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And yet Uribe is the one who took those “easy” steps that led to massive reductions in violence. Even the Colombian union statistics demonstrate the decline coinciding with his administration. I guess previous administrations were just too lazy to make those “easy” adjustments that led to such a huge drop in violence.

While Morris is not sufficiently prescient enough to mention Colombia, he lays out a good number of Penn’s substantial conflicts of interest. Now I fall on the side of Colombia in this matter, but it would appear to be only a matter of time before Senator Clinton would get stung by one of Penn’s many associations, or worse yet, the American people would get screwed by one or more of them.

And this guy has ties to Colombia,Hillarys strategist
oh this is juicy!

2/3 decine in unionist assasinations

When you start out at catostrophic rates, it’s easy to post reductions. In 2006, according to government figures, 58 trade unionists were murdered. (1) Non-Columbian government sources give higher figures: “An estimated 4,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia in recent years by paramilitary groups.” (2)
Maybe the rates have declined, but they are still the highest in the world. I am not impressed.
But they are captalists, so who cares!

As for the 1,000 poor farmers (aka FARC members) killed, relative to population, this would be the same as 7,000 dead in the US. Twice as many as died on 9/11. For you, this is termed an “uptick.”

If what happens in Columbia daily happened in Venezuela, would your assessment be the same?

1) It’s an AP story, couldn’t find a more “respectable” copy:
truthout.org/issues_06/030707LB.shtml
2)The Western Mail
March 15, 2008, Saturday
First Edition
Howells ‘read the Riot Act’ to Colombia but Wales TUC still deeply concerned
BYLINE: Martin Shipton Chief Reporter
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 12

Dave742,

Yeah, there has been an uptick of so-called “extra judicial killings” but they have been more than offset by a 70% decline in kidnappings, 2/3 decine in unionist assasinations, and around the same percentage decline in the overall homicide rate. Meanwhile, the economy has grown, and unemployment declined and the FARC are being destroyed. Uribe is much loved by the Colombian people, around 85% approval rate, and the latest Gallup poll found 77% approve of his humanitarian record.

Uribe is a staunch ally, and a bulwark against Chavistas. We should support him and his policies to the last ditch.

Having someone with positive feelings about Colombia close to Hillary is, well, good.

funky chicken on April 4, 2008 at 1:18 PM

If one day Chavez writes a bigger check to Penn than Colombia, then Hillary will all of a sudden have someone close to her with positive feelings about Marxism.

What other countries have lobbyists as high-ranking members of Hillary’s campaign?

Probably several others that assume (probably correctly) that they can buy her vote as a Senator, or support as a President. And what better way to get the money to her than through “fees” paid to someone in her campaign?

I have said it before: there are active members of congress who are or have been on the payroll of foreign powers. Right Jim and Teddy?

It’s vile that the Dems want to screw over our best ally in that region of S America–the only island of democracy and capitalism in the area. Just one of thousands of reasons why a Dem presidency is unacceptable.

Associated Press Worldstream
February 17, 2006 Friday 9:29 AM GMT
“Poll shows Berlusconi leading slightly ahead of April vote, spurring controversy”
BYLINE: By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer

“pressed them for improvements in human rights, and they have delivered”

“the [Columbian] army has in recent years also increasingly been killing poor farmers and passing them off as rebels slain in combat…. army killings of civilians have grown markedly since 2004… between mid-2002 and mid-2007, 955 civilians were killed and classified as guerrillas fallen in combat” (1)

Yep, they sure have delivered.

Penn, Schoen & Berland has been used for years to put out false polling numbers to help get the “US preferred” candidate elected. (One of the ways the US “promotes democracy.”) In the 2004 recall referendum in Venezuela, every polling firm had Chavez way ahead, except for P,S&B. Chavez won by a 59-41, which agrees with nearly all pollsters. P,S&B, however, had Chavez losing by the same margin. Their results were then used by extremists (the Venezuelan opposition and the right wing in the US) to claim fraud. They used the same tactic in the recent Venezuelan presidential election, but were not quite as obvious about it that time. In that election, “two Venezuelan firms predicted 27-point spreads, Zogby weighed in at 29, and the Associated Press at 32. Evans McDonough came in a bit low at 22.” (2) P,B&S had the Chavez lead at 6 points. When Chavez won by 26, in line with every pollster except P,B&S, Mark Penn commented that “it appears that Chávez consolidated the undecided voters.”
As the Post commented, “Ah, yes. That must be it.”
P, B&S was involved in removing Milosevic from power and in the Ukraine election as well. The US sure loves democracy!
Schoen now works for Bloomberg. I bet P,B&S has Hillary ahead of McCain by 23 points.

1) washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032901118.html?hpid=sec-world
2) washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/05/AR2006120501174.html

In fact, Penn’s company works as a lobbyist for the government of ColumbiaColombia on this very issue:

OK, so sue me. I’m pedantic. :P

“We also need friends in South America, with Hugo Chavez becoming more and more of a belligerent.”

Someone should ask Hillary and Obama the question……

“Do you support Hugo Chavez?”

Hillary’s chief strategist a lobbyist for Columbia China.

amkun on April 4, 2008 at 11:27 AM

Took the words right out of my mouth.