his treatment in Cuba, Hugo Chavez rattled on,
“It was do this, do that, with an empty bladder, with a full bladder,
What kind of cancer is he being treated for?
… rigorous, as it’s meant to be”, all under the watchful eye of Fidel Castro, who told him “you have nothing”.
Hugo expects the world to believe that he’s cancer-free since the greatest doctor ever, Fidel Castro, says so: Chávez Returns to Venezuela ‘Better’
Mr. Chavez said he underwent a rigorous screening in Cuba on July 17 that did “not detect the presence of malignant cells in any part of my body” but he still submitted to chemotherapy as a precaution.
“The risk exists and because of that chemotherapy … was applied on me all of this week in various sessions,” Mr. Chavez said. It was “difficult, but this body of mine … withstood,” he added.
And even when Fidel said Hugo’s cancer-free, Hugo’s going ahead with another round of chemo “as a precaution”, because, ah, well, just because.
The Devil’s Excrement has the photo-op: Maradona, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, The Fake Latin Americans Idols, All Full Of Chemicals.
About all that weight loss,
Mr. Chavez discussed his recent weight loss and said that he was now at his “ideal weight” of 86 kilograms. The president has admitted that he used to be “too fat,” weighing more than 100 kilograms before going into treatment last month.
Losing over 30 lbs in a few weeks is just his way of getting to his “ideal weight”. A few more pounds and he’ll be ready for the runway.
Of course, Chavez has already stated that he’ll run for president again next year: “I have not considered for a single moment retiring from the Presidency.”
ARGENTINA
Chilean volcano hurts Argentine economy
It Takes Two to Tango, So Long as They’re Both Argentines
Foreigners Out-Dip Locals in the Dance, Making Them Increasingly Unwelcome. Milongueros don’t dip.
BOLIVIA
Bolivia leader says aid program no longer tied to Venezuelan funds
CHILE
The Left’s Big Lie On Allende
Today’s Video: Protesting in Chile over reconstruction delays
CUBA
America’s Left and its Love Affair with Cuban Communism
Bipartisan support for rescinding Obama concessions to Castro dictatorship
Full Disclosure, Please, CBS and HuffPo
ECUADOR
Ecuador President Rejects Newspaper’s Offer Of Correction
The death of free speech in Ecuador? Editor sentenced to three years for opinion column
HONDURAS
Honduran journalists who alleged church corruption receive death threats
EL CIRCO POLITICO y la DES-HABILIDAD DE SUS GLADIADORES
MEXICO
Operation Fast & Furious: House committee to hear from agents based in Mexico
Worse Than Gunwalker? State Dept. Allegedly Sold Guns to Zetas
Will Gunwalker morph into “Grenadewalker” soon?
‘The Knights Templar’: Mexico’s newest drug cartel
Malcolm Beith’s The Last Narco
Mexico: Public Protest and Meth-Precursor Shipments in Michoacan (by subscription)
New Construction, Technology Added to Texas/Mexico Border
PANAMA
Guest Post 3 By Courtney (Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama)
PERU
Peru’s next economy chief says goal is 6 percent growth
PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico company accused of male discrimination
VENEZUELA
House Republican or Hugo Chavez?
As Life Passes by, Venezuelans Are Always Standing in Line to Watch
The week’s posts,
Zetas May Attempt to Overthrow Mexican Government in 2012?
Governing through Twitter
The Iranians are coming!
Build the fence!
Immigration in Mexico: gangs exploiting the immigrants
At Real Clear World,
Brazil Holding $200B in U.S. Treasuries
At the Green Room,
Politico on the Latino vote: “Theatrics won’t woo Latinos”
Big Government has a post with an intriguing premise,
Drill More to Bring the Deficit Down
… two new studies indicate that if Obama wanted to boost revenues from the oil and gas industry, he would not need to do it via pursuing tax hikes. Rather, according to a new studycommissioned by the Gulf Economic Survival Team (GEST), an organization dedicated to helping rebuild the Gulf Coast’s flagging economy, returning to normal drilling levels in Gulf waters would boost revenues demonstrably.
Since the BP Gulf Oil spill – which happened over one year ago – the Administration has been dragging its feet in allowing American companies to drill in American waters. Approvals for shallow- and deep-water exploration permits are down by over 50 percent and 80 percent respectively. But a resumption of drilling would pour $44 billion into the American economy, create 230,000 jobs and, what’s more, increase tax revenues from American oil and natural gas companies by $12 billion, according to GEST.
This tallies with the overall conclusions of Dr. Joseph Mason, who considers that we could achieve $8 trillion in new economic output over the next 40 years, meaning $2.2 trillion in tax and royalty revenues, from new drilling.
At first glance, it looks like an excellent idea.
BREAKING NEWS: Amy Winehouse, 27, found dead at her London flat (h/t Virginia)
A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that a 27-year-old woman had died in Camden and that the cause of death was as yet unexplained.
London Ambulance Service said it had been called to the flat at 1554 BST and sent two vehicles but the woman died.
Here she is in better days (video below the fold, since NSFW)
(more…)
Doug Ross has a provocative post, with a translation of an article in a Mexican website,
Former DEA and CIA Operatives: Los Zetas May Attempt to Overthrow Mexican Government in 2012 (Using U.S. Government Weapons)
By Carmen Álvarez (Translated by Mario Andrade from excelsior.com.mx)
Los Zetas use the border crossings of El Paso-Ciudad Juarez and Palomas-Columbus (both locations along the Texas-Chihuahua border) to supply and stockpile military type weapons, which would give them ability to disrupt the 2012 elections, according to the El Paso Times.
That is a possibility, particularly when one could make the case that the Zetas brought about the current drug war from their reach for power.
The report is corroborated with an interview with Phil Jordan, former director of the DEA in El Paso, who stated that the stockpiles, which include anti-aircraft missiles, are transported from a Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The consultant added that the criminals set up (phony) companies to buy weapons directly through a State Department program.
…The Border Patrol personnel and U.S. intelligence services have recently learned that Los Zetas have been purchasing properties on both sides of the border to store thousands of high-power weapons that were discovered to be part of five or six shipments that left the same airport where the DEA has its air operations center… …[Los Zeta wants to] reinforce their troops for battling other cartels and possibly disrupt the 2012 elections in Mexico, El Paso Times reported yesterday.
Again, border security is national security.
UPDATE,
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