Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for March 2013

March 27, 2013 By Fausta

New hairdo, new contest! UPDATED

Watch the video and you can enter for your chance to win!

First the hairdo: How to style blunt bangs, easy enough I can do it,

And the contest,

Hair Sweepstakes Offical Rules week 1

Get gorgeous hair & WATCH TO WIN!

UPDATE,
And now for the sexy loose bun. . . with more chances to win!

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Filed Under: beauty, Fausta's blog Tagged With: advertising, BlogHer, Fausta's blog

March 27, 2013 By Fausta

The fighting cholitas hit the mainstream

Cholitas are Bolivian women wrestlers, and they kick butt,

Bolivia’s Wrestlers
In the wrestling rings of Bolivia, skirts fly as cholitas fight back!

And now the Fighting Cholita is a collectible

Madame Alexander dolls new 8-inch fully articulated Fighting Cholita-Bolivia, with a Latin skin tone, brown eyes and long brunette braids with bangs, may be a female wrestler but she¹s a pretty one. She¹s dressed in a red and white micro check shirt, calf-length turquoise dirndl, pale green bolero style jacket, multi-color striped shawl and her black molded bowler hat. Metallic gold sandals and a guitar shaped like an armadillo completes the overall look for Fighting Cholita-Bolivia.

Don’t know about a “Latin skin tone,” since the wrestlers are women of Aymara, not Latin, descent, but you can buy two and hold your own wrestling match without anyone getting hurt.

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Filed Under: Bolivia, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Cholitas, Fausta's blog, Madame Alexander, toys

March 26, 2013 By Fausta

In Rick Moran’s podcast

live now, talking about Immigration reform: Amnesty or common sense?

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Filed Under: Blog Talk Radio, bloggers, illegal immigration, immigration, podcasts Tagged With: Fausta's blog

March 26, 2013 By Fausta

Hezbollah agent issued Venezuelan diplomatic passport

El Nuevo Herald reports (link in Spanish) that Ghazi Nasr al Din, in charge of all Hezbollah operations in Venezuela, served as business attache in the Venezuelan embassy in Syria. Nicolas Maduro, now president of Venezuela, was his contact, and allegedly provided Nasr al Din’s cover.

A 2008 US Treasury report stated that Nasr al Din was a Hezbollah agent who used his post as a Venezuelan diplomat to carry out essential fundraising efforts for Hezbollah.

The Herald’s sources indicated that Nasr al Din reported directly to then-Vice-president Maduro, bypassing the minister for Middle East affairs, and arranged travel to Iran for training.

In related news, Roger Noriega, a former United States ambassador and assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, has alleged that

Iran has illegally laundered billions of dollars through the Venezuelan financial sector and is currently stashing “hundreds of millions” of dollars in “virtually every Venezuelan bank today,”

Long-term readers of this blog may recall that in 2008 Italian newspaper La Stampa exposed how Iran was using Venezuela to bypass UN sanctions.

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Filed Under: Hizballah, Hizbollah, Iran, terrorism, terrorism. Latin America, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Ghazi Nasr al Din, Hezbollah

March 26, 2013 By Fausta

EU: Raiders of the lost savings UPDATED

They’re taking what’s yours

This should take no one by surprise at this point; in fact, Kudlow was talking about it on his show last week,
Cyprus bail-out: savers will be raided to save euro in future crises, says eurozone chief
Savings accounts in Spain, Italy and other European countries will be raided if needed to preserve Europe’s single currency by propping up failing banks, a senior eurozone official has announced.

The euro fell on global markets after Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch chairman of the eurozone, announced that the heavy losses inflicted on depositors in Cyprus would be the template for future banking crises across Europe.

“If there is a risk in a bank, our first question should be ‘Okay, what are you in the bank going to do about that? What can you do to recapitalise yourself?’,” he said.

“If the bank can’t do it, then we’ll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders, we’ll ask them to contribute in recapitalising the bank, and if necessary the uninsured deposit holders.”

Because,

“If we want to have a healthy, sound financial sector, the only way is to say, ‘Look, there where you take on the risks, you must deal with them, and if you can’t deal with them, then you shouldn’t have taken them on,'” he said.

It would have been nice of him to have warned savers that their accounts could be raided. But I digress.

The president of Cyprus says it’s all temporary,

Which brings up this question,
Have The Russians Already Quietly Withdrawn All Their Cash From Cyprus? Yes, they have, never to return.

How’s that for “temporary”?

Related:
Hayek v. Krugman – Cyprus’ Capital Controls

UPDATE:
Repeat after me: $19.2 trillion dollars is currently held by US citizens in 401k and other retirement accounts.

Do you really think the government doesn’t want to “help” you manage that money?


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Filed Under: business, economics, EU Tagged With: Cyprus, Fausta's blog

March 25, 2013 By Fausta

Argentina: Feed a regime, starve a media

Cristina Fernandez, viuda de Kirchner, is not happy that the country’s journalists are reporting about her smear campaign against Pope Francis, the real inflation figures ( >25%), and international investors’ loss of confidence in the country. Mary O’Grady has the story,

Kirchner Tries to Starve the Independent Press
Argentina’s government employs tax inspectors and advertising boycotts to punish critics.

There have been criminal actions against newspaper officials for editorials it didn’t like, attempts to gain control of the country’s domestic newsprint supply, and the passage of a law that politicizes the granting of broadcast licenses and the sale of spectrum. Then there was the September 2009 raid by some 200 tax agents on the daily Clarín, and the deployments of pro-Kirchner mobs to block the distribution of some newspapers that do not toe the Kirchner line.

Now Mrs. Kirchner is trying to financially ruin her critics in the press. One tool is the government’s $100 million-plus advertising budget—excluding the much larger budget for soccer broadcasts. An analysis by the daily La Nación (which publishes some Wall Street Journal content) of 2012 spending over 2011 shows a 65.3% increase in the purchase of space for public announcements and, more commonly, government propaganda in the country’s newspapers and magazines. Yet the four most important independent newspaper publishers—El Cronista, Clarín, La Nación and Perfil—all lost business from the government in 2012. La Nación lost a whopping 83%. El Cronista was down 48%, Clarín lost 37% and Perfil 12%.

The punishment doesn’t end there. At a meeting on Feb. 4 the minister of domestic commerce, Guillermo Moreno, mandated that supermarket chains would have to freeze prices for 60 days. According to a March 3 report in Clarín, Mr. Moreno also instructed those merchants present to halt the purchase of print advertising in Buenos Aires and the surrounding area media outlets. According to the Clarín report, he said the boycott would include companies that sell appliances and electronics.

The government initially denied that it had decreed any such thing. But according to Clarín, merchants told the newspaper that they are under strict orders not to buy advertising from the independent newspapers in and around the capital. Clarín said that failure to obey such commands, even though they are not law, can be costly. Businesses fear government reprisals in the form of tax inspections, the withholding of import licenses, and lawsuits brought in the name of consumer protection.

A tad more subtle than the late Hugo Chavez’s closing RCTV and 34 other TV and radio stations and his attacks on Globovisión, for sure. Plus she can always blame forces beyond her control, like the Vicomte de Valmont, with the extra bonus of blaming capitalism.

Something like that could never happen here, of course.

UPDATE:
Linked by HACER. Thank you!

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Filed Under: Argentina, censorship, Fausta's blog, media, TV Tagged With: Cristina Fernandez, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Fausta's blog

March 25, 2013 By Fausta

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerANTIGUA
Stanford Victims Will Benefit From $300M Settlement

ARGENTINA
Imprisoned priest Francisco Jalics breaks silence over Pope Francis, clearing him for involvement in ‘Dirty War’
Jalics had been silent for years in a German monastery. He once thought then-Cardinal Bergoglio played a role in his arrest

Social Justice And Pope Francis: Choosing Freedom Over Serfdom

After Frosty Past, Pope Meets Argentine Leader

Making nice? Argentina’s Kirchner and Pope Francis meet in Rome (+video)
Beneath the cordial meeting today between new Pope Francis and President Kirchner lies a rocky and strained relationship that stretches back to 2004.

[Additional video below the fold]

BRAZIL
Indians, police clash at Rio complex near Maracana to be razed for 2014 World Cup

Brazil’s opposition
The Minas medicine
Aécio Neves ran his state well. But he may struggle to convince voters that his formula is right for the presidency

CHILE
Wave of prawn deaths baffles Chile city of Coronel
Thousands of dead prawns have washed up on a beach in Chile, sparking an investigation.
Hundreds of dead crabs were also washed ashore in Coronel city, about 530km (330 miles) from the capital, Santiago.

COLOMBIA
Ten years later, Colombia nabs rebel linked to Uribe inauguration attack. What’s with the “rebel” thing? The guy’s a terrorist.

COSTA RICA
Starbucks buys coffee farm in Costa Rica (h/t DP)

CUBA
African Politicians Laundering Money Through Cuba

Daughter of Oswaldo Paya demands international inquiry into his death

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Republic detains 35 soldiers and police, 4 French citizens in drug investigation

République dominicaine : démantèlement d’un réseau de trafic de drogue vers la France

ECUADOR
Ecuadorian diplomacy fails in his attempt to change the IACHR reforms

GUATEMALA
Guatemala ex-ruler Rios Montt on trial for genocide
The trial of the former military ruler of Guatemala, Efrain Rios Montt, for genocide and crimes against humanity has begun in Guatemala City.

HONDURAS
Seldom Tried Honduran Dishes Made from Unusual Root Crops (h/t DP)

LATIN AMERICA
Heads of state at the Papal inauguration, Bayly style (in Spanish),

MEXICO
Mexico’s attorney general says no motive yet in US car shooting that wounded 2 CIA agents

PANAMA
Panama Canal Minister: Deepen Port of Savannah

PERU
Petroperú to Take Over Former Talisman Concession in Peru
Petróleos del Perú SA plans to take over operations at Block 64 in northern Peru, an important step for the state-owned oil company to return to upstream operations.

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico: US army drills ‘did not cause illnesses’

VENEZUELA
Venezuela Acts to Ease Dollar Shortage

Chavez trek

The week’s posts:
Pope Francis not dancing to Cristina’s tune

Yoani Sanchez meets Marco Rubio

Latino demographics: Integration is the key factor

Mexico: Will PEMEX reforms come to pass?

Correcting my error on my article on Pope Francis

Podcast


[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Argentina, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Catholic Church, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, news, oil, Panama, Peru, Pope Francis I, Puerto Rico, Venezuela Tagged With: Antigua and Barbuda, Fausta's blog, Jaime Bayly, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, R. Allen Stanford, Stanford Bank

March 24, 2013 By Fausta

We need more of these: Foreign citizens making big investments in U.S. in exchange for green cards

At the WaPo, Foreign citizens making big investments in U.S. in exchange for green cards

The EB-5 program is booming in popularity, driven largely by a struggling U.S. economy in which developers are searching for new sources of capital. It is also fueled by rising demand from foreigners looking for access to U.S. schools, safe investment in U.S. projects and — in the case of China, where most of the investors are from — greater freedom.

The program has broad bipartisan support in Congress, and key senators who are negotiating an overhaul of the immigration system have said they are leaning toward expanding visa programs that provide an immediate boost to the economy.
…
Since the EB-5 program began in 1992, more than 29,000 people have received visas, foreigners have invested more than $6.8 billion and 50,000 American jobs have been created, U.S. officials said.

IF (big “if”) the government can carry out this program in such a way that real investors are bringing thriving businesses, there’s only thing to say:

More cowbell!

In other immigration news,
Texas taxpayers spent at least $250 million last year in state prison and health care costs for illegal immigrants.

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Filed Under: business, illegal immigration, immigration, USA Tagged With: Fausta's blog

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