Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for September 2012

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The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

ARGENTINA
Argentinian politicians unveil plan to shoot seagulls that attack whales
Birds regularly peck the mammals, then feed on the open wounds – behaviour environmentalists have blamed on humans

The Noose Tightens

BRAZIL
Brazil’s Listless Growth Continues
Disappointing Quarterly GDP Rise Bodes Ill for Emerging Markets’ Ability to Boost World Growth

Mariel, puerto para la llegada masiva de empresas brasileñas a la economía de Cuba (h/t Silvio)

CHILE
Chile’s mining industry
Friends again
Anglo American and Codelco settle their dispute

COLOMBIA
Colombia and the FARC
Talking about talks
This time negotiations might eventually bring peace

CUBA
Castro Cashes-In From Obama’s Policy

Surprise upon surprise! “Reforms” only serve to make everything worse in Castrolandia

Tempering Dad

Cuban police arrest former Group of 75 prisoner of conscience Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia (updated)

Aunt says the daughter of Cuba’s vice president defected for love
The daughter of Cuba’s vice president defected because she has a boyfriend in Florida, her family said

ECUADOR
An Ecuadorean history of the world
Rafael Correa is using the Assange case to stake a claim to leadership of the Latin American far-left. He may find the spotlight uncomfortable

GUATEMALA
Switzerland arrests Guatemala ex-police chief Sperisen
Swiss authorities say they have arrested Guatemala’s former police chief, Erwin Sperisen, over the death of seven prisoners in 2006.

LATIN AMERICA
Latin America’s Autocrats Fail Marx’s Survival Test

MEXICO
Mexican-American relations
The trials of Ernesto Zedillo
An American court is preparing to judge the man who brought democracy to Mexico for war crimes. The case looks like a settling of political scores

Pemex Makes Its First Big Oil Find in Deep Gulf

Mexican cartels now trafficking … cigarettes?

PERU
Peru state of emergency over Conga mine to expire
The Peruvian government says it will not extend a state of emergency in force in three northern provinces.

PUERTO RICO
Mitt Romney Would Support Puerto Rico Statehood Bid, Gov. Fortuno Says

Gov. Luis Fortuno of Puerto Rico address RNC

VENEZUELA
Hardly Reported: Venezuelan Refinery Disaster Has Chavez on Defensive, May Be Deadliest in World History (H/T Phineas)

Venezuela’s refinery disaster
A tragedy foretold
A fatal refinery blast will not help Hugo Chávez

Venezuelan Governmentt Spins On Amuay Disaster, Evidence Mounts Of Insufficient Maintenance

The strange case of the Yanomami massacre in Venezuela

Indigenous organizations denounce illegal gold miners’ crimes since 2009
Several indigenous organizations issued a statement on this matter

Empty greenhouses, empty promises (report in Spanish)

The week’s posts:
Reading: The War of All the People

Venezuela: Deadly socialism


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How to avoid lipstick on your teeth, & other links

Looking at the important issues:

FASHION
How to Avoid Condi Rice Lipstick on Teeth’

Paul Ryan said he ran a marathon under 3 hours 20 years ago, and Joyner’s readers are apoplectic. So… I’m supposed to give a damn about guys bragging over their workouts. In other topics, whatever happened to that lawsuit over Fast & Furious? Or is that a distraction?

UPDATE: iOwnTheWorld has the right response,

Paul Ryan was on the Hugh Hewitt radio show and mentioned that he once ran a sub-3 hour marathon. That’s an elite amateur time. So THIS, THIS, is what perks up journalists out of their 4 year long slumber.

Ryan’s claim turned out to be off by an hour. That’s a lot. That’s something one should have gotten right. So today, Ryan made a statement saying that “he misspoke.” Yada. That his brother actually has the best time in the family and it isn’t sub- 3 hours. Yada. Yada.

NO! NO!

That is NOT the way to respond to this.

This is how:

Ryan Spokesman:

Sooooooo. It took you this long to fall into our little trap? Of course he never ran a sub-3 hour marathon. You’ve proven that you have the ability to dig when you want to, and we want that same standard applied to the other side of the ticket.

Where are the Obama college records? Obama doesn’t even have to lie about how he got straight A’s and is the smartest man in the history of the presidency – you guys do that for him.

We’re running against Joe Biden, a guy that has in the past made dubious claims about everything from his intellect to his family history. We anticipate that he will be doing the same in the upcoming debate. We just wanted to make sure that journalism wasn’t dead. Now that this has been established let’s see if it is only dead when it comes to going after the left.

Thank you.

Otherwise, we’re looking at the start of the Palinization of Paul Ryan.
Sent by a reader, from 2008, Why Biden’s plagiarism shouldn’t be forgotten. Marathon fibs ought to keep a man from being VP? Plagiarism didn’t.

POLITICS
Who do you want to be your daughter’s role model?

Obama speech to soldiers met with silence

Obama follows Romney to Louisiana (Romney went yesterday, Obama’s going on Monday), after discussing Isaac over the phone while flying back from a rally.

Vanished!… Islamic Jumah Disappears From Official DNC Schedule. It’s not vanished, it’s sitting on a chair!

ECONOMICS
World Hyperinflations

INTERNATIONAL
Hugo Chavez is sending Cuba 100,000 bb of oil daily, and extra cash (to the tune of $1billion on the last quarter of 2011), supposedly to pay for all those Cuban doctors in Venezuela. Yeah, right, to pay for doctors.

It’s Labor Day weekend, so keep your lipstick off you teeth and have a great time.


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